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Vegetation Trends On A Waste Rock Repository Cap In The Northern Black Hills, Andrew C. Korth, Gary E. Larson, Lan Xu, Thomas E. Schumacher

The Prairie Naturalist

We assessed successional trends, long-term vegetation sustainability, and soil surface protection during the 2005-2007 growing seasons on the 32-ha Ruby Gulch Waste Rock Repository cap. The cap consisted of 150 cm of rock and soil covering a polyethylene membrane which in turn covered mining waste rock in order to prevent leaching of heavy metals and acidic water into streams. Following construction in 2003, a contractor applied a grass-forb seed mixture to provide soil-surface protection especially for steeply sloped portions of the cap. In 2005, we established 56, 1-m² plots, and 20, 20-m transects to annually measure canopy cover, basal …

The Correlation Between Academic Achievements, Self-Esteem And Motivation Of Female Seventh Grade Students: A Mixed Methods Approach, Karen Henman

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the early grades, female students generally display enthusiasm for learning science. As these same students go though school, however, their level of motivation changes. Once female students reach high school, many lack the confidence to take chemistry and physics. Then, in college they lack the background necessary to major in chemistry, physics, and engineering. This study used quantitative data to investigate the correlation between female students' motivation, self-esteem, and standards-based state science achievement tests combined with a qualitative survey of student’s perceptions of parents’ attitudes toward science. The Children’s Science Motivation Inventory (CAIMI) determined students’ levels of motivation toward …

A Role For The Transcriptional Repressor Rest In Patterning The Zebrafish Neural Tube, Keith Pendleton Gates

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The spatial and temporal control of gene expression is key to generation of specific cellular fates during development. Studies of the transcriptional repressor REST/NRSF (RE1 Silencing Transcription factor/Neural Restrictive Silencing Factor) have provided important insight into the role that epigenetic modifications play in differential gene expression. Functional studies place REST within multiple developmental pathways and transcriptional networks. However, findings between different groups are often incongruent, and little progress has been made on understanding the embryonic lethality of the Rest knockout mice. What emerges from the controversies surrounding REST function is that the cellular context of REST is paramount. Here, zebrafish …

Fabrication And Applications Of Electrospun Core-Sheath Fibers, Shifeng Han

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Interests in electrospinning have recently been expanded further due to the ability of electrospinning to produce nanofibers with core-sheath or hollow structures. Such fibers have been widely studied as a promising candidate for many applications, such as biomedical and electrical devices. This thesis has been composed of two parts on the coaxial electrospinning technology: (1) an overview of the coaxial electrospinning, including its essential features, the material and process parameters that can impact fiber formation, and the potential applications of core-sheath fibers; (2) a research study on electrospun poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PEG-PCL) core-sheath structured fibers. The research project included the fabrication …

Novel Roles Of The Conserved Argonaute Proteins During Mammalian Development: From Mirna Biogenesis To Gene Silencing, Sihem Cheloufi

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The Argonaute proteins are highly conserved throughout evolution. They associate with diverse classes of small RNAs to mediate gene silencing in developmental programs and participate in defense responses to viruses, transposons, and cellular stress. Vertebrate genomes encode four argonaute clade proteins. In mice, Argonaute2 (AGO2) is essential for embryogenesis, oogenesis and hematopoiesis. The developmental functions of the remaining Argonaute family members, AGO1, AGO3, and AGO4, remain elusive. My thesis work focuses on exploring the function of all four Argonaute proteins during animal development. Intriguingly, individual deletions of Ago1, Ago3, and Ago4, or deficiency of all three Argonautes had no apparent …

The Role Of The Tumor Suppressor Kinase Lkb1 In Xenobiotic Metabolism, Rebecca Ann Kohnz

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The liver kinase-B1 (LKB1) is a serine/threonine kinase that has numerous roles in human disease. LKB1 was originally identified as a tumor suppressor kinase that, when inactivated, is responsible for the human inherited disorder Peutz-Jeghers syndrome which is characterized by benign gastric polyposis and increased cancer predisposition. More recently, inactivating LKB1 somatic mutations in humans have been found in 15-35% of non-small cell lung carcinomas and in 20% of cervical carcinomas. LKB1 functions as a master kinase upstream of 14 different substrates kinases and these substrates have critical roles in cell growth, polarity, and metabolism. Previous studies show that in …

