The fungus <i>Colletotrichum truncatum</i> is a potential biocontrol agent (BA) against the noxious weed scentless chamomile (<i>Metricaria perforata</i> Mérat; syn.: <i>Tripleurospermum perforatum</i> (Mérat) Lainz) in western Canada. This potential BA, however, is taxonomically related to the anthracnose pathogen on lentil, raising questions about crop safety. Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) internal transcribed space (ITS) regions of <i>C. truncatum</i> isolates collected from different plant hosts were examined, and compared with additional Colletotrichum species. Sequences were amplified with the universal primers its4 and its5, and <i>C. truncatum</i> isolates from scentless chamomile and selected legume crops were differentiated consistently. All scentless chamomile isolates fell within a single cluster in phylogenetic trees, regardless of their geographic origins. These isolates were more closely related to lentil isolates of <i>C. truncatum</i> than to isolates from the other host species. Soybean isolates, with more falcate and slender conidia and slightly bigger appressoria, were distinguishable from other <i>C. truncatum</i> isolates, while the isolates from scentless chamomile, lentil and pea were morphologically more similar. Based on sequence information, strain-specific PCR primers were designed for <i>C. truncatum</i> isolates from these hosts and used to amplify specific DNA bands (markers) from isolates of <i>C. truncatum</i>. This technique may be used for rapid detection and differentiation of <i>C. truncatum,</i> from scentless chamomile and designated legume species, as well as for tracking the BA after release. Inoculation trials were conducted using detached leaves and whole plants to determine potential cross infection of these <i>C. truncatum</i> isolates. Isolates from scentless chamomile caused disease only on their original host, but not on lentil, pea, soybean or alfalfa. In contrast, lentil isolates caused severe disease on lentil and pea, light symptoms on alfalfa, but no disease on the other hosts tested. Potential penetration of lentil leaves by scentless chamomile isolates was tested, with 2-23% incidence of the fungus from inoculated detached, senescence leaves but disease symptoms were not observed on either detached leaves or whole plants. Examination of the infection process revealed that scentless chamomile and lentil isolates had a similar pattern of infection and disease development on their respective hosts; infection vesicles were produced 24 h after inoculation, both primary and secondary infection hyphae were present, and the onset of disease symptoms tended to coincide with the development of secondary hyphae. The current study provided molecular and pathological evidence that differentiates the potential BA of scentless chamomile from <i>C. truncatum</i> isolates from lentil, pea and soybean.

Major depressive disorder is a common severe psychiatric disorder with unknown etiology. Recent studies show that the loss and malfunction of oligodendrocytes are closely related to the neuropathological changes in depression, which can be reversed by antidepressant treatment. St. Johns wort is an effective and safe herbal treatment for depression in several clinical trials. However, the underlying mechanism of its therapeutic effects is unclear. In this study, we evaluated the effects of hyperforin, a major active component of this herb, on the proliferation, mitochondrial function and development of oligodendrocytes. We have demonstrated that hyperforin increases mitochondrial function and prevents mitochondrial toxin-induced cytotoxicity in oligodendrocyte lineage cells. Hyperforin promotes the maturation of oligodendrocytes but does not increase the proliferation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cell line and neural stem/progenitor cells. Our findings suggest that chronic hyperforin treatment may stimulate the development and function of oligodendrocytes. These results suggest a new mechanism of hyperforin in depression treatment. Future in vitro and in vivo studies are required to further characterize the mechanisms of hyperforin.

Inhibin and activin are disulphide-linked dimeric proteins that belong to the transforming growth factor superfamily. Inhibin and activin are identified that they have ability to modulate the secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone, FSH, from pituitary. Activin can stimulate FSH secretion, on the other hand, inhibin can inhibit FSH production. According to many researches, inhibin and activin play an important roles in regulation of reproduction. Black porgy (Acanthopagrus schlegeli) is belong to protandry.that has a complex regulation in sex differentiation and development. The male differentiation in black porgy started at fourth month, and the testis become mature when the spawing season coming.in the first two year in black porgy, they are differentiate to functional males, and some of them will change to females in the third year. The objectives were to study the possible roles of inhibin¡Bactivin subunits and their receptors in sex differentiation and sex change in black porgy. The gene expression of activin system increase during the period of ovarian development. The expression of activin receptors in ovarian tissue are higher than in testis tissue in the testis-excision experiment. The expression of inhbab ¡Bacvr1and acvr2b after testis-excision are higher than in control in black porgy forebrain. The expression of inhbaa increase at four to five months after hatching in 0+-yr old black porgy, and the expression of inhbb and receptors decrease at the same time. According to these results, activin system may involve in the ovarian development and mature, and play important roles in testis differentiation and development in black porgy. Furthermore, activin system have sex dimorphisms in forebrain in black porgy.

