A comprehensive Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) study of the distal portion of the male phallus (acrophallus), in 42 species of the flesh-fly subfamily Sarcophaginae, was undertaken to clarify its morphology, to homologize its parts and to define male genital characters. In addition, to better understand the phylogenetic implications of the male genitalia, the generic relationships of 19 sarcophagine genera were tested using a parsimony analysis of 72 examplar species, based on 41 male genitalic characters and 33 other morphological characters of larvae, males and females. The monophyly of Ravinia Robineau-Desvoidy, Oxysarcodexia Townsend, Titanogrypa Townsend, Helicobia Coquillett, Lepidodexia Brauer & Bergenstamm and Sarcophaga s.l. Meigen was supported, but Blaesoxipha Loew appeared paraphyletic. The genus Helicobia was nested within Sarcophaga and the subgenus S. (Neobellieria) Blanchard was found to be polyphyletic. The analysis also supported a sister-group relationship between the type species of S. (Neobellieria) and the subgenus S. (Tolucamyia) Dodge. Based on that cladistic analysis, S. (Tolucamyia) was synonymized with S. (Neobellieria) which was redefined to include the five species of the S. (N.) polistensis group, those previously assigned to S. (Tolucamyia) and one new species. To accommodate the four species of the S. (N.) semimarginalis Hall group and four new species, a new subgenus, S. (Bulbostyla) Giroux & Wheeler, was erected. Finally, Robackina Lopes was reinstated as a subgenus of Sarcophaga to accommodate the single species S. triplasia Wulp.

Vibrissae (whiskers) are important components of the mammalian tactile sensory system, and primarily function as detectors of environmental vibrotactile cues. Pinnipeds possess the largest and most highly innervated vibrissae among mammals and their vibrissae demonstrate a diversity of shapes and likely mechanical properties. These two characteristics are important for vibrotactile sensory perception. Vibrissae of most phocid seals exhibit a beaded morphology with repeated sequences of crests and troughs along their length. I comparatively characterized differences in vibrissae morphologies among phocid species with a beaded profile, phocid species with a smooth profile, and otariids with a smooth profile using traditional and geometric morphometric methods to test the hypothesis that vibrissal morphologies are species-specific manipulations of a common pattern. The traditional and geometric morphometric datasets were subsequently combined by mathematically scaling each to true rank, followed by a single eigendecomposition. Quadratic discriminant function analysis demonstrated that 79.3, 97.8 and 100% of individuals could be correctly classified to taxon based on vibrissal shape variables in the traditional, geometric and combined morphometric analyses, respectively. At least three separate morphologies were identified since phocids with beaded vibrissae, phocids with smooth vibrissae, and otariids each occupied distinct morphospace in the geometric morphometric and combined data analyses. Another important characteristic that influences the transduction of vibrotactile information to the mechanoreceptors in the follicle-sinus complex is the materials properties of the vibrissae. Vibrissae were modeled as cantilever beams and flexural stiffness (EI) was measured to test the hypotheses that the shape of beaded vibrissae reduces flexural stiffness and that vibrissae are anisotropic (orientations differ in EI). Species were significantly different and smooth vibrissae were generally stiffer than beaded vibrissae. Beaded vibrissae decrease vibrations in flow, which, combined with lower flexural stiffness values, may enhance detection of small changes in flow from swimming prey. The anterior plane of the vibrissae is likely the most biologically significant in tracking hydrodynamic trails but had lower flexural stiffness values than the dorsoventral orientation. There is likely a complex interaction between shape and mechanical properties in pinniped vibrissae but the ecological and functional implications are currently unknown.