Whalemen's Song: Lyrics And Masculinity In The Sag Harbor Whalefishery, 1840-1850, Stephen Nicholas Sanfilippo

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Abstract for the Dissertation Whalemen's Song: Lyrics and Masculinity in the Sag Harbor Whalefishery, 1840-1850 by Stephen Nicholas Sanfilippo Doctor of Philosopy in History Stony Brook University 2010 "Whalemen's Song" is a gender-based examination of conceptions and performances of masculinity among Long Islanders of British ancestry who whaled out of Sag Harbor in the 1840s. Its theoretical basis is that masculinity is cultural and demonstrated in performance, with concepts and performances varying from man to man, betwen and among groups of men, and in relation to various "others, depending upon the particulars of a situation, including for whom masculinity is …

Mechanism And Inhibition Of Bacterial Enoyl-Acp Reductases: Towards Novel Antibacterial Drugs, Hao Lu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Resistance to existing antimicrobial agents is a global threat to human health care, and new drugs with novel mechanisms of action are required in order to keep pace with the emergence of drug resistant pathogens. The bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis (FAS-II) pathway represents a validated yet relatively unexploited target for new antibiotic development and consequently there is significant interest in developing potent inhibitors of FAS-II enzymes. In this work we have focused on the FAS-II enoyl-ACP reductase enzyme which is known to be essential for bacterial survival. We cloned, expressed and purified the enoyl-ACP reductase from Francisella tularensis (ftuFabI). The …

Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization Of 1-Substituted Cyclobutene Derivatives And Its Application To Antimicrobials: From Homopolymers To Alternating Copolymers, Airong Song

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) is a chain-growth polymerization based on the ring opening of strained cyclic olefins providing a range of polymeric materials. Living ROMP of highly strained norbornene derivatives generates linear polymers with accurate molecular weight control and low polydispersities (PDIs). However, internally heterogeneous mixtures are obtained because the polymerization reactions lack complete stereochemical and regiochemical control. 1-Substituted cyclobutene amides undergo ruthenium-catalyzed ROMP to provide polymers with translationally invariant backbones (E-configuration) and excellent PDIs. To better understand the structural factors that control the regio- and stereochemistry of the ROMP reactions of 1-substituted cyclobutenes, several 1-subsituted cyclobutenes with varied …

Hybrid Nanostructures For Bone Tissue Engineering, Ruipeng Xue

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Natural bone is composed of natural polymers, collagen fibers and nano-crystals of minerals, mainly nano-hydroxyapatite (HA). Bone cells, which maintain the activities and metabolism of bone, are supported by and interact with this organic-inorganic hybrid matrix. Artificial bone tissue scaffolds mimicking the natural bone's extracellular matrix based on synthetic hybrid cellulose acetate (CA)-hydroxyapatite nano-composites were fabricated in this work in 3D matrix architecture for bone cell regeneration, using a single step nano-manufacturing technique. Cultured human osteoblasts were seeded on CA and CA-HA scaffolds, after which cell proliferative capacity and viability were studied using complementary assays. The interactions between the cells …

Taxonomic Implications Of Basicranial Variation In Australopithecus Africanus, Timothy R. Petersen

Anthropology ETDs

Although it was discovered 85 years ago, Australopithecus africanus remains a source of contention among paleoanthropologists. Uncertainty about the fossils taxonomic unity has resulted in controversy about their place in hominin phylogeny. This work addresses their taxonomy through application of three-dimensional morphometrics followed by analysis of their patterns of variation in traditional morphological characters. This sequential approach lends more support to the conclusions than would either technique alone. The cranial base was selected as the focus of the analyses because it preserves well and is likely to capture taxonomically-important variation. This inference is supported by the finding herein that the …

Individual Micrornas (Mirnas) Display Distinct Mrna Targeting "Rules", Wang-Xia Wang, Bernard R. Wilfred, Kevin Xie, Mary H. Jennings, Yanling Hu, Arnold J. Stromberg, Peter T. Nelson

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Faculty Publications

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) guide Argonaute (AGO)-containing microribonucleoprotein (miRNP) complexes to target mRNAs.It has been assumed that miRNAs behave similarly to each other with regard to mRNA target recognition. The usual assumptions, which are based on prior studies, are that miRNAs target preferentially sequences in the 3'UTR of mRNAs,guided by the 5' "seed" portion of the miRNAs. Here we isolated AGO- and miRNA-containing miRNPs from human H4 tumor cells by co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP) with anti-AGO antibody. Cells were transfected with miR-107, miR-124,miR-128, miR-320, or a negative control miRNA. Co-IPed RNAs were subjected to downstream high-density Affymetrix Human Gene 1.0 ST microarray analyses using …

How Anthocyanin Mutants Respond To Stress: The Need To Distinguish Between Stress Tolerance And Maximal Vigour, Eric J. Von Wettberg, Maureen L. Stanton, Justen B. Whittall

Biology

Background: Anthocyanins are produced by plants in response to diverse stresses Mutants that block the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway (A BP) at various steps can easily be compared across numerous abiotic stresses Hypothesis: Anthocyanins or their precursors are required for stress tolerance. Thus, ABP loss-of-function mutants should have proportionately lower fitness than wildtype plants under stress, compared with benign conditions In contrast, a decrease in maximal vigour the general capacity for growth and fecundity should be most pronounced under benign conditions that allow luxuriant growth by the most vigorous genotypes Tests: Determine whether, under stressful conditions. ABP loss-of-function mutants have relatively …

Optimal Energy Allocation And Behavior Modification In Provisioning Crawfordapis Luctuosa, May 2010, David Gardner

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Behaviors and actions of species can be described according to optimality. Crawfordapis luctuosa, an understudied endemic species to Central America, has little information pertaining to its behavior. Energy allocation can provide insight on what actions are most important to C. luctuosa. Measured times spent inside and outside provisioned nests indicate that manipulations involving the covering of nests influence these times. Optimal energy allocation for behaviors observed during a manipulation are noted and studied. Different behaviors could account for the amount of provisioning the bee needs to maintain. Further research on cost/benefit analyses and C. luctuosa could better describe the natural …

How Ecotourism Is Felt Throughout The Greater Monteverde Region With An Emphasis On Local Happiness, May 2010, Hannah L. Findlay

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Within the last two decades, the zone of Monteverde, Costa Rica has been targeted by the tourism industry as an ideal destination for conservationists and adventure-seekers alike. This study investigates many of the potential cultural impacts (including changes in individual levels of happiness) brought upon by the drastic shift in the economic focus of the community from agriculture to tourism in the past 20 years. I conducted 100 face-to-face interviews, each consisting of 18 questions, in all major regions of the zone of Monteverde. Questions aimed to obtain demographic information as well as the participants’ attitudes towards ecotourism and their …

Non-Vocal Sounds Produced By The Wings Of Inca Doves, Columbina Inca, And Seasonal Effects On Communication Behavior In Costa Rican Dry-Moist Lowland Forest, May 2010, Robert Niese

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Recent studies have shown that many birds communicate non-vocally using highly modified feathers in their wings. Several columbid species (pigeons and doves) are believed to produce these non-vocal sounds when they are alarmed and take-off in flight, conveying threat-related information to other birds. This study investigated the communicative significance of the buzzing wing-sounds created during the flight of the Inca dove in dry to moist lowland forest of the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica and characterized seasonal changes in communication behavior. Recordings of alarmed and non-alarmed flight were acoustically analyzed and used for playback experiments to determine if wing-sounds can …

Site Fidelity And Song Rate As Indicators Of Territoriality In Neotropical Cricket (Gryllidae), May 2010, Hannah Bergemann

