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Fossil Dna Persistence And Decay In Marine Sediment Over Hundred-Thousand-Year To Million-Year Time Scales, John B. Kirkpatrick, Emily A. Walsh, Steven D'Hondt

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

DNA in marine sediment contains both fossil sequences and sequences from organisms that live in the sediment. The demarcation between these two pools and their respective rates of turnover are generally unknown. We address these issues by comparing the total extractable DNA pool to the fraction of sequenced chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) in sediment from two sites in the Bering Sea. We assume that cpDNA is a tracer of non-reproducing fossil DNA. Given >150,000 sequence reads per sample, cpDNA is easily detectable in the shallowest samples but decays with depth, suggesting that sequencing-based richness assessments of communities in deep subseafloor sediment …

Estimating The Sustainability Of Towed Fishing-Gear Impacts On Seabed Habitats: A Simple Quantitative Risk Assessment Method Applicable To Data-Limited Fisheries, C. Roland Pitcher, Nick Ellis, Simon Jennings, Jan G. Hiddink, Tessa Mazor, Michel J. Kaiser, Mervi I. Kangas, Robert A. Mcconnaughey, Ana M. Parma, Adriaan D. Rijnsdorp, Petri Suuronen, Jeremy S. Collie, Ricardo Amoroso, Kathryn M. Hughes, Ray Hilborn

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Summary

1. Impacts of bottom fishing, particularly trawling and dredging, on seabed (benthic) habitats are commonly perceived to pose serious environmental risks. Quantitative ecological risk assessment can be used to evaluate actual risks and to help guide the choice of management measures needed to meet sustainability objectives.
2. We develop and apply a quantitative method for assessing the risks to benthic habitats by towed bottom-fishing gears. The method is based on a simple equation for relative benthic status (RBS), derived by solving the logistic population growth equation for the equilibrium state. Estimating RBS requires only maps of fishing intensity and …

Modified Modis Fluorescence Line Height Data Product To Improve Image Interpretation For Red Tide Monitoring In The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico, Chuanmin Hu, Lian Feng

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Several satellite-based methods have been used to detect and trace Karenia brevis red tide blooms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Some require data statistics and multiple data products while others use a single data product. Of these, the MODIS normalized fluorescence line height (nFLH) has shown its advantage of detecting blooms in waters rich in colored dissolved organic matter, thus having been used routinely to assess bloom conditions by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the official state agency of Florida responsible for red tide monitoring and mitigation. However, elevated sediment concentrations in the water column due …

Reflector Magazine, Georgia Southern University, Student Media

Reflector Magazine

• Clothes with a soul
• Back at it again
• Student make-up artist shows the evolution of make-up
• Traveling in college
• Hidden food gems
• Give me some sugar
• Fundamentals of feminism
• Like a boss
• The evolution of recreational drug use
• Tattoo Taboo
• The remark-ability of jam bands enduring presence in music
• Deante Hitchcock

Identifying Common Therapeutic Targets In Merlin-Deficient Brain Tumours, Kayleigh Bassiri

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) is an autosomal dominant inherited condition that predisposes individuals to develop multiple nervous system tumours, primarily schwannoma, meningioma and ependymoma. NF2 is characterised by loss of the tumour suppressor protein Merlin, caused by bi-allelic mutations of the encoding gene NF2 or by loss of heterozygosity. These tumours can occur either sporadically or as part of the NF2 condition. The majority are slow growing and display benign features, but this benignancy renders them largely unresponsive to classic chemotherapeutic agents leaving surgery and radiosurgery as the only remaining treatment options. Depending on their location, NF2-related tumours can cause …

Using A Virtual World To Teach Joint Protection To People Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial, Rashid Kashani

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Abstract Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease affecting an estimated 1% of the global population. Joint protection is one intervention with some quality evidence of efficacy for RA self-management. However, joint protection education is often provided only in urban centres during Arthritis Self-Management Programs (ASMPs) in classroom sessions at designated times. These programs, therefore, may not be available to all who need them. Providing and testing more accessible methods of delivering joint protection education to people living with RA may improve accessibility. Aims: (i) To develop a virtual world (VW) intervention available via the Internet in Second …

Optimised Mammogram Displays For Improved Breast Cancer Detection, Graeme Alexander Riley

