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Biol 643-001: Biology Of Addiction, Farzan Nadim

Biology Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Biol 441-Hm1: Introduction To Neurophysiology-Honors, Dirk Bucher

Biology Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Biol 635-101: Introduction To Computational Neuroscience, Horacio Rotstein

Biology Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Biol 644-001: Physiological Mechanisms, John Yarotsky

Biology Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Biol 342-001: Developmental Biology, Allison Edgar

Biology Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Biol 206-001, 003, 005, 101: Foundations Of Biology: Ecology & Evolution-Laboratory, Caroline Devan

Biology Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Biol 605-101: Principles Of Bioscience Processing, John Yarotsky

Biology Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Biol 202-001, 003, 005, 101: Foundations Of Biology: Cell & Molecular Biology-Laboratory, Mary Konsolaki

Biology Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Experiences With Coming Out: A Study Of Lgbtq+ Music Students’ Perceptions Of Music Education Pedagogy, Sid Adams

Educational Studies Dissertations

Because LGBTQ+ people are disclosing their non-heterosexual and/or non-cisgender identities at younger ages, music educators should consider how their pedagogical decisions impact an LGBTQ+ person’s decision to disclose their identity (come out). Previous research has explored how to create affirming and inclusive space for LGBTQ+ students to learn within music education spaces. However, past research has been limited on how those decisions impact the LGBTQ+ student’s decision to disclose their identity. I used data from five participants to discover how they perceived music education pedagogical practices and how those practices facilitated or hindered their decision to disclose their LGBTQ+ identity. …

Gender According To World Athletics: The Regulation Of Racialized Athletes From The Global South, Maria Dugas

Dalhousie Law Journal

In March 2023, World Athletics, the regulating body for the sport of Athletics introduced The Eligibility Regulations for the Female Classification (Athletes with Differences of Sex Development). These Regulations limit participation in female Athletics events at international competition and to set world records. They require certain athletes to maintain a testosterone threshold below 2.5nmol/L, despite their naturally occurring testosterone levels. On one level, this paper is about gender regulation in sport, particularly regulating testosterone in elite, female athletes. On another level it is about power and privilege at the intersection of race, nationality, and gender. It argues that through its …

The Sociology Of Crisis: Pitirim Sorokin’S Scholarly Legacy And Current Problems, Resilience, And Community, Emiliana Mangone

Comparative Civilizations Review

In his writings on crises, Sorokin highlighted their complexity and their multiple consequences on a personal, cultural, and social level. In this paper, crises in the 21st century are analyzed from Sorokin’s incisive perspective. The significant points include:

1. the study of crises cannot be enclosed within the confines of individual disciplines but rather must incorporate interdisciplinary approaches.
2. the category “crisis” does not encompass only those conditions that are the consequences of specific disastrous events such as natural disasters, wars, and terrorism but also all those phenomena that produce the conjunction of harm to human beings and social disturbances.
3. successive crises …

The Geographic Clash Of Civilizations?, Mojtaba Sadeghi

Comparative Civilizations Review

The Geographic Clash of Civilizations represents a significant geographic-civilizational reality and process, a phenomenon that has occurred and is expected to unfold increasingly in the third millennium. Understanding, analyzing, and forecasting this phenomenon relies solely on the geographic conceptualization of civilization. Through that perspective, the world is undergoing another instance of the geographic clash of civilizations, a clash more profound than the Clash of Civilizations, impacting the survival or collapse of human civilizations. The geographic clash of civilizations epitomizes an inescapable conflict between the soul (das-man) and the body (no-da-sein) of a civilization, stemming from …

Book Review: Why War?, Stephen T. Satkiewicz

Comparative Civilizations Review

Pay any attention to current events and it seems that war and conflict are everywhere: from the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, to the eruption of conflict in the Middle East in October 2023, to on-going geopolitical tensions in the Pacific over the status of Taiwan. It was only a decade or so ago that many were confidently predicting not only the decline but the outright end of war, as Steven Pinker boldly argued in his The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

Barriers To Implementation Of California Vegetation Treatment Program Projects, Jacquelyn Morales

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

To better defend wild lands within California's state responsibility areas against wildfire, progress toward efficient fuels management is vital. Created in effort to increase pace and scale of forest fuels reduction, the California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) serves as method to expedite fire fuel reduction, fuel break development, and ecological restoration projects by streamlining environmental regulatory approval. To better assess the progress of fuels management projects across the state, this professional project aims to look at barriers faced by project proponents when using the CalVTP. A questionnaire was emailed to the project proponents behind the 81 unique CalVTP projects in-progress. …

The Effect Of Woodfiber Additives On Pythium Root Rot And Substrate Microbiome, Isabella Alexandra Borrero

Master's Theses and Capstones

The exponential growth of the greenhouse industry in recent years has led to an increasing demand for economic, “green”, soilless substrates and soilless substrate amendments. To meet this demand, many growers have begun incorporating wood fibers (WFs) into their production systems because they are both economic and renewable. WF’s rise in popularity has motivated an uptick in research focused on understanding how WF amendments affect substrate physical and chemical properties, and how these changes influence plant health, soil-borne disease trends, and microbiome dynamics. Wood fibers have been reported to suppress damping-off of radish caused by Rhizoctonia solani, however, the scope …

Mercury Distribution And Microbially Mediated Mercury Methylation Potential Above And Below The Head-Of-Tide Mill Pond Dam, Durham, Nh, Sophia Carson

Master's Theses and Capstones

Mercury (Hg), and its subsequent transformation to the highly toxic compound methylmercury (MeHg) by microorganisms possessing the recently discovered hgcAB gene complex is of great concern on a global scale. In the Oyster River (OR) system in Durham, New Hampshire, where the historic head-of-tide Mill Pond Dam (MPD) is set to be removed in the near future, this issue is especially pertinent, as Hg is commonly found at alarmingly high concentrations in waterways and dams and will be released downstream upon the extraction of the impoundment. Aquatic sediment samples were collected across a time series throughout the OR system and …

How Mineral Fertilizer Affects Soil Nitrogen Pools And Microbial Activity, Lee Hildebrand

Master's Theses and Capstones

Nitrogen fertilizer is an essential aspect of modern agriculture; however, a substantial amount of applied nitrogen does not reach the crops it is intended for and leaches out of the soil. Soil organic matter and microbial activity are key regulators of the soil nitrogen cycle and the fate of nitrogen fertilizer. Understanding how fertilizer type impacts soil organic matter, nitrogen pools, and microbial activity will greatly improve our understanding regarding sustainable fertilizer application. To investigate this, I conducted an experiment using incubation with several fertilizer treatments and two soil types. I measured various soil nitrogen pools, soil respiration rates, and …

Spatial And Temporal Drivers Of Paternity In Saltmarsh Sparrow, Talia Marie Kuras

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Saltmarsh Sparrow (Ammospiza caudacuta) is a non-territorial, multiply mating passerine with an uncommon polygynandrous mating system in which females are reproductively available with primarily synchronous timing during 3 breeding cycles within the breeding season. In similarly multiply mating species with synchronously available females, home range size and time within breeding season have been identified as drivers of male reproductive success; however, these are atypical characteristics of success in avian mating systems. We investigated the relationship between male Saltmarsh Sparrow home range size, location, age, time within breeding season, and male reproductive success. We performed nest monitoring, mist netting, and …

Understanding Key Habitat Features For The Vulnerable Saltmarsh Sparrow (Ammospiza Caudacuta) To Inform Tidal Marsh Restoration Priorities, Grace Elizabeth Mcculloch

Master's Theses and Capstones

As climate change accelerates the rate of sea-level rise, salt marshes and the critical habitat they provide are increasingly threatened. The Saltmarsh Sparrow (Ammospiza caudacuta) is particularly vulnerable to such changes. Habitat loss and increased nest failure due to flooding put the species at a high risk of extinction within the next several decades. Restoration plans across New England aim to build salt marsh resiliency. To effectively prioritize Saltmarsh Sparrow conservation in these plans, it is essential to identify the features that predict Saltmarsh Sparrow breeding season habitat, so these features can be maintained and enhanced during a restoration project.In …

Diversification Of New England’S Macroalgae Industry: Introduction Of Nori, Riplee Mercer

Master's Theses and Capstones

The aquaculture of macroalgae is multi-billion-dollar industry globally, but is primarily dominated by Asian production. The US macroalgae industry is relatively small but has grown over the last decade, heavily dominated by kelp aquaculture. The goal of this project is to facilitate the diversification of the US industry by developing nursery and grow-out techniques for the production of Wildemania amplissima, a native species of nori. Following the life history of Wildemania amplissima, a series of experiments were conducted to 1) compare culture initiation methods from wild-collected blades, 2) determine optimum culture conditions for vegetative growth of the conchocelis sporophyte stage, …

Dependance On The Atr-Chk1-Wee1 Axis Due To R-Loop Accumulation In Merkel Cell Carcinoma, Evelyn Victoria Proctor

Master's Theses and Capstones

Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC) is a rare neuroendocrine skin cancer. In the United States about 80% of MCC cases are caused by MCPyV, which is the only human polyomavirus that has been directly correlated to human cancer. However, there is not a significant amount of information about pathways that are important in MCC. Here we show that MCC cells are reliant on the ATR-CHK1-WEE1 axis for proliferation and to maintain their oncogenic phenotype. We have found several inhibitors that work to reduce cell viability in MCC cells. Synergistic combinations of these inhibitors and chemotherapeutic agents have also been found. Additionally, …

Understanding Ecological Baselines To Inform Humpback Whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae) Management Strategies In Southeast Alaska, Melanie Anabel Smith

Master's Theses and Capstones

Vessel disturbance impedes the resilience and recovery of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) populations. Many management strategies in Southeast Alaska aim to protect whales and their habitat. However, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of management strategies without understanding the state of an ecosystem with minimal vessel traffic. The thesis examines two situations with reduced vessel activity to understand humpback whale behavioral and acoustic ecology. We first use the Beardslee Island Complex and adjacent waters in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (Glacier Bay), an area with minimal vessel traffic, to understand habitat use by foraging and traveling whales. Using …

Bioimpedance Smart Needle System For Real-Time Tissue Detection During Intramuscular Injection, Marc Peter Tausanovitch

Master's Theses and Capstones

Injectable drug delivery is an extremely commonplace procedure in the world ofmedicine, with over 16 billion injections administered annually. Due to the high vascularity of muscle tissue, the intramuscular (IM) route is preferred for many antibiotic, biological, and hormonal drugs. Appropriate needle length plays a critical role in the success of IM injection, ensuring that the drug is deposited in the core muscle. Instances of over- or under-penetration are associated with reduced drug bioavailability and vaccine related injury. Unfortunately, guidelines for needle length selection do not always yield positive results due to practitioner error or adverse patient physiology. This thesis …

Characterizing The Diets Of Tidal Marsh Sparrows Using Fecal Dna Metabarcoding, William Thomas Rumfelt

Master's Theses and Capstones

Animal diet studies provide valuable insights into evolution and ecology, including about niches filled by species and how they are shaped by interspecific competition. Fecal DNA metabarcoding is an efficient, non-invasive approach to assess animal diets by sequencing DNA recovered from fecal samples. This study used fecal DNA metabarcoding to characterize the breeding season diets of six Atlantic coast tidal marsh sparrow species with varying levels of adaptation to tidal salt marsh habitat. We identified the major prey taxa present in each species’ diet, compared dietary diversity as a measure of niche width across species of varying salt marsh specialization, …

Investigating Late Pleistocene To Recent Bimodal Sedimentation In The Terrebonne Basin, Gulf Of Mexico, Kayla Tozier

Master's Theses and Capstones

The UT-GOM2-2 Deepwater Hydrate Coring Expedition collected continuous conventional and pressure cores in the Terrebonne Basin, Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to 155 mbsf to investigate the physical, chemical, and biological properties of sediments within, bounding, and overlying methane hydrates. Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy constrains the age of the upper 145 mbsf to the Pleistocene (<0.66 Ma) to recent. Description of UT-GOM2-2 Hole H003 revealed a lithologic unit from 4.5 to 152 mbsf, defined by bimodal sedimentation of carbonate oozes and interbedded muds. In this thesis, we examine the shallowest mud-to-carbonate ooze transition to investigate the processes driving this bimodal sedimentation through measurements of biogenic silica (BSi), total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), total sulfur (TS), total organic carbon (TOC), and δ13C of total organic carbon (δ13C-TOC) from 4.62 to 37.83 mbsf. Mixed planktonic foraminifers were picked for radiocarbon dates through 14.39 mbsf, constraining the last ~42,000 years. Our results are integrated with additional existing shipboard and post-cruise data sets, including XRF core scanning data, calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy, reworked calcareous nannofossil abundance, smear slide analyses, and magnetic susceptibility data. Our integrated results suggest that the BSi record represents reworked (RW) Cretaceous radiolarians delivered fluvially to the site, rather than Pleistocene to recent radiolarians produced via in situ productivity. Evidence of greater terrigenous flux by RW Cretaceous microfossils (both calcareous nannofossils and radiolarians) during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2 is consistent with a closer distance of the site to the shoreline during a sea-level low stand. Increased grain size and sand delivery during the last deglacial (16 to 8.9 ka) are consistent with meltwater pulse-driven sedimentation documented elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico (e.g. Emiliani et al., 1975; Aharon, 2003). Below the radiocarbon constrained interval, two biostratigraphic age datums from 70 to 290 ka nearly constrain a full glacial-interglacial cycle (most of MIS 4-8), where coarse turbidite delivery is greatly increased during a glacial period, consistent with sea level low stands, and reworked sediment delivery greatly increases towards the interglacial period, consistent with meltwater pulses and higher sea level. Though stadial/interstadial processes are evident in our datasets, it appears that the bimodal sedimentation represents a systematic shift in the proximity of the site to the Mississippi River mouth. Low and relatively consistent CaCO3 content, depleted δ13C values, and high TOC:TN values within the carbonate ooze interval suggest that in situ productivity does not increase, but rather dilution by terrigenous sediment decreases. These findings have implications for the deposition of coarse- and fine-grained lithologies on the northern Gulf of Mexico, which may ultimately influence gas hydrate distribution along continental margins. Additionally, these findings suggest that BSi can be measured in GOM sediments as a proxy for the Mississippi River flux.

September 2024 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Mitigation Of Road Mortality Of Freshwater Turtles In New Hampshire With An Emphasis On Blanding's Turtles (Emydoidea Blandingii), Lauren White

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) is a state-endangered species in New Hampshire that is particularly vulnerable to road mortality due to reproductive life history traits, habitat use, and migration patterns. Successful conservation techniques to mitigate wildlife road mortality include building fences and wildlife crossing structures (eco-passages) at roadkill hot spots. A collaborative research group designed a road mortality risk model to understand turtles' relative road mortality risk at existing wetland crossing sites in New Hampshire and to assess whether culverts at these sites may function as eco-passages. To ground-truth this model, roadkill surveys and wildlife camera monitoring techniques were used …

Insights From Augmented Data Integration And Strong Regularization In Drug Synergy Prediction With Synergnet, Mengmeng Liu, Gopal Srivastava, J. Ramanujam, Michal Brylinski

Faculty Publications

SynerGNet is a novel approach to predicting drug synergy against cancer cell lines. In this study, we discuss in detail the construction process of SynerGNet, emphasizing its comprehensive design tailored to handle complex data patterns. Additionally, we investigate a counterintuitive phenomenon when integrating more augmented data into the training set results in an increase in testing loss alongside improved predictive accuracy. This sheds light on the nuanced dynamics of model learning. Further, we demonstrate the effectiveness of strong regularization techniques in mitigating overfitting, ensuring the robustness and generalization ability of SynerGNet. Finally, the continuous performance enhancements achieved through the integration …

Scale-Dependent Population Drivers Inform Avian Management In A Declining Saline Lake Ecosystem, Aimee M. Van Tatenhove, John Neill, Russell E. Norvell, Erica F. Stuber, Clark S. Rushing

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Shrinking saline lakes provide irreplaceable habitat for waterbird species globally. Disentangling the effects of wetland habitat loss from other drivers of waterbird population dynamics is critical for protecting these species in the face of unprecedented changes to saline lake ecosystems, ideally through decision-making frameworks that identify effective management options and their potential outcomes. Here, we develop a framework to assess the effects of hypothesized population drivers and identify potential future outcomes of plausible management scenarios on a saline lake-reliant waterbird species. We use 36 years of monitoring data to quantify the effects of environmental conditions on the population size of …

U-M School Of Dentistry: Collaborating With Michigan’S Dentists To Move The Profession Always Forward, Jacques E. Nör Dds, Ms, Phd

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Completing his first year as dean of the University of Michigan School of Dentistry Dr. Nor highlights the importance of community-based learning in dental education. Students gain valuable experience through rotations at various clinics across Michigan, including those serving underserved populations. The dean emphasizes the generosity of dentists who mentor students and the importance of the Oath of Aspiring Dentists. The Commission on Dental Accreditation completed its site visit at our school in March. Its findings identified numerous strengths during the formal review that American dental schools must complete every seven years. Demographic data on the incoming class of 2028 …