Mushrooms and insects are both integral components of ecosystems worldwide. Interactions between these two groups of organisms are particularly interesting to study due to the transient nature of mushroom fruiting bodies, which form for a short period of time when environmental conditions are optimal to allow the fungus to distribute its spores. Despite this unpredictability in where and when mushrooms will grow, a variety of insect species use mushrooms as a food source and a substrate on which to lay their eggs. Interactions between these two groups of organisms have been documented extensively in Europe. However, little is known about the diversity of insects that associate with mushrooms in Canada. In this study, 1,017 mushrooms were collected from forests in Hamilton and the Tillsonburg, Ontario regions between fall 2018 and fall 2019. Mushrooms and their associated insects were identified through DNA barcoding using sequences of the nuclear ITS region and the mitochondrial CO1 gene for the mushrooms and insects, respectively. In total, more than 100 insect species from at least 35 families and five orders were identified from the approximately 200 mushroom species collected. While some insect species displayed evidence of specificity in their choice of mushroom host, the larger network of associations was moderately generalized and many insect species inhabited mushrooms from multiple families and orders. This study highlights the incredible diversity of organisms that rely on mushrooms for survival and contributes to our overall understanding of mushroom-insect associations in this region of Southern Ontario. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Mushrooms and insects are both highly important organisms within ecosystems around the world. Mushrooms play key roles in breaking down organic matter within forests and contributing to plant health, while insects are important decomposers and pollinators. This project involved collecting over 1,000 mushrooms from two regions in Southern Ontario and identifying the insect species found living within these mushrooms in order to examine patterns in the interactions. To our knowledge, this is the first time a survey of mushroom-insect associations has been conducted in Canada. The collected mushrooms were inhabited by a diverse range of insect species, which included mostly flies and beetles, and each of the main sampling locations had their own unique mushroom and insect communities. Some insect species displayed preference in their choice of mushroom host. Overall, this study contributes greatly to our current understanding of mushroom and insect diversity in this part of Canada.

Shiitake (Lentinula edodes (Berkeley) Pegler) produces an edible mushroom that has been cultivated for centuries in China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and other Asian countries. Shiitake mushrooms grow naturally on decaying wood of hardwood trees and have traditionally been grown on short lengths of freshly-cut logs. Until now, there has been no serious exploration of the potential for Australian forest owners to utilise small logs of native or plantation forest species for shiitake mushroom production, such as eucalypt (Eucalyptus spp.). / Logs of six tree species were harvested from farm forestry plantations in Victoria and inoculated with shiitake infected dowels imported from the United States. Over the course of the next 18 months the logs were soaked four times to initiate fruiting. The fresh mushrooms were harvested and weighed to allow a comparison between log species and size. A sample of the mushrooms from each log species produced in the 2nd and 3rd fruiting were tested for their protein and fibre content. / Quercus robur was the most productive species. Over the course of the trial (four frutings) the oak logs produced almost 1 kilogram of fresh mushrooms per log which was significantly more than E. cladocalyx (527 g/log) and Alnus glutinosa (465 g/log) and Eucalyptus nitens (389 g/log) which were all, in turn, significantly more productive than Populus sp. (140 g/log) and Acacia melanoxyon (98 g/log). Larger logs produced more fruit although this may have been related to the greater number of inoculations. The protein and fibre content of mushrooms produced from shining gum logs was slightly lower than that from the oak logs but greater than that from alder. Sugar gum mushrooms had the lowest protein content. / The research suggests that there is potential to use eucalypt logs thinned from young fast-grown farm plantations as the basis for a log-based shiitake industry although more work is required to test the marketability of eucalypt grown shiitake and the economic viability of small scale production units.

Shiitake (Lentinula edodes (Berkeley) Pegler) produces an edible mushroom that has been cultivated for centuries in China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and other Asian countries. Shiitake mushrooms grow naturally on decaying wood of hardwood trees and have traditionally been grown on short lengths of freshly-cut logs. Until now, there has been no serious exploration of the potential for Australian forest owners to utilise small logs of native or plantation forest species for shiitake mushroom production, such as eucalypt (Eucalyptus spp.). / Logs of six tree species were harvested from farm forestry plantations in Victoria and inoculated with shiitake infected dowels imported from the United States. Over the course of the next 18 months the logs were soaked four times to initiate fruiting. The fresh mushrooms were harvested and weighed to allow a comparison between log species and size. A sample of the mushrooms from each log species produced in the 2nd and 3rd fruiting were tested for their protein and fibre content. / Quercus robur was the most productive species. Over the course of the trial (four frutings) the oak logs produced almost 1 kilogram of fresh mushrooms per log which was significantly more than E. cladocalyx (527 g/log) and Alnus glutinosa (465 g/log) and Eucalyptus nitens (389 g/log) which were all, in turn, significantly more productive than Populus sp. (140 g/log) and Acacia melanoxyon (98 g/log). Larger logs produced more fruit although this may have been related to the greater number of inoculations. The protein and fibre content of mushrooms produced from shining gum logs was slightly lower than that from the oak logs but greater than that from alder. Sugar gum mushrooms had the lowest protein content. / The research suggests that there is potential to use eucalypt logs thinned from young fast-grown farm plantations as the basis for a log-based shiitake industry although more work is required to test the marketability of eucalypt grown shiitake and the economic viability of small scale production units.

