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Antifungal activity of individual and combined thyme and cinnamon essential oils and their main components, cinnamaldehyde and thymol, against botrythis cinerea pers
No full textEssential oils (EOs) are concentrated, volatile plant extracts which have widespread pharmacological, agricultural, and cosmetic applications. Thyme EO (TEO) and cinnamon EO (CEO) contain antifungal natural products which confer deterrent properties against plant pathogenic fungi, such as Botrytis cinerea Pers., the causative agent of grey mold of many plants. To determine the effects of these extracts on B. cinerea growth, TEO, CEO, and their main components – thymol (TL) and cinnamaldehyde (CA), respectively – were tested for fungistatic and fungicidal activity using an agar dilution method. Cores of B. cinerea mycelium
were grown on potato dextrose agar infused with different concentrations of EOs. After 7 days, growth area was measured. Combined treatments (CEO+TEO, CA+TL) were also tested in this way to identify interactive effects between EOs or their components. Additionally, combinations of CA/ TL and the commercial antifungal natamycin were tested for interactive antifungal activity using a broth dilution method, where treatments were mixed with potato dextrose broth and B. cinerea spore suspension in a 96-well microplate and visually assessed for turbidity after 7 days. All individual treatments produced fungistatic effects and completely inhibited B. cinerea growth at 500 μg/mL. Cinnamon treatments (CEO, CA) were often fungicidal, possibly due to the destruction of the fungal cell wall by CA. Components tended to produce similar results to whole EOs, indicating that the antifungal properties of CEO and TEO can be primarily attributed to their main components. Contrary to previous reports, no interactive antifungal effects were found in any treatment combinations in the agar and broth dilution trials. This may be explained by variations in the chemical composition of the EOs used. These findings support previous documented antifungal activity in CEO, TEO, and their main components against B. cinerea, but does not confirm any antifungal interactions between these treatments or natamycin
The photogeneration and cycloaddition reactions of tert-Butyl subtituted quinone methides
No full textTwo phenols, 6-tBu-2-hydroxybenzyl alcohol (22) and 4,6-di-tBu-2-hydroxybenzyl alcohol (23), were prepared using a sodium borohydride reduction, in yields of 93% and 75%, respectively. After attempts to purify 23 through recrystallization from hexanes with no success and a low yield (11%), this compound was not used further. Irradiation of 22 in methanol containing solutions gave the corresponding methyl ether 26 in high yields. Irradiation of 22 in solutions containing electron-rich dienophiles gave high yields of the expected [4+2] products, indicating that a quinone methide (QM) intermediate was formed.
Product studies were carried out in different solvent mixtures containing varying amounts of water, methanol, and acetonitrile and it appears that the reaction taking place was largely solvent independent. For the formation of the [4+2] products, the presence of water actually hampered the reaction.
Fluorescence studies showed that the addition of small amounts of water to an acetonitrile solution of compound 22 led to some quenching, however addition of more water did not lead to further quenching. This supports a reaction mechanism where photodehydration takes with no solvent assistance to give a quinone methide intermediate
Reconceptualizing the notwithstanding clause: using Section 33 as a tool form moderation and deliberation
No full textSince its entrenchment in the Canadian Constitution in 1982, The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has garnered both scrutiny and praise from supporters and detractors alike. The section of the Charter which has been, and continues to be, the most misunderstood and most highly criticized is section 33, known colloquially as the "the notwithstanding clause". S.33 is viewed by its critics as being both undemocratic and rights effacing. It is misunderstood by many of its critics as being a legislative override of judicial review, even though the word override does not appear, nor has it ever appeared, in the language of the notwithstanding clause. Rather than being considered an override, S.33, should be considered as a check and balance on judicial power, and what s.33 offers is something much more interesting and worthwhile than a simple override of judicial review.
