Digital Commons Network^™

Fruit Quality And Consumption By Songbirds During Autumn Migration, Susan B. Smith, Kathleen H. Mcpherson, Jeffrey M. Backer, Barbara J. Pierce, David W. Podlesak, Scott R. Mcwilliams

Biology Faculty Publications

Seasonal fruits are an important food resource for small songbirds during autumn migration in southern New England. Therefore, conservation and management of important stopover sites used by migrating birds requires knowledge about nutritional requirements of songbirds and nutritional composition of commonly consumed fruits. We measured nutrient composition and energy density of nine common fruits on Block Island, Rhode Island, and conducted a field experiment to estimate consumption rates of three of these fruits by birds during autumn migration. Most common fruits on Block Island contained primarily carbohydrates (41.3–91.2% dry weight), and little protein (2.6–8.6%) and fat (0.9–3.7%), although three contained …

Eleutherodactylus Ridens (Pygmy Rainfrog) Predation, Tobias Eisenberg, Twan Leenders

Biology Faculty Publications

Workers of the large ponerine ant Paraponera clavata typically forage on small to medium-sized arthropods or collect pieces of plants or nectar but have been suspected of predating small vertebrates.

Effect Of High Temperatures On Biological Performance Of Trogoderma Granarium (Everts) (Coleoptera: Dermestidae), A. A Al- Taweel., Abu-Moalla M.S.S, H. S. Al-Asaady

Baghdad Science Journal

The effect of three high temperatures for five exposure periods on the developments of larvae, pupae and adults of Trogoderma granarium (Everts) and their biological performance were investigated. The results revealed that the percent of mortality was increased as the temperature and the exposure period increased, e. g. exposing last instar larvae to 45°C for 6 hrs caused 100% death of this stage, while exposing adults (1-3) days old to the same temperature and exposure time resulted in that these adults did not able to survive more than 24 hrs.; in addition, the results showed that the ability of reproduction …

Why It’S Worth The Hassle: The Value Of In-Situ Studies When Designing Ubicomp., Yvonne Rogers, Kay Connelly, Lenore Tedesco, William Hazlewood, Andrew Kurtz, Robert E. Hall, Josh Hursey, Tammy Toscos Phd

Health Services and Informatics Research

How should Ubicomp technologies be evaluated? While lab studies are good at sensing aspects of human behavior and revealing usability problems, they are poor at capturing context of use. In-situ studies are good at demonstrating how people appropriate technologies in their intended setting, but are expensive and difficult to conduct. Here, we show how they can be used more productively in the design process. A mobile learning device was developed to support teams of students carrying out scientific inquiry in the field. An initial in-situ study showed it was not used in the way envisioned. A contextualized analysis led to …

Volume 32, No. 1

The Weldon Times

A student-run newspaper published at the School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Editor in Chief: James Lea

Layout Editor: Cameron McPhail

The Effect Of Chemical And Biological Treatments On Improving The Nutritive Value Of Corn Cobs And Wild Reed, Raheef S. H.

Baghdad Science Journal

This study was conducted in Animal Resources Department , College of Agriculture to estimate the effect of chemical and biological treatments to improve the nutritive value of poor quality roughages ( corn cobs and wild reed ) .The feeds were treated chemically with 4% NaoH solution ,whereas Aspergillusnigerwas used to ferment corn cobs and wild reed samples .The chemical analysis showed that protein percentages of corn cobs and wild reed was increased significantly (P<0.05) from 6.05% to 10.51% and 17.70% and from 3.10 %to 6.50% and 9.96% for both chemical and biological treatments respectively.The crude fiber percentages decreased significantly (P<0.05) from 29.19% and 26.10% to 23.60% and 20.10% for chemical treatment and was 20.20% and 14.50% after biological treatment for both corn cobs and wild reed respectively .In Vitro dry matter and organic matter digestibility was increased significantly ( p<0.05) by using both treatments .The results of this study indicated an improvement in the nutritive value for corn cobs and wild reed when treatedchemically with 4% NaOH and biologically with Aspergillusniger.

