1996 — 1998 |
Hews, Diana |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Research Planning Grant: Hormones and Variation in Aggression @ Indiana State University
Steroid hormones play key roles in the development of gender differences in behavior, part of the process known as sexual differentiation. In many vertebrates, one such hormone-mediated difference is that males often are more aggressive than females. Features that rarely occur in combination, but are found in Sceloporus lizards, make them an ideal model for the integrative study of variation in hormonal mediation of aggression: They are a set of closely related species that (1) vary reliably in male-female differences in levels of aggression; (2) have unambiguous aggressive behaviors; (3) are amenable to hormone manipulations both in the laboratory and under free-living conditions, and to both perinatal and adult hormone manipulations, and (4) can be reared to adulthood in the laboratory and will exhibit the full array of typical adult behavior, including aggression. Dr. Hews will examine the neuroendocrine basis of dramatic differences among three Sceloporus species in the morphological color traits used in signaling territorial aggression and in the degree to which males and females differ in levels of aggression. This Research Planning Grant will enable Dr. Hews to (1) establish levels of aggression in free-living males and females of the three study species, using a well-established testing paradigm, (2) develop a laboratory paradigm for testing aggression in the three species, (3) obtain breeding-season blood samples for radioimmunoassay to assess plasma hormone levels (data needed for future experiments in which implants manipulate hormone level in a physiological manner), and (4) determine the size of a hormone implant needed to deliver a maximum physiological level.
|
0.979 |
1999 — 2000 |
Amlaner, Charles Bakken, George [⬀] Lima, Steven (co-PI) [⬀] Hews, Diana Whitaker, John (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
A Thermal Imaging System For Ecological Research @ Indiana State University
Title: A Thermal Imaging System for Ecological Research Award Number: 9970209
Award Abstract
New instruments advance biology by letting us see what was previously hidden. The new thermographic imaging technology has the potential to do for population biology and physiological ecology what the microscope did for microbiology. This rugged, easy to use instrument allows animals and their surroundings to be viewed by the thermal radiation emitted by surfaces at normal temperatures. Undisturbed animals can be located, identified and observed when otherwise hidden by night or camouflage, their skin (and indirectly, body) temperature measured, and their thermal environment mapped in detail. The quantity and quality of data are improved while disturbance to the animal is reduced. The group sharing this instrument will use it for a variety of studies of fundamental biological processes and develop applications in conservation biology, such as the following examples. Thermal mapping - A small animal inhabits a thermal environment that often varies by 10 - 20C over a distance of centimeters. This degree of detail cannot be represented by current techniques for thermal mapping. Thermography can map the thermal environment at an unprecedented centimeter-level resolution. By using well established techniques of remote sensing, satellite navigation, and computer mapping we will study interactions between the behavior, thermal environment, and population ecology of small animals in thermally stressful environments, e.g. desert lizards and arctic birds. Thermal physiology-Telephoto thermal images of animals can estimate body temperature and regional heat loss rates. This is valuable for study of the poorly understood periodic arousals of hibernating bats. Arousals deplete body fat reserves and may thus decrease winter survival. Remote-controlled time-lapse thermography of clusters of hibernating bats can identify arousing bats and monitor their activities without disturbance. We can thus study undisturbed hibernation behavior as well as the effects of human disturbance. Detection and tracking-Thermography is especially effective for detection and tracking of normally cryptic animals. For the first time we can track large numbers of undisturbed bats and locate their hibernacula, roosting sites, and feeding sites. Similarly, we can now track cryptically colored shorebird hatchlings in Arctic environments. We will also use thermography to detect the thermal radiation emitted by recently incubated eggs to locate the camouflaged nests of grassland birds with more efficiency and less disturbance than present methods. The precise location of nests, roosts, hibernacula and other important sites will be recorded with a precision GPS satellite navigation system. Together, these instruments promise to revolutionize our understanding of the demography of many species, including those of special concern because of declining populations.
|
0.979 |
2000 |
Hews, Diana K |
R15Activity Code Description: Supports small-scale research projects at educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation’s research scientists but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. The goals of the program are to (1) support meritorious research, (2) expose students to research, and (3) strengthen the research environment of the institution. Awards provide limited Direct Costs, plus applicable F&A costs, for periods not to exceed 36 months. This activity code uses multi-year funding authority; however, OER approval is NOT needed prior to an IC using this activity code. |
Differences in Aggression and Brain Androgen Receptors @ Indiana State University
Sex steroid hormones play key roles in the development of gender differences in brain and behavior, a process known as sexual differentiation. Males are usually more aggressive than females, but individual variation in aggression is extensive. There are numerous studies on inbred laboratory lines of vertebrate animals, but some types of inferences are limited because of the extreme genetic homogeneity of such animals. The extent and nature of naturally occurring variation in the hormonal mechanisms mediating variation in aggression that occurs among closely related species, which may be more characteristic of animals in out-bred populations such as humans, are not well understood. The long-term goal of the PI's research program is to investigate how closely related species vary in the neuroendocrine mechanisms contributing to variation in the degree to which the sexes differ in aggression. In one of the study species, males exhibit high levels of territorial aggression but females do not. In the second, both sexes have high levels of territorial aggression. And in the third species, both sexes have low levels of territorial aggression. The proposed research will examine hypotheses related to androgen receptors and androgen-mediation of aggression. Distribution and abundance of androgen receptors in regions of the brain involved in mediating aggression in most vertebrates will be compared, using immunohistochemical techniques with brain tissues of adult males and females of each study species, collected from periods of naturally high and naturally low aggression. The effects of gonadal steroids on the distribution of brain androgen receptors and cellular localization of the receptor will also be determined. Finally, the androgen dependence of aggression in adults of the "feminized" species (with low male aggression) will be experimentally determined. This program will also contribute to a detailed neuroendocrine study of female aggression, an area that has received relatively little attention, except in the context of maternal aggression, compared to aggression in males.
