<p> A strong understanding of the role of kissing has important theoretical implications; however little research has been done on kissing in romantic relationships. This study aimed to examine the role of kissing in (a) mate assessment, (b) initiating arousal and (c) maintenance of an emotional bond. Data were collected by surveying college students at a public university in the northeast. The first survey (n = 121) examined the memory of the first kiss compared to other sexual &ldquo;firsts&rdquo; as well as the relationship between the first kiss and relationship outcome. Memories of the first kiss were weaker than memories of first sex and quality of the first kiss was not associated with relationship outcome. The second survey (n= 67) asked participants to rate their first kiss with their current partner as well as their satisfaction with various aspects of their current relationship. Quality of the first kiss was positively correlated with current relationship satisfaction, particularly sexual satisfaction in men and emotional satisfaction in women. This relationship was much weaker in women on hormonal birth control. Satisfaction with kissing in the current relationship was also positively correlated with relationship satisfaction in women, but not men. In the third study (n = 55), respondents were asked to report which type of kiss was mostly likely in a variety of contexts. They were also asked to predict how likely a &ldquo;great kisser&rdquo; was to have a variety of other attributes. The results suggest that closed mouth kissing is primarily related to emotional intimacy and conflict resolution and open mouth kissing with tongue contact is most associated with sexual arousal and attraction. Overall, the results provide strong evidence that kissing is important in romantic relationships. Additional research should be done to further elucidate the exact role that kissing plays in mate assessment, relationship maintenance and sexual attraction and how it varies by gender.</p>

<p>Understanding forces creating or maintaining the vast amount of biodiversity has been a major task of biologists. Genetic variation plays a major role in the creation of biodiversity because in contrast to environmental influence, genetic variants can be inherited. For a species in natural environments, genetic variation is generated by mutation, eliminated by genetic drift or selective sweep, and maintained by balancing selection that favors different alleles in different environments or time. In my dissertation, I will address how spatially heterogeneous environmental selection maintains genetic variation in two aspects.</p><p>Genes in the genome vary vastly in their level of polymorphism. Previous studies have used features within the genome, such as recombination rate or expression level, to explain the variation in gene polymorphism. One factor, however, that has often been overlooked is the effect of environmental adaptation on gene polymorphism. Specifically, if different alleles of a gene are responsible for local adaptation to distinct environments, the polymorphism of this gene will be actively maintained by spatially heterogeneous environmental selection. In the first part (Chapter 2) of my dissertation, I used publicly available genomic data from Arabidopsis thaliana to address this question. I found that environmental relevance of a gene has a significantly positive relationship with the variation in polymorphism level among genes in the Arabidopsis genome, consistent with the hypothesis that environmental selection actively maintains the polymorphism of environmentally responsive genes.</p><p>A biological species is formed by a mating pool of individuals, and for two populations of the same species, differentiation is often homogenized by gene flow. Reproductive isolation between populations allows genetic differentiation, and therefore speciation, the process in which full reproductive isolation is achieved between populations, plays important role in generating biodiversity. In the second part of my dissertation I used Boechera stricta to address how environmental selection contributes to speciation. In Chapter 3, I used niche modeling to show that environmental factors have more important roles than geographical distance in the genetic differentiation of EAST and WEST subspecies, and local water availability is the most important factor. In Chapter 4, I performed large-scale greenhouse experiments to identify key traits responsible for the EAST-WEST local adaptation, and that those traits have significantly larger differentiation between subspecies than neutral expectation. In Chapter 5, I performed quantitative trait loci mapping for those important traits and fitness in both parental environments and greenhouse. In summary, the second part of my dissertation provides an example to study ecological speciation from the environment, trait, to the genetic level.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis focuses on an Agent-Based Service-Oriented approach to evolving legacy system into a Pervasive Computing environment. The methodology consists of multiple phases: using reverse engineering techniques to comprehend and decompose legacy systems, employing XML and Web Services to transform and represent a legacy system as pervasive services, and integrating these pervasive services into pervasive computing environments with agent based integration technology. A legacy intelligent building system is used as a case study for experiments with the approach, which demonstrates that the proposed approach has the ability to evolve legacy systems into pervasive service environments seamlessly. Conclusion is drawn based on analysis and further research directions are also discussed.

The International Crocodilian Genomes Working Group (ICGWG) will sequence and assemble the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and Indian gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) genomes. The status of these projects and our planned analyses are described.

