The Mystery of North Americas Black Wolves

Despite their name, gray wolves (Canis lupus) are not always just gray. These canids  can also have black or white coats—the ones with black coats are referred to, logically enough, as black wolves. The frequencies of the various coat shades and colors prevailing within  a wolf population often vary with habitat. For example, wolf packs that live in open tundra  consist mostly of  light-colored individuals; the pale coats of these wolves allow them to blend in with their surroundings and conceal themselves when pursuing caribou, their primary prey. On the other hand, wolf packs living in boreal forests contain higher proportions of dark-colored individuals, as their murky habitat enables darker-colored individuals to blend in. Of all the color variations in Canis lupus, the black individuals are the most intriguing. Black wolves are so colored because of a genetic mutation in their K locus gene. This mutation causes a condition known as melanism, an increased presence of dark pigmentation which causes an individual to be colored black (or nearly black). Black wolves are also intriguing because of their distribution. There are significantly more black wolves in North America than there are in Europe.   To better understand the genetic underpinnings of black wolves, a team of scientists from Stanford University, UCLA, Sweden, Canada, and Italy recently assembled under the leadership of Stanfords Dr. Gregory Barsh; this group analyzed the DNA sequences of 150 wolves (about half of which were black) from Yellowstone National Park. They wound up piecing together a surprising genetic story, stretching back tens of thousands of years to a time when early humans were breeding domestic canines in favor of darker varieties. It turns out that the presence of black individuals in Yellowstones wolf packs is the result of deep historical mating between black domestic dogs and gray wolves. In the distant past, humans bred dogs in favor of darker, melanistic individuals, thus increasing the abundance of melanism in domestic dog populations. When domestic dogs interbred with wild wolves, they helped to bolster melanism in wolf populations as well. Unraveling the deep genetic past of any animal is a tricky business. Molecular analysis provides scientists with a way to estimate when genetic shifts could have occurred in the past, but its usually impossible to attach a firm date to such events. Based on genetic analysis, Dr. Barshs team estimated that the melanism mutation in canids arose sometime between 13,000 and 120,00 years ago (with the most likely date being about 47,000 years ago). Since dogs were domesticated around 40,000 years ago, this evidence fails to confirm whether the melanism mutation arose first in wolves or domestic dogs. But the story does not end there. Because melanism is far more prevalent in North American wolf populations than it is in European wolf populations, this  suggests that the cross between domestic dogs populations (rich in melanistic forms) likely occurred in North America. Using the data collected, study coauthor Dr. Robert Wayne has dated the presence of domestic dogs in Alaska to about 14,000 years ago. He and his colleagues continue to investigate ancient dog remains from that time and location to determine whether (and to what degree) melanism was present in those ancient domestic dogs.

Essay on The Chapter of Circe in James Joyces Ulysses

The Chapter of Circe in James Joyces Ulysses Chapter Circe of Ulysses is said to be the most confessional chapter of the novel (Schechner 100). In this way, the themes and underlying meaning present throughout the chapter are more pertinent to the novel as a whole than any other aspect of this particular section. Specifically, themes of love, power, masochism, and consciousness watermark the literature throughout the chapter. What is more, we, as readers, face the battle between mind and body as well as the idea that Circe is a symbol for the entire novel. Regardless of which theme or idea we refer to, one cannot deny the†¦show more content†¦Specifically, I will refer to the love contained within the parent-child relationship. Stephen grieves at the thought of how he used to treat his mother, Molly thinks of the sweater she knit for her dead son Rudy, and Bloom has a vision of what Rudy might have been like as a young man. In all three cases, the theme of love is an absolute. What is more, the issue of getting over a kind of love is concrete. Stephen is trying to get over how he treated his mother, and Molly and Bloom are trying to get over the death of their son. Though they may carry their love for Rudy with them forever, it is still a necessity to move on and survive. In all three instances, the impulse to love is perverted into the impulse to overcome or be overcome (Ellmann 155), which brings us to the theme of power. Bloom has a fantasy in Act II involving Zoe. In this particular Act, Zoe is smoking, and Bloom is giving her a speech on the issue. His reality fades into unconsciousness, and he dreams of being a famous orator, politician, lord mayor, etc. In the end, his power collapses, and he is martyred. His power collapses. Okay, so we do not have control over our unconscious mind. We do, however, have control over how we feel about ourselves, and that influences our unconsciousShow MoreRelated Buy Essay Online: Comparing Homers Odyssey and Joyces Ulysses2240 Words   |  9 PagesComparing Homers Odyssey and Joyces Ulysses  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   This essay will analyze the style, genre and plots of the Hades episodes found in Homers Odyssey and Joyces Ulysses. Before entering this small treatise, it is important to understand the etymology of the word Hades, since it is the setting for both Joyce and Homer (of course in Homers case, he was speaking of the literal aidhs and Joyce was referring to the graveyard, where Bloom attends the funeral of Paddy Dignam and broodsRead More Portrayal of Women in James Joyces Ulysses Essay1110 Words   |  5 PagesPortrayal of Women in James Joyces Ulysses The novel, Ulysses, by James Joyce shows the reader hour by hour a single day in the life of one man.   But this epic which specifically deals with Leopold Bloom and has reference to Stephen Dedalus, holds so much more appendage to other areas of life.   One, is the portrayal of women in Ulysses. A common speculation is that men seem to have a more dominating status over women.   However, in Ulysses  that theory dwindles due to the women who   play significantRead More How James Joyce Challenges His Readers in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake2592 Words   |  11 PagesHow James Joyce Challenges His Readers in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake      Ã‚   In the history of written literature, it is difficult not to notice the authors who expand their readers style and manner of reading. Some write in   an unusual syntax which forces the reader to utilize new methods of looking at a language; others employ lengthy allusions which oblige the reader to study the same works the author drew from in order to more fully comprehend the text. Some authors use ingenious andRead More James Joyces Ulysses - Balancing Information in Ithaca Essay3248 Words   |  13 PagesJames Joyces Ulysses - Balancing Information in Ithaca I hold this book [Ulysses] to be the most important expression which the present age has found; it is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape. T.S. Elliot In the midst of Ithaca, the climactic second to last episode of Ulysses, James Joyce provides the necessary information for calculating how much excrement, in pounds, is produced annually by the entire population of Ireland (p. 718). The typeRead MoreTo The Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf Essay1237 Words   |  5 Pagesmother. Similarly, this oedipal triangle is formed between James and his parents. Woolf gives reference to Freud and his views on male development and family dynamics by sharing his views on the unconscious whilst talking about them in her own way. She â€Å"absorbs many of Freud’s insights about male and female gender identity, yet at the same time infected them in a manner now known as feminist.† The dialogue between the Ramsay’s and James is seen by the reader to express feelings equating to sexual

Communication via SMS Free Essays

The British Journal of Social Psychology published an article in 2007 entitled â€Å"Interacting via SMS: Practices of social closeness and reciprocation†. This paper deals with the sequential structure of communication via short message service (SMS), also known as text messaging, among adults and young adults, aged 25-35 and 50-65.   A collection of 173 SMS exchanges for personal communication, spontaneously composed by participants, was gathered. We will write a custom essay sample on Communication via SMS: or any similar topic only for you Order Now   Each exchange was photographed from the display of the participant’s mobile phone and then analyzed with the approach of conversation analysis. A questionnaire was also administered during the collection procedure. The analysis of the practices organizing the action sequence reveals that exchanges frequently lack openings and closures, show an effort towards reciprocation and use implicit or anticipated actions. Social presence seems then characterized by a sense of constant availability, symmetric commitment and shared understanding. The article concluded that the sequential structure of mediated communication may give insightful details on the nature of the social presence thereby constituted and may provide a criterion to compare different communication modes (2007).   This paper will attempt to analyze the strength of the evidence presented in this article. Communication via SMS: An Article Review The article entitled â€Å"Interacting via SMS: Practices of social closeness and reciprocation†argues that SMS has developed into a recognizable social place, with its own practices and affordances for establishing social presence and that it is characterized by â€Å"persistency, reciprocation and familiarity† (Spagnolli, 2007). They also found, through conversation analysis that SMS communication is designed around the turn, with very frequent multiple-action turns. The first question one may consider when presented with this article is was this research necessary?   Although not quite necessary, this research does provide some interesting insights into the ever more popular communication method of text messaging. This research was in supplement to previous research on the same subject.   Some practices of SMS usage are already known, as ethnographic and linguistics studies have been carried out on teenage users.   Some researchers have investigated the communicative setting and its social norms (Grinter Elridge, 2003). They show that SMS exchanges can be initiated in situations where other modes are forbidden, such as in class or at night, and that their intersection with other activities requires practices of participation management and context messages (Thurlow, 2003). In particular, a group of researchers has collected large numbers of messages and illustrated how SMS writers make the most out of a limited set of the available alpha-numeric characters well beyond the mere use of ‘emoticons’ whose actual rate is often quite low (Ling, 2005). The functions and topics of an SMS exchange have been categorized and their communicative style identified as a peculiar mixture of morality and writing, spontaneity and care, supporting strategies of self-presentation and linguistic play (Ling, 2005). However, the kind of practice that has been less considered, if at all, is the one responsible for inner structure of an SMS exchange.   That is where this research comes into play.   Since a communicative exchange is a form of interaction conducted through discourse, these practices can reveal important aspects of the social presence created (Spagnolli, 2007). The goal of the research behind this article was to â€Å"investigate the interactional and pragmatic resources that five cohesion to a series of otherwise discrete contributions, and by allowing the sequential organization of these exchanges, create the coordinates along which the encounter is organized† (Spagnolli, 2007).    In contrast to other studies on SMS, which have considered individual messages, this study analyzed each message with reference to the previous and subsequent one in sequence.   It was the exchange of messages that was most important to these researchers.   Another point of originality of this study also relies on the kind of participants involved.   Prior, SMS literature focused on teenagers, who could be considered as ‘core’ users. However, if using this medium is participating in a social place as is argued, then even peripheral users like adults should follow shared practices instead of totally idiosyncratic ones.   Therefore, the researchers chose to study young adults and adults. Next, it is important to determine whether the methods the authors implemented for their research were the proper method and whether they were effective.   According to the authors, given the need for exploring a poorly covered phenom, i.e. SMS exchanges between adults, they looked for natural data, while at the same time, trying to collect a fair number of exchanges (Spagnolli, 2007). According to the authors, diaries would have offered a richer, contextualization of the exchanges collected, but they could have also decreased spontaneity during the message exchange and required a more limited number of participants with a longer commitment with the research (Spagnolli, 2007).   Therefore the authors chose to collect 180 exchanges using the following system. They asked people for one series of sent and received messages still present in the memory of their cell phone, regardless of who initiated the exchange, but with the requirement that the series be complete with all messages exchanges (Spagnolli, 2007).    In this way, messages were not composed for the sake of research and the length of the exchanges were naturally defined.   This was very intuitive on the part of the authors as the data they collected was natural and not skewed because of the research method. How to cite Communication via SMS:, Papers