Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Culture In Agricultural Education: A Synthesis Of Research, Jonathan A. Tubbs

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Culture is studied across many different disciplines and is viewed as a topic of great and valuable interest within research. Agricultural education has come to recognize the value of embracing a multicultural attitude and the need for recruitment of culturally diverse individuals. While definitions of culture can vary from individual to individual, understanding the degree which a topic has been researched within a discipline is necessary in order to know what direction future research should take. Therefore, this study presents the findings of research on culture within the Journal of Agricultural Education from 1960-2015. This study’s findings indicate that culture, …

Controversy In Skeletal Biology: The Use Of Pathological And Osteological Markers As Evidence For Activity Patterns, Anna Alioto

The Hilltop Review

One of the most pressing controversies today within a multitude of disciplines in biological anthropology including bioarchaeology, paleoanthropology and especially skeletal biology is whether or not physical activity patterns of individuals can be inferred from skeletal material and what types of activities can be reconstructed from that data (Jurmain et al., 2011). While many authors have published articles that incorporated the use of pathological and osteological markers as evidence for activity patterns, there is still much dispute within the skeletal biological community on the validity and the accuracy of the techniques used. This paper will discuss what types of markers …

Participatory And Holistic Approaches With Grassland Farmers And Development Of Policies, Alain Peeters

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The world is changing rapidly. Grassland farmers and ruminant livestock breeders will have to adapt to these changing environmental, social and economic conditions. Research can help them at the condition that linear ‘top-down’ technology transfer methods are abandoned for the benefit of participatory and holistic approaches. These approaches classified in the generic term of ‘Farming System Research’ consider farmers as real research partners, and they merge farmer’s and scientist’s ideas with those of other stakeholder types. They combine scientist’s and farmer’s knowledge for creating fast innovations, easily adopted by farmers since farmers themselves contribute to their design and their development. …

Population Genetic Structure Of Asclepias Tuberosa In Northwest Iowa: A Comparison Within And Between Remnant Prairies And Commercially Available Seed, Jeffrey T. Ploegstra, Brittany De Ruyter, Tony Jelsma

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Isolated in scattered remnants, less than 0.1% of Iowa’s original tallgrass prairie remains. The small populations remaining are at risk for reduced genetic diversity, inbreeding depression, and outbreeding depression. In light of these concerns, we used microsatellite analysis to assess the genetic structure of butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) populations on prairie remnants in northwest Iowa. We compared remnant populations with a restoration population at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, and with an Oklahoma seed source. Microsatellites identified for use in common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) had sufficient polymorphism information content (PIC) across the butterfly milkweed ( …

The Dietary Mineral Content Of Claytonia Lanceolata Corms From Multiple Populations Across The Columbia Plateau Region Of North America, Paul Reilly

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"Since divergence from our ancestral lineage ~ 2.8 mya, humans have relied on foraged foods to obtain dietary mineral nutrition. Around 12,000 years ago, people began shifting towards a lifestyle of food production. The rapid shift in lifestyle significantly altered the human diet, and research suggests our genomes have had insufficient time to adjust. Due to the discord between genome and environment, unprecedented levels of disease and malnutrition are epidemic in certain subsets of the population. Studies suggest the most cost effective way to mitigate the risk of these diseases is to find ways to increase micronutrient consumption. As a …

A Critical Examination Of Private Conservation Areas On Campesino Community Lands In Peru, Megan Barnhart

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Community-owned private reserves are emerging around the world as an alternative to government-run resource management and as a way to more directly involve citizens as stewards of their local natural resources. Despite their recent proliferation globally, voluntary efforts by communities to include their land in protected area systems, and the motivations and expectations of their legal recognition remain largely unknown. This thesis examines community-owned private conservation areas in Northern Peru locally known as Áreas de Conservación Privadas (ACPs) which are voluntary and legally recognized by the Peruvian State. The study investigates the rationales and outcomes of the application of ACPs …