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Territoriality is a competitive behavior expressed commonly throughout the animal kingdom in a wide variety of ways. To establish there is territoriality in simpler animals such as insects the practice of two specific types of behavior is a strong indicator. The first behavior is site fidelity, or the tendency of an animal to regularly return to previously occupied locations. The second behavior is the expression of aggression during encounters between two individuals in the presence of the aforementioned location. To test the presence of territoriality in a Neotropical cricket population, site fidelity was recorded as well as the response to …

Sleep Site Selection In Three Species Of Norops Lizards (Squamata Polychrotidae) In The San Luis Valley, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, May 2010, Peter M. Gibson

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

The sleeping patterns of animals are important factors in fully understanding their behavior. I studied the sleeping site selection of three species of Norops lizards. I caught the lizards during the day, applied fluorescent powder, and tracked them to their eventual sleeping location at night using UV light. I measured multiple variables, including weather conditions, height, and level of protection provided by the site. Mean night heights of males and females, as well as among species, proved significantly different, thus maintaining daytime stratification. However, males and females were distributed opposite of that seen during the day, with females sleeping higher …

Supernormal Stimulus As A Mimicry Strategy The Case For Epidendrum Radicans (Orchidaceae), May 2010, Daniel Paul

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Epidendrum radicans is a food deceptive Batesian mimic of its sympatric model species Asclepias curassavica and Lantana camara. Theoretically, food deceptive orchids should be rare with small inflorescences (Johnson et al. 1993; Weins 1978) yet in San Luis, Costa Rica E. radicans grows in large monotypic stands with individuals sporting up to 12 open flowers per inflorescence. E. radicans might attract pollinators using flower or inflorescence size as a visual supernormal stimulus also implicated in floral mimicry (Scheistl 2004). Pollinia removal of E. radicans was measured in plants with i) inflorescence sizes of two and ten growing amongst model species …

Abundance Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizae In Epiphytic Orchidaceae: Abiotic, Biotic And Taxonomic Factors, May 2010, Logan E. Smestad

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Despite nutrient stress, not all epiphytes have mycorrhizal associations, including some epiphytic orchids (Lesica & Antibus 1990). In this study epiphytic orchids were collected from tree and limb falls in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica. Abiotic factors such as branch circumference, presence or absence of moss mats, thickness of moss mats, substrate pH and moisture content were measured for their impact on mycorrhizal abundance. Biotic factors such as relative age of the orchid, plant height and the presence or absence of pseudobulbs were also considered. Finally, taxonomic factors were assessed as abundance of mycorrhizae related to the Pleurothallid or …

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Vesicles In Coffea Arabica (Rubiaceae): Agroforestry And Conventional Coffee Farms, May 2010, Jason C. Kopp

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Due to their nutrient-poor soils, a pressing issue in tropical countries is the conservation of land through more sustainable agricultural practices in order to continue to feed their booming populations. Agroforestry is a possible sustainable solution, which reduces negative impacts on the environment, including impacts on mycorrhizal fungi. Mycorrhizal fungal associations within plants are important designators of a healthy crop and a more sustainable management system. This study investigates differences in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) vesicle abundance between the center and edge of an agroforestry coffee farm and the center of a conventional coffee farm. Eight different root samples were …

Stem Cell Research And Cloning For Human Reproduction: An Analysis Of The Laws, The Direction In Which They May Be Heading In Light Of Recent Developments, And Potential Constitutional Issues, Catherine D. Payne

Mercer Law Review

I. INTRODUCTION

The world is continuously changing before our eyes. New scientific and technological developments are constantly being made. Not surprisingly, these changes usually occur well before the law is ready to respond and accommodate them. One of the most recent developments that will soon be pushing the limits of the law is in the world of science. Researchers around the world have been independently working to see if they can unlock the secrets to the development of reproductive cells. Ultimately, the research teams are hoping to learn what causes stem cells to differentiate into sperm and egg cells. One …

Hanseatic Cogs And Baltic Trade: Interrelations Between Trade Technology And Ecology, Jillian R. Smith

