Digital Commons Network^™

Defensive Behavior Of Ospreys (Pandion Haliaetus) At Natural And Artificial Nest Sites, Cierra Braga

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

First Documentation Of A Swallow-Tailed Kite (Elanoides Forficatus) Preying On An Infant Squirrel, David L. Sherer, Matthew Fuirst

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

David W. Johnston 1926-2015, Robert L. Crawford

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Rafinesque’S Big-Eared Bat (Corynorhinus Rafinesquii) In A Florida Cave In Winter, Lisa M. Smith, John Mayersky, Jeffery A. Gore

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Florida Field Naturalist

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Does Survival Vary For Breast Cancer Patients In The United States? A Study From Six Randomly Selected States, Hafiz Mohammad Rafiqullah Khan, Lisaann S. Gittner, Abhilash Perisetti, Anshul Saxena, Aamrin Rafiq, Kemesha Gabbidon, Sarah Mende, Maria Lyuksyutova

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

Background . Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Disparities in some characteristics of breast cancer patients and their survival data for six randomly selected states in the US were examined. Materials and Methods . A probability random sampling method was used to select the records of 2,000 patients from each of six randomly selected states. Demographic and disease characteristics were extracted from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. To evaluate relationships between variables, we employed a Cox Proportional Regression to compare survival times in the different states. Results . Iowa had the highest mean age …

Genomic Evaluation Of Male Reproductive Adaptations And Responses To Dehydration In Peromyscus Eremicus (Cactus Mouse), Lauren Kordonowy

Doctoral Dissertations

Research elucidating the genetic architecture of physiological mechanisms enabling survival and reproduction in extreme environments is becoming prominent in evolutionary biology. The desert, in particular, poses numerous challenges for its endemic species, and mammals (and often, rodents) have been the focus for survival adaptations pertaining to water-limitation. However, desert rodent adaptation research has focused predominantly on survival, while potential physiological reproductive adaptations to dehydration have received less attention, aside from research evaluating water as reproductive cue. The fact that we do not know the physiological mechanisms enabling reproduction during dehydration is surprising, as desert rodents must possess adaptations to successfully …

Derivatization Of Diimine Tricarbonyl Re(I) Complexes For Cooperative Catalysis And Surface Immobilization, Michael Eric Louis

Doctoral Dissertations

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a known greenhouse gas and in recent years has been identified as one of the primary contributors to changes in global climate. Nature utilizes CO2 through photosynthesis in which the plants harness energy from the sun to extract electrons from water to convert CO2 into sugars to fuel cellular activities. Using this as inspiration, our research aims to photochemically convert CO2 to higher value products by designing appropriate catalytic systems. Diimine-tricarbonyl rhenium compounds have demonstrated excellent activity in photo and electrochemical CO2 reduction. A low-energy pathway has been postulated in which Re(I)-based catalysts mediate CO2 reduction …

Protein Phosphatase 2a Function In Response To Salt Stress In Arabidopsis Thaliana: Defining Pathways And Genetic Interaction Networks, Megan M. Thompson

Doctoral Dissertations

Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is a key regulator of many biological pathways. The PP2A heterotrimer is composed of a scaffolding/regulatory A subunit, regulatory B subunit, and catalytic C subunit. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the A, B and C subunits are encoded by 3, 17, and 5 genes, respectively. Despite the ubiquitous expression and high sequence conservation of the A and C subunits, plants with mutations in specific subunits display phenotypes. A subset of the A and C subunit mutants exhibited root skewing or curling phenotypes when grown on vertically-oriented plates supplemented NaCl. I characterized the root response of a1rcn1 and c4 …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Salt And Osmotic Stress Tolerance In Frankia Strains Isolated From Casuarina Trees, Rediet Oshone

Doctoral Dissertations

Globally, 20% of total cultivated and 33% of irrigated agricultural lands are affected by high salinity. By 2050, more than 50% of the arable land will be salinized. The hyper-ionic and hyper-osmotic stresses associated with salt-affected soils threaten the ability of cells to maintain optimal turgor pressure and intracellular ionic concentration for growth and functioning. The nitrogen-fixing soil actinobacterium Frankia shows marked variability in its tolerance to salinity. When in a symbiotic association with actinorhizal plants, Frankia enhances the tolerance of the plants to a range of abiotic stresses, including salinity. The Casuarina-Frankia association has been used to reclaim salt …

Edward Channing’S Writing Revolution: Composition Prehistory At Harvard, 1819-1851, Bradfield Edward Dittrich

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation, building on the work of John Brereton, Robert Connors, and others returns to the Harvard University Archives to reconstruct the Harvard rhetoric program under the leadership of Edward Tyrrel Channing from 1819 to 1851. During that time, coincident with the industrial revolution, U.S. publishers experienced a period of rapid growth as the cost of production for books, newspapers, and magazines dropped, and demand for print grew among a nascent middle class. Against that backdrop, and in spite of considerable resistance, Channing engineered a substantial shift at Harvard from an oratory-based curriculum to a writing-based one, just as the …

Chiral Biomolecule-Induced Chiroptical Activity In Quantum Dots, Benjamin Haynie

Master's Theses and Capstones

Chiroptical activity in cadmium selenide (CdSe) and cadmium sulfide (CdS) quantum dots (QDs) has been induced by interactions with chiral capping ligands, either with thiol functional group containing biomolecules (e.g. cysteine) or ‘thiol-free’ biomolecules (e.g. malic acid). This induced chirality is theorized to be the result of electronic orbital hybridization between the QD and ligand, not from physical distortion of crystal structure. The polarity of the resulting circular dichroism (CD) spectra shows a ‘mirror-image’ between enantiomers of the same ligand. However, it is possible for two ligands of the same absolute configuration to induce mirror-image CD spectra, as is the …

Grafting Melons Increases Yield, Harvest Period, And Resistance To Sudden Wilt, Janel Louise Martin

Master's Theses and Capstones

Melons [Cucumis melo L.], are potentially a high value crop for New England, but production is limited by cool soil temperatures and sudden wilt. The primary symptom of sudden wilt syndrome is rapid wilting of vines either just preceding or during the harvest period when plants have a heavy fruit-load. Typically, plants do not recover from these symptoms, resulting in reduced yield and fruit quality. The exact cause of sudden wilt is unknown; however, the main cause is thought to be a soil-borne pathogen with other compounding abiotic factors. Use of early cultivars, black plastic mulch, and rowcovers have brought …

Feasibility Study Of Using Electrodialysis To Treat Anion Exchange Brine, Katerina Messologitis

Master's Theses and Capstones

In the drinking water sector, anion exchange technologies are increasingly used for color and disinfection by-products removal, which targets low molecular weight natural organic matter, particularly humic substances (HS). After treatment, resins are regenerated to 99.9% recovery with NaCl resulting in a saline waste stream, referred to as brine. The resulting brine contains left-over NaCl, as well as desorbed inorganic and organic anions (SO42-, HCO3-, HS, etc.) from raw water. Disposal of this brine is a problem, especially with regulations becoming increasingly strict. Fortunately, compounds in the brine can be reclaimed if properly separated: NaCl for direct reuse in the …

Redefining Human Rights: Non-Governmental Organizations, United States Foreign Policy In Chile, And The 1970s, Thomas Michael Spencer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Median Fin Patterning In Bony Fish: Caspase-3 Role In Fin Fold Reabsorption, Kaitlyn Ann Hammock

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Fish larvae develop a fin fold that will later be replaced by the median fins. I hypothesize that fin fold reabsorption is part of the initial patterning of the median fins, and that caspase-3, an apoptosis marker, will be expressed in the fin fold during reabsorption. I analyzed time series of larvae in the first 20-days post hatch (dph) to determine timing of median fin development in a basal bony fish - sturgeon- and in zebrafish, a derived bony fish. I am expecting the general activation pathway to be conserved in both fishes but, the timing and location of cell …

Pioglitazone, Neet Family Proteins, And Galactose Modulation Of Liver Cell Bioenergetics, David F. Grimm

Undergraduate Honors Theses

MitoNEET was discovered through interactions with a labeled and photoactive derivative of pioglitazone (pio), a drug used to increase peripheral insulin sensitivity. Its unique coordination of a [2Fe-2S] cluster by three cysteine residues (Cys-72, Cys-74, and Cys-83) and one histidine (His-87) gives this cluster both stability and the ability to be donated to acceptor proteins. These qualities allow mitoNEET to participate in a diversity of biological functions. Functions of mitoNEET and the consequences of pioglitazone (pio) treatment in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells cultured in glucose or galactose-based medium were examined by respiration and proliferation studies. Pio treatment decreased complex …

Introduction To Galactic Alienology: A Collaboration Between Carson Ellis, Hank Meloy And Students From Martin Luther King Jr. School, Carson Ellis, Hank Meloy

King School Museum of Contemporary Art

Introduction to Galactic Alienology: A collaboration between Carson Ellis, Hank Meloy and students from Martin Luther King Jr. School

Introduction to Galactic Alienology is a collaborative project by artist Carson Ellis and her son, Hank Meloy. The work was produced through a process of having Hank describe a set of imagined space aliens and Carson then illustrating them. This catalog was created as an accompaniment to an exhibition of that work at King School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA). The exhibit at KSMoCA included the original illustrations created by Carson and Hank, as well as drawings and texts from a …

Introduction To Data Science For Transportation Researchers, Planners, And Engineers, Liming Wang

TREC Final Reports

Building on the successful scientific computing training program offered by the Software Carpentry (http://www.software-carpentry.org/), this course exposes students to the best practices in data science through hands-on lab sessions. Using transportation data and examples, it also aims to help students tackle the challenge of “drinking from a hose” when dealing with the overwhelming amount of data that is increasingly common in transportation research and practice.

Although computing is now an integral part of every aspect of science and engineering, transportation research included, most students of science, engineering, and planning are never taught how to build, use, validate, and share software …

The Effect Of Acute Thermal Stress On Gene Expression Levels Of Hsp70 In The Antarctic Notothenioid, Notothenia Coriiceps, Eudiah Ochieng

Honors College Theses

The waters of the West Antarctic Peninsula are known as one of the most cold, stable environments on earth and organisms living within, such as the fish Notothenia coriiceps, have become highly specialized over evolutionary time. However, water temperatures in this environment have been steadily warming over the past two decades due to global climate change. In addition to the challenges created by increasing temperatures N. coriiceps will also be faced with difficulty meeting oxygen demands to carry out metabolic processes due to the decrease solubility of oxygen in warmer environments. Heat stress proteins (Hsps) are critical molecules that …

The Effects Of Elevated Co2 Levels On Broad Bean, Vicia Faba, Growth/Defense Tradeoffs, Harley B. Kitching

Honors College Theses

Atmospheric changes, associated with global climate change, are increasing at an unprecedented rate. Plants generally display higher rates of growth in response to elevated CO₂ levels, but this response varies among species. In addition, very little is known about how plant growth/defense tradeoffs will be altered by increasing CO₂ levels. By raising Broad bean, Vicia faba L., plants under ambient (400 ppm) and elevated (900 ppm) levels of CO₂, it was shown that atmospheric composition directly altered plant growth/defense tradeoffs. Plants grown under elevated CO₂ had lighter stem weights but greater numbers of extrafloral nectaries …

An Analysis Of White-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus Virginianus, Killed In Deer Vehicle Accidents On Bulloch County, Ga Roadways, Mackenzie P. Payne 4003933

Honors College Theses

White-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, are native to Georgia. With over 1.2 million individuals in the state, White-tailed deer have been implicated in a large number of motor vehicle collisions (ca. 1 million) each year. It is unknown, however, if deer are more likely to be killed: 1) if they are of particular ages (or classes), and 2) in areas with specific road characteristics. We addressed these two questions by collecting the remains of 20 White-tailed deer killed in deer vehicle collisions (“deer vehicle accidents” - DVAs) in Bulloch County, GA. When a deer was located, the road characteristics were …

Technology And Student Achievement In Stem Subjects: Perspectives From Teachers In Grades 3rd-5th, Kayleigh D. Hunter

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this study is to research teachers’ perspectives of their role and responsibilities of integrating technology in the classroom and the influence of technology on student achievement. The participants involved in the qualitative research process included seven in-service professional public school teachers. The thirty minute to an hour interviews were piloted using researcher created interview question constructed from previous research on teachers’ perceptions of technology. The questions used were created to specifically answer the researcher’s topic of study; some questions are regarding whether teachers believe success is technology driven and what benefits they think technology brings. The teachers …

Iodine-Initiated Hydration Of Internal Alkynes, Nicholas J. Shuber, Karelle Aiken

Honors College Theses

The iodine-initiated hydration of internal alkynes is a novel, green, and inexpensive synthetic pathway in comparison with the commonly used transition metal catalyzed reactions. This can be a useful alternative in many fields, academic or industrial. This experimental design has been used successfully on terminal alkynes and is now being extended to internal alkynes. Through systematic probing of the reaction conditions, we have gleaned sufficient information to determine a strong mechanistic hypothesis based on neighboring group participation. Here in, we will report our result with a series of internal, keto alkynes reacted under ambient conditions with iodine in “wet” solvent. …

2016-2017 Georgia Southern University Women's Rifle Roster, Georgia Southern University

Women's Rifle Records

• 2016-17 Women's Rifle Roster

From Dislocation To Disengagement: The Experiences Of Low-Income And First Generation College Students, Azure S. Mcginty

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis, I examine the experiences of low-income and first generation college students who are enrolled members of the TRiO Student Support Program at the University of Montana. This program is designed to cater to the specific academic struggles of low-income and first generation college students. There is a wealth of scholarly literature concerning this population of students and their risk of dropping out of college. Researchers have found these students are susceptible to habitus dislocation, which causes many of these students to feel torn between acclimating to college and forfeiting their membership in the working-class. One of the …

Greening The Thrifty Food Plan – How Adding A Sustainability Constraint Affects Price, Availability And Market Basket Composition, Laura Brown

Theses - ALL

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the potential impacts of a sustainability constraint on monthly cost, composition and availability of the USDA Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) market basket.

Methods: A sustainability constraint was specified to include a sustainable eating pattern, organic certification, seasonality, regionally or locally produced foods. Three levels of natural resource costs were considered. A store food list of 68 foods (119 items reflecting different food forms) produced in the Northeast region was generated reflecting the TFP. Price and availability data for conventional and organic varieties were recorded at four distinct food retail store types: …

Intuitive Eating Practices And Attitudes Of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists., Marlei Blair Simon

Theses - ALL

Background: Dieting is proven to be ineffective for weight management. Research shows that non-diet approaches, such as intuitive eating (IE), improve weight status and health outcomes. Cognitive factors may influence Registered Dietitian Nutritionists’ (RD/Ns) dietary and IE attitudes and practices. RD/Ns play an important role in communicating diet and non-diet approaches in practice with clients. IE can only be communicated to clients by RD/Ns as strongly as RD/Ns practice IE.

Objective: The primary goal of this research was to assess and evaluate Registered Dietitians intuitive eating attitudes and dietary behaviors and practices. RD/Ns IE scores were compared to their body …

Characterizing Effects Of Nitric Oxide Sterilization On Tert-Butyl Acrylate Shape Memory Polymers, Ben Phillippi

Theses - ALL

As research into the potential uses of shape memory polymers (SMPs) as implantable medical devices continues to grow and expand, so does the need for an accurate and reliable sterilization mechanism. The ability of an SMP to precisely undergo a programmed shape change will define its ability to accomplish a therapeutic task. To ensure proper execution of the in vivo shape change, the sterilization process must not negatively affect the shape memory behavior of the material. To address this need, this thesis investigates the effectiveness of a benchtop nitric oxide (NOx) sterilization process and the extent to which the process …

Intertext 2017 — Complete Issue

Intertext

The complete issue of Intertext 25 (2017).