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This dissertation investigates various topics concerning the interpretation of determiner phrases and their connection to individual entities. The first chapter looks at a phenomenon called telescoping, in which a quantificational expression appears to bind a pronominal form across sentence boundaries, at odds with commonly assumed and well motivated constraints on binding. I investigate the limited circumstances under which telescoping is available and argue that the mechanism that makes it available should respect said locality constraints. In particular, I argue that the impression of co-variation arises not because of binding by the initial quantificational expression, but because an of independent, albeit unpronounced, quantificational operator in the second sentence. I will show cases where the domains of these two quantificational operators are independent, incompatible with approaches that assume a single operator. This result also entails that no reference to constructed individuals, e.g. prototypical or average individuals is needed. In the second chapter, I look at the German lexical item lauter and argue that DPs headed by lauter are purely predicational. After presenting an overview of the various kinds of interpretations that a DP can receive, and some discussion objecting to the idea of treating these as cases of lexical ambiguity, I show data that illustrate that lauter DPs cannot receive many of these interpretations. At the end of the chapter, I speculate about ways in which purely predicative DPs may appear and be interpreted in some, but not all, positions that arguments typically occupy, resulting in a restricted distribution and less freedom in the range of interpretations. In the last chapter, I look at an instance of a semantically complex determiner, the English item any. Instead of adding to the discussion based on an investigation of any, I propose that this hidden semantic complexity has a transparent reflex in German, where the lexical item überhaupt spells out a logically independent part of the proposed meaning of any, namely its domain widening meaning.

Pastaza Kichwa is a Quechuan language spoken in eastern Ecuador. This thesis describes its use of switch-reference which is traditionally understood to be an interclausal cross-referencing feature. Switch-reference is manifested by one of two morphemes that mark a subordinate clause as having either the same or different subject as another clause. Switch-reference has been described for other Quechuan languages and some of these studies present challenges to the theoretical underpinnings of switch reference (Stewart 1988, Dreidemie 2007) others present associated functions of switch-reference morphemes (Cole 1982). This study tests some of the propositions made about switch-reference in other Quechuan languages in Pastaza Kichwa.The data comes from the Corpus of Pastaza Kichwa which is a collection of 40 narrative texts. A broad statistical analysis of the switch-reference morphemes in the forty texts verified a distributional pattern posited by Stewart (1988). A sample of five texts was used for a closer in context analysis to examine adherence to proposed typological rules of canonical switch-reference, to test Stewarts (1988) motivation for counter examples, and test additional functions proposed by Cole (1982).Analysis and results indicate that switch-reference in Pastaza Kichwa does not obey all of the typological rules of canonical switch-reference. Stewarts proposed motivation proved inapplicable and potentially problematic, and that associated functions of switch-reference markers are due more to contextual factors rather than specific constructions.

The one-boson-exchange potential model is studied in some detail. The parameters of a velocity-dependent potential based on such a model are fitted to reproduce two-body scattering data. This potential is then used in nuclear matter calculations by means of the reference spectrum method. It is shown that the average binding energy of a nucleon in nuclear matter and the saturation density are in reasonable agreement with the experimental values. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The genus Aspergillus possesses broad functionality and occupation of ecological niches. Underpinning this are changes in the transcriptome of these species. Transcriptional changes are clinically relevant with respect to understanding triazole resistant isolates of Aspergillus fumigatus. Reverse-transcription quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) is a highly specific means of measuring changes in gene expression. The most common method of which requires normalization to experimentally validated, stably expressed reference genes. Ideal reference genes are unaffected by differences in the experimental conditions or strains/isolates and are expressed at levels near the target gene(s). The first study reviewed current practices for reference gene selection and validation for RT-qPCR gene expression analysis of the genus, Aspergillus. Information on the species examined, experimental conditions, sample type, normalization strategy, reference gene(s) and their state of validation was obtained from 90 primary studies. Twenty reference genes were used, with the most popular reference genes used encoding beta-tubulin, actin, 18S rRNA and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Seventeen of the 90 studies experimentally validated the expression stability of the reference genes used, out of which eight used more than one reference gene. The results of three studies conflicted with others described in the literature, with no experimental validation of the reference genes available to aid in interpreting the conflicting findings. In the Genome-Wide Association Study, genes noted to increase in expression in response to itraconazole and/or voriconazole treatment of A. fumigatus were extracted from published RNA-sequencing or RT-qPCR studies. Ten ATP-binding cassette transporters, four major facilitator superfamily transporters and 16 transcription factors were identified. Collectively, the findings of this thesis show a large disparity in experimentally validated reference genes as well as future targets of gene expression analysis in triazole resistant isolates of A. fumigatus. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Aspergillus is a globally distributed genus of fungi, with some species threatening opportunistic human infection. To combat infection with the opportunistic species, Aspergillus fumigatus, antifungal drugs including: itraconazole, voriconazole and amphotericin B are used. Recent years have seen a rise in antifungal resistance in A. fumigatus. To understand this and other mechanisms in Aspergillus, changes in gene expression must be examined. My thesis aimed to determine how reference genes are selected for reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction, a method applied to measure gene expression changes in Aspergillus. It was discovered that very few studies between the years 2001 and 2020 experimentally validated that the reference genes used were stably expressed, with only 17 out of 90 studies providing validation. In part two of my thesis, genes overexpressed in A. fumigatus when exposed to antifungal drugs, from formerly published articles, were summarized to better understand the role of gene expression in antifungal drug resistance.

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