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Description
The repression of reproductive competition and the enforcement of altruism are key components to the success of animal societies. Eusocial insects are defined by having a reproductive division of labor, in which reproduction is relegated to one or few individuals while the rest of the group members maintain the colony and help raise offspring. However, workers have retained the ability to reproduce in most insect societies. In the social Hymenoptera, due to haplodiploidy, workers can lay unfertilized male destined eggs without mating. Potential conflict between workers and queens can arise over male production, and policing behaviors performed by nestmate workers and queens are a means of repressing worker reproduction. This work describes the means and results of the regulation of worker reproduction in the ant species Aphaenogaster cockerelli. Through manipulative laboratory studies on mature colonies, the lack of egg policing and the presence of physical policing by both workers and queens of this species are described. Through chemical analysis and artificial chemical treatments, the role of cuticular hydrocarbons as indicators of fertility status and the informational basis of policing in this species is demonstrated. An additional queen-specific chemical signal in the Dufour's gland is discovered to be used to direct nestmate aggression towards reproductive competitors. Finally, the level of actual worker-derived males in field colonies is measured. Together, these studies demonstrate the effectiveness of policing behaviors on the suppression of worker reproduction in a social insect species, and provide an example of how punishment and the threat of punishment is a powerful force in maintaining cooperative societies.
ContributorsSmith, Adrian A. (Author) / Liebig, Juergen (Thesis advisor) / Hoelldobler, Bert (Thesis advisor) / Gadau, Juergen (Committee member) / Johnson, Robert A. (Committee member) / Pratt, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Meteorology is an uncommon term rarely resonating through elementary classrooms. However, it is a concept found in both fourth and sixth grade Arizona science standards. As issues involving the environment are becoming more pertinent, it is important to study and understand atmospheric processes along with fulfilling the standards for each grade level. This thesis project teaches the practical skills of weather map reading and weather forecasting through the creation and execution of an after school lesson with the aide of seven teen assistants.
ContributorsChoulet, Shayna (Author) / Walters, Debra (Thesis director) / Oliver, Jill (Committee member) / Balling, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Plants are essential to human life. They release oxygen into the atmosphere for us to breathe. They also provide shelter, medicine, clothing, tools, and food. For many people, the food that is on their tables and in their supermarkets isn't given much thought. Where did it come from? What part of the plant is it? How does it relate to others in the plant kingdom? How do other cultures use this plant? The most many of us know about them is that they are at the supermarket when we need them for dinner (Nabhan, 2009) (Vileisis, 2008).
ContributorsBarron, Kara (Author) / Landrum, Leslie (Thesis director) / Swanson, Tod (Committee member) / Pigg, Kathleen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
DescriptionBased on previous research and findings it is proven that a non-profit class to create awareness will be beneficial in the prevention of eating disorders. This analysis will provide significant research to defend the proposed class.
ContributorsAllen, Brittany (Author) / Chung, Deborah (Author) / Fey, Richard (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Mazurkiewicz, Milena (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Restraint stress is the most commonly used laboratory stressor. It is difficult to characterize as psychological or physical, because past studies show psychological features, but the nature of confinement adds a physical dimension. This was the first study to investigate how experience with restraint stress affects brain response to the next stress without a physical burden. Pair-housed adult male rats were transported to a novel context and restrained or left undisturbed (6hr). The next day, rats were returned to the same context and were either restrained or left undisturbed in the context (n=8/group). After 90min, rats were euthanized to determine functional activation in limbic structures using Fos immunohistochemistry and to measure HPA axis reactivity through blood serum corticosterone levels. Regardless of day 1 experience, context exposure on day 2 enhanced Fos expression in CA1 and CA3 of the hippocampus, basolateral amygdala, and central amygdala. Conversely, other regions and corticosterone levels demonstrated modulation from the previous day's experience. Specifically, rats that were placed back into the restraint context but not restrained on day 2 showed enhanced Fos expression in the dentate gyrus suprapyramidal blade (DGSup), and infralimbic cortex (IL). Also Fos expression was attenuated in rats that received two restraint exposures in the IL and medial amygdala (MEA), suggesting habituation. Only the DG infrapyramidal blade (DGInf) showed enhanced Fos expression to restraint on day 2 without influence of the previous day. While context predominately directed Fos activation, prior experience with restraint influenced Fos expression in the DGSup, IL, MEA and corticosterone levels to support restraint having psychological components.
