The complementarity of ancient DNA lends itself to integration with paleopathological inquiries of disease, particularly in scenarios where there is limited or conflicting historical, skeletal, and archaeological information in a given spatio-temporal context. This thesis expands on molecular approaches applied to the detection of “invisible” pathogens associated with non-catastrophic morbidity and mortality that are embedded in a unique biosocial context of the disease experience. Presented in ‘sandwich-thesis’ format, I explore the historical narrative surrounding malaria in Imperial period Italy (1st-4th c. A.D.) using a molecular approach that is integrated with an ecosocial framework, as well as addressing the methodological challenges of identifying pathogens in contexts without a priori knowledge or incongruous evidentiary sources. My research presents the first partial mitochondrial genome for P. falciparum recovered from two adults (prioritized from a subset of 58 individuals) in disparate ecological and social localities in Imperial period Italy. This provides a timestamp for this ancient protozoan parasite, with an emphasis on a multi-faceted approach to frame the human-parasite-vector-environment interactions in the studied localities. Additionally, I successfully applied an in-solution hybridization capture technique designed to detect over 1,000 human pathogens in archaeological samples, both of known and unknown pathogen constituents. This technique qualitatively and quantitatively assesses the likelihood of low abundance pathogenic targets that are present, in order to prioritize candidates to further pursue with downstream analyses, as well as beginning to explore the synergistic landscape of pathogen-pathogen interactions. In combination, the research outlined in this thesis emphasizes the molecular and biosocial experience of disease as interconnected elements in dynamic epidemiological environments of the past. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The research problem of this study has been to compare armed organizations in the Swedish inter war period in a systematic way through the theoretical framework of the monopoly of violence. This has been done in the effort to demonstrate how the Swedish state viewed the level of threat that these organizations proposed based on certain criterias. This is something that hasn’t previously been done and it’s important analyze since it demonstrates how the state works under enormous amounts of stress and what the state deems to be of highest risk during these special times. The purpose of the study has been to answer how the state viewed the different armed organization's threat levels. Was it based on ideological views or was it based on something different? To answer this the study used three different research questions: What did the armed organizations have as their motive? What resources did the organizations have? And how did the state view the threat levels of the different organizations? As already noted the study was conducted within the framework of Max Weber's theory on the monopoly of violence. This theory implies that in order to have a successful state you need to be able to have the exclusive right to use violence within a specific area. Hence the state needs a monopoly of violence and therefore violence becomes a form of politics and the pursuit of power and influence. This theory should help demonstrate both why these organizations choose to take to arms but also how their different aspects affect their levels of threat perceived by the state. This study has been done primarily through a qualitative text analysis with a hermeneutic approach and comparative elements applied to it. This study has found that the organization's ideology seems to be the major aspect that increases the perceived threat levels but that there also are two other aspects that do this. The second is the motive behind why the organization has chosen to become armed. If the motive is to be able to conduct revolution this greatly increases the perceived levels of threat. The third aspect is the amount of resources that these organizations have, the more resources that they are in control of, the greater their potential threat and hence perceived threat levels.

The timing of Mississippian-period occupations in the North Central Hills physiographic region of Mississippi has been debated. Some researchers believe they occurred in conjunction with Late Woodland period occupations during the Early Mississippian period, while others assert they were later, in either the Late Mississippian or early Protohistoric periods. A program of systematic shovel testing, excavation and frequency seriation was used to delineate Mississippian-period occupations and test the cultural lineage between them and Late Woodland period occupations at nine sites on the Ackerman Unit of the Tombigbee National Forest.

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Numerous historical reports written by Spaniards in the Americas during the Early Colonial Period describe public life. However, less is known about quotidian lives during this period. In the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a region encompassing dozens of cultural groups, little is known about the everyday life of Mixtecs and how they reacted towards the newly established Spanish authority in their households. When they arrived at Achiutla, one of the biggest religious centres of ancient Oaxaca (Byland 2008), the Spaniards imposed their power on the public sphere, using religion and economy amongst others (Terraciano 2001:294, 340). My objective is to study the Mixtecs’ reaction to the arrival of Spaniards in the region by using paleoethnobotany to study foodways and how Achiutla’s inhabitants negotiated the arrival of new food items and to what level they accepted, incorporated, and resisted them. This study presents the traditional Mixtec and Spanish foodways and the important role they played in their beliefs, traditions, and identities. I present elements supporting the claim that certain Spaniards might have tried to modify Indigenous foodways in the Americas, while others believed it was preferable for Spaniards and Indigenous people to eat different foods. This study also presents other results obtained in Colonial foodways studies made in the Americas and in the Mixteca Alta region. This study includes the analysis of 27 paleoethnobotanical samples, 22 of them being macrobotanical remains obtained from light fractions and 5 of them coming from microbotanical residues extracted from artifacts. All these samples were collected by Jamie Forde in 2013 at San Miguel Achiutla in the course of the PASMA archaeological project and come mainly from two terraces (10 and 13) likely occupied by Mixtec nobility. By combining samples coming from the Postclassic and the Early Colonial Periods, this study establishes the Mixtec diet prior to the arrival of Europeans in the region, enabling a better comparison between the two. This study supports the idea that the Mixtec diet likely remained the same at Terraces 10 and 13 during the Postclassic and the Early Colonial Periods. Two genera dominate the paleoethnobotanical assemblage: Chenopodium sp. (pazote, apazote) and Amaranthus sp. (huisquelite or quelite), the presence of which demonstrates continuity through times. I assess different scenarios that might explain the absence of European introduced plant species at Achiutla, cautiously presenting a hypothesis linked to Mixtec colonial resistance. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The period gene determines biological rhythmicity in Drosophila melanogaster. The X-linked gene is 7.4kb, containing 8 exons and 7 introns from which a 4.5kb message is translated. A striking feature of the protein encoded by per is a series of alternating threonine-glycine residues in the fifth exon. Moreover, this string of residues is polymorphic for length variation in natural populations, the most frequent variants having 17, 20 or 23 Thr-Gly pairs. In the present study, a geographic analysis of this polymorphism within North American populations was conducted, the results of which indicate significant variation of allele frequency with latitude. The use of spatial autocorrelation analysis and Mantel tests clearly show that the most common variant, encoding 17 Thr-Gly pairs, exhibits a clinal pattern in its distribution along a north-south axis. Furthermore, DNA sequence analysis of several variants has uncovered a novel new variant which encodes 22 Thr-Gly pairs whose nucleotide sequence differs from any published data. Similar statistical analysis conducted on seven allozymes for populations collected along the same transect shows that several have monotonic clinal patterns in their allele frequency distributions which also show correlation with latitude. A previous study of morphological traits on the same populations showed the existence of a non-monotonic clinal pattern. Comparison of the results observed for the molecular and morphological markers indicates that they are subject to different evolutionary forces. The results highlight the importance of comparing patterns of geographic variation using different genetic elements. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

