Aromatic hydrocarbons represent a large class of environmental contaminants that have a broad range of structures, physicochemical properties, and toxicities. Arising from the burning of organic matter, particularly fossil fuels, they are both widespread and abundant in all environmental compartments. Both monoaromatic hydrocarbons (BTEX) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are...
Differential expression (DE) analysis is a key task in gene expression study, because it uncovers the association between expression levels of a gene and the covariates of interest. This dissertation pertains to two particular aspects of DE analysis—identifying stably expressed genes for count normalization and accounting for correlation between DE...
Structural engineered wood manufacturers need a quantitative measurement technique to determine the ratio of wood to adhesive failure in their shear specimens. Visual estimation of percent wood failure has long stood as an extremely subjective quality control approach according to ASTM D5266 – Standard Practice for Estimating the Percentage of...
Funk’s (1991) cockpit task management (CTM) theory is structurally consistent with cognitive multitasking models: it addresses managing multiple and concurrent tasks in three stages: situation awareness, response selection, and response execution. Based on CTM theory, Colvin, Funk and Braune (2005) hypothesized that the following six factors may affect task prioritization:...
Sclerotinia crown rot, caused by Sclerotinia minor and S. sclerotiorum,
is a disease of pyrethrum in Australia that may cause substantial decline
in plant density. The spatiotemporal characteristics of the disease
were quantified in 14 fields during three growing seasons. Fitting the
binary power law to disease incidence provided slope...
Questions:
Popular methods to analyse community–trait–environment relationships constrain community patterns by trait and environment relationships. What if some traits are strongly associated with community composition but unrelated to environmental variables and vice versa? We take a different approach, unconstrained by this assumption using non-parametric methods. We applied this technique to...
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environmental and fire
age gradients
Peter R. Nelson, Bruce McCune, Carl Roland & Sarah Stehn
Keywords
Alaska
We investigated habitat attributes related to the occupancy of the globally rare and endangered
epiphytic lichen, Erioderma pedicellatum, in a newly discovered (2009) population center in Denali National
Park and Preserve (DNPP), Alaska. We measured forest, tree and epiphytic lichen community
characteristics on eighty-five systematically selected plots in four study...
Oomycete and fungal pathogens threaten food, fiber, and forests around the world. With climate change, these pathogens are expected to emerge more frequently. Evolution can facilitate their emergence through mechanisms such as mutations that change or expand host range. Characterizing evolutionary mechanisms in plant pathogens will contribute to our ability...
Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, the fungal kingdom has remained a fertile source for the discovery of new, biologically active, natural products. Further, as natural products continue to be discovered from fungi, a deeper understanding of the critical role of specialized metabolism in fungal ecology is afforded. The...
Ocean acidification is a global, long-term problem whose ultimate solution requires carbon dioxide reduction at a scope and
scale that will take decades to accomplish successfully. Until that is achieved, feasible and locally relevant adaptation and
mitigation measures are needed. To help to prioritize societal responses to ocean acidification, we...
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adaptation of US shellfisheries
to ocean acidification
Julia A. Ekstrom1*†, Lisa Suatoni2, Sarah R. Cooley3