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Impact Of Giant Miscanthus (Miscanthus X Giganteus) Cultivation On Midwestern Farmland Birds, Matthew Craffey

Masters Theses

Giant Miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus) is a promising bioenergy feedstock, newly introduced to North America. However, the qualities that make Giant Miscanthus an attractive bioenergy feedstock may pose challenges to local wildlife. To assess the impacts of Giant Miscanthus on Midwestern farmland birds, I conducted point count and vegetation surveys at three sites in east-central Illinois where Giant Miscanthus was being cultivated. I used occupancy modeling to assess the relative influence of Giant Miscanthus on five species relative to other habitat and landscape characteristics. Dickcissel (Spiza Americana), Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna), and Red-Winged Blackbird …

Evaluation And Demographic Response Of The Shovelnose Sturgeon Commercial Caviar Fishery In The Wabash River, Jessica L. Thornton

Masters Theses

Shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus Rafinesque) are considered one of the last commercially viable options for sturgeon roe harvest. Due to the collapse of several marine sturgeon fisheries and the Similarity of Appearances provision which protect shovelnose sturgeon in only a part of their range, the caviar fishery in the Wabash River remains an important point of supply for this lucrative natural resource. In this thesis, I presented an evaluation of the shovelnose sturgeon commercial caviar fishery in the Wabash River. More specifically, I described the demographic response of this population to continued exploitation over a 10-year period. Additionally, I …

Oxidation Of Β-O-4 Lignin Model Compounds And Application To Lignin Linkage Degradation Facilitated By Mechanochemical Treatment And Two-Step Oxidative Depolymerization, Soledad G. Yao

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

The oxidation of lignin model compounds was studied in conventional solvents in parallel with oxidations in ionic liquid solvents. Catalyst systems were investigated in ionic liquid solvents to determine how reaction rates and the selectivity for benzylic carbon oxidation were affected. Oxidation rates were often lower in ionic liquids than in conventional solvents ‒ as indicated by lower conversion in a standard reaction time ‒ likely due, at least in part, to the higher viscosity of ionic liquids. Mechano chemical treatment of Indulin AT kraft lignin by ball milling with KOH and toluene produced significant carbonyl functionality, among other changes. …

Protein Engineering In The Study Of Protein Labeling And Degradation, Xinyi Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Proteins are large macromolecules that play important roles in nature. With the development of modern molecular biology techniques, protein engineering has emerged as a useful tool and found many applications in areas ranging from food industry, environmental protection, to medical and life science. Biomimetic membrane incorporates biological elements, such as proteins, to form membranes that mimic the high specificity and conductance of natural biological membranes. For any application involving the usage of proteins, the first barrier is always the production of proteins with sufficient stability, and the incorporation of proteins into the artificial matrix. This thesis contains two major parts, …

Applications Of Cell-Derived Vesicles: From Single Molecule Studies To Drug Delivery, Faruk H. Moonschi

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Single molecule studies can provide information of biological molecules which otherwise is lost in ensemble studies. A wide variety of fluorescence-based techniques are utilized for single molecule studies. While these tools have been widely applied for imaging soluble proteins, single molecule studies of transmembrane proteins are much more complicated. A primary reason for this is that, unlike membrane proteins, soluble proteins can be easily isolated from the cellular environment. One approach to isolate membrane proteins into single molecule level involves a very low label expression of the protein in cells. However, cells generate background fluorescence leading to a very low …

Protein Suppression Of Flavin Semiquinone As A Mechanistically Important Control Of Reactivity: A Study Comparing Flavoenzymes Which Differ In Redox Properties, Substrates, And Ability To Bifurcate Electrons, John Patrick Hoben

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

A growing number of flavoprotein systems have been observed to bifurcate pairs of electrons. Flavin-based electron bifurcation (FBEB) results in products with greater reducing power than that of the reactants with less reducing power. Highly reducing electrons at low reduction midpoint potential are required for life processes of both aerobic and anaerobic metabolic processes. For electron bifurcation to function, the semiquinone (SQ) redox intermediate needs to be destabilized in the protein to suppress its ability to trap electrons. This dissertation examines SQ suppression across a number of flavin systems for the purpose of better understanding the nature of SQ suppression …

Linguistic Correlates Of The Quiet Ego In Narratives About The Self, Katherine Maurer

Masters Theses

Increasingly, research has shown that the drive to elevate the self and the excessive pursuit of self-esteem have negative effects on well-being and mental health. In addition, many of the defensive and aggressive tendencies seen in psychological research can be seen as efforts to defend and elevate the self. In contrast to these tendencies, the quiet ego construct describes a state of ego balance characterized by an inclusive sense of identity, perspective-taking, detached awareness (mindfulness), and growth orientation. The quiet ego and related qualities have been associated with many positive outcomes. A body of research using the Linguistic Inquiry and …

Resolution Of The Nutritional Requirements And Metabolic Profile Of Clostridium Scindens Atcc 35704, A Major Bile Acid-Dehydroxylating Anaerobe In The Human Gut, Rachana Shrestha

Masters Theses

Bile acids (cholate and chenodeoxycholate) are synthesized from cholesterol in the human liver, and secreted in small intestine for food digestion. However, a portion of these primary bile acids is converted in the colon to toxic secondary bile acids, deoxycholate and lithocholate. Secondary bile acid formation is the result of 7α-dehydroxylating anaerobes, and one of the key players in this conversion is Clostridium scindens. Interestingly, little is known about the basic physiology and nutrition of C. scindens. Therefore, the goal of this research was to understand the nutritional requirement, and determine the 7α-dehydroxylation activity and end products from …

A Neonicotinoid Affects The Mating Behavior Of The Biological Control Agent Spalangia Endius, Aspen Kremer

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Spalangia endius Walker is a parasitoid wasp that oviposits in the pupal stage of certain fly species, killing the fly in the process. Its fly hosts include economic pests in livestock-rearing operations, and it is sold commercially as a biological control agent. Male and female S. endius may encounter the commonly used pesticide imidacloprid while walking or resting on treated surfaces, and females may encounter imidacloprid while searching for hosts in contaminated manure. Contact with imidacloprid has been shown to affect survival and subsequent ability to parasitize hosts in S. endius. The present study examined the sublethal effect of imidacloprid …

Application Of 1-Hydrosilatrane As A Robust Reducing Reagent, Vladislav Skrypai

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In this work 1-Hydrosilatrane has shown great potential to be a commodity reducing reagent in organic synthesis. Initially, 1-hydrosilatrane was investigated as a reducing reagent in the transformation of aldehydes to corresponding alcohols. Although initial investigations did not confirm previously published work, after addition of a Lewis base activator 1-hydrosilatrane demonstrated speedy reductions of many functionalized aryl aldehydes to alcohols with good yields. Next, 1- hydrosilatrane was used in a direct reductive amination reaction between primary amines and aldehydes/ketones. Reaction proceeded in the presence of a Bronsted acid, and resulted in excellent yields. This reaction was then expanded to chiral …

Assessing The Jurassic Cleveland-Lloyd Bone Bed Predator Trap Hypothesis By Statistical Comparison Of Allosaurus Fragilis And Pleistocene La Brea Canis Dirus Femora, Angela D. Reddick

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Since its discovery in 1939, the Late Jurassic, Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry (CLDQ) has been assumed to be a Jurassic predator trap by most visitors to the site. This idea's longevity is due in part to the disproportionately high ratio of carnivores to herbivores (3:1) uncovered from the quarry. However, despite decades of active research on the taphonomy and geochemistry of the deposit, the predator trap hypothesis remains unproven. In order to test whether the quarry has or does not have the characteristics of a predator trap, this study specifically analyzed the population of the quarry's most abundant animal, Allosaurus fragilis. …

Bayesian Methods For Optimal Treatment Allocation, Saptarshi Chatterjee

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In chronic diseases such as cancer, physicians make multiple treatment decisions over the course of a patient's disease depending on his/her biological characteristics and accrued information. Essentially, the treatment rule at each decision point is a function which takes the patients' biomarker information, treatment and outcome history available up to that point as an input and returns the treatment choice as an output. In the single treatment setting, the optimal treatment decision can be obtained by a regression model on the mean outcome conditional on treatment and covariates, where the optimal treatment is the one that corresponds to the most …

Bicarbonate Enrichment May Mitigate Oxidative Stress In Two Octocorals And Their Photosynthetic Symbionts, Jeffrey Golladay

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The ecological communities built by corals are some of the most biodiverse in the world, and the current rate of climate change threatens their long-term persistence, with mass coral bleaching events becoming more frequent. Ocean acidification (OA) is one consequence of increased atmospheric CO2 that results in changes in seawater carbon chemistry with the potential to impact organisms that rely on seawater dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) for calcification, photosynthesis, or both. Corals are unique animals that participate in a symbiotic relationship with dinoflagellate algae of the genus Symbiodinium spp., in which the algal symbionts translocate most of the products of …

"Paleobotic" Smilodon, Bernard Boston

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

A major challenge in the reconstruction of any fossil taxon is to determine the functional capabilities of the animal while it was alive. For extinct animals, this process can benefit from analysis of the functional capabilities of the closest available living relatives. To provide a more accurate estimation of the movement capacity of an extinct animal, we designed a three-dimensional model of the forelimb of the sabertooth cat, Smilodon. The model is intended as an answer to the challenge facing the research community of providing a system that can refine the understanding of the functional capabilities of extinct animals accurately …

"Your Body Must Be Heard" : Uncovering A New Language Through Female Pain And Bodily Empowerment, Jaclyn Swiderski

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis uses Virginia Woolf's essay "On Being Ill" in order to examine her novel The Waves, and Paule Marshall's novel Praisesong for the Widow. In each of these novels, the main female protagonists are experiencing mental pain that becomes manifested physically. Although each of them are experiencing pain for multiple reasons, their pain at the core is caused by certain societal institutions such as marriage, motherhood, and the medical field. In order to get past their pain and move toward healing, all of the women examined here use their deviant sexualities. Deviancy, here, is defined as anything going against …

Diet And Vegetation Impacts Of A Reintroduced Bison Herd, Ryan Christopher Blackburn

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

To redress prairie loss, managers seed former agricultural lands and reinstate key ecosystem processes with prescribed fires and reintroduction of native grazers to create restored prairies. Bison (Bison bison) were almost hunted to extinction in the late 1800's but are recovering and have recently been reintroduced to restored prairies for their ecosystem-engineering roles. The effects bison and fire have on remnant (never-plowed) prairie vegetation are well documented. However, there is little known about how bison will affect and shape vegetation patterns in restored prairies. These effects may be largely driven by bison's dietary preference to forage primarily on grasses. This …

Dietary Constraints And Strategies In The Red-Bellied Lemur (Eulemur Rubriventer), And Their Implications For Conservation, Amanda Marie Du Bour

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Understanding the diet of the vulnerable red-bellied lemur ( Eulemur rubriventer) is essential for preventing its extinction. Previous E. rubriventer research focused on populations in Ranomafana National Park, located in the southeast part of the island, making research in other forest locations a priority for the understanding of dietary breadth and constraints in this species. My research questions consider whether protein is the nutritional driver for foraging choices in E. rubriventer, how fiber influences cathemeral activity, and seasonal variability in day and night time dietary items. My research team and I identified the plant and animal species that composed a …

Does Excluding A Top Mesopredator Induce A Trophic Cascade : Effects And Diet Of An Omnivorous Predator In A Restored Prairie, Kirstie Savage

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Predators can shape prey communities through consumptive and non-consumptive interactions. By inducing fear of predation, predators can cause changes to prey foraging behavior that can negatively impact prey reproduction and body-condition. Furthermore, both consumptive (density-mediated) and non-consumptive (trait-mediated) predator-prey interactions can cascade down the food web to have indirect impacts of vegetation (trophic cascade). As we continue to lose apex predators and undergo land change, understanding how the new top dogs shape prey communities and restorations is increasingly important. Through utilizing predator-exclosure fences, mark-recapture analysis, plant biomass and stable isotopes we evaluated the role of coyotes as top mesopredator in …

College Major Choice : Exploring The Perspectives Of Expectancy And Value Placed On Stem Fields By Female High School Students, Diane O'Connell

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined the expectancy beliefs and value placed on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-fields by female high school students as they relate to college major choice. Nineteen female high school seniors in a STEM-focused academic program from a large suburban high school in the Midwest identified their intended college major choice and explained their career goals along with their educational experiences that were helpful in the decision-making process. Through reflective essays, focus group discussions, and interviews, perspectives emerged that played a role in choosing a college major. The findings suggested that expectancy to be successful, along …

An Investigation Into The Effects Of Temperature On The Rheological Characteristics Of Hybrid Nanofluids, Nanda Kishore Saini

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Over the past several decades, nanofluids have exhibited a great potential of enhanced heat transfer performance over conventional heat transfer fluids. These innovative nanofluids are synthesized through the dispersion of a variety of types of nanometer-sized materials throughout the base fluid that consists of either metal, metal-oxides, or non-metals particle suspensions. These nanoparticle suspensions play an important role in altering the intrinsic properties of a base fluid, and this especially true for its shear viscosity. Studies have shown that the rheological response of the base fluid under shear changes from a characteristic Newtonian behavior to non-Newtonian (shear thinning) behavior when …

Investigating Age-Related Macular Degeneration : A Chemistry Plus Biology Approach, Jennifer C. Tournear

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a retinal disease that can cause severe vision loss. It is responsible for the majority of blindness in developed countries in the elderly population. The disease is characteristically multifactorial where oxidative stress, inflammation and retinal lipofuscin (cellular waste product) accumulation have been indicated in disease progression. The retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) attaches to the Bruch's membrane (BM) and the symbiotic relationship between these two layers of the retina is essential for the visual cycle to function normally. Retinal lipofuscin is believed to contribute to drusen (characteristic deposits in the AMD BM) that negatively impact the …

Role Of Colony Integration In Metabolic Scaling Of Colonial Animals, Maram Almegbel

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Metabolism, one of the canonical features of life, shows a clear correlation to organismal size. Metabolic scaling is explaining the relationship between organism body mass and metabolic rate. To explain the relationship between the metabolism and body size, several factors have to be examined including resource uptake, usage, and transportation of resources throughout the body. Empirically, metabolism usually scales as approximately mass to the ¾ power. Many theories seek to explain this relationship in terms of surface area to volume. These theories typically model unitary organisms as spheres, with surface area to volume increasing as roughly volume to the 2/3 …

Sexual Desire And Sexual Activity Among Individuals In Romantic Relationships : A Longitudinal Perspective, Ellen Lee

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In understanding the frequency of sexual activity within a relationship and its impact on subsequent health and relationship outcomes, one understudied aspect is the link between sexual desire and activity. As sexual desire is often theorized to be a precursor to sexual activity, the first purpose of the current study was to investigate whether, and the extent to which, sexual desire predicted sexual activity. A bidirectional effect of sexual activity predicting subsequent desire was also explored. This study utilized a longitudinal design to investigate the temporal sequence between desire and sex. A total of 156 participants recruited from undergraduate college …

Reduction Of Ketones To Alcohols And Tertiary Amines Using 1-Hydrosilatrane, Sami E. Varjosaari

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

1-Hydrosilatrane is an easily synthesized, stable, solid silane which can be made into an efficient reducing agent in the presence of a Lewis base, by taking advantage of the properties of hypervalent silicon. Due to the simplicity of use and handling, 1-hydrosilatrane has the potential to be an appealing alternative to other more widely used reducing agents. Aromatic and aliphatic ketones were readily reduced with 1-hydrosilatrane in the presence of potassium tert-butoxide. The discovery of diastereoselectivity in the reduction of menthone, a chiral ketone, led to enantioselective reductions of prochiral ketones using chiral Lewis base activators. Enantiomeric excesses of up …

Examining Cross-Lagged Relations Between Behavioral Inhibition And Inhibitory Control During Early Childhood : Predicting Subsequent Internalizing And Externalizing Problems, Jacob Benjamin Holzman

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Prior research has demonstrated that the early childhood developmental period is an important time period to study the emergence and development of temperament characteristics, including behavioral inhibition and inhibitory control, as well as factors that influence such characteristics. In particular, previous research has suggested that behavioral inhibition may facilitate the development of inhibitory control due to behavioral inhibition emerging earlier than inhibitory control and sharing behavioral features (i.e., inhibition). Although previous studies have examined relations between behavioral inhibition and inhibitory control, limited research has examined such relations during the emergence of inhibitory control or by utilizing multiple methodologies (i.e., observation …

Tugging At Time : The Role Of Temporal Processing In The Organization Of String-Pulling, Ashley Blackwell

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Time perception is one of the most influential cognitive capacities shared across animal species. Interval timing, occurring in the range of seconds to minutes, dictates actions to events experienced in the environment. Operant conditioning techniques have traditionally been used to assess interval timing which relies heavily on extensive training. There may be alternative techniques to investigate processing of temporal information, including exploring the organization of animal's repertoire of spontaneously occurring behaviors. String-pulling behavior in rats may be an alternative way to provide a novel approach to investigate time perception in rodents. The current set of studies evaluates the effects of …

Detected, Christopher Knaggs

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A Navy sub commander plays hide-and-seek with a Soviet sub.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

A Baseline Osteological Analysis Of Prehistoric Human Skeletal Remains Recovered From The Terminal Archaic Morse Site (11-F-220), Fulton County, Illinois, Matthew Shawn Kinzer

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the prehistoric human skeletal remains recovered from the Terminal Archaic Morse site that was excavated during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The project was led by Drs. Dan Morse and Georg Neumann, with assistance provided by Ms. Louise Robbins to oversee the recovery of the skeletal remains, as well as a host of various other workers and volunteers. Since the conclusion of fieldwork over fifty years ago, only a modest number of articles describing the findings from the site have been published.

In light of this circumstance, the focus of this study provides an overview of …

The Rtfa Gene Regulates Plant And Animal Pathogenesis And Secondary Metabolism In Aspergillus Flavus, Jessica Michelle Lohmar

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Aspergillus flavus is an opportunistic fungal plant and human pathogen and producer of mycotoxins including aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). As part of our ongoing studies to elucidate biological functions of the A. flavus rtfA gene, we examined its role in pathogenicity of both plant and animal model systems. rtfA encodes a putative RNA-Pol II transcription elongation factor, previously characterized in Saccharomycese cerevisiae, Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus fumigatus, where it was shown to regulate several important cellular processes, including morphogenesis, secondary metabolism. In addition, an initial study in A. flavus indicated that rtfA also influences development and production of AFB1, however its effect …

Effects Of Task Goals On Processing Causal Explanations In Science Texts, Kathryn E. Rupp

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Previous research has shown that students experience difficulty understanding scientific texts that explain physical systems (e.g., how coral bleaching occurs; how speakers work). Explanatory texts about physical systems depict causally connected components and events that change across time and space. Readers incrementally build a mental representation of the system often called a mental model. The primary goal of the present experiment was to explore the possibility that one reason why explanatory texts are difficult to comprehend is that students adopt reading goals that do not facilitate the construction of a coherent mental model of the explanation. In the present experiment, …