The star formation histories and evolution of 70 dwarf irregular galaxies that reside in differing local and global environments are investigated. Local environment is defined by the local galaxy number density, where high indicates at least one neighbor within 200 kpc and low indicates no neighbors within 1 Mpc. Global environment is classified as either the field or a galaxy group / cluster. The shallow gravitational potentials of these galaxies are more susceptible to changes in morphology and dynamics by external perturbations, making dwarf irregular galaxies ideal candidates for a study on the role of environment in galaxy evolution. Absolute magnitudes, colors, central surface brightnesses, and star formation rates were compared using UBVRIJHK and Halpha photometry. With a high degree of statistical significance, galaxies in local high density environments have brighter central and effective surface brightnesses, while those in global high density environments have brighter absolute magnitudes, central and effective surface brightnesses, and higher star formation rates. However, no difference is seen among the different environments when considering star formation rates normalized by HI mass. Sersic profiles were fit to the V and R band surface brightness profiles of the galaxies. No correlation exists between structural characteristics and environment. Spectral energy distribution models were generated by varying the rate of stellar formation and amplitude to replicate periodic burst and constant star formation rate scenarios. Of the 28 galaxies for which star formation history analysis was performed, roughly half were well fit by one of the models. Periodic burst systems account for roughly half of those galaxies, with the remaining galaxies being better represented by continuously star forming systems. The star formation histories are uncorrelated with both local and global environmental classifications. Numerical simulations provide insight into the effects of differing gravitational environments, and indicate global environment having a larger influence on the physical properties of a dwarf galaxy. The star formation histories and structural properties of dwarf irregular galaxies were found to be independent of environment, indicating that cluster membership and proximity to a neighboring galaxy have no systematic long-term effects on the evolution of the objects in this study.

The chemistry of polyphosphazenes and their derivatives has gained immense significance in the scientific community. Depending on the substituents, these materials exhibit a wide variety of chemical and physical properties and are potential candidates for many applications. These phosphazenes are often synthesized from organophosphorus compounds that contain silicon-nitrogen functional groups. The wide variety of reactions that can occur at the phosphorous and the facile cleavage of the Si-N bond makes them potential precursors to acyclic, cyclic, and polymeric P-N systems. In this study, we report the synthesis, characterization, and reactivity of some representative examples of three new types of N-SiMe3 functionalized phosphines. The new phosphines were fully characterized by 1H, 13C, and 31P NMR spectroscopy and by elemental analysis. Some oxidation reactions of these phosphines yielded new phosphoranimines which were also fully characterized. These anilinophosphines and their derivatives are being studied as precursors to traditional poly(phosphazenes) and novel poly(phenylenephosphazenes), i.e., new inorganic-organic hybrid polymers in which phosphazene (-R2P=N-) and phenylene (-C6H4-) units alternate along the backbone. Oxidation reactions of some N-silylanilinophosphines and thermal condensation reactions of suitably substituted anilinophosphoranimines appear to form poly(phenylenephosphazenes) that are under further investigation in this laboratory.

The objective of this study is to observe the distribution of carbohydrates on the surface of freshwater and marine bivalve gametes in order to examine similarities and differences in their distribution and function. The three species of interest in this study are D. bugensis, M. galloprovincialis, and C. virginica. The lectins used to identify the surface carbohydrates are PNA, ConA, GSII, LcH, and WGA. There were very few, if any, conserved trends in carbohydrate distribution between these three species. Furthermore, there were no obvious separations between marine and freshwater species. Of particular interest was the labeling of C. virginica gametes. The entire egg labeled with LcH and GSII, while the inner acrosome region of the sperm labeled with PNA, GSII, ConA, and LcH. Because PNA labeled a carbohydrate moiety on the sperm and not the egg, fertilization series, labeled with PNA were run. A patch where the sperm entered the egg was left behind on the eggs surface. This patch remains on the surface of the egg until about 15 min post insemination.

