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Hexapod Herald - Vol. 27, No. 5, December 2015

Hexapod Herald and Other Entomology Department Newsletters

Contents: Welcome - Congratulations - Student News - Faculty News - Grants - Publications

Review Of "Race Unmasked: Biology And Race In The Twentieth Century" By M. Yudell, John B. Jenkins

Biology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Fish Waste Piles In Alaska, Tara Martich

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

The goal of this practicum project was to complete a meta-analysis and identify the location, size, and impact of fish waste piles on waterbodies in Alaska in one comprehensive report. Data collection for this project included obtaining secondary data from publicly available sources. Alaskan shorebased seafood processing facilities discharge water mixed with fish waste from an outfall(s). Once discharged, buoyant fish waste enters the water column and floats to the surface, while denser fragments sink. Fish waste accumulates on the seafloor and creates fish waste piles. A persistent fish waste pile depletes the oxygen from the water column, smothers benthic …

Project Management Methodology Applied To Dall's Sheep Herd Heath Assessments, Jeffrey Johnson

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Assessing Dali's sheep herd health is the first step to monitoring and management. Currently Alaska does not have a baseline disease presence and prevalence data set; therefore, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will conduct health testing to develop a baseline of wildlife diseases within south-central Alaska. This project consists of three to seven years of work where 30-40 sheep are sampled annually. These samples will be analyzed to determine what types of disease, bacterial and viral, currently exist in the population. This knowledge base will build a foundation for study of Alaska's Dali’s sheep population. If there is …

Examining Patterns In Second Graders’ Use Of Virtual Manipulative Mathematics Apps Through Heatmap Analysis, Patricia S. Moyer-Packenham, Stephen Isaac Tucker, Arla Westenskow, Jurgen Symanzik

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This study examined 32 second-grade children’s interactions with six virtual manipulative mathematics apps on the iPad using a novel analysis approach called heatmap analysis. Mathematical topics of the six apps focused on understanding skip counting and place value concepts. Children interacted individually with the apps under the guidance of an interviewer during 30-40 minute clinical interviews. The heatmap analysis revealed patterns in children’s performance on the tasks and suggested individual cases for further analysis. For example, clusters of children showed high or low performance during the skip counting sequence. In the high-performing cluster, one child still struggled to monitor the …

Native Deer Mice (Peromyscus Maniculatus) Use Of Invasive Grass Seed (Ehrharta Calycina) In Coastal California, Megan Wong

Biological Sciences

No abstract provided.

An Overview Of A 51 Year Study Of Bird Casualties At Nashville’S Wsmv Television Tower 1960-2010, Sandy Bivens, Jenny Nehring

The Migrant - Tennessee Ornithological Society

No abstract provided.

Scholarworks Statistics - December 2015, Scholarworks

ScholarWorks Reports

For the month of December 2015, ScholarWorks recorded a total of 25,053 full-text and additional file downloads and 10,705 page views.

Motherhood As Contested Ideological Terrain: Essentialist And Queer Discourses Of Motherhood At Play In Female–Female Co-Mothers’ Talk, Elizabeth A. Suter, Leah M. Seurer, Stephanie Webb, Brian Grewe Jr., Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Framed by relational dialectics theory (Baxter), this investigation considered the meaning(s) of motherhood in female–female co-motherhood. Analysis identified two competing discourses: (1) discourse of essential motherhood (DEM) and (2) discourse of queer motherhood (DQM). Speakers’ invocation of the DEM reinscribes the mainstream US cultural discourse that children can have only one authentic (i.e., biological) mother, whereas invocation of the DQM denaturalizes the DEM’s presumptions of authentic motherhood as biological, interrupts monomaternalism, destabilizes the patriarch, and troubles the equation of biological with moral motherhood. Whereas interpenetrations of the DEM and DQM were typically sites of adversarial discursive struggle, in a few …

Impact Of Sleep And Circadian Disruption On Energy Balance And Diabetes: A Summary Of Workshop Discussions, Deanna M. Arble, Joseph Bass, Cecilia Diniz Behn, Matthew P. Butler, Etienne Challet, Charles Czeisler, Christopher M. Depner, Joel Elmquist, Paul Franken, Michael A. Grandner, Erin C. Hanlon, Alex C. Keene, Michael J. Joyner, Ilia Karatsoreos, Philip A. Kern, Samuel Klein, Christopher J. Morris, Allan I. Pack, Satchidananda Panda, Louis J. Ptacek, Naresh M. Punjabi, Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Frank A. Scheer, Richa Saxena, Elizabeth R. Seaquest, Matthew S. Thimgan, Eve Van Cauter, Kenneth P. Wright

Clinical and Translational Science Faculty Publications

A workshop was held at the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases with a focus on the impact of sleep and circadian disruption on energy balance and diabetes. The workshop identified a number of key principles for research in this area and a number of specific opportunities. Studies in this area would be facilitated by active collaboration between investigators in sleep/circadian research and investigators in metabolism/diabetes. There is a need to translate the elegant findings from basic research into improving the metabolic health of the American public. There is also a need for investigators studying the impact …

Spending Medicare’S Dollars Wisely: Taking Aim At Hospitals’ Cultures Of Overtreatment, Jessica Mantel

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

With Medicare’s rising costs threatening the country’s fiscal health, policymakers have focused their attention on a primary cause of Medicare’s high price tag—the overtreatment of patients. Guided by professional norms that demand they do “everything possible” for their patients, physicians frequently order additional diagnostic tests, perform more procedures, utilize costly technologies, and provide more inpatient care. Much of this care, however, does not improve Medicare patients’ health, but only increases Medicare spending. Reducing the overtreatment of patients requires aligning physicians’ interests with the government’s goal of spending Medicare’s dollars wisely. Toward that end, recent Medicare payment reforms establish a range …

Adopting The Gay Family, Cynthia Godsoe

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Gardner-Webb, The Magazine 2015, Fall (Volume 50 No. 2), Noel T. Manning Ii

Gardner-Webb, The Magazine

Gardner-Webb, The Magazine, previously titled The Webb Magazine, focuses on alumni news and campus events from Gardner-Webb College; now Gardner-Webb University. This issue includes several articles about awards and accolades given to students, staff, and Gardner-Webb programs. There is a short article announcing the addition of the Education Hall of Fame. Gardner-Webb's online degrees and classes are praised. Many students are highlighted for their outreach in local and international communities, and several alumni are mentioned for their achievements and contributions to the school and community. Dr. Tom Meaders, a professor at Gardner-Webb is interviewed about his involvement in the Apollo …

Effects Of Nitrogen Fertilization On The Life History Of The Madeira Mealybug (Phenacoccus Madeirensis) And The Molecular Composition Of Its Host Plant, Stephanie Alliene Rhodes

All Theses

The aim of this study was to investigate how different nitrogen fertilization rates of host-plants influence the development, fecundity, and nutritional status of a pest insect,the Madeira mealybug (Phenococcus madeirensis Green, Hemiptera: Psuedococcidae).This study evaluated the effects of nitrogen fertilization (0, 75, 150 and 300 ppm N) onthe growth, % nitrogen, % carbon, lipid, and protein contents of basil plants (Ocimum basilicum L., Lamiaceae), and the subsequent impacts of host-plant nutritional status onthe life history and total lipid and protein contents of the Madeira mealybug. Heights androot lengths of plants fertilized with 75 ppm N were greater than those of …

Capillary-Channeled Polymer Fibers As Stationary Phases For Protein Chromatography, Marissa Pierson

All Theses

Capillary-channeled polymer (C-CP) fibers have been studied in this laboratory as stationary phases for protein separations in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). C-CP fibers are uniquely shaped so as to include eight continuous capillary-channels which interdigitate once packed into a column. The packed column resembles a monolithic structure of unobstructed flow through capillary channels which reduces backpressure and increases linear velocity, reducing separation time. Fibers are effectively nonporous with respect to macromolecules, resulting in fast mass transfer and high sample recovery. C-CP fibers made from polypropylene (PP) yield a fairly homogenous hydrophobic surface suitable for reversed phase (RP) chromatography. In a …

Pubhub: A Mobile Application Business Plan, Zachary T. Washam

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

PubHub is a mobile application designed to address point-of-sale inefficiencies at bars. This business plan details our strategy for product design, marketing, financing, and eventual acquisition. We address key legal and competitive risks and project five years of pro-forma financial statements based on comparable firms.

Energy-Environment Policy Alignments, Todd S. Aagaarad

Washington Law Review

Energy law focuses on making energy widely available at reasonable cost, and environmental law focuses on preventing pollution. As a result of these differences in their respective orientations, the two fields often work incoherently and even in conflict. Historically, federal energy law and environmental law have attempted to manage their interrelationships by imposing negative constraints on each other: Energy policies of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) must comply with requirements set forth in environmental statutes, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) statutes contain energy-related requirements and exemptions. More recently, however, FERC and EPA have begun developing policies that create …

Dealing With Ocean Acidification: The Problem, The Clean Water Act, And State And Regional Approaches, Robin Kundis Craig

Washington Law Review

Ocean acidification is often referred to as climate change’s “evil twin.” As the global ocean continually absorbs much of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide produced through the burning of fossil fuels, its pH is dropping, causing a plethora of chemical, biological, and ecological impacts. These impacts immediately threaten local and regional fisheries and marine aquaculture; over the long term, they pose the risk of a global mass extinction event. As with climate change itself, the ultimate solution to ocean acidification is a worldwide reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. In the interim, however, environmental groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity …

Use Of Electrochemistry To Monitor The Growth And Activity Of Clostridium Phytofermentans, Ariane Laurence Martin

All Theses

Microbes have a wide range of metabolic capabilities available that make them industrially useful organisms. Monitoring these metabolic processes is a crucial component in efficient industrial application. Unfortunately, monitoring these metabolic processes is often invasive and time consuming especially within an anaerobic environment. Electrochemical techniques, such as cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) offer a non-invasive approach to monitor microbial activity and growth. We hypothesized that EIS and CV could be used to monitor Clostridium phytofermentans, an anaerobic and endospore-forming bacterium. C. phytofermentans ferments a wide range of sugars into hydrogen, acetate, and ethanol as fermentation by-products and …

Co-Design Of Dynamic Real-Time Scheduling And Cooperative Control For Human-Agent Collaboration Systems Based On Mutual Trust, Xiaotian Wang

All Theses

Mutual trust is a key factor in human-human collaboration. Inspired by this social interaction, we analyze human-agent mutual trust in the collaboration of one human and (semi)autonomous multi-agent systems. In the thesis, we derive time-series human-agent mutual trust models based on results from human factors engineering. To avoid both over- trust and under-trust, we set up dynamic timing models for the multi-agent scheduling problem and develop necessary and sufficient conditions to test the schedulability of the human multi-agent collaborative task. Furthermore, we extend the collaboration between one human and multiple agents into the collaboration between multi-human network and swarm-based agents …

Electrical Characterization Of Gold And Platinum Thin Film Electrodes With Polyaniline Modified Surfaces, John Aggas

All Theses

Recent studies into soft organic electronics have burgeoned as a result of discoveries of conducting polymers such as polyaniline, polythiophene, and polypyrrole. However, in order to make these conducting polymers suitable for in vivo soft organic electronics, they must be developed so that they can be biocompatible and provide accurate sensing. Chitosan, a naturally occurring polymer structure found in exoskeletons of crustaceans, has been studied for its biocompatible properties. Composites of polyaniline (PAn), an intrinsically conductive polymer (ICP) and chitosan (Chi), a biopolymer, were developed and applied to gold and platinum Thin Film Electrode (TFE) devices. Electropolymerization and drop cast …

Characterization Of A Multi-Laminate Angle-Ply Af Patch For Annulus Fibrosus Repair, Ryan Borem

All Theses

Annually, over 5.7 million Americans are diagnosed with two IVD-associated pathologies: IVD herniation (IVDH- a mechanical disruption of the concentric fibrous layers of the annulus fibrosus (AF))) and degeneration (IVDD- a multifactorial process which initiates within the inner gelatinous core (NP), and results in a biochemical degradation of NP tissue), with over 2.7 million requiring surgical inteventions.1,2 Although both underlying pathologies are different, quite often they both lead to a decrease in IVD height, impaired mechanical function, and increased pain and disability. These pain symptoms affect approximately 80% of the adult population during their lifetime with estimated expenditures exceeding $85.9 …

The Geotraces Intermediate Data Product 2014, The Geotraces Group, Tim M. Conway

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2014 (IDP2014) is the first publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2013. It consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 200 trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) as well as classical hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing a strongly inter-linked on-line atlas including more than 300 section plots and 90 animated 3D scenes. The IDP2014 covers the Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian oceans, exhibiting highest data density in the Atlantic. The TEI data in …

Aflatoxin Level In Selected Spices In Abu Dhabi Markets, Salma Ibrahim Al Hammadi

Theses

Aflatoxins (AF) are toxic secondary metabolites secreted by the fungi Aspergillus or Penicillium. Four aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2) are common in foods and feeds produced or stored under unfavorable conditions of humidity and temperature AFB1 is considered the most toxic.

Spices are significant ingredients in the UAE cuisine, used for the purpose of seasoning, coloring, and flavoring. In this research, 94 samples of spices (including pepper, chili, coriander, fennel seeds, paprika, turmeric, zataria, and mixed spices) purchased from different markets in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, were analyzed for their contents of AF. Sample were analyzed using high-performance …

Frequency Of Abo, Rhesus Phenotypes And Most Probable Genotypes And The Type Of Rhd Negative Variants Among Uae Nationals In Al Ain District, Mariam Hamad Zaher Saeed Ai Meqbali

Theses

Knowledge of the frequencies and the phenotypes of ABO and rhesus system is very important for blood bank and transfusion services policies. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of ABO, Rhesus phenotype and most probable genotypes in Al Ain area (UAE). The studied group consisted of 500 locals of both gender from different age groups (17-58 years old). ABO and Rh-hr phenotype reactivity were determined using conventional tube method and gel technology, molecular techniques were also applied. Our study shows the distribution of ABO phenotypes was as follows: 0= 56%, A= 26.2%, B= 14.2% and AB= …

Effects Of Glycine Betaine On Plant Growth And Performance Of Alfalfa (Medicago Sativa L.) & Cowpea (Vigna Unguiculata L. Walp.) Within Water Deficit Conditions, Hanan Kamal Khadouri

Theses

Managing water consumption of the crops is one of the strategies which have been adopted locally and worldwide in current trends of sustainable agriculture, in addition to the low level of water resources in UAE because of the rare precipitation, no fresh free flowing water; no rivers, lakes or streams. The present study was objective to evaluate the effects of organic exogenous Glycine Betaine on two forage crops Alfa alfa (Medicago sativa L.) & Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) within different levels of drought stress. A pot experiment was designed on completely randomized block design (CRBD) with three replicates in …

Investigation Of Groundwater Quality Of Al Hayer Area, (North Of Al Ain City) Using Hydro Geochemical Approach, Mohammed Hosny Ibrahim Gadalla

Theses

Al Hayer is located in the northeast of Al Ain area, Eastern region of the United Arab Emirates. Groundwater abstraction for domestic, agricultural and industrial uses has led to major depletion in the aquifer resulting in groundwater quality deterioration. This study aims to identify the factors affecting the groundwater quality in this area, and to determine the recharge mechanism for the study area to understand the behaviour of major ions in regional groundwater by using hydrogeochemical and isotopic approaches. The hydrochemical analysis of 37 collected samples of groundwater revealed that the groundwater is characterized by moderate salinity and high concentrations …

Assessment Of Current And Future Generated Selected E-Waste Quantities In Abu Dhabi, Khaleel Ibrahim Al Nasseri This

Theses

E-waste is a term used to describe electrical and electronic products that enter the waste stream. Currently, it is the fastest growing stream of municipal waste. Informal disposal of E-waste may cause serious health and pollution problems to humans as well as the environment. Although E-waste may represent less than 5% of the total waste discarded into landfills, yet it includes more than 70% of overall toxic waste. Not only the exact amount of E-waste generated in the UAE is unknown, but it is continuously increasing with the advent of new electronic products. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis …

Neural Networks For Autonomous Control Of Unmanned Helicopters, Padraig M. Moriarty

Theses

Landing a helicopter on a ship in high seas can be a dangerous endeavour. This thesis proposes to examine the possible uses of Artificial Neural Networks (A.N.N.) in the aiding and/or the landing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (U.A.V.). It proposes that this procedure can be segregated into three distinct phases. The data for the A.N.N. training and testing sets is generated through simulation in the Unity cross-platform game engine. Phase 1 is intended to convert video images from an on-board camera to a set of numeric outputs suitable for use in Phase 2. Phase 2 estimates the current relative …

Equity And Excellence: The Story Of Lake Shore Community High School's Quest For Racial Justice In Education, Marcus Campbell

Dissertations

Institutional racism is integral to U.S. social structure, including the public schools. Instituting a limited high school detracking program as a strategy to deal with racial achievement disparities faced strong community resistance. Leadership and a perfect storm of social and political factors made successful implementation of a detracking initiative possible. School community leaders and staff were interviewed about their experiences of systemic change to further access for students of color to honors classes. Results suggest some leadership qualities and characteristics that facilitated the change; the external factors that contributed to the successful change for racial equity are also detailed.