Isolation and characterization of the female sex pheromone of the sugar beet cyst nematode, heterodera schachtii, and an analysis of male precopulatory behaviour /

The sugar beet cyst nematode, Heterodera schachtii, is a major agricultural pest. The disruption of the mating behaviour of this plant parasite in the field may provide a means of biological control, and a subsequent increase in crop yield. The H. schachtii female sex pheromone, which attracts homospecific males, was collected in an aqueous medium and isolated using high performance liquid chromatography. Characterization of the male-attractive material revealed that it was heat stable and water soluble. The aqueous medium conditioned by female H. schachtii was found to be biologically active and stimulated male behaviour in a concentration dependent manner. The activity of the crude pheromone was specific to males of H. schachtii and did not attract second stage juveniles. Results indicated that vanillic acid, a putative nematode pheromone, is not an active component of the H. schachtii sex pheromone. Male H. schachtii exhibited stylet thrusting, a poorly understood behaviour of the male, upon exposure to the female sex pheromone. This behaviour appeared to be associated with mate-finding and was used as a novel indicator of biological activity in bioassays. Serotonin, thought to be involved in the neural control of copulatory behaviour in nematodes, stimulated stylet thrusting. However, the relationship between stylet thrusting induced by the sex pheromone and stylet thrusting induced by serotonin is not clear. Extracellular electrical activity was recorded fi-om the anterior region of H. schachtii males during stylet thrusting, and appeared to be associated with this behaviour. The isolation of the female sex pheromone of H. schachtii may, ultimately, lead to the structural identification and synthesis of the active substance for use in a novel biological control strategy.

Epidemiology and phylogenetic analysis of West Nile virus in Ontario, Canada, 2002-2003 /

Since the discovery of West Nile (WN) virus in the Western Hemisphere many surveillance programs have been implemented to monitor the epidemiology and genetic variation of WN virus in North America. This project was based on the WN virus Adult Mosquito Identification and Diagnostic Program conducted at Brock University for Ontario, Canada, during the 2002 and 2003 transmission seasons. There are three sections to this thesis. The first section investigated which mosquito species carry WN virus in Ontario, Canada throughout the 2002-2003 transmission seasons. It was found that from the 2002 data, eight mosquito species were detected with WN virus (Aedes vexans, Anopheles punctipennis, Coquilleltidia perlurbans, Culex salinarius, Cx. pipiens, Cx. resluans, Ochlerolalus Irivillalus and Och. Iriserialus) and 7.19% of the total mosquito pools tested were found to be WN virus positive (129 positive poolsll, 793 total pools tested). In 2003, WN virus was detected in only five mosquito species (Ae. vexans, Cx. salinarius, Och. Iriserialus, Cx. pipiens and Cx. resluans) and 1.42% of the total mosquito pools tested were WN virus positive (101 positive poolsl7,1 01 total pools tested). WN virus positive mosquito pools were detected 3-4 weeks earlier in 2002 compared to 2003 data. The second section investigated the actual infection rate (IR) of clearly identified Cx. pipiens and Cx. resluans from the 2002 outbreak. It was found that significantly more ex. resluans were infected with WN virus compared to ex. pipiens. The third section investigated the degree of variability of the WN virus genome. A 879 nucleotide section of the WN virus genome was amplified from 21 American Crows and 20 adult female mosquitoes from Ontario, Canada, and compared to the homologous region of the original New York 1999 Chilean Flamingo sequence (NY99FL). Seventy-two nucleotides from Ontario WN virus sequences showed variability compared to NY99FL with 10 synapotypic changes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a close relationship between Ontario and US WN virus sequences.

Multinational drug corporations, intellectual property rights and the Canadian state : a historical and critical analysis

This study critically analyzes the historical role and influence of multinational drug cotpOrations and multinational corporations in general; the u.s. government and the Canadian state in negotiating the global recognition ofIntellectual Property Rights (IPR) under GATT/NAFTA. This process began in 1969 when the Liberal government, in response to high prices for brand-name drugs amended the Patent Act to introduce compulsory licensing by reducing monopoly protection from 20 to seven years. Although the financial position ofthe multinational drug industry was not affected, it campaigned vigorously to change the 1969 legislation. In 1987, the Patent Act was amended to extend protection to 10 years as a condition for free trade talks with the u.s. Nonetheless, the drug industry was not satisfied and accused Canada of providing a bad example to other nations. Therefore, it continued to campaign for global recognition ofIPR laws under GATT. Following the conclusion of the GATTI Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPS) in 1991, the multinational drug industry and the American government, to the surprise of many, were still not satisfied and sought to implement harsher conditions under NAFTA. The Progressive Conservative government readily agreed without any objections or consideration for the social consequences. As a result, Bill C-91 was introduced. It abandoned compulsory licenses and was made retroactive from December 21, 1991. It is the contention of this thesis that the economic survival of multinational corporations on a global scale depends on the role and functions of the modem state. Similarly, the existence of the state depends on the ideological-political and socioeconomic assistance it gives to multinational corporations on a national and international scale. This dialectical relation of the state and multinational corporations is explored in our theoretical and historical analysis of their role in public policy.

