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Ribeiro, Ana Sofia Ferreira. "" Area Classical Chinese Dietetics Functional Vegetative Foods? "." Master's thesis, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10216/50125.
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Ribeiro, Ana Sofia Ferreira. "" Area Classical Chinese Dietetics Functional Vegetative Foods? "." Dissertação, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10216/50125.
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Landy, Francis P. Porras Rene B. "The utility of making functional Area 39 a branch /." Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 1999. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA376572.
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Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis (Irregular Warfare)) Naval Postgraduate School, December 1999."December 1999". Thesis advisor(s): Gordon H. McCormick. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-102). Also available online.
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Landy, Francis P., and Rene B. Porras. "The utility of making functional Area 39 a branch." Thesis, Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/13446.
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The purpose of this thesis is to suggest that it is time for Functional Area 39 (Psychological Operations/Civil Affairs) to become a branch. We hope to stimulate critical thinking on this issue and illustrate the demands that are presently being placed on the FA 39 community by utilizing the Spectrum of Conflict as a frame of reference. As experienced officers with a vested interest in the future of FA 39, we believe it is important to the future of the Functional Area to take a critical look at where it is and where it appears to be going. Our present degree of reliance on the reserves, we argue, is a sub- optimal long-term solution. Utilizing the Spectrum of Conflict as a model, we illustrate that conflict trends over the past twenty years show a significantly higher incidence of sub-state conflict, with no change in the foreseeable future. This suggests an increased need for soldiers with Special Operations Forces (SOF) related skills. By examining possible alternatives, we provide arguments and illustrate the merits of change. The findings of our analysis lead us to recommend that FA 39 become a branch within the U.S. Army. While it may appear that the organization is healthy, the threat environment and increased OPTEMPO necessitate a need for change.
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Zhang, Wen 1978. "Functional data analysis for detecting structural boundaries of cortical area." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=98531.
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It is widely accepted that the cortex can be divided into a series of spatially discrete areas based on their specific laminar patterns. It is of great interest to divide the cortex into different areas in terms of both neuronal functions and cellular composition. The division of cortical areas can be reflected by the cell arrangements or cellular composition. Therefore, the cortical structure can be represented by some functional neuronal density data. Techniques on functional data analysis help to develop some measures which indicate structural changes.In order to separate roughness from structural variations and influences of the convolutions and foldings, a method called bivariate smoothing is proposed for the noisy density data. This smoothing method is applied to four sets of cortical density data provided by Prof Petrides [1] and Scott Mackey [2].
The first or second order derivatives of the density function reflect the change and the rate of the change of the density, respectively. Therefore, derivatives of the density function are applied to analyze the structural features as an attempt to detect indicators for boundaries of subareas of the four cortex sections.
Finally, the accuracy and limitation of this smoothing method is tested using some simulated examples.
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Stockhammer, Engelbert, Özlem Onaran, and Stefan Ederer. "Functional income distribution and aggregate demand in the Euro-area." Inst. für Volkswirtschaftstheorie und -politik, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, 2007. http://epub.wu.ac.at/346/1/document.pdf.
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An increase in the wage share has contradictory effects on the subaggregates of aggregate demand. Private consumption expenditures ought to increase because wage incomes typically are associated with higher consumption propensities than capital incomes. Investment expenditures ought to be negatively affected because investment will positively depend on profits. Net exports will be negatively affected because an increase in the wage share corresponds to an increase in unit labor costs and thus a loss in competitiveness. Theoretically aggregate demand can therefore be either wage led or profit led depending on how these effects add up. The results will crucially depend on how open the economy is internationally. The paper estimates a Post-Kaleckian macro model incorporating these effects for the Euro area and finds that the Euro area is presently in a wage-led demand regime. Implications for wage policies are discussed. (author's abstract)Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series
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Bennett, Christopher Francis. "Studies on functional organisation within the Aspergillus nidulans areA gene." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/47772.
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Cavaleri, Felicia. "Printing methodologies for functional bioarrays." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/3796.
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In this thesis work, solution dispensing techniques, such as inkjet printing and dip pen nanolithography, have been employed for the realization of high resolution functional bioarrays in order to study intermolecular interactions in confined environments and microarray format.
In particular, inkjet printing was employed for the generation of picoliter-scale aqueous droplets stabilized against evaporation and molecular leakage by oil-confinement with mild surfactants to artificially reproduce scalable cellular-like compartments on a chip, realizing specialized small-volume systems to study the behaviour of interacting biomolecules. In this regards we show an unprecedented solution-based protein-binding assay based on arrays of oil-confined water droplets containing protein targets and labelled ligands. Detection of few molecular binding events in these compartments is obtained by employing the advanced fluorescence fluctuation technique Raster Image Correlation Spectroscopy, here employed to probe protein-ligand interactions in artificial aqueous droplets by mapping concentration and diffusion coefficients of fluorolabeled ligands at nanomolar concentrations with a femtoliter scale resolution. RICS was used for the first time to follow molecular dynamics and binding events within confined and scalable artificial single aqueous droplets. We called this new methodology CADRICS for Confined Aqueous Droplet Raster Image Correlation Spectroscopy.
It also described a novel printing approach to produce, for the first time, stable fL-scale aqueous droplets injected inside mineral oil for studying molecular confinement and crowding effects. We printed fL aqueous droplets into oil drops on solid substrates by a field-free approach, i.e. in absence of external electric fields and electrolytes, in which we designed a novel actuating waveform by picoliter sized nozzles. Printed fL droplets form an almost-regular circular pattern at the border of mineral oil drops, given their negligible frictional force in mineral oil phase; furthermore, molecules in such fL scale compartments form ring patterns at the surfactant/oil interface due to spontaneous adsorption phenomena at the interface which, bring to molecular concentration at the drop border. At the single droplet level, we show that molecular confinement leads to modify solute-solvent and solvent driven solute-solute interactions, resulting to a decreasing of fluorescence lifetime of environment-sensitive molecular systems, such as Streptavidin-Biotin or FITC dye, but not to a significant increasing of local viscosity-sensitive molecules (CCVJ dye) or environment insensitive dyes (Alexa dyes).
Confinement at ring pattern also leads to molecular crowding, likely due to co-adsorption at the aqueous/oil interface of biomolecules and surfactants. We exploit such confinement process by a model DNA molecular machine, finding out that fluorescence signal switching-on is triggered at lower DNA target concentrations with respect to macrovolumes, thus interaction is favored in confined and crowded conditions.
The final part of the thesis is focused on a strategy for the deposition of single-stranded oligonucleotide sequences on two different solid surfaces, glass and nylon, in form of ordered arrays, through Dip Pen Nanolithography, a contact printing method to dispense drops on femtoliter scale on solid supports. The spot size on micrometer and nanometer scales strictly depends on factors such as time of contact between tip and surface, humidity, and viscosity of molecular ink. The immobilized DNA sequence is succesfully hybridized with a complementary sequence labeled with a fluorophore. The resulting double-strand DNA molecule is suitable as specific molecular recognition substrate for human Topoisomerase.
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Zhao, Ruilin 1972. "Functional analysis of middle temporal visual area and its associated behavior." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8084.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard--Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-120).
Our lab's long-term goal is to elucidate the circuitry of the visual cortex, to develop quantitative computational models of neuronal function in the visual cortex, and to establish how these models may relate to visual perception and visually guided behavior. Central to this goal is the analysis of functional architecture, which is crucial to an understanding of how the brain works. In my thesis research, I applied behavioral and microstimulation techniques to demonstrate the causal connections between neural activity and behavior. Understanding these relationships is one of the fundamental issues needed to be addressed in Neurobiology. Specifically, I focused on the functional analysis of the middle temporal visual area (MT) and the behavior associated with it. MT is an extrastriate area that is primarily involved in visual motion processing. A very important function within MT is a segregation of center-surround interactions which plays a critical role in processing visual motion cues. There are two types of motion center-surround interactions in MT neurons: surrounds may reinforce (at wide-field sites) or suppress (at local-motion sites) the centers' directional responses. They are important in representing the initial stages of a functional segregation between wide-field and local-contrast motion processing. To further study the computational model used by the brain to readout sensory information, I conducted microstimulation experiments in MT by changing stimulation amplitudes (from 10/LA to 160tA) and frequencies (from 25Hz to 500Hz). Microstimulation can introduce an additional velocity signal into MT and the pursuit and saccadic systems usually compute a vector average of the visually evoked and microstimulation-induced velocity signals.
(cont.) Increasing either amplitude or frequency generally increases the relative weight of the electrical velocity signal,' with the effects of amplitude being slightly more prominent. In addition, applying higher current fre-quencies appears to preserve the directionality of microstimulation better than does applying higher current amplitudes. With increasing frequencies, the magnitude of the electrical velocity signal either increased or remained constant, while its direction remained consistent. In contrast, increasing current amplitude tended to decrease the magnitude of the signal and increased its variability in direction. This finding is consistent with the idea that large current amplitudes, which presumably activate many MT columns signaling different directions, introduce noise into the behavior. My preliminary results have demonstrated that microstimulation in MT can also introduce an additional positional signal into the saccade system and that this electrical signal is combined with the visually evoked signal through a vector summation mechanism. The direction of this electrical signal is highly correlated with the position of the receptive field relative to the fixation point. To test the notion that the center-surround properties of MT neurons may be important for signaling the relative motion between object and background, we conducted behavioral experiments by using real background motion to simulate the microstimulation experiments at wide-field sites ...
by Ruilin Zhao.
Ph.D.
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Salvo, Eliana. "Identification and functional analysis of genes associated with oncogenesis." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/1491.
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A RMD, mapping at the 6q26-27 region, which harbored a locus of senescence SEN6 was also implicated with tumorigenesis. One cDNA clone mapped within the RMD was recovered, it was a putative novel gene that encodes a protein without any homology with known sequences, named CATP (Cytomembrane-Associated Trafficking Protein). Modifications of its sequence across evolution, especially in Great Apes, were evaluated. Mutational analysis allowed to identify different alleles of the gene. Alleles were analyzed for association with some human pathologies. Functional analysis was performed in S. cerevisiae model, in order to clarify function of catp and the different effects of its alleles on yeast chronological lifespan. catp alleles affect yeast growth in distinguishable ways, moreover they showed different sensitivity to oxidative stress. So far a possible role of catp in senescence and/or tumorogenesis, throught ossidative stress responce and ROS level regulation, has been suggested.
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Dodds, Anna Louise. "Functional analysis of a major nitrogen regulatory protein : AREA of Aspergillus nidulans." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.311142.
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Battiato, Sergio Orazio. "Metal organic chemical vapor deposition of functional fluoride phases." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/3756.
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Inorganic metal fluorides and oxide-fluorides have significant importance in the development of many new technologies, and are impacting various key points of modern life, that is, energy production and storage, microelectronics and photonics, catalysis, automotive, building, etc.
In the past few years, fluoride materials have attracted a great and increasing interest due to their multifunctional properties, such as ferroelectricity, induced ferro/antiferromagnetism, thermal stability, high transparency and low phonon energy.
Currently, the research on multiferroic materials is directed towards Bi-containing perovskite such as BiFeO3 or BiMnO3 and toward both hexagonal and orthorhombic rare-earth manganites such as HoMnO3 and TbMnO3.
Among the few known ferroelectric fluoride crystals, the barium fluoride BaMF4 (M=Mg, Mn, Co, Ni, Zn) phases have recently caught substantial attention in view of their interesting and multifunctional properties.
The BaMF4 multiferroics have been proposed as systems where is possible to incorporate both magnetism and ferroelectricity in the same phase.
The goal of this work is to explore a new class of multiferroic non-oxide based materials, focusing on the class of BaMF4 systems, to widen the range of candidates for magnetoelectric device applications. In addition, fluoride compounds have compelling advantages for many optical applications due to their unique combination of low phonon energy, high UV absorption edge energy, and relatively weak crystal field.
Compared with oxides, fluorides are considered to be efficient hosts for down-conversion (DC) and upconversion (UC) luminescence of rare earth (RE) ions due to their low phonon energies and optical transparency over a wide wavelength range.
The choice of host materials is of great importance in designing lanthanide-based luminescent UC materials for efficient practical applications.
Among the fluorides reported, rare earth (RE) doped NaYF4 and NaGdF4 are considered as the most efficient DC and UC host lattices, and have recently raised increasing attention. Many applications of RE-doped fluorides have been demonstrated, such as lasers, optical communications, display devices, and so on.
On the other hand, trivalent RE-doped MF2 (with M=Sr, Ca, Ba, Cd) compounds are also considered a suitable material characterized by low energy phonons (usually less than 300 cm-1) and large transfer coefficients between the RE ions. In this typology of halide hosts, multiphonon relaxation is thought to be strongly suppressed and therefore efficient UC luminescence can be obtained.
In this context, the present work discusses about some different rare-earth doped fluoride materials based on NaREF4 and MF2 host lattices, which possess physical properties of technological interest. In this study, Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) approaches have been used to fabricate the fluoride phases of interest in form of thin films. A systematic study of precursors suitable for the MOCVD growth of the fluoride films has been addressed. The synthesized films have been characterized from a structural, morphological and compositional point of view.
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Millesi, Salvatrice. "Assembly of Functional Nanostructures for Optical, Electrical or Catalytic Systems." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/3962.
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The aim of this PhD thesis is the fabrication and study of nanostructures showing optical, electrical or catalytic properties in the perspective of applications in different fields of the nanotechnology. An important aspect is represented by the method we used to manufacture these nanostructures. In fact, all synthesized systems are based on the covalent assembly of discrete molecules (organic molecules or inorganic complexes) on inorganic surfaces. The present molecules (building blocks) show interesting properties e.g. optical or catalytic activity, while the substrate materials are appropriate for applications of the final structures in the optoelectronic, microelectronic or catalytic industries.
Often, by changing just the inorganic substrate the same covalently assembled building blocks exhibit different properties and this is an evidence of the fact that single-molecules properties can be affected by the substrate nature upon anchoring. For example, anchoring of optically active molecules such as porphyrins to Si(100) substrates allows to exploit optoelectronic properties while the same porphyrin molecules on SnO2 and TiO2 nanocrystals provide electron injection on the semiconducting surfaces useful for photovoltaics.
Moreover, we also investigated optical active surfaces upon the self-assembly of porphyrin molecules functionalised with luminescent Eu(III) complexes in order to exploit the mutual interaction of systems whose luminescence is based on different mechanisms. In the same context, we functionalised a covalent polystirene film on a quartz substrates with an Eu(III) complex to examine the possibility to obtain tunable light emitting properties useful to transfer optical information.
The covalent assembly of porphyrins and Eu(III) complexes can be applied also to electroactive substrates as CdO, ITO, ZnO, etc. in the perspective of microelectronic applications. For this reason we optimized the deposition of high conducting CdO thin films by a metallorganic chemical vapour deposition route.
Finally, we studied the activity of some (salen)Mn(III) molecules covalently assembled on glass beads in the epoxidation of unfunctionalised prochiral olefins with the aim of increasing the catalytic behaviour upon heterogeneization thus obtaining huge turnover numbers.
In summary the most important achievement of this thesis is to have demonstrated that the covalent assembly of suitable molecules on appropriate inorganic surfaces allows the synthesis of molecular architectures showing unique properties appealing for future technologies.
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Malik, Aqsa. "Functional characterization of T-type calcium channels in area CA3 of the hippocampus." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/55100.
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Calcium (Ca²+) entry through voltage-gated Ca²+ channels in dendrites of hippocampal pyramidal cells (PCs) contributes to synaptic depolarization and activation of downstream pathways that regulate many aspects of synaptic and cellular function. Activated by small depolarizing changes in voltage, T-type Ca²+ channels mediate low-threshold spikes (LTS) that drive the resting membrane potential towards action potential threshold. T-type Ca²+ channels are hypothesized to contribute to subthreshold synaptic depolarization in the CA3 subfield of the hippocampus due to the stratified nature of inputs on CA3 dendrites. While T-type Ca²+ channels are densely expressed in area CA3, their functional characteristics and interactions with postsynaptic receptors are not well understood and LTS have not been reported in CA3 PCs. In Chapter 3, using whole-cell electrophysiology, we demonstrate that LTS in CA3 PCs can be evoked by somatic current injection. LTS were only evoked when 4AP was applied to depress A-type K+ channels. Using specific pharmacological blockers, we show that Cav3.2 channels mediate LTS in CA1 and CA3 PCs. In Chapter 4, using two-photon Ca²+ imaging, we map the subcellular distribution of Cav3.2 channels in hippocampal PCs. Our results show that Cav3.2 channel expression is restricted to the soma and proximal dendrites in CA1 PCs, while Ca²+ influx from Cav3.2 channel activation occurs in distal (>50 μm) regions of CA3 PC dendrites. In Chapter 5, we demonstrate that mAChR stimulation potentiates LTS amplitude and such amplification of Ca²+ influx through Cav3.2 channels is dependent on M-current inhibition. Furthermore, we show that application of t-ACPD causes potent and rapid inhibition of LTS propagation. This inhibition occurs exclusively through mGlu₁ receptors and downstream activation of PKC is necessary for this process. Lastly, in Chapter 6, we show boosting of subthreshold synaptic signals by T-type Ca²+ channels in PCs within area CA3 but not CA1. Taken together, our data identify a new T-type mediated Ca²+ signaling pathway in CA3 PC dendrites that is unlocked by A-type K+ channel blockade, potentiated by mAChR activation, and inhibited by mGluR₁ activation. Furthermore, our study highlights the important involvement of T-type Ca²+ channels in enhancing dendritic depolarization in CA3 PCs.Medicine, Faculty of
Graduate
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Bauduin, Sarah. "Integrating functional connectivity and climate change in the design of protected area networks." Doctoral thesis, Université Laval, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11794/26897.
