Digital Commons Network^™

Adaptive Responses Of Branchial Morphology To Hypoxia In The Neotropical Electric Fish Genus Brachyhypopomus, Leilani B. Pathak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many tropical aquatic environments worldwide are characterized by intermittent or prolonged hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen). Nevertheless, many tropical freshwater fishes are able to inhabit these challenging environments via a range of morphological, physiological and behavioral adaptations. Brachyhypopomus is a diverse genus of weakly electric fishes represented by 28 known species distributed from Panama to Argentina. 17 species are restricted to permanently normoxic habitats (blackwater rivers and terra firme streams), eight species are restricted to seasonally or perennially hypoxic habitats (whitewater floodplains of large tropical rivers or permanent swampy habitats), and three species are eurytopic (occur in both seasonally hypoxic and …

Sea Turtle Conservation Program - 2011 Report, Curtis Burney, Laura J. Wight

Sea Turtle Nesting Trends Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Taking Economic Human Rights Seriously After The Debt Crisis, Steven A. Ramirez

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Foster Parents' Perspectives On Foster Children With Autistic Spectrum Disorder In The Child Welfare System And How They Impact The Lives Of The Foster Parents, Uchechukwu Adaure Alozie

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to examine how foster parents contributed to the wellness and permanency of an autistic foster child and to know if foster caregivers were adequately equipped to care for a child with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Foster parents of children with ASD were interviewed to gather their opinions and perceptions about whether their autistic foster children were receiving adequate services and if these services increased the child's safety and quality of life. The study used a qualitative design, with in-depth face-to-face and telephone interviews with nine foster parents of children diagnosed with ASD in child …

How Independent Living Skills Services Affect The Outcomes Of Emancipated Foster Youth In Attaining Self-Sufficiency, Tracy Burks, Sandra Fernandez

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study is to highlight the services that are beneficial and highlight additional services that are needed in order to facilitate a successful transition for emancipating foster youth. This study shows how self-sufficiency in emancipating foster youth is affected by the services provided by the Independent Living Skills (ILP) program. Face-to-face interviews were completed with ILP participants as data collected source and quantitative research was conducted using surveys and focus groups to obtain firsthand information and personal experiences from former foster youth themselves.

Reunification Outcomes For Hispanics In The Child Welfare System, Lucia Aguirre Coronel

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to identify any contributing factors to the overrepresentation of Hispanic children in the child welfare system. This study used an exploratory design and quantitavie methods to examine reunification oucomes of 100 case files in a county in Southern California.

Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Cavity Tree Damage By Hurricane Rita: An Evaluation Of Contributing Factors, Ben Bainbridge, Kristen A. Baum, Daniel Saenz, Cory K. Adams

Faculty Publications

Picoides borealis (Red-cockaded Woodpecker) is an endangered species inhabiting pine savannas of the southeastern United States. Because the intensity of hurricanes striking the southeastern United States is likely to increase as global temperatures rise, it is important to identify factors contributing to hurricane damage to Red-cockaded Woodpecker cavity-trees. Our objectives were to examine the effects of landscape-level factors on wind damage to cavity-trees and assess the relative risk of wind damage for different tree species and trees with different types of cavities. We evaluated wind damage to cavity-trees from Hurricane Rita on the Angelina, Sabine, and Davy Crockett national forests …

Williams Believes Insects Can Teach Us A Lot, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate Schedule Of Classes For 2011, Spring [Full Spring Semester Session] | Academic Calendar | Class Schedule, Office Of The Registrar, Stony Brook University

Calendars

No abstract provided.

Academic Calendar | Undergraduate Schedule Of Classes For 2011, Summer [Summer I - C Session] | Class Schedule, Office Of The Registrar, Stony Brook University

Calendars

No abstract provided.

Graduate Schedule Of Classes For 2012, Spring [Full Spring Semester Session] | Academic Calendar | Class Schedule, Office Of The Registrar, Stony Brook University

Calendars

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Men In Gender Equality_Eire Report, Niall Hanlon

Reports

Eire Report for the study The Role of Men in Gender Equality European strategies & insights

P62, Ref(2)P And Ubiquitinated Proteins Are Conserved Markers Of Neuronal Aging, Aggregate Formation And Progressive Autophagic Defects, Bryan J. Bartlett, Pauline Isakson, Jan Lewerenz, Heriberto Sanchez, Roxanne W. Kotzebue, Robert Cumming, Greg L. Harris, Ioannis P. Nezis, David Schubert, Anne Simonsen, Kim D. Finley

