The purpose of this study was to examine the ultrastructure of both young (dividing form) and adult (stationary form) of Trypanosoma lewisi. Changes observed between the two forms of the organism were related directly to data obtained from previous comparative biochemical studies conducted on these forms of Trypanosoma lewisi.

A transition model (MOSAIC) is used to describe forest dynamics at the landscape scale. The model uses a semi-Markov framework by considering transition probabilities and Erlang distributed holding times in each transition. Parameters for the transition model are derived from a gap model (ZELIG). This procedure ensures conceptual consistency of the landscape model with the fine scale ecological detail represented by the forest gap model. Spatial heterogeneity in the transition model is driven by maps of terrain with characteristics contained in a Geographic Information System (GIS) database. The results of the transition model simulations, percent cover forest type maps, are exported to grid-maps in the GIS. These cover type maps can be classified and used to describe forest dynamics using landscape statistics metrics. The linkage model-GIS enhances the transition model spatial analytical capabilities. A parameterization algorithm was developed that takes as input gap model tracer files which contain the percent occupation of each cover type through time. As output, the algorithm produces a file that contains the parameter values needed for MOSAIC for each one of the possible transitions. Parameters for the holding time distribution were found by calculating an empirical estimate of the cumulative probability function and using a …

The development and refinement of FA has been adequately investigated with major emphasis on pathogenic microorganisms. The development of this technique has reduced both the time and number of biochemical tests necessary to identify a diversity of organisms. The organisms included are the protozoans, as described by Goldman (1953 and 1957) and by Ingram (1961), viruses, as reported by Liu (1955a) and Burgdorfer and Lackman (1960a), pathogenic bacteria which have been investigated by Moody, Goldman, and Thomason (1956), Moody and Winter (1959), Deason, Falcone, and Harris (1957) and Thomason, Cherry, and Moody (1957). Various fungi have been studied with FA by Kaufman and Brandt (1964), Kaufman and Kaplan (1961 and 1963) and Gordon (1958). Therefore, due to the success of the fluorescent antibody technique in many areas of microbiology in previous investigations, the logical assumption was that immunofluorescence might be incorporated into an efficient system in which a specific organism associated with fecal pollution, such as S. faecalis, could be rapidly identified. Based on this assumption, the feasibility of fluorescent antibody techniques, using S. faecalis was investigated as a means of rapid determination of bacterial pollution in water. Although much progress has been achieved in the study of cytochemical reactions …

The aim of this study has been to measure some of the ecological factors in a series of plant habitats and their relation to the existing vegetation in selected twenty soil types of Red River County, Texas.

Leguminous plants are able to fix nitrogen by establishing a symbiotic relationship with soil dwelling bacteria, called rhizobia. The model plant Medicago truncatula forms a partnership with Sinorhizobium meliloti whereby the plant gains bioavailable nitrogen and in exchange the bacteria gains carbohydrates. This process occurs within nodules, which are structures produced on the roots of the plants within which nitrogen is fixed. M. truncatula incomplete root elongation (MtIRE) was localized to the infection zone, which is zone II of indeterminate nodules. It was shown to encode a signaling kinase so it was anticipated to play a role in nodulation. Mutants of MtIRE in the R108 background, mutagenized with the Tnt1 retrotransposon, were obtained from reverse screen, and were assessed to determine if a disrupted MtIRE gene was the cause of nitrogen fixation defective nodules. Mutant line NF1320, having a mutant phenotype, showed typical Mendelian segregation of 3:1 when backcrossed to R108. Experimental results show that MtIRE gene is not the cause of the mutant phenotype, but was linked to the causative locus. MtIRE co-segregated with the mutant phenotype 83%. Southern blot and the first version of the M. truncatula genome (version 3.5) reported a single MtIRE gene and this was …

Aldolase from human heart has been purified 128-fold to a final specific activity of 11.52 units per mg. The purification procedure employed column chromatography on phosphocellulose.

A study of the phytoplankton communities of Lake Ray Roberts was conducted at three sampling sites on two sampling dates during the summer of 1995, assessing both community structure and chlorophyll a concentrations. Eight similarity indices were then used to characterize and compare the communities of these sites. Both community similarity and chlorophyll a concentrations were evaluated using a minimum detectable difference equation to determine the amount of change that must occur in these parameters in order to be deemed statistically significant. The Bray-Curtis Index was shown to be the most adequate index evaluated, and was subsequently used in conjunction with bootstrap analysis to determine the similarity between the three sampling sites.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of varying concentrations of geosmin on the growth of Bacillus cereus.

The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to isolate, purify, and characterize the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of Azotobacter vinelandii ATCO 12837. The second was to determine if there was irreversible binding of homologous 32P labeled DNA to recipient A. vinelandii cells.