The administration of initiation rites by an ecstatic specialist, now known to western scholarship by the general designation of ‘shaman’, has proven to be one of humanity’s oldest, most widespread, and continuous magico-religious traditions. At the heart of their initiatory rituals lay an ordeal – a metaphysical journey - almost ubiquitously brought on by the effects of a life-changing hallucinogenic drug experience. To guide their initiates, these shaman worked with a repertoire of locally acquired instruments, costumes, dances, and ecstasy-inducing substances. Among past Mediterranean cultures, Semitic and Indo-European, these sorts of initiation rites were vital to society’s spiritual well-being. It was, however, the mystery schools of antiquity – organizations founded upon conserving the secrets of plant-lore, astrology, theurgy and mystical philosophy – which satisfied the role of the shaman in Greco-Roman society. The rites they delivered to the common individual were a form of ritualized ecstasy and they provided an orderly context for religiously-oriented intoxication. In the eastern Mediterranean, these ecstatic cults were most often held in honour of a great mother goddess and her perennially dying-and-rising consort. The goddess’ religious dramas enacted in cultic ritual stressed the importance of fasting, drumming, trance-inducing music, self-mutilation, and a non-alcoholic ritual intoxication. Far and wide the dying consort worshiped by these cults was a god of vegetation, ecstasy, revelation, and salvation; by ingesting his body initiates underwent a profound mystical experience. From what limited information has survived from antiquity, it appears that the rites practiced in the eastern mystery cults were in essence traditional shamanic ordeals remodeled to suit the psychological needs of Mediterranean civilization’s marginalized people. This paper argues that the myths of this vegetable god, so-called ‘the Divine Bridegroom,’ particularly in manifestation of the Phrygian Attis and the Greek Dionysus, is deeply rooted in the life-cycle, cultivation, treatment, consumption of a tree-born hallucinogenic mushroom, Amanita muscaria. The use of this mushroom is alive and well today among Finno-Ugric shaman and this paper explores their practices as one branch of Eurasian shamanism running parallel to, albeit in a different time, the rites of the Phrygian goddess. Using extant literary and linguistic evidence, I compare the initiatory cults long-assimilated into post-agricultural Mediterranean civilization with the hallucinogen-wielding shaman of the Russian steppe, emphasizing them both as facets of a prehistoric and pan-human magico-religious archetype.

