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No. of bitstreams: 1 buch_b_dr_sjrp.pdf: 6058711 bytes, checksum: 91a5b502646692883f387f5ae5a634f6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-12-05 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / As cianobactérias são importantes componentes das comunidades aquáticas em diversos ecossistemas, graças a longa história evolutiva do grupo que desenvolveu diversas adaptações fisiológicas e citológicas que permitiram a sua dominância ao redor do globo. As cianobactérias são também os bactérias fotossintetizantes com a morfologia mais diversificada e, embora essa qualidade tenha sido extensivamente utilizada pelos cientistas para a delimitação dos táxons e reconstrução da história evolutiva, vem perdendo cada vez mais espaço para o uso de marcadores moleculares, os quais são capazes de inferir relações filogenéticas mais robustas e que mais proximamente refletem o percurso evolutivo traçado por esses microrganismos. Desse modo, o objetivo da realização deste estudo foi caracterizar taxonomicamente populações de cianobactérias bentônicas de ambientes lênticos da região noroeste do estado de São Paulo, utilizando uma abordagem polifásica, por meio do uso do gene rRNA 16S e da estrutura secundária do ITS 16S-23S, além de considerar aspectos morfológicos e ecológicos. Como resultado deste trabalho, 41 populações de cianobactérias bentônicas foram avaliadas, sendo alocadas em 15 gêneros distribuídos em 11 famílias e cinco ordens. A ordem Oscillatoriales foi a mais representativa entre as populações estudadas (68,3%, 28 populações), seguida pela ordem Synechococcales (19,5%, 8 populações). A análise filogenética do gene RNAr 16S foi capaz de revelar a presença de táxons crípticos, que embora apresentem morfologia correspondente com táxons já descritos, formaram clados separados, indicando se tratarem de táxons ainda não conhecidos, e esse foi o caso de 13 populações aqui estudadas. Parte dos táxons crípticos foi trabalhada em maior profundidade, resultando em três manuscritos apresentados na forma de capítulos que correspondem à descrição dos novos gêneros e espécies Koinonema pervagatum (Capítulo III) e Blennothricopsis periphytica (Capítulo IV), além da descrição de três novas espécies para o gênero Phormidium (Capítulo V), com o registro da primeira espécie bentônica produtora de microcistina para o estado de São Paulo. Embora a prospecção dos genótipos tóxicos, utilizando marcadores específicos para os genes mcyE e sxtA responsáveis pela síntese de microcistinas e saxitoxinas, respectivamente, tenha revelado apenas uma linhagem tóxica, esse resultado é positivo do ponto de vista de impactos relacionados à presença de cianobactérias em corpos d’água para uso público. Entretanto, mostra a importância dos estudos de prospecção de toxinas em cianobactérias bentônicas no Brasil, ainda pouco explorados. / Cyanobacteria are important components of aquatic communities in different ecosystems, thanks to its long evolutionary history that provided several physiological and ecological adaptations, allowing them to spread around the globe. Cyanobacteria are also the most morpological diversified photossintetic bacterial group and, despite many taxonomists have extensively used this character to delimit taxa and to reconstruct their evolutionary history, it has been losing its prominence to molecular markers, which are most suited to infer robust phylogenetic relationships that properly reflect the evolutionary path followed by these organisms. Therefore, the aim of the study was to taxonomically characterize benthic cyanobacterial populations in lentic habitats from the Northwest region of São Paulo state, using a polyphasic approach, through the phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene and the 16S 23S ITS secondary structure, aside from morphological and ecological aspects. As result, 41 benthic cyanobacterial populations were evaluated and assigned to 15 genera distributed in 11 families and five orders. The Oscillatoriales order was the most representative among all (69.3%, 28 populations), followed by the Synechococcales (19.5%, eight populations). The 16S rRNA phylogenetic analysis revealed the presence of cryptotaxa, which, despite morphologically ressembling previously described taxa, formed separated clades, suggesting not yet acknowledged taxa. That was the case of 13 populations studied. Some of these cryptotaxa were deeper evaluated in three manuscripts presented here as chapters and described as the new genera and species Koinonema pervagatum (Chapter III) and Blennothricopsis periphytica (Chapter IV), the description of three new species from the Phormidium genus (Chapter V) and the first record of a benthic microcystin producing cyanobacteria in the São Paulo state. Although the toxic genotypes prospection using specific molecular markers for the mcyE and sxtA genes, responsible for microcystin and saxitoxin production, respectively, revealed only one toxic strain, it demonstrates a positive result regarding the impact caused by toxic cyanobacterial strains in waters for public use worldwide. However, it highlights the importance of studies on potentially toxic benthic cyanobacterial communities, still little explored in Brazil.

