none

Findings from different disciplines were used to implement the goals of this work, with more attention given to archaeological investigations. Analysis and synthesis of investigative data allowed for achieving the goals set, for the formulation of new hypotheses and for defining groups of poorly studied Vilnius defensive heritage sites, which in turn allowed for a more comprehensive survey of the evolution of the Vilnius defensive concept. Some Vilnius defensive installations have still not been sufficiently investigated, making it problematic to define their parameters and inner and outer structures more precisely. It has to be admitted that the categorization as defensive installations of some of the sites discussed in the work is hypothetical. This work, the well-founded conclusions based on investigations drawn as well as hypotheses raised can provide a qualitatively new impulse to studies of the ancient defensive fortifications of the Lithuanian capital and the reconstruction of the urban development of Vilnius. Assessing the findings of the study, we can say that the growth of the city and evolution of defensive fortifications were intimately connected processes, therefore it would be appropriate in similar future studies to make use of as wide a data base as possible on old Vilnius. / Šio mokslinio darbo tikslams įgyvendinti buvo pasitelkti įvairių mokslo šakų rezultatai, didesnį dėmesį darbe skiriant archeologinių tyrinėjimų rezultatams. Tyrimų duomenų analizė, apibendrinimas įgalino pasiekti užsibrėžtus tikslus, iškelti naujas hipotezes, išskirti iki šiol buvusias mažiau ištirtas Vilniaus gynybinio paveldo objektų grupes, o tai suteikė galimybę nuosekliau apžvelgti Vilniaus gynybinės koncepcijos raidą. Dalis Vilniaus gynybinių įrenginių vis dar yra nepakankamai gerai ištirti, todėl apibrėžti tikslesnius jų parametrus, tūrinę ir planinę struktūrą problematiška. Tenka pripažinti, kad dalies darbe aptariamų objektų priskyrimas gynybiniams yra hipotetinis. Šis darbas ir jame iškeltos tyrimų metu gautais faktais pagrįstos išvados bei hipotezės gali suteikti kokybiškai naują impulsą Lietuvos sostinės senovės gynybinių įtvirtinimų tyrinėjimams bei Vilniaus urbanistinės raidos rekonstravimui. Įvertinus tyrimo rezultatus galima teigti, kad miesto plėtra ir gynybinių įtvirtinimų raida buvo glaudžiai tarpusavyje susiję procesai, todėl ir ateityje atliekant panašaus pobūdžio tyrimus tikslinga naudotis kiek įmanoma platesne duomenų apie senąjį Vilnių baze.

Prior work has shown important effects of the early life environment on development of adult stress response systems in both rats and humans. The present thesis is based on experiments that attempt to explore: 1) adolescent stress responding at hormonal and behavioural levels, and 2) the effects of repeated adolescent stressor exposure on adult stress responding (hormonal and behavioural) and levels of dopamine receptors expressed in prefrontal cortex, using both male and female rats. Defensive behaviours exhibited during stressor exposure and post-stress levels of circulating corticosterone were quantified as behavioural and hormonal measures of stress responding, respectively. In the first study, responses were compared among groups of adolescent rats exposed repeatedly to one of two different types of cat odour stressor stimuli (J-cloth coated in hair/dander or cat collar previously worn by a cat) or control stimuli, and long-term outcomes were examined in adulthood. Adolescent rats showed behavioural responses to both stressor stimuli, but behavioural inhibition was more consistent using repeated cat collar exposure, and this treatment resulted in long-term increases in anxiety-like behaviour in adulthood, whereas a stress-induced adolescent corticosterone elevation was observed only in the group that received exposure to the J-cloth stimuli. In the second study, adolescent and adult rats were compared directly using repeated exposure to the cat collar stressor or control stimuli. Adolescents were found to be more sensitive to the effects of the stressor stimuli, relative to adults. Finally, in the third study, repeated exposure to the J-cloth stressor or control stimuli was used, and stressor-exposed females showed elevated baseline corticosterone levels prior to the final exposure. Furthermore, stressor-exposed males and females showed lower levels of the D2 dopamine receptor in infralimbic and dorsopeduncular cortices of the prefrontal cortex in adulthood. In addition, these studies together provide evidence that sex differences in corticosterone levels emerge during the adolescent period. It may be concluded that adolescence should be considered a sensitive developmental timeframe for stress response programming.

No description available.