ContributorsAnouti, P. Danya (Author) / Conrad, D. Cheryl (Thesis director) / Hammer, Ronald (Committee member) / Hoffman, N. Ann (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
This thesis focuses on the erotic depictions of Lucretia and Susanna in Renaissance art. Both noted for displaying exemplary chastity, Lucretia and Susanna gained popularity as Christian and secular role models for women in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. My examination of the heroines addresses the seductive portrayal of these women in painting, which seemingly contradicts the essence of their celebrity. The images specifically analyzed in this thesis include: Lucas Cranach the Elder's Lucretia from 1525, Lucretia from 1533, and Venus from 1532 as well as Tintoretto's Susanna and the Elders and Annibale Carracci's Susanna and the Elders. The scope of my thesis includes both textual and visual analyses of the myths/figures and the disparity that arises between them. Employing Lucretia and Susanna as examples, my aim is to demonstrate a subtle subversion occurring within images of powerful women that ultimately strips them of their power.
ContributorsWilliamson, Jennifer Marie (Author) / Schleif, Corine (Thesis director) / Geschwind, Rachel (Committee member) / Pratt, Rebekah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Science fiction themed video games, specifically Role Playing Games (RPGs) like Deus Ex: Human Revolution (DX:HR), that focus on an emerging technology, contain features that help to better inform anticipatory governance. In a game like DX:HR, players vicariously experience human-enhancement technology and its societal effects through their in-game character. Acting as the character, the player explores the topic of human-enhancement technology in various ways, including dialogue with non-player characters (NPCs) and decisions that directly affect the game's world. Because Deus Ex: Human Revolution and games similar to it, allow players to explore and think about the technology itself, the stances on it, and its potential societal effects, they facilitate the anticipatory governance process. In this paper I postulate a theory of anticipatory gaming, which asserts that video games inform the anticipatory governance process for an emerging technology. To demonstrate this theory I examine the parts of the anticipatory governance process and demonstrate RPG's ability to inform it, through a case study of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
ContributorsShedd, Jesse Bernard (Author) / Wetmore, Jameson (Thesis director) / Fisher, Erik (Committee member) / McKnight, John Carter (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
ABSTRACT 1. Aposematic signals advertise prey distastefulness or metabolic unprofitability to potential predators and have evolved independently in many prey groups over the course of evolutionary history as a means of protection from predation. Most aposematic signals investigated to date exhibit highly chromatic patterning; however, relatives in these toxic groups with patterns of very low chroma have been largely overlooked. 2. We propose that bright displays with low chroma arose in toxic prey species because they were more effective at deterring predation than were their chromatic counterparts, especially when viewed in relatively low light environments such as forest understories. 3. We analyzed the reflectance and radiance of color patches on the wings of 90 tropical butterfly species that belong to groups with documented toxicity that vary in their habitat preferences to test this prediction: Warning signal chroma and perceived chromaticity are expected to be higher and brightness lower in species that fly in open environments when compared to those that fly in forested environments. 4. Analyses of the reflectance and radiance of warning color patches and predator visual modeling support this prediction. Moreover, phylogenetic tests, which correct for statistical non-independence due to phylogenetic relatedness of test species, also support the hypothesis of an evolutionary correlation between perceived chromaticity of aposematic signals and the flight habits of the butterflies that exhibit these signals.
