Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Plants collections'

Since industrialization atmospheric CO₂ concentrations have increased from 280 to 365 ppmv and δ¹³Cₐᵢᵣ has decreased from -6.5 to -8.2‰. These two trends have consequences for plant physiology. I examine δ¹³C plant and physiological parameters in herbarium specimens of Atriplex confertifolia, Atriplex canescens, Ephedra viridis, Pinus edulis, Pinus flexilis , Juniperus scopulorum, and Quercus turbinella. For all species, I found relatively high and unsystematic variability. δ¹³C values for A. confertifolia and A. canescens varied by up to 7.9 and 9.5‰ respectively; δ¹³C values of these C₄ shrubs are unsuitable for reconstructing δ¹³Cₐᵢᵣ, as previously claimed. δ¹³C(plant) generally becomes more depleted except in P. edulis. Other calculated parameters such as Δ, Cᵢ/Cₐ, Cᵢ, and A/g have varying responses even among similar functional groups. Because much of the isotopic variability caused by interplant, intertree, intersite, and interannual differences is implicit, herbarium specimens are inadequate for precise detection of direct CO₂ effects on plant physiology.

This thesis explores the history of botany as a global collection-based science by tracing parallels between utopian traditions and botanical collecting, from their sixteenth-century beginnings to the present. A range of botanical collections, such as gardens, herbaria and classification systems, have played a central role in the struggle to discover a global or universal scientific order for the chaotic, diverse and locally shaped kingdom of plants. These collections and utopia intersect historically, and are characterised by the same epistemology of collecting: the creation of order through confined collecting spaces or “no-place.” They are manipulations of space and time. Between chaos and order, both seek to make a whole from – often unruly – parts.   The long history of botanical collecting is characterised by a degree of continuity of practice that is unusual in the sciences.  For instance, the basic technology of the herbarium – preserving plants by mounting and labelling dried specimens on paper – has been in use for almost five centuries, from sixteenth-century Italy to ongoing digitisation projects. The format of the compilation thesis is well-suited to handling the historiographical challenge of tracing continuity and discontinuity with such a long chronological scope.   The thesis is structured as a walled quadripartite garden, with the Kappa enclosing four research papers and an epilogue. The papers take a diachronic approach to explore different perspectives on botanical collections: botanical collecting in seventeenth-century Oxford, pressed plants in books that are not formally collections; and the digitisation of botanical collections. These accounts are all shaped by the world of books, text and publication, historically a male-dominated sphere. In order to acknowledge marginalisation of other groups and other ways of knowing plants, the epilogue is an explanation of an embroidered patchwork of plant-dyed fabric, which forms the cover of the thesis.<br>Denna avhandling behandlar historien om botanik som en global samlingsbaserad vetenskap genom att följa paralleller mellan utopiska traditioner och botaniskt samlande från dess början på femtonhundratalet till idag. Olika sorters botaniska samlingar, till exempel trädgårdar, herbarier och klassifikationssystem, har historiskt spelat en central roll i sökandet efter en global eller universell vetenskaplig ordning i växtrikets lokalt rotade och till synes kaotiska mångfald. Det finns historiska kopplingar mellan dessa botaniska samlingar och utopi, som båda även präglas av vad man kan kalla samlandets epistemologi: skapandet av ordning genom avgränsade samlingsutrymmen eller ”icke-platser”. De är manipulationer av tid och rum.   Det botaniska samlandets långa historia utmärks av en praktisk kontinuitet som är ovanlig inom naturvetenskapen. Herbariets grundläggande teknik att bevara växter genom att pressa, identifiera och montera dem på pappersark har varit i bruk i nästan fem sekel. Avhandlingen utnyttjar sammanläggningsformatet för att hantera den historiografiska utmaning det innebär att studera en så lång tidsperiod, genom att de ingående artiklarna behandlar skilda tidsepoker och disciplinära perspektiv samtidigt som de alla delar avhandlingens centrala tematik: ordnande genom avgränsade samlingsutrymmen.     Avhandlingens struktur är baserad på den muromgärdade fyrdelade trädgården, med kappan som inneslutande fyra artiklar och en epilog. Artiklarna är diakrona analyser av botaniska samlingar: om samlande i Oxford på sextonhundratalet, om pressade växter i böcker som inte formellt utgör del av samlingar, och om digitaliseringen av botaniska samlingar. Dessa sammanhang är alla formade i en värld av böcker, text och publicering – en värld som historiskt har dominerats av män. Epilogen belyser den marginalisering av andra grupper och deras kunskaper om växter som detta har inneburit, genom att förklara avhandlingens omslag, ett lapptäcksbroderi av växtfärgade tyger.<br><p>QC 20171115</p><br>Saving Nature: Conservation Technologies from the Biblical Ark to the Digital Archive

L’herboristerie, activité consacrée à la préparation et à la vente de plantes médicinales, se renouvelle depuis les années 1970 autour d’acteurs aux pratiques techniques et approches scientifiques divergentes. Parmi eux, des paysans-herboristes cultivent, cueillent puis transforment eux-mêmes les espèces végétales qu’ils commercialisent tout en mobilisant les usages de la médecine végétale populaire transmis par l’ethnobotanique pour qualifier leurs qualités thérapeutiques. L’ethnobotanique est une discipline vouée à l’étude des relations flore-société investie notamment par des acteurs non-académiques qui travaillent sur le recueil des savoirs naturalistes populaires. La thèse met en lumière les ressorts de la relation que les paysans-herboristes tissent avec le végétal et la façon dont ils utilisent l’ethnobotanique pour asseoir la légitimité de leurs pratiques. En échangeant des savoirs sur les propriétés médicinales du végétal, il apparaît que les institutions de la recherche et du patrimoine d’une part, les paysans-herboristes et les ethnobotanistes d’autre part, participent à un processus de production collective de connaissances sur les plantes orienté vers le développement de l’autonomie thérapeutique. La thèse met également en évidence l’attention particulière des paysans-producteurs aux vulnérabilités humaines et végétales et la prise en compte de l’intentionnalité des plantes qui caractérise leur pratique de l’herboristerie. Les données de terrain ont été recueillies dans différents contextes entrelacés : les institutions patrimoniales et scientifiques, les arènes de l’herboristerie française et les fermes des paysans-herboristes<br>Herbalism, or the activity of preparing and selling medicinal plants, has been going through a phase of renewal since the 1970’s, thanks to the actions of various participants whose technical practices and scientific approaches markedly differ. Among them, are the farmer-herbalists, who grow and pick medicinal plants, which they transform and commercialise, mobilising the traditions of popular plant medicine relayed by ethnobotany. Ethnobotany, a field of study which focuses on the relationships between plants and societies, is being invested by new players who, independently from academic institutions, work to collect popular naturalistic knowledge. This doctoral thesis proposes to shed light on the dynamics underlying the relationship that farmer-herbalists establish with the plant world, and on their use of ethnobotany as an argument to legitimise their practices. It appears that, through an exchange of knowledge about the medicinal properties of plants, institutions of research and conservation on the one hand, farmer-herbalists and ethnobotanists on the other hand, both contribute to the constitution of a collective body of knowledge on plants which promotes therapeutic autonomy. The thesis also emphasizes that the farmer-producers are particularly attentive to the vulnerabilities of both humans and plants, and that they take the plants’ intentionality into consideration – a defining characteristic of their herbalistic practices. The field data was collected in an array of varied, though intermingled, contexts: conservation and scientific institutions, the various arenas of French herbalism, and the farms of the farmer-herbalists