Other Faculty of Health Theses

In current mammography practice, radiologists typically view mammograms in a symmetric, side-by-side, configuration in the belief that abnormalities will be made salient because they break the perceived symmetry. The literature on the use of symmetry as an aid to signal detection is limited and this thesis has taken a psychophysical approach to investigate the radiologist’s task of detecting a small mass (a blob) in paired mammogram backgrounds. Initial experiments used Gaussian white noise and synthetic mammogram backgrounds to test observer performance for the radiologist’s task using symmetric (side-by-side) displays and animated (the two images of a pair alternated sequentially in …

Dose-Banding Studies On Oxaliplatin, Liu Xiaoqing

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Oxaliplatin is an anticancer drug widely used in cancer chemotherapy. This thesis evaluates whether a specific dose-banding scheme for oxaliplatin could replace the individual dosing method that is currently used in the oxaliplatin administration. Dose-banding was introduced into UK clinical practice in 2001, as it reduces delays in patients receiving their treatment and, through quality control and end-product testing, safeguards the infusion quality and patient safety. A range of studies were included in this thesis: an extended stability study on oxaliplatin infusions using a sequential temperature cycling design; studies on oxalate, a potential degradation product and metabolite of oxaliplatin which …

The Restorative Potential Of Public Aquariums: Psychological And Physiological Effects Of Viewing Sub-Aquatic Environments, Deborah Louise Cracknell

Other Faculty of Health Theses

The role of natural environments, especially ‘green space’, in promoting human health and well-being is well-researched. However, less is known about the benefits of ‘blue space’ (e.g. the coast) or ‘managed’ nature (e.g. zoos). In this thesis, six studies investigated the restorative potential of sub-aquatic settings, specifically public aquariums and the biological diversity within them. Studies 1 and 2 investigated preferences for, affective responses to, and the restorative potential of, five built and natural settings (i.e. built, green space, blue space, natural underwater and public aquariums). Using the same measures, Study 3 focused solely on people’s responses to aquarium exhibits, …

An Electrophysiological Examination Of Visuomotor Activity Elicited By Visual Object Affordances, Thomas Oliver Dixon

Other Faculty of Health Theses

A wide literature of predominantly behavioural experiments that use Stimulus Response Compatibility (SRC) have suggested that visual action information such as object affordance yields rapid and concurrent activation of visual and motor brain areas, but has rarely provided direct evidence for this proposition. This thesis examines some of the key claims from the affordance literature by applying electrophysiological measures to well established SRC procedures to determine the verities of the behavioural claims of rapid and automatic visuomotor activation evoked by viewing affording objects. The temporal sensitivity offered by the Lateralised Readiness Potential and by visual evoked potentials P1 and N1 …

An Exploration Of Attachment Strategies Among Young People Who Engage In Harmful Sexual Behaviour, Bartosz Zaniewski

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Background: It is estimated that adolescent offenders account for 65% of contact child sexual abuse. A range of explanatory theories and models of intervention have been proposed. These are mainly based on cognitive theories with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and psycho-education remaining as the dominant models of treatment intervention. This research explored the issue of harmful sexual behaviour from the psychosocial perspective, drawing on attachment theory and social constructionism. Aim: The research explored attachment strategies among young people with harmful sexual behaviour. It examined young people’s understanding and explanations regarding their sexually abusive behaviour. This included an exploration of how …

The Control Of Schwann Cell Myelination During Development And After Nerve Injury, Sheridan Roberts

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Schwann cells are the principal glial cell of the peripheral nervous system and are responsible for axon maintenance, regeneration and increasing saltatory conduction of neurons. Schwann cell differentiation and myelination is mediated by a core network of transcription factors and signalling pathways, which have been divided into two groups; positive and negative regulators. Sox10, NFATc4, Oct6, Krox20 and the ERK 1/2 signalling pathway have been characterised as positive regulators of Schwann cell differentiation and myelination; with Sox10 and Krox20 also playing critical roles in myelin maintenance. On the other hand, transcription factors cJun, Pax3, Id2 and signalling pathways Notch and …