Sim2s is a basic helix-loop-helix Per-Arnt-Sim (bHLH-PAS) transcription factor. In Drosophila, the Sim2 homolog, sim, is necessary for cell fate determination during central nervous system (CNS) development. In mammals, both Sim2 isoforms are involved in development of various tissues, including muscle, cartilage, and mammary gland. Loss-of-function studies revealed a role for Sim2s in specifying epithelial cell fate during mammary development and inhibiting growth and invasion of aggressive breast cancer cells. This study determined the role of Sim2s in mammary epithelial cell differentiation. Our hypothesis is that Sim2s is sufficient to promote lactogenic differentiation in vivo, characterized by expression of lactation-specific genes. Two models were used to test this hypothesis: (1) a transgenic mouse, expressing Sim2s under control of the MMTV-LTR, and (2) the mouse mammary epithelial cell line HC11. Together, these models allow analysis of the effect of Sim2s on global mammary gland differentiation and the mechanism through which it accomplishes this in a relatively homogenous population of cells. We determined that precocious expression of Sim2s in vivo is associated with upregulation of a subset of milk protein genes in nulliparous females. During early pregnancy, Sim2s regulation of lactogenic differentiation extended to a larger group of genes. Following pup removal, Sim2s appears to promote survival of alveolar epithelial cells. In vitro, Sim2s expression is necessary for maximal Csn2 expression, as determined by loss-of-function studies. Overexpression of Sim2s is sufficient to enhance prolactin-mediated Csn2 expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays performed in HC11 cells revealed enhanced recruitment of Stat5a and RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) to the regulatory region of Csn2 in the presence of Sim2s. In addition, Sim2s and RNAPII were found in a complex that was localized to both the promoter and coding region of the Csn2 gene. These studies support the idea that Sim2s is upregulated in a developmental stage-specific manner in the mouse mammary gland to promote the survival and differentiation of alveolar epithelial cells expressing high levels of milk protein genes. Further, Sim2s may regulate the function of a specific subset of alveolar cells by targeting the RNAPII holoenzyme complex to genes expressed during lactogenic differentiation.

This thesis is concerned with the organizational development of aboriginal groups in Ulai. Taiwanese aborigines are minorities in Taiwan. They have suffered many difficulties such as poverty, unemployment, little education in their lives. With the trend of organizing groups to pursue rights in society, Taiwanese aborigines have learned to protect their rights and to solve their problems through organizations. Therefore, this research tries to present the situation and characters of groups in Ulai by interviewing the elite. Additionally, the information on the organizations and on the population of Ulai is compared with this of Taipei County and the whole country, in order to realize the standard of the groups in Ulai. The conclusions are: 1.The number of aboriginal groups has been rising in Ulai but there is no extremely large group. The reason is that the population of Ulai grows very slowly and the groups cannot get as many members as they want so that segmentary differentiation is not found. On the other hand, stratificatory differentiation is discovered in the most two large groups. 2.The financial resources of the groups are overlapped. The main financial resources are fees, donations, subvention, and interest incomes. 3.The groups interact and cooperate with one another. However, they usually interact according to the local government's invitation but not because of their own decision. The groups sometimes join forces to offer activities as a result of lacking money or socializing. 4.Most of the activities held by the groups in Ulai are associated with learning and entertainment. Nevertheless, the groups also provide irregular service for people when they need help. Also, we find that the aboriginal groups in Ulai are becoming specialized. The categories are getting varied. 5.There are more and more people who live in Ulai and they are better educated. Besides, the financial situation is getting better over there too. Those improvements make people have better abilities to organize groups. Still, the slow growth of population is an obstacle to the development of the groups in Ulai. It probably hinders further expansion of the aboriginal organizations. 6.There are spontaneous aboriginal organizations in Ulai. Although their functions are the same as the government¡¦s work, their existence helps the government serve the people more efficiently.

Fastener industry has developed for forty years in Taiwan, and it created significant contribution to so-called "Economic Miracle". This research was operated via grounded theory, and we practically visited seven firms in South Taiwan to trace the track on development of fastener industry in Taiwan, investigating the industrial features influenced by interaction of strategy and resource accumulation. The research revealed that the process of resource accumulation and the changes of industry surroundings stimulated the mechanism of industry differentiation, forming two directions of industry development mass production style and delicate production style. Two kinds of firms took different strategic actions and formed divergent features of development. This research also forecasts future development of fastener industry, and offers some suggestions to the participant in the industry.

Bluetooth is an emerging technology to build a solution for providing short range, low power, low cost, and ubiquitous wireless environments. In this paper we propose a algorithm for asynchronous data traffic at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer to meet Bluetooth characteristic and compare with other scheduling algorithms. The algorithm, named Efficient Utilization Polling (EUP), uses a single bit of the payload packet header as supplied knowledge of queues of slaves to the master to dynamically adapt the polling intervals. We also propose a differentiation mechanism, named Shifting Polling Window (SPW), which is based on EUP and differentiates throughput between different classes and still keeps the link utilization almost the same.

Abstract From the multi-level marketing industry in Taiwan, this study chooses a multi-level marketing company which comprises the characteristics of the niche-based industry in Taiwan and has been established for more than a decade as its subject, aiming to analyze the key to the success of the said company. After the literature review and in-depth interviews with the industry in question, the findings are as follows: I. This study finds out that honesty, kindness and positive marketing concepts are the moral standards salespeople should possess; and the characteristic of being gregarious is regarded as special for the multi-level marketing industry. The operation of the multi-level marketing is based on the cooperation between the upper- and lower-level salespeople on a team basis, and those salespeople support, service, and help one another to accomplish everything, while the conventional business places emphasis on individual performances. Against the backdrop, the characteristics of the multi-level marketing salespeople are somewhat different from those of the conventional salespeople. II. The making of the multi-level marketing industry is that multi-level marketing salespeople have a better capability of providing services. Also, the capabilities of making recommendations, arranging organizational action competence, and drawing up plans for the organization are the factors used to evaluate the success of a multi-level marketing company. III. The interview with the case company done by this study proves the idea proposed by Porter (1985): the innovation of products or services contributes to the differentiation between an enterprise and its competitors, and the enterprise can acquire a better selling price; and the innovation of important techniques or approaches enables an enterprise to enhance efficiency, lower costs, and even form a differentiation. The said principle is applicable to other industries, and likewise to the multi-level marketing industry. Keywords: multi-level marketing, morals, service capability,

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-118). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.