Understanding how hyphal organisms grow and develop is essential in order to manipulate mycelial colonies for purposes such as disease prevention and food production. One aspect of hyphal development that is not well understood is hyphal branching. Hyphal organisms branch as a way of creating new hyphal tips required for the search for nutrients, the acquisition of these nutrients and for hyphal fusion events that facilitate communication of signals within a mycelial colony. This investigation focused on the branching process occurring in the fungus N. crassa and in the oomycete A. bisexualis. An induction technique was developed to study branching in N. crassa involving local application of amino acids towards hyphae. This induced a branch to form along the hypha within the field of view. The use of this technique will enable the study of underlying events occurring internally prior to the visible branching stages. The role of Ca²⁺ hyphal branching was investigated in N. crassa suggesting Ca²⁺ is involved in apical dominance of the hyphal tip. This is based on a dose dependent response of increased branch frequency, decreased colony radius and decreased distance between the hyphal tip and the first branch, to the Ca²⁺ channel inhibitor verapamil. The stretch-activated Ca²⁺ channel inhibitors also had an effect on mycelial morphology. Gd³⁺ resulted in an increased branch frequency and a decreased colony radius and La³⁺ resulted in a decreased colony radius. The local application of verapamil towards N. crassa showed an increase in the number of multiple branches forming. Cytoplasmic Ca²⁺ was imaged in hyphae of A. bisexualis and N. crassa showing a tip-high Ca²⁺ gradient in A. bisexualis and Ca²⁺ sequestered into organelles in N. crassa. The role of F-actin in the process of hyphal branching was investigated using Lifeact N. crassa where F-actin could dynamically be seen at the site of both growing and non-growing hyphal branches. The involvement of F-actin at sites of septa development and associated with suspected vesicles was also observed.

No description available.

No description available.

Over the past few decades, the issue of downtown revitalization has been a priority for planners and civic leaders. One strategy of attracting people, jobs and investment to the downtown is by constructing a catalytic facility that facilitates further growth, of which the sports stadium is ???by far??? the most prevalent example (Coates and Humphreys, 2011; p.5). However, the outcome of downtown stadium development has been inconsistent in cities across North America. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether the built urban form impacts the outcome of downtown sports arenas and whether it contributes to civic image. An urban morphological analysis is conducted in order to evaluate the outcome of two multi-purpose sports arenas: Budweiser Gardens in London, ON and Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, ON. The analysis traces the evolution of both cities??? downtown urban form over time, identifying patterns to development by categorizing the townscape into three elements: the town plan unit (consisting of the street pattern, lot pattern and building pattern), the building fabric and land use. The urban morphological analysis was undertaken utilizing fire insurance maps, tax assessments and planning documents. In addition, a questionnaire was distributed to 200 residents of both case cities in order to gauge each facility's contribution to civic image. The results show that Budweiser Gardens has emerged as the more successful facility, namely due to two factors: (a) the arena is sited close to the central business district, in an area where the historical townscape has been preserved to a greater extent; and (b) because the unique design of the facility (which incorporates a replica of a historic building into the contemporary development) contributes to a higher degree of civic image than Copps Coliseum, which lacks both historic and current place references. The ultimate conclusion of this thesis is that urban morphological analyses should be incorporated into urban plans, so that the siting of future projects can be improved in order for cities to accrue the maximum benefits and return-on-investment.

In comparison with the fields of phonology, syntax, and semantics, there is a distinct lack of a comprehensive and critical study of morphological theory, particularly modern trends in this sub-branch of linguistic theory. There is also a marked lack of interest in the underlying methodological and epistemological foundations of morphological theory, though this situation also holds for the three other areas of core-linguistics mentioned above. The present thesis has a modest aim: it is to give a critical and fairly comprehensive study of five modern morphological approaches, with particular reference, whenever possible, to their underlying methodological and epistemological principles. This thesis contains six chapters and a short Introduction. The Introduction deals with the place and state of morphological studies in modern linguistic theory. It also sets out the 'reasons' behind the restriction of the scope of the thesis to the following five approaches: (1) stratificational grammar, (2) transformational generative grammar, (3) word and paradigm I (Robins), (4) word and paradigm II (Matthews), and (5) axiomatic functionalism. A brief explanation of the format of the approach adopted in studying these different trends is also given here. [Only transcribed in part due to abstract length].