Mesh Ora Framework: R/Bioconductor Packages To Support Mesh Over-Representation Analysis, Koki Tsuyuzaki, Gota Morota, Manabu Ishii, Takeru Nakazato, Satoru Miyazaki, Itoshi Nikaido

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

Background: In genome-wide studies, over-representation analysis (ORA) against a set of genes is an essential step for biological interpretation. Many gene annotation resources and software platforms for ORA have been proposed. Recently, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms, which are annotations of PubMed documents, have been used for ORA. MeSH enables the extraction of broader meaning from the gene lists and is expected to become an exhaustive annotation resource for ORA. However, the existing MeSH ORA software platforms are still not sufficient for several reasons.

Results: In this work, we developed an original MeSH ORA framework composed of six types of …

School Gardens: Cultivating A Child’S Nutritional Habits, Environmental Knowledge, And Sustainability Practices, Jeffrey Meltzer

Honors Theses

School gardens have existed since the late nineteenth century and today are becoming increasingly popular in many parts of the world, including where I studied in Maine and Australia (AUS). Multiple organizations support school gardens in Maine, including the Maine School Garden Network, which has over 125 registered school gardens. In AUS, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation primarily supports the school garden movement and has over 800 registered school gardens. While many researchers have studied school gardens, few have compared two countries, focused on environmental sustainability, or investigated Maine in particular. This thesis combines information from literature reviews, and …

Mcnair Research Journal - Summer 2015, Kelly Abuali, Starr Bailey, Krystal Courtney D. Belmonte, Brittaney Benson-Townsend, Jennifer Bolick, Mihaela A. Ciulei, Ashley Crisp, Daniel N. Erosa, Richard V. Foster, Gisele Braga Goertz, Michael A. Langhardt, Kara Osborne, Julienne Jochel Paraiso, Shawn M. Rosen, Bella V. Smith, Jeevake Attapattu, Ernesto H. Bedoy, Michael G. Curtis, Wanda Inthavong, Marielle Leo, Primrose Martin, Tamieka Meadows, Rosa Perez, Jessica Recarey, Shea Silver, Linda Tompkins

McNair Journal

Journal articles based on research conducted by undergraduate students in the McNair Scholars Program

Table of Contents

Biography of Dr. Ronald E. McNair

Statements:

Dr. Neal J. Smatresk, UNLV President

Dr. Juanita P. Fain, Vice President of Student Affairs

Dr. William W. Sullivan, Associate Vice President for Retention and Outreach

Mr. Keith Rogers, Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach

McNair Scholars Institute Staff

Experimental Evolution Of Specialism In A Wild Virus, Alexander Kula

Master's Theses

A pathogen's ability to successfully replicate and persist within a new host population is fraught with obstacles. While an expanded host-range allows for a greater chance at successful replication, such generalists are typically outcompeted by species which have specialized and adapted host-specific features. Although the most ubiquitous species on earth, very few bacteria-infecting viral species (bacteriophages) with truly broad host-ranges have been identified; this is partially due to the fact that only a small fraction of bacteria (and thus likely hosts) are amenable to laboratory conditions. Nevertheless, the processes of expanding as well as narrowing host-range are not well understood …

Human Feeding Biomechanics : Intraspecific Variation And Evolution, Justin Ledogar

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study examines feeding biomechanics in modern human crania and those of extinct early members of the human lineage in order to better understand the selective pressures that influenced human craniofacial evolution. Specifically, this study uses finite element analysis to examine: 1) human feeding performance, in terms bite force production and craniofacial strength; 2) intraspecific variation in human feeding biomechanics; 3) feeding biomechanics in fossil hominins, including Australopithecus sediba and Homo habilis, species that are potentially at the root of modern human lineage, and 4) the functional role of purported facial buttresses.

