Digital Commons Network^™

An Assessment Of The Habitat Quality And Nutritional Intake Of North Atlantic Right Whales In Cape Cod Bay, Amy Susanna Delorenzo

Open Access Dissertations

Cape Cod Bay is the only known winter feeding ground of the North Atlantic right whale, a seriously endangered species, and is thus a critical habitat for right whales. As with most coastal ecosystems, Cape Cod Bay is a dynamic system with a high degree of variability in both physical and biological parameters. However, the extent of these fluctuations and their effect on the suitability of the bay as a right whale feeding ground is not known. This study was conducted to address variability in the biological and physical environment of the bay on different temporal and spatial scales and …

Recombinant Antimicrobials For Feed Based Delivery In Aquaculture, Tarquin Dorrington

Open Access Dissertations

Two antimicrobial peptides of marine origin, tachyplesin from the horseshoe crab (Tachyplesus tridentatus) and pleurocidin from the winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus), were evaluated for potential use in feed-based delivery in oyster aquaculture. Tachyplesin, a beta sheet structure was more effective against a range of gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens, as well as against the protozoan oyster parasite Perkinsus marinus. In addition, tachyplesin's structure made it more resistant to the effects of proteases from the oyster and the parasite. The two peptides also had different effects on the host bacteria of the oyster digestive system, with tachyplesin selectively killing more gram-negatives and …

Energetic Constraints On Diapause In Calanus Finmarchicus: Implications For Population Dynamics In The Gulf Of Maine, Whitley Joseph Saumweber

Open Access Dissertations

Deep basins in the Gulf of Maine act as refuge for a large population of resting Calanus finmarchicus during the summer and fall. Dynamics of this population are not well understood, however, and loss terms from advection and starvation may be large. A three part study was therefore undertaken to determine potential diapause duration in C. finmarchicus , monitor changes in the summer-fall population, and to define the relative importance of energetic limitation as a control on C. finmarchicus population dynamics. Six standard stations were sampled in and around the Gulf of Maine on a series of four research cruises …

Print Media Vs. Digital Manifest Destiny, David Mash

The Christian Librarian

Every communications medium reflects and reinforces intellectual habits and content patterns unique to the medium. A digital/internet hegemony is a paradoxical foreclosure on breadth of mind since digital formats do not reflect or reinforce the intellectual habits and content patterns unique to other media, especially books. A credible educational process w ill take appropriate advantage of digital media without allowing its influence to repress breadth of mind.

Management Of The Suckled Post-Partum Beef Cows: Pasture-Based Weaning System., John F. Odhiambo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Low grain prices and recurrent periods of drought have elicited interest in early weaning. Calves can efficiently utilize feed for weight gain when it is fed directly, rather than through their dams. This study evaluated calf response in three weaning systems (experiment 1) and profiles of body energy reserves in early-weaned beef cows (experiment 2). Treatment x year, and calf sex x year interaction (P < 0.05) were observed for calf weight gain. These interactions underscored the need for constant readjustments in management systems that incorporate early weaning in their programs. In experiment 2, body weight and condition score of cows were affected marginally (P = 0.06) by early weaning, whereas ribfat and rumpfat differed (P < 0.05) between earlyweaned and control cows. These findings indicated that subjective methods (body weight and condition score) should be used in combination with more objective measurements (ribfat and/or rumpfat) for accurate evaluation of energy status of beef cows. Cows of various ages responded differently to early weaning. Three to five-year-old cows exhibited greater response to early weaning as opposed to 2-year-olds and cows > 5 years of age, indicating that profit potential of the cow-calf operation can be improved by altered management of middle-aged cows.

Seawater Proteomics: The Recovery, Separation, And Characterization Of Dissolved Proteins In Seawater., Matthew Jacob Powell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Dissolved proteins are important components of high molecular weight marine dissolved organic matter (DOM). Little is known about the sources, transformations, and pathways of marine DOM, and <30% has been characterized at the molecular-level. Advances in proteomics technology have improved our ability to sequence proteins, making dissolved proteins a suitable target for molecular-level characterization. Dissolved proteins are important biomarkers in the oceans, and molecular-level analysis can provide valuable insight into their chemical characteristics, structural modifications, and potential sources. Molecular-level characterization of dissolved proteins in seawater requires a reproducible recovery method with efficient recovery yields and minimal sample losses. The use of surface blocking agents (SBA) to saturate sites of non-specific interactions reduced adsorptive sample losses during recovery of dissolved proteins from artificial seawater by tangential flow ultrafiltration. The SBA pre-treatment resulted in more reproducible recovery yields (∼55–60%) and enhanced initial recovery by 46%. Dissolved proteins recovered from deep and surface seawater samples were separated by gel electrophoresis, revealing the presence of a small number of discrete bands and significant amounts of unresolved background. A proteinase K assay determined that the bands and unresolved background were proteinaceous in nature. Enzymatic digests of the dissolved proteins were analyzed by reversed phase chromatography coupled on-line to a linear trapping quadrupole Fourier transform mass spectrometer (LTQ-FTMS). The peptide MS/MS spectra were searched against non-redundant databases by correlation algorithms, but no positive identifications were made. The peptide tandem mass spectra were directly interpreted by de novo sequencing to generate peptide tags that were used in database searches to develop protein homologue information. The similarity search results revealed two trends for specific classes of proteins observed (membrane/envelope proteins and enzymes) and identified conserved sequences for several multi-species protein homologues. These results demonstrate that there are several different classes of refractory proteins represented in the DOM pool and provide evidence for the presence of dissolved proteins other than bacterial outer membrane proteins. Additionally, an intact protein was extracted from a gel band and analyzed by direct infusion ESI FTMS. The resultant high resolution protein spectrum was deconvoluted to determine the accurate molecular weight of the protein.

