Heme-activated proteins (HAPs) are transcription factors that have multiple roles in plant growth and development, such as embryogenesis, flowering time control, and drought tolerance. In the present study I found that HAP3b was also involved in controlling response to cold stress. Transcript profiling and gene expression analyses indicated that HAP3b repressed the CBF3 regulon under normal growth conditions. As a result, plants with HAP3b-overexpressed showed decreased survival rates while plants homozygous for the null allele hap3b showed an improved freezing tolerance compared to wild-type plants. To understand the mechanism of HAP3b in Arabidopsis, i.e. whether it also acts through forming a heterotrimer, the yeast two-hybrid system and the protein coimmunoprecipitation method were used to identify the proteins that could interact with HAP3b. From yeast two-hybrid analyses, it was found that HAP3b could interact with one (At3g14020) of ten HAP2s and all ten HAP5s tested. Further analyses showed that the newly identified HAP2 protein could only interact with two HAP5 proteins, those encoded by At5g63470 and At1g56170. To address whether HAPs also play important roles in major crop plants, HAP3 genes in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) were identified and characterized. From database sequence analyses, cloning, and sequencing, it was found that barley plants have at least six full-length members in the HAP3 family. Phylogenetic analyses showed that each barley HAP3 was different, forming its own cluster with the HAP3s from other plant species. Each barley HAP3 also showed its own expression pattern in different tissues, at different developmental stages and under various environmental stresses. In particular, TC176294 showed the highest sequence similarity to HAP3b in Arabidopsis and its high expression was associated with flowering. In addition, TC176294 was upregulated by various abiotic stresses and by abscisic acid (ABA). Thus, TC176294 might be a barley ortholog of HAP3b. TC191694 showed the highest sequence similarity to HAP3c and might be a barley ortholog of HAP3c. TC191694 overexpression plants were early flowering compared to HAP3b-overexpression and wild-type plants while overexpression of TC176294 plants were not.

Studies were conducted to determine the effect of externally applied growth hormones on winter rye (Secale cereale var. cougar). The rye was grown under the snow in a specially prepared tunnel on a mountain side near Logan, Utah. These plants showed a remarkable ability to grow at 0°C. Three growth hormones, kinetin, gibberellic acid (GA), and auxin (indole-3-acetic acid) were externally applied to rye seedlings growing in the tunnel. These seedlings were alter weighed, measured and tested for soluble protein content. The three hormone treatments had no significant effects on the fresh weights or shoot lengths of the rye. GA however, had a significant effect on the soluble protein content of the young shoots. Shoots treated with GA showed a marked decrease in soluble protein content. Kinetin and IAA had no significant effect on the soluble protein content of the rye.

With the Second World War, the U.S. defense establishment attained a scale and permanence it never had before. The new strategic blueprint of the Cold War dictated constant readiness for military confrontation, but it was also clear that the country could not keep up wartime levels of total economic mobilization. Faced with the problem of managing this military behemoth, leaders in the defense bureaucracy looked to private industry for expertise to help them run the emerging national security state. The result was a remaking of defense administration in the image of the post-war corporation. This dissertation explains how and why reformers placed their faith in models of business enterprise, an approach that was neither self-evident nor readily accepted across the military leadership. In the decades after World War II, the reorganization of the defense bureaucracy around values of efficiency and productivity shaped U.S. military operations and affected millions of people around the world. In concrete terms, this dissertation tracks how managerial science changed the ways the military kept accounts, disciplined labor, trained officers, and handled government assets. Interest in improving military management exploded after 1950. In the realm of budgeting and finance, reformers set up transactions between units to imitate buyer-seller relationships, requiring officers to express their needs for supplies and labor in dollar terms. Drawing analogies between military and private industry, defense establishment reformers embraced methods like Taylorist work measurement, which they used to control work ranging from filing to the production of massive weapons systems. Borrowing directly from Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program, defense leaders established schools to train high-ranking military officers in the latest trends of business management. While these business-inspired reforms gained traction in many parts of the military bureaucracy, they were not accepted without controversy. After the Vietnam War, many military leaders questioned the dominance of “managerialism” and denounced it in favor of traditional concepts of command and leadership. By the 1970s, however, the language and values of management had become thoroughly embedded in the institutional structure of the military. I argue that the reorganization of the defense bureaucracy in the image of the profit-seeking firm changed the experience of work in the military, redefined what it meant to be an officer, and facilitated the privatization of many of the defense establishment’s functions. Further, I aim to show that understanding how the military governed and produced can reframe key historiographic debates about 20th century American political economy.

