Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anatomical Sciences, 2003. / "June 2003" Includes bibliographical references (leaves 408-457).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 174-188).

Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of St Andrews, January 2008.

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology. / Department of Electromechanical Engineering

This thesis investigates the demographics of paleo-populations of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) as a means of testing the hypothesis that this species was domesticated or managed as a vital cultural and economic resource by the ancient Maya in Mesoamerica. To do so it employs a set of standardized bone measurements derived from a modern population and compares them with 1100 deer bone samples recovered by archaeologists from Maya sites dating from 450 B.C. to the late 16th century. These measurements were also applied to modern white-tailed deer specimens representing a discrete population from south eastern Florida of know age, and sex, for use as a baseline. The recorded measurements were used for side by side comparisons and to generate log ratios testing population stature and sexual dimorphism represented in the archaeological materials. Changes in deer stature and mortality profile over time are examined and tested against standard methods for the detection of herd management strategies, that may potentially reveal deer domestication or resource management. Pathologies common to white-tailed deer are identified and their potential for assessing the ontological age of mature deer is investigated. The results show variations in white-tailed deer stature over time and space, suggesting dynamic alterations in prey selection that may be reflective of changes in Maya social complexity.

Skeletal muscles of the limb are derived from somites and their precursors migrate to the limb prior to muscle formation. Upon migration, a limited number of stem cells multiply and differentiate to give rise to fusion-competent muscle cells, which fuse to form the multinucleated myotubes. During the course of myogenesis there is thus a period of few days when cells at different developmental stages such as migrating, proliferating, differentiating and fully differentiated co-reside within the developing limb bud. Current understanding on how these cells interact and behave during early and later myogenesis in vivo is lacking. The aim of this project was to identify and further classify the mononucleated myogenic cells present within the developing limb muscle and examine their behaviours at different stages of myogenesis. The lack of an appropriate method to extract and visualise cellular constituents of developing muscles has been a major limitation hindering such investigations in vivo. In this project, we first developed a unique cell isolation method to extract mononucleated cells from developing muscles, allowing examination of mononucleated cells in vivo using immunocytochemistry. As Pax3, Pax7 and Myogenic Regulatory Factors (MRFs) are the key players for the muscle formation, they were used to mark the different myogenic sub-populations. The results from chicken and rats clearly demonstrate that three myogenic cell pools, namely Pax3, Pax7 and MRFs positive cells, and 4 sub-populations formed by their overlap, co-exist in specific proportions within the developing limb muscle, and that their proportions undergo dynamic changes during the course of myogenesis. The most striking observation was that the sizes of Pax3 and MRF compartments remain constant while that of Pax7 compartment increases dramatically during myogenesis. Thus each myogenic cell compartment in the developing muscle has different cell kinetics during primary and secondary myogenesis. The dynamic changes in the proportions of these myogenic sub-populations may constitute a dynamically maintained cellular niche, within which the muscle stem cells reside. Our study suggests that the concept of community effect - the interaction between a group of cells and their surrounding cells, originally from invertebrate muscle system, may be conserved in mammalian systems. Furthermore, this study for the first time, reports that the earliest fully differentiate muscle cells in the rat hindlimb are highly elongated mononucleated cells which express Pax3, MyoD, myogenin and myosin but not Myf-5 protein. In summary, this study provides quantitative data to demonstrate dynamic changes in various mononucleated myogenic cell populations during skeletal muscle formation and reveals that Pax7(+ve) population becomes significantly upregulated during secondary myogenesis.

The determination of dietary habits by examination of fresh stomach, intestinal or faecal material is widely used in vertebrate and invertebrate ecology. Generally speaking, most fresh faecal studies depend upon microscopic determinations of the ingested material. One of the more recent applications includes microscopic studies of the grazing habits of sheep. [...]

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on April 17, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 1998. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-82). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Faculty of Science, Stockholm. / Excerpt from Acta Zoologica. Bd. 2. 1921.