I pursue a study of the semantic couplet in xochitl, in cuicatl (the flower, the song) grounded in the examination of Nahuatl written sources in order to explore its cultural and historical trajectory as it was produced and reproduced from the pre-colonial to the colonial period. I begin my analysis by examining Nahuatl songs of pre-colonial origin to demonstrate how in xochitl, in cuicatl was an epistemological practice embedded in a Nahuatl ontology conceived of philosophical, religious, and social practices that were interwoven in the cultural habitus of Nahua warriors. I argue that the semantic couplet and the Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors are reflected and play a central role in songs from the Xochicuicatl (Flowery Songs) genre. Then, I explore colonial practices for religious conversion in order to discuss the colonial habitus or pre-dispositions influencing the indigenous scholar Antonio Valeriano to utilize the Nahuatl epistemology of in xochitl, in cuicatl and the Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors as an interpretive frame of reference in the Nican Mopohua, the apparition story of the Virgin of Guadalupe. With this organization, I identify pre-colonial Nahuatl practices in their original context and then I reveal why and how they became accommodated in a colonial and Christian context. Therefore, I utilize in xochitl, in cuicatl as a vehicle for exploring a major cultural-social transformation among the Nahua people of central Mexico. / text

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第19051号 / 農博第2129号 / 新制||農||1033 / 32002 / 京都大学大学院農学研究科農学専攻 / (主査)教授 白岩 立彦, 教授 奥本 裕, 准教授 中﨑 鉄也 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

This dissertation examines the Americanization of immigrants as a defining theme in American musical theater. It does so through studies of productions from across the past century about Irish Americans, Chinese Americans, and Latino/a Americans, and in each case, at least one of the creators is a member of the ethnic American group depicted. I contend that these artists found the musical to be a constructive tool for voicing their experiences of the struggle of Americanization and broadening notions of American identity. The resulting narrative expands upon the substantial "golden age"-centered literature on Jewish assimilation and the American musical. Decentralizing the "golden age," I show how the genre has helped write into cultural citizenship a broad range of immigrant groups during fraught periods in which their national belonging was contested. I draw upon a wide range of disciplines - especially immigration history, ethnic studies, and American studies as well as musicology - and diverse methods, including archival research, oral history, textual and musical analysis, reception history, and historically based hermeneutics. / Music

A study on Prince Edward Island was initiated to assess the impact of organic fertility amendment rate and timing treatments and deflowering on the growth, yield, and berry size and soluble solids, and plant and soil available nutrients of blackcurrants (Ribes nigrum L cv. Titania.). Plants at the site with lower leaf P and K showed lower growth and yield (492-2540 kg ha-1) than the other site (3935-5016 kg ha-1No significant differences were found in final size or 2011 yield at the site with larger bushes, while at the other site the medium spring fertility treatment gave the greatest growth and yield, followed by the high spring fertility treatment. Deflowering increased yield but not growth at the site with recommended ranges of leaf P and K; at the site with P and K deficiencies, growth increased in 2010 and 2011. There was no interaction between deflowering and amendment timing.

This thesis investigated new strategies to increase both the control and cost efficiency of the biological control agent, Orius insidiosus Say (Orius), in greenhouse ornamental crops through the identification of an optimal banker plant species, a suitable source of supplemental food, and the identification of an attractive semiochemical lure. Seven plant species/cultivars were evaluated in laboratory and greenhouse bioassays to determine if the plants could provide: an acceptable food source; a location for oviposition; high nymphal survival and rapid development to the adult stage; and a host plant for sustainable population growth. Based on the results obtained overall, the Purple Flash ornamental pepper is the best candidate for use as a banker plant. Greenhouse and laboratory bioassays investigated the suitability of various supplemental food sources. In greenhouse trials, cattail pollen did not sustain a population of Orius on chrysanthemum plants but did significantly increase the population of the target pest, the western flower thrips. The addition of Ephestia kuehniella eggs or honeybee-collected pollen can increase the production of Orius on Purple Flash banker plants. Orius females fed on E. kuehniella eggs or honeybee-collected pollen laid the greatest numbers of eggs and lived significantly longer compared to those fed apple pollen, cattail pollen, corn pollen in laboratory bioassays. In laboratory olfactory assays and greenhouse release experiments, Orius showed the greatest response to olfactory cues associated with a neryl (S)-2-methylbutanoate lure over odours emitted from a methyl salicylate lure, a methyl isonicotinate lures or clean air. / OMAFRA-University of Guelph research partnership, OMAFRA-Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) Scholarship Program, and MITACS Accelerate.

<p>The evolution of selfing from outcrossing is one of the most frequent mating system transitions in angiosperms. Plants that are highly selfing typically exhibit a suite of morphological traits termed a "selfing syndrome," including reduced corollas and reproductive structures, loss of corolla pigmentation, little anther-stigma separation, and a low pollen/ovule ratio. The overall consensus among scientist is that the morphological changes that accompany the transition to selfing are adaptive and thus a product of natural selection. Few attempts, however, have been made to determine whether traits of the selfing syndrome are truly an operation of natural selection or if genetic drift could be the acting force. My dissertation examines the roles that natural selection and genetic drift played in the evolution of the selfing syndrome in Ipomoea lacunosa. With the use of field observations, crossing data, and molecular analyses, I show that I. lacunosa has evolved increased selfing ability, decreased anther-stigma distance and smaller, white flowers, compared to its closest relative I. cordatotriloba. Furthermore, using a standard QST - FST comparison, I evaluated the relative importance of selection and drift in the evolution of the selfing syndrome in I. lacunosa. I also identified the genetic basis of flower color divergence between I. lacunosa (white) and I. cordatotriloba (purple) and examined patterns of variation to determine if selection or genetic drift caused the divergence. Analyses revealed that the traits of I. lacunosa characteristic of the selfing syndrome have evolved as a product of natural selection, not genetic drift.</p> / Dissertation

