UNT Theses and Dissertations - 65 Matching Results

Search Results

Results: 1 - 24 next
open access

Comparison of Heteranthera Dubia (Jacq.) MacM.-associated Macroinvertebrates Between Georgraphical Regions in the United States

Description: Macroinvertebrates associated with the aquatic plant, water stargrass (Heteranthera dubia), were sampled from 12 waterbodies in four regions of the United States from June to August 2005. Taxa richness, evenness, and diversity were lowest in the Lower Midwest (LMW) region, and higher in Northern sites, especially the Upper Midwest (UMW), and Northeast (NE). While relative abundance varied from site to site and region to region, utilization of the plant by functional groups remained fairly const… more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Harms, Nathan Earl
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Modulation of the Coelomic Fluid Protein Profile in the Earthworm, Lumbricus Terrestris, After Exposure to Copper as Copper Sulfate

Description: Proteomic techniques were used to analyze the protein profile of earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris, coelomic fluid collected by either whole body dissection method or the coelomic cavity puncture method. Data demonstrated that collection of coelomic fluid using the coelomic cavity puncture method protocol resulted in a 32% reduction, 377 +/- 4.5 vs 253+/- 19.9 (p=0.0007), in the number of individual proteins. It was determined that the coelomic cavity puncture method yielded a "cleaner" preparati… more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Herring, Reese
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Functional Neural Toxicity and Endocrine Responses in Mice Following Naphthalene Exposure

Description: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a well studied and diverse class of environmental toxicants. PAHs act via the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), and studies have suggested that PAHs may elicit neurological and estrogenic effects. Doses of PAHs between 50 to 150 ppm may elicit neurotoxicity in rodent models. The present study investigated the effects of naphthalene on in vivo steroidogenesis in Swiss Webster male mice, and in vitro neural function of Balb-C/ICR mice frontal cortex ne… more
Date: August 2010
Creator: Colbert, Crystal
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Molecular systematics of Baird's pocket gopher (Geomys breviceps)

Description: Baird's pocket gopher (Geomys breviceps) is found in eastern Texas, eastern Oklahoma, central and western Arkansas, and western Louisiana. The cytochrome-b gene was sequenced and analyzed for 16 pocket gophers from throughout the range of the species. Similar phylogenetic trees were obtained using maximum-parsimony, maximum-likelihood, neighbor-joining, and Bayesian analyses. Two major clades were formed with northern individuals belonging to clade I and southern individuals belonging to clade … more
Date: August 2010
Creator: Bodine, Deanna Martinez
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Endocannabinoid System in a Planarian Model

Description: In this study, the presence and possible function of endocannabinoid ligands in the planarian is investigated. The endocannabinoids ananadamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) and entourage NAE compounds palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), stearoylethanolamide (SEA) and oleoylethanolamide (OEA) were found in Dugesia dorotocephala. Changes in SEA, PEA, and AEA levels were observed over the initial twelve hours of active regeneration. Exogenously applied AEA, 2-AG and their catabolic inhibition … more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Mustonen, Katie Lynn
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Induced Bradycardia Effects on Angiogenesis, Growth and Development in Early Development in Chicken Embryos, Gallus Domesticus

Description: Cardiac performance, angiogenesis and growth was investigated during early chicken development. Heart rate, and thus arterial pulse pressure and cardiac output, were altered with the bradycardic drug ZD7288. Heart rates at 72 h of development of control embryos and those dosed with chicken Ringer were not different at 171 bpm. Acute and chronic application of ZD7288 caused significant bradycardia. Chronic dosing of Ringer and ZD7288 changed neither eye diameter nor development rate. Chronic dos… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Ruck, Sylvia A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Museum education: Creation, implementation, and evaluation of a web-based Elm Fork Natural Heritage Museum

Description: Evaluation of museum audiences both in their physical and web-based spaces is a necessary component of museum education. For smaller museums without the personnel or knowledge to create a website and evaluate the on-line audience, using a web-based learning tool may be able to help these museums properly maintain an online site. A web-based Elm Fork Natural Heritage Museum (WBEFNHM) was created during the 2008 fall semester at the University of North Texas. The site included photographs and … more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Lundeen, Melissa
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Thermal Identification of Clandestine Burials: A Signature Analysis and Image Classification Approach

Description: Clandestine burials, the interred human remains of forensic interest, are generally small features located in isolated environments. Typical ground searches can be both time-consuming and dangerous. Thermal remote sensing has been recognized for some time as a possible search strategy for such burials that are in relatively open areas; however, there is a paucity of published research with respect to this application. This project involved image manipulation, the analyses of signatures for "gra… more
Date: December 2010
Creator: Servello, John A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Anatomical and Morphological Responses of Cardiospermum Halicacabum L. (Balloon Vine), to Four Levels of Water Availability