Carbon clusters are formed in the laboratory by trapping the products from the Nd-YAG laser evaporation of graphite in argon matrices held at ~10 K. Linear carbon chains have been the subject of extensive theoretical and experimental studies over many years and are important in diverse areas as astrophysics, studies of the fullerenes, and the chemistry of fuel combustion. FTIR measurements of vibrational fundamentals and carbon-13 isotopic shifts, coupled with the predictions of theoretical density functional theory calculations and a recently developed theoretical tool, the deperturbation method have been successfully employed to identify long linear Cn (n  7) carbon chains. The development of a process to produce carbon rods highly enriched with 13C enabled the observation of well-resolved isotopic spectra of linear 13Cn carbon clusters (n =3-18). The identifications are facilitated by the measurement of both the isotopic pattern for single 12C-substituted (12C13Cn-1) isotopomers and the mirror isotopic pattern for single 13C-substituted (13C12Cn-1) isotopomers. As a result of this work it is now routinely possible to achieve experimental reproducibility of isotopic shift patterns, which enables comparison with theoretical predictions. The combination of experimental improvements and theoretical results, has led to the identification of 13C isotopic shifts for sixteen vibrational fundamentals belonging to eight different long chains, Cn (n ≥ 7) species. The fundamentals identified include the v4(σu) = 2128.1 cm-1 mode of C7; the v5(σu) = 2078.2, v6(σu) = 1998.2, and v7(σu) = 1601.0 cm-1 modes of C9; the v6(σu) 2074.2 and v7(σu) = 1915.7cm-1 modes of C10; the v7(σu) = 1946.1, v8(σu) = 1856.7, and v9(σu) = 1360.0 cm-1 modes of C11; the v5(σu) = 2071.4 and v6(σu) = 1710.5 cm-1 modes of linear C8; the v7(σu) = 2140.6, v8(σu) = 997.3and v9(σu) = 1817.9 cm-1 of linear C12; the v10(σu) = 1999.3 cm-1; mode of linear C15; and the v12(σu) = 2001.0 cm-1 mode of linear C18. In addition, isotopomer absorptions have been identified for the following modes that are normally IR inactive until isotopic substitution when they become observable: v1(σg) mode of C7, the v1(σg) mode of C9,v1(σg) and v2(σg) mode of C10,, v2(σg) and v1(σg) mode of C11, v3(σg) v3(σg) modes C15 and the v3(σg) mode of C18.

Prey capture in pitcher plants has been found to be significantly dependent on pitcher size, but the actual importance of size is not clearly understood. We studied insect capture by the carnivorous plant Sarracenia alata and compared the rate of insect capture per unit capture area of plants with that of nonbiological models and traps. The total mass of insects captured was significantly positively related to capture area for both biological and nonbiological systems, explaining 54% of variation in plants, 33% in models, and 47% in traps. The rate of insect capture was significantly greater for plants than for models and traps, which suggests the role of attractants in insect capture in pitcher plants. Odor from decaying insects was found to have a significant effect on insect capture in attraction cups. Further study should focus on the nature of other attractants including nectar, UV reflectance, and volatiles to decipher the mechanism of insect capture by pitcher plants.

Perspective taking has shown to be effective in creating new ideas, fostering cooperation, and helping people learn and recall new information. Since having the perspective of another appears to be beneficial; two questions arise, Could an imaginary team of people promote effective perspective taking and How might this process impact learning, attitudes and behavior in regards to information that one is learning? The current research examined these questions by using three different learning strategies: 1)a Learning Team/ Retrieval Team, 2) a Retrieval Team Only, or 3) the Control strategy in which participants used their typical strategies to learn new information. The Learning Team and Retrieval Team strategy had participants create an imaginary team of people whose perspectives they would consider while learning new material. Participants studied material and their test performance, attitudes, and intentions to engage in behavior suggested in the material, were assessed. The results for test performance indicated that women seemed to be hindered by the Learning Team/Retrieval Team Strategies. Males using the LT/RT or RTO strategies did not appear to be hindered, and at least in the case of the RTO strategy, statements generated during recall were more accurate. There was an impact of using the LT/RT or RTO strategy on male participants intentions and behavior in regards to the topic they studied: meditation. Males using the LT/RT strategy reported greater intentions to practice meditation than did males in the RTO and control groups. It appears that taking perspectives influenced males incorporation of the information studied into their lives. Males using the LT/RT study strategy also reported performing more behaviors related to meditation than did male participants who were using their own study strategies. Females attitudes regarding meditation and their intentions or behaviors did not seem to be impacted from the use of the LT/RT or RTO strategies. Gender difference findings are discussed. Perspective taking while studying may provide researchers with another tool to facilitate attitude change, and provide educators with suggestions for students who are looking to integrate the information they study into their everyday lives.

