Abstract: IMPACT OF NUCLEAR-MITOCHONDRIAL HYBRIDIZATION ON FITNESS AND OXIDATIVE STRESS IN CAENORHABDITIS BRIGGSAE AND C. SP. 9 Mason John Yockey MS 2013 Department of Biology, Texas Christian University Dr. Phil Hartman, Professor, Dean of College of Science & Engineering Mitochondria are organelles contained in eukaryotic cells, which produce energy. Mitochondria are unique for several reasons, one being that they contain a small genome of their own, distinct from the main genome contained within the nucleus. Proper co-ordination between the nucleus and the mitochondria is vital for the functioning of the cell. A study was recently performed on several hybrid strains of Caenorhabditis nematodes which contained nuclear DNA from one lineage and mitochondrial DNA from another. Their fitness was tested by examining their growth, reproduction, lifespan under oxidative stress in the form of 95% oxygen. Results from these experiments appeared to show these trends: growth was typically suppressed, reproduction diminished, and lifespan slightly extended by the oxygen stress. These results might indicate the presence of a mitochondrial hormetic effect in these organisms.

The information meaningful to coaches during player assessments and the types of experiences that contribute to athletes' confidence are not as well studied in ice hockey as in other sports. The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine what sources of expectancy information are salient to collegiate ice hockey coaches. A secondary purpose was to identify the experiences that contribute to sport-confidence in collegiate ice hockey players. Thirty two coaches and 16 athletes in NCAA ice hockey programs participated in this study. Results indicated that there is congruence between the information used by ice hockey coaches of different roles and competitive levels when evaluating athletes. It was observed that coaches rate psychological factors highest when evaluating athletes. The experiences meaningful to ice hockey players' sport-confidence were accessed and the ordering of sources was compared between positions. A sport psychology consultant working within ice hockey can better understand coach behavior by knowing what player characteristics are meaningful to a coach when evaluating athletes. Additionally, a consultant can know what information an athlete taps in his or her personal life for reassurance of self-efficacy in sport. Future research employing interview techniques can identify sport-specific sources of evaluative information relevant to ice hockey coaches and the experiences particularly meaningful to hockey players' confidence in sport. This study provides some groundwork and direction for further investigation of the expectancy information and sport-confidence sources relevant within specific sports.

Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae, MPB) is a forest pest endemic to the Rocky Mountain West. Since the late 1990s, millions of hectares of lodgepole pine forest have experienced extensive tree mortality due to MPB disturbance and this may have significant implications for forested mountain water supplies. MPB disturbance may affect the amount of moisture that enters and leaves the forest hydrologic system, through changes in snowpack accumulation, snowmelt timing, transpiration and subsequently soil water content. The cumulative effect of these changes is that soil moisture is expected to be higher in disturbed forests as the hydrologic system responds to increased inputs and the cessation of canopy transpiration that accompanies tree mortality. This research examined how MPB-disturbance affects the forest water balance in three plots in western Montana using direct observation and modeling methods. Peak SWE, snowmelt and post-snowmelt water balance parameters were measured in three study plots: a non-disturbed lodgepole pine plot, a plot consisting of lodgepole pine trees in the advanced stage of MPB disturbance, and a nearby clear cut. No significant differences in peak SWE and snowmelt timing were measured between the MPB-disturbed and non-disturbed due to the higher stand density and basal area. However, post-snowmelt measurements of soil moisture, rainfall, understory evapotranspiration and canopy transpiration indicated higher net precipitation and understory evapotranspiration in the MPB-disturbed plot. Additionally, soil moisture was higher in the MPB-disturbed plot, which was likely explained by the absence of canopy transpiration fluxes. Additionally, beyond the factors quantified in this initial study, it is likely that topography and variability in stand characteristics played an important role for observed differences in soil water content. This study provides first steps towards assessing the implications of MPB for changes in mountain water supplies in forested catchments. Future work should seek to use additional study plots with more similar stand characteristics and local topography.