Plastic Fragmentation In The Environment, Nicolas Francis Alexandre Biber

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Microplastics are small piece of plastic debris < 5 mm in diameter, which arise and enter the environment either as a consequence of the direct release of small pieces of plastic debris or as a consequence of the fragmentation of larger items. They are widely distributed in the marine environment, on shorelines, at the sea surface, on the seabed. They are also ingested by a variety of marine organisms, and there is some evidence that this may cause adverse effects. This thesis investigates the potential sources, distribution and fate of this contaminant. Deterioration of plastics in a variety of environments was examined as a potential source of microplastics. Plastics were exposed in light and shade, in air, fresh water and sea water. Their deterioration was monitored over six hundred days. The fastest rate of deterioration, by far, was observed in air, and this was further accelerated by natural sunlight. Degradation in water was much slower and it was therefore concluded that plastic debris only fragments slowly into microplastics while they are in the water, and much faster when they are washed ashore and/or remain exposed to air, for example on a beach. A method to assess the contamination of beaches by microplastics' likely predecessors - small items of plastic debris - was therefore developed. High spatial variability, which can impede comparison between surveys undertaken by random sampling was overcome by assessing deliberately selected debris accumulations. An attempt to utilise citizen science using this rapid survey approach returned too much variability between volunteers to obtain consistent results. Nevertheless, the survey method was successfully used to identify narrow opening towards the sea, small tidal range and several weeks of high on-beach waves as predictors for high contamination. Evidence of harmful effects of microplastics on animals is primarily from laboratory studies and could be substantiated by exposure experiments \emph{in-situ}. Cockles were exposed to fluorescent plastic particles in an intertidal mudflat. After two weeks, particles were still present in the sediment. However, the test material could not be identified in the cockles with enough certainty to validate the method. The thesis concludes that fragmentation of larger items of debris on land is an important potential source of microplastics. Therefore, preventing plastics that are prone to deteriorate from entering the environment is likely the most effective way to prevent the generation of microplastics. Measuring the success of such preventive measures in the field returns highly variable results, as small plastic debris are elusive. Measuring effects in the environment demands large amounts of data, and highly specific methods are required to detect microplastics in animals. The shift of environmental plastic contamination towards small particles demands that plastic debris research adjusts to the elusiveness of these particles. Large volumes of variable data on plastics density and precise biological essays will be required.

A Retro-Projected Robotic Head For Social Human-Robot Interaction, Frédéric C. Delaunay

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

As people respond strongly to faces and facial features, both consciously and subconsciously, faces are an essential aspect of social robots. Robotic faces and heads until recently belonged to one of the following categories: virtual, mechatronic or animatronic. As an original contribution to the field of human-robot interaction, I present the R-PAF technology (Retro-Projected Animated Faces): a novel robotic head displaying a real-time, computer-rendered face, retro-projected from within the head volume onto a mask, as well as its driving soft-ware designed with openness and portability to other hybrid robotic platforms in mind.The work constitutes the first implementation of a non-planar …

Evaluating The Impacts Of Integrating Fisheries And Conservation Management, Sarah Gall

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Historically, the governance streams of fisheries and conservation management have run separately to one another, with little attempt at integration despite their similar goals. Efforts to integrate the two have increased as a result of their similarities and the potential benefits that may arise, but a requirement for additional research was identified to determine the effectiveness of this approach. This thesis therefore took an interdisciplinary approach, seeking to combine knowledge and methods from ecological, social and economic disciplines to provide a holistic evaluation of the potential for success. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were chosen as a management tool to evaluate …

Visual Narrative: A Theory And Model For Image-Driven Digital Historiography Based On A Case Study Of China’S Boxer Uprising (C. 1900), Ellen Irene Sebring

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Digitization that has enabled instant access to vast numbers of archival, historical images, demands a new paradigm for the use of visual imagery in historical research. This thesis proposes a new form of historiography in the digital medium, an image-based narrative mode for authoring and reading history. I propose a digital model for conveying history through the visual record, as an alternative to the printed book. Unlike the quantitative “big data” approach to digital humanities, this research explores visuality itself. In a practice-led approach, the research addresses both aspects of historiography: (1) a method of historical representation; and (2) original …

Theōria: The Veneration Of Icons Via The Technoetic Process, Ekaterini Karoussos

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

The Second Council of Nicaea, in 787 AD, marked the end of iconoclasm, while in 843 the Treaty of Verdun laid the foundations of Europe. With these agreements, a sustained period of imageless iconolatry was initiated. However, the veneration of icons was based on the absolute worship of matter and form, which replaced the prime spiritual concept of ‘image and likeness’. Millennia of research and thought resulted in imageless representations of natural phenomena. Pushing aside the topology of the image and its sign, the intelligent man, from the Age of Reason and onward, considered himself as an auto-authorised and teleological-free …

