O principal objetivo deste trabalho é estudar diversas aplicações de combinatória infinita em espaços de funções contínuas, definidas em espaços compactos Hausdorff. Usando combinatória infinita para uma álgebra de Boole, por meio da dualidade de Stone, obtemos um espaço compacto Hausdorff. Com certas propriedades na álgebra de Boole é possível analisar propriedades analíticas no espaço de funções contínuas definidas em tal espaço. Especificamente, analisamos a propriedade de Grothendieck. Também analisamos a relação entre o espaço de funções contínuas e o espaço compacto Hausdorff sobre o qual é definido. Apresentamos um resultado que permite obter diversos resultados conhecidos de uma maneira uniforme (só usando fatos de topologia e teoria de conjuntos), dotando o espaço de funções contínuas de uma ordem peculiar. Finalmente, estudamos um pouco de jogos topológicos mediante diversos exemplos. / The main purpose of this work is to study some infinite combinatorics applications in spaces of continuous functions, defined in Hausdorff compact spaces. Using infinite combinatorics in Boolean algebras, through Stone duality, we obtain a compact Hausdorff space. With certain properties in Boolean algebras it is possible to analyze analytic properties in the space of continuous functions defined in such space. Specifically, we analyze the Grothendieck property. We also analyze the relationship between the space of continuous functions and the compact Hausdorff space on which it is defined. We present a result that allows to obtain several known results in a uniform way (only using facts of topology and set theory), giving the space of continuous functions a peculiar order. Finally, we study some topological games through several examples.

O principal objetivo deste trabalho é estudar diversas aplicações de combinatória infinita em espaços de funções contínuas, definidas em espaços compactos Hausdorff. Usando combinatória infinita para uma álgebra de Boole, por meio da dualidade de Stone, obtemos um espaço compacto Hausdorff. Com certas propriedades na álgebra de Boole é possível analisar propriedades analíticas no espaço de funções contínuas definidas em tal espaço. Especificamente, analisamos a propriedade de Grothendieck. Também analisamos a relação entre o espaço de funções contínuas e o espaço compacto Hausdorff sobre o qual é definido. Apresentamos um resultado que permite obter diversos resultados conhecidos de uma maneira uniforme (só usando fatos de topologia e teoria de conjuntos), dotando o espaço de funções contínuas de uma ordem peculiar. Finalmente, estudamos um pouco de jogos topológicos mediante diversos exemplos. / The main purpose of this work is to study some infinite combinatorics applications in spaces of continuous functions, defined in Hausdorff compact spaces. Using infinite combinatorics in Boolean algebras, through Stone duality, we obtain a compact Hausdorff space. With certain properties in Boolean algebras it is possible to analyze analytic properties in the space of continuous functions defined in such space. Specifically, we analyze the Grothendieck property. We also analyze the relationship between the space of continuous functions and the compact Hausdorff space on which it is defined. We present a result that allows to obtain several known results in a uniform way (only using facts of topology and set theory), giving the space of continuous functions a peculiar order. Finally, we study some topological games through several examples.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF TITLE: (OPTIMIZATION PROTECTION OF CARBOB-CARBON COMPOSITES DISC-BRAKES MATERIAL BY COATING WITH ANTI-OXIDANTS) Developing glass enhancer mixture solutions (Ki’s), which promote the formation of a stable glass layer, homogenous clear liquid solution, and low viscosity liquid form, are easy to apply, and penetrating. They are compatible with ceramic liquid glass based anti-oxidants for treating surfaces of carbon/carbon composites material, and significantly increase the rate of protection against oxidation. Ki’s’ are comprised of mixing chemical compositions at standard temperature and pressure conditions from group one and two such as Na, K, Ca, Mg, etc. of 5 to 25 wt. %, deionized water from 95 to 75 % by weight, and adding up to 1 % by weight of surfactants such as DF-16, DF-20, and CF-10 with specific proportions, and followed by thorough stirring to produce a homogeneous blend of mixture solution. The glass enhancers, which are aqueous mixture solutions, are applied to the surfaces of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites by dipping, brushing, spraying, or other painting application techniques, followed by annealing, or a heat-treating range of 80 to 110 ℃ for a minimum of 8 hours, and allowing cooling time of the coated C/C composites of a minimum