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Energy-Based Carrying Capacities Of Bufflehead Bucephala Albeola Wintering Habitats, Richard A. Mckinney, Scott R. Mcwilliams

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

We present a model for calculating energy-based carrying capacities for bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), a small North American sea duck wintering in coastal and estuarine habitats. Our model uses estimates of the seasonal energy expenditures that incorporate site-specific energetic costs of thermoregulation, along with available prey energy densities to calculate carrying capacities in numbers of birds per winter. The model was used to calculate carrying capacities under several foraging scenarios for bufflehead wintering at three urban and three rural sites in the coastal northeast U.S. We found that energy-based carrying capacities varied from 20 – 320 birds per site …

A Single Amino Acid Mutation In An Abc Transporter Gene Causes Resistance To Bt Toxin Cry1ab In The Silkworm, Bombyx Mori, Shogo Atsumi, Kazuhisa Miyamoto, Kimiko Yamamoto, Junko Narukawa, Sawako Kawai, Hideki Sezutsu, Isao Kobayashi, Keiro Uchino, Toshiki Tamura, Kazuei Mita, Keiko Kadono-Okuda, Sanae Wada, Kohzo Kanda, Marian R. Goldsmith

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Bt toxins derived from the arthropod bacterial pathogen Bacillus thuringiensis are widely used for insect control as insecticides or in transgenic crops. Bt resistance has been found in field populations of several lepidopteran pests and in laboratory strains selected with Bt toxin. Widespread planting of crops expressing Bt toxins has raised concerns about the potential increase of resistance mutations in targeted insects. By using Bombyx mori as a model, we identified a candidate gene for a recessive form of resistance to Cry1Ab toxin on chromosome 15 by positional cloning. BGIBMGA007792-93, which encodes an ATP-binding cassette transporter similar to human multidrug …

Gender: An Infinite And Evolving Theory, Julia Churchill Schoellkopf

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Center

Many perceive sex and gender to be the same concept or at least related to each other, but this is not the case. If they do perceive it as different concepts, it is usually understood simply as biological sex. For many people gender is part of daily routine and questioning it is absurd. In virtually all societies gender is defined by characteristics associated with one’s sex. This definition stems from the social construction of gender, meaning that gender is not based solely on physiological qualities. This paper explores the social construct of sex and gender.

The Glycosyltransferase Repertoire Of The Spikemoss Selaginella Moellendorffii And A Comparative Study Of Its Cell Wall, Jesper Harholt, Iben Sørensen, Jonatan Fangel, Alison Roberts, William G.T. Willats, Henrik Vibe Scheller, Bent Larsen Petersen, Jo Ann Banks, Peter Ulvskov

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Spike mosses are among the most basal vascular plants, and one species, Selaginella moellendorffii, was recently selected for full genome sequencing by the Joint Genome Institute (JGI). Glycosyltransferases (GTs) are involved in many aspects of a plant life, including cell wall biosynthesis, protein glycosylation, primary and secondary metabolism. Here, we present a comparative study of the S. moellendorffii genome across 92 GT families and an additional family (DUF266) likely to include GTs. The study encompasses the moss Physcomitrella patens, a non-vascular land plant, while rice and Arabidopsis represent commelinid and non-commelinid seed plants. Analysis of the subset of …

Big Blue And You: An Interdisciplinary Look At Science And The Ocean, A Students Teaching Students Course, Megan M. Nepshinsky, Alexa Kretsch, Benjamin Negrete

Senior Honors Projects

This class is the second project under the new Honors Program initiative, Students Teaching Students (STS). STS was brought to URI and implemented by Bridget Griffith as part of her Senior Honors Project in 2011. Students apply in their Junior year to design, research, and teach an honors course on a topic about which they are passionate. The STS program allows motivated honors students to have a unique opportunity to lead a class as student professors. This allows students a freedom of creativity on the topic, assignments, and teaching style. Drawing on our own experiences, we were able to create …

Big Blue And You: An Interdisciplinary Look At Science And The Ocean, A Students Teaching Students Course, Benjamin Negrete Jr., Megan Nepshinsky, Alexa Kretsch

Senior Honors Projects

This class is the second project under the new Honors Program initiative, Students Teaching Students (STS). STS was brought to URI and implemented by Bridget Griffith as part of her Senior Honors Project in 2011. Students apply in their Junior year to design, research, and teach an honors course on a topic about which they are passionate. The STS program allows motivated honors students to have a unique opportunity to lead a class as student professors. This allows students a freedom of creativity on the topic, assignments, and teaching style. Drawing on our own experiences, we were able to create …

Students Teaching Students: Lgbtq History, Brian Stack

Senior Honors Projects

When the Students Teaching Students program called for submissions for student created courses I jumped at the opportunity to learn and share with a group of peers dedicated to a subject. The close to year long process culminated in the first Students Teaching Students course at URI, focusing on the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people: HPR 107: Introduction to LGBTQ History.

Just getting ready to teach was a multifaceted process, since I tend to fluctuate between ravenously seizing every book I can get my hands on and devising practical applications for that intellectual knowledge. First …

Targeting Maps: An Asset-Based Approach To Geographic Targeting, Corey Lang, Christopher B. Barrett, Felix Naschold

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

Proper targeting of policy interventions requires reasonable estimates of the benefits of the alternative options. To inform such decisions, we develop an integrated approach stemming from the small-area estimation literature that estimates the marginal returns to a range of assets across geographically defined subpopulations. We create a series of maps that can be overlaid with traditional poverty maps to identify strong candidate areas for intervention, though an efficiency/equity tradeoff sometimes exists. We apply our method using recent Ugandan data. Results are consistent with independent empirical findings and suggest asset specific transfer schemes would improve with a spatially targeted strategy.