The results of the investigation of Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton growth, vegetation rhythmic dependence upon meteorological factors is given here. Experiments were carried out in 2001 – 2005 during vegetation period at Kaunas Botanical Garden of Vytautas Magnus University. Object of investigations - Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton a medicinal, herbal immunomodulator, annual herbaceous deadnettle family (Lamiaceae Lindl.) plant originated from Asia passes all development cycle in middle Lithuanian climatic conditions. P. Frutescens vegetation length on the average is 167 days. Earliest initiation of vegetation and optimal climatic conditions for growth are when HTC=1,60-1,80, that is excess heavy humidity. Optimal climatic conditions for massive flowering and seed ripeness are when HTC=1,20, then massive flowering starts 10 days earlier and Lasts for 25 days. Strong correlation interdependence was established between massive flowering and HTC (R2=0,9406). After the investigation of P.frutescens terraneous parts (high, relative plain area) consistent patterns of vegetation rhythmic, the optimal harvest time, which determines raw material’s quality and quantity, was established, by using mathematical – statistical methods.

The abundance of mobile devices and digital cameras with video capture makes it easy to obtain large collections of video clips that contain the same location, environment, or event. However, such an unstructured collection is difficult to comprehend and explore. We propose a system that analyses collections of unstructured but related video data to create a Videoscape: a data structure that enables interactive exploration of video collections by visually navigating — spatially and/or temporally — between different clips. We automatically identify transition opportunities, or portals. From these portals, we construct the Videoscape, a graph whose edges are video clips and whose nodes are portals between clips. Now structured, the videos can be interactively explored by walking the graph or by geographic map. Given this system, we gauge preference for different video transition styles in a user study, and generate heuristics that automatically choose an appropriate transition style. We evaluate our system using three further user studies, which allows us to conclude that Videoscapes provides significant benefits over related methods. Our system leads to previously unseen ways of interactive spatio-temporal exploration of casually captured videos, and we demonstrate this on several video collections.

A proprietary Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) modeling tool, the Makai OTEC Thermodynamic and Economic Model (MOTEM), is leveraged to evaluate the accuracy of finite-time thermodynamic OTEC optimization methods. MOTEM is a full OTEC system simulator capable of evaluating the effects of variation in heat exchanger operating temperatures and seawater flow rates. The evaluation is based on a comparison of the net power output of an OTEC plant with a fixed configuration. Select optimization methods from the literature are shown to produce between 93% and 99% of the maximum possible amount of power, depending on the selection of heat exchanger performance curves. OTEC optimization is found to be dependent on the performance characteristics of the evaporator and condenser used in the plant. Optimization algorithms in the literature do not take heat exchanger performance variation into account, which causes a discrepancy between their predictions and those calculated with MOTEM. A new characteristic metric of OTEC optimization, the ratio of evaporator and condenser overall heat transfer coefficients, is found. The heat transfer ratio is constant for all plant configurations in which the seawater flow rate is optimized for any particular evaporator and condenser operating temperatures. The existence of this ratio implies that a solution for the ideal heat exchanger operating temperatures could be computed based on the ratio of heat exchanger performance curves, and additional research is recommended.<br>ID: 031001365; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Adviser: Marcel Ilie.; Title from PDF title page (viewed May 8, 2013).; Thesis (M.S.M.E.)--University of Central Florida, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-78).<br>M.S.M.E.<br>Masters<br>Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering<br>Engineering and Computer Science<br>Mechanical Engineering; Mechanical Systems

Even minimal improvements in particle collection efficiency of electrostatic precipitators significantly reduce dust emission from fossil-fuelled power stations and reduce pollution. Yet current designs rely on the Deutsch collection theory, which was developed for tubular precipitators and has been applied to wire-plate precipitators on the assumption that the inter-electrode electric fields at the same discharge distance in both were similar. Differences in geometry and associated collector electric fields and current density non-uniformity have not been taken into account, although the collector electric field and current density of the wire-plate precipitator are not uniform. And observations show that precipitated dust patterns and the distribution of collector current density are interrelated. Investigations revealed a simple square law relationship between the collector electric field and the collector current density in the space charge dominated coronas. Applying this relationship to the Deutsch collection theory led to a current-density-based collection formula that takes into account the non-uniform collector current density distribution. The current-density-based collection formula is then used to assess the impact of collector current density on collection efficiency, the results closely following published measurements. Applying the current-density-based collection formula to estimate the dust accumulation shows that most of the dust accumulates at collector locations facing the corona wires. The effect of the non-uniform precipitated dust layer on collection performance is assessed using the distributed corona impedance - the ratio of the inter-electrode voltage and the non-uniform collector current. Re-distribution of the collector current profile as dust builds up is also compatible with published measurements. Finally this is applied to optimize the wire-plate precipitator collection performance. This shows that optimal collection performance is obtained with the wire-wire spacing less than the wire-plate distance, once again confirming published experimental results. This is the first analytical approach to show better collection performance can be achieved at the ratio of wire-wire spacing/wire-plate distance not equal to unity, which has been the standard industry practice since 1960.

