thesis

This study explores the perceived elitism within both the environmentalist community and general public in regards to "environmental diets" such as : vegetarianism, veganism, locavore-ism, and ethical omnivory. I explore these diets and potential expressions of elitism within the framework developed by Morrison and Dunlap in their discussion of environmental elitism. Examples come from published sources as well as personal anecdotes. Through this study, I suggest that this perceived elitism is actually not elitism per se, but a very thin line of tension between describing the ideal food systems aside the current state of food inequity and industrial agriculture. Simply, I am trying to grapple with how to be educated in the fields of Food Studies and systems of oppression without perpetuating elitism alongside the system which desperately needs reform.

Two separate groups of young and middle-aged adults watched videos of events being performed by a number of different college-aged females. Both the young goup of adults and the middle-aged group of adults were later tested on their memory for both the individual features of these events (i.e., actors and actions), and for conjunctions of features (i.e., which actor performed which action) in order to determine how likely they were to remember which actors performed which actions. Our results showed that frontal lobe functioning is not affected with age. However, there is a slight decrease in medial temporal functioning that continues on throughout life. There was a main effect of Question, Item Type, and Age Group explained through a three-way ANOVA. Binding errors increase with age because specific areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, deteriorate with age.

Supernumerary centrosomes can arise in a cell through a variety of methods. The presence of supernumerary centrosomes has been observed in nearly all types of cancer and promotes chromosomal instability, with rates of incident increasing as the cancer progresses. An oral squamous cell carcinoma line was treated with hydroxyurea to induce supernumerary centrosomes in the cells. NuMA was then knocked down using shRNA to promote centrosomal clustering and bipolar mitotic division in cells with supernumerary centrosomes. Immunofluorescence with an antibody against SAS 6 accuately stained the centrioles for observation. The cells exhibiting supernumerary centrosomes undergoing bipolar mitotic division were studied to look for a possible pattern in centrosomal clustering where the majority of centrosomes are at one pole with a single centrosome at the other pole. Initial results suggest the presence of such a mechanism, which would describe a previously unknown mechanism for cells to deamplify supernumerary centrosomes by centrosomal clustering.

The construction of Abacoa included an attempt to conserve the wildlife in a Greenway, a set of habitats separated from the residential and commercial areas. All of the wetlandswith in Abacoa represent artificially constructed ponds, canals, and streams first created from 1998-2004. The present study focuses on the anuran (i.e., frog and toad) populations and looks at the number of different species that have naturally colonized six differnet sites around Abacoa. Each of these sites varies in qualities that may affect the probability of breeding in that section. The quality of water is known to be less ideal as the water flows away from the headwaters and mixes with water from other sources. This study aims to determine which anuran species are found at each of these sites after nearly a decade of colonization, and how both anuran diversity and abundance correlates with water and habitat quality.

Intracellular transport carries out very important roles within the cell including mitosis, organization, and organelle function. In order for effective transport using the motor protein dynein, a cofactor named dynactin is required. Of dynactin's many subunits, p150[Glued] holds the most responsibility for effective microtubule organization throughout the cell and the necessary anchoring at the centrosome. P150[Glued] holds two areas of high binding potential, the CAP-Gly region and the Basic region. Each of these binding domains have different binding potentials and affinities for microtubules. The CAP-Gly region binds tightly the microtubules for a longer period of tiem ; the Basic region binds loosely to microtubules. Throughout the course of my research, I manipulated these two regions binding affinity for microtubules and evaluated the resulting cells ability to effectively organize microtubules and anchor them properly at the centrosome.

The thymus provides a unique microenvironment that facilitates T lymphocytes differentiation and maturation. However, the thymus atrophies after puberty which leads to an overall expression of metabolism gene pathways and low gene expression of certain peroxide scavenger enzymes such as catalase in thymic stromal compartments. From this data, we postulate that thymic stromal cells are highly susceptible to oxidative damage. We utilized a transgenic mice model overexpressing human catalase targeted to the mitochondria (mCat) to test our hypothesis that gerater oxidative protection should lower the degree of thymus atrophy. Our experiment focused on a direct comparison of organ weights (thymus, kidney, lymph nodes, spleen and heart), cellularity and histology between transgenic and wildtype mice. We found that mCat had selective increases in thymus size.

In 1956 Darrel Parker was convicted of murdering his wife, with no evidence of his guilt except his own confession. Like Parker, some individuals confess to crimes which they did not commit. These confessions are generally made with a lawyer present when police us deception or coercion. While deception is constitutional, and a permitted police tactic, coercion is not. THis paper distinguished between the two and provides a philosophical framework for determining when deception becomes coercive. While non-coercive deception can lead to false confessions, I do not argue that deception should be banned, as it is a useful tool for police in catching criminals. Instead, I argue that police may deceive suspects, but prosecutors and judges should provide a check by using a three-pronged test to ensure that individuals are not convicted of crimes they did not commit.

The media has a significant influence on any political process. In Venezuela, particularly, the media plays an important rold in defining the electorate's political opinion and attitude toward the political process. This thesis analyzed how the media's preference for conflict and individual personalities exacerbated overall societal tensions and polarization in Venezuela since 1999. I suggest a framework for a future content analysis of news coverage of the 2012 presidential election in order to quantify and qualify the evolution of bias and balance in Venezuela's mass media.

The pyramid ant, Dorymyrmex bureni, is one of the most common and conspicuous ants of open, sandy habitats in the southeastern US. To examine the architecture of D. bureni nests in different habitats, I made wax casts of the subterranean tunnels and chambers of nests in a disturbed college campus site (n=3) and a relatively undisturbed greenway preserve site (n=5). Nests of pyramid ant, Dorymyrmex bureni, consist of two basic units : horizontal chambers and descending shafts connecting them. Chambers near the surface are tunnel-like with branches arranged in a nexus, while deeper chambers were more compact in outline. Chamber height is more or less constant, but chamber shape becomes more complex and lobed in characteristic ways as chambers enlarge. Nests have a top-heavy distribution of chamber area at all sizes because chambers are larger and closer together in the upper nest regions.

The kinesin superfamily of microtubule motor proteins is subdivided into families based upon structure and function. KIF9 is the founding member of the Kinesin-9 family, which is a largely uncharacterized group of kinesins. It was originally identified by sequence homology to other kinesins. Subsequent studies have shown that KIF9 interacts with proteins involved in cell shape remodeling, cell migration and proper centrosomal positioning. We have examined KIF9 function in mammalian cells using shRNA-mediated knockdown and GFP-plasmid overexpression. By knocking dow KIF9 expression in these cells, we have seen several effects on normal cell cycle progression. Using various cell cycle markers, we have observed a decrease in the number of cells in late S phase. In addition, there is a marked increase in the number of cells in early mitosis in unexpected time intervals. We propose that KIF9 is required for proper cell progression, via a potentially novel checkpoint mechanism.