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The morphologic variability of a fossil assemblage is of interest in many paleontological studies. However, many fossil assemblages are time-averaged; that is, many generations of non-contemporaneous organisms are mixed into the same fossil bed. Assemblages of robust mollusk shells deposited in nearshore marine environments are often time-averaged over 100's to 1000's of years. Mixing many generations of a taxon can increase measured morphologic variability over that of a single generation if morphology is changing during the interval of time-averaging. If morphology is changing, time-averaging can also alter observed correlations between morphologic variables, as well as allometric growth patterns. If morphology is static, then time-averaging will not increase variability or otherwise obscure patterns of morphologic variability. Testing the effects of time-averaging on morphology will help determine the reliability of information derived from the fossil record. In this study, morphologic variability was compared between 6 standing crop, living populations of Mercenaria campechiensis (Bivalvia) and two fossil assemblages of M. campechiensis and M. permagna. One fossil sample was collected as a series of superposed units that could be analyzed individually or in aggregate. The x,y coordinates of 13 landmarks and pseudolandmarks were recorded on over 600 valves, and variability was calculated using Least Squares Procrustes Analysis. Once corrections were made for allometry, the variabilities of the samples drawn from single time-averaged fossil beds were indistinguishable from the variabilities of the recent samples. For this data set, the variabilities of the fossil samples could be used without reservation to estimate the variability of the standing crop populations from which they formed. Morphology was quite stable over the 100's to 1000's of years that likely passed as the assemblages accumulated. A small amount of analytical time-averaging of the samples increases variability slightly, but additional analytical time-averaging causes no further increase. Very slight morphologic fluctuations are evident at time spans exceeding 100's to 1000's of years. Lumping geographically separated samples and samples of different species also increases variability. Morphologic stasis is evident in Mercenaria over 100's to 1000's of years, but previous studies have indicated that evolutionary rates over this time frame are typically high. These studies are based on colonization events, however, and are biased towards high rates. Data gathered here and in previous studies suggest that local populations may evolve rapidly at their founding, but that stasis follows this initial burst of change. This model describes a pattern similar to Punctuated Equilibrium at a lower level of the genealogical hierarchy, and is here termed "Punctuated Equilibrium, Jr." This model can be further tested in empirical studies and should aid in determining the causes of species-level evolutionary patterns. / Master of Science

Focusing attention on a neglected aspect of Renaissance scholarship, this study aims to illuminate the rhetorical role of the body in Renaissance literature by exploring the rhetorical nature of three forms of corporeality: stasis, gesture, and dance. Generally speaking, rhetoric of the body is not lacking in early modern scholarship. However, consideration of the literary body as a rhetorical entity that not only articulates but also creates meaning is indeed a neglected area. The body-as-text paradigm that grounds performance studies provides for a unique and nuanced approach to literary text analysis. The methodology employed in this thesis combines a historical and text-based approach, with substantial attention given to classical rhetoric because of its awareness of the rhetorical capacity of the body. The rhetoric of stasis is explored in Sir John Davies’ poem Orchestra and in three works by Shakespeare: The Winter’s Tale, The Rape of Lucrece, and Coriolanus. In this chapter, trauma is presented as a framing mechanism for the characters’ static presence. Gesture and its rhetorical quality are studied through distinctive analyses of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, The Rape of Lucrece, and Titus Andronicus. An analysis of Ben Jonson’s Epicoene provides a comic close to this study of gesture. This chapter also has as its framework the concept of trauma, presenting it as either a cause for or effect of gesture. Finally, the rhetoric of dance is examined in further analyses of Orchestra and The Winter’s Tale and also in Ben Jonson’s Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue. The literary approach to the rhetorical study of stasis, gesture, and dance taken in this study includes its dramaturgical and compositional functions, providing for a new lens through which to view instances of corporeality in Renaissance literature. This project attends to the early modern awareness and understanding of the rhetorical capacity and force of the body, and does so in a way that allows the speaking body to be examined within original contexts, thus bridging literary and performance analysis.

In this study, the corallite shapes of three species of the scleractinian genus Undaria from the Yague group, Dominican Republic, were examined through a period of time stretching from 6.4 mya to 3.4 mya, a total of 3.0 ma. Corallite shape was measured using 3 dimensional landmarks and manipulated using the well established procedures of geometric morphometrics. Differences in shape and size through time were examined using a variety of tools, including canonical variates analysis, principal components analysis, least squares regression, partial least squares regression, and a variety of evolutionary model fits. Evolutionary model fits were used to test three models against the shape and size variables: general random walk, which models a directional change through time; unbiased random walk, which models random change through time; and stasis, which models stability through time. Stasis is the most common parameter through time, supported in 9 of 15 (60%) of cases, while the unbiased random walk was supported 6 of 15 times. While there was a significant change in one species associated with environmental variables, those variables were also correlated with time and no causal relationship can be reached.