A Study Of Assessment Policies And Practices Of Directors In Pre-Kindergarten Programs In West Virginia., Janet Dozier

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As education for young children becomes more standards-based there has been a cry for more assessments. Developmentally appropriate assessment for young children has been defined by the twelve guidelines developed by the National Association for Young Children. The purpose of this study was done by surveying the 440 pre-kindergarten program directors in West Virginia regarding his/her perception of importance and implementation of those national assessment guidelines and followed by ten structured interviews of directors across the program descriptions. The study found the implementations of guidelines to be positively correlated to the director's perception of importance. Further it found that all …

Derivatives And The Bankruptcy Code: Why The Special Treatment?, Franklin R. Edwards, Edward R. Morrison

Faculty Scholarship

The collapse of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in Fall 1998 and the Federal Reserve Bank's subsequent efforts to orchestrate a bailout raise important questions about the structure of the Bankruptcy Code. The Code contains numerous provisions affording special treatment to financial derivatives contracts, the most important of which exempts these contracts from the "automatic stay" and permits counterparties to terminate derivatives contracts with a debtor in bankruptcy and seize underlying collateral. No other counterparty or creditor of the debtor has such freedom; to the contrary, the automatic stay prohibits them from undertaking any act that threatens the debtor's assets. …

Maternal Education And Child Nutritional Status In Bolivia: Finding The Links, Michelle Bellessa Frost, Renata Forste, David W. Haas

Faculty Publications

This study models various pathways linking maternal education and child nutritional status in Bolivia, using a national sample of children. Pathways examined include socioeconomic status, health knowledge, modern attitudes towards health care, female autonomy, and reproductive behavior. The data come from the 1998 Bolivia Demographic and Health Survey. Logistic regression results suggest that socioeconomic factors are the most important pathways linking maternal education and child nutritional status, and that modern attitudes about health care also explain the impact of education. Health care knowledge accounts for less of the effect of maternal education on child nutritional status, with autonomy being the …

Book Review, Jonathan B. Wiener

Faculty Scholarship

Reviewing, Richard A. Posner, Catastrophe: Risk and Response (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking, 2005)

Pervasiveness Of Phytoliths In Prehistoric Southwestern Diet And Implications For Regional And Temporal Trends For Dental Microwear, Karl J. Reinhard, Dennis R. Danielson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Our previous analysis of phytolith content of coprolites showed that calcium oxalate phytoliths from desert food plants caused dental microwear among prehistoric Texas hunter-gatherers. We demonstrated that phytoliths from desert succulents were ubiquitous and abundant in hunter-gatherer coprolites. We found that calcium oxalate phytoliths were harder than human dental enamel. We concluded that phytoliths from desert succulent plants caused dental microwear and hypothesized that such dental microwear would be common in other desert hunter-gatherer and horticultural peoples. Presented here are further analyses of phytoliths from coprolites. Two additional hunter-gatherer sites and three Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) horticultural sites are included in …

Narratives Of Adolescent Students: The Integration Of Health And Learning Through Application Of Nursing Theory, Marjean Huber

Dissertations

Problem. There are few resources to show educators how to help students improve learning by improving health and mental well-being. There is a lack of integration in the literature in terms of how practitioners can reach these students in order to help them learn effectively and develop into successful, productive adults with meaningful lives. This study has three major sections. First, I examine my experiences within education to determine what values, truths, and principles mold my practice. Second, I identify my teaching practice in relationship to nursing theory integrating it with learning theory, thus highlighting the relationship between the health …

Wendell Berry's Sociological Imagination: Agrarian Values And Good Leadership In A Postmodern Culture, Paul Alan Kaak

Dissertations

Problem. The question guiding my dissertation research was: In what ways do the writings of Wendell Berry, reflecting his sociological imagination, address and advance leadership theory with specific regard for the issue of agrarian values?

Method. I used the writings of Wendell Berry as a modified case study for my inductive, theoretical, exploratory research in a qualitative vein. As I reviewed his writings, I identified his moral ideology and extracted his value-set. Along the way, I observed Berry's use of a method promoted by C. Wright Mills in his book The Sociological Imagination (1959). Since sociological imagination finds …