Vts1p is the Saccharomyces cerevisiae member of the Smaug family of post-transcriptional regulators, which is a group of sequence-specific RNA-binding proteins that regulate target mRNA expression. Vts1p is known to mediate deadenylation-dependent degradation of target transcripts through the recruitment of the Ccr4p/Pop2p/Not deadenylase complex. By conducting a functional analysis of Vts1p deletion mutants, I demonstrate that two regions within Vts1p are independently capable of downregulating the expression of an mRNA reporter. I provide both genetic and biochemical evidence that suggests residues 170-523 regulate reporter expression at the level of mRNA stability and function through a mechanism that requires the Ccr4p/Pop2p/Not deadenylase, whereas residues 1-237 repress reporter expression at the level of translation and function through a novel mechanism. In addition, I map a direct interaction between the eIF4E-binding protein, Eap1p, and the Vts1p SAM domain, which suggests a model in which residues 170-523 recruit Eap1p to mediate efficient target transcript degradation.

Vts1p is the Saccharomyces cerevisiae member of the Smaug family of post-transcriptional regulators, which is a group of sequence-specific RNA-binding proteins that regulate target mRNA expression. Vts1p is known to mediate deadenylation-dependent degradation of target transcripts through the recruitment of the Ccr4p/Pop2p/Not deadenylase complex. By conducting a functional analysis of Vts1p deletion mutants, I demonstrate that two regions within Vts1p are independently capable of downregulating the expression of an mRNA reporter. I provide both genetic and biochemical evidence that suggests residues 170-523 regulate reporter expression at the level of mRNA stability and function through a mechanism that requires the Ccr4p/Pop2p/Not deadenylase, whereas residues 1-237 repress reporter expression at the level of translation and function through a novel mechanism. In addition, I map a direct interaction between the eIF4E-binding protein, Eap1p, and the Vts1p SAM domain, which suggests a model in which residues 170-523 recruit Eap1p to mediate efficient target transcript degradation.

This project evaluated the potential for using ozone gas as post-harvest treatment for control of disease in stored potatoes. Ozone is a short-lived, highly reactive oxidizing agent with demonstrated potential to control disease-causing microorganisms. Preliminary trials showed that the atmospheric concentration of ozone obtained using commercial ozone generation equipment depended on the room size and reactive demands in the treatment area. Ozone applied to freshly harvested seed-grade potatoes up to 0-20 mg O3/kg/hr for 1, 7 or 21 days had little significant effect on the incidence or severity of a range of diseases or tuber colour, but did increase tuber weight loss in a dosage-dependant manner. Continuous ozone application (1.9 mg O3/kg/hr) accentuated weight loss by the stored crop. Application of ozone (10-20 mg O3/kg/hr) and Purogene® (Chlorine dioxide; 200 ppm) for 1 day at the mid-point of the winter storage period had no effect on disease levels, skin colour or weight loss measured at the end of storage. When tubers were inoculated with a range of pathogens (Fusarium sambucinum, F. solani., Phytophthora infestans, Helminthosporium solani), introduced at wound depths appropriate to each disease, disease levels typically increased, however ozone treatment (20 mg O3/kg/hr) did not reduce development of any of these diseases. In the absence of potential interference by the surrounding storage environment, pure cultures of Fusarium spp., P. infestans and sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum were exposed to 45 mg O3/plate/hr for 1 or 2 days. The ozone treatments had no effect on sporulation of any of the pathogens and did not reduce mycelial growth of Fusarium spp. Mycelial growth of Phytophthora and sclerotial germination of Sclerotinia were suppressed for the duration of the ozone treatment period, however normal growth resumed when the cultures were placed in ozone-free conditions. Ozone treatments (up to 320 mg O3/kg/hr for 2 days) did not reduce the sprouting ability of seed potatoes, however ozone treatments (~20 mg O3/kg/hr for 1, 7 or 21 days) significantly reduced wound periderm thickness of treated potatoes. Treating seed potatoes with ozone (0 or 20 mg O3/kg/hr for 1 or 2 days) prior to planting typically did not affect plant stand or yield, however under cool, wet conditions, ozone-treated seed potatoes produced poorer stands and yields relative to the controls. Based on the results obtained for the range of treatments evaluated in this project, ozone appears to have limited potential as a disease management tool in stored potatoes.