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Le rapide déclin actuel de la biodiversité est inquiétant et les activités humaines en sont la cause directe. De nombreuses aires protégées ont été mises en place pour contrer cette perte de biodiversité. Afin de maximiser leur efficacité, l’amélioration de la connectivité fonctionnelle entre elles est requise. Les changements climatiques perturbent actuellement les conditions environnementales de façon globale. C’est une menace pour la biodiversité qui n’a pas souvent été intégrée lors de la mise en place des aires protégées, jusqu’à récemment. Le mouvement des espèces, et donc la connectivité fonctionnelle du paysage, est impacté par les changements climatiques et des études ont montré qu’améliorer la connectivité fonctionnelle entre les aires protégées aiderait les espèces à faire face aux impacts des changements climatiques. Ma thèse présente une méthode pour concevoir des réseaux d’aires protégées tout en tenant compte des changements climatiques et de la connectivité fonctionnelle. Mon aire d’étude est la région de la Gaspésie au Québec (Canada). La population en voie de disparition de caribou de la Gaspésie-Atlantique (Rangifer tarandus caribou) a été utilisée comme espèce focale pour définir la connectivité fonctionnelle. Cette petite population subit un déclin continu dû à la prédation et la modification de son habitat, et les changements climatiques pourraient devenir une menace supplémentaire. J’ai d’abord construit un modèle individu-centré spatialement explicite pour expliquer et simuler le mouvement du caribou. J’ai utilisé les données VHF éparses de la population de caribou et une stratégie de modélisation patron-orienté pour paramétrer et sélectionner la meilleure hypothèse de mouvement. Mon meilleur modèle a reproduit la plupart des patrons de mouvement définis avec les données observées. Ce modèle fournit une meilleure compréhension des moteurs du mouvement du caribou de la Gaspésie-Atlantique, ainsi qu’une estimation spatiale de son utilisation du paysage dans la région. J’ai conclu que les données éparses étaient suffisantes pour ajuster un modèle individu-centré lorsqu’utilisé avec une modélisation patron-orienté. Ensuite, j’ai estimé l’impact des changements climatiques et de différentes actions de conservation sur le potentiel de mouvement du caribou. J’ai utilisé le modèle individu-centré pour simuler le mouvement du caribou dans des paysages hypothétiques représentant différents scénarios de changements climatiques et d’actions de conservation. Les actions de conservation représentaient la mise en place de nouvelles aires protégées en Gaspésie, comme définies par le scénario proposé par le gouvernement du Québec, ainsi que la restauration de routes secondaires à l’intérieur des aires protégées. Les impacts des changements climatiques sur la végétation, comme définis dans mes scénarios, ont réduit le potentiel de mouvement du caribou. La restauration des routes était capable d’atténuer ces effets négatifs, contrairement à la mise en place des nouvelles aires protégées. Enfin, j’ai présenté une méthode pour concevoir des réseaux d’aires protégées efficaces et j’ai proposé des nouvelles aires protégées à mettre en place en Gaspésie afin de protéger la biodiversité sur le long terme. J’ai créé de nombreux scénarios de réseaux d’aires protégées en étendant le réseau actuel pour protéger 12% du territoire. J’ai calculé la représentativité écologique et deux mesures de connectivité fonctionnelle sur le long terme pour chaque réseau. Les mesures de connectivité fonctionnelle représentaient l’accès général aux aires protégées pour le caribou de la Gaspésie-Atlantique ainsi que son potentiel de mouvement à l’intérieur. J’ai utilisé les estimations de potentiel de mouvement pour la période de temps actuelle ainsi que pour le futur sous différents scénarios de changements climatiques pour représenter la connectivité fonctionnelle sur le long terme. Le réseau d’aires protégées que j’ai proposé était le scénario qui maximisait le compromis entre les trois caractéristiques de réseau calculées. Dans cette thèse, j’ai expliqué et prédit le mouvement du caribou de la Gaspésie-Atlantique sous différentes conditions environnementales, notamment des paysages impactés par les changements climatiques. Ces résultats m’ont aidée à définir un réseau d’aires protégées à mettre en place en Gaspésie pour protéger le caribou au cours du temps. Je crois que cette thèse apporte de nouvelles connaissances sur le comportement de mouvement du caribou de la Gaspésie-Atlantique, ainsi que sur les actions de conservation qui peuvent être prises en Gaspésie afin d’améliorer la protection du caribou et de celle d’autres espèces. Je crois que la méthode présentée peut être applicable à d’autres écosystèmes aux caractéristiques et besoins similaires.The world is facing worrisome declines in biodiversity. Species extinction rates have increased as a direct consequence of human activities. Protected areas have been implemented around the world in an effort to counter biodiversity loss. Although protected areas are part of the solution, they should be designed systematically in a way to maximize their effectiveness. Enhancing functional connectivity between protected areas is one way to increase their effectiveness. Climate change is disrupting environmental conditions globally. It is a threat to biodiversity that until recently was not often integrated into protected area design. Climate change has been shown to impact species movements, and therefore landscape functional connectivity. Some studies have suggested that enhancing functional connectivity between protected areas can also help species cope with climate change impacts. My thesis presents a methodology to design protected area networks while accounting for climate change and functional connectivity. My study area is located in the natural region of Gaspésie in Québec (Canada). The endangered Atlantic-Gaspésie population of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) was used as the focal species to define functional connectivity. This small population is in long-term decline due to predation and habitat change, but climate change may become an additional threat. First, I built a spatially explicit individual-based model to explain and simulate caribou movement. I used sparse VHF data available at the time of the study to select and parameterize a movement model using a pattern-oriented modeling strategy. My best model reproduced most of the movement patterns defined from the observed data. This model improved the understanding of the movement drivers for the Atlantic-Gaspésie caribou. It also provided spatial estimates of caribou landscape use in the Gaspésie region. I concluded that sparse data were sufficient to fit individual-based models when coupled with a pattern-oriented modeling strategy. Second, I estimated how climate change and conservation activities may impact caribou movement potential. I used the individual-based model to simulate caribou movements in hypothetical landscapes representing the impacts of various climate change scenarios and conservation activities. Conservation activities represented the implementation of new protected areas in Gaspésie, according to the scenario developed by the government of Québec, and the restoration of secondary roads inside protected areas. Climate change impacts on vegetation, as defined in my scenarios, reduced caribou movement potential. Road restoration was able to mitigate these negative effects whereas the implementation of the new protected areas did not improve caribou movement potential. Third, I presented a methodology to design effective protected area networks and proposed new protected areas to implement in Gaspésie to conserve biodiversity in the presence of climate change. I created a large sample of protected area networks expanding the existing network to reach an areal target of 12%. I then calculated an ecological representativeness index and two measures of functional connectivity over time for each network. Functional connectivity measures represented the overall access to the protected areas and the movement potential in them for the Atlantic-Gaspésie caribou. I used movement potential estimates for the current time period and for the future under different climate change scenarios to represent functional connectivity. The protected area network I proposed maximized the trade-off between the three network features I calculated. In this thesis I examined Atlantic-Gaspésie caribou movements under different environmental conditions, including climate change impacted landscapes. These results helped define new protected areas for the Gaspésie region that will protect the caribou population over time. I believe this thesis gives new insights on the Atlantic-Gaspésie caribou movement behavior, as well as on the management actions that could be taken in Gaspésie to improve conservation of caribou and of other species. I believe this methodology could be applied to other ecosystems with similar characteristics and needs.
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Bushnik, Harris Tamara L. "Brain stimulation reward in the lateral preoptic area: An examination of its substrate and functional connectivity to the ventral tegmental area." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6935.
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In order to determine the nature of the hypothesized connection between the lateral preoptic and the ventral tegmental areas, two major experiments were conducted. The first major study consisted of an in-depth mapping of the substrate for self-stimulation in the lateral preoptic area using dorsoventrally moveable electrodes which permitted the testing and characterization of multiple stimulation sites in each subject. Self-stimulation was obtained throughout the lateral preoptic area and compartments 'a' and 'b' of the medial forebrain bundle; the pattern of positive sites was consistent with anatomical descriptions of the trajectory of the medial forebrain bundle. An examination of the period/current tradeoff functions generated at positive self-stimulation sites suggested that the substrate in the lateral preoptic area has a homogeneous distribution that is less dense than that found in the lateral hypothalamus. The next experiment investigated the existence of a direct anatomical connection between the lateral preoptic area and the ventral tegmental area reward neurons using the behavioural adaptation of the collision test. The collision test is a double pulse, two electrode technique based on the axonal conduction failure that occurs when two separate sites in the same axon bundle are electrically stimulated. In this study, nine rats with a total of forty-four pairs of sites were examined. In seven sites the double-pulse effectiveness curves were consistent with the characteristics of transynaptic collision. The unique shapes of collision curves predicted by the transynaptic collision model permit the direction of conduction to be inferred from the matching collision profiles; six of the seven curves were suggestive of a caudorostral direction of conduction, that is, ventral tegmental area to lateral preoptic area. These results do not support the hypothesis that the lateral preoptic area is the location of the cell bodies of origin for the descending reward pathway that courses between the lateral hypothalamus and ventral tegmental area. However, the absence of axonal collision effects or transynaptic collision profiles consistent with a rostrocaudal direction of conduction can not be interpreted to suggest that other patterns of connectivity between the reward neurons in the lateral preoptic and ventral tegmental areas do not exist. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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Wierenga, Cornelia Jeanette. "Functional interactions between interneurons and the pyramidal cell population in the hippocampal CA1 area." [S.l. : Amsterdam : s.n.] ; Universiteit van Amsterdam [Host], 2002. http://dare.uva.nl/document/62915.
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Romans, Amy. "The macroecological distribution of avian functional diversity : environment, extinction risk and protected area coverage." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2014. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/52159/.
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134 bird species have gone extinct since 1500 and more than a fifth are currently threatened or near-threatened. Consequences of biodiversity loss for ecosystems depend on community composition rather than simply species richness, hence interest in functional diversity (FD) - variety of traits that influence ecosystem functioning – has increased. This thesis uses a global set of avian traits and geographic range maps to investigate the macroecological distribution of FD. Old World latitudinal gradients of FD are found to reflect contemporary environment, particularly energy availability. Analyses restricted to sedentary species reveal the importance of migration (e.g. for breeding assemblages a positive association with temperature seasonality explains 6.7% of the variance in FD having accounted for species richness, whereas a negative association explains 21.4% for residents). This is further investigated by comparing seasons across the Palaearctic-Afrotropical flyway, e.g. functional richness (volume of trait space occupied by an assemblage), which ranges from 0 to 0.33, declines by 0.08-0.17 in the northernmost cells in the non-breeding season compared to the breeding season. Some traits increase sensitivity to human disturbance, e.g. habitat breadth, but birds across South and Southeast Asia are used to demonstrate scale-dependence; traits explain 21.4% of the variance in global extinction risk compared to 6.7% for local extinction with diet type more important in the former and use of manmade sites in the latter. Globally, narrow-ranging species are less likely to inhabit protected areas (12% of land surface) and analyses show they are associated with particular regions of trait space (those related to higher habitat strata, feeding at lower trophic levels and smaller body size) compared to better protected, wide-ranging species. By identifying the main environmental correlates of FD, factors associated with extinction risk and current FD protection, these findings could help identify areas at future risk of decreasing delivery of ecosystem processes.
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Bobeva, Albena. "Quantifying the distribution of forest functional types and forest leaf area index in the Alps." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2003. http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=969685106.
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Chenine, Moustafa. "Analyzing Non-Functional Capabilities of ICT Infrastructures Supporting Power System Wide Area Monitoring and Control." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Industriella informations- och styrsystem, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-118443.
