Digital Commons Network^™

The Microbial Link In Ecosystem Processing In The East Fork Of The Jemez River : Extracellular Enzyme Response To Habitat, Seasonal Fluctuations, And Wildfire Disturbance, Susan G. Kutvirt

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Mounting evidence suggests that a warming climate in the southwestern United States threatens the quality and quantity of mountain source waters for New Mexicos largest surface water source, the Rio Grande. These waters, fed primarily by snowmelt, are critical to the ecological, agricultural, municipal, and cultural requirements of New Mexico. In an effort to construct a baseline of stream metabolism in the East Fork of the Jemez River (EFJR), a major tributary of the Rio Grande, our research team sampled macrophytes, algae, macroinvertebrates, and benthic microbial communities to assess changes pertaining to habitat and seasonal fluctuations and in response to …

Multi-Year Measurement Of Wholestream Metabolism In A Snowmelt-Dominated Montane Ecosystem, Betsy Shafer

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Warming temperatures, reduced precipitation, and earlier snowmelt are predicted for the mountains of the southwestern U.S due to climate change. In addition, interannual variability in precipitation, partially linked to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon (ENSO), also will impact stream-flow and ecosystem processes. Wholestream metabolism was modeled using continuous data for selected time periods ranging from 2005 to 2012. This eight-year study explores temporal trends in whole-stream metabolism parameters; as well, it links the potential impact of climate variability on these temporal trends. Gross primary production (GPP) and community respiration (CR) rates were comparable to other open-canopy lotic systems, and remained …

Multi-Institutional Library Collaboration And The Future Of Scholarly Collections, Steven R. Harris

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Academic libraries face a number of challenges in managing large collections of periodicals and books. Stewardship of these collections must balance the need to preserve older parts of the scholarly record with the constant space demands of the ongoing acquisitions, without also impinging upon other uses the library needs to support, including student study space. Shared preservation of print collections is one way to address these issues. Collectively, libraries may be able to more effectively preserve the scholarly record.

Network Data Workshop Agenda, Long Term Ecological Research

Long Term Ecological Research Network

Workshop agenda for the Veg-DB Workshop at the Sevilleta Field Station, NM.

Workshop Objectives: 1) Assess the willingness and ability of sites to participate in a Veg-DB system; 2) Continue design the user functionality of the system, 3) Determine the relationship of the system to PASTA, and 4) Determine a plan to develop and populate the prototype system.

Middle Rio Grande Project, Andrew H. Gahan

Law of the Rio Chama

No abstract provided.

Trust As An Ethical Construct In Community Based Participatory Research Partnerships., Julie Ermalinda Lucero

Communication ETDs

This study addressed the lack of attention to trust in Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) partnerships. CBPR is a promising research orientation to reduce health inequities in communities of color. This research orientation has been deemed an ethical and trust building approach to health research. However, this claim has not been empirically investigated. Specifically this investigation explored trust development as a process of ethical communication. Trust is important to all relationships and more attention to how trust develops is needed. In research relationships mistrust, which impacts CBPR, stems from historic events and institutional histories of collaboration. Trust and mistrust can …

Chronicles Of Revolution And Nation: El Taller De Gráfica Populars 'Estampas De La Revolución Mexicana' (1947), Mary Theresa Avila

Art & Art History ETDs

This dissertation concentrates on the key 1947 portfolio Las Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana' ('Prints of the Mexican Revolution') produced by El Taller de Gráfica Popular (The Popular Graphics Workshop) or TGP, a graphic art collective founded in Mexico City in 1937. The album's eighty-five prints recount Mexican history from the l870s to the 1940s, as well as address the human condition and denounce social and civil injustices. These images are anchored in the diverse narratives and legacies of the Mexican Revolution (1910 and 1920). My analysis of the visual, textual, and historical components in the TGP's 1947 portfolio, a …

Life History And Morphometric Variation Of Gambusia Nobilis At Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Alyssa Renee Hopkins

Biology ETDs

The Pecos Gambusia, Gambusia nobilis, is an endangered, live bearing fish inhabiting sinkholes in a restricted range of the Pecos River Watershed in New Mexico and Texas. The sink holes at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge (BLNWR), Roswell, NM create isolated habitats with varying ecological conditions (habitat size, community composition, dissolved oxygen, salinity and pH). This ecological variation imposes unique selective pressures that may shape differences in life history characteristics and morphology between populations. The goals of this research were to characterize seasonal and population variation in 1) life history characteristics, 2) embryo development patterns, 3) morphology and 4) explore …

A Holarctic Perspective On Mammalian Evolution: The Evolutionary And Biogeographic History Of Red-Backed Voles And Their Close Relatives (Rodentia: Arvicolinae), Brooks A. Kohli

