Digital Commons Network^™

Changes In Appetite, Energy Intake, Body Composition And Circulating Ghrelin Constituents During An Incremental Trekking Ascent To High Altitude, Jamie Matu, John O'Hara, Neil Hill, Sarah B. Clarke, Christopher Boos, Caroline Newman, David Holdsworth, Theocharis Ispoglou, Lauren Duckworth, David Woods, Adrian Mellor, Kevin Deighton

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Updated Extinction Risk Assessments Of Madagascar’S Freshwater Decapod Crustaceans Reveal Fewer Threatened Species But More Data Deficient Species., N Cumberlidge, J. Rasamy Razanabolana, C H. Ranaivoson, H H. Randrianasolo, M Sayer, L Máiz-Tomé, D Van Damme, W R T Darwall

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The Problems With Pooling Poop: Confronting Sampling Method Biases In Wolf (Canis Lupus) Diet Studies, T. Gable, S. Windels, John G. Bruggink, S. Barber-Meyer

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The Treadmill Of Destruction In Comparative Perspective: A Panel Study Of Military Spending And Carbon Emissions, 1961-2014, Alex Stoner, John H. Bradford

Journal Articles

This article analyzes a unique panel data set to assess the effect of militarism on per capita carbon dioxide emissions. We extend previous research examining the effects of military expenditures on carbon emissions by including in our analyses over 30 years of additional data. In addition, we compare our preliminary results to those obtained from other estimation procedures. Specifically, we report and visually illustrate the results of 54 cross-sectional models (one for each year) and 36 unique panel regression models on both balanced and unbalanced panels. We assess how this relationship has changed over time by testing for interactions between …

Effects Of Injectable Progestogen Contraception Versus The Copper Intrauterine Device On Hiv Acquisition: Sub-Study Of A Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial, G. Justus Hofmeyr, Mandisa Singata-Madliki, Theresa A. Lawrie, Eduardo Bergel, Marleen Temmerman

Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Africa

Background: Evidence from observational studies suggests an increased risk of HIV acquisition among women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) contraception.

Methods: Within the context of a South African programme to increase women's access to the intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD), we conducted a pragmatic, open-label, parallel-arm, randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the IUD versus injectable progestogen contraception (IPC) at two South African hospitals. The primary outcome was pregnancy; secondary outcomes included HIV acquisition. Consenting women attending termination of pregnancy services were randomised after pregnancy termination between July 2009 and November 2012. Condoms were promoted for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. …

Gender Equality And Authenticity: A Study Of Women In It Leadership, Samantha L. Dewalt

Theses and Dissertations

This purpose of this dissertation is to understand how women senior leaders in the information technology (IT) industry experience leading with authenticity in the context of a male-dominated work environment. The IT industry has been unsuccessful in attracting and retaining women in leadership positions. For decades, women have faced challenges with gender biases in the workplace. Research has shown that in some predominantly male work environments, women experience pressures to conform to long-established norms in order to advance up the corporate ladder. Using a phenomenological methodology, this study examines how women describe their present perceptions of leading with authenticity in …

Frost: Frequently Asked Questions, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grain and other field crops published reports

Frequently asked questions regarding frost from the National Frost Initiative.

Aedes Aegypti And Dengue In The Philippines: Centering History And Critiquing Ecological And Public Health Approaches To Mosquito-Borne Disease In The Greater Asian Pacific, Maria R. Pettis

Pomona Senior Theses

The global incidence of dengue has increase 30-fold over the past 50 years in the western or Asian Pacific, this region is also a contemporary epicenter for resource extraction and ecological destabilization. Dengue is addition to yellow fever, chikungunya and most recently zika virus, are transmitted by the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti- a domesticated mosquito adept at breeding in artificial household containers and within homes. The history of the domestication and global distribution of Aedes aegypti is intrinsically linked to European expansion into and among tropical worlds. Contemporary population genetics research suggest the westward expansion of the mosquito vector …

Lost Opportunities: Ecuador's Yasuní Itt Initiative, Julianna Hitchins

Pomona Senior Theses

In 2007, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador proposed the Yasuní ITT Initiative at the United Nations General Assembly in an effort to contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and the local preservation of biodiversity. The initiative proposed enacting an indefinite ban on oil exploration and extraction within the Ecuadorian Yasuní National Park so long as the developed world was willing to contribute to half the forgone costs of drilling. However, despite initial support, the Yasuní Initiative was unsuccessful, and due to a lack of financial support, Correa terminated the proposal in August 2013.

With the increasing threat of …

Soil Erosion Risk Factors And The Impacts Of Diversification On Organic Strawberry Farms Along California’S Central Coast, Kay Sterner

Pomona Senior Theses

Soil erosion is a major issue that threatens to undermine our current system of agriculture. Due to the fact that this system is in turn the number one cause of erosion, agricultural practices in the United States need to be rethought. This study explores how traditional ideas of erosion risks are related to observed erosion on organic strawberry farms along California’s Central Coast. In addition, diversified farming systems are addressed as a possible solution for the current unsustainability of our farming practices. The data from this research suggest that diversity of crops on farms could be linked to less soil …

More Than Just A Glass Face: What Makes A "Green" Or "Sustainable" Building, Exactly?, Kelli Kokame

Pomona Senior Theses

Buildings are responsible for a wide range of environmental impacts. In response to this, several green building standards have been developed. Each standard uses different strategies and has different approaches to defining what features should make up a green building. This thesis uses the LEED, BREEAM, EEWH, and Living Building Challenge standards as a lens through which this question of what makes a green building is explored, with an emphasis on the distinction between greenness and sustainability in the built environment.

Using Geospatial Analysis For High School Environmental Science Education: A Case Study Of The Jane Goodall Institute's Community-Centered Conservation Approach, Madison G. Vorva

Pomona Senior Theses

Given my experiences as a young conservation advocate, I saw a need to teach students the importance of interconnectedness, cultural awareness and systems-thinking skills through a spatial lens. I believe these skills are required for holistic, equitable and sustainable conservation decision-making in local and international contexts. This thesis uses geospatial tools to teach conservation ecology vocabulary and concepts from high school environmental science curriculum in two online resources. The purpose of my lesson plan is to show students how conservationists address complex conservation and land-use challenges using the Jane Goodall Institute’s community-centered conservation approach as a case-study. My hope is …

Engineering An Alkane-Hydroxylating Bacterial Monooxygenase: A Tale Of Two Chemistries, Arjun Nanda

Pomona Senior Theses

Toluene / o-xylene monooxyenase (ToMO) from Pseudomonas sp. OX1 is a multimeric metalloenzyme enzyme that efficiently catalyzes the hydroxylation of aromatic hydrocarbons with high specificity. Though included in a larger group of conserved bacterial multicomponent monooxygenases (BMMs) studied as potential biocatalysts for industrial hydrocarbon chemistry, the substrate specificity and oxygenated intermediates of ToMO differ greatly from its well-characterized, alkane-hydroxylating analog sMMO. Despite a shared global topology and near identical active sites, sMMO can cleave inert C-H bonds in alkanes while ToMO cannot - two seemingly similar structures give rise to vastly different chemistries. This work seeks to determine a structural …

Distribution And Habitat Use Of The Golden Crab Chaceon Fenneri Off Eastern Florida Based On In Situ Submersible And Rov Observations And Potential For Impacts To Deep Water Coral/Sponge Habitat, John K. Reed, Stephanie Farrington, Charles Messing, Andrew David

Gulf and Caribbean Research

This study documents the distribution and habitat preferences of the golden crab, a commercially fished species, in relation to deep-sea coral/sponge ecosystems (DSCEs) at 200-900 m depths off eastern Florida. A total of 386 h of videotapes from 94 submersible and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives from 1999 to 2009, covering a total distance of 376 km, were reviewed and characterized for habitat type and presence of crabs. The DSCEs surveyed included Lophelia coral mounds, Miami Terrace, Pourtalès Terrace, and Tortugas Valleys. Video transect data also included environmental surveys of proposed deep-water routes for Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) pipelines, LNG …

Marius Brouwer 1942-2016, Mark S. Peterson, Nancy J. Brown-Peterson, Joyce M. Shaw

Gulf and Caribbean Research

No abstract provided.

Fishery Habitat In Estuaries Of The Gulf Of Mexico: Reflections On Geographical Variability In Salt Marsh Value And Function, Thomas J. Minello

Gulf and Caribbean Research

After 35 years working with many estuarine ecologists, I have concluded that all salt marshes are not created equal. This may seem like a trivial conclusion, but not everyone is a believer. While coastal salt marshes have many important ecological functions, their ability to support marine fisheries appears dependent on some specific characteristics. Extensive flooding of the marsh surface and a large amount of edge per area of vegetation have been identified as important in supporting production of juvenile brown shrimp (Farfantepenaeus aztecus), white shrimp (Litopenaeus setiferus), and blue crab (Callinectes sapidus). Data on other species are limited, but …

Eco-Label Certification: A Case Study Of The Campeche Shrimp Fishery, Mexico, Antonio Di Cintio, Luis Bourillón Moreno

Gulf and Caribbean Research

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) eco—label certifies that seafood comes from a sustainable source. The use of this eco—label lags behind in the developing world, where ecosystem approaches to fishery management have not yet been widely implemented. However, the Food and Agriculture Organization under its REBYC—II LAC project is addressing ecosystem concerns within the shrimp trawl fisheries of a number of developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean by helping them to improve management of the negative ecosystem impacts by modifying their gear to reduce by—catch and habitat damage. This study investigates how the potential improvements identified by the …

Impacts Of Cattail Management Techniques On Plant, Bird, Amphibian, And Invertebrate Communities In Shallow Wetlands Of Northwestern Minnesota, Joshua John Bruggman

Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands in the United States have been considered both an impediment to progress and a valuable asset for ecosystem services. As a result, rapid loss and degradation of wetlands has occurred and many attempts to protect and restore wetlands are now occurring. However, invasive species continue to challenge wetland management efforts. Cattails (Typha spp.) are invasive plants that can dominate a wetland once they become established. There are two species of cattails in the Northern Great Plains, broad-leaf (Typha latifolia) and narrow-leaf (Typha angustifolia) cattail. These two species can cross to produce a robust, hybrid cattail (Typha x glauca) that …

A Comparison Of Starting Techniques Out Of An Athletic Stance Position, Aaron Schwenzfeier Schwenzfeier

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the false step (FS) to the straight out step (SOS) out of a parallel athletic stance (PAS) in Division I college athletes. 30 Division I college athletes from football, baseball, softball, and volleyball performed three repetitions each of the FS and SOS. Each trial was timed at 5 and 10 yards using the TC Brower Timing System as well filmed from two vantage points for kinematic data collection using the Ariel Performance Analysis System (APAS). From this, the velocity of the center of mass (VCM), projection angle of the center of mass …

Asymptotic Stability Of Solutions For A Certain Non-Autonomous Second-Order Stochastic Delay Differential Equation, Ahmed Mohamed Abou-El-Ela, Abdel-Rahiem Sadek, Ayman Mohammed Mahmoud, Eman Sayed Farghaly

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this paper, sufficient criteria that guarantee the existence of stochastic asymptotic stability of the zero solution of the nonautonomous second-order stochastic delay differential equation \eqref{3e1} were established with the aid of a suitable Lyapunov functional. Two examples are given in the last section to illustrate our main result.

Stationary Distribution And Global Asymptotic Stability Of A Three-Species Stochastic Food-Chain System, Hong Qiu, Wenmin Deng

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

This paper intends to study some dynamical properties of a stochasticthree-dimensional Lotka--Volterra system. Under some mild assumptions, we first introduce a simple method to show thatthe model has a global and positive solution almost surely. Secondly,we prove that this model has a stationary distribution. Then we study the global asymptoticstability of the positive solution. Finally, some numerical simulations are introduced toillustrate the theoretical results.

On Generalized Kropina Change Of $M$Th Root Finsler Metrics With Special Curvature Properties, Bankteshwar Tiwari, Ghanashyam Kr. Prajapati

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In the present paper, we consider generalized Kropina change of $m$th root Finsler metrics and prove that every generalized Kropina change of $m$th root Finsler metrics with isotropic Berwald curvature, isotropic mean Berwald curvature, relatively isotropic Landsberg curvature, and relatively isotropic mean Landsberg curvature reduces to the Berwald metric, weakly Berwald metric, Landsberg metric, and weakly Landsberg metric, respectively. We also show that every generalized Kropina change of $m$th root Finsler metrics with almost vanishing $\textbf{H}$-curvature has vanishing $\textbf{H}$-curvature.

Piecewise Asymptotically Almost Periodic Solution Of Neutral Volterra Integro-Differential Equations With Impulsive Effects, Zhinan Xia

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this paper, we investigate the existence and uniqueness ofa piecewise asymptotically almost periodic mild solution tononautonomous neutral Volterra integro-differential equations withimpulsive effects in Banach space. The working tools are based onthe Krasnoselskii's fixed point theorem and semigroup theory. Inorder to illustrate our main results, we study the piecewiseasymptotically almost periodic solution of the impulsive partialdifferential equations with Dirichlet conditions.

Maternal Nutrient Intakes From Food And Drinks Consumed In Early Pregnancy In Ireland, Laura Mullaney, Shona Cawley, Rachel Kennedy, Amy C. O'Higgins, Daniel Mccartney, Michael J. Turner

Articles

Background: The aim of this observational study was to measure food, macronutrient and micronutrient intakes of women presenting for antenatal care and assess compliance with current nutritional recommendations.

Vitamin D Receptor Variants And Uncontrolled Asthma, Conor Kerley, Katrina Hutchinson, John Faul, Peter Greally, David Coghlan, Basil Elnazir, Michael Louw, Yury Rochev

Articles

BACKGROUND: Asthma is a common childhood respiratory disease, affecting around 20% of Irish children. In other populations, vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms have been associated with asthma risk. We aimed to investigate the association between 2 VDR polymorphisms and uncontrolled paediatric asthma. METHODS: 44 asthmatic children and 57 healthy volunteers were studied. The VDR TaqI gene variant in exon 9 (T/C) (rs731236) and ApaI (rs7975232) in intron 8 (C/T) were determined, using TaqMan®Assays. The lung function, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels and other biomarkers of allergy, immunity, airway and systemic inflammation were assessed. RESULTS: The distribution of T and C …

Outcomes Of Exclusive Enteral Nutrition In Paediatric Crohn's Disease, L. Lafferty, M. Tuohy, A. Carey, Sheila Sugrue, M. Hurley, Seamus Hussey

Articles

Background/objectives: Exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) is a safe and effective treatment modality for inducing remission in paediatric Crohn's disease (CD). The primary aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of EEN to corticosteroid (CS) therapy in newly diagnosed, treatment-naïve patients with CD. A secondary aim was to describe the outcomes of EEN in a national cohort of paediatric CD patients over a 10-year period.

Subjects/methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted at the Irish national referral centre for paediatric CD. A case-matched analysis was conducted on two cohorts matched for age, gender, disease location, disease behaviour and disease …

Existence And Global Attractivity Of Periodic Solutions In A Max-Type System Of Difference Equations, Imane Dekkar, Nouressadat Touafek

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

We consider in this paper the following system of difference equations with maximum $$ \left\{ \begin{array}{lll} x(n+1)= & \max\{f_1(n,x(n)),g_1(n,y(n))\}& \\ & &, ~~ n=0,1,2, \ldots, \\ y(n+1)= & \max\{f_2(n,x(n)),g_2(n,y(n))\} & \\ \end{array} \right.$$ where $f_i, g_i$, $i=1,2$, are real-valued functions with periodic coefficients. We use the Banach fixed point theorem to get a sufficient condition under which this system admits a unique periodic solution. Moreover, we show that this periodic solution attracts all the solutions of the current system. Some examples are also given to illustrate our results.

Stability Of Nonmonotone Critical Traveling Waves Forspatially Discrete Reaction-Diffusion Equations With Time Delay, Ge Tian, Guobao Zhang, Zhao-Xing Yang

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

This paper is concerned with the existence and stability of critical traveling waves (waves with minimal speed $c=c_*$) for a nonmonotone spatially discrete reaction-diffusion equation with time delay. We first show the existence of critical traveling waves by a limiting argument. Then, using the technical weighted energy method with some new variations, we prove that the critical traveling waves $\phi(x+c_{*}t)$ (monotone or nonmonotone) are time-asymptotically stable when the initial perturbations are small in a certain weighted Sobolev norm.

Stability Analysis Of Nonlinear Fractional Differential Order Systems With Caputo And Riemann--Liouville Derivatives, Javad Alidousti, Reza Khoshsiar Ghaziani, Ali Bayati Eshkaftaki

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this paper we establish stability theorems for nonlinear fractional orders systems (FDEs) with Caputo and Riemann--Liouville derivatives. In particular, we derive conditions for $ {\bf \cal{F}}$-stability of nonlinear FDEs. By numerical simulations, we verify numerically our theoretical results on a test example.

From Dude To Dad: A Study On Prenatal Fatherhood And Its Representation In Theatre, Michael Nilsson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A man in the preparatory phase for parenthood with his first child can go through a lot of extreme emotional highs and lows, depending upon the man's economic, relationship, and physical status, as well as community pressures and support. In preparation to portray an array of prenatal fathers in a showcase of scenes, I have read an assortment of plays and scholarly sources. In reading a large sample of prenatal plays, I have extracted several possible emotional changes within a man's psyche. I also analyzed the social rationale behind these changes through the writings of sociologists and other scholarly sources. …