Unicellular microalgae are a renewable bioresource that can meet the challenge forfood and energy in a growing world population. Using sunlight, CO2, nutrients,and water, algal cells produce biomass in the form of sugars, proteins and oils, allof which carry commercial value as food, feed and bioenergy. Flue gas CO2 andwastewater nutrients are inexpensive sources of carbon and fertilizers. Microalgaecan mitigate CO2 emissions and reduce nutrients from waste streams whileproducing valuable biomass.My focus was on some of the challenging aspects of cultivating microalgae ascrop: the response of biomass production and quality to seasonality, nutrients andbiological interactions. Approach spans from laboratory experiments to large-scaleoutdoor cultivation, using single microalgal strains and natural communities insouthern (Portugal) and northern (Sweden) Europe.Half of the seasonal variation in algal oil content was due to changes in light andtemperature in outdoor large-scale cultures of a commercial strain (Nannochloropsisoculata). Seasonal changes also influence algal oil composition with more neutrallipids stored in cells during high light and temperature. Nitrogen (N) stress usuallyenhances lipid storage but suppresses biomass production. Our manipulationshowed that N stress produced more lipids while retaining biomass. Thus,projecting annual biomass and oil yields requires accounting for both seasonalchanges and N stress to optimize lipid production in commercial applications.Baltic Sea microalgae proved to be a potential biological solution to reduce CO2emissions from cement flue gas with valuable biomass production. A multi-speciescultivation approach rather than single-species revealed that natural or constructedcommunities of microalgae can produce equivalent biomass quality. Diversecommunities of microalgae can offer resilience and stability due to more efficientresource utilization with less risk of contamination, less work and cost for culturemaintenance.Stable algal biomass production (annual basis) was achieved in outdoor pilot-scale(1600 L) cultivation of Baltic Sea natural communities using cement flue gas as aCO2 source. Results indicate favorable algal oil content at northern Europeanlatitudes compared to southern European latitudes.My thesis establishes the potential of cultivating microalgae as a bioresource inScandinavia, and using a community approach may be one step towardssustainable algal technology.

published_or_final_version / Zoology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Alluvial groundwater systems are an important source of water for communities and biodiverse riparian corridors throughout the arid and semi-arid Basin and Range Geological Province of western North America. These aquifers and their attendant desert streams have been depleted to support a growing population, while projected climate change could lead to more extreme episodes of drought and precipitation in the future. The only source of replenishment to these aquifers is recharge. This dissertation builds upon previous work to characterize and quantify recharge in arid and semi-arid basins by characterizing the intra-annual seasonality of recharge across the Basin and Range Province, and considering how climate change might impact recharge seasonality and volume, as well as fragile riparian corridors that depend on these hydrologic processes. First, the seasonality of recharge in a basin in the sparsely-studied southern extent of the Basin and Range Province is determined using stable water isotopes of seasonal precipitation and groundwater, and geochemical signatures of groundwater and surface water. In northwestern Mexico in the southern reaches of the Basin and Range, recharge is dominated by winter precipitation (69% ± 42%) and occurs primarily in the uplands. Second, isotopically-based estimates of seasonal recharge fractions in basins across the region are compared to identify patterns in recharge seasonality, and used to evaluate a simple water budget-based model for estimating recharge seasonality, the normalized seasonal wetness index (NSWI). Winter precipitation makes up the majority of annual recharge throughout the region, and North American Monsoon (NAM) precipitation has a disproportionately weak impact on recharge. The NSWI does well in estimating recharge seasonality for basins in the northern Basin and Range, but less so in basins that experience NAM precipitation. Third, the seasonal variation in riparian and non-riparian vegetation greenness, represented by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), is characterized in several of the study basins and climatic and hydrologic controls are identified. Temperature was the most significant driver of vegetation greenness, but precipitation and recharge seasonality played a significant role in some basins at some elevations. Major contributions of this work include a better understanding of recharge in a monsoon-dominated basin, the characterization of recharge seasonality at a regional scale, evaluation of an estimation method for recharge seasonality, and an interpretation of the interaction of seasonal hydrologic processes, vegetation dynamics, and climate change.

The farm workers who diligently tend and harvest the US fields and produce is a major component of the agriculture industry. This research explores the current issues and challenges that domestic, seasonal farm workers face through the lenses of embodiment and habitus theory. Narratives and insights from interviews were integrated with current literature to present a complete picture of the cyclical life of the domestic farm worker in San Luis, Arizona. This thesis argues that farm work is a unique profession which has left its mark on the body and the behavior. Those in the border region have added agency due to the opportunities the border presents. As this research highlights, additional attention and research is needed to redesign policies and initiatives to adequately assist and provide for a population that provides so much.

Η δομή των φακιδίων μελετήθηκε κατά τη διάρκεια του έτους με τη χρήση ηλεκτρονικού μικροσκοπίου σάρωσης (Scanning Electron Microscopy – SEM), οπτικού μικροσκοπίου, οπτικού μικροσκοπίου φθορισμού καθώς και με ιστοχημικές τεχνικές. Παρατηρήθηκαν διαφορές μεταξύ των σχηματισμών των δύο υπό έρευνα φυτών. Τα φακίδια της Olea europaea (ελιά) ανήκουν στον τύπο Magnolia, Populus και Pyrus (Esau, 1965). Τα γεμιστικά κύτταρα είναι φελλοποιημένα, όπως προκύπτει από τις ιστοχημικά δεδομένα μας και δεν υπάρχει κανενός είδους καλυπτήριο στρώμα (closing layer). Χαλαρά διευθετημένα, με λεπτά τοιχώματα κύτταρα εναλλάσσονται ετησίως με κύτταρα με παχιά τοιχώματα με μικρότερους μεσοκυττάριους χώρους. Καθ’ όλη τη διάρκεια του έτους, ο φθορισμός της χλωροφύλλης παρατηρήθηκε εντονότερος σε περιοχές του φλοιού παρακείμενες στα φακίδια από ότι σε πιο απομακρυσμένες Τα φακίδια του Cercis siliquastrum (κουτσουπιά) ανήκουν στον τύπο Prunus και Robinia (Esau, 1965). Χαρακτηρίζονται από στιβάδες χαλαρά διευθετημένων, μη φελλοποιημένων γεμιστικών κυττάρων τα οποία καλύπτονται από ένα στρώμα φελλοποιημένων κυττάρων (closing layer). Το στρώμα αυτό σπάζει κατά την αρχή της βλαστητικής περιόδου εξαιτίας της πιέσεως που δημιουργείται από τα υποκείμενα, μη φελλοποιημένα κύτταρα, τα οποία συνεχώς παράγονται από το φελλογόνιο κατά την περίοδο αυτή και αντικαθίσταται από ένα νέο στρώμα που δημιουργείται προς το τέλος της. Αντιστοιχίες παρατηρήθηκαν με την Olea europaea όσον αφορά στο φθορισμό της χλωροφύλλης. / The structure of primary lenticels of the Mediterranean evergreen Olea europaea and the winter deciduous species Cercis siliquastrum was investigated during the year using scanning electron, conventional bright field and epi-fluorescence microscopy. It was revealed that lenticels of O.europaea do not undergo significant structural changes during the year. The filling tissue of O.europaea lenticels consists of fully-suberized cells which form small intercellular spaces. The air-exposed filling cells are replaced during spring and early summer by new early-suberized cells; further remarkable structural modifications during the year were not observed. On the contrary, lenticels of C. siliquastrum possess a closing layer of suberized cells delimiting an underlying mass of non-suberized filling cells. During the period of high metabolic activity of the plant, i.e. during spring and early summer the suberized closing layer is broken from the pressure the underlying newly formed cells exercise. During late summer a new closing layer is formed, delimiting again the non-suberized underlying filling cells during winter. The possible role of lenticels in the gas exchange process is discussed. In both species the shade adapted parenchyma cells of the cortex beneath lenticels shows bright chlorophyll red auto-fluorescence, a phenomenon which is not yet fully understood.

The temporal variation of nematode communities in eight mouth stations of the Mekong River system was investigated in order to compare the change between the dry and the wet season. The nematode data was analysed by multivariate techniques such as SIMPROF, MDS, ANOSIM and SIMPER in the software PRIMER v.6 – PERMANOVA. Our results showed that average dissimi-larity between seasons of the nematode communities in each station was high. Seasonal factor did not affect strongly their distribution pattern. Dominant genera Desmodora and Oncholaimellus usually occurred in the sand stations and Parodontophora and Halalaimus were characteristic for the silty group in both seasons. The spatial variations in this estuarine area have an influence that is larger than seasonal factors. / Sự phân bố theo thời gian của quần xã tuyến trùng sống tự do vùng cửa sông Mekong được nghiên cứu nhằm đánh giá sự khác biệt của chúng trong mùa mưa và mùa khô. Dữ liệu của tuyến trùng được xử lý và phân tích đa biến như SIMPROF, MDS, ANOSIM và SIMPER bằng phần mềm PRIMER v.6 – PERMANOVA. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy sự khác biệt theo mùa trong quần xã tuyến trùng tại mỗi điểm là khá lớn nhưng yếu tố mùa không ảnh hưởng gì tới mô hình phân bố của chúng. Một số giống ưu thế trong nền đáy cát như Desmodora and Oncholaimellus trong khi đó Parodontophora và Halalaimus thích nghi nền bùn sét phù sa vẫn hiễn diện trong cả 2 mùa. Kết quả nghiên cứu cũng cho thấy sự biến động trong không gian ở đây lớn hơn sự biến động về mùa vụ.

This research is based on a detailed description of model building for multivariate time series models. Under the assumption of stationarity, identification, estimation of the parameters and diagnostic checking for the Vector Auto regressive (p) (VAR(p)), Vector Moving Average (q) (VMA(q)) and Vector Auto regressive Moving Average (VARMA(p, q) ) models are described in detail. With reference to the non-stationary case, the concept of cointegration is explained. Procedures for testing for cointegration, determining the cointegrating rank and estimation of the cointegrated model in the VAR(p) and VARMA(p, q) cases are discussed. The utility of multivariate time series models in the field of economics is discussed and its use is demonstrated by analysing quarterly South African inflation and wage data from April 1996 to December 2008. A review of the literature shows that multivariate time series analysis allows the researcher to: (i) understand phenomenon which occur regularly over a period of time (ii) determine interdependencies between series (iii) establish causal relationships between series and (iv) forecast future variables in a time series based on current and past values of that variable. South African wage and inflation data was analysed using SAS version 9.2. Stationary VAR and VARMA models were run. The model with the best fit was the VAR model as the forecasts were reliable, and the small values of the Portmanteau statistic indicated that the model had a good fit. The VARMA models by contrast, had large values of the Portmanteau statistic as well as unreliable forecasts and thus were found not to fit the data well. There is therefore good evidence to suggest that wage increases occur independently of inflation, and while inflation can be predicted from its past values, it is dependent on wages. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2012.

Influenza is a contagious respiratory disease that has caused at least four pandemics and countless epidemics since the 20th century, impacted millions of people worldwide and the global economy. To date, the predominant influenza species circulating in humans are influenza A and B. Influenza may cause serious illness in all age groups but individuals such as the newborns and senior population whose immune systems are compromised are at higher risk for severe disease. Interestingly, during the outbreak of pandemic 2009 H1N1 (H1N1pdm), it was found that the elderly had the lowest hospitalization rate and an increased proportion of healthy adults developed severe disease. Furthermore, several clinical studies have demonstrated that most H1N1pdm infected children experienced mild to moderate illness and led to the least mortality. The difference of disease outcome in age groups between different influenza infections may be due to several factors, which include differing pathogenicity between the viruses, differential immune status and composition among the age groups, and pre-existing immunity from previous encounter(s) with a similar virus. Since the human clinical data are often complicated by secondary factors such as co-morbidities, I used the ferret model to address these questions. I first compared the clinical and pathological patterns among the pandemic and seasonal influenza strains and found H1N1pdm caused the most severe illness to healthy ferrets. Importantly, the disease severity did not correlate with viral burden but immunopathology. To study the age effect, I found that H1N1pdm infected young ferrets with mild clinical symptoms developed specialized ectopic lymphoid structures and a distinct cytokine expression profile in the lungs, which were absent in adult ferrets with severe illness. I also examined antigenic change in historical H1N1s and anti-H1 responses to explain the pre-existing immunity of H1N1pdm found in the elderly. However, low similarity was found between historical H1N1s and H1N1pdm. Lastly, I conducted a detailed influenza B comparative study. I observed the pathogenic B strain was capable to cause lower respiratory tract infection and pathology like the influenza A viruses. Overall, this thesis provides novel insights for developing therapeutic and prophylactic strategies against influenza infection.

