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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™

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Biology

Old Dominion University

2011

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

2011 Meeting Missing Abstracts Oct 2011

2011 Meeting Missing Abstracts

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts not included in Virginia Journal of Science Volume 62, No. 1 and 2, presented at the 89th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 25-27, 2011, at the University of Richmond, Richmond VA.

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Use Of Optimal Control Models To Predict Treatment Time For Managing Tick-Borne Disease, Holly D. Gaff, Elsa Schaefer, Suzanne Lenhart Sep 2011

Use Of Optimal Control Models To Predict Treatment Time For Managing Tick-Borne Disease, Holly D. Gaff, Elsa Schaefer, Suzanne Lenhart

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Tick-borne diseases have been on the rise recently, and correspondingly, there is an increased interest in implementing control measures to decrease the risk. Optimal control provides an ideal tool to identify the best method for reducing risk while accounting for the associated costs. Using a previously published model, a variety of frameworks are assessed to identify the key factors influencing mitigation strategies. The level and duration of tick-reducing efforts are key metrics for understanding the successful reduction in tick-borne disease incidence. The results show that the punctuated nature of the tick's life history plays a critical role in reducing risk …

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Controls On The Formation Of Algal Blooms In The Lower Chesapeake Bay And Its Tributaries, Ryan Eric Morse Jul 2011

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, …

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Preliminary Analysis Of An Agent-Based Model For A Tick-Borne Disease, Holly Gaff Apr 2011

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. …

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Analysis Of Biological Features Associated With Meiotic Recombination Hot And Cold Spots In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Loren Hansen, Nak-Kyeong Kim, Leonardo Mariño-Ramírez, David Landsman Jan 2011

Analysis Of Biological Features Associated With Meiotic Recombination Hot And Cold Spots In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Loren Hansen, Nak-Kyeong Kim, Leonardo Mariño-Ramírez, David Landsman

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Meiotic recombination is not distributed uniformly throughout the genome. There are regions of high and low recombination rates called hot and cold spots, respectively. The recombination rate parallels the frequency of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) that initiate meiotic recombination. The aim is to identify biological features associated with DSB frequency. We constructed vectors representing various chromatin and sequence-based features for 1179 DSB hot spots and 1028 DSB cold spots. Using a feature selection approach, we have identified five features that distinguish hot from cold spots in Saccharomyces cerevisiae with high accuracy, namely the histone marks H3K4me3, H3K14ac, H3K36me3, and H3K79me3; …

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Behavior Constrains The Dispersal Of Long-Lived Spiny Lobster Larvae, Mark J. Butler Iv, Claire B. Paris, Jason S. Goldstein, Hirokazu Matsuda, Robert K. Cowen Jan 2011

Behavior Constrains The Dispersal Of Long-Lived Spiny Lobster Larvae, Mark J. Butler Iv, Claire B. Paris, Jason S. Goldstein, Hirokazu Matsuda, Robert K. Cowen

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Behavior such as ontogenetic vertical migration (OVM) limits the transport of marine larvae with short pelagic larval durations (PLDs), but its effect on the supposed long-distance dispersal of larvae with long PLDs is unknown. We conducted laboratory tests of ontogenetic change in larval phototaxis and examined size-specific patterns of larval distribution in the plankton to characterize OVM in the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus during its long (6 mo) PLD. We then used a coupled biophysical model to explore the consequences of OVM and hydrodynamics on larval P. argus dispersal in the Caribbean Sea. Larvae reared in the laboratory were …

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Putting The X In Biology: A Review Of The Mathematics Of Life, John Adam Jan 2011

Putting The X In Biology: A Review Of The Mathematics Of Life, John Adam

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

(First Paragraph) Charles Darwin's 1859 work On the Origin of the Species contained no equations. But that does not mean mathematics has no role to play in the science of life; in fact, the field of biomathematics is burgeoning and has been for several decades. Ian Stewart's new book does an admirable job of unfolding the mathematics undergirding so much of the research being carried out today in the many fields that comprise the subject of biology. Stewart sets the context by noting five great revolutions that have changed the way scientists think about life. These five revolutions are: (i) …

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Classroom Manipulative To Engage Students In Mathematical Modeling Of Disease Spread: 1 + 1 = Achoo!, H. Gaff, M. Lyons, G. Watson Jan 2011

Classroom Manipulative To Engage Students In Mathematical Modeling Of Disease Spread: 1 + 1 = Achoo!, H. Gaff, M. Lyons, G. Watson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Infectious diseases ranging from the common cold to cholera affect our society physically, emotionally, ecologically, and economically. Yet despite their importance and impact, there remains a lack of effective teaching materials for epidemiology and disease ecology in K-12, undergraduate, and graduate curricula [2]. To address this deficit, we've developed a classroom lesson with three instructional goals: (1) Familiarize students on basic concepts of infectious disease ecology; (2) Introduce students to a classic compartmental model and its applications in epidemiology; (3) Demonstrate the application and importance of mathematical modeling as a tool in biology. The instructional strategy uses a game-based mathematical …

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