This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.<br>Bachelors<br>Engineering<br>Electrical Engineering

Doctor of Philosophy<br>Genetics Interdepartmental Program<br>Jesse Poland<br>The Green Revolution is credited with saving billions of lives by effectively harnessing new genetic resources and breeding strategies to create high-yielding varieties for countries lacking adequate food security. To keep the next billion people in a state of food security, plant breeders will need to rapidly incorporate novel approaches and technologies into their breeding programs. The work presented here describes new genomic and phenomic strategies and tools aimed at accelerating genetic gain in plant breeding. Plant breeders have long relied on regional testing networks to evaluate new breeding lines across many locations. These are an attractive resource for both retrospective and contemporary analysis due to the vast amount of data available. To characterize genetic progress of plant breeding programs in the Central Plains, entries from the Southern Regional Performance Nursery dating back to 1992 were evaluated in field trials. The trend for annual improvement was 1.1% yr⁻¹, matching similar reports for genetic gain. During the same time period, growth of on-farm yields stagnated. Genomic selection, a promising method to increase genetic gain, was tested using historical data from the SRPN. A temporal-based model showed that, on average, yield predictions outperformed a year-to-year phenotypic correlation. A program-based model found that the predictability of a breeding program was similar when using either data from a single program or from the entire regional collection. Modern DNA marker platforms either characterize a small number of loci or profile an entire genome. Spiked genotyping-by-sequencing (sGBS) was developed to address the need in breeding programs for both targeted loci and whole-genome selection. sGBS uses a low-cost, integrated approach that combines targeted amplicons with reduced representation genotyping-by-sequencing. This approach was validated using converted and newly-designed markers targeting known polymorphisms in the leaf rust resistance gene Lr34. Plant breeding programs generate vast quantities of data during evaluation and selection of superior genotypes. Many programs still rely on manual, error-prone methods to collect data. To make this process more robust, we have developed several open-source phenotyping apps with simple, intuitive interfaces. A contemporary Green Revolution will rely on integrating many of these innovative technologies into modern breeding programs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interactions between two plant species endemic to Florida and develop a model for the growth of one of the plant species. An equation for the growth of Hypericum cumulicola is developed through analyzing how the distance to and the height of the nearest Ceratiola ericoides (Florida rosemary) affects the growth of Hypericum cumulicola. The hypericums were separated into five separate regions according to the distance to the nearest rosemary plant. The parameters for a basic growth equation were obtained in each of the five regions and compared to each other along with the average deviations in each of the five regions. Analysis of the five separate regions aided in the creation of different growth equations that each encompassed all of the regions together. Four different growth equations are developed and then compared and analyzed for their accuracy.<br>M.S.<br>Department of Mathematics<br>Sciences<br>Mathematics

Community composition results from an integrated combination of random processes, regional habitat spatial structure, local environmental conditions, and species interactions. For example, the outcome of plant interactions can change depending on local environmental conditions such as nutrient availability, land management, or herbivory intensity. In particular, plant interactions may vary between facilitation and competition depending on ecological context, with facilitation expected to be prevalent under stressful conditions. I present the results of four studies that address different aspects of the community assemblage and dynamics emphasizing the synergistic effect of different processes. In the first, I investigated the importance of habitat isolation in determining species richness of wetlands with contrasting land use. The second describes an experiment to test the hypothesis that plant interactions with an unpalatable plant (Juncus effusus) would range from competition in ungrazed areas to facilitation in grazed areas and predicted that facilitative effects of Juncus would differ among functional groups of beneficiary species and be strongest when grazing was intense. In the third, I examine the community composition impacts of Juncus and predicted that Juncus would preserve functional diversity in grazed wetlands but that the effects of Juncus would vary along a grazing gradient. The fourth study investigated the relative importance of competition and nutrients in determining wetland invasion in two different land use types. Broadly, I demonstrate that the importance of different processes (habitat isolation, nutrient availability, competition/facilitation) to community composition is dependent on ecological conditions. This integrated view of community dynamics is interesting from a purely ecological perspective but also can be applied to understanding ecological problems such as exotic invasions and restoration of disturbed habitats.<br>Ph.D.<br>Department of Biology<br>Sciences<br>Conservation Biology PhD

Malaria is the most prevalent vector-borne parasitic disease worldwide and a major cause of death from infections. There is a great need to develop a low cost vaccine for malaria to control transmission of infection and impact of disease, due to the emergence of anti-malarial resistance. Two leading blood stage malarial vaccine candidates are the apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA-1) and the merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1). The aim of this project is to express malarial antigens in tobacco plants via plastid transformation and deliver them by subcutaneous or oral gavage of minimally processed transplastomic tissue to evaluate their efficacy to elicit an immune response and protect against malarial infection. Transplastomic lines expressing the malarial antigens fused to the transmucosal carrier Cholera toxin B subunit (CTB-AMA-1) and CTB-MSP-1 were generated. CTB-AMA-1 and CTB-MSP-1 accumulated up to 9.5% and 2% of the total soluble protein, respectively. Chloroplast-derived CTB-AMA-1, CTB-MSP-1, or both antigens were administered to BALB/c mice orally or by subcutaneous injections. The immune response in the experimental animals compared to the control animals was found to be significant. Using an immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and immunoblot, anti-AMA-1 and anti-MSP-1 found in sera of immunized mice recognized the native parasite and the native parasite protein, respectively. Anti-malarial antibodies inhibited parasite invasion into erythrocytes by utilizing an in vitro parasite inhibition assay. Results of these investigations may lead to a cost-effective malarial vaccine, much needed in developing nations.<br>M.S.<br>Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology<br>Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences<br>Molecular and Microbiology MS

Title from container. Includes bibliographies and indexes. Contributions to quantitative and population genetics -- The biochemical genetics of man -- The theory of plant breeding -- Natural selection and its constraints.

This is a collection of short stories and memories from the eight places that I have lived. Through these stories and memories, I reflect on themes of identity and community. I also consider the idea of home: what defines a home, how we make a place feel like a home, and what transforms a city or a town into a home. Each chapter also includes my own original designs and photographs. The stories about Sharon and Westwood, small towns in Massachusetts, focus on childhood and familial relationships. The narratives about St. Louis, Missouri and Toluca Lake, California, consider the transition from childhood to adulthood. Meanwhile, the memories from Claremont, California, Silver Lake, California and Santa Monica, California all meditate on the idea of belonging. Lastly, the recollections from London, England, contemplate how a foreign city can become a home.

<p> It is well known that American botanist Asa Gray's 1859 paper on the floristic similarities between Japan and the United States was among the earliest applications of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory in plant geography. Commonly known as Gray's "disjunction thesis," Gray's diagnosis of that previously inexplicable pattern not only provoked his famous debate with Louis Agassiz but also secured his role as the foremost advocate of Darwin and Darwinism in the United States. Making use of previously unknown archival materials, this dissertation examines the making of Gray's disjunction thesis and its relation to his collecting networks. I first point out that, as far back as the 1840s, Gray had identified remarkable "analogies" between the flora of East Asia and that of North America. By analyzing Gray and his contemporaries' "free and liberal exchange of specimens," I argue that Gray at the time was convinced that "a particular plan" existed in nature, and he considered that the floristic similarities between Japan and eastern North America manifested this plan. In the 1850s, when Gray applied himself to enumerating collections brought back by professional collectors supported by the subscription system and appointed in governmental surveying expeditions, his view of nature was then replaced by one that regarded the flora as merely "a catalogue of species." I argue that it was by undertaking the manual labor of cataloging species and by charging subscription fees for catalogued species that Gray established his status as a metropolitan botanist and as the "mint" that produced species as a currency for transactions in botanical communities. Finally, I examine the Gray-Darwin correspondence in the 1850s and the expedition that brought Gray's collector to Japan. I argue that Gray's thesis cannot be considered Darwinian as historians of science have long understood the term, and that its conception was part of the United States' scientific imperialism in East Asia. In light of recent studies focusing on the history of field sciences, this dissertation urges that a close examination of a biogeographical discovery like Gray's thesis is impossible without considering the institutional, cultural, and material aspects that tie the closets of naturalists to the field destinations of collectors.</p>

Orientadores: Silmara Marques Allegretti, Vera Lúcia Garcia Rehder<br>Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia<br>Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T03:21:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Frezza_TarsilaFerraz_D.pdf: 7085818 bytes, checksum: efda178c131c2fccfeccdf3495083418 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012<br>Resumo: A esquistossomose mansônica, doença parasitária debilitante causada pela espécie de trematódeo Schistosoma mansoni mata cerca de 280.000 pessoas ao ano. Atualmente, os fármacos empregados para tratamento (praziquantel - PZQ - e oxaminiquina) apresentam casos de tolerância e resistência, sendo necessária a criação de novos medicamentos. Nesse contexto, pesquisas com plantas medicinais consistem numa alternativa viável. Este trabalho se destinou a avaliar a ação de Cordia verbenacea sobre S. mansoni, por meio de testes in vitro e in vivo. Os testes in vitro foram realizados com 4 concentrações (50, 100, 200 e 400 ?g/mL) de óleo essencial (OE), fração aquosa (FAEE) e fração orgânica (FOEE), obtidas das partes aéreas da planta, com refracionamentos da FOEE e com o composto artemetina. A FOEE apresentou maior atividade esquistossomicida com as concentrações mais altas e foi refracionada. Do seu refracionamento, a fração 3 (F3) foi a que apresentou maior mortalidade. Ambas foram escolhidas para os testes in vivo nos quais camundongos Balb/c, infectados 45 ou 60 dias antes, receberam concentrações diferentes das frações (40, 100, 200 ou 300 mg/kg), em dose única por via oral. A avaliação da atividade das frações foi feita com base nos seguintes parâmetros: ação sobre os vermes adultos, ovos eliminados ao ambiente, oograma, formação das reações granulomatosas, hepatoesplenomegalia e ação sobre o tegumento dos vermes recuperados nos testes in vivo por microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV). Obteve-se redução de vermes de até 31% com a FOEE, na concentração de 40 mg/kg, administrada 45 dias após a infecção (o PZQ não apresentou redução nessa concentração); redução de ovos por grama de fezes de até 85,1% para 200 mg/kg de FOEE, administrada no 60º dia, enquanto o PZQ apresentou 20,5%; grande quantidade de ovos mortos no oograma para a F3, a partir de 100 mg/kg, seguindo o mesmo padrão apresentado pelo PZQ, 300 mg/kg; menor quantidade de granulomas por fígado analisado (média de 3,0 granulomas por órgão) para a FOEE, 300 mg/kg, administrada aos 45 dias de infecção, sendo que o PZQ, nesse mesmo esquema de tratamento, apresentou 9,6 granulomas em média; diminuição da hepatomegalia com 200 mg/kg de ambas as frações, no 60º dia de infecção. Imagens obtidas pela MEV mostraram extensas alterações no tegumento dos vermes machos submetidos a ambas as frações, sendo essas maiores que as provocadas pelo PZQ. Esses resultados indicam que C. verbenacea apresenta atividade tanto contra S. mansoni quanto contra a patologia provocada por esse helminto. Tais resultados foram por vezes superiores aos do PZQ, que se trata de uma substância pura. Os dados obtidos em relação à diminuição da patologia pode ter sido uma conseqüência das propriedades anti-inflamatória que a espécie possui<br>Abstract: The trematode Schistosoma mansoni is responsible for causing a form of schistosomiasis that kills around 280,000 people each year. Since there are cases of tolerance and resistance to the drugs currently used in the treatment for this disease, namely praziquantel (PZQ) and oxamniquine, there is a need for new schistosomicidal drugs. In that regard, the research with medicinal plants is a viable alternative. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the activity of Cordia verbenacea on S. mansoni by means of both in vitro and in vivo tests. The in vitro tests were performed using 4 concentrations (50, 100, 200, and 400 ?g/mL) of essential oil (OE), aqueous fraction (FAEE) and organic fraction (FOEE), obtained from aerial parts of the plant; fractions of the organic fraction; and artemitin. The FOEE showed stronger schistosomicidal activity with the higher concentrations, and it was fractionated. Among the resulting fractions, fraction 3 (F3) yielded the highest mortality of worms. Therefore, both fractions were chosen for the in vivo tests, in which Balb/c mice, infected 45 or 60 days before, received different concentrations of the fractions (40, 100, 200, or 300 mg/kg), administered orally in a single dose. The activity of the fractions was evaluated based on the following parameters: activity on adult worms, eggs released in the environment, egg count, formation of granulomatous reactions, hepatosplenomegaly, and activity on the tegument of worms retrieved from the in vivo tests by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Administered 45 days after the infection at 40 mg/kg, the FOEE provided a reduction of up to 31% of the worms (PZQ did not result in any reduction at that concentration); administered 60 days after the infection at 200 mg/kg, the FOEE provided a reduction of 85.1% of eggs per gram of faeces, whereas PZQ reached 20.5%; fraction 3, at 100 mg/kg, resulted in a large quantity of dead eggs in the egg count, the same happening for PZQ at 300 mg/kg; administered 45 days after the infection at 300 mg/kg, the FOEE resulted in less granulomas per liver (average of 3.0 granulomas per organ), whilst PZQ, under the same treatment conditions, resulted in an average of 9.6 granulomas; on the 60th day of infection and at 200 mg/kg, both fractions caused a reduction of hepatomegaly. Images obtained by SEM showed large changes on the tegument of male worms subjected to both fractions, such changes being larger than those caused by PZQ. These results indicate that the plant C. verbenacea presents activity against both S. mansoni and the disease caused by this helminth. In some cases C. verbenacea provided better results than PZQ, which is a pure substance. The data related to the reduction of the pathology can be a consequence of the anti-inflammatory properties of the plant<br>Doutorado<br>Parasitologia<br>Doutor em Parasitologia

Antigen expression through the Chloroplast Transformation Technology (CTT) produces bioencapsulated subunit-vaccines, capable of eliciting immune responses when delivered orally. Considerable challenges to effective plant-based vaccines are the normalization of dosage and preservation of accumulated antigen, which is complicated by variable high water content and protease activity. This study critically examines the efficacy of lyophilization in dehydrating plant-tissues and preserving plant-derived antigens with vaccine potential. Lyophilization was optimized through gravimetric analysis using lettuce expressing Protective Antigen (PA) of Bacillus anthracis (LS-HPAG) and the human autoantigen Proinsulin (Pins) fused to Cholera toxin subunit B (LS-CTB-Pins). Lyophilization for 48-hours was sufficient treatment to reduce lettuce to 4.57% of its original weight, which retained .058% water content in the bound state; these levels corresponded with oven-dried controls while antigen was stabilized for over a year of storage at room temperature. A simulated gastric fluid assay was applied to evaluate stability of plant derived antigens during digestion. It was observed that lettuce plant cells conferred protection through antigen bioencapsulation for up to an hour under enzymatic digestive conditions. LS-HPAG immunogenicity was then demonstrated through the induction of a PA-specific IgG response by through oral boosting of C57/BL6 test mice. Survival during toxin challenge demonstrated a protective immune response if 40% of animal immunized by plant-derived PA. Lastly, the inclusion of excipient and adjuvant additives will be considered and utilized for the development of prototype vaccine capsule formulations.<br>B.S.<br>Bachelors<br>Medicine<br>Molecular Biology and Microbiology

Cette thèse fait une analyse biométrique de la variabilité observée dans une collection de 36 variétés de Niébé (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) comprenant 28 cultivars locaux et 8 obtentions de l’Institut International pour l’Agriculture Tropicale (I. I. T. A. ). Elle classe les origines variétales et compare le comportement des différents groupes sur deux saisons à Yaoundé. Nos résultats mettent en évidence l’existence d’une haute variabilité, pour les caractères envisagés, entre les génotypes étudiés. Le classement des variétés fait ressortir trois groupes : - le groupe des variétés de l’I. I. T. A. , de performance supérieure à celle des variétés locales, - le groupe formé par les variétés de l’Ouest, du Nord-Ouest, du Sud-Ouest et du littoral, - le groupe constitué par les variétés de l’Est et du Nord Cameroun, intermédiaire aux deux groupes précédents mais tout en se rapprochant davantage des variétés de l’I. I. T. A. La comparaison du comportement des variétés sur les deux saisons révèle une bonne stabilité de performance des variétés de l’I. I. T. A. Pour les caractères reproducteurs alors que les variétés locales sont très influencées par l’excès d’humidité de la première campagne. En conclusion, nous suggérons pour l’amélioration du Niébé au Cameroun : a. Une stabilisation de la production des variétés locales par un accroissement de leur résistance aux maladies et aux insectes, en utilisant les variétés de l’I. I. T. A. Comme géniteurs de résistance. B. La création de nouvelles variétés à haut potentiel de productivité et stable, par croisement : variété locale x variété de l’I. I. T. A. , suivi d’une sélection généalogique<br>This thesis presents a biometrical analysis of the variability observed in a collection of 36 varieties of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp), made up of 28 local cultivars and 8 samples from the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The varieties of different origin are classified and the performance of the groups is compared for two seasons at Yaoundé. The results show considerable variability for the characters observed amongst the genotypes studies. The variety could be classed in three groups: - the group of varieties from the IITA, superior in performance to the local varieties; - varieties from the West, North-West, South-West and the coast; - varieties from the East and Norths Cameroon, intermediate between the above two groups but not similar to the samples from IITA. The IITA varieties were stable in their reproductive characters, while the local varieties were severally affected by excessively wet conditions in the first season. In conclusion we suggest that genetic improvement of Cowpea in Cameroon should involve: a) Stabilization of production of local varieties by increasing their resistance to diseases and insect pests, using IITA material as sources of resistance. B) Creation of new high performing and stable varieties by crossing local varieties with IITA material, followed by pedigree selection

Cette étude se doit d’analyser ce que les textes de la Collection hippocratique, ainsi que l’apport des commentateurs d’Hippocrate, tels Celse, Galien, et jusqu’aux chirurgiens actuels permettent de connaître de l’art chirurgical des Vème et IVème siècles avant J.-C., en Grèce. Les textes dits « chirurgicaux » sont ceux qui mentionnent un acte technique sur le corps humain, le plus souvent à l’aide d’un instrument « chirurgical ». Ils nous donnent des indications sur les pathologies traitées. Quelques documents iconographiques et quelques rares vestiges sont un apport intéressant. En confrontant les textes hippocratiques et la technique chirurgicale actuelle, nous verrons dans quelle mesure il est possible de reconstituer les conditions de réalisation de l’acte chirurgical par les praticiens hippocratiques<br>The present study focuses on surgery procedures in fifth and fourth century B.-C. Greece. The analysis of these procedures is based on information stemming from the text constituting the Hippocratic Corpus as well as from Hippocrates’ commentators such as Celsus and Galen- and modern surgeons. The texts analyzed particularly those named “surgical “are those describing a manual intervention on the human body, most frequently supported by an instrument considered as “surgical.” They offer indications on the pathologies treated. Certain iconographic documents are of particular interest. The confrontation between Hippocratic texts and modern surgical techniques will enable to estimate the possibility of restitution of the surgical procedures’ conditions by the Hippocratic surgeons