The Kinetic Responses And Foraging Behavior Of Drosophila Melanogaster Larvae, Abdul-Zahra Kadhem Mohammed Ali

Baghdad Science Journal

Adaptive responses in larval behavior may be of two kinds: Taxis: This involves a change in direction relative to source of a stimulus. Kinesis: Kinesis has no directional component, but involves change in the rate of performance in response to a stimulus. Drosophila larvae exhibited flexible behavioral responses associated with food acquisition and selection for different environmental conditions. In this investigation, we are concerned explosively with kinetic responses to food viability. Third instar larvae were subjected to test for thirty minutes in each of the following conditions i) in distilled water, ii) in Ringer's solution, iii) in glucose solution and …

Drosophila Piwi Associates With Chromatin And Interacts Directly With Hp1a, Brent Brower-Toland, Seth Findley, Ling Jiang, Li Liu, Hang Yin, Monica Dus, Pei Zhou, Sarah C.R. Elgin, Haifan Lin

Biology Faculty Research

The interface between cellular systems involving small noncoding RNAs and epigenetic change remains largely unexplored in metazoans. RNA-induced silencing systems have the potential to target particular regions of the genome for epigenetic change by locating specific sequences and recruiting chromatin modifiers. Noting that several genes encoding RNA silencing components have been implicated in epigenetic regulation in Drosophila, we sought a direct link between the RNA silencing system and heterochromatin components. Here we show that PIWI, an ARGONAUTE/PIWI protein family member that binds to Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), strongly and specifically interacts with heterochromatin protein 1a (HP1a), a central player in heterochromatic …

Severe Anaphylactic Reaction At Induction Of Anaesthesia, Aliya Ahmed, Anand Kumar

Department of Anaesthesia

Anaphylaxis is an IgE mediated severe allergic reaction causing release of vasoactive substances from mast cells and basophils after re-exposure to an antigen. Signs and symptoms include flushing, urticaria, hypotension, tachycardia, bronchospasm, cardio-respiratory arrest etc. It can occur at induction of anaesthesia when multiple drugs are being administered, but prompt diagnosis with correct management is the key to a successful outcome. This case report describes a patient who developed severe bronchospasm with difficulty in inflating the lungs and dropping oxygen saturations, alongwith hypotension, tachycardia and widespread flushing, at induction of anaesthesia for elective breast surgery. She was promptly managed and …

Recent Advances In Cancer Stem/Progenitor Cell Research: Therapeutic Implications For Overcoming Resistance To The Most Aggressive Cancers., M. Mimeault, Ralph Hauke, Parmender P. Mehta, Surinder K. Batra

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Overcoming intrinsic and acquired resistance of cancer stem/progenitor cells to current clinical treatments represents a major challenge in treating and curing the most aggressive and metastatic cancers. This review summarizes recent advances in our understanding of the cellular origin and molecular mechanisms at the basis of cancer initiation and progression as well as the heterogeneity of cancers arising from the malignant transformation of adult stem/progenitor cells. We describe the critical functions provided by several growth factor cascades, including epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), stem cell factor (SCF) receptor (KIT), hedgehog and Wnt/beta-catenin signalling pathways that …

Asparagus Beetle And Spotted Asparagus Beetle, Erin W. Hodgson, Dan Drost

All Current Publications

Asparagus beetle, Crioceris asparagi, and spotted asparagus beetle, C. duodecimpunctata are leaf beetles in the family Chrysomelidae. These beetles feed exclusively on asparagus and are native to Europe. Asparagus beetle is the more economically injurious of the two species.

Usd Magazine Fall 2007, University Of San Diego

University of San Diego Magazine (1992- )

Contents; Editorial License; Letters to the Editor; Around the Park; Torero Athletics; Point of View; Connected by the Vine; Life in the City; Sacred Heart Still Beats; Alumni Update; Class Notes; USD Reflection

Game Day Kaimin, September 1, 2007, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Provincial Development In China: Lessons From Eu Regional Policy Experience, Phillip J. Bryson, Keren Sun

Faculty Publications

Regional development in the Chinese provinces and in the regions of the EU countries are evaluated and compared. Development efforts in southern Italy, northeast England and eastern Germany are reviewed along with EU, Community-wide regional development programs. Equity concerns suggest promotion of regional policy, but the pursuit of maximum national economic growth would avoid it, since it sacrifices some economic growth. The impact of FDI and domestic investments on individual Chinese provinces is compared with their impact in Europe. There is an implicit contrast between public sector regional development programs and more effective private foreign direct investments.