Conventional neo-Darwinian theory views organisms as infinitely sensitive and responsive to their environments, and considers them able to readily change size or shape when they adapt to selective pressures. Yet since 1863 it has been well known that Pleistocene animals and plants do not show much morphological change or speciation in response to the glacial-interglacial climate cycles. We tested this hypothesis with all of the common birds (condors, golden and bald eagles, turkeys, caracaras) and mammals (dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, giant lions, horses, camels, bison, and ground sloths) from Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, which preserves large samples of many bones from many well-dated pits spanning the 35,000 years of the Last Glacial-Interglacial cycle. Pollen evidence showed the climate changed from chaparral/oaks 35,000 years ago to snowy piñon-juniper forests at the peak glacial 20,000 years ago, then back to the modern chaparral since the glacial-interglacial transition. Based on Bergmann's rule, we would expect peak glacial specimens to have larger body sizes, and based on Allen's rule, peak glacial samples should have shorter and more robust limbs. Yet statistical analysis (ANOVA for parametric samples; Kruskal-Wallis test for non-parametric samples) showed that none of the Pleistocene pit samples is statistically distinct from the rest, indicating complete stasis from 35 ka to 9 ka. The sole exception was the Pit 13 sample of dire wolves (16 ka), which was significantly smaller than the rest, but this did not occur in response to climate change. We also performed a time series analysis of the pit samples. None showed directional change; all were either static or showed a random walk. Thus, the data show that birds and mammals at Rancho La Brea show complete stasis and were unresponsive to the major climate change that occurred at 20 ka, consistent with other studies of Pleistocene animals and plants. Most explanations for such stasis (stabilizing selection, canalization) fail in this setting where climate is changing. One possible explanation is that most large birds and mammals are very broadly adapted and relatively insensitive to changes in their environments, although even the small mammals of the Pleistocene show stasis during climate change, too.

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Aim: The nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, raised global criticism against nuclear power. In Sweden, the criticism has not been very visible and the government now allows a renewal of the nuclear power plants. The purpose with the study is to have a closer look on how Swedes in position of power motivate their positive attitude to nuclear power and how they conduct themselves to each other and to their opponents. The rhetorical perspective will be in focus for the analysing. Method: Four different artifacts represented by Swedes in position of power having a positiveattitude to nuclear power were chosen. Three rhetorical theories (the rhetorical arena, stasis andethos, pathos and logos) were used with the research question in focus. Result & Conclusions: The analyses resulted in conclusions about the strategies used by the participants such as: the importance of contexts, meaning for example that the greenhouse effect legitimizes nuclear power as a source of energy with important benefits. Redefining the meaning of key words such as “environment friendly”. Using authority, emotions and knowledge as a way to persuade. Suggestions for future research: It would be interesting to go further with the fundamental values and ideologies which seem to have an important role in the Swedish nuclear power debate. Contribution of the thesis: This study has hopefully brought new light on the nuclear power debate and can be a contribution to a broader understanding how to bring more nuance and transparency to it.

Narrating the Writing Center: Knowledge, Crisis, and Success in Two Writing Center Stories' is year-long comparative case study of two writing centers in the US and the UK and draws upon ethnographic and textographic methodologies. Using writing center documents such as annual management reports, websites, training materials, and interviews with writing center staff and administration, I investigate historical, cultural, and political influences on writing centers and trace moments of change in writing center history in order to contextualize the changes both writing centers faced in terms of funding, location, and identity. I examine traditional and contemporary epistemological paradigms that inform writing centers' everyday practices and underlying ideology that both correspond with and resist institutionally-sanctioned ways of knowing and institutionally-embedded ideology. Using documents and interviews from both sites, I explore the ways in which writing centers find themselves in a reactive position during crises, such as the crisis of access, of literacy, and of funding, rather than a proactive position. Drawing from frame analysis, I argue for reframing the narratives surrounding writing center identity and praxis through the use of code words which have the potential to align writing center praxis with institutional values and result in increased agency for writing centers during crises. I conclude with a blending of contemporary definitions of kairos and stasis in order to create a rhetorical method of writing center communication that can serve as a potential path toward writing center sustainability, and I offer current writing center administrators a heuristic for implementation.

This study investigates the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of follicular stasis in female veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus). Reproductive status was assessed by enzyme immunoassay of fecal metabolites of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and corticosterone; ultrasonography; and male introduction trials. Ultrasonography and hormone pattern analysis confirmed follicular stasis, while female response to male presence was inconclusive. Hormone patterns of corticosterone metabolites indicated a cyclical pattern consistent with reproductive events, but there was insufficient data to compare peak levels between ovulatory and non-ovulatory cycles. Ovulation induction was unsuccessful using either chicken GnRH-II, or a combination of progesterone and prostaglandin F2α. Feed restriction induced weight loss, but this was not directly related to changes in follicle size. Prevention of follicular development (i.e. contraception) was attempted using Depo-Provera and Lupron Depot, but neither treatment was effective. The outcomes of this study supplement the information on follicular stasis in reptiles, but further research is still needed. / NSERC, Toronto Zoo