Duchamp Meets Turing: Art, Modernism, Posthuman, Gabriela Galati

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

In her book How We Became Posthuman (1999), Katherine Hayles analysed the process through which the conception of the liberal humanist subject led the way to the posthuman subject, a subject who lives in complete entwinement with the digital. This process, however, was not innocuous: it made the (fallacious) perception that information could do without material instantiation pervasive within many fields of knowledge, a process that Hayles contends originates in the Macy Conferences and the evolution of cybernetic theory. This research identifies an analogous process within the artistic realm: when Clement Greenberg delineated the concepts of opticality and colour field …

A Theoretical Model For The Design Of A Transcultural Visual Communication System In A Posthuman Condition, Haytham Nawar

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This dissertation follows an interdisciplinary approach that weaves practice and theory in the disciplines of visual communication, semiotics, cultural studies, linguistics, and new media art. The research methodology is practice-based located within a historical and contemporary context that allows for artistic experimentation and new knowledge to be generated through reflected creative practice This research proposes a context within which society can develop a transcultural means of communication with the objective of gaining completely unambiguous forms of understanding. This research explores the possibility of an open source scaffold for pictorial language that fosters self-enhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and …

Reciprocal Technologies: Enabling The Reciprocal Exchange Of Voice In Small-Scale Farming Communities Through The Transformation Of Information And Communications Technologies, Eugenio Tisselli

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This dissertation claims that the reciprocal exchange of voice—an element for constructing community and strengthening political recognition—may be fostered in small-scale farming communities by (1) the appropriation and transformation of information and communications technologies, (2) artistic intervention, and (3) cross-community research. This study contributes to participatory research methodologies, particularly those that seek to tackle the diverse challenges faced by small-scale farmers from a broad, complex perspective. The main issue identified in this dissertation is as follows: The hegemony of economic behaviors, which stands as a cornerstone of neoliberal capitalism, constitutes the latest stage of a historical process in which the …

That Dark Remembered Day - A Novel, And Critical Self-Reflection On Composition And The Editorial Process, Tom Vowler

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

My aim for That Dark Remembered Day was to create a work of fiction with a strong sense of the literary, one whose themes of violence, landscape and survivor guilt shone a light on the human condition, specifically the effects of post-war trauma on one family. The novel’s structure would be crucial in achieving its emotional heft, as each of the central characters is allocated at least one section, the reader experiencing events from disparate and increasingly illuminating perspectives. Fragmenting the book’s chronology (both throughout, but particularly in Part 3) by employing a technique of temporal blurring, helped to recreate …

Mass-Participation Architecture: Social Media And The Decentralisation Of Architectural Agency As A Commercial Imperative, Alexander Lorimer

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

A key problem in the field of architecture and urban planning since the 1960s has been the marginal role played by the general public in directly shaping significant aspects of the built environment. This thesis draws on theories around participatory planning, and in particular, the seminal 1969 publication ‘Non-plan: An Experiment in Freedom’. Non-plan suggested the potential of digital technology to facilitate self-organising public participation in architectural design and urban planning, while also taking inspiration from consumer- responsive activities across commercial disciplines. Now, half a century later, advancing web-technologies are beginning to facilitate mass-participatory design as a commercial imperative, and …

A Comparison Of Physiatrist Life Care Planners Versus Non-Life Care Planner Physiatrists' Professional Opinions Regarding Secondary Complications Of Spinal Cord Injuries, Noel A. Ysasi, Irmo Marini, Danielle Leigh Antol, Kristin Maxwell, Shelby Kerwin

School of Rehabilitation Services & Counseling Faculty Publications

The specialization of life care planning continues to evolve through empirical research and periodic standards of practice symposiums. Within this evolution, the need exists towards advancing the profession through the creation of a universal and standardized approach among all who operate within the field of life care planning regarding when/when not to include secondary complication costs into a life care plan. Opposing life care planners (LCPs) are sometimes millions of dollars apart in projected costs, often generally attributed to the inclusion of such costs which may be possible (51%) from a life care planning certainty threshold. The current study surveyed …

Improving Our Understanding Of Evolutionary Persistence In An Increasingly High Co2 World: Insight From Marine Polychaetes At A Low Ph Vent System, Noelle Marie Lucey

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

The main aim of this thesis was to determine how marine metazoans might persist as ocean acidification (OA) conditions intensify. This was done using a combination of field surveys, field transplants and laboratory experiments with polychaetes from a site where volcanically-derived CO2 gas bubbles through the seafloor and drives the seawater pH down, resulting in a marine ecosystem representative of global OA projections for, or before, the year 2100. My first objective was to identify phenotypes, or traits, associated with OA tolerance (Chapter 2 and 5). To do this, I characterized the distribution of dominant calcifying polychaetes along natural pH …

Understand The Environmental Fate, Behaviour, Effects And Risks Associated With Contaminants Of Emerging Concern (Cecs) With The Goal Of Protecting Environmental And Human Health, Kevin Victor Thomas

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Each and every one of us is exposed to chemicals on a daily basis and contributes to the global issue of chemical pollution. Humankind has become heavily dependent on the use of man-made chemicals in order to sustain the increased quality of life that is generally seen globally. There is however a price to pay in that we generally live in a world that is polluted by anthropogenic chemicals. From the water we drink to the food we eat there will be some trace of chemical residues; you just need to look closely enough and/or know what you’re looking for. …

Defining New Knowledge Produced By Collaborative Art-Science Research, Juanita Schlaepfer-Miller

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This thesis takes a theoretical framework constructed for transdisciplinary research within different natural science disciplines and investigates what kind of new knowledge is produced when this framework is applied to projects at the interface of art and natural science. The main case study is “Sauti ya Wakulima – The Voice of the Farmers”, which involves collaboration with another intervention artist, and with natural scientists and farmers. This is a collaborative knowledge project with small-scale urban as well as rural farmers in Tanzania who have created an online community archive of their farming practices by using mobile phones to upload images …

Embodying Topeng: Gender, Training And Intercultural Encounters, Tiffany Strawson

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This research centres on the Balinese performance tradition known as topeng which translates as Balinese masked dance-drama. In Bali this genre is performed traditionally in spaces reserved for religious ceremonies. The research questions the extent to which, and how, it may be possible for a non-Balinese person to embody a culturally coded, sacred object (the mask) and how a woman is able to make meaning and express herself within a genre which is traditionally the preserve of men. The research has therefore sought to develop an individual and intercultural approach to both the design of new masks and their performance. …

Evaluating Climatic Response To External Radiative Forcing During The Late Miocene To Early Pliocene: New Perspectives From Eastern Equatorial Pacific (Iodp U1338) And North Atlantic (Odp 982) Locations, Anna J. Drury, Cédric M. John, Amelia E. Shevenell

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Orbital‐scale climate variability during the latest Miocene‐early Pliocene is poorly understood due to a lack of high‐resolution records spanning 8.0–3.5 Ma, which resolve all orbital cycles. Assessing this variability improves understanding of how Earth's system sensitivity to insolation evolves and provides insight into the factors driving the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) and the Late Miocene Carbon Isotope Shift (LMCIS). New high‐resolution benthic foraminiferal Cibicidoides mundulus δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C records from equatorial Pacific International Ocean Drilling Program Site U1338 are correlated to North Atlantic Ocean Drilling Program Site 982 to obtain a global perspective. Four long‐term benthic …

Development Of Protein-Polymer Core-Shell Nanoparticles (Ppcs-Nps) As Efficient Vehicles To Deliver Therapeutic Agents Across Blood Brain Barrier (Bbb), Napat Tandikul

Theses and Dissertations

Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) plays a main role as selective barrier which controls and limits access of chemicals, molecules and therapeutic agents from blood to brain. The BBB endothelial cells are connected by Tight Junctions (TJs) which close intracellular spaces between the endothelial cells and block the free diffusion of substances, therefore many potential drugs for treating human brain diseases cannot reach the brain in sufficient concentration. Recently, many studies have thrown an interest in development of nanoparticles for delivering drugs and imaging agents across BBB. Our research group has developed protein-polymer core-shell nanoparticles (PPCS-NPs) which demonstrate great potential for …

Cdk8 And Cdk19 As Novel Regulators Of Bmp4 Induced Emt In Cancer, Anne Elizabeth Serrao

Theses and Dissertations

Bone morphogenetic protein 2/4 (BMP2/4), members of the transforming growth factor β (Tgf-β) superfamily, play a dichotomous role in the progression of cancers through cell growth suppression and the enhancement of tumorigenesis in a variety of cancers. Cyclin dependent kinase 8 (CDK8), a protein kinase that regulates gene transcription, is involved in a variety of cancers including breast and pancreatic cancers as well as in mediating BMP2 signaling via its canonical Smad1 pathway. Our studies show that BMP4 induced EMT signals primarily though Smad1 and that Yap1, a transcriptional co-activator, is necessary for BMP4 induced EMT. Using a highly specific …