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Thesis (M. A.)--Oklahoma State University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic format via Internet..

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-68). Also available via the Internet.

Λεπτομερείς τοπογραφικές έρευνες για τη στρωματογραφία του Ολόκαινου σε συνεργασία με τη μελέτη ενός σπουδαίου αριθμού από αρχαιολογικές ανακαλύψεις, οι οποίες παρέχουν πολύτιμες πληροφορίες για μία καλύτερη κατανόηση της σχέσης ανάμεσα στους ανθρώπους και της περιβαλλοντικής εξέλιξης. Κατά τη διάρκεια του πρώιμου Ολόκαινου, οι ανθρώπινες δραστηριότητες ήταν επηρεασμένες σε μεγάλο βαθμό από περιβαλλοντικές κλιματικές αλλαγές, όπως αποδείχτηκε από τα εύρηματα θαμμένων αρχαιολογικών τοποθεσιών στις ποτάμιες αποθέσεις της κοιλάδας του ποταμού Βουραϊκού. / Detailed field investigations of Holocene stratigraphy in combination with the study of an important number of archaeological discoveries provided valuable information for a better understanding of the relationship between man and the environmental evolution. During Early Holocene, human activities were strongly influenced by climate-induced environmental changes, as proven by the occurrence of archaeological sites buried within the alluvial depos-its of the Vouraikos river valley.

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Engineered log jams (ELJs) were constructed on the Middle Fork of the John Day River in eastern Oregon as part of a large restoration project. These log structures were designed to address many of the restoration goals including creating scour pools, inhibiting bank erosion, creating and maintaining a sinuous river planform, and increasing complexity of fish habitat. This study uses geomorphic change detection techniques to monitor topographic change under and around the 26 log structures in two different river reaches over a six to seven year period. This study finds that the ELJs are remaining stable within the river and maintaining deep pool habitat. The study provides insight into which log structure variables are most related to the patterns and amounts of aggradation and degradation. Understanding the geomorphic changes to the riverbed in response to the placement of the ELJs can influence the design and future effectiveness of ELJs.

Onchocerciasis, caused by Onchocerca volvulus remains a major public health and socio-economic problem across the tropics, despite years of mass drug administration (MDA) with Ivermectin to reduce disease burden. Through modelling, it has been shown that elimination cannot be achieved with MDA alone and additional tools are needed, such as vaccination, which remains the most cost-effective tool for long-term disease control. The feasibility behind vaccination against O. volvulus can be demonstrated in the Litomosoides sigmodontis mouse model, which shows that vaccine induced protection can be achieved with immunisation using irradiated L3, the infective stage of L. sigmodontis and with microfilariae (Mf), the transmission stage of the parasite. There is further evidence of protective immunity in humans, with individuals living in endemic areas that show no signs of infection despite being exposed to the parasite (endemic normal). The protective efficacy of promising vaccine candidates were evaluated using an immunisation time course in the L. sigmodontis model, using either DNA plasmid or peptide vaccines. In immunisation experiments in L. sigmodontis, Mf numbers are used as a measure of protection and marks the end of an immunisation time course. However, when changes in gene expression were measured at the end of an immunisation time course, in attempts to identify gene signatures that could be used as markers of protection (correlates of protection) in the blood, no gene signatures were found to be associated with protection. This suggest that at the end of an immunisation time course, when protection is measured (change in Mf numbers), it is too late in infection to measure changes in immune pathways being triggered. Changes in gene expression were therefore measured in blood samples collected throughout an immunisation time course in the L. sigmodontis model, in order to identify the time point in an immunisation experiment which are the most indicative of protection. Two independent immunisation time courses were used, either using irradiated L3 or Mf as vaccine against L. sigmodontis, as these elicit the greatest protection. This generated a large high dimensional dataset, that was too large and complex for a differential fold-change analysis. Therefore, an analysis pipeline was created using machine learning algorithms, to detect changes in gene expression throughout the time courses to detect markers of protection. The 6 hour time point following immunisation showed the greatest change in gene expression, with the analysis pipeline identifying known pathways associated with vaccine-induced immunity. The pipeline was applied to gene expression data from human samples obtained from individuals living in endemic areas who were either infected with O. volvulus or endemic normal (naturally protected), this was to identify pathways associated with protective immunity in humans. When comparing vaccine induced immunity seen in mice and natural protective immunity in humans there was some overlap in pathways being triggered, suggesting that similar pathways are needed for protection and that if a vaccine can trigger the right pathways in mice, it is likely to be effective in humans. Overall the machine learning analysis of the gene expression data, not only shows that it is feasible to measure change in gene expression in blood during filarial infections, but that during an immunisation time course it is the early time points following immunisation that are the most predictive of vaccine efficacy (protection outcome). One of the vaccine candidates, cysteine protease inhibitor-2 (CPI), is a known immuno-modulator that inhibits MHC-II antigen presentation on antigen presenting cells such as dendritic cells (DC). This candidate has consistently been shown to induce protection if its immuno-modulatory active site was modified. In in vitro studies, it was shown that modification of the active site of CPI rescues antigen presentation in DC. This shows the importance of DC activation before the onset of infection, demonstrating the importance of triggering protective responses early in infection, and provides insight on how one of the vaccine candidates achieves protection.

Water resource management operations have significantly modified river flow regimes globally, prompting widespread lotic ecosystem responses. There is a growing need to better understand how increasingly prevalent hydrological alterations to riverine systems will affect biota dependent on specific elements of river flow regimes. This thesis examines macroinvertebrate community responses to river flow regimes modified by various water resource management operations across southwest England though four detailed investigations. The first study examines the influence of river impoundments and how macroinvertebrate communities differ between regulated and non-regulated sections of river. Findings from this investigation highlight that flow regulation alters the structure and function of faunal assemblages due to significant changes to the flow regime, rather than stream temperature modifications associated with the reservoirs. The second study focusses on groundwater dominated headwater streams transitioning from temporary (i.e. reaches periodically drying positioned furthest upstream) to perennial flow conditions which are subjected to variable groundwater abstraction intensities. The results indicate that macroinvertebrate communities respond significantly to the duration of antecedent flowing conditions and the spatial proximity of sampling sites to perennial sources; but faunal assemblages are not sensitive to groundwater abstraction. The third study examines how communities inhabiting different organic and mineralogical lotic habitats responded to multiple river flow properties (hydrological indices, anthropogenic flow alteration measures and hydraulic variables) in perennial, groundwater dominated systems. The findings highlight that faunal assemblages are most responsive to local hydraulic conditions measured at the point of sampling, rather than antecedent hydrological conditions. The influence of hydraulic properties on communities differs between lotic habitats, highlighting that mineralogical and organic characteristics of riverbeds strongly mediate how biota respond to flow. The final study presents the results of a long-term (1995-2016), region-wide (spanning Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire) examination of macroinvertebrate communities inhabiting groundwater dominated rivers and their responses to hydrological variability (including extreme low- and high-flow events) and anthropogenic flow alterations. The results indicate that indices characterising the proportion of discharge added to (through effluent water returns and low-flow alleviation strategies) or removed from the river (via groundwater abstraction) exert profound effects on faunal assemblages over long-term periods. These results provide empirical evidence that reductions in river discharges via groundwater abstraction of approximately 15% have no perceptible negative ecological effects on macroinvertebrate communities. The results from the four detailed investigations are used to develop conceptual models to illustrate how research undertaken within this thesis can be applied more widely. The findings and study designs presented within this thesis could inform surface and groundwater water resource management operations and underpin the development of environmental flow methodologies required to conserve riverine ecosystems globally.