New four dimensional N = 2 field theories can be engineered from compactifying six dimensional (2, 0) superconformal field theory on a punctured Riemann surface. Hitchin’s equation is defined on this Riemann surface and the fields in Hitchin’s equation are singular at the punctures. Four dimensional theory is entirely determined by the data at the punctures. Theory without lagrangian description can also be constructed in this way. We first construct new four dimensional generalized superconformal quiver gauge theory by putting regular singularity at the puncture. The algorithm of calculating weakly coupled gauge group in any duality frame is developed. The asymptotical free theory and Argyres-Douglas field theory can also be constructed using six dimensional method. This requires introducing irregular singularity of Hithcin’s equation. Compactify four dimensional theory down to three dimensions, the corresponding N = 4 theory has the interesting mirror symmetry. The mirror theory for the generalized superconformal quiver gauge theory can be derived using the data at the puncture too. Motivated by this construction, we study other three dimensional theories deformed from the above theory and find their mirrors. The surprising relation of above four dimensional gauge theory and two dimensional conformal field theory may have some deep implications. The S-duality of four dimensional theory and the crossing symmetry and modular invariance of two dimensional theory are naturally related.

Planarian maintained in spring water and exposed for two hours to temporally patterned, weak (1 to 5 μT) magnetic field in the dark displayed diminished mobility that simulated the effects of morphine and enhanced this effect at concentrations associated with receptor subtypes. A single (5 hr) exposure to this same pattern following several days of exposure to a very complex patterned field in darkness dissolved the planarian and was associated with an expansion of their volume. Spectral power density analyses of direct measurements of the spring water only following exposure to this field in darkness showed emission spectra that were displayed from control conditions by ~10 nm and associated with an energy increment of ~10-20 J. This value is an intrinsic solution for the physical properties of the water molecule. “Shielding” the exposed water with plastic, aluminum foil or copper foil indicated that only the latter eliminated a powerful spike in photon emission around 280 nm. Continuous measurement of pH indicated that the slow shift towards alkalinity over 12 hours of exposure was associated with enhanced transient pH shifts of .02 units with typical durations between 20 and 40 ms. These results indicate that the appropriately patterned and amplitude of magnetic field that affects water directly could mediate some of the powerful effects displayed by biological aquatic systems.

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Six field pea (Pisum sativum) varieties from five different growing locations in Saskatchewan in the 2006 and 2007 growing years were analyzed to determine the effect of genotype, environment and year on the total dietary fibre, insoluble dietary fibre, soluble dietary fibre, total phenolic content, simple phenolic content and antioxidant activities. Samples were analyzed for dietary fibre using the enzymatic-gravimetric method of fibre analysis in accordance to the AACC method 32-05. Growing location had a very significant effect (p<0.0001) on the IDF, SDF and TDF content. Genotype had a strong effect (p<0.0001) on both IDF and TDF while having no significant effect (p=0.4556) on SDF content. Crop year also displayed a significant effect on SDF and TDF (p<0.0001) while having a smaller effect on IDF content (p=0.0139). Green varieties yielded significantly higher IDF (p=0.0041) and TDF (p=0.0028) than yellow varieties. Significant genotype x location (0.0155) and location x year (p=0.0002) interaction terms were also observed for TDF. The total phenolic contents were assessed using the Folin-Ciocalteu method of total phenolic content (TPC) analysis, while the contents of 10 individual simple phenolic acids were assessed using reversed-phase UPLC. A significant genotype, environment, and genotype by environment (G x E) interaction effect on the TPC was observed. The seed coat colour and growing season did not show a significant effect on the TPC. The UPLC analysis showed that ferulic acid comprised the majority of the phenolic content of the field pea samples. There was also a genotype, seed coat colour, location, growing season and G x E effect on the total simple phenolic acid content. As well, a modified microplate method for antioxidant activity using the free radical DPPH was assessed against the conventional cuvette method based system. Both methods showed that genotype (p<0.05) and location (p<0.05) had a significant effect on antioxidant activity. A larger, significant effect was seen in the genotype by environment (G x E) interaction (p<0.0001) in the 2007 and 2008 growing years. Growing year did not have a significant on antioxidant activity. Although there was some variation in the resulting AOA values between the two methods, these differences were found not to be statistically significant by means of a folded F-Test (p < 0.05), and the AOA between the two methods was highly correlated (R² = 0.8866). This indicates that a microplate may be used in place of cuvettes to determine AOA using the DPPH free radical to increase testing speed while reducing the amount of sample and reagent used in testing. The research performed on the influence of genotype and environment could potentially allow plant breeders, food scientists and nutraceutical manufacturers to manipulate field pea genotypes and growing conditions to attain an ideal nutritional profile for use in functional foods and nutraceuticals.

In this thesis, the problem of overvoltage calculation on multiconductor transmission lines due to nonuniform external electromagnetic field excitations, such as lightning, is investigated by introducing a field-voltage macromodel. The main purpose of this thesis is to find a fast and efficient algorithm to model the effect of the radiated electromagnetic fields on transmission lines. This is done by replacing distributed voltage and current sources along the transmission line which are as a result of external electromagnetic field radiation, by voltage and current sources at the terminals of the transmission line. For this purpose, the knowledge of electromagnetic field at every point on the transmission line is required. A transfer function based pole-residue tracing technique will be introduced in this thesis. By using the proposed algorithm, a closed form solution for the lumped sources at the terminals of transmission line in the frequency domain is obtainable. This approach will enable us to bridge the software working in frequency domain with those working in the time domain. The effect of different parameters on calculated overvoltage such as finite conductivity of the ground and lightning return stroke channel (RSC) specifications are studied. The theoretical background and extent of validity of the proposed algorithm are reviewed in this thesis.

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