Full textAbstract:
The strain on modern electrical power systems has led to an ever-increasing utilization of new information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve their efficiency and reliability. Wide area monitoring and control (WAMC) systems offer many opportunities to improve the real-time situational awareness in the power system. These systems are essen-tially SCADA systems but with continuous streaming of measurement data from the power system. The quality of WAMC systems and the applications running on top of them are heavily, but not exclusively, dependent on the underlying non-functional quality of the ICT systems. From an ICT perspective, the real-time nature of WAMC systems makes them susceptible to variations in the quality of the supporting ICT systems. The non-functional qualities studied as part of this research are performance, interoperability and cyber security. To analyze the performance of WAMC ICT systems, WAMC applications were identified, and their requirements were elicited. Furthermore, simulation models capturing typical utility communication infrastructure architectures were implemented. The simulation studies were carried out to identify and characterize the latency in these systems and its impact on data quality in terms of the data loss. While performance is a major and desirable quality, other non-functional qualities such as interoperability and cyber security have a significant impact on the usefulness of the sys-tem. To analyze these non-functional qualities, an enterprise architecture (EA) based framework for the modeling and analysis of interoperability and cyber security, specialized for WAMC systems, is proposed. The framework also captures the impact of cyber security on the interoperability of WAMC systems. Finally, a prototype WAMC system was imple-mented to allow the validation of the proposed EA based framework. The prototype is based on existing and adopted open-source frameworks and libraries. The research described in this thesis makes several contributions. The work is a systematic approach for the analysis of the non-functional quality of WAMC ICT systems as a basis for establishing the suitability of ICT system architectures to support WAMC applications. This analysis is accomplished by first analyzing the impact of communication architectures for WAMC systems on the latency. Second, the impact of these latencies on the data quali-ty, specifically data currency (end to end delay of the phasor measurements) and data in-completeness (i.e., the percentage of phasor measurements lost in the communication), is analyzed. The research also provides a framework for interoperability and cyber security analysis based on a probabilistic Monte Carlo enterprise architecture method. Additionally, the framework captures the possible impact of cyber security on the interoperability of WAMC data flows. A final result of the research is a test bed where WAMC applications can be deployed and ICT architectures tested in a controlled but realistic environment.QC 20130218
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Ganter, Paul. "Horizontal interneurones in rat hippocampal area CA1 in vitro functional classification of a diverse population." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.270365.
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Van, der Walt Luanita. "Landscape functionality and plant diversity of grassland fragments along an urban-rural gradient in the Tlokwe Municipal area, South Africa / Luanita van der Walt." Thesis, North-West University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/9732.
Full textAbstract:
Urbanisation is an ever-growing global phenomenon which creates altered environments characterised
by increased human habitation, exotic species, impermeable surfaces, artificial structures, landscape
fragmentation, habitat loss, and modified energy– and resource pathways. The vulnerable Rand
Highveld Grassland vegetation unit in the Tlokwe Municipal area, South Africa, has been extensively
degraded and transformed by urbanisation and agriculture. Only 1% of this endangered ecosystem is
currently being actively conserved. Grassland fragments in urban areas are considered to be less
species rich and less functional than their more “natural” counterparts, and are therefore not a priority
for conservation.
In this study the effects of landscape matrix quality on intra patch variables, namely plant species
diversity and functional diversity, and fine-scale biogeochemical landscape function (as determined
by Landscape Function Analysis or LFA) of 30 fragments of the Rand Highveld Grassland vegetation
unit were explored. Four urbanisation measures (percentage urban land cover, percentage grass land
cover, edge density, and density of people), acting as indicators for patterns and processes associated
with urban areas, were calculated for matrix areas with a 500m radius surrounding each selected
grassland fragment to quantify the position of each grassland remnant along an urban-to-rural
gradient. Using the specific urbanisation measures, the grassland fragments were objectively
classified into two classes of urbanisation, namely “rural/peri-urban” and “urban”, to allow for
statistical comparisons between intra-patch variables for grassland remnants exposed to similar
urbanisation pressures. Plant species composition and diversity were determined in the selected
grassland fragments and nine functional traits were described for each species. Plant functional
diversity was determined by five functional diversity indices, namely functional richness, evenness,
divergence, dispersion, and specialisation. Fine-scale biogeochemical landscape function was
determined by executing the LFA method. LFA assesses fine-scale landscape patchiness and 11 soil
surface indicators to produce three main LFA parameters (stability, infiltration, and nutrient cycling),
which indicates how well a system is functioning in terms of resource conservation and soil processes.
Possible relationships between fine-scale biogeochemical landscape function and plant species- and
functional diversity were also investigated. NMDS ordinations and basic statistics were used to
determine trends and effects within the data.
The results indicated that urban grassland remnants had lower mean plant species richness, Shannon
species diversity (significantly), and Pielou species evenness than rural/peri-urban grassland
fragments. Urban grassland fragments also contained significantly higher percentage of exotic
species. Correlations were found between the four urbanisation measures and percentage species of
the total species richness possessing certain functional attributes. This indicated that increased urbanisation may influence the species composition and the occurrence of certain plant traits in the
selected grassland fragments.
Urbanisation seems to have no effect on fine-scale landscape heterogeneity of the selected grassland
fragments. Rural/peri-urban grassland fragments had higher infiltration capacity, nutrient cycling
potential, and total SSA functionality (although not significantly), which may be ascribed to
differences in management practices, such as mowing in urban areas and grazing in rural areas.
Rand Highveld Grassland fragments in the urban landscape matrix of Potchefstroom city are just as
conservable in terms of plant species diversity and functional diversity, as well as on a biophysical
function level involving soil processes than rural/peri-urban grassland fragments. High plant species
diversity and the presence of certain plant traits did not contribute to high soil surface stability,
infiltration capacity, nutrient cycling potential and total soil surface functioning.MSc (Environmental Sciences), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013
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Tullier, Sophie M. "“It Was More About the Functional Area”: Pursuing and Persisting in Student Affairs Community Engagement Positions." The Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366296021.
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Obrart, Alan. "Energy reduction in tertiary education buildings: establishing functional area energy consumption benchmarks using the LLO tool." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/15729.
Full textAbstract:
This research establishes comprehensive and improved energy consumption benchmarks for Australian tertiary education facilities. It examines the audit of energy end use in various functional areas in a sample of tertiary education institutions to identify, control and reduce electrical energy used in typical existing campus buildings. Many Australian universities have data available for energy consumption of their total campus and selected individual whole buildings. However, as the typical tertiary campus is characterised by a large and diversified portfolio of buildings with differing architecture, facades, occupancy and services, energy comparison between buildings does not provide useful information. This differs from energy use and management in general commercial office buildings. Universities also have different disciplines performing different activities that are not directly comparable. For instance, a campus with a medical school or molecular science building (service equipment intensive type) has a different energy use profile from one that does not. This research develops a common tertiary education functional typology within different campus buildings, grouped according to significant architectural features, energy intensity and use, to establish appropriate energy benchmarks for common functional areas such as offices, lecture rooms and laboratories. Assessment of these common functional areas by energy audit allows quantitative comparison between functional areas, and between diverse whole buildings. It also provides a rational basis for establishing performance targets for buildings at the early design stage by aggregation of functional areas. Benchmarking these areas allows energy managers to manage by exception and the benchmarking process enables managers to practise continuous improvement. The knowledge and data from this study enables researchers to focus on those factors that specifically affect energy use for particular activities. This enables building energy managers to discern and rank those major factors that determine energy consumption, allowing them to concentrate their performance efforts on the most energy efficient measures. The benchmarks derived in this study came from audits of 24 buildings at the University of Sydney campus across a five-year period (2009–2014) comprising over 80 distinct functional areas. Using this data, together with local and overseas sources, the LLO functional area energy benchmark tool was developed. LLO is an acronym derived from the surnames of the researcher and two colleagues who discussed the development of the University of Sydney graduate energy audit program in 2009.
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Malinina, Evgenya. "Neurotransmission and functional synaptic plasticity in the rat medial preoptic nucleus." Doctoral thesis, Umeå : Umeå university, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-25874.
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Spampinato, Valentina. "Physico-chemical characterization of ultra thin films of functional supramolecular systems on surfaces." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/939.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this PhD thesis is the development of new metodologies for surface anchoring of molecular and supramolecular systems for applications in molecular electronics and photonics, and for preparation of devices for molecular recognition.
The systems are made up, as usually, of hybrid systems, divided in two parts, a molecular one and a solid support. The molecular part performs the desired function, while the solid support (metal or semiconductor on which the molecules are bound) allows to conjunct its properties with molecular system properties and, moreover, to help the correct orientation of the molecules at the surface.
Such systems were compositionally and structurally characterized by means of surface analysis techniques, as time of flight of secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).
The nodal point of this research work, so, is surface functionalization. Many kind of surface were used, in particular oxides like silicon oxide and quartz (as model systems), transparent semiconductor oxides like indium tin oxide (ITO), and metal surfaces like gold.
Such surfaces were functionalized by means of a bottom up approach, in particular the formation of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM), based on the chemisorpion of molecules bearing suitable functional groups. For oxide surfaces, molecules for SAM formation were characterized by a phosphonate as surface active group, able to form monolayer exploiting zirconium-phosphate-phosphonate (ZP) chemistry. For gold surface, instead, the surface active group was a thiol.
Functional molecules adopted for this purpose, bear a terpyridine group as tail. Such ligand was chosen because the chelant moiety 2,2 :6 ,2 -terpyridine (Tpy) is one of the most exploited because of the very high affinity for bivalent metal ions, and the ability to form stereospecific, achiral, and octhaedrical complexes.
Mono- and bis-terpyridine based metal ion complexes were prepared in order to obtain, by means of a step-wise approach, multilayer systems that can be seen as assembled molecular wires. In particular conjucated polyphenilenic ligands properties were exploited.
Moreover, great efforts were made in order to obtain systems for the construction of devices for molecular recognition. With this aim, attention was focused on gold surface funtionalization to anchor on it, on one hand oligonucleotides chains, on the other hand, supramolecular systems called pseudo-rotaxanes . Oligonucleotide sequences anchoring was carried out in order to have information about the possibility that probe and targed oligonucleotides chains could react depending on them complementarity, studing this process by hybridization directly in situ. Pseudo-rotaxanes assembly, was very interesting because it was possible, for the first time, to carry out complexation of molecular building blocks (host and guest) directly on surface, instead of in solution.
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Simovic, Milos. "Functional Ecology and Ecosystem Services of Urban Trees." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1599128381542917.
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D'Agata, Salvatore Vincenzo. "Design and synthesis of a new polymer: study of supramolecular structure and functional properties." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/1345.
