PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / School of Biomedical Sciences

Many neurochemicals that affect social behavior also play a role in mediating bone development and metabolism. In primates, higher levels of neuropeptide Y and serotonin in humans and chimpanzees, compared to monkeys, are associated with decreased levels of aggression and increased social competence, respectively. Additionally, apes have higher levels of acetylcholine (ACh) and lower levels of dopamine, corresponding to internally driven and autonomous social behavior. Humans, conversely, have relatively low ACh and high dopamine, corresponding to externally driven social behavior and social conformity. ACh is specifically associated with the control of internally versus externally motivated behaviors in the striatum and is also known to promote osteoblastogenesis, bone formation, and to also inhibit bone resorption. However, the relationship between neurochemicals in the brain, bone, and behavior has, to date, remained relatively unexplored. In this dissertation, I investigate potential relationships among ACh concentrations and bone architecture by examining rats of differing levels of domestication and also among primates. I show that, in wild-caught and laboratory-raised rats, skeletal ACh concentrations, trabecular spacing, cortical bone density, and cortical area are lower in laboratory-raised rats, while bone volume is higher. Additionally, skeletal ACh may account for 40.8% of variation in trabecular spacing and 35.5% of variation in bone volume among rats. Though the difference in skeletal ACh among groups was consistent with expectations, our other findings largely contrast with currently available literature, warranting further research into the relationship between skeletal and neural ACh. I also show that, while in a highly limited primate sample, there is no relationship between skeletal and neural ACh concentrations, the methods used to explore this relationship could be used in future studies. Lastly, I show that in exploring the relationship between (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Claude Owen Lovejoy (Committee Chair); Colleen Novak (Committee Member); Richard Meindl (Committee Member); Mary Ann Raghanti (Committee Member) Subjects: Anatomy and Physiology; Biology; Biomedical Research; Developmental Biology; Endocrinology; Evolution and Development; Morphology; Neurobiology; Physical Anthropology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Horticulture and Crop Science

Global climate change poses significant challenges to agriculture, accelerating the risk of drought. Identifying sources of tolerance or avoidance to the stress associated with drought is imperative for crop improvement. Chile pepper (Capsicum sp.) is a culturally and economically important food, spice, and medicine worldwide. At one of its centers of domestication and diversity, Mexico, wild, semi-wild, and landrace populations are found across environmental gradients and cultivation systems. Thus, Mexico provides an excellent opportunity to study local adaptations associated with drought across scales of domestication and environment. In the following dissertation, I explore the morphophysiology, ecology, and genetic variation of drought adaptation through extensive phenotyping under induced soil water deficit across chile pepper germplasm from Mexico and the US. Through four research chapters concentrating on different germplasm, phenotypic responses, and growth stages, I quantify effects of soil water deficit on chile pepper and identify possible drought adaptations and mechanisms of water deficit tolerance and avoidance. Results of this work lay a foundation for exploring chile pepper germplasm specifically for drought adaptations, highlight unique phenotypic responses and accessions for further study, and improve ability to efficiently phenotype under water deficit.

Committee: Kristin Mercer (Advisor); Darren Drewry (Committee Member); David Francis (Committee Member); Leah McHale (Advisor) Subjects: Agriculture; Ecology; Horticulture; Plant Sciences

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2019, Environmental Studies (Voinovich)

Domesticated Chenopodium taxa are distinguished from their wild relatives on the basis of seed morphology including thin seed coats, truncate seed margins, and light-colored appearance. Wild chenopods produce polymorphic seeds with a range of seed coat thicknesses, colors, and margin shapes. Rather than assuming a homogeneous and smooth morphological transition gradient during domestication, the effects of seed polymorphism must be considered. To compare polymorphism of wild seeds to domesticated seeds, wild chenopod seeds were collected and separated into morphological types by color. From each plant, ratios of seed morphs were counted, morphological measurements were taken, and germination was tested under a range of stratification and germination conditions. The same measurements and tests were conducted on the seeds of domesticated chenopods. Those seeds with lighter colors and thinner seed coats, called red morphs, are morphologically similar to seeds of domesticated chenopods. Red morphs, like domesticated chenopods, also have lower dormancy and lower over-wintering viability than do black morphs. Differences in polymorphic heterogeneity among wild chenopods implies a model of domestication. Under conditions of high disturbance and spring planting, chenopods producing higher proportions of red morph seeds may have a selective advantage. The role of heterogeneity in the domestication of chenopodium can inform modern crop improvement programs. Additionally, the yield of experimental plots of wild chenopods compares favorably with quinoa and modern agricultural crops. Re-domestication of the lost Chenopodium domesticate has the potential to create a new high value agricultural crop for eastern North America.

Committee: Sabrina Curran Dr. (Committee Chair); Sarah Wyatt Dr. (Committee Member); Harvey Ballard Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Ancient Civilizations; Cultural Anthropology; Evolution and Development; Experiments; Plant Biology; Plant Sciences

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Comparative Studies

Humans are not alone in this world nor have we ever been. This inter-disciplinary project develops an approach to understanding species difference through a phenomenology-informed, material-semiotic investigation human/cattle co-emergence. Cattle (Bos taurus) have been selected because of their outsized significance in the transformations that have defined contemporary human life. By identifying a select set of sites and developing a situated investigation around a “beastly figure” representative of each of them, this project demonstrates the co-productive and emergent qualities of our interspecies relationships and makes a case for situated co-emergence as an ethical and ontological paradigm for animal studies. Over the course of the text, I will consider several “beastly figures” each of which offers an example of co-emergent human/cattle processes. I come to these figures through a process of “tracing,” starting with my own situated position and moving toward an encounter (albeit a mediated one) with the world-making frame of another being. The dissertation begins with a “0” chapter on the wild aurochs, an animal predating or excluded from the human/cattle domestication relationship. Each subsequent chapter takes up a different figure of human/cattle entanglement to highlight a passageway of encounter between species or identify an emergent whole that the integration of our species creates. Chapter 1 follows the alphabet back to its beastly source, provides an overview of the tracing methodology, and makes a case for the importance of cattle specifically. Chapter 2 considers the medieval bestiary as a material object, a medium for encountering an animal other, and as a model for understanding projects of knowing animals. The next three chapters consider contemporary entanglements between humans and cattle and the emergent potentials of each. All this builds toward a conclusion, which pulls together the threads of each chapter to emphasize the ethical importan (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Hugh Urban PhD (Advisor); David Horn PhD (Committee Member); Bernhard Malkmus PhD (Committee Member); Isaac Weiner PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Animals; Comparative; Cultural Anthropology; Ecology

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 0, Honors Theses

Previous research investigating the effects of domestication on aggression in fish has failed to address two major confounding variables. Most if not all of the fish from previous research were either wild caught and housed in captivity or farmed fish. The second variable that has been widely ignored is the artificial testing environment that is completely novel for the wild fish. The goal of this study is to correct two major confounding variables that are largely ignored in this field of study. Thirty blackstripe topminnows (Fundulus notatus) as well as thirty fancy guppies (Poecilia reticulata) were individually observed. The amount of aggressive and submissive behaviors was recorded during a two-and-a-half-minute observation period. The data was analyzed using an independent t-test on SPSS. Wild fish and domestic fish did not differ in aggressive behaviors t(58)= 4.29, p>.05. However, wild fish were significantly more submissive than domestic fish t(58)= 4.909, p<.05

Committee: Blake Mathys Dr. (Advisor); Valerie Matthews Dr. (Other); John Marazita Dr. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Animal Sciences; Behavioral Psychology; Environmental Science

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2015, Food Science and Technology

Blueberry was firstly domesticated almost 100 years ago. In the past century, the cultivated blueberries have gradually owned some desirable characteristics by selection. Field observations on blueberry revealed differences in insect selection preference exhibited between cultivated and wild highbush blueberries. However, little is known about the link between insect selection and domestication. There are a number of pests that can infect blueberries, and the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is a potential serious pest for them. Some studies have focused on the blueberries feeding injury caused by BMSB, few works have studied the response of the blueberry plant to this pest, so little is known about influence of BMSB infestation on blueberry secondary metabolites, especially anthocyanin and phenolics accumulation. In this research, cultivated and wild highbush blueberries in New Jersey were analyzed comparatively to determine their quality attributes including pH, total soluble solids and individual weight, as well as their content of anthocyanin and phenolics. Samples were collected from 8 different locations to determine the interaction between domestication and location. Result showed that cultivated highbush blueberry had bigger fruit weight and higher pH value than wild blueberries, while wild blueberries were with higher anthocyanin and phenolic content. The growing location also affected pH and phenolic content of blueberry. The influence of BMSB infestation on highbush blueberry sugar, anthocyanin and phenolic accumulation was also determined in this experiment. Blueberries provided by the Marucci Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension Center in New Jersey were either mechanically damaged or infected by 0, 2, 5 or 10 adult or nymph BMSB and were collected at select time points from 3 different plots. UV-Vis spectrophotometry was applied for anthocyanins and phenolics quantitative analysis. The HPLC chromatographs were recorded to determ (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: M.Monica Giusti (Advisor); Luis Rodriguez-saona (Committee Member); Jiyoung Lee (Committee Member) Subjects: Entomology; Food Science

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2010, Arts and Sciences : Biological Sciences

