Evocations of Nature in the Piano Music of Franz Liszt and the Seeds of Impressionism

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

First record from Australia of the Cretaceous fern genus Tempskya and the description of a new species, T judithae

Silicified fragments of false-trunks of the fern, Tempskya judithae sp. nov., are described from lower Cretaceous (latest Albian) sediments near Winton, central-western Queensland. The species is characterised by a three-layered sclerenchymatous cortex and a two-layered pith of sclerenchyma cells. In possessing these characters, T judithae is more similar to T readii than to other species of Tempskya. However, the Australian species differs from T readii in the abaxial shape of the petiole xylem trace (concave in T judithae, convex in T readii) and in symmetry attributes of the leaf-bases within the false-trunk (random in T judithae and radially symmetrical in T readii). T judithae is the first record of Tempskya from Australia and the second from Gondwana; the known distribution range of the genus embraces a broad area in mid-high latitudinal regions of Laurasia and the Gondwana record now comprises Australia and Argentina. Ecological signals of plant fossil assemblages recorded from the Australian sediments are in accord with flood plain habitats and a temperate climatic regime. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Functional dissection of the Suppressor of UnderReplication protein of Drosophila melanogaster: identification of domains influencing chromosome binding and DNA replication

The Suppressor of UnderReplication (SuUR) gene controls the DNA underreplication in intercalary and pericentric heterochromatin of Drosophila melanogaster salivary gland polytene chromosomes. In the present work, we investigate the functional importance of different regions of the SUUR protein by expressing truncations of the protein in an UAS-GAL4 system. We find that SUUR has at least two separate chromosome-binding regions that are able to recognize intercalary and pericentric heterochromatin specifically. The C-terminal part controls DNA underreplication in intercalary heterochromatin and partially in pericentric heterochromatin regions. The C-terminal half of SUUR suppresses endoreplication when ectopically expressed in the salivary gland. Ectopic expression of the N-terminal fragments of SUUR depletes endogenous SUUR from polytene chromosomes, causes the SuUR(-) stopphenotype and induces specific swellings in heterochromatin.

Identification of Sclerotinia species

A variety of morphological and molecular characters were compared for their ability to separate the three plant pathogenic species that comprise the genus Sclerotinia: Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Sclerotinia minor and Sclerotinia trifoliorum. Restriction fragment length polymorphism ( RFLP) probes generated from cloned genomic DNA fragments of S. sclerotiorum were used for accurate species designation and to compare against other markers, before further use in population genetics and breeding studies. Other characters used for comparison included host species, sclerotial diameters, ascospore morphism and breeding type. Several RFLP probes, either singly or in combination, enabled clear separation of the Sclerotinia species. Sclerotial diameters remain a good criterion for separating S. minor from S. sclerotiorum and S. trifoliorum, but the host species criterion was inadequate for accurately differentiating the 3 species of Sclerotinia.

A community-based wildlife survey: the knowledge and attitudes of residents of suburban Brisbane, with a focus on bandicoots

Within the expanding city of Brisbane in south-east Queensland, numerous fragments of native and regrowth vegetation are scattered across the largely urbanised landscape. These fragments provide refuge to a great diversity of native wildlife, and, provide residents with the opportunity to experience nature on their doorstep. To assess the diversity and abundance of this wildlife, recent changes in these parameters, and the value of wildlife and bushland fragments to residents of Brisbane, a questionnaire survey was distributed to 300 households each located adjacent to one of 38 urban bushland fragments. A total of 172 surveys (57%) were returned, producing 768 records of 83 fauna species, dominated by birds and mammals; bandicoots were widely reported from the 38 fragments. Several historical records provided evidence of recent local extinctions within fragments, highlighting the continuing declines in various species of native wildlife within Brisbane. Several human-wildlife conflicts were identified, but overall residents were tolerant of such conflicts. Bandicoots were disliked by a small minority (3%) of residents owing to the holes they dig in lawns and gardens in search of food. and their potential as vectors of ticks. Most respondents expressed ail appreciation for the presence of native wildlife (96%) and bushland fragments (97%) in their local area, emphasising the importance of incorporating human dimension values into the management of this urban biodiversity.

Foretelling pathology: The poetics of prognosis

This paper examines a number of French middle-brow novels, usually called at the time romans de murs, from the period 1880-1910. It shows how, in these stories, doctors are shown to foretell the course of narrative through the diagnosis of certain pathologies, especially psychosexual ones. These pathologies are thus represented as implacable narrative programmes. In effect, most of these novels renounce the standard fictional resources of intrigue and suspense in favour of the relentless working out of their initial prognosis. The authority of medical discourse is therefore not just confirmed and disseminated: it is elaborated as fatality in the very terms of the novel. Copyright © SAGE Publications.

The Politics of Permaculture: Towards an Ecologically Situated Approach to Resource Policy and Governance

The contributions to environmental politics of Torgerson, Oelschlager, Dryzek, Harrè and others, converge in their respective acknowledgements that the shift towards an ‘ecologically situated’ approach to environmental policy, including resource governance, will require the emergence and consolidation of a new lingua franca of environmental discourse. In this paper, I suggest that an extrapolation of permaculture ethics may provide a gambit through which such a discourse may be assembled and organised. I examine six key signifying elements derived from Orr and Capra’s approach to ecological literacy – network, nested system, flow, cycle, development and dynamic balance – and explore the implications that these might have for resource governance and policy, including the (re)framing of assessment indicators, energy auditing, resource management and integrated planning and development.

CL/RAMP2 and CL/RAMP3 produce pharmacologically distinct adrenomedullin receptors:a comparison of effects of adrenomedullin 22-52, CGRP 8-37 and BIBN4096BS

1. Adrenomedullin (AM) has two known receptors formed by the calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CL) and receptor activity-modifying protein (RAMP) 2 or 3: We report the effects of the antagonist fragments of human AM and CGRP (AM 22-52 and CGRP 8-37) in inhibiting AM at human (h), rat (r) and mixed species CL/RAMP2 and CL/RAMP3 receptors transiently expressed in Cos 7 cells or endogenously expressed as rCL/rRAMP2 complexes by Rat 2 and L6 cells. 2. AM 22-52 (10 μM) antagonised AM at all CL/RAMP2 complexes (apparent pA 2 values: 7.34±0.14 (hCL/hRAMP2), 7.28±0.06 (Rat2), 7.00±0.05 (L6), 6.25±0.17(rCL/hRAMP2)). CGRP 8-37 (10 μM) resembled AM 22-52 except on the rCL/hRAMP2 complex, where it did not antagonise AM (apparent PA 2 values: 7.04±0.13 (hCL/hRAMP2), 6.72±0.06 (Rat2), 7.03±0. 12 (L6)). 3. On CL/RAMP3 receptors, 10 μM CGRP 8-37 was an effective antagonist at all combinations (apparent pA 2 values: 6.96±0.08 (hCL/hRAMP3), 6.18±0.18 (rCL/rRAMP3), 6.48±0.20 (rCL/ hRAMP3)). However, 10 μm AM 22-52 only antagonised AM at the hCL/hRAMP3 receptor (apparent PA 2 6.73±0.14). 4. BIBN4096BS (10 μM) did not antagonise AM at any of the receptors. 5. Where investigated (all-rat and rat/human combinations), the agonist potency order on the CL/ RAMP3 receptor was AM∼βCGRP>αCGRP. 6. rRAMP3 showed three apparent polymorphisms, none of which altered its coding sequence. 7. This study shows that on CL/RAMP complexes, AM 22-52 has significant selectivity for the CL/ RAMP2 combination over the CL/RAMP3 combination. On the mixed species receptor, CGRP 8-37 showed the opposite selectivity. Thus, depending on the species, it is possible to discriminate pharmacologically between CL/RAMP2 and CL/RAMP3 AM receptors.