Aspects of higher order chromatin structure such as replication timing, lamina association and Hi-C inter-locus interactions have been recently studied in several human and mouse cell types and it has been suggested that most of these features of genome organisation are conserved over evolution. However, the extent of evolutionary divergence in higher order structure has not been rigorously measured across the mammalian genome, and little is known about the characteristics of any divergent loci defined. Here we generate an orthologous dataset combining multiple measurements of chromatin structure and organisation over many embryonic cell types for both human and mouse that, for the first time, allows a comprehensive assessment of the extent of structural divergence between different mammalian genomes. Comparison of orthologous regions confirms that all measurable facets of higher order structure are conserved between human and mouse, across the majority of the orthologous genome. This broad similarity is observed in spite of the substantial time since the species diverged, differences in experimental procedures among the datasets examined, and the presence of cell type specific structures at many loci. However, we also identify hundreds of regions showing consistent evidence of divergence between these species, constituting at least 10% of the orthologous mammalian genome and encompassing many hundreds of human and mouse genes. Divergent regions are enriched in genes implicated in vertebrate development, suggesting important roles for structural divergence in mammalian evolution. They are also relatively enriched for genes showing divergent expression patterns between human and mouse ES cells, implying these regions may underlie divergent regulation. Divergent regions show unusual shifts in compositional bias, sequence divergence and are unevenly distributed across both genomes. We investigate the mechanisms of divergence in higher order structure by examining the influence of sequence divergence and also many features of primary level chromatin, such as histone modification and DNA methylation patterns. Using multiple regression, we identify the dominant factors that appear to have shaped the physical structure of the mammalian genome. These data suggest that, though relatively rare, divergence in higher order chromatin structure has played important roles during evolution.

<p> One of the consequences of the development of landscapes for human uses is the release and accumulation of chemicals in the environment. The long-term effects of multigenerational exposure to this chemical pollution in wild populations are poorly understood. Both ecological and rapid evolutionary responses are likely, as both species and populations are known to vary in sensitivity to toxicant exposure. While we have observed frequent rapid evolutionary changes in wild populations, particularly in response to human impacts, we are only beginning to understand how important rapid evolution might be in shaping long-term ecological and evolutionary responses to environmental stressors such as chemical pollution. My dissertation uses freshwater zooplankton as a model to contribute to this knowledge gap, examining both ecological and evolutionary consequences of exposure to pollution stress across a variety of spatial and temporal scales. In chapter one I surveyed 51 small lakes in Connecticut, US to evaluate the relative importance of the lake physicochemical environment, habitat connectivity and broader spatial properties in shaping pelagic crustacean zooplankton communities. I found that the chemical environment, particularly dissolved ions, was far more important than space and connectivity in predicting zooplankton species distributions. This evidence suggests that for the most part in this system zooplankton dispersal is not limited and environmental filtering is playing a key role in the distribution of zooplankton species across the landscape. Chapters 2 through 4 examined long-term ecological and evolutionary changes in daphniid zooplankton taxa in four Connecticut lakes that have experienced differing degrees of pollution over the past century. Using paleolimnological techniques I reconstructed changes in eutrophication and heavy metal contamination in these lakes over time. Examination of daphniid diapausing egg banks deposited in sediments of these lakes uncovered evidence of taxonomic homogenization of the daphniid species over time in the three eutrophied lakes. I also found that eutrophication may have been more influential than metals in shaping species compositional patterns (chapter 2). Chapters 3 and 4 investigated phenotypic responses of <i>Daphnia ambigua</i> populations to heavy metal contamination. I found that <i>Daphnia</i> diapausing eggs from time periods when metal contamination was elevated were less likely to hatch and that those animals that did hatch had a higher rate of juvenile mortality (chapter 3). <i>Daphnia</i> hatched and successfully cultured from high copper and high cadmium time periods were more sensitive to exposure of these metals (chapter 4), a pattern consistent with rapid maladaptation to metals over multi-decadal timescales. Overall, my dissertation research uncovers widespread long-term effects of changes in lake chemical environments on both ecological and evolutionary trajectories of lake zooplankton communities. Future research into the drivers and consequences of these trends, particularly those observed in chapters 3 and 4, is warranted. It is important to understand, both for basic scientific and conservation purposes, whether exposure to widely distributed toxicants such as heavy metals is disrupting the evolutionary capacity of lake zooplankton, an important component to lake communities worldwide. </p>

