Digital Commons Network^™

Mensural Discrimination Between Reithrodontomys Megalotis And R. Montanus Using Cranial Characters, Steven R. Hoofer, Jerry R. Choate, Nicholas E. Mandrak

Sternberg Museum of Natural History Faculty Publications

We assessed the utility of cranial measurements to discriminate between the western harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys megalotis) and plains harvest mouse (R. montanus). We tested four combinations of measurements using discriminant function analysis to determine if several measurements could be used together to identify individuals of the two species regardless of age. Individual cranial measurements could not be used to correctly identify all individuals of the two species when relative age was disregarded. When age was considered, adults and old adults, but not subadults, could be identified correctly based on univariate statistical data from cranial characters. All specimens of the two …

The Value Of A Chest Ct In The Evaluation Of A Newly Detected Brain Tumor, Jennifer L. White, John W. Henson

Capstone Research Projects

OBJECTIVE: To create a care pathway for patients with a newly detected brain tumor, by examining common diagnostic pathways for patients diagnosed with a primary brain tumor or a central nervous system metastasis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients diagnosed atMGH between 1/1/95 and 12/31/97 with a primary brain tumor or a central nervous system metastasis were studied. Only patients who displayed one or two brain lesions and presented to the MGH emergency ward or transferred in from another emergency ward were included in the study. Clinical characteristics, use and results of radiological testing, and final diagnostic procedures were evaluated.

RESULTS: …

Patient Outcomes For Anterior Multi-Level Cervical Fusions: A Comparative Analysis Of Ao And Doc Instrumentation, Joseph E.D. Peterson

Capstone Research Projects

The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of the DePuy-Acromed DOC implant with the Synthes AO plate by means of analysis of subjective and objective data.

A retrospective review of 56 consecutive instrumented, anterior multi-level cervical fusions by two orthopedic spine specialists was completed. Biographical, clinical, surgical and radiographic data was collected for patients who underwent anterior multi-level cervical fusions between 12/13/96 and 4/8/99. Twenty-five of the patients received a DOC implant and 31 received the AO plate.

No major complications occurred during or following surgery directly related to either implant. Both groups however, did contain cases …

Defining Pcr Reaction Conditions For The Amplification Of A 3000-4000 Ntp Sequence Of Drosophila Melanogaster Mtdna, Timothy Arakawa

Capstone Research Projects

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is extremely vulnerable to large deletions. These mutations seem to contribute to the physiological effects of aging as the mtDNA is increasingly exposed to free radicals generated by degenerate respiratory enzymes. The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and agarose gel electrophoresis are used to optimize reaction conditions necessary to amplify a 3000-4000 nucleotide pair (ntp) segment of Drosophila melanogaster mtDNA. Ten primers are designed to amplify different portions of the mitochondrial genome. The reaction conditions necessary to successfully amplify a 216 ntp DNA sequence are confirmed, and the ten primers are examined for PCR amplification compatibility.

Attitudes And Perceptions About Ecological Resources And Hazards Of People Living Around The Savannah River Site, Joanna Burger, Jessica Sanchez, J. Whitfield Gibbons, Jeanine Ondrof, Robert Ramos, Michael J. Mcmahon, Karen F. Gaines, Christine Lord, Marie Fullmer, Michael Gochfeld

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Although considerable attention is devoted to environmental monitoring and assessment with respect to both pollutants and the status of particular plant or animal populations, less attention is devoted to assessing people's attitudes about the relative importance of ecological resources. In this paper we examine the attitudes and perceptions about ecological resources of people living around the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS), in South Carolina. Our overall hypothesis is that people who are directly affected by the possible outcomes and consequences of a particular hazard (i.e., those people employed at SRS) will undervalue the risks and overvalue the potential …

Epistasis, Henry R. Owen

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Response To Dietary Dilution In An Omnivorous Freshwater Turtle: Implications For Ontogenetic Dietary Shifts, Shannon J. Mccauley, Karen A. Bjorndal

Biological Sciences

Several species of freshwater turtles in the family Emydidae undergo an ontogenetic dietary shift; as juvenile turtles mature, they change from a primarily carnivorous to a primarily herbivorous diet. It has been hypothesized that this shift results from an unfavorable ratio of gut capacity to metabolic rate that prevents small reptiles from processing adequate volumes of plant material to meet their energetic demands. Effects of dietary dilution on intake were evaluated in two size classes of red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) to test whether small reptiles have a lower capacity to compensate for low-quality diets through increased intake …

Ontogenies Of Phototactic Behavior And Metamorphic Competence In Larvae Of Three Species Of Bugula (Bryozoa), Dean E. Wendt, Robert M. Woollacott

