Representations and Impacts of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Ideals in Children\u27s Literature for Young Children

Children’s literature plays a critical role in shaping how children view themselves and the world around them. This is especially true in regards to outgroups such as the transgender and gender nonconforming communities. Transgender individuals have been gaining increased visibility in the past few years. The misconceptions surrounding these topics are not exclusively found outside the classroom. Title IX was expanded to include gender identity as recently as 2014. Yet, much confusion and apprehension is present when discussing the topic of transgender and gender nonconformity, especially in the elementary school classroom. To address these misconceptions, inclusion of these outgroups into culturally inclusive curriculum is critical. With the power that children’s literature has on empathy, attitudes, and comprehension, classroom libraries should consider including transgender and gender nonconforming titles into teacher resources and classroom libraries. Many positives can come from the power of children’s literature, but there also lies the chance to fall into new and/or unique pitfalls that affect the elementary classroom, such as gender stereotyping. Therefore, this thesis analyzed transgender and gender nonconforming titles for elementary classrooms for trends and themes. 30 titles total were analyzed with 21 being selected to represent the ideals found in transgender and gender nonconforming children’s literature

Transcriptome Analysis of the Entomopathogenic Fungus Culicinomyces clavisporus

Culicinomyces clavisporus is an entomopathogenic fungus that can infect mosquito larvae, such as Culex quinquefasciatus, Aedes aegypti, and Anopheles stephensi. Whereas most fungal entomopathogens infect hosts through the cuticle, C. clavisporus initiates infection through ingestion. This suggests that the C. clavisporus genome may be mined for novel pathogenicity factors with the potential for vector control. To this end, a transcriptome analysis was initiated. The strain C. clavisporus ARSEF 582 was grown in modified PYG liquid cultures that was supplemented with whole, insect larvae (Galleria mellonella) to elicit the expression of genes involved in host-pathogen relationships. Total RNA samples were extracted and processed for cDNA library construction and Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT) sequencing (PacBio platform). A total of 3,512,145 reads were produced. Assembly of these reads was completed using CD-HIT-EST and revealed 8,266 unigenes. A phylogenetic analysis using actin gene sequences showed the C. clavisporus is closely related to both D. coniospora and H. rhossiliensis. The transcriptome annotation revealed 10 genes of interest to entomopathogenic fungi infection methods, including those potentially linked to the oral infection method. Of those 10 genes, 4 genes have functions related to cellular processes aiding in virulence, 4 genes linked to cuticle degradation, and 2 genes with potential links to the oral infection process. Overall, the number of unigenes identified from the transcriptomic analysis showed greater abundance of unigenes with possible link to oral infection than compared to cuticular degradation. This suggests that C. clavisporus utilizes oral infection as its main mode of infection

Acoustical Measurement of the Human Vocal Tract: Quantifying Speech & Throat-Singing

The field of biological acoustics has witnessed a steady increase in the research into overtone singing, or “throat-singing,” in which a singer utilizes resonance throughout the vocal tract to sing melodies with the overtones created by a vocal drone. Recent research has explored both how a singer vocalizes in order to obtain rich harmonics from a vocal drone, as well as how further manipulations of the vocal apparatus function to filter and amplify selected harmonics. In the field of phonetics, vowel production is quantified by measuring the frequencies of vocal tract resonances, or formants, which a speaker manipulates to voice a particular vowel. Thus, an investigation of throat singing is closely linked to human speech production. Formants are usually detected in vowel spectra obtained using Fast Fourier Transform algorithms (FFTs). An alternative method that provides much higher frequency resolution is external excitation of the vocal tract and measurement of the pressure response signal at the mouth’s opening, which can be used to calculate the acoustic impedance spectrum. We demonstrate the use of such an “acoustic impedance meter” to measure the formant frequencies of common vowels as well as the oscillatory modes of simple resonant pipe systems. The impedance meter accurately measures fundamental pipe modes and a variety of formant frequencies with an uncertainty of 1 Hz. Finally, we assess how the impedance meter may be used to measure the unique resonances achieved by qualified throat singers

Using Genetics To Study Otter Connectivity And Population Size In Northwestern Montana

River otters (Lontra canadensis) have begun to recover in the Upper Clark Fork River (UCFR) after decades of mining and smelting activity severely impacted the population. An initial project in 2009 showed otters occur throughout the UCFR but at seemingly lower densities than other rivers in Montana. We are working to estimate otter population size in the UCFR and determine connectivity between other geographically close rivers. We are using 11 microsatellite loci amplified from tissue samples collected from trapped otters to look at connectivity between 5 rivers: the Bitterroot River, Blackfoot River, Clearwater River, UCFR, and Lower Clark Fork River. We are using heterozygosity and Fst values to indicate population substructuring as well as using principle component analysis to visualize any differentiation. Additionally, we are using hair collected from hair snares to genetically estimate population size in the UCFR. Initial results from tissues indicate that otters in the 5 rivers are highly connected, and no one population is more connected to the UCFR than another. These results are based on a small samples size; additional samples currently being analyzed will enhance our ability to interpret this situation. Additional samples will be collected in 2011 to strengthen the population estimate. This is one of a few projects, and the first in Montana, to use genetics to look at population substructuring in otters

Evolution of Morphological Integration. I. Functional Units Channel Stress-Induced Variation in Shrew Mandibles

Stress-induced deviations from normal development are often assumed to be random, yet their accumulation and expression can be influenced by patterns of morphological integration within an organism. We studied within-individual developmental variation ( fluctuating asymmetry) in the mandible of four shrew species raised under normal and extreme environments. Patterns of among-individual variation and fluctuating asymmetry were strongly concordant in traits that were involved in the attachment of the same muscles (i.e., functionally integrated traits), and fluctuating asymmetry was closely integrated among these traits, implying direct developmental interactions among traits involved in the same function. Stress-induced variation was largely confined to the directions delimited by functionally integrated groups of traits in the pattern that was concordant with species divergence-species differed most in the same traits that were most sensitive to stress within each species. These results reveal a strong effect of functional complexes on directing and incorporating stress-induced variation during development and might explain the historical persistence of sets of traits involved in the same function in shrew jaws despite their high sensitivity to environmental variation

Stress and Developmental Stability: Vegetation Removal Causes Increased Fluctuating Asymmetry in Shrews

Environmental stress can increase phenotypic variation in populations by affecting developmental stability of individuals. While such increase in variation results from individual differences in ability to buffer stress, groups of individuals and different traits may have different sensitivity to stressful conditions. For example, the sex that is under stronger directional selection for faster growth may be more sensitive to stressful conditions during development. On an individual level, stress-induced variation in a trait may be related to the strength of stabilizing selection that acts on the trait. We experimentally examined sensitivity of mandibular development to stress in a free-living population of common shrews (Sorex cinereus), a short-lived insectivore mammal with very limited dispersal and nearly continuous foraging activity. We found a strong increase in asymmetry in shrews born under stressful conditions. Increased asymmetry was associated with lower physiological condition in both control and stressed populations, although the effect of asymmetry on fitness was more pronounced under stressful conditions. Males\u27 developmental stability was more sensitive to stressful conditions than developmental stability of females, suggesting that their apparently faster and more variable growth is more sensitive to stress than is growth of females. Mandible traits differed in their sensitivity to environmental changes. Preliminary results suggest that this differential sensitivity is proportional to the degree of developmental and functional morphological integration among mandibular traits

Evolution of Morphological Integration: Developmental Accommodation of Stress-Induced Variation

Extreme environmental change during growth often results in an increase in developmental abnormalities in the morphology of an organism. The evolutionary significance of such stress-induced variation depends on the recurrence of a stressor and on the degree to which developmental errors can be accommodated by an organism\u27s ontogeny without significant loss of function. We subjected populations of four species of soricid shrews to an extreme environment during growth and measured changes in the patterns of integration and accommodation of stress-induced developmental errors in a complex of mandibular traits. Adults that grew under an extreme environment had lower integration of morphological variation among mandibular traits and highly elevated fluctuating asymmetry in these traits, compared to individuals that grew under the control conditions. However, traits differed strongly in the magnitude of response to a stressor - traits within attachments of the same muscle (functionally integrated traits) had lower response and changed their integration less than other traits. Cohesiveness in functionally integrated complexes of traits under stress was maintained by close covariation of their developmental variation. Such developmental accommodation of stress-induced variation might enable the individual\u27s functioning and persistence under extreme environmental conditions and thus provides a link between individual adaptation to stress and the evolution of stress resistance

Molecular markers associated with barley yellow dwarf virus tolerance in spring oat and their utilization in predictive breeding

Barley yellow dwarf viruses (BYDVs) are responsible for the disease barley yellow dwarf (BYD), which causes significant yield losses in many cereals including oat (Avena sativa L.). Phenotyping for disease sensitivity is time consuming, laborious and requires viruliferous aphids for inoculations. Until recently, the molecular marker technology in oat has not allowed for many marker-trait association studies to determine the genetic mechanisms for tolerance and as a result, marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS) have not been extensively used in breeding for BYD tolerance. In the first study, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed on 428 spring oat lines using a recently developed high-density oat single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array as well as a SNP-based consensus map. Marker-trait associations were performed using a Q-K mixed model approach to control for population structure and relatedness. Six significant SNP-trait associations representing two QTL were found on chromosomes 3C and 18D. This is the first report of BYDV tolerance QTL on chromosome 3C and 18D. Haplotypes using the two QTL were evaluated, and distinct classes for tolerance were identified based on the number of favorable alleles. In the second study, GS and MAS models were compared in their accuracy to predict barley yellow dwarf virus tolerance in 428 spring oat lines from North America and Europe. Several GS models were evaluated using 2305 SNPs and included models with previously identified or randomly selected markers as fixed effects. Model accuracies were evaluated using five-fold cross evaluation. GS models used ridge regression-best linear unbiased predictor (RR-BLUP) for marker effect estimation while MAS models used ordinary least square (OLS). Moderate to high prediction accuracies (0.5-0.9) were observed across the models. GS models containing fixed effects (GS-GWAS, GS-3C18D) from previously identified QTL performed better than the GS model with all markers as random effects or the MAS models. Two MAS models (MAS-GWAS and MAS-3C18D) had prediction accuracies higher than the GS model with all markers as random effects. In the third study, GS was used to identify individuals with high BYDV tolerance for use in cross prediction. To do this, 2138 SNPs were used on a panel of 519 spring oat lines for barley yellow dwarf virus tolerance. Of the 519 oat lines, 428 lines had genotypes and phenotypes while 91 of the oat lines were only genotyped. Using the R package “PopVar”, several GS models were compared for prediction accuracy. The BayesA model was identified as having the highest prediction accuracy and genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) were calculated for the 519 lines using the BayesA model. The top 10% of lines (52 lines) based on GEBVs for BYDV tolerance were selected to perform simulated crosses. A total of 1326 crosses were simulated, and the mean, genetic variance and mean of high/low superior progenies were calculated. From the 1326 crosses, 22 crosses were identified as having a balance between a low predicted mean (high tolerance) and high genetic variance. Because of the high tolerance and high genetic variance, the chance of obtaining transgressive segregants for BYDV tolerance is higher in these crosses. Using GS and simulated crosses gives breeders additional tools to improve breeding efficiency for BYDV tolerance and allows for better allocation of time and resources within the breeding program