<p> The unique nature of island ecosystems have fascinated generations of naturalists, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists. Studying island systems led to the development of keystone biological theories including: Darwin and Wallace's theories of natural selection, Carlquist's insights into the biology of adaptive radiations, MacArthur and Wilson's theory of island biogeography, and many others. Utilizing islands as natural laboratories allows us to discover the underlying fabric of ecology and evolutionary biology. This dissertation represents my attempt to contribute to this long and storied scientific history by thoroughly investigating two aspects of island biology: 1. the role of island climate in shaping drought tolerance of woody plants, and 2. the absence of mammalian herbivores from insular environments and its effects on woody plant defenses. </p><p> These goals were accomplished by quantifying functional trait patterns, seasonal water relations, and plant defenses among closely-related species pairs of chaparral shrubs from matched field sites on Santa Catalina Island and the adjacent Santa Ana Mountains in southern California. This experimental design allowed me to test for &#65532;repeated evolutionary divergences across island and mainland environments and to examine the evolutionary trade-offs between traits. </p><p> Chapter 1 focuses on differences in dry season water availability and hydraulic safety between island and mainland chaparral shrubs by measuring seasonal water relations and cavitation resistance. My results suggest that island plants are more buffered than mainland relatives from the harsh summer drought conditions that characterize the Mediterranean type climate region of California. Furthermore, island plants exhibit increased hydraulic safety margins that suggest island plants may fare better than mainland relatives during episodes of increasing aridity. </p><p> Chapter 2 examines an exhaustive suite of 12 functional traits that characterize the drought-related functional strategies of island and mainland chaparral shrubs. Island plants have more mesomorphic leaf and canopy traits than mainland relatives. However, stem hydraulic traits are surprisingly similar between the island and mainland environments despite large differences in seasonal water relations. The differences between patterns at the leaf and stem levels may be related to the existence of evolutionary correlations for leaf traits but not for stem traits. Multivariate principal component analyses suggest that island plants are employing a very different suite of functional traits than their mainland relatives that allows them to take advantage of the more moderate conditions that characterize the island environment without sacrificing increased vulnerability to drought at the stem level. </p><p> Chapter 3 tests the hypothesis that the absence of mammalian herbivores throughout most of Santa Catalina Island's history has selected for plants that are less defended and more palatable than mainland relatives that have experienced more consistent browsing pressure. My results confirm that island plants have fewer morphological defenses and are more preferred by mammalian herbivores compared to close relatives from the mainland. These findings also suggest that island plants are more vulnerable to browsing by introduced mammalian herbivores. This vulnerability should be taken into account when making management decisions concerning introduced herbivores on islands. </p><p> In conclusion, chaparral shrubs on Santa Catalina Island have different levels of drought tolerance and herbivore defenses compared to mainland relatives that affect how they are likely to be impacted by climate change and other anthropogenic alterations of the insular environment. Furthermore, the pattern of evolutionary divergences between island and mainland plants reported in this dissertation offer new insights into how drought tolerance and herbivore defenses are shaped by environmental factors. </p>

In this thesis analytical and simulation techniques are applied to problems in biological evolution. The thesis is divided into four parts. Firstly, chapter two investigates anomalies that occur in the Penna bit-string model of ageing, an influential model of mutation accumulation and selection. These anomalies result in unusual demographic distributions and can lead to the so-called Eve effect. The anomalies are characterised along with their associated demographic distributions. It is argued that the anomalies are similar in nature to the well known first-passage problem. Secondly, chapter three uses evolutionary game theory to investigate the evolution of harmful mating tactics in hermaphrodites. These tactics benefit the function of the sperm donor at the expense of sperm recipient. The model predicts evolutionary stable values of resource allocation between sexual functions, and the level of harm. The analysis provides support for empirical observations and makes predictions about the effects of harmful mating tactics on population evolution. Thirdly, chapter four considers the sustainability of the two main types of sexual reproduction; hermaphroditism and dioecy (male and female individuals). By use of stochastic spatial simulations it is demonstrated that hermaphroditism can have an even greater advantage over dioecy than predicted by mean-field analysis. This result provides support for the observation that hermaphroditism is associated with sedentary species. Finally, chapter five considers the evolution of gynodioecy, a breeding system of plants in which populations consist of hermaphrodite and female individuals. It is both a common and widespread polymorphism, and has been identified in many species of ecological and economic interest. Mean-field calculations and stochastic spatial simulations are used to identify the conditions necessary for gynodioecy to evolve.

No description available.

This work examines the isotopic composition and abundance of helium in a number of different crustal environments with a view to understanding its production and transport in the crust. The work was largely carried out using existing instrumentation, but a dedicated interface was also built to allow computer control of a quadrupole mass spectrometer for rare gas abundance pattern determination. Conventional calculations of the radiogenic <SUP>3</SUP>He/<SUP>4</SUP>He production ratio based on the assumption of a chemically homogeneous composition cannot adequately account for the <SUP>3</SUP>He/<SUP>4</SUP>He ratio in waters from the Carnmenellis Granite of SW England. Alpha tracking and back-scattered electron microscopy show that the majority of the U and Th are concentrated in volumetrically insignificant accessory minerals. A new model has been devised, taking this heterogeneity into account, to explain the Carnmenellis data. Helium isotopic analysis of the granite itself revealed isotopic disequilibrium with the circulating waters. This may be related to differential release of <SUP>3</SUP>He and <SUP>4</SUP>He associated with different formation sites. A survey was made of the helium abundance and isotopic composition of groundwaters from the Pannonian Basin of Hungary in order to study the behaviour of mantle-derived fluids in an area of major recent crustal extension and volcanism. More than 80 samples were analysed covering most of the basin, and almost all contained a component of mantle-derived helium. Although <SUP>3</SUP>He/<SUP>4</SUP>He ratio is not clearly correlated with the surface expression of volcanism, it may act as an indicator of intrusion at depth. The <SUP>3</SUP>He flux through the Hungarian crust is ≈4 atoms.cm<SUP>-2</SUP>.s<SUP>-2</SUP>. If the mechanism of extraction is partial melting, then by analogy with melt production at mid-ocean ridges, addition of a 20-40 metre layer of basalt (for 5-10% partial melting) must be added to the Hungarian crust in a million years to support the present day <SUP>3</SUP>He flux.