L’adoption des Nouvelles Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (NTIC) a permis la modernisation des méthodes d’enseignement dans les systèmes d’apprentissage en ligne comme l’e-Learning, les systèmes tutoriels intelligents, etc. Ces derniers assurent une formation à distance qui répond aux besoins des apprenants. Un aspect très important à prendre en considération dans ces systèmes est l’évaluation précoce de l’apprenant en termes d’acquisition des connaissances. En général, trois types d’évaluation et leurs relations sont nécessaires durant le processus d’apprentissage, à savoir : (i) diagnostic qui est exécuté avant l’apprentissage pour estimer le niveau des élèves, (ii) évaluation formative qui est appliquée lors de l’apprentissage pour tester l’évolution des connaissances et (iii) évaluation sommative qui est considérée après l’apprentissage pour évaluer l’acquisition des connaissances. Ces méthodes peuvent être intégrées d’une manière semi-automatique, automatique ou adaptée aux différents contextes de formation, par exemple dans le domaine d’apprentissage des langues (français, anglais, etc.), des sciences fondamentales (mathématiques, physique, chimie, etc.) et langages de programmation (java, python, sql, etc.) Cependant, les méthodes d’évaluation usuelles sont statiques et se basent sur des fonctions linéaires qui ne prennent en considération que la réponse de l’apprenant. Elles ignorent, en effet, d’autres paramètres de son modèle de connaissances qui peuvent divulguer d’autres indicateurs de performance. Par exemple, le temps de résolution d’un problème, le nombre de tentatives, la qualité de la réponse, etc. Ces éléments servent à détecter les traits du profil, le comportement ainsi que les troubles d’apprentissage de l’apprenant. Ces paramètres additionnels sont vus dans nos travaux de recherche comme des traces d’apprentissage produites par l’apprenant durant une situation ou un contexte pédagogique donné. Dans ce cadre, nous proposons dans cette thèse une approche d’évaluation de l’apprenant à base des traces d’apprentissage qui peut être exploitée dans un système d’adaptation de la ressource et/ou de la situation pédagogique. Pour l’évaluation de l’apprenant, nous avons proposé trois modèles génériques d’évaluation qui prennent en considération la trace temporelle, le nombre de tentatives et leurs combinaisons. Ces modèles ont servi, par la suite, comme métrique de base à notre modèle d’adaptation de la ressource et/ou de la situation d’apprentissage. Le modèle d’adaptation est également fondé sur les trois traces susmentionnées et sur nos modèles d’évaluation. Notre modèle d’adaptation génère automatiquement des trajectoires d’apprentissage adaptées en utilisant un modèle d’état-transition. Les états présentent des situations d’apprentissage qui consomment des ressources et les transitions entre situations expriment les conditions nécessaires à remplir pour passer d’une situation à une autre. Ces concepts sont aussi implémentés dans une ontologie du domaine et un algorithme d’adaptation a été également proposé. L’algorithme assure deux types d’adaptation : (i) Adaptation de la situation et (ii) Adaptation des ressources dans une situation. Afin de collecter les traces d’apprentissage pour la mise en œuvre de notre approche d’évaluation de l’apprenant et d’adaptation de ressources et de situations d’apprentissage, nous avons effectué des expérimentations sur deux groupes d’étudiants en Licence Informatique (L2). Un groupe en apprentissage classique et un groupe en apprentissage adapté. Sur la base des traces obtenues des sessions de travail des étudiants, nous avons utilisé nos modèles d’évaluation dont les résultats ont été utilisés pour mettre en œuvre l’adaptation. Après comparaison des résultats de l’apprentissage adapté à ceux obtenus de l’apprentissage classique, nous avons constaté une amélioration des résultats en termes de moyenne générale et d’écart-type des moyennes des apprenants. / The adoption of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has enabled the modernization of teaching methods in online learning systems such as e-Learning, intelligent tutorial systems (ITS), etc. These systems provide a remote training that which meets the learner needs. A very important aspect to consider in these systems is the early assessment of the learner in terms of knowledge acquisition. In general, three types of assessment and their relationships are needed during the learning process, namely : (i) diagnostic which is performed before learning to estimate the level of students, (ii) formative evaluation which is applied during learning to test the knowledge evolution and (iii) summative evaluation which is considered after learning to evaluate learner’s knowledge acquisition. These methods can be integrated into a semi-automatic, automatic or adapted way in different contexts of formation, for