Biology Commons^™

Avian Influenza In Migratory Birds In The United States, 2007–2009, And Effects Of September Hunting Seasons On Survival, Harvest, And Recovery Rates Of Canada Geese Banded In Southeast Nebraska, Scott R. Groepper

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Highly-pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV H5N1) poses risks to wild birds, poultry, and humans. Personnel with the United States Department of Agriculture-Animal Plant Health Inspection Service-Wildlife Services, state, and tribal wildlife agencies collected 168,940 samples from migratory birds from 2007 to 2009 to test for presence of HPAIV H5N1. No HPAIV was found, but other subtypes were discovered, including H5 and H7. I estimated prevalence of avian influenza virus by flyway and found prevalence was lowest each year in the Atlantic Flyway (6.7%–8.3%), highest in the Pacific Flyway in 2007 (13.3%) and 2008 (13.4%), and highest in the Mississippi Flyway …

Heterogeneity, Control, Social Infrastructure, And Possibilities Of Participation: Their Interplay In Modern Understandings Of Heredity And In Interpretation Of Science, Peter J. Taylor

Working Papers on Science in a Changing World

This working paper is a prospectus for research, writing, and engagement. It consists of vignettes, sketches of lines of inquiry, and proposals for engagement, all of which concern modern understandings of heredity and development over the life course as well as the social interpretation of science. The various items address a range of areas of science and of its interpretation: heritability studies, the social uses of genetic information, gene-by-environment interaction, personalized medicine, IQ paradoxes, racial group membership, biobanks, and life events and difficulties research. Fresh perspectives in these areas are opened up by examining the ways that research and application …

Mathematical Modeling And Dynamical Analysis Of The Operation Of The Hypothalamus - Pituitary - Thyroid (Hpt) Axis In Autoimmune (Hashimoto's) Thyroiditis, Balamurugan Pandiyan

Dissertations (1934 -)

This thesis is a mathematical modeling study of the operation of the negative feedback control through the hypothalamus-pituitary- thyroid (HPT) axis in autoimmune (Hashimoto's) thyroiditis. Negative feedback control through the HPT axis is a mechanism in which the high levels of thyroid hormone; free thyroxine (FT4) in the blood inhibits the secretion of the pituitary hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) into the blood. Similarly, the low levels of free thyroxine (FT4) sensed by the pituitary gland and then it secretes thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) into the blood. Autoimmune (Hashimoto's) thyroiditis is a disease in which the immune system turns against …

Controls On The Formation Of Algal Blooms In The Lower Chesapeake Bay And Its Tributaries, Ryan Eric Morse

OES Theses and Dissertations

Algal blooms occur seasonally in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, and while the consequences of algal blooms have been qualitatively and quantitatively assessed, the causes of algal blooms and mechanisms of bloom initiation are still not well understood despite decades of research. In order to understand nutrient dynamics and other factors that promote the initiation of algal blooms, the Lafayette River, a tidal sub-estuary of Chesapeake Bay that experiences seasonal algal blooms, was sampled daily in the fall of 2005. Three phytoplankton blooms (Chlorophyll a concentrations exceeding twice the average of monthly measurements from 2000-2009) occurred during this period, …

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes Summer 2011, Scott R. Abella, Charles W. Denton, David G. Brewer, Rory W. Steinke, Wayne A. Robbie, W. Wallace Covington, E. Cayenne Engel, Ross Guida

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes

Thoughts on fire possibilities on Mount Charleston, estimating historical densities of Ponderosa pine in northern AZ, over-understory changes in the Spring Mountains, seeding effectiveness in Red Rock Canyon, workshop announcements.

