Department of Biology
Baylor University
February 2014
No. 63
PUBLICATIONS
Wang, X., O. Okonkwo and B.W. Kebaara. 2013. Physiological basis of copper tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
nonsense-mediated mRNA decay mutants. Yeast, 30: 179-190.
Habel, J.C., M. Huseman, P.D. Danley, A. Finger, F.E. Zachos. (2013). The relevance of time series in molecular ecology and
conservation biology Biological Reviews doi: 10.1111/bvr.12068. Impact:10.256.
Liu, C., X. Gao, H. Wang, H. Liu, W. Cao, P.D. Danley. 2013. Reproductive characteristics of Ancherythroculter nigrocauda,
an endemic fish in the upper Yangtze River, China. Fisheries Science 79(5): 799-806. ISI Impact Factor: 0.897.
Singhurst, J.R. and W.C. Holmes. 2013. Conyza floribunda (Asteraceae) new to the flora of Texas. Phytoneuron 2013-13:
1-4. Published February 18, 2013. ISSN 2153 733X.
Hannick, V.C., J.N. Mink, J.R. Singhurst, and W.C. Holmes. 2013. Annotated checklist of the vascular flora of McLennan
County, Texas. Phytoneuron 2013-29: 1-37.
Singhurst, J.R., J.N. Mink and W.C. Holmes 2013. Persicaria capitata (Polygonaceae) naturalized in Texas. Phytoneuron
2013-51: 1-3.
Singhurst, J.R., J.N. Mink and W.C. Holmes. 2013. A Short Chronical of Euphorbia commutate (Euphorbiaceae) in Texas.
Phytoneuron 2013-60: 1-6.
Singhurst, J.R., J.N. Mink and W.C. Holmes. 2013. Acer grandidentatum (Sapindaceae) in Montana. Phytoneuron 2013-87:,
1-4.
Singhurst, J.R., J.N. Mink and W.C. Holmes. 2013. Senna bicapsularis (Fabaceae) adventive in the USA (Texas).
Phytoneuron 2013-96: 1-3.
Singhurst, J.R., N. Shackelford, W. Newman, J.N. Mink and W.C. Holmes. 2014. The ecology and abundance of Hymenoxys
texana (Asteraceae). Phytoneuron 2014-19: 1-19.
Holmes, W.C.. 2013. A Catalog of Louisiana-French Plant and Animal Names. French to English – English to French. 132 +
xiv pp. Copyright by Walter C. Holmes: in press.
Kang, S., J.D. Van Nostrand, H.L. Gough, D.A. Stahl & J. Zhou. Functional gene array-based analysis of indigenous microbial
community in the heavy metal contaminated sediment of Lake DePue (DePue, IL). FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 86(2): 200214.
Hill, Shannon K. and Darrell S. Vodopich. 2013. Habitat use and basking behavior of a freshwater turtle community along an
urban gradient. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12(2): 275-282.
Sherry S. Stewart and Darrell S. Vodopich. 2013. Variation in Fluctuating Asymmetry among Nine Damselfly Species.
International Journal of Odonatology. 16: 67-77.
Vodopich, Darrell S., and Randy Moore. 2014. Biology Laboratory Manual 10th Edition. McGraw Hill Publishing Co. 596 pp.
Murray, D.B., J.D. White, and P. Swint. 2013. Woody vegetation persistence and disturbance in Central Texas grasslands
inferred from multi-decadal historical aerial photographs. Rangeland Ecology and Management. 66:297-304.
Murray, D.B. and J.D. White. 2013. Loss of neighbors, fire, and climate effects on Texas red oak growth in a juniperdominated woodland ecosystem. American Midland Naturalist. 170:348-369.
Neupane, R.P., J. Yao and J.D. White. 2013. Estimating the effects of climate change on the intensification of monsoonaldriven stream discharge in a Himalayan watershed. Hydrological Processes.
Gutzwiller, K.J. 2013. Increasing the chance that landscape- and regional-level hypotheses will reflect important spatial
patterns. Landscape Ecology 28: 1849-1858.
David Kang and Cheolho Sim. 2013. Identification of Culex complex species using SNP markers based on high resolution
melting analysis. Molecular Ecology Resources, 13: 369-376.
Cheolho Sim and David L. Denlinger. 2013. Juvenile hormone III suppresses FOXO in the fat body and reduces fat
accumulation in the diapausing mosquito, Culex pipiens. Insect Molecular Biology, 22(1):1-11.
