Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs) are a type of transposable element (TE) that lacks coding capacity. It has been established that in rice that certain Stowaway MITEs are mobilized by transposases from the Tc1/Mariner superfamily of TEs. To retrieve all Tc1/Mariner TEs from the genome, bioinformatic approaches were performed. A total of 295 Tc1/Mariner TEs that encoded a full or partial transposase were recorded which 100 were newly described. Sequence alignment, and identification of the catalytic motif placed these transposases into eight groups. A functional link was established by comparing the terminal sequences of the Stowaway-like MITEs to the termini of the terminal sequences of Tc1/Mariner TEs. A yeast excision assay was used to experimentally test these functional links. Majority of the Stowaway-like MITE and transposase combinations tested did not indicate a functional link. However, a possible functional link was observed between the AATp3-13 transposase and AAStow-5 Stowaway-like MITEs.

Background: Few studies have determined the contribution of maternity care provider and hospital factors to the variation in Trial of Labour (TOL) and successful TOL rates. Objective: To determine sources of variation in TOL and successful TOL rates at the provider and/or hospital level. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 12,170 women with previous caesarean who gave birth in Ontario in 2007. Hierarchical linear model was used to determine variation in rates by provider and hospital characteristics, adjusting for maternal characteristics, and for clustering of data. Results: TOL rate was 23%; successful TOL rate 75%. Women attending family doctors and female doctors for prenatal care were more likely to have TOL. There were no provider factors associated with successful TOL. Women giving birth at teaching hospitals were more likely to have TOL and successful TOL. Conclusions: Policies aimed at prenatal care providers and hospitals could impact the low TOL rate.

Miniature Inverted-repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs) are a type of transposable element (TE) that lacks coding capacity. It has been established that in rice that certain Stowaway MITEs are mobilized by transposases from the Tc1/Mariner superfamily of TEs. To retrieve all Tc1/Mariner TEs from the genome, bioinformatic approaches were performed. A total of 295 Tc1/Mariner TEs that encoded a full or partial transposase were recorded which 100 were newly described. Sequence alignment, and identification of the catalytic motif placed these transposases into eight groups. A functional link was established by comparing the terminal sequences of the Stowaway-like MITEs to the termini of the terminal sequences of Tc1/Mariner TEs. A yeast excision assay was used to experimentally test these functional links. Majority of the Stowaway-like MITE and transposase combinations tested did not indicate a functional link. However, a possible functional link was observed between the AATp3-13 transposase and AAStow-5 Stowaway-like MITEs.

Research on international work experiences has to a great extent focused on an international assignment as a single event, and on how to optimize it from the organization’s perspective. This thesis addresses individuals’ subjective experiences of international work experiences and focuses on individuals with global careers, who see working abroad as a major element of their careers, involving several international assignments or international work experiences. With the recognition that individuals will work abroad on their own initiative a differentiation is made between repeat expatriates; expatriates with at least two international assignments for the same company, and international itinerants; working abroad for at least two different companies. The main purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of global careers through applying an identity construction perspective on narratives of global careerists’ working lives. To address this purpose the global careerists’ identity construction processes are explored, and their career orientation, their identification with the organization and career, and country and culture are considered more directly. An important sub-purpose of this thesis is to make a comparison of repeat expatriates and international itinerants, in terms of their identity construction and identifications. An individual’s identity, or sense of self, is seen as constructed in social interaction, encompassing dualities such as both differentiation from and identification with others. This thesis addresses social identities as part of an individual’s identity construction in the transition in social, cultural and organizational context that an international work experience involves. The approach taken is that the increased understanding aimed for can be reached through narratives. Interviews were made with twenty Swedish global careerists. Each interview was constructed as a narrative and structured according to elements of narratives to construct aggregate narratives of repeat expatriates and international itinerants. The narratives were analyzed and comparison of repeat expatriates and international itinerants was made. The findings in this thesis show that all the global careerists in this study have experienced shifts in their identities and identity reconstruction in the course of their careers. External circumstances such as the type of location, the time abroad, and if the work abroad is perceived as temporary, is important to the global careerists’ identity construction.The findings illustrate that there are differences in repeat expatriates’ and international itinerants’ career orientations, in their identifications with the organizations they work for, with their careers and with what they do. The two types of global careerists differ in how they identify with their home country and culture and the countries and cultures they live in. The repeat expatriates and international itinerants also show different patterns in their identity construction.

