Fall 2019 Travel Award Winner

Gabrielle Majetic was the recipient of a $500 WIS travel award, which provided her the opportunity to present her work at the 11th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference at the Interface of Biology and Mathematics.https://dsc.duq.edu/wis-travelaward/1001/thumbnail.jp

The evolutionary ecology of floral scent in Hesperis matronalis: assessing the potential for pollinator-mediated natural selection.

Heritable trait variation and differential fitness among trait variants are conditions required for pollinator-mediated natural selection on attractive traits like floral scent. However, previous studies of floral scent have focused on assessing evolution through stereotypical pollination syndromes and often fail to evaluate the conditions of natural selection. I assess the potential for pollinator-mediated natural selection on the floral scent of color polymorphic Hesperis matronalis (Brassicaceae). A study that assessed the importance of shared biochemistry between floral scent and color found significant diurnal variation in scent emission and a population-specific effect of floral color on floral scent composition. Specifically, purple morphs tended to be similar, while white morphs tended to differ significantly. A survey of five wild populations across part of H. matronalis's introduced range supported this trend, particularly for aromatic composition; both scent composition and overall emission rates varied among populations. An experiment comparing scent profiles of plants grown in a common garden environment suggested both environmental and genetic causes of among-population variation. A three-part study assessed the relationship between scent and fitness. Experimental augmentation of floral targets with color-specific floral scent revealed increased syrphid fly visitation in response to increased scent emission rate, predicting a positive linear relationship between plant fitness and emission rate. An experiment limiting pollinator access to plants showed this expected relationship for plants exposed to diurnal pollinators, but no relationship for plants exposed to night pollinators. In contrast, I found a negative quadratic relationship between daytime emission rate and fitness across plants in four large wild populations, suggesting possible costs of scent production under wild conditions, i.e., attraction of herbivores or energetic expenditures.Overall, this dissertation suggests strong potential for pollinator-mediated natural selection on H. matronalis floral scent. Additionally, the results illustrate the importance of assessing all conditions necessary for natural selection of floral scent rather than relying on the observational pollination syndrome framework to describe the evolutionary trajectory of a species

Floral advertisement scent in a changing plant-pollinators market

Plant-pollinator systems may be considered as biological markets in which pollinators choose between different flowers that advertise their nectar/pollen rewards. Although expected to play a major role in structuring plant-pollinator interactions, community-wide patterns of flower scent signals remain largely unexplored. Here we show for the first time that scent advertisement is higher in plant species that bloom early in the flowering period when pollinators are scarce relative to flowers than in species blooming later in the season when there is a surplus of pollinators relative to flowers. We also show that less abundant flowering species that may compete with dominant species for pollinator visitation early in the flowering period emit much higher proportions of the generalist attractant β-ocimene. Overall, we provide a first community-wide description of the key role of seasonal dynamics of plant-specific flower scent emissions, and reveal the coexistence of contrasting plant signaling strategies in a plant-pollinator market

Reworlding: participatory design capabilities to tackle socio-environmental challenges

Rising societal polarisations around health and climate crises have brought more attention to the close relations between social and environmental challenges. These polarisations triggered an interest in the participatory design (PD) field in developing approaches that enhance connections between diverse actors operating across societal and environmental sectors. However, the capabilities needed for these approaches have not been sufficiently articulated in PD research and education. To fill in this gap, we define 'reworlding' as an operation of self-critique within PD that engages with capabilities needed to reveal and articulate radical interdependencies between humans and more-than-humans, across social and environmental worlds, and within situated contexts. We propose both the redefinition of the design capabilities needed for (re)connecting these worlds (retracing, reconnecting, reimagining and reinstitutioning), as well as a reconsideration of learning environments where these capabilities can be tested and enhanced

How can an understanding of plant-pollinator interactions contribute to global food security?

Pollination of crops by animals is an essential part of global food production, but evidence suggests that wild pollinator populations may be declining while a number of problems are besetting managed honey bee colonies. Animal-pollinated crops grown today, bred in an environment where pollination was less likely to limit fruit set, are often suboptimal in attracting and sustaining their pollinator populations. Research into plant-pollinator interactions is often conducted in a curiosity-driven, ecological framework, but may inform breeding and biotechnological approaches to enhance pollinator attraction and crop yield. In this article we review key topics in current plant-pollinator research that have potential roles in future crop breeding for enhanced global food security

En studie av designprinciper / A study about design principles

Idag strävar de flesta företag mot att skapa användbara hemsidor med hjälpav olika designprinciper. Denna studie är en undersökning av designprinciperi syfte att belysa vilka designprinciper företag och organisationer tillämpar.Designprinciper är riktlinjer som används för att uppnå ett mål, det vill sägagod design. Studielitteratur som använts i denna studie är ”Don´t make methink” skriven av Steve Krug. I boken nämns flera designprinciper som vi harhaft till hjälp för att ta reda på om företag använder sig av liknande principer.Sex deltagande medverkade i intervjun som utfördes. Denna intervju bestodav personlig intervju, halvstrukturerade intervjuer och telefonintervju. Dennastudie innehåller även delfrågor som tillsammans med intervjufrågornautgjorde resultatet.Studiens resultat visar att det finns enstaka företag som använder olikadesignprinciper medan andra företag använder specifika principer. Att endasttillämpa designprinciper utgör inte god design därför är det viktigt att tänkapå olika faktorer som spelar en roll vid utformning av en hemsida, exempelvisanvändarna och analysarbete.Slutsatserna i denna studie grundas på resultatet av intervjuerna samt teorin.Syftet med uppsatsen är att besvara huvudfrågan:Använder företag/organisationer specifika designprinciper vid utformning avwebbsidor?Today, most companies strive towards creating useful websites using differentdesign principles. Design principles are guidelines that are used to achieve agoal to get good design. This study is a survey of design principles in order tohighlight those design principles that companies and organizations apply.Study literature used in this study is "Do not make me think" written by SteveKrug. The book mentions several design principles that we used as help tofind out if companies use similar principles.Six persons participated in the interview that was conducted. This interviewconsisted of a personal interview, semi-structured interviews and telephoneinterview. This study also contains sub-questions which, together with theinterview questions represented the result.The result shows that there are few companies using different designprinciples while other companies use specific principles. By only using designprinciples you will not achieve good design and therefor it is important toconsider the various factors that play a role in designing a website, such asusers and analytical work.The conclusions of this study are based on the results of the interviews as wellas the theory. The purpose of this essay is to answer the main question: "Docompanies / organizations use specific design principles when designing webpages