Biology ETDs

The influence of Quaternary environmental changes on demography and geographic distribution is paramount to understanding how contemporary genetic diversity is partitioned in high-latitude species. This history of change in northern ecosystems sets the stage for forecasting how species inhabiting tundra and boreal forest will respond to the ongoing shift in climate. Utilizing broad geographic and taxonomic sampling, a multilocus species tree approach, ecological niche models, and population genetic techniques, I investigate the evolutionary and biogeographic history of a Holarctic mammal, the northern red-backed vole (Clethrionomys rutilus) and the systematics of the tribe it belongs to, Clethrionomyini. This tribe of forest …

Molecular Control Of Muscle Patterning, Development And Stability In Drosophila, Elisa Mignon Labeau Dimenna

Biology ETDs

Muscle is a highly conserved and specialized tissue in animals. Failure of proper muscle patterning, maintenance and stability in animals can have variety of consequences for the individual. Mutations in loci that control muscle can result in death during embyogenesis, dysmorphism, and/or reduced lifespan after progressive muscle degeneration (Emery 2002, Mathews and Moore 2003, Amato and Griggs 2011). Muscle defects, such as these, have origins ranging from improper transcriptional control to direct sequence disruptions in proteins that play a wide variety of roles in the cell (Emery 2002, Mathews and Moore 2003, Amato and Griggs 2011). Thus, out of this …

Exploring Signals Of Historical Demography In Boreal Mammals Through Integration Of Statistical Conservation Phylogenetics, Taxonomy, And Comparative Phylogeography, Jason L. Malaney

Biology ETDs

Understanding how diversity is partitioned across the landscape can provide perspectives related to the environmental processes that have influenced the evolutionary history of organisms. This main idea, often termed phylogeography, serves as the backdrop to my research where I explore three broad concepts including historical biogeography, cryptic diversity and ecology, and conservation phylogenetics. I address various questions in each of these concepts by using a set of mammals that are associated with montane and mesic environments of North America. More specifically, I focus on the jumping mice (Zapodidae) to test hypotheses that scale to the broader community. This approach allows …

Mitochondrial Genome Evolution In Pupillid Land Snails, Jason D. Marquardt

Biology ETDs

Pupillid land snails (Family Pupillidae) are small (< 6mm) snails with a broad geographic distribution and often found in very high density in their habitat. The sequencing of the mitochondrial genome (mt genome) of three pupillid taxa has been undertaken to understand their genome evolution more fully. The Gastrocopta cristata mitochondrial genome is 14,060 bp in length and contains 13 protein coding genes, 2 rRNA genes and 22 tRNA genes. The Pupilla muscorum, and Vertigo pusilla genomes contain all of the same genes but are of differing total sizes, 14,149 bp and 14,078 bp respectively. The AT content of the three genomes is similar at ~71% A+T which is comparable to their closest sequenced relatives. There are no major gene rearrangements among the mt genomes of the three pupillids, but the positions of many tRNA genes differ from those of Albinaria caerulea. There is a genomic sequence region of high concentration of thymine on the leading strand of the mt genome that is shared among all three genomes as well as their relatives.

Habitat Preference Of Western Diamond-Backed Rattlesnakes (Crotalus Atrox) At Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico: An Analysis At Multiple Scales, Theresa Lorraine Mcinnes

Biology ETDs

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is located in central New Mexico in the Chihuahuan desert. Approximately 25% of the refuge spans the Rio Grande floodplain and consists of managed riparian and agriculture areas. The upland areas are dominated by creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), honey mesquite (Prosopis sp.), and four-wing saltbush (Atriplex canescens). Western diamond-backed rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox) are habitat generalists of dry lowland areas and commonly use dry washes, Larrea and Prosopis desert, rocky slopes, scrub/grassland, man-made structures, and less commonly hydric habitats. A high diversity of vegetation types span the refuge and hydric and upland habitats are often …

Systematics Of Longhorned Beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), Eugenio Hernán Nearns

Biology ETDs

The longhorned wood boring beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) are a diverse and economically important group of insects. With an estimated 4,000 genera and more than 35,000 described species, the Cerambycidae comprise one of the largest beetle families. Cerambycid beetles are found on all continents except Antarctica, from sea level to montane sites as high as 4000 m. Cerambycids are among the most serious wood boring pest species globally, affecting many agricultural crops, ornamental trees, and lumber products, causing millions of dollars in damage each year. Despite their economic importance and biological diversity, relatively little is known of cerambycid beetle ecology, …

Regulation Of Hydraulic Function And Consequences For Drought-Related Mortality In Mature Woody Plants, Jennifer A. Plaut

Biology ETDs

Precipitation and temperature patterns are expected to shift over at least the next century due to anthropogenic climate change. Effects of these shifts may be felt most acutely in arid and semi-arid regions where water is already the most limiting resource. Vegetation mortality due to drought is a likely outcome of predicted future climate, with consequences for ecosystem structure and function and feedbacks on regional and global climate. Yet, mechanisms and interactions of key plant drought responses and the end-point of mortality remain poorly understood. In this dissertation I examine the roles of xylem cavitation resistance and stomatal control of …

Synaptic Zn2+ Release During Spreading Depolarizations: Implications For Ischemic Brain Injury, Russell Eugene Carter

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

The expansion of the ischemic core into surrounding penumbral tissue has prompted researchers to finds ways to limit this progression in hopes of providing better outcomes for patients suffering from stroke. Current therapeutic strategies are limited, and new therapies that can be delivered at late time-points are needed. Zn2+ has been well documented to contribute to ischemic injury progression, and chelation of Zn2+ significantly improves neuronal survival, even when administered hours after the initial insult. However, determining the source of this Zn2+ and the toxic mechanisms involved in ischemia remain unclear. Over the past 10 years, clinical recordings have provided …

Protein Carbonylation, Protein Aggregation And Cell Death In A Murine Model Of Multiple Sclerosis, Anushka Dasgupta

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Many studies have suggested that oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathophysiology of both multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Yet, the mechanism by which oxidative stress leads to tissue damage in these disorders is unclear. Recent work from our laboratory has revealed that protein carbonylation, a major oxidative modification caused by severe and/or chronic oxidative stress conditions, is elevated in MS and EAE. Furthermore, protein carbonylation has been shown to alter protein structure leading to misfolding/aggregation. These findings prompted me to hypothesize that carbonylated proteins, formed as a consequence of oxidative stress …

Spanish Missionization And Maya Social Structure: Skeletal Evidence For Labor Distribution At Tipu, Belize, Lara Kristen Noldner

Anthropology ETDs

The cultural and human biological outcomes of Spanish colonization of the Americas were diverse. This dissertation examines the effects of Spanish colonization on Maya social structure using skeletal evidence for the distribution of labor at Tipu, a mission site in west central Belize. Skeletal remains of indigenous Maya buried in the context of a church, and in accordance with European Catholic burial customs, were examined for enthesis development and the cross-sectional morphology (CSG) of upper and lower limb long bones. Nothing besides burial placement in relation to the church (inside or outside the walls) denotes social status among individuals. Bone …

Lost Worlds: Locating Submerged Archaeological Sites In Southeast Alaska, Kelly Rose Bale Monteleone

Anthropology ETDs

Synthesis and interpretation of archaeologically documented land-use patterns and ethnographic data are used to identify and model where people chose to live, hunt, and gather prehistorically. This project tests the hypothesis that the archaeological record of SE Alaska extends to areas of the continental shelf that were submerged by post-Pleistocene sea level rise beginning around 10,600 cal years BP (9,400 14C years). Digital elevation models (DEM) and sea-level curve for southeastern Alaska are used to create time slices between 16,000 to 10,500 cal BP. The variables (slope, aspect, distance from paleo-stream, paleo-lakes, paleo-coastlines, and known archaeological sites, and coastal sinuosity) …

Scaling In The Immune System, Soumya Banerjee

Computer Science ETDs

How different is the immune system in a human from that of a mouse? Do pathogens replicate at the same rate in different species? Answers to these questions have impact on human health since multi-host pathogens that jump from animals to humans affect millions worldwide. It is not known how rates of immune response and viral dynamics vary from species to species and how they depend on species body size. Metabolic scaling theory predicts that intracellular processes are slower in larger animals since cellular metabolic rates are slower. We test how rates of pathogenesis and immune system response rates depend …

Hopscotch: Robust Multi-Agent Search, Edward C. Miles

Computer Science ETDs

The task of searching a space is critical to a wide range of diverse applications such as land mine clearing and planetary exploration. Because applications frequently require searching remote or hazardous locations, and because the task is easily divisible, it is natural to consider the use of multi-robot teams to accomplish the search task. An important topic of research in this area is the division of the task among robot agents. Interrelated with subtask assignment is failure handling, in the sense that, when an agent fails, its part of the task must then be performed by other agents. This thesis …

Induction Of Interleukin-10 Within The T(H)17 Effector Population Using The Gper Agonist G-1, Ryan Lennex Brunsing

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

A critical mechanism in immune homeostasis is the ability to stop an ongoing inflammatory response once the inciting agent has been destroyed or neutralized. Failure to do so can lead to autoimmune disease. One mechanism the immune system utilizes to self regulate is the secretion of immunosuppressive cytokines. For example, the cytokine interleukin-10 (IL10) is a potent suppressor of numerous key immune cell populations. Among the cells that secrete IL10 are several subsets of the CD4+ T cell family. As CD4+ T cells are commonly found within diseased tissue in the setting of autoimmune disease, medications capable of inducing IL10 …