Paediatrics Publications

Suppression of macroautophagy, due to mutations or through processes linked to aging, results in the accumulation of cytoplasmic substrates that are normally eliminated by the pathway. This is a significant problem in long-lived cells like neurons, where pathway defects can result in the accumulation of aggregates containing ubiquitinated proteins. The p62/Ref(2)P family of proteins is involved in the autophagic clearance of cytoplasmic protein bodies or sequestosomes. These unique structures are closely associated with protein inclusions containing ubiquitin as well as key components of the autophagy pathway. In this study we show that detergent fractionation followed by western blot analysis of …

Farmers, Politics, And Accounting: The History Of Standard Values -- An Accounting Convenience Or Political Arithmetic?, Jill J. Hooks, Ross E. Stewart

Accounting Historians Journal

This paper examines accounting in the social, political, and economic context within which it operates. Specifically, the farming sector in New Zealand provides the context for studying the history of standard-value accounting. This accounting practice emerged with the support of accountants, farmers, and the state as the tax regime in New Zealand slowly moved to an income tax for farmers from 1915. The paper examines how accounting became a practice of political arithmetic, mediating the economic power of the farmers with the rest of the tax base of New Zealand. Standard-value accounting for livestock became a device that represented the …

A Health Assessment Of The Acacia Xanthophloea Woodlands Around Lake Naivasha, Kenya, Rachel C. White

Digitized Theses

ABSTRACT

The objectives of this study were to assess the health of the Acacia xanthophloea woodlands that surround Lake Naivasha, Kenya, and examine how woodland health is correlated with adjacent land use. Field surveys were conducted in 26 woodlands around Lake Naivasha in 2010. Analysis of the size distribution of acacia trees showed that woodlands grow in even-aged stands. Recruits were abundant in areas of low canopy cover and high wildlife impacts, and absent in sites with high soil electrical conductivity. Heavy browsing stunted the growth of small trees and was positively correlated with acacia thorn length. Small and mid-sized …

A Fast Implementation For Correcting Errors In High Throughput Sequencing Data, Lankesh K. Shivanna

Digitized Theses

ABSTRACT

The impact of the next generation DNA sequencing technologies (NGS) produced a revolu­tion in biological research. New computational tools are needed to deal with the huge amounts of data they output. Significantly shorter length of the reads and higher per-base error rate compared with Sanger technology make things more difficult and still critical problems, such as genome assembly, are not satisfactorily solved. Significant efforts have been spent recently on software programs aimed at increasing the quality of the NGS data by correcting errors. The most accurate program to date is HiTEC and our contribution is providing a completely new …

Anonymous And Gene-Linked Microsatellite Markers Reveal No Correlation Between Heterozygosity And Song Complexity In A Wild Population Of Song Sparrows, James Douglas Morrison King

Digitized Theses

ABSTRACT

Correlations between heterozygosity and fitness are commonly reported in the literature, but there is disagreement about the frequency of such correlations and the mechanisms which underlie them. Using a multi-year data set acquired from a wild population of song sparrows I investigated the relationship between heterozygosity and song complexity, an important sexually selected trait thought to be an indicator of genetic quality. Heterozygosity was determined at 17 putatively neutral microsatellites and 5 microsatellites derived from the expressed sequence tag of zebra finch brain proteins. Song and syllable repertoire size were taken as measures of song complexity. Neither genetic marker …

Assessing Proteolytic Virulence Factors Of Staphylococcus Aureus Using In Vitro Biofilm And In Vivo Infection Models, Yue Cheng Zhu

Digitized Theses

Staphylococcus aureus is implicated in many different infections and is known to readily build biofilms on host tissues and biological implants, leading to numerous transplant and implant related complications every year. Its proteases, especially those encoded by the sspABC operon, may play a role in biofilm dispersal and are the focus of this study. A protease-deficient mutant of S. aureus was constructed through allelic replacement of the sspABC operon, and the resulting mutant was used to assess changes in vitro and in vivo through biofilm growth assays under various conditions of acid stress and carbon source supplementation, and in a …

Analysis Of Variations In Susceptibility And Transcriptome Responses In Tomato To Two-Spotted Spider Mite Feeding, Ingrid Fung

