Global climate change has become the imminent issue of our time. Recent literature has stressed the pressing need for adaptation planning, particularly for communities that are most vulnerable to new climatic variations, such as resource dependent and coastal communities. Yet, such cries for adaptation have often glossed over the need for prior examination into the underlying cultural mindsets of such communities. In response, this thesis has sought to examine the various factors that are influencing local understandings of global climate change by leaders in two British Columbia coastal communities, Port Alberni and the Tseshaht First Nation. Guided by a social (or ecological) constructionist lens and a phenomenological methodological approach, a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with the leadership, both formal and informal, of the two aforementioned B.C. communities during the summer of 2006. Although each community yielded distinct findings, the interviews captured richly nuanced descriptions of local environmental changes, which in turn played a sizeable role in shaping how the leaders conceptualized climate change. A plethora of place-specific historical, experiential and values-based factors interacted and moulded the many contextual culturalmodels (from tsunamis, to recycling, to colonial pasts to reverence for nature), which were imbedded within leaders' discussions of climate change. Following this core analysis, I explored the community capacity to manage and adapt to future changes by examining local strengths and challenges. The concluding chapter provided a reflection of the results and pointed to new directions.

It is necessary for multinational corporations (MNCs) to manage their knowledge flows effectively in order to gain or maintain competitive advantage. The knowledge management (KM) process needs to be cost effective, which can be achieved through a standardized “one-size fits all” strategy. Some scholars argue that a standardized KM strategy is not possible in international KM, since countries are different and cultural differences makes it necessary to adapt the KM strategy with regard to different cultures. It becomes a question about standardization versus adaptation of KM. This study aims on describing the factors affecting international KM and thereby whether it is appropriate to standardize or adapt international KM. The empirical findings in this study derive from qualitative interviews with internationally experienced managers at three MNCs with subsidiaries spread over the world. By studying different factors that affect KM, it is shown that the MNCs mainly benefit from standardized KM strategies.

Under challenge by a dietary soybean cysteine protease inhibitor (scN), cowpea bruchids overcome the inhibitory effects by reconfiguring the expression profiles of their major digestive enzymes, the cathepsin L-like cysteine proteases (CmCPs). In addition, cowpea bruchids activate transcription of the counter-defensive cathepsin B-like cysteine protease (CmCatB). I undertook an interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms utilized by bruchids to differentially regulate cysteine proteases in response to plant inhibitors. First, to investigate the functional significance of the differential regulation of CmCPs, I expressed CmCP proprotein isoforms (proCmCPs) in E. coli, and characterized their activities. Among proCmCPs, proCmCPB1 exhibited the most efficient autocatalytic processing, the highest proteolytic activity, and was able to degrade scN in the presence of excessive CmCPB1. Second, to dissect the molecular mechanisms behind the differential function of CmCPs, I swapped domains between two representative subfamily members B1 and A16. Swapping the propeptides did not qualitatively alter autoprocessing in either protease isoform. Incorporation of either the N- or C-terminal mature B1 segment into A16, however, was sufficient to prime autoprocessing of A16. Bacterially expressed isolated propeptides (pA16 and pB1) showed that pB1 inhibited B1 enzyme less than pA16 due to its protein instability. Taken together, these results suggest that cowpea bruchids selectively induce specific cysteine proteases for their superior autoprocessing, proteolytic efficacy, and scNdegrading activities, and modulate proteolysis of their digestive enzymes by controlling cleavage and stability of propeptides to cope with plant inhibitors. Third, to understand the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of CmCatB hyperexpression that underlies bruchid adaptation, I cloned a portion of its promoter and demonstrated its activity in Drosophila S2 cells using a CAT reporter system. Gel shift assays identified cowpea bruchid Seven-up (CmSvp, chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter transcription factor homolog) in scN-unadapted insect midgut, and cowpea bruchid HNF-4 (CmHNF-4, hepatocyte nuclear factor 4) in scN-adapted insect midgut. When transiently expressed in S2 cells, CmSvp repressed, while CmHNF-4 activated CmCatB expression. CmSvp antagonized CmHNF-4-mediated transactivation when they were present simultaneously in the cell. Thus, the data suggest that transcriptional regulation of CmCatB in response to plant inhibitor depends, at least partly, on the cellular balance between positive and negative regulators.