|
0.937 |
2000 — 2002 |
Hews, Diana |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Dissertation Research: Endocrine Coupling of Sexually Dimorphic Display Morphology and Aggressive Display Behavior in Two Sister Species @ Indiana State University
During aggression males often behaviorally advertise signaling traits. Aggression and the structures used in signaling aggression usually are correlated evolutionarily, but among Sceloporus lizard species they can be decoupled. This study will determine how sex steroid hormones control the development of two such male-specific traits: 1) patches of abdominal color, and 2) stereotyped aggressive behavior used to display the patches to opponents. Work will study two Sceloporus sister-species, one with male patches and one in which males have evolutionarily lost the patches. Hatchling hormone levels will be manipulated, and both patch expression and aggression will be scored in adults to test the hypothesis that decoupling of the male patches trait and aggression arises from species differences in hormonal control of the two. Assays of hatchling blood samples will verify that the altered hatchling hormone levels are within natural levels.
In many vertebrates, sex hormones (testosterone, estradiol) act during development and adulthood to produce differences between the sexes. Testosterone can be converted to estrogen, which influences development of brain regions involved in aggression. Testosterone also can be converted to 5a-dihydrotestosterone, which often affects development of male traits elsewhere in the body. Decoupling could occur if species vary in these hormonal levels. For example, males of these species may vary in the enzymes needed for these conversions of testosterone. Relatively little is known about the variation in the hormonal mechanisms controlling differences in aggression and in signaling structures in natural populations, as most research focuses on inbred laboratory strains of rodents and domesticated animal breeds.
|
0.979 |
2011 — 2017 |
Hews, Diana |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Causes and Consequences of Signal Evolution @ Indiana State University
HEWS LAY Abstract proposal IOS- 1052247
Most animals have complex sets of characteristics (traits) used in communication. A blue-colored signaling patch of skin, for example, requires the animals have an eye that is sensitive to blue wavelengths of light. Mechanisms integrating sets of correlated traits are not well-studied, and comparatively little is known about the physiological bases of these complex correlations, and how mechanisms may vary across species. The project will detail such mechanisms underlying correlated traits, and how they may be "pulled apart? evolutionarily, by studying twelve closely-related lizard species in the genus Sceloporus (fence lizards), in which there are repeated origins of a specific novel communicative trait. Studies of physiological and genetic mechanisms related to the co-evolution of visual and chemical communication will assess traits involved in both signal production (e.g., chemical components of secretions; skin cells producing color; hormone controllers) and signal reception (e.g., color-sensitivity of the eye; chemical sensitivity of the sensory tissues in the nasal region) . The PIs will also develop statistical methods needed to analyze data on correlated traits when the study species are closely related. The resulting software enabling such statistical analyses will be made freely available online for other researchers. There are diverse broader impacts. First, undergraduate and graduate student will be trained by and will collaborate with researchers in biochemistry, molecular biology, neurophysiology, animal behavior, evolutionary biology, and biostatistics. Second, funding will enhance infrastructure for research and education by facilitating collaborations between scientists in different disciplines and institutions in the US, and also in Mexico where many of the study species occur. Third, the PIs will enhance scientific and technological understanding of the public by collaborating with two Indiana science museums to establish displays based on the project, and by connecting research outcomes with ongoing outreach activities with local K-12 science teachers.
|
0.979 |
2015 — 2018 |
Wolf, Stephen Hews, Diana Fitch, Richard Noll, Robert Flurkey, William |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Acquisition of a Liquid Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer to Support Undergraduate Research @ Indiana State University
With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) and Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities (CRIF) programs, Indiana State University will acquire an ultra-high pressure liquid chromatograph interfaced with a linear ion trap mass spectrometer capable of data-dependent tandem mass spectrometery. The system will be used to separate and analyze the composition of mixtures of substances obtained from various sources including samples obtained from chemical reactions, energy-related research and batteries used for energy storage. In this instrument the liquid samples are allowed to pass through columns filled with substances that interact to various degrees with the sample components and thus the components move at different speeds through the columns. This process allows separation of the components. These species are then analyzed using the mass spectrometer in which the components are ionized and their masses are determined by measuring the mass to charge ratio (m/z) of the ions. This is a widely used analytical tool to determine the composition of a mixture or material. Students will be trained to use this modern instrumentation while working in their research, preparing them for their later careers. The instrument will enable new undergraduate laboratory and research experiences. It will also be used in the Summer Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE) program which engages a large number of undergraduate students across the sciences. Besides serving multiple departments at ISU, it will support users from neighboring institutions including St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.
The instrument will be used in research especially in areas such as (a) isolating, synthesizing and structural elucidating neuroactive natural products; (b) analyzing multimodal signaling systems in sceloporus lizards; (c) correlating analysis of organics and volatile trace elements in carbonaceous chondrites; (d) carrying out cleavage analysis of plant and fungal tyrosinases; and (e) carrying out applications of gas-phase ion molecule chemistry.
|
0.979 |