1941 research outputs found
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Faculty grants awarded in FY05
No full textGrant recipients for FY05 include: Arthur Sanders, Jack Gerlovich, Georgia Sheriff, Robert Stensrud, Neil Hamilton, Matt Bruinekool, Suzanne Levitt, Klaus Bartschat, David Courard-Hauri, Sherry Shafer, Stuart Shulman, Michael Rieck, Susan Smith, Linda Krypel, Garry Frank, Christine Pardee, Heidi Sleister, Jody Swilky, Keith Summerville, Mark Vitha, Jerry Honts, Pat Prijatel, James Romain, Eric Saylor, June Johnson, Marion Panyan, Anne Murr, Charisse Buising, Brad Tice, Russell Lovell, Geoffrey Wall, Sandra Kirks, Doug Ireland, and Scott Raecker.Program or research grants awarded during fiscal year 2005, as reported by the Office of Sponsored Programs, Drake University. One file is arranged by type of research or grant (private, state, and federal), and another file is arranged by the quarter in which they were awarded. Private grants: 391,308, and Federal grants: 9,724,725
"Genetic analysis of the human disease-causing gene ATM in yeast Tel1 and Mec1 mutants"
No full textAtaxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a recessive human disorder characterized by hypersensitivity to radiation, elevated risk of cancer development, nervous degeneration, premature senescence, and immune deficiencies. A-T is caused by mutation of the ATM gene located on human chromosome 11. The large protein product of ATM is a member of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) protein family. PI3K's are important for cellular response to DNA damage and are involved in DNA repair, genetic recombination, apoptosis, and cell cycle regulation. Human protein ATR and yeast proteins Mec1 and Tel1 are also PI3K's. Yeast tel1 mutants display chromosome instability and telomere shortening, and yeast mec1 mutants display sensitivity to DNA damaging agents, checkpoint misregulation, chromosome loss, and chromosome rearrangement. The defects observed in human cancer cells are similar to those observed in yeast mec1 and tel1 mutants. Previous research has shown that the human ATR protein can functionally complement the radiation sensitivity of a yeast mec1 mutant. Similarly, yeast tel1 p can partially functionally complement the human A-T phenotype, reducing recombination, apoptosis, and telomere shortening in A-T cells. However, Tel1 p does not reverse the A-T defects in cell cycle checkpoints and sensitivity to radiation, suggesting that these two processes may be regulated by Mec1 p. To determine whether the human ATM gene can functionally complement mec1 and tel1 in yeast, the full length ATM gene and ATM PI3K domain are being cloned and tested for functional complementation of tel1 and mec1 defects.Drake University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology
"Social vs. Military Spending: How the Pentagon Budget Crowds out Public Infrastructure and Aggravates Natural Disasters—the Case of Hurricane Katrina"
Get PDFDr. Ismael Hossein-zadeh teaches economics at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa.This paper puts forth (and documents) an argument that the escalating military spending at the expense of non-military public spending is steadily undermining the critical national objective of public-capital formation (both physical and human) and that, if not stopped, the resulting trend will stint long term productivity and economic growth, as it erodes both physical and soft/social infrastructure. An equally high opportunity cost of the colossal Pentagon budget in terms of forgone or neglected public infrastructure (roads, bridges, mass transit, dams, levees, and the like) is vulnerability in the face of natural disasters, as evidenced, for example, by the recent devastation of Hurricane Katrina.(This paper was presented at the annual conference of American Society of Business and Behavioral Science, Las Vegas, February 23-25, 2006.
"Species traits as predictors of lepidopteran composition in restored and remnant tallgrass prairies"
Get PDFKeith S. Summerville is a professor of Environmental Science in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at Drake University. He can be contacted at [email protected] ecologists are increasingly turning to the development of trait-filter models, which predict how evolved traits limit species membership within assemblages depending on existing abiotic or biotic constraints, as a tool to explain how species move from a regional species pool into a restored community. Two often untested assumptions of these models, however, are that species traits can reliably predict species' broadscale distribution and that the effects of traits on community membership do not vary between restored and remnant habitats. The goals of this study were to determine whether combinations of ecological traits predispose moth species toward recolonization of restored prairies and to assess the degree to which restored prairies contain moth assemblages comparable with prairie remnants. In 2004, we collected 259 moth species from 13 tallgrass prairie remnants and restorations in central Iowa. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to identify significant combinations of ecological traits that were shared by groups of moth species. Logistic regression was then employed to test for significant effects of the trait combinations on the frequency of prairie sites occupied by moth species. PCA partitioned moth traits into four axes that explained a total of 81.6% of the variance. Logistic regression detected significant effects for all four PCA axes on the fraction of sites occupied by moths. Species frequently filtered from the regional species pool into prairies were those that had long flight periods and were multivoltine, displayed a feeding preference for legumes but not other forb families, and were regionally abundant but relatively small in body size. Ordination revealed significant differences in moth communities among prairies, suggesting that species traits and habitat characteristics likely interact to create observed patterns of species recolonization of restorations. Thus, the optimal approach to restoring the lepidopteran fauna of tallgrass prairies may involve locating prairie plantings adjacent to habitat remnants.© 2006 by the Ecological Society of America.The project was supported by the National Research
Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, grant number 2005-35101-15337 as well as from grants from the National Geographic Society, the
National Aeronautic and Space Administration, the Iowa Science Foundation, and Drake University
"Why we don't really know what statistical significance means: Implications for educators"
Get PDFRaymond Hubbard is the Thomas M. Sheehan Distinguished Professor of Marketing in the College of Business and Public Administration at Drake University. He can be contacted at: [email protected] marketing journals and market research textbooks, two concepts of statistical significance - p values and α levels - are commonly mixed together. This is unfortunate because they each have completely different interpretations. The upshot is that many investigators are confused over the meaning of statistical significance. We explain how this confusion has arisen and make several suggestions to teachers and researchers about how to overcome it. © 2006 Sage Publications
"Behind the Plan to Bomb Iran"
Get PDFIsmael Hossein-zadeh is a professor of economics at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. He is the author of the newly published book, The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism. His Web page is http://www.cbpa.drake.edu/hossein-zade
"DNA shall prevail: Postconviction DNA evidence: An annotated bibliography
Get PDFDeborah E. Sulzbach is an Associate Professor of Librarianship in the Law Library at Drake University. She can be contacted at: [email protected] annotated bibliography is presented as a guide for attorneys, librarians, students, and the general public interested in postconviction DNA evidence. Part I presents a brief introduction to the history and use of postconviction DNA evidence. Part II includes articles about individuals exonerated through the use of postconviction DNA evidence. Part III presents articles focusing on postconviction DNA evidence in various states. Part IV contains articles about the federal Innocence Protection Act. Part V includes articles about some Innocence Projects in the United States. Part VI includes articles covering various aspects of postconviction DNA evidence. Part VII lists books and chapters of books on the topic. Copyright © by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved
"Identification of yeast genes important for chromosome transmission"
No full textAccurate transmission of chromosomes during cell division requires that chromosomes are fully replicated and free of damage prior to cell division. Furthermore, cellular processes that separate chromosomes must be functional. As part of an effort to identify proteins important for chromosome transmission, we implemented a genetic screen in the yeast Saccharomyces ceresisiae that allows for visual detection of mutants with an increase in the loss of an ADE2-marked yeast artificial chromosome (YAC). This screen resulted in 132 YAC stability in mitosis (ysm) mutants. In addition to genetic characterization of these mutants, subsets of the ysm's were analyzed for YAC loss rate, sporulation efficiency, forward mutation frequency, and cell morphology. Mutants were also tested for sensitivity to high salt, caffeine, hydroxyurea, and benomyl. The results elucidated mutant phenotypes that will facilitate cloning the wild-type genes that are altered in these mutants. To this end, high copy suppressors of ysm83 and ysm84 have recently been isolated.Drake University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology
"Freedom Summer tragedy: how three young boys deaths spurred the President, the FBI, the media and the American people to notice the Civil Rights Movement"
Get PDFFaculty Advisor: David Skidmore, Professor
Department of Politics and International Relations, College of Arts and Sciences
Drake University. Student editorial board for the Spring 2006 issue include: Teresa Abbey, Brittany Buchholz, Brett Myrick and Jeff Scheiber.Drake Undergraduate Social Science Journal is sponsored by the Department of Economics, Department of History, Department of Politics and International Relations, Department of Psychology, Department of Culture and Society,
and the International Relations Program, all within the College of Arts and Sciences at Drake University
"The pass-along effect: investigating word-of-mouth effects on online survey procedures"
Get PDFAndrew T. Norman is a professor of marketing in the College of Business and Public Administration at Drake University. He can be contacted at [email protected] petitions to complete online surveys may be forwarded beyond the intended sample. We term this phenomenon the pass-along effect and investigate it as a factor that can influence the nature and size of survey samples in an online context. We establish the pass-along effect as a form of word-of-mouth communication and draw from the literature in this area to present and test a model of factors that influence the occurrence
of this effect. The results of two studies provide empirical support for the existence
and impact of the pass-along effect. Among the factors that lead to this effect are
involvement and relationship with the survey topic, size of a participant’s social network,
and tie strength. The appropriateness of employing pass-along respondents as well
as other implications for online sampling and survey research are discussed