Estimates of long-term forest site productivity are required to inform multiple forest management objectives including growth and yield assessments, silvicultural planning, and biomass/carbon projections. Estimates traditionally have been quantified in the form of site index by measuring the average height-age relationships of dominant and codominant trees or using regional site index equations. Site index implementation requires that trees are free from suppression and that height growth results from the integration of the biological determinants of growth. While useful in even-aged stands, early age height growth suppression is common in uneven-aged forest structures making existing site indices difficult to assess. Additionally, the individual biological determinants of growth are not identified and do not provide a basis for site index to be mapped across the landscape or predicted under alternative climate scenarios. This research aims to characterize the major physiographic and climatic determinants of growth. We obtained site index estimates for 203 ponderosa pine, 343 Douglas-fir, 232 lodgepole pine and 99 western larch trees throughout the state of Montana using regional equations (Milner 1992). Terrain descriptors (slope, aspect and elevation), climate normals (min/max temperatures, vapor pressure deficit), and climatic water balance (actual evapotranspiration and deficit) were derived for each site index tree at various resolutions (list range of resolutions ). Regression analysis was performed using a hierarchy of terrain, climate and mixed models. Slope, aspect, and elevation were able to explain approximately half the variation in site index for ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine and western larch. Geographically localizing the model increased the variance explained by the terrain models for all species except western larch. A simple climatic water balance interaction model (AET x DEF) was unable to explain much of the variation in site index. However, when climatic water balance was added to the terrain model the variance explained increased for all species. A biophysical model utilizing only water balance and climate variables explained more of the variation in site index than terrain based models for all species. Implications of spatial accuracy of the climatic data products and fine scale variation in tree data are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided.

This thesis involved an analysis of editorials in selected Indiana college newspapers. This analysis attempted to find out what college editors were saying. A major concern of this study was t o determine whether college editors were commenting primarily on campus topics or whether they were writing mostly about off-campus subjects.There are approximately forty-two college newspapers in Indiana. The numbers vary with economic conditions and other factors unique to a particular college. Newspapers were categorized according to frequency of distribution--newspapers published more than once a week, weekly, and less than once a week. Then they were rank ordered by enrollment figures within each distribution group.Four schools, representing various enrollment figures and geographic locations, were chosen from each of the three frequency categories. Four issues representing a two-month Period were obtained from each of the twelve schools. These forty-eight issues yielded a total of fifty-five editorials to be surveyed.Editorials were classified according to geographic emphasis and subject category. Demographic factors such as frequency of distribution, financial support of newspaper, campus enrollment, financial support of college, and editorial percentage of newshole were also included in this analysis.The findings of this study indicate college editors published most of their editorials about campus affairs. Of the fifty-five editorials surveyed, comment about the administration accounted for the largest percentage of editorial content, although the largest number of editorials were written about campus life.Newspapers published less than once a week devoted all of their editorial space to campus topics. However, college weeklies published more column inches about campus topics and used a bigger portion of their newshole for editorials than the other two newspaper groups.Private school newspapers reserved all their editorial comment for campus affairs while public school newspapers reserved some editorial comment for non-campus topics.Newspapers supported primarily by subsidy devoted the greatest percentage of editorials to campus life. Newspapers supported primarily by subscription devoted the largest Percentage of their editorial content to the administration. Newspapers supported primarily by advertising devoted the largest percentage of their editorial content to non-campus news while newspapers supported by a variety of methods devoted the largest percentage of their editorial content to campus life.

This practice-led thesis is based on a study of the use of encased voids or bubbles in glass. The study is grounded in practice and draws out through antecedents in philosophy, psychology and epistemology, a methodology called Reflective Risk. It shows that through a rigorous analysis of practice, using video and personal reflection that new insights emerge. The study is framed by craft practice (the word craft here used as a collection of ‘genre’ of which glass is part). The thesis uses experiential learning as a tool and a means of understanding the practice of creating and controlling encased voids in glass in the context of contemporary applied arts practice. The framework, Reflective Risk, is constructivist in approach. It is based on Experiential Learning Theory (ELT), but it also draws on epistemological theories of tacit knowledge. The thesis shows that through an understanding of technique and material qualities, process can be deconstructed to reveal new insights. The thesis documents how an understanding ELT and a range of self-regulatory antecedents can influence the cognitive process of craft practice through praxis. The results of this study, on the one hand, are directed to glass practitioners and on the other, to provide a theoretical approach appropriate for the reflective practitioner working in other media by adopting a parallel method of enquiry.

