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Absence Of Metathoracic Wings And Corrections To The Description Of Chaetocnema Labiosa White, 1996 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Shawn M. Clark, Robert L. Johnson

Western North American Naturalist

Corrections and additions to the original description of Chaetocnema labiosa White are given and include the report of characters associated with the loss of flight. New distributional data are provided. Possible host plants and the likelihood of parthenogenetic populations are briefly discussed.

Food Web Structure, Energetics, And Importance Of Allochthonous Carbon In A Desert Cavernous Limnocrene: Devils Hole, Nevada, Kevin P. Wilson, Dean W. Blinn

Western North American Naturalist

We tested the hypothesis that allochthonous carbon is important in the diet of the endemic pupfish Cyprinodon diabolis over a 3-year period in Devils Hole, Nevada. Devils Hole is a cavernous limnocrene located in the Mojave Desert approximately 15 m below the land surface and receives direct solar radiation <7% of the total time during the year. The system is dominated by filamentous cyanobacteria in the summer and supports about 15 invertebrate species and the endemic pupfish C. diabolis. We examined food web structure and measured autochthonous carbon production and entry of allochthonous carbon with funnel traps. Stable isotopes were used to compare contributions of each carbon source. Allochthonous carbon contributed 2971 kj · yr⁻¹ (60%) of the total available energy to the food web compared …

Yellow Pine Chipmunks Cannot Climb Quaking Aspens: Implications For Avian Nest Site Selection, T. Will Richardson, Stephen B. Vander Wall

Western North American Naturalist

Predation of eggs or nestlings is generally believed to be the most influential factor limiting passerine reproductive success. Thus, there should be strong selective pressures for birds to place their nests in sites that are inaccessible to predators or that are less likely to be discovered by them. We found and monitored 231 nests of 4 species of arboreal, cup-nesting birds: Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus), Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus), American Robin (Turdus migratorius), and Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata). We determined strength of nest tree species selection by comparing nest trees and tree …

Use Of Agricultural Lands By San Joaquin Kit Foxes, Gregory D. Warrick, Howard O. Clark Jr., Patrick A. Kelly, Daniel F. Williams, Brian L. Cypher

Western North American Naturalist

Although the current range of the endangered San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) borders large areas of farmland, the ecology of this species rarely has been studied within an agricultural setting. In central California, we examined habitat use, prey availability, and diet of radio-collared kit foxes inhabiting an aqueduct right-of-way (ROW) bordered by farmland. During both years of study (1998–1999), nocturnal locations of foxes occurred more often than expected (based on habitat availability) in the ROW and less often than expected within annual crops. Orchards were used disproportionately more than their availability during 1998 and were used …

Winter Habitat Selection Patterns Of Merriam's Turkeys In The Southern Black Hills, South Dakota, Chad P. Lehman, Mark A. Rumble, Lester D. Flake

Western North American Naturalist

In northern areas of their expanded range, information on Merriam's turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo merriami) is lacking, specifically pertaining to wintering behavior and factors associated with winter habitat selection. Forest managers need detailed quantification of the effects of logging and other management practices on wintering habitats needed by Wild Turkeys and other wildlife. Therefore, we examined winter habitat selection patterns within ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests and determined factors associated with use of farmsteads by Merriam's turkeys in the southern Black Hills, South Dakota. We radio-marked 86 female Merriam's turkeys (70 adults and 16 yearlings) and monitored …

Short-Term Effects Of A Prescribed Burn On Songbirds And Vegetation In Mountain Big Sagebrush, Aaron L. Holmes

Western North American Naturalist

I measured songbird abundance and vegetation cover in and around a 420-ha prescribed burn in a mountain big sagebrush community located at 2133 m elevation. Data were collected during the 3rd growing season after the fire. Brewer's Sparrow and Sage Thrasher occurred in lower abundance on sites that were largely or completely burned relative to sites that were outside the fire perimeter or within unburned islands of shrubs. The number of Brewer's Sparrow detections was linearly related to remaining sagebrush cover. In contrast, Horned Lark occurred at higher abundances on sites where shrub cover had been removed in the prescribed …

C-Reactive Protein Levels According To Physical Activity And Body Weight For Participants In The Coronary Health Improvement Project, Michael T. Massey

Theses and Dissertations

Objectives. Evaluate C-reactive protein (CRP) levels according to weight and physical activity. The study explored how changes in CRP were associated with baseline CRP, weight, and physical activity and changes in these variables.