Hagfish are the plesiomorphic sister group of all vertebrates. They are scavengers and many live at depths reaching thousands of meters. In addition, hagfish show the lowest metabolic rate as well as cardiac performance in vertebrates. This dissertation evaluated the biochemical characterizations of hagfish skeletal muscles related to the feeding apparatus and hagfish cardiac muscle associated with cardiac performance and deep-sea effects at the proteomic and metabolomic levels. In Chapter one and two, I found creatine kinase over-expressed in hagfish somatic muscle and deep-sea hagfish cardiac muscle, I suppose that this enzyme was important for utilization of stored phosphocreatine in deep-sea animals¡¦ somatic muscle and cardiac muscle. Over-expressed glycogen phosphorylase in hagfish dental and deep-sea hagfish cardiac muscle supposes these two types of muscles undergoing the anaerobic glycolysis. Compared to teleosts (cobia and tuna), TMAO and urea were higher in hagfish suggest their functions in hagfish cardiac muscle as osmolytes, however, higher TMAO but not urea in deep-sea hagfish, I suggest TMAO functions not only as an osmolyte but also physiological impacts in hagfish cardiac muscle for depth-related adaptations. I also found higher nebulin express in hagfish cardiac muscle and higher tropomyosin express in cobia and tuna cardiac muscles, thus their contractile differentiations were resulted from the protein-protein mechanism. This dissertation provides candidate proteins and metabolits involved in ecophysiological adaptation of hagfish skeletal and cardiac muscles.

Dissertation--Leipzig--Universität, 2001. / Bibliogr. p. 144-153.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1927. / Thesis note on label mounted on p. 57. "Reprinted from the American Naturalist, vol. LX, January-February, 1926." "Literature cited": p. 77-81.

As one of the most abundant metazoan groups on the planet, copepods are found in virtually all marine environments. They provide a key link in marine food webs between photosynthetic algae and higher trophic levels. Subsequently, copepods are preyed upon by a wide variety of organisms throughout their life history. As a result copepods have evolved a powerful escape behavior at all stages of development, in response to hydrodynamic stimuli created by an approaching predator. Typically copepods exhibit 6 naupliar stages and 5 copepodite stages before becoming adults. This work focuses on quantifying the effectiveness of the escape behavior during key periods of development. The earliest developmental stage of copepod (nauplius N1) experiences the greatest amount of viscous forces and may be at a disadvantage when exposed to larger predators at cold temperatures. The results show that the nauplius exhibits a compensatory mechanism to maximize escape performance across its thermal range. Later in development, the nauplius (N6 stage) molts into a copepodite (C1 stage) which resembles the body form of an adult copepod. Here, there is a significant morphological change with little change in mass. Escape capabilities are investigated for key stages in response to feeding strikes from natural fish predators. The results demonstrate that the improvement in escape capability of the C1 stage is effective only against certain modes of predation. Finally, successfully escaping from predation has evolutionary fitness implications and adults (post C5) are the only reproductive stage. Some species have developed unique mechanisms to avoid predation such as breaking the water surface and making aerial escapes to avoid predators while in other cases, the predator has developed unique morphology in order to reduce the amount of hydrodynamic disturbance in the water which improves capture success of copepods. By investigating copepod behavior and their ability to avoid predation at various stages of development, we can begin to understand which stages copepods are most susceptible to different types of predators and how the escape response changes as development progresses. This can help in understanding localized abundances or deficiencies of both predator and prey in the marine food web. / text

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Shakespeare’s Richard III is the most often performed history play within the western dramatic canon, yet at the end of the seventeenth century it was considered virtually unplayable. The extensive textual alteration undertaken by comedian Colley Cibber in 1700 revived interest in the rarely performed play, and actor David Garrick’s adoption of Cibber’s text in 1744 ensured the work’s popular survival. Regular performance and textual revision throughout the eighteenth century positioned Cibber’s adaptation as one of the most well-known works on the London stages, and by the time Henry Irving permanently restored Shakespeare’s text to the popular repertoire in 1877, Cibber’s adaptation had served as a conduit to restoring Richard III from its “virtually unplayable” position to its lost Elizabethan fame. The adaptive development of Richard III from unplayable to indispensable can be tracked dramaturgically, from Shakespeare’s Quarto (1597) and Folio (1623) to Cibber’s version, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century performative adaptations, and twentieth century film realisations. Through parallel-text analysis of the prompt-scripts of some of the most notorious, iconic, and effective adaptations of the play, this study examines in a practical sense the dramaturgical drive present throughout the play’s varied life-span: often changing, but nevertheless a constant product. The negative stigma attached to adaptation – characterised in Cibber’s words as “tampering” – is examined throughout the performative history of Richard III. Chapter one considers theoretical perspectives on adaptation studies, and adopts Gérard Genette’s evocative “transtextuality” discourse to quantify conclusions to emerge from parallel comparison of texts. Chapter two analyses Cibber’s process of “re-visioning” Shakespeare’s play; Chapter three examines the impact of performative adaptation on six different stage editions of Richard III. Chapter four addresses the transitional process of developing a stage-bound text on film through the screenplay format, and Chapter five demonstrates the use of cinematic visualisation on the text. Finally, Chapter six tracks the impact of adaptation on the survival and perpetuation of texts over successive generations and throughout varied cultures and contexts. Through analysis of fourteen different performance editions, prompt-books, film texts, and unpublished manuscripts, this dissertation considers the validity of “tampering” on the adaptive process.