Digital Commons Network^™

Inferring The Evolutionary History Of Divergence Despite Gene Flow In A Lizard Species, Scincella Lateralis (Scincidae), Composed Of Cryptic Lineages, Nathan D. Jackson, Christopher C. Austin

Faculty Publications

Although recent radiations are fruitful for studying the process of speciation, they are difficult to characterize and require the use of multiple loci and analytical methods that account for processes such as gene flow and genetic drift. Using multilocus sequence data, we combine hierarchical cluster analysis, coalescent species tree inference, and isolation-with-migration analysis to investigate evolutionary relationships among cryptic lineages of North American ground skinks. We also estimate the extent that gene flow has accompanied or followed diversification, and also attempt to account for and minimize the influence of gene flow when reconstructing relationships. The data best support seven largely …

Sperm Cryopreservation In Live-Bearing Xiphophorus Fishes: Offspring Production From Xiphophorus Variatus And Strategies For Establishment Of Sperm Repositories, Huiping Yang, Rafael Cuevas-Uribe, Markita G. Savage, Ronald B. Walter, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

Cryopreservation of sperm from Xiphophorus fishes has produced live young in three species: X. hellerii, X. couchianus, and X. maculatus. In this study, the goal was to establish protocols for sperm cryopreservation and artificial insemination to produce live young in X. variatus, and to identify needs for repository development. The objectives were to: 1) collect basic biological characteristics of males; 2) cryopreserve sperm from X. variatus, 3) harvest live young from cryopreserved sperm, and 4) discuss the requirements for establishment of sperm repositories. The 35 males used in this study had a body weight of 0.298±0.096g (mean±SD), body length of …

Informal Institutions And Property Rights, Lan Cao

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review: Irish Culture And Colonial Modernity, 1800–2000: The Transformation Of Oral Space, Matthew Spangler

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Estimates Of Body Mass For Fossil Giant Ground Squirrels, Genus Paenemarmota, H. Thomas Goodwin, Kelsey M. Bullock

Faculty Publications

Paenemarmota Hibbard and Schultz, 1948 includes 3 species of giant ground squirrels within Marmotini (Rodentia, Sciuridae) from the Late Miocene and Pliocene of central and western North America. We developed skeletal and dental models for estimating body mass across modern species of Marmotini and apply these models to Paenemarmota. The most reliable models for estimating body mass of modern species (on the basis of length and width of femur, lengths of p4 and P4) generally yielded lower estimates of body mass for Paenemarmota than less reliable models (on the basis of lengths of m1, m2, M1, and M2). Models that …

Database Of Diazotrophs In Global Ocean: Abundance, Biomass And Nitrogen Fixation Rates, Y.-W. Luo, S.C. Doney, L.A. Anderson, M. Benavides, I. Berman-Frank, A. Bode, S. Bonnet, K. H. Boström, D. Böttjer, D.G. Capone, E.J. Carpenter, Y.L. Chen, M.J. Church, J.E. Dore, L.I. Falcón, A. Fernández, R.A. Foster, K. Furuya, F. Gómez, K. Gundersen, A.M. Hynes, D.M. Karl, S. Kitajima, R.J. Langlois, J. Laroche, R.M. Letelier, E. Marañón, D.J. Mcgillicuddy Jr., P.H. Moisander, C.M. Moore, B. Mouriño-Carballido, M.R. Mulholland, J.A. Needoba, K.M. Orcutt, A.J. Poulton, E. Rahav, P. Raimbault, A.P. Rees, L. Riemann, T. Shiozaki, A. Subramaniam, T. Tyrell, K.A. Turk-Kubo, M. Varela, T.A. Villareal, E.A. Webb, A.E. White, J. Wu, J.P. Zehr

Faculty Publications

Marine N₂ fixing microorganisms, termed diazotrophs, are a key functional group in marine pelagic ecosystems. The biological fixation of dinitrogen (N₂) to bioavailable nitrogen provides an important new source of nitrogen for pelagic marine ecosystems and influences primary productivity and organic matter export to the deep ocean. As one of a series of efforts to collect biomass and rates specific to different phytoplankton functional groups, we have constructed a database on diazotrophic organisms in the global pelagic upper ocean by compiling about 12 000 direct field measurements of cyanobacterial diazotroph abundances (based on microscopic cell counts or …

Current Status Of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy Of High Grade Gliomas And Recurrent Head And Neck Cancer, Rolf F. Barth, M. Graca H. Vicente, Otto K. Harling, W. S. Kiger, Kent J. Riley, Peter J. Binns, Franz M. Wagner, Minoru Suzuki, Teruhito Aihara, Itsuro Kato, Shinji Kawabata

Faculty Publications

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a biochemically targeted radiotherapy based on the nuclear capture and fission reactions that occur when non-radioactive boron-10, which is a constituent of natural elemental boron, is irradiated with low energy thermal neutrons to yield high linear energy transfer alpha particles and recoiling lithium-7 nuclei. Clinical interest in BNCT has focused primarily on the treatment of high grade gliomas, recurrent cancers of the head and neck region and either primary or metastatic melanoma. Neutron sources for BNCT currently have been limited to specially modified nuclear reactors, which are or until the recent Japanese natural disaster, …

The First Record Of A Trans-Oceanic Sister-Group Relationship Between Obligate Vertebrate Troglobites, Prosanta Chakrabarty, Matthew P. Davis, John S. Sparks

Faculty Publications

We show using the most complete phylogeny of one of the most species-rich orders of vertebrates (Gobiiformes), and calibrations from the rich fossil record of teleost fishes, that the genus Typhleotris, endemic to subterranean karst habitats in southwestern Madagascar, is the sister group to Milyeringa, endemic to similar subterranean systems in northwestern Australia. Both groups are eyeless, and our phylogenetic and biogeographic results show that these obligate cave fishes now found on opposite ends of the Indian Ocean (separated by nearly 7,000 km) are each others closest relatives and owe their origins to the break up of the southern supercontinent, …

Features Of Greek Satyr Play As A Guide To Interpretation For Plato's "Republic", Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The paper borrows from recent work by classicists on satyr play and demonstrates significant parallels between Plato’s Republic and the structure, theme, and stereotypical contents that characterize this newly studied genre of ancient Greek drama. Like satyr play, the Republic includes repeated passages where metatheatricality can reverse the meaning. The frequent occurrence of all the stereotypical elements of satyr play in Plato’s Republic also suggests to readers that they should be responding to Socrates’s narration as they would to a satyr play, again reversing meaning by communicating a set of literary expectations to Plato’s readers over the heads of Socrates’s …

Reforming Software Patents, Colleen Chien

Faculty Publications

While many believe the patent system has hit a historic and unprecedented low, discontent with patents, and in particular with software patents, is nothing new. In 1966, a Presidential Commission recommended prohibiting software patents because of the PTO’s inability to vet them. In 1883, the Supreme Court railed against “speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax.” In 1836, the Ruggles Report documented how lax patent standards, “encourag[ed] fraudulent speculators in patent rights, deluging the entire …

The Role Of Individual Behavior Type In Mediating Indirect Interactions, Blaine D. Griffen, Benjamin J. Toscano, John Gatto

Faculty Publications

Trait-mediated indirect interactions (TMII) play an important role in structuring natural communities, and numerous studies have experimentally demonstrated their presence in a variety of systems. However, these studies have largely examined the presence or absence of traits that are responsible for these interactions, without considering natural variation between individuals in the extent to which these traits are manifested. We used a well-documented TMII to investigate the importance of individual behavior type for determining the strength of the TMII. The toadfish Opsanus tau has an indirect positive influence on bivalve survival because the mud crab Panopeus herbstii, a consumer of bivalves, …

Multiple Independent Origins Of Mitochondrial Control Region Duplications In The Order Psittaciformes, Erin E. Schirtzinger, Erika S. Tavares, Lauren A. Gonzales, Jessica R. Eberhard, Cristina Y. Miyaki, Juan J. Sanchez, Alexis Hernandez, Heinrich Müeller, Gary R. Graves, Robert C. Fleischer, Timothy F. Wright

Faculty Publications

Mitochondrial genomes are generally thought to be under selection for compactness, due to their small size, consistent gene content, and a lack of introns or intergenic spacers. As more animal mitochondrial genomes are fully sequenced, rearrangements and partial duplications are being identified with increasing frequency, particularly in birds (Class Aves). In this study, we investigate the evolutionary history of mitochondrial control region states within the avian order Psittaciformes (parrots and cockatoos). To this aim, we reconstructed a comprehensive multi-locus phylogeny of parrots, used PCR of three diagnostic fragments to classify the mitochondrial control region state as single or duplicated, and …

