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Native Americans from the middle Connecticut River Valley of New England experienced massive social disruptions during the seventeenth century due to European settlement, but not much is known about their cultural continuities and/or discontinuities during this dynamic period. As an additive technology, ceramics embody the technical choices of potters made at the time of manufacture thus enabling the study of the effect, if any, of colonialism on indigenous material culture and practices in New England. This study examines ceramic assemblages from one Late Woodland period site and one seventeenth-century site in Deerfield, Massachusetts to explore the extent to which ceramics can demonstrate continuities and/or changes in traditional ceramic manufacturing practices in response and/or resistance to colonization.

In this work we use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model to identify bacterial genes that help bacteria to persist in their animal hosts. Early work on this model system established that dietary replenishment drives the composition of the D. melanogaster gut microbiota, and subsequent research has shown that some bacterial strains can colonize the fly for much longer than the flow of bulk diet through the gut. In this work we reveal that bacterial genes influence bacterial persistence by studying the correlation between bacterial genotype and persistence in the D. melanogaster gut microbiota. We performed an initial assay with 7 bacterial strains to establish that different bacterial strains persist differently independent of ingestion in the fly. We then repeated the assay with 41 different strains of bacteria in order to perform a metagenome wide association (MGWA) to find distinct bacterial genes that are significantly correlated with persistence. Based on the MGWA, we tested if 44 mutants from 6 gene categories affect bacterial persistence in the flies. We identified that transposon insertions in four flagellar genes (fliF, flgH, fliI, and flgE), one urea carboxylase gene, one phosphatidyl inositol gene, one bacterial secretion gene, and one antimicrobial peptide (AMP) resistance gene each significantly lowered colonization forming units (CFUs) that resulted from plating the gut content in Drosophila melanogaster. Follow-up experiments with the flagellar gene mutants revealed that each significant flagellar mutant was non-motile compared with the wild type. Taken together, these results reveal that there are bacterial genes that are involved in mechanisms, like bacterial motility, that help bacteria to persist in the fly gut.

This thesis contains the history of Teton Valley from 1888 to the present. It gives the main events in the founding and building of a locality under the direction and influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.The first chapter is written by way of an introduction. The second chapter gives the discovery of the valley by the first white men and subsequent forays by others in later years.The prominence of the Teton Peaks, 13,747 feet high, distinguished the locality as a land mark to Indian, trapper, trader, and early settler alike. The trappers of the several fur companies, were the first to stay any length of time. It was in the valley that the famous rendezvous took place. This location was used many times because of its central location, pasturage, and beauty which appealed to the Indians, trappers, and traders, who congregated here annually.

The most interesting and important place in the world is where a man lives. His home becomes the finest place on earth regardless of its merits in relation to other habitats. After years of residence the history of the country takes on reality and significance and a long acquaintance reveals elements of romance and adventure that enhance ones love of his surroundings. This is one of the reasons for this thesis topic. During a young impressionable life the stories of Indians, trappers, pioneers, rustlers and polygamist, have been constantly a part of the environment of the author. Long trips in the mountains hunting, fishing, camping, and logging have added to this feeling of veneration and fondness for the country. Others have written many of these early events down but a complete synchronization does not appear in any one place. Added to the fondness for the region is a genuine feeling that here is a peculiar chapter in western American history that has not been completely written. This section of Idaho has been entirely neglected by most historiographers. Even the reports of the Territorial Governors were silent on the settlement and conquest of this region. Whether this neglect has been purposefully or innocently done is not fully clear.

For many years adventurers from Spain and France had explored Texas. For about fifty years Spain had tried to civilize and Christianize the Indians in East Texas. Finally the Spanish government had abolished the missions and presidios. During the following fifty years, very little had been done toward colonization in Texas. In 1821, Texas was an almost uninhabited country, with the exception of savage Indians. The Anglo-Americans came and changed it into a great state. The East Texas Timber Region has been the gateway through which most of the settlers came to Texas. The settlers who stopped there did their part in establishing the present state of Texas. The East Texans did their part in helping to win freedom from Mexico so they could lay a foundation for American civilization there.

Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) is one of the leading causes of death due to infectious disease in the world, with over one million deaths being attributed to this bacterium each year. While the majority of these deaths occur in children in developing nations, significant morbidity and mortality in the developed world, especially in the elderly, can be attributed to pneumococcal diseases such as bacterial pneumonia and meningitis. This is despite the near-universal use of anti-pneumococcal vaccines in these parts of the world. The work presented in this thesis describes the ways in which resident nasal macrophages respond to nasopharyngeal pneumococcal colonization, allowing for the protection of immunocompetent individuals from these diseases. This thesis describes the role of the macrophage scavenger receptor MARCO in recognizing the bacterium upon colonization, and the chain of events that are subsequently established. I have found that MARCO is vital in orchestrating the clearance of pneumococci from the nasopharynx in an expedient manner, as well as preventing the swift spread of bacteria to other tissues of the body early on in colonization. I also outline a role for regulatory micro-RNAs present in macrophages in the mounting of this anti-pneumococcal response via the induction of specific T cell populations. The collection of data found herein is an important resource for those attempting to understand the complex narrative that takes place between the pneumococcus and the innate immune system during a colonizing event and will lead to further discovery on how healthy individuals escape fatal pneumococcal disease. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the most dangerous pathogens in the world, accounting for more one million deaths every year worldwide. This bacterium is also very common, with approximately one third of all people having some S. pneumoniae in their noses at any given time. The goal of this thesis is to provide a better understanding of how our immune cells interact with S. pneumoniae when it first enters our noses and how these initial interactions prevent healthy people from becoming sick. I have found that white blood cells called macrophages are crucial to these interactions. Macrophages are able to ‘eat’ the bacteria using a specialized protein called MARCO to grab onto them. This information will be vital in trying to develop new vaccines and treatments for S. pneumoniae-related diseases like bacterial pneumonia (lung infection) and meningitis (brain infection).

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<p>Dispersal has been long recognized as an important process in metacommunity dynamics, allowing isolated communities to interact with each other through the movement of individuals. Metacommunity theory and its four models (species-sorting, mass-effects, patch-dynamics and neutral) emphasize the significance of dispersal in the structure and composition of local community. Therefore, quantifying movements of individuals between patches is necessary to understand how systems will respond to varying degrees of connectivity and resulting species interactions. Many studies that have attempted to quantify dispersal, particularly of aquatic invertebrates, found conflicting results with respect to the intensity with which dispersal occurs. Moreover, investigations of invertebrate dispersal factors aquatic habitats have neglected to consider the influence of multiple factors such as life cycle stage, species, and external environmental features on dispersal rate via three vectors (wind, overflow, and animal transport). Colonization experiments have largely emphasized the importance of dispersal in influencing species richness, abundance and diversity but have yet to demonstrate direct comparisons between composition of dispersing species and local community structure. I investigated dispersal of aquatic invertebrates in a rock pool metacommunity, its possible influencing factors (species, life stage and the surrounding rock pool environment), and potential impact on species composition in local communities. To explore this, I used a combination of dispersal interception traps, colonization experiments and long tern biotic community surveys. I found dispersal occurs both rapidly and in high abundance across rock pools, particularly using wind and flow vectors, with minimal influence of connectivity, vegetation and ocean on dispersal rate. Although species and life cycle stages were highly variable and differed in their dispersal intensity, a high degree of similarity existed between composition of dispersing species and local community structure. Regional processes (i.e., dispersal), despite its unpredictability, is important for species assemblage and local community composition and necessary in the colonization of newly created habitats.</p> / Master of Science (MS)