Motivation: It can take considerable amounts of time and effort to use existing computational tools to analyze a small RNA sequence for the purpose of determining if it is characteristic of microRNA. It is similarly tedious to search for homologs to known microRNA sequences in the rapidly growing collection of...
Immigrants must cross two barriers when entering the United States, the physical border and a cultural border created by a set of exclusive cultural values and profits-before-people economic ethics. Immigrants, coerced by unstable and desperate economic situations, risk their lives and leave behind their families to cross the physical border...
Studies were conducted to assess influencing the effectiveness of sheep for grazing control of false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum) an invasive grass species. Orphan lambs were exposed to false brome via grass extract in their milk and naturally reared lambs were exposed by grazing dense stands of false brome with their...
The Gothic cathedrals of France arose in a particular social and political environment, and the material culture, the structures themselves and their contents, bear witness to those realities even today. In addition, the cathedrals themselves were catalysts for cultural change. They encouraged urban growth in a country that had previously...
Adolescents are faced with many life changing decisions as they prepare for adulthood. The choice to engage in sexual activity is among the most difficult of these decisions. Risks, such as unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and other physical complications associated with early onset sexual activity are a harsh...
Sometimes there are movies that do more than just tell a story; sometimes they make a character come to life in such a way that the audience is profoundly moved. In this thesis I have compared and explored two movies that truly impacted my view on life. Il Postino and...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of usually planar
compounds consisting of fused aromatic rings that are formed by the incomplete
combustion of organic materials. PAHs are ubiquitous in the environment, coming from
a number of sources, such as cigarette smoke, the burning of wood for residential heating,
and...
Sarcocystis neurona is the 1responsible for the disease Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM). Exposure rates to S. neurona across the United States is about 50%, yet only about 2% of exposed horses develop EPM. The cell-mediated immune (CMI) response is hypothesized to be important for protective immunity against this disease. The...
Biological control is the action of predators, parasitoids, or pathogens to maintain
a pest organism's population at lower numbers than would occur in the absence of the
agent. Entomopathogenic nematodes can be used as biological control agents for insect
pests. These nematodes infect insects and release a toxic bacterium that...
Auxin and ethylene regulate many important aspects of plant growth and development and are
essential to the plants survival. They help regulate such diverse processes as cell elongation,
growth of adventitious roots, fruit growth, germination, and a variety of other processes. Few
studies have examined how the hormones auxin and...