This thesis explores, through fictional storytelling, the cultural duality of individuals inhabiting Singapore prior to World War II. The primary locale in many of these stories-an actual residence known as Eu Villa-interconnects each narrative and helps to uncover the hybridization of a Chinese family (and servants) living in a British colony. Many of the stories are imparted from different perspectives: wives, children and amahs, each of them pieced together to bridge the space between Chinese heritage overlaid and intermixed with British culture. In this way, the stories of this thesis reflect on the history that preceded the distinct multiculturalism of contemporary Singapore.

The morphological characters, pollen viability, and molecular markers are used in this study to assess the inter-species differentiation in Taiwan Trema( T. orientalis, T. tomentosa, T. cannabina, and the hybrid ). The hybrid was proposed to have been originated from T. tomentosa and T. cannabina natural hybridization with morphological, pollen viability and molecular marker evidences. The four taxa are variable in the following morphological characters: growth form, terminal bud color, leaf size, leaf apex, leaf base, leaf vestiture, leaf texture, leaf nerves, petiole, stipule size, inflorescence sex, male and female inflorescence length, flower number, mature fruit color, perianth vestiture, male flower perianth size, pistillode size, pistillode shape, filament length, and female flower size. The author also found differences in leaf shape, leaf size, leaf base, and leaf vestiture between adult and juvenile individuals of T. orientalis are ontogenetical variations. The hybrid is morphological intermediate between T. tomentosa and T. cannabina, possessing species-specific morphological characters of either species. Leaf trichome morphology was observed under scanning electronic microscope, and a unicellular trichome type with bulbous base, smooth surface, and creeping looking, is specific to T. orientalis leaf abaxial surface. In pollen viability tests, the hybrid had the lowest average pollen stainbility among tour taxa, but varied widely from 48.5 % to 81.6 %. In additivity test of molecular markers, for all 8 species-specific molecular markers of T. tomentosa, 6 were detected in hybrid; for all 14 species-specific molecular markers of T. cannabina, 11 were detected in hybrid; and none of 14 species-specific molecular markers of T. orientalis were detected in hybrid. Additionally, there were some recessive homozygote alleles detected in hybrid molecular marker, and even missing in T. tomentosa molecular markers. According to this evidence, there was a possible introgression between the hybrid and parental species-T. cannabina. In similarity dendrogram derived from molecular markers, all samples were clustered into four taxa-corresponded groups, the hybrid was placed between T. tomentosa and T. cannabina, and closely related to T. cannabina.

High-resolution lattice periodicity images of a variety of well-defined surfaces, including graphite, mica, and Au(111), validated the good stability of our atomic force microscope (AFM) system. Combining self-assembled monolayer (SAM) and AFM technology, we demonstrated the capabilities of pattern fabrication as well as modification of surface functionality. AFM-based nanolithography operating conditions, such as scan rate, deflection setpoint, and number of scan were studied to obtain the optimized quality of the fabricated patterns. Thiolated-DNA probe molecules could be patterned at a nanometer scale on a gold substrate. However, we found that the surface coverage began to drop notably with the probe length (number of DNA bases). Therefore, the displaced DNA molecules during nanoshaving were reversibly adsorbed, and patterning became unreliable. We were unsuccessful in detecting the subsequent hybridization reactions at these nanopatterns from AFM measurements. To realize the DNA hybridization, further studies on the incubation temperature, probe length and even DNA sequences are required to demonstrate that this AFM-based gene diagnostic method is truly operational.

Since the discovery of cuprate superconductors, PrBa2Cu3O7 (Pr123) has attracted much attention due to its nonsuperconductivity and other anomalies. The very recent reports on superconducting Pr123 instead of putting an end of this issue, virtually stimulate more controversies. One of the proposed explanations for the recently observed superconductivity in Pr123 is that the samples could be Ba-rich Pr123 to investigate this possibility, we prepared Pr1-xBa2+xCu3O7 (x=1~0.3) and Pr1-xCaxBa2Cu3O7 (x=0~0.6) as comparison. X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) indicates an increase in carrier concentration with Ba and Ca doping, which is consistent with resistivity and thermoelectric power(TEP) data. However, carriers are introduced in a peculiar why rather than simply add into CuO2 plane.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-176). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-77) and index. Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-137).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-176). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Griffin, Paul; Committee Member: Butera, Robert; Committee Member: Halpern, Michael; Committee Member: Nichols, Richard; Committee Member: Vidakovic, Brani. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Behavioral isolation is an important barrier to gene flow, contributing to the formation and maintenance of animal species. Nevertheless, hybridization occurs more commonly than is generally recognized, occurring in over ten percent of animal species in the wild. Although the genetic consequences of hybridization are of considerable interest given their evolutionary implications, the reasons that animals choose to mate with other species are less clear. I apply mate choice theory to the question of hybridization, using wood warblers (family Parulidae) and swordtail fishes (genus Xiphophorus) as study systems. Over half of the 45 species of North American wood warbler have produced hybrids. Using comparative methods, I address the questions: Do ecological and demographic factors predict hybridization in this family? Similarly, how do phylogeny, song similarity, and sympatry with congeners correlate with hybridization? As with North American wood warblers, behavioral isolation is also considered of primary importance in isolating sympatric species of swordtail fishes. Two species, X. birchmanni and X. malinche, hybridize in several locations in the wild. Through experimentation with these and other Xiphophorus species, I investigate some of the factors that cause female mate choice to vary, possibly contributing to hybridization. Specifically, I address the following questions: Do females become less choosy when predation risk is high, or encounter rates with conspecifics are low? Are female preferences for conspecifics innate, or can they be modified by experience? And, do female preferences for conspecifics vary among species, populations, or experiments? These studies illustrate the utility of treating hybridization as just another possible outcome of variation in mate choice. I find that warbler hybridization correlates with ecological and other variables, that female swordtails become more responsive to heterospecifics when mate choice is costly, and that female preferences for conspecifics are species- and context-dependent. As animal hybridization can have important evolutionary consequences, studying the factors that contribute to this variation can enhance our understanding of the evolutionary process. / text