example in the field of languages literary learning such as French, English, etc., hard sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc.) and programming languages (java, python, sql, etc.). However, the usual evaluation methods are static and are based on linear functions that only take into account the learner’s response. They ignore other parameters of their knowledge model that may disclose other performance indicators. For example, the time to solve a problem, the number of attempts, the quality of the response, etc. These elements are used to detect the profile characteristics, behavior and learning disabilitiesof the learner. These additional parameters are seen in our research as learning traces produced by the learner during a given situation or pedagogical context. In this context, we propose in this thesis a learner evaluation approach based on learning traces that can be exploited in an adaptation system of the resource and/or the pedagogic situation. For the learner assessment, we have proposed three generic evaluation models that take into consideration the temporal trace, number of attempts and their combinations. These models are later used as a base metric for our resource adaptation model and/or learning situation. The adaptation model is also based on the three traces mentioned above and on our evaluation models. Our adaptation model automatically generates adapted paths using a state-transition model. The states represent learning situations that consume resources and the transitions between situations express the necessary conditions to pass from one situation to another. These concepts are implemented in a domain ontology and an algorithm that we have developed. The algorithm ensures two types of adaptation : (i) Adaptation of the situation and (ii) Adaptation of resources within a situation. In order to collect traces of training for the implementation of our approaches of learner evaluation and adaptation of resources and learning situations, we conducted experiments on two groups of students in Computer Science (L2). One group in classical training and the other group in adapted training. Based on the obtained traces from the students’ training sessions, we assessed merners based on our evaluation models. The results are then used to implement the adaptation in a domain ontology. The latter is implemented within oracle 11g which allows a rule-based semantic reasoning. After comparing the results of the adapted training with those obtained from the classical one, we found an improvement in the results in terms of general average and standard deviation of the learner averages.

Deployment and Strategies for Application of Intelligent Transportation System Elements for Contra Flow Hurricane Evacuation and Emergency Response Ingrid Leuchtenmueller Birenbaum ABSTRACT This thesis is focused upon the deployment and strategies for the application of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) elements for contra flow hurricane evacuation and emergency response. A 99-mile segment of the Mainline of Florida's Turnpike, State Road 91, comprises the research corridor. This segment stands as the potential one way evacuation route for major hurricane evacuations and other types of natural and man-made disasters for the Turnpike System. Plans have been developed and modified over time to address and improve various facets of contra flow evacuations; however, none of these plans have considered advanced transportation technologies as a means through which operational improvements may be implemented. This study presents the ways in which this present-day evacuation corridor may be enhanced through the proactive application of technologies. ITS provides for the betterment of operations, communications, and procedures for emergency situations in real-time. Improvements in effectiveness and efficiency of the contra flow corridor are realized through the instrumentation of the evacuation route, and benefits are realized by all involved in the evacuation scenario: transportation agencies and their many partners, law enforcement and emergency managers, and the public. This thesis presents a proposal for a migration plan to full roadway instrumentation and ITS deployment that allows for evolving capabilities and protocols. Specific strategies outline steps to be taken that are not entirely dependent upon technology; these strategies are therefore flexible and usable for a growing ITS program. ITS deployment and strategies for use of the evolving Intelligent Transportation System are of benefit to normal, everyday roadway operations as well. However, the application of these technologies and strategies provide specific, vital benefits during the course of emergency events that utilize contra flow operations, ensuring the promotion of motorist safety and mobility through the combination of people and technologies.

