2,150 research outputs found
Susan Harman papers
No full textSusan Emolyn Harman (1897-1972) was an author and professor of English at the University of Maryland from 1920 to 1961. At the university, Harman founded Alpha Lambda Delta, an honorary society; was a charter member of the Maryland chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, a teacher's honorary; and was adviser to a social sorority, Kappa Delta. She was also co-founder of the English Club of Prince George's and Montgomery counties. As president of University of Maryland chapter of the American Association of University Professors, she worked to secure Social Security benefits for all university faculty. She co-authored College Rhetoric, the Handbook of Correct English, and the best-selling Descriptive English Grammar with Homer C. House, and was a co-editor of the Middle English Dictionary. Her papers include correspondence, biographical materials, manuscripts, and memorabilia documenting Harman's career as an author and educator. Significant correspondents include Wilson H. Elkins, Frederic E. Lee, Charles Manning, and Homer C. House
'Pilings of Thought Under Spoken': The Poetry of Susan Howe, 1974-1993.
No full textPhDThis thesis discusses the poetry published by contemporary American poet Susan
Howe over a period of almost two decades. The dissertation is chiefly concerned with
articulating the relationship between poetic form, history, and authority in this body
of' work. Howe's poetry dredges the past for the linguistic effects of patriarchy,
colonialism and war. My reading of the work is an exploration of the ways in which a
disjunctive poetics can address such historical trauma. The poems, rather than
attempting to reinstate voices lifted from what Howe has called "the dark side of
history", are a means of reflecting the resistance that the past offers to contemporary
investigation. It is the effacement, and not the recovery, of history's victims, that is
discernible in the contours of these highly opaque texts. Notions of authority are most
often addressed in the poetry through the figure of paternal absence, which has a
threefold function in the work, serving to represent social authority, an aporetic
conception of divinity and an autobiographical narrative. Alongside the antiauthoritarian
currents in the writing - critiques, for example, of the doctrine of
Manifest Destiny or of scapegoating versions of femininity - my thesis stresses Howe's
engagement with negative theology and with a strain of American Protestant
enthusiasm that has its roots in 17th century New England. The dissertation explores
the dissonance caused by the co-existence in the poetry of elements of political dissent
and religious mysticism. Finally, I consider Howe's engagement with literary history
and authors such as Shakespeare, Swift, Thoreau and Melville. The manner in which
Howe deploys the words of others in her work, I argue, allows for a mixture of textual
polyphony and a more conventional notion of authorial 'voice'
How the Outside Gets in: Linking Social and Physical Environments with Physiology and Body Size in Wild Baboons
No full textEnvironmental factors are a crucial determinant of an animals fitness. The effects of environment on fitness are often mediated by behavioral mechanisms as well as mechanisms that are ‘under the skin,’ such as growth and physiology. In my dissertation work, I study how two environmental factors – dominance rank and early-life conditions – are associated with growth and physiology. My colleagues and I test these links in a population of wild baboons studied by the Amboseli Baboon Research Project. The Amboseli Baboons Research Project has been collecting behavioral and demographic data on the Amboseli baboons for over 50 years, fecal hormone data for over 20 years, and blood samples collected via brief anaesthetizations for nearly 10 years. We complemented these remarkable datasets with cross-sectional data of female baboon body size.In Chapter 1, we address two gaps in our understand of female dominance rank: (1) do higher-ranking females experience fewer stressors than lower-ranking females, and (2) how should we best quantify female dominance rank? Using fecal glucocorticoid concentrations as a proxy for the intensity and/or frequency of stressors that a baboon experiences, we find that, indeed, higher-ranking females do experience fewer stressors than lower-ranking females. Surprisingly, we also find that the best way to understand this effect is by categorizing females into two groups: alpha females, who are the highest-ranking female in the group, and everyone else.In Chapter 2, we then focus on differences in the competitive landscapes assumed by two common measures of dominance rank, ordinal and proportional ranks. We complement theoretical work with re-analysis of 20 prior Amboseli baboon studies to show that for males, ordinal rank (i.e., number of individual ranking above the focal animal) was always a better predictor of traits than proportional rank, whereas for females, some traits were better predicted by ordinal rank, and some were better predicted by proportional rank (i.e., proportion of the group that a focal animal dominates). Our results suggest that males compete for density-dependent resources, whereas females compete for a mix of density-dependent and density-independent resources. In addition, our study demonstrates a new way to learn about the nature of within-group competition.In Chapter 3, we present two new methods to use with body size data collected via parallel-laser photogrammetry. One of these methods was developed by colleagues here at Duke University, and the other method was developed