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2016

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Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

The Role Of Seed Attributes In Eastern Gray Squirrel Foraging, Mekala Sundaram Dec 2016

The Role Of Seed Attributes In Eastern Gray Squirrel Foraging, Mekala Sundaram

Open Access Dissertations

Seed attributes are important predictors of rodent foraging behaviors. I examined the role of seed attributes in eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) foraging behavior from an evolutionary, economic, ecological and biochemical perspective. From an evolutionary perspective (chapter 2), I found that squirrel foraging behaviors are influenced by a combination of phylogenetically conserved and evolutionarily labile seed traits, which supports a diffuse coevolutionary relationship between hardwood trees and squirrels and provides indirect evidence supporting the Janzen-Connell and handling time hypotheses. From an economic perspective (chapter 3), I found that eastern gray squirrels are homogenous with respect to their preferences for seed …

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Subjective Experience In Insects: Definitions And Other Difficulties, Shelley Adamo Aug 2016

Subjective Experience In Insects: Definitions And Other Difficulties, Shelley Adamo

Animal Sentience

Whether insects have the potential for subjective experiences depends on the definition of subjective experience. The definition used by Klein & Barron (2016) is an unusually liberal one and could be used to argue that some modern robots have subjective experiences. From an evolutionary perspective, the additional neurons needed to produce subjective experiences will be proportionately more expensive for insects than for mammals because of the small size of the insect brain. This greater cost could weaken selection for such traits. Minimally, it may be premature to assume that small neuronal number is unimportant in determining the capacity for consciousness.

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Characterization Of Broiler Lines Divergently Selected For Breast Muscle Color, Sara Katherine Orlowski Aug 2016

Characterization Of Broiler Lines Divergently Selected For Breast Muscle Color, Sara Katherine Orlowski

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An increase in the consumption of poultry has generated an increase in demand for higher yielding broilers. This has led to an increase in atypical meat and issues with appearance. Color is a direct result of a pH decline as meat goes through rigor mortis with meat generally becoming lighter. If the pH declines too rapidly or too slowly, meat quality can suffer. Physical properties of meat can be altered by pH. A fast pH decline results in pale meat with decreased tenderness. A slow pH decline can result in darker meat with a reduced shelf-life. With a known relationship …

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Risky Business: Tradeoffs Between Nutrition, Toxicity, And Predation By A Specialist Mammalian Herbivore, Jordan D. Nobler May 2016

Risky Business: Tradeoffs Between Nutrition, Toxicity, And Predation By A Specialist Mammalian Herbivore, Jordan D. Nobler

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Animals must balance many risks and rewards when using resources and selecting habitats. Understanding how animals make these choices requires elucidating the functional significance and interactions among habitat features. The criteria an animal uses to determine the functional quality of a resource may differ from those traditionally measured in surveys of habitat quality. Similarly, the relative value of a particular resource may vary with an animal’s physiology or behavior, or the unique combination of the resource’s characteristics. Previous studies have identified a number of specific individual, measurable, habitat parameters that influence habitat selection of a sagebrush specialist, the pygmy rabbit …

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Effects Of Drift, Selection And Gene Flow On Immune Genes In Prairie Grouse, Zachary Bateson May 2016

Effects Of Drift, Selection And Gene Flow On Immune Genes In Prairie Grouse, Zachary Bateson

Theses and Dissertations

Fragmentation of natural habitats is related to population decline in many species. The resulting small and isolated populations are expected to lose genetic variation at a rapid rate, which reduces the ability to adapt to environmental change. One concern is that small populations are more susceptible to emerging pathogens due to the loss of variation at immune genes. My dissertation examined the relative effects of gene flow, genetic drift and selection on immune genes in prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido), a species that has undergone drastic population declines across their range. In the first chapter, I examined how artificial gene flow through …

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How To Select And Buck Logs For Railroad Ties, Terry Conners Mar 2016

How To Select And Buck Logs For Railroad Ties, Terry Conners

Agriculture and Natural Resources Publications

Railroad ties are rectangular pieces of wood with specified dimensions that are used to hold steel rails apart by a fixed distance in track. They’re dried, treated with a wood preservative and installed in track with various types of hardware to support the load and to keep the wood from being crushed and worn away during service. Specifications for ties vary slightly from one customer to another.

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Productivity And Adaptation Ability Of Holstein Cattle Of Different Genetic Selections, Ivan Fiodorovich Gorlov, Svetlana Evgenievna Bozhkova, Olga Pavlovna Shakhbazova, Vera Vasilievna Gubareva, Natali Ivanovna Mosolova, Elena Yurievna Zlobina, Yuriy Nicolaevich Fiodorov, Alexey Sergeevich Mokhov Jan 2016

Productivity And Adaptation Ability Of Holstein Cattle Of Different Genetic Selections, Ivan Fiodorovich Gorlov, Svetlana Evgenievna Bozhkova, Olga Pavlovna Shakhbazova, Vera Vasilievna Gubareva, Natali Ivanovna Mosolova, Elena Yurievna Zlobina, Yuriy Nicolaevich Fiodorov, Alexey Sergeevich Mokhov

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The purpose of the research was to compare economically useful traits of Holstein cows of different selections. The results show that the German and Australian selections were superior to the Danish and American cows in terms of their growth (at 36 months of age, the body weights of the German and Australian cows were 36.5 and 27.6 kg greater than the Danish cows and 24.3 and 15.4 kg greater than the American cows, respectively). Maximum milk yield was obtained from the American and German cows (25,220 and 24,861 kg). Their milk also had higher fat content. The maximum protein content …

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Breeding Objectives Indicate Value Of Genomics For Beef Cattle, M. D. Macneil Jan 2016

Breeding Objectives Indicate Value Of Genomics For Beef Cattle, M. D. Macneil

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

Genomics may have much to offer in the implementation of breeding objectives. Advantages of genomic prediction include increased accuracy of expected progeny differences (EPDs) for traits that have been components of routine genetic evaluations. Perhaps more importantly, genomic prediction makes it possible to include traits that are too costly or too difficult to measure, and traits that are measured too late in life or are sex-limited such that candidates for selection cannot have EBV with high accuracy at the time when selection decisions are made. Genomically enhanced EPDs may also allow for a marked reduction in generation interval, thus accelerating …

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