Digitized Theses

The two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae Koch) is a pest of tomatoes (Solarium lycopersicum) worldwide. The aim of this study was to generate data for comparison of spider mite resistant and susceptible tomato cultivar transcriptiome responses to mite feeding. Cultivars were screened for mite resistance using a platform developed and presented in this thesis. MicroTom (a brassinosteroid biosynthesis mutant) was found to be resistant to mite feeding, while MicroTom-D (a near isogenic line with increased brassinosteroid biosynthesis) was susceptible indicating that brassinosteroids may have a role in defences against spider miteTbeding. Jasmonic acid levels differed in these two lines endogenously …

Characterization Of Atg8 Gene Homologs In Verticillium Dahliae And Verticillium Albo-Atrum, Sylvie M. Van Twest

Digitized Theses

The vascular wilt fungi Verticillium dahliae and the closely related Verticillium albo-atrum are devastating plant pathogens. Both pathogens produce resting structures that accumulate in soil, and are difficult to eradicate. V dahliae produces microsclerotia (MCS), while V albo-atrum produces dark resting mycelia (DRM). The role ofATG8, an autophagy marker was studied by generating A TG8 knockouts in V dahliae (vdatg8), and V albo-atrum (vaatgS). Although dispensable for pathogenicity in both species, in V dahliae ATG8 was involved in dimorphic growth, conidiation, and MCS formation, but not glycogen accumulation. Increased temperatures restored conidiation and MCS formation in vdatg8, indicating that autophagy …

Characterization Of Htsa, The Ferric-Staphyloferrin A-Binding Protein In Staphylococcus Aureus, John D.E. Cooper

Digitized Theses

The frequent human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus requires a sufficient source of iron to proliferate and, thus, to sustain an infection of a mammalian host. However, the free iron concentration in the host is insufficient for bacterial growth without use of specialized uptake mechanisms. To overcome this, S. aureus utilizes multiple systems to scavenge host iron. One such strategy that S. aureus employs is the use of siderophores: secreted, small-molecular-weight, high-affinity iron chelators. S. aureus synthesizes and secretes two anionic a-hydroxycarboxylate siderophores, staphyloferrin A (SA) and staphyloferrin B (SB). Fe-SA and Fe-SB complexes are transported into the cell through the highly …

Courtship Behaviour Of Macrosiphum Euphorbiae (Thomas), As Well As The Effects Of Host Plant Volatiles And Wind Speed On The Upwind Movement Of Males, Wendy Marie Alexander

Digitized Theses

In fall, gynoparae and males of the potato aphid, Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas), migrate from secondary to primary host plants, where mating occurs. Little is known about courtship behaviour or the factors affecting how males locate host plants and receptive females. Mating assays were carried out to test the hypothesis that female age affected mating success. The data obtained did not support my hypothesis but were used to develop a mating behaviour ethogramme. In wind tunnel bioassays I tested the hypotheses that (i) the upwind responses of males to odour cues would decrease with increasing wind speed and (ii) male responses …

Colonization Of Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench By The N2-Fixing Endophyte Gluconacetobacter Diazotrophicus, Vanessa Yoon

Digitized Theses

Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus is a N2-fixing endophyte to study biological nitrogen fixation in cereal crops. The objectives of this study were to establish colonization of sorghum with G. diazotrophicus and to evaluate the effects of the environment and sucrose on colonization. Seven sorghum cultivars inoculated with the bacterium were grown under greenhouse and field conditions. In the sweet and grain cultivars, G. diazotrophicus was either detected in the roots, stems and/or leaves. Differences in colonization were observed among the different plant cultivars and plant growth conditions. G. diazotrophicus was detected in a higher proportion of sweet sorghum plants than grain sorghum …

Differential Sources And Controls Of Soil Co2 Efflux In A Sugar Maple Forest, Natalia Anna Lecki

Digitized Theses

This study determined controls on snow free season soil CO2 efflux in a sugar maple forest in central Ontario. Soil CO2 efflux data were collected with soil temperature, moisture, nutrient pools and sorption capacity. Soil CO2 efflux ranged from 0.2 to 30 pmol/m2/s. Temperature and moisture explained 49% of the variance (p<0.0001), with carbon pools and sorption capacity explaining an additional 31% (p<0.0001). The forest floor carbon pool was negatively correlated with soil CO2 efflux, indicating it is a net carbon sink to the atmosphere. In contrast, a positive correlation was found between soil CO2 efflux and the carbon-rich Ah horizon, indicating Ah carbon is actively respired, and the carbon-poor Ae horizon with high sorption capacity, indicating Ae serves as a trap for dissolved carbon flowing downslope that is subsequently respired. This finding has implications for managing forests for carbon offsets, because the majority of carbon is respired from older soils underneath the forest floor.