of 12 hours to room temperature. Preferential compatibility of the glass enhancer mixture solutions (Ki's) is with liquid glass former's, anti-oxidants comprised mostly of borate and phosphate glasses. The glass enhancer solution mixtures (Ki’s) are supplemental additions to ceramics’ liquid anti-oxidants coatings used for carbon-carbon composites protection against oxidation, and it will increase the rate of protection against oxidation for low, and moderate temperature’s range from 400 to 900 ℃. The glass enhancer Ki’s mixture solutions should be used with liquid glass former's’ anti-oxidants, such as SiO₂, GeO₂, B₂O₃, and P₂O₅. A series of glass enhancer’s Ki’s, heat treatment cycle (char-cycle) ranged between 700 to 900 ℃, and application methods, were developed and tested experimentally. Two arbitrary isothermal temperatures of 650 ℃, and 871 ℃ were selected for thermal oxidation testing, and a temperature of 650 ℃ was selected, and tested against catalytic thermal oxidation. Additions of glass enhancer Ki’s improved protection of C/C composites disc-brakes against oxidation by double, and triple amount of time in hours versus the use of anti-oxidant coatings alone.

Nous proposons dans ce mémoire de thèse une méthodologie permettant la résolution du problème de la décomposition de Hodge-Helmholtz discrète sur maillages polyédriques. Le défi de ce travail consiste à respecter les propriétés de la décomposition au niveau discret. Pour répondre à cet objectif, nous menons une étude bibliographique nous permettant d'identifier la nécessité de la mise en oeuvre de schémas numériques mimétiques. La description ainsi que la validation de la mise en oeuvre de ces schémas sont présentées dans ce mémoire. Nous revisitons et améliorons les méthodes de décomposition que nous étudions ensuite au travers d'expériences numériques. En particulier, nous détaillons le choix d'un solveur linéaire ainsi que la convergence des quantités extraites sur un ensemble varié de maillages polyédriques et de conditions aux limites. Nous appliquons finalement la décomposition de Hodge-Helmholtz à l'étude de deux écoulements turbulents : un écoulement en canal plan et un écoulement turbulent homogène isotrope. / We propose in this thesis a methodology to compute the Helmholtz-Hodge decomposition on discrete polyhedral meshes. The challenge of this work isto preserve the properties of the decomposition at the discrete level. In our literature survey, we have identified the need of mimetic schemes to achieve our goal. The description and validation of our implementation of these schemes are presented inthis document. We revisit and improve the methods of decomposition we then study through numerical experiments. In particular, we detail our choice of linear solvers and the convergence of extracted quantities on various series of polyhedral meshes and boundary conditions. Finally, we apply the Helmholtz-Hodge decomposition to the study of two turbulent flows: a turbulent channel flow and a homogeneous isotropic turbulent flow.

L'usage des pesticides au sein de l'Union européenne est de plus en plus réglementé, et les rodonticides actuellement disponibles sur le marché sont responsables de nombreuses intoxications secondaires chez les prédateurs des rongeurs. Il est donc crucial aujourd'hui de trouver une alternative plus écologique aux molécules commerciales. Les travaux de recherches décrits dans cette thèse s'inscrivent dans ce contexte et présentent la mise au point de nouvelles voies d'accès à des structures coumariniques et leurs études biologiques. La molécule anticoagulante ciblée se devait d'être active sur rats sensibles et résistants, et d'avoir une rémanence faible dans l'organisme. Les synthèses chimiques ont été menées conjointement avec les tests biologiques, conduisant l'ensemble des études de façon convergente vers la production d'un lead. Trois nouveaux outils moléculaires ont été mis au point et ont permis la synthèse et l'évaluation d'un grand nombre de candidats. Les deux premières en catalyse homogène, sous micro-onde, ont permis de réduire le temps réactionnel nécessaire à la synthèse de 4-hydroxycoumarine substituée sur le carbone 3. La troisième méthodologie conduit par une approche séquentielle aux mêmes types de composés à l'échelle du gramme. Cette dernière ouvre également la porte à de nombreuses possibilités réactionnelles permettant d'envisager plus de diversité. Toutes les molécules ont été évaluées in vitro, sur différentes souches d'enzymes VKORC1 et ont offert une meilleure compréhension des interactions enzyme/inhibiteur. Après cette première évaluation, des tests in vivo ont été conduits sur une sélection de composés, et ont apporté des informations cruciales sur les relations structure/activité in vivo et structure/rémanence. Le meilleur composé synthétisé à ce jour semble