ContributorsDouglas, Jonathan Marion (Author) / Rutowski, Ronald L (Thesis advisor) / Gadau, Juergen (Committee member) / McGraw, Kevin J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Of all the signals and cues that orchestrate the activities of a social insect colony, the reproductives' fertility pheromones are perhaps the most fundamental. These pheromones regulate reproductive division of labor, a defining characteristic of eusociality. Despite their critical role, reproductive fertility pheromones are not evenly expressed across the development of a social insect colony and may even be absent in the earliest colony stages. In the ant Camponotus floridanus, queens of incipient colonies do not produce the cuticular hydrocarbons that serve as fertility and egg-marking signals in this species. My dissertation investigates the consequences of the dramatic change in the quantity of these pheromones that occurs as the colony grows. C. floridanus workers from large, established colonies use egg surface hydrocarbons to discriminate among eggs. Eggs with surface hydrocarbons typical of eggs laid by established queens are nurtured, whereas eggs lacking these signals (i.e., eggs laid by workers and incipient queens) are destroyed. I characterized how workers from incipient colonies responded to eggs lacking queen fertility hydrocarbons. I found that established-queen-laid eggs, incipient-queen-laid eggs, and worker-laid eggs were not destroyed by workers at this colony stage. Destruction of worker-laid eggs is a form of policing, and theoretical models predict that policing should be strongest in incipient colonies. Since there was no evidence of policing by egg-eating in incipient C. floridanus colonies, I searched for evidence of another policing mechanism at this colony stage. Finding none, I discuss reasons why policing behavior may not be expressed in incipient colonies. I then considered the mechanism that accounts for the change in workers' response to eggs. By manipulating ants' egg experience and testing their egg-policing decisions, I found that ants use a combination of learned and innate criteria to discriminate between targets of care and destruction. Finally, I investigated how the increasing strength of queen-fertility hydrocarbons affects nestmate recognition, which also relies on cuticular hydrocarbons. I found that queens with strong fertility hydrocarbons can be transferred between established colonies without aggression, but they cannot be introduced into incipient colonies. Queens from incipient colonies cannot be transferred into incipient or established colonies.
ContributorsMoore, Dani (Author) / Liebig, Juergen (Thesis advisor) / Gadau, Juergen (Committee member) / Pratt, Stephen (Committee member) / Smith, Brian (Committee member) / Rutowski, Ronald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The development of the vertebrate musculoskeletal system is a highly dynamic process, requiring tight control of the specification and patterning of myogenic, chondrogenic and tenogenic cell types. Development of the diverse musculoskeletal lineages from a common embryonic origin in the paraxial mesoderm indicates the presence of a regulatory network of transcription factors that direct lineage decisions. The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, PARAXIS, is expressed in the paraxial mesoderm during vertebrate somitogenesis, where it has been shown to play a critical role in the mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition associated with somitogenesis, and the development of the hypaxial skeletal musculature and axial skeleton. In an effort to elucidate the underlying genetic mechanism by which PARAXIS regulates the musculoskeletal system, I performed a microarray-based, genome-wide analysis comparing transcription levels in the somites of Paraxis-/- and Paraxis+/+ embryos. This study revealed targets of PARAXIS involved in multiple aspects of mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition, including Fap and Dmrt2, which modulate cell-extracellular matrix adhesion. Additionally, in the epaxial dermomyotome, PARAXIS activates the expression of the integrin subunits a4 and a6, which bind fibronectin and laminin, respectively, and help organize the patterning of trunk skeletal muscle. Finally, PARAXIS activates the expression of genes required for the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and migration of hypaxial myoblasts into the limb, including Lbx1 and Met. Together, these data point to a role for PARAXIS in the morphogenetic control of musculoskeletal patterning.
ContributorsRowton, Megan (Author) / Rawls, Alan (Thesis advisor) / Wilson-Rawls, Jeanne (Committee member) / Kusumi, Kenro (Committee member) / Gadau, Juergen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013