From marketing campaigns to family pets, human characteristics are often attributed to non-human targets, and a body of evidence has demonstrated that anthropomorphized targets tend to elicit approach. One proposed explanation for this phenomenon is that people use some of the same social and cognitive processes to determine their social judgments about both human targets and humanlike targets. For example, just as a friendly person would tend to elicit approach, a friendly anthropomorphized target (e.g., Tony the Tiger) would tend to elicit approach as well. The present studies were designed to test the boundaries of this theory by examining whether social judgments about threatening anthropomorphized targets also mimic judgments about threatening humans. Because threatening humans tend to elicit low levels of approach, it was predicted here that dangerous anthropomorphized targets would elicit low levels of approach as well. Participants in Study 1 (n = 133) imagined interacting with non-human targets that exhibited threatening or non-threatening human behavior. The threatening anthropomorphic targets elicited less approach willingness than did the non-threatening ones, mimicking the pattern of social judgments typically observed when the targets are human. To demonstrate the absolute effect of threatening anthropomorphism on willingness to approach, participants in Study 2 (n = 100) imagined interacting with targets that exhibited threatening human behavior or no human behavior at all. Participants were less willing to approach the threatening anthropomorphized targets than the control targets. Moreover, the effects of anthropomorphism on willingness to approach were mediated by the degree to which the targets appeared dangerous. Taken together, the two studies demonstrated that anthropomorphic language does not always increase approach willingness relative to control language. Instead, its effects depend on the type of characteristics used to activate anthropomorphism. The implications of this finding for social cognitive theory and for marketing and consumer behavior research and practice are discussed. Ultimately, these findings support the notion that people respond to friendly and fearsome anthropomorphized targets in a fundamentally social manner.

Modern theory and research on evaluative processes, combined with a comprehensive review of deliberate self-persuasion (Maio & Thomas, 2007), suggest two types of strategies people can use to construct new, more desired attitudes. Epistemic strategies change the perceived valence of associations activated by the attitude object. Teleologic strategies, in contrast, keep undesired associations from being activated in the first place, thus obviating the need to change their perceived valence. Change in perceived valence of associations, therefore, might predict attitude change better when people pursue epistemic than teleologic strategies for deliberate self-persuasion. This hypothesis gained convergent support from two studies in which use of epistemic versus teleologic strategies was measured as an individual difference (Study 1) and manipulated (Study 2). The results of these two studies supported the theoretical distinction between the two strategies and suggested further research directions.

This study assessed the presence of free-ranging cats (Felis catus) and other mesocarnivores in city parks using motion-activated cameras and determined which scent lures were more attractive to each species. Five cameras were used at each park to monitor four scent lures (used cat litter, catnip extract, commercial wildcat lure, and sardines) and a control (water). Cameras ran for 14 trap nights at each of the 24 surveyed parks (n=336 trap nights). Photographs were cataloged to determine the total sightings of each species per park and how many times each species investigated the lures. 14 species were detected with Sciurus niger, Procyon lotor, Canis lupus familiaris, and Didelphis virginiana being most common. Free-ranging cats were most attracted to used litter and sardines (t=0.034 and t=0.026, p<0.05, respectively). The strongest scent preferences were found for raccoons and wildcat lure (t=0.004, p<0.01), opossums and sardines (t=0.008, p<0.01), and squirrels and used litter (t=0.009, p<0.01).

I examined the top down effects of fish predation and the bottom up effect of nutrient addition on emergent insect-mediated methyl mercury (MeHg) flux from experimental ponds. To determine the effect fish, emergent insects were collected from ponds with (n=5) and without fish (n=5) over a five to six-week period in 2011-2012. To determine the effect of nutrients, I fertilized six of the ponds in 2012 (three ponds with and without fish) and used four ponds as unfertilized controls (two ponds with and without fish). Fish reduced MeHg flux by suppressing emergence of large insect taxa (dragonflies and damselflies) but not small insect taxa (chironomids). Nutrient addition significantly reduced MeHg flux in herbivorous and predatory chironomids. Methyl mercury flux in emergent insects was controlled by both top down fish effects and bottom up nutrient effects.