Comparison Of Soil Chemistry And Microbial Communities That Inhabit The Rhizosphere Of Native And Non-Native Grasses Of The Lower Rio Grande Valley, Jacqueline Valencia

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Non-native grasses can modify the soils they invade. This study investigated microbial variation among native and non-native grasses in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. We hypothesized that rhizospheres of non-native grasses would support a higher density of microorganisms; therefore microbial communities of invasive plants would exploit more carbon sources than those of native plants. A second hypothesis stated that Streptomyces bacteria from the rhizosphere of non-native grasses would be better competitors. Samples of grasses, and soil from their respective rhizospheres were obtained in Arroyo City, TX. Results indicated a higher bacterial colony density, total activity and number of substrates utilized …

Copy Number Variants In Candidate Genes Are Genetic Modifiers Of Hirschsprung Disease, Qian Jiang, Yen Yi Ho, Li Hao, Courtney Nichols Berrios, Aravinda Chakravarti

Faculty Publications

Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) is a neurocristopathy characterized by absence of intramural ganglion cells along variable lengths of the gastrointestinal tract. The HSCR phenotype is highly variable with respect to gender, length of aganglionosis, familiality and the presence of additional anomalies. By molecular genetic analysis, a minimum of 11 neuro-developmental genes (RET, GDNF, NRTN, SOX10, EDNRB, EDN3, ECE1, ZFHX1B, PHOX2B, KIAA1279, TCF4) are known to harbor rare, high-penetrance mutations that confer a large risk to the bearer. In addition, two other genes (RET, NRG1) harbor common, low-penetrance polymorphisms that contribute only partially to risk and can act as genetic modifiers. To …

Efficient Unfolding Pattern Recognition In Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy Data, Bill Andreopoulos, Dirk Labudde

Faculty Publications, Computer Science

BackgroundSingle-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) is a technique that measures the force necessary to unfold a protein. SMFS experiments generate Force-Distance (F-D) curves. A statistical analysis of a set of F-D curves reveals different unfolding pathways. Information on protein structure, conformation, functional states, and inter- and intra-molecular interactions can be derived.ResultsIn the present work, we propose a pattern recognition algorithm and apply our algorithm to datasets from SMFS experiments on the membrane protein bacterioRhodopsin (bR). We discuss the unfolding pathways found in bR, which are characterised by main peaks and side peaks. A main peak is the result of the pairwise …

Camera Study For Mammalian Carnivore Presence Across Seasons In Montana De Oro State Park, San Luis Obispo County, Ca, Samuel R. Young

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Montana de Oro (MDO) is one of the largest state parks in California. Little is known however about its wildlife or their habits. Large predators such as mountain lion (Puma concolor) and black bear (Ursus americanus), and non–native species such as red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral pig (Sus scropha) are of management concern because of their potentially dramatic ecological roles. Cameras were deployed at 5 sites along the Coon Creek hiking trail in spring (May 3–June 7), summer (July 15–August 19), and fall (October 10–November 23) sessions with the goal of …

A Cellular Automata Model Of Infection Control On Medical Implants, Alicia Prieto-Langarica, Hristo Kojouharov, Benito Chen-Charpentier, Liping Tang

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

S. epidermidis infections on medically implanted devices are a common problem in modern medicine due to the abundance of the bacteria. Once inside the body, S. epidermidis gather in communities called biofilms and can become extremely hard to eradicate, causing the patient serious complications. We simulate the complex S. epidermidis-Neutrophils interactions in order to determine the optimum conditions for the immune system to be able to contain the infection and avoid implant rejection. Our cellular automata model can also be used as a tool for determining the optimal amount of antibiotics for combating biofilm formation on medical implants.

Shooting Neural Networks Algorithm For Solving Boundary Value Problems In Odes, Kais I. Ibraheem, Bashir M. Khalaf

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

The objective of this paper is to use Neural Networks for solving boundary value problems (BVPs) in Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs). The Neural networks use the principle of Back propagation. Five examples are considered to show effectiveness of using the shooting techniques and neural network for solving the BVPs in ODEs. The convergence properties of the technique, which depend on the convergence of the integration technique and accuracy of the interpolation technique are considered.

The Conservation And Habitat Ecology Of Antillean Manatees (Trichechus Manatus Manatus) In The Drowned Cayes Area Of Belize, Central America, Katherine Spencer Lacommare

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The Drowned Cayes area of Belize, Central America is regionally important for the conservation of Antillean manatees in the Caribbean (Lefebvre et al. 2001; Quintana-Rizzo & Reynolds 2008). These islands are increasingly threatened by human activities such as tourism, development and population growth. The objective of this dissertation is to evaluate manatee habitat use and status in this area. The 5 specific objectives are to examine manatee (1) distribution in the Drowned Cayes, (2) use of seagrass beds and forage selection, (3) resting habitat use and selection (4) response to disturbance, and (5) trends in abundance and to suggest a …

Pcr Amplification Of Trypanosoma Cruzi - Specific Dna From Raccoon Blood Samples, Colin Moss

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The parasitic protist Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative agent of Chagas Disease. Chagas Disease causes greater than 15,000 deaths each year, and nearly 28 million people are believed to be at risk of infection in Central and South America. This parasite has been described in many mammalian host species and has also been described in the United States. The purpose of this study was to attempt to use PCR to amplify T. cruzi-specific DNA directly from blood samples obtained from raccoons (Procyon lotor) trapped in Warren and Barren Counties of Kentucky in 2007 and 2008. DNA was …

The Proliferation Of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells Depends On Thioredoxin 1 Protein In A Model Of Pulmonary Hypertension, Viktoria Nelin

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a disease which manifests itself in the lungs of both adults and children. Vascular proliferation and remodeling are the hallmarks of PH and are found mainly in the pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMC). The cause of PASMC proliferation and vascular remodeling in PH is poorly understood. Hypoxia, or low oxygen content, underlies many forms of PH. Hypoxia results in alterations in the redox balance of the PASMC. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the role of the thioredoxin system, an antioxidant system in the cell, in hypoxia-induced proliferation in PASMC. Protein was …

Assessing Social Benefits Of Domestic Rainwater Harvesting In Southern Kenya, Lindsey M. Filiatreau

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In the Kasigau location of the Voi District of Kenya, severe rainwater shortages closed fourteen water collection stations in 2008 and 2009, leaving ten water sources to service 15,000 people in the region. Few families in the area have domestic rainwater harvesting systems which are an easily implemented, low-cost means of water collection. I investigated the ability of rainwater catchment systems to modify family time budgets (by reducing water collection time) and lessen the severity of water scarcity (by supplying families a significant amount of water). Forty families participated in the research, 20 of whom received free installation of a …

Dna Sequence Variation In The Wingless Gene Product In Buckeye Butterflies (Genus Junonia), Bonnie Mccullagh

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Wingless is a highly conserved gene important to cell determination in development. In Drosophila, the wingless gene product has been identified as responsible for wing patterning. In Bicyclus anynana and Junonia coenia, wingless gene product is expressed in a fashion that suggests that it is involved in butterfly wing color pattern development. The wingless gene product has been implicated as a potential focal signal for patterning the eyespot of Junonia butterflies. I have shown that extensive DNA sequence variation (26.04% of the sequenced region) exists in 402 bp of wingless coding sequence among 338 specimens of Junonia from …

Screening Rnai Transformants Of Chlamydomonas For Reduced Expression Of The Photoreceptor Cryptochrome, Jeremy Webb

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a unicellular green alga. In C. reinhardtii, three types of photoreceptors are known to be present: rhodopsins, phototropins, and cryptochromes. The single cryptochrome is the most likely photoreceptor for adjusting the circadian clock to the daily light/dark cycles, because cryptochromes are involved in clock entrainment in higher plants and insects. In this segment of the research, C. reinhardtii strains, which were genetically modified through transformation with a RNA interference construct, were screened for reduction in cryptochrome compared to the control strain. After C. reinhardtii cultures were harvested in complete darkness, all soluble proteins were extracted from the …

Assessment Of Prenatal Care And Perinatal Outcomes In Kasigau, Kenya, Allison Smith

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The World Health Organization (WHO) implemented the Millennium Declaration in 2000 to establish global health goals to be achieved by 2015. Two of these Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) are directly related to maternal, neonatal and child health. Healthcare during the prenatal period can help achieve the WHO MDG’s for maternal health and child mortality. Evidence has shown that women in Kenya have limited access to prenatal care. This study focused on the prenatal care and postnatal outcome trends of the women in Kasigau, Kenya. Participants were surveyed in three villages (Rukanga, Makwasinyi, and Bhuguta) to determine if prenatal care was …

Human-Wildlife Conflict On Small, Subsistence Farms In Kenya, Christopher B. Colonna

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As human populations expand, wildlife suddenly competes with humans for resources and confrontation arises as a result. Rural Africa is typical of this problem. We surveyed local owners of small farms within the five villages surrounding Mount Kasigau in Southeast Kenya to quantify losses due to wildlife depredation on both subsistence and cash crops as well as to discover the patterns and variables influencing farmer-wildlife confrontations in the region. We found no statistically significant correlations among the value of damage per acre, the distance from the bush, or the distance to the nearest water source. We did find statistical significance …

Effective And Affordable Novel Arsenic Removal Technology, Benadin Varajic

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Arsenic contaminated drinking water is a serious worldwide issue faced by millions of people every day. Long term exposure to arsenic levels above the World Health Organization’s (WHO) standard of 10 ppb has been associated with severe detrimental health effects including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Although current water purification technologies exist, their implementation is an unrealistic goal by many third world nations for a variety of reasons, the most common being the cost associated with what are typically complicated procedures. This study strives to discover an effective and affordable novel arsenic removal technology.

The first step of this study was …

Testing The Utility Of The Consortium For The Barcoding Of Life's Two 'Agreed Upon' Plant Dna Barcodes, Matk And Rbcl, Iam Michael Cohen

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

DNA barcoding is the use of short standardized regions of DNA to identify unknown specimens to species. Currently, the zoological community has agreed that cytochrome oxidase I subunit 1 (COI), a mitochondrial gene region, will serve as the barcode region for all animal taxa. Due to oftentimes complicated evolutionary histories of plants, the plant barcoding community has had a much harder time agreeing on a gene region or regions that should be used to barcode the various land plant lineages. This is in large part due to poor reproductive barriers, which allows for chloroplast sharing between closely related species. In …

Combining Bioinformatics And Chemical Biological Approaches To The Study Of Signaling Pathways In Parasitic Nematodes, William R. De Martini

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Lymphatic filariasis (elephantitis) is a disfiguring disease caused by thread-like nematodes. This disease affects the lives of over 120 million people and over one billion people are at risk for infection in endemic regions. Drugs used to treat this disease suffer from toxicity and emerging resistance and new therapies need to be identified. Our laboratory has been studying the filarial parasite, Brugia malayi (B. malayi), one of the causative agents of this disease. The laboratory is focused on the study of critical protein kinase signaling pathways, necessary for parasite protective anti-oxidative responses, as potential therapeutic targets. We have previously determined, …

Natural Selection And Age-Related Variation In Morphology Of A Colonial Bird, Mary Bomberger Brown

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In May 1996, inclement weather led to the deaths of thousands of Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in Nebraska. Survivors had larger skeletons, shorter wings and tails, and less wing asymmetry than non-survivors. This population was followed for 10 years to study 1) whether natural selection events result in permanent microevolutionary changes, 2) if variation in climate affects the development of morphological traits, and 3) if morphological traits vary systematically with age.

Patterns in morphology exhibited by swallows following the selection event were studied by measuring yearling birds. Wing and middle tail lengths decreased, beak length and width increased, …

A Contribution To The Vascular Flora Of The Sequatchie Valley Within Sequatchie County, Tennessee, John Richard Evans

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The vascular flora of the Sequatchie Valley within Sequatchie County, Tennessee was studied for three growing seasons from 2008 through 2010. The Sequatchie Valley is located within the southeastern portion of the Cumberland Plateau and is generally considered to be part of the Cumberland Plateau Physiographic Province. Nevertheless, a number of geological and ecological factors distinguish the Sequatchie Valley from the elevated Cumberland Plateau, suggesting that the floristic composition of the valley may be different from the surrounding region. Although several previous floristic studies have been conducted on the plateau surface, very little attention has been given to the Sequatchie …

Impacts Of The Species Elaeagnus Umbellate On The Soil And Water Quality Of The Pierce Cedar Creek Institute Ecosystem, Yacoub Aljobeh, Kristin Engerer

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

The species Elaeagnus umbellate, more commonly known as autumn olive, is a shrub that is invasive to the United States and indigenous to East Asia. Even though the autumn olive is not native to North America, it was able to thrive and adapt to the new environment by using its ability to fix nitrogen. Nitrogen-fixing is a process where plants intake molecular nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into other forms of nitrogen that can be used by the plants. One of the nitrogen-fixing by-products is nitrate. Excessive amounts of nitrate can easily leach from the plant’s root …

Testing The Potential Of Using Fungi To Convert Human Waste Into Protein, Alex Zapata, Elizabeth Phillippi, Blair Mitchell, Jon Schoer, Michael Watters

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

We report on the results of a pilot experiment designed to test the potential of filamentous fungi (mold) to reduce solid waste (feces) while converting it into a consumable, high protein food product. Feces represent an untapped resource. Filamentous fungi are natural decomposers with the ability to use this resource. Many filamentous fungi are safe to eat. We examined growth in order to determine the conditions which maximized the rate of conversion of solid waste into fungal biomass. For this pilot, we compared the effect of different lengths of incubation, different methods of aeration, and different available surface area. The …

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes Spring 2011, Scott R. Abella, Ross Guida, S. D. Smith, Christopher L. Roberts, Haroon Stephen, William J. Smith, Zhongwei Liu, James S. Holland, Aurore Giguet

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes

Red brome distribution in the eastern Mojave Desert, A look at the UNLV xeric gardens and Marjorie Barrick museum, Summary of recent science synthesis efforts

Preliminary Analysis Of An Agent-Based Model For A Tick-Borne Disease, Holly Gaff

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ticks have a unique life history including a distinct set of life stages and a single blood meal per life stage. This makes tick-host interactions more complex from a mathematical perspective. In addition, any model of these interactions must involve a significant degree of stochasticity on the individual tick level. In an attempt to quantify these relationships, I have developed an individual-based model of the interactions between ticks and their hosts as well as the transmission of tick-borne disease between the two populations. The results from this model are compared with those from previously published differential equation based population models. …

Reduced Activity Of Multiple Endocrine Disrupting Compounds: 17Β-Estradiol And Bisphenol A With A Chemi-Luminescent Assay, Anna C. Ortiz^, Roberto J. De La Torre-Roche, Marc B. Cox, Wen-Yee Lee*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

The concern about the impacts of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in the environment has increased recently with their high occurrence in surface waters and sex changes in various aquatic organisms. EDCs include ubiquitously used pharmaceuticals and personal care products, such as soap, detergents, contraceptives, and other medicines, which are released constantly into the environment, in waste water treatment plant effluent. Though toxicological effects of these individual, EDCs have been studied, knowledge on how these chemicals interact together in the environment is very limited. The objective of this project is to study the multi-residue effect of EDCs using a chemi-luminescent yeast …

Regional Scale Monitoring Of Methane Production By Dairy Farm Ungulates; A Proposal To The National Science Foundation (Nsf) And The National Ecological Observatory Network (Neon, Inc.), Lindsey Anne Peterson

Biological Sciences

No abstract provided.