Token codeswitching and language alternation in narrative discourse: a functional-pragmatic approach

This study is concerned with two phenomena of language alternation in biographic narrations in Yiddish and Low German, based on spoken language data recorded between 1988 and 1995. In both phenomena language alternation serves as an additional communicative tool which can be applied by bilingual speakers to enlarge their set of interactional devices in order to ensure a smoother or more pointed processing of communicative aims. The first phenomenon is a narrative strategy I call Token Cod-eswitching: In a bilingual narrative culminating in a line of reported speech, a single element of L2 indicates the original language of the reconstructed dialogue – a token for a quote. The second phenomenon has to do with directing procedures, carried out by the speaker and aimed at guiding the hearer's attention, which are frequently carried out in L2, supporting the hearer's attention at crucial points in the interaction. Both phenomena are analyzed following a model of narrative discourse as proposed in the framework of Functional Pragmatics. The model allows the adoption of an integral approach to previous findings in code-switching research.

The unique complexity of social phenomena and the uses of social science knowledge

The assertion about the peculiarly intricate and complex character of social phenomena has, in much of social discourse, a virtually uncontested tradition. A significant part of the premise about the complexity of social phenomena is the conviction that it complicates, perhaps even inhibits the development and application of social scientific knowledge. Our paper explores the origins, the basis and the consequences of this assertion and asks in particular whether the classic complexity assertion still deserves to be invoked in analyses that ask about the production and the utilization of social scientific knowledge in modern society. We refer to one of the most prominent and politically influential social scientific theories, John Maynard Keynes' economic theory as an illustration. We conclude that, the practical value of social scientific knowledge is not necessarily dependent on a faithful, in the sense of complete, representation of (complex) social reality. Practical knowledge is context sensitive if not project bound. Social scientific knowledge that wants to optimize its practicality has to attend and attach itself to elements of practical social situations that can be altered or are actionable by relevant actors. This chapter represents an effort to re-examine the relation between social reality, social scientific knowledge and its practical application. There is a widely accepted view about the potential social utility of social scientific knowledge that invokes the peculiar complexity of social reality as an impediment to good theoretical comprehension and hence to its applicability.

Post-observation feedback as an instigator of teacher learning and change

This paper investigates an on-going study into the nature of the discourse teacher educators (TEds) and student-teachers (Ts) use during postobservation feedback, and explores the feedback discourse in terms of the impact it may have on teacher learning and change. Two types of feedback, confirmatory and corrective, are briefly discussed, and the former is then made the focus of the paper in its role as a potential instigator of teacher learning and change.

Field experiments on the dispersal, establishment and colonization of lichens on a slate rock surface

A sample of run-off water from a vertical, slate rock surface in Wales, U.K. contained abundant fragments of the lichen Parmelia glabratula ssp. fuliginosa from about 0.6 to 8.0 mm in diameter, a few fragments of Parmelia conspersa from 0.6 to 4.0 mm in diameter and a large number of unidentified propagules from 0.2 to 0.5 mm in diameter. The colonization of permanent plots on the rock surface was studied over six years. At the end of the experiment relatively few thalli of Parmelia conspersa, Parmelia glabratula ssp. fuliginosa and Buellia aethalea had established in plots on undisturbed and newly-exposed slate. Fragments (2 mm in diameter) of Parmelia conspersa placed on horizontal pieces of slate survived up to 120 days in cracks, 20 days on a thin smear of bird droppings but only 2-3 days on smooth slate, against small joints in the rock or in small holes. Isidia of Parmelia conspersa placed on horizontal pieces of slate established equally in plots on smooth undisturbed slate and in plots on the surface exposed after the removal of large Parmelia conspersa thalli, but less well on newly-exposed slate. These results suggest that lichen propagules are abundant in run-off water but establishment is a hazardous process. This may be attributable to a shortage of suitable sites on the substratum for attachment of propagules.

Growth and regeneration of lichen thalli with the central portions artificially removed

The 12-month radial growth of Parmelia conspersa thalli with isidia or with apothecia and isidia was not influenced by removal of the thalli centres. When large thalli had their centres removed and the thallus perimeter was divided into fragments of about 1.0cm in diameter, growth of the fragments was less than the controls, but recovered to near control values after four or five months growth. These results suggest first, that fixed carbon for radial growth may be made in a narrow annulus at the perimeter and second, that there may be little transfer of fixed carbon between the annulus and the centre of the thallus ar around the annulus. Fragments of the centre and the perimeter regenerated growing points, suggesting that fragmentation may be an important method of vegetative reproduction in some lichens.

