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Throughout the range of the common shrew (Sorex araneus Linnaeus 1767), repeated Robertsonian fusion mutations have led to a karyotypic polymorphism dividing the species into chromosome races. Studies of fertility were undertaken in the male, both of homozygotes and of heterozygotes forming meiotic multivalents of varying complexity. Observations made at pachytene, diakinesis/metaphase I and metaphase II did not provide evidence for fertility impairment in homozygotes or simple heterozygotes. Males forming a chain of seven chromosomes during meiotic prophase I were produced through a program of captive breeding, and were brought to premature sexual maturity through photoperiod manipulation. In these more complex heterozygotes, incomplete pachytene pairing was frequently observed (68% of cells), germ cell death was found to be elevated (23%), and data from analysis of metaphase II spreads are indicative of an increase in nondisjunction above background of approximately 10%. At the interface between two chromosome races, a complex of clines of chromosome frequency can be found. Field studies determined the routes and widths of four such clines (ko, 8.6km; kg, 28.4km; no, 37.1km; pr, 47.9km), and concluded that the courses taken are entirely consistent with maintenance through a mechanism of heterozygote disadvantage. Estimates of disadvantage made from cline width were in close agreement with those derived from the fertility studies.

This thesis evaluates competition in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, particularly the female characters’ competition and how it differs from and relates to the competition between men. The first chapter focuses on Katharina’s outwardly submissive actions and pays special attention to her critically problematic speech in Act 5. By analyzing the play’s treatment of female relationships, the thesis proposes that Katharina acts competitively, rather than submissively. The second chapter addresses male competition, particularly how competition molds the males’ relationships with each other and with the females. Although they compete separately, the each gender needs the other to give their competition purpose. By viewing the play’s gendered relationships as a form of competition, the thesis argues that the females do not merely serve as objects to the males’ triangulated desire, and instead have agency within the play.

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My dissertation examines the unacknowledged role of negative female models from traditional literature in constructing the modern woman in China. It draws upon literary and historical sources to examine how modern cultural figures resuscitated and even redeemed qualities associated with traditional shrews in their perceptions and constructions of the new woman across the first half of the twentieth century. By linking the literary trope of the shrew, associated with imperial China, with the twentieth-century figure of the new woman, my work bridges the transition from the late-imperial to the modern era and foregrounds the late-imperial roots of Chinese modernization. The scope of my dissertation includes depictions of shrews/new women in literary texts, the press, theater, and public discourses from the Republican to the Socialist period. Although there exists a rich body of work on both traditional shrew literature and the new woman narrative, no one has addressed the confluence of the two in Chinese modernity. Scholars of late imperial Chinese literature have claimed that shrew literature disappeared when China entered the modern age. Studies on the new woman focus on specific social and cultural contexts during the different periods of modernizing China; few scholars have traced the effects that previous female types had on the new woman. My research reveals the importance of the traditional shrew in contributing to the construction and reception of the new woman, despite the radically changing ideologies of the twentieth century. As I argue, the feisty, rebellious modern women in her many guises as suffragette, sexual independent, and gender radical are female types grafted onto the violent, sexualized, and transgressive typologies of the traditional shrew. My research contributes to the studies of Chinese modernity and the representations of Chinese women. First, it bridges the artificial divide between modern and traditional studies of China and expands the debates about the nature of Chinese modernity. Second, it brings to light the underexamined constructions of the new woman as an empowered social actor through her genealogical connections to the traditional shrew. Third, it provides a methodology for rethinking the contested depiction of women in Chinese modernity.

Discarded containers along roadways trap and kill small mammals. Significant numbers of small-mammal remains were found inside containers along Cherokee National Forest roads in remotes areas in a previous study. In this study, we investigated the effects of containers along a 5.5 km stretch of a more heavily used 2-lane forest service road in the Cherokee National Forest. 308 containers were collected from five different pull-off sites and within those were 13 small-mammal skulls representing 5 species of mammals including Sorex longirostris (Southeastern Shrew) and Synaptomys cooperi (Southern Bog Lemming), which are deemed species of greatest conservation need and in need of management by the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency. Like the previous study, it was found that glass bottles disproportionately trapped more small mammals than plastic or aluminum. Additionally, we also discovered the orientation and can openings for all available containers and found that containers oriented upslope (>15°) were significantly more likely to have a mortality impact than any other container orientation.

Twenty--one morphological characters were measured in shrews from four islands in the Columbia River and from the adjacent Oregon and Washington shores. Information on the history and characteristics of the river islands was gathered to facilitate interpretation of the shrew’s morphology data. Significant differences between character means of different populations were detected and average taxonomic distances between pairs of populations were calculated. The Columbia River is an incomplete barrier to gene flow, but its influence has been sufficient to allow divergence of island populations. Natural selection on the small gene pools of island populations has probably contributed to the divergence. Shrews most likely reached the islands from the mainlands by rafting on floating vegetation and debris. Morphometric comparison of island populations seems to provide a more sensitive indication of restricted gene flow than similar comparison of opposite mainland populations.

In this thesis William Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of The Shrew is analyzed from a feminist perspective. It is argued that the female characters Katherina and Bianca are mainly constructed through language expressed by male characters as binary oppositions. By an act of deconstruction within the play, these images, or constructed representations, are adjusted and somewhat reversed in the end. In addition, it is shown how the Induction, an introductory part of the play, adds aspects of construction and deconstruction, which supports an ironic reading and a questioning of the constructed gender roles.

Based on the ‘free radical theory of aging,’ I hypothesized that hypoxia caused by the mammalian dive response induces free radical production which could modulate or accelerate cellular aging. On the other hand, to prevent free radical “stress” (pro- /antioxidant imbalance), divers could display elevated protective mechanisms. Additionally, the unusual connection between diving physiology and foraging ecology implies that aging physiology is significant to our understanding of ecology for divers. This study examines three aspects of aging in representative diving mammals. First, gracilis muscle morphology was analyzed for old/young shrews (water shrew, Sorex palustris (diver); short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda (non-diver)). Extracellular space was elevated in old animals (10% diver, ~70% non-diver; P=0.021), which corresponded to a larger extracellular collagen component of old muscle (~60%; P=0.008). Muscle was dominated by Type I collagen, and the ratio of collagen Type I: III more than doubled with age (P=0.001). Second, oxidative stress markers, protective antioxidant enzymes and apoptosis were examined in muscle of the two shrew species. The activities of antioxidant enzymes catalase and glutathione peroxidase were statistically identical at each age in both species. The Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase isoform was, however, elevated in older animals (115% diver, 83% non-diver, P=0.054). Only one indicator of oxidative stress (lipid peroxidation) increased with age (P=0.009), whereas the other markers declined (4-hydroxynonenal content, P=0.008, dihydroethidium oxidation, P=0.025). Apoptosis occurred in <1% of myocytes, and did not change with age. On balance, diving water shrews did not have adaptations to combat oxidative stress, yet they do not display excessive oxidative tissue damage. Apoptosis was similar between species. The third study component was the development of a predictive simulation model for the energetics of old/young foraging Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddellii. With advancing age, the model predicts declining net energy gain associated with a decrease in muscle contractile efficiency. The effects of age are exacerbated when good prey patches are scarce. In such cases, declines in old seal energy gain caused by increased buoyancy and decreased aerobic dive limit become apparent. The model also addresses the idea that behavioral plasticity may allow older animals to compensate for age-related performance constraints.