No description available.

The aim of this research was to develop a new harvest maturity index for highly coloured stone fruit that is not affected by seasonal or climatic factors. The judgement of commercial maturity is difficult with some cultivars of stone fruit because they develop intense skin pigmentation several days before they are ripe. Studies of the changes of the physiochemical and physiological parameters associated with ripening confirmed that no single measurement is suitable for the assessment of harvest maturity in the Japanese type plum cultivars(Prunus salicina Lindl). Two distinct patterns of ripening behaviour were identified. The cool storage (0 degrees Centigrade) responses of fruit harvested at three stages of maturity were examined. Total soluble proteins were extracted and separated from fruit during maturation and ripening using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis. At least three proteins were first detected in fruit at optimum commercial harvest maturity. Since Gulfruby, Beauty and Rubyred (Japanese type plum cultivars) accumulated similar concentrations of aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid(ACC), it was suggested that the suppressed-climacteric phenotype is the result of an impaired ability of the fruit to convert this compound to ethylene / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (Ph.D.)

Chilling-related postharvest rind breakdown of navel oranges is a significant economic problem worldwide. Chilling injury (CI) symptoms on navel orange fruit vary, and descriptive classification is generally ad hoc, making inter-study comparisons difficult. In this study, external symptoms of CI were related to patterns of cellular collapse in affected flavedo tissue, and a classification system developed to aid consistent symptom identification and improve communication within the supply chain. Potential markers of senescence were evaluated because older fruit were found to be more susceptible to CI. Electrolyte leakage, moisture content and protein content of flavedo tissue were ineffective indicators of both senescence and chilling stress. Rind colour and internal maturity were generally good indicators of fruit age, but lacked sensitivity over short time periods to be of use. Although there was a strong seasonal effect on CI incidence, pre-storage treatments, including hot water and methyl jasmonate, generally reduced the incidence of CI. Because these treatments elicit defence responses that protect tissue from chilling stress, the response and efficiency of plant defence systems is probably an important factor in chilling tolerance. The concentration of lipid hydroperoxides (LOOH) in flavedo tissue was lower in fruit that were stored at a chilling temperature (1�C) compared to fruit that were stored at a non-chilling temperature (12�C) and lipid peroxidation did not increase during storage at 1�C. There was also a lower concentration of LOOH in the chilling sensitive variety than in the chilling tolerant variety. Therefore, increased lipid peroxidation is not related to chilling stress and subsequent injury but the results do suggest a role for LOOH in stress signalling. Antioxidant activity in the lipophilic fraction of flavedo tissue extracts increased as fruit senesced and was strongly correlated with carotenoid content. LOOH concentrations in flavedo tissue also increased as fruit senesced. The antioxidant activity of both the lipophilic and hydrophilic fractions of flavedo tissue extracts was higher in fruit stored at 12�C than in fruit stored at 1�C.

vii, 235 leaves : / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (M.D. 1974) from the Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Adelaide

The Italian political crisis of 1992-94, often referred to as Tangentopoli, emerged after the revelation of endemic corruption throughout the political system. First and foremost the crisis saw the collapse of the main political parties, the Christian Democracy and the Socialist Party. In a different manner and only one year prior to this crisis, the former Communist Party, also underwent major changes and evolved into a social democratic party, the Democratic Party of the Left. Though this crisis was sparked by a corruption revelation, it became a catalyst for a change in the deformities of a political system, of the partitocracy, which was itself the product of Cold War conditions faced by Italy in the post-war period. The focus of this study has been to re-evaluate the causes of this crisis with particular attention to the role of the Cold War as the over-arching influence which directly and indirectly influenced many of the internal dynamics of the Italian political process. The hypothesis of this research was that the end of the Cold War in 1991 as a factor which provoked this political crisis, was far more important as a cause than has hitherto been acknowledged. The study examines the other indicated possible causes including the impact of the corruption revelations, the role of the magistrates in uncovering corruption, the economic crisis, the role of the new protest movement of the Lega Nord and finally the especially brutal equilibrium with Italian political forces re-established by the Mafia after 1992.