Remiantis aprašomuoju – analitiniu, istoriniu, lyginamuoju, archeologiniu metodais, darbe nagrinėjamas LDK Nemuno piliakalnių gynybinės sistemos archeologinis ir istorinis ištirtumas, bei jo pritaikymo kultūriniam turizmui perspektyvos.Tyrimo objektu pasirinkta viena iš plačiausių archeologinio paveldo sričių – piliakalniai, kurie viduramžiais sudarė Nemuno upės gynybinę sistemą ir buvo pagrindinis gynybos ramstis kovose su Kryžiuočių ordinu. Išlikę piliakalniai yra galingos ir didingos Lietuvos istorijos liudytojai, kurie pasakoja apie šlovingas kovas ir mūšius.Didžioji dalis piliakalnių nėra pritaikyti turizmo reikmėms, turistų dėmesio nestokoja Seredžiaus, Veliuonos Sudargo piliakalnių kompleksai, tačiau visi likę – sunkiai pasiekiami, apaugę medžiais ir krūmais, vizualumas prastas. Tačiau ši piliakalnių sistema turi labai didelę istorinę ir archeologinę vertę, todėl būtina ją sudarančius piliakalnius įtraukti į kultūrinius įvykius (archeologinius festivalius, šventes) vykstančius Lietuvoje ir turistinius maršrutus. / By using descriptive - analytical, historical, comparative and archaeological methods this paper analyzes the archaeological and historical explorations of the defensive systems of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Nemunas mounds and the possibilities to adapt it for cultural tourism. The main object of this analysis is one of the most extensive areas of archaeological heritage – mounds. In the Middle Ages they made up the defence system of Nemunas river and were the main pillar of defense while fighting against the Teutonic Order. The remaining mounds are the witnesses of the powerful and majestic history of Lithuania. The big part of the mounds are not yet suitable for tourism. Mound complexes of Seredžius, Veliuona and Sudargas are widely visited by tourists, but all the rest are hard to reach and not well maintained. However, this system of mounds are of great historical and archaeological importance, so it is necessary to make these mounds the centre of various cultural events that are taking place in Lithuania.

Over 50% of the world’s human population resides in urban centres, and this is expected to increase as the global human population grows and people migrate from non-urban to urban centres. Concentrated in these urban areas are anthropogenic disturbances that impose additional challenges on wildlife compared to their non-urban counterparts. These challenges can be stress provoking. Through the release of corticosterone (CORT) reptiles can adapt to these stressors, physiologically and behaviourally, both in the short- and long-term. To investigate the relationships between stress activation and defensive tactics in wild urban Northwestern Gartersnakes (Thamnophis ordinoides) I conducted visual encounter surveys, along edge-focused transects, following a semi-constrained random sampling method. I sampled snakes at five sites, each with a different level of anthropogenic disturbance, in the Greater Victoria Area, BC. I sampled blood, observed anti-predator behaviour, and collected data on characteristics of snakes. The most disturbed site (with the most people, pets, and natural predators) also had the most snakes: those snakes also had highest H:L values (a proxy of CORT) in their blood compared to the other populations. Nevertheless, none of the snakes had H:L values that indicated chronic stress. Stress physiology was not correlated with anti-predator behaviour. More important to anti-predator behaviour was the size, sex/reproductive condition, and cloacal temperature of snakes. Although anthropogenic development can reduce habitat quality for some reptiles, Northwestern Gartersnakes coexist with recreationists at many sites in the District of Saanich. A multi-disciplinary approach is of paramount importance to understand the full effect of anthropogenic influences on wildlife. / Graduate / 0433 / 0329

