Currently there are three companies producing bitumen from the Athabasca Oil Sands Region located near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Extraction of bitumen produces solid (sand) and liquid (water with suspended fine particles) tailings material, called oil sands process affected-materials (OSPM). These waste materials are stored on site due to a zero discharge policy and must be reclaimed when operations end. The OSPM is known to contain naphthenic acids (NAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and has high pH and salinity. A possible method of reclamation is the wet landscape approach, which involves using OSPM to form wetlands that would mimic natural wetland ecological functioning. This study investigated the effects of wetlands formed with OSPM on wood frog larvae (<i>Rana sylvatica</i>), using endpoints including survival, growth, time to metamorphosis, hormonal status, and detoxification enzyme induction [ethoxyresorufin-o-dealkylase (EROD) activity].<p> <i>In-situ</i> caging studies were completed in 2006 and 2007. Four wetlands were studied in 2006 and 14 wetlands were studied in 2007. The 2006 season saw a host of problems that were resolved for the 2007 season. In 2006, tadpole survival did not differ among reference wetlands and old OSPM-affected wetlands but there was 100% mortality of tadpoles in the young OSPM-affected sites that contain the highest concentration of toxic components. Results were similar in 2007, with tadpoles raised in young OSPM-affected wetlands having 41.5%, 62.6%, and 54.7% higher tadpole mortality than old OSPM-affected, young reference, and old reference wetlands, respectively. In 2007, tadpoles from young OSPM-affected sites had delayed metamorphosis (12 days longer than tadpoles from old reference wetlands and 18 days longer than tadpoles in old OSPM-affected wetlands). The thyroid hormone ratios of tadpoles in young OSPM-affected wetlands were between 25% and 42% lower than tadpoles in all other wetlands groups. The EROD activity of tadpoles in young OSPM-affected wetlands was an average 223% higher than those in old OSPM-affected wetlands, showing us that tadpoles were responding to higher levels of contaminants in young OSPM-affected wetlands. Size differences were only noted in 2007, most likely not as a result of exposure to OSPM, but due to differences in population density. The results of this study lead us to believe that toxicity due to OSPM decreases as wetlands get older and OSPM-affected wetlands could support native amphibian populations if they are allowed to mature. Since we considered wetlands to be old if they were seven years or older and the fact that old-OSPM wetlands showed effects on tadpoles similar to those of reference wetlands and showed much less toxicity than young OSPM-affected wetlands, we believe wetlands that are at least seven years old would sustain amphibian life.

Ambystoma tigrinum undergoes an obligatory metamorphosis while A. mexicanum fails to metamorphose and exhibits paedomorphosis. While it is clear that salamander paedomorphosis is associated with genetic changes that delay developmental timing, it is not clear when and how these changes manifest during development. It is possible that paedomorphic and metamorphic larvae show equivalent patterns of developmental until late in the larval period, when brain regions become competent to stimulate the release of metamorphic hormones. To test this hypothesis, I compared gene expression patterns between the brains of A. mexicanum and A. t. tigrinum larvae. In support of the developmental equivalence hypothesis, 114 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in common between the species and all but 2 showed the same temporal pattern of expression. However, more DEGs were identified uniquely from each species. In particular, several genes that are associated with the hypothalamus-pituitaryinterrenal axis, which is implicated in metamorphic regulation in amphibians, exhibited significant expression differences between A. mexicanum and A. t. tigrinum larvae. The results show that metamorphic and paedomorphic modes of development are associated with different transcriptional programs in the brain and these programs diverge during early larval development.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1992. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [191]-195).

Diss.--Universität Konstanz, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [277]-293).

Habilitationsschrift--Freie Universität, Berlin. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-255) and index.

No description available.

La thèse, intitulée "Tre miti ovidiani in Dante : Piramo e Tisbe, Narciso e Semele" est une analyse de la présence de ces trois fabulae des Métamorphoses dans l'œuvre de Dante. La sélection des mythes a été dictée par la nécessité de définir un champ aussi vaste et par l'intention de mettre en évidence la relation entre l'Eros et la Connaissances, qui est si important dans le système poétique et philosophique de l'auteur florentin.Cette étude se fie par ailleurs l'objective de souligner la manière dont Dante utilise le modèle d'Ovide: la rencontre avec la source classique prévoit un dialogue continu, à la fois textuel et théorique-conceptuel. Le mythe devient ainsi un récit qui faut démêler dans ses applications multiples et parfois contradictoires. En ce qui concerne les sources, une attention particulière a été accordée aux commentaires médiévaux sur les Métamorphoses. En particulier, les œuvres suivantes ont été gardées à l'esprit : le Allegoriae super Ovidii Metamorphosi de Arnolfo d'Orléans, le Integumenta Ovidii de Jean de Garland, l'exégèse de Giovanni del Virgilio et l'Ovide moralisé. Ce poème mythographique de la première moitié du XIVe siècle, même si postérieur, s'est révélé utile en vue d'une reconstruction de la réception du mythe après la Commedia. On a donc essayé de reconstruire la perception réelle que le Moyen Age avait du texte d'Ovide, en prenant également en compte la présence des fabulae dans la littérature vernaculaire antérieure ou contemporaine de Dante.L'ensemble de l'analyse tend à montrer comment, dans le voyage de perfectionnement de Dante, le concept d'Eros soit intimement lié à la possibilité d'une vraie connaissance, à condition qu'elle soit soutenue par la raison et la foi. / Analysis of three ovidian myths in Dante's Comedy.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Entomology / Yoonseong Park / Complex life cycles (CLCs), developmental programs in which life-history stages are distinct in morphology, behavior, and physiology, are common throughout the biosphere. However, it is still unclear why and how CLCs evolve. The adaptive decoupling hypothesis (ADH) postulates that CLCs evolve to decouple the developmental processes that underlie traits across ontogeny to allow for independent, stage-specific responses to selection. This ultimately could lead to alternate life-history stages adapting to unique environments, thus optimizing fitness across development. However, few empirical tests of the ADH are available. Detecting genetic and transcriptomic decoupling of thermal hardiness using robust techniques in a model system, D. melanogaster, was the goal of this dissertation. Furthermore, this work illustrates that different life-history stages have the potential to become adapted to unique ecological niches. I performed three primary studies to test the ADH: 1.) estimation of the genetic correlation for cold hardiness between larvae and adults using isogenic lines of D. melanogaster to determine if unique genetic architectures underlie variation in cold stress response using standard quantitative genetic and Genome-Wide Association (GWA) methods, 2.) testing whether developmental acclimation is genetically correlated across stages, and whether acclimation alters cross-stage correlations in cold hardiness, and 3.) analysis of the transcriptional responses of both larvae and adults to extreme cold to determine if stage-specific stress response mechanisms exist across development.

L'étude que voici a pour but d'élaborer la façon dont peut être traitée, à partir de plusieurs aspects différents, la compréhension spécifique de Marcel Proust concernant l'identité, notamment dans le roman À la recherche du temps perdu. Dans la première partie, nous allons essayer de lier la question de l'identité à la déclaration de Proust selon laquelle sa tendance dès le début était de créer une suite des romans de l'inconscient, une déclaration qui tout de suite change la compréhension rationnelle de la définition de soi. Nous allons lier l'inconscient aux affects, désirs et passions qui sont élaborés dès le début de la création proustienne, à travers ses récits où s'ouvrent ces thèmes par leur relation aux processus de l'inceste, du parricide ou du matricide. La deuxième partie aborde le problème d'une différente identification, celle qui introduit le sujet d'abord dans le réseau de l'histoire, puis dans le réseau de la société. La période concrète de l'histoire française sert à capter grâce à la narration le conflit des passions du niveau individuel (les personnages) au niveau collectif (les groupes). Nous abordons aussi le problème de la vérité historique et de son orientation vers la fiction et le mythe. Dans la troisième partie seront placés tous ces moments de l'œuvre qui témoignent de la perte de soi, de l'absence de la représentation ou de l'image de soi et l'insuffisance de la narration dans la fixation des identités. D'abord, seront mentionnés les expériences de rêve et des sphères les plus proches à l'inconscient, puis la recherche de soi à travers l'autre qui dans l'amour se reconnaît comme une mission impossible, et qui dans la tentative d'atteindre l'être de l'autre, le perd irréversiblement ou obtient seulement les fragments qui ne sont pas susceptibles d'être composés comme une histoire.Comme une transition vers la conclusion seront analysées les conditions proustiennes pour comprendre l'être, n'importe s'il s'agit du social ou du plus intime, du genre ou de la religion, reconnues dans son intérêt pour la philosophie. Au lieu de l'ontologie ou de la foi, chez Proust sera essentielle la création artistique, qui, après toutes les péripéties de l'identité et des exemples de sa destruction, va vivre sa renaissance par la création, et nous pouvons faire un retour vers le début de l'exposition et dire que ce qui est atteint à la fin est exactement le processus de la métamorphose, de la renaissance de tous les phénomènes et événements vivants à travers le texte. / The purpose of this study is to elaborate the way in which In Search of Lost Time can be treated, from several different aspects, the specific understanding of the author concerning identity, even if his Narrator never explicitly mentions such a project, he rather leaves us as readers to organize the implicit system of literary figuration that is offered.We define at first the theoretical preliminary concept, before situating Proust in a new perspective of metamorphosis as a changing and living form which corresponds to his understanding of phenomena and which is not exclusively submitted to the rational philosophical formula of identity, but includes the literary principle of Proustian transubstantiation - the process of transfer of all emotions, affects, feelings and passions in a creative text.In the first part, we tried to link the question of identity to the Proust's statement that from the beginning his tendency was to create a serie of novels of the unconscious, a statement that immediately changes the rational understanding of the definition of the self. We linked the unconscious to the affects, desires and passions that are developed in the beginning of Proust`s creation, in his short stories where these themes are opened through their relationship to the processes of incest, the parricide or matricide.The second part addresses the problem of a different identification, which introduces the subject in the context of history, then in the context of society. The actual period of French history serves to Proust to show once again the course of the conflict of passions on individual level (the characters) and on the collective level (the groups).The third part is somehow an opposition to the previous, and if the claim of the definition of self in society was seen as a mistake and lie to oneself, in the third part will be placed all those moments of the work that reflect the total loss of the self, the absence of representation or self-image. First will be mentioned the experiences of the dreams and the spheres that are closest to the unconscious, afterwards the self-seeking through the other in love who is recognizable as an impossible task, and who in his try to reach the being of the other, loses himself irreversibly or obtains only fragments that are not likely to be composed as a story. As well as in the previous part, the abolition of the truth will represent here one of the conditions of the impossible identity of the characters. In this section will be developed also the phenomena of gender identity and the concept of sin which joins it according to Proust, through the two characters of Charlus and Albertine who represent the sexual division, which will became later also a mental division.As a gateway to the conclusion will be analyzed the Proust`s conditions to understand the being, no matter if it is a question of the social or of the most intimate, the gender or the religion, recognized in his interest in philosophy. Instead of the ontology or the faith, in Proust will be essential the artistic creation, which, after all the vicissitudes of identity and the examples of its destruction, will live its rebirth through the creation, and we can make a return to the beginning of the exposure and say that which is attained at the end is exactly the process of metamorphosis, the rebirth of all living phenomena and events through the text.