Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology

Great and Lesser Prairie-Chickens are part of the genus Tympanuchus, who are known for their rapid foot-stomping behavior that creates a non-vocal drumming noise and their bright bare-part ornaments with ultraviolet reflectance. Both of these non-vocal components are prominent during their courtship displays along with other morphology and vocal traits. Females and other males may use multiple male signals from their display to assess multiple components of the male quality for mate choice and competition purposes. The central theme of this work is to investigate two non-vocal signals under the mechanisms of sexual selection intersexual mate choice and intrasexual competition. Signals are usually only considered under one of the mechanisms, typically intersexual mate choice or their impacts on social behavior has not been considered under any context. In Chapter 2, we investigated if foot-stomping could be integral in the communication of both the Greater and Lesser Prairie-Chicken, by using high-speed video cameras and recorders. We found that foot-stomping rate and duration increased with females' presences and only foot-stomping rate differ between the two species with Greater Prairie-Chickens having a higher rate than Lesser Prairie-Chickens. Since we used high-speed videos, we were able to collect simple kinematic measurements and found that both species are lifting their feet up higher when stomping when females are present. Since there was a difference in foot-stomping features when females were present/absent, in chapter 3 we investigated whether foot-stomping would increase the likelihood of a male to successfully mate, by using discrete choice modeling in Lesser Prairie-Chickens only. We added foot-stomping traits (rate and duration) with other behavioral, morphological, territorial, and color variables to run the discrete choice model. We found males increased their likelihood of successfully mating if they had a larger comb, increased aggressive behavior (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ian Hamilton (Advisor) Subjects: Behaviorial Sciences; Ecology; Evolution and Development; Morphology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2009, Biological Sciences (Arts and Sciences)

Adequate physical activity and a balanced diet (60 % carbohydrates, 30 % fats, and 10 % proteins of total caloric intake) are two important factors for a healthy life. Individuals who engage in limited physical activities and who have poor eating habits are more likely to be overweight/obese and to have many diseases. Many people who want to maximize their weight loss attempt to combine exercise and diet regimens. Recently a low-carbohydrate high-protein diet has become popular as a weight reduction method. However, the effectiveness and safety of this diet regimen are unclear. Moreover, the effectiveness and safety of this diet regimen when combined with exercise is unknown. In this study, seventeen healthy male subjects were assigned to either a traditional, high-carbohydrate low-fat diet (57.5 % carbohydrates, 25.4 % fats, and 14.2 % protein of total caloric intake) group or an experimental, low-carbohydrate high-protein diet (30.6 % carbohydrates, 38.5 % fats, and 29.9 % protein of total caloric intake) group while participating in seven weeks of high-intensity rowing training. Subjects rowed twice a week during the first three weeks and three times a week during the last four weeks. During the rowing training, post-rowing heart rates were recorded. The rowing intensity was gradually increased to maintain the same post-rowing heart rate. The duration of each rowing session was also gradually extended while the resting time was reduced. After the seven-week rowing training and diet intervention, the traditional diet group showed improvements in cardiovascular function, lipoprofiles, rowing performance, and skeletal muscle size, while the experimental diet group showed improvements in cardiovascular function and lipoprofile but not skeletal muscle fiber size. These results showed that regardless of what people eat, the high-intensity rowing exercise improves their physical fitness level and benefits their health status. However, a high-carbohydrate diet, rather th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Robert S. Hikida (Advisor); Roger M. Gilders (Committee Member); Fredrick C. Hagerman (Committee Member); Robert M. Roe (Committee Member); Robert S. Staron (Committee Member) Subjects: Health; Nutrition; Sports Medicine