New Releases by Adam Davis

What is it that draws us to birds in all their magnificent diversity of color, song, size, and ability? Civilizations ancient and modern have been spellbound by birds'' ability to fly, the beauty and complexity of their sounds, and the sheer volume and presence of birds on every continent. Birds are a key component of the global economy. Bird-watching and eco-tourism are increasingly profitable industries, and egg and meat production provides the world with its single largest source of animal protein. Birds in Our Lives: Dwelling in an Avian World is an introductory text in avian biology, which offers a unique approach addressing not only scientific content, but recognizing the economic and social importance of many avian species. Birds in Our Lives begins with an examination of the evolution of birds. Subsequent chapters address issues in international trade, flight, anatomy, physiology, nutrition, and reproduction. The second half of the text is devoted to specific species including parrots, raptors, pigeons and doves, ratites like emus and cassowaries, Galliformes like pheasants, turkeys and jungle fowl, and waterfowl. The final chapter addresses opportunities for helping bird populations whether as a land owner, consumer, or concerned citizen. Birds in Our Lives is an excellent text for introductory through junior level avian biology courses. It will also be of interest to anyone choosing a bird as a pet, as well as those involved in hobbies such as falconry and pigeon-racing.

In 2009 five avatar-themed films were released, one of which became the highest grossing film to date, signaling that in addition to their popularity in videogames and virtual worlds, avatars are culturally salient figures which demand scholarly attention. Avatars, virtual environments, and user behavior have evolved significantly since virtual reality captured public and academic attention at the close of the twentieth century, and this dissertation is an attempt to theorize the avatar in contemporary digital culture. By interlacing new media philosophy and analyses of cinematic texts the author situates the avatar at the nexus between digital images and interactive bodies, with implications for both cinema and virtual environments. Avatarial interfaces position users in an embodiment of connections which in some ways evokes the cyborg body, but the avatar as a theoretical figure places greater stress on the relation between human embodiment and (digital) images, as well as suggesting a move from cyborg fragmentation toward an avatarial gestalt. Avatars are also fruitful bodies for thinking through agency and gender in contemporary society, and engaging the lost `body'' of the picture as film has been supplanted by digital imagery. In this regard, virtuality, as a conceptual state pertaining to images, embodiment, technology, and philosophy, serves as the connective theoretical tissue linking bodies and images. Ultimately, in this dissertation the author employs the avatar in an exploration of the ways in which we are already virtual, and how we have become avatarial in our own skin.

Hox paralog group 2 (PG2) genes are evolutionarily conserved developmental regulatory genes that function to specify rhombomere (r) and pharyngeal arch (PA) identities in animal embryos. Several rounds of whole genome duplications in animals, including one specific to ray-finned fishes, and post-genome duplication independent gene loss have resulted in divergent Hox PG2 gene complements across evolutionarily divergent teleost fishes. Divergence in gene complements may have, in part, been responsible for generating divergent Hox PG2 gene expression patterns and specification of hindbrain and PA-derived structures during the evolution of osteichthyan embryogenesis. In this dissertation, I describe the cDNA cloning and expression analysis of Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) Hox PG2 genes. I show that there are only two functional canonical genes, hoxa2a and b2a, and that a previously identified hoxa2b gene is a transcribed pseudogene, [psi]hoxa2b. The canonical genes, hoxa2a and b2a, were expressed in developing rhombomeres and PAs in a manner that was generally conserved throughout the osteichthyans. By contrast, [psi]hoxa2b was expressed at detectable levels only in noncanonical Hox PG2 gene expression domains, including the ventral-most aspect of the neural tube, the pectoral fin buds and the caudal-most region of the embryonic trunk, indicative that regulatory control elements needed for spatiotemporal specification of expression have diverged from the canonical orthologs. In order to understand whether sequence divergence within cis-regulatory control elements are linked to the divergent expression patterns of the medaka hoxa2 paralogs, conserved genomic sequences upstream of the medaka hoxa2a and [psi]hoxa2b genes were tested functionally using a transgenic GFP reporter system. The medaka hoxa2a r3/5 enhancer region (r3/5ER) was shown to direct reporter gene expression in r4, PA2 and the posterior PAs, while the r3/5ER of [psi]hoxa2b directed reporter gene expression in r3-7, PA2 and the posterior PAs, which is different from transgenic mapping studies of the orthologous regions tested in chick and mouse embryos. These analyses provide evidence for significant post-genome duplication divergence in cis-regulatory element function in the r3/5ER of osteichthyans. Further, they question the ancestral nature of the r3/5ER prior to the evolutionary split of sarcopterygians (lobe-finned fishes) from the actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes).

(Cont.) In this work I developed an approach based on presentation of parse trees paired with instantiated representations and the Arch-Learning paradigm, and implemented Lance, a 12,000 line Java program. I demonstrated that from a training sequence of 95 examples, Lance learned 27 models of THINGS PARTS, PLACES, PATHELEMENTS, TRAJECTORY-SPACES, TRANSITION-SPACES, CAUSES, and IS-A relations.

Much theoretical and empirical research has been done on the role that investment banks'' reputations play in the acquisition of capital. While theoretical work in this area has begun to treat reputation as a dynamic phenomenon, quantitative research has yet to do so. This work bridges the gap between theory and quantitative work by creating a dynamic measure of underwriter quality based on the theoretical treatment of underwriter reputation. Specifically, this work constructs a quantitative measure of underwriter reputation based on an underwriter''s long-run performance which captures the idea that investors form opinions as to whether an underwriter is "good" or "bad" based on the performance of the underwriter''s prior offerings. The impact of an underwriter''s reputation on the market reaction to public security offerings is estimated using the dynamic measure constructed within this work. These offerings take two forms; Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs). In the case of SEOs, this work shows that the market reaction to an offering announcement is increasing in underwriter reputation. This suggests that using a "good" underwriter can help to reduce the impact of asymmetric information on an SEO. In the case of IPOs, the results are mixed. In some cases the price run-up associated with an IPO issuance is increasing in underwriter reputation. In other cases, it is decreasing. These conflicting findings come about as a result of changing the functional form of the underwriter proxy. As a result, one is left asking whether the theoretical literature has properly defined underwriter reputation in the IPO setting.

The continued high percentages of skilled personnel in the United States (U.S. Armed Forces that are currently leaving the service has become, not merely a personnel problem for the military, but for the U.S. as well. Much controversy surrounds the social and economic foundations with which the political and military establishment must deal. This thesis presents a methodology for analyzing the possible utilization of selective parolees from various institutions into the U.S. Armed Forces. The proposal in this thesis, it is believed, could possibly drastically reduce current manpower shortfalls in the military institutions. The jobless parolee is a drain on the tax-structure both local and national. An employed parolee would stop this drain by producing taxable income. Finally, the severe problem of a revolving door-type-recidivism which has defined solutions could possibly be partially solved by this approach. The author admits that this approach is unusual, yet, it is probably a valid assertion that unusual problems require creative and sometimes unusual solutions. (Author).