There is an increasing demand for application of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in order to make highways safer and sustainable. Collecting and analyzing traffic stream data are the most important parameters in transportation engineering in enhancing our understanding of traffic congestion and mobility. Classification of the vehicles using traffic data is one of the most essential parameters for traffic management. Of particular interest are heavy vehicles which impact traffic mobility due to their lack of maneuverability and slower speeds. The impact of heavy vehicles on the traffic stream results in congestion and reduction of road efficiency. In this paper, length-based vehicle count and speed data were analyzed and interpreted using one week's data from Interstate 5 (I-5) in the Portland, Oregon (OR) region of the United States (US). I-5 was chosen due to its prominent role in promoting North-South freight movement between Canada and Mexico and its vicinity to the Port of Portland. The objective of this analysis was to find better visualization techniques for the length-based traffic count and speed data. In total, 13,901,793 out of 56,146,138 20-second records were analyzed. The vehicles were classified into two categories. Those that were 20 feet or less were considered as passenger vehicles and those above 20 feet were considered as heavy vehicles. The data consisted of approximately 25% heavy vehicles. Results showed the merit of applying more disaggregate data (5-min polar, and radar plots) for better visualization as against hourly, and 15-min plots in order to capture sudden changes in average speed, heavy vehicle volume, and heavy vehicle percentage.

La microflore des raisins est importante d’un point de vue technologique car elle conditionne en partie la qualité du vin. Or, la diversité des flores fongiques présentes sur baies de raisin ainsi que leur potentiel de contamination du produit final ne sont pas encore pleinement connus. Dans ce cadre, la caractérisation des flores fongiques cultivables présentes sur baies de raisin a été réalisée par PCR ITS-RFLP. 41 espèces de moisissures différentes sur les 43 étudiées appartenant à 11 genres différents ont été caractérisées de façon fiable. Seules les espèces Penicillium thomii et Penicillium glabrum ont présenté le même profil. Ainsi 96.3% des souches étudiées ont été caractérisées avec au maximum 4 enzymes de restriction et 41.5% des souches ont pu l’être avec seulement 2 enzymes de restriction. Ces résultats ont permis d’enrichir les bases de données, moyennement pourvues en séquences ITS caractéristiques de genres ou d’espèces de moisissures présentes sur baies de raisin. De plus, une étude exhaustive des moisissures présentes sur baies de raisin en Bourgogne a permis, par PCR ITS-RFLP, d’identifier 199 souches au niveau de l’espèce et ce quelque soit le genre. Penicillium spinulosum est l’espèce majoritaire isolée pour le millésime 2008 en Bourgogne. Parallèlement, la quantification de Botrytis cinerea, choisi comme micro-organisme modèle, a été réalisée par qPCR. La technique qPCR décrite dans ce travail présente (i) une bonne sensibilté avec une limite de détection de 6.4 pg d’ADN correspondant à 540 spores, (ii) l’originalité de travailler en échantillons naturellement contaminés et la fiabilité d’utiliser un standard interne. L’évaluation de l’efficacité de différentes stratégies de traitements anti-Botrytis a confirmé l’importance de la prophylaxie (effeuillage) dans la lutte contre Botrytis cinerea. / Microbial population of grapes is important from a technological point of view because it determines the quality of wine. But few studies have focused on fungal populations of grapes. A better knowledge of the fungal diversity on grapes, particularly as concerns species responsible for wine defects, may help efforts to control their development.We report the development of a PCR ITS-RFLP method as a fast and easy technique for identifying species of fungal genera present on grapes. By this methode, 41 different fungal species among 43 studied species belonging to 11 genera were characterized at the species level. Only P. thomii remained indistinguishable from P. glabrum. Using this PCR-ITS-RFLP, 96.3% strains tested could be differentiated to the species level with only four enzymes and 41.5% only with two enzymes. Moreover this work has contributed to the enriching of the database of fungal ITS sequences.Thus 199 isolated strain were on grapes in Burgundy vineyard were chacacterized at species level indepdantly of the genus by this method. P. spinolusum was the most frequently isolated species of Penicillium in Burgundy for 2008 vintage. Paralelly, the quantification of Botrytis cinerea, used as model, was developped by qPCR. The assay contained an internal amplification control to compensate for variations in DNA extraction and the various compounds from grapes, had high efficiency and the limit of detection was estimated to be 6.3 pg DNA (corresponding to 540 spores). This method was applied to assess the effects of various treatment strategies against Botrytis in the vineyard and demonstrates the importance of the prophylactic method.

