864 research outputs found
Island biogeography predicts skull gigantism and shape variation in meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) through ecological release and allometry
No full textIsland Rule describes the graded trend of gigantism in small-bodied species to dwarfism in large-bodied species inhabiting islands, but causal explanations remain unresolved. We used geometric morphometrics to quantify cranial morphology of 544 meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) samples across 11 island and 3 mainland populations from the Outer Lands of New England (Atlantic) and the Alexander Archipelago of Alaska (Pacific). We compared the thermoregulation and endurance (TRE) and ecological release (ER) hypotheses using all-subsets linear models employing residual randomization permutation procedures (rrpp), and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) for model selection. We decoupled direct and indirect effects of island variables on size using path analysis. We evaluated shape with Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Procrustes ANOVA on Procrustes shape coordinates, then assessed the impact of static allometry and TRE and ER variables on shape. Six Atlantic island populations exhibit significant signals of gigantism with the largest voles occurring on the smallest islands lacking predators. ER explains 63% of cranial size differences. Island area has a significant total effect on size by influencing the number of mammalian predators, resulting in a 0.011 increase in unit centroid size for a 100 km2 decrease in island area. This corresponds to a predicted 0.9% change in size for every 100 km2. Given static allometry, cranial shape does not respond to insularity independent of size. These results suggest that Island Rule is a latent evolutionary process whose manifestation depends on nuanced biogeographic and ecological contexts that have important conservation and taxonomic implications.This data package includes the raw and processed data, in addition to R scripts used to conduct the analyses, obtain results, and generate some figures reported in the following publication: Schlis-Elias, M. C. and Malaney, J. L. 2021. Island biogeography predicts skull gigantism and shape variation in meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) through ecological release and allometry
Cloud Computing Offers Cheap Solutions
No full textAuthor\u27s biography: Jason Anderson is the director of the Georgia Southern University Small Business Development Center. He can be reached at [email protected]
Relations between acoustic and articulatory measurements of /l/
No full textVariation in the production of English /l/ has received significant study. It has been characterized in terms of categorical allophones, in terms of acoustic properties, and in terms of articulatory timing. Using a parallel corpus of acoustic-articulatory data from two speakers of American English, this study looks at the relations between acoustic and articulatory measurements of /l/ across words in corpus of read speech. We find significant negative correlations between F1 and tongue tip height and significant positive correlations between F2 and tongue body retraction. Additionally, we find that the relative timing of tongue tip and tongue back gestures in our data are consistent with past work on positional variants of /l/
Constraint Therapy With Progressive Incorporation of Bimanual Therapy Significantly Improves Hand Function in Children With Unilateral Brain Injury
No full textAbstract
Date Presented 3/31/2017
This study examined the efficacy of modified constraint-induced movement therapy, with progressive introduction of bimanual therapy to improve hand functions in children with unilateral brain injury participating in an intensive occupational therapy program.
Primary Author and Speaker: Ka Lai Kelly Au
Contributing Authors: Julie L. Knitter, Susan Morrow-McGinty, Jason B. Carmel, Kathleen M. Friel</jats:p
Exploring Signals of Historical Demography in Boreal Mammals Through Integration of Statistical Conservation Phylogenetics, Taxonomy, and Comparative Phylogeography
No full textUnderstanding how diversity is partitioned across the landscape can provide perspectives related to the environmental processes that have influenced the evolutionary history of organisms. This main idea, often termed phylogeography, serves as the backdrop to my research where I explore three broad concepts including historical biogeography, cryptic diversity and ecology, and conservation phylogenetics. I address various questions in each of these concepts by using a set of mammals that are associated with montane and mesic environments of North America. More specifically, I focus on the jumping mice (Zapodidae) to test hypotheses that scale to the broader community. This approach allows for a more refined understanding and interpretation of how species have responded to geophysical changes of the past that may be useful for predicting how future environmental pressures may influence geographically oriented lineages. By integrating across multiple disciplines of population genetics, phylogenetics, phylogeography, distribution modeling, and paleoclimatology, I assess how environmental change has left an imprint on the genetics and ecology of various organisms. Signatures of the past are useful to forecast conservation issues of the future
Development of a time-limited group for adolescents with a relative who has cancer
No full textThis study explores the emotional and psychological needs of a group of adolescents who have a relative diagnosed with cancer. When a family endures a diagnosis of cancer, the entire family can be profoundly affected, including the healthy children in the family. Relatives of children with cancer are at an increased risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome as well as other emotional disturbances (Woodgate, 2006). For the present study, five adolescents took part in a qualitative interview process, and were self-referred through the Relay for Life, Ocean County, NJ chapter of the American Cancer Society. The goal of the study was to operationalize and better define the experience of having a loved one diagnosed with cancer and then determine the components of an effective support group. It was hypothesized that if adolescents participate in the development of a social support group, it will be more successful in retaining participants in the future. A qualitative research design was used to: 1) gain a better understanding of the overall experience of having a relative diagnosed with cancer and 2) to identify the specific needs of the adolescents who participated in the qualitative interview. The results of this study illustrate the gravity of having a loved one diagnosed with cancer, especially during adolescence. The primary themes that arose in this study included: 1) a need for more information regarding cancer and its treatment; 2) a need for emotional support; and 3) a psychosocial component to address positive and negative coping mechanisms. With the increased demands of school and social pressures on adolescents, there is a corresponding need for groups to help adolescents understand what is occurring, and learn how to cope when a family member is diagnosed with cancer. The results of this study are intended to guide future research, improve the experience of having a relative diagnosed with cancer, and provide a model for the development of future adolescent social support groups.Psy. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Jason Thomas Ruc
Voice Compression and Communications: Principles and Applications for Fixes and Wireless Channels
No full textUp-to-date, expert coverage of topics in wireless voice communications Voice communication is the most important facet of mobile radio service. Even when the predicted surge of wireless data and Internet services becomes a reality, voice will remain the most natural means of human communication. Voice Compression and Communications details issues in wireless voice communications and treats compression, channel coding, and wireless transmission as a joint subject. Part I covers background material, whereas Part II provides detailed information on both proprietary and standardized analysis-by-synthesis codecs, including the speech codecs of virtually all existing wireline-based and wireless systems. Parts III and IV discuss mainly research-based wideband, audio, as well as very low-rate schemes likely to find their way into future standards. Voice Compression and Communications describes fundamental concepts in a non-mathematical way early in the book for those with only a background knowledge of signal processing and communications. More advanced readers will find detailed discussions of theoretical principles, future concepts, and solutions to various specific wireless voice communications problems
DNA fusion gene vaccination mobilizes effective anti-leukemic cytotoxic T lymphocytes from a tolerized repertoire
No full textThe majority of known human tumor-associated antigens derive from non-mutated self proteins. T cell tolerance, essential to prevent autoimmunity, must therefore be cautiously circumvented to generate cytotoxic T cell responses against these targets. Our strategy uses DNA fusion vaccines to activate high levels of peptide-specific CTL. Key foreign sequences from tetanus toxin activate tolerance-breaking CD4+ T cell help. Candidate MHC class Ibinding tumor peptide sequences are fused to the C terminus for optimal processing and presentation. To model performance against a leukemia-associated antigen in a tolerized setting, we constructed a fusion vaccine encoding an immunodominant CTL epitopederived from Friend murine leukemia virus gag protein (FMuLVgag) and vaccinated tolerant FMuLVgag-transgenic (gag-Tg) mice. Vaccination with the construct induced epitopespecificIFN-c-producing CD8+ T cells in normal and gag-Tg mice. The frequency and avidity of activated cells were reduced in gag-Tg mice, and no autoimmune injury resulted. However, these CD8+ T cells did exhibit gag-specific cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. Also, epitope-specific CTL killed FBL-3 leukemia cells expressing endogenous FMuLVgag antigen and protected against leukemia challenge in vivo. These results demonstrate a simple strategy to engage anti-microbial T cell help to activate epitope-specific polyclonal CD8+ T cell responses from a residual tolerized repertoire
GBA alignment
No full textNinety-two samples of sequence data from the GBA gene across jumping mice including N. insignis (5 subspecies), Z. hudsonius (12 subspecies), Z. princeps (10 subspecies), and Z. trinotatus (4 subspecies)
BRCA alignment
No full textNinety-two samples of sequence data from the BRCA gene across jumping mice including N. insignis (5 subspecies), Z. hudsonius (12 subspecies), Z. princeps (10 subspecies), and Z. trinotatus (4 subspecies)
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