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2009

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Articles 601 - 630 of 812

Full-Text Articles in Biology

Fecal Glucocorticoids Reflect Socio-Ecological And Anthropogenic Stressors In The Lives Of Wild Spotted Hyenas, Heather E. Watts Jan 2009

Fecal Glucocorticoids Reflect Socio-Ecological And Anthropogenic Stressors In The Lives Of Wild Spotted Hyenas, Heather E. Watts

Biology Faculty Works

Our aim was to identify natural and anthropogenic influences on the stress physiology of large African carnivores, using wild spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) as model animals. With both longitudinal data from a single social group, and cross-sectional data from multiple groups, we used fecal glucocorticoids (fGC) to examine potential stressors among spotted hyenas. Longitudinal data from adult members of a group living on the edge of the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, revealed that fGC concentrations were elevated during two periods of social upheaval among adults, especially among younger females; however, prey availability, rainfall, and presence of lions did not …

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Pathogenic Bacillus Anthracis In The Progressive Gene Losses And Gains In Adaptive Evolution, Gongxin Yu Jan 2009

Pathogenic Bacillus Anthracis In The Progressive Gene Losses And Gains In Adaptive Evolution, Gongxin Yu

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Sequence mutations represent a driving force of adaptive evolution in bacterial pathogens. It is especially evident in reductive genome evolution where bacteria underwent lifestyles shifting from a free-living to a strictly intracellular or host-depending life. It resulted in loss of function mutations and/or the acquisition of virulence gene clusters. Bacillus anthracis shares a common soil bacterial ancestor with its closely related bacillus species but is the only obligate, causative agent of inhalation anthrax within the genus Bacillus. The anthrax-causing Bacillus anthracis experienced the similar lifestyle changes. We thus hypothesized that the bacterial pathogen would follow a compatible evolution path. …

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Caspase-Cleaved Tar Dna-Binding Protein-43 In Pick’S Disease, Troy T. Rohn, Polina Kokoulina Jan 2009

Caspase-Cleaved Tar Dna-Binding Protein-43 In Pick’S Disease, Troy T. Rohn, Polina Kokoulina

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The hyperphosphorylation and proteolytic modification of the TAR DNA binding protein-43 (TDP-43) is a key finding in a number of neurodegenerative diseases including frontotemporal dementia with ubiquitin-positive inclusions (FTLD-U), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and most recently Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To examine whether proteolytic modifications of TDP-43 is a relevant finding in Pick’s disease, we utilized a novel site-directed caspase-cleavage antibody based upon a known caspase-3 cleavage consensus site within TDP-43 at position 219. Application of this antibody, termed TDP caspase-cleavage product (TDPccp) to postmortem Pick’s disease brain sections revealed the presence of caspase-cleaved TDP-43 in Pick and Hirano bodies predominantly …

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An Exon-Based Comparative Variant Analysis Pipeline To Study The Scale And Role Of Frameshift And Nonsense Mutation In The Human-Chimpanzee Divergence, Gongxin Yu Jan 2009

An Exon-Based Comparative Variant Analysis Pipeline To Study The Scale And Role Of Frameshift And Nonsense Mutation In The Human-Chimpanzee Divergence, Gongxin Yu

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Chimpanzees and humans are closely related but differ in many deadly human diseases and other characteristics in physiology, anatomy, and pathology. In spite of decades of extensive research, crucial questions about the molecular mechanisms behind the differences are yet to be understood. Here I report ExonVar, a novel computational pipeline for Exon-based human-chimpanzee comparative Variant analysis. The objective is to comparatively analyze mutations specifically those that caused the frameshift and nonsense mutations and to assess their scale and potential impacts on human-chimpanzee divergence. Genomewide analysis of human and chimpanzee exons with ExonVar identified a number of species-specific, …

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The Malina Oceanographic Expedition: How Do Changes In Ice Cover, Permafrost And Uv Radiation Impact On Biodiversity And Biogeochemical Fluxes In The Arctic Ocean?, Phillippe Massicotte, Rainer Amon, David Antoine, Philippe Archambault, Sergio Balzano, Simon Bélanger, Ronald Benner, Dominique Boeuf, Annick Bricaud, Flavienne Bruyant, Gwenaëlle Chaillou, Malik Malik, Bruno Charrière, Jing Chen, Hervé Claustre, Pierre Coupel, Nicole Delsaut, David Doxaran, Et. Al. Jan 2009