répondre parfaitement aux différentes contraintes liées au cahier des charges établi initialement qui se basait sur une approche singlefeeding. Une stratégie multifeeding est aujourd'hui envisagée afin de mieux correspondre à la réalité du terrain. Sur la base de celle-ci, le nombre de composés décrit dans ce manuscrit potentiellement utilisable en tant que rodonticide se retrouve largement augmenté / To reduce the ecological impact of pesticides in UE many new legislations were put in place, in other hand, most of secondary intoxications of rodent's predators are due to rodenticides available on the market. That why it’s crucial to find alternative rodenticide more eco-friendly. This work describes optimization of new coumarinics compounds synthesis and their biological studies. The new anticoagulant should be active on wild and mutant rat, and must have a low hepatic persistence in the rat body. Organic syntheses were driven with biological studies and have converged to discover the lead. Three different new molecular tools were optimized and have allowed the synthesis and the evaluation of a large number of candidates. The first two through homogeneous catalysis by using micro-waves have reduced the time needed for the alkylation of 4-hydroxycoumarin on the carbon 3. The third methodology allows the synthesis of same kind of compounds in large scale. This methodology opens news potentials reactions to add structural diversity. All the molecules were evaluated in vitro on different types of VKORC1 and have participated to a better understanding of the enzyme/inhibitor interactions. After this first evaluation, in vivo tests were performed on a selection of candidates, and have brought a crucial structural relationship between structure and in vivo persistence/activity. The best compound produced by now seems to answer at all specifications established linked to the single-feeding strategy. Multiple-feeding strategy is today planned to better correspond to the field reality. On the base of this one the number of candidates usable as rodenticides is increased

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / A renewed focus on generalised pollinator systems has inspired a conceptual framework which highlights that spatial and temporal interactions among plants and their assemblage of pollinators can vary across the individual, population, regional and species levels. Pollination is clearly a dynamic interaction, varying in the number and interdependence of participants and the strength of the outcome of the interaction. Therefore, the role of variation in pollination is fundamental for understanding ecological dynamics of plant populations and is a major factor in the evolution and maintenance of generalised and specialised pollination systems. My study centred on these basic concepts by addressing the following questions: (1) How variable are pollinators in a generalised pollination system? To what degree do insect visitation rates and assemblage composition vary spatially among populations and temporally among flowering seasons? (2) How does variation in pollinators affect plant reproductive success? I chose to do this using a model system, Trachymene incisa subsp. incisa (Apiaceae), which is a widespread Australian herbaceous species with simple white flowers grouped into umbels that attract a high diversity of insect visitors. The Apiaceae are considered to be highly generalist in terms of pollination, due to their simple and uniform floral display and easily accessible floral rewards. Three populations of T. incisa located between 70 km and 210 km apart were studied over 2-3 years. The few studies investigating spatial and temporal variation simultaneously over geographic and yearly/seasonal scales indicate that there is a trend for more spatial than temporal variation in pollinators of generalist-pollinated plants. My study showed both spatial and temporal variation in assemblage composition among all populations and variation in insect visitation rates, in the form of a significant population by year interaction. However, removing ants from the analyses to restrict the assemblage to flying insects and the most likely pollinators, resulted in a significant difference in overall visitation rate between years but no difference in assemblage composition between the Myall Lakes and Tomago populations. These results indicate more temporal than spatial variation in the flying insect visitor assemblage of T. incisa. Foraging behaviour provides another source of variation in plant-pollinator interactions. Trachymene incisa exhibits umbels that function as either male or female at any one time and offer different floral rewards in each phase. For successful pollination, pollinators must visit both male and female umbels during a foraging trip. Insects showed both preferences