This thesis critically examines the career and significance of America’s first Secretary of Defence James V. Forrestal from a post-Cold War perspective. Within traditional Cold War scholarship, Forrestal’s legacy is problematic. The nature of his role as a defence administrator, combined with his suicide in 1949, has led scholars to underestimate his significance and relegate his legacy to the occasional biography. The few studies that examine his contribution utilise conventional analytical approaches that fail to fully assess his policymaking impact. The end of the Cold War, however, has brought additional insight into the policy concerns that dominated the conflict, new analytical approaches to its scholarship and fresh material on which to base a re-assessment. As this thesis demonstrates, the employment of new methodologies to study Forrestal’s impact is long overdue. By drawing on theories specifically related to leadership and decision-making behaviour, this thesis brings a deeper, fuller understanding of Forrestal’s policy-making impact as a Cold War official through an examination of his professional conduct. Despite Forrestal’s many successes, political controversies surrounding his defence career overshadowed his many achievements. This thesis argues that such controversies were the result of Forrestal’s dedication as a public official, his policy-making and management styles, and the structure of his authority as defence secretary. They were not, as some have argued, the result of his ineffectiveness as a policy-maker, “hawkish” attitudes or declining mental health. His collapse, furthermore, was not the natural conclusion of any paranoid delusions or obsessive nature, but rather a result of Forrestal’s dedication to his work at the expense of his own health. This thesis undertakes a content analysis of Forrestal’s writings and an examination of his policy-making approach, concentrating on the evolution and execution of his policy advice and initiatives, as well as the structure of his authority as secretary of defence. It begins with a biographical overview of his life and public service career, as well as an assessment of existing Cold War scholarship and its general tendency to underestimate Forrestal’s significance. The components of his legacy are then analysed thematically, with chapters devoted to his foreign policy influence, his role in the unification controversy and his administrative efforts as defence secretary. Throughout, Forrestal’s career and significance is reassessed both in the application of new theoretical and methodological insights, and the analysis of recently declassified and reorganised documents, particularly the complete and unexpurgated version of Forrestal’s official diaries.

This thesis critically examines the career and significance of America’s first Secretary of Defence James V. Forrestal from a post-Cold War perspective. Within traditional Cold War scholarship, Forrestal’s legacy is problematic. The nature of his role as a defence administrator, combined with his suicide in 1949, has led scholars to underestimate his significance and relegate his legacy to the occasional biography. The few studies that examine his contribution utilise conventional analytical approaches that fail to fully assess his policymaking impact. The end of the Cold War, however, has brought additional insight into the policy concerns that dominated the conflict, new analytical approaches to its scholarship and fresh material on which to base a re-assessment. As this thesis demonstrates, the employment of new methodologies to study Forrestal’s impact is long overdue. By drawing on theories specifically related to leadership and decision-making behaviour, this thesis brings a deeper, fuller understanding of Forrestal’s policy-making impact as a Cold War official through an examination of his professional conduct. Despite Forrestal’s many successes, political controversies surrounding his defence career overshadowed his many achievements. This thesis argues that such controversies were the result of Forrestal’s dedication as a public official, his policy-making and management styles, and the structure of his authority as defence secretary. They were not, as some have argued, the result of his ineffectiveness as a policy-maker, “hawkish” attitudes or declining mental health. His collapse, furthermore, was not the natural conclusion of any paranoid delusions or obsessive nature, but rather a result of Forrestal’s dedication to his work at the expense of his own health. This thesis undertakes a content analysis of Forrestal’s writings and an examination of his policy-making approach, concentrating on the evolution and execution of his policy advice and initiatives, as well as the structure of his authority as secretary of defence. It begins with a biographical overview of his life and public service career, as well as an assessment of existing Cold War scholarship and its general tendency to underestimate Forrestal’s significance. The components of his legacy are then analysed thematically, with chapters devoted to his foreign policy influence, his role in the unification controversy and his administrative efforts as defence secretary. Throughout, Forrestal’s career and significance is reassessed both in the application of new theoretical and methodological insights, and the analysis of recently declassified and reorganised documents, particularly the complete and unexpurgated version of Forrestal’s official diaries.