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Obesity: a growing concern about fetal nutrition
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2006)
Obesity is a growing epidemic and a major health concern in the United States and elsewhere. The Fetal Basis of Adult Disease (FBAD) theory holds that events that occur during development can permanently alter gene expression ...
Behavioral choice and demographic consequences of wood frog habitat selection in response to land use
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
Land use is a pervasive form of disturbance affecting natural systems on Earth. My dissertation research is set within the context of a large scale project referred to as Land-use Effects on Amphibian Populations (LEAP), ...
Noise and signal transmission properties as agents of selection in the vibrational communication environment
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
Members of the Enchenopa binotata species complex (Hemiptera: Membracidae) are host-specific phytophagous insects that communicate by sending vibrations through their host plants. Successful communication depends on the ...
Beyond the edge : riparian habitat use and forest management effects on stream salamanders in the southern Appalachian mountains
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
While there are many types of habitat loss and degradation (e.g., agriculture, land development), many studies have focused on the impacts of logging on wildlife populations and on ecosystem processes. Little information, ...
Evolution of signal frequency in Neoconocephalus (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) : a study of perceptual and environmental sources of selection
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Mate-attraction signals offer an ideal opportunity to examine the sources of selection that shape traits and trait diversity, as they are very diverse ...
Collective offspring-parent signaling in a social treehopper : mechanisms, patterns and function
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2010)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] I investigated the properties of collective behavior in a group-living insect, including the patterns of group behavior, the function of group level ...
Call timing interactions, aggressive behavior, and the role of acoustic cues in chorus formation in treefrogs
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
I studied calling patterns and aggressive behavior of the Bird voiced treefrog, , to assess how dynamic call characters influences males and the factors influencing the onset of choruses and settling patterns of males in ...
Pollen-pistil interactions in nicotiana
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] To screen for potential mates, angiosperm pistils provide a physical and biochemical barrier that promotes the growth of desirable pollen while ...
Chromatin-level regulation of the maize purple plant1 gene
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
In eukaryotes, gene expression is controlled at the chromatin level by mechanisms that are not yet well understood. This study addressed some of the unanswered questions about chromatin-level gene regulation. In maize, the ...
Characterization of an in vitro neural stem cell niche with educational component : stem cells and society
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] We describe a novel neural stem cell (NSC) culture system, derived from embryonic stem (ES) cells, that maintains and expands a population of neural ...
Friends in high places : ecology of mycorrhizal associations in alpine plant communities
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2010)
Mutualisms are ubiquitous in nature, yet these interactions often vary in strength and persistence. This variation raises the questions of what determines whether mutualisms persist or vanish, and how does variation in the ...
The impacts of partner abundance on benefits from facultative pollination mutualism
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2010)
Partner abundance affects costs and benefits in obligate mutualisms, but its role in facultative partnerships is less clear. I investigated this topic in a small alpine pollination web in the Colorado Rocky Mountains ...
Investigations into the cause of pollen abortion in maize CMS-C
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009)
Cytoplasmic male sterility type C (CMS-C) is atypical compared to other CMS types as no novel chimeric transcript or protein has been found correlating with the phenotype. However, a tassel-specific decrease for both ATP6 ...
Social and psychobiological regulation of the human child's hypothalamus-pituitary-axis : an ontogenetic perspective
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011)
On the basis of life history theory, the delayed reproductive maturity represented by an extended period of childhood and juvenility in humans is predicted to be important for learning cultural, social, and ecological ...
Flipping the switch : regulation of proliferation and differentiation in adult muscle stem cells
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011)
Adult muscle stem cells or satellite cells are the committed somatic stem cells responsible for maintenance and regeneration of adult skeletal muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle is capable of multiple rounds of complete ...
Phylogenetic and behavioral differentiation in the canyon treefrog, Hyla arenicolor
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011)
My research interests lie in understanding the process of speciation. In my dissertation I set out to do this by examining the first step in potential speciation, population differentiation. In my dissertation research I ...
Cause specific mortality and anti-predator behavior in midwestern songbirds
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011)
Predation is a ubiquitous selective pressure that profoundly influences animals on evolutionary and ecological time-scales, but we lack estimates of predator-specific mortality rates for many taxa. We investigated ...
Immunogenic properties of neuralized embryonic stem cells in a model of allogenic intracranial transplantation
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Intracranial stem cell transplantation has may restore central nervous system (CNS) function and compensate for neural cell loss. However, immunological ...
Mitochondrial DNA insertions in the nuclear genomes of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays)
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Mitochondria were derived from once free--living [alpha]-proteobacteria and became part of eukaryotic cells through endosymbiosis (Kleine et al. 2009). ...
Motor unit characterization in canine degenerative myelopathy :a disease model for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2013)
Dogs homozygous for missense mutations in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) develop a late-onset neuromuscular disorder called degenerative myelopathy (DM) that has many similarities to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ...