Digital Commons Network^™

Field Introgression Of Diabrotica Barberi And Diabrotica Longicornis (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Based On Genetic And Morphological Characters, Laura A. Campbell, Thomas L. Clark, Pete L. Clark, Lance Meinke, John E. Foster

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Diabrotica barberi Smith & Lawrence and Diabrotica longicornis (Say) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) are considered to be sister species, and it has been proposed that the two species may hybridize under field conditions. The objective of this study was to examine genetic and morphological characters of D. barberi and D. longicornis for evidence of field introgression. Both species were collected from sympatric and allopatric areas. Amplified fragment length polymorphisms and morphological characters (color and head capsule width) were used to examine variation within and among populations of D. barberi and D. longicornis. Relatively little of the overall …

Evaluation Of Buffalograss Leaf Pubescence And Its Effect On Resistance To Mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), Jennifer M. Johnson-Cicalese, Frederick P. Baxendale, Terrance P. Riordan, Tiffany Heng-Moss, Lisa Baird

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Considerable progress has been made in improving the turfgrass characteristics of buffalograss, Buchloë dactyloides (Nutt) Engelm, a native North American grass species with low maintenance requirements (Riordan et al., 1993). Two mealybugs, Tridiscus sporoboli (Cockerell) and Trionymus sp. (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) have emerged as buffalograss pests (Baxendale et al., 1994). Mealybugs have been associated with buffalograss stands throughout Nebraska (Baxendale et al., 1994), as well as in Texas and Arizona. Unfortunately, the Pseudococcidae are poorly described and species identification requires extensive specimen preparation (Ferris, 1950, 1953). Buffalograss mealybugs have an oblong, pale purple-grey, membranous body, ranging in length from 0.2 …

A Single Major Qtl Controls Expression Of Larval Cry1f Resistance Trait In Ostrinia Nubilalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) And Is Independent Of Midgut Receptor Genes, Brad S. Coates, Douglas V. Sumerford, Miriam D. Lopez, Haichuan Wang, Lisa M. Fraser, Jeremy A. Kroemer, Terrence Spencer, Kyung S. Kim, Craig A. Abel, Richard L. Hellmich, Blair D. Siegfried

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is an introduced crop pest in North America that causes major damage to corn and reduces yield of food, feed, and biofuel materials. The Cry1F toxin from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) expressed in transgenic hybrid corn is highly toxic to O. nubilalis larvae and effective in minimizing feeding damage. A laboratory colony of O. nubilalis was selected for high levels of Cry1F resistance ([12,000-fold compared to susceptible larvae) and is capable of survival on transgenic hybrid corn. Genetic linkage maps with segregating AFLP markers show that the Cry1F resistance trait is controlled by …

Undergraduate And Graduate Catalog [2010-2011], Georgia Southern University

Undergraduate & Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Caribbean Leucothoidae (Crustacea: Amphipoda) Of Panama, Kristine N. White

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Leucothoid amphipods were collected from sponge, ascidian, and bivalve mollusk hosts around Bocas del Toro, Panama. New host and locality records are reported for 10 species. Morphological variation is noted in some species originally described from Belize and South Florida. Future molecular research will help to clarify the importance of this variation. A key to the Caribbean species of the Leucothoidae collected around Bocas del Toro, Panama is provided based on morphological characters.

The Spillikin (Vol. 28), Valparaiso University

The Spillikin - The Christ College Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Modeling Small Molecule Elution From A Hydrogel Using A Microfluidic Technique, Stephanie Evans

Master’s Theses

Drug release from a fluid-contacting biomaterial is simulated using a microfluidic device with channels defined by solute-loaded hydrogel. In order to mimic a drug delivery device, a solution of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEG-DA), solute, and photoinitiator is cured inside a microfluidic device with a channel through the center ofthe hydrogel. As water is pumped through the channel, solute diffuses out of the hydrogel and into the water. Channel sizes within the devices range from 300 µm to 1000 µm to simulate vessels within the body. The properties of the PEG hydrogel were characterizedby the extent of crosslinking, the swelling ratio, …

The Role Of Olfactory Cues In The Sequential Radiation Of A Gall-Boring Beetle, Bradley Rhodes

Master’s Theses

Species diversity itself may cause additional species diversity. According to recent findings, some species modify their environment in such a way that they facilitate the creation of new niches for other species to evolve to fill. Given the vast speciesdiversity of insects, the occurrence of such sequential radiation of species is likely common among herbivorous insects and the species that depend on them, many of them being insects as well. Herbivorous insects often have close associations with specific host plants and their preferences for mating and ovipositing on a specific host-plant species can reproductively isolate host-specific populations, facilitating speciation. Previous …

Presumed Sapient: A Proposed Test For The Constitutional Personhood And Patentability Of Human-Animal Chimeras And Hybrids, Eric Zylstra

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hibernacula Microclimate And White-Nose Syndrome Susceptibility In The Little Brown Myotis (Myotis Lucifugus), Laura Grieneisen

Master’s Theses

The objective of this project was to determine the relationship between hibernacula microclimate and White-nose Syndrome (WNS), an emerging infectious disease in bats. Microclimate was examined on a species scale and at the level of the individual bat to determine if there was a difference in microclimate preference between healthy and WNS-affected little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) and to determine the role of microclimate in disease progression. There is anecdotal evidence that colder, drier hibernacula are less affected by WNS. This was tested by placing rugged temperature and humidity dataloggers in field sites throughout the eastern USA, experimentally determining the …

A Study Of High Solids Anaerobic Digestion Of Bucknell University Food Waste Followed By Aerobic Curing, Margaret Drennan

Master’s Theses

Anaerobic digestion of food scraps has the potential to accomplish waste minimization, energy production, and compost or humus production. At Bucknell University, removal of food scraps from the waste stream could reduce municipal solid waste transportation costs and landfill tipping fees, and provide methane and humus for use on campus. To determine the suitability of food waste produced at Bucknell for high-solids anaerobic digestion (HSAD), a year-long characterization study was conducted. Physical and chemical properties, waste biodegradability, and annual production of biodegradable waste were assessed. Bucknell University food and landscape waste was digested at pilot-scale for over a year to …

Energy-Economical Heuristically Based Control Of Compass Gait Walking On Stochastically Varying Terrain, Christian Hubicki

Master’s Theses

Investigation uses simulation to explore the inherent tradeoffs ofcontrolling high-speed and highly robust walking robots while minimizing energy consumption. Using a novel controller which optimizes robustness, energy economy, and speed of a simulated robot on rough terrain, the user can adjust their priorities between these three outcome measures and systematically generate a performance curveassessing the tradeoffs associated with these metrics.

Design And Development Of An Fpga-Based Distributed Computing Processing Platform, Juliana Su

Master’s Theses

This thesis presents two frameworks- a software framework and a hardware core manager framework- which, together, can be used to develop a processing platform using a distributed system of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) boards. The software framework providesusers with the ability to easily develop applications that exploit the processing power of FPGAs while the hardware core manager framework gives users the ability to configure and interact with multiple FPGA boards and/or hardware cores. This thesis describes the design and development of these frameworks and analyzes the performance of a system that was constructed using the frameworks. The performance analysis included …

Why Copperweld Was Actually Kind Of Dumb: Sound, Fury And The Once And Still Missing Antitrust Theory Of The Firm, Chris Sagers

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Detecting Temporal Patterns Using Reconstructed Phase Space And Support Vector Machine In The Dynamic Data System, Wenjing Zhang, Xin Feng

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper we present a method for detecting dynamic temporal patterns that are characteristic and predictive of significant events in a dynamic data system. We employ the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) to cluster the data sequence into three categories of signals, e.g. normal, patterns and events. The data sequence is then embedded into a Reconstructed Phase Space (RPS) which is topologically equivalent to the dynamics of the original system. We apply a hybrid method using Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Maximum a Posterior (MAP) to classify temporal pattern signals based on the event function. We performed two experimental applications …

A Good Drought Plan May Save Your Ranch And Improve Your Bottomline, Matthew C. Stockton, Sunil P. Dhoubhadel

Cornhusker Economics

If you are a beef cattle producer that depends on rain fed pasture then you know how costly a severe drought can be. Whatever actions are taken to mitigate drought, there is always an associated cost whether it be physical or psychological. From an economic perspective, drought mitigation is managed from two main objectives – demand management and/or supply management. Demand management options include decreasing the demand for feed, such as selling livestock, weaning calves early and moving them to a dry lot or sale and/or reducing the grazing time in pastures. Supply management includes options that increase the supply …

Adolescents Are Young Adults, Not Immature Brains, David Moshman

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

When G. Stanley Hall (1904) wrote the first book on adolescence at the turn of the 20th century, he was describing a new cultural phenomenon that had emerged in the United States and other industrializing societies during the late 19th century. There had always been children, whether or not we theorized about them, but there had not always been adolescents.

Of course, there have always been teenagers in the mathematical sense of persons who have reached the age of 13 years but not yet 20 years (and in the linguistic sense that these are the ‘‘teen’’ years in our counting …

Cracks In The Wall, A Bulge Under The Carpet: The Singular Story Of Religion, Evolution, And The U.S. Constitution, Susan Haack

Articles

No abstract provided.

Ecogeographical Distribution Of The Herpetofauna Of Indio Mountains Research Station, Hudspeth County, Texas, Ross Owen Couvillon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Indio Mountain Research Station (IMRS) in Trans-Pecos, Texas is dominated by Chihuahuan Desert scrub vegetation, but a complexity of plant communities exist relating to elevation, slope, and geologic formations. Surrounding the Indio Mountains are desert grasslands with various desert scrub associations. This mosaic of habitats forms a unique assemblage of amphibians and reptiles. The goal of this study was to determine if the current number of amphibians, turtles, lizards, and snakes (43 species) of IMRS was accurate and identify which biotic and abiotic factors define the distribution of these species. Records from the last approximately 25 years were used to …

Inhibition Of Calcium Oxalate Calculi By Ndga - A Spectroscopic Study, Preethi Dacha

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Formation of calculi in urinary tract leads to kidney stones. This process is known as Urolithiasis. Some of the causes of urolithiasis are metabolic disorders, genetic factors, and anatomic abnormalities in the urinary system. Nowadays, urolithiasis is very common disease in population of all over the world. The present study strives to understand calcium oxalate calculi formation as well as its inhibition by using Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), which is a chemical extract of the Larrea Tridentata bush, a plant that is traditionally employed in the El paso region as a natural treatment for kidney stones and bladder diseases. Thus, in …

Influence Of Orography On The Weather Patterns And Water Availability Of A Topographically Complex Chihuahuan Desert Region, Fernanda De La Cerda Camargo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Arid and semi-arid ecosystems cover a large extent of the planet's land surface and are highly susceptible to/and dependent on resource availability patterns, especially precipitation. Topography affects large scale weather patterns and redistributes precipitation which creates a variety of microclimates in complex landscapes; how these patterns are modified, however, is still not fully understood. Climate change models for arid and semi-arid ecosystems predict a change towards more extreme precipitation events; understanding the mechanisms involved in redistributing precipitation is crucial for the protection of these areas. Indio Mountains Research Station (IMRS) is located in the northern Chihuahuan Desert and seems to …

The Reactivity Of Potassium Carbanions With Epoxides, Christina Dorado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The reaction of &alpha-cumylpotassium and cyclohexene oxide produces trans-cumylcyclohexanol in high yield in the presence of excess cumene. Reactions of 1.1 and 2.0 equivalents of cumene with one equivalent of n-butylpotassium to make &alpha-cumylpotassium were shown to take several days to reach a maximum yield in the subsequent reaction of &alpha-cumylpotassium and cyclohexene oxide. Although it was initially hypothesized that the high yield was attributed to the interaction of the potassium with the aromatic rings of the &alpha-cumyl anion and the excess cumene, which was confirmed by molecular modeling studies, these reactions demonstrated that no large excess of …

Era[C]Ing Diversity: A Critical Rhetorical Approach To Race And The New Citizen, Theresa Donovan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Era[c]ing Diversity is guided by a broad question of inquiry regarding the formation and reformation of subjectivity through the filling out of "blank" forms such as the application for naturalization. This dissertation examines how the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service uses and distributes race, and how subjects participate in the social reproduction of the dominant ideology to create a society where individuals think: I am White; He/she is Black, or Asian, or Native American etc. Era[c]ing Diversity examines how the N-400 constructs the new citizen and the ways that permanent legal residents of Mexican origin disrupt or reify this construct. …