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

The Hanseatic League was the major commercial power in northern Europe from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. During this time, it grew to encompass the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas and maintained economic influence over key areas on the European continent. From the inception of the Hanseatic League until the midfifteenth century, one ship type dominated the inland and overseas trade: the Cog. Cog design remained fairly constant throughout the period in spite of the great geographical variation present within the Hanseatic League. Cogs became increasingly larger throughout the period, requiring a greater amount of oak timber …

Review Of Aguecheek’S Beef, Belch’S Hiccup, And Other Gastronomic Interjections: Literature, Culture, And Food Among The Early Moderns By Robert Appelbaum, Elizabeth Spiller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Histories of food have traditionally emerged out of the fields of structural anthropology, ethnology, and historical sociology. More recent scholarship has emphasized the idea of foodways, those networks by which foods are produced, prepared, and consumed within different food communities. Rather than seeing rituals of culture in food, such scholarship has instead sought to understand food in terms of a circulation of physical resources and values that involves questions of economics, ecology, biology, and ethnobotany. The first approach has tended, broadly speaking, to produce scholarship that is concerned with the ritual, symbolic, and social qualities to our acts of sustenance. …

Controlled Interaction: Strategies For Using Virtual Reality To Study Perception, Frank H. Durgin, Z. Li

Psychology Faculty Works

Immersive virtual reality systems employing head-mounted displays offer great promise for the investigation of perception and action, but there are well-documented limitations to most virtual reality systems. In the present article, we suggest strategies for studying perception/action interactions that try to depend on both scale-invariant metrics (such as power function exponents) and careful consideration of the requirements of the interactions under investigation. New data concerning the effect of pincushion distortion on the perception of surface orientation are presented, as well as data documenting the perception of dynamic distortions associated with head movements with uncorrected optics. A review of several successful …

Scholarworks Statistics - May 2010, Scholarworks

ScholarWorks Reports

For the month of May 2010, ScholarWorks recorded a total of 5,317 full-text downloads.

Commencement 2010, Sacred Heart University

Commencement Programs

Program for the Graduate and Undergraduate ceremonies held May 15-16, 2010.

Alterations In Neuromodulators Of Gabaergic Transmission In The Cerebellar Cortex Of Patients With Schizophrenia, William Michael Bullock

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

One of the most consistent findings in schizophrenia is the dysfunction of specific subsets of GABAergic interneurons in distributed brain regions including the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum. Analyses of post-mortem tissue from cerebellar hemispheres from 13 schizophrenic patients and 13 matched controls by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) revealed that the mRNA levels of both the 67 kDa and 65 kDa isoforms of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD67 and GAD65) are decreased. Additionally, the presynaptic GABA transporter GAT-1 and the Golgi cell specific neuromodulator metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2) were decreased in the schizophrenic group. Postsynaptic upregulation of GABAA-alpha6 and delta along …

Ask A Different Question, Get A Different Answer: Why Living Wills Are Poor Guides To Care Preferences At The End Of Life., Laraine Winter, Susan M Parks, James J Diamond

Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health Research Papers

CONTEXT: Living wills have a poor record of directing care at the end of life, as a copious literature attests. Some speculation centers on the questionable correspondence between the scenario described in living wills versus the real-life circumstances that typically arise at the end of life.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the strength of association between responses to a standard living will question and preferences for treatments in six end-of-life scenarios.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional.

SETTING: Telephone interviews.

PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred two community-dwelling men and women 70 years of age or older in the greater Philadelphia area.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Strength of preferences for …

Farm To School Programs As A Tool For Food System Sustainability, Samantha Jackson

All Theses

Are Farm to School Programs being utilized by communities as a component of agricultural sustainability? This initial question led to a larger inquiry as to what agricultural sustainability tools communities are incorporating, with Farm to School Programs as a component, and what roles, or potential roles, planners are playing in program creation and implementation. A literature review of the current food system, sustainability threats imbedded within the system, and the potential for local food system planning, specifically Farm to School Programs, to overcome these threats provided a framework for research on the agricultural sustainability tools being planned for within communities …