Improvement of bio-oil stability in wood pyrolysis process

Pyrolysis is one of several thermochemical technologies that convert solid biomass into more useful and valuable bio-fuels. Pyrolysis is thermal degradation in the complete or partial absence of oxygen. Under carefully controlled conditions, solid biomass can be converted to a liquid known as bie-oil in 75% yield on dry feed. Bio-oil can be used as a fuel but has the drawback of having a high level of oxygen due to the presence of a complex mixture of molecular fragments of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin polymers. Also, bio-oil has a number of problems in use including high initial viscosity, instability resulting in increased viscosity or phase separation and high solids content. Much effort has been spent on upgrading bio-oil into a more usable liquid fuel, either by modifying the liquid or by major chemical and catalytic conversion to hydrocarbons. The overall primary objective was to improve oil stability by exploring different ways. The first was to detennine the effect of feed moisture content on bio-oil stability. The second method was to try to improve bio-oil stability by partially oxygenated pyrolysis. The third one was to improve stability by co-pyrolysis with methanol. The project was carried out on an existing laboratory pyrolysis reactor system, which works well with this project without redesign or modification too much. During the finishing stages of this project, it was found that the temperature of the condenser in the product collection system had a marked impact on pyrolysis liquid stability. This was discussed in this work and further recommendation given. The quantity of water coming from the feedstock and the pyrolysis reaction is important to liquid stability. In the present work the feedstock moisture content was varied and pyrolysis experiments were carried out over a range of temperatures. The quality of the bio-oil produced was measured as water content, initial viscosity and stability. The result showed that moderate (7.3-12.8 % moisture) feedstock moisture led to more stable bio-oil. One of drawbacks of bio-oil was its instability due to containing unstable oxygenated chemicals. Catalytic hydrotreatment of the oil and zeolite cracking of pyrolysis vapour were discllssed by many researchers, the processes were intended to eliminate oxygen in the bio-oil. In this work an alternative way oxygenated pyrolysis was introduced in order to reduce oil instability, which was intended to oxidise unstable oxygenated chemicals in the bio-oil. The results showed that liquid stability was improved by oxygen addition during the pyrolysis of beech wood at an optimum air factor of about 0.09-0.15. Methanol as a postproduction additive to bio-oil has been studied by many researchers and the most effective result came from adding methanol to oil just after production. Co-pyrolysis of spruce wood with methanol was undertaken in the present work and it was found that methanol improved liquid stability as a co-pyrolysis solvent but was no more effective than when used as a postproduction additive.

The growth of six saxicolous lichens transplanted to lime-rich and lime-poor substrates in south Gwynedd, Wales

The objectives of this study were to investigate: (1) whether foliose lichen thalli could be transplanted from one substrate to another and (2) whether such transplants could be used to study the influence of the substrate on growth. Hence, six saxicolous lichens, with contrasting distributions on lime-rich and lime-poor substrates in South Gwynedd, Wales, were transplanted onto slate, granite, asbestos and cement. Fragments of the perimeters of thalli were glued to the different substrates using Bostic adhesive. Parmelia conspersa (Ehrh. Ex Ach.)Ach. and Parmelia saxatilis (L.)Ach., fragments increased in area over 15 months on slate and granite but decreased in area or did not survive on asbestos and cement. Fragments of Xanthoria parietina (L.)Th.Fr. and Physcia tenella (Scop.)DC. em Bitt. did not survive on slate and granite while some fragments survived but grew poorly on asbestos and cement. Parmelia glabratula ssp. fuliginosa (Fr. ex Duby)Laund. fragments decreased in area on all substrates and especially on cement and asbestos while Physcia orbicularis (Neck.)Poetsch fragments increased in area on granite and cement, decreased on asbestos and did not change significantly on slate. The results suggested that the distribution of P. conspersa and P. saxatilis was determined primarily by physico-chemical properties of the substrate. By contrast, P. glabratula ssp. fuliginosa may have responded to the transplant procedure while X. parietina, Ph. tenella and Ph. orbicularis may require nutrient enrichment to grow successfully on a substrate.