VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Indigenous agroforestry and sustainable development in Mutoko Communal District, Zimbabwe

This study examines the nature of indigenous agroforestry, that is the use, conservation and cultivation of trees and woodlands by rural inhabitants in the communal farming system in northeastern Zimbabwe. Villages in four wards of Mutoko Communal District serve as study sites. The purpose of this examination is to evaluate indigenous agroforestry's present role as well as its potential in contributing to sustainable development. The study challenges the Western model of "project agroforestry" and emphasizes the central importance of a community and ecosystem context for sustainable development. Three primary questions frame the research. What conceptual framework is most appropriate in the local context for addressing agroforestry's role in sustainable development? What are the parameters of indigenous agroforestry in communal Zimbabwe and what do the study results show? In what ways does indigenous agroforestry contribute to the sustainability of the rural farming system? An adjunct fourth question addresses the role of project agroforestry by the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission and the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, among other agencies. A conceptual framework for sustainable development is presented that takes a normative, systems approach to people in the context of their landscape ecology. The goals of sustainable development (and the broader objectives of this study) are maintaining or restoring integrity in the households, communities and ecosystems of the farming landscape. The agroforestry objectives are activities which spread tree species valued by farmers in appropriate agroecosystem locations. The study findings emphasize the multiple uses of more than 60 species of indigenous and exotic trees including their importance for fruit and medicine, fuel, fodder and construction materials. The continued spiritual significance of trees and woodland is described in a conservation ethic concerning sacred groves and fruit trees. Conservation and cultivation of trees are examined according to their agroecosystem locations on the farming landscape. The subsequent sustainability analysis incorporates an assessment framework evaluating the improving, stable or declining condition of different parts of the agroforestry system. The study concludes with proposals for improvement and an evaluation of the overall prospects for indigenous agroforestry.
The role of food, predation, and population density on the stress physiology of Arctic ground squirrels

I examined how food, predation and population density interact to compromise the stress response of Arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii plesius) in the Yukon during the low phase of the snowshoe hare cycle. Squirrels in the boreal forest were sampled from control, food supplemented, predator reduced, and predator reduced plus food supplemented treatments and from the alpine (predator reduced environment). Boreal forest adult female and juvenile squirrels from control and food supplemented areas showed no effects of chronic stress, predator reduced adult female and juvenile male squirrels showed marginal effects, and adult female and juvenile predator reduced plus food squirrels showed significant effects. Juvenile females from the predator reduced treatment were anomalous, showing a complete inability to respond adaptively. Alpine juveniles were better adapted to handle stress than were boreal forest juveniles. I conclude that in the boreal forest food limitation resulting from high density directly compromised the ability of ground squirrels to cope with stress but that at this point in the snowshoe hare cycle, predation risk did not.
The effect of free fatty acids, FFA, on first-pass hepatic insulin extraction in vivo

In vitro studies show that FFA impair insulin degradation in rat hepatocytes. To investigate whether FFA impair hepatic insulin extraction in vivo, we infused saline (SAL) or 10% Intralipid (0.03 ml/kg$\cdot$min) + Heparin (0.44 U/kg$\cdot$min) (IH) into 8 normal dogs. An intraportal insulin infusion (INF$\sb{\rm ins}$) was given at 3 mU/kg$\cdot$min for 150 min (period A), at 0.4 mU/kg$\cdot$min (period B) for 150 min and peripherally at 1.4 mU/kg$\cdot$min (period C) for 120 min to assess insulin plasma clearance rate (PCR$\sb{\rm ins}$). FFA were 6-9 fold higher with IH in A, B, and C. Peripheral insulin levels were greater with IH in all periods. PCR$\sb{\rm ins}$ was lower (p $<$ 0.001) with IH (9.7 $\pm$.6 vs 11.5 $\pm$ 0.8 ml/kg$\cdot$min). We calculated the systemic appearance of insulin as (Ra$\sb{\rm sys}$ = PCR$\sb{\rm ins}$x(INS) $\sb{\rm ss}$) and hepatic insulin extraction as (HIE,%) = (INF$\sb{\rm ins}$-Ra$\sb{\rm sys}$)/INF$\sb{\rm ins}$x 100 = (1-(PCR$\sb{\rm ins}$x(INS) $\sb{\rm ss}$)/Inf$\sb{\rm ins}$) x 100. HIE was lower with IH in A (IH = 17.1 $\pm$ 5% vs SAL = 21.3 $\pm$ 3%, p $<$ 0.02), and B (IH = 48.3 $\pm$ 6%, vs SAL = 53.8 $\pm$ 3% p $<$ 0.01). Conclusion. FFA impair hepatic insulin extraction in vivo.
Glen Meyer and prehistoric Neutral paleoethnobotany

The plant remains from fifteen archaeological sites in southwestern Ontario are examined and statistically compared. Two Late Woodland cultures are represented: the early Glen Meyer and the later prehistoric Neutral. These groups spanned a time range from as early as ca. A.D. 900 through to approximately ca. A.D. 1500. Changes in the plant record that occurred during this Late Woodland period are documented, and a remarkable similarity in the ethnobotany of the two cultures is revealed. The Glen Meyer, previously believed to be the key to the beginnings of agriculture in Ontario, are shown to have possessed a stable system of cultivation involving the native cultigens maize (' Zea mays'), bean ('Phaseolus vulgaris'), cucurbit (' Cucurbita pepo'), sunflower ('Helianthus annuus' var. ' macrocarpa') and tobacco ('Nicotiana' sp.), indicating that research must now look to earlier cultures for incipient agriculture. The prehistoric Neutral, previously thought to be a group which relied heavily on cultivated plants for subsistence, are shown to have had as strong a reliance on wild plant foods as their ancestors. The major focus of this study is on the degree of difference between the Glen Meyer and the prehistoric Neutral, and the major finding is that there is such a marked similarity in the ethnobotany of the two cultures that despite their temporal range they are statistically indistinguishable.
Electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions of myelin basic protein and magainin peptide with lipids

The electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions of myelin basic protein (MBP) and the bactericidal peptide magainin with model biomembranes were investigated. The ability of MBP to aggregate acidic lipid vesicles was used as a functional index to study factors which might affect its ability to cause adhesion of the intracellular surfaces of myelin. The aggregation of lipid vesicles by MBP was found to be highly dependent on salt concentration. Therefore, changes in K+ concentration during the action potential could regulate MBP-mediated adhesion of the intracellular myelin surfaces of noncompacted regions of myelin. The hydrophobic interaction of MBP with lipid vesicles was found to be dependent on lipid composition. Using hydrophobic photolabeling technique, addition of cholesterol and phosphatidylethanolamine was found to increase the hydrophobic interaction of MBP with acidic lipids. Thus, the lipid composition of the cytoplasmic leaflet of myelin is ideally suited to permit MBP-mediated adhesion. The posttranslational modifications to MBP, which decrease its net positive charge, decrease the ability of MBP to aggregate acidic lipid vesicles at low protein concentrations but not at high concentrations. Thus, charge modifications of MBP would probably not affect adhesion of the intracellular surfaces of compact myelin where MBP concentration is high, but might do so in cytoplasm-containing regions of myelin where MBP concentration V low and where K+ concentration may vary in the range of 60-75 mM. concentration may vary in the range of 60-75 mM. In addition to the electrostatic interaction of magainins with acidic lipid vesicles, hydrophobic interaction was detected using lipid photolabels. A magainin 2 analogue, Ala19-magainin 2 amide, was significantly labeled in the lipid bilayer by lipid photolabels with the photoreactive group either near the surface or near the center of the bilayer. Ala19-magainin 2 amide insertion into the bilayer was peptide concentration-dependent, supporting the formation of transmembrane pores by magainins as a mechanism of membrane permeabilization. A transmembrane electrochemical potential, which exists across various biological membranes, may affect the interactions of membrane proteins and peptides with membranes. The effect of a transmembrane potential was investigated on charged lipids and magainins, using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and hydrophobic photolabeling. However, technical problems made it difficult to detect an effect of a transmembrane potential on magainins. Charged lipids were found to be unresponsive to a transmembrane potential.
Numerical study of high-speed hydrogen/air planar parallel turbulent mixing using the Baldwin-Lomax model

Inert single-jet parallel turbulent mixing of hydrogen-air at hypersonic speed is studied using a steady-state space-marching 2D numerical method combined with the Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model. The air inflow is found from an ideal external compression shcramjet design. The mass flow rate of hydrogen is to be in stoichiometric proportions with the flow rate of air circulating through the engine. The numerical results show no premature ignition when no nitrogen is injected between the wall and hydrogen or between hydrogen and air. Increasing the hydrogen step width results in a higher mixing layer growth at any flight Mach number. Increasing the hydrogen stagnation temperature leads to a better mixing at low flight Mach numbers ($M\sb{\rm flight} < 16$) but the opposite trend is observed for higher Mach numbers. The mixing performance of single-jet parallel mixing is estimated to be 4-7% at an x-station of 12 meters for the shcramjet flight Mach number range 5-24. The Baldwin-Lomax model over-predicts the mixing layer growth due to lack of modelization of the compressibility effects.
Understanding transitions, the first postsecondary term

