September 2008

Defense of Dissertations

L. Alice Warren-Bradley, Ph.D. (major advisor: Dr. Bradley Bennett) defended her dissertation entitled:” Demographic effects of thatch harvest and implications for sustainable use of Irapai Palm (Lepydocarium tenue Mart.) by riverine communities in the peruvian Amazon” on September 26th.

Defense of Proposals

Sat Gavassa, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. Philip Stoddard) defended her dissertation proposal entitled "Taking advantage of stress: the case of electric fish signals" on September 19th.

Robert H. Hegna, MS candidate (major advisor: Dr. Maureen Donnelly) defended his thesis proposal entitled : “Aposematism in the strawberry dart poison frog (Oophaga pumilio) : The effect of frog density, pattern, and color on predation” on September 19th.

Presentations at Meetings

Roxaneh Khorsand, Ph.D. candidate, gave a presentation with her major advisor Dr. Suzanne Koptur entitle “The Pollinator Interactions of Three Sympatric Palms in Southern Florida Pine Rocklands.” at the Plant Talk seminar series at FIU on September 15th.

Clifton B. Ruehl, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. Joel Trexler) gave a talk entitled "Separating consumptive and Non-consumptive Predator Effects in the Presence of Nutrient Enrichment" at the Ecological Society of America in Milwaukee WI on August 6th.

Greg Koch, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. Evelyn Gaiser) presented a poster entitled: "Preliminary metabolic estimates of an oligotrophic, subtropical pond using diel changes in dissolved oxygen" at the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) meeting #7 in Norrtalje, Sweden.

Publications

Claude-Henry Volmar , Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. Ophelia Weeks) has recently co-authored the following papers:

Ait-Ghezala G., Abdullah L., Volmar C.H., Quadros A., Paris D., Mouzon B., Mullan M.A., Luis C.A., Keegan A.P., Parrish J., Crawford F.C., Mathura V.S., Mullan M.J. (2008) Diagnostic Utility of APOE, soluble CD40, CD40L, and Ab1-40 levels in plasma in Alzheimer's Disease. Cytokine. (In Press).

Laporte V, Ait-Ghezala G, Volmar CH, Ganey C, Ganey N, Wood M, Mullan M (2008) CD40 ligation mediates plaque-associated tau phosphorylation in beta-amyloid overproducing mice. Brain Res 1231:132-142.

Mario Perez, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. Fernando Noriega) has co-authored the following paper that was accepted for publication:

Mayoral, J.G, Nouzova, M., Yoshiyama, M., Shinoda, T., Hernandez-Martinez, S., Dolghih, E., Turjanski, A.G., Roitberg, A., Priestap, H., Perez, M., Mackenzie, L., Li, Y., and Noriega, F.G. (2008) Molecular and Functional characterization of a Juvenoid Methyltrasferase expressed in the corpora allata of mosquitoes. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (In press).

Grants Awarded

Meagan Dunphy-Daly, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. Michael Heithaus) was awarded a Young Explorers grant from the National Geographic Society's
Committee for Research and Exploration in the amount of $4,500.00 in support of her project "Trophic cascades in seagrass ecosystems and implications for
conservation."

Cassandra Quave, Ph.D. candidate (major advisor: Dr. Bradley Bennett) was awarded the RUTH L. KIRSCHSTEIN NATIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE AWARDS FOR POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING IN COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE (F32), Project title: Anti-biofilm activity of white horehound extract in catheter-associated infection. The grant will cover her stipend, research and conference expenses for 3 years (2009-2011). She will work with Dr. Mark Smeltzer at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Alumni News

Allan Phipps (M.S. 2000), Major advisor: Dr. Bradley Bennett, was named the 2007 SeaWorld/Busch Gardens/Fujifilm National Environmental Educator of the Year. He is also one of three Florida finalists for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

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