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Selfish Mitochondrial Dna Proliferates And Diversifies In Small, But Not Large, Experimental Populations Of Caenorhabditis Briggsae, Wendy S. Phillips, Anna Luella Coleman-Hulbert, Emily S. Weiss, Dana K. Howe, Sita Ping, Riana I. Wernick, Suzanne Estes, Dee R. Denver

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Evolutionary interactions across levels of biological organization contribute to a variety of fundamental processes including genome evolution, reproductive mode transitions, species diversification, and extinction. Evolutionary theory predicts that so-called “selfish” genetic elements will proliferate when the host effective population size (N_e) is small, but direct tests of this prediction remain few. We analyzed the evolutionary dynamics of deletion-containing mitochondrial DNA (ΔmtDNA) molecules, previously characterized as selfish elements, in six different natural strains of the nematode Caenorhabditis briggsae allowed to undergo experimental evolution in a range of population sizes (N = 1, 10, 100, and 1,000) for a maximum …

"Three Parent Babies": Techniques Explained, Objections Examined, Rebecca Carr

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The UK Parliament has approved regulations, which come into force in October 2015, that permit the use of new treatment techniques to prevent the transmission of serious mitochondrial diseases from women to their children. The introduction of these techniques—which are not currently carried out in any country in the world—will fly in the face of the opposition that has been raised since discussions to permit clinical applications of the techniques first arose. After outlining some background to the techniques, this article briefly examines three of the objections that have been made against them: that the safety and effectiveness of the …

Longitudinal Distribution And Summer Diurnal Microhabitat Use Of California Red-Legged Frogs (Rana Draytonii) In Coastal Waddell Creek, Neil Keung

Master's Theses

Habitat use by federally threatened California Red-Legged Frogs (CRLF; Rana draytonii) is incompletely understood. I captured, PIT-tagged, and radio-tracked CRLFs (n = 20) at Waddell Creek, Santa Cruz County, from July–December 2012. Limited tracking for movements was also conducted in 2013. Frogs were clumped in deep, complex habitats along the stream within 2 km of breeding ponds near the stream mouth, but most adults were concentrated in the lagoon. Marked and tracked frogs had very small summer home ranges, and most returned to the same home range after breeding. Frogs tended to use good aquatic (e.g., wood, undercut banks, dense …

Modeling Black Bear-Vehicle Collision Zones In Yosemite National Park, Katie Elaine Rodriguez

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to identify road and habitat characteristics associated with black bear-vehicle collisions in Yosemite National Park and to suggest proper mitigations to reduce their occurrence. Black bear-vehicle collision data collected by Yosemite National Park staff between 1995 and 2011 were used to identify variables associated with collisions. Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping software was used to map and split Yosemite roads into 1 km segments. After measuring road and bear habitat-related variables along each road segment, logistic regression analyses showed that segments with collisions were associated with crossing sites, understory vegetation, curves, close proximity to …

Investigation Of Population Structure And Distribution Of The Invasive Bryozoan Watersipora Species Along The California Coast Using Nuclear And Mitochondrial Dna, Darren James Wostenberg

Master's Theses

This study combined microsatellite nuclear DNA analysis with cytochrome c oxidase 1 (COI) mitochondrial DNA analysis to evaluate coastal population structure, environmental factors influencing population distribution, and the potential for hybridization among coexisting Watersipora haplogroups along the California coast. Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the COI gene identified three haplogroups: W. subtorquata clade A, W. subtorquata clade B, and W. new species. Analyses resulted in seven haplotypes for haplogroup clade A, and a single haplotype in each haplogroup clade B and new species. Microsatellite data indicated the greatest source of genetic variation in the two species examined (W. subtorquata and W. …

Will Ultrasound Performed With The Rich-Mar Autosound™ Be As Effective At Increasing Tissue Temperature As Ultrasound Performed With A Traditional Machine?, Heather Diane Black

Theses and Dissertations

STUDY DESIGN: Randomized crossover experiment. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the Rich-Mar AutoSound™ would be as effective as traditional ultrasound at increasing the temperature of the triceps surae muscle during a 10-min, 1 MHz, 1.0 W/cm2 ultrasound treatment. BACKGROUND: The AutoSound™ is a hands-free ultrasound device that is strapped on the body and left for the duration of the ultrasound treatment. It requires no clinician during the actual ultrasound treatment, thus freeing the clinician to perform other tasks and reducing clinician error during treatments. METHODS: 16 healthy subjects (6 males, 10 females, age = 22 ± 1.6 yrs, height = 173.2 …

Environmental And Adaptive Buffers That Mediate The Response Of Subalpine Ecosystems To Environmental Change, Lafe G. Conner

Theses and Dissertations

This document reports the results of 4 studies of subalpine ecosystem ecology, describing ways that spatial heterogeneity in soils and plant communities mediate ecosystem responses to environmental change. Ecosystem responses to environmental change are also mediated by regional climate patterns and interannual variability in weather. In the first chapter we report the results of an experiment to test for the mediating effects of associational resistance in a forest community that experienced wide-spread beetle kill. We found that Engelmann spruce were more likely to survive a beetle outbreak when growing in low densities (host dilution) and not through other types of …

Studies On The Roles Of Translationally Recoded Proteins From Cyclooxygenase-1 And Nucleobindin Genes In Autophagy, Jonathan J. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Advances in next-generation sequencing and ribosomal profiling methods highlight that the proteome is likely orders of magnitude larger than previously thought. This expansion potentially occurs through translational recoding, a process that results in the expression of multiple variations of a protein from a single messenger RNA. Our laboratory demonstrated that cyclooxygenase-3/1b (COX-3/1b), a frameshifted, intron-1-retaining, alternative splice variant from the COX-1 gene, is multiply recoded, which results in the translation of at least seven different COX-3 proteins. Two of the recoded COX-3 proteins that we identified are active prostaglandin synthases and are inhibited by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Here we …

Postpartum Contraceptive Use And Unmet Need For Family Planning In Five Low-Income Countries., Omrana Pasha, Shivaprasad S. Goudar, Archana Patel, Ana Garces, Fabian Esamai, Elwyn Chomba, Janet L. Moore, Bhalchandra S. Kodkany, Sarah Saleem, Richard J. Derman, Edward A. Liechty, Patricia L. Hibberd, K. Michael Hambidge, Nancy F. Krebs, Waldemar A. Carlo, Elizabeth M. Mcclure, Marion Koso-Thomas, Robert L. Goldenberg

Community Health Sciences

BACKGROUND:

During the post-partum period, most women wish to delay or prevent future pregnancies. Despite this, the unmet need for family planning up to a year after delivery is higher than at any other time. This study aims to assess fertility intention, contraceptive usage and unmet need for family planning amongst women who are six weeks postpartum, as well as to identify those at greatest risk of having an unmet need for family planning during this period.

METHODS:

Using the NICHD Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research's multi-site, prospective, ongoing, active surveillance system to track pregnancies and births …

2015 June, Office Of Communications & Marketing, Morehead State University.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for June of 2015.

A Grounded Theory Study Of How Parents Made The Decision About Residential Group Home Placement For Their Adult Child With Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, Laura A. Sardinia-Prager

Theses & Dissertations

Background: The parent caregivers of a child with an Intellectual Disability/Developmental Disability (ID/DD) face lifelong challenges that may at some point involve the decision about residential group home placement of the adult child. In the course of the child’s lifetime, the parents who have provided care may need to consider a safe alternative. The decision about residential group home placement of the adult child can be the result of numerous factors. Objective: The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to investigate the phenomenon of how the parent caregivers made the decision for residential group home placement for their adult child …

Newsroom, Georgia Southern University

Newsroom (2006-2023)

• Georgia Southern study shows parents think their overweight preschool children are ‘about the right weight’

The Adaptive Value Associated With Expressing And Perceiving Angry-Male And Happy-Female Faces, Peter Kay Chai Tay

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Facial expressions are valuable for conveying and understanding the inner thoughts and feelings of the expressor. However, the adaptive value associated with a specific expression on a male face is different from a female face. The present review uses a functional-evolutionary analysis to elucidate the evolutionary advantage in the expression and perception of angry-male and happy-female faces over angry-female and happy-male faces. For the expressors, it is more advantageous for men to show angry facial expression as it signals dominance, averts aggression and deters mate poaching; it is more advantageous for women to display happy facial expression as it signals …

Sexual Mixing In Shanghai: Are Heterosexual Contact Patterns Compatible With An Hiv/Aids Epidemic?, M. Giovanna Merli, James Moody, Joshua Mendelsohn, G. Robin Gauthier

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

China’s HIV prevalence is low, mainly concentrated among female sex workers (FSWs), their clients, men who have sex with men, and the stable partners of members of these high-risk groups. We evaluate the contribution to the spread of HIV of China’s regime of heterosexual relations, of the structure of heterosexual networks, and of the attributes of key population groups with simulations driven by data from a cross-sectional survey of egocentric sexual networks of the general population of Shanghai and from a concurrent respondent-driven sample of FSWs. We find that the heterosexual network generated by our empirically calibrated simulations has low …

Openline Newsletter, June/July 2015, Civil Service Council

OpenLine Newsletter

A monthly newsletter for Civil Service employees, Volume 40, Number 1, June/July 2015.

Cosm News, Georgia Southern University

College of Science & Mathematics: News & Publications (2012-2022)

• GS Biology PULSE Certification Pilot Results

Deconstructing The Lgbt-Victimization Association: The Case Of Sexual Assault And Alcohol-Related Problems, Shanna N. Felix, Justin Hoyle, Chad Posick, Bryan Lee Miller, John Stogner

Criminal Justice & Criminology: Faculty Publications

Research on lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) students has been gaining traction in the fields of criminology, victimology, and education, but available data lag behind the demand for studies on this underserved population. While LGBT students are often perceived to face greater risk of victimization and subsequent health problems than their counterparts, little research has investigated the mechanisms behind problematic outcomes for LGBT students. This research uses data from a Southeastern University to examine sexual assault among LGBT students and their experiences with alcohol-related problems. The results show that LGBT youth are at an increased risk for sexual victimization …

Innovative Polymer Nanocomposite Membranes For Industrial Applications, Irene Fahim

Theses and Dissertations

The present study aimed at developing novel polymer nanocomposites (PNC) membranes by investigating the different preparation factors (e.g. cross-linking of the membranes, filler type and wt% of the fillers added to the polymers) on the PNC membranes’ properties such as: pore size, permeability, tensile strength, melt flow index, and thermal stability, recorded at different temperatures (ranging from 23 – 60 ºC). The main goal is to have PNC membranes with enhanced tensile properties as well as improved barrier properties which would make PNCS potential candidates for possible industrial application such as packaging, wrapping materials and filtration membranes. Mainly, two polymers …

Exponential Replication Of Patterns In The Signal Tile Assembly Model, Alexandra Keenan, Robert Schweller, Xingsi Zhong

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Chemical self-replicators are of considerable interest in the field of nanomanufacturing and as a model for evolution. We introduce the problem of self-replication of rectangular two-dimensional patterns in the practically motivated Signal Tile Assembly Model (STAM) [9]. The STAM is based on the Tile Assembly Model (TAM) which is a mathematical model of self-assembly in which DNA tile monomers may attach to other DNA tile monomers in a programmable way. More abstractly, four-sided tiles are assigned glue types to each edge, and self-assembly occurs when singleton tiles bind to a growing assembly, if the glue types match and the glue …

Combining Genetic Algorithm And Direction Of Arrival For Mimo Wireless Communication System, Ghaida A., Mohammed Hussein Miry

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

In the next generation of wireless communications, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) communication system will be a key technology to enhance the communication efficiency. The popular method for estimating the direction of arrival of sources impinging on an array of MIMO sensors is Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) method which is a problem of great interest in MIMO communication system. The iterative searching technique has been shown more likely to converge to a local maximum, causing errors in Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. A new system is proposed to estimate direction of arrival of sources for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) …

Frost Hardiness Of Iraqi Wheat Genotypes, M Al-Issawi, Hz Rihan, Uh Mahdi, Mp Fuller

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Frost hardiness level in winter cereals is especially temperature dependent. The low temperature which kills 50% of plants (LT50) is considered to be a standard indicator of frost hardiness level of plant. Frost hardiness is considered the most important parameter for the field survival which is the ultimate measure of winter-hardiness of a cultivar. This study aimed to determine the genetic level of frost hardiness of five Middle Eastern varieties (Abu-Ghraib, Fatah, IPA 95, IPA 99, and Sham 6) in comparison to the European cultivar (Claire). All of the Middle Eastern varieties tested showed very similar LT50’s in the nonacclimated …

Modelling Impacts Of Seasonal Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent Permits And Biosolid Substitution For Phosphorus Management In Catchments And River Systems, P. G. Whitehead, M. N. Futter, S. Comber, D. Butterfield, L. Pope, R. Willows, C. Burgess

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The issues of diffuse and point source phosphorus (P) pollution in river systems are presented using a catchment model to assess nutrient behaviour, seasonal effluent standards and biosolid substitution. A process-based, dynamic water quality model (INCA-P) has been applied to four UK catchments, namely, the Rivers Tywi, Wensum, Lunan and Hampshire Avon, to simulate water fluxes, sediments, total phosphorus and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations. The model has been used to assess impacts of both agricultural runoff and point P sources from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on water quality. With increasing costs for P fertilizer and P reduction at WWTPs, …

Time-Related Expression Profiles For Heat Shock Protein Gene Transcripts (Hsp40, Hsp70) In The Central Nervous System Of Lymnaea Stagnalis Exposed To Thermal Stress, Nl Foster, K Lukowiak, Tb Henry

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Organisms exposed to environmental stressors respond by rapidly synthesising a suite of highly conserved proteins called heat shock proteins (HSPs). Environmental stress can also enhance and/or block memory formation, with longterm memory formation requiring gene activation and protein synthesis. Thermal stress in the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis can enhance memory formation, and, in this study, the effect of thermal stress on HSP gene expression in the nervous system was investigated. Time-related expression profiles for HSP40 and HSP70 indicated rapid (<30 min) induction for both transcripts. For HSP40, induction was <20 fold relative to control and expression returned to control levels within 8 h, whereas HSP70 induction was >100 fold and expression did not return to control levels within 8 h.

Effects Of Exercise And Pharmacological Intervention On Electromechanical Function Of The Heart In The Goto-Kakizaki Type 2 Diabetic Rat, Khawla Abdulla Al-Ali

Dissertations

Type 2 diabetes mellitus accounts for more than 90% of cases of diabetes mellitus. Cardiovascular diseases are the major causes of morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients. A variety of diastolic and systolic dysfunctions have been reported. The severity of the abnormalities depends on the patients’ age and diabetes duration. The aim of the study was to investigate the age-dependent, exercise and pharmacological intervention on electromechanical function of the heart in the Goto-Kakizaki (GK) type 2 diabetic rat. mRNA expression was assessed in ventricular muscle with real-time RTPCR. Ventricular myocytes shortening, intracellular Ca2+ transport and L-type Ca2+ current were measured …

Protein Domain Linker Prediction: A Direction For Detecting Protein – Protein Interactions, Maad Mohammad Hasan Shatnawi

Dissertations

Protein chains are generally long and consist of multiple domains. Domains are the basic of elements of protein structures that can exist, evolve and function independently. The accurate and reliable identification of protein domains and their interactions has very important impacts in several protein research areas. The accurate prediction of protein domains is a fundamental stage in both experimental and computational proteomics. The knowledge is an initial stage of protein tertiary structure prediction which can give insight into the way in which protein works. The knowledge of domains is also useful in classifying the proteins, understanding their structures, functions and …

Characterization Of Carbapenemase Producer Enterobacteriaceae Isolated In The United Arab Emirates, Amna Eisa Al Baloushi

Dissertations

The efficient control of the spread of carbapenemase producer Enterobacteriaceae, a major public health treat world-wide, requires knowledge on the molecular epidemiology and genetic background of the emerging carbapenemase genes.

Our aim was to investigate the genetic support of New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase and OXA-48-type carbapenemase genes in carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolated in the United Arab Emirates. Since these isolates are extremely drug resistant, leaving few treatment options, the efficacy of alternative antimicrobials was also assessed.

Seven NDM-producer Enterobacteriaceae, collected during 2009-2011, and subsequently five NDM and OXA-48-type carbapenemase co-producer Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated during 2011-2013 in three hospitals of the …

The Killer Robots Are Here: Legal And Policy Implications, Rebecca Crootof

Cardozo Law Review

In little over a year, the possibility of a complete ban on autonomous weapon systems - known colloquially as "killer robots" - has evolved from a proposal in an NGO report to the subject of an international meeting with representatives from over eighty states. However, no one has yet put forward a coherent definition of autonomy in weapon systems from a law of armed conflict perspective, which often results in the conflation of legal, ethical, policy, and political arguments. This Article therefore proposes that an "autonomous weapon system" be defined as "a weapon system that, based on conclusions derived from …

Normative Isomorphism: Is Irish Academic Work-Life The Same In Different Institutional Types In The Universal Phase Of Higher Education?, Amanda Moynihan

Doctoral

Academic work-life in the universal phase of higher education has reportedly involved an extreme intensification and diversification of academic roles. International empirical research supports the hypothesis that academic staff are spending more time at work, are reporting diminishing morale, and are experiencing erosion of their values of academic freedom, autonomy and collegiality. What has not yet been adequately investigated is the extent to which this experience of academic work-life is the same or different depending on institutional type, thus identifying the research problem addressed in this thesis. This study takes a historical investigative approach to the initial literature review, illustrating …

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• Georgia Southern study shows parents think their overweight preschool children are 'about the right weight'
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A Qualitative Collective Case Study Investigating The Motivational Factors Of Elementary-Aged Students In Physical Education Class And Leisurely Physical Activity, Jesse Tanner Beam

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to increase understanding of the influential motivating factors of elementary-aged students in physical education (PE) that foster positive reinforcement to manage student engagement. The study was conducted at three different elementary schools in a school district in the southeastern United States. To determine the factors that influence the students' motivation in PE and leisurely physical activity, a set of data collection sources was used. Student interviews, caregiver surveys, and teacher journal entries were utilized to collect purposeful data that identified the specific factors associated with participation. Data was then transcribed and …