Doctor of Philosophy<br>Department of History<br>Bonnie Lynn-Sherow<br>American Indian material culture collections are protected in tribal archives and transnational museums. This dissertation argues that the Plains Indian people and Euroamerican people cross pollinated each other’s material culture. Over the last two hundred years’ interpretations of transnational material culture acculturation of the 19th - Century North American Plains Indians has been interpreted in venues that include arts and crafts, photography, museums, world exhibitions, tourism destinations, entertainments and literature. In this work, exhibit catalogs have been utilized as archives. Many historians recognize that American Indians are vital participants and contributors to United States history. This work includes discussions about North American Indigenous people and others who were creators of material culture and art, the people who collected this material culture and their motives, and the various types of collections that blossomed from material culture and oral history proffering. Creators included Plains Indian women who tanned bison hides and their involvement in crafting the most beautiful art works through their skill in quillwork and beadwork. Plains Indian men were also creators. They recorded the family’s and tribe’s histories in pictograph paintings. Plains Indian storytellers created material that was saved and collected through oral tradition. Euroamerican artists created biographical images of the Plains Indian people that they interacted with. Collections of objects, legends, and art resulted from those who collected the creations made by the creators. Thus today there exists fine examples of ethno-heirlooms that pay tribute to the transnational acculturation and survival of the American Indian people of the Great Western Northern American Plains. What is most important is the knowledge, and an appreciation for the idea that a transnational cross-pollination of cultures enriched and became rooted in United States history.

This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.<br>Bachelors<br>Sciences<br>Anthropology

The New Economic Geography literature has experienced an impressive success in economic theory. At the same time, the empirical evidence about the forces and mechanisms emphasized by this literature is growing. Nevertheless, there is still much to be gained from empirical analysis. The main objective of this work is thus to help mind this gap by providing further evidence on the relevance of agglomeration forces for the distribution of economic activities. We address this task from an eclectic perspective using both descriptive and structural approaches. We also pay particular attention to plants' heterogeneity and its interaction with spatial externalities. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that pecuniary externalities stemming from final consumption and input-output linkages play an important role in location choice. Furthermore, while big plants are more sensitive to very localized externalities, small units display a stronger spatial correlation pattern and can be found more easily close to big consumers' markets.

Submitted by Ricardo Cedraz Duque Moliterno (ricardo.moliterno@uefs.br) on 2016-01-26T21:56:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_Anderson_FINAL.pdf: 3427530 bytes, checksum: 027d12f66415d71dc327e860609665fe (MD5)<br>Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T21:56:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE_Anderson_FINAL.pdf: 3427530 bytes, checksum: 027d12f66415d71dc327e860609665fe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-29<br>Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico - CNPq<br>Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES<br>Funda??o de Amparo ? Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia - FAPEB<br>Eplingiella fruticosa (Salzm. Ex Benth.) Harley & JFB Pastore is an aromatic species, native, occurring in six states in northeastern Brazil (Bahia, Sergipe, Pernambuco, Paraiba, Rio Grande do Norte and Cear?). Popularly known as "alecrim de vaqueiro", is commonly found in street markets of the region and used to combat pain and seizures. Reviews in mice and in vitro studies show analgesic activity, vasodilating, cardioprotetiva, anti-inflammatory and larvicidal of its essential oil and of different types of the leaves extract. Recent studies show great variability in essential oil chemical composition of E. fruticosa, related to soil and climatic conditions and different plant organs. Thus, the species has great potential for exploration both agronomic, and by pharmaceutical companies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the vegetative propagation capacity and characterize previously Eplingiella genotypes, through morphological, agronomic, phytochemicals and molecular data. In Chapter I, two experiments were conducted: the first tested the effect of three substrates and the second evaluated five concentrations of IBA and three periods of cultivation. The design was a randomized block design with four replications. We evaluated survival percentage (% S), percentage of rooted cuttings (% EE), root length (CRE), number of shoots (NBE), dry mass of leaves (MSF), root dry weight (MSR) and total dry matter (MST). In Chapter II, twelve genotypes were collected, propagated vegetatively and transplanted. Twelve months after transplantation were assessed 12 quantitative traits, eight morphological and agronomic four. In Chapter III, the total DNA was extracted, then 20 primers were tested, of which nine were selected because they have better electrophoretic profiles agarose gel (2%). The binary matrix was computed in GEOCOMPAR II. It is estimated the diversity of the genetic structure parameters and the data were subjected to Bayesian analysis, and Neighbor-joining dendrogram and principal component analysis (PCA) based on matrix of Nei distances. And in Chapter IV, samples of 100g of leaves each repetition per genotype were used in the essential oil hydrodistillation in Clevenger type apparatus for three hours, quantifying the content. The identification of the compounds and their contents was performed by GC (FID) and GC / MS data 15 and the major compounds were used in diversity analysis. They have been made to cluster analysis and canonical variables, using as dissimilarity measure the Mahalanobis distance (D2). In the first experiment of Chapter I, significant differences were found for CRE, NBE, MSF, MSR and MST, with the best performance for the commercial substrate. In the second, positive effects have been identified both the addition of AIB as the cultivation time on the CRE variables, NBE, MSF and MSR, reaching maximum increment to the estimated concentration of 1.5 g L-1, at 60 days of cultivation. In Chapter II, there was significant variation by F test (p <0.01) for the CF features, LF, CBD, CBE, LP, and MFF MSF. The genotypes formed two groups for almost all variables, by Scott-Knott test (p <005), except for LP, which formed three. The EF002 and EF003 genotypes presented the highest levels for almost all variables. There was the formation of three groups for both UPGMA and for the canonical variables (CV). The characteristics that most contributed to the formation of groups were CBE, MFF and CF. The genotypes EF002, EF003, EF005 and EF012 stood out because they have higher genetic distances. In CHAPTER III, primers produced 131 polymorphic bands. The diversity index of Nei (Ne) ranged between 0.31 and 0.39, while Shannon (I) ranged between 0.33 and 0.48. The percentage coefficient of genetic differentiation (Gst) was 0.29. In AMOVA most of the variation was within populations (69%), while among populations was 27% and 4% among species, indicating a good genetic structure. The average value of Fst was 0.175, demonstrating intermediate differentiation between populations. The structure of the Bayesian analysis method revealed three possibilities for the formation of groups (K = 2; = 6; 8 =;), however, it presented many migrants and high level of mixing individuals. The dendrogram generated by the Neighbor-Joining method confirmed the formation of two groups, with good support for major clades (100%). PCA analysis in the first two axis explained 21.06% of the total variation among populations. Finally, in Chapter IV, the genotypes were classified into four clusters: 1 - EF001 genotypes, EF006, EF007, EF008, EF010, EF011 and EF012 with E-caryophyllene and bicyclogermacrene as major; 2 - EF002 and EF003 genotypes, with the majority same as the previous group, however, percentage with average about 30% higher; 3 - EF004 and EF005 genotypes that showed a greater production of E-caryophyllene; and 4 - with EF009 genotype, forming a single group to present ?-pinene as balanced majority and percentage among the rest. This result was confirmed by canonical variables, which explained 76% of the variation. The bicyclogermacrene compounds, 1,8-cineol, ?-copaene and spathulenol represented the most important variables for analysis.<br>Eplingiella fruticosa (Salzm. ex Benth.) Harley & J.F.B. Pastore ? uma esp?cie arom?tica, nativa, que ocorre em seis estados do nordeste brasileiro (Bahia, Sergipe, Pernambuco, Para?ba, Rio Grande do Norte e Cear?). Popularmente conhecida como ?alecrim de vaqueiro?, ? comumente encontrada em feiras livres da regi?o e utilizada no combate a dores e convuls?es. Avalia??es em camundongos e in vitro comprovam atividades analg?sicas, vasodilatadora, cardioprotetiva, antinflamat?ria e larvicida do seu ?leo essencial e de diferentes tipos de extrato de suas folhas. Estudos recentes apontam grande variabilidade na composi??o qu?mica do ?leo essencial de E. fruticosa, relacionada ?s condi??es edafoclim?ticas e aos diferentes ?rg?os vegetais. Sendo assim, a esp?cie apresenta grande pot?ncial de explora??o tanto agron?mica, quanto por ind?strias farmac?uticas. O objetivo geral deste estudo foi avaliar a capacidade de propaga??o vegetativa e caracterizar, previamente, gen?tipos de E. fruticosa, por meio de dados morfol?gicos, agron?micos, fitoqu?micos e moleculares. No CAP?TULO I, foram conduzidos dois experimentos: o primeiro testou o efeito de tr?s substratos e o segundo avaliou cinco concentra??es de AIB e tr?s per?odos de cultivo. O delineamento foi em blocos casualizado, com quatro repeti??es. Avaliou-se percentagem de sobreviv?ncia (%S), percentagem de estacas enraizadas (%EE), comprimento da raiz (CRE), n?mero de brota??es (NBE), massa seca de folhas (MSF), massa seca de raiz (MSR) e massa seca total (MST). No CAP?TULO II, doze gen?tipos foram coletados, propagados vegetativamente e transplantados. Doze meses ap?s o transplante foram avaliadas 12 caracter?sticas quantitativas, sendo oito morfol?gicase quatro agron?micas. No CAP?TULO III, o DNA total foi extra?do, em seguida 20 iniciadores foram testados, dos quais nove foram selecionados por apresentarem melhores perfis eletrofor?ticos em gel de agarose (2%). A matriz bin?ria foi computada no GEOCOMPAR II. Estimou-se os par?metros de diversidadee a estrutura gen?tica os dados foram submetidos ? an?lise Bayesiana, al?m de dendrograma Neighbor-joining e an?lise de componentes principais (PCA) com base na matriz de dist?ncias de Nei. E no CAP?TULO IV, amostras de 100g de folhas de cada repeti??o por gen?tipo foram utilizadas na hidrodestila??o do ?leo essencial, em aparelho tipo clevenger, durante tr?s horas, quantificando-se o teor. A identifica??o dos compostos e seus teores foi realizada por CG (DIC) e CG/EM e os dados de 15 compostos majorit?rios foram utilizados nas an?lises de diversidade. Foram procedidas an?lise de agrupamento e de vari?veis can?nicas, utilizando como medida de dissimilaridade a dist?ncia generalizada de Mahalanobis (D2).No primeiro experimento do CAP?TULO I, foram verificadas diferen?as significativas para CRE, NBE, MSF, MSR e MST, com melhor desempenho para o substrato comercial. No segundo, foram identificados efeitos positivos tanto da adi??o de AIB quanto dos tempos de cultivo sobre as vari?veis CRE, NBE, MSF e MSR, atingindo incremento m?ximo com a concentra??o estimada de 1,5 g L-1, aos 60 dias de cultivo. No CAP?TULO II, houve varia??o significativa, pelo teste de F (p<0,01), para as caracter?sticas CF, LF, CBD, CBE, LP, MFF e MSF. Os gen?tipos formaram dois grupos para quase todas as vari?veis, pelo teste de Scott-Knott (p<005), exceto para LP, que formou tr?s. Os gen?tipos EF002 e EF003 apresentaram as maiores m?dias para quase todas vari?veis. Houve a forma??o de tr?s grupos, tanto para UPGMA quanto para as vari?veis can?nicas (VC). As caracter?sticas que mais contribu?ram para a forma??o dos grupos foram CBE, MFF e CF. Os gen?tipos EF002, EF003, EF005 e EF012 se destacaram por apresentarem maiores dist?ncias gen?ticas. No CAP?TULO III, os iniciadores produziram 131 bandas polim?rficas. O ?ndice de diversidade de Nei (Ne) variou entre 0,31 e 0,39, enquanto Shannon (I) variou entre 0,33 e 0,48. O percentual do coeficiente de diferencia??o gen?tica (Gst) foi de 0,29. Na AMOVA a maior parte da varia??o ficou dentro das popula??es (69%), enquanto entre popula??es foi de 27% e entre esp?cies de 4%, indicando uma boa estrutura??o gen?tica. O valor m?dio de Fst foi 0,175, demonstrando diferencia??o intermedi?ria entre as popula??es. As an?lises de estrutura pelo m?todo Bayesiano revelou tr?s possibilidades de forma??o de grupos (K=2;=6;=8;), no entanto, apresentou muitos indiv?duos migrantes e elevado n?vel de miscigena??o. O dendograma gerado pelo m?todo de Neighbor-Joining confirmou a forma??o de dois grupos, com boa sustenta??o para os principais clados (100%). Na an?lise de PCA os dois primeiros axis explicaram 21,06% da varia??o total entre as popula??es. Por fim, no CAP?TULO IV, os gen?tipos foram classificados em quatro clusters: 1 - gen?tipos EF001, EF006, EF007, EF008, EF010, EF011 e EF012, com E-cariofileno e biciclogermacreno como majorit?rios; 2 - gen?tipos EF002 e EF003, com os mesmos majorit?rios que o grupo anterior, no entanto, com percentuais m?dios cerca de 30% superiores; 3 - gen?tipos EF004 e EF005, que evidenciaram uma maior produ??o de E-cariofileno; e 4 - com gen?tipo EF009, formando um grupo isolado por apresentar ?-pineno como majorit?rio e percentuais equilibrados entre os demais. Esse resultado foi confirmado pelas Vari?veis Can?nicas, que explicou 76% da varia??o. Os compostos biciclogermacreno, 1,8-cineol, ?-copaeno e espatulenol representaram as vari?veis de maior import?ncia para a an?lise.

