No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Utilizing Afrocentric thought, this dissertation examines digital Pan-Africanism as a new theory that demonstrates the liberatory potential of digital technology including internet-based writing and businesses. Focusing on the burgeoning Black travel industry, it specifically considers contemporary travel narratives written by African Americans visiting Egypt and includes a thematic analysis of travel blog posts. It highlights the role technology plays in making international travel more accessible to African Americans and the potential that diasporic travel has in creating and strengthening inter-cultural bonds between African people throughout the diaspora. To this end, this dissertation advocates utilizing digital platforms as a tool for increased diasporic travel and Pan-African activism. It conceptualizes this new theory, discusses its implications within and outside of the travel industry, and offers a model to demonstrate its effectiveness and applicability. / African American Studies

As former colonies and newly independent states of the ‘Third World’ organized internationally around anticolonialism in the 1950s and 1960s, Ghana became a key site in debates over development at the height of the Cold War. Contributing to the new economic and political history of postcolonial Ghana, this study examines the national development visions and international political-economic connections of the Nkrumaist state 1957-66 and the first year under the post-coup National Liberation Council through the lens of translocality. Translocality refers to the entanglement of different localities and communities, and in this context, how the idea and practice of national development is co-constituted with these connections. Kwame Nkrumah situated national development as a resource in uniting the African continent against foreign political and economic influence. The Nkrumaist state played a leading role in the formation of the Organization of African Unity, non-alignment, nuclear non-proliferation, and attempts at harmonizing national development continentally. The movements of individuals to Ghana seeking participation within the Nkrumaist project were also racialized and gendered. Women Pan-Africanist activists organized conferences and made internationalist commentaries, making claims for inclusive economic development and participation. Furthermore, Ghanaian national development, dependent on mixed-planning foreign capital, markets, and technologies to finance projects, became increasingly subject to non-national departmental debates and an emerging liberal disciplinary politics through 1962-1966. The International Monetary Fund, Britain and the United States came to a consensus regarding a balance of payments and foreign reserve crisis in Ghana. After a military coup d'état in 1966, the NLC introduced an IMF reform package and embarked on a program of unmaking Nkrumaism. This study contributes to understanding the translocal dynamics of postcolonial development and development discourses. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / I argue that Ghana’s national development from 1957 to 1968 was conceived of, practiced, and situated within, transnational and international connections that can be best understood through the concept of translocality. Translocality refers to the entanglement of different localities and communities, and in this context, how the idea and practice of development cannot be separated from these relational connections. The research supporting this concept contributes to understanding African postcolonial national development in tension and co-constituted with non-national dynamics. As an idea and policy mandate dictated by Kwame Nkrumah, national development was defined as a resource in the struggle for Pan-Africanism but also entangled with the politics of Pan-Africanism, the Cold War and international creditors. These translocal connections are explored through the activisms and commentaries of women Pan-Africanists, activists, and political moderates travelling to Ghana as well as the formal Pan-African diplomacies in pursuit of the economic unification of Africa. Ghana’s development future was also subject to the interdepartmental politics of international creditors and an emerging liberal economic consensus. This study is necessary because it changes our understanding of how the politics of postcolonial development is understood, as co-constituted with non-national political, economic and social dynamics.