Phronesis Through Praxis: Cultivating The Habit Of A Rhetorical Disposition In Positive Deviance Action Research, Lucia Dura

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Positive deviance is an asset-based, community-driven, problem-solving approach to social change premised on the idea that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges (www.positivedeviance.org). Positive deviance has been used in over 40 countries to address issues as diverse as productivity in the workplace, infection and disease prevention, education, and child trafficking. This dissertation situates positive deviance within the areas of social change and change studies in the discipline of …

A Web Site-Level Implementation Of Owl Sameas Predicate In Drupal, Patricia Esparza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Ontology Web Language (OWL) sameAs predicate states that if the predicate holds between two Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) A and B, then an object identified by A is the same object identified by B; its purpose is to enable machines to understand that both objects are the same although they may have distinct Web identifiers, i.e., URIs. The proliferation of the use of this predicate has brought several issues to the Web, e.g., high cost of manually creating sameAs statements, inconsistent use of the predicate leading to distinct objects to be identified as being a single object, and too …

Bayesian Computational Methods For Hidden Markov Models, Samson Laine Ghebremariam

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) have been applied to many real-world problems. Hidden Markov modeling has recently become increasingly important and popular among researchers,and many software tools are based on them. Given that the models are rich in mathematical structure, they can form theoretical foundation for use in a wide range of applications. Hidden Markov models provide a universal configuration for statistical analysis of a large variety of DNA sequences containing symbols A, C, G, T. In a HMM, it is impossible to figure out what state the model is in by just having a look at the symbol generated.

A …

Specification Of Data Properties To Identify Anomalies In Scientific Sensor Data, Irbis Gallegos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Environmental scientists use advanced sensor technology such as meteorological towers, wireless sensor networks and robotic trams equipped with sensors to perform data collection at remote research sites. Because the amount of environmental sensor data acquired by such instruments is increasing, the ability to evaluate the accuracy of the data at collection time and to check that the instrumentation is operating correctly become critical in order to not lose valuable time and information. The goal of the research is to define a solution, based on software-engineering techniques, to support the scientist's ability to specify data properties that can identify anomalies in …

Is Silence Golden? Experiences Of Silence, Stigma And Cultural Violence Among Lgb People In El Paso, Tx., Elias Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Stigma not only affects how one is treated within a society; it is also one of the factors influencing social identity and sexual behavior. LGB individuals, as part of a stigmatized group, form their sexual identities in a culture and society that is hostile to or ignorant of them. This project synthesizes 14 ethnographic interviews with LGB individuals in El Paso, TX. The interviews focus on the formative years of the individual's life on the U.S.-Mexico Border, namely their school years and early formation through family socialization. They also focus on LGBT individuals' perceptions of their community and the city …

Monitoring Ecosystem Dynamics In An Arctic Tundra Ecosystem Using Hyperspectral Reflectance And A Robotic Tram System, Santonu Goswami

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Global change, which includes climate change and the impacts of human disturbance, is altering the provision and sustainability of ecosystem goods and services. These changes have the capacity to initiate cascading affects and complex feedbacks through physical, biological and human subsystems and interactions between them. Understanding the future state of the earth system requires improved knowledge of ecosystem dynamics and long term observations of how these are being impacted by global change. Improving remote sensing methods is essential for such advancement because satellite remote sensing is the only means by which landscape to continental-scale change can be observed.

The Arctic …

A Reduced Order Parameter Estimation Technique Using Orthonormal Wavelets, Miguel Hernandez Iv

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this work we introduce methods for model order reduction using orthonormal wavelets. Specifically, we propose techniques and algorithms for wavelet-based reduced order parameter estimation using orthonormal wavelets for solving nonlinear least squares problems. Approaches for parameter reduction using the one dimensional and two dimensional wavelet transforms are presented using multiple levels of decomposition.

The performance of wavelet-based reduced order parameter estimation is tested using a suite of orthonormal wavelets on a groundwater hydraulics model provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Using the hydraulics model, the goal is to find a least-squares solution of the permeability field given …