Digital Commons Network^™

Age Estimation Of Anatololacerta Anatolica (Werner, 1902) In The Vicinity Of Çanakkale By Skeletochronology, Batuhan Yaman Yakin, Cemal Varol Tok

Turkish Journal of Zoology

In this study, age estimation using skeletochronology was done in 43 specimens (6 males, 29 females, 8 juv.) of Anatololacerta anatolica living in the vicinity of Çanakkale. When the cross-sections taken from phalanges were examined, the median age for the Çanakkale population was 4 years. The maximum age was calculated as 10 years for female individuals, and the maximum snout-vent length (SVL) of female individuals was measured as 74.18 mm. The mean SVL was 57.39 (SD = 4.6) mm for males and 63.62 (SD = 8.62) mm for females. The age at sexual maturity was determined as 3 years for …

Population Level Responses To Direct Application Liming In Gyrinophilus Porphyriticus, Shelby Renea Timm

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Direct application liming (DAL) has been used to neutralize acidified streams to restore aquatic biota. This mitigation technique has been used globally for decades, yet little data exist on its effects on amphibian populations. My study investigated the effects of liming on amphibians by measuring variability in life histories of larval Gyrinophilus porphyriticus. I collected larvae from six streams in the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia. I examined the effects of DAL on age structure, and I failed to detect a treatment effect. I used ANCOVAs to examine differences in body condition, body size, and gape size. I observed that …

Sampling Considerations For Amphibian Surveys: Evaluating Risks Of Committing Type I And Type Ii Errors, Kelli Marie Herrick

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Global amphibian declines pose a major threat to the world’s biodiversity. We examined the observation bias associated with volunteer based anuran surveys, such as the North American Amphibian Monitoring Protocol (NAAMP). We followed NAAMP protocol to examine if variation in the persons (1-3) in an observer unit affected observer error. We hypothesized that observation units with multiple observers have less observer bias and would better report anuran assemblages compared to single observers. Larger observer units had fewer incidences of false positive observations. Additionally, we attempted to determine which sampling method for the eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus a. alleganiensis) had the highest …

Distribution, Natural History And The Conservation Status Of Hemiphyllodactylus Typus And Lepidodactylus Lugubris (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) In Sri Lanka, D.M.S.S. Karunarathna, Thilina Dilan Surasinghe, M.B. Madawala, S.M. Wellappulli-Arachchi, H.K.D. Kandambi, T.G.T. Kusuminda, T.M.T.S. Priyadarshana, B.N.H. Perera

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Sri Lanka has a rich assemblage of gekkonid fauna. Among Sri Lankan geckos, rare species such as Hemiphyllodactylus typus and Lepidodactylus lugubris are poorly studied; both are considered vulnerable in national conservation assessments. Detailed ecological studies are needed for robust conservation assessments of these species, especially with the focus on island-wide distribution and microhabitat requirements. This study was conducted via patch sampling to record relative abundance and distribution of H. typus and L. lugubris based on random walks to 82 locations representing the three major bioclimatic zones of Sri Lanka. Morphological characteristics, behavior, and habitat use of the focal species …

Variable Classification Of Drug-Intoxication Suicides Across Us States: A Partial Artifact Of Forensics?, Ian R H Rockett, Gerald R. Hobbs, Dan Wu, Haomiao Jia, Kurt B. Nolte, Gordon S. Smith, Sandra L. Putnam, Eric D. Caine

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

The 21st-century epidemic of pharmaceutical and other drug-intoxication deaths in the United States (US) has likely precipitated an increase in misclassified, undercounted suicides. Drug-intoxication suicides are highly prone to be misclassified as accident or undetermined. Misclassification adversely impacts suicide and other injury mortality surveillance, etiologic understanding, prevention, and hence clinical and public health policy formation and practice.

Objective

To evaluate whether observed variation in the relative magnitude of drug-intoxication suicides across US states is a partial artifact of the scope and quality of toxicological testing and type of medicolegal death investigation system.

Methods

This was a national, state-based, ecological …

An Evaluation Of Champs: A Classroom Management Program, Holly J. Minnear

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to examine the impact of Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation, Success (CHAMPS), a classroom management program in elementary schools in a district in North Carolina. The participants included principals and teachers who attended a 2-day training course and implemented the CHAMPS program at their schools.

The researcher used Stufflebeam’s Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model to examine the impact of CHAMPS on classroom management practices and student behavior. Specifically, the researcher utilized the Process and Product components of the CIPP model. The Process Evaluation sought to answer the question, “To what extent was the CHAMPS program …

10th Susquehanna River Symposium Program With Abstracts, Bucknell Center For Sustainability And The Environment

Susquehanna River Symposium -- Conference materials

No abstract provided.

Timing Of Spring Surveys For Midcontinent Sandhill Cranes, Aaron T. Pearse, Gary L. Krapu, David A. Brandt, Glen A. Sargeant

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has used spring aerial surveys to estimate numbers of migrating sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) staging in the Platte River Valley of Nebraska, USA. Resulting estimates index the abundance of the midcontinent sandhill crane population and inform harvest management decisions. However, annual changes in the index have exceeded biologically plausible changes in population size (>50% of surveys between 1982 and 2013 indicate >20% change), raising questions about nuisance variation due to factors such as migration chronology. We used locations of cranes marked with very-highfrequency transmitters to estimate migration chronology (i.e., proportions of …

Association Between Respiratory Syncytial Virus Activity And Pneumococcal Disease In Infants: A Time Series Analysis Of Us Hospitalization Data., Daniel M. Weinberger, Keith P. Klugman, Claudia A. Steiner, Lone Simonsen, Cécile Viboud

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND:

The importance of bacterial infections following respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) remains unclear. We evaluated whether variations in RSV epidemic timing and magnitude are associated with variations in pneumococcal disease epidemics and whether changes in pneumococcal disease following the introduction of seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) were associated with changes in the rate of hospitalizations coded as RSV.

METHODS AND FINDINGS:

We used data from the State Inpatient Databases (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality), including >700,000 RSV hospitalizations and >16,000 pneumococcal pneumonia hospitalizations in 36 states (1992/1993-2008/2009). Harmonic regression was used to estimate the timing of the average seasonal …

Convergent Evolution Of Brain Morphology And Communication Modalities In Lizards, Christopher D. Robinson, Michael S. Patton, Brittany M. Andre, Michele A. Johnson

Biology Faculty Research

Animals communicate information within their environments via visual, chemical, auditory, and/or tactile modalities. The use of each modality is generally linked to particular brain regions, but it is not yet known whether the cellular morphology of neurons in these regions has evolved in association with the relative use of a modality. We investigated relationships between the behavioral use of communication modalities and neural morphologies in six lizard species. Two of these species (Anolis carolinensis and Leiocephalus carinatus) primarily use visual signals to communicate with conspecifics and detect potential prey, and two (Aspidoscelis gularis and Scincella lateralis) …

Estimating The Impacts Of Climate Change On Interactions Between Different Lepidopteran Stemborer Species, Eric S. Ntiri

All PhD Dissertations

The production of cereals, especially maize, which is a staple food in sub-Saharan Africa, is challenged by pests and diseases. In addition, climate change will exacerbate the magnitude of these challenges and agriculture in general. Lepidopteran stemborers are major pests of cereal crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Two indigenous noctuids,Busseola fusca and Sesamia calamistis and one exotic crambid, Chilo partellus, occur as single and mixed-species communities infesting cereal crops in East and southern Africa. The composition of these communities however varies with altitude and over seasons. Interactions between the species especially when in combination, can affect the level of damage to …

Analysing The Role Of Semiochemicals In The Oviposition Substrate Choices Of The Malaria Vector Mosquito Anopheles Gambiae Sensu Lato, Michael Okal Nyanganya

All PhD Dissertations

The search for tools that target malaria vector that resist insecticides and bite outdoors has become a research priority. Such tools will be necessary for managing residual malaria transmission and hastening the eradication of this devastating disease. This study investigated chemicals that potentially affect the oviposition substrate choices of Anopheles gambiae sensu lato (s.l.). It is foreseen that increased knowledge of the oviposition behaviour of this major malaria vectors and chemicals cues that mediate oviposition site-selection can be applied in the development of additional sampling methods and alternative interventions that to trap gravid malaria mosquitoes outdoors. To achieve a reproducible …

The Spanish And Mexican Baseline Of California Tree And Shrubland Distributions Since The Late 18th Century, Richard A. Minnich, Brett R. Goforth, Richard Minnich

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

Historical distributions of 31 tree species, chaparral, and coastal sage scrub described by Spanish land explorers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (1769–1806) and in land grant diseños (1784–1846) are reconstructed at 634 localities across central and southern California. This baseline predates most formal botanical surveys by nearly a century, allowing for assessment of vegetation change over the broadest time frame for comparison with pre-historical evidences and future distributions. Spanish accounts are compared with historical sources in the Mexican era (1821–1848), American settlement (1848–1929), and modern range maps of the 1929–1934 Vegetation Type Map (VTM) survey. Among tree …

The Feral Cat Conundrum: Assessing The Science And Ethics Of Trap-Neuter-Return, Emily Vincent 15

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Omura’S Whales (Balaenoptera Omurai) Off Northwest Madagascar: Genetics, Coloration, Acoustics And Conservation Needs, Lindsay Alec, Salvatore Cerchio, Boris Androanantenaina, Melinda Rekdahl, Norbert Andrianarivelo, Tahina Rasoloarijao

Datasets

The Omura’s whale (Balaenoptera omurai) was described as a new species in 2003 and then later as an ancient lineage basal to a Bryde’s/sei whale clade. Currently known only from whaling and stranding specimens primarily from the western Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans, there exist no confirmed field observations or ecological/behavioral data. Here we present the first genetically confirmed documentation of living Omura’s whales, including descriptions of basic ecology and behavior from northwest Madagascar. Species identification was confirmed through molecular phylogenetic analyses of biopsies collected from 23 animals. All individuals shared a single haplotype in a 402bp sequence …

New Approaches In Controlling Red Spider Mite Tetranychus Urticae Koch On Tomato Plants With Reference To Genetic Mutations Associated With Pesticides, Mahmoud Monir Ahmed Abd-Elmohsin

All PhD Dissertations

Tomato Solanum lycopersicum L. (Family: Solanaceae) is considered one of the most important vegetable crops. Egypt is the fifth greatest producer of tomatoes in the world,531,115 Fa. of the crop grown annually, and an average productivity of 8105260 tons (FAO2013). Tomato production for fresh consumption is the most important source of income for small producers in several region of country. However, this vegetable crop is often severally damaged by many phytophagous pests (insects and mites). In Egypt, the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) is become one of the most important pests on many greenhouse and filed vegetable …

Novel Insecticides And Application Strategies For Malaria Vector Control, Oscar Ochieng Mbare

All PhD Dissertations

Targeting malaria vector mosquitoes outdoors has become a research priority to address residual malaria transmission. Mosquito larval source management provides an excellent and well established tool. However, there is a need to reduce the cost and effort of larviciding programmes by testing persistent larvicides that reduce the frequency of application and by exploring novel strategies of application. This thesis aimed to evaluate two larval control agents, with unique mode of actions: the self-spreading silicone-based film Aquatain Mosquito Formulation (AMF) and the pyriproxyfen-based insect growth regulator Sumilarv®. Dose-response tests and standardized field tests were conducted to assess the susceptibility of Anopheles …

Tweeting About Sexism: The Well-Being Benefits Of A Social Media Collective Action., Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although collective action has psychological benefits in non-gendered contexts (e.g., Drury et al., 2005), the benefits for women taking action against gender discrimination are unclear. This study examined how a popular, yet unexplored potential form of collective action, namely tweeting about sexism, affects women’s well-being. Women read about sexism and were randomly assigned to tweet, or to one of three control groups. Content analyses showed tweets exhibited collective intent and action. Analyses of linguistic markers suggested public tweeters used more cognitive complexity in their language than private tweeters. Profile analyses showed that compared to controls, only public tweeters showed decreasing …

Investing In Prospective Cohorts For Etiologic Study Of Occupational Exposures, A Blair, C J. Hines, K W. Thomas, Mcr Alavaja, L E. Beane Freeman, J A. Hoppin, F Kamel, C F. Lynch, J H. Lubin, D T. Sliverman, E Whelan, S H. Zahm, D P. Sandler

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Prospective cohorts have played a major role in understanding the contribution of diet, physical activity,medical conditions, and genes to the development ofmany diseases, but have not been widely used for occupational exposures. Studies in agriculture are an exception. We draw upon ourexperience using this design to study agriculturalworkers to identify conditions that might foster use of prospective cohorts to study other occupational settings. Prospective cohort studies are perceived by many as the strongest epidemiologic design. It allows updating of information on exposure and other factors, collection of biologic samples before disease diagnosis for biomarker studies, assessment of effect modification by …

Estimating Relative Sea-Level Rise And Submergence Potential At A Coastal Wetland, Donald R. Cahoon

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

A tide gauge records a combined signal of the vertical change (positive or negative) in the level of both the sea and the land to which the gauge is affixed; or relative sealevel change, which is typically referred to as relative sea-level rise (RSLR). Complicating this situation, coastal wetlands exhibit dynamic surface elevation change (both positive and negative), as revealed by surface elevation table (SET) measurements, that is not recorded at tide gauges. Because the usefulness of RSLR is in the ability to tie the change in sea level to the local topography, it is important that RSLR be calculated …

Masked Expression Of Life- History Traits In A Highly Variable Environment, Jason A. Deboer, Joseph J. Fontaine, Christopher J. Chizinski, Kevin L. Pope

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Differing life-history strategies may act as a constraint on reproductive expression that ultimately limits the ability of individual species to respond to changes in the magnitude or frequency of environmental variation, and potentially underlies the variation oft en inherent in phenotypic and evolved responses to anthropogenic change. Alternatively, if there are environmental cues that predict reproductive potential, differential expression of life-history strategies may represent differences in the adaptive capacity to optimize current reproductive value given variation in environmental conditions. We compared several aspects of walleye Sander vitreus spawning ecology at two reservoirs that diff er in environmental variability (i.e., annual …

Educating Pastoralists And Extension Officers On Diverse Livestock Diseases In A Changing Environment In Tanzania, Christopher Gustafson, Elizabeth Vanwormer, Rudovick Kazwala, Asha Makweta, Goodluck Paul, Woutrina Smith, Jonna A. K. Mazet

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

East African pastoralists and their livestock are vulnerable to alterations in resource availability and disease transmission and frequently face poor access to livestock health services. Government veterinarians tasked with guiding health services must prioritize livestock health risks and allocate limited resources across disparate ecosystems with different disease threats. To identify livestock diseases of concern and strategies for improving herd health and resilience, we conducted community focus groups with pastoralists and interviewed pastoralist household leaders, village extension officers, and government veterinary officials in south-central Tanzania, an area experiencing rapid population growth and environmental change. All participants discussed pastoralist access to livestock …

Population-Based Trends In High-Grade Cervical Lesions In The Early Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Era In The United States, Susan Hariri, Michelle L. Johnson, Nancy M. Bennett, Heidi M. Bauer, Ina U. Park, Sean Schafer, Linda M. Niccolai, Elizabeth R. Unger, Lauri E. Markowitz

United States Public Health Resources

BACKGROUND: Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2, 3, and adenocarcinoma in situ (CIN2+) lesions can be monitored as early indicators of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine impact. Changes to screening utilization will affect observed reductions in CIN2+ rates and complicate the interpretation of vaccine impact. METHODS: From 2008 to 2012, 9119 cases of CIN2+ among 18- to 39-year-old residents of catchment areas in California, Connecticut, New York, and Oregon were reported to the HPV-IMPACT Project, a sentinel system for monitoring the population impact of HPV vaccine. Age-stratified CIN2+ incidence rates were calculated for each catchment.

Annual cervical screening was estimated for California, …

A Systematic Review And Meta-Regression Analysis Of Lung Cancer Risk And Inorganic Arsenic In Drinking Water., Steven H. Lamm, Hamid Ferdosi, Elisabeth K. Dissen, Ji Li, Jaeil Ahn

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

High levels (> 200 µg/L) of inorganic arsenic in drinking water are known to be a cause of human lung cancer, but the evidence at lower levels is uncertain. We have sought the epidemiological studies that have examined the dose-response relationship between arsenic levels in drinking water and the risk of lung cancer over a range that includes both high and low levels of arsenic. Regression analysis, based on six studies identified from an electronic search, examined the relationship between the log of the relative risk and the log of the arsenic exposure over a range of 1-1000 µg/L. The …

The Entrance As A Complex Ecotone In A Neotropical Cave, Xavier Prous, Rodrigo Lopes Ferreira, Claudia Maria Jacobi

KIP Articles

Cave entrances are transition zones with intermediate characteristics between epigean environments, which bear lower environmental stability, and hypogean environments, with lower food resources. Associated to these interfaces there is a specific community, capable of exploiting its unique and intermediate characteristics. This work investigated this community in a Brazilian limnestone cave, identifying its arthropod species composition and spatial distribution, and exploring its relationships with climatic and structural environment characteristics and trophic relations. An ecotone zone was identified, with 55 species found only in the ecotone, 49 species were shared with the epigean community, 37 species with the hypogean community, and 14 …

Spatial Analysis Of Nest Productivity And Predation In Prothonotary Warblers, Miranda Foster, Lesley P. Bulluck

UROP Posters

Generally, statistics are based off the assumption that observations are independent from each other in space. In larger ecological systems however, there can be spatial autocorrelation whereby data collected in nearby areas are not independent of one another which violates the assumption of most statistical tests. It is therefore becoming commonplace for ecological studies to study spatial autocorrelation to both eliminate error (accounting for a nuisance variable that could give false positives) and to better understand the spatial structure of their system of interest. Indeed, the mechanisms that lead to spatial autocorrelation are often associated with behaviors and/or intrinsic characteristics …

The Biology Of Fun: Do Birds Just Want To Have A Good Time?, Carley J. Langley, Jonathan R. Moore

UROP Posters

The intention of this research project was to delve into the ecological study of playfulness and what appears to be fun in a broad range of bird species. (1) Do all birds exhibit playfulness and use fun? And if so, (2) how have these behaviors contributed to their evolutionary success? Past research has already been underway to biological define what constitutes both “fun” and “play” in animal species. In the past the majority of all test subjects have been mammals, however in the past decade (and especially in the past five years) other vertebrate species such as birds are beginning …

Macroalgal Detritus And Food-Web Subsidies Along An Arctic Fjord Depth-Gradient, Paul E. Renaud, Therese S. Løkken, Lis L. Jørgensen, Jørgen Berge, Beverly J. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

Tight coupling between pelagic and benthic communities is accepted as a general principle on Arctic shelves. Whereas this paradigm has been useful for guiding ecological research, it has perhaps led to a disproportionate focus on POM and ice algae as the most likely sources of carbon for the benthic food web. Arctic shelves are complex systems, including banks, fjords, and trough systems up to 350 m or more in depth. In this stable-isotope study, 13 different potential carbon sources were analyzed for their contribution to the food-webs of Isfjorden, Svalbard. A mixing model with herbivorous copepods and grazing sea urchins …

The Dry Season Shuffle: Gorges Provide Refugia For Animal Communities In Tropical Savannah Ecosystems, J. Sean Doody, Simon Clulow, Geoff Kay, Domenic D'Amore, David Rhind

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

In the wet-dry tropics, animal species face the major challenges of acquiring food, water or shelter during an extended dry season. Although large and conspicuous animals such as ungulates and waterfowl migrate to wetter areas during this time, little is known of how smaller and more cryptic animal species with less mobility meet these challenges. We fenced off the entire entrance of a gorge in the Australian tropical savanna, offering the unique opportunity to determine the composition and seasonal movement patterns of the small vertebrate community. The 1.7 km-long fence was converted to a trapline that was deployed for 18-21 …

Rebound Hardness Results For Raw Material Located Near Pinnacle Point, South Africa And The Implications Thereof, Christopher M. Shelton

Sociology & Anthropology Theses - Archive

The focus of this study is to test our ability to glean ancient human behavioral ecology data through a specific form of raw material mechanical properties testing. Through the quantitative analysis of raw material in regards to knapping quality (hereafter referred to as knappability), collection processes and choice patterns of a study group can be inferred. More precisely, this study serves to test the viability of the use of the Schmidt hammer as a means of determining knappability, with the area in and around Pinnacle Point (Western Cape, South Africa) as the focus area and silcrete and quartzite as the …