Thesis (M.F.A.)--West Virginia University, 2010. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 253 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 25).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Albert E. Stiegman, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 24, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Member: Roberts, Philip; Committee Member: Sturm, Terry; Committee Member: weissburg, marc; Committee Member: yoda, minami. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Parents modulate the phenotypes of their offspring, beyond the effects of the genes they pass on. These parental effects can have impacts on the fitnesses of those offspring, as well as the fitness of the parents themselves. Parental investment in offspring is expected to be under antagonistic selection through its beneficial effects to offspring, and its detrimental effects on the parent's own fitness. Evolutionary conflict over parental care is therefore expected to occur, and may cause evolutionary stasis. Furthermore, selection is also expected to act on offspring traits, in order to maximise offspring fitness within a given parental environment, generating predictions of parent-offspring coadaptation. I tested the predictions of conflict and coadaptation in parent-offspring interactions, using a population of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), a species in which adults provide biparental care to their offspring. I found evolutionary conflict over offspring body mass, which may explain stasis in this trait. I also used a cross-fostering design to test for coadaptation between parents and offspring, and siblings. I did not find evidence for parent-offspring coadaptation, nor did I find that siblings were important through either direct interactions, or in mediating parent-offspring interactions, suggesting that there is little family coadaptation in this species. In addition, I investigated whether a maternal effect on hatching time was a passive consequence of environmental changes, or was an anticipatory maternal effect actively placed in eggs to manipulate hatching time. The results from this analysis suggest the latter to be the case, and mothers appear to actively manipulate offspring hatching time to reduce the extent of hatching asynchrony, which may reduce fitness costs to the offspring. By measuring the effects of interactions between individuals on phenotypes and fitness measures, I was able to show how parental effects on offspring can affect evolutionary dynamics. Such evidence of evolutionary conflicts has not previously been found, due to methodological issues with the ways in which selection has been measured. Thus, I highlight how gaps in knowledge about the evolutionary consequences of parental effects can be addressed using appropriate statistical tools and measures of fitness.

No description available.

Sepiolite is a clay mineral, a complex magnesium silicate, a typical formula for which is (OH2)4(OH)4Mg8Si12O30•8H2O. It is formed by blocks and cavities (tunnels) growing in the direction of the fibres. The tunnels, 3.7 x 10.6 Å in cross-section, are responsible for the high specific surface area and sorptive properties of sepiolite. The co-intercalation of 3-methyl cyclohex-2-en-1-one (MCH), the Douglas-Fir beetle anti-aggregation pheromone, with methanol, ethanol, acetone, or benzene into sepiolite tunnels was studied. The resulting nanohybrid materials were characterized by means of various techniques, such as multinuclear solid-state NMR spectroscopy, porosity studies and Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). This was done in the hope of obtaining slow and controlled release of MCH from the sepiolite tunnels. It was demonstrated by 13C MAS NMR (carbon-13 magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance) that at room temperature there are two different MCH molecules: one MCH inside the tunnels and the other one outside the tunnels of the sepiolite. Heating nanohybrid materials at 60˚C for 20 hours removes the external MCH molecules from the sepiolite. 13C MAS NMR showed that by further heating nanohybrid materials at 120˚C for 20 hours, methanol, ethanol, or acetone peaks were greatly reduced; however, the benzene peak was not reduced. To better understand how benzene acts inside sepiolite, intercalation of d6-benzene, and co-intercalations of d6-benzene with MCH and d6-benzene with pyridine into sepiolite tunnels were carried out, and these samples were studied by the same techniques. Another technique was used in order to see whether the slow and controlled release of MCH from the sepiolite tunnels could be obtained: sepiolite-MCH nanohybrids were treated with 20 ml of 0.5 M HCl solution. It was found that when 1 gram of MCH-sepiolite sample was acid treated at room temperature, about 35% of intercalated MCH was removed from the sepiolite. The role of sepiolite clay was also studied in Maya-Blue representative structure sepiolite-indigo adduct. It is known that upon heating the sepiolite and indigo mixture, the stability that is present in Maya-Blue is achieved. It is still a mystery, however, how exactly indigo and sepiolite interact with each other.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the methane potential of 35 kg of blue mussels in a batch amanaerobic two-stage dry digestion system (pilot-scale), which consists of aleach bed reactor (LB) and an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB). We monitored the process daily by measuring temperature, pH, COD, VFA, NH4+ gas flow rate and gas content. The temperature was approximately 30 C in the LB and 36 C in the UASB reactor. The applied OLR was 1.5 g COD/l*d. After 37 days process run, we obtained a total methamne yield of 0.64 Nm3 respectively 0.29 Nm3/kg VS, of that 70% in the LB reactor and 30% in the UASB reactor.

This work attempts to analyze causes of divergent transposition of the Blue Card directive, regulating the conditions of immigration of highly-skilled workers from third countries, between individual EU Member States. The differences are analyzed on two levels. Firstly, in terms of timeliness and correctness of transposition, secondly, from a perspective of a different manner of transposition of the discretionary clauses entailed in the Blue Card directive (whether the Member States opted for an open or for a restrictive way of transposition of these provisions). Scholarly literature about transposition compliance and highly-silled immigration policies creates the foundation, by means of which the author identifies several variables and articulates hypotheses aiming at providing explanation of the divergent transposition of the directive in the respective Member States. The author classifies the Member States in groups and clusters according to their transposition performance and its results embody a point of departure for a subsequent analysis. From each group, certain number of countries is selected for a detailed country-level analysis in order to ensure universality and geographical representativeness of the outcomes. To review how the individual hypotheses confirmed in the Member States, the...

Cercopithecus mitis is a polytypic, pan-African guenon species with a complex evolutionary history. The Lomami River Blue Monkey, C. m. heymansi, occurs within the Tshuapa-Lomami-Lualaba (TL2) Conservation Landscape and exhibits high pelage variation. Previous studies have shown discordance between the mitochondrial and Ychromosome gene trees of C. m. heymansi. The objectives were to test the phylogenetic pattern found in the mtDNA tree using a larger sample size of C. m. heymansi, determine the genetic diversity of the population, and hypothesize methods of speciation. While many species within the C. mitis radiation depict paraphyly, I determined that C. m. heymansi forms highly supported monophyletic clades in both mtDNA and Ychromosome gene trees. These results suggest that C. m. heymansi is a distinct lineage within the C. mitis radiation. Future genomic analyses are important in resolving the evolutionary history of this population and discerning its taxonomic classification and conservation value. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Objective: To study the accuracy and value of immediate wet preparation (WP) procedure on effusion and washing cytologic specimens. Study Design: Two hundred specimens were identified over 3 months in our cytology laboratory, including 102 pleural effusion, 59 peritoneal effusion, 28 pelvic washing and 11 pericardial fluid specimens. WP slides were prepared, stained with toluidine blue (TB) and evaluated. Findings were reported as negative, suspicious or positive for malignant cells. For negative specimens, the remaining prepared slides were stained together. For suspicious or positive interpretation, slides were stained separately. Accuracy and additional benefits from this immediate triage step were studied. Results: Interpretation of slides resulted in 152 negative, 34 positive and 14 suspicious for malignancy. Analysis for additional values resulted in immediate interpretation relayed to clinicians, additional fluid centrifuged for adequate sediment in samples with scant cellularity, selection of bloody specimens for acid washing procedures, selection of cases to optimize cell block preparation when pivotal histologic evaluation or immunohistochemistry was anticipated and selection of cases for potentially needed ancillary studies. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values were high. Conclusion: WP using the TB is accurate, sensitive and highly specific and has considerable value beyond segregating potential neoplastic cases.