This project evaluated the potential for using ozone gas as post-harvest treatment for control of disease in stored potatoes. Ozone is a short-lived, highly reactive oxidizing agent with demonstrated potential to control disease-causing microorganisms. Preliminary trials showed that the atmospheric concentration of ozone obtained using commercial ozone generation equipment depended on the room size and reactive demands in the treatment area. Ozone applied to freshly harvested seed-grade potatoes up to 0-20 mg O3/kg/hr for 1, 7 or 21 days had little significant effect on the incidence or severity of a range of diseases or tuber colour, but did increase tuber weight loss in a dosage-dependant manner. Continuous ozone application (1.9 mg O3/kg/hr) accentuated weight loss by the stored crop. Application of ozone (10-20 mg O3/kg/hr) and Purogene® (Chlorine dioxide; 200 ppm) for 1 day at the mid-point of the winter storage period had no effect on disease levels, skin colour or weight loss measured at the end of storage. When tubers were inoculated with a range of pathogens (Fusarium sambucinum, F. solani., Phytophthora infestans, Helminthosporium solani), introduced at wound depths appropriate to each disease, disease levels typically increased, however ozone treatment (20 mg O3/kg/hr) did not reduce development of any of these diseases. In the absence of potential interference by the surrounding storage environment, pure cultures of Fusarium spp., P. infestans and sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum were exposed to 45 mg O3/plate/hr for 1 or 2 days. The ozone treatments had no effect on sporulation of any of the pathogens and did not reduce mycelial growth of Fusarium spp. Mycelial growth of Phytophthora and sclerotial germination of Sclerotinia were suppressed for the duration of the ozone treatment period, however normal growth resumed when the cultures were placed in ozone-free conditions. Ozone treatments (up to 320 mg O3/kg/hr for 2 days) did not reduce the sprouting ability of seed potatoes, however ozone treatments (~20 mg O3/kg/hr for 1, 7 or 21 days) significantly reduced wound periderm thickness of treated potatoes. Treating seed potatoes with ozone (0 or 20 mg O3/kg/hr for 1 or 2 days) prior to planting typically did not affect plant stand or yield, however under cool, wet conditions, ozone-treated seed potatoes produced poorer stands and yields relative to the controls. Based on the results obtained for the range of treatments evaluated in this project, ozone appears to have limited potential as a disease management tool in stored potatoes.

The alteration mineralogy, major and trace element chemistry, and Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotopic compositions of post-shield lavas from Mauna Kea, Kohala, and Hualalai on the island of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean are used to constrain the origin and distribution of heterogeneities in the Hawaiian mantle plume. Ocean island basalts contain a variety of secondary minerals that must be removed by acid-leaching to achieve high-precision Pb isotopic compositions, a powerful geochemical tracer of variation in plume source composition. Post-shield lavas range from transitional/alkalic basalt to trachyte and are enriched in incompatible trace elements (e.g. LaN/YbN=6.0-16.2) relative to shield stage tholeiites. Post-shield lavas are characterized by a limited range of Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic compositions(⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr=0.70343-0.70365; ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd = 0.51292-0.51301;¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf= 0.28311-0.28314) and have Pb isotopic compositions(²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 17.89-18.44; ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴ 15.44-15.49;²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb= 37.68-38.01) that belong to their respective Kea or Loa side of the Pb-Pb boundary. Mauna Kea lavas show a systematic shift to less radiogenic Pb isotopic compositions from the shield to post-shield stage and trend to low ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr towards compositions characteristic of rejuvenated stage lavas. Hualalai post shield lavas lie distinctly above the Hf-Nd Hawaiian array (ƐHf = +12 to +13; ƐNd = +5.5 to +6.5) and have some of the least radiogenic Pb isotopic compositions (e.g.²⁰⁶/²⁰⁴pb= 17.89-18.01) of recent Hawaiian volcanoes. In contrast, comparison of Kohala with the adjacent Mahukona shows that lavas from these volcanoes become more radiogenic in Pb during the late stages of volcanism. The Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotope systematics of the post shield lavas cannot be explained by mixing between the Kea and Koolau end-members or by assimilation of Pacific lithosphere and are consistent with the presence of ancient recycled lower oceanic crust and sediments in their source. More than one depleted component is sampled by the post-shield lavas and these components are long-lived features of the Hawaiian plume that are present in both the Kea and Loa source regions. The geochemistry of the post-shield lavas provide evidence for a bilaterally zoned plume, where the compositional boundary between the Kea and Loa sources is complex and vertical components of heterogeneity are also significant.

J M Coetzee’s Disgrace deals with race and power in contemporary, post-colonial South Africa. This prize-winning novel is written after the country's first all-race elections, in 1994. It has therefore most often been analyzed as a representative for the writing of the new South Africa, where the social problems relating binary oppositions such as black – white, native – immigrant, powerless – powerful, are stressed. More specifically the shift of power within the above mentioned pairs is in focus. This is also the case for this essay, but instead of analyzing the realistic elements in the book it will examine the imaginary complexity of the opera Byron in Italy, which is created by the protagonist, David Lurie. This essay aims to widen the concept of “native” regarding post-colonial theory by looking at the peculiarity of Lurie’s situation; him being a representative of the white population in South Africa. By using post-colonial theory this essay aims at showing that Lurie can be seen as a white native, and that his process of writing the opera can be seen as symbolizing the evolutionary phases a colonized nation goes through in order to develop a national culture, as described by Franz Fanon.

In today's society it is becoming more and more important with direct marketing. Some of the direct marketing is done through e-mail, in which companies see an easy way to advertise himself. I did this thesis work at WebDoc Systems. They have a product that creates web documents directly in your browser, also called CMS. The CMS has a module for sending mass e-mail, but this module does not function properly and WebDoc Systems customers are dissatisfied with that part of the product. The problem with the module was that sometimes it didn't send the e-mail, and that it was not possible to obtain some form of follow-up information on the e-mail. The goal of this work was to develop a Web service that could easily send e-mail to many receivers, just as easily be able to view statistics on how mailing has gone. The first step was to do a literature review to get a good picture of available programming platforms, but also to be able create a good application infrastructure. The next step was to implement this design and improve it over time by using an iterative development methodology. The result was an application infrastructure that consists of three main parts and a plugin interface. The parts that were implemented were a Web service application, a Web application and a Windows service application. The three elements cooperate with each other and share a database, and plugins.

Advertising plays an important role in the modern society. It influences not only the development of business concretely, but also sharpness of culture abstractly. The commercial advertisement of real estate is a communication of media industry, and a financial origin of media industry as well. The great investment to commercial advertisement from real estate client will obtain more exposure. However, there are many specific values in the advertising text, and the values will shape culture and habitus in the wake of advertising exposure. Following that, people start to drink STARBUCKS, watch the western movie, put on thee NIKE shoes, learn English and concern the stock market in U.S.A. by being educated from advertising. Westernization and modernization bring progress of technology and politics, but they could be able to fade away culture identity. The main point of this research is to deconstruct and exposure the western myth that is disguised in real estate advertising text, and to decode how the western is constructed to be an superiority and connect with hierarchical society. Furthermore, by observing a great deal western signs in real estate advertising, this research also analyzed the organization and operation of signs to realize the process of self-culture exclusion and self-colonization from the post-colonial point of view. The research method is qualitative semiology analysis. This research gathered twenty samples from numerous real estate advertising on the basis of western index and manifold content, in order to reveal the underlying meaning by analyzing the selection, composition and arrangement of sign. Two results have found from this research. Firstly, real estate website advertising rebuilds that west is superior, ideal and aspirational, and regards west as pronoun of success and happiness. For example, ¡§Watch child English drama at Christmas, Have a tea time break.¡¨ The advertising brings the western holidays, western way of education and western tea time culture into the context of life to naturalize western culture and value into daily life. Secondly, real estate website advertising represents self-colonization. For example, ¡§The San Sia old street, Baroque architecture.¡¨ The San Sia old street that is made of red brick is symbol of Eastern architecture. But, the advertising lay emphasis on the arch configuration to represent the San Sia old street as a kind of western architecture. After reviewing the analysis, this research declared two suggestions. The first, real estate advertising producer should increase the amount of the eastern sign, meanwhile, use eastern sign within eastern cultural context as well, in order to weaken self ¡Vcolonization. The second, audiences should have an ability to deconstruct and criticize real estate advertising to dig underlying meaning and reveal hierarchical representation, and also awake rethinking of eastern subject.

This study analyzes the news texts of Typhoon Morakot, applying news discourse analysis and post-colonial concepts to discuss the specific types of aboriginal representation in the media, and the media also shape some specific discourse for aboriginal people. After analyzing the news texts, it shows that mainstream media represent aboriginal as the negative other, while alternative media represent them as the subjects who can acclaim their own rights. These two different discourses imply that there are some complex power relations behind the news texts, the mainstream media reinforce the power from central government and the charity organization. They build a strong and powerful discourse to rationalize their dominance over aboriginals, which excludes aboriginals¡¦ opinions from the public policy. However, this study also shows there is an alternative direction of power; alternative media try to subvert the mainstream discourse. They point out the central government is the trouble maker, aboriginals shouldn¡¦t be scapegoats. Hence, we can find that aboriginals are on the way to establish their own subjects.

Post-tensioned (PT) bridge technology was first introduced in France in the 1930?s as described in the post-tensioned concrete bridges: Anglo-French liaison report by Highway Agency and is widely used in Europe and the US. PT bridge technology is advantageous over other bridge-type structures due to its larger span-to-depth ratio and reduced construction costs and time. This technology however faces several challenges due to potential corrosion of the prestressing steel. PT bridges constructed in the US during the 1970?s used cementitious grouts to fill the empty spaces in the PT ducts in order to protect the strands from corrosion. This grout in the ducts was intended to protect the strands from being attacked by aggressive agents and to prevent corrosion. A mixture of ASTM Type I cement and water was used as the grouting material for construction of PT bridges. In Texas, four major PT structures have been in place for more than 10 years. Recent investigations of the PT bridges in Texas did not identify any strand failures. However, the visual inspections identified voids in many of the ducts, especially at the ends of the bridge spans. These voids are believed to have been formed as a result of grout bleeding, poor grouting materials, and poor grouting techniques. One of the main performance requirements sought from PT grouts is their ability to fill existing voids in the existing ducts. Currently, many prepackaged grouts are available for PT application that are reported to not bleed and provide better flowability as compared to the older ASTM Type I cement grout. However, the current standard specifications for approving grout materials have limited requirements for evaluating the ?fillability? of these pre-packaged PT grouts. This research is being performed to provide modifications to the existing PT specifications such that PT repair grouts can be objectively assessed for fillability and long-term performance.