The grouper is a high-value fish in Taiwan. However, nervous necrosis virus, which contains two single strand RNAs and doesn¡¦t have an envelope, causes groupers die in early stages of development. It economically impacts on the aquaculture of this marine fish. Vaccination is one of the best methods to prevent viral diseases. Virus-like particles (VLPs) were used for studying the ability and efficiency of producing antibodies against dragon grouper nervous necrosis virus. Different injection dosages and injection frequency of VLPs were performed on Epinephelus lanceolatus. The anti-sera of vaccinated fish were acquired by microvoluminal phlebotomization method and analyzed by antigen-capture dot blotting with ECL detections, which are the best choices for qualitative and quantitative assays. The signal of antibodies in the vaccinated fish was detected every week after primary immunization. The antibody signal reached 8.4x106 U in one month when the dragon groupers were injected with 10 µg of VLPs, but giving additional injection of VLPs didn¡¦t increase production of antibodies after one month. Moreover, dragon groupers that were injected with 50 µg and 100 µg of VLPs generated antibody signals up to 7.2x106 U and 6.7x106 U, respectively. The antibody signal can remain at a higher level in the presence of high dosage injection for at least three weeks. Furthermore, a polyvalent vaccine that included killed bacteria was applied in field to test dragon grouper immune response. The results not only support the data that dragon grouper boots antibody production within a short period after immunization, but also demostrates that the production of antibody by dragon grouper against virus and bacteria can be monitored by the microvoluminal phlebotomization method.

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

À la fois mythique constructeur ou destructeur de Mondes, incarnation du Malin pour l'Église au Moyen-âge, monstre lové sur un trésor au fond d'une grotte, qu'un héros doit tuer pour prouver sa bravoure dans les légendes et les contes, le dragon revient périodiquement exprimer les peurs et les fantasmes les plus profonds. Au XXème siècle, la Fantasy a ramené le dragon en littérature et la Dragon Fantasy récente (DragonLance de M. Weis et T. Hickman comme point de départ en 1984) a fait évoluer son image en lui offrant le rôle de personnage principal ou de héros, contribuant à l'amplification de la figure mythique du dragon et à son renouveau. Le dragon vole, crache du feu, pense, parle, raisonne, se métamorphose, possède des pouvoirs magiques, aime et se bat. Il existe également au féminin. Si le dragon ancien était représenté aux pieds de l'homme, en position d'infériorité d'animal dompté, le dragon de Fantasy se situe dans le ciel, libre et supérieur à l'homme. Il ouvre la voie d'une sagesse ancestrale au dragonnier qu'il se choisit. Les combats des dragons symbolisent les éternelles luttes du Bien et du Mal présentes dans toutes les sociétés humaines et en l'homme lui-même, les forces qui s'affrontent pour le rétablissement de l'ordre et de l'équilibre universel en danger. / A mythic builder or destroyer of Worlds, the embodiment of Evil for the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Agesd, a monster to kill in order to take its treasure in legends or tales, the dragon periodically comes back expressing one's fears or diseases. Fantasy has brought the dragon back to twentieth century literature and Dragon Fantasy offers him the leading role in fights to keep order and and hold the world balanced. The new dragon, male or female, thinks, speaks, loves, fights, has magical powers, can fly, breathe fire, transform himself/herself. He shows human beings the way to ancestral wisdom.

It is commonly believed that breast cancer dragon boating benefits survivors in a range of psychosocial areas, but there have been few empirical studies to investigate such relationships. An interpretive description design and a critical health promotion approach were used to explore the psychosocial experiences of women who breast cancer dragon boat. In-depth interviews with six participants were analyzed. Themes that arose from the data are: (1) moving past isolation — networks of like-minded support, (2) taking control,(3) journey into adventure, (4) affirmative outlook, (5) confronting painful experience, (6) rebuilding identity, (7) and spiritual engagement. The findings illustrate that dragon boating provides breast cancer survivors with a significant venue for change and the opportunity to move beyond traumatic elements of cancer.

Piscine nodaviruses are members of genus Betanodavirus, which infect more than 30 species of fish and cause massive mortality in larvae and juveniles. The infection causes great economic losses to aquaculture and sea-ranching. To study the dissociation and reassembly of betanodavirus, virus-like particles (VLPs) of dragon grouper nervous necrosis virus (DGNNV) were used. The experiments with calcium-chelating or reducing/oxidizing reagents elicited that the DGNNV VLPs required only calcium for particle assembly. With the recombinant VLPs, site-directed mutagenesis can be employed to investigate the roles of calcium-binding ligands in particle formation. In the mutational analysis of DxxDxD that is putatively involved in the coordination of calcium ions, the results showed that the D133N mutation significantly disrupted the assembly of VLPs while D130N and D135N mutants produced heterogeneous particles with broken shapes. The thermal stability of the VLP-forming fractions demonstrated that VLPs of D135N mutant were stable at a temperature of 85¢XC, which is slightly higher than that for wild-type, whereas VLPs of D130N mutant could not tolerate the thermal effects at a temperature higher than 60¢XC. It is deduced that three aspartate residues of the motif DxxDxD are all important for the efficient formation of DGNNV VLPs and, among them, the DxxD provides a more stable coordinate of calcium-ligand than DxD.

It is commonly believed that breast cancer dragon boating benefits survivors in a range of psychosocial areas, but there have been few empirical studies to investigate such relationships. An interpretive description design and a critical health promotion approach were used to explore the psychosocial experiences of women who breast cancer dragon boat. In-depth interviews with six participants were analyzed. Themes that arose from the data are: (1) moving past isolation — networks of like-minded support, (2) taking control,(3) journey into adventure, (4) affirmative outlook, (5) confronting painful experience, (6) rebuilding identity, (7) and spiritual engagement. The findings illustrate that dragon boating provides breast cancer survivors with a significant venue for change and the opportunity to move beyond traumatic elements of cancer.

No description available.

It is commonly believed that breast cancer dragon boating benefits survivors in a range of psychosocial areas, but there have been few empirical studies to investigate such relationships. An interpretive description design and a critical health promotion approach were used to explore the psychosocial experiences of women who breast cancer dragon boat. In-depth interviews with six participants were analyzed. Themes that arose from the data are: (1) moving past isolation — networks of like-minded support, (2) taking control,(3) journey into adventure, (4) affirmative outlook, (5) confronting painful experience, (6) rebuilding identity, (7) and spiritual engagement. The findings illustrate that dragon boating provides breast cancer survivors with a significant venue for change and the opportunity to move beyond traumatic elements of cancer. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

The intention of this thesis is to analyze the representations of masculinity in the anime series Dragon Ball Z as it aired on Cartoon Network's programming block Toonami, specifically the nature in which they were framed and how oppositional interpretations in the fandom became prevalent as a result. The series emphasizes the evolution of its central characters Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan into performing a sensitive masculinity, but there are a prevalence of images in the series that discredit this. Similarly, the way the series was advertised on Toonami placed emphasis on images of superficial violence and reinforced the masculinity that the series was attempting to move beyond. Understanding the ways fans have interpreted Dragon Ball Z on Toonami helps reveal that there is much more to a media text's influence than its themes and representations of gender.

No description available.