Effect Of Rearing Conditions On The Development, Size And Lipid Accumulation Of The True Armyworm, Pseudaletia Unipuncta (Haworth), Maria Angela Marinas

Digitized Theses

Insects migrate in order to escape deteriorating habitats and colonize new ones. However, long distance flight may utilise resources that would otherwise be allocated to reproduction and it has been postulated that migrants have adaptations to reduce the cost of migration to future reproduction. I determined the suitability of the rearing method used extensively for previous studies on Pseudaletia unipuncta adult moth eco- physiology that is primarily based on artificial diets and environmental conditions to mimic cues of habitat quality. I found that there are significant differences in developmental time, mass and lipid accumulation between insects reared under artificial conditions …

Expression Of Active Fungal Xylanases In N. Benthamiana For Hemicellulose Degradation, Ruoyu Yan

Digitized Theses

Lack of effective biomass pretreatments has been one of the main limiting factors for cellulosic ethanol production. The addition of plant-made hemicellulases to the pretreatment procedure is an alternative method of obtaining fermentable sugars. Four putative or characterized xylanases out of 73 hydrolases from A. niger were found by bioinformatics analysis. Proteins of interest were targeted to the ER, and transiently expressed in N. benthamiana plants accumulating up to 38% of TSP. A simple surfactant- based aqueous two-phase system was used to purify xylanase-HFBI fusions with a recovery up to 83%. An endoxylanase and a P-xylosidase were characterized, and their …

Dopamine Transmission Through D1 Versus D2 Receptors Controls The Encoding Of Opiate Reward Memory As A Function Of Opiate Exposure State, Ning Chi

Digitized Theses

Considerable evidence has demonstrated the importance of basolateral amygdala (BLA) in associative learning and memory processing. Furthermore, recent evidence at the behavioural and molecular levels, implicates an important role for the BLA in the processing of drug-related learning and memory events. Through anatomical connections with the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system, neuronal activity and plasticity within the BLA are altered through DA receptor transmission originating in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). However, the specific function of DA receptors within the BLA during associative opiate reward learning is not clear. We used a place preference conditioning paradigm and pharmacological manipulations of DA …

Ethylene Receptor Ers2: A New Client Protein Of Hsp90 In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Maryam Khodai-Kalaki

Digitized Theses

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a highly essential molecular chaperone that regulates the maturation and activity of its client proteins. Our goal was to analyse the potential role of Hsp90 in ethylene pathway by characterizing its interaction with Ethylene Sensor 2 (ERS2), whose function is perception and transduction of ethylene in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we identified ERS2 as a client protein and characterized the Hsp90-ERS2 interaction using yeast two-hybrid and Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation approaches. Based on our findings, ERS2 interacts with Hsp90 via its kinase domain and Hsp90 regulates the stability of ERS2. These data will expand our knowledge …

Characterizing Substrate Specifity And Subcellular Localization Of Arogenate Dehydratases From Arabidopsis Thaliana, Crystal Dawn Bross

Digitized Theses

The enzyme arogenate dehydratase (ADT) operates in phenylalanine biosynthesis. To determine the substrate specificity and subcellular localization of all six Arabidopsis ADTs, pha2 yeast complementation assays and confocal microscopy analyses were performed. The pha2 yeast complementation assay was used to determine the ADTs that can accept prephenate as a substrate in vivo. Results show that ADT1, ADT2 and ADT4 were able to complement the pha2 phenotype, but PDT function is temperature dependent. Results from confocal microscopy analyses show that ADT-CFP fusion proteins including transit peptide sequences are targeted to chloroplasts (ADT1-ADT5), the nucleus (ADT5) or remain cytosolic (ADT6). Immunoblot analyses …

Global Analysis Of Cell Infection And Virus Production On Hiv-1 Dynamics, Jin Xu

Digitized Theses

More than one sub-type of HIVs have been identified. This raises an issue of co-infections by multiple strains of HIVs. In this thesis, we propose two mathematical models, one ignoring intracellular delay and the other incorporating the delay, to describe the interactions of the populations of CD4+cells and two HIV stains. By nature, the two strains compete for CD4+ cells to invade for their own replications. By analyzing the two models, we find that the models demonstrate threshold dynamics: if the overall basic reproduction number Ro < 1, then the infection free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable; when R0 > 1, then the competition exclusion principle generically holds in the sense that, except for …