This thesis argues that s.33, rather than simply providing a legislative body with the ability to override judicial decisions with which they do not agree, provides the judicial and legislative branches of government with an avenue to further a constructive dialogue. Rather than being a check and balance which cuts the power of the judiciary off at the knees, this check and balance infuses the relationship between the judicial and legislative branches with an air of moderation. S.33 can formalize the view that the branches of government do not work independently from one another, but rather that they work interdependently with one another. In this way s.33 acts as a mechanism that can bridge the gap between Canada's history as a federation which adheres to the principle of parliamentary supremacy and Canada's current position as a federation which
adheres to the principle of constitutional supremacy
Petrology and tectonic setting of mafic-intermediate plutons and dykes in the eastern Meguma terrane, Nova Scotia, Canada
No full textSmall plutons of mafic to intermediate composition are locally associated with the abundant Devonian granitic plutons that intruded the Goldenville and Halifax groups in the eastern Meguma terrane of mainland Nova Scotia. In addition, a swarm of mafic-intermediate dykes, here termed the Eastern Shore dykes, occur in the coastal part of that area. The purpose of this study is to investigate the petrology, petrogenesis, and tectonic implications of these mafic-intermediate plutons and mafic dykes. The Garry Lakes, Cranberry Lake, and the mafic-intermediate plutons (Porcupine Lake, Bog Island Lake, Mink Lake, and Ten Mile Lake plutons) in the Trafalgar plutonic suite make up the tonalite to quartz diorite intrusions. They range from undeformed to protomylonitic, contain abundant metasedimentary xenoliths, and show magma mingling textures with their adjacent granitic plutons. Small quartz diorite to diorite intrusions occur nearby including the younger Melrose Dyke and the Moose Lake diorite. The Eastern Shore dykes have dominant mineralogy and geochemical characteristics of the lamprophyre variety spessartite. These mafic-intermediate intrusions are dominantly calc-alkaline and peraluminous to metaluminous. Chemical comparison to the associated granitic plutons suggest the granitic intrusions could be a result of anatexis caused by the ascent of the hot, mantle-derived magmas. Similar chemical affinities are identified between the eastern mafic-intermediate intrusion with the mafic-intermediate intrusions in southwestern Meguma terrane. Geochemical data support that mafic-intermediate intrusions in the eastern Meguma terrane were derived from a mantle source. The mafic-intermediate magmatism in the eastern Meguma terrane may have been generated in a subduction zone that experienced slab-breakoff that caused the asthenosphere to rise and melt the metasomatized lithospheric mantle to produce the mantle-derived magmas and lamprophyres
Task scheduling in fog environment using deep reinforcement learning strategy
No full textThe cloud computing market is dominated by service-providing companies, including but not limited to Microsoft, AWS, Salesforce, and Google to name a few. These cloud service providers have witnessed tremendous development in their infrastructure to support the performance requests of customers. In order to stand by their service level agreements (SLAs) the computing demands of the customers are met. There's a pressing need to bring distributed virtual machines to customer devices to cater to the task(s) latency constraints. A task can be classified as high latency, low latency, and ultra-low latency task. High latency tasks are those tasks that require extensive computation time. An example of high latency task is downloading a 4k image on a device that is located far away from the host server. Usually, any task that requires more than 200ms to execute is known as a high latency task [7]. Whereas low and ultra low latency tasks are usually linked with Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices that must converge to completion in a very short duration (a few