The effect of initial microstructures of an 0.05 wt.% C low carbon steel, acicular ferrite (AF), Bainite (B), polygonal ferrite (PF), fine polygonal ferrite (FPF), and a microstructure produced by direct strip casting (DSC) (termed SC), on the deformation and recrystallization behaviour of cold rolled low carbon (LC) steel, was investigated. The initially prepared samples with the initial microstructures were cold rolled to 50, 70 and 90% reductions, then annealed isothermally in the temperature range 580 ??? 680 oC. The microstructures and textures produced by deformation and annealing were studied by optical microscopy, XRD, TEM, SEM and EBSD. The initial microstructures were characterized mainly by optical microscopy and EBSD. Using EBSD, the ferrite grain size of the AF, B and SC samples was considerably larger than that found by optical microscopy with a large fraction of low angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) observed within prior austenite grains. All samples exhibited a very weak texture close to random. After cold rolling, the microstructures of AF and SC contained shear bands with PF and FPF generating deformation bands. For AF and SC, the pearlite phase was more extensively elongated in rolling direction compared with PF and FPF. After 90% cold rolling reduction, PF, FPF and SC consist mainly of the texture component and AF and B . It was found that FPF recrystallized most rapidly followed by B, PF and AF with SC recrystallizing orders of magnitude more slowly due to the solution drag caused by its uniformly distributed higher Mn content. Very strong (???-fibre) texture was generated in cold rolled PF followed by FPF, with AF, SC and B generating very weak textures. The texture evolution during annealing 90% reduction PF was examined in further detail. The behaviour of nucleation and grain growth provides strong evidence of orientated nucleation as the dominant factor for CRA texture development in this material.

<p>Vanguerieae is a tribe in the mainly tropical angiosperm family Rubiaceae. The tribe currently comprises around 600 species in 27 genera, with the major part of the species distributed in Africa south of the Sahara. </p><p>The phylogeny of the tribe was investigated using both molecular and morphological data. ITS sequences of the nuclear ribosomal DNA are used in all of the included papers, and in three papers also in combination with sequences from the plastid <i>trnT-F</i> region and/or the <i>rpl16</i> intron. Thirty morphological characters were also investigated and used in combination with molecular data. Several strongly supported groups are found, but eight of the currently recognized genera are also revealed as para- or polyphyletic, i.e., <i>Canthium</i>, <i>Fadogia</i>, <i>Lagynias</i>, <i>Pachystigma</i>, <i>Pyrostria</i>, <i>Rytigynia</i>, <i>Tapiphyllum</i>, and <i>Vangueria</i>. A new classification based on the phylogenetic analyses is suggested and a review of the morphology of Vanguerieae with a focus on taxonomically informative characters is also included. </p><p>The morphologically similar <i>Ancylanthos</i>, <i>Lagynias</i>, <i>Pachystigma</i>, and <i>Tapiphyllum</i> together with a species of <i>Rytigynia</i>, <i>R</i>. <i>fuscosetulosa</i>, are suggested for transfer to <i>Vangueria</i>. All dioecious species of Vanguerieae are found to form a strongly supported group. A study of the group is performed in which all dioecious genera and also twelve undescribed species from Madagascar are included. It is concluded that the whole group should be included in <i>Pyrostria</i>, which necessitates transfers of <i>Canthium</i> subgenus <i>Bullockia</i> and <i>Scyphochlamys</i>. <i>Canthium</i> subgenus <i>Afrocanthium</i> is found to have a position isolated from the type species of the genus and it is suggested that the subgenus is given generic rank as <i>Afrocanthium</i>. A comparison of nuclear and chloroplast phylogenies shows that several species in a subgroup of the tribe have incongruent positions, and possible explanations for the incongruencies are discussed. </p>

<p>The genus <i>Arnica</i> (Asteraceae) was investigated for phylogenetic relationships and sesquiterpene lactone (STL) content with the aims to trace the evolutionary history of the genus and to investigate possible congruencies between DNA sequence data, secondary chemistry, and biological activity. </p><p>Complex evolutionary patterns in <i>Arnica</i> are evident from phylogenetic analyses of chloroplast regions (the <i>rpl16</i> and <i>rps16</i> introns and the <i>psbA–trnH</i>, <i>ycf4–cemA</i>, and <i>trnT–L</i> spacers), nuclear ribosomal regions (the internal and external transcribed spacers) and the nuclear low-copy DNA region coding for the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (<i>RPB2</i>) between exons 17 and 23. Polymorphism was detected in nuclear ribosomal and low-copy regions<i>,</i> likely caused by polyploidy and agamospermy. Lineage sorting and/or hybridization is a possible explanation for incongruencies between topologies of the different DNA regions. None of the five subgenera in <i>Arnica</i> constitute a monophyletic group according to any of our analyses. </p><p>Sesquiterpene lactone profiles were compared to nuclear ribosomal DNA data using phylogenetic inference and principal component analysis for 33 accessions of 16 species. Clusters supported by both STL chemistry and ribosomal DNA sequence data consist of multiple accessions of the same species (e.g.