Mesoamerica, a region of cultural evolution in the world, is known as a cradle for plant domestication. Studies exploring the domestication origin and history of H. annuus, a globally significant crop plant, greatly benefit from genetic and morphological assessments of modern plant populations and archaeological remains in that region, particularly southern Mexico. Inclusion of Mexican representatives of sunflower, both wild and cultivated, in domestication studies of this plant is necessary to make a precise inference of the origin of sunflower. In this study, we morphologically evaluated sunflower achene populations from Mexico and the U.S. Anatomical characteristics of achenes including the shape (narrow or plump), seed coat (pericarp) color, pattern, and attachments were described and evaluated. High variation was recorded for achene shape and seed coat coloration within domesticated landraces as well as between wild and domesticated populations. Interestingly, achenes in one of the Mexican landraces, collected from the southern state of Guerrero, were the most morphologically similar to the wild sunflowers in that region. This set of observations coupled with the fact that archeological sites with pre-Columbian domesticated H. annuus remains in Mexico are located in southern regions of the country; imply that southern Mexico may represent a center for the diversity of domesticated H. annuus. The detailed description of achenes in each population, presented here, can serve as a database for future references to sunflower plants in Mexico. Also, we sought to test the utility of modern computer-assisted shape analysis techniques in distinguishing between wild and domesticated sunflower achenes. Computerized approaches offer faster and more reliable methods for identification and classification of seed populations. A comparative study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of computer-assisted shape measurements compared to the conventional size measurements (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Lentz PhD (Committee Chair); Theresa Culley PhD (Committee Member); Stephen Matter PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Anthropology

From the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain (4,500 BC, calibrated) a transformation in many aspects of life has been inferred from the archaeological record. This transition is characterized by changes in settlements, subsistence, cultural assemblages, mortuary customs and trade networks. Some researchers suggest that changes in material culture, particularly the replacement of long-occupied tells with smaller, more dispersed hamlets, indicates a shift from sedentary farming villages to a more mobile, agropastoral society. In this study, stable isotope analysis was used to test two hypotheses about this transition: (1) mobility increased from the Neolithic to the Copper Age, and (2) diet became more focused on domesticated plants and animals. Stable strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) in human and animal dental enamel were used to test the first hypothesis, and the abundance of stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes in human and animal bone were be used to test the second. Isotopic measures of diet, residence and animal husbandry strategies do not change significantly from the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age, as originally proposed, and indicate that the emergence of an agropastoral society does not explain the transition in material culture that has been observed on the Plain. Interestingly, when the time frame is expanded to include the entire Neolithic and Copper Age sequence (i.e., the Early and Middle Neolithic and the Middle Copper Age), changes in the δ15N and 87Sr/86Sr isotope ranges support alternative explanations for the gradual development of smaller, dispersed farming villages. For example, the nitrogen isotope results do not change significantly between the Late Neolithic and Copper Age samples, but are significantly higher than previously studied samples from the Early and Middle Neolithic. Similarly, the strontium isotope results from human teeth are not much different between the Late Neolithic and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard W. Yerkes PhD (Advisor); Clark Spencer Larsen PhD (Committee Member); Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg PhD (Committee Member); Robert A. Cook PhD (Committee Member); William A. Parkinson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Ancient Civilizations; Ancient History; Animals; Archaeology; Biogeochemistry; Human Remains; Physical Anthropology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Anthropology

The transition from foraging to farming has cross-culturally been associated with major changes in human technology, settlement patterns and social organization. This research project tests these relationships among prehistoric human populations inhabiting the Eastern Woodlands by considering how increasing reliance on cultivated foods during the Holocene led to economic circumstances in which investment in the specialization of plant-food processing tools was beneficial. It further identifies that tool investment benefits were only adaptive when seasonally strategic mobility had decreased to such a degree that tool carrying costs were offset by expanded tool use-life. Using the Model of Technological Investment, grounded in neo-Darwinian theory and Human Behavioral Ecology, this study uses quantitative and qualitative archaeological data to 1. Provide a general survey of the changes in human botanical diet from the Hocking Valley, Ohio, for the Late Archaic through Middle Woodland Periods, 2. Determine the relative correlation between investments in food processing technology and the incorporation of cultivated foods into the prehistoric Woodlands diet, and 3. Establish the seasonal occupation at each of the sampled sites in order to determine different degrees of sedentariness and residential stability throughout the temporal periods surveyed. A variety of archaeological methods were utilized in this study, including macro-archaeobotanical analysis, pottery and ground stone macrocharacteristic analysis, and analyses of settlement and feature data from habitation sites The results of these analyses indicate that 1. Relatively high levels of investment in the construction of food-processing technology only occurred after population mobility decreased to such a degree that allowed for an extended use-life of an individual tool, 2. Middle Woodland populations in the Hocking Valley were essentially residentially stable farmers, and 3. The relationship between plant dom (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kristen Gremillion Ph.D (Committee Chair); Julie Field Ph.D (Committee Member); Elliot Abrams Ph.D (Committee Member); Robert Cook Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Agricultural Economics; Agriculture; Ancient Civilizations; Ancient History; Archaeology; Botany; Economic Theory; Environmental Economics; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies; Food Science; Native American Studies; Native Americans; Native Studies; Paleobotany