The French Community At Uri: A Study Of Cultural And Linguistic Identity, Kayla L. Butts

Senior Honors Projects

The French Community at URI: A Study of Cultural and Linguistic Identity

Kayla Butts

Sponsor: Karen DeBruin, French

Growing up in a bi-racial family has always brought upon me the question of identity. To which culture do I belong and which values do I adopt? To make matters even more complex, I have fallen in love with the French culture and language and have chosen to major in it. Am I allowed to feel a part of this culture as well?

Whether it is part of ones ethnic background or not, human beings question if it is possible to truly …

The Herring River Estuary: Understanding Salt Marsh Restoration And How To Predict The Response Of Phragmites Australis To Increased Tidal Flow, Theresa Murphy

Senior Honors Projects

My presentation invites you to learn about what is involved in planning a salt marsh restoration project. The Herring River Estuary is a disturbed salt marsh ecosystem at Cape Cod National Seashore which has been diked since 1909. The National Park Service (NPS), in cooperation with many partners, is engaged in efforts to restore the now impacted 1,100 acre estuary by re-introducing tidal flow. There is significant complexity involved in trying to restore such an intricate system- from the multitude of environmental factors to important social and economic consequences. There are also several benefits to restored tidal flow. My thesis …

Food Ethics: Traceability In The Restaurant, Jake Monaghan

Senior Honors Projects

Food Ethics: Traceability in the Restaurant

Jake Monaghan Sponsor: William Krieger, Philosophy

In this paper I use my work experience in restaurant kitchens to identify and address a gap in the food ethics literature. Much of the work being done in food ethics focuses on the producers or the end consumers. Philosophers, however, have mostly overlooked a substantial part of the food system: restaurants. Due to the high volume nature of the work in restaurants, and their influence over eating trends, their nature leads to certain ethical commitments. I argue that restaurant owners and workers are in a unique position …

The “Green Eating” Project: A Pilot Intervention To Promote Sustainable And Healthy Eating In College Students, Kelleigh E. Eastman

Senior Honors Projects

The “Green Eating” Project: A Pilot Intervention to Promote Sustainable and Healthy Eating in College Students

Kelleigh Eastman

Sponsor: Geoffrey Greene, Nutrition and Dietetics

A topic of interest that is growing in the general population is the idea of being sustainable, or “green”, and there is a rising awareness in sustainable practices involving food and the environment. Some of the “green” eating behaviors identified through my research included eating a plant-based (i.e. vegetarian or semi-vegetarian) diet, eating locally grown foods, eating organically grown foods, and eating foods that are labeled fair-trade. Frequently, these “green” eating behaviors are healthful eating behaviors …

Emergency Preparedness Nursing, Emily A. Ganjei, Patricia Grimes

Senior Honors Projects

Emergency Preparedness at Newport Hospital

Emily A. Ganjei

Sponsors: Carolyn Hames and Lisa Lima-Tessier, Nursing

The subject of my project is emergency nursing and emergency preparedness in the Emergency Department (ED) of Newport Hospital. I am working alongside Lisa Lima-Tessier, Clinical Nurse Manager of the ED, and Pat Grimes, Assistant Clinical Nurse Manager/Emergency Preparedness Coordinator.

As an undergraduate in the College of Nursing, the topic of emergency preparedness has been discussed in many courses, in particular community health nursing. In community nursing we discussed different types of disaster situations and reviewed hospital policies regarding triage and the nurse’s role in …

Potential Impact Of Herbivorous Fish On Ulva Bloom Biomass, Tanja Schollmeier

Senior Honors Projects

Potential Impact of Herbivorous Fish on Ulva Bloom Biomass

Tanja Schollmeier

Sponsor: Carol Thornber, Biological Sciences

The addition of anthropogenically produced nitrogen and phosphorous to coastal habitats is a major problem that frequently results in the rapid growth, or bloom, of macroalgae. Within Narragansett Bay, RI, blooms are commonly formed by two species: Ulva compressa and U. rigida. These blooms co-occur with a number of invertebrates that have been previously studied for their impacts on bloom biomass. However, few studies have examined the abundance or potential grazing impacts of herbivorous fish. To address this information gap, we conducted surveys …

Hydra Vulgaris As A High Throughput Invertebrate For Anti-Epilepsy Drugs, Bianca Marie Lauro

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (4/27/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (4/26/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

Energetic Plasticity Underlies A Variable Response To Ocean Acidification In The Pteropod, Limacina Helicina Antarctica, Brad A. Seibel, Amy E. Maas, Heidi M. Dierssen

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ocean acidification, caused by elevated seawater carbon dioxide levels, may have a deleterious impact on energetic processes in animals. Here we show that high PCO₂ can suppress metabolism, measured as oxygen consumption, in the pteropod, L. helicina forma antarctica, by ~20%. The rates measured at 180–380 µatm (MO₂ = 1.25 M^−0.25, p = 0.007) were significantly higher (ANCOVA, p = 0.004) than those measured at elevated target CO₂ levels in 2007 (789–1000 µatm, = 0.78 M^−0.32, p = 0.0008; Fig. 1). However, we further demonstrate metabolic plasticity in response to regional …

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (4/20/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (4/17/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (4/13/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (4/11/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (4/6/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (3/30/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (3/29/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (3/23/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (3/21/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (3/20/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (3/6/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (2/28/2012), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.