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Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V10n3, Fall 2014, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--Member Only Website Log-in

--ICTM-ISTS Math Science Fall Conference

--New IAS Program Coordinator

--New REAP Grant

--New Academy Website

--Iowa Science Foundation

--Recognizing Excellence

--Events and Deadlines

--Excellence in Science Teaching Award

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V10n2, Spring 2014, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--Candidates for IAS President –Elect

--Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science

--Iowa Academy of Science 2014 Ballot

--Specify where your IAS donation goes

--2013 Member Donations to the Academy

--Announcements, Events & Deadlines

In Defense Of Defense: A Statistical Look At Roster Construction, Coaching Strategy, And Team Defense In The National Basketball Association, Luke Ronald Peterson

Honors Program Theses

The three major organized sports featured in the United States – baseball, basketball, and football – cover the spectrum of analytic probability. Baseball, with its basic two parts, pitcher and batter, lies at the easy or low end of the analytic spectrum and so it was the first sport to be studied. From early baseball cards first appearing in the 1890s to The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstracts of the 1980s to the SABRmetrics of today, baseball coaches and fans everywhere are adding a page on analytic probability to their playbooks. Football lies at the high or difficult end of …

Synchronous Rotation In The Eclipsing Binary 68 Herculis Inferred From Doppler Shifts In Its Spectrum And Light Curve Modeling, Kenneth W. Mclaughlin, Janak Panthi

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Our differential photometry of the eclipsing binary 68 Herculis through V- and R-filters shows periodic minima consistent with a previously established period. As a function of its orbital motion, we report spectra over a limited wavelength range encompassing H-alpha 656.3 nm and helium 667.8 nm lines. Doppler shifts of both stars were resolved in H-alpha, while only the more massive star rendered the helium line with Doppler shifts that agree with the radial velocity we derive for it from the H-alpha profile. Sinusoidal curve-fits to the orbital dependence of the radial velocities imply circular orbits for both components, with amplitudes …

Cover

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

Gene Expression Of Components Of The Insulin/Insulin-Like Signaling Pathway In Response To Heat Stress In The Garter Snake, Thamnophis Elegans, Tonia S. Schwartz, Anne M. Bronikowski

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

The insulin/insulin-like signaling (IIS) pathway is an evolutionary conserved molecular signaling pathway that regulates growth, reproduction, stress resistance, and longevity in response to nutrition and external stress. While the constituents of this pathway and their functions are relatively well understood in laboratory model animals, they have not been explored in many other organisms, with notable exceptions in the fisheries literature. We tested for the gene expression of four key components of this pathway in the garter snake (Thamnophis elegans) liver, and determine how the transcription of these components responds to heat stress. We found that the two insulin-like …

Improved Functional Prediction Of Hypothetical Proteins From Listeria Monocytogenes 08-5578, Michael J. Lagier, Brittany Bowman, Kelsey Brend, Katherine Hobbs, Michael Foggia, Mark Mcdaniel

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne human pathogen responsible for listerosis. The genomes of several L. monocytogenes strains have been recently sequenced. The genome of L. monocytogenes 08-5578, which was in part responsible for a significant listerosis outbreak in 2008, contains an unexpectedly high percentage of protein-encoding genes (1,927 out of 3,161; 60.96%) autonomously annotated as hypothetical proteins. The aim of this study was to test whether a manual annotation strategy could be used to assign more meaningful functional names to the hypothetical proteins of 08-5578. A holistic, manual gene annotation strategy that utilized sequence homology, cellular localization predictions, structure-based evidence, …

The Role Of An Urban Tallgrass Prairie Remnant In Conservation: A Case Study In Central Iowa (Usa), Jimmie D. Thompson, Deborah Q. Lewis, William R. Norris

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Although more than 85% of Iowa (USA) was covered by tallgrass prairie at the time of settlement by Europeans in the early 19th century, less than 0.1% remains. The Richard W. Pohl State Preserve at Ames (IA) High School, surrounded on three sides by structures, roads, and other development, protects 4 ha of tallgrass prairie. The preserve, commonly referred to as Ames High Prairie (AHP), was grazed but never plowed under private ownership until its acquisition by the Ames School District in 1959.

Although considered for development as a parking lot or football field in the 1960s, the residents of …

Understanding The Impact Of Vegetation On Surface Roughness Length For Enhancing Wind Resource Characterization In Iowa, Andrei Vladimirovich Kushkin

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Wind energy development shows a rapid growth in the United States. This renewable energy source not only mitigates environmental concerns by reducing greenhouse gas emission, but also provides energy independence. Wind is clean and abundant, and is one of the most promising sources of alternative energy. Iowa is among the top wind energy producers in the nation, it is third by installed capacity and first in per capita production. In order to utilize wind resource potential most efficiently, accurate wind resource assessments are required. Changes in the aerodynamic characteristics of a site can have a major influence on the wind …

A Study Of College Student Attitudes And Behaviors Related To Recycling, Mark Allen Wilcox

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

There is an abundance of research on environmental attitudes and recycling; specifically however college students are very under represented. This population is one that is very important as these individuals will be the ones making decisions, privately and politically, with regards to recycling programs in their communities. By understanding their attitudes and behaviors in college, those designing recycling programs can develop and modify programs to suit their needs, and education programs can be prepared to better inform these individuals. The purpose of this study was to study the attitudes and behaviors of college students related to recycling. To accomplish this, …