The frequency of muscle protein polymorphism in Menidia menidia (Atherinidae) along the Atlantic coast

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Issue Brief: Women/Gender Issues and Affirmative Action

This brief will touch upon what affirmative action has contributed to women in the workplace and in universities as a whole. It will briefly describe reasons as to why people still fight for affirmative action for women

Observations of Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos) associated with abundance of spawning Kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka) at an inland river, British Columbia, Canada

Salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are an important food source for Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos), but many salmon populations are declining. While most research on Grizzly Bear–salmon interactions occurs in coastal ecosystems, declining salmon may also affect Grizzly Bears in inland ecosystems where salmon are also an important part of their diet. We document changes in the number and distribution of observations of Grizzly Bears and changing Kokanee (i.e., landlocked Sockeye Salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka) abundance at an inland river. We hypothesized that reduced abundance of Kokanee would limit the number of Grizzly Bear observations at the river. We compared Kokanee abundance and Grizzly Bear observations (n = 535) between 2012 and 2019 at the Lardeau River, British Columbia, Canada. We used a generalized linear mixed model to test if the number of bear observations changed as a function of Kokanee abundance among four river reaches during eight consecutive years of study. Kokanee abundance was a strong statistical predictor of Grizzly Bear observations (β = 0.52, P = 0.001, CI = 0.12–0.87), and Kokanee abundance and reach explained 73% of the variance. Our results suggest that reduced Kokanee abundance also reduces Grizzly Bear presence, likely because bears seek out other, more available food sources, away from Kokanee spawning habitat. This pattern could limit ecosystem services provided by Grizzly Bears adjacent to spawning areas and it could have implications for bear management and conservation

Binge Eating Disorder Mediates Links between Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety and Caloric Intake in Obese Women

Despite considerable comorbidity between mood disorders, binge eating disorder (BED), and obesity, the underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine models by which internalizing behaviors of depression and anxiety influence food intake in overweight/obese women. Thirty-two women (15 BED, 17 controls) participated in a laboratory eating-episode and completed questionnaires assessing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Path analysis was used to test mediation and moderation models to determine the mechanisms by which internalizing symptoms influenced kilocalorie (kcal) intake. The BED group endorsed significantly more symptoms of depression (10.1 versus 4.8, P=0.005 ) and anxiety (8.5 versus 2.7, P=0.003). Linear regression indicated that BED diagnosis and internalizing symptoms accounted for 30% of the variance in kcal intake. Results from path analysis suggested that BED mediates the influence of internalizing symptoms on total kcal intake. The associations between internalizing symptoms and food intake are best described as operating indirectly through a BED diagnosis. This suggests that symptoms of depression and anxiety influence whether one engages in binge eating, which influences kcal intake. Greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying the associations between mood, binge eating, and food intake will facilitate the development of more effective prevention and treatment strategies for both BED and obesity

Construction and evaluation of self-teaching exercises in capitalization and punctuation through team learning in grades four, five, and six.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Nonparametric estimation of correlation functions in longitudinal and spatial data, with application to colon carcinogenesis experiments

In longitudinal and spatial studies, observations often demonstrate strong correlations that are stationary in time or distance lags, and the times or locations of these data being sampled may not be homogeneous. We propose a nonparametric estimator of the correlation function in such data, using kernel methods. We develop a pointwise asymptotic normal distribution for the proposed estimator, when the number of subjects is fixed and the number of vectors or functions within each subject goes to infinity. Based on the asymptotic theory, we propose a weighted block bootstrapping method for making inferences about the correlation function, where the weights account for the inhomogeneity of the distribution of the times or locations. The method is applied to a data set from a colon carcinogenesis study, in which colonic crypts were sampled from a piece of colon segment from each of the 12 rats in the experiment and the expression level of p27, an important cell cycle protein, was then measured for each cell within the sampled crypts. A simulation study is also provided to illustrate the numerical performance of the proposed method.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053607000000082 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Collecting Celebrity: The Meanings and Process of Collecting Sports Memorabilia

The sports memorabilia marketplace has experienced exponential growth since the advent of Internet auction sites such as eBay. While collectors were once constrained by local encounters with personal collectors, the Internet now facilitates buying and selling on an international scale. This study explores the phenomenon of collecting sports memorabilia as it has been transformed historically as well as more recently. Scholarly literature suggests that fascination with the famous may have begun in ancient Greece, although contemporary studies of celebrity examine a broader scope of subjects in addition to an odd array of items collected. This study specifically addresses the following: first, what are historical and contemporary meanings of fame and/or celebrity; second, how do sports collectibles accrue value; and third, how do Internet auctions impact the sports collectibles marketplace? To explain the phenomenon of collecting sports memorabilia, one author offers a four-stage model known as the Sports Collectibles Commodity Continuum. This model draws upon concepts from previous literature: singularization (items may be set aside for special purposes)and commoditization (intersection of time, culture, and society) (e.g., see 4, 12, 20, 33). The model also introduces previously unarticulated notions of culturalization ( consumer identities and norms set by social, cultural, economic, and/or political forces) and marketization (singularized needs drive market prices). After assessing prices of sport collectibles offered on eBay, the authors conclude that the escalating use of online sport auctions will likely continue to impact the sports collectibles marketplace in ways that merit further study

Baboon endogenous virus genome. I. Restriction enzyme map of the unintegrated DNA genome of a primate retrovirus

A detailed restriction map was deduced for the genome of an endogenous retrovirus of a higher primate, that of baboon. The cleavage sites for 12 restriction enzymes were mapped. The unintegrated linear viral DNA intermediate that is produced by infection of permissive cells with baboon endogenous virus was isolated. Hybridization with a strong-stop complementary DNA probe demonstrated presence of a terminal repetition in the linear viral DNA. The positions of restriction sites for two particular enzymes, SmaI and XhoI, near each end were consistent with this result and indicated that the length of the repetition is 0.55 +/- 0.01 kilobase. The linear viral DNA had a unique restriction map indicating that it is not a set of random circular permutations of the RNA genome. From hybridization with a 3'-specific probe, the DNA restriction map was aligned relative to the 5'-to-3' orientation of the viral RNA. We observed a minor heterogeneity in a BamHI recognition site 1.95 kilobases from the right end of the linear map

Photoionized features in the X-ray spectrum of Ex Hydrae

We present the first results from a long (496 ks) Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating observation of the intermediate polar EX Hydrae ( EX Hya). In addition to the narrow emission lines from the cooling post-shock gas, for the first time we have detected a broad component in some of the X-ray emission lines, namely, O VIII lambda 18.97, Mg XII lambda 8.42, Si XIV lambda 6.18, and Fe XVII lambda 16.78. The broad and narrow components have widths of similar to 1600 km s(-1) and similar to 150 km s(-1), respectively. We propose a scenario where the broad component is formed in the pre-shock accretion flow, photoionized by radiation from the post-shock flow. Because the photoionized region has to be close to the radiation source in order to produce strong photoionized emission lines from ions such as O VIII, Fe XVII, Mg XII, and Si XIV, our photoionization model constrains the height of the standing shock above the white dwarf surface. Thus, the X-ray spectrum from EX Hya manifests features of both magnetic and non-magnetic cataclysmic variables