Significant effort has been made to quantify and predict roll damping of vessels in the past. Similarly, efforts have been made to provide effective methods for calculating the roll gyradius of vessels. Both the damping and the gyradius of a vessel are traditionally quantified through the use of a sally test. Experience with the USS Midway showed that shallow water has significant effect on the rolling period and thus the experimentally determined roll gyradius. To date, little effort has been directed to the problem of the effect of shallow water on roll damping and roll period except when trying to match model and full scale experimental data. No clear guidelines exist for the boundary between deep and shallow water or the amount of overprediction of roll period that is likely for a given water depth. In order to provide greater understanding of the effects of shallow water on roll period and roll damping, this thesis performed experiments in varying scale water depths for 5 models: 4 box barges and a model of the USS Essex. The following conclusions were reached: As water depth to draft ratio, d/T, approaches 1 the roll period can increase as much as 14%. The boundary between deep and shallow water is a water depth somewhere between 4 and 7 times the vessel draft depending on the particulars of the vessel's hull form. Vessels with a larger beam to draft ratio will experience shallow water effects in relatively deeper water, that is to say the depth to draft ratio will be greater at the upper limit of deep water. Additionally, vessels with a higher beam to draft ratio will experience larger shallow water effects for a given depth to draft ratio. Finally, for vessels of very fine hull forms, the boundary between deep and shallow water will occur a relatively shallower depths, in other terms, the boundary will occur at a lower depth to draft ratio. / Master of Science

The crystallization behavior of bisphenol-A polycarbonate (BAPC) was studied, focusing on the initial stage of crystallization and the secondary stage of crystallization. Bisphenol-A polycarbonate was the polymer chosen for this study because of its slow crystallization rate. With slow crystallization kinetics, the polymer morphology does not change when quenched below its glass transition temperature, enabling the study of different stages of crystallization through the frozen morphology. The study of the initial stages of crystallization pertained to crystallization times prior to the growth of detectable crystallinity. This study employed BAPC because of the long induction period, a direct result of the slow crystallization kinetics. During the induction period of polycarbonate crystallized at 190°C there was no evidence of polymer chain ordering that was seen in literature for other polymers. The length of the induction period determined by differential scanning calorimetry and wide-angle X-ray diffraction varied by over 6 hours because differential scanning calorimetry can detect a smaller amount of crystallinity than wide-angle X-ray diffraction. Signs of pre-ordering in the literature could be a result of experimental sensitivity. The study of the secondary crystallization dealt with the isothermal lamellar thickening of BAPC crystals during annealing, after crystallization for an extended period of time. Small-angle X-ray scattering and differential scanning calorimetry experiments were performed on bisphenol-A polycarbonate samples crystallized near 190°C for 8 days and annealed at either 223°C or 228°C for various times. The Gibbs-Thomson relationship, which can be defined using the experiments mentioned, yielded two thermodynamic constants, the equilibrium melting temperature and the surface free energy. Including data from literature in the determination of the constants, the equilibrium melting temperature and surface free energy of BAPC is 303°C and 36.6mJ/m2, respectively. Comparing the lamellar thickness measurements by small-angle X-ray diffraction with direct measurements by microscopy was difficult because the morphology of the polymer was not easily seen in the bulk using atomic force microscopy or scanning electron microscopy. Etching the sample was the most promising technique for future investigations of revealing the bulk morphology for direct lamellar thickness measurements. Crystallizing thin films of polycarbonate on calcite substrates allowed the measurement of lamellar thickness using scanning electron microscopy because the lamellae grow epitaxially to the substrate. The measurement of the long spacing in thin film samples was comparable to that of bulk samples. / Master of Science