The primary purpose of this research was to discover how students felt about the experience of transition from high school to post-secondary educational institutions in the context of other significant life changes that they experienced. I was particularly interested in discovering what kinds of practices which high schools and post-secondary institutions followed which facilitated or inhibited transitions. I also hoped to ease their transition by providing them with opportunities to meet to discuss problems as they occurred. The participants were five students who had recently completed high school and had just enrolled in the fall term of a post secondary program. I conducted initial interviews with them before they began orientation week. Thereafter I met with three of them as a transitions team and all of them individually on a bi-weekly basis to explore transition issues. I also shadowed students on their campuses, visiting those places where they socialized and studied. Students also contacted me by phone, and e-mail. They arranged impromptu visits as they felt the need. Data collection was completed during the winter of 1996/1997. The data indicate that two factors contributed significantly to the perception students had of their transition. Regardless of the kind of post-secondary educational institution attended, participants who stated that they were happy about the first term were those who had established career goals prior to establishing educational goals. For them the transition was merely a phase. For students whose long term goals were less well defined the transition presented more difficulty. Another critical emerging issue was the sense of community. Those who established themselves with new friends at the new institution seemed to enjoy activities associated with the first term far more than those who were less involved in the social life of the new institution. This study reveals that, for the participants, academic preparation was adequate while social, emotional, and vocational preparations were less adequate. In total, nine themes emerged in the data analysis. These were Vision, Sense of Community, Students' Preparation and Preparedness, Institutions' Preparation, Support from Parents, Role of the Student, Desire for Change, Community College Stigma, and Commuting Distance.
Effect of semiconductor-controlled voltage injection by UPFC and ULTC on power system stability

Commercial availability of various power semiconductor switches indicates proliferation of power electronic based apparatus in utility power systems. Furthermore, existing power system apparatus, e.g. mechanical phase shifters and mechanical tap changing transformers, will be retrofitted to utilize higher switching speed of semiconductor switches. A group of these apparatus, i.e., unified power flow controller (UPFC), static phase shifter (SPS), under-load tap-changing (ULTC) transformer and static series capacitor (SSC), perform their respective functions by means of injecting series controlled voltages in power systems. This thesis demonstrates that fast series voltage injection, for dynamic power flow regulation, can result in voltage dynamics and even voltage instability. This indicates that fast voltage injection by means of power electronic based apparatus can couple voltage stability and angle stability phenomena. To investigate this coupling phenomena, the voltage dependency of the load must be adequately represented in the load model. The reported studies in this work are based on representing the load by a combination of static and dynamic loads. This thesis primarily investigates impacts of UPFC and semiconductor-controlled ULTC on voltage stability and angle stability phenomena. An eigen analysis approach is used for the studies. The eigen analysis results are validated by digital time-domain simulations using a transient stability software. Both the eigen analysis and the transient stability software tools are tailored to account for angle and voltage stability phenomena.
Perception and spelling of strange speech sounds by Polish-Canadian L2 speakers of English

Within the context of the critical period hypothesis and the markedness differential (MD) approach of the contrastive analysis hypothesis (CA), this study investigated the perception and spelling of word initial and word final variants of the English voiceless interdental fricative /$\theta$/ in 35 Polish-Canadians (L2 group) and 35 native speakers of English (L1 group). Overall, the L2 group performed better on word final than on word initial /$\theta$/, whereas the L1 group performed equally well regardless of /$\theta$/ position. Results partially support the critical period hypothesis in that adult L2 learners can improve though not master completely their perception of non-native phonology. Even the highly proficient L2 speakers differ from the L1 speakers especially when task demands increase. Additionally, the current MD does not predict perception errors such as substitutions of /d/ for /$\theta$/. These may be explained by studying the entire syllable environment within which they occurred.
Osteoconduction of calcium phosphate thin film on porous-surfaced implants in rabbit tibiae

The purpose of this study was to compare the healing responses, after two weeks of implantation, between porous-surfaced Ti-6Al-4V implants as controls and the same implant design with a submicron (0.3-0.5 $\mu$m) layer of calcium phosphate (Ca-P) applied to the implant surface using the sol-gel technique. Seventeen rabbits were used in three experiments. In Experiment I, the proximal end of the right tibia in 10 rabbits received two transcortical implants, one Ca-P-coated and one control. In Experiment II, one of each implant type was placed into either the right or left tibia of 6 rabbits. Only 1 rabbit was used in Experiment III where one Ca-P-coated implant was installed in each of the left and right tibiae. Backscattered scanning electron microscopy and a Bioquant Image Analysis computer software package were used to analyze absolute bone contact length (ACL), contact length fraction (CLF), straight line endosteal bone growth (SLBG), absolute bone ingrowth area (ABIA), and bone ingrowth fraction (BIF). The results were submitted to Repeated Measures ANOVA. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
A numerical study of expanded metal screens as applied to a coal-fired utility boiler

Coal-fired utility boilers suffer from catastrophic tube failures induced by flyash erosion. Flyash erosion is inevitable when burning coal to generate electric power, but the erosion is aggravated by local high velocities. Expanded metal screens can be used to control excessive erosion. The objective of this research is to provide tools for predicting screen behaviour for the design of boiler retrofits. Numerical models for screens of various shapes were solved and good agreement with the experimental data was obtained. Numerical solutions were obtained for a two-dimensional model of the boiler both with and without screens in order to visualize the flow modification. Good agreement with the cold air velocity data was obtained except for large over prediction of the channeling velocity. A three-dimensional boiler model was created which was found to more realistically simulate local high velocities. Finally, a three-dimensional economizer model was created and the results were analyzed qualitatively.
The role of the devil in Old English narrative literature

The thesis presents a holistic overview of the dramatic, didactic, and allegorical possibilities presented by the figure of the Christian devil to Anglo-Saxon authors, poets, homilists, and translators. Certain narrative inconsistencies characteristically accompany the nebulous devil of early medieval narrative literature--he is simultaneously bound in hell and yet roaming the earth; he is at one point identified as the chief of demons, while at another point taken as a collective term for the totality of demons; he is a physical enemy to be encountered in the natural world, and yet a metaphoric emblem invoked as the principle of sin or evil. Such critical moments reveal the devil's protean vitality as a literary symbol, which authors were free to manipulate in a variety of ways to create literary effect or even to encode cultural anxieties. The study covers Old English charm literature and ' Solomon and Saturn I', the translations of the reign of Alfred (especially Wærferth's 'Dialogues' and the Old English 'Bede '), select vernacular prose homilies and saints' lives (especially Ælfric and the 'Life of Margaret') and the major poetic corpus ('Juliana, Elene, Andreas', and 'Guthlac A'). Ultimately the thesis constructs an ontology of hagiographic demonology, that is, a means of reading saints' lives that unpacks certain anxieties inscribed in narrative about the foundations of reality. These texts are permeated by signals that the demonic is far less remote and weak than is openly asserted in these works or in the orthodox theology of the time; it is interesting to observe precisely how diverse authors attempt to confront or circumvent the implications of these signals.
Social dreaming, Dickens and the fairy tale

Dickens played a key role in establishing the fairy tale as an important literary form for the Victorian middle class. The only two books on Dickens and the fairy tale (Kotzin 1972; Stone, 1979) take a psychoanalytical approach to the subject; I apply recent fairy-tale criticism to Dickens scholarship in order to discuss Dickens's social uses of fancy and the fairy tale. My first two chapters place Dickens in the cultural contexts of the fairy tale. First, I both introduce the fairy-tale heritage to which Dickens was exposed and outline the critical contexts of this thesis. As do Perrault and the Grimms, Dickens used the fairy tale to promote his social views. To Dickens, a liberal humanist, the fairy tale had a high cultural value because it helped readers maintain hope and humanity in a mechanical age. Secondly, my approach illuminates Dickens's role in the cultural dispute of the early nineteenth century over the value of the fairy tale for children, when writers battled for access to children's minds in the hopes of perpetuating their belief systems. In "Frauds on the Fairies" and 'Hard Times', Dickens not only defends fancy as socially necessary but satirizes the Christian and rational discourses of its attackers. In a sense, all of Dickens's works are defences of fancy, as my last three chapters show. First, I discuss how Dickens uses fairy-tale motifs in his novels to create plots, characters and setting, idealizing women and the home as cultivators of fancy. Secondly, I focus on Dickens's Christmas books and their "'Carol' philosophy" of fancy, social reform and domestic affections. Close reading, however, reveals his ambivalence towards his own solutions. Finally, I examine Dickens's periodicals, ' Household Words' and 'All the Year Round', which were based on his 'Carol' philosophy and featured his fairy tales. The popularity of these publications spread his views widely and both encouraged writers to experiment with the fairy tale and readers to consider it respectable and valuable. In part because of Dickens's influence, the fairy tale continues to play a leading role in children's literary education today.