In mammal populations, the spatial and genetic structure can be affected by dispersal, philopatry, and relatedness. Bobcats ( Lynx rufus (Schreber, 1777)) are thought to exhibit typical mammalian dispersal behaviour where males disperse and females are philopatric, potentially leading to higher relatedness among females compared with males. We used 10 microsatellite loci to examine population structure and sex-biased dispersal in 146 bobcats sampled in southern Illinois during 1993–2001 using population genetic descriptive statistics, a Bayesian clustering algorithm, relatedness (rxy), and autocorrelation analyses. A randomization test demonstrated that female dyads had significantly higher rxy values with respect to randomly selected dyads (rxy = 0.093 ± 0.222, P = 0.012) and spatial autocorrelation analyses determined that females in close proximity (<5 km) had a high probability of being related (P = 0.001). Conversely, rxy values for males were not different from the null distribution (rxy = 0.019 ± 0.122, P = 0.3158) and no significant relationships were found with spatial autocorrelation analysis. Additionally, it was demonstrated that bobcats in southern Illinois approximated a panmictic population with no obvious barriers to gene flow. The pattern of relatedness observed in this study confirmed that females were philopatric and males dispersed, corroborating existing observational data for this species.

In 2014, the state of Georgia's budget supported a University System of Georgia (USG) initiative: Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG). The initiative was implemented via Textbook Transformation Grants, which provided grants to USG faculty, libraries and librarians, and institutions to "transform their use of textbooks and other learning materials into using lower cost options", in other words to use open educational resources (OER) in lieu of a traditional bound textbook. The Round One Textbook Transformation Grants have already shown to be successful in that they saved students approximately $760,000. What is not known, is the collective impact on student learning. This study examines the learning gains or losses pre-and post-transformation in ALG Round One courses where traditional resources were replaced with OER. It estimates differences between pre-and post-textbook transformation across the following outcomes: 1) Drop Fail Withdraw (DFW) rates, 2) rates of completion, 3) numbers of students receiving a final grade of A or B, C and D, 4) numerical final grades as a percent, 5) final exam grades as a percent, and, 6) course-specific assessment grades measured in percent. Twenty-four data sets were analyzed for DFW rate, eight data sets for completion rate, fourteen data sets for grade distribution, three data sets for final exam grades, three data sets for course specific assessment and one data set for final grades. The null hypothesis that there would be no differences between pre-and post-transformation rates in these learning outcomes was supported. Thus, this study demonstrates that the USG's ALG initiative helped students save money without negatively impacting learning outcomes. In addition, it is the first of its kind to measure some of these learning outcomes (e.g. final exam grade, assessment grade, and distribution of letter grades) at this scale.

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Assessing the genetic consequences of habitat fragmentation is a crucial step in conservation planning for species in endangered habitats. We tested for the impact of natural habitat fragmentation on gene flow and genetic diversity in seven northern breeding locations of the sagebrush Brewer's sparrow, Spizella breweri breweri. Genetic analyses using five highly variable DNA microsatellite loci suggested that individuals sampled within a sagebrush landscape fragmented by natural elements such as coniferous forest, comprise a single genetic population and that gene flow among them is unimpeded. We posit that juvenile dispersal links seemingly isolated breeding locales of this species, and discuss implications of our findings for conservation of migratory songbirds in the northern portion of their ranges in light of potential shifts in distribution due to climate change.