by colleagues at George Washington University. These methods automate part of the hand-measurement process – measuring the distance between the lasers – and effectively saves time while increasing accuracy and precision of the final body size measurement. Our two methods have different strengths and weaknesses, and we anticipate that researchers will gravitate toward one or the other depending on their dataset, with the ultimate goal of increasing the use, ease, and accuracy of parallel-laser photogrammetry in studies of behavioral ecology. In Chapters 4, we use the method developed in Chapter 3 to test whether early-life adversity stunts body size in female baboons. While this effect has been found in humans and some nonhuman animals, data on inter-individual differences in body size are extremely rare in wild primates. Using a dataset of over 2,000 images of 127 female baboons, we present the first cross-sectional growth curve of wild female baboons from juvenescence throughout adulthood. We then test whether females exposed to three main sources of early-life adversity - drought, maternal loss, or a cumulative measure of adversity – are smaller for their age in juvenescence or adulthood. We find that early-life drought predicts smaller limb length but not smaller torso length; our other measures of early-life adversity do not predict differences in body size. Our results suggest that baboons grow plastically in response to energetic early-life stress, but that this plasticity seems limited to limb growth, not torso growth.Finally, in Chapter 5, we test a component of the biological embedding hypothesis, which predicts that early-life adversity is associated with elevated baseline inflammation as well as heightened acute inflammation in adulthood. To our knowledge, these predictions have only been tested in humans. Using serum samples collected from 89 baboons via brief anaesthetization, we measured several biomarkers of baseline and acute inflammation: c-reactive protein, soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor, interleukin 6, interleukin 1-beta, and tumor necrosis factor alpha. We test two measures of early-life adversity: maternal loss and a cumulative measure that incorporates 5 different potential sources of adversity. In contrast to the predictions of the biological embedding hypothesis, we find that baboons who experienced early-life adversity have a mix of comparable or lower levels of baseline and acute inflammation compared to baboons who experience no adversity. Prior tests of the biological embedding hypothesis were performed in humans who generally had access to more calories, less active lifestyles, and lower pathogen burden than wild baboons. Our results highlight the varied effects that early-life adversity can have on an organism’s development depending on the broader environment in which that organism lives.</p
The Troubles of Being Female: Investigating the relationship between social status and stress level in a population of adult female yellow baboons in Amboseli, Kenya
No full textThe famous Whitehall studies of the social determinants of health suggest that low social status has a negative effect on a person’s health due to a high level of chronic stress. Glucocorticoid hormone (GC) is released in the body as a direct response to stress, and is involved in important anti-inflammation and immunosuppression reactions that allow quick responses to stressful stimuli. For this reason, persistent and high levels of GC resulting from prolonged stress are thought to confer lower fitness by inhibiting immunity, producing a lower quality of life, and causing shorter longevity. There are many other examples of low dominance rank conferring lower fitness in animals, but this effect is species-dependent because subordinate animals can retain benefits as well. Thus, it is scientifically interesting to determine the direction of this effect in primate species. This study aimed to discover the relationship between social rank and stress in the adult female population of yellow baboons in the Amboseli Basin of Kenya. A previous study of male Amboseli baboons found that, with one exception, there is a negative relationship between high male rank and stress level. This information helped lead to the hypothesis that there is a negative correlation between high female rank and stress level. To test this hypothesis, the analysis used longitudinal data from over 12,000 samples collected over a 13-year period (2000-2013) from 191 adult females. Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) were used to predict the effect of social rank on stress, as measured by fecal glucocorticoid concentrations. Other factors such as age, reproductive status, and environmental conditions were entered into the models as fixed effects and individual female identities were entered as a random factor. The results showed no significant relationship between a female’s numerical rank and her stress level. Instead, it was determined that a female’s proportional, or relative, rank affects her stress such that lower ranking individuals have higher stress. Though the final results supported the initial hypothesis, the insignificance of numerical rank was surprising
Socio-Ecology and Behavior of Crop Raiding Elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem
No full textAbstract
Risky foraging is a male reproductive tactic in most polygynous mammals. It is speculated to result from intense intra-sexual reproductive competition. Consequently this behavior has been speculated to increase a male's reproductive competitiveness. However, individual males may differ in their propensity to take foraging risks.
We therefore conducted a study on crop raiding behavior (a risky foraging strategy) in African elephants from the greater Amboseli ecosystem, in southern Kenya. We specifically examined the population sizes, gender and patterns of raiding elephants and investigated the effect of crop-raiding and genetic heterozygosity on male body size. We also examined the influence of age and genetic relatedness on observed patterns of association. Finally, we examined the role of life history milestones, association patterns and social structure on the acquisition of crop raiding behavior among wild free ranging male African elephants. With regard to the influence of association patterns on crop raiding behavior, we were specifically interested in understanding the mechanisms by which social learning might occur among male elephants.
Our results showed that 241elephants from different populations in the ecosystem converged to raid farms. Approximately 35% of raiders were from Amboseli National Park, and the rest were other populations in the ecosystem. We observed only post-pubertal males but not females to raid. About one third of post-pubertal males from the Amboseli population were raiders. We found evidence of habitual raiding by some individuals. Crop raiding predicted post-pubertal male size, with raiders being larger than non-raiders. This result suggests that taking risks pays off for males. Our results also showed that other variables known to influence growth like genetic heterozygosity had no effect on size-for-age in male elephants, because low-heterozygosity males were rare. The probability that an individual male is a crop raider was greater for older individuals than young males. The probability that a male is a raider was greater when his two closest associates were raiders versus when they were not raiders and when a male's second closest associate was older, versus when his second closest associate was of similar age or younger. These results suggest that increasing energetic demands associated with life history milestones and social learning play a significant role in the initiation of crop raiding behavior. Raiders did not cluster into separate social units from non-raiders, probably due to the nature of social learning exhibited by this species and due to the diffuse nature of male elephant social units.
These results have implications for understanding the evolution of risky foraging behavior in males, and for understanding the role of kin selection, dominance hierarchies and social learning in male elephant social systems. Results also have implications for understanding the spread of adaptive complex behavior in natural populations.</p
The Troubles of Being Female: Investigating the relationship between social status and stress level in a population of adult female yellow baboons in Amboseli, Kenya
No full textThe famous Whitehall studies of the social determinants of health suggest that low social status has a negative effect on a person’s health due to a high level of chronic stress. Glucocorticoid hormone (GC) is released in the body as a direct response to stress, and is involved in important anti-inflammation and immunosuppression reactions that allow quick responses to stressful stimuli. For this reason, persistent and high levels of GC resulting from prolonged stress are thought to confer lower fitness by inhibiting immunity, producing a lower quality of life, and causing shorter longevity. There are many other examples of low dominance rank conferring lower fitness in animals, but this effect is species-dependent because subordinate animals can retain benefits as well. Thus, it is scientifically interesting to determine the direction of this effect in primate species. This study aimed to discover the relationship between social rank and stress in the adult female population of yellow baboons in the Amboseli Basin of Kenya. A previous study of male Amboseli baboons found that, with one exception, there is a negative relationship between high male rank and stress level. This information helped lead to the hypothesis that there is a negative correlation between high female rank and stress level. To test this hypothesis, the analysis used longitudinal data from over 12,000 samples collected over a 13-year period (2000-2013) from 191 adult females. Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) were used to predict the effect of social rank on stress, as measured by fecal glucocorticoid concentrations. Other factors such as age, reproductive status, and environmental conditions were entered into the models as fixed effects and individual female identities were entered as a random factor. The results showed no significant relationship between a female’s numerical rank and her stress level. Instead, it was determined that a female’s proportional, or relative, rank affects her stress such that lower ranking individuals have higher stress. Though the final results supported the initial hypothesis, the insignificance of numerical rank was surprising
Disease Risk in Wild Primate Populations: Host and Environmental Predictors, Immune Responses and Costs of Infection
No full textDisease risk in wild animal populations is driven by multiple factors, including host, parasite, and environmental traits, that facilitate the transmission of parasites and infection of hosts. Parasites inflict costs on their hosts that affect host fitness with downstream consequences on population structures and disease emergence patterns. Most disease risk-related studies are conducted in captive animals, while few have focused on free-ranging populations because of the logistical challenges associated with long-term monitoring of the hosts and sample collection. Hence, data regarding disease dynamics in natural populations are scarce, which limits our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary context of disease dynamics. In this thesis, we investigate the forces driving disease risk in wild primates and the possible consequences of infection on these hosts.We used longitudinal and cross-sectional data sets from wild primate populations in Kenya, Eastern Africa, to examine the following aims: 1) the effect of host behavior on hormones associated with disease risk, 2) environmental and host factors that predispose individuals to helminth infections, and 3) the immune responses and fitness costs associated with helminth infections. First, we investigated how two maturational milestones in wild male baboons—natal dispersal and rank attainment—were associated with variation in fecal hormone metabolites (glucocorticoids and testosterone). These two hormones are generally considered to be immunosuppressive and are often associated with high parasite loads. Within this analysis, we also investigated whether changes in the frequencies of behaviors (mating and agonistic encounters) were associated with adult dominance rank attainment. Second, we investigated multiple sources of variance in helminth burdens in a well-studied population of wild female baboons, including factors that contribute to both exposure and susceptibility (group size, social status, rainfall, temperature, age, and reproductive status). Third, we investigated how hematological indices and body mass index were associated with helminth burden. In the first study, our results revealed that rank attainment is associated with an increase in fecal glucocorticoids (fGC) levels but not fecal testosterone (fT) levels: males that have achieved an adult rank have higher fGC than males that have not yet attained an adult rank. We also found that males win more agonistic encounters and acquire more reproductive opportunities after they have attained adult rank than before they have done so. The second study revealed that female baboons in Amboseli were infected with diverse helminth taxa, including both directly transmitted and indirectly transmitted helminths. In general, high parasite risk was linked to large group sizes, low rainfall conditions, old age, and pregnancy, although these predictors varied somewhat across helminth species. Fecal GC levels were not associated with any measures of helminth burden. The third study found that helminth burdens were positively associated with circulating lymphocyte counts and negatively associated with neutrophil-lymphocyte ratios (NLR). We did not find any associations between helminth burdens and total WBC or eosinophil counts. Red blood cell indices were not predicted by our measures of helminth burden but instead varied with age class and sex. Helminth burdens were also negatively correlated with body mass index (BMI).Overall, the findings of this thesis are consistent with the hypothesis that host and environmental traits are important predictors of disease risk and infection in wild primate populations. In addition, our results suggest that wild primates mount immune responses to helminth burden and that helminth infections may have detrimental consequences on host body condition. Our work enhances the limited data on sources of disease variation and associated costs in wild populations. It also emphasizes the continued need for disease surveillance and health monitoring in wild populations.</p
Mechanisms of Inbreeding Avoidance in a Wild Primate
No full textThe deleterious effects of inbreeding have been well-documented in both captive and wild populations. Mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance such as mate choice and sex-biased dispersal have also been documented across a variety of taxa. However, studies of inbreeding avoidance via mate choice are surprisingly scarce, and those that explicitly compare maternal and paternal kin are entirely absent in mammals. Here, we provide the first study to assess how behavioral inbreeding avoidance varies across kin classes in a population of wild baboons. We first examine the series of isolating barriers that prevent inbreeding, including death, dispersal, and mate choice, and we next use pedigree data to assess how behavioral inbreeding avoidance varies across kin classes. We found that while the demographic barriers of death and male-biased dispersal are extremely effective in limiting inbreeding in this population, we still found strong evidence for inbreeding avoidance via mate choice. In particular, while most kin classes exhibited inbreeding avoidance, maternal kin (mother-son pairs, maternal siblings) were more avoidant than paternal kin (father-daughter pairs, paternal siblings) despite having identical coefficients of relatedness. Finally, by taking advantage of a natural experiment in our study population, we also found that social groups with reduced sex-biased dispersal and reduced inbreeding avoidance via mate choice produced ten times as many inbred offspring.</p
Revisiting Sexual Selection: An Exaggerated Signal of Fertility in the Amboseli Baboons
No full textSexual selection has long been accepted as a widespread force of evolution shaping male traits across taxa. In recent years, biologists have begun to investigate the extent to which sexual selection may also shape traits among females. However, current models of sexual selection have largely been developed using assumptions that--while generally met in males--often do not apply to females. Thus, attempts to apply these contemporary models to the study of sexual selection in females reveal weaknesses in the theoretical framework for sexual selection research. One consequence of this for empirical research is that researchers often infer the action of sexual selection upon evidence of male mate choice. Although male mate choice is increasingly common, it is much less likely to exert selection pressure than its female counterpart. I begin by proposing a conceptual framework that explicitly accounts for ...Next, I investigate a female trait that has recently become an iconic example of sexual selection in females; that is the exaggerated estrous swellings of cercopithecine primates. By combining morphological data collected with a non-invasive photographic method and observational behavioral data with longitudinal ecological and demographic data from the ongoing Amboseli Baboon Research Project, I examine the sources of variance in this exaggerated signal of fertility. Finally, I test the hypothesis that male baboons prefer females with larger sexual swellings because those females have higher fitness. I find no evidence to support this hypothesis. Instead, my results suggest that mate choice among male baboons has evolved to detect, not the intrinsic quality of the female as has typically been proposed, but the quality of a reproductive opportunity.</p
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