Digital Commons Network^™

Re-Establishing Recycling In Monteverde, Costa Rica, May 2007, Sydney Funsinn

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

As consumer culture continues to expand on a global scale, the importance for responsible waste management also becomes increasingly important (Assadourian et al. 2004). In Monteverde, Costa Rica a recycling program was sustained from 1996 until 2003, successfully diverting 78 tons of waste from local landfills (Friends of the Monteverde Cloud Forest, 2007). In order to evaluate the former program, identify the current obstacles restricting its re-establishment and to identify key aspects of a successful future program I performed interviews and surveys of its main constituents within the community. This included interviews with the organizations involved in both past and …

Survival And Reproductive Fitness Of Two Species Of Pleurothallid Orchids Along A Changing Climatic Gradient, May 2007, Kerry Kemp

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Increasing periods of consecutive dry days, upward altitudinal shifts in orographic cloud formation, and increasing minimum daily temperatures occurring due to global climate change are rapidly changing the climatic parameters of cloud forests in Monteverde, Costa Rica, where hundreds of diminutive orchids thrive. In order to analyze the affect of changing microclimate on orchid fitness, two species of Pleurothallid orchids, Lepanthes eximia (Range: 1100-2050 m) and Lepanthes monteverdensis (Range: 1400-1550 m) were transplanted to plots at 1530 m, 1645 m, 1800 m. They were monitored daily for leaf, flower, and fruit production and leaf thickness. The microclimatic conditions at each …

Body Size And Sexual Selection In Heliconius Charitonius And Heliconius Melpomene (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), May 2007, Megan Petrie

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

The role played by body size in sexual selection was investigated in captive populations of Heliconius charitonius and Heliconius melpomene butterflies. Mean fore-wing lengths of the entire population were compared to those of individuals participating in mating and pre-mating behaviors. It was predicted that because fitness in butterflies often increases with size (Klingenberg and Spence 1997), Heliconius spp. should choose larger mates. Sexes did not differ in size for either species (H. charitonius: Males = 41.14 mm ± 2.41, n = 57; Females = 41.28 mm ± 3.40, n = 48. H. melpomene: Males = 36.29 mm ± 2.54, n …

Allelopathic Effects On Leaf Litter Invertebrates Under Dicksonia Gigantea (Polypodiopsida: Dicksoniaceae) And Cyathea Caracasana Var. Meridensis (Polypodiopsida: Cyatheaceae), May 2007, Patricia A. Schmitt

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Allelopathic chemical release may affect many aspects of plant and soil ecology, including community composition, diversity, and richness (Ferguson 2003). The effects of allelopathic chemicals in tree ferns D. gigantea and C. caracasana var. meridensis on the biodiversity of leaf litter invertebrate communities were examined in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. In total, 15 sites were surveyed, where a paired sample of one tree fern and one non-fern tree were collected, filtered and invertebrates were analyzed to morphospecies. When examining the local communities under tree fern and non-fern trees, no significant difference in N, S, H', Smarg and E was found. …

Assessing The Effects Of New And Old Conservation Policies In Costa Rica, May 2007, Danielle Knight

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Cost[a] Rica’s national conservation policy was recast into SINAC (National System of Conservation Areas) about a decade ago (World Bank 2000). Major changes in the new policies include pairing the management of biodiversity and the management of sustainable development and resource use (SINAC website, 2007). This change sparked criticism and many worried that the shift might leave policy in favor of development instead of sheer protection for biodiversity. SINAC also changed the administrative structure of conservation management and condensed seventy-eight different territories into eleven conservation areas spanning all of Costa Rica’s territory (Evans 1999). Recent studies show that the state …

Altitudinal Variation In Ithomiine (Nymphalidae) Color Patterns, May 2007, Nicholas Sullender, Daniel Winokur

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Ithomiine butterflies contain several color complexes that fly at different heights in the forest, presumably in response to light conditions (Papageorgis 1975; Burd 1994). If so, these complexes should also respond to altitude, as light conditions in the forest change altitudinally. A previous study by Haber (1978) showed that color complexes do respond to altitude, but in a way inconsistent with light response. Either the previous study failed to incorporate forest conditions, like openness, which also alter light levels, or ithomiine color complexes are responding to altitude for different reasons, including the possibility that each color complex had a different …