Partial Versus Complete Trapeziectomy For Treatment Of Carpometacarpal Joint Arthritis: A Cadaveric Biomechanical Comparison, Deana Mercer

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the stability of the thumb carpometacarpal joint following either complete removal of the trapezium(TR) or partial removal of the trapezium and of the base of the first metacarpal (PTR). We utilized local capsular tissue for interposition graft in both cases. Methods: Right and left fresh frozen cadaveric hands from the same donor were randomized so that TR or PTR repair was performed randomly on the right or left hand of each pair. In the TR group we removed the entire trapezium. In the PTR group we removed 2mm of distal trapezium and 2mm of thumb …

Narrative Medicine And Traditional Medical Interviewing Approaches In Women With Breast Cancer, Wendy L. Hine

Communication ETDs

Interactions between early-stage breast cancer patients and their medical providers were analyzed, focusing on the content of the medical encounter and the patients' subsequent recall of that information. Traditional biomedical interviewing, narrative medicine approaches, and emerging types of dialogue were coded within these encounters. Observations of patient-provider interactions, structured and semi-structured patient interviews, and document analysis enriched this investigation. No "pure type" of patient-provider interaction was found. In order to relate the complex information about diagnoses and treatment options to women with breast cancer, narrative interactions included considerable biomedical information. Similarly, biomedical interactions often included narrative elements. A continuum was …

When Visions Converge And Collide: A Fantasy Theme Analysis Of Staff Participation In The Patient- And Family-Centered Care Initiative At The University Of New Mexico Hospital, Lisa Rossignol

Communication ETDs

Using Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT), this study sought to determine the rhetorical vision of staff at UNM hospital about working with patients and families and comparing it to the ideal rhetorical vision that the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care (PFCC) has for healthcare providers. Participant observation methods were employed over a two-month period for seated physician rounds and interdisciplinary care planning and discharge planning meetings at UNMH in a general pediatric unit and a pediatric rehabilitation unit. Physicians had their own unique symbolic reality that differed from the vision of interdisciplinary groups. Physicians were most concerned with other physicians …

Progeny Release Of Species B Human Adenoviruses Is Not Mediated By Early Region 3 Proteins 20.1k, 20.5k, And 10.9k, James Andrew Dowling

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

The early region 3 (E3) of the human adenovirus (HAdV) genome encodes proteins that regulate the host immune response to viral infection. The E3 region also exhibits the highest level of genetic diversity among the genomes of the six (A-F) species of HAdV. This diversity in genetic content is found primarily between the highly conserved E3-gp19K and RIDα open reading frames (ORFs). It has been previously shown that HAdV-C encodes the adenovirus death protein (ADP) in this location. ADP is an 11.6kDa, transmembrane protein that localizes to the nuclear membrane, and facilitates the efficient release of progeny virions. HAdV-B1 encodes …

Faculty Senate Summarized Minutes, 4/23/2013, Unm Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, 1920 - 2013

No abstract provided.

Wednesday Communiqué, 4/10/2013, Chaouki Abdallah

Publications of the Provost's Office

The following summarizes how UNM fared in the 2013 Legislative Session (House Bill 2). Main campus received a 4.3% increase, or $7.3 million of new money. Of that $7.3 million, the workload formula—funding connected to outcomes such as course completions, the number of students graduating, and so on—accounted for $2.4 million. The Educational Retirement Board (ERB) program accounted for $3.6 million. The final $1.3 million represents the state-funded portion (about 60%) of the 1% compensation increase, the same percentage of state-funding for our Instruction and General (I&G) budget.

Black Kinship Circles In The 21st Century: Survey Of Recent Child Welfare Reforms And How It Impacts Black Kinship Care Families, Sonia M. Gipson Rankin

Faculty Scholarship

The Black American community has been celebrated for the historical success of kinship care. With an eye on the long legal history of attempts to address kinship care families, the federal government created an exploratory program to concentrate on solving the three goals of child welfare. Title IV-E Flexible Waiver program of the Social Security Act implemented in 2005 was designed to address the permanency, wellbeing, and safety of children with the goal of decreasing the number of children in out-of-home care.

• This paper argues Title IV-E Flexible Waivers should be used to address the continued health and economic needs …

Chemistry & Chemical Biology 2013 Apr Self-Study & Documents, University Of New Mexico

UNM Academic Program Review

UNM Chemistry & Chemical Biology APR self-study report, review team report, response to review report, and initial action plan for Spring 2013, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission.