Life Sciences Commons^™

Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (Ebfm) Risk Assessment Of The Western Australian Abalone Managed Industry, F J. Webster, B Wise, Anthony M. Hart

WA Marine Stewardship Council report series

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the Western Australian (WA) Abalone Managed Fishery (AMF) and the outcomes from the 2015 ecological risk assessment of this fishery. The AMF targets three species of abalone greenlip (Haliotis laevigata), brownlip (H. conicopora) and Roe’s abalone (H. roei). Greenlip and brownlip abalone are primarily targeted on the south coast of WA, while Roe’s abalone is primarily targeted on the West Coast. Commercial fishing for abalone in WA has been undertaken since 1964.

Behavioral Response Of Small Everglades Fish To Hydrological Variation, Predator Cues And Parasites, J. Matthew Hoch, Stacey Spadafore, Dominique Olesen, Christopher A. Blanar

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

No abstract provided.

Dairy Digest 2017, South Dakota State University Dairy Club

Dairy Digest

No abstract provided.

Toward A Research Agenda For Oncology Physical Therapy, Lucinda Pfalzer, Nicole L. Stout, Shana Harrington, Mary Insana Fisher

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Research Round-up: Cancer survivors frequently experience cancer treatment–related functional impairments and disability. While a growing body of evidence supports the effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions for these individuals, there are significant gaps in the existing literature and no interdisciplinary agreement on the priorities for cancer rehabilitation research. In 2016, the Oncology Section revised its strategic plan and set an objective to create an oncology rehabilitation research agenda for the physical therapy (PT) profession. To achieve this goal, the scope of the agenda, a development and review process, and dissemination plan need to be developed.

Dna Barcoding Analysis Of Seafood Accuracy In Washington, D.C. Restaurants, David Stern, Eduardo Castro Nallar, Jason Rathod, Keith A. Crandall

Computational Biology Institute

In Washington D.C., recent legislation authorizes citizens to test if products are properly represented and, if they are not, to bring a lawsuit for the benefit of the general public. Recent studies revealing the widespread phenomenon of seafood substitution across the United States make it a fertile area for consumer protection testing. DNA barcoding provides an accurate and cost-effective way to perform these tests, especially when tissue alone is available making species identification based on morphology impossible. In this study, we sequenced the 5′ barcoding region of the Cytochrome Oxidase I gene for 12 samples of vertebrate and invertebrate food …

Uv Irradiation Of Thymine Molecules And Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry, Kelsey Elaine Mauk

CUP Undergraduate Research

Cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) are products of a photochemical reaction caused by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation of adjacent pyrimidine molecules. Thymine dimers, the most common form of CPDs in the body, are of particular interest because they are the cause of the majority of UV-induced mutations in mammals, often resulting in the development of skin cancers. Because of the photochemical properties of the reactions of thymine dimers, and the relation of these dimers to cancer pathogenesis, the formation and analysis of thymine dimers in a laboratory setting could be a useful educational tool for pre-medicine students learning about organic and photochemistry. …

Spinal Cord Injuries And Evaluation Of Treatments, Amanda Nelson

Biology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Spinal cord injuries (SCI) are common injuries that do not currently have a fully successful treatment. These injuries cause many physical, psychological, and social burdens for the injured person and any close friends or family members. Older treatment options include surgery, pharmacotherapy, and physical therapy, while newer treatment options include stem cell therapy, bionics, and electrical stimulation. After a full evaluation of the treatments, it was concluded that the best treatment for today is pharmacotherapy, but with more research, stem cell therapy will become the ideal treatment for SCI in the future.

Trap-Neuter-Return Programs And The Importance Of Associated Public Awareness, Nicolette Sliwa

Biology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The focus of this paper is to describe a typical Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program and highlight the major pros and cons surrounding this somewhat controversial method of managing the overwhelming free-roaming cat population. The effects of the species’ overabundance on the environment and human health are also discussed. Citing studies completed on TNR programs around the globe as well as mathematical models, the effectiveness of this method is compared to other, currently used alternatives. Finally, it has been suggested that the general awareness level a neighborhood possesses about the true goals of TNR programs has a potentially significant impact on the …

Effects Of Water Quality On Boldness And Movement Of The Common Periwinkle (Littorina Littorea), Sharon Mann

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Stormwater runoff and sewage seepage are sources of chemicals and pathogens that lower immunity of marine organisms such as the common periwinkle (Littorina littorea), which can increase susceptibility to parasites. Periwinkles infected with parasites are less bold and show altered movements. The purpose of my study was to 1) identify pathogens in water that can affect marine organisms, 2) determine if water quality affects boldness in periwinkles, and 3) determine if water quality affects movement and substrate choice in periwinkles. I predicted that water samples vary in levels of fecal indicator bacteria because samples were collected from areas at high …

A Look At Lichen Elemental Concentrations And Lichen Diversity From Edge To Interior In Canco Woods, Ericka Hutchinson, Jade Deshaies

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Many species of lichen have the ability to acquire nutrients from the atmosphere and to accumulate aerosolized particulates and atmospheric pollutants into their tissues. Studies have found that lichen exhibit species-specific tolerances for pollutants and can have large ranges, making them excellent tools for long-term monitoring of air quality in-situ. In this research, we present preliminary findings for elemental concentrations and lichen diversity between edge and interior sections of a small urban woodlot located in Portland, Maine.

Comparisons of species richness and diversity of lichen growing on mature red maple (Acer rubrum) showed little difference between edge and interior sites. …

Crispr/Cas9 Genome Editing System And Its Use In Infectious Disease, Dustin Daws

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is an exciting new genetic engineering technology that was found in the chromosomes of certain bacteria and archaea. Bacteriophage are viruses that insert their DNA and hijack the host cell’s machinery to make new phage that can go on to infect new cells. Some microorganisms use CRISPR as a defense mechanism to disrupt the bacteriophage DNA after it is inserted into the cell. CRISPR/Cas9 uses genome editing as a means to alter very specific sections of a foreign genome. CRISPR works with a RNA-guided DNA endonuclease called Cas9. This enzyme can locate and …

Developing New Tools For The Old Tree Of Life, Kenneth Parnow, William Lambeth, Kelsi Jackson, Jesse Florendo, Jin Mao, Hong Cui, Carrine Blank

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Millions of species reside in the Tree of Life, making the task of resolving the evolutionary origin of many organisms difficult. Biologists draw on genetic and phenotypic information to sort the Tree of Life, but the study can be slow and complex. Phenomic data (such as cell shape, metabolism and ecology), particularly for microorganisms, is often found in scientific publications and has little digital presence outside of being scanned into an online database. This has been aided by a new text mining computer program, MicroPIE (Microbial Phenomics Information Extractor), that sifts through relevant phenomic data and creates a matrix of …

International Collaboration And New Technology Reveal Rare Genes That Determine Height, Nicolle Dauphinee

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Height is a phenotype, an observable trait of the genes that we inherit from our parents. It's a polygenic trait, meaning it is controlled by 2 or more genes. Because it is so easy to measure, it is an ideal characteristic to help us understand other polygenic traits. So far, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 700 common variants that determine a person's height. New discoveries have been made by the international group called Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT), revealing 83 genetic mutations that have additional effects on a person's height.¹

Graduate Studies Newsletter, Graduate Studies Office

Newsletters

In This Issue:

Pg. 1 - Welcome

Pg. 2 - Faculty Spotlight on Dr. Meredith Williams

Pg. 3 - Graduate Federal Work Study

Pg. 4 - Outstanding Grad Student Awards

Pg. 5 - Important Dates and Deadlines

Pg. 6 - Thesis Submission News

Pg. 7 & 8 - Graduate Student Profiles

Effects Of Size On Dominance Behavior In Male Fiddler Crabs, Uca Pugnax, Heather T. Bondeson

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Individuals in many group-living species form dominance hierarchies, and higher ranked individuals have more access to resources or mates. Rank often depends on size. Dominance rank is settled quickly between different -sized individuals, but animals that are similar in size exchange behaviors that escalate until one individual withdraws. Dominance displays in male fiddler crabs include waving the large claw and arm wrestling. My objective was to determine if dominance behavior between male fiddler crabs varies between pairs that are similar or different in size. Because size can indicate dominance for fiddler crabs, I predicted that pairs of different-sized crabs would …

Innate Food Preference In The Larval Tobacco Hornworm, Manduca Sexta, Michael Morrison

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Food preference can drive an organism to seek a specific food source even if another food, which can provide needed nutrition, is easier to obtain. Food preference can develop in different ways, including innate preference, i.e., organisms display food preference at birth, or learned preference, i.e., organisms develop food preference after previous experience with that food. The tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, shows learned preference; however, we lack information about innate food preference in Manduca. Manduca sexta larvae eat many different foods until they feed on a solanaceous plant, when they become more specific in their diet. This study focused on …

Using Stable Isotopes To Quantify Restoration Progress In A Restoring Northern New England Salt Marsh, Briana Fischella, Tristan Taber, Meg Thurell

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

How have the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in flora tissue and soil samples changed in Sherman Marsh, Wiscasset, Maine over the past nine years?

What do potential differences in ratios from 2007 and 2016 suggest about the community composition and connectivity of the food web in the restoring marsh?

Wpa News 102 (2017), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Spring 2017), number 102

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Meat, Plants, Or Both? A Food Preference Study In Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta Splendens, Bouradee Kim, Boutavee Kim

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Most animals choose food based on its nutrient content and time and energy involved consuming and digesting the food. We used a discrete food preference test to investigate if Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) preferred particular foods based on the food’s nutritional value. Among foods that Siamese fighting fish commonly eat, freeze-dried brine shrimp consist of high amounts of protein, plus lipids and carbohydrates, and shrimp are easily digestible; pellet food is a mixture of plants and small crustaceans; and flake food contains meat, yeast, and gluten. With this knowledge, we predicted that Siamese fighting fish consume freeze-dried …

Dna Barcoding Reveals A New Morphotype Of The Sugar Kelp, Saccharina Latissima, Dallin Brimley, Zakery Ford, Travis Gould, Brandon Guerra, Emily Haggett, Ian Jones, Elyse Johnson, Ken Peterson, Matthew Prout

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Phytoplankton blooms follow predictable annual cycles in the Gulf of Maine, characterized by a large spring bloom and a smaller bloom in the fall. Marine phytoplankton form the foundation of primary production in Gulf of Maine waters, and thus community changes in composition, and abundance could have cascading effects on our coastal ecosystems.

We set out to monitor the community composition, diversity, and abundance of the spring micro-phytoplankton bloom, at a Friends of Casco Bay water quality monitoring site, in South Portland, Maine. The Gulf of Maine is experiencing accelerated warming rates, and this type of monitoring can aid in …

A Genetic Perspective Into The Progressive Loss Of Limbs In Snakes, David Miller

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

The sequence of the ZRS limb enhancer and Sonic hedgehog regions were read and compared among several different animals

Experimentation was done to determine the relationship between the ZRS limb enhancer and Sonic hedgehog regions

CRISPR-editing was performed on mice to determine the functionality of the snake version of the ZRS limb enhancer region

The Maine Chance: Private-Public Partnership And The Katahdin Woods And Waters National Monument, Char Miller

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

The claim of a federal “land grab” in response to the creation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine revealed a lack of historical awareness by critics of how two other cherished parks were established there: through private-public partnerships and the donation of land by private citizens.

Body Shape Diversification Of Pecos Pupfish (Cyprinodon Pecosensis) On Varying Habitats As Evaluated By Geometric Morphometrics, Qianna Xu

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

During the 19th and 20th centuries, alterations to the Pecos River in New Mexico and Texas, USA due to anthropogenic activities, including damning and river channelization, vast water extraction for irrigation, as well as pollution of associated habitats, have greatly impacted the fish fauna within the drainage. One of the endemic fish species, the Pecos pupfish (Cyprinodon pecosensis), might be the most affected. Historically abundant and widespread large populations have been disrupted and became a series of small isolated subpopulations that persist at a few highly fragmented habitats restricted to a small area in southern New Mexico. The connectivity among …

The Alpine Vascular Plants Of Baxter State Park, Maine, Usa, Abigail J. Urban, Glen H. Mittelhauser, Matthew Dickinson, N. Rajakaruna

Biological Sciences

We conducted 12 days of field surveys on five mountains over 1100 m in elevation (Katahdin, North Brother, South Brother, Mount Coe, and The Owl) in Baxter State Park (BSP), Maine during the summers of 2013–14. In addition, we examined historic manuscripts, unpublished data, and herbarium records for plant records from the five mountains. Katahdin, the largest and tallest of the five mountains, has a rich history of botanical exploration and we documented 1559 herbarium vouchers that were collected from the mountain, primarily before the mid-1900s. Combining all data sources, we documented 38 families, 87 genera, and 131 taxa of …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 58 Number 1, Spring 2017, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

24 - BIG WIN FOR A TINY HOUSE Turning heads and changing the housing game. By Matt Morgan.

28 - $100 MILLION GIFT TO BUILD John A. ’60 and Susan Sobrato make the largest gift in SCU history. Now see the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation that will take shape—and redefine the University. Illustration by Tavis Coburn.

36 - CUT & PASTE CONSERVATION We can alter wild species to save them. So should we? By Emma Marris. Illustrations by Jason Holley.

44 - INFO OFFICER IN CHIEF From his office overlooking the White House, Tony Scott J.D. ’92 set …

A Proposed Frequency-Based Feature Selection Method For Cancer Classification, Yi Pan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Feature selection method is becoming an essential procedure in data preprocessing step. The feature selection problem can affect the efficiency and accuracy of classification models. Therefore, it also relates to whether a classification model can have a reliable performance. In this study, we compared an original feature selection method and a proposed frequency-based feature selection method with four classification models and three filter-based ranking techniques using a cancer dataset. The proposed method was implemented in WEKA which is an open source software. The performance is evaluated by two evaluation methods: Recall and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC). Finally, we found the …

Co-Occurrence Patterns Of Bat Flies On Neotropical Chiroptera, Mitchell Louis Schooler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Parasite-host systems provide excellent opportunities to explore ecological dynamics such as competition, competitive exclusion, and co-occurrence. The distribution of streblid bat flies on their host bats were examined for patterns of species co-occurrence and to understand mechanisms driving these patterns. The purpose of this study was to determine patterns of co-occurrence among individuals of different Neotropical bat fly species. After establishing patterns of co-occurrence, tests on whether variation in fly morphology was linked to observed patterns of co-occurrence were performed. Co-occurrence patterns were determined using null model analyses, and a predominant pattern of aggregation was detected. To examine the relationship …

The Effects Of Carrier Ligands On Cisplatin Binding To Cysteine And Methionine, Adam C.R Smith

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

We have reacted several derivatives of the anticancer drug cisplatin with N-acetyl-Lcysteine (N-AcCys) and N-acetyl-L-methionine (N-AcMet), which are two of the primary amino acid targets of platinum. NMR spectroscopy was used to monitor the reactions and determine the effect the different ligands would have on the platinum reactivity. Several of the platinum compounds were tested at pH of 4 and 7, and with platinum:amino acid ratios of 1:1, 2:1 and 1:2. Competition reactions between cysteine and methionine were done to confirm which would react with the platinum compound first. [Pt(dien)(NO3)]+ reacts faster with methionine than with cysteine at both pH …

The Incredible Inventions Of Intuitive Ai: Ted Talk Annotated Resource List, Dylan Duckworth

Undergraduate Research Award

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Transitioning From A Free Choice Tall Fescue (Lolium Arundinaceum) Hay Diet In Late Winter To A Free Choice Spring Tall Fescue Pasture Diet On Plasma Fructosamine Concentrations, Body Weight, And Body Condition Scores Of Stock Horse Mares, Paige A. Smith

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Approximately half of all reported laminitis cases are the result of “grass founder” (laminitis associated with long-term over consumption of lush, early spring pastures). Elevated body weights (BW), body condition scores (BCS), and blood glucose concentrations have all been associated with the onset of grass founder. Plasma fructosamine concentrations (PFC) have recently been used as an indicator of long-term (14–21 d), mean blood glucose concentrations in horses and numerous authors have reported that elevated PFC were observed in laminitic horses (Murphy et al., 1997; Keen et al., 2004; Knowles et al., 2012). This study was conducted to evaluate the long-term …