Curatorial Implications Of Ophyra Capensis (Order Diptera, Family Muscidae) Puparia Recovered From The Body Of The Blessed Antonio Patrizi, Monticiano, Italy (Middle Ages), Johnica J. Morrow, Diesel A. Baldwin, Leon G. Higley, Dario Piombino-Mascali, Karl J. Reinhard

Karl Reinhard Publications

The discovery of dipteran remains on mummified individuals can lead to either cause for curatorial concern or to a better understanding of the individual’s post-mortem environment. The present study analyzed insect remains associated with the body of a unique medieval mummy of religious significance, that of the Blessed Antonio Patrizi da Monticiano. A total of 79 puparia were examined and all were identified as Ophyra capensis (Diptera: Muscidae). Additionally, a desiccated moth (Lepidoptera: Tineidae) was encountered. Puparia of O. capensis would be associated with normal decomposition shortly after the death of the mummified individual, and not an infestation beginning during …

Piophilidae Distribution In Consideration Of Forensic Applications, Electra Ragan

Department of Entomology: Distance Master of Science Projects

Notes on Decomposition

Decomposition as understood by our ancestors has mystical overtones with foggy roots; the reasons behind the beliefs are not readily understood from a twenty-first-century westerner’s perspective. Gases that built up inside the deceased and oozing fluids from the membranes were explained away as flesh-eating vampires after a night’s feasting (they were bloated and full). Freshly culled meat became a source to maggots and flies as it aged, transferring its “life force” from one being into another (Sachs 2001). A mere century or two ago, Louis Pasteur would be the first westerner to directly link “moulds, mucors and …

Acoustic Cues Of Physical Formidability In Cage Fighters, Stefan Mattias-Maria Goetz

Wayne State University Theses

Across the animal kingdom, the sex that experiences the most reproductive variance tends to evolve sexually dimorphic traits—both behavioral and morphological—which aid in reproduction. Human evolution has been marked by greater male intrasexual selection and as a result, men display a variety of secondary sexual characteristics, putatively serving to enhance biological fitness. Among these, fundamental frequency, closely related to perception of pitch, among men is half that of women. Likewise, monotonicity, that is, variance in pitch across an utterance, is higher in men (i.e., women show greater variance in pitch) while formant dispersion, which gives the voice its timbre, is …

Brewing Makes You Smarter, Joe Potter

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Michigan Academician, Volume 42, Issue 2

Michigan Academician

No abstract provided.

Michigan Academician, Volume 42, Issue 3

Michigan Academician

No abstract provided.

Javan Gibbon (Hylobates Moloch) Non-Vocal Social Communication And Gesture Use With Conspecifics, Melanie Bell

All Master's Theses

I explored gestures used by captive Javan gibbons (Hylobates moloch) at the Gibbon Conservation Center (Santa Clarita, CA). I hypothesized that a sender gibbon’s gesture modality would vary with the recipient gibbon’s attentional state and the sender would be equally likely to use all modalities (tactile, visual, actions, and facial expressions) when the recipient was attending (facing the sender), but would use more tactile gestures and actions when the recipient was non-attending (oriented away from the sender). I collected data from 10 individuals using all-occurrences sampling and an ethogram to score behaviors from video recordings. In 1,143 interactions, …

Female Social Connectivity Through The Leadership And Movement Progression Of Tibetan Macaques At Mt. Huangshan, China, Gregory P. Fratellone

All Master's Theses

The present study investigates the leadership and progression of collective movements of Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) found in Mt. Huangshan, China. I gathered information on their movements and social networks through all-occurrence, focal and scan sampling. I hypothesize that high-ranking females lead more collective movements than males as they have highly structured social bonds. I also predict that movements weighted by female presence are more efficient as societies are matrilineally structured and females are more socially connected. There were a total of 128 successful collective movements recorded over a 2-month period. There was no significant effect of sex, …

A Comparison Of Chimpanzee (Pan Troglodytes) Responses To Caregiver Use Of Positive Reinforcement Training (Prt) And Species-Specific Behaviors (Ssb), Whitney D. Emge