Clarifying The Debate Over Therapeutic Forgetting, Adam J. Kolber

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Fluvial Geomorphologic And Hydrodynamic Assessment In The Tidal Portion Of The Lower Rio Grande River, Us-Mexico Borderland, Andrew Ernest, B. Bokhim, N. B. Chang, I. J. Huang

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

With fast population growth and economic development in the US-Mexico Borderland, water diversion and usages has reduced the flow substantially in the Low Rio Grande River (LRGR). Tidal portion of the LRGR has posed an environmental drought issue since 1993 and the channel clogged with the invasion of non-native plants also causes environmental problems. As a result of the intensity of these natural and manmade factors, the Rio Grande stopped flowing to the sea in February 2001. The flows were reduced to a point that they were unable to push out the sand deposited at the mouth. Geomorphologic evolution in …

Parallelization Of Ant Colony Optimization Via Area Of Expertise Learning, Adrian A. De Freitas

Theses and Dissertations

Ant colony optimization algorithms have long been touted as providing an effective and efficient means of generating high quality solutions to NP-hard optimization problems. Unfortunately, while the structure of the algorithm is easy to parallelize, the nature and amount of communication required for parallel execution has meant that parallel implementations developed suffer from decreased solution quality, slower runtime performance, or both. This thesis explores a new strategy for ant colony parallelization that involves Area of Expertise (AOE) learning. The AOE concept is based on the idea that individual agents tend to gain knowledge of different areas of the search space …

Multi-Objective Optimization For Speed And Stability Of A Sony Aibo Gait, Christopher A. Patterson

Theses and Dissertations

Locomotion is a fundamental facet of mobile robotics that many higher level aspects rely on. However, this is not a simple problem for legged robots with many degrees of freedom. For this reason, machine learning techniques have been applied to the domain. Although impressive results have been achieved, there remains a fundamental problem with using most machine learning methods. The learning algorithms usually require a large dataset which is prohibitively hard to collect on an actual robot. Further, learning in simulation has had limited success transitioning to the real world. Also, many learning algorithms optimize for a single fitness function, …

Role Of Mitochondrial Electron Transport Complex I In Coenzyme Q1 Reduction By Intact Pulmonary Arterial Endothelial Cells And The Effect Of Hyperoxia, Marilyn P. Merker, Said H. Audi, Brian J. Lindemer, Gary S. Krenz, Robert D. Bongard

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The objective was to determine the impact of intact normoxic and hyperoxia-exposed (95% O(2) for 48 h) bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cells in culture on the redox status of the coenzyme Q(10) homolog coenzyme Q(1) (CoQ(1)). When CoQ(1) (50 microM) was incubated with the cells for 30 min, its concentration in the medium decreased over time, reaching a lower level for normoxic than hyperoxia-exposed cells. The decreases in CoQ(1) concentration were associated with generation of CoQ(1) hydroquinone (CoQ(1)H(2)), wherein 3.4 times more CoQ(1)H(2) was produced in the normoxic than hyperoxia-exposed cell medium (8.2 +/- 0.3 and 2.4 +/- 0.4 microM, …

Electromagnetic Pollution In The Computer Labs: The Effects On The Learning Environment, Yavuz Erdogan

Essays in Education

Electromagnetic fields (EMF) became increasingly a common constituent of the general and workplace environments early in the 20th century. The biological and physiological effects of EMF become a topic of considerable scientific researches during the past two decades. Also, some of scientists claim that EMF causes physiological stress, producing symptoms of tiredness and difficulty concentration. These symptoms could be able to affect the learning environment in negative way. Considering all these points, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of EMF on the learning environment of the computer laboratories. The EMF measurements were carried out in four …

A Framework For Analyzing And Mitigating The Vulnerabilities Of Complex Systems Via Attack And Protection Trees, Kenneth S. Edge

Theses and Dissertations

Attack trees have been developed to describe processes by which malicious users attempt to exploit or break complex systems. Attack trees offer a method of decomposing, visualizing, and determining the cost or likelihood of attacks. Attack trees by themselves do not provide enough decision support to system defenders. This research develops the concept of using protection trees to offer a detailed risk analysis of a system. In addition to developing protection trees, this research improves the existing concept of attack trees and develops rule sets for the manipulation of metrics used in the security of complex systems. This research specifically …

Novel Model Of Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics Based On Hemodynamically Driven Cyclic Brain Compliance Variation, Bruno A. Mantilla

