This thesis is a social history of disease and mortality in the American Deep South before the Civil War. Yellow fever attacked the region at epidemic levels every two or three years between 1800 and 1860, killing about eight percent of the urban population, and as many as 20 or 30 percent of recent migrants from Europe. With little epidemiological understanding of mosquito-borne viruses-and almost no public health infrastructure to ameliorate disease-the only real protection from this scourge was to "get acclimated": fall sick with, and survive, yellow fever. About half of all people would die in the acclimating process. By placing the Deep South within an Atlantic disease diaspora uncontained by continental boundaries, the project shifts the fault-lines of the Southern past from North-South political conflicts onto similarly formative but overlooked ecological processes in the Greater Caribbean. Yellow fever and mass mortality are largely absent from the recent historiography on the cotton kingdom and "slave racial capitalism." But as well as being a “slave society,” this thesis suggests the Deep South was also a "disease society": Deep Southerners discussed yellow fever obsessively, worked according to its seasonal schedule, and judged others based on their perceived vulnerability to the disease. Yellow fever, and immunity to it, profoundly shaped the asymmetrical hierarchies of Deep Southern society, with acclimated "immunocapitalist" creoles on top, and unacclimated "foreigners" below. Slavers and their allies argued only intellectually-inferior but naturally-resistant black people could perform the arduous labour of sugar and cotton cultivation in the Deep South, as whites too frequently died. This became the region's chief argument for permanent racial slavery. However, almost every slave revolt in Louisiana coincided with a particularly bad epidemic, suggesting slaves found disease politically intriguing and understood that yellow fever left white society chaotic and vulnerable to attack.

Digenetic trematodes are a common pest problem in aquaculture where their unappetizing appearance often reduces the marketability of food fish. Aquatic snails are intermediate hosts in the trematode lifecycle and are commonly targeted with control measures to prevent the crop fish from becoming infected. I evaluated several chemical and biological snail control strategies as alternatives to the potentially invasive black carp. Copper sulfate, hydrated lime slurry, and several fish and decapod species were tested for effectiveness against physid (Physa spp.) and planorbid (Helisoma spp.) snails in laboratory aquaria trials. Hydrated lime demonstrated effectiveness with the least potential to be toxic to cultured fish in regional application. Hybrid sunfish (redear × green sunfish) consumed large quantities of both snails in ad libitum feedings. The most effective biological (redear × green sunfish) and chemical (hydrated lime) control methods identified in the laboratory were evaluated further in research ponds. Hydrated lime applications of 9.07 kg over 9.14 m2 were found to be effective against Helisoma spp. confined to enclosures along the pond shoreline; average survival was 2%. When stocked in aquaculture ponds, hybrid redear sunfish did not significantly influence snail capture rates; however ponds stocked with redear sunfish experienced a gradual decrease in snail populations throughout the 2008 growing season. Hydrated lime and a combination of redear sunfish and hybrid redear sunfish were evaluated separately and in tandem as a combined chemical/biological treatment in the 2009 growing season. Evaluation occurred under mock production conditions in which hybrid striped bass were raised in the research ponds to determine snail treatment effects on trematode abundance. Ponds stocked with sunfish at 494 fish/ha had snail densities significantly (P ≤ 0.05) lower than control ponds after two months. Ponds treated with hydrated lime at 31.7 kg/31.5 m of shoreline in a 1 m swath experienced 99% estimated reductions in snail densities following application, but snail populations rebounded to previous levels within two months. The mean snail density in ponds treated with both hydrated lime and sunfish was significantly lower than control one month post treatment; this mean rebounded slightly by the conclusion of the trial, but not as much as in the chemical treatment group. Hybrid striped bass examined thoroughly for trematodes revealed a positive relationship between trematode abundance in fish and increasing Helisoma densities. This relationship was most apparent when estimates of snail density from only the beginning of the trial were used. Based on these results, it appears that a nearly complete reduction of Helisoma, particularly at the time of stocking fingerlings, is necessary to avoid a high abundance of trematodes in cultured fish. To this end, an early-season application of molluscicides followed closely by stocking of predator sunfish has potential to achieve a uniformly low density of snails throughout the growing season.

The world’s population is increasing and along with it, the demand for food. A novel parametric model (Volterra Non-linear Regressive with eXogenous inputs (VNRX)) is introduced for quantifying influences of individual and multiple soil properties on crop yield and normalised difference vegetation Index. The performance was compared to a random forest method over two consecutive years, with the best results of 55.6% and 52%, respectively. The VNRX was then implemented using high sampling resolution soil data collected with an on-line visible and near infrared (vis-NIR) spectroscopy sensor predicting yield variation of 23.21%. A hyperspectral imager coupled with partial least squares regression was successfully applied in the detection of fusarium head blight and yellow rust infection in winter wheat and barley canopies, under laboratory and on-line measurement conditions. Maps of the two diseases were developed for four fields. Spectral indices of the standard deviation between 500 to 650 nm, and the squared difference between 650 and 700 nm, were found to be useful in differentiating between the two diseases, in the two crops, under variable water stress. The optimisation of the hyperspectral imager for field measurement was based on signal-to-noise ratio, and considered; camera angle and distance, integration time, and light source angle and distance from the crop canopy. The study summarises in the proposal of a new method of disease management through suggested selective harvest and fungicide applications, for winter wheat and barley which theoretically reduced fungicide rate by an average of 24% and offers a combined saving of the two methods of £83 per hectare.

abstract: Over the past decade, several high-value proteins have been produced using plant-based transient expression systems. However, these studies exposed some limitations that must be overcome to allow plant expression systems to reach their full potential. These limitations are the low level of recombinant protein accumulation achieved in some cases, and lack of efficient co-expression vectors for the production of multi-protein complexes. This study report that tobacco Extensin (Ext) gene 3' untranslated region (UTR) can be broadly used to enhance recombinant protein expression in plants. Extensin is the hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein that constitutes the major protein component of cell walls. Using transient expression, it was found that the Ext 3' UTR increases recombinant protein expression up to 13.5- and 6-fold in non-replicating and replicating vector systems, respectively, compared to previously established terminators. Enhanced protein accumulation was correlated with increased mRNA levels associated with reduction in read-through transcription. Regions of Ext 3' UTR essential for maximum gene expression included a poly-purine sequence used as a major poly-adenylation site. Furthermore, modified bean yellow dwarf virus (BeYDV)-based vectors designed to allow co-expression of multiple recombinant genes were constructed and tested for their performance in driving transient expression in plants. Robust co-expression and assembly of heavy and light chains of the anti-Ebola virus monoclonal antibody 6D8, as well as E. coli heat-labile toxin (LT) were achieved with the modified vectors. The simultaneous co-expression of three fluoroproteins using the single replicon, triple cassette is demonstrated by confocal microscopy. In conclusion, this study provides an excellent tool for rapid, cost-effective, large-scale manufacturing of recombinant proteins for use in medicine and industry. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Plant Biology 2012

Avec plus de 20% de morts annuels dus aux maladies infectieuses, celles-ci restent un sujet majeur de santé publique. Des maladies d’origine virale (ré)émergent suite aux changements environnementaux, climatiques et sociétaux : le virus Ebola, la Dengue ou, plus récemment, le virus Zika. Dans ce contexte, il est donc aujourd’hui crucial de développer des vaccins efficaces et sûrs contre les infections virales émergentes. Ce projet de thèse vise à mettre en place une nouvelle stratégie de production de vaccins vivants atténués ciblant les virus à ARN en travaillant sur le virus de la fièvre jaune (genre Flavivirus). Après une analyse génomique qui a permis d’approfondir une technique de modification des virus appelée « ré-encodage », des mutants de la fièvre jaune ont été produits puis caractérisés in vitro et in vivo. En parallèle, un modèle rongeur de la fièvre jaune a été développé et a permis de tester in vivo à la fois l’innocuité et l’efficacité vaccinale des virus ré-encodés. / Despite recent considerable improvements, infectious diseases remain a major issue for public health, with an estimated 20% of annual deaths caused by infections. Among them, viral diseases (re)emerge following environmental, climatic and societal changes: Ebola, Dengue and Zika viruses have recently been the object of special attention. The development of safe and efficient vaccines against emerging viruses is a major challenge for global public health. This thesis work is in line with this issue. Using the yellow fever virus (YFV, genus Flavivirus) as a model, we tried to define new strategies for the design of live-attenuated vaccines for viral infections prevention. After a genomic analysis that allowed to go further into a procedure for virus modification named “re-encoding”, we generated and characterised both in vitro and in vivo mutant strains of YFV. In parallel, a rodent model was set up to test in vivo both the safety and the protective efficiency of the re-encoded viruses.

This thesis contains brief knowledge about homing and migration in amphibians. In practical part this thesis is studied fidelity and movement yellow-bellied toad (Bomnina variegata) in observed lokality. It is maped relative quantity during four seasons. Habitat preferences of yellow-bellied toad are researched depend on chosen paramerts (maximal depth, area, vegetation). This thesis also devote a pattern maps, special technice for marking amphibians. This method was used for marking individuals of yellow-bellied toad in field experiment.

xi, 153 leaves : ill. Typescript. (Another copy on microfilm is located in Archives) Thesis (PhD.) -- University of Oregon Includes vita and abstract Bibliography: leaves 145-153 University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Biology, Ph.D., 1981

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-47). / Rhithropanopeus harrisii is an introduced Atlantic crab in Coos Bay, Oregon. In Coos Bay, it occurs only in the uppermost estuary where salinities are seasonally low (<1 0/00). Rhithropanopeus occurs at higher salinities in its native range, and tolerates higher salinities in the laboratory. A native crab, Hemigrapsus oregoneos1s, occurs in the estuary, but not as far up into the oligohaline and freshwater zones as Rb1tbcopanopeus. In laboratory experiments, adult Hem1grapsus consume juvenile Rhithropanopeus. Hemjgrapsus is significantly more aggressive than Rhithropanopeus. The absence of juvenile Rhithropanopeus at field sites where both species occur suggests that field interactions may be occurring. Taken together, these results and observations suggest that there may be a dynamic zone in the estuary where the distribution of Rhithropanopeus is restricted by Heroigrapsus. Rhithropanopeus may find a refuge from Hemigrapsus in the oligohaline-freshwater Zones of the estuary, such that Hemigrapsus may be exerting selective pressure on the Rhithropanopeus population favoring freshwater adapted individuals.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-02-16Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:32:43Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 colombi_ca_me_jabo.pdf: 2718311 bytes, checksum: 814080e1f4d6b9968c2ff59b69493771 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O presente trabalho objetivou conhecer a flutuação populacional de moscas-das-frutas (Anastrepha spp. e Ceratitis capitata) e de Triozoida limbata, o efeito do suco açucarado de goiaba e de diferentes concentrações de Moscatex® como atrativo alimentar de tefritídeos, e a evolução do dano de Costalimaita ferruginea e Triozoida limbata em um pomar de goiaba em Jaboticabal/SP. Para o estudo da flutuação populacional das moscas-das-frutas e do efeito dos atrativos alimentares foram empregados quinzenalmente, no período de março de 2005 a junho de 2006, frascos caça-moscas, contendo o atrativo alimentar proteína hidrolisada de milho (Moscatex®) nas concentrações de 1%, 2%, 3% e 3% + suco açucarado de goiaba 50%. Para a observação da evolução do dano de T. limbata e de C. ferruginea foram analisadas quinzenalmente 20 plantas do pomar. Para cada planta foram avaliadas 10 folhas contendo o sintoma do ataque da respectiva praga atribuindo-se uma nota de 1 a 4 de acordo com a porcentagem de dano. Os picos populacionais de Anastrepha spp. observados ocorreram no período frutificação da cultura, sendo mais de 90% dos tefritídeos pertencentes a este gênero. O aumento na concentração de Moscatex®, bem como a adição de suco açucarado de goiaba foi eficiente na captura das moscas-dasfrutas. A densidade populacional do psilídeo aumentou consideravelmente com o surgimento das brotações e apresentou uma correlação positiva com a temperatura. O dano do psilídeo acompanhou a densidade populacional da praga. O dano de C. ferruginea se manteve baixo após a aplicação de inseticida e apresentou uma correlação positiva com a umidade relativa... / The present work aimed to know the populational fluctuation of fruit flies (Anastrepha spp. and Ceratitis capitata) and Triozoida limbata; the effect of the sugary juice of guava and different concentrations of Moscatex® as attractive alimentary of tephritids; and the damage evolution of Costalimaita ferruginea and T. limbata in a guava orchard in Jaboticabal - SP. For the study of the populational fluctuation of fruit flies and the effect of alimentary attractive they were used biweekly, in the period of march of 2005 to june of 2006, traps containing the attractive alimentary protein corn hydrolyzed (Moscatex®) in the concentrations of 1%, 2%, 3% and 3% + sugary juice of guava 50%. For the observation of evolution of the damage of T. limbata and C. ferruginea were analyzed 20 plants of the guava orchard biweekly. For each plant they were appraised 10 leaves containing the symptom of the attack of the respective pest being attributed a note from 1 to 4 in agreement with the damage percentage. The population picks of Anastrepha spp. observed they happened in the period fruitage of the culture, being more than 90% of the tephritids belonging to this gender. The increase in the concentration of Moscatex®, as well as the addition of sugary juice of guava showed efficient in the capture of the fruit flies. The population density of T. limbata increased considerably with the appearance of the sprout and it presented a positive correlation with the temperature. The level of damage of T. limbata accompanied the populational density of the pest. The level of damage of C. ferruginea stayed low after the insecticide application and it presented a positive correlation with the relative humidity... (Complete abstract, click electronic access below)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-05-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:25:27Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santana_ff_dr_jabo.pdf: 724307 bytes, checksum: cc386df6e3dcfb323ff1fbe08a11aa54 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A cajazeira quando propagada por sementes apresenta elevada variabilidade genética quanto ao porte, arquitetura, formato da copa, fenologia da planta, características físico-químicas de folhas e frutos e fase juvenil bastante ampla, características não desejáveis para a exploração comercial desta cultura. O método de seleção massal para escolha de genótipos superiores tem sido utilizado com bastante sucesso em fruteiras. Considerando as poucas informações existentes sobre cajazeira, o grande potencial de exploração agroindustrial que esta fruteira apresenta e a necessidade de se preservar o amplo e ainda pouco conhecido patrimônio genético, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a variabilidade genética entre 113 genótipos de cajazeiras, pés-francos, através da mensuração das características físicas e químicas para identificar possíveis genótipos com potencial superior e características agronômicas adequadas para recomendação de cultivo. Os dados foram submetidos à análise de variância, pelo teste F, teste de Scott-Knot para as características significativas. As análises de agrupamentos foram realizadas utilizando-se programa para estatísticas multivariadas. Os resultados obtidos permitem afirmar que: todos os genótipos estudados apresentaram elevada variabilidade para as características físicas e químicas, confirmando a possibilidade de obtenção e utilização como matrizes, com atributos superiores; as melhores características tecnológicas e físicas dos frutos foram encontradas nos genótipos F18P2, F11P6, F5P3, F4P11, F15P11 e F14P7; os fatores de produção, número de panículas com frutos e o total de frutos por panícula, são determinantes para a seleção de genótipos de cajazeiras e que os genótipos F14P9 e F14P8 apresentaram as melhores características agronômicas para seleção de genótipos com melhor produtividade / The yellow mombin when propagated by seed has high genetic variability of size, architecture, form of canopy, plant phenology, physical and chemical characteristics of leaves and fruits and juvenile phase, undesirable characteristics for commercial exploration of this crop. The method of mass selection in order to choose superior genotypes has been used quite successfully in fruit crops. Considering the little information available concerning the yellow mombin, the large potential for agroindustrial exploration that this fruit has and the need to preserve the broad and still little genetic heritage, this study aims to evaluate the genetic variability between the 113 genotypes of the yellow mombin, seedlings, by measuring the physical, physicochemical characteristics and identify these possible genotypes with higher potential and agronomic traits suitable for cultivation recommendation. The data were subjected to analysis of variance by F test, Scott-Knott test for significant features. The cluster analysis was performed have revealed that all genotypes showed high variability for the possibility of obtaining matrices with superior attributes; the best technological and physical characteristics of fruits were found in F18P2, F11P6, F5P3, F4P11, F15P11 and F14P7 genotypes; factors of production, number of panicles with fruit and total fruit per panicle, are decisive for the selection of yellow mombin genotypes and F14P9 and F14P8 showed the best agronomic traits for selecting genotypes with improved productivity