Digital Commons Network^™

Fashion Vs. Function In Cultural Evolution: The Case Of Dog Breed Popularity, Stefano Ghirlanda, Alberto Acerbi, Harold Herzog, James A. Serpell

Publications and Research

We investigate the relationship between characteristics of dog breeds and their popularity between years 1926 and 2005. We consider breed health, longevity, and behavioral qualities such as aggressiveness, trainability, and fearfulness. We show that a breed's overall popularity, fluctuations in popularity, and rates of increase and decrease around popularity peaks show typically no correlation with these breed characteristics. One exception is the finding that more popular breeds tend to suffer from more inherited disorders. Our results support the hypothesis that dog breed popularity has been primarily determined by fashion rather than function.

Rotunda - Vol 92, No 3 - Sep 11, 2013, Longwood University

Rotunda

No abstract provided.

September 11, 2013 Faculty Senate Minutes, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

No abstract provided.

Title, Scott A. Davis, Dr. Bruce Roundy

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The invasion of non-native species, mainly cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), into our rangelands, especially following the destruction caused by wildfires, has made it necessary to find viable options for the restoration of native plant species to these areas. The aim of this project was to determine whether or not it is possible to create models for the germination and seminal root growth of a suite of species using heat accumulation models. By creating these models, we hope to be able to discover other native species that not only compete with cheatgrass through early establishment, but provide a quality food source for …

Effects Of Inundation Length On Fairy Shrimp, Tammy Behunin, Russell Rader

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Phyllopods (fairy shrimp, tadpole shrimp, and clam shrimp) are the species that best characterize freshwater rock pool communities around the world because of their unique adaptations to temporary conditions. The fairy shrimp, Branchinecta packardi, is one of the most abundant animals in temporary rock pools of the Colorado Plateau. Some rock pools can fill and dry in less than 2 days during the hottest part of the year (July). We conducted a study to examine the relationship between pool evaporation rates and rates of fairy shrimp development. The objectives of this study were to test two hypotheses: 1) fairy shrimp …

Effects Of Fasting On Oxygen Stable Isotope Ratios, Bryt Christensen, Kent Hatch

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of my project was to see if fasting has any effect on oxygen stable isotope ratios. Oxygen isotopes are molecules of oxygen that weigh more or less than normal oxygen 16 because they have more or less electrons. Stable isotopes are used as a scientific tool in many fields to study a variety of things. Among many applications, they are widely used by ecologists to study migration patterns and they have also been used to study the diets of animals.

Nuclear Localization Of Gdf5 Is Mediated By A Bipartite Nuclear Localization Signal, J. Daniel Jensen, Dr. Laura Bridgewater

Journal of Undergraduate Research

GDF5, also known as cartilage-derived morphogenetic protein-1 (CDMP1), is a member of the transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) protein superfamily. TGFβ proteins play an integral role in cell proliferation and differentiation, matrix synthesis, and apoptosis. First identified in 1981, highly-conserved TGFβ protein homologues have since been identified in a wide range of animal species, a compelling indication of their importance in biological function.

Experiment Three, - -

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In order to demonstrate the presence of hydrocarbon biodegradation in a hypersaline aqueous environment an isotopic method of analysis was employed. The relative 13C abundance of Great Salt Lake’s HCO3- in equilibrium with atmosphere and fossil hydrocarbon are quite different. By creating microcosms using the sediment of Rozel Point and allowing the microbial activity to occur over a 12 week timeframe, data were collected regarding the change of CO2 concentration and the isotopic signature of the 13C in HCO3- of the microcosm water. A shift in the isotopic signature from the 13C levels of the HCO3- in equilibrium with atmosphere …

Sbe Notícias, Ano 8, No. 274, September 11, 2013, Natália Martins, Delci K. Ishida

SBE Notícias

Biblioteca Collet registra mais de 21 mil títulos; O Poço Azul de Milú - Chapada Diamantina BA; II Simpósio Brasileiro de Patrimônio Geológico; Liminar determina medidas de preservação de área de proteção ambiental na RMBH; Túnel de Lava em Portugal já recebeu mais de 8 mil pessoas; Família palestina se muda para caverna; As incríveis cavernas de Sablino; Inauguração da nova iluminação da Caverna do diabo; II Circular do Congresso da SEC; Cavalgada do Bom Jesus da Lapa de Terra Ronca GO; Avaliação de risco na atividade de espeleoturismo; As belas Cavernas Espanholas; Pesquisadores descobrem 2 novas espécies de lacraias …

Gm Minutes 9/11/2013, Brandon Telchi

Judicial Branch Publications

No abstract provided.

Spectrum, Volume 31, Issue 1, Sacred Heart University

Newspapers (Obelisk & Spectrum)

Highlights include: SHU is Over the Hill -- A Letter for Pat -- Welcome Class of 2017 -- Freshman and Senior Students Comment on Their Bright Futures -- Anticipated Presidential Gala Shines Once Again -- Perspectives -- The New Wellness Center Welcomes Students

Transcriptome Analysis Of Two Buffalograss Cultivars, Michael Wachholtz, Tiffany Heng-Moss, Paul Twigg, Lisa Baird, Guoqing Lu, Keenan Amundsen

Biology Faculty Publications

Background: Buffalograss [Buchloë dactyloides (Nutt.) Engel. syn. Bouteloua dactyloides (Nutt.) Columbus] is a United States native turfgrass species that requires less irrigation, fungicides and pesticides compared to more commonly used turfgrass species. In areas where water is limited, interest in this grass species for lawns is increasing. While several buffalograss cultivars have been developed through buffalograss breeding, the timeframe for new cultivar development is long and is limited by a lack of useful genetic resources. Two high throughput next-generation sequencing techniques were used to increase the genomic resources available for buffalograss.

Results: Total RNA was extracted and …

Bfs News Online, Georgia Southern University

Art: News & Publications (2008-2023)

• BFSDoArt Featured in CLASS Notes
• At the Front of the CLASS

Bioavailable Lead In Topsoil Collected From General Aviation Airports, Jerry H. Kavouras, Randal J. Demik, Allison C. Hopkins

Biology Department Faculty Articles

Representatives of the aviation community are interested in determining the environmental effects of leaded fuel emissions from general aviation flight operations. Soil is an environmental sink for lead to accumulate over time. This study measured bioavailable lead concentrations in topsoil at three general aviation airports and at one site with no general aviation operations in order to determine if general aviation aircraft operations are contributing to the contamination of airport topsoil at levels that require remediation by law. Bioavailable refers to substances that organisms can absorb, because they have access to them. Topsoil was collected from refueling areas, run-up areas, …

Energy Reallocation To Breeding Performance Through Improved Nest Building In Laboratory Mice., Brianna N. Gaskill, Kathleen R. Pritchett-Corning, Christopher J. Gordon, Edmond A. Pajor, Jeffrey R. Lucas, Jerry K. Davis, Joseph P. Garner

Department of Comparative Pathobiology Faculty Publications

Mice are housed at temperatures (20-26°C) that increase their basal metabolic rates and impose high energy demands to maintain core temperatures. Therefore, energy must be reallocated from other biological processes to increase heat production to offset heat loss. Supplying laboratory mice with nesting material may provide sufficient insulation to reduce heat loss and improve both feed conversion and breeding performance. Naïve C57BL/6, BALB/c, and CD-1breeding pairs were provided with bedding alone, or bedding supplemented with either 8g of Enviro-Dri, 8g of Nestlets, for 6 months. Mice provided with either nesting material built more dome-like nests than controls. Nesting material improved …

Suspect Subjects: Affects Of Bodily Regulation, Kathryn Henne, Emily I. Troshynski

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

There is a growing body of academic literature that scrutinises the effects of technologies deployed to surveil the physical bodies of citizens. This paper considers the role of affect; that is, the visceral and emotive forces underpinning conscious forms of knowing that can drive one’s thoughts, feelings and movements. Drawing from research on two distinctly different groups of surveilled subjects – paroled sex offenders and elite athletes – it examines the effects of biosurveillance in their lives and how their reflections reveal unique insight into how subjectivity, citizenship, harm and deviance become constructed in intimate and public ways vis-à-vis technologies …

What Is In Your Picnic Basket, Hailey Billings, Dr. Beverley Roeder

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My project made inroads in the field of wild animal nutrition using stable isotope ratios to reconstruct diets in free ranging American Black Bears. This information will help develop diets that improve health and reproduction, and aid prevention of diseases and ailments such as obesity, arthritis, allergies and nutritional deficiencies, in bears maintained in zoos, and artificial habitats.

Endophyte Effects On Drought Resistance In Forage Grass, Alan Chambers, Dr. Brad Geary

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Endophyte infected, drought resistant crops are gaining in popularity with growers because irrigation can be expensive and rainfall unpredictably sparse. For this reason there has been a recent explosion of research relating to the benefits of plant microbe interactions. Our investigations were focused on fungal endophytes that produce alkaloid compounds which confer drought resistance in forage grasses.

Transgenic Rescue Of Disproportionate Micromelia (Dmm) Mice, Lisa Higgenbotham, Dr. Robert Seegmiller

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Microinjection is a technique used to introduce DNA into the genome of an animal at the embryo stage. It is an effective way to insert replacement, or rescue, copies of a gene that the embryo may be lacking. In this study, I prepared purified copies of the mouse Col2a1 gene and microinjected them into the pronuclei of single-cell mouse embryos. Col2a1 encodes type II collagen, a major component of cartilage. Mice carrying one or two mutant alleles of Col2a1 are characterized by developmental abnormalities, degenerative joint disease, and even death. This phenotype is observed in Disproportionate micromelia (Dmm) mice, which …

Do Stable Isotope Turnover Rates In Ectotherm Tissues Change With Temperature?, Joseph Franckum, Kent Hatch

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Examining the ratios of stable isotopes (non-decaying atoms with extra neutrons) in animal tissues can yield important information about an organism, such as detecting diet change or establishing migratory origin. Information gathered from these studies help develop future practices to care for certain species. A better understanding of an animal’s dietary capabilities will improve animal techniques.

Analytical And Toxicological Assessment Of Carp Collected From Utah Lake, Holly Clayton, Dr. Richard Kellems

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The June sucker was once the most abundant fish species in Utah Lake and its tributaries. Since April 30, 1986, the June sucker has been on the endangered species list. Some declines in species abundance is due to the competition of nonnative species and degraded water quality, both which can be attributed to the amount of common carp in Utah Lake. The June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program (JSRIP) desires to resolve the concerns of water development and large numbers of nonnative, sportfish predators and competitors by removing nearly all the common carp from Utah Lake.

Case Studies Of Tropical Cyclones And Phytoplankton Blooms Over Atlantic And Pacific Regions, Ashley Merritt-Takeuchi, Sen Chiao

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

This study investigates phytoplankton blooms following the passage of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins. The variables of sea surface temperature (SST), chlorophyll (Chl-a), precipitation, and storm surface winds were monitored for two case studies, Typhoon Xangsane (2006) and Hurricane Earl (2010). Strong near-surface wind from tropical cyclones creates internal friction, which causes deep nutrient enriched waters to displace from the bottom of the ocean floor up toward the surface. In return, the abundance of upwelled nutrients near the surface provides an ideal environment for the growth of biological substances such as chlorophyll and phytoplankton. The inverse …

A Probabilistic Encryption Based Min/Max Computation In Wireless Sensor Networks, Bharath K. Samanthula, Wei Jiang, Sanjay Madria

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have wide range of applications in military, health-monitoring, smart-home applications, and in other commercial environments. The computation of data aggregation functions like MIN/MAX is one of the commonly used tasks in many such WSN applications. However, due to privacy issues in some of these applications, the individual sensor readings should be kept secret from others. That is, the base station should be the only entity who should receive the output of MIN/MAX function and the individual sensor readings should not be revealed either to other sensor nodes or to the root node for confidentiality reasons. Existing …

A Defense Of Thomistic Natural Law, Howard P. Kainz

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Four Decades Of Andean Timberline Migration And Implications For Biodiversity Loss With Climate Change, David A. Lutz, Rebecca L. Powell, Miles R. Silman

Dartmouth Scholarship

Rapid 21st-century climate change may lead to large population decreases and extinction in tropical montane cloud forest species in the Andes. While prior research has focused on species migrations per se, ecotones may respond to different environmental factors than species. Even if species can migrate in response to climate change, if ecotones do not they can function as hard barriers to species migrations, making ecotone migrations central to understanding species persistence under scenarios of climate change. We examined a 42-year span of aerial photographs and high resolution satellite imagery to calculate migration rates of timberline–the grassland-forest ecotone–inside and outside of …

Exploring Adolescents’ Multimodal Responses To The Kite Runner: Understanding How Students Use Digital Media For Academic Purposes, Robin Jocius

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This qualitative study explores how adolescent high school students in an AP English class used multiple forms of media (the Internet, digital video, slide show software, video editing tools, literary texts, and writing) to respond to and analyze a contemporary novel, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Using a multimodal analysis framework, the author explores the following question: How are students’ multimodal retellings with literary devices mediated by the text, the choice of compositional tool, and the use of different modes? The findings of this study can be used to shape our understanding of adolescents’ multimodal composition practices in academic …

Developing Multimodal Academic Literacies Among College Freshmen, Gloria E. Jacobs

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article describes a semester-long freshman learning community in which multimodal texts were used as primary texts along with traditional texts to support students’ academic literacy skills. Analysis shows that an expository video created by students contains elements of academic literacies and qualities of multimodal texts. An unexpected finding was the presence of play within the process and product. These elements combine to create multimodal academic literacies. The author argues that multimodal academic literacies should be taught alongside traditional essayist forms in order to create rich learning opportunities.

Exploring Message Meaning: A Qualitative Media Literacy Study Of College Freshmen, Seth Ashley, Grace Lyden, Devon Fasbinder

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Critical media literacy demands understanding of the deeper meanings of media messages. Using a grounded theory approach, this study analyzed responses by first-year college students not currently enrolled in formal media literacy education to three types of video messages: an advertisement, a public relations message, and a news report. Students did not exhibit nuanced understandings of message purpose or sender in any of the three types of messages, and had particular difficulty distinguishing public relations and news messages. These results suggest a media literacy curriculum addressing distinctions between media formats, with emphasis on analysis of message intent and point of …

Framing The Future Of Fanfiction: How The New York Times’ Portrayal Of A Youth Media Subculture Influences Beliefs About Media Literacy Education, Drew Emanuel Berkowitz

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article discusses how online fanfiction communities, their members, and their literacy practices are portrayed within popular and news media discourses. Many media literacy scholars believe these youth media subcultures practice complex and sophisticated forms of “new media” literacy. However, when educators attempt to incorporate these practices into K-12 literacy programs, the public’s reactions may be heavily influenced by the media’s documented patterns of marginalizing, dismissing, and denouncing youth subcultures. This study employs frame and critical discourse analysis in order to examine how the news media’s portrayal of fanfiction shapes and reflects the beliefs of teachers, students, and parents.

Review: Arkive—An Intersection Of Conservation, Multimedia And Usability, Julie Ann Decesare

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.