Journal Of Food Law & Policy - Spring 2007, Journal Editors

Journal of Food Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Safe But Not Wholesome: The Troubling State Of Trans Fat Regulation, Ross Williams

Journal of Food Law & Policy

On March 7, 2007, the New York Times reported that Starbucks, the retail coffee chain which sells millions of baked goods every day from its over 8,700 U.S. stores, had asked its suppliers to eliminate all trans fats from their products by the end of the year. The big story for New York readers, though, was not that Starbucks was requiring the elimination of trans fats from its baked goods. In fact, New York City had just passed an ordinance strictly limiting the use of artificial trans fats, the type present in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (PHVO), by virtually all …

Harvey V. Veneman And The National Organic Program: Can Organic Be Synthetic?, Jennifer C. Fiser

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The market for organic products has increased dramatically in the United States and across the world in recent years.' Since 1997, sales of organic foods have grown from 15% to 21% per year, and while organic foods accounted for only 2.5% of total food sales in the United States in 2005, those sales amounted to $13.8 billion.

Defying Nature: The Ethical Implications Of Genetically Modified Plants, Debra M. Strauss

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Genetic engineering is changing the semantics, the meaning of life itself. We're trying to usurp the plant's choice. To force alien words into the plant's poem, but we [have] a problem. We barely know the root language. Genetic grammar's a mystery.... We've learned a lot about the letters-maybe our ability to read and spell words now sits halfway between accident and design - but our syntax is still haphazard. Scrambled. It's a semiotic nightmare.

A Role For Sperm In Regulation Of Egg-Laying In The Nematode C. Elegans, Marie Mcgovern, Ling Yu, Mary Kosinski, David Greenstein, Cathy Savage-Dunn

Publications and Research

Background In insects and in mammals, male sperm and seminal fluid provide signaling factors that influence various aspects of female physiology and behavior to promote reproductive success and to compete with other males. It is less apparent how important such signaling is in the context of a self-fertile hermaphrodite species. We have addressed this question in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which can reproduce either by hermaphrodite self-fertilization or by male-hermaphrodite mating.

Results We have studied the egg-laying defective mutant, egl-32, and found that the cellular basis of the egl-32 egg-laying phenotype is likely a defect in sperm. First, the time …

Microtacks For Retinal Implant Applications., Scott Douglas Cambron 1980-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP) are the two leading causes of blindness in the world today. Despite enormous efforts and advances in clinical treatment of eye diseases, there is no established method or cure of degenerative processes in the eye, such as ARMD and RP. In these disorders, the primary cause of blindness is due to the loss of photoreceptors, however, the remaining conductive neural pathways in the inner retina are still intact and functional. As a result, the University of Louisville in collaboration with the Center of Innovative Visual Rehabilitation at the Eye and Ear Infirmary …

Investigation Of Head And Neck Injury Risk Associated With Short-Distance Falls In 12 Month Old Children., Angela J. Knight

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the risk of severe head and neck injury in short distance falls for a 12-month-old child. A series of free falls and falls from standing were experimentally simulated using an instrumented anthropomorphic test device (ATD) representing a 12-month-old child. Three different falls heights, five different impact surfaces, and two levels of joint stiffness were tested to determine their effect on injury risk. Linear head accelerations were measured and angular head accelerations were calculated using the base of the neck as the pivot point. Head Injury Criteria (HIC) values and impact durations were …

Dxa Measurements Using A Micro Computed Tomograph System., James Bryant May 1981-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The field of bone densitometry has grown rapidly, particularly in the past 15 years. Many techniques are now available from which the physician may choose. The focus of this research is on Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA) and Quantitative Computed Tomography (QCT). The basic principle involving DXA is the ability to quantify the degree of attenuation of an energy beam after passage through bone and soft tissue. The X-ray tubes used with DXA narrow the energy beam to produce two distinct photoelectric peaks necessary to separate bone from soft tissue. Although QCT is a photon absorptiometric technique like DXA, it is …