Il-22 Signaling Contributes To West Nile Encephalitis Pathogenesis, Fengwei Bai, Penghua Wang, Lauren A. Zenewicz, Jianfeng Dai, David Gate, Gong Cheng, Long Yang, Feng Qian, Xiaoling Yuan, Ruth R. Montgomery, Richard A. Flavell, Terrence Town, Erol Fikrig

Faculty Publications

The Th17 cytokine, IL-22, regulates host immune responses to extracellular pathogens. Whether IL-22 plays a role in viral infection, however, is poorly understood. We report here that Il22^-/- mice were more resistant to lethal West Nile virus (WNV) encephalitis, but had similar viral loads in the periphery compared to wild type (WT) mice. Viral loads, leukocyte infiltrates, proinflammatory cytokines and apoptotic cells in the central nervous system (CNS) of Il22^-/- mice were also strikingly reduced. Further examination showed that Cxcr2, a chemokine receptor that plays a non-redundant role in mediating neutrophil migration, was significantly reduced in Il22^{-/- …}

Tracking The Emergence Of A New Breed Using 49,034 Snp In Sheep, James W. Kijas, James E. Miller, Tracy Hadfield, Russell Mcculloch, Elsa Garcia-Gamez, Laercio R. Neto, Noelle Cockett

Faculty Publications

Domestic animals are unique in that they have been organised into managed populations called breeds. The strength of genetic divergence between breeds may vary dependent on the age of the breed, the scenario under which it emerged and the strength of reproductive isolation it has from other breeds. In this study, we investigated the Gulf Coast Native breed of sheep to determine if it contains lines of animals that are sufficiently divergent to be considered separate breeds. Allele sharing and principal component analysis (PCA) using nearly 50,000 SNP loci revealed a clear genetic division that corresponded with membership of either …

Who Shot Charles Summers?, Kyle Graham

Faculty Publications

This short piece ties up a loose end from the somewhat famous Torts case of Summers v. Tice. In it, St. Peter considers who, as between Harold Tice and Ernest Simonson, actually shot Charles Summers.

Mapping The Biosphere: Exploring Species To Understand The Origin, Organization And Sustainability Of Biodiversity, Q. D. Wheeler, S. Knapp, D. W. Stevenson, J. Stevenson, S. D. Blum, B. M. Boom, G. G. Borisy, J. L. Buizer, M. R. De Carvalho, A. Cibrian, M. J. Donoghue, V. Doyle, E. M. Gerson, C. H. Graham, P. Graves, S. J. Graves, R. P. Guralnick, A. L. Hamilton, J. Hanken, W. Law, D. L. Lipscomb, T. E. Lovejoy, H. Miller, J. S. Miller, S. Naeem, M. J. Novacek, L. M. Page, N. I. Platnick, H. Porter-Morgan, P. H. Raven, M. A. Solis, A. G. Valdecasas, S. Van Der Leeuw

Faculty Publications

The time is ripe for a comprehensive mission to explore and document Earth's species. This calls for a campaign to educate and inspire the next generation of professional and citizen species explorers, investments in cyber-infrastructure and collections to meet the unique needs of the producers and consumers of taxonomic information, and the formation and coordination of a multi-institutional, international, transdisciplinary community of researchers, scholars and engineers with the shared objective of creating a comprehensive inventory of species and detailed map of the biosphere. We conclude that an ambitious goal to describe 10 million species in less than 50 years is …

Il-6 Regulation On Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Remodeling During Cancer Cachexia In The ApcMin/+ Mouse, James P. White, Melissa J. Puppa, Shuichi Sato, Song Gao, Robert L. Price, John W. Baynes, Matthew C. Kostek, Lydia E. Matesic, James A. Carson

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND:

Muscle protein turnover regulation during cancer cachexia is being rapidly defined, and skeletal muscle mitochondria function appears coupled to processes regulating muscle wasting. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and the expression of proteins regulating mitochondrial biogenesis and dynamics are disrupted in severely cachectic Apc^Min/+ mice. It has not been determined if these changes occur at the onset of cachexia and are necessary for the progression of muscle wasting. Exercise and anti-cytokine therapies have proven effective in preventing cachexia development in tumor bearing mice, while their effect on mitochondrial content, biogenesis and dynamics is not well understood. The purposes of …

Fading From The Family Portrait, Andrew Root

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Who Decides On Liberty?, Thomas P. Crocker

Faculty Publications

Whether approached as a matter of executive discretion, judicial role, or individual rights, questions about security are never far removed from questions about liberty. Tradeoffs between liberty and security often seem unavoidable. Defenders of unbounded executive power argue that security relies on experts to whom citizens and courts alike must defer. But, if the tradeoff between security and liberty is to be a real weighing of the risks, costs, benefits, burdens, and consequences of various policy decisions, then who has the necessary expertise to decide on liberty? After all, to make decisions about the appropriate balance between security and liberty …

Controlling A Master Switch Of Adipocyte Development And Insulin Sensitivity: Covalent Modifications Of Pparγ, Z. Elizabeth Floyd, Jacqueline M. Stephens

Faculty Publications

Adipocytes are highly specialized cells that play a central role in lipid homeostasis and the maintenance of energy balance. Obesity, an excessive accumulation of adipose tissue, is a major risk factor for the development of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. A variety of studies suggest that obesity and T2DM can be linked to a breakdown in the regulatory mechanisms that control the expression and transcriptional activity of PPARγ. PPARγ is a nuclear hormone receptor that functions as a master switch in controlling adipocyte differentiation and development. Also important in controlling glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity, PPARγ …

Assessment Of The Mass, Length, Center Of Mass, And Principal Moment Of Inertia Of Body Segments In Adult Males Of The Brown Anole (Anolis Sagrei) And Green, Or Carolina, Anole (Anolis Carolinensis), Pierre Legreneur, Dominique G. Homberger, Vincent Bels

Faculty Publications

This study provides a morphometric data set of body segments that are biomechanically relevant for locomotion in two ecomorphs of adult male anoles, namely, the trunk-ground Anolis sagrei and the trunk-crown Anolis carolinensis. For each species, 10 segments were characterized, and for each segment, length, mass, location of the center of mass, and radius of gyration were measured or calculated, respectively. The radii of gyration were computed from the moments of inertia by using the double swing pendulum method. The trunk-ground A. sagrei has relatively longer and stockier hindlimbs and forelimbs with smaller body than A. carolinensis. These differences between …

A Comparison Of Success And Failure Rates Between Computer-Assisted And Traditional College Algebra Sections, Sherry S. Herron, Rex Gandy, Ningjun Ye, Nasser Syed

Faculty Publications

A unique aspect of the implementation of a computer algebra system (CAS) at a comprehensive university in the U.S. allowed us to compare the student success and failure rates to the traditional method of teaching college algebra. Due to space limitations, the university offered sections of both CAS and traditional simultaneously and, upon registration, students were given no indication as to which method of instruction they were going to receive. All sections covered the same concepts and a common final exam was given. In this article, we compare the final grades of students enrolled in the computer-assisted and traditional sections …

Evolution Of A Sexually Dimorphic Trait In A Broadly Distributed Topminnow (Fundulus Olivaceus), Jacob F. Schaefer, David D. Duvernell, Brian R. Kreiser, Charles Champagne, Scott R. Clark, Melissa Gutierrez, Laura K. Stewart, Chazz Coleman

Faculty Publications

Understanding the interaction between sexual and natural selection within variable environments is crucial to our understanding of evolutionary processes. The handicap principle predicts females will prefer males with exaggerated traits provided those traits are indicators of male quality to ensure direct or indirect female benefits. Spatial variability in ecological factors is expected to alter the balance between sexual and natural selection that defines the evolution of such traits. Male and female blackspotted topminnows (Fundulidae: Fundulus olivaceus) display prominent black dorsolateral spots that are variable in number across its broad range. We investigated variability in spot phenotypes at 117 sites …

Impacts Of Upstream Drought And Water Withdrawals On The Health And Survival Of Downstream Estuarine Oyster Populations, Laura E. Petes, Alicia J. Brown, Carley R. Knight

Faculty Publications

Increases in the frequency, duration, and severity of regional drought pose major threats to the health and integrity of downstream ecosystems. During 2007-2008, the U.S. southeast experienced one of the most severe droughts on record. Drought and water withdrawals in the upstream watershed led to decreased freshwater input to Apalachicola Bay, Florida, an estuary that is home to a diversity of commercially and ecologically important organisms. This study applied a combination of laboratory experiments and field observations to investigate the effects of reduced freshwater input on Apalachicola oysters. Oysters suffered significant disease-related mortality under high-salinity, drought conditions, particularly during the …

Survival, Growth And Reproduction Of Non-Native Nile Tilapia Ii: Fundamental Niche Projections And Invasion Potential In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Michael R. Lowe, Wei Wu, Mark S. Peterson, Nancy J. Brown-Peterson, William T. Slack, Pamela J. Schofield

Faculty Publications

Understanding the fundamental niche of invasive species facilitates our ability to predict both dispersal patterns and invasion success and therefore provides the basis for better-informed conservation and management policies. Here we focus on Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus Linnaeus, 1758), one of the most widely cultured fish worldwide and a species that has escaped local aquaculture facilities to become established in a coastal-draining river in Mississippi (northern Gulf of Mexico). Using empirical physiological data, logistic regression models were developed to predict the probabilities of Nile tilapia survival, growth, and reproduction at different combinations of temperature (14 and 30°C) and salinity …

Were Multiple Stressors A "Perfect Storm" For Northern Gulf Of Mexico Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In 2011?, Ruth H. Carmichael, William M. Graham, Allen Aven, Graham Worthy, Stephan D. Howden

Faculty Publications

An unusual number of near term and neonatal bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) mortalities occurred in the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) in 2011, during the first calving season after two well documented environmental perturbations; sustained cold weather in 2010 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DWHOS). Preceding the stranding event, large volumes of cold freshwater entered the nGOM due to unusually large snowmelt on the adjacent watershed, providing a third potential stressor. We consider the possibility that this extreme cold and freshwater event contributed to the pattern of perinatal dolphin strandings along the nGOM coast. During the 4-month period starting …

Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation Appears To Attenuate Particulate Air Pollution-Induced Cardiac Effects And Lipid Changes In Healthy Middle-Aged Adults, Haiyan Tong, Ana G. Rappold, David Diaz-Sanchez, Susan E. Steck, Jon Berntsen, Wayne E. Cascio, Robert B. Devlin, James M. Samet

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Air pollution exposure has been associated with adverse cardiovascular health effects. Findings of a recent epidemiological study suggest that omega-3 fatty acid (fish oil) supplementation blunted cardiac responses to air pollution exposure.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted a randomized, controlled exposure study to evaluate the efficacy of fish oil supplements in attenuating adverse cardiac effects of exposure to concentrated ambient fine and ultrafine particulate matter (CAP).

METHODS: Twenty-nine healthy middle-aged participants (mean 58 ± 1 years of age) were supplemented in a randomized, double-blinded manner with 3 g/day of either fish oil or olive oil for 4 weeks before sequential chamber …

Experimental Evidence For The Interplay Of Exogenous And Endogenous Factors On The Movement Ecology Of A Migrating Songbird, Emily B. Cohen, Frank R. Moore, Richard A. Fischer

Faculty Publications

Movement patterns during songbird migration remain poorly understood despite their expected fitness consequences in terms of survival, energetic condition and timing of migration that will carry over to subsequent phases of the annual cycle. We took an experimental approach to test hypotheses regarding the influence of habitat, energetic condition, time of season and sex on the hour-by-hour, local movement decisions of a songbird during spring stopover. To simulate arrival of nocturnal migrants at unfamiliar stopover sites, we translocated and continuously tracked migratory red-eyed vireos (Vireo olivaceus) throughout spring stopover with and without energetic reserves that were released in two replicates …

Regional Differences In Preferences For Managerial Leader Behavior In China, Romie F. Littrell, Ilan Alon, Ka Wai Chan

Faculty Publications

This study demonstrates the complexities of analyzing determinants of cultural differences between and within national cultures. Ralston, Yu, Wang, Terpstra, and He (1996) investigated geographic regional differences in values in China, finding significant differences among the regions. This study investigates geographic regional differences in preferred managerial leader behavior in four provinces. In 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire XII (LBDQ XII) was administered to people working in business organization in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province; Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province; Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province; and in the Macau Special Administrative Region, in the Peoples’ Republic of China. Significant …

A Novel Ascaroside Controls The Parasitic Life Cycle Of The Entomopathogenic Nematode Heterorhabditis Bacteriophora, Jaime H. Noguez, Elizabeth S. Conner, Yue Zhou, Todd A. Ciche, Justin R. Ragains, Rebecca A. Butcher

Faculty Publications

Entomopathogenic nematodes survive in the soil as stress-resistant infective juveniles that seek out and infect insect hosts. Upon sensing internal host cues, the infective juveniles regurgitate bacterial pathogens from their gut that ultimately kill the host. Inside the host, the nematode develops into a reproductive adult and multiplies until unknown cues trigger the accumulation of infective juveniles. Here, we show that the entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora uses a small-molecule pheromone to control infective juvenile development. The pheromone is structurally related to the dauer pheromone ascarosides that the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans uses to control its development. However, none of the …