Orientador: Meire Cristina Nogueira de Andrade / Coorientador: Leonardo de Barros Pinto / Banca: Geisiany Maria de Queiroz-Fernandes / Banca: Jose Raimundo de Souza Passos / Resumo: O cultivo de cogumelos comestíveis, como o Pleurotus ostreatus (shimeji), vêm se expandindo no Brasil devido as suas características nutricionais, medicinais e possibilidade de empregar técnicas rústicas para o seu cultivo. Um dos fatores que influenciam este cultivo é a qualidade do inóculo. Alguns produtores acreditam que as sucessivas repicagens de um micélio resultam em perda de vigor e consequente queda na produtividade, porém a literatura carece de informações referentes a essa questão. Portanto, o objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a produtividade, expressa pela perda de matéria orgânica, massa do basidioma fresco, eficiência biológica, número de cachos, atividade enzimática e caracterização química do substrato do inóculo de P. ostreatus em função de repicagens sucessivas, em três linhagens diferentes (SB, MB e CP3), cada qual com quatro tratamentos (I1, I2, I3 e I4, correspondendo aos inóculos repicados sucesssivamente), bem como analisar o processo de produção de inóculo e sua sustentabilidade sob o ponto de vista emergético. A linhagem SB apresentou os melhores resultados de produtividade, com uma massa média de 513 g, as linhagens MB e CP3 não diferiram estatisticamente entre si quanto à produtividade, com massa média de 371 g e 310 g, respectivamente. A linhagem CP3 produziu cogumelos maiores que as demais, com uma massa média de 278 g por cacho, enquanto a linhagem SB obteve uma massa média de 218 g por cacho e a linhagem MB 185 g por cacho. As repicagens suces... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The cultivation of edible mushrooms, such as the Pleurotus ostreatus (shimeji), has been expanding in Brazil due to its nutritional and medicinal characteristics, as well as the possibility of employing rustic techniques for its cultivation. One of the factors that influence this cultivation is the quality of the spawn. Some producers believe that the successive multiplications of the mycelium results in a loss of vigor and consequently a decline in productivity, however the literature lacks information regarding this issue. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the productivity, expressed by the loss of organic matter, fresh basidioma mass, biological efficiency, number of fruiting bodies, enzymatic activity and chemical characterization of the substrate of the Pleurotus ostreatus spawn as a function of successive multiplications, in three different strains (SB, MB and CP3), each with four treatments (I1, I2, I3 and I4, corresponding to the successively multiplied spawns), as well as to analyse the spawn production process and its sustainability under the emergetic point of view. The SB strain presented the best productivity results, with an average mass of 513 g, the MB and CP3 strains did not differ statistically among each other regarding productivity, with an average mass of 371 g and 310 g, respectively. The CP3 strain resulted in larger mushrooms than the others, with an average mass of 278 g per bunch, whereas the SB strain resulted in a mass of 218 g per bunch and the MB strain resulted in 185 g per bunch. The successive multiplications did not affect the size of the mushrooms. The spawns presented a similar behaviour on the substrate according to the data of enzymatic activity and chemical characterization of the substrate, indicating that the successive multiplications did not affect the behaviour of the fungi on the substrate. The data suggests that until the fifth ... / Mestre

Tyrosinase is a widespread, highly studied and important enzyme involved in processes ranging from the browning of mushrooms to roles in mammalian cancer. The enzyme suffers from a noticeable lag phase while the enzyme generates all necessary cofactors from available substrates. There have not been significant studies of the effect on lag from moving through a family of substituted substrates. This thesis reports the results of one such study using a family of N-acyltyramines. The selection of N-acyltyramines was ideal because the substrates in this reaction may be related to synthesis of N-acyldopamines, which serve many important physiological functions. It was concluded that the product formed from N-acetyltyramine is 1-acetyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-indole-6,7-dione, a quinone.

Vietnam has about 2,000 trade villages locating mainly in the north. Duong Lieu village in Hoai Duc, Hanoi, is one of the key areas of agricultural production and food processing. However, this area is affected by serious environmental pollution, particularly caused by solid waste and wastewater. Solid wastes of the starch production process from arrowroot are disposed in large amounts and represent the main reason for environmental pollution in Duong Lieu village. These wastes are present anywhere in this village, for example on the main road, in gardens, event fill in ponds and ditches. The components of the dried arrowroot waste are mainly carbon-rich substances such as starch (5%), cellulose (90%) and N, P, K (0.5%; 0.11%; 0.16%, respectively). The fresh arrowroot waste has humidity of up to 80%. This substrate is suitable for culture of straw mushroom and oyster mushroom. The mushrooms use cellulose as carbon source for their growth. Therefore, waste from arrowroot that can be recycled efficiently by the biological method for culturing mushrooms. This treatment method is suitable to the conditions of Vietnam because it does not only reduce waste residues but also is environmentally friendly. / Việt nam có khoảng 2000 làng nghề và tập trung chủ yếu ở miền Bắc. Dương Liễu là một trong những vùng trọng điểm chế biến nông sản thực phẩm. Song hiện tại khu vực này đang bị ô nhiễm môi trường nghiêm trọng,đặc biệt ô nhiễm rác thải và nước thải. Chất thải rắn của quá trình chế biến tinh bột từ củ dong là rất lớn. Nó có mặt khắp nơi từ trong nhà ra ngoài ngõ thậm chí lấp đầy cống rãnh, ao hồ. Đây chính là nguyên nhân gây nên ô nhiễm môi trường vùng làng nghề. Thành phần của bã dong rất giàu cellulose (90%), tinh bột (5%) và có cả nitơ, photpho, kali tương với 0,5%, 0,11% và 0,16%; độ ẩm của bã dong tươi lên tới 80%. Cơ chất này thích hợp để trồng nấm rơm và nấm sò. Bởi các loại nấm này sử dụng cellulose là nguồn cung cấp cacbon chính để sinh trưởng. Do vậy, bã thải từ củ dong có thể được tái sử dụng hiệu quả bằng phương pháp sinh học như là dùng trồng nấm. Đây là một sự lựa chọn phù hợp với điều kiện Việt Nam, vừa giảm thiểu chất thải dư thừa vừa thân thiện với môi trường.

Genetic algorithms (GAs) are global optimization methods that can be applied to almost all problems, requiring only proper fitness function to evaluate. However, one problem of general GA is slow convergence. An improved GA is presented to speed up the efficiency of searching for global optimum in this author. The concept of this proposed method uses a few cost to obtain better individuals in initial population, and the evolution of GA is divided into two-stage with the concept of the genetic evolution process, which uses to improve efficiency. An improved GA with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) will be applied to optimize mushroom-type EBG structures, which can obtain a wide range stop-band by adjusting the position of via with different patch size cascaded without changing via size, then the simulation and measurement results are also compared. In addition, the novel steps will be presented to design broadband mushroom-type EBG structures with smaller size systematically.

A full wave finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD) combined with thin-wire and thin-slot algorithms to analyze a metamaterial fabricated with periodic mushroom structures, is proposed in this dissertation. This proposed method is suitable for analyzing problems involving large structures with fine structural details. A periodic analysis for mushroom structures is presented. Only a single unit mushroom cell is required to present the phenomena of infinite periodicity with the help of periodic boundary conditions (PBCs). The composite right-/left-handed (CRLH) transmission line (TL) approach is introduced and used to approximate CRLH metamaterial through lumped L and C. Finally, several CRLH metamaterial mushroom-based structures are investigated. A 19 by 8 flat microwave lens and a parabolic microwave lens structure composed of 410 unit mushroom cells are investigated. These structures demonstrate negative refractive index (NRI) characteristics while operate in the left-hand (LH) region. The simulation and measurement results of one- and two-dimensional CRLH mushroom-based structures are compared.

　　Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) remains the major cause of failure of retinal detachment surgery. Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells have been suggested to play a major role in the pathogenesis of PVR. Numerous studies have employed pharmacological means to modulate cellular activities in attempts to inhibit the process. Recent attempts using adjunctive therapy during PVR surgery that consisted of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and low molecular weight heparin showed some promise in preventing PVR but the concern is that prolonged 5-FU treatment may have a toxic effect. On the other hand, lectin from the edible mushroom Agaricus bisporus (ABL) was found to inhibit growth of RPE cells in a potent manner without apparent cytotoxicity. This lectin could be a candidate to modulate anomalous proliferation of RPE cells while the mechanism for the observed inhibition is unknown. 　　In our study, we investigated whether RPE cells treated with 5-FU or ABL would attenuate cellular proliferation, cell migration, cell adhesion and cell-mediated contraction rates. Further, we investigated if complementary inhibition for the above cellular activities could be obtained when RPE cells were treated with ABL after the short treatment using 5-FU. We also explored the possible mechanisms through which ABL inhibited RPE cell proliferation. 　　ARPE-19 and primary human RPE cells were treated with 5-FU or vehicle for 10 minutes. Cells were then maintained in culture medium supplemented with or without ABL. The rate of cellular proliferation was measured by a tetrazolium salt assay. Effects on cell adhesion were investigated through loading RPE cells onto the strips coated with collagen I or fibronectin. Cell migration was investigated using a scratch wound model. The effect on cell-mediated contraction was assessed using a free floating collagen I matrix. Cytotoxicity of 5-FU and ABL was determined by the live/dead assay. 　　To elucidate the mechanism through which ABL inhibited RPE cell proliferation, we investigated cell cycle distribution patterns using flow cytometry. Phosphorylation statuses of Erk, Jnk, p38, Akt as well as p53 and Cyclin D expression level were investigated by Western blotting. 　　Both 5-FU and ABL inhibited RPE cell proliferation. Only ABL promoted cell adhesion towards collagen I in hRPE3 cells. ABL was found to attenuate the rate of cell migration. Cell-mediated collagen gel contraction was attenuated by 5-FU only. Complementary inhibition in cellular proliferation and cell-mediated collagen gel contraction was observed when both 5-FU and ABL were applied. No significant cell death was observed after treatment with 5-FU, ABL or both. 　　ABL was found to reduce the amount of cells present at S phase. Akt and Erk were found to be hypo-phosphorylated and hyper-phosphorylated respectively after ABL treatment. The expression levels of phosphorylated-Jnk, phosphorylated-p38, p53, and Cyclin D1 were not altered when compared with the control. 　　These results showed that 5-FU and ABL complement with each other on inhibiting the wound healing activities of RPE cells in vitro without apparent cytotoxicity. They suggested a possible new treatment modality for PVR. ABL hypo-phosphorylated Akt and this observation is in line with the fact that ABL could attenuate cell proliferation. / published_or_final_version / Anatomy / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy