Digital Commons Network^™

Disturbance-Mediated Trophic Interactions And Plant Performance, Bret D. Elderd

Faculty Publications

Disturbances, such as flooding, play important roles in determining community structure. Most studies of disturbances focus on the direct effects and, hence, the indirect effects of disturbances are poorly understood. Within terrestrial riparian areas, annual flooding leads to differences in the arthropod community as compared to non-flooded areas. In turn, these differences are likely to alter the survival, growth, and reproduction of plant species via an indirect effect of flooding (i.e., changes in herbivory patterns). To test for such effects, an experiment was conducted wherein arthropod predators and herbivores were excluded from plots in flooded and non-flooded areas and the …

Rapid Evolution Of A Recently Retroposed Transcription Factor Yy2 In Mammalian Genomes, Chunqing Luo, Xiaochen Lu, Lisa Stubbs, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

YY2 was originally identified due to its unusual similarity to the evolutionarily well-conserved zinc finger gene YY1. In this study, we have determined the evolutionary origin and conservation of YY2 using comparative genomic approaches. Our results indicate that YY2 is a retroposed copy of YY1 that has been inserted into another gene locus named Mbtps2 (membrane-bound transcription factor protease site 2). This retroposition is estimated to have occurred after the divergence of placental mammals from other vertebrates based on the detection of YY2 only in the placental mammals. The N- and C-terminal regions of YY2 have evolved under different selection …

Anthelmintic Resistance Of Gastrointestinal Parasites In Small Ruminants, Sherrill A. Fleming, Tom Craig, Ray M. Kaplan, James E. Miller, Christine Navarre, Mike Rings

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Anthelmintic Resistance Of Gastrointestinal Parasites In Small Ruminants, Sherrill A. Fleming, Tom Craig, Ray M. Kaplan, James E. Miller, Christine Navarre, Mike Rings

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Anthelmintic Resistance Of Gastrointestinal Parasites In Small Ruminants, Sherrill A. Fleming, Tom Craig, Ray M. Kaplan, James E. Miller, Christine Navarre, Mike Rings

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comparative Phylogeography In A Genus Of Coral Reef Fishes: Biogeographic And Genetic Concordance In The Caribbean, Michael S. Taylor, Michael E. Hellberg

Faculty Publications

Geographic barriers that limit the movement of individuals between populations may create or maintain phylogenetically discrete lineages. Such barriers are often inferred from geographic surveys of a single mitochondrial marker to identify phylogenetic splits. Mitochondrial DNA, however, has an effective population size one-fourth that of nuclear DNA, which can facilitate the rapid evolution of monophyletic mtDNA lineages in the absence of geographic barriers. The identification of geographic barriers will thus be more robust if barriers are proposed a priori, and tested with multiple independent genetic markers in multiple species. Here, we tested two proposed marine biogeographic breaks located at the …

A Hydrothermal After-Ripening Time Model For Seed Dormancy Loss In Bromus Tectorum L., Phil S. Allen, Necia B. Bair

Faculty Publications

After-ripening, the loss of dormancy under dry conditions, is associated with a decrease in mean base water potential for germination of Bromus tectorum L. seeds. After-ripening rate is a linear function of temperature above a base temperature, so that dormancy loss can be quantified using a thermal after-ripening time (TAR) model. To incorporate storage water potential into TAR, we created a hydrothermal after-ripening time (HTAR) model. Seeds from two B. tectorum populations were stored under controlled temperatures (20 or 30° C) and water potentials (400 to 40MPa). Subsamples were periodically removed from each storage treatment and incubated at 15 or …

Coprophagy In A Cave-Adapted Salamander; The Importance Of Bat Guano Examined Through Nutritional And Stable Isotope Analyses, Danté B. Fenolio, G. O. Graening, Bret A. Collier, Jim F. Stout

Faculty Publications

During a two year population ecology study in a cave environment, 15 Eurycea (=Typhlotriton) spelaea were observed ingesting bat guano. Furthermore, E. spelaea capture numbers increased significantly during the time that grey bats (Myotis grisescens) deposited fresh guano. We investigated the hypothesis that this behaviour was not incidental to the capture of invertebrate prey, but a diet switch to an energy-rich detritus in an oligotrophic environment. Stable isotope assays determined that guano may be assimilated into salamander muscle tissue, and nutritional analyses revealed that guano is a comparable food source to potential invertebrate prey items. This is the first report …

Conservation Cartels: How Competition Policy Conflicts With Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

The alleged purpose of antitrust law is to improve consumer welfare by proscribing actions and arrangements that reduce output and increase prices. Conservation seeks to improve human welfare by maximizing the long-term productive use of natural resources, a goal that often requires limiting consumption to sustainable levels. While conservation measures might increase prices in the short run, they enhance consumer welfare by increasing long-term production and ensuring the availability of valued resources over time. That is true whether the restrictions are imposed by a private conservation cartel or a government agency. Insofar as antitrust law fails to take this into …