Las tendencias de consumo de alimentos funcionales han ido en aumento en la última década, influenciadas por la información adquirida por parte de la población sobre el posible rol positivo de la dieta en la prevención de enfermedades. Sin embargo, la ingesta de fibra y de alimentos que contengan fibra aún es baja. La industria de alimentos se ha focalizado en los beneficios de la incorporación de diferentes fibras en productos alimenticios. En la actualidad existe una gama de fibras disponibles en el mercado. No obstante, la disponibilidad de inulina de topinambur es limitada. El topinambur (Helianthus tuberosus L.) almacena en su raíz carbohidratos en forma de inulina y/o fructoligosacáridos (16 a 20% del peso fresco del tubérculo). Dichos carbohidratos son cadenas de fructosa unidas por enlaces glucosídicos β-(2-1) que tienen generalmente una unidad de glucosa terminal. Las condiciones de crecimiento y del tiempo de almacenamiento después de la cosecha determinan el grado de polimerización (GP) de la inulina. Estos carbohidratos se consideran prebióticos por ser no digeribles y presentar efectos favorables en la salud del consumidor, estimulando selectivamente el crecimiento de bacterias benéficas en el tracto digestivo. Por esto, y por sus altos rendimientos por unidad de superficie cultivada, el topinambur es un candidato potencial a ser utilizado como materia prima para la producción de alimentos funcionales. El presente trabajo de tesis tuvo como objetivo general obtener inulina a partir de tubérculos de topinambur, caracterizar dicha inulina y finalmente agregarla a masas de harina de trigo para la obtención de pan blanco enriquecido con fibra dietaria. A tal fin se llevó a cabo el proceso de extracción y purificación de la inulina, el análisis de la composición y capacidad prebiótica de la inulina, de las propiedades reológicas de las masas, y de los parámetros fisicoquímicos y propiedades sensoriales de los panes. A continuación se detalla la organización del trabajo. En cada uno de los capítulos se describieron los métodos experimentales, los resultados, las conclusiones y la bibliografía consultada. En el Capítulo 1 se realizó una descripción de las características del topinambur, su composición, su localización en Argentina y las aplicaciones de sus tubérculos. En el Capítulo 2 se describió el efecto del almacenamiento en frío de los tubérculos por un período de ocho meses, sobre su microestructura y composición. Se realizó la descripción del proceso de extracción y purificación de los carbohidratos ricos en inulina obtenidos de topinambur, que fueron analizados según diferentes aspectos en los sucesivos capítulos. Se procedió a la determinación y análisis del rendimiento de extracción de carbohidratos, contenido y GP de inulina. En el Capítulo 3 se realizó la caracterización fisicoquímica de los fructanos y se describió el marco regulatorio. Se determinó la actividad prebiótica de la inulina obtenida de los tubérculos a distintos tiempos de almacenamiento refrigerado. En el Capítulo 4 se describió el efecto de la utilización de los carbohidratos ricos en inulina obtenidos de topinambur en la elaboración de panes. Se procedió a la evaluación de las propiedades reológicas de las masas, y las características estructurales y de textura de los panes, así como también sus parámetros fisicoquímicos y sensoriales. Palabras Claves: Helianthus tuberosus L., inulina, prebiótico, alimentos funcionales, pan. / Consumption trends of functional foods have increased in the last decade, influenced by the public learning about the possible positive role of the diet in disease prevention. However, intake of fiber and fiber-containing foods is still low. The food industry has focused on the benefits of incorporating different fibers in foodstuffs. Nowadays there is a range of commercially available fibers. However, availability of Jerusalem artichoke inulin is limited. Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) stores in its root carbohydrates as inulin and/or fructooligosaccharides (16-20% of the fresh weight of the tuber). Such carbohydrates are fructose chains linked by glycosidic bonds β- (2-1) which generally have a terminal glucose unit. The growth conditions and time of storage after harvesting determine the degree of polymerization (DP) of inulin. These prebiotic carbohydrates are considered to be non-digestible and have favorable effects on consumer’s health, selectively stimulating the growth of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract. For this reason, and because of its high yield per cultivated unit area, Jerusalem artichoke is a potential candidate to be used as feedstock for the production of functional foods. The overall objective of this work was to obtain and study inulin from Jerusalem artichoke tubers and its subsequent use in bread making, including the evaluation of the composition and prebiotic capacity of the inulin, rheological properties of the doughs, and physicochemical parameters and sensory properties of the breads. The organization of this work is detailed below. In each chapter the experimental methods, results, conclusions and literature were described. Chapter 1 is a description of the characteristics of Jerusalem artichoke, its composition, its location in Argentina and tubers applications. Chapter 2 describes the effect of cold storage of tubers for a period of eight months, on their microstructure and composition. It includes a description of the extraction and purification process of inulin rich carbohydrates extracted from Jerusalem artichoke tubers, which were analyzed under different aspects in the subsequent chapters. Carbohydrates extraction yield, inulin content and DP were determined and analyzed. Chapter 3 presents the physicochemical characterization of fructans and regulatory framework. Prebiotic activity of inulin obtained from the tubers at various times of refrigerated storage was determined. Chapter 4 describes the effect of using the extracted Jerusalem artichoke inulin on bread making. It includes the evaluation of the rheological properties of the doughs and the structural and textural characteristics of bread, as well as their physicochemical and sensory parameters. Keywords: Helianthus tuberosus L., inulin, prebiotic functional foods, bread.

Ancient DNA analyses are reliant on reference genomes to authenticate and identify endogenous genomes. While this has lead to many successful studies involving proboscidians, hominids, and ancient pathogens such as Yersinia pestis, our reliance on at most a small number of genomes greatly limits our ability to functionally describe the genome of interest. Further, given the existence of open bacterial genomes and horizontal gene transfers it is likely that reference biases have been incorporated and cited in following studies as representative of past gene diversity. By implementing and standardizing the use of bacterial pan-genomes the effect of these biases are greatly diminished while also revealing the relative capabilities of the target genome compared to the modern diversity. Describing an ancient strain by both its phylogenetic and functional similarities to modern strains allows for a more nuanced analysis of the species evolutionary history. Incongruencies between the phylogeny and genetic function are ripe for deeper analyses and the implications of its findings resonate beyond the characterization of an ancient genome. A pan-genome centric approach to ancient bacterial studies offers significant improvements compared to the current paradigm. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A construção da infância como portadora do futuro na América Latina é o tema sobre o qual está estruturada esta tese, pela qual buscamos identificar, analisar e qualificar em quais termos se delineou esse tema através do movimento de problematização da infância no continente americano, especialmente na América Latina, o qual teve sua expressão mais destacada na realização dos Congresos Panamericanos del Niño desde 1916 até 1948, num total de nove edições. Para isso utilizamos diversas fontes impressas, com especial destaque para a documentação produzida pelos Congresos Panamericanos del Niño, como os seus Anais, Boletins de organização, além de livros de época, conformando um denso corpo documental. Através dessas fontes identificamos o relevante número de sujeitos e instituições envolvidos, direta ou indiretamente, com o tema da infância; o processo de constituição de especialidades profissionais, como médicos, juristas, assistentes sociais, pedagogos, publicistas, filantropos, políticos, os quais procuravam problematizar a vida infantil nos aspectos econômico, político, demográfico, social, racial, biológico, civilizacional, científico, e propunham inúmeras formas e políticas sociais para reformar, intervir, controlar a infância pobre e suas famílias, no intuito de forjar nações modernas, civilizadas, ordeiras, biológica e geneticamente regeneradas e robustas, laboriosas, organizadas hierarquicamente por classes. Para um novo mundo, uma nova infância deveria ser produzida no interstício entre a gestação e a idade adulta. A infância, para tal movimento, portava o futuro da América Latina como uma possibilidade que deveria ser confirmada pela construção de todo um novo universo, conduzida pelos especialistas, no qual a experiência infantil deveria ocorrer. / The construction of childhood as a holder of the future in Latin America is the theme on which this thesis is structured, for which we identify, analyze and classify those childhood in accordance with this theme. Indeed we outlined in this thesis the motion for discussion of childhood in the American continent, especially in Latin America, which had its most prominent achievement in the « Congresos Pan Americanos del Niño » from 1916 to 1948. Considering this we have outlined a total of nine issues. They were extracted from various printed sources, with particular emphasis on the documentation produced by the « Congresos Pan Americanos del Niño », its Proceedings, organizational newsletters, and , old books. All those documents formed a dense data base where our work was grounded. Through these sources we identified a significant involvement of numerous individuals and institutions involved directly or indirectly with children\'s issues. These specialists such as doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, publicists, philanthropists, politicians, have been seeking how to discuss the child life in the economic, political, demographic, social, racial, biological, civilization, science, and thus proposed numerous strategies and social policies to reform and intervene to control the poor children and their families in order to forge modern nations, civilized, organized hierarchically into classes, orderly, organic and genetically regenerated and robust, laborious. Towards a new world, a new childhood should be produced in the interstices between gestation and adulthood. Childhood, for such a movement, held the future of Latin America as a possibility, which should be confirmed by the construction of a whole new universe, led by experts, in which childhood experience should occur.