Wycinanki: Production of a Non-Photorealistic Rendered Short Film

Animals have traditionally occupied a special role in human culture and media, and are also often the focus of today\u27s computer-animated films. The computer graphics (CG) short, Wycinanki, examines the human-animal bond through the story of a woman who rescues animals in Poland. Additionally, Wycinanki draws on the cultural history of its protagonist with its unique paper-cut render style. The goal of this film is to engage viewers and enhance the staying power of the film\u27s message via a compelling story and visuals. A significant amount of environment and character development and testing was necessary to translate the 2D art of papercutting into an effective animated CG short. The final render pipeline, while incorporating varying graphics programs and approaches, resulted in efficient renders and composites that satisfied the visual demands of the story

Geographic mosaics and changing rates of cereal domestication

Domestication is the process by which plants or animals evolved to fit a human-managed environment, and it is marked by innovations in plant morphology and anatomy that are in turn correlated with new human behaviours and technologies for harvesting, storage and field preparation. Archaeobotanical evidence has revealed that domestication was a protracted process taking thousands of plant generations. Within this protracted process there were changes in the selection pressures for domestication traits as well as variation across a geographic mosaic of wild and cultivated populations. Quantitative data allow us to estimate the changing selection coefficients for the evolution of non-shattering (domestic-type seed dispersal) in Asian rice (Oryza sativa L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccon (Shrank) Schübl.) and einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum L.). These data indicate that selection coefficients tended to be low, but also that there were inflection points at which selection increased considerably. For rice, selection coefficients of the order of 0.001 prior to 5500 BC shifted to greater than 0.003 between 5000 and 4500 BC, before falling again as the domestication process ended 4000–3500 BC. In barley and the two wheats selection was strongest between 8500 and 7500 BC. The slow start of domestication may indicate that initial selection began in the Pleistocene glacial era

Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated?

During the origin of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, the broad spectrum of wild plant species exploited by hunter-gatherers narrowed dramatically. The mechanisms responsible for this specialization and the associated domestication of plants are intensely debated. We investigated why some species were domesticated rather than others, and which traits they shared. We tested whether the progenitors of cereal and pulse crops, grown individually, produced a higher yield and less chaff than other wild grasses and legumes, thereby maximizing the return per seed planted and minimizing processing time. We compared harvest traits of species originating from the Fertile Crescent, including those for which there is archaeological evidence of deliberate collection. Unexpectedly, wild crop progenitors in both families had neither higher grain yield nor, in grasses, less chaff, although they did have larger seeds. Moreover, small-seeded grasses actually returned a higher yield relative to the mass of seeds sown. However, cereal progenitors had threefold fewer seeds per plant, representing a major difference in how seeds are packaged on plants. These data suggest that there was no intrinsic yield advantage to adopting large-seeded progenitor species as crops. Explaining why Neolithic agriculture was founded on these species, therefore, remains an important unresolved challenge

Elementary Education Capstone

This capstone project focuses on developing and implementing a literacy unit centered on textual evidence. The unit includes three lesson plans designed to help students understand how to find, analyze, and use textual evidence to support their ideas. Each lesson builds on the previous one, using a mix of direct instruction, guided practice, and independent work to gradually increase student confidence and skill in citing evidence. To measure student understanding, a variety of assessments were integrated throughout the unit. These included formative assessments, such as class discussions and written responses, as well as summative assessments that evaluated students’ ability to apply their learning in more structured tasks. The results of these assessments helped determine how well students grasped the concept of textual evidence and where additional support was needed. Overall, this capstone demonstrates how a well-structured unit on textual evidence can improve students’ literacy skills. It highlights the role of explicit teaching, interactive activities, and ongoing assessment in fostering critical reading and analytical thinking. The findings from this project contribute to best practices in literacy education and offer insights into effective strategies for teaching textual evidence in a classroom setting

TNR and conservation on a university campus: a political ecological perspective

How to manage the impact of free-ranging cats on native wildlife is a polarizing issue. Conservation biologists largely support domestic cat euthanasia to mitigate impacts of free-ranging cat predation on small animal populations. Above all else, animal welfare activists support the humane treatment of free-ranging cats, objecting to euthanasia. Clearly, this issue of how to control free-ranging cat predation on small animals is value laden, and both positions must be considered and comprehended to promote effective conservation. Here, two gaps in the free-ranging cat—small-animal conservation literature are addressed. First, the importance of understanding the processes of domestication and evolution and how each relates to felid behavioral ecology is discussed. The leading hypothesis to explain domestication of wildcats (Felis silvestris) relates to their behavioral ecology as a solitary predator, which made them suited for pest control in early agricultural villages of the Old World. The relationship humans once had with cats, however, has changed because today domesticated cats are usually household pets. As a result, concerns of conservation biologists may relate to cats as predators, but cat welfare proponents come from the position of assuming responsibility for free-ranging household pets (and their feral offspring). Thus, the perceptions of pet owners and other members of the general public provide an important context that frames the relationship between free-ranging cats and small animal conservation. The second part of this paper assesses the effects of an information-based conservation approach on shifting student’s perception of a local Trap–Neuter–Return (TNR) program in introductory core science classes at the University of North Texas (UNT). UNT students are (knowingly or unknowingly) regularly in close proximity to a TNR program on campus that supports cat houses and feeding stations. A survey design implementing a tailored-information approach was used to communicate what TNR programs are, their goals, and the “conservationist” view of TNR programs. We gauged favorability of student responses to the goals of TNR programs prior to and after exposure to tailored information on conservation concerns related to free-ranging cats. Although these results are from a preliminary study, we suggest that an information-based approach may only be marginally effective at shifting perceptions about the conservation implications of free-ranging cats. Our position is that small animal conservation in Western societies occurs in the context of pet ownership, thus broader approaches that promote ecological understanding via environmental education are more likely to be successful than information-based approaches

Yield responses of wild C3 and C4 crop progenitors to sub-ambient CO2 : A test for the role of CO2 limitation in the origin of agriculture.

Limitation of plant productivity by the low partial pressure of atmospheric CO2 (Ca ) experienced during the last glacial period is hypothesised to have been an important constraint on the origins of agriculture. In support of this hypothesis, previous work has shown that glacial Ca limits vegetative growth in the wild progenitors of both C3 and C4 founder crops. Here we present data showing that glacial Ca also reduces grain yield in both crop types. We grew four wild progenitors of C3 (einkorn wheat and barley) and C4 crops (foxtail and broomcorn millets) at glacial and post-glacial Ca , measuring grain yield, and the morphological and physiological components contributing to these yield changes. The C3 species showed a significant increase in unthreshed grain yield of ~50% with the increase in Ca , which matched the stimulation of photosynthesis, suggesting that increases in photosynthesis are directly translated into yield at sub-ambient levels of Ca . Increased yield was controlled by a higher rate of tillering, leading to a larger number of tillers bearing fertile spikes, and increases in seed number and size. The C4 species showed smaller, but significant, increases in grain yield of 10-15%, arising from larger seed numbers and sizes. Photosynthesis was enhanced by Ca in only one C4 species and the effect diminished during development, suggesting that an indirect mechanism mediated by plant water relations could also be playing a role in the yield increase. Interestingly, the C4 species at glacial Ca showed some evidence that photosynthetic capacity was upregulated to enhance carbon capture. Development under glacial Ca also impacted negatively on the subsequent germination and viability of seeds. These results suggest that the grain production of both C3 and C4 crop progenitors was limited by the atmospheric conditions of the last glacial period, with important implications for the origins of agriculture. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Architecture and consequent physiological properties of the semitendinosus muscle in domestic goats

Morphological and physiological analyses confirm that the semitendinosus muscle of goats contains two separate compartments in series, each with distinct innervation. These compartments of the muscle are in turn composed of short fibers (approximately four fibers in series in the proximal compartment and seven to eight fibers in the distal compartment) which overlap each other for more than 30% of their length, with much of the overlapping portions consisting of slender tails that terminate at one-tenth of the midfiber diameter. Groups of fibers are associated into relatively narrow bands that run end-to-end in each compartment. The data suggest that the maximum length of muscle fibers may be limited; even the fibers of parallelfibered muscles may not scale with the dimension of the animal.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50284/1/1051990305_ftp.pd