Description: C. halicacabum (Sapindaceae) is an invasive plant that is considered a nuisance species in Texas riparian environments. Little is known of the tolerance of C. halicacabum to flooding and drought; however, this information may provide insight into the characteristics that contribute to C. halicacabum purported invasiveness. C. halicacabum seedlings (n = 92) were exposed to one of four levels of water availability (flooded, saturated, intermediate and dry) over six weeks under greenhouse conditio… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Dempsey, Matthew Anthony
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Retinoic acid Treatment Affects Kidney Development and Osmoregulatory System in the Developing Chicken (Gallus Gallus)

Description: Development is a dynamic process characterized by critical periods in which organ systems are sensitive to changes in the surrounding environment. In the current study, critical windows of embryonic growth and kidney development were assessed in the embryonic chicken. All‐trans retinoic acid (tRA) influences not only organogenesis and cell proliferation, but also targets metanephric kidney nephrogenesis. Embryonic chickens were given a single injection of tRA on embryonic day 8. tRA decre… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Alvine, Travis Douglas
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Solvent Effects and Bioconcentration Patterns of Antimicrobial Compounds in Wetland Plants

Description: This study looked at effects of organic solvents dimethylsulfoxide, dimethylformamide and acetone at 0.01%, 0.05% and 0.1% concentration on germination and seedling development wetland plants. Even at 0.01% level, all solvents affected some aspect of seed germination or seedling growth. Acetone at 0.01% was least toxic. Root morphological characteristics were most sensitive compared to shoot morphological characteristics. This study also looked at bioconcentration patterns of antimicrobial comp… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Adhikari, Sajag
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Effects of CFT Legumine™ Rotenone on Macroinvertebrates in Four Drainages of Montana and New Mexico

Description: Rotenone is considered essential in the restoration of native fish populations; however, the technique is contentious and criticized, specifically concerning impacts to invertebrates. Knowledge of effects to non-target organisms is important for the management and conservation of fish populations. This thesis has two general objectives: (1) demonstrate the influence CFT Legumine™ rotenone has on benthic macroinvertebrates for restoration projects in Montana and New Mexico and (2) evaluate the i… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Skorupski, Joseph A., Jr.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Life History And Secondary Production Of Cheumatopsyche Lasia Ross (Trichoptera: Hydropsychidae) With Respect To A Wastewater Treatment Facility In A North Texas Urban Stream

Description: This study represents the first shift in multivoltine life history of Cheumatopsyche species from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in North America. Populations of C. lasia were examined upstream and downstream of the Denton’s Pecan Creek WWTP August 2009 through November 2010. C. lasia is multivoltine in Pecan Creek with three cohorts observed upstream of the WWTP and four possible cohorts downstream. A fourth generation was possible downstream as thermal inputs from WWTP effluent resulte… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Paul, Jenny Sueanna
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Detection of Mercury Among Avian Trophic Levels at Caddo Lake and Lake Lewisville, TX

Description: Mercury (Hg) is a globally distributed toxicant that has been shown to have negative effects on birds. in the United States, avian taxa have been shown to possess high Hg concentrations in the northeast, Great Lakes and Everglades ecosystems; however, few studies have measured avian Hg concentrations in other geographic regions. Previous studies have documented high Hg concentrations in multiple organisms in east Texas, but birds were not included in these studies. the main objective of the pre… more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Schulwitz, Sarah E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Examining the Shade/flood Tolerance Tradeoff Hypothesis in Bottomland Herbs Through Field Study and Experimentation

Description: While there is growing evidence that shade/flood tolerance tradeoffs may be important in distributions of bottomland hardwood trees and indications that they should apply to herbs, no studies have definitively explored this possibility. Four years of field data following historic flooding were supplemented with a greenhouse experiment designed to identify interactions congruent with tradeoffs. Fifteen bottomland species were grown in two levels of water availability and three levels of shade ov… more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Sloop, Jordan
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Investigating Realistic Scenarios of Biodiversity Loss on Ecosystem Functioning: Extirpation of Rare Species and Food Web Collapse in Tropical Floodplain Lagoons

Description: This thesis investigates the influence of nonrandom species loss on the structure and functioning of trophic floodplain lagoons. Two experiments were conducted based on different realistic scenarios of biodiversity loss using multitrophic fish assemblages derived from long-term survey data. Loss of fish diversity influenced overall ecosystem multifunctionality of these lagoons through complex multitrophic interactions throughout the aquatic food web. These results indicate that biodiversity l… more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Pendleton, Richard McCall
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Clustering Algorithms for Time Series Gene Expression in Microarray Data