The modeling results of current global aerosol models agree, generally within a factor of two, with the measured surface concentrations of black carbon (BC) and sulphate (SF) aerosols in rural areas across the northern continents. However, few models are able to capture the observed seasonal cycle of the Arctic aerosols. In general, the observed seasonality of the Arctic aerosols is determined by complex processes, including transport, emissions and removal processes. In this work, the representations of aerosol deposition processes (i.e., dry deposition, in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging) within the framework of the Canadian Global Air Quality Model – GEM-AQ are first enhanced. Through the enhancements in GEM-AQ, the seasonality of the Arctic BC and SF is reproduced, and the improvement in model performance extends to the rest of the globe as well. Then, the importance of these deposition processes in governing the Arctic BC and SF seasonality is investigated. It is found that the observed seasonality of the Arctic BC and SF is mainly caused by the seasonal changes in aerosol wet scavenging, as well as the seasonal injection of aerosols from surrounding source regions. Being able to reproduce the seasonality of the Arctic BC, the enhanced GEM-AQ allows more accurate assessment of the contributions of anthropogenic sources to the BC abundance in the Arctic air and deposition to the Arctic surface. Simulating results on regional contributions to the Arctic BC show a strong dependence on altitude. The results reinforce the previous finding of Eurasia being the dominant contributor to the surface BC in the Arctic, and suggest a significant contribution from Asian Russia. In addition to the seasonality of the Arctic aerosols, the inter-annual variation in the Arctic BC surface concentration is also investigated. To complement the 3-D GEM-AQ model, the atmospheric backward trajectory analysis, together with estimated BC emissions, is implemented as a computational effective approach to reconstruct BC surface concentrations observed at the Canadian high Arctic station, Alert. Strong correlations are found between the reconstructed and the measured BC in the cold season at Alert between 1990 and 2005, which implies that atmospheric transport and emissions are the major contributors to the observed inter-annual variations and trends in BC. The regional contributions estimated annually from 1990 through 2005 suggest that Eurasia is the major contributor in winter and spring to the near-surface BC level at Alert with a 16-year average contribution of over 85% (specifically 94% in winter and 70% in spring). A decreasing trend in the Eurasian contribution to the Arctic is found in this study, which is mainly due to regional emission reduction. However, the inter-annual variation in the North American contribution shows no clear trend.

The role of weather and climate variability on the health of Aboriginal people in Fort Albany and Toronto, Ontario, Canada is explored through four complementary research studies. The first study examined past temperature trends of Fort Albany (using climate records of Moosonee) and Toronto. Temperature variability was found to be greater in Moosonee than in Toronto, and day to day temperature minimum (Tmin) threshold exceedances of 5 degrees Celsius was found to have significantly declined in both Toronto and Fort Albany. The second study explored the effects of climate change on a rural First Nation group in Fort Albany. Observed environmental changes include changes in the timing of seasons, spring melt and ice freeze-up; warmer seasons, an increase in extreme and unpredictable weather, and changes in animal patterns. These changes have affected subsistence harvesting activities and community infrastructure, which have lead to increased health risks, though many community members have exhibited resiliency and adaptation. The third study compared current health status between an urban Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal group. Urban Aboriginal participants were found to be at greater risk to psychological distress and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) than non-Aboriginal participants. Moreover, those who self-rated their health as poor/fair were more likely to exhibit psychological distress than those who self-rated their health as good/very good/excellent. The fourth study compared the effects of weather and seasonal change among a rural First Nation group, an urban Aboriginal group and an urban non-Aboriginal group. Urban Aboriginal participants were most affected by weather while rural Aboriginal (i.e. First Nation) participants were least affected by weather. These studies demonstrate that both urban and rural Aboriginal groups may be at risk to climate change and weather-related changes; though specific implications may differ due to different lifestyles and capacities to adapt to environmental conditions.