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Despite the prevalent distribution of bobcats in western Virginia and the broader region of Appalachia, there is a paucity of information on their spatial ecology in this region. Due to the unique ecological conditions of Appalachia, and increasing public interest surrounding the role of bobcats as predators in the region, there is a need for local information on bobcat ecology. I utilized data from 20 GPS collared bobcats (14M, 6F) to investigate bobcat spatial ecology in the mountains of Western Virginia. Average resident male home range size was 33.9 ± 2.6 km^2, nearly 3 times larger than average resident female home range size (12.1 ± 2.4 km^2). Seasonal areas of use did not differ in size among seasons, but exhibited minor shifts in location and shape. Average male movement rates (232.3 ± 12.0 meters/hour) were 1.5 times greater than average female movement rates (154.4 ± 8.9 meters/hour). Male movement rates increased during the dispersal season and female movement rates increased during the denning/kitten-rearing season. Second order resource selection analysis indicates that bobcats of both sexes select home ranges at higher elevations than expected at random, and that selection varies between sexes and among seasons. Third order resource selection analysis indicates that bobcats select for locations near open canopy structure, and avoid forest interior. These findings build upon previous findings regarding bobcat diet and population dynamics to provide a comprehensive understanding of basic bobcat ecology in western Virginia, and will inform further research investigating predator/prey interactions.

Background: Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is responsible more than 700 million infections worldwide each year. Most of these infections start with initial colonization of the throat and skin, which is augmented by surface adhesins. The streptococcal collagen-like protein 1 (Scl1) is a major adhesin expressed by GAS that contains an N-terminal sequence-variable (V) domain, protruded away from the cell surface by the collagen domain. The Scl-V domain is comprised of three pairs of anti-parallel α-helices interconnected by surface-exposed loops. For attachment, GAS adhesins require a portal of entry, such as a wound or breach in the epithelium, to enter the body. Within the wound, host cells deposit a provisional extracellular matrix (ECM) rich in cellular fibronectin (cFn) isoforms that contain fibronectin type III (FnIII) repeats, including unique extra domains A (EDA) and B (EDB), that are absent in plasma fibronectin. Tenascin-C (TnC) is another ECM component, which is substantially deposited within the wound microenvironment and contains FnIII repeats. In addition to healing wounds, EDA/EDB-cFn and TnC are found in tumor microenvironments. Our early work showed that the Scl1-V domain binds to cFn via EDA. Our work here has focused on understanding this selective binding of Scl1 to wound-associated ECM and how this interaction contributes to GAS pathogenesis. Hypothesis: The Scl1-V domain has adapted the capability to bind to wound-associated FnIII repeats, EDA and EDB in cFn, and in TnC. Results: First, we discovered that surface-exposed loops of the Scl1-V domain, surrounding an acidic patch, participate in EDA binding. Both structural characteristics were conserved among phylogenetically distant Scl1 variants. We next discovered that Scl1 also binds to EDB in cFn, as well as to the FnIII repeats in TnC. Using defined recombinant proteins, we show that loop-region of the Scl1-V domain mediates Scl1 binding to EDB and to the TnC FnIII repeats. Moreover, Scl1-FnIII binding promotes GAS attachment and biofilm formation in vitro. We also developed a more complex heterogeneous in vitro matrix-system, deposited by cancer-associated fibroblasts, to demonstrate the selective binding of Scl1 to EDA/EDB-cFn isoforms and to TnC FnIII repeats within this matrix. Conclusions: Scl1 binds to wound-associated FnIII repeats in both cFn and TnC. This work has implications in GAS wound-colonization and infers Scl1-FnIII binding in modulating host wound-healing responses. This work lays a foundation for the development of strategies to target GAS during wound infections, as well as provides a rationale for the use of Scl1 in targeting cancerous tissues.

The underlying mathematical model of many simulation models is graph dynamical systems (GDS). This dynamical system, its implementation, and analyses on each will be the focus of this paper. When using a simulation model to answer a research question, it is important to describe this underlying mathematical model in which we are operating for verification and validation. In this paper we discuss analyses commonly used in simulation models. These include sensitivity analyses and uncertainty quantification, which provide motivation for stability and structure-to-function research in GDS. We review various results in these areas, which contribute toward validation and computationally tractable analyses of our simulation model. We then present two new areas of research - stability of transient structure with respect to update order permutations, and an application of GDS in which a time-varying generalized cellular automata is implemented as a simulation model.

The Pursuit of Privacy in Medieval Landscapes identifies the ways in which individual pursuits of privacy in the medieval world are shaped by the landscapes in which those pursuits occur. There is a correlation between the space of a particular landscape feature and the gender interactions of the characters that move in or around that feature. Landscapes are places for power relations that are crucial to the product of gendered and private identities. This dissertation focuses on four features of the medieval British and French literary landscape: houses, towers, gardens, and forests. Landscapes in medieval literature may be the palette of political agendas. Used and occasionally abused for the purposes of power and control, landscapes can be produced and programmed. Each of the selected texts in this chapter features characters that must engage closely with their respective environments in order to obtain some form of individual privacy, and in all of the texts, authorities or convention controls the space and landscapes in some way. The struggle for privacy in these texts, whether that struggle is for privilege, for freedom, or for sovereignty, seems like an easily relatable concept for a medieval audience who so frequently endured political conflicts over control of space and social convention.