All Master's Theses

The present study compared the effects of positive reinforcement training (PRT) and unstructured interactions (UI) on chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) behavior. In the PRT condition, a caregiver interacted with a chimpanzee to condition behaviors for 10 min. In the UI condition, a caregiver interacted without PRT for 10 min. Participants were five chimpanzees in a sanctuary setting. Chimpanzees were also videotaped for 10 min after trials (PTP) and for 10 min in a matched control (MC) period on a different day. From these videotapes experimenters coded chimpanzee behaviors and calculated durations in behavioral contexts. Chimpanzees spent a significantly higher …

Influence Of Landscape On Gene Differentiation In The American Pika (Ochotona Princeps) Within The Interstate 90 Snoqualmie Pass Corridor, Craig P. Fergus

All Master's Theses

Understanding the impact of different landscape features on the movement of genes among populations can be helpful in managing wildlife populations. Our study used GIS tools to compare genetic connectivity among 13 American pika (Ochotona princeps) habitat patches across an approximately 77 square km area adjacent to Interstate 90 near Snoqualmie Pass, WA. Tissue samples were collected from 85 individuals and genotyped at six microsatellite loci to determine genetic differentiation among each pair of patches. A variety of models estimating the influence of landscape factors on gene flow were then used to find “resistance scores” between each pair …

Behavioral Response Of Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus Tridentatus) To Predator Odors, Laurie L. Porter

All Master's Theses

Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus), a species facing serious threats to their existence, experience a number of challenges in reaching their desired spawning grounds during the adult migratory phase, and predators are suspected to be one of these challenges. Understanding if Pacific lamprey respond to predator odorants may provide a management tool for use in conjunction with attractants in guiding lamprey to suitable spawning habitat and deterring them from poor habitat. Previous research has failed to explore Pacific lamprey response to predator odorants, although much research exists on attractant odorants. In our study, we tested Pacific lamprey response to …

Sexual Behavior Of Immature Tibetan Macaques (Macaca Thibetana), Anne Salow, R. Steven Wagner, Mary Radeke, Joseph Lorenz

All Master's Theses

Tibetan macaque sociosexual behavior begins in infancy, and comprises many of their initial interactions with other group members as infants. Tibetan macaques possess a large sociosexual behavioral repertoire, including a behavior called bridging, which involves infants and juveniles, and is found in only four species. Immature macaques differ in the types, rate, and partner preferences across a variety of behaviors. This study compared rates of sexual behavior among four age and sex classes of 26 immature Tibetan macaques at Mt. Huangshan, China. A total of 643 sex behaviors were observed and evaluated for 5 parameters: total sex behavior rates, initiation …

Provisioning And Its Effects On The Social Interactions Of Tibetan Macaques (Macaca Thibetana) At Mt. Huangshan, China, Brianna I. Schnepel

All Master's Theses

The dispersal patterns of food resources has a significant effect on the composition of primate groups and social interactions within those groups. Humans often alter the dispersal of food. Non-humans often use affiliative behaviors to elicit tolerance or support from other group members. I investigated whether provisioned food resources alter the social interactions and group dynamics of Macaca thibetana. All-occurrence sampling and scan sampling were used for data recorded by camera traps. Trail-cameras were placed at six locations that contain natural and human food resources and recorded 60-second videos. Social behavior and proximity of the monkeys were recorded. I …

Saffron Cod (Eleginus Gracilis) In North Pacific Archaeology, Megan A. Partlow, Eric Munk

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) is a marine species often found in shallow, brackish water in the Bering Sea, although it can occur as far southeast as Sitka, Alaska. Recently, we identified saffron cod remains in two ca. 500-year-old Afognak Island midden assemblages from the Kodiak Archipelago. We developed regression formulae to relate bone measurements to total length using thirty-five modern saffron cod specimens. The archaeological saffron cod remains appear to be from mature adults, measuring 22–45 cm in total length, and likely caught from shore during spawning. Saffron cod may have been an important winter resource for Alutiiq people living …

An Assessment Of Retractions As A Measure Of Scientific Misconduct And Impact On Public Health Risks, Alison J. Abritis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research misconduct has been generally considered a limited issue, occurring in a small percentage of research studies. Studies of the number of article retractions use retraction percentages to perpetuate the idea that research misconduct is not a common event, and use information in the retraction notice to quantify types of research misconduct and types or research error. However, retractions appear to be the wrong variable with which to assess misconduct rates and characteristics. Using final misconduct findings in hard science research from the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) for investigations closed from 1993 through 2013, the number of publications and …

A Basic Guide For Empirical Environmental Social Science, Michael Cox

Dartmouth Scholarship

In this paper, I address a gap in the literature on environmental social science by providing a basic rubric for the conduct of empirical research in this interdisciplinary field. Current literature displays a healthy diversity of methods and techniques, but this has also been accompanied by a lack of consistency in the way in which research in this area is done. In part this can be seen as resulting from a lack in supporting texts that would provide a basis for this consistency. Although relevant methods texts do exist, these are not written with this type of research explicitly in …

Ancient Humans Influenced The Current Spatial Genetic Structure Of Common Walnut Populations In Asia, Paola Pollegioni, Keith E. Woeste, Francesca Chiocchini, Stefano Del Lungo, Irene Olimpieri, Virginia Tortolano, Jo R. Clark, Gabriel E. Hemery, Sergio P. Mapelli, Maria Emilia Malvolti

Department of Forestry & Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Common walnut (Juglans regia L) is an economically important species cultivated worldwide for its wood and nuts. It is generally accepted that J. regia survived and grew spontaneously in almost completely isolated stands in its Asian native range after the Last Glacial Maximum. Despite its natural geographic isolation, J. regia evolved over many centuries under the influence of human management and exploitation. We evaluated the hypothesis that the current distribution of natural genetic resources of common walnut in Asia is, at least in part, the product of ancient anthropogenic dispersal, human cultural interactions, and afforestation. Genetic analysis combined with ethno-linguistic …

Parasitology In An Archaeological Context: Analysis Of Medieval Burials In Nivelles, Belgium, S. E. Rácz, Elisa Pucu De Araujo, E. Jensen, C. Mostek, Johnica J. Morrow, M. L. Van Hove, R. Bianucci, D. Willems, F. Heller, Adauto Araujo, Karl Reinhard

Karl Reinhard Publications

Coprolites were recovered from three burials near the Grand Place of Nivelles, Belgium. These remains yielded evidence of geohelminth parasitism. The evidence contributes to studies of differential parasite egg preservation related to the taphonomic conditions within the three burials. Using coprolite analysis techniques, parasite egg concentrations were quantified for each burial. Coprolites from the individual in Burial 122 were abnormally large and abundant, indicating an intestinal blockage. Additionally, this individual hosted an extremely high number of parasites evinced by the calculated parasite egg concentrations (Trichuris trichiura = 1,577,679 total eggs; Ascaris lumbricoides = 202,350 total eggs). Statistical analyses revealed …

Paleoparasitology – Human Parasites In Ancient Material, Adauto Araújo, Karl Reinhard, Luiz Fernando Ferreira

Karl Reinhard Publications

Parasite finds in ancient material launched a new field of science: paleoparasitology. Ever since the pioneering studies, parasites were identified in archaeological and paleontological remains, some preserved for millions of years by fossilization. However, the paleoparasitological record consists mainly of parasites found specifically in human archaeological material, preserved in ancient occupation sites, from prehistory until closer to 2015. The results include some helminth intestinal parasites still commonly found in 2015, such as Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworms, besides others such as Amoebidae and Giardia intestinalis, as well as viruses, bacteria, fungi and arthropods. These parasites as a …