Bakalauro darbo objektas yra Šiaurės Lietuvos XI–XV a. medinių pilių gynybinė sistema. Darbo tikslas – ištirti Šiaurės Lietuvos medinių pilių gynybinę sistemą ir įvardinti tyrimo metu kilusias problemas. Tikslui pasiekti keliami keli uždaviniai. Pirmiausia, pagal archeologinius duomenis reikia surasti, ant kurių piliakalnių XIII–XV a. Šiaurės Lietuvoje stovėjo medinės pilys, sudarydamos Šiaurės Lietuvos pilių gynybinę sistemą; po to – patikrinti, ar tai neprieštarauja rašytinių šaltinių informacijai. Kadangi viena pilių gynybinė sistema negali būti objektyviai įvertinama viena pati, todėl darbe buvo ištirta ir Pietvakarių Lietuvoje esanti Jūros ir Nemuno pilių gynybinė sistema. Palyginus abiejų sistemų statistinius duomenis buvo gauta daug naudingos informacijos. Kadangi vėlyvųjų piliakalnių (II tūkst. pr.) ištirtumas yra kaip vienas iš penkių pagal 1995 m. duomenis, o Šiaurės Lietuvos pilių gynybinei sistemai priklausė pusė tokių piliakalnių (35 iš 69), o likusieji yra priskirti valstybiniam laikotarpiui (XIII–XV a.), tai susidaro labai didelė problema vertinant šią pilių gynybinę sistemą. Tai yra ir daug didesnio masto problema. Ji liečia visą pradinio istorinio laikotarpio (XIII–XV a.) objektyvų supratimą. Kol istorikai nesuras būdų tiksliau identifikuoti vėlyvuosius piliakalnius, tol bet kokie tyrimai apie šį laikotarpį nebus visiškai patikimi. Jei darytume prielaidą, kad vėlyvieji piliakalniai, identifikuoti tik II tūkst. pr., niekaip nesusiję su identifikuotais... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of the Bachelor’s Thesis focuses on the defensive system of wooden castles in Northern Lithuania in the 11th–15th centuries. To investigate the defensive system of wooden castles in Northern Lithuania in the 11th–15th centuries and to identify the problems arising in the course of the research are the aim of the research. In order to achieve the aim, several objectives have been set. First, on the ground of archaeological data, to find the mounds in Northern Lithuania on which wooden castles were built in the 13th–15th centuries, thus forming the defensive system of Northern Lithuania castles; afterwards, to check if this does not contradict the information presented in written sources. As one defensive system of castles cannot be objectively assessed solely, therefore, the thesis also explores the defensive system of castles near the rivers Jūra and Nemunas in Southwest Lithuania. Having compared statistical data of both systems, much useful information has been obtained. As examination of late mounds (the early 2nd millennium) is estimated as low as one out of five according to the data of 1995 and the defensive system of Northern Lithuania encompassed half of such mounds (35 out of 69), whereas the remaining ones were attributed to the state period (13th–15th centuries), a highly significant problem arises when assessing this defensive system of castles. This problem is of a broader scope. It concerns the entire objective understanding of the primary historical... [to full text]

Significant research has investigated Jack Gibb’s model of defensive and supportive communication, but little has explored the influence of the type of talk -- defensive or supportive -- on perceptions of communication climate and the role that verbal aggressiveness may play in influencing both the types of talk and these perceptions. This thesis explored the relationship between defensive and supportive talk, verbal aggressiveness and communication climate using a mixed-method approach. Specifically, the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale was used to group participants for a dyadic problem solving exercise which generated conversational data that was analyzed qualitatively. Then, the Communication Climate Inventory was used to measure participants’ perceptions of the communication climate that emerged in their problem-solving dyad. The findings highlight factors that may influence the perception of communication climate. Examples of supportive talk that builds positive communication climates and limits the effects of verbal aggressiveness and examples of defensive talk that leads to negative communication climates are provided. This research demonstrates that language has an influence on communication climate through the words that shape the complex ways people perceive and understand each other and, interestingly, that the negative impact of defensive communication overrides the positive impact of supportive communication on the emergent communication climate.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Gerald G. Brown. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39). Also available online.

Microbes can protect their plant and animal hosts against infection by pathogens, parasites and parasitoids. These ‘defensive microbes' can provide a powerful line of defence beyond the host response and are becoming attractive candidates for disease control. In this thesis, I investigated how defensive microbes can interact with pathogens over evolutionary time by measuring the effects of co-passaging a defensive microbe (Enterococcus faecalis) and a pathogen (Staphylococcus aureus) within the Caenorhabditis elegans model host. In Chapter 1, I found that co-passaging drove the evolution of reduced pathogen virulence as a by-product of adaptation to microbe-mediated defence. Moreover, I show that the mechanism of pathogen resistance to the defensive microbe can determine the direction of virulence evolution. In chapter two, I discovered that the co-passaged defensive microbe and pathogen populations had undergone coevolutionary interactions within host populations via fluctuating selection dynamics. I then showed that these dynamics resulted in patterns of pathogen local adaptation and increased genetic divergence. Finally, in chapter three, I revealed that these coevolutionary interactions significantly affected the costs and benefits of the defensive microbes to their hosts, but that the relationship between these costs and benefits prevented the transition of defensive microbes across the mutualism-parasitism continuum. Together, this thesis uncovers the potential for defensive microbes to shape the evolution of pathogens and demonstrates that defensive microbes can be an evolutionarily dynamic but stable form of host resistance towards infectious disease. As such, the data presented in this thesis have important implications for how we study host-parasite interactions in nature and question our current understanding of virulence evolution, pathogen local adaptation and the origin of defensive microbes.