Methods. A randomized controlled study design assigned 348 individuals to the intervention or control group with measurements taken at baseline, 6 weeks, and 6 months of body weight, physical activity, and serum CRP levels. Participants attended an intensive 40-hour educational course delivered over a four-week period.

Results. At baseline, CRP was negatively associated with total steps/week, and positively associated with weight, BMI, percent fat, and saturated fat …

Cognitive And Behavioral Model Ensembles For Autonomous Virtual Characters, Jeffrey S. Whiting

Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive and behavioral models have become popular methods to create autonomous self-animating characters. Creating these models presents the following challenges: (1) Creating a cognitive or behavioral model is a time intensive and complex process that must be done by an expert programmer (2) The models are created to solve a specific problem in a given environment and because of their specific nature cannot be easily reused. Combining existing models together would allow an animator, without the need of a programmer, to create new characters in less time and would be able to leverage each model's strengths to increase the character's …

Mission Propaganda: A Study Of Form, Colonial Attitudes, And Feminism In Maria Theresia Ledóchowska's Newspaper Publication, Jakob N. Jarvis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines Mission Propaganda, a newspaper-style publication distributed by the St. Peter Claver Sodalität, an association of nuns, lay-members, and subscribers founded by Maria Theresia Ledóchowska in 1894. The “sodality” was dedicated to supporting Catholic missionary work in Africa, and advocated for the liberation of African slaves. Ledóchowska used Mission Propaganda to encourage Europeans to support the African missions. She also used it to inform Europeans about African culture. She attempted to create a connection between the need for Catholic missionary work in Africa and the need for reform in Europe. She believed Europeans needed moral, religious, and social …

Pharmacokinetics Of Ultrasonically-Released, Micelle-Encapsulated Doxorubicin In The Rat Model And Its Effect On Tumor Growth, Bryant J. Staples

Theses and Dissertations

Chemotherapy is one of the most successful cancer treatments used today. Unfortunately, the amount of chemotherapy a patient can receive is limited by the associated negative side effects, such as cardiotoxicity, immune system suppression, and nephrotoxicity. Encapsulation of these drugs, Doxorubicin (DOX) in particular, in stabilized Pluronic micelles (Plurogel TM) shows success in limiting these harmful side effects. In previous studies, low-frequency ultrasound (US) has been shown, in vitro, to locally release DOX from these micelles. In this study, a novel drug delivery system involving the encapsulation of DOX in Plurogel and the release of the drug at the tumor …

Final Report: Shf Channel Modeling Over Sea-Based Test Ranges, Qiang Lei, Michael D. Rice

Faculty Publications

This work was supported by the Science & Technology Test & Evaluation Spectrum Efficient Technologies Program sponsored by the US Air Force under contract F04611-02-C-0020. Channel sounding data collected from an airborne transmitter over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Pt. Mugu, Naval Air Station, was analyzed and used to model multipath propagation over the ocean. The experiments showed that at 8.000 GHz, over the water multipath propagation is well modeled by a three-ray propagation model. The first ray (or propagation path) is the line-of-sight propagation path. The second ray is a strong specular reflection determined by the geometry …

Effects Of Exposure To Perinatal Ultrasound Radiation On Information Processing In The Auditory System, Jennifer Burnett

Theses and Dissertations

Ultrasound (US) has become a standard procedure used during pregnancy to document the health and development of a fetus. When ultrasound was first developed, some researchers urged caution, suggesting that the possibility of hazard should be kept under constant review. Given the routine application of fetal ultrasound imaging, any possibility of deleterious developmental effects resulting from its use is an important public health issue. Rats have a well characterized central nervous system whose neurochemical pathways and neuronal electrophysiology qualitatively correspond to those of humans. Because of this, we opted to use Wistar rats as an animal model to document effects …

Manifold Sculpting, Michael S. Gashler

Theses and Dissertations

Manifold learning algorithms have been shown to be useful for many applications of numerical analysis. Unfortunately, existing algorithms often produce noisy results, do not scale well, and are unable to benefit from prior knowledge about the expected results. We propose a new algorithm that iteratively discovers manifolds by preserving the local structure among neighboring data points while scaling down the values in unwanted dimensions. This algorithm produces less noisy results than existing algorithms, and it scales better when the number of data points is much larger than the number of dimensions. Additionally, this algorithm is able to benefit from existing …

An Infection Model For Examining The Effects Of Gender And Diabetic State On Proinflammatory Cytokine Secretion By Phagocytic Cells In Response To Infection With Burkholderia Pseudomallei, Laura L. Dickey

Theses and Dissertations

Burkholderia pseudomallei is an opportunistic soil pathogen that causes melioidosis, a life-threatening human disease prevalent in Southeast Asia, northern Australia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. The organism also causes disease in plants and animals. Persons with severe melioidosis usually die of septicemia. Relatively little is known regarding the virulence mechanisms of B. pseudomallei; however, several putative virulence determinants have been identified. The organism is able to invade and replicate within phagocytic cells and is particularly pathogenic in males with diabetes mellitus. B. thailandensis is closely related to B. pseudomallei, but is not pathogenic. This study examines various in …

Dna-Templated Nanomaterials, Hector Alejandro Becerril-Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Nanomaterials display interesting physical and chemical properties depending on their shape, size and composition. Self assembly is an intriguing route to producing nanomaterials with controllable compositions and morphologies. DNA has been used to guide the self assembly of materials, resulting in: (1) metal nanowires; (2) metal or semiconductor nanorods; (3) carbon nanotubes; and (4) semiconductor, metal or biological nanoparticles. My work expands the range of DNA templated nanomaterials and develops novel ways of using DNA to pattern nanostructures on surfaces. I have performed the first synthesis of silver nanorods on single stranded DNA, an attractive material for localizing DNA coupled …

Reading Europe's Paleolithic Writing, Donald Thomas Burgy

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The Fifth Wave: Cultural And Commercial Viability (2000-Present), Randy Astle, Gideon O. Burton

BYU Studies

The Fifth Wave of Mormon cinema is the current period, in which a culturally robust and commercially vibrant new art form is beginning to emerge. Its most obvious manifestation is in the stream of Mormon-themed theatrical feature films, produced independently of the Church, made by and for Latter-day Saints. Richard Dutcher’s much-celebrated God’s Army, released in March 2000, made him widely recognized as the father of this new movement in Mormon film, but his groundbreaking work actually marks a return to the past. The LDS filmmakers of the First Wave also sought to create 35mm films to be distributed …

The Second Wave: Home Cinema (1929-1953), Randy Astle, Gideon O. Burton

BYU Studies

The Second Wave differed from the First in various respects. For instance, by the 1930s the global film industry was well past its primitive pioneer era, and, within Mormonism, the increased sophistication of Second Wave films reflects this progress. In addition, technical advances (principally sound, but also color) renewed enthusiasm about the medium, both generally and among the Latter-day Saints. While this optimism did propel institutional and independent Mormon filmmaking toward some major projects, the decade of the 1930s—and to a lesser extent the 1940s— has generally been described for its lack of Mormon film production. Such a perception, however, …

The Third Wave: Judge Whitaker And The Classical Era (1953-1974), Randy Astle, Gideon O. Burton

BYU Studies

The Third Wave of Mormon cinema is unquestionably the age of Judge Whitaker. He represents the development of Mormon film from its pioneer infancy into classical maturity. The similarities to Hollywood’s classical era are numerous (with important exceptions). Most obviously, Mormon film finally left behind the multitasking artisanal mode of prior decades in favor of a studio-based industrial infrastructure featuring specialized workers. Equally important, the BYU studio produced films of an identifiable, consistent, and aesthetically and culturally conservative style deeply rooted in Hollywood norms. It supplied a steady stream of products to a vertically integrated distribution and exhibition network. Finally, …

The Fourth Wave: The Mass Media Era (1974-2000), Randy Astle, Gideon O. Burton

BYU Studies

The Fourth Wave deserves to be known as the Mass Media Era for at least three reasons. First, it was the first period dominated by video technology and various media besides traditional film; though I shall continue to use the term filmmaking, the majority of productions were now distributed electronically, even if they did not originate that way. Second, because of electronic distribution and the inexpensiveness and ubiquity of video, this era was marked by an incredibly wide dissemination of film compared with previous eras. Television, VHS, and satellite broadcasts revolutionized distribution by making obsolete the exhibition of an …

Finding An Audience, Paying The Bills: Competing Business Models In Mormon Cinema, Eric Samuelsen

BYU Studies

The Hollywood business model most filmmakers employ involves both a production company and a film studio. The two entities make a deal, and the production company shoots the movie before the studio promotes and sells the movie. Hence, films that don't attract the support of a studio often can't be advertised and distributed as widely. In many cases, the movies can't even be made without a studio's financial backing. In the Mormon film industry, some filmmakers have employed the usual Hollywood business model. Others have created their own studios to market their films, like Halestorm, and some filmmakers bypass the …

Crime And Punishment: Does Punishment Work?, David J. Cherrington

Faculty Publications

Most analyses of punishment seem to assume that it plays a major role in shaping the behavior of people, whether they are children, students, employees, or ordinary citizens in the community. Some people argue that there is no justification for the use of punishment in any setting, even childrearing. A bill debated in the 2007 California state legislature that would make spanking illegal appears to be a move in this direction. Others believe that there are times when punishment is the most effective and timely way to change behavior and without it homes, schools, organizations, and societies would disintegrate. Does …

Hunger Strikes: Legal Rights Of Guantanamo Detainees, Jon Scott

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

No abstract provided.

The Sixth Annual Lds Film Festival, January 17-20, 2007, Candy Eash

BYU Studies

The Sixth Annual LDS Film Festival, January 17–20, 2007. SCERA Center for the Arts, Orem, Utah

Active Spectatorship: Spiritual Dimensions Of Film, Sharon Swenson

BYU Studies

Menacing music signals something ominous. My three-year-old grandson, Gavin, looks up at me, and we hug each other closer under the quilt, shivering in anticipation. In the background is . . . something . . . and it’s getting closer and closer. What seemed like something small and close by is really something large and far away and getting closer by the second. Squeeze tighter; Gavin glances up at me and giggles, but I remain serious and calm, preparing for whatever might come. It’s a whale! Zooming toward us!

Tandem Repeat Regions Within The Burkholderia Pseudomallei Genome And Their Application For High Resolution Genotyping, Richard A. Robison, Jana M. U'Ren, James M. Schupp, Talima Pearson, Heidie Hornstra, Christine L. Friedman Clark, Kimothy L. Smith, Rebecca R. Leadem Daugherty, Shane D. Rhoton, Ben Leadem, Shalamar Georgia, Michelle Cardon, Lynn Y. Huynh, David Deshazer, Steven P. Harvey, Daniel Gal, Mark J. Mayo, David Wagner, Bart J. Currie, Paul Keim

Faculty Publications

The facultative, intracellular bacterium Burkholderia pseudomalle is the causative agent of melioidosis, a serious infectious disease of humans and animals. We identified and categorized tandem repeat arrays and their distribution throughout the genome of B. pseudomallei strain K96243 in order to develop a genetic typing method for B. pseudomallei. We then screened 104 of the potentially polymorphic loci across a diverse panel of 31 isolates including B. pseudomallei, B. mallei and B. thailandensis in order to identify loci with varying degrees of polymorphism. A subset of these tandem repeat arrays were subsequently developed into a multiple-locus VNTR analysis to examine …

Spotted Cotton Oligonucleotide Microarrays For Gene Expression Analysis, Joshua Udall, Lex E. Flagel, Foo Chung, Andrew W. Woodward, Ran Hovav, Ryan A. Rapp, Jordan M. Swanson, Jinsuk J. Lee, Alan R. Gingle, Dan Nettleton, Christopher D. Town, Z. Jeffrey Chen, Jonathan F. Wendel

Faculty Publications

Microarrays offer a powerful tool for diverse applications plant biology and crop improvement. Recently, two comprehensive assemblies of cotton ESTs were constructed based on three Gossypium species. Using these assemblies as templates, we describe the design and creation and of a publicly available oligonucleotide array for cotton, useful for all four of the cultivated species. Results: Synthetic oligonucleotide probes were generated from exemplar sequences of a global assembly of 211,397 cotton ESTs derived from <50 different cDNA libraries representing many different tissue types and tissue treatments. A total of 22,787 oligonucleotide probes are included on the arrays, optimized to target the diversity of the transcriptome and previously studied cotton genes, transcription factors, and genes with homology to Arabidopsis. A small portion of the oligonucleotides target unidentified protein coding sequences, thereby providing an element of gene discovery. Because many oligonucleotides were based on ESTs from fiber-specific cDNA libraries, the microarray has direct application for analysis of the fiber transcriptome. To illustrate the utility of the microarray, we hybridized labeled bud and leaf cDNAs from G. hirsutum and demonstrate technical consistency of results. Conclusion: The cotton oligonucleotide microarray provides a reproducible platform for transcription profiling in cotton, and is made publicly available through http://cottonevolution.info.

Diets Of Sympatric Bobcats And Coyotes During Years Of Varying Rainfall In Central Arizona, Ted Mckinney, Thorry W. Smith

Western North American Naturalist

We collected fecal samples (scats) of sympatric bobcats (Lynx rufus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) between 2000 and 2003 in a 53,600-ha area of the Upper Sonoran Desert in central Arizona. Our objective was to investigate composition, diversity, and overlap of diets of bobcats and coyotes in relation to varying rainfall in the Sonoran Desert of central Arizona. In general, bobcats ate more rodents than did coyotes, and coyotes ate more lagomorphs, large prey, and fruit/seeds than did bobcats. Composition of bobcat diets was independent of differences among years in annual rainfall and seasonal rainfall during summer–autumn …

Spatially Scaled Response Of A Lazuli Bunting Population To Fire, Andreas Leidolf, Tim Nuttle, Michael L. Wolfe

Western North American Naturalist

We examined the response of Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena) to fire in Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) woodland at Camp Williams, Utah, during 1993–1998. Overall, Lazuli Bunting abundance on the study area increased significantly during the 2 years after a stand-replacing wildfire, which covered 800 ha of Gambel oak woodland. This increase suggested that Lazuli Buntings respond positively to fire. However, a comparison of pre- and post-fire abundance of Lazuli Bunting for 2 groups of monitoring plots with different fire histories showed that abundance was significantly greater during the post-fire period for both burned and unburned plots. …

Vegetation Responses To 35 And 55 Years Of Native Ungulate Grazing In Shrubsteppe Communities, Echo A. Rexroad, Karen H. Beard, Andrew Kulmatiski

Western North American Naturalist

Ungulate populations are managed in shrubsteppe ecosystems around the world, but relatively few long-term datasets are available that test the impacts of these grazers on shrubsteppe structure and function. This study evaluated 8 exclosures in 4 shrubsteppe communities to determine the effects of deer and elk over 35 or 55 years on (1) plant biomass and species composition, (2) soil nitrogen (N) mineralization and net nitrification rates, Olsen extractable phosphorus (P), and C:N ratios, and (3) arthropod diversity and abundance. The site with deer, the highest ungulate densities, and coldest climate (Sinlahekin Wildlife Area, WA) had greater vegetative biomass and …