Description: Clustering techniques are important for gene expression data analysis. However, efficient computational algorithms for clustering time-series data are still lacking. This work documents two improvements on an existing profile-based greedy algorithm for short time-series data; the first one is implementation of a scaling method on the pre-processing of the raw data to handle some extreme cases; the second improvement is modifying the strategy to generate better clusters. Simulation data and real… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Zhang, Guilin
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Hypoxia and the Development of Endothermic Capacity in Chickens (Gallus Gallus)

Description: Adult chickens employ endothermy – internal generation of heat that maintains a constant body temperature (Tb). Prior to hatching, chicken embryos are ectothermic - controlling Tb by external heat sources. Upon hatching, the hatchling transitions from an ectotherm to an endotherm that has been shown to be delayed by hypoxia. In this study, whole animal oxygen consumption () and liver, heart, and skeletal muscle citrate synthase activity (CSA) and were measured during this transition to endothe… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Neely, Aaron Mackallan
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Socio-ecological Assessment of Watershed Ecosystem Services in Southern Patagonia

Description: This thesis utilizes a theoretical framework which links biophysical and social domains of ecosystems via ecosystem services (ES), in order to conduct a socio-ecological assessment of urban watersheds in three communities in Chilean and Argentine regions of southern Patagonia. Results from this study show that expanding urban areas may be undermining the ability of local watersheds to provide for high quality ES posing potential risks to community wellbeing. Secondly, researchers and decision m… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Zagarola, Jean-Paul Aguirre
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Beta-adrenergic Blockade Via Atenolol and Its Effects on Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, and Renal Morphology in the Developing Chicken Gallus Gallus Domesticus

Description: Chicken embryos were chronically exposed to the ?1- blocker atenolol during one of three stages: mesonephros (E7-E9), mesonephros-metanephros (E11-E13), or metanephros (E15-E17). Mesonephros group hearts were larger than all other groups (P < 0.01). Mesonephros and metanephros group kidneys were larger than all remaining groups (P < 0.0001). The mesonephros group nephron number was ~40% lower than control values (P = 0.002). Glomerular areas were 26% and 18% larger than the control group in the… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Rossitto Lopez, Josie Jovita
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Characterization of Arthrobacter Globiformis Aspartate Transcarbamylase Concentrations of Substrates

Description: This thesis consists of one major section with two subsections. The first subsection investigates the activity of Arthrobacter globiformis aspartate transcarbamylase's specific activity with increasing concentrations of the enzyme's substrate. Dihydroorotase (DHOase) activity was also measured with increasing concentrations of the substrate dihydroorotate. The second subsection collected data in order to classify the enzyme, resulting in a classification into the category of class A ATCases … more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Wright, Jackie
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Chronic Hypoxia and Hyperoxia Modifies Morphology and Vegf Expression of the Lungs of the Developing Chicken (Gallus Gallus Domesticus)

Description: This study determines effects of oxygen levels on morphology and VEGF expression of developing chicken lungs following incubation in normoxia (21% O2), hypoxia (15% O2) or hyperoxia (30% O2), until developmental days 16 or 18. Lung morphology was assessed using light microscopy, while VEGF expression was determined with ELISA. In hypoxia, the proportion of parabronchial tissue and parabronchi including lumina increased from day 16 to 18 (61 to 68% and 74.2 to 82.2%, respectively). Non-parabronc… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Lewallen, Melissa Anjanette
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Somatostatin Receptors on Neuronal Cilia: Evidence for Neuroprotection

Description: Primary cilia are essential in brain development, as mediators of sonic hedgehog signaling. However, their role in mature neurons remains elusive. One means to elucidate their function may be to investigate the function of the somatostatin type 3 receptor (SstR3), which is concentrated on the primary cilia of neurons. The inhibitory and anticonvulsant properties of somatostatin suggest that ciliary SstR3 might protect neurons against excitotoxicity, as seen in epileptic seizures. C57BL/6 wi… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Evans, Shakila K.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Bioconcentration and Morphological Effects of Triclosan on Three Species of Wetland Plants

Description: Triclosan (TCS) is an antimicrobial compound found in several types of common household products. After being washed down the drain, TCS will then end up in the local watershed. Although numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the fate and effects of TCS in aquatic environments, there have been no studies evaluating the role arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM) play in a plants response to TCS exposure. Three species of wetland plants native North Texas were inoculated with AM spores and … more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Smith, Caleb M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
Back to Top of Screen