No description available.

NE-SW faults in the Abington area of the Northern Belt of the Southern Uplands define blocks up to 3.2 km wide. The strata, folded and locally overturned, young predominantly to the NW but blocks to the SW contain younger sequences. Analogous configurations occur in modern accretionary margins. The oldest rocks, generally of pelagic and hemipelagic origin, are Arenig basalts, dolerites, cherts and brown mudstones underlying red mudstones, possibly Llanvirn, and black fossiliferous mudstones and cherts of Llandeilo and Caradoc age. Trench sediments overlying pelagic sequences represent a range of depositional mechanisms. Rudites and associated fine-grained lithologies of lateral origin relate to a lower trench-slope canyon system, whilst axially transported sands, originating on the lower trench slope, were deposited by turbidity currents and related flows. Sandstone petrography varies markedly across strike, with quartz-rich compositions suggesting a recycled orogen source, and ferromagnesian-rich compositions a dissected magmatic arc provenance. Faults, initially low-angle thrusts, facilitated thrust nappe formation; faults and bedding were rotated through the vertical within the accretionary complex, predating or accompanying slaty cleavage development. Soft sediment deformation, two fold phases and a kink-band set are recognised. Imbricate fault zones, located in incompetent pelagic sequences, are equated with tectonic melange of other accretionary complexes. Index minerals, illite crystallinity and 'vitrinite' reflectance establish metamorphic grade as prehnitepumpellyite facies.

No description available.

No description available.

La stabilité de l’information génétique est d’une importance cruciale pour la fonction normale et la reproduction de tous les êtres vivants. Or, la capacité de fertilisation chez l’homme est habituellement mesurée en considérant la concentration, la motilité et la morphologie des spermatozoïdes. Cependant, ces paramètres ne prennent pas en considération l’intégrité du matériel génétique. Pourtant, de fortes évidences démontrent que la spermiogenèse, qui est la phase haploïde de la spermatogenèse durant laquelle se produit un important remodelage de la chromatine, serait une importante source d’instabilité génétique. En effet, des bris transitoires de l’ADN surviennent durant la spermiogenèse au même moment que l’hyperacétylation des histones H4 et la stimulation de l’hyperacétylation de H4 par traitement à la trichostatine A stimule la formation de cassures dans l’ADN. Ainsi, des histones acétyltransférases (HATs) pourraient affecter la compaction et l’intégrité de l’ADN et par conséquent le potentiel fertilisant du gamète mâle. Il est donc important d’identifier l’histone acétyltransférase impliquée dans l’hyper acétylation des histones H4 durant la spermiogenèse, puisqu’il s’agit d’un processus possiblement important pour la fertilité de l’homme. À la suite d'analyses par spectrométrie de masse d’échantillons protéiques de testicules de souris possédant la propriété d'acétyler l’histone H4 aucune HAT n’a été identifée. Par contre, la protéine mitochondriale ACAT1, qui catalyse la transformation réversible de deux acétyl-CoA en CoA et acétoacétyl-CoA, a été détectée. Ces observations permettent d’émettre l’hypothèse que cette protéine pourrait jouer un rôle dans la spermiogenèse en augmentant le niveau d’acétyl-CoA chez les spermatides en élongation. En effet, puisque selon mes résultats les histones H4 sont en mesure de s’auto-hyperacétyler, on peut supposer qu’une augmentation du niveau d’acétyl-CoA causerait une acétylation de ces histones à l’échelle du génome, permettant ainsi la poursuite de la spermiogenèse et éventuellement la formation de spermatozoïdes matures et fonctionnels.

