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Phytic acid (PA) accounts for up to 75% of the P in soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) seeds, but it is indigestible by mono- and agastric animals resulting in economic and environmental detriment. Soybean lines with genetically reduced PA contents have been developed using three distinct mutant alleles at the MIPS1, LPA1, and LPA2 genes resulting in up to a 75% reduction in PA. Low PA (LPA) soymeal-based feeds have been tested on several agricultural species and shown to reduce the P in the animal effluent, but they have not been tested on any aquacultural species. However, LPA soybean lines often exhibit low field emergence making them commercially inviable. The cause of this phenomenon is widely debated with possibilities ranging from increased disease pressure to decreased seedling vigor. The objectives of this research were to 1) enhance field emergence of LPA soybean varieties through pre-planting seed treatments, 2) study the impact of the LPA mutant alleles on agronomic, quality, and seed composition traits, and 3) design a low-error method for studying the effect of LPA soymeal-based feeds on aquatic animals using Pacific White Shrimp (Litoenaeus vannamei). These results describe a variety of agronomic and genetic strategies with which the low field emergence of LPA soybeans can be addressed, reveal a heretofore not reported interaction between the mips1 and lpa2 alleles to further increase the digestibility of soymeal, and a possible method for studying LPA soymeal based feed on aquacultural animals. / Master of Science

This dissertation explores the relationship between mental properties and physicalism to confront the apparent inconsistency between mental realism and the tenets of physicalism. As I see it, the major obstacle to fully integrating mental properties into physicalism is the feasibility of downward mental causation. Specifically, stringent physicalists find it contradictory to maintain that the mind can affect the body without contradicting the tenets of physicalism. This inconsistency claim is most notably addressed in the Causal Exclusion Argument. Though I am not personally committed to physicalism as an absolute worldview, I respect its prevalence and the reasons for its dominance. Rather than reject physicalism, I approach the puzzle with epistemological humility and attempt to work within the scope of physicalism. This exploration involves critically examining physicalism’s leading mental-physical relationships, focusing on emergence as a plausible means to reconcile mental and physical properties without undermining either. Ultimately, I propose a modified form of physicalism that maintains its metaphysical and epistemological theses but in a milder form that is more conducive to emergent mental phenomena and the aspects of reality that are nonlinear and indeterminate. Guided by the work of Jaegwon Kim and Gerald Vision, this dissertation moves beyond their ideas, challenging reductionist perspectives within physicalism. The key contribution is the introduction of Dynamically Stable Causal Holism (or DSC Holism in brief), which represents a significant departure from traditional reductionist approaches, promoting a more holistic understanding of physicalism. Through nonlinear emergence and DSC Holism, I confront the Causal Exclusion Argument. A secondary original contribution is my approach to these puzzles. I integrate and synthesize concepts from the philosophy of science and special sciences to offer a fresh perspective on physically compatible mental realism and downward causation. / Philosophy

Despite early playgrounds and parks being important for how play came to be spatially structured within the city, play as a subject has largely been neglected within urban planning research. One aim of this thesis is to investigate how play has been conceptualised within planning to draw lessons for planners. A second aim is to find strategies that challenge unjust hierarchies by combining perspectives on play and planning. Starting from three questions, I perform a discourse analysis on written documents situated in the planning system of Stockholm, Sweden to describe and compare between the time periods: 1970-1980 and 2010-2024. I further use critical theories of space, play, and planning to ask how we might challenge current conceptualisations of play within planning, and to investigate the potential towards an egalitarian planning by learning from play theory. The results show a current conceptualisation of play focused on children, external benefits, and a depoliticisation of pleasure. For planners it is therefore important to engage with play ethically to not control individual playing frames. I conclude that the emergent qualities in play may be a way to centre planning as an institution of explorative social change which contrast the instrumental purpose of planning today.

L'intérêt de l'humanité pour la connaissance se joue sur deux fronts : celui de la réduction de l'ignorance, et celui de l'action tant individuelle que collective. Aussi la manière dont nous acquérons le savoir est-elle essentielle, parce qu'elle préjuge aussi bien de notre perception du monde que de notre conscience de nous-mêmes et de la société. Car si, avec la raison comme alliée, l'homme se découvre des potentialités illimitées, nous aurions pourtant tort de passe outre une stricte réalité, celle de notre ignorance infinie, celle, au fond, de notre incapacité à cerner, de façon sûre et certaine, quoi que ce soit de ce monde complexe et en évolution constante qui nous accueille. C'est pourquoi, pour Karl Popper, toute rationalité véritable doit être critique, c'est-à-dire pluraliste et débattante, seule façon de considérer objectivement l'écart qui nous sépare de la vérité et, par suite, d'agir avec prudence et discernement, dans l'intérêt de la science comme dans celui de la collectivité. / Our interest for knowledge is based on two essential principles : the first one aims at reducing ignorance while the second one emphasizes individual and collective actions. So, the way we acquire knowledge is essential as it foresees at the same time our perception of the world as well as our being aware of our existence and that of the society as a whole. Indeed, if the Man uses reason his ally, he will discover unlimited potentialities, then we will be mistaken in not taking in consideration this strict reality of our unlimited ignorance, the one that, in reality, anf from the bottom of our not being able to certainly and surely encircle anything in this fast-growing world that dewells us. That is why Karl Popper, any real rationality has to be critical, it means pluralist and debating. That is the only way to separate the gap between us and the truth, and then, lead us to act with caution and discernment ib the interest of science and in the interest of the community.

La thèse aborde différentes questions de chimie prébiotique dans le contexte de l’origine de la vie par une approche de chimie systémique. La première partie est dédiée à l’étude de processus d’activation chimique important non seulement pour la formation de polymères, mais aussi pour alimenter le système en énergie de manière à le maintenir dans un état éloigné de l’équilibre, un prérequis pour l’auto-organisation. Il a été suggéré que les intermédiaires 5(4H)-oxazolones formés par l’activation de l’extrémité C-terminale des peptides pourrait être impliquée dans l’auto-organisation du vivant. Dans ce but, nous avons évalué la réactivité de réactifs pertinents dans un contexte prébiotique et décrits dans la littérature comme capables d’activer des acides α-aminés. Aucun d’entre eux n’a manifesté une activité satisfaisante pour l’activation C-terminale des peptides, montrant qu’une voie possible pour alimenter un protométabolisme des peptides en énergie n’est pas identifiée à ce jour à l’exception notable des N-carboxyanhydrides (NCA) qui peuvent être formé par des voies prébiotiquement plausibles. Nous avons par ailleurs démontré que les carbodiimides sont aussi efficaces pour l’activation des N-carbamoylamino acides que pour celle du carboxyle terminal des peptides en milieu aqueux dilué. La seconde partie du document expose de nouveaux résultats en faveur d’un processus de coévolution peptides-nucléotides. D’abord, une étude de la réactivité d’agents d’aminoacylation de l’extrémité 3’ de l’ARN est présentée. Ensuite, nous évaluons des co-polymères acides α-aminés-nucléotides liés par des enchaînements phosphoramidate et esters comme partenaires éventuels de l’évolution chimique. La pertinence cinétique de ces structures est démontrée ainsi que des voies chimiques permettant leur formation. / The thesis addresses several issues in prebiotic chemistry in the context of the origins of life through a systems chemistry approach. The first part is devoted to the study of chemical activation processes that are not only important in the formation of polymers, but also to feed the system with energy in order that a far from equilibrium state is maintained, a prerequisite for self-organization. It has been suggested that 5(4H)-oxazolones intermediates formed by C-terminus peptide activation could be involved in self-organization of life. To this aim, we have checked the reactivity of relevant prebiotic reagents previously proposed to activate α-amino acids. None of them led to a satisfactory C-terminus activation of peptides, showing that no general process for feeding a protometabolism of peptides with energy is identified yet, with the notable exception of N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs) that can be formed through prebiotically relevant pathways. Additionally, we demonstrated that carbodiimides reagents are as efficient in the activation of N-carbamoyl amino acids as in that of the C-terminus of peptides in diluted aqueous media. The second part of the dissertation discloses new results in support of a process of coevolution of peptides and nucleotides. Firstly, a study of non-enzymatic aminoacylation reagents of the 3’-terminus of RNA is presented. Secondly, we assessed co-polymers of α-amino acids and nucleotides bound by phosphoramidate and ester linkages as potential players in chemical evolution. The kinetic relevance of these structures was demonstrated as well as potential chemical processes that allow their formation.