Understanding the origin of protein folds, and the mechanism by which evolution has generated them, is a critically important step on a path towards rational protein design. Modifying existing proteins and designing our own novel folds and functions is a lofty but achievable goal, for which there are many foreseeable rewards. It is believed that modern proteins may have arisen from a primordial set of peptide precursors, which were initially only pseudo-stable or stable only as complexes with RNA, and later were able to self-assemble into multimeric complexes that resembled modern folds. In order to experimentally examine the feasibility of this theory, an attempt was made at reconstructing the evolutionary path of a beta-trefoil. The beta-trefoil is a naturally abundant fold or superfold, possessing pseudo-threefold symmetry, and usually having a sugar-binding function. It has been proposed that such a fold could arise from the triplication of just one small peptide on the order of 40-50 amino acids in length. The evolutionary path of a ricin, a family within the beta-trefoils known to possess a carbohydrate binding function was the chosen template for evolutionary modelling. It was desirable to have a known function associated with this design, such that it would be possible to determine if not only the fold, but also the function, could be reconstructed. A small peptide of 47 amino acids was designed and expressed. This peptide not only trimerized as expected, but possessed the carbohydrate binding function it was predicted to have. In an evolutionary model of the early protein world, the gene for this peptide would undergo duplication and later, triplication, eventually resulting in a completely symmetrical beta-trefoil, which would represent the first modern beta-trefoil fold. Such a completely symmetrical protein was also designed and expressed by triplicating the gene for the aforementioned small peptide. This hypothetical first modern beta-trefoil is: well folded, stable, soluble, and appears to adopt a beta-trefoil fold. Together these results demonstrate that an evolutionary model of early life: that proteins first existed as self-assembling modular peptides, and subsequent to gene duplications or fusions, as what we now recognize as modern folds, is experimentally consistent and not only generates stable structures, but those with function, which of course is a prime requisite of evolution. Moreover the results show that it may be possible to use this modular nature of protein folding to design our own proteins and predict the structure of others.

Understanding the origin of protein folds, and the mechanism by which evolution has generated them, is a critically important step on a path towards rational protein design. Modifying existing proteins and designing our own novel folds and functions is a lofty but achievable goal, for which there are many foreseeable rewards. It is believed that modern proteins may have arisen from a primordial set of peptide precursors, which were initially only pseudo-stable or stable only as complexes with RNA, and later were able to self-assemble into multimeric complexes that resembled modern folds. In order to experimentally examine the feasibility of this theory, an attempt was made at reconstructing the evolutionary path of a beta-trefoil. The beta-trefoil is a naturally abundant fold or superfold, possessing pseudo-threefold symmetry, and usually having a sugar-binding function. It has been proposed that such a fold could arise from the triplication of just one small peptide on the order of 40-50 amino acids in length. The evolutionary path of a ricin, a family within the beta-trefoils known to possess a carbohydrate binding function was the chosen template for evolutionary modelling. It was desirable to have a known function associated with this design, such that it would be possible to determine if not only the fold, but also the function, could be reconstructed. A small peptide of 47 amino acids was designed and expressed. This peptide not only trimerized as expected, but possessed the carbohydrate binding function it was predicted to have. In an evolutionary model of the early protein world, the gene for this peptide would undergo duplication and later, triplication, eventually resulting in a completely symmetrical beta-trefoil, which would represent the first modern beta-trefoil fold. Such a completely symmetrical protein was also designed and expressed by triplicating the gene for the aforementioned small peptide. This hypothetical first modern beta-trefoil is: well folded, stable, soluble, and appears to adopt a beta-trefoil fold. Together these results demonstrate that an evolutionary model of early life: that proteins first existed as self-assembling modular peptides, and subsequent to gene duplications or fusions, as what we now recognize as modern folds, is experimentally consistent and not only generates stable structures, but those with function, which of course is a prime requisite of evolution. Moreover the results show that it may be possible to use this modular nature of protein folding to design our own proteins and predict the structure of others.

The reason to return is a phenomenon which tells us that many people want to travel back to a destination they visited before. Even if there are changes in the society with the New tourist who seeks for the authentic, this essay is proving that there still is a dominance of repeat tourism and search for belonging and safety. That implication shows evidence that there still are remaining from old tourism about security with the destination and so on. Further, investigation tells us about the returning tourists, their driving forces and push-factors that create a will for tourists to return. Is it a question of how loyal tourists are to the destination, attitudes and/or tradition when planning the trip? We have made a survey that covers why tourists travel and what impacts are created during their decisions. Also included are the questions about the will of return and the reasons why. Having children proved to be a crucial part of the decision making process, where parents chose destinations out of the children-oriented places. Returning to a destination, on the other hand, is a product of safety-seeking together with a positive experience and beautiful surroundings, all weaved up to raison d'être - just to be.

This dissertation examines the construct of hope and its ability to be taught to pregnant and parenting adolescents as a strategy to improve academic achievement and dissuade repeat adolescent pregnancy. A systemic review of the literature examined fourteen (n=14) empirical studies to ascertain if a relationship existed between achievement and the construct of hope. With 92% of the studies reporting a positive correlation between hope and achievement, one can answer yes to the question of an existing relationship between hope and achievement. A manuscript is presented to summarize the development and implementation of a curriculum, designed to develop requisite skills among adolescent mothers to elevate their levels of hope. The Helping Optimize Planning Efforts (HOPE) curriculum presents specific methods for adolescent mothers to enhance skills related to goal setting, goal attainment and the use of positive self-talk as a mechanism for developing hope or increasing existing levels of hope. The study attempted to assess the ability of the HOPE curriculum to enhance the adolescent mother?s level of hope with the underlying assumption that increasing levels of hope might decrease the probability of a repeat adolescent pregnancy. Findings suggested there was a significant difference in the scores for the Dispositional Trait Hope Scale (DTHS) pre-test (M = 68.5, SD = 7.0) and the DTHS post-test scores (M = 73.2, SD = 5.61) (t(11) = 3.18, p = .009) indicating an increase in global hope. A significant difference was also found in between the State Hope Scale (SHS) pre-test scores (M = 39.0, SD = 4.84) and SHS post-test scores (M = 41.5, SD = 5.21) (t(11) = 4.19, p = .002) indicating an increase in the students point in time level of hope. The evaluation of the curriculum indicated that adolescent mothers can be taught to increase their levels of hope using the HOPE curriculum. Data collected during the evaluation of the HOPE curriculum was further analyzed to identify the constructs that contribute to the building of hope in adolescent mothers. The data suggests that two distinct components, agency and pathway, contribute to increase the level of hope. Examination of the subscales within the DTHS, showed there was a significant difference between the pre-test agency (M = 25.42, SD = 5.81) and the post-test agency scores (M = 27.85, SD = 3.65) (t(11) = 2.83, p = .017). Also, among the DTHS pathway subscale, a significant difference was found between the scores on the pre-test (M = 25.08, SD = 3.58) and the post-test score (M = 26.67, SD = 2.35) (t(11) = 2.22, p = .048). These findings suggest that the increased level of hope on the DTHS for was a reflection of the improvements in components, agency and pathway. These findings suggests that adolescent mothers can be taught to be more hopeful when the components of agency and pathway are developed.

The aim of this study was to obtain the molecular marker of Taiwania cryptomerioides Hayata based on DNA sequence data of PCR- sequencing and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR), and to evaluate the genetic diversity of populations of Taiwania cryptomerioides Hayata and molecular phylogeny of T. cryptomerioides and Taiwania flousiana Gaussen. The sequence data based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of a total of 108 samples of T. cryptomerioides were determined. Eight different populations of T. cryptomerioides and 12 samples of T. flousiana from Yunnan, China were analyzed. The finding of the study showed that heterogeneity of ITS region within individuals of T. cryptomerioides was high by showing high nucleotide diversity among ITS sequences both in T. cryptomerioides ( £k = 0.18153) and T. flousiana ( £k = 0.19751). The findings fit in Tajima¡¦s D test of neutrality based on DNA sequence variation in the ITS region of T. cryptomerioides and T. flousiana. It is not obvious to incorporate into different population through clustering analysis based on data of the ITS region of T. cryptomerioides and T. flousiana. However, slightly genetic differentiation between T. cryptomerioides and T. flousiana was found, which figured of Fst (Fst = 0.0441~ 0.0856, an average value = 0.0611). On the other hand, the samples were studied by using ISSR markers. Of the 100 primers screened, 4 produced highly reproducible ISSR bands, and 24 discernible DNA fragments were generated with 17 being polymorphic. Based on cluster analysis of molecular data, the cluster is not clear among populations of T. cryptomerioides and T. flousiana. The analysis of AMOVA revealed that the variance component between species of T. cryptomerioides and T. flousiana was 38.54¢H (P < 0.001); however, the variance component within species is 61.46 (P < 0.001). The variation within population of T. cryptomerioides was 84.74¢H (P < 0.001) and the variance between populations is 15.26¢H (P < 0.001), indicating that the genetic diversity of individuals within population was high. The aforementioned data suggest that gene flow among different populations of T. cryptomerioides was high, indicating that the genetic diversity was high among individuals of T. cryptomerioides but was low between populations. Furthermore, it is concluded both species are genetically closer and could be grouped into the same species.

In this thesis, we discuss the implementation of a low latency decoding algorithm for turbo codes and repeat accumulate codes and compare the implementation results in terms of maximum available clock speed, resource consumption, error correction performance, and the data (information bit) rate. In order to decrease the latency a parallelized decoder structure is introduced for these mentioned codes and the results are obtained by implementing the decoders on a field programmable gate array. The memory collision problem is avoided by using collision-free interleavers. Through a proposed quantization scheme and normalization approximations, computational issues are handled for overcoming the overflow and underflow issues in a fixed point arithmetic. Also, the effect of different implementation styles are observed.