Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Accelerating Land-Use Change On The N-Cycle Of Tropical Aquatic Ecosystems: Current Conditions And Projected Changes, J. A. Downing, M. Mcclain, R. Twilley, J. M. Melack, J. Elser, Nancy N. Rabalais, W. M. Lewis Jr., R. Eugene Turner, J. Corredor, D. Soto, A. Yanez Arancibia, J. A. Kopaska, R. W. Howarth

Faculty Publications

Published data and analyses from temperate and tropical aquatic systems are used to summarize knowledge about the potential impact of land-use alteration on the nitrogen biogeochemistry of tropical aquatic ecosystems, identify important patterns and recommend key needs for research. The tropical N-cycle is traced from pre-disturbance conditions through the phases of disturbance, highlighting major differences between tropical and temperate systems that might influence development strategies in the tropics. Analyses suggest that tropical freshwaters are more frequently N-limited than temperate zones, while tropical marine systems may show more frequent P limitation. These analyses indicate that disturbances to pristine tropical lands will …

Blue Crab Larval Dispersion And Retention In The Mississippi Bight, Donald R. Johnson, Harriet M. Perry

Faculty Publications

A conceptual hypothesis relating physical forcing to dispersion and retention was developed for blue crab larvae within the Mississippi Eight. The spawning period for blue crabs in the northern Gulf of Mexico is protracted. Hatching of eggs occurs near the barrier islands and mouths of coastal bays from March through October. Larvae are released on ebbing tides and spend the next 30 to 50 d offshore where they develop through seven zoeal stages before undergoing metamorphosis to megalopae. Duration of the megalopal stage is variable but generally persists from 6 to 20 d. Blue crabs recruit to Gulf estuaries as …

Creatine Supplementation Differentially Affects Maximal Isometric Strength And Time To Fatigue In Large And Small Muscle Groups, William J. Vincent, Steven F. Loy, Richard L. Urbanski, Ben B. Yaspelkis

Faculty Publications

Ten physically active, untrained, college-aged males (26.4 ± 5.8 years old) received creatine (CR. 5 g creatine monohydrate + 3 g dextrose) and placebo (PLA, 7 g dextrose) supplementation four times per day for 5 days in a doubleblind, randomized, balanced, crossover design. Performance was assessed during maximal and three repeated submaximal bouts of isometric knee extension and handgrip exercise. CR supplementation significantly increased (p < .05) maximal isometric strength during knee extension but not during handgrip exercise. CR supplementation increased time to fatigue during each of the three bouts of submaximal knee extension and handgrip exercise when compared to the PLA trials. These findings suggest that CR supplementation can increase maximal strength and time to fatigue during isometric exercise. However, the improvements in maximal isometric strength following CR supplementation appear to be restricted to movements performed with a large muscle mass.

Nutrient Enhanced Coastal Ocean Productivity In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, William J. Wiseman Jr., Michael J. Dagg, Nancy N. Rabalais, Terry E. Whitledge

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Particle Fluxes During Austral Spring And Summer In The Southern Ross Sea, Antarctica, Vernon L. Asper, Walker O. Smith Jr.

Faculty Publications

The flux of particles from the euphotic zone through 200 m was investigated on the Ross Sea continental shelf during two cruises, the first in November-December 1994 and the second in December 1995 and January 1996. An assessment of surface layer phytoplankton biomass and productivity was made simultaneously. Particle flux was measured using floating sediment traps whose collection efficiency was assessed rigorously. Phytoplankton biomass and productivity increased rapidly in November-December, and biomass was maximal in mid-December. Thereafter productivity appeared to decline substantially. Biomass declined as well, but mot as rapidly as productivity. Vertical flux rates were low early in the …

The Behavior Of Inorganic Material In Biomass-Fired Power Boilers: Field And Laboratory Experiences, Larry Lin Baxter 8507091, Thomas R. Miles, Thomas R. Miles Jr, Bryan M. Jenkins, Thomas Milne, David Dayton, Richard W. Bryers, Larry L. Oden

Faculty Publications

This paper highlights some of the major findings of the Alkali Deposits Investigation, a collaborative effort to understand the causes of unmanageable ash deposits in biomass-fired electric power boilers. A group of interested industrial institutions and the US DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office's Biomass Power Program through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory jointly sponsored the project. The industries contributed both funding and, in most cases, use of facilities to the project and included Mendota Biomass Power and Woodland Biomass Power (both associated with Thermo Electron Energy Systems), CMS Generation Operating (formerly Hydra-Co Operations), Wheelabrator, Shasta and Hudson Energy, …