The present work is mainly concerned with a description of the morphological and syntactic analyses of the predicative aspectual phenomena in Modern Standard Arabic using Axiomatic Functionalism as its theoretical framework. The thesis consists of an introduction, three major parts, and a conclusion. The introduction deals with a brief overview of the Axiomatic Functionalist theory. Part one, which comprises four chapters, offers a brief account of the theoretical background of this work as well as presenting the predicative (verbal and non-verbal) aspectual phenomena in MSA. Chapter I discusses the term 'aspect', and the relation between lexical and grammatical aspect. Chapter II discusses the Arabic language, particularly the category of 'aspect'. Chapter III discusses the interaction between punctuality and aspect. Chapter IV is exclusively devoted to methodology; it explains an explanation of the essential and relevant theoretical notions in grammar, uniting the description to the theory. It also provides a step-by-step application of successive criteria for discriminating between morphological complexes and syntactic complexes. The second part (Chaps. V & VI), deals with morphological analysis. Chapter V analyses the category of verb in Arabic. For this purpose the following paradigms are set up: Verb-root, Aspect, Voice, Person, Gender, and Number. Each of these contains monemes which which are constituents of the verbal entity. These monemes commute with each other yielding a difference in the message conveyed. The chapter concludes that entities of the verb category in Arabic may contain the constituent monemes verb-root, perfective, imperfective, active, passive, first person, second person, third person, masculine, feminine, singular, dual, and plural. Chapter VI deals with the realisational as pect of the constituent monemes of the complex pleremes in chapter V. It also deals with the distribution of the allomorphs of the constituent monemes in question. Part three (Chaps. VII - IX), deals with the syntactic description of the aspectual phenomena in MSA. Chapter VII sets up the distributional unit (model) which accounts for the relations within the VPB syntagm. This chapter tests the adequacy of the model by establishing all the VPB syntagms which map onto it. These syntagms vary according to the type of the verbal nucleus in each of them, (transitive or intransitive and of what kind). It further deals with types of non-verbal nucleus I and the realisations of the predicative based syntagms (verbal and non-verbal). Chapter VIII deals in detail with the syntactic relations within the predicative syntagms. It also deals with the syntactic structures of various as pectual phenomena in MSA. Chapter IX discusses the syntactic relation within the functional syntagm in MSA which may form an immediate constituent in a predicative based syntagm. A final brief 'Conclusion' points out the need for further research and development in Axiomatic Functionalism in the field of "semantic syntagm-analysis".

This study investigates adolescents' use of standard English in situations requiring careful speech. An account is given of the historical, political, linguistic and educational development of the concept of standard English, with particular emphasis on spoken standard English. Popular conceptions of 'correct speech' are also considered, and all of these are related to requirements in the National Curriculum for England and Wales for the teaching of spoken standard English. This is related to a specific case, namely that of Tyneside English. This variety is described, and an account is given of the area and its main social and econornIc characteristics. Twenty four adolescents are chosen from two schools which contrast highly in terms of socioeconomic profile. The individuals are also selected to provide a spread of levels of attainment, and both sexes are equally represented. M Phonological, grammatical, lexical and discourse variables are quantified using Labovian quantification techniques and approaches which involve counting non-standard variants over a period of time. Principal linguistic variables are: glottalised variants of (p) (t) and (k); non standard verb and pronoun forms; non-standard lexical items, and certain kinds of discourse markers. This process provides evidence of the extent to which young people use or do not use spoken standard English. It is shown that in more careful speech young people from more and less privileged backgrounds use only small frequencies of non-standard variants, but that within this relatively small number differences do exist: certain items are used mainly by less privileged boys, others mainly by girls, others by more privileged individuals in general. Use of non-standard speech is shown to differ for different groups at different linguistic levels. Important differences in gender and in social class emerge, but attainment also appears to have a significant bearing on children's use of spoken standard English. The study concludes by discussing pedagogical approaches which might increase awareness of issues associated with standard English.

The responses and morphology of nine sound-sensitive interneurons are described in the cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. Each of the neurons receives direction-specific input in the prothoracic ganglion, and each projects at least one interganglionic axon. Five of the neurons respond best to high frequencies ($>$10 kHz); four are most sensitive to low frequencies (3-10 kHz). Responsiveness to model calling songs was examined in addition to testing sensitivity to wind and light. Anatomical observations reveal that seven of the neurons receive auditory input via polysynaptic pathways, and that at least five of the neurons have morphology consistent with them providing input to mesothoracic motor neurons which are involved in behavioral responses to sound. Correlations between structure, topographic organization, and spectral sensitivity were found. The structure of one previously identified, auditory neuron was examined and found to change during late post-embryonic life. This represents a novel developmental pattern.