This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.<br>Bachelors<br>Medicine<br>Biotechnology

This study investigates the development of Plant City, Florida as a railroad town developing on the Southwest Florida frontier from 1885-1940. The study chronicles the town's origins and economic, political, and social development in relationship to the broader historical theories of southern urban development, specifically those put forward in David Goldfield's pioneering work, Cotton Fields and Skyscrapers: Southern City and Region 1607-1980. Goldfield contended that southern cities developed differently than their northern counterparts because they were not economically, politically, philosophically and culturally separated from their rural surroundings. Instead, they displayed and retained the positive and negative attributes of southern society and culture, including a commitment to maintaining a biracial society until the 1960s, an affinity for rural lifestyles and values among urban residents, and an economic dependence on outside markets and capital. Since Goldfield derived his findings from research that centered on the cotton producing regions of the Old South, this study sought to determine whether the tenets of his thesis applied to the urbanization process in the frontier areas of Florida, a region often considered an anomaly to the greater South. In the end analysis it was determined that Goldfield's theory generally fits Plant City with some exceptions derived from regional differences found in Florida.<br>M.A.<br>Department of History<br>Arts and Sciences<br>History

Cette thèse s'intéresse à la négociation des plans de suppression d'emplois en contexte français, qu'elle tente de ressaisir dans ses dimensions concrètes en s'interrogeant sur les conditions à réunir par les représentants du personnel et de la direction pour faire émerger un système négocié. Pour l'analyser dans le détail, nous choisissons de nous déprendre des modèles traditionnels de la négociation et de mobiliser une perspective dramaturgique (Goffman, 1973) appliquée au champ des relations sociales (Friedman, 1994). Cette perspective permet d'analyser un phénomène empiriquement observé à travers nos études de cas: le découplage des comportements de négociation des représentants de la direction et des représentants du personnel, suivant la nature des espaces (officiels/officieux) dans lesquels leurs logiques d'action se déploient. Le concept de «jeu dramaturgique traditionnel» permet d'appréhender cette dialectique. Sur les scènes officielles (réunions de comité d'entreprise, réunions formelles de négociation), les élans coopératifs semblent difficilement trouver à s'exprimer, les acteurs étant pris dans des postures convenues qui leur imposent notamment de maintenir une distance sociale à l'égard de leur vis-à-vis. Dans les espaces officieux qui les soustraient au regard d'une audience, ils s'autorisent à s'extraire de cette contrainte et à exploiter le caractère plus discret et informel de leurs échanges pour faire progresser la voie négociée, construire le dénouement public régulier de leurs différends et faire advenir l'horizon tangible d'un accord mutuellement acceptable. Notre investigation empirique, basée sur une comparaison de cas, s'attache à comprendre la fonction sociale de la dialectique scène/coulisse dans le contexte spécifique de la négociation des plans de suppression d'emplois, les raisons pour lesquelles les représentants s'autorisent à exploiter le cadre d'échanges plus discrets, les bénéfices qu'ils en retirent. Le "jeu dramaturgique traditionnel", qui semble se jouer sur l'arrière-fond d'une confiance tissée au fil du temps entre les représentants, s'observe très diversement à travers nos terrains. L'analyse comparée des manières différenciées qu'ont les représentants du personnel et de la direction de s'engager dans ce jeu nous conduit à proposer un enrichissement théorique du cadre mobilisé à partir des repères de la sociologie des régimes d'engagement (Botanlski, 1990 ; Thévenot, 2006) qui envisage l'action sociale dans une optique pluraliste.

Environmental Engineering<br>Ph.D.<br>Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of persistent organic contaminants that are ubiquitous and persistent in the environment. In the environment, PCBs have been shown to undergo various degradation processes and generate hydroxylated metabolites known as hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs). There is a growing scientific interest in studying OH-PCBs as they are being increasingly detected in biotic and abiotic samples. Due to their widespread presence in the air, water, and soil, as well as their ability to bioaccumulate in living organisms, they pose a high danger to human beings and thus need to be remediated. Though phytoremediation has been proposed as a useful technology for the environmental management of PCBs, there is a lack of information about potential phytoremediation of OH-PCBs The hypothesis underlying this study is that hydroxylation of PCBs to OH-PCBs results in different toxicity and physiological effects on plants. In order to test this hypothesis, we conducted experiments aimed at understanding the toxicity and metabolism of PCBs and OH-PCBs by A. thaliana plants at physiological and transcriptomic levels. The applicability of FTIR to analyze lignin and cellulose content in the cell wall was tested for the purpose of biofuel production. More precisely, the specific aims of this study are as follows: 1. To determine the toxicity of selected PCBs and their hydroxylated metabolites (OH-PCBs) toward the model plant A. thaliana. 2. To understand the regulation of the response to and metabolism of PCBs and OH-PCBs in exposed A. thaliana at the transcriptomic level. 3. To determine the change in the biomass composition of A. thaliana upon exposure to different PCBs and OH-PCBs. Toxicity results indicated no observable toxicity of the parent PCBs toward the plants. However, lower chlorinated OH-PCBs resulted in a significant reduction in the growth and germination rate of the plants. Genome wide expression microarrays were used to investigate the transcriptional response of A. thaliana plants to 2,5-DCB and three of its OH-metabolites. Exposure to 2,5-DCB caused up-regulation of genes that are involved in toxic stress response and detoxification functions, and induction of multiple xenobiotic response genes. FTIR analysis was used to determine the effects of different PCBs and their hydroxylated metabolites on the composition of the plant biomass. Significant changes in the lignin and cellulose content were observed between different treatments, which indicated an overall effect on the cell wall components upon exposure to PCBs and its OH metabolites.<br>Temple University--Theses

This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.<br>Bachelors<br>Arts and Humanities<br>History