KU ScholarWorks
KU ScholarWorks is the institutional repository of the University of Kansas, featuring scholarly work by KU faculty, staff and students. As of July 30, 2024, we've upgraded to a new version of the software, but you will still be able to search for items in the repository, download files, and work with us to deposit new content.
For more information about KU ScholarWorks, please see About KU ScholarWorks .
If you have any questions, please contact Marianne Reed, Digital Publishing and Repository Manager at mreed@ku.edu.
Recent Submissions
Item How many people in the world do research and development?(Wiley Online Library, 2023-05-14)The traditional approach to comparing research and development (R&D) capacity across countries has been to compare Gross Domestic R&D expenditures (GERD). In this paper, we argue for an expansion of R&D capacity that includes people engaged in research and research and development activities (research human capital density, RHCD). To achieve this goal, we first discuss how to estimate counts of researchers and create a measure of researcher human capital density within a country. Next, we examine whether RHCD is a useful variable in models of innovation capacity. Finally, we consider whether RHCD has explanatory power for models of research outputs including patents and publications. We find that RHCD has more explanatory power than GERD in the production of patents and publications. We argue that surveys of individuals that include questions on R&D activities are useful for assessing innovation capacity, and, if adopted more broadly, can provide a strategic framework for countries and regions to develop human capital to support innovative activities.Item Bees display limited acclimation capacity for heat tolerance(Biology Open, 2024-03-19)Bees are essential pollinators and understanding their ability to cope with extreme temperature changes is crucial for predicting their resilience to climate change, but studies are limited. We measured the response of the critical thermal maximum (CTMax) to short-term acclimation in foragers of six bee species from the Greek island of Lesvos, which differ in body size, nesting habit, and level of sociality. We calculated the acclimation response ratio as a metric to assess acclimation capacity and tested whether bees’ acclimation capacity was influenced by body size and/or CTMax. We also assessed whether CTMax increases following acute heat exposure simulating a heat wave. Average estimate of CTMax varied among species and increased with body size but did not significantly shift in response to acclimation treatment except in the sweat bee Lasioglossum malachurum. Acclimation capacity averaged 9% among species and it was not significantly associated with body size or CTMax. Similarly, the average CTMax did not increase following acute heat exposure. These results indicate that bees might have limited capacity to enhance heat tolerance via acclimation or in response to prior heat exposure, rendering them physiologically sensitive to rapid temperature changes during extreme weather events. These findings reinforce the idea that insects, like other ectotherms, generally express weak plasticity in CTMax, underscoring the critical role of behavioral thermoregulation for avoidance of extreme temperatures. Conserving and restoring native vegetation can provide bees temporary thermal refuges during extreme weather events.Item Seven new species of the segmented spider genus Liphistius (Mesothelae, Liphistiidae) in Thailand and Myanmar(ZooKeys, 2024-01-16)Seven new species of the primitive segmented spider genus Liphistius are described and assigned to species groups based on characters of the male palp and vulva plate. The bristowei group includes L.dawei Sivayyapram & Warrit, sp. nov. (♂♀) from southeastern Myanmar, L.choosaki Sivayyapram & Warrit, sp. nov. (♀) from northwestern Thailand, and L.lansak Sivayyapram & Warrit, sp. nov. (♀) from western Thailand; the trang group (Complex A) contains L.kaengkhoi Sivayyapram & Warrit, sp. nov. (♂♀), L.hintung Sivayyapram & Warrit, sp. nov. (♂♀), L.buyphradi Sivayyapram & Warrit, sp. nov. (♂♀), and L.champakpheaw Sivayyapram & Warrit, sp. nov. (♂♀) from central Thailand.Item Hox genes control homocercal caudal fin development and evolution.(ScienceAdvances, 2024-01-19)Ancient bony fishes had heterocercal tails, like modern sharks and sturgeons, with asymmetric caudal fins and a vertebral column extending into an elongated upper lobe. Teleost fishes, in contrast, developed a homocercal tail characterized by two separate equal-sized fin lobes and the body axis not extending into the caudal fin. A similar heterocercal-to-homocercal transition occurs during teleost ontogeny, although the underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms for either transition remain unresolved. Here, we investigated the role of genes in caudal fin formation as these genes control posterior identity in animals. Analysis of expression profiles of zebrafish paralogs and phenotypes of CRISPR/Cas9-induced mutants showed that double and mutants fail to form a caudal fin. Furthermore, single mutants display heterocercal-like morphologies not seen since Mesozoic fossil teleosteomorphs. Relaxation of functional constraints after the teleost genome duplication may have allowed duplicates to neo- or subfunctionalize, ultimately contributing to the evolution of a homocercal tail in teleost fishes.Publication An Examination of the Effect of Career Course Length on Student Occupational Engagement(University of Kansas, 2021-01-01)The purpose of this ex post facto research project was to examine the effect of career course length on student occupational engagement. To answer this question, Occupational Engagement Scale-Student (OES-S) scores for students enrolled in 16-week and 8-week long career courses were analyzed using t-tests and multiple regression. The study included 745 University of Kansas undergraduate students enrolled in either the Job Search for Liberal Arts and Sciences Students or the Internship Exploration career courses between January 2017 and August 2019. Sixteen-week sections were conducted during the fall and spring semesters. Eight-week sections were offered during summer sessions. All courses were taught online and overseen by the same instructor. Results indicate students enrolled in traditional 16-week career course sections had significantly higher OES-S scores at the end of the course as compared to students in the 8-week career course sections. While there was a significant difference between 16-week sections and 8-week sections, students in 8-week course sections also achieved gains in occupational engagement scores. Additionally, results suggest career courses are an effective career intervention to increase student occupational engagement. It is recommended that a robust set of career courses be offered in both traditional and accelerated lengths and that efforts be made to increase the number of students from underrepresented populations in career courses, primarily the Internship Exploration course. Recommendations for future research include examining the efficacy of online career courses, determining the role age plays in the acquisition of occupational engagement, and examining additional career course dependent variables in concert with occupational engagement.
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