Changes In Nitrogen Cycling During The Past Century In A Northern Hardwood Forest, Kendra K. Mclauchlan, Joseph M. Craine, W. Wyatt Oswald, Peter R. Leavitt, Gene E. Likens

Dartmouth Scholarship

Nitrogen (N) availability, defined here as the supply of N to terrestrial plants and soil microorganisms relative to their N demands, limits the productivity of many temperate zone forests and in part determines ecosystem carbon (C) content. Despite multidecadal monitoring of N in streams, the long-term record of N availability in forests of the northeastern United States is largely unknown. Therefore, although these forests have been receiving anthropogenic N deposition for the past few decades, it is still uncertain whether terrestrial N availability has changed during this time and, subsequently, whether forest ecosystems have responded to increased N deposition. Here, …

Stoichiometric Controls Of Mercury Dilution By Growth, Roxanne Karimi, Celia Y. Chen, Paul C. Pickhardt, Nicholas S. Fisher, Carol L. Folt

Dartmouth Scholarship

Rapid growth could significantly reduce methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in aquatic organisms by causing a greater than proportional gain in biomass relative to MeHg (somatic growth dilution). We hypothesized that rapid growth from the consumption of high-quality algae, defined by algal nutrient stoichiometry, reduces MeHg concentrations in zooplankton, a major source of MeHg for lake fish. Using a MeHg radiotracer, we measured changes in MeHg concentrations, growth and ingestion rates in juvenile Daphnia pulex fed either high (C:P = 139) or low-quality (C:P = 1317) algae (Ankistrodesmus falcatus) for 5 d. We estimated Daphnia steady-state MeHg concentrations, using a …

Inhibition Of Mold Growth By Sourdough Bread Cultures, Pei Ven Kam, Andreia Bianchini, Lloyd B. Bullerman

RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences

Sourdough bread cultures are mixtures of wild yeasts and Lactobacillus bacteria living in flour and water, where they form an interesting symbiosis that makes the culture quite stable. The presence of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in sourdough bread cultures increases the shelf life of the sourdough bread and other sweet baked goods made with these cultures, due to the inhibitory effect of organic acids on spoilage molds. In addition, it has been found that when sourdough LAB are cultivated they produce antifungal substances, such as organic acids (in particular, lactic acid and acetic acid), carbon dioxide, ethanol, and hydrogen peroxide, …

Chemical Stidies On Nucleic Acids Interaction With Some Antiviral Drugs: Developing Of Some New Methods For Nucleic Aeids Determination And Their Application, Islam Kamal Ali Shams

Theses

No abstract provided.

A Study On The Effects Of Wheel Throwing And A Child Diagnosed With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Jennifer Evans

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

It has been estimated that 3-7 percent of children are diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Barkley, 2005). Research has found many treatment options to be effective; however, the most efficacious treatment is a combination treatment of medication and cognitive/behavioral therapy. Some art therapists have discussed the treatment of ADHD; however, few studies have large enough samples and repeatable results to provide empirical support. It was hypothesized that an eight week ceramic/wheel-throwing intervention in individual art therapy sessions would help calm and focus a child diagnosed with ADHD. This study consisted of a six week, six sessions, ceramic wheel-throwing intervention …

European Views Of Preemption In Us National Security Strategy, Gary L. Guertner

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Parameters Editors

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Examining Stage Theories And The Predisposition To Lead Within The Homosexual Community, David Robert Blair Edd

Dissertations

An application of homosexual stage-based self-integration theory suggests that until gay individuals have become fully self-integrated, their capacity for leadership within the community is diminished. Unfortunately, now more than ever before, leadership is needed in dealing with such pressing community issues as the disproportionately high suicide rate among gay teens, the ongoing struggle for gays to become fully self-integrated individuals, bringing equal rights to the gay population, and of course, developing a base of strong gay leaders to meet the ongoing challenges facing this population. To test the self-integration-leadership hypothesis, this study surveyed 150 men in gay Internet chat rooms …