Free And Green: A New Approach To Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Most Americans consider themselves environmentalists, yet most experts are dissatisfied with existing environmental regulations, which are both inefficient and inequitable. Worse, many don't serve environmental goals. This article outlines an alternative approach to environmental policy based on market institutions and property rights rather than central-planning and bureaucratic control. The aim is both to improve environmental protection and lessen the costs ? Economic and otherwise ? Of achieving environmental goals. It seeks to ensure that Americans' environmental values are advanced without sacrificing the individual liberties the American government was created to protect.

The problem with current regulatory approaches is not merely …

The Structure Of The Carboxyltransferase Component Of Acetyl-Coa Carboxylase Reveals A Zinc-Binding Motif Unique To The Bacterial Enzyme, Patrick Bilder, Sandra Lightle, Graeme Bainbridge, Jeffrey Ohren, Barry Finzel, Fang Sun, Susan Holley, Loola Al-Kassim, Cindy Spessard, Michael Melnick, Marcia Newcomer, Grover L. Waldrop

Faculty Publications

Acetyl-coA carboxylase (ACC) is a central metabolic enzyme that catalyzes the committed step in fatty acid biosynthesis: biotin-dependent conversion of acetyl-coA to malonyl-coA. The bacterial carboxyltransferase (CT) subunit of ACC is a target for the design of novel therapeutics that combat severe, hospital-acquired infections resistant to the established classes of frontline antimicrobials. Here, we present the structures of the bacterial CT subunits from two prevalent nosocomial pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, at a resolution of 2.0 and 3.0 Å, respectively. Both structures reveal a small, independent zinc-binding domain that lacks a complement in the primary sequence or structure of …

Wheir’S The Beef?: Buffalo Law And Taxation, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

The intersection of buffalo law and taxation hasn't been a busy one, but accidents still happen: not everyone understands that buffalo have the right of way. This article critically analyzes the recent Tax Court summary opinion in Wheir v. Commissioner, which involved a bodybuilder who sought to deduct the cost of an incredible amount of buffalo meat. Along the way, the article brings buffalo law learning up-to-date; revisits some classic, nineteenth-century buffalo law cases; and, most important, considers whether there are important differences between the American bison and American beef cattle - differences that might have relevance to American tax …

Adaptive Evolution Of Chloroplast Genome Structure Inferred Using A Parametric Bootstrap Approach, Liying Cui, Jim Leebens-Mack, Li-San Wang, Jijun Tang, Linda Rymarquis, David B. Stern, Claude W. Depamphilis

Faculty Publications

Background
Genome rearrangements influence gene order and configuration of gene clusters in all genomes. Most land plant chloroplast DNAs (cpDNAs) share a highly conserved gene content and with notable exceptions, a largely co-linear gene order. Conserved gene orders may reflect a slow intrinsic rate of neutral chromosomal rearrangements, or selective constraint. It is unknown to what extent observed changes in gene order are random or adaptive. We investigate the influence of natural selection on gene order in association with increased rate of chromosomal rearrangement. We use a novel parametric bootstrap approach to test if directional selection is responsible for the …

Evolution Of The Nanog Pseudogene Family In The Human And Chimpanzee Genomes, Daniel J. Fairbanks, Peter J. Maughan

Faculty Publications

The NANOG gene is expressed in mammalian embryonic stem cells where it maintains cellular pluripotency. An unusually large family of pseudogenes arose from it with one unprocessed and ten processed pseudogenes in the human genome. This article compares the NANOG gene and its pseudogenes in the human and chimpanzee genomes and derives an evolutionary history of this pseudogene family. Results: The NANOG gene and all pseudogenes except NANOGP8 are present at their expected orthologous chromosomal positions in the chimpanzee genome when compared to the human genome, indicating that their origins predate the human-chimpanzee divergence. Analysis of flanking DNA sequences demonstrates …

Unapportioned Direct-Consumption Taxes And The Sixteenth Amendment, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

The point of this essay is simple: a direct-consumption tax like the Forbes-Armey-Hall-Rabushka flat tax or the Nunn-Domenici USA tax is not a "tax on incomes" within the meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment. As a result, such a tax would be constitutional only if it were apportioned among the states on the basis of population. And since these taxes would not be apportioned-how could they be and work as they are intended to work?-they would be unconstitutional.

Trehalose Uptake Through P2x7 Purinergic Channels Provides Dehydration Protection, Gloria D. Elliott, Xiang Hong Liu, Jennifer L. Cusick, Michael Menze, Jill Vincent, Trudy Witt, Steve Hand, Mehmet Toner

Faculty Publications

The tetra-anionic form of ATP (ATP4-) is known to induce monovalent and divalent ion fluxes in cells that express purinergic P2X 7 receptors and with sustained application of ATP it has been shown that dyes as large as 831 Da can permeate the cell membrane. The current study explores the kinetics of loading α,α-trehalose (342 Da) into ATP stimulated J774.A1 cells, which are known to express the purinergic P2X 7 receptor. Cells that were incubated at 37°C in a 50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) containing 225 mM trehalose and 5 mM ATP, were shown to load trehalose linearly over …

Nonrandom Processes Maintain Diversity In Tropical Forests, Christopher Wills, Kyle E. Harms, Richard Condit, David King, Jill Thompson, Fangliang He, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Peter Ashton, Elizabeth Losos, Liza Comita, Stephen Hubbell, James Lafrankie, Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin, H. S. Dattaraja, Stuart Davies, Shameema Esufali, Robin Foster, Nimal Gunatilleke, Savitri Gunatilleke, Pamela Hall, Akira Itoh, Robert John, Somboon Kiratiprayoon, Suzanne Loo De Lao, Marie Massa, Cheryl Nath, Md Nur Supardi Noor, Abdul Rahman Kassim, Raman Sukumar, Hebbalalu Satyanarayana Suresh, I. Fang Sun, Sylvester Tan, Takuo Yamakura

Faculty Publications

An ecological community's species diversity tends to erode through time as a result of stochastic extinction, competitive exclusion, and unstable host-enemy dynamics. This erosion of diversity can be prevented over the short term if recruits are highly diverse as a result of preferential recruitment of rare species or, alternatively, if rare species survive preferentially, which increases diversity as the ages of the individuals increase. Here, we present census data from seven New and Old World tropical forest dynamics plots that all show the latter pattern. Within local areas, the trees that survived were as a group more diverse than those …

The Imaginary Connection Between The Great Law Of Peace And The United States Constitution: A Reply To Professor Schaaf, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

This article challenges the politically correct theory advanced in a 1989 article by Gregory Schaaf, “From the Great Law of Peace to the Constitution of the United States: A Revision of America’s Democratic Roots.” Professor Schaaf argued that large parts of the U.S. Constitution were based on the Great Law of Peace, the founding document of the Iroquois Confederacy. This article points to the lack of primary authority supporting such a counterintuitive proposition and questions the likelihood that Iroquois principles could have silently influenced American founders. Finally, the article questions whether it is desirable to try to further the status …

A Call For A New Buffalo Law Scholarship, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

Those who haven't been paying attention to buffalo law should.

Philosophical, Psychological & Spiritual Perspectives On Death & Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This Ebook reviews the philosophical perspectives on death, the psychological perspectives on death and the fears of death and some religious perspectives of death. The philosophic section will review perspectives of death from ancient Greece through modernity. The psychological section will review death, and the fear of death, from the perspectives of psychoanalytic, humanistic, and existentialist theories. The religious section will provide a brief overview of Prehistoric, African, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, and Christian religious beliefs concerning death and afterlife.

Impacts Of A Manure Composting Program On Stream Water Quality, A. Bekele, A. M.S. Mcfarland, A. J. Whisenant

Faculty Publications

In February 2001, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) adopted a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) along the North Bosque River. Within this TMDL, dairy waste application fields were identified as the major nonpoint-source contribution of nutrients. In September 2000, a manure composting program was initiated that resulted in about 500,000 metric tons of dairy manure being hauled to composting facilities and exported from the watershed through December 2004. To evaluate the impact of the manure composting program on stream water quality, storm event mean concentrations of nutrients and total suspended solids were compared …

Effects Of Feed Additives And Mixed Eimeria Species Infection On Intestinal Microbial Ecology Of Broilers, M. E. Hume, S. Clemente-Hernandez, E. O. Oviedo Rondon

Faculty Publications

Evaluation of digestive microbial ecology is necessary to understand effects of growth-promoting feed. In the current study, the dynamics of intestinal microbial communities (MC) were examined in broilers fed diets supplemented with a combination of antibiotic (bacitracin methylene disalicylate) and ionophore (Coban 60), and diets containing 1 of 2 essential oil (EO) blends, Crina Poultry (CP) and Crina Alternate (CA). Five treatments were analyzed: 1) unmedicated uninfected control; 2) unmedicated infected control; 3) feed additives monensin (bacitracin methylene disalicylate) + monensin (Coban 60; AI); 4) EO blend CP; and 5) EO blend CA. Additives were mixed into a basal feed …

The Heroic Nature Of Tax Lawyers, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

This essay uses John Grisham’s monumental work, 'The Firm,' to refute the notion that tax lawyers are nerds. A tax lawyer himself, the author challenges anyone who disagrees with him to a duel with broadswords.