Biological Sciences

The free swimming larvae of many marine invertebrates actively respond to light. Light cues can be used to regulate position in the water column and to facilitate encountering sites suitable for metamorphosis. We examined the ontogeny of larval phototaxis and the ontogeny of metamorphic competency in larvae from three congeneric species of bryozoans. Larvae of Bugula neritina are positively phototactic on emergence from the brood chamber, whereas larvae of B. simplex and B. stolonifera appear initially photoneutral when populations of larvae are examined. Larvae of all three species become photonegative with time. Temporally coincident with this change to negative phototaxis …

Effects Of Stress From Mine Drainage On Ecosystem Functions In Rocky Mountain Streams, Dev Niyogi

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Research in this dissertation tested a hypothesis that relates biodiversity, community biomass, and ecosystem function to a gradient of stress. Biodiversity was predicted to have a low threshold of response to stress, while biomass and function were predicted to be stable or increase under low to moderate stress and decrease only under high stress. This hypothesis was tested by examination of biological communities and ecosystem functions in mountain streams under stress from mine drainage. Mine drainage presents both chemical (low pH, dissolved metals) and physical (deposition of metal oxides) stresses on stream biota.

Cope, Caves, And Skeletons In The Closet, Aldemaro Romero Jr., Andrea Romero

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Caudal Distraction By Rat Snakes (Colubridae, Elaphe): A Novel Behavior Used When Capturing Mammalian Prey, Stephen J. Mullin

Faculty Publications

Caudal movement in snakes may serve either a predatory (e.g., caudal luring) or defensive (eg., rattling, aposematism) function. I describe a new behavioral pattern of tail movement in snakes. Gray rat snakes (Elaphe obsoleta spiloides) foraging on small mammals (Mus domesticus) moved their tails in an erratic, whiplike fashion after detecting their prey in the vicinity. The thrashing movement in the horizontal plane was audibly and visually obvious, resulting in displacement of leaf litter around the tail. All subjects displayed the behavior, but not in all foraging episodes. Shorter durations of caudal distraction resulted in greater …

Does Nonrandom Nest Placement Imply Nonrandom Nest Predation?: A Reply, Robert J. Cooper, R. Randy Wilson, Gary D. Zenitsky, Stephen J. Mullin, Jennifer A. Dececco, Matthew R. Marshall, Dorothy J. Wolf, Lars Y. Pomara

Faculty Publications

In response to the critique by Schmidt and Whelan (Condor 101 (4): 916-920, 1999), we find that the relationship between nest success and tree selectivity is dependent upon inclusion or exclusion of particular tree species, whether or not years are pooled, and the selectivity index used. We question their use of point estimates of nest success with extremely high variances, defend our index, question the application of the Chesson (1983) index to our data, and explain the need to analyze years separately. Bottomland hardwood forest systems are extremely variable; hydroperiods alter the suitability of nesting substrates, availability of alternative food, …

Determining The Source Of Individuals: Multilocus Genotyping In Nonequilibrium Population Genetics, Neil Davies, Francis X. Villablanca, George K. Roderick

Biological Sciences

Recently founded populations represent an enormous challenge for genetic analysis: new populations are often genetically impoverished, making it hard to find sufficiently variable markers, and what little variation is present tends to be ancestral, rendering phylogenetic methods inappropriate. Recently, novel genetic markers and new statistical analyses have made multilocus genotyping an invaluable tool in the fledgling field of nonequilibrium population genetics. Such advances are not of mere academic interest but address questions of great economic, medical and conservation significance.

The Limits Of Specificity: An Experimental Analysis With Rna Aptamers To Ms2 Coat Protein Variants, Marc Spingola, Ichiro Hirao, David Peabody, Andrew Ellington

Biology Department Faculty Works

It has been hypothesized that selections for aptamers with high affinity for a given target molecule will of necessity identify aptamers that have high specificity for that target. We have attempted to assess this hypothesis by selecting aptamers that can bind to MS2 coat protein or to single- or double-substitution variants of the coat protein. Some aptamers selected to bind MS2 coat protein or its variants were mildly specific for their cognate targets, discriminating by two- to fourfold against closely related proteins. Specificity determinants on both the coat proteins and the aptamers could be identified. However, many aptamers could readily …

Benthic Biodiversity And Physico-Chemical Parameters Of Acid Mine Drainage, Acid Impacted And Nonimpacted Streams, Stephen D. Greene

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

South Fork of Sand Lick Creek, Logan County, West Virginia, drains an abandoned coal strip mine which had exploited Pottsville series coalbeds (Pennsylvania strata). These strata outcrop throughout southwestern West Virginia. North Fork watershed is relatively unchanged, save a small roadcut throughout. South Fork benthic community had not recovered although mining activity had ceased about 20 years earlier. Benthic communities were analyzed with detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). Family Chironomidae predominated South Fork benthic community throughout the study. North Fork’s benthic community had as major contributors acid resistant caddisfly family Hydropsychidae, mayfly family Baetidae, and stonefly families Perlodidae and Nemouridae. Family …

Clarification Of The Hybrid Origin Of Carex X Deamii Herm. (Cyperaceae) Based On Macro And Micro Morphological Characters, Paul B. Marcum

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The origin of Carex x deamii Herm. has been in question ever since it was named to science in 1938. Collections of the hybrid have always been associated with C. shortiana Dewey and either C. typhina Michx. or C. squarrosa L.. C. typhina and C. squarrosa are closely related taxa (Section Squarrosae) and often are morphologically similar. Because of this similarity, determining the correct parental species to the hybrid has been extremely difficult. It is known that the hybrid is sterile and only reproduces asexually. Pollen was analyzed to ascertain the viability of all four taxa. This study utilizes both …

Effects Of Subcultivation On Cryopreservation On The Surface Expression Of Na+, Kt- Atpase Of Bovine Corneal Epithelium, Leslie Dossett

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

More than 50,000 corneal transplants are perfonned each year in the United States to save orrestore nonnal vision for cornea recipients. While this procedure remains the most successful transplant surgery currently perfonned, a shortage of donor tissue limits its application. Jnresponse, scientists have begun to investigate two means of increasing the supply and availability of donor tissue: transplanting cultured corneal endothelial cells in lieu of donor tissue, and using cryopreservationas ameans of longtenn tissue storage. This study will attempt to determine whether culture and storage techniques, such as subcultivationor cryopreservation, affectthe ability of the corneal endothelium to maintain its pump …

There’S Is More To Biology Than Molecules, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Habitat Relationships Of Landbirds In The Northern Region, Usda Forest Service, Richard L. Hutto, Jock S. Young

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

A series of first-generation habitat-relationships models for 83 bird species were detected in a 3-year study on point counts conducted in association with the USDA Forest Service's Northern Region Landbird Monitoring Program. The models depict probabilities of detection for each of the bird species on 100-m-radius, 10-minute point counts conducted across a series of major vegetation cover types. Based on these models, some bird species appear to be restricted in their habitat distribution to: (1) postfire, standing-dead forests, (2) relatively uncut, older forests, (3) harvested forest types, (4) marshes, (5) riparian environments, and (6) grasslands and sagebrush. Such restricted distributions …

Analysis Of Some Leguminous Plants For Pyrimidineconstituents, Yusuf Turan

Turkish Journal of Biology

The pyrimidine and pyrimidine-derived secondary compounds of Phaseolus aureus and Glycine max were investigated. Batches, each consisting of one hundred 12-day-old seedlings of either P. aureus or of G. max were separately extracted in cold dilute (0.6 M) perchloric acid. After preliminary purification of extracts by charcoal adsorption and elution, and by PVP treatment, the extracts were subjected to paper chromatography and high voltage paper electrophoresis. The UV-absorbing bands were detected by viewing chromatograms and electrophoretograms under UV-light and, where possible, identified. The results presented in this work show that these experimental plants do not synthesize and accumulate any significant …

Investigation On The Isolation And Identification Of The Listeria Species In The White And Civil Cheeses Purchased From Erzurum Region, A. Aydan Kara, Ömer Faruk Algur, Mükerrem Kaya

Turkish Journal of Biology

In this study, 34 white cheeses and 16 civil (local name) cheeses purchased from markets and shops in Erzurum during the period of January 1995-April 1996 were analysed. The samples were streaked directly onto LSA and Palcam Agar media in Petri Plates and incubated at 37C° for 48 hours. After the incubation, the growing colonies on LSA-agar plates were examined by Henry's Modified IIIumination Method while collonies on Palcam agar were examined by naked eye. Typical colonies were selected and used for several biochemical tests. As a result, it was found that only one sample (2.94%) of the white cheeses …

Taxonomic Status Of Myotis Occultus, Ernest W. Valdez, Jerry R. Choate, Michael A. Bogan, Terry L. Yates

Sternberg Museum of Natural History Faculty Publications

The taxonomic status of the Arizona myotis (Myotis occultus) is uncertain. Although the taxon was described as a distinct species and currently is regarded as such by some authors, others have noted what they interpreted as intergradation with the little brown bat (M. lucifugus carissima) near the Colorado-New Mexico state line. In this study, we used protein electrophoresis to compare bats of these nominal taxa. We examined 20 loci from 142 specimens referable to M. occultus and M. lucifugus from New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Nine of the 20 loci were polymorphic. Results show that there were high similarities among …

Enhanced Dna Repair Of Serratia Marcescens, S. Typhimurium, And Saccharomyces Cerevisiae By Evening Primrose (Oenothera Spp.) Oil, Amanda Lynn Rahe

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

Evening Primrose oil (EPO) is a suspected anticarcinogen, however, little is known about its method of stopping and/or slowing tumor growth. The present research used S. marcescens, S. typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Staphlyococcus aureus, and S. cerevisiae as cellular models to investigate the antimutagenic properties of EPO. Ultraviolet radiation was used as a mutagen. Each organism was screened for mutations at various lengths of UV light exposure and plated on appropriate media. One period of UV exposure that represented 10% population kill was chosen for each organism, and the organism was once again exposed to UV light …

The Use Of The Dna Comet Assay To Detect Genetic Damage In Rana Pipiens Taken From Affected Versus Non-Affected Sites, Lisa Marie Hood

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

Deformed frogs have been appearing frequently in Minnesota and throughout the United States. One hypothesis for the cause of deformities is genetic damage as a result of pesticides. This project will use the DNA Comet Assay to determine the extent of genetic damage in affected sites (sites with a greater number of deformities) versus non-affected sites (sites with fewer deformities). The DNA Comet Assay involves electrophoresis of cells in which the membranes have been solubilized and the DNA uncoiled. Electrophoresis spreads the genetic material. The length of the spread indicates the amount of genetic damage in the form of single …

Comparisons Of Plant Species Richness, Relative Abundance, And Diversity In Two Prairie Restorations And Two Remnant Prairie Preserves In Stearns County, Minnesota, Christopher J. Thompson

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

Prairies once covered vast areas of the Midwestern United States. In Minnesota, less than one percent of the state's original eighteen million acres of prairie remains. Restoration of prairie vegetation has become a popular means of augmenting preservation efforts and increasing the area of this rare native habitat. In this study I used species-area and rank abundance relationships to compare the species richness and diversity of restored prairies at St. John's University and Sand Prairie to remnant prairie preserves at Roscoe and Sand Prairie (all in Stearns County, Minnesota). I visually estimated relative abundance at each site using randomly placed …

Review Of "Disciplining Reproduction: Modernity, American Life Sciences" By A. E. Clarke, Scott F. Gilbert

Biology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Method For Identification Of Origins Of Replication And Genes Regulated By Dnaa In Bacteria, Olga G. Troyanskaya

Honors Theses

The study is focused on developing computer programs to identify origin of DNA replication based on analysis of total bacterial genomes, scoring regions for number of DnaA binding sites, AT content, DNA adenine methylase boxes, and integration host factors binding sites. The programs were tested on cyanobacterium Synechocystis, and several potential origins were identified. However, no one definite region could be located. Currently, software is being developed to analyze common motifs around the origins of all bacteria with known origins. Genes whose transcription could be regulated by DnaA were identified by searching for DnaA boxes preceding promoter regions.

Cyclopropane Fatty Acid Expression In Plants, Katherine M. Schmid

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Pants [sic] are transformed with a bacterial cyclopropane fatty acid synthase gene to produce lipids containing cyclopropane fatty acids. Using this technology dihydrosterculate is produced in oilseed crops such as rape.

Bone Morphogenetic Proteins: An Update On Basic Biology And Clinical Relevance, John M. Schmitt, Kun Hwang, Shelley Winn, Jeffrey O. Hollinger

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

No abstract provided.

Ion Transport Processes Of Crustacean Epithelial Cells, Gregory A. Ahearn, Jeff Duerr, Zhenpeng Zhuang, Richard J. Brown, Amy Aslamkhan, Deirdre A. Killebrew

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

Epithelial cells of the gut, antennal glands, integument, and gills of crustaceans regulate the movements of ions into and across these structures and thereby influence the concentrations of ions in the hemolymph. Specific transport proteins serving cations and anions are found on apical and basolateral cell membranes of epithelia in these tissues. In recent years, a considerable research effort has been directed at elucidating their physiological and molecular properties and relating these characteristics to the overall biology of the organisms. Efforts to describe ion transport in crustaceans have focused on the membrane transfer properties of Na1/H1 exchange, calcium uptake as …