Parenting Factors Related To Asthma And Anxiety In Children, Abby H. Friedman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The present study examined the association between parenting style and anxiety in children with asthma. Participants included 60 children with asthma and 60 controls, aged 9-12 years. At least one of the children's parents participated. The children and their parents completed self-report measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Children reported on their parent's style of parenting, while parent's reported on parent-child relationship quality. Parents and physicians completed asthma severity reports. Results partially replicated previous findings. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) demonstrated that children with asthma obtained significantly higher scores than controls on the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC). …

Gastric Myoelectrical Activity In Patients With Diabetes, Sandra Luberata Holmes

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

This descriptive, correlational study investigated the associations among gastric myoelectrical activity (GMA), upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, and glucose control. The study also attempted to determine whether any relationship existed between upper GI symptoms, glucose control, age, or length of diagnosis and pattern of GMA identified using electrogastrography (EGG). A total of 25 persons participated in the study. The sample was comprised of 7 healthy controls, 5 patients diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and 13 patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Electrogastrography was performed for 30 minutes in the fasting state and continued at 30-minute intervals for a total of 1-1/2 …

Molecular Mechanism Of Tetraspanin Cd9 Mediated Cell Motility, Jayaprakash Kotha

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

CD9, a member of the tetraspanin superfamily of proteins participates in the regulation of cell adhesive functions such as cell migration. The mechanisms underlying CD9 mediated cell migration are not known. In the current study, we investigated the molecular basis for the CD9 promoted cell migration. Our findings show that the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI-3K) inhibitors, wortamannin and LY294002 inhibited CD9 promoted cell motility in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. In contrast, inhibitors targeting protein kinase C or mitogen-activated protein kinase had no effect on CD9 driven CHO cell motility. Furthermore, inhibition of PI-3K activity in CHO cells by dominant/negative PI-3K …

Novel Carbopol-Wax Blends For Controlled Release Oral Dosage Forms, Natarajansoundarapandian Mariageraldrajan

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Carbopol is crosslinked acrylic acid. Carbopol can be used in developing formulations for transdermal, oral, rectal use. It is forms strong gel in low concentration. Therefore, it can be used in low concentration in developing controlled release formulations. This increases the cost effectiveness and number of formulation options. In spite of its effectiveness, carbopol is one of the most efficient however underutilized polymer in oral controlled drug delivery system development. This is attributed to the difficulty in processing the carbopol. Carbopol has poor flow characteristics and stickiness. Objective of our research is to eliminate processing difficulties of carbopol using hot …

Effects Of Tricalcium Phosphate Coated Titanium On Adjacent Early Bone Formation, Bristol Williams

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Dental implants are the gold standard of restorative dentistry today. Implants have been used for several years in Orthopedics. Dental implants are an important treatment option for several patients today. When a patient is fully or partially dentate, they are given the opportunity to restore their dentition in ways similar to their natural oral cavity. The past literature states that titanium is one of the first metals used in implant placement. There have been many improvements made on this material. Most modifications have been used in order to promote more bone growth around these implants. Several different coating materials have …

The Act Requirement As A Basic Concept Of Criminal Law, Francisco Muñoz-Conde, Luis Ernesto Chiesa

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Consent And The Grammar Of Theft Law, Stuart P. Green

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Silver Doped Hydroxyapatite Coating On Titanium Surfaces And Its Effect On Early Bone Response And Osseointegration, Nicole Besu

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The clinical success of dental implants is determined mostly by surface properties of implants and interactions with surrounding tissues. Furthermore, clinical success of dental implants is directed by implant surfaces and bone cell responses that promote osseointegration and long-term stability. Hydroxyapatite (HA)-coated Titanium (Ti) implants have been widely used due to its effect on bone response. However, microbial infection is common. One material known to have anti-microbial properties is silver (Ag). However, the effects Ag has on osteoblastic activity as well as decrease bacterial load has yet to be determined.

In this study, the effect of Ag-doped HA coatings on …