Structure And Vibrational Spectra Of Mononitrated Benzo [A] Pyrenes., Kefa Karimu Onchoke, Christopher M. Hadad, Prabir K. Dutta

Faculty Publications

The molecules benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and 1-, 3-, and 6-nitrobenzo[a]pyrene (1-NBaP, 3-NBaP, 6-NBaP) are currently of significant interest due to their presence in respirable combustion exhaust particulates and their mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. Structure−function correlations as well as spectroscopic signatures for trace analysis are necessary for these benzo[a]pyrene derivatives. In this paper, detailed infrared and Raman spectroscopic data of BaP and its three mononitrated isomers are provided for the first time. By utilizing density functional theory (DFT, B3LYP method with 6-311+G** basis set), the molecular geometries and the vibrational spectra are calculated. Good agreement is …

The Rotavirus Enterotoxin Nsp4 Directly Interacts With The Caveolar Structural Protein Caveolin-1, Rebecca D. Parr, Stephen M. Storey, Deanne M. Mitchell, Avery Mcintosh, Minglong Zhou, Kiran D. Mir, Judith M. Ball

Faculty Publications

Rotavirus nonstructural protein 4 (NSP4) is known to function as an intracellular receptor at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) critical to viral morphogenesis and is the first characterized viral enterotoxin. Exogenously added NSP4 induces diarrhea in rodent pups and stimulates secretory chloride currents across intestinal segments as measured in Ussing chambers. Circular dichroism studies further reveal that intact NSP4 and the enterotoxic peptide (NSP4_114-135) that is located within the extended, C-terminal amphipathic helix preferentially interact with caveola-like model membranes. We now show colocalization of NSP4 and caveolin-1 in NSP4-transfected and rotavirus-infected mammalian cells in reticular structures surrounding the nucleus …

Asking The Straight Question: How To Come To Speech In Spite Of Conceptual Liquidation As A Homosexual, Jose M. Gabilondo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Intestinal Microbial Ecology Of Broilers Vaccinated And Challenged With Mixed Eimeria Species, And Supplemented With Essential Oil Blends, E. O. Oviedo Rondon, M. E. Hume, C. Hernandez, S. Clemente-Hernandez

Faculty Publications

Intestinal microbiota is an important component in the development of defense mechanisms in the gut mucosa. This project determined the dynamics of intestinal microbial communities (MC) of broilers vaccinated at first day of age with live oocysts of Eimeria species and fed diets supplemented with 2 specific essential oil (EO) blends, Crina Poultry (CP) and Crina Alternate (CA). Five treatments were analyzed: 1) unmedicated-uninfected (UU) control; 2) unmedicated-infected (UI) control; 3) vaccinated with Advent cocci-vaccine and without feed additive (COV) supplements; 4) vaccinated with Advent and supplemented with CP; and 5) vaccinated with Advent and supplemented with CA. The EO …

Winter Food Habits And Preferences Of Northern Bobwhites In East Texas, Donald R. Dietz, R. Montague Whiting Jr., Nancy E. Koerth

Faculty Publications

During late winter, 1994 and 1995, we investigated food habits and preferences of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhites) collected on forested lands in east Texas. Crops for bobwhites were collected from areas under 3 management regimes, namely intensively managed for bobwhites (QMA) (i.e., tree basal area reduced, annually burned, numerous multi-stage food plots, etc.), extensively managed for timber and wildlife (NBS) (i.e., burned every 3-5 years, scattered 2-stage food plots with corn feeders), and unmanaged for wildlife (i.e., burned every 5-7 years). With years pooled, partridge pea (Cassia fasciculata), Hercules club (Zanthoxylum clava-herculis), and pine (Pinus spp.) seeds, and …

Paleo-Indicators And Water Quality Change In The Charlotte Harbor Estuary (Florida), R. Eugene Turner, N N. Rabalais, B Fry, N Atilla, J M. Lee, C Normandeau, T A. Oswald, E M. Swenson, D A. Tomasko

Faculty Publications

We reconstructed water quality changes for 1800 to 2000 in Charlotte Harbor (Florida), a shallow subtropical estuary, by using a suite of biological and geochemical proxies in dated sediments collected in the region of a present day, midsummer hypoxic zone. The declining freshwater loading into the estuary from 1931 to the 1980s is not the probable causal agent encouraging the appearance or expansion of a hypoxia zone (measuring up to 90 km(2) in summer). Rather, the reconstructed trends in nitrogen loading indicate increased phytoplankton production has likely caused a decline in bottom water oxygen concentrations. Sedimentary biogenic silica (BSi), carbon, …

Criminal Violations Of Environmental Laws: Model Sentencing Guidelines §2e1, Michael M. O'Hear

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.