Full textAbstract:
Un nuovo polimero appartenente alla famiglia dei poliarilacetileni, portatore di ramificazioni basate sulla presenza di cavità calix[5]areniche, è stato sintetizzato e caratterizzato. La tecnica della titolazione NMR ha portato a riconoscere la presenza di diverse strutture supramolecolari in soluzione. Le proprietà ottiche degli addotti supramolecolari sono state studiate mediante tecnica di titolazione in Fluorescenza. La tecnica di deposizione per spin coating è stata utilizzata per depositare su Silicio il polimero dotato di differenti network supramolecolari. Studi strutturali allo stato solido sono stati condotti mediante tecniche AFM e XRR ed hanno evidenziato la persistenza delle specie supramolecolari anche allo stato solido. L'influenza della struttura su proprietà elettriche è stata studiata mediante l'uso di diodi che simulano celle solari.
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Sandvik, Ulrika. "Stereotactic functional procedures in the treatment of essential tremor." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för farmakologi och klinisk neurovetenskap, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-49178.
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Background: Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder. In cases resistant to pharmacological treatment, functional stereotactic neurosurgery can be an alternative. Lesional surgery has largely been replaced by deep brain stimulation (DBS). The current target of choice is the ventrolateral thalamus (Vim). Vim DBS has generally shown good results, but in some cases it is associated with a suboptimal effect as well as side effects. DBS in the posterior subthalamic area/caudal zona incerta (PSA/cZi) has recently shown promising effects. Recently the role of lesional therapy in selected cases has been discussed. Aim: The aim is to evaluate stereotactic functional procedures in the treatment of ET, with special emphasis on PSA DBS. Further the effects of DBS in the PSA are evaluated. The optimal target is also assessed by evaluating the effect of Vim and PSA DBS in relation to the position of the electrode. An attempt to identify patient-specific factors of prognostic importance for the outcome after DBS will be made. The quality of life (QoL) of patients treated with PSA DBS for ET will be assessed. Finally, the aim is also to analyze retrospectively the long-term outcome of lesional procedures (thalamotomies). Method: The thesis consists of five studies. The optimal electrode location is evaluated in a study analyzing the location of the electrode contact yielding the best effect in Vim DBS and PSA DBS groups. The efficacy of PSA DBS in 21 patients is evaluated in a prospective study. The correlation between outcome, age, tremor grade and gender is established in a prospective study consisting of 68 patients. Finally, the degree of improvement in QoL is determined in 16 patients operated on in the PSA. The very long-term effect of lesional surgery has been investigated in a retrospective study of nine patients who have undergone thalamotomy. Results: In the study of PSA DBS the total score on the Essential Tremor Rating Scale (ETRS) was reduced by 60% compared to the baseline value. Tremor of the arm was improved by 95%. The study evaluating the optimal contact location showed that the best effect was in the PSA in 54% and in the Vim in 12%. The efficacy of DBS was not related to age, gender, or the severity of tremor with regard to the percentage reduction of tremor on stimulation. In patients with a more severe tremor at baseline, a higher degree of residual tremor on stimulation was seen. With regard to QoL, the activities of daily living (ADL) according to the ETRS score were significantly improved, as well as according to the ADL and psychosocial subscores on the Questionnaire for Essential Tremor (QUEST) scale. No significant changes were found on the generic Short Form (SF-36) QoL scale. Thalamotomy had some positive effects, but also a significant amount of side effects that might be attributed to the surgery. Conclusions: The effect of PSA DBS was very satisfying and compares well with the results from Vim DBS. When both Vim and PSA DBS are considered, the optimal target seems to be located in the PSA. PSA DBS shows good results in improving ADL, but the results have been difficult to demonstrate on QoL scales. The efficacy of DBS could not be shown to be associated with gender or age. Nor was it associated with the severity of tremor regarding the percentage of tremor reduction on stimulation. The preoperative severity of tremor was the most important factor regarding outcome following DBS. With regard to thalamotomies, some possible remaining benefit of the surgery could be seen along with some severe side effects.
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Rizza, Giorgio. "Citrus Limonoids: Functional Chemicals in Agriculture and Foods." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/4026.
Full textAbstract:
The search for limonoids started long back when scientists started looking for the factor responsible for bitterness in citrus. Studies showed that limonoids are highly oxygenated, modified terpenoids and have recently attracted attention because compounds belonging to this group have exhibited a range of biological activities like insecticidal, insect antifeedant and growth regulating activity on insects as well as antibacterial, antifungal, antimalarial, anticancer, antiviral and a number of other pharmacological activities on humans.
Based on this premise this paper has focused on technological, healthful and chemical aspects of the limonoids.
-TECHNOLOGICAL APPROACH:
Based on a project titled Enhancement of bioactive compounds isolated from agro-industrial wastes financially supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, a Sicilian juice company wanted to assess the possibility of transforming the waste by-product of citrus processing (pastazzo) in a resource trying to turn it into dietary fiber. To do that, the company has inserted a debittering line to the plant using an alkaline aqueous solution in order to extract flavanones and limonoids.
In the present paper the operational conditions of debittering were evaluated and optimized by determining the limonin content of samples from various stages of fiber production; It was also verified if the recovery of limonin extracted was economically viable.
-HEALTHFUL AND ORGANOLEPTIC CHARACTERISTICS:
It has been established that U.S. producers are turning to organic farming system as a potential way to lower input costs, decrease reliance on nonrenewable resources, capture high-value markets at premium price, and boost-farm income. Organic production agriculture is characterized by inputs of biologically (non-synthetic) based fertilizers and pest management practices that are sustainable.
In order to understand if the market source contributes to differences in bioactives content, the bio-actives content of fruits obtained from farmers' markets was compared to the content found in fruit purchased from retail grocery stores. Organoleptic properties, including Brix, TTA, color and pH were measured. Limonin, ascorbic acid and flavanoid contents were also determined.
-SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FUNCTIONAL COMPOUNDS:
Ehrlich s reagent, p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DMBA) in hydrochloric acid, has a long history and is known as the coloring reagent of pyrrole. 2,3.
When a solution of limonoids is treated with p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde in acid environment the solution immediately change to red-purple until dark blue. This reaction has named Ehrlich s reaction and the purple coloring is probably due to the presence of an adduct compound with an electron-rich trisubstituted furan ring.
In order to determine the structure of the limonin-DMBA and limonin glucoside-DMBA adducts, both compounds have been synthesized, purified and characterized. This project involves synthesis of the target compounds. MS analysis were conducted for the characterization of the isolated products.
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Santorufo, Lucia. "Effects of land use transformation on microarthropod community structure in Mediterranean area." Thesis, Université de Lorraine, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013LORR0086/document.
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Les effets des activités humaines sur la qualité et le fonctionnement des sols ont été évalués. En complément de biotests effectués au laboratoire, la composition et les changements de structure des communautés d'arthropodes en sols urbains ont été analysés, afin de comprendre l'influence de la contamination métallique sur les organismes du sol. Par ailleurs, une comparaison entre les sols urbains, agricoles, industriels et forestiers a été réalisée, à travers l'analyse de la composition en espèces et des traits fonctionnels des collemboles. Les analyses de la communauté d'organismes du sol a été réalisée deux fois par an pour évaluer le rôle de la saisonnalité. Les différentes activités anthropiques, qui provoquent des changements au niveau de la couverture végétale, de la quantité de matière organique et de l'accumulation d'éléments et de composés dangereux, altèrent principalement les sols agricoles et urbains. En environnement urbain, les abondances d'organismes du sol ont été fortement réduites pour les niveaux élevés de contamination métallique, tandis que la teneur en matière organique et les conditions climatiques ont joué le rôle principal pour les niveaux de contamination faible et intermédiaire. La communauté des collemboles a montré une forte réduction de la diversité en espèces dans les sols agricoles. La distribution des traits fonctionnels des Collemboles a été principalement influencée par la présence et le type de litière et les apports de contaminants. En particulier, le milieu agricole a favorisé les organismes adaptés à la vie en surface, alors que les sols forestiers ont favorisé les organismes présentant des caractéristiques euedaphiques. Les sols industriels et urbains ont montré la présence d'organismes avec des caractéristiques à la fois épiedaphiques et euedaphiquesThe effects of human-mediated activities on soil quality and functioning have been assessed. Composition and changes in arthropod community structure and laboratory bioassays were performed on urban soils in order to understand the roles of metal contamination on soil organism activities and distribution. Then, comparison of urban, agricultural, industrial and forest soils were performed, monitoring Collembola species and functional traits composition, in order to assess if the impact of urban environment is greater than other kinds of anthropization. Soil organism community was analysed twice a years for evaluating the role of seasonality on anthropic impacted soils. The different kinds of anthropization firstly affected the abiotic properties of the sites. Agricultural and urban soils were the most impacted soils by human activities, which cause changes in vegetation cover, organic matter amounts and accumulation of hazardous elements and compounds. Soils organisms responded to soil abiotic modifications. In particular, in urban environment soil organisms were strongly reduced at high level of metal contamination, whereas organic matter content and climatic conditions played the main role at low-intermediate soil contamination. Collembola community showed a strong reduction in species richness in agricultural soils, with a consequent domination of few tolerant species. Collembola functional trait distribution was mainly affected by the presence and the type of litter and inputs of contaminants. In particular, agricultural environment favoured organisms with traits adapted to soil life surface, whereas forest soils favoured organisms with euedaphic characteristics. Industrial and urban soils showed organisms with both epiedaphic and euedaphic characteristics
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Kaufmann, Anna-Kristin. "Functional properties of the intact and compromised midbrain dopamine system." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8769a453-aa91-4509-b06e-48f25e88f15a.
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The midbrain dopamine system is involved in many aspects of purposeful behaviour and, when compromised, can have devastating effects on movement and cognition as seen in diseases like Parkinson's. In the healthy brain, dopamine neurons are thought to play particularly important roles in learning by signalling errors in reward prediction. The objective of this thesis was to investigate the diversity in the functional properties of the midbrain dopamine system, and how this is altered through genetic variation of relevance to Parkinson's and development of cell phenotype. This objective was addressed with a combination of behavioural experiments, in vivo single-cell recording and labelling (both in anaesthetised as well as awake rodents), immunofluorescence labelling, retrograde tracing and stereology. In a first set of experiments, it was demonstrated that chronic as well as acute genetic challenges can alter the firing patterns of midbrain dopamine neurons. Using a novel bacterial artificial chromosome-transgenic rat model, it was shown that the R1441C mutation in human leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, which is linked to Parkinson's, leads to motor deficits and an age-dependent reduction in the in vivo firing variability and burst firing of substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) dopamine neurons. These findings help reveal processes of early, pre-degenerative dysfunction in dopamine neurons in Parkinson's. Similar effects on firing variability and burst firing of SNc dopamine neurons were found in a mouse model with conditional knock- out of the transcription factors Forkhead box A1 and A2 (FoxA1/2) in midbrain dopamine neurons. These findings indicate that FoxA1/2 are not only crucial for the early development of dopamine neurons, but also their function in the mature brain. In a second set of experiments in wildtype mice, it was demonstrated that midbrain dopamine neurons (located in SNc and ventral tegmental area) show diverse expression of the molecular markers Calbindin, Calretinin, Aldh1a1, Sox6, Girk2, SatB1 and Otx2. It was found that selective expression of these markers is of use for discriminating between midbrain dopamine neurons that project to dorsal striatum or nucleus accumbens. To elucidate whether the diverse molecular marker expression would map onto dopamine neurons whose firing correlates with distinct behavioural events, midbrain dopamine neurons were recorded and labelled in head-fixed awake mice either exposed to neutral sensory stimuli or performing a classical conditioning paradigm. The population activity of midbrain dopamine neurons was not modulated by neutral sensory stimuli. Interestingly, fewer than 50% of identified dopamine neurons showed phasic firing increases following reward- predicting cue and/or reward delivery, despite the common assumption that most (if not all) midbrain dopamine neurons signal reward prediction errors. Instead, firing was modulated by other explanatory factors, such as licking, or showed no modulation during the task. Response types of midbrain dopamine neurons were not correlated with their anatomical location nor the selective or combinatorial expression of the markers Aldh1a1, Calbindin and Sox6. In conclusion, the first set of experiments identified how different genetic burdens can alter the in vivo firing of midbrain dopamine neurons, and provide new insights into how circuits can change in pathological or compensatory ways at early disease stages in Parkinson's. The second set of experiments revealed striking heterogeneity of midbrain dopamine neurons in the intact system, and established further a functional diversity in the response types of identified midbrain dopamine neurons that is only partially consistent with canonical reward prediction error signalling.
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Pino, Alessandra. "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG: a versatile probiotic species for foods and human applications." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/4004.
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The research described in this thesis aims to study the versatility of probiotic strains belonging to the Lactobacillus rhamnosus species in order to make renewed probiotic foods and to formulate clinical strategy to restore homeostasis condition in different human ecosystems. To these ends L. rhamnosus H25 strains, belonged to the D3A collection and previously isolated from Pecorino Crotonese cheese, was studied in order to evaluate functional foods feasibility. In addition, to study the usefulness of probiotic administration in human, the ability of L. rhamnosus GG strain to restore vaginal and intestinal ecosystems homeostasis was studied
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Berman, Daniel. "From Photons to Photos: Mapping Functional and Organizational Properties of Human Visual Cortex with fMRI." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1422972281.
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Bravo, Avila Catherine Heidy. "Root:Shoot Ratio and Specific Leaf Area Along an Elevational Gradient in the Peruvian Andes." FIU Digital Commons, 2013. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/884.
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Andean montane forests are one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, but are also highly vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, the link between plant distribution and ecosystem productivity is a critical point to investigate in these ecosystems. Are the patterns in productivity observed in montane forest due to species turnover along the elevational gradients? Methodological constraints keep this question unanswered. Also, despite their importance, belowground biomass remains poorly quantified and understood. I measured two plant functional traits in seedlings, root:shoot ratio and specific leaf area, to identify different strategies in growth and biomass allocation across elevations. A tradeoff in specific leaf area with elevation was found in only one species, and no generalized directional change was detected with elevations for root:shoot ratio. Lack of information for the ontogeny of the measured plant traits could confounding the analysis.
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Buzzard, Vanessa, Catherine M. Hulshof, Trevor Birt, Cyrille Violle, and Brian J. Enquist. "Re-growing a tropical dry forest: functional plant trait composition and community assembly during succession." WILEY-BLACKWELL, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621413.
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1. A longstanding goal of ecology and conservation biology is to understand the environmental and biological controls of forest succession. However, the patterns and mechanisms that guide successional trajectories, especially within tropical forests, remain unclear. 2. We collected leaf functional trait and abiotic data across a 110-year chronosequence within a tropical dry forest in Costa Rica. Focusing on six key leaf functional traits related to resource acquisition and competition, along with measures of forest stand structure, we propose a mechanistic framework to link species composition, community trait distributions and forest structure. We quantified the community-weighted trait distributions for specific leaf area, leaf dry matter concentration, leaf phosphorus concentration, leaf carbon to nitrogen ratio and leaf stable isotopic carbon and nitrogen. We assessed several prominent hypotheses for how these functional measures shift in response to changing environmental variables (soil water content, bulk density and pH) across the chronosequence. 3. Increasingly, older forests differed significantly from younger forests in species composition, above-ground biomass and shifted trait distributions. Early stages of succession were uniformly characterized by lower values of community-weighted mean specific leaf area, leaf stable nitrogen isotope and leaf phosphorus concentration. Leaf dry matter concentration and leaf carbon to nitrogen ratio were lower during earlier stages of succession, and each trait reached an optimum during intermediate stages of succession. The leaf carbon isotope ratio was the only trait to decrease linearly with increasing stand age indicating reduced water use efficiency in older forests. However, in contrast with expectations, community-weighted trait variances did not generally change through succession, and when compared to null expectations were lower than expected. 4. The observed directional shift in community-weighted mean trait values is consistent with the 'productivity filtering' hypothesis where a directional shift in water and light availability shifts physiological strategies from 'slow' to 'fast'. In contrast with expectations arising from niche based ecology, none of the community trait distributions were over-dispersed. Instead, patterns of trait dispersion are consistent with the abiotic filtering and/or competitive hierarchy hypotheses.
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Merry, Adrienne. "Socio-cultural aspects of functional regionalization in the cross-border area between Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia (SCAFRB)." Thesis, Lille, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018LIL1A025.
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Une nouvelle régulation macroéconomique et socio-économique dans la région centrale des Balkans conduisant à accélérer la croissance économique est à la fois nécessaire et possible. À partir d'une revue de littérature sur les différentes théories des développements macroéconomiques et en particulier les théories de la localisation, cette étude montre que du point de vue de la plupart des démocraties occidentales la région centrale des Balkans est toujours une région très instable en Europe. Une régionalisation fonctionnelle des Balkans est une énigme du point du développement, aussi bien pour les Balkans que pour l'Europe. De plus, pour l'Europe le défi est de former une communauté fonctionnelle dans une zone composée d'un grand nombre de communautés nationales qui ont connu des conflits nationaux très intense ces dernières décennies et dont les traces sont toujours très présentes aujourd'hui. Le défi pour les instances gouvernementales et de gestion des communautés locales est de savoir comment construire une transition viable pour passer d'une communauté qui dysfonctionne sur le plan socioculturel a un système intègre un système intégré et fonctionnel permettant un développement socioculturel et économique. L'étude analyse les forces et faiblesses d'une région particulière des Balkans, la région des montagnes du Sharr, et les possibilités de mettre en place une coopération transfrontalière entre différentes cités de manière à catalyser le développement socio-économique. Plusieurs projets auxquels a participé l'auteur de l'étude sont présentés. Les enjeux sont importants et les défis très incertainsNew social-economic macro-regionalization in the Central Balkans, leading to accelerating the pace of economic growth in the monitored area, is both necessary and possible. From a review of the literature it is clear that in the view of most western democracies the Central Balkans still remains the most unstable region in the western world. Functional regionalization of the Balkans is a developmental enigma for the Balkans as well as for Europe. Secondly, for Europe, the challenge is to form a functioning community originally in an area composed of a number of different national communities that have recently been in the most harmful national conflict. The challenge of local government community is how best to construct a viable transition from a dysfunctional socio-cultural community to an integrated functional global socio-cultural system.The study analyses the strengths and weaknesses of a particular Balkan area, the Shaar Mountains area, and the possibilities to set up trans-borders cooperation between several cities in order to enhance socio-economic development. Several projects the author has participated to are presented. The stakes are high, and the challenges still uncertain
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Leggio, Loredana. "Functional analysis of two alternative transcripts from porin1 gene of Drosophila melanogaster and involvement of corresponding 5'UTR sequences in the translation control." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/3935.
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VDAC (Voltage Dependent Anion-selective channel) is a voltage-dependent anion selective channel, a pore forming protein located in the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) of all eukaryotic organisms. This protein allows the passage of nucleotides, ions and small metabolites between cytosol and mitochondria. VDAC has a beta-barrel structure with its N-terminal forming an a-helix inserted into the pore and involved in the gating process. VDAC takes a maximum open state at voltage around 0mV; while at voltages greater than 20mV, for positive and negative values, VDAC switches to a closed state. The crucial role of this channel is dictated by its strategic position, able to interact with many enzymes, proteins or metabolites directly or indirectly involved in several cellular pathways, explaining thus its involvement in many diseases. In Drosophila melanogaster the gene encoding for the principal isoform of VDAC is porin1,which is made up by five exons, of which exon 1A and exon 1B, being 5 UTR sequences, are alternative between them. In fact, by means an alternative splicing process two transcripts are produced containing at the 5 -end or the exon 1A or the exon 1B, followed by the same coding sequence. The alternative transcripts 1A-VDAC and 1B-VDAC are produced in all developmental stage of fly and in any tissue. Thanks to a previous work from our team we know that 1B-VDAC transcript is unproductive because it is not translated. This result allowed us to speculate about a different cellular function for this 1B-VDAC transcript, respect the canonical 1A-VDAC mRNA.
Considering all data known, the main objectives of my thesis work were: 1) understanding the molecular mechanisms responsible of the failing of 1B-VDAC mRNA translation; 2) investigate about the meaning in D. melanogaster of the alternative unproductive 1B-VDAC mRNA. Using several organism models, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae Dpor1, HeLa cells and Drosophila melanogaster embryonic SL2 cell, we obtained important results that allow us to formulate the following hypothesis: the inhibitor role played by the 5 UTR 1B sequence on translation in yeast is probably associated to the action of specific RBPs able to bind the inner sequence 16-31. In yeast this mechanism is itself sufficient to guarantee the translational repression of the coding sequence of a gene reporter as well as the full-length mRNA of porin1 gene, demonstrating in this way that the 5 UTR 1B contains all necessary information for inducing inhibition of protein synthesis in yeast; in Drosophila the 3 UTR sequence of 1B-VDAC transcript is indispensable for carry out the translational repression mechanism of the same transcript. In fly indeed, the 1B-Luc construct is never expressed while the same 5 UTR-1B fused to the porin1 coding sequence does not influence translation of the same porin; the 5 UTR 1A represents in general a sequence able to amplify translation of any coding sequence fused to it. Indeed, fusing the 5 UTR 1A with coding sequences of gene reporters we obtained always a noticeable increase in the expression of the relative protein. This effect is not detectable in fly cells where, after transfection with the heterologous transcript 1A-porin, an increase of the endogenous amount of VDAC protein is not obtained. In Drosophila the 3 UTR sequence of 1A-VDAC transcript plays probably a role in controlling endogenous levels of VDAC. Indeed, by transfecting fly cells with the 1A-VDAC transcript which does not contain the 3 UTR sequence, the VDAC protein is only weakly translated.
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Molin-Juustila, T. (Tonja). "Cross-functional interaction during the early phases of user-centered software new product development: reconsidering the common area of interest." Doctoral thesis, University of Oulu, 2006. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9514280458.
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Abstract
Applying the principles of user-centered development (UCD) in software development practice is not straightforward. In technology-push type software product development it is not clear how to match the new product innovation to the future needs of potential future users. Intensive collaboration between different organizational functions becomes essential. UCD provides valuable tools and practices as learning mechanisms both for users and for the company. The purpose of cross-functional interaction is to iteratively define the best possible market for the emerging new product. This study investigates cross-functional interaction during the early phases of a new software product. The roots of UCD are in traditional software engineering (SE). However, in a software product company it is necessary to take a broader new product development (NPD) perspective.
The results indicate that the early phases of software NPD are actually a collaborative learning process in which representations of the new product are built iteratively, increasing multidisciplinary knowledge related to the evolving shared object of development. The cross-functionally shared object is more than the new software product. It is an emerging new vision for the whole new business area. Both the product and its users-customers-market develop iteratively. Traditionally this is considered to happen through communication within a cross-functional NPD team. Rather than one cross-functional team effort, software NPD seems to be a network of cross-functional activities. Furthermore, in software NPD practice the development of the new business unit may actually overlay the more established business organization. This has not been visible enough, and part of the problems with cross-functional interaction may be due to confusion between these two activity systems during every-day practices. Different mediating representations of the multidimensional object knowledge become crucial.
The study starts with a summary of a three-year process improvement effort in one case company, providing the basis for theoretical reflections and analytical generalizations. SE and NPD literature is reviewed to situate the case within current theoretical understanding. The findings are synthesized using concepts from cultural-historical activity theory. This study will hopefully provoke the rethinking of some of the current taken-for-granted issues related to the management of new emerging software product businesses.
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Been, Laura E. "Dissociated Functional Pathways for Appetitive and Consummatory Reproductive Behaviors in Male Syrian Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/neurosci_diss/4.
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In many species, including Syrian hamsters, male reproductive behavior depends on the perception of odor cues from conspecifics in the environment. Volatile odor cues are processed primarily by the main olfactory system, whereas non-volatile cues are processed primarily by the accessory olfactory system. Together, these two chemosensory systems mediate appetitive reproductive behaviors, such as attraction to female odors, and consummatory reproductive behaviors, such as copulation, in male Syrian hamsters. Main and accessory olfactory information are first integrated in the medial amygdala (MA), a limbic nucleus that is critical for the expression of reproductive behaviors. MA is densely interconnected with other ventral forebrain nuclei that receive chemosensory information and are sensitive to steroid hormones. Specifically, several lines of evidence suggest that MA may generate behavioral responses to socio-sexual odors via functional connections with the posterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and medial preoptic area (MPOA). It is unknown, however, how these three nuclei act as functional circuit to adaptively regulate appetitive and consummatory reproductive behaviors. Therefore, the overarching goal of this dissertation was to determine how BNST and MPOA function, both uniquely and as a circuit with MA, to generate attraction to female odors and copulatory behaviors in male Syrian hamsters. We found that BNST is required for attraction to female odors, but not for copulation, in sexually-naïve males. In contrast, MPOA is required for both attraction to female odors and for copulation in sexually-naïve males. Surprisingly, prior sexual experience mitigated the requirement of BNST and MPOA for these behaviors. Next, we found that MA preferentially transmits female odor information to BNST and to MPOA, whereas BNST relays female and male odor information equivalently to MPOA. Finally, we found that the functional connections between MA and BNST are required for attraction to female odors but not for copulation, whereas the functional connections between MA and MPOA are required for copulation but not for attraction to female odors. Ultimately, these data may uncover a fundamental mechanism by which this ventral forebrain circuit regulates appetitive and consummatory reproductive behaviors across many species and modalities.
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Giovannardi, Gianmarco. "Geometric properties of 2-dimensional minimal surfaces in a sub-Riemannian manifold which models the Visual Cortex." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2016. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/11473/.
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In this paper we study the notion of degree forsubmanifolds embedded in an equiregular sub-Riemannian manifold and we provide the definition of their associated area functional. In this setting we prove that the Hausdorff dimension of a submanifold coincides with its degree, as stated by Gromov. Using these general definitions we compute the first variation for surfaces embedded in low dimensional manifolds and we obtain the partial differential equation associated to minimal surfaces. These minimal surfaces have several applications in the neurogeometry of the visual cortex.
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Scalone, Danilo. "Studio e Caratterizzazione di alcuni prodotti tipici Mediterranei in termini di Qualità e funzioni Salutistiche." Doctoral thesis, Università di Catania, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10761/1402.
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L importanza e lo stretto legame del binomio alimentazione e buona salute è sottolineata dall Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità (OMS) che considera nutrizione adeguata e salute diritti umani fondamentali. L alimentazione è uno dei fattori che maggiormente incidono sullo sviluppo, sul rendimento e sulla produttività delle persone, sulla qualità della vita e sulle condizioni psico-fisiche con cui si affronta l invecchiamento. Inoltre una dieta corretta è un validissimo strumento di prevenzione per molte malattie e di trattamento per molte altre.
Le abitudini alimentari caratteristiche dell area del mediterraneo sono state costantemente associate a una bassa incidenza di malattie cardiovascolari e tumorali (Willet et al.1995; Trichopoulou et al., 2004).
Le proprietà salutari dei prodotti mediterranei hanno raggiunto oggi un alto livello di riconoscimento, la ricerca al giorno d oggi è rivolta verso diversi alimenti singoli: cereali, frutta, vegetali, olive e dei loro principali componenti tipo fibre, vitamine e polifenoli (Visioli et al., 2002).
Il contributo apportato dai singoli micronutrienti sulle attività protettive, permette di mettere a fuoco delle linee guida alimentari di certi alimenti e la possibilità di formulare alimenti funzionali e nutraceutici.
Il lavoro del dottorato di ricerca si è basato sulla selezione di due prodotti tipici dell area del mediterraneo il fico d india e le mandorle in termini di qualità e funzioni salutistiche .
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Borbas, Zoltan. "Characterisation of the structural and functional properties of subsidiary atrial pacemakers in a goat model of sinus node dysfunction." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/characterisation-of-the-structural-and-functional-properties-of-subsidiary-atrial-pacemakers-in-a-goat-model-of-sinus-node-dysfunction(56e73040-f88e-4e14-942e-553b8d90d779).html.
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The sinus node (SN) is the natural pacemaker of the heart. In the human, the SN is surrounded by the paranodal area (PNA), the function of which is currently unknown. The PNA may act as subsidiary atrial pacemakers (SAP) and become the dominant pacemaker during sinus node dysfunction (SND). Creation of an animal model of SND allows characterisation of SAP, which can be a target for novel treatment strategies other than the currently available electronic pacemakers. I developed a large animal model of SND by ablating the SN in the goat and validated it by mapping the location of the newly emergent SAP. Functional characterisation of the SAP revealed reduced atrioventricular (AV) conduction time consistent with a location of the SAP close to the AV junction. SAP recovery time showed an initially significant prolongation compared to the SN recovery time, followed by a gradual decrease over 4 weeks. SAP pauses, and temporary reliance on electronic pacemaker activity have also been demonstrated then disappeared over time, suggesting possible modulation, maturation of the SAP. Structural characterisation of the SN revealed an extensive pacemaking complex within the right atrium (RA); the SN was surrounded by the PNA, extending down to the inferior vena cava (IVC) and into the interatrial groove. The PNA had a histological appearance that is intermediate to the SN and the RA. 3D reconstruction demonstrated, for the first time in a large animal model, an extensive and almost complete circle of pacemaking tissue at the junction of the embryologically different sinus venosus and the muscular right atrium. The SAP emerged in a location close to the IVC along the crista terminalis. Expression of key ion channel proteins in the SAP showed abundance of the pacemaker channel (HCN4) and the sodium/calcium exchanger (NCX1) compared to RA, similar to the expression pattern of the SN. The expression of the main high conductance connexin (Cx43) was not significantly different between SAP and RA, and both expressed Cx43 more abundantly than the SN.Conclusion: Destruction of the sinus node in this experimental model resulted in the generation of chronic SAP activity in the majority of the animals. The SAP displayed maturation over time and located in the inferior part of the RA, in the same area where the PNA was found in controls, suggesting the role of PNA as the dominant pacemaker in sinus node dysfunction. The SAP in the goat constitutes a promising stable target for electrophysiological modification to construct a fully functioning biological pacemaker.
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Martensen, Alexandre Camargo. "Conservação de aves de sub-bosque em paisagens fragmentadas: Importância da cobertura e da configuração do hábitat." Universidade de São Paulo, 2008. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/41/41134/tde-26092008-133514/.
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A quantidade de habitat remanescente, a conectividade e o tamanho dos fragmentos são sugeridos como determinantes para a manutenção de espécies em paisagens fragmentadas, e dessa maneira é essencial entendermos e modelarmos tais relações para o embasamento de políticas de conservação. Para analisarmos tais efeitos na riqueza e abundância de aves de sub-bosque e na abundância de 29 espécies de aves da Mata Atlântica, construímos modelos com variáveis representando o tamanho do fragmento e graus diversos de conectividade funcional em três paisagens com diferentes proporções de habitat (14, 31 e 45% de habitat). Posteriormente, confrontamos tais modelos com dados provenientes de amostragens com redes de neblina (4.818 indivíduos) com um esforço amostral total de quase 34.000 horas-rede em 53 fragmentos de diferentes tamanhos (2 a 159 ha) e graus de conectividades (considerando conexões por corredor ou por curtas distâncias pela matriz). Em seguida, hierarquizamos tais modelos através do critério de Informação de Akaike. Um total de 117 espécies foi capturado, e a paisagem com maior riqueza foi aquela de maior proporção de mata (87), enquanto as outras duas apresentaram riquezas semelhantes e menores (62 e 70), o que sugere um limiar de habitat entre 32 e 44% para a perda de um grande número de espécies. Além disso, os aspectos de configuração foram importantes em todas as paisagens, contudo, diferentes características foram relevantes em cada um dos casos. Enquanto na paisagem com menor proporção de habitat o tamanho dos fragmentos foi extremamente influente na determinação da riqueza e da abundância de espécies, os aspectos relacionados à conectividade foram mais importantes nas paisagens com 31 e 45% de proporção de habitat. Dentre as variáveis de conectividade, as que representam conectividade por corredores foram particularmente importantes, seguidas pelas de pequenos cruzamentos pela matriz (20 m). Modelos que levaram em consideração cruzamentos de 40 m pela matriz foram bem menos plausíveis que os demais. Os modelos para abundância das 29 espécies também resultaram em um padrão similar ao observado para a comunidade. No entanto, a importância relativa do tamanho do fragmento e da conectividade mudou em função da proporção de habitat, de acordo com a espécie abordada. Os resultados aqui apresentados são importantes para o embasamento de políticas de manejo para a conservação, e ressaltam a influência relativa das variáveis de configuração ao longo do gradiente de quantidade de hábitat, e devem ser consideradas quando na seleção de áreas para conservação, restauração ou qualquer forma de manejo voltado para a conservação.Landscape aspects such as habitat amount, fragment size and connectivity, have been suggested as key features for maintaining species in altered landscapes, and thus are essential to be modeled and comprehended for management and conservation purposes. To test their effects on understory Atlantic forest bird species, we built models with variables representing fragment size and functional connectivity in 3 landscapes with different proportions of forest (14, 31 and 45%), and confronted with data from more than 4,818 individuals captured in 53 fragments of different sizes (2.06 to 158.45 ha) and connectivitys (connected by corridors, or by short distances), and then we ranked under a model selection approach (AIC). A total of 117 species were recorded, and the landscape with higher amount of forest was richer (87) than the two others which presented a similar lower richness (62 and 70), what suggests a threshold amount of habitat between 32 to 44%. Configuration aspects were important in all cases; however, different characteristics influenced species richness and abundance in each landscape. Patch size was important in determining species richness and abundance in the landscape with low amount of habitat, while connectivity aspects were crucial in the landscapes with higher amounts of habitat. Within the connectivity models, particularly the ones that take in to account the connectivity by corridors, but also the ones that consider short movements through the matrix are far better supported, then the ones by longer distances gaps. Moreover, specieslevel analyses yielded results similar to the pattern found for the whole assemblage, and the configuration variable influence varied along the habitat conversion gradient. The results presented here are important for management planning towards conservation, and should be considered in site selection for conservation, restoration or any other kind of management.
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Lumb, Mark Douglas. "An examination of the skills, experience, training, and education requirements needed as a Functional Area 97 officer in the Army Acquisition Corps." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/26532.
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Iida, Yuto. "Morphological and Functional Retinal Vessel Changes in Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion: An Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Study." Kyoto University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/232104.
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Landré, Martin, and Johan Håkansson. "Rule versus Interaction Function : Evaluating Regional Aggregations of Commuting Flows in Sweden." Högskolan Dalarna, Kulturgeografi, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-11903.
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The aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of two divergent methods for delineating commuting regions, also called labour market areas, in a situation that the base spatial units differ largely in size as a result of an irregular population distribution. Commuting patterns in Sweden have been analyzed with geographical information system technology by delineating commuting regions using two regionalization methods. One, a rule-based method, uses one-way commuting flows to delineate local labour market areas in a top-down procedure based on the selection of predefined employment centres. The other method, the interaction-based Intramax analysis, uses two-way flows in a bottom-up procedure based on numerical taxonomy principles. A comparison of these methods will expose a number of strengths and weaknesses. For both methods, the same data source has been used. The performance of both methods has been evaluated for the country as a whole using resident employed population, self-containment levels and job ratios for criteria. A more detailed evaluation has been done in the Goteborg metropolitan area by comparing regional patterns with the commuting fields of a number of urban centres in this area. It is concluded that both methods could benefit from the inclusion of additional control measures to identify improper allocations of municipalities.Open Access
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Vraníková, Radmila. "Současné možnosti regenerace veřejných prostorů v panelových sídlištích." Doctoral thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta architektury, 2013. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-233245.
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is thesis deals with the new approach to solving the usage of the urban places located at the current build-up area of the block of flats. On experiences from long-term processing of concrete designs there are introduced principles and fundamentals for the regeneration of public places at block of flats, including new structure of functional areas. These principles and fundamentals will serve as the methodical aid for the public service, self-government and for the designers conversant with regeneration of public places.
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Arvidsson, Emma. "Motion and Emotion : Functional In Vivo Analyses of the Mouse Basal Ganglia." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Funktionell farmakologi, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-229910.
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A major challenge in the field of neuroscience is to link behavior with specific neuronal circuitries and cellular events. One way of facing this challenge is to identify unique cellular markers and thus have the ability to, through various mouse genetics tools, mimic, manipulate and control various aspects of neuronal activity to decipher their correlation to behavior. The Vesicular Glutamate Transporter 2 (VGLUT2) packages glutamate into presynaptic vesicles for axonal terminal release. In this thesis, VGLUT2 was used to specifically target cell populations within the basal ganglia of mice with the purpose of investigating its connectivity, function and involvement in behavior. The motor and limbic loops of the basal ganglia are important for processing of voluntary movement and emotions. During such physiological events, dopamine plays a central role in modulating the activity of these systems. The brain reward system is mainly formed by dopamine projections from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the ventral striatum. Certain dopamine neurons within the VTA exhibit the ability to co-release dopamine and glutamate. In paper I, glutamate and dopamine co-release was targeted and our results demonstrate that the absence of VGLUT2 in dopamine neurons leads to perturbations of reward consumption and reward-associated memory, probably due to reduced DA release observed in the striatum as detected by in vivo chronoamperometry. In papers II and IV, VGLUT2 in a specific subpopulation within the subthalamic nucleus (STN) was identified and targeted. Based on the described role of the STN in movement control, we hypothesized that the mice would be hyperlocomotive. As shown in paper II, this was indeed the case. In paper IV, a putative reward-related phenotype was approached and we could show reduced operant-self administration of sugar and altered dopamine release levels suggesting a role for the STN in reward processes. In paper III, we investigated and identified age- and sex-dimorphisms in dopamine kinetics in the dorsal striatum of one of the most commonly used mouse lines worldwide, the C57/Bl6J. Our results point to the importance of taking these dimorphisms into account when utilizing the C57/Bl6J strain as model for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Bajaj, Sahil, Anna Alkozei, Natalie S. Dailey, and William D. S. Killgore. "Brain Aging: Uncovering Cortical Characteristics of Healthy Aging in Young Adults." FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/626429.
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Despite extensive research in the field of aging neuroscience, it still remains unclear whether age related cortical changes can be detected in different functional networks of younger adults and whether these networks respond identically to healthy aging. We collected high-resolution brain anatomical data from 56 young healthy adults (mean age = 30.8 +/- 8.1 years, 29 males). We performed whole brain parcellation into seven functional networks, including visual, somatomotor, dorsal attention, ventral attention, limbic, frontoparietal and default mode networks. We estimated intracranial volume (ICV) and averaged cortical thickness (CT), cortical surface area (CSA) and cortical volume (CV) over each hemisphere as well as for each network. Averaged cortical measures over each hemisphere, especially CT and CV, were significantly lower in older individuals compared to younger ones (one-way ANOVA, p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). There were negative correlations between age and averaged CT and CV over each hemisphere (p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons) as well as between age and ICV (p = 0.05). Network level analysis showed that age was negatively correlated with CT for all functional networks (p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons), apart from the limbic network. While age was unrelated to CSA, it was negatively correlated with CV across several functional networks (p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). We also showed positive associations between CV and CT and between CV and CSA for all networks (p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). We interpret the lack of association between age and CT of the limbic network as evidence that the limbic system may be particularly resistant to age-related declines during this period of life, whereas the significant age-related declines in averaged CT over each hemisphere as well as in all other six networks suggests that CT may serve as a reliable biomarker to capture the effect of normal aging. Due to the simultaneous dependence of CV on CT and CSA, CV was unable to identify such effects of normal aging consistently for the other six networks, but there were negative associations observed between age and averaged CV over each hemisphere as well as between age and ICV. Our findings suggest that the identification of early cortical changes within various functional networks during normal aging might be useful for predicting the effect of aging on the efficiency of functional performance even during early adulthood.