I believe architecture is a product of construction and will. The building either conforms to the environment or is set against it. Architecture manifests its existence from the differentiation between the environment it creates and the one that exists. However it is not necessary to articulate the existence of architecture by intrusive acts. This thesis proposes a building of formal simplicity standing autonomously but not arrogantly amidst a larger setting. It is important to create spaces that evoke a quiet emotional response. Programmatically the project is a public library located in Nanjing, China. It also serves as community space for the area. It is a place intended for people reading, meeting others, and various cultural activities. / Master of Architecture

The role of histamine in chronic gastrointestinal diseases has been increasingly recognized in humans, but the role of histamine in the canine gastrointestinal tract has not been thoroughly investigated. The presence and distribution of all 4 histamine receptors (H1, H2, H3, and H4) in the stomach, duodenum, ileum, jejunum, and colon of healthy dogs were evaluated with a commonly employed immunohistochemistry technique using antibodies predicted to cross react with canine histamine receptors. All 4 histamine receptors were identified in the canine gastrointestinal tract, and differed in location and density within sections of the canine gastrointestinal tract. Antibody specificity was evaluated with Western blot. With the establishment of a method to study histamine receptors in the canine gastrointestinal tract, additional research to evaluate histamine receptors in dogs is warranted to further understand the pathophysiology and treatment of chronic canine enteropathies.

This dissertation is a part of an intended long-term research project with the objectives to make software development more scientific and rigorous, thereby to achieve better software quality and to facilitate automated software production; and has two major components: the design of the specification transition paradigm for software development and the theoretical study of the system specification phase in the paradigm. First, after an extensive analysis and comparison of various formalisms, a paradigm for integrating various formal specification and verification methods (predicate transition Petri nets, first order temporal logic, the algebraic, the axiomatic, the denotational, and the operational approaches) in software development has been developed. The model more effectively incorporates foremost formalisms than any other models (the Automatic Programming Project [Bal85], the CIP Project [ClP85], the Larch Project [GHW85] and the RAISE Project [MG87]) and has the following distinctive features: (1) specifications are viewed both as a set of products and a set of well-defined steps of a process, (2) specifications (as a set of products) at different development steps are to be written and verified by different formalisms, (3) specification (as a process) spans from the requirement phase to the detailed design phase, (4) specification for both concurrent and sequential software is supported, and (5) specifications for different aspects (concurrent control abstraction, data abstraction, and procedural abstraction) of a piece of software are dealt with separately. Second, an intensive and in-depth investigation of the system specification phase in the paradigm results in: - a design methodology for predicate transition nets, which incorporates the separate definition technique in Ada [Ada83] and state decomposition technique in Statechart [Har88] into the traditional transformation techniques for Petri nets, and therefore will significantly reduce the design complexity and enhance the comprehensibility of large predicate transition net specifications; - the establishment of a fundamental relationship between predicate transition nets and first order temporal logic and the design of an algorithm for systematically translating predicate transition nets into equivalent temporal logic formulae. Therefore the goal to combine the strengths of both formalisms, i.e. to use predicate transition nets as a specification method and to use temporal logic as a verification method, is achieved; and - the discovery of a special temporal logic proof technique based on a Hilbert-style logic system to verify various properties of predicate transition nets and the associated theorems. Thus temporal logic is effectively used as an analysis method for both safety and liveness properties of predicate transition nets. / Ph. D.

This thesis has described the Chinese model of coalition politics among the central state, local authorities and foreign capital during 1979-1993. The characteristics of this model were that the local authorities and foreign capital shared more common interest with each other than with the central state, and consequently a cooperation between two was formed at the expense of the central state. / Master of Arts

The objective of this investigation was to determine the effects of restricted movement and forced exercise on protein metabolism and body composition of adult rats. Half of the animals were restricted in movement and half of each group were forced to exercise by swimming for ten days. The study entailed a six day adjustment period, a four day balance study, and a ten day exercise period followed by another four day balance study. Weight change, food consumption, nitrogen retention, liver composition, and body composition were analyzed to test the effects of the treatments. Restricted animals retained less nitrogen than the controls, but negative nitrogen retentions expected when animals were losing weight did not occur. Changes in body fat correlated positively with body weight change. After about fifteen days of restriction, the animals seemed to adapt to the inactivity. This was indicated by an increase in food consumption and a dramatic change from weight loss to weight gain. Considerable variation existed in the ability of individual animals to adapt. Some animals did not adapt at all, and died early in the study. Other animals adapted readily and gained weight in excess of their initial weight loss. Ten minutes of swimming daily for ten days did not cause observable effects on the restriction. The adaptation seems to indicate that the expected weight loss and decreased nitrogen retentions will not be a problem. / M.S.