Cheolho Sim and Denlinger, D.L. 2013. Insulin signaling and the regulation of insect dispause. Frontiers in physiology, 4:189,
1-10.
Cheolho Sim, Kim, H.C., Son, H.Y., Jung, J.Y., Ryu, S.Y., Park, B.K. 2013. Description of peritoneal cavity dirofilariosis causes
by Dirofilaria immitis (Filarloidea: Onchocercidae) in a dog: a case report. Veterinarni Medicina, 58: 105-108.
N.S. Green and K.T. Wilkins. In Press. Habitat associations of the rodent community in a Grand Prairie preserve. The
Southwestern Naturalist. Forthcoming in vol. 59(3), 2014.
PRESENTATIONS
Bessie Kebaara, Summer Research Internship Program HBCU/MCNAIR/STARS/RISE Keynote speaker. July 25, 2013.
UNTHSC, Fort Worth. (Invited Talk)
Jacquelyn Duke, “Outside the Zone: Why We Are All Advocates of Ecology.” Texas Society for Ecological Restoration
(TXSER)/TRA Joint Annual Meeting. Junction, November 2013. (Invited Plenary Speaker)
Kang, S., J.P. Ng & T.J. Gentry. 2013. Chronosequence of species richness and species abundance distribution of bacterial
communities at post-lignite mining reclamation in East Texas. 2013 Soil Ecology Society Biennial Meeting, Camden, NJ.
Neupane, R.P. and J.D. White. Assessment of hydrological responses to climate change in Himalayan headwater watershed.
10th Annual American Meteorological Society Student Conference: Expanding Weather, Water and Climate Prediction—
Taking Geosciences to the Next Level. Austin, January 2-6, 2013.
Von Bargen, J., W.C. Hockaday, J.D. White, and J. Yao. Charcoal chemistry: developing a proxy for paleofire regimes.
Geological Society of America South-Central Section Meeting, Austin, April 5, 2013.
Von Bargen, J., W.C. Hockaday, J.D. White, and J. Yao. Charcoal chemistry: developing a proxy for paleofire regimes.
American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 8, 2013.
Adhikari, A., and J.D. White. Ecophysiological characteristics shrub species for restoring lower Rio Grande shrublands with
continuing climate change. U.S. International Association of Landscape Ecology Symposium, Austin, April 14-18, 2013.
Adhikari, A., and J.D. White. Compatible ecophysiological characteristics of native shrubs for restoring Lower Rio Grande
shrubland ecosystems with continued climate change. Annual Native Plant Society of Texas Symposium, Corpus Christi,
October 17-20, 2013.
White, J.D., J. Cook, and P. Spiller. Wildfire risk analysis: a dynamic spatial modeling approach. TNRIS Texas GIS Forum,
Austin, October 21-24, 2013.
White, J.D., and J. Yao. Carbon monoxide and dioxide generated from regional wildfires detected from a Tall Tower
monitoring site. 69th Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Waco, November 16-19, 2013
Pinney, T.A., and K.J. Gutzwiller. Evidence of different mechanisms of bird-community assembly: implications for
conserving habitat connectivity and diversity. 20th Annual Conference of The Wildlife Society, Milwaukee, WI. Received a
student travel award from The Wildlife Society to present this paper.
Pinney, T.A., and K.J. Gutzwiller. Accounting for temporal dependency in detections can improve the fit of animal-landscape
occupancy models. 29th Annual Landscape Ecology Meeting, Austin.
Pinney, T.A. and K.J. Gutzwiller. Species site occupancy is underestimated when temporal dependencies in detections are
not considered: implications for avian conservation. 131st Annual Meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union and the 83rd
Annual Meeting of the Cooper Ornithological Society, Chicago, IL Received a student travel award from the American
Ornithologists’ Union and the Cooper Ornithological Society to present this paper.
Flather, C.H., A.M. Pidgeon, and K.J. Gutzwiller. Using the North American Breeding Bird Survey in landscape assessments
to support Forest Service planning. Invited paper in Symposium 3: North American Breeding Bird Survey Research. 131 st
Annual Ammeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union and the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Cooper Ornithological Society,
Chicago, IL.
Hoifung Wong and Bessie Kebaara. The sequence element(s) that target the CTR2 mRNA for Nonsense-mediated mRNA
decay in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Texas Branch-American Society for Microbiology meeting, New Braunfels. April 4-6,
2013. (Poster presentation)
Danielle O’Connell and Bessie Kebaara. Role of MAC1 in copper tolerance of Saccharomyctes crervisiae Nonsense-Mediated
mRNA decay utants. Texas Branch-American Society for Microbiology meeting, New Braunfels. April 4-6, 2013. (Poster
presentation)
Cheolho Sim, Molecular regulation of fat hypertrophy in the diapausing mosquito Culex pipiens. Entomological Society of
America, Austin, November 10-12, 2013. (Invited speaker)
Cheolho Sim and David Kang. Identification of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the mosquito Culex pipiens, West
Nile Virus vector. The 7th Annual Arthropod Genomics Symposium. University of Notre Dame, IN, June 13-16, 2013.
David Kang and Cheolho Sim. Identification and assessment of informative single nucleotide polymorphisms between Culex
pipiens complex mosquitoes. American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, November
13-17, 2013.
Sungshil Kim and Cheolho Sim. A study of SNP genetic markers of two types of Culex complex mosquitoes. American
Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, November 13-17, 2013
Anica Debelica-Lee and K.T. Wilkins. Demographics of the summer bat community in a mixed-managed pine forest in Texas.
Texas Society of Mammalogists annual meeting, Texas Tech University Center in Junction. February 2013.
Han Li and K.T. Wilkins. Urban socioeconomic heterogeneity influences the pattern of bat activity in a medium-sized city.
Landscape Ecology annual meeting, Austin. April 2013.
Han Li and K.T. Wilkins. Roost selection by Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) in an urban environment.
Landscape Ecology annual meeting, Austin. April 2013.
GRANTS
Robert Doyle. Comal River, Applied Research on Aquatic Plant Growth. 1/1/2013-31/12/2014, $50,245,
BIOWEST Inc.
Robert Doyle. Comal River Restoration & Ecomodeling, 6/1/2013-12/13/2014, $24,045, BIOWEST Inc.
USFWS—Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game – Genetic variation of populations of juvenile coho salmon and Dolly
Varden within and among river basins on the lower Kenai Peninsula. 2013. PI: Patrick Danley, Co PI: Ryan
King. $99.702.
Austin-Travis county regional community wildfire protection plan, City of Austin. 3/13/-8/13. PI: Joseph
White, Co PIs: J. Cook and P. Spiller. $59,730.
Collaborative Research: Integrated data-model analysis of CO2-climate-vegetation feedbacks in a dynamic
paleo-icehouse NWF, 12/13-11/17 Early-Life Transitions program. PI: Isabel Montayez-US Davis, Co PI Joseph
White. $169,070.
AWARDS
A U.S. patent was awarded to Chris Kearney and his former graduate student Zun Liu on January 1, 2013: “Highly efficient
suppressr-dependent protein expression in plants with a viral vector.” Patent number US 8,344,208.
MISCELLANEOUS
Jacquelyn Duke was elected to the Texas Riparian Association (TRA) Board of Directors. Fall 2013.
Kevin Gutzwiller was an invited member of the Advisory Board for the 2013 Annual U.S. Meeting of the International
Association for Landscape Ecology (Theme: Landscape Dynamics Along Environmental Gradients), Austin.
Chris Kearney and Alison McCormick (Touro University) collaborated on Gates Foundation funded research on “Plantproduced synthetic RNA vaccines.” $20,000 was subcontracted to Baylor to support this work.
NEWS OF FORMER STUDENTS
Martin Husemann graduated with his Ph.D. in December 2013.
Nick Green, a 2012 doctoral graduate, is currently an ecologist for the Columbia Environmental Research Center, U.S.
Geological Survey in Columbia, MO.
SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Eugene Crowder Memorial Tuition Scholarship – These fund awards are designed to help defray
tuition costs for undergraduate students for any 3000, 4000 or graduate level Baylor Biology course. This is
applicable for the semester following the semester of the award. Academic accomplishments and financial
need of the applicants will also be considered.
The David W. Eldridge Endowed Scholarship – The scholarship fund provides assistance to students
of Baylor University who are majoring in biology based on the student’s academic performance and financial
need. Preference will be given for students planning to enter any of the health care professions.
Frederick R. Gehlbach Endowed Scholarship – Awards are made annually on the basis of merit with
need being a secondary consideration.
F. Ray Wilson Scholarship – This endowed scholarship is awarded by the Department of Biology at
Baylor University to biology pre-med students on a merit basis.
Beta Beta Beta Endowed Scholarship Fund
To donate to any of the above scholarships, go to http://www.baylor.edu/development
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