seconds). An example of such a task includes streaming a live event, as it crucially depends on how low is the end-to-end latency [76]. It is not possible to rely on a cloud data center that is geographically far from the IoT devices for low and ultra-low latency tasks. Unlike the traditional cloud, fog computing and edge computing enable us to bridge the distance between services (virtual machines) and IoT devices, allowing us to handle with tasks that demand faster execution. The emerging fog computing technology is characterized by ultra-low latency tasks that benefit time-sensitive applications and services. Quality of service (QoS) is the description or measurement of the overall performance of a service. Minimizing energy and time while meeting users' QoS preferences is critical for cloud service providers to maximize profits while maintaining users' service level agreements (SLA). Allocating user tasks to appropriate virtual machines is an essential topic that contributes in minimizing the time and energy consumed by virtual machines in the cloud. Thus, this thesis proposes clipped double Q-learning, a deep reinforcement learning algorithm by coupling with LSTM for state-action pair forecasting to allocate tasks to their respective virtual machines. Two other algorithms: LSTM-RNN and Deep Q-network base task scheduling, are also proposed in this research to automate the process of allocating tasks to the virtual machines that enhance the performance of the system. The proposed Clipped Deep Double Q-Learning algorithm achieves the desired results by improving the system's performance by decreasing average service delay, execution and waiting times and several other metrics detailed in this thesis
Conservation ecology of Eunectes murinus (Green anaconda) in the Madre de Dios region of Southeastern Peru using remote sensing techniques and machine learning driven geospatial modeling
No full textEunectes murinus is a large species of aquatic snake from the family Boidae that inhabits the Amazon and Orinoco basins. Most of the information on the species' ecology is based on studies in Venezuela and northern and eastern Brazil. Descriptions from closed canopy rainforest systems are limited mainly to short notes and sparse observations. Between 2012 and 2021 I aggregated positions of E. murinus data from multiple localities in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. Positions were acquired during periods of intensive surveying, opportunistic encounters, radio telemetry tracking, and analysis of data acquired during other faunal surveys in the region. The information was combined with remotely sensed data products in ArcGIS Pro for spatial analysis and geospatial modelling. In addition to general results pertaining to the ecology of the
species, I address two questions about the predatory habits of E murinus: 1) Is the predation behaviour of E. murinus a critical aspect of its conservation? And 2) Does E. murinus target areas of higher prey density and occurrence frequency? During the study 52 individual E. murinus were recorded and four adults were tagged with radio transponders. Snakes were found throughout the study area occupying rivers, small open canopy streams, Maurtia sp. dominated palm swamps, oxbow lakes and human created habitats such as cattle ponds and mining pools. Permanent presence of water and open canopy were determined as two essential variables associated with E. murinus habitat. Results of habitat preference and hydrology mapping were used to produce minimum, maximum and random forest distribution models in the eastern portion of the region. The results from the home range analysis, and a review of individual positions indicate that E. murinus have defined home ranges, and display site fidelity. The activity patterns of snakes in Mauritia palm systems and the affiliation of riverine and stream snakes with mineral licks and game trails demonstrate that E. murinus target areas of higher prey occurrence and are likely more active as predators in these systems than previously described. Several aspects of the results highlight conservation implications for the species in Southeastern Peru and understanding the predation ecology and diet of E. murinus will be essential for
addressing the conversation of population in the Madre de Dios region
C.S. Lewis set out to prove the existence of God
No full textThis thesis examines the question: Does C. S. Lewis's argument from longing, Sehnsucht, support the probable existence of God—an ontological reasoning rooted in Occam's rule? C. S. Lewis's argument for the probable existence of God is presented in his fiction and non-fiction. It is initiated in the context of his conversion as he expressed it using the word "longing." Furthermore, I scrutinized the argument by using the idea of desire in his writings.
In addition to looking at what Lewis stated regarding longing and God's existence, the thesis covers historical references to this point of the human quest for God. Subsequently, there is space given to the ontological argument of St. Anselm and William of Occam's razor as they relate to whether God exists or not. In addition, I referred to other theologians who set out to prove that God exists.
John Beversluis has formulated Lewis's ideas on the desire for God as the Argument from Desire. Therefore, a debate on the pros and cons of the Argument from Desire among those who have written about Lewis.
The existence of God is a topic with a long history, and this thesis sets out to place Lewis in it. This thesis summarizes a specific subject focusing on Lewis and his longing.
Lewis was evangelistic in his writings. But can Lewis's arguments still be used to bring someone to faith in God and a relationship with Jesus Christ
Examining population genetics of the Atlantic Sea Cucumber Cucumaria frondosa using COI and RADseq
No full textThe Atlantic Sea Cucumber, Cucumaria frondosa (Echinodermata, Holothuria) is a suspension-feeding sea cucumber found throughout the North Atlantic. Recently, interest has emerged in developing a trawl fishery for this species in Nova Scotia, specifically on the Scotian Shelf. As new fisheries emerge in Canada, precautionary management entails examining underlying genetic structure to inform fisheries stocks. This is also important to follow international efforts from organizations such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to characterize and manage biodiversity as a biological resource. Little is known about the population genetics of this species, including connectivity across the North Atlantic. One previous study examined genetic structure of C. frondosa in the North Atlantic using Cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1 (COI) and found evidence of minor structure between Europe and North America, but no regional structuring. When this dataset was augmented with additional individuals and sampling sites in this study, the minor structuring between continents remained, but pairwise Fst values between study sites changed. In addition, my results showed that the way DNA sequence data is trimmed can significantly redistribute haplotypes between study sites, implying the need for more standardized methodology for sequence trimming in future analyses. Regional genetic structuring between the coasts of Atlantic Canada and Iceland was re-assessed with a higher resolution method, Restriction Site-Associated DNA Sequencing (RADseq). Overall, both COI and RADseq analyses supported the hypothesis of one metapopulation of C. frondosa across the North Atlantic, with the RADseq analysis indicating that sea cucumbers off the coasts of Iceland and Atlantic Canada constituted at least two subpopulations. In addition, a minor difference between the study site in NAFO Zone 4X and the remainder of Atlantic Canada was found. Thus, there may be greater amounts of genetic structuring within Cucumaria frondosa on the Scotian Shelf than previously thought. There is also evidence that methodology (e.g. marker selection, sequence trimming, sample size) can impact the results of population genetic analyses. The results of this thesis have established a baseline of population structuring for C. frondosa in the North Atlantic, with at least two subpopulations between North America and Europe, but they also demonstrate the need for standardized methodology for trimming sequence data and even selecting appropriate
markers for research questions. This will be important for further work on establishing genetic data as a biological resource and for informing long-term management of fisheries
Differential expression of antifreeze gylcoprotein genes among tissue types in Atlantic tomcod Microgadus tomcod
No full textAtlantic tomcod Microgadus tomcod synthesize antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) that protect body tissues from freezing by inhibiting ice crystal growth. Other antifreeze producing fishes exhibit tissue specific differential antifreeze protein production. In this study, the expression of MAK14 and RAB14 genes coding for antifreeze glycoproteins 1-4 was examined among four tissue types, liver, skin, gill, and head kidney in Atlantic tomcod. Nucleic acids were extracted from samples using silica membrane and phenol-chloroform techniques. The Polymerase Chain Reaction was used to amplify target sequence and the resulting amplicons were sequenced. Sequence data was entered into a BLASTn search engine and identified MAK14 and RAB14 gene in Microgadus tomcod as the top match. We used a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction to explore expression of MAK14 and RAB14 genes among tissue types
Prayer and perpetration source as predictors of the mental well-being of victims of psychological aggression
No full textIncreased attention has been paid recently to examining the standalone associations of psychological aggression and victims' mental distress, above and beyond the detrimental associations of physical aggression. The negative associations of psychological aggression perpetrated by various sources was examined, and the outcomes associated with intimate partner and non-intimate partner psychological aggression on victims' mental well-being were directly compared. Additionally, though certain coping strategies have been shown to buffer the adverse effects of psychological aggression on victims' mental health, prayer as a coping method has received relatively little scientific attention. The present study sought to examine prayer as a predictor of psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the potential moderating effects of prayer on the association between psychological aggression and victims' mental well-being. Participants (N = 596) took part in a longitudinal diary study examining daily experiences of psychological aggression perpetrated by intimate partner and non-intimate partner sources, daily use of prayer, and mental well-being. Results indicated a significant positive relationship between psychological aggression victimization and levels of psychological distress, which was not moderated by source of perpetration. A weak negative relationship was found between prayer and psychological distress; however, prayer did not moderate the relationship between victimization of psychological aggression and psychological distress