More so than any other science in the past several decades, Biology has seen an explosion of new information and monumental discoveries that have had a profound impact on much more than the science itself. Much of this has occurred at the molecular level. Many of these modern concepts, ideas, and technologies, as well as their historical context, can be easily understood and appreciated at the high school level. Moreover, it is argued here that the integration of this is critical for making biology relevant as a modern science. A contemporary high school biology curriculum should adequately reflect this newly acquired knowledge and how it has already has already begun to revolutionize medicine, agriculture, and the study of biology itself. This curriculum provides teachers with a detailed framework for integrating molecular biology into a high school biology curriculum. It is not intended to represent the curriculum for an entire academic year, but should be considered a significant component. In addition to examining key concepts and discoveries, it examines modern molecular techniques, their applications, and their relevance to science and beyond. It also provides several recommended labs and helpful protocols.

On-road remote sensing has the ability to operate in real-time, and under real world conditions, making it an ideal candidate for detecting gross polluters on major freeways and thoroughfares. In this study, remote sensing was employed to detect carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), and nitrogen oxide (NO). On-road remote sensing data taken from measurements performed in six states, (Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Texas, and Utah) were cleaned and analyzed. Data mining and exploration were first undertaken in order to search for relationships among variables such as make, year, engine type, vehicle weight, and location. Descriptive statistics were obtained for the three pollutants of interest. The data were found to have non-normal distributions. Applied transformations were ineffective, and nonparametric tests were applied. Due to the extremely large sample size of the dataset (508,617 records), nonparametric tests resulted in "p" values that demonstrated "significance." The general linear model was selected due to its ability to handle data with non-normal distributions. The general linear model was run on each pollutant with output producing descriptive statistics, profile plots, between-subjects effects, and estimated marginal means. Due to insufficient data within certain cells, results were not obtained for gross vehicle weight and engine type. The "year" …

Conflicting opinions about the effectiveness of H. pakistanae as a biological control agent for hydrilla prompt researchers to find a method for assessing the fly's success. Developing a physiological age-grading system for the fly using ovarian morphology to detect changes in reproductive activity is useful for evaluating reproductive status of the fly in field populations. Changes in the appearance of follicular relics in ovaries with oviposition provide a reliable method to estimate fecundity. Characteristics of follicular relics were used to develop a system with eight physiological age classes, three nulliparous and five parous. Changes that occur in the fat body were used to assist in classification of nulliparous females or those with low egg counts.

Constructed wetlands are considered an inefficient technology for long-term phosphorus (P) removal. The P retention effectiveness of subsurface wetlands can be improved by using appropriate substrates. The objectives of this study were to: (i) use sorption isotherms to estimate the P sorption capacity of the two materials, masonry sand and light weight expanded shale; (ii) describe dissolved P removal in small (2.7 m3) subsurface flow wetlands; (iii) quantify the forms of P retained by the substrates in the pilot cells; and (iv) use resulting data to assess the technical and economic feasibility of the most promising system to remove P. The P sorption capacity of masonry sand and expanded shale, as determined with Langmuir isotherms, was 60 mg/kg and 971 mg/kg respectively. In the pilot cells receiving secondarily treated wastewater, cells containing expanded shale retained a greater proportion of the incoming P (50.8 percent) than cells containing masonry sand (14.5 percent). After a year of operation, samples were analyzed for total P (TP) and total inorganic P (TIP). Subsamples were fractionated into labile-P, Fe+Al-bound P, humic-P, Ca+Mg-bound P, and residual-P. Means and standard deviations of TP retained by the expanded shale and masonry sand were 349 + 169 and 11.9 …

Aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) catalyzes the first committed step in the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway. Bacterial ATCases have been divided into three classes, class A, B, and C, based on their molecular weight, holoenzyme architecture, and enzyme kinetics. Moraxella bovis is a fastidious organism, the etiologic agent of infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK). The M. bovis ATCase was purified and characterized for the first time. It is a class A enzyme with a molecular mass of 480 to 520 kDa. It has a pH optimum of 9.5 and is stable at high temperatures. The ATCase holoenzyme is inhibited by CTP > ATP > UTP. The Km for aspartate is 1.8 mM and the Vmax 1.04 µmol per min, where the Km for carbamoylphosphate is 1.05 mM and the Vmax 1.74 µmol per min.

In July of 1999, I wrote to 24 Texas junior and community colleges (and one four-year institution) describing my thesis agenda of a general biology lecture and laboratory syllabus for introductory biology students. I requested the titles and authors of the general biology textbooks and laboratory manuals they were currently using, the publishers of these texts, and the edition of said texts. I then contacted publishers of the various textbooks who, in turn, directed me to the Dallas-area representatives for further inquiries. I assimilated the various authors' general biology topics into a two-semester syllabus of lecture and one semester of laboratory. The document is not a text manuscript, but an all-inclusive listing of a general biology syllabus broken down by subject.