Combustion Properties Of Biomass, B. M. Jenkins, Larry Lin Baxter 8507091, T. R. Miles Jr, T. R. Miles

Faculty Publications

Properties of biomass relevant to combustion are briefly reviewed. The compositions of biomass among fuel types are variable, especially with respect to inorganic constituents important to the critical problems of fouling and slagging. Alkali and alkaline earth metals, in combination with other fuel elements such as silica and sulfur, and facilitated by the presence of chlorine, are responsible for many undesirable reactions in combustion furnaces and power boilers. Reductions in the concentrations of alkali metals and chlorine, created by leaching the elements from the fuel with water, yield remarkable improvements in ash fusion temperatures and confirm much of what is …

Rainfall Stimulation Of Primary Production In Western Atlantic Ocean Waters: Roles Of Different Nitrogen Sources And Co-Limiting Nutrients, Hans W. Paerl, Joan D. Willey, Malia Go, Benjamin L. Peierls, James L. Pinckney, Marilyn L. Fogel

Faculty Publications

Using shipboard bioassays, we examined the roles rainfall, individual and combined nutrients play in accelerating primary production in coastal, Gulf Stream and pelagic (Sargasso Sea) locations in the North Atlantic Ocean off North Carolina, USA, from 1993 to 1995. Photosynthetic CO₂ fixation and net chlorophyll a (chl a) production were measured In replicated bioassays to assess individual and combined impacts of different constituents of atmospheric deposition, including natural rainfall, a synthetic rain mix, dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN; NH₄⁺ ,NO₃^-), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON; urea),phosphorus (PO₄^3-) and iron (as EDTA-chelated and …

Reversal Of Sodium Arsenite Inhibition Of Rat Liver Microsomal Ca2+ Pumping Atpase By Vitamin C, Odutayo O. Odunuge, Gbolahan W. Okunade, Olufunso O. Olorunsogo

Faculty Publications

Sodium arsenite (NaAsO2), at 10% of its median lethal dose, was administered to rats with and without vitamin C pretreatment. Liver microsomal fraction was isolated and the activity of Ca2+-ATPase was assayed. Sodium arsenite was found to inhibit the activity of the liver microsomal Ca2+-ATPase to 50% to that of control rats. The specific activity of the enzyme in rats administered sodium arsenite with vitamin C pretreatment was not significantly different from that of control rats.

Management Of Droughty Site: Typic Quartzipsamments, Ecological Considerations, David Kulhavy, W. G. Ross, L. Allen Smith, R. R. Cahal

Faculty Publications

Pine plantations on Typic Quartzipsamments in East Texas are difficult to establish. Forest management options following clearcutting are limited. A 12 year regeneration study of the growth and survival of loblolly, Pinus faeda, L. shortleaf, P. echinata Mill., slash, f. elliofii Engelm and longleaf pines P. pa/u&is Mill. was conducted to determine optimum tree species and treatments for reforestation. With successful regeneration also comes insects and pathogens. Impacts of the Nantucket pine tip moth, Rhyacionia frusfrana, (Comstock) and the Texas leaf-cutting ant, Affa texana, (Buckley) will be discussed in the context of droughty site management.

Perkinsus Marinus Extracellular Protease Modulates Survival Of Vibrio Vulnificus In Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Hemocytes, B. D. Tall, J. F. La Peyre, J. W. Bier, M. D. Miliotis, D. E. Hanes, M. H. Kothary, D. B. Shah, M. Faisal

Faculty Publications

The in vitro effects of the Perkinsus marinus serine protease on the intracellular survival of Vibrio vulnificus in oyster hemocytes were examined by using a time-course gentamicin internalization assay. Results showed that protease-treated hemocytes were initially slower to internalize V. vulnificus than untreated hemocytes. After 1 h, the elimination of K vulnificus by treated hemocytes was significantly suppressed compared with hemocytes infected with invasive and noninvasive controls. Our data suggest that the serine protease produced by P. marinus suppresses the vibriocidal activity of oyster hemocytes to effectively eliminate V. vulnificus, potentially leading to conditions favoring higher numbers of vibrios in …

Abdominal Adiposity In Six Populations Of West African Descent: Prevalence And Population Attributable Fraction Of Hypertension, Ike S. Okosun, Terrence E. Forrester, Charles N. Rotimi, Babatunde O. Osotimehin, Walinjom F. Muna, Richard S. Cooper

Faculty Publications

Objectives: The objective of this investigation was to examine the prevalence of abdominal adiposity and its association with the prevalence of hypertension among African descent populations in Nigeria, Cameroon, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados, and the United States (US). Research Method: The data for this investigation were obtained from the International Collaborative Study on Hypertension in Blacks. Hypertension was defined as mean diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg, systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg or current treatment with prescribed antihypertension medication. Abdominal overweight was defined as waist circumference (WC) ≥94 and ≥80 cm for men and women, respectively. Abdominal obesity was defined as …

Self-Reported Health Status And Mortality In A Multiethnic Us Cohort, Daniel L. Mcgee, Youlian Liao, Guichan Cao, Richard S. Cooper

Faculty Publications

The authors examined the relation between self-reported health status and mortality among the following racial/ethnic groups: Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders, blacks, whites, and Hispanics. They pooled 1986- 1994 data from the National Health Interview Survey to obtain information on more than 700,000 cohort participants. Although fewer than 5,000 Native Americans are included in this cohort, the data provide information previously unavailable for this group. Also included are almost 17,000 Asian/Pacific Islanders, over 90,000 blacks, and over 50,000 Hispanics. The authors found strong associations between self-reported health status and both socioeconomic status and subsequent mortality. A self-report of fair or poor …

Genetic And Physiologic Analysis Of The Role Of Uncoupling Protein 3 In Human Energy Homeostasis, Wendy K. Chung, Amy Luke, Richard S. Cooper, Charles Rotini, Antonio Vidal-Puig, Michael Rosenbaum, Melvin Chua, Gemma Solanes, Min Zheng, Long Zhao, Charles Leduc, Andrew Eisberg, Florence Chu, Ellen Murphy, Mindy Schreier, Louis Aronne, Sonia Caprio, Bowie Kahle, Derek Gordon, Suzanne M. Leal, Rochelle Goldsmith, Antonio L. Andreu, Claudio Bruno, Salvatore Dimauro, Moonseong Heo, William L. Lowe, Bradford B. Lowell, David B. Allison, Rudolph L. Leibel

Faculty Publications

By virtue of its potential effects on rates of energy expenditure, uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) is an obesity candidate gene. We identified nine sequence variants in UCP3, including Va19Met, Val102Ile, Arg282Cys, and a splice site mutation in the intron between exons 6 and 7. The splice mutation results in an inability to synthesize mRNA for the long isoform (UCP3L) of UCP3. Linkage (sib pair), association, and transmission disequilibrium testing studies on 942 African-Americans did not suggest a significant effect of UCP3 on body composition in this group. In vastus lateralis skeletal muscle of individuals homozygous for the splice mutation, no …

Influence Of Calcium Silicate And Sterilization On The Natural Suppressiveness And On The Conduciveness Of Two Soils To Rhizoctonia Solani, Fabrício De Ávila Rodrigues, Gilberto Fernandes Corrêa, Caspar Henrique Korndörfer, Maria Amelia Dos Santos, Lawrence Elliot Datnoff

Faculty Publications

The effect of calcium silicate slag and soil sterilization on the natural suppressiveness of a Typic Acrustox (clay Dark Red Latosol - LEa) and the natural conduciveness of an Oxic Haplustoll (TRe) to Rhizoctonia solani were studied under greenhouse conditions. The experimental design was a three-replicate completely randomized one, with 2 × 3 × 2 factorial combination of the following treatments: two soil kinds (LEa and TRe, collected at 0-20 cm layer); three treatments with and without soil sterilization, calcium silicate slag and nontreated control; and uninfested and infested with R. solani. Each soil material was infested previously with 800 …

Environmental Sustainability And Environmental Justice At The International Level: Traces Of Tension And Traces Of Synergy, Donald Thomas Hornstein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Health-Promoting Properties Of Common Herbs, Winston J. Craig

Faculty Publications

Herbs have been used as food and for medicinal purposes for centuries. Research interest has focused on various herbs that possess hypolipidemic, antiplatelet, antitumor, or immune-stimulating properties that may be useful adjuncts in helping reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. In different herbs, a wide variety of active phytochemicals, including the flavonoids, terpenoids, lignans, sulfides, polyphenolics, carotenoids, coumarins, saponins, plant sterols, curcumins, and phthalides have been identified. Several of these phytochemicals either inhibit nitrosation or the formation of DNA adducts or stimulate the activity of protective enzymes such as the Phase II enzyme glutathione transferase (EC 2.5.1.18). Research …

Development And Testing Of A Quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire For Use In Gujarat, India, James R. Hébert, Prakash C. Gupta, Ramesh B. Bhonsle, Pesi N. Sinor, Hemali Mehta, Fali S. Mehta