and non-preferences for umbel phases in natural patches where the gender ratio was male biased. In contrast, insects showed no bias in visitation during a foraging trip or in time spent foraging on male and female umbels in experimental arrays where the gender ratio was equal. Pollinator assemblages consisting of a mixture of different pollinator types coupled with temporal variation in the assemblages of populations among years maintains generalisation at the population/local level. In addition, spatial variation in assemblages among populations maintains generalisation at the species level. Fire alters pollination in T. incisa by shifting the flowering season and reducing the abundance of flying insects. Therefore, fire plays an important role in maintaining spatial and temporal variation in this fire-prone system. Although insect pollinators are important in determining the mating opportunities of 90% of flowering plant species worldwide, few studies have looked at the effects of variation in pollinator assemblages on plant reproductive success and mating. In T. incisa, high insect visitation rates do not guarantee high plant reproductive success, indicating that the quality of visit is more important than the rate of visitation. This is shown by comparing the Agnes Banks and Myall Lakes populations in 2003: Agnes Banks received the highest visitation rate from an assemblage dominated by ants but produced the lowest reproductive output, and Myall Lakes received the lowest visitation rate by an assemblage dominated by a native bee and produced the highest seedling emergence. Interestingly, populations with different assemblage composition can produce similar percentage seed set per umbel. However, similar percentage seed set did not result in similar percentage seedling emergence. Differences among years in reproductive output (total seed production) were due to differences in umbel production (reproductive effort) and proportion of umbels with seeds, and not seed set per umbel. Trachymene incisa is self-compatible and suffers weak to intermediate levels of inbreeding depression through early stages of the life cycle when seeds are self-pollinated and biparentally inbred. Floral phenology, in the form of synchronous protandry, plays an important role in avoiding self-pollination within umbels and reducing the chance of geitonogamous pollination between umbels on the same plant. Although pollinators can increase the rate of inbreeding in T. incisa by foraging on both male and female phase umbels on the same plant or closely related plants, most consecutive insect movements were between plants not located adjacent to each other. This indicates that inbreeding is mostly avoided and that T. incisa is a predominantly outcrossing species, although further genetic analyses are required to confirm this hypothesis. A new conceptual understanding has emerged from the key empirical results in the study of this model generalised pollination system. The large differences among populations and between years indicate that populations are not equally serviced by pollinators and are not equally generalist. Insect visitation rates varied significantly throughout the day, highlighting that sampling of pollinators at one time will result in an inaccurate estimate and usually underestimate the degree of generalisation. The visitor assemblage is not equivalent to the pollinator assemblage, although non-pollinating floral visitors are likely to influence the overall effectiveness of the pollinator assemblage. Given the high degree of variation in both the number of pollinator species and number of pollinator types, I have constructed a model which includes the degree of ecological and functional specialisation of a plant species on pollinators and the variation encountered across different levels of plant organisation. This model describes the ecological or current state of plant species and their pollinators, as well as presenting the patterns of generalisation across a range of populations, which is critical for understanding the evolution and maintenance of the system. In-depth examination of pollination systems is required in order to understand the range of strategies utilised by plants and their pollinators, and I advocate a complete floral visitor assemblage approach to future studies in pollination ecology. In particular, future studies should focus on the role of introduced pollinators in altering generalised plant-pollinator systems and the contribution of non-pollinating floral visitors to pollinator assemblage effectiveness. Comparative studies involving plants with highly conserved floral displays, such as those in the genus Trachymene and in the Apiaceae, will be useful for investigating the dynamics of generalised pollination systems across a range of widespread and restricted species.

An ad hoc wireless network is an infrastructure-less, autonomous system of nodes connected through wireless links. In many current applications of ad hoc wireless networks, individual wireless nodes are autonomous, rational, and intelligent and are often referred to as selfish nodes, following game theoretic terminology. In an ad hoc wireless network, a typical node may be an intermediate node of a route from a source node to a destination node and therefore is often required to forward packets so as to enable communication to be established. Selfish nodes may not always forward the packets since the forwarding activity consumes the node’s own resources. Such behavior by individual nodes may lead to suboptimal situations where nodes, through their actions, lead to a state that is undesirable from an overall network viewpoint. To counter this, there is a need to stimulate cooperation through methods such as providing appropriate incentives. In this thesis, our interest is in designing rigorous incentive based methods for stimulating cooperation among wireless nodes, in the specific context of broadcast. In particular, we address the Incentive Compatible Broadcast problem: how do we design broadcast protocols that induce truth revelation by the individual wireless nodes? We do this using a game theory and mechanism design framework. Incentive compatibility of broadcast protocols could manifest in two forms: (1) Dominant Strategy Incentive Compatibility (DSIC) (also called strategy-proofness) and (2) Bayesian incentive compatibility (BIC). A DSIC broadcast protocol is one which makes it a best response for every wireless node to reveal its true type, regardless of what the other nodes reveal. A BIC broadcast protocol is one which makes truth revelation a best response for a node, given that the other nodes are truthful. The DSIC property is stronger and more desirable but more difficult to achieve. On the other hand, the BIC property is much weaker and easier to achieve. In this thesis, we first design a DSIC broadcast protocol for ad hoc networks using the well known VCG (Vickrey-Clarke-Groves) mechanisms and investigate its properties and performance. Next, we design a BIC broadcast protocol, investigate its properties, and compare its performance with that of the DSIC broadcast protocol. Both the protocols developed in this thesis provide an elegant solution to the incentive compatible broadcast problem in ad hoc networks with selfish nodes and help stimulate cooperation among the selfish wireless nodes.

Cette thèse porte sur les jeux d'évolution et de congestion.Après une revue des études sur les jeux de congestion dans les réseaux dans le chapitre 1, nous étudions la relation entre la composition des joueurs (non-atomiques, atomiques, composites) et les coûts d'équilibre dans les chapitres 2 et 3. En particulier, l'impact de la formation des coalitions est examiné.Les chapitres 4 et 5 introduisent le comportement de délégation dans les jeux composites et les jeux divisibles en entiers. Plusieurs jeux et processus de délégation dans des contextes différents sont définis et étudiés.Enfin, nous nous penchons sur l'aspect dynamique des jeux. Le chapitre 6 est consacré à une dynamique à deux échelles qui modélise le phénomène de sélection à niveaux multiples. La thèse est conclue par une revue des études sur les dynamiques de type réplicateur dans le chapitre 7.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / A renewed focus on generalised pollinator systems has inspired a conceptual framework which highlights that spatial and temporal interactions among plants and their assemblage of pollinators can vary across the individual, population, regional and species levels. Pollination is clearly a dynamic interaction, varying in the number and interdependence of participants and the strength of the outcome of the interaction. Therefore, the role of variation in pollination is fundamental for understanding ecological dynamics of plant populations and is a major factor in the evolution and maintenance of generalised and specialised pollination systems. My study centred on these basic concepts by addressing the following questions: (1) How variable are pollinators in a generalised pollination system? To what degree do insect visitation rates and assemblage composition vary spatially among populations and temporally among flowering seasons? (2) How does variation in pollinators affect plant reproductive success? I chose to do this using a model system, Trachymene incisa subsp. incisa (Apiaceae), which is a widespread Australian herbaceous species with simple white flowers grouped into umbels that attract a high diversity of insect visitors. The Apiaceae are considered to be highly generalist in terms of pollination, due to their simple and uniform floral display and easily accessible floral rewards. Three populations of T. incisa located between 70 km and 210 km apart were studied over 2-3 years. The few studies investigating spatial and temporal variation simultaneously over geographic and yearly/seasonal scales indicate that there is a trend for more spatial than temporal variation in pollinators of generalist-pollinated plants. My study showed both spatial and temporal variation in assemblage composition among all populations and variation in insect visitation rates, in the form of a significant population by year interaction. However, removing ants from the analyses to restrict the assemblage to flying insects and the most likely pollinators, resulted in a significant difference in overall visitation rate between years but no difference in assemblage composition between the Myall Lakes and Tomago populations. These results indicate more temporal than spatial variation in the flying insect visitor assemblage of T. incisa. Foraging behaviour provides another source of variation in plant-pollinator interactions. Trachymene incisa exhibits umbels that function as either male or female at any one time and offer different floral rewards in each phase. For successful pollination, pollinators must visit both male and female umbels during a foraging trip. Insects showed both preferences and non-preferences for umbel phases in natural patches where the gender ratio was male biased. In contrast, insects showed no bias in visitation during a foraging trip or in time spent foraging on male and female umbels in experimental arrays where the gender ratio was equal. Pollinator assemblages consisting of a mixture of different pollinator types coupled with temporal variation in the assemblages of populations among years maintains generalisation at the population/local level. In addition, spatial variation in assemblages among populations maintains generalisation at the species level. Fire alters pollination in T. incisa by shifting the flowering season and reducing the abundance of flying insects. Therefore, fire plays an important role in maintaining spatial and temporal variation in this fire-prone system. Although insect pollinators are important in determining the mating opportunities of 90% of flowering plant species worldwide, few studies have looked at the effects of variation in pollinator assemblages on plant reproductive success and mating. In T. incisa, high insect visitation rates do not guarantee high plant reproductive success, indicating that the quality of visit is more important than the rate of visitation. This is shown by comparing the Agnes Banks and Myall Lakes populations in 2003: Agnes Banks received the highest visitation rate from an assemblage dominated by ants but produced the lowest reproductive output, and Myall Lakes received the lowest visitation rate by an assemblage dominated by a native bee and produced the highest seedling emergence. Interestingly, populations with different assemblage composition can produce similar percentage seed set per umbel. However, similar percentage seed set did not result in similar percentage seedling emergence. Differences among years in reproductive output (total seed production) were due to differences in umbel production (reproductive effort) and proportion of umbels with seeds, and not seed set per umbel. Trachymene incisa is self-compatible and suffers weak to intermediate levels of inbreeding depression through early stages of the life cycle when seeds are self-pollinated and biparentally inbred. Floral phenology, in the form of synchronous protandry, plays an important role in avoiding self-pollination within umbels and reducing the chance of geitonogamous pollination between umbels on the same plant. Although pollinators can increase the rate of inbreeding in T. incisa by foraging on both male and female phase umbels on the same plant or closely related plants, most consecutive insect movements were between plants not located adjacent to each other. This indicates that inbreeding is mostly avoided and that T. incisa is a predominantly outcrossing species, although further genetic analyses are required to confirm this hypothesis. A new conceptual understanding has emerged from the key empirical results in the study of this model generalised pollination system. The large differences among populations and between years indicate that populations are not equally serviced by pollinators and are not equally generalist. Insect visitation rates varied significantly throughout the day, highlighting that sampling of pollinators at one time will result in an inaccurate estimate and usually underestimate the degree of generalisation. The visitor assemblage is not equivalent to the pollinator assemblage, although non-pollinating floral visitors are likely to influence the overall effectiveness of the pollinator assemblage. Given the high degree of variation in both the number of pollinator species and number of pollinator types, I have constructed a model which includes the degree of ecological and functional specialisation of a plant species on pollinators and the variation encountered across different levels of plant organisation. This model describes the ecological or current state of plant species and their pollinators, as well as presenting the patterns of generalisation across a range of populations, which is critical for understanding the evolution and maintenance of the system. In-depth examination of pollination systems is required in order to understand the range of strategies utilised by plants and their pollinators, and I advocate a complete floral visitor assemblage approach to future studies in pollination ecology. In particular, future studies should focus on the role of introduced pollinators in altering generalised plant-pollinator systems and the contribution of non-pollinating floral visitors to pollinator assemblage effectiveness. Comparative studies involving plants with highly conserved floral displays, such as those in the genus Trachymene and in the Apiaceae, will be useful for investigating the dynamics of generalised pollination systems across a range of widespread and restricted species.

"2003". / Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Environmental & Life Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 136-160. / Introduction: The Antarctic environment; Antarctic inhabitants; Microfungi; Identification of microfungi; Physiological factors affecting Antactic microfungi; Flow cytometry and microfungi; Hydrolytic enzymes of industrial interest; Isolation of genes from microfungi; Aims of this study -- Materials and methods: Fungal strains and cultivation conditions; Molecular identification of fungal isolates; Fungal physiology; Hydrolase activity of secreted proteins; Gene cloning and expression -- Results and discussion: Microfungal identification; Physiological factors affecting Antarctic microfungi; Activity in microfungi when grown on solid media; Characterisation of hemicellulases from selected Antarctic microfungi; Cloning of an Antarctic Penicillium allii lipase gene and its expression in Trichoderma reesei -- Conclusions and future prospects. / The Antarctic occupies that region of the planet that falls below the 60th parallel of South latitude. Although it has been frequented by adventurers, journeyman scientists and tourists for the past 100 years, the Continent has remained virtually unoccupied. The intense cold, the absence of human occupation and the limited range of local higher animal species have combined to create the impression that the Continent is virtually devoid of life. -- Although the microbiota of the Antarctic has attracted some small level of attention in the past, the examination of filamentous microfungi has been largely overlooked and fallen to a small group of dedicated investigators. In this study it will be shown that far from being an insignificant component of the Antarctic network, microfungi represent a potentially large and so far untapped bioresource. -- From just 11 bryophyte samples collected at four sites in the Ross Sea/Dry Valleys region of Southern Antarctica, some 30 microfungal isolates were recovered. Using molecular techniques, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) was sequenced to reveal no less than nine unique microfungal species. For only two of these species did the ITS sequence data produce a 100% match with records held on the public databases. This investigation also highlighted the problems inherent in the traditional morphological identification system which are now being perpetuated in the molecular database records. -- A set of seven notionally identified isolates obtained from ornithogenic soil samples gathered in the Windmill Islands in Eastern Antarctica (offshore from the Australian Antarctic Division's Casey Station) were also subjected to molecular identification based on ITS sequence data. Each of the seven isolates was identified as a unique species; six were cosmopolitan in nature and the one remaining bore very little resemblance at the molecular level to any of the recorded species although it was provided with an epithet commonly used in the identification of Antarctic microfungal species. -- To evaluate their potential as a bioresource, samples of Antarctic microfungi were examined to determine if the same physiological factors common to mesophilic species also applied to their Antarctic analogues. It is known that when placed under stress, trehalose can act as a protectant against cold (cryoprotection) and dehydration in mesophilic yeasts and fungi. The level of trehalose produced by the Antarctic isolates and their mesophilic analogues when subjected to stress was compared. A similar comparison was made for the production of glycerol which is well established as a compatible solute providing protection to mesophilic species against osmotic stress. Only in the case of trehalose production by an Antarctic Embellisia was there any indication that either of these two compounds could play a significant role in providing protection to the Antarctic fungi against the rigours of their environment, which leaves open to question what in fact does. -- In the course of investigating the means by which Antarctic microfungi guard against the damage which can ensue when subjected to oxidative stress, flow cytometry was introduced as an investigatory tool. It was established that there is a window of opportunity during which flow cytometry can be used to undertake a detailed analysis of the early stages of fungal growth from germination through hyphal development. -- Of major significance in determining the potential of Antarctic microfungi as a resource is their ability to produce new and novel enzymes and proteins. The microfungal isolates were screened for hydrolytic activity on solid media containing indicative substrates and proved to be a fruitful source of enzymes active over a range of temperatures. A detailed characterisation of two hemicellulases, β-mannanase and xylanase, secreted into a liquid medium by a subset of the Antarctic fungi and a high producing mesophilic reference strain permitted direct comparisons to be made. It was shown that the maximum hemicellulase activity of the Antarctic strains occurred at least 10°C and as much as 30°C lower than that of the reference strain and that mannanase activity for two of the Antarctic isolates exceeded 40% of their maximum at 0°C. These assay results highlight the potential of Antarctic microfungi to yield novel cold-active enzymes. -- As a final measure of the capacity of the Antarctic to yield novel enzymes from its microfungal stock, a lipase gene was selected as a target for isolation and expression in a heterologous fungal host. Using PCR techniques, the gene of interest was isolated from an Antarctic isolate of Penicillium allii, transformed into the mesophilic production host Trichoderma reesei and the active protein successfully produced in the growth medium. The recombinant lipase was assayed and found to exhibit novel characteristics consistent with a cold-adapted enzyme. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 186 leaves ill