The number of pods per plant and the number of seeds per pod are the most variable yield components in winter oilseed rape (WOSR). The production of a seed is the combination of several physiological processes, namely formation of ovules and pollen grains, fertilization of the ovules and development of young embryos, any problem in these processes may result in seed abortion or pod abortion. Both the number of ovules per pod and the potential for the ovule to develop into a mature seed may depend on pod position in the plant architecture and time of appearance. The complex developmental pattern of WOSR makes it difficult to analyse.In this study, we first investigate the variability of the following yield components (a) ovules/pod, (b) seeds/pod, and (c) pods/axis in relation to two explanatory variables. These two variables include (1) flower and inflorescence position and (2) time of pod appearance, linked to the effect of assimilate availability. Based on the biological phenomena of flower fertility, we developed a probabilistic model to simulate the number of ovules per ovary and seeds per pod. The model can predict the number of pollen grains per flower and distinguish the factors that influence the yield. Field experiments were conducted in 2008 and 2009. The number and position of flowers that bloomed within the inflorescence were recorded based on observations every two to three days throughout the flowering season. Different trophic states were created by clipping the main stem or ramifications to investigate the effect of assimilate competition.The results indicate that the amount of available assimilates was the primary determinant of pod and seed production. The distribution of resources was significantly affected by both the positions of pods within an inflorescence and the position of inflorescences within a plant in WOSR. In addition, model estimation for distribution parameter of pollen grain number indicated that pollination limitation could influence the seed production. Furthermore, the ovule viability could result in the decrease of the number of pods and the number of seeds per pod at the distal position of inflorescence. The model of flower fertility could be a tool to study the strategy of improving seed yield in flowering plants

Changed management of semi-natural grasslands is thought to be one important factor for explaining the decline of butterfly populations in Sweden and the rest of Europe. This study explores how vegetation height, variation in vegetation height and flower abundance can help predict the occurrence of butterfly species in semi-natural grasslands in southern Sweden. My study is based on data collected by a national environmental monitoring programme (NILS) during 2006-2010. Generalized linear models showed that all three explanatory variables significantly affected 26 of the 41 species of butterflies studied. The study also investigated preferences for three different systems for grouping species but did not find differences among groups. Several of the species would most likely benefit from variation in grazing pressure or rotational grazing as well as flower-rich grasslands. The results may also help when aiming management at the preservation of individual species.

The presence of flowers is felt in Catholic architecture, literature, artwork, personal histories and devotional practices. This, however, has not always been the case. The Catholic Church has had a long and tumultuous relationship with flowers, the focus of which has been the subject of considerable scholarship (e.g. Fisher (2011, 2007), Ward (1999), Winston-Allen (1997), Goody (1993), Coats (1970)). What has not been much considered is a phenomenological treatment of Catholic floral experience, and how such experiences have shaped individual and shared understandings of the Catholic faith. This thesis seeks to redress this omission through an exploration of the life of the Polish Catholic mystic, St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), whose mystical experiences with the divine were explicitly mediated and narrated through flowers. Through Faustina’s diary, Divine Mercy in my Soul, we gain access to powerful, and unequivocally Catholic, experiences with flowers which comprise the very centre of her religious convictions. This thesis queries the ways in which flowers have dynamically shaped, and have been shaped by, St. Faustina's relationship with God and Catholic holy figures. To address this question I use the semiotic, phenomenological and hermeneutic approach of Max van Manen. Van Manen uses four elements of lived experience he calls lifeworld existentials, these are: lived space, lived time, lived body and lived relationality. These four categories are applied to St. Faustina’s life as she engages with God spatially, temporally, corporeally and relationally; each reveals the centrality of flowers in her religious experiences. While this thesis focuses on the religio-floral experiences of a particular mystic-saint, its significance lies also in the broader Catholic narrative of which it is a part. Writing about flowers was a transformative medium in Faustina's life and has been historically significant in the lives of many other Catholic saints and mystics who recorded similar experiences. This thesis, in describing the details of St. Faustina’s floral-saturated experiences from her diary, reveals a particularized instance of a paradigmatic Catholic phenomenon whereby flowers provide access to the sacred.

The traditional herbal medicinal product Myrrhinil-Intest® is a fixed herbal combination, which is marketed in Germany since 1959 and applied in medical practice for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders such as functional diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. It contains myrrh, which is described as the oleo-gum resin from mainly Commiphora molmol Engler (Burseraceae), coffee charcoal, which are the milled roasted to blackening outer seed parts of green dried Coffea Arabica Linné (Rubiaceae) fruits and chamomile flowers - the flower heads of Matricaria recutita Linné (Asteraceae). The clinical effectiveness of Myrrhinil-Intest® for the treatment of various gastrointestinal disorders was demonstrated in several clinical studies and is described in various experience reports, however its pharmacological profile is not fully elucidated. Within the present study the spasmolytic and anti-inflammatory potential of the components myrrh, chamomile and coffee charcoal was investigated. Therefore pharmacological, histological and molecular biological methods were utilised. Spasmolytic activity was characterised using isometric tension measurement with rat isolated small intestinal preparations. Anti-inflammatory potential was assessed with different methods using isolated rat small intestinal preparations and immune cell lines. Inflammation was induced with TNBS and LPS respectively. Additionally, the influence of the herbal components on the gene expression profile of native human macrophages after LPS/IFNγ stimulation was determined by microarray gene expression analysis. Chamomile flower and myrrh exerted spasmolytic effects, whereby the more pronounced spasmolytic effects of myrrh were mediated via calcium channel blockade. Myrrh and chamomile flower exerted anti-inflammatory effects.