<i> A montana </i>and<i> A. longifolia</i>), indicating that these species are well defined both genetically and chemically, based on our sampling. Support for subspecies classification of <i>A. chamissonis</i> and <i>A. parryi</i> was found in chemical data. For the first time STLs are reported from subtribe Madiinae, sister to Arniciinae.</p><p>Anti-inflammatory properties, as measured by inhibition of human neutrophil elastase release from neutrophils and inhibition of the binding of transcription factor NF-κB to DNA, were investigated for extracts of 12 <i>Arnica</i> species. <i>Arnica montana</i>, <i>A. chamissonis</i> and <i>A. longifolia</i> accessions show high inhibitory effects in both bioassays. Generally, species with a more diverse STL chemistry also possess the strongest inhibitory activity in the bioassays.</p>

Vanguerieae is a tribe in the mainly tropical angiosperm family Rubiaceae. The tribe currently comprises around 600 species in 27 genera, with the major part of the species distributed in Africa south of the Sahara. The phylogeny of the tribe was investigated using both molecular and morphological data. ITS sequences of the nuclear ribosomal DNA are used in all of the included papers, and in three papers also in combination with sequences from the plastid trnT-F region and/or the rpl16 intron. Thirty morphological characters were also investigated and used in combination with molecular data. Several strongly supported groups are found, but eight of the currently recognized genera are also revealed as para- or polyphyletic, i.e., Canthium, Fadogia, Lagynias, Pachystigma, Pyrostria, Rytigynia, Tapiphyllum, and Vangueria. A new classification based on the phylogenetic analyses is suggested and a review of the morphology of Vanguerieae with a focus on taxonomically informative characters is also included. The morphologically similar Ancylanthos, Lagynias, Pachystigma, and Tapiphyllum together with a species of Rytigynia, R. fuscosetulosa, are suggested for transfer to Vangueria. All dioecious species of Vanguerieae are found to form a strongly supported group. A study of the group is performed in which all dioecious genera and also twelve undescribed species from Madagascar are included. It is concluded that the whole group should be included in Pyrostria, which necessitates transfers of Canthium subgenus Bullockia and Scyphochlamys. Canthium subgenus Afrocanthium is found to have a position isolated from the type species of the genus and it is suggested that the subgenus is given generic rank as Afrocanthium. A comparison of nuclear and chloroplast phylogenies shows that several species in a subgroup of the tribe have incongruent positions, and possible explanations for the incongruencies are discussed.

The genus Arnica (Asteraceae) was investigated for phylogenetic relationships and sesquiterpene lactone (STL) content with the aims to trace the evolutionary history of the genus and to investigate possible congruencies between DNA sequence data, secondary chemistry, and biological activity. Complex evolutionary patterns in Arnica are evident from phylogenetic analyses of chloroplast regions (the rpl16 and rps16 introns and the psbA–trnH, ycf4–cemA, and trnT–L spacers), nuclear ribosomal regions (the internal and external transcribed spacers) and the nuclear low-copy DNA region coding for the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RPB2) between exons 17 and 23. Polymorphism was detected in nuclear ribosomal and low-copy regions, likely caused by polyploidy and agamospermy. Lineage sorting and/or hybridization is a possible explanation for incongruencies between topologies of the different DNA regions. None of the five subgenera in Arnica constitute a monophyletic group according to any of our analyses. Sesquiterpene lactone profiles were compared to nuclear ribosomal DNA data using phylogenetic inference and principal component analysis for 33 accessions of 16 species. Clusters supported by both STL chemistry and ribosomal DNA sequence data consist of multiple accessions of the same species (e.g. A montana and A. longifolia), indicating that these species are well defined both genetically and chemically, based on our sampling. Support for subspecies classification of A. chamissonis and A. parryi was found in chemical data. For the first time STLs are reported from subtribe Madiinae, sister to Arniciinae. Anti-inflammatory properties, as measured by inhibition of human neutrophil elastase release from neutrophils and inhibition of the binding of transcription factor NF-κB to DNA, were investigated for extracts of 12 Arnica species. Arnica montana, A. chamissonis and A. longifolia accessions show high inhibitory effects in both bioassays. Generally, species with a more diverse STL chemistry also possess the strongest inhibitory activity in the bioassays.