The purpose of this study is to gather information related to the characteristics of two groups of undergraduate non-science majors; namely, those students who once considered science as a career and subsequently changed to a non-science major and those who have never considered a career in science. It is frequently observed that children in the elementary school have an intense interest in science. One of the principal concerns of this study is how and for what reasons has the interest in science changed between elementary school and college? It is also the purpose of this study to gather information related to the attitudes of these college students toward the science courses they have had in high school and toward their science teachers. In attempting to arrive at an answer, the group who once considered a science career and those who have never considered an occupational choice in a field of science will be compared in the following areas: 1. General information such as sex, age, size of high school attended, rank within their graduating classes, college classification and military experiences. 2. Occupations and hobbies of parents. 3. Experiences which may influence attitudes toward science such as elementary school science, high …

This study examines ultrastructural changes occurring in seven- and fourteen-day populations of Trypanosorfa lewisi when 60 mg sodium salicylate is administered to the host. These changes were related to the host-immune response. Seven-day trypanosomes showed approximately 10 posterior volutin granules. Seven-day trypanosomes whose host had received salicylate exhibited. 30 to 40 volutin granules, and their posterior tip exhibited volutin granules in high numbers sometimes excluding other cellular elements. Fourteen-day trypanosones showed fewer volutin granules than seven-day, salicylate-treated ones. Salicylate treatment caused no additional ultrastructural alterations. Thus the volutin granules are not linked to the reproduction inhibiting antibody (ablast in) but may be involved in the formation of the trypanocidal antibodies.

This problem consists primarily in determining the numerical value of the leukocytes after different amounts of roentgen rays had been applied to the subjects. The Atomic Energy Commission set up a problem concerning the effects of roentgen rays on the fertility in chickens, and grants were given to two institutions to study this. The blood work in this paper was an off-shoot from one of these five fertility grants.

The objectives of this project were to measure changes in frequency of occurrence of submerged macrophytes over the first two growing seasons following stocking with triploid grass carp at two fish per acre and to measure differences in macrophyte biomass between areas excluded from herbivory and adjacent control sites after 16 months following establishment of exclosures. The project also seeks to measure concentrations of fluridone following the herbicide treatment, and to compare two methods of aquatic vegetation sampling.

Since heparin combines with some antibiotics to decrease the toxicity of the antibiotic to the patient, the purpose of this investigation is to determine whether it has any effect upon the development of resistance to antibiotics by Staphylococcus aureus.

The purpose of this study was threefold. The literature concerning parasites of A. crepitans was to be brought up to date. Contributions to the general body of knowledge pertaining to the parasitic fauna of host specimens of A. crepitans and specifically those found in Denton County, Texas, were to be made. Finally, specimens found parasitizing host specimens of A. crepitans were to be preserved and classified.

The effect of excess gravity on bone-forming elements of the growing perichondrial shaft of embryonic chicks was investigated through the use of the transmission electron microscope and various cytochemical techniques.

"The purpose of this study is to gather information concerning some factors which may have operated to influence science majors in North Texas State College toward science careers."--4.

The ability to synthesize pyrimidine nucleotides is essential for most organisms. Pyrimidines are required for RNA and DNA synthesis, as well as cell wall synthesis and the metabolism of certain carbohydrates. Recent findings, however, indicate that the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway and its intermediates maybe more important for bacterial metabolism than originally thought. Maksimova et al., 1994, reported that a P. putida M, pyrimidine auxotroph in the third step of the pathway, dihydroorotase (DHOase), failed to produce the siderophore pyoverdin. We created a PAO1 DHOase pyrimidine auxotroph to determine if this was also true for P. aeruginosa. Creation of this mutant was a two-step process, as P. aeruginosa has two pyrC genes (pyrC and pyrC2), both of which encode active DHOase enzymes. The pyrC gene was inactivated by gene replacement with a truncated form of the gene. Next, the pyrC2 gene was insertionally inactivated with the aacC1 gentamicin resistance gene, isolated from pCGMW. The resulting pyrimidine auxotroph produced significantly less pyoverdin than did the wild type. In addition, the mutant produced 40% less of the phenazine antibiotic, pyocyanin, than did the wild type. As both of these compounds have been reported to be vital to the virulence response of P. aeruginosa, …

The present study was concerned with the testing of antigenic material derived from a number of streptomycetes in an effort to establish an auxiliary taxonomic scheme based upon cytoplasmic antigen relationships among these organisms.

The work described in this thesis was undertaken to study the reasons why Azotobacter vinelandii ATCC 12837 after incubation in Burk's nitrogen-free liquid will not form as many colonies when plated on Difco Tryptic Soy Agar as when planted on Burk's nitrogen-free agar. The difference in growth of A. vinelandii on the two agars was established by performing viable cell-plate counts. The difference in growth was most apparent at 24-hours incubation of the Burk's liquid-media cultures. Phase contrast microscopic observations of Tryptic Soy media cultures of A. vinelandii disclosed the regular formation of fungoid cells at early stages of growth of the bacteria, 18 to 24 hours.

This study was initiated after finding two chromosomal types of Peromyscus maniculatus north and south of the Red River in Texas and Oklahoma. The problem was to explain the chromosomal variations and their implications to the systematics of the grassland subspecies of P. maniculatus in this region.

The purpose of this study is to determine the presence or absence of a typical Krebs cycle metabolism in the primary mycelia of an aquatic streptomycete.

The purpose of this investigation was to explore how geosmin, an odorous compound produced by certain algae and actinomycetes, may affect the growth of a selected, odor producing actinomycete of the genus Streptomyces.

The design for this study was tri-phasic: 1) to establish growth time patterns for each group of atypical mycobacteria, 2) to demonstrate the dynamic state of phosphorus in the various fractions by determining its incorporation and turnover, 3) to determine quantitatively the amount of phosphorus in each fraction.