Faculty Publications

Objective: To develop and test a quantitative, interviewer-administered food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to ascertain nutrient intakes of individuals in northern India. Design: A 92-item FFQ was developed based on food use and market surveys of the study area. A validation study was conducted consisting of 24-h diet recalls (24HR) administered on 6 randomly selected days over 1 year. Two FFQs were administered, one each at the beginning and end of the 1-year period. FFQ and 24HR-derived nutrient scores were compared using correlation and regression analyses and by computing differences between nutrient intakes estimated by the two methods. Setting: Rural villages …

Creating The 'Portable' Guardianship: Legal And Practical Implications Of Probate Court Cooperation In Interstate Guardianship Cases, Charlene D. Daniel, Paula Hannaford-Agor

Faculty Publications

In this article, we discuss the legal and practical issues associ­ated with interstate guardianships--that is, those guardianships in which the ward has ties to more than one state. Part I addresses these issues in the context of jurisdictional questions, securing nec­essary information, judicial monitoring and enforcement of guardi­anship orders, and property management. Part II proposes some modest solutions to these problems, many borrowed from other ar­eas of law (e.g., child support enforcement, child custody determinations, enforcement of civil protection orders, involuntary civil commitment).

This abstract has been taken from the authors' introduction.

Health, Health Insurance And The Labor Market, Janet Currie, Brigitte C. Madrian

Faculty Publications

This chapter provides an overview of the literature linking health, health insurance and labor market outcomes such as wages, earnings, employment, hours, occupational choice, job turnover, retirement, and the structure of employment. The ®rst part of the paper focuses on the relationship between health and labor market outcomes. The empirical literature surveyed suggests that poor health reduces the capacity to work and has substantive effects on wages, labor force participation and job choice. The exact magnitudes, however, are sensitive to both the choice of health measures and to identi®cation assumptions. The second part of the paper considers the link between …

The Case For Sound Symbolism, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

proposal that linguistic sounds such as phonemes, features, syllables, or tones can be meaningful, or sound-symbolic, contradicts the principles of arbitrariness and double articulation that are axiomatic to structural linguistics. Nevertheless, a considerable body of research that supports principles of sound symbolism has accumulated. This review discusses the most widely attested forms of sound symbolism and the research programs linked to sound symbolism that have influenced linguists and anthropologists most. Numerous reports of magnitude sound symbolism in the form of experimental studies and comparative surveys have been integrated into a biologically based theory of its motivation. Magnitude sound symbolism also …

Status Processes And Mental Ability Test Scores, Michael J. Lovaglia, Jeffrey W. Lucas, Jeffrey A. Houser, Shane R. Thye, Barry N. Markovsky

Faculty Publications

The expected consequences of a score on an ability test can constrain individual performance. The authors predict that status processes, including status differences and the differences in rewards and costs that result, will produce differences in ability test scores between high-status and low-status individuals. In three controlled experi- ments, participants randomly assigned low status scored lower on a standard test of mental ability (the Raven Progressive Matrices) than did participants assigned high status. For both men and women, the difference in ability test score between low-status and high-status participants was about half a standard deviation. The results suggest the need …

Development And Testing Of A Quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire For Use In Kerala, India, James R. Hébert, Prakash C. Gupta, Ramesh B. Bhonsle, P. R. Murti, Hemali Mehta, Florence Verghese, Mira Aghi, Kamala Krishnaswamy, Fali S. Mehta

Faculty Publications

Objective: To develop and test a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for use in rural areas of Kerala, India. Design: Based on food use and market surveys of the study area, a quantitative 81- item interviewer-administered FFQ was developed. A validation study was conducted consisting of 24-h diet recalls (24HR) administered on 8 days randomly selected over an entire year and two administrations of the FFQ, one at the beginning of the l-year period and the other at the end. FFQ and 24HR-derived nutrient scores were compared using correlation and regression analyses and by examining differences in the nutrient scores. Setting: …

Ecosystem Responses To Internal And Watershed Organic Matter Loading: Consequences For Hypoxia In The Eutrophying Neuse River Estuary, North Carolina, Usa, Hans W. Paerl, James L. Pinckney, John M. Fear, Benjamin L. Peierls

Faculty Publications

The contrasting impacts of externally supplied (runoff) and internally generated (nutrient stimulated phytoplankton blooms) organic matter on oxygen (0₂) depletion were examined and evaluated in the eutrophic, salinity-stratified Neuse River Estuary, North Carolina, USA. This nitrogen (N)- limited estuary is experiencing increasing anthropogenic N loading from expanding urban, agricultural and industrial development in its watershed. Resultant algal blooms, which provided organic matter loads capable of causing extensive low 0₂ (hypoxic) and depleted 0₂ (anoxic) conditions, have induced widespread mortality of resident fin- and shellfish. Phytoplankton blooms followed periods of elevated N loading, except during extremely high …

Mortality And Optimal Body Mass Index In A Sample Of The Us Population, Ramón A. Durazo-Arvizu, Daniel L. Mcgee, Richard S. Cooper, Youlian Liao, Amy Luke

Faculty Publications

In this paper, the authors model the nonmonotonic relation between body mass index (BMI) (weight (kg)/height2 (m2)) and mortality in 13,242 black and white participants in the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study in order to estimate the BMI at which minimum mortality occurs. The BMI of minimum mortality was 27.1 for black men (95% confidence interval (CI) 24.8-29.4), 26.8 for black women (95% CI 24.7-28.9) 24.8 for white men (95% CI 23.8- 25.9), and 24.3 for white women (95% CI 23.3-25.4). Each confidence interval included the group average. Analyses conducted by smoking status and after exclusion of persons with baseline …

Population Dynamics, Impacts, And Integrated Management Of Forest Defoliating Insects, David Kulhavy, W. G. Ross, R. R. Cahal

Faculty Publications

Pine plantations on Typic Quartzipsamments in East Texas are difficult to establish. Forest management options following clearcutting are limited. An 8-year regeneration study of the growth and survival of loblolly, Pinus taeda, L. shortleaf, P. echinata Mill., slash, P. elliotii Engelm and longleaf pines P. palustris Mill. was conducted to determine optimum tree species and treatments for reforestation, and to recommend practical alternative land uses and management strategies for Typic Quartzipsamments. Successful regeneration provides new opportunities for insects and pathogens. Impacts of the Nantucket pine tip moth, R}iyacionia frustrana (Comstock), the Deodar weevil, Pissodes nemorensis, Germar, Annosus root rot, Heterobasidion …

Fluctuating Silicate : Nitrate Ratios And Coastal Plankton Food Webs, N Qureshi, N N. Rabalais, Q Dortch, R. Eugene Turner, R F. Shaw, J Cope

Faculty Publications

Marine diatoms require dissolved silicate to form an external shell. and their growth becomes Si-limited when the atomic ratio of silicate to dissolved inorganic nitrogen (SI:DIN) approaches 1:1, also known as the Redfield ratio. Fundamental changes in the diatom-to-zooplankton-to-higher trophic level food web should occur when this ratio falls below 1:1. and the proportion of diatoms in the phytoplankton community is reduced. We quantitatively substantiate these predictions by using a variety of data from the Mississippi River continental shelf, a system in which the SI:DIN loading ratio has declined from around 3:1 to 1:1 during this century because of land-use …

The Illusion Of Autonomy At The End Of Life: Unconsented Life Support And The Wrongful Life Analogy, Philip G. Peters Jr.

Faculty Publications

Overwhelming evidence indicates that physicians routinely ignore patient preferences about life-sustaining care. Yet, the ability of wrongfully treated patients to recover compensatory damages has recently been placed in doubt. Both courts and commentators have suggested that actions for unconsented life support are analogous to actions for wrongful life and should, for that reason, be rejected. In this article, Professor Philip Peters argues that the obvious similarity between the two kinds of claims is overshadowed by many factors that distinguish the two settings. As a result, Professor Peters concludes that a physician who wrongfully administers life-sustaining care over the objections of …

The Sign Of The Four": Judicial Assignment And The Rule Of Law, Jonathan L. Entin

Faculty Publications

This article will examine the issues of judicial assignment. Then the article will return to the Cameron situation in an effort to put that controversy into broader perspective. Finally, the article will consider state procedures that, for practical purposes, authorize litigants to make peremptory challenges to judges in certain circumstances. Those procedures have implications for the discussion of random assignments and for the way we think about Judge Cameron's charges.

Crystal Structure Of Apo-Glycine N-Methyltransferase (Gnmt), R. Pattanayek, M. E. Newcomer, C. Wagner

Faculty Publications

The crystal structure of the recombinant apo-form of glycine N- methyltransferase (GNMT) has been determined at 2.5 Å resolution. GNMT is a tetrameric enzyme (monomer M(r) = 32,423D(a), 292 amino acids) that catalyzes the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) to glycine with the formation of S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy) and sarcosine (N- methylglycine). GNMT is a regulatory enzyme, which is inhibited by 5- methyltetrahydrofolate pentaglutamate and believed to control the ratio of AdoMet to AdoHcy in tissues. The crystals belong to the orthorhombic space group P21212 (a = 85.39, b = 174.21, c = 44.71 Å) and contain one …