Deception in Sport: A Conceptual and Ethical Analysis

In 1973, Kathleen Pearson offered a pivotal first step into understanding deception in competitive sport and its many intricacies. However, the analysis falls short of truly deciphering this widespread phenomenon. By creating a taxonomy based on Torres (2000) understanding of various types of skills in an athletic contest, a wider array of deceptive practices are encompassed. Once the taxonomy is put forth, weighing the categories against the three-pronged ethical permissibility test established utilizing elements from formalism, conventionalism and broad internalism sheds lights on what deceptive practices should be deemed ethically permissible for use and which tactics should not be a part of an athlete’s repertoire. By understanding which categories of deception are permissible, the most fair and athletically excellent contest can be created between the opposing players of teams.

The Effects of Body Posture on Emotion Perception: A Developmental and Theoretical Analysis

Previously, studies investigating emotional face perception - regardless of whether they involved adults or children - presented participants with static photos of faces in isolation. In the natural world, faces are rarely encountered in isolation. In the few studies that have presented faces in context, the perception of emotional facial expressions is altered when paired with an incongruent context. For both adults and 8- year-old children, reaction times increase and accuracy decreases when facial expressions are presented in an incongruent context depicting a similar emotion (e.g., sad face on a fear body) compared to when presented in a congruent context (e.g., sad face on a sad body; Meeren, van Heijnsbergen, & de Gelder, 2005; Mondloch, 2012). This effect is called a congruency effect and does not exist for dissimilar emotions (e.g., happy and sad; Mondloch, 2012). Two models characterize similarity between emotional expressions differently; the emotional seed model bases similarity on physical features, whereas the dimensional model bases similarity on underlying dimensions of valence an . arousal. Study 1 investigated the emergence of an adult-like pattern of congruency effects in pre-school aged children. Using a child-friendly sorting task, we identified the youngest age at which children could accurately sort isolated facial expressions and body postures and then measured whether an incongruent context disrupted the perception of emotional facial expressions. Six-year-old children showed congruency effects for sad/fear but 4-year-old children did not for sad/happy. This pattern of congruency effects is consistent with both models and indicates that an adult-like pattern exists at the youngest age children can reliably sort emotional expressions in isolation. In Study 2, we compared the two models to determine their predictive abilities. The two models make different predictions about the size of congruency effects for three emotions: sad, anger, and fear. The emotional seed model predicts larger congruency effects when sad is paired with either anger or fear compared to when anger and fear are paired with each other. The dimensional model predicts larger congruency effects when anger and fear are paired together compared to when either is paired with sad. In both a speeded and unspeeded task the results failed to support either model, but the pattern of results indicated fearful bodies have a special effect. Fearful bodies reduced accuracy, increased reaction times more than any other posture, and shifted the pattern of errors. To determine whether the results were specific to bodies, we ran the reverse task to determine if faces could disrupt the perception of body postures. This experiment did not produce congruency effects, meaning faces do not influence the perception of body postures. In the final experiment, participants performed a flanker task to determine whether the effect of fearful bodies was specific to faces or whether fearful bodies would also produce a larger effect in an unrelated task in which faces were absent. Reaction times did not differ across trials, meaning fearful bodies' large effect is specific to situations with faces. Collectively, these studies provide novel insights, both developmentally and theoretically, into how emotional faces are perceived in context.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Comparison of Hierarchical Linear Modelling and Visual Analysis

Behavioral researchers commonly use single subject designs to evaluate the effects of a given treatment. Several different methods of data analysis are used, each with their own set of methodological strengths and limitations. Visual inspection is commonly used as a method of analyzing data which assesses the variability, level, and trend both within and between conditions (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). In an attempt to quantify treatment outcomes, researchers developed two methods for analysing data called Percentage of Non-overlapping Data Points (PND) and Percentage of Data Points Exceeding the Median (PEM). The purpose of the present study is to compare and contrast the use of Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM), PND and PEM in single subject research. The present study used 39 behaviours, across 17 participants to compare treatment outcomes of a group cognitive behavioural therapy program, using PND, PEM, and HLM on three response classes of Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Findings suggest that PEM and HLM complement each other and both add invaluable information to the overall treatment results. Future research should consider using both PEM and HLM when analysing single subject designs, specifically grouped data with variability.

A Study of Ordered Gene Problems Featuring DNA Error Correction and DNA Fragment Assembly with a Variety of Heuristics, Genetic Algorithm Variations, and Dynamic Representations

Ordered gene problems are a very common classification of optimization problems. Because of their popularity countless algorithms have been developed in an attempt to find high quality solutions to the problems. It is also common to see many different types of problems reduced to ordered gene style problems as there are many popular heuristics and metaheuristics for them due to their popularity. Multiple ordered gene problems are studied, namely, the travelling salesman problem, bin packing problem, and graph colouring problem. In addition, two bioinformatics problems not traditionally seen as ordered gene problems are studied: DNA error correction and DNA fragment assembly. These problems are studied with multiple variations and combinations of heuristics and metaheuristics with two distinct types or representations. The majority of the algorithms are built around the Recentering- Restarting Genetic Algorithm. The algorithm variations were successful on all problems studied, and particularly for the two bioinformatics problems. For DNA Error Correction multiple cases were found with 100% of the codes being corrected. The algorithm variations were also able to beat all other state-of-the-art DNA Fragment Assemblers on 13 out of 16 benchmark problem instances.