McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 1995

This thesis considers the dimensional analysis theory in engineering. A Knowledge-Aided Design Tool is presented which permits the solution of many aspects of Dimensional Analysis for electromagnetics. The KAD Tool was coded in the language Lisp with Allegro Common Lisp in a Microsoft-Windows environment on a PC with a 486 microprocessor. It represents 10 196 lines of code. The mathematical functions are supported by the mathematical libraries of the software MAPLE. A menu with nine choices corresponding to nine functionalities of Dimensional Analysis is offered to the user.  Read more

A field lysimeter experiment was conducted during 1993 and 1994 using 4 water table depths (WTD) (0.3, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 m), 13 treatment levels of calcium (0, 1500, and 2500 kg/ha) and potassium (0, 160, and 400 kg/ha), to determine their effects on tomato quality and yield. Plant parameters measured included: yield (fruit/plant), fruit height, maximum and minimum equatorial width, degree of catfacing (scale of 1 to 5), and sunscald (scale of 0 to 2). Water table treatment was usually highly significant for the parameters measured at harvest. Largest height, equatorial width and yield of tomato fruit occur with …  Read more

Anthropometry, dietary intakes and food preferences of Mohawk children in Kahnawake were studied. Overweight, defined by body mass index at and above the 85th percentile of United States all-race children was 29.6% in boys and 32.8% in girls aged 5 to 12 years; rates were generally lower than those reported for Native North American schoolchildren using same criterion. Compared with U.S. data, there were greater differences in subscapular than triceps skinfold thicknesses, suggesting a more central distribution of subcutaneous fat. Mean energy intakes of Grades 4 to 6 children were adequate to achieve normal growth, and height-for-age and weight-for-height showed …  Read more

The complexes CpRu(CO)$ sb2$SR(Cp = $ eta sp5$-cyclopentadienyl; R = 4-C$ sb6 rm H sb4$Me, C$ rm sb6H sb5, CH sb2C sb6H sb5$) insert sulfur from S$ sb8$ to give CpRu(CO)$ rm sb2S sb{x}$R (x = 1-3) and undergo ligand exchange with R$ rm sp prime sb2S sb{y}$ (y = 2,3) to give CpRu(CO)$ sb2 rm S sb{x}R sp prime$ (x = 1-3). The mechanisms of these reactions are discussed. Treatment of CpRu(CO)$ sb2$SH with the appropriate phthalimide sulfur transfer reagents REphth (phth = phthalimide; E = SS, SS(O); R = 4-C$ rm sb6H sb4Me, C sb6H sb5, CH sb2C …  Read more

Goffin, J. L. (Supervisor)  Read more

In the fantastical world of the Architecture Civile, Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757-1826) designed the architect's space of appearance across a ritual act of representation. The meticulous crafting of the architectural drawing defined the very site upon which his highly syncretic and imaginative ornamental language was developed. It was in the idea of ornament that Lequeu articulated his veneration of, and dedication to the restoration of, architectural beauty and delight. In the drawing and writing of the orthograph(i)e, Lequeu enacted the promordial trait of the dessinateur to found his art and science of representation. In the shadowed depths of the surface and …  Read more

The continuous heating to fracture test (CHF) developed at McGill was used to study the effect of decarburization on the incipient melting temperature. In the CHF test, a sample was deformed at a constant true strain rate, while its temperature is increased at a constant rate. This test allows the incipient melting temperature to be determined using a single test, instead of the several required by isothermal tensile testing. An isothermal decarburization step, to create a decarburized layer at the surface of the sample, was added prior to the CHF test. Analysis of the true stress vs temperature curves obtained …  Read more

The writings of Edmond Jabes pose a formidable task to their reader. Their irrecoverable strangeness, which makes their categorization difficult, is at once frightening and seductive. This is particularly true of those works associated with what one might describe as the author's "second manner", inaugurated by Le Livre des Questions. This thesis attempts to re-read the works of Jabes (in particular Le Livre des Ressemblances) from the standpoint of the fragment, presupposing that this form is not simply an effect secondary to a particular literary conception, but that it becomes the essence of Jabes' poetics, its very organizing principle. The …  Read more