The Malina Oceanographic Expedition: How Do Changes In Ice Cover, Permafrost And Uv Radiation Impact On Biodiversity And Biogeochemical Fluxes In The Arctic Ocean?, Phillippe Massicotte, Rainer Amon, David Antoine, Philippe Archambault, Sergio Balzano, Simon Bélanger, Ronald Benner, Dominique Boeuf, Annick Bricaud, Flavienne Bruyant, Gwenaëlle Chaillou, Malik Malik, Bruno Charrière, Jing Chen, Hervé Claustre, Pierre Coupel, Nicole Delsaut, David Doxaran, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

The MALINA oceanographic campaign was conducted during summer 2009 to investigate the carbon stocks and the processes controlling the carbon fluxes in the Mackenzie River estuary and the Beaufort Sea. During the campaign, an extensive suite of physical, chemical and biological variables was measured across seven shelf–basin transects (south-north) to capture the meridional gradient between the estuary and the open ocean. Key variables such as temperature, absolute salinity, radiance, irradiance, nutrient concentrations, chlorophyll-a concentration, bacteria, phytoplankton and zooplankton abundance and taxonomy, and carbon stocks and fluxes were routinely measured onboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen and from a barge …

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Effective Practices In Undergraduate Stem Education Part 1: Examining The Evidence, Labov B. Jay, Susan R. Singer, Melvin D. George, Heidi A. Schweingruber, Margaret L. Hilton Jan 2009

Effective Practices In Undergraduate Stem Education Part 1: Examining The Evidence, Labov B. Jay, Susan R. Singer, Melvin D. George, Heidi A. Schweingruber, Margaret L. Hilton

Biology Faculty Work

No abstract provided.

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Effect Of Increased Carbon Dioxide Levels On Urushiol Production In Toxicodendron Radicans And Toxicodendron Toxicarium, Meredith Gilbert Jan 2009

Effect Of Increased Carbon Dioxide Levels On Urushiol Production In Toxicodendron Radicans And Toxicodendron Toxicarium, Meredith Gilbert

Theses and Dissertations

It is hypothesized that global warming is at least partially due to increased greenhouse gases, one of which is carbon dioxide. An increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide has been shown to stimulate higher rates of plant productivity, including the production of plant toxins like urushiol. Urushiol, a secondary plant compound produced in members of the Anacardiaceae family, causes dermatitis in sensitive individuals. An increase in urushiol production could increase the reactivity of certain individuals to plants like poison oak and poison ivy. To determine how elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide would effect urushiol production, 16 samples of poison ivy …

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Small Rna-Directed Heterochromatin Formation In The Context Of Development: What Flies Might Learn From Fission Yeast, Kathryn Huisinga, Sarah C.R. Elgin Jan 2009

Small Rna-Directed Heterochromatin Formation In The Context Of Development: What Flies Might Learn From Fission Yeast, Kathryn Huisinga, Sarah C.R. Elgin

Biology Faculty Research

A link between the RNAi system and heterochromatin formation has been established in several model organisms including Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Arabidopsis thaliana. However, the data to support a role for small RNAs and the associated machinery in transcriptional gene silencing in animal systems is more tenuous. Using the S. pombe system as a model, we analyze the role of small RNA pathway components and associated small RNAs in regulating transposable elements and potentially directing heterochromatin formation at these elements in Drosophila melanogaster.

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Genetic Variation At Hair Length Candidate Genes In Elephants And The Extinct Woolly Mammoth, Alfred L. Roca, Yasuko Ishida, Nikolaidis Sergios, Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, Stephen Fratpietro, Kristin Stewardson, Shannon Hensley, Michele Tisdale, Gennady Boeskorov, Alex D. Greenwood Jan 2009

Genetic Variation At Hair Length Candidate Genes In Elephants And The Extinct Woolly Mammoth, Alfred L. Roca, Yasuko Ishida, Nikolaidis Sergios, Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, Stephen Fratpietro, Kristin Stewardson, Shannon Hensley, Michele Tisdale, Gennady Boeskorov, Alex D. Greenwood

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Like humans, the living elephants are unusual among mammals in being sparsely covered with hair. Relative to extant elephants, the extinct woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, had a dense hair cover and extremely long hair, which likely were adaptations to its subarctic habitat. The fibroblast growth factor 5 (FGF5) gene affects hair length in a diverse set of mammalian species. Mutations in FGF5 lead to recessive long hair phenotypes in mice, dogs, and cats; and the gene has been implicated in hair length variation in rabbits. Thus, FGF5 represents a leading candidate gene for the phenotypic differences in hair length …

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A Standardized Rna Isolation Protocol For Yam (Dioscorea Alata L) Cdna Library Construction, Satya S. Narina, Ali I. Mohamed, Robert Asiedu, H. D. Mignouna Jan 2009

A Standardized Rna Isolation Protocol For Yam (Dioscorea Alata L) Cdna Library Construction, Satya S. Narina, Ali I. Mohamed, Robert Asiedu, H. D. Mignouna

Virginia Journal of Science

For the purpose of constructing yam cDNA libraries, attempts to isolate high quality RNA using several previously reported protocols were unsuccessful. Therefore a protocol was standardized for yam total RNA isolation by using guanidium buffer at the Department of Biology, Virginia State University. The RNA isolated using this standardized protocol was high in quality and led to successful good quality cDNA library construction and identification of functional ESTs in yam.

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Distribution And Host Specificity Of Erysiphe Cruciferarum (Powdery Mildew) Attacking Alliaria Petiolata (Garlic Mustard), In Southwestern Ohio, Victoria Lyn Ciola Jan 2009

Distribution And Host Specificity Of Erysiphe Cruciferarum (Powdery Mildew) Attacking Alliaria Petiolata (Garlic Mustard), In Southwestern Ohio, Victoria Lyn Ciola

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Garlic mustard is an invasive Eurasian biennial that has rapidly spread throughout the United States. In Southwestern Ohio, many garlic mustard populations are infected with the powdery mildew Erysiphe cruciferarum that can reduce the growth and fitness of garlic mustard. E. cruciferarum was assessed using a Decision Tree in regards to its potential use as a biological control agent. I determined the distribution of E. cruciferarum on garlic mustard and I determined the potential risk of E. cruciferarum to native Brassicaceous species and selected crops. I surveyed 19 parks in Southwestern Ohio and recorded the number of diseased garlic mustard …

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Comparative Efficacy Of Bioud To Other Commercially Available Arthropod Repellants Against The Ticks Amblyomma Americanum And Dermacentor Variabilis On Cotton Cloth, Brooke W. Bissinger, Jiwei Zhu, Charles S. Apperson, Daniel E. Sonenshine, D. Wesley Watson, R. Michael Roe Jan 2009

Comparative Efficacy Of Bioud To Other Commercially Available Arthropod Repellants Against The Ticks Amblyomma Americanum And Dermacentor Variabilis On Cotton Cloth, Brooke W. Bissinger, Jiwei Zhu, Charles S. Apperson, Daniel E. Sonenshine, D. Wesley Watson, R. Michael Roe

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

BioUD is an arthropod repellent that contains the active ingredient 2-undecanone originally derived from wild tomato plants. Repellency of BioUD was compared with five commercially available arthropod repellents against the ticks Amblyomma americanum (L.) and Dermacentor variabilis Say in two-choice bioassays on treated versus untreated cotton cheesecloth. Overall mean percentage repellency against both species was greatest for and did not differ significantly between BioUD (7.75% 2-undecanone) and products containing 98.1% DEET, 19.6% IR3535, and 30% oil of lemon eucalyptus. Products containing 5% and 15% Picaridin and 0.5% permethrin were also repellent compared with untreated controls but to a lesser degree …

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The Effects Of Urbanization On The Structure, Quality, And Diversity Of Cypress Plant Communities In Central Florida, Courtney Knickerbocker Jan 2009

The Effects Of Urbanization On The Structure, Quality, And Diversity Of Cypress Plant Communities In Central Florida, Courtney Knickerbocker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The integrity of wetland ecosystems is largely determined by hydrological functionality, degree of connectivity to like ecosystems, and permeability to external influence. Land use changes in upland areas adjacent to wetland ecosystems may influence hydrology and connectivity while introducing novel biotic and abiotic materials. There is an increasing trend toward the use of remote assessment techniques to determine the degree of impact of external influences on adjacent wetlands. Remote assessment and predictive capabilities are provided by indices such as the Landscape Development Intensity Index (LDI) (Brown and Vivas 2005) which may be beneficial in determining site condition, and which have …

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Native Fire Regime As A Reference For Establishing Management Practices, Brean Duncan Jan 2009

Native Fire Regime As A Reference For Establishing Management Practices, Brean Duncan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our understanding of natural fire regimes in human-dominated landscapes is limited. Fire regimes operating in the pyrogenic ecosystems of Florida have been altered by fire suppression and fuel fragmentation. This is especially true of North Merritt Island, Florida, where human impacts have led to an incomplete knowledge of current fire regimes. We know that growing season fires frequently occurred within general return intervals and that many native terrestrial species require fire to remain viable. A 20-year plus period of fire suppression caused structural and compositional changes to vegetation/fuels that led to catastrophic fires and the decline of native species populations …

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Tissue Targeted Embryonic Chimeras: Zebrafish Gastrula Cell Transplantation, Elizabeth R. Deschene, Michael J. Barresi Jan 2009

Tissue Targeted Embryonic Chimeras: Zebrafish Gastrula Cell Transplantation, Elizabeth R. Deschene, Michael J. Barresi

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Certain fundamental questions in the field of developmental biology can only be answered when cells are placed in novel environments or when small groups of cells in a larger context are altered. Watching how one cell interacts with and behaves in a unique environment is essential to characterizing cell functions. Determining how the localized misexpression of a specific protein influences surrounding cells provides insightful information on the roles that protein plays in a variety of developmental processes. Our lab uses the zebrafish model system to uniquely combine genetic approaches with classical transplantation techniques to generate genotypic or phenotypic chimeras. We …

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Estrogenic Compounds Downstream From Three Small Cities In Eastern Nebraska: Occurrence And Biological Effect, Marlo K. Sellin, Daniel D. Snow, Debbie L. Akerly, Alan S. Kolok Jan 2009

Estrogenic Compounds Downstream From Three Small Cities In Eastern Nebraska: Occurrence And Biological Effect, Marlo K. Sellin, Daniel D. Snow, Debbie L. Akerly, Alan S. Kolok

Biology Faculty Publications

Recent studies have detected estrogenic compounds in surface waters in North America and Europe. Furthermore, the presence of estrogenic compounds in surface waters has been attributed, in some cases, to the discharge of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent. The primary objective of the current study was to determine if WWTP effluent contributes estrogens to the surface waters of Nebraska. A second objective of this study was to determine if estrogens were found in concentrations sufficient enough to manifest feminizing effects on fish. These objectives were satisfied by deploying polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS) and caged fathead minnows at eight …

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Timecourse Analysis Of The Effect Of Atrazine On Human Hepg2 Cells, Erin M. Schrunk Jan 2009

Timecourse Analysis Of The Effect Of Atrazine On Human Hepg2 Cells, Erin M. Schrunk

Honors Program Theses

Atrazine is one of the most abundantly used herbicides in the United States. It works by inhibiting photosynthesis in broad leaf and grassy weeds. Consequently, with its frequent use, atrazine can contaminate many drinking water sources due to run-off from treated fields. While many studies have shown detrimental effects occur in various model organisms using very high levels of atrazine, not much is known about what effects occur due to lower levels of atrazine exposure. The current research project analyzed the effects of atrazine on human liver cells (HepG2). Specifically, we focused on the proteins that regulate cell cycle progression …

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Inbreeding Effects On Sperm Production In Clam Shrimp (Eulimnadia Texana), Stephen C. Weeks, Sadie K. Reed, Donald W. Ott, Franca Scanabissi Jan 2009

Inbreeding Effects On Sperm Production In Clam Shrimp (Eulimnadia Texana), Stephen C. Weeks, Sadie K. Reed, Donald W. Ott, Franca Scanabissi

Biology Faculty Research

Hypothesis: Inbreeding depression is manifest in lower sperm production. Organism: Freshwater crustaceans (clam shrimp - Eulimnadia texana), from the southwestern United States, which have high levels of inbreeding. Methods: Comparisons of semi-thin sections of the male gonad among selfed and outcrossed siblings from four families. Results: There was a twofold reduction in sperm production in inbred relative to outcrossed males. Inbreeding depression in males was higher than previous estimates from hermaphrodites. Conclusions: Inbreeding markedly reduces sperm production. The observed low levels of sperm production can explain both the low average outcrossing rates as well as the variation in these rates …

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Vigilance Behavior And Land Use By Sandhill Cranes (Grus Canadensis), Trevor Eldred Jan 2009

Vigilance Behavior And Land Use By Sandhill Cranes (Grus Canadensis), Trevor Eldred

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

I investigated how vigilance in sandhill crane time budgets changed with behavioral, climatic, and anthropogenic factors. I measured two different postures that could be interpreted as vigilance. Cranes significantly altered the time spent in the alert investigative posture with differences in gender and modal non-vigilant behavior. They significantly altered the time spent in the tall alert posture with differences in gender, breeding status, time of day, traffic on the nearest road, and human disturbances. The southern Michigan populations of sandhill cranes nest closer to roads and houses than they have in the past and do not preferentially avoid them. They …

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Theoretical And Practical Utility Of Gene Sequences In Phylogenetic And Phylogeographic Analysis, Robert Aaron Makowsky Jan 2009

Theoretical And Practical Utility Of Gene Sequences In Phylogenetic And Phylogeographic Analysis, Robert Aaron Makowsky

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Phylogenetics, or the study of evolutionary relationships among organisms, is a rapidly changing field due primarily to the dramatic increase in available molecular characters and increasingly sophisticated theoretical and computational methods. Current phylogenetic methods, though, poorly handle such large datasets due to the extremely large number of calculations required. In this dissertation, I focus on a method that can reduce datasets with a large number of molecular characters and at the same time optimize the performance of phylogenetic methods. Chapter 1 provides background information about phylogenetic methods, with a specific emphasis on Bayesian phylogenetic methods. MrBayes is the most common …

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Effects Of Drought The Lipid Content In Fundulus Catenatus, Angelena Edwards Jan 2009

Effects Of Drought The Lipid Content In Fundulus Catenatus, Angelena Edwards

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

During severe drought, small streams often dry to small isolated pools with subsequent high densities of fishes. Under such conditions, fish may be stressed by high temperatures, low food availability, and lack of refugia from predators. I was interested in whether fish restricted to isolated pools burn more calories than they take in, resulting in a loss of storage lipids (high energy molecules) in their bodies. During the 2007 drought, I collected Fundulus catenatus (northern studfish) from small stream communities in the Drake’s Creek watershed in south central Kentucky. I examined storage lipid content by processing each fish through a …

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Faculty Should Consider Peer Review As A Means Of Improving Students' Scientific Reasoning Skills, Briana Timmerman, Denise Strickland Jan 2009

Faculty Should Consider Peer Review As A Means Of Improving Students' Scientific Reasoning Skills, Briana Timmerman, Denise Strickland

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

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Improving Diversity In Phd Programs In The Biological Sciences At Usc, Bert Ely Jan 2009

Improving Diversity In Phd Programs In The Biological Sciences At Usc, Bert Ely

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

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Ultrasound In Second Year Pathology Medical Education, Richard Hoppmann, Wylie E. Michell, John B. Carter, Carol Mcmahon, Patsy H. Lill, Noel A. Brownlee, Kevin A. Carnevale Jan 2009

Ultrasound In Second Year Pathology Medical Education, Richard Hoppmann, Wylie E. Michell, John B. Carter, Carol Mcmahon, Patsy H. Lill, Noel A. Brownlee, Kevin A. Carnevale

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

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The Integrated Biomedical Science Graduate Program At The University Of South Carolina, Richard Hunt Jan 2009

The Integrated Biomedical Science Graduate Program At The University Of South Carolina, Richard Hunt

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

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Synthesis Of Fatty Acid Binding Protein Inhibitors: A New Approach For Diabetes Treatment, Shekelia Baccus, M. Perry Davis Jr, David R. Magnin Jan 2009

Synthesis Of Fatty Acid Binding Protein Inhibitors: A New Approach For Diabetes Treatment, Shekelia Baccus, M. Perry Davis Jr, David R. Magnin

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

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Generation Of A Retroviral Vector That Expresses An Anti-Hiv-1 Tat Hammerhead Ribozyme, Lindsey E. Padgett, William H. Jackson Jan 2009

Generation Of A Retroviral Vector That Expresses An Anti-Hiv-1 Tat Hammerhead Ribozyme, Lindsey E. Padgett, William H. Jackson

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

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The Effect Of Incubation Time On The Generation Of Benzene In Sierra Mist Free, Sarah Law Jan 2009

The Effect Of Incubation Time On The Generation Of Benzene In Sierra Mist Free, Sarah Law

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

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Downregulation Of Hiv-1 Vif By A Hammerhead Ribozyme Expressed From A Retroviral Vector, Audrey M. Hendley, William Jackson Jan 2009

Downregulation Of Hiv-1 Vif By A Hammerhead Ribozyme Expressed From A Retroviral Vector, Audrey M. Hendley, William Jackson

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

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Effect Of Thaw Temperature On Murine Blastocyst Development, Heather M. Barton, H. Lee Higdon Iii, Ph.D., Jennifer E. Graves-Herring M.S., William R. Boone, Ph.D. Jan 2009

Effect Of Thaw Temperature On Murine Blastocyst Development, Heather M. Barton, H. Lee Higdon Iii, Ph.D., Jennifer E. Graves-Herring M.S., William R. Boone, Ph.D.

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

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