Dissertations

This study provides a novel explanation for the CerebrQ-Spinal Fluid (CSF) flow pattern observed in phase contrast cine-MRJ studies. CSF dynamics has been traditionally explained as a bulk flow from the site of production to the site of absorption. Studies done with phase contrast cine-MRI show a more complex CSF movement, that is not explainable by the bulk flow paradigm. This study describes a mechanism explaining how the energy delivered by the heart in each cycle is responsible not only for the blood flow, but also for the CSF circulation. This mechanism is based on a cyclic variation of brain …

Interaction Of Methoxyethyl Methyl Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids With Uranium And Its Effect On Bioreduction Of Uranium, Hao Wang

Dissertations

Ionic liquids (ILs) are new materials with unique properties such as non-measurable vapor pressure, low melting point below 100°C and tunable physical-chemical properties. These liquids demonstrate tremendous potential applications in many fields, including nuclear waste treatment.

In this study, new MOEMIM (methoxyethyl methyl imidazolium)-based ionic liquids were synthesized. Their properties were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy (UV-vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ETIR), mass spectroscopy (MS) and NMR (Nuclear magnetic resonance). The interaction between ILs and uranium has been explored by various analysis techniques, including pH, potentiometric titration, UV-vis, MS and EXAFS (extended x-ray absorption fine structure). Among all the ILs studied …

New Approaches To Scaled-Up Carbon Nanotube Synthesis And Nanotube-Based Metal Composites And Sensors, Amit Goyal

Dissertations

The first phase of the work presented in this dissertation is the development of a scaleable process for the cost-effective synthesis of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) by thermally-induced catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD). With the goal of understanding the growth mechanism and optimize the synthesis process, the effect of CVD and catalyst parameters on nanotube formation was investigated in detail. It was found that nucleation and growth of SWNTs occurred within a few seconds of the introduction of the carbon source, carbon monoxide, at temperatures above 675°C over a Co-Mo/MgO catalyst/support system, resulting in the formation of high quality …

The Echo: August 31, 2007, Taylor University

2007-2008 (Volume 95)

Two-year jail stay sends message – Habecker says cell phone tower is coming to Upland – Taylor is No. 1 – Taylor welcomes new faces – Hall director baby boom brings toothless grins to TU – Students deal with major dilemma – Scintillating? – The good, the bad and the ‘Superbad’ – Josh Porter’s High Five: summer movies ’07 – Harry Potter: defense against the dark arts – The right to protest – Moving Taylor beyond the motto – Re-Vision 2016 – Calling Taylor home – Volleyball defeats NCAA D-II foe – Trojans prepare for season opener – Singing the …

Central Florida Future, Vol. 39 No. 109, August 31, 2007

Central Florida Future

The river runs clean; Faculty asked to raise the bar; UCF officials ready for tropical weather; Teacher's arrest freezes 2 classes; Stadium ticket lottery to begin.

The Tiger Vol. 101 Issue 12 2007-08-31, Clemson University

Tiger Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Rotunda - Vol 86, No 1 - Aug 31, 2007, Longwood University

Rotunda

No abstract provided.

The Daily Gamecock, Friday August 31, 2007, University Of South Carolina, Office Of Student Media

August

No abstract provided.

Novel Plant-Specific Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitors Induced By Biotic And Abiotic Stresses, Adrian Peres, Michelle L. Churchman, Srivaidehirani Hariharan, Kristiina Himanen, Aurine Verkest, Klaas Vandepoele, Zoltan Magyar, Yves Hatzfeld, Els Van Der Schueren, Gerrit T.S. Beemster, Valerie Frankard, John C. Larkin, Dirk Inzé, Lieven De Veylder

Faculty Publications

The EL2 gene of rice (Oryza sativa), previously classified as early response gene against the potent biotic elicitor N-acetylchitoheptaose and encoding a short polypeptide with unknown function, was identified as a novel cell cycle regulatory gene related to the recently reported SIAMESE (SIM) gene of Arabidopsis thaliana. Iterative two-hybrid screens, in vitro pull-down assays, and fluorescence resonance energy transfer analyses showed that Orysa; EL2 binds the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) CDKA1;1 and D-type cyclins. No interaction was observed with the plant-specific B-type CDKs. The amino acid motif ELERFL was identified to be essential for cyclin, but not for CDK binding. Orysa;EL2 …