The relationships between parasitic infections, environmental and living conditions, and health outcomes were studied in subdivisions of lower (LSES) and higher (HSES) socio-economic status Lubumbashi, Zaire. The two LSES subdivisions had higher prevalences of Plasmodium infection and higher rates of stunting, abdominal pain and low packed cell volume (PCV) than the HSES subdivision. The prevalence and intensity of Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura was not associated with socio-economic status. Maternal education was a significant predictor of A. lumbricoides intensity in both LSES and HSES subdivisions. Factors related to poor sanitation were risk factors for A. lumbricoides in LSES subdivisions, whereas …  Read more

Contained within the parameters of postmodern thought, particularly feminist critical perspectives on western epistemology, this thesis proceeds from the following arguments: that knowledge is political: that it possesses a reflexive and dialectical nature and that it is based upon interpretations of reality which are in potential, indeterminate in range. Within these boundaries, knowledge is viewed as a phenomenon subject to influence from social power structures. And western culture is observed to breed situations of epistemological inequality where knowers may become unjustly privileged or oppressed. Focusing on arguments expounded by Lorraine Code, Patti Lather and Catherine Walsh, this thesis aims to …  Read more

Le débat entre les theoreticians democrates, classiques et institutionnels, s'est souvent concentré sur le raIe des citoyens dans le processus politique. Ce projet revise les activités politiques d'un citoyen et l'apport de ce dernier à la démocratie canadienne. L'analyse de cette étude porte sur une réduction apparente de la participation de nos partis politiques par le biais d'une revue de la démocratie interpartis et des différents groupes d'intérêts. Le débat postmatérialiste/matérialiste est amené comme discussion pour expliquer la croissance des groupes d'intérêts et de lobbyistes comme moyens alternatifs d'exprimer leurs intérêts respectifs.  Read more

The ocean currents flowing through the earth's main magnetic field are known to induce secondary magnetic fields. Hence, variations in the ocean circulation induce variations in the net magnetic field. This research is aimed at exploring the potential for using geomagnetic data to study variability in ocean circulation and climate. First, general relativity theory is used to formally establish the proper set of electromagnetic equations to be used for observers in a rotating (accelerating) frame of reference observing a medium (the ocean, in this case) with relative velocity. Extra terms due to rotation are derived and described and a generalized …  Read more

This study examines the sixteenth-century English Reformation background of Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book 3. Recovering this material is not simply a matter of opening a Bible, for various groups in the period, both Catholic and Reformer, interpreted its passages differently. The Book's four primary female characters, Belphoebe, Florimell, Britomart and Amoret, embody different aspects of the virtue, and these come into sharper focus in the light of this background. After a general survey of previous discussions of this topic, Chapter 1 examines the virgin Belphoebe and attitudes about celibacy and virginity current in sixteenth-century England, finding that neither Catholic nor …  Read more

HEM13 encodes coproporphyrinogen oxidase, the sixth enzyme of the heme biosynthetic pathway. Expression of HEM13 is repressed under aerobic conditions. In the absence of heme or oxygen, the expression of HEM13 increases forty-fold. Mutations defining trans-acting factors involved in the regulation of HEM13 expression were isolated and analyzed. This analysis identified two different alleles of HAP1. HAP1 encodes an activator protein involved in the expression of a number of heme-dependent genes such as CYC1, which encodes iso-1-cytochrome c, and ROX1, which encodes a repressor of HEM13 expression. The hap1 mutant allele in one strain confers a phenotype much like that …  Read more

The present thesis investigated the process of gross motor skill acquisition in the context of how movement pattern characteristics are organized and modified as a result of learning. The process of multisegmental skill acquisition was studied using performance production measures as a window to explore stable and transient changes in the movement control process. Bernstein's principles of exploitation of motion dependent torques, and the minimization of the degree of freedom were tested. Twenty male subjects performed a total of 240 trials, as fast and accurate as possible, over 4 sessions for two tasks with different level of complexity (10 subjects …  Read more

A comprehensive computer package for the calculation and simulation of charged-particle dynamics in electromagnetic fields has been developed and tested. The program provides a user-friendly and flexible interface for visualizing particle dynamics using phase space diagrams, which are essential for complete understanding of a beam optics system. The program performs an accurate finite difference computation of a user-defined boundary value problem (in the form of a grid) followed by a high-order Runge-Kutta numerical integration of the equations of motion to evaluate the particle dynamics within the field. The program is unique in its combