The Interommatidial Bristle Variability of Diptera

Insects of the order Diptera are a popular biological model for understanding morphological trait evolution. One area of particular interest is the development of the compound eyes. While the development of ommatidia and photoreceptors has been thoroughly studied in this case, little attention has been paid to the interommatidial bristles (IOBs) present on the eyes of some dipteran families. A preliminary survey suggested that these bristles exhibit high variability among IOB families on multiple taxonomic levels and are not uniformly present or absent in any suborder of the Diptera. To confirm this observation, I conducted a literature search to quantify how many dipteran families uniformly possessed IOBs, lack IOBs, or include species with both trait states. This effort revealed a slight bias towards lack of IOBs in the Diptera. Parsimony and maximum likelihood ancestral state reconstructions showed that IOBs are likely to have been present on the eyes of early dipteran ancestors, despite the bias towards lack of IOBs in the extant families. The absence of IOBs is therefore speculated to be the result of frequent evolutionary losses. Finally, the comparison with the 371 other previously studied traits suggests that IOBs have experienced the highest number of loss events among known fly traits

The Deployment of Difference: The Space of Possibility and Garifuna Resistance to Dispossession in Honduras

This dissertation focusses on Garifuna struggles against dispossession from their territories in Honduras. My work focusses on two organizations and their affiliates in the present and is based on an ethnographic analysis of their activities in two locations in Honduras. The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) supports a growing Garifuna land defense movement that engages tactics of land occupation or recuperation in the Bay of Trujillo. The Ethnic Community Development Organization (ODECO) focuses on Garifuna inclusion in the nation state in order to re-claim Garifuna place in the Honduran city of La Ceiba. I analyze these organizations and sites to argue that Garifuna attempts to make and defend place in Honduras are rooted in opposition to ideas and practices underpinning racial capitalism since Conquest. Garifuna claims to place in Honduras depend upon a (re)making of a discursive space between races, which I name the space of possibility. The Garifuna exist across numerous national borders and increasingly traverse multiple shifting discourses of racial formation. Garifuna organizations navigate these complex and overlapping social contexts in a multitude of ways, so as to advance their struggle for land and place in Honduras. In the case of OFRANEH, Garifuna migration to the United States (U.S.) and return to Honduras has allowed for a number of points of solidarity. This signals to the possibility of challenging the racialized dynamics of dispossession in Honduras, along the lines of Indigeneity. In the case of ODECO, Garifuna migration to urban centers in Honduras and the U.S. has fostered the organizations links to regional activist networks centered on Afro-descent. This supports Garifuna claims to place in the Honduran city of La Ceiba. While these two organizations and their affiliates engage divergent routings of the space of possibility in their defenses of rural and urban Garifuna place, I conclude this dissertation by arguing that this twin-pronged approach is essential to maintaining the discursive space between races that the Garinagu so skilfully occupy

Effects of Poverty on the Brains of Children and Effective Teaching Strategies to Meet Their Specific Needs

The purpose of this study was to explore how living in poverty or low income households affects the brains and therefore academic achievement of students, and also to explore effective teaching strategies that address the specific needs of these students. Through an extensive literature review of current, existing research and in-depth data collection of a middle school in Western New York, this researcher was able to find that students living in poverty or low income housing are more at risk for chronic and acute stress, cognitive brain effects, social and emotional effects (including behavior concerns), health and safety issues, and academic underachievement, as per New York State Assessment data. The findings suggest that children living in poverty or low income households benefit from engaging learning that involves their interests and movement, making learning meaningful and relevant. The findings also suggest that students living in poverty benefit from intense, frequent vocabulary instruction to increase language acquisition and close language gaps that begin prior to entering kindergarten. Furthermore, building positive relationships with these students can increase social emotional skills, motivation, and engagement in school

Antidiscrimination Ordinances in Northwest Indiana: An Event-History Analysis of Municipal Policies Since 1992

In recent years, municipalities throughout Indiana have passed antidiscrimination ordinances that protect the rights of individuals who belong to racial, ethnic, or sexual minorities. Political scientists have proposed competing theories of policy-adoption processes that suggest a number of internal factors (such as socioeconomic characteristics, governmental capacity, or issue salience) or external factors (such as mandates/incentives from higher-level governments or influence from neighboring communities) as predictors of policy adoption; however, most existing studies focus on state-level processes, and those that focus on municipalities consider only large cities in different states. To more clearly distinguish between state-level effects and local effects, this study focuses on municipalities of all sizes within one particular region (Northwest Indiana) since 1992 and considers various theories of municipal policy processes in order to develop a model that explains the intraregional variation in whether municipalities adopted antidiscrimination ordinances and when they did so. An event-history analysis (Cox proportional hazards regression) finds the strongest empirical support for a model of antidiscrimination-policy adoption that uses municipality size and the extent of local mediareporting on biasmotivated incidents as predictors

Research notes: A possible cytoplasmic mutant

A chimera plant (A75-1165-117) was observed in 1975 in the F2 of a cross of Ames ms1 x \u27Clark\u27 homozygous translocation (Table 1). Reciprocal crosses were made with \u27Clark 63\u27, using branches from the chimera plant that contained a high percentage of yellow trifoliolates. Selfed seed of the chimera plant (A75-1165-117) and F1 seed from reciprocal crosses were planted in the field in 1976 (Table 2)

Out Online: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth on the Internet

This report examines the online experiences of LGBT students in 6-12th grade. LGBT youth experience nearly three times as much bullying and harassment online as non-LGBT youth, but also find greater peer support, access to health information and opportunities to be civically engaged

Does ratification of human-rights treaties have effects on population health?

Human-rights treaties indicate a country's commitment to human rights. Here, we assess whether ratification of human-rights treaties is associated with improved health and social indicators. Data for health (including HIV prevalence, and maternal, infant, and child [<5 years] mortalities) and social indicators (child labour, human development index, sex gap, and corruption index), gathered from 170 countries, showed no consistent associations between ratification of human-rights treaties and health or social outcomes. Established market economy states had consistently improved health compared with less wealthy settings, but this was not associated with treaty ratification. The status of treaty ratification alone is not a good indicator of the realisation of the right to health. We suggest the need for stringent requirements for ratification of treaties, improved accountability mechanisms to monitor compliance of states with treaty obligations, and financial assistance to support the realisation of the right to health

Genetic Variation and Population Substructure in Outbred CD-1 Mice: Implications for Genome-Wide Association Studies

Outbred laboratory mouse populations are widely used in biomedical research. Since little is known about the degree of genetic variation present in these populations, they are not widely used for genetic studies. Commercially available outbred CD-1 mice are drawn from an extremely large breeding population that has accumulated many recombination events, which is desirable for genome-wide association studies. We therefore examined the degree of genome-wide variation within CD-1 mice to investigate their suitability for genetic studies. The CD-1 mouse genome displays patterns of linkage disequilibrium and heterogeneity similar to wild-caught mice. Population substructure and phenotypic differences were observed among CD-1 mice obtained from different breeding facilities. Differences in genetic variation among CD-1 mice from distinct facilities were similar to genetic differences detected between closely related human populations, consistent with a founder effect. This first large-scale genetic analysis of the outbred CD-1 mouse strain provides important considerations for the design and analysis of genetic studies in CD-1 mice.</p