The investigation of a person's degree of forward planning as a strategy for coping with the unknown future, has not been widely explored in the psychology literature. Two groups of students classified as planners and non-planners on the basis of their responses to an open-ended questionnaire were compared in terms of the following: 1. Number and type of hopes and fears about the future. 2. The relative importance of the time zones of past, present and future. 3. Optimism/pessimism .about the future at a personal as well as societal level. 4. Perception of people who plan their lives and work to attain specific goals. 5. Beliefs regarding the extent to which people can exercise control over the occurrence of various events in their lives as opposed to external forces such as luck, fate or powerful others (Internal versus External locus of control). 6. Values as measured by Rokeach's 18 instrumental and 18 terminal value survey. Items 1-4 were explored by means of a questionnaire developed after carrying out a number of extensive interviews and a pilot study. Beliefs in Internality-Externality were explored by using the Internal-External locus of control scale developed by Rotter and his colleagues (1966), while values were measured by Rokeach's (1966) Value Survey of 18 instrumental and 18 terminal values. The questionnaire, Rotter's I-E scale and Rokeach's Value Survey were distributed to a sample of 88 first-year undergraduate students (44 females and 44 males), from I8 to 23 years of age. According to the findings, planners and non-planners adopt different strategies for coping with the future: planners through setting up goals determine their future outcomes and consequently reduce uncertainty, while non-planners seem not to attempt to influence future events. In the first case, planning for the future is seen as a person's sense of agency over his environment while in the second case, focussing on the present is seen as a defensive mechanism against the possibility of disappointment in the future. The results showed that planners: 1) hold more positive attitudes towards planning and the future; 2) had more hopes rather than fears about the future; 3) valued the future more than the present and past; 4) held optimistic views about private and public aspects of life in the future; 5) were more Internal in their beliefs about locus of control; 6) had a value orientation which was more intra-personal than interpersonal in focus. In order to explore further the relationship between planning and Internality-Externality a second study was designed. More specifically, the study investigated: 1) The extent to which a person's beliefs about his ability to exercise control over a variety of situations in the private and socio-political aspects of life (measured by Rotter's I-E scale) were related to the extent of forward planning in these areas; 2) Planners' and non-planners' preferences for immediate or long-term solutions to issues of unemployment, inflation and pollution in Britain. A sample of 46 first year undergraduate students (23 males and 23 females), from 18 to 23 years of age, were asked to fill out the first part of the Time Perspective Questionnaire used in the first study, Rotter's I-E scale and a socio-political questionnaire developed for the purpose of the study. Findings support the results from the first study regarding differences in number of hopes and fears about the future. Findings also suggested that respondents' beliefs about Internal versus External locus of control were related to the extent of their forward planning in the private aspects of life, but not the sociopolitical aspects, for which they had little or no plans. Planners' and non-planners' preferences for immediate or long-term solutions to the three socio-political issues, was a function of so many possible factors that only some of the data were considered. The impact of planners' and non-planners' orientation to the future on their actual behaviour in the present, was explored in the third study. Three aspects of present behaviour were considered under this study: work patterns / studying; free time activities, and relations with others. To explore these aspects, 44 first year students, 22 males and 22 females, from 18 to 23 years of age, were interviewed for approximately forty-five minutes each. The interviews were based on a schedule developed on the basis of the findings from 40 preliminary interviews. According to the findings, planners were more organised, systematic and self-disciplined in studying, whereas non-planners tended to rely more on the University syllabus or moods, feelings and external pressure. Planners also expressed a need for privacy and regularity, and tended to see others as being instrumental to the realization of their goals. Non-planners on the other hand, showed a greater sociability, spontaneity, an involvement with, and an orientation towards other people, which emphasised the value of relationships for their own sake rather than because of their importance to the achievement of personal goals. On the whole, differences in planners' and non-planners' orientation to time are seen as being characteristic of an "instrumental versus expressive" or "becoming versus being" orientation to life. An "instrumental" or "becoming" orientation involves views about the instrumentality of the present to the future. and manipulation of both personal and interpersonal aspects of life towards the achievement of future goals; whereas an "expressive" or "being" orientation involves an emphasis on living the present for the present, preferences for variety, change and freedom of choice in living, and a tendency to value interpersonal relations for their own sake rather than because of their importance to personal objectives.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the similarity in personality traits among students in the same major field of study and the difference in personality traits between students in different fields of major study. Investigation will also be made of the relationship between vocational interests of the subjects and their major fields of study.

It was the position of this study that the Hullian theoretical concept of anxiety as a drive is inappropriate in relation to an understanding of the effects of anxiety on the complexities of college performance. The present study also viewed performance in the college setting as differing from most of the related variables presented in the literature to which anxiety was connected.

Many students entering junior college English classrooms have serious problems due to their educational or environmental backgrounds. Programs with integrated curriculums have been developed to help these students by making English more relevant to their lives.