The overall goal of this research was to examine the interactions of adult Amblyomma maculatum Koch, the Gulf Coast tick, with respect to their utilization of hosts and to male-female cross strain interaction. Historical data along with two Petri dish experiments were used to understand male-female interaction in the field, and to determine if the aggregation attachment pheromone (AAP) produced by fed males of varying strains is attractive to geographic specific strains of unfed female ticks. It was hypothesized that questing female Gulf Coast ticks are attracted to fed males and can discriminate between grazing cattle with fed males and those without. Archival control data from ear tag studies conducted in 1985, 1987, and 1991 were analyzed to better understand female Gulf Coast tick behavior in the field relative to fed male tick presence. Females were found primarily on hosts with an abundance of male ticks, leading one to conclude that female ticks are attracted to hosts infested with male ticks. It was also discovered that females were more likely to be found on a host as the number of males on a host increased. A female’s ability to detect hosts parasitized by males likely allows them to feed and mate on-host in a fairly limited period of time. A Petri dish bioassay was used to evaluate female preference to varying geographic strains of fed males. One experiment was designed to determine if a female preferred fed males from her geographically specific strain over other males. A second experiment evaluated female response to a non-specific male in the absence of her geographically specific male. While female responses to fed males regardless of strain were higher than to unfed male control ticks, no statistical differences in female response could be determined. The Petri dish bioassay was determined to be inadequate to test female preference over several populations of pheromone producing males, and a more intensive procedure was proposed.

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The purpose of this paper is to present a comparative study of marine bacteria, molds and actinomycetes in regard to their ability to degrade certain pure and mixed complex compounds possibly occurring in the lagoon waste traps of the Texas Gulf Coast. This comparison was made using a differential oxygen uptake as the index of specific compound utilization.

Scientific literature is concerned with the impact that climate change will have on natural disasters in the near future. These events disrupt our daily lives and can cause damage that may never be repaired. Merging science and social science, the study of vulnerability looks at how human systems will be impacted by these natural disasters. In the United States, hurricanes in the Gulf Coast are projected to increase in intensity as well as have an increased capacity for damage with a rise in sea level. Therefore, it is important to understand who is systematically vulnerable to these impacts of natural disasters and how we can mitigate this damage. Through this thesis, I argue that these impacts of hurricanes will put already vulnerable populations at a greater risk for damage caused by these events in the future. I will briefly outline the scientific basis on which the claims of increased hurricane activity are founded, as well as outline concepts of vulnerability. I examine case studies of Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina, both of which can inform how social disparities delineate vulnerability in the United States. Based upon this historical understanding that recovery from a storm is highly contingent upon social and economic resources available to an individual or community, I argue that vulnerable communities must be highlighted. I then project vulnerability based upon demographic characteristics of communities within the Gulf Coast in order to highlight these areas of necessary attention.

Thesis (Professional Degree)--University of Missouri, School of Mines and Metallurgy, 1930. / The entire thesis text is included in file. Typescript. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed December 15, 2009) Includes index (p. [162-163]).

We'd Love to Have You on Our Show is a collection of short fiction preceded by a critical introduction. The stories share a thematic bond in that that all of the protagonists are either obsessed with or could be guests on talk shows. The introduction, "The Meaning of Yearning" explores how Robert Olen Butler and Denis Johnson have influenced me as a young writer attempting to write interconnected, character-driven stories. The introduction begins by chronologically showing how I wrote and then how I changed from workshops to writing this thesis, and it concludes by examining character, theme, and humor throughout Butler's, Johnson's, and my own stories.

Because the volume of flow through an inlet is proportional to the tidal range and the area of the tidal basin, Texas tidal inlets have some of the largest tidal basins relative to their entrance area of any inlet. Matagorda Bay at Pass Cavallo has an area of about 200 square miles, but only a mean diurnal tidal range of about 1.1 feet. From tide gage records the most important events modifying tidal currents in Pass Cavallo are the numerous wind tides each year that occur most frequently during the cooler months, November through May. Wind tides are most noticeable in Matagorda Bay because the astronomical tidal range is small, the fetch long (10-20 miles) and the depth only about 12 feet. Hurricanes and river floods that would raise water levels in Matagorda Bay by even 0.5 foot occur too infrequently to affect equilibrium conditions in the inlet. Pass Cavallo has passed through three time periods since 1856: 1856-1930, 1930-1965, and post 1965. Each time period was characterized by a different, and subsequently smaller tidal discharge, cross-sectional area and tidal channel length. The tidal discharge decreased between 1929 and 1935 when the Colorado River delta cut off part of east Matagorda Bay to reduce the tidal area of Matagorda Bay, and in 1965, the Matagorda Ship Channel was dredged across Matagorda Peninsula to reduce the volume of water passing through Pass Cavallo. Other features that changed with decreasing discharge, but remained stable during each time period, were the channel pattern, and location and shape of the Gulf bar and Pelican Island. During all three periods Pass Cavallo maintained stable cross-sectional shape, and tidal flow by-passing characteristics, except during the post 1965 when neither tidal flow by-passing nor bar by-passing were dominant. Since 1856 Pass Cavallo has remained geographically stable relative to its width. The axial trough has migrated southwestward about 1000 feet during the past 100 years--or about 1/9th the distance between Matagorda Peninsula and Matagorda Island. Shorelines adjacent to the inlet also have tended to move southwestward, but at a faster rate than the axial trough. Along the western side of the pass, shoreline erosion is related to jetties interrupting sediment transport southward from the western shoreline of Matagorda Bay, and to storms eroding the constructional beach extending northward from Matagorda Island. The modern flood delta at Pass Cavallo consists of a large, sandy platform, that is lobate into Espiritu Santo Bay with salt marsh, storm-tidal flats and tidal channels. The flood delta is located to the side of the channel pattern of Pass Cavallo, and appears to be active only during the high tides of hurricanes, tropical storms and "northers". There are three informal physiographic provinces on the flood delta, each one reflecting a different sediment supply and energy regime inherent in each bay and in the Gulf. 1) The Gulf of Mexico Province has the largest and best-developed intertidal beaches, surge channels, storm-tidal flats and mounds of all three provinces. Sand is the dominant sediment. 2) Matagorda Bay Province includes large marsh islands and tidal channels with fewer large vegetated mounds. Shell is very abundant in mounds, and a storm-tidal flats contain more mud and encroaching salt marsh than in the Gulf province. 3) Espiritu Santo Bay Province is composed mostly of sandy mud or muddy sand sediment, with the exception of erosional shell beaches that face a north or south fetch of 1 to 2 miles. This is the richest area biologically, consisting mostly of salt marsh and grassflats. / text

Regional depositional systems analyses combining surface and subsurface geological and geophysical data provide the framework for a sequence stratigraphic study of the Lower Oligocene Vicksburg Formation of the Gulf Coastal Plain. The results describe the eustatic history of the Vicksburg stratigraphic unit. The two primary Texas depocenters, the Houston embayment and the Rio Grande embayment, were separated by a deep-rooted structural nose: the San Marcos arch. A barrier / strandplain intervened between the Louisiana deltaic depocenter and the Houston embayment. Within the embayments, deltaic complexes merged along strike with barrier / strandplains. Contemporaneous growth faulting controlled deltaic depositional patterns in the Rio Grande embayment and, to a lesser degree, in the Houston embayment. Smaller wave-dominated delta complexes interspersed with barrier / strandplains extended across the San Marcos arch. Updip of the paralic depocenters, fluvial systems traversed coastal plain units. Seaward of the paralic systems, sand and mud deposits prograded across and built up over the relict Jackson shelf and shelf margin. The contact between the Vicksburg Formation and the underlying Jackson Group marks the position of the Eocene - Oligocene boundary within the Gulf Coastal Plain section. On regional dip-oriented well-log cross sections there is a distinct, abrupt, seaward shift in the paralic facies at the Jackson - Vicksburg boundary; this contact corresponds to an Exxon-model Type 1 unconformity. The unconformity is related to the development of an Antarctic ice sheet in the earliest Oligocene. During middle Vicksburg time, a minor transgression (genetic stratigraphic sequence boundary) flooded the coastal plain. Overlying the progradational Vicksburg Formation, the lower Frio Formation accumulated in an aggradational mode; this switch of depositional modes corresponds to an Exxon-model Type 2 sequence boundary. Construction of genetic stratigraphic sequence diagrams and comparison to Exxon's coastal onlap curves across different areas of the Oligocene coast show that the effects of local depocenters (sediment influx) may mask eustatic effects. Only truly regional events, such as the middle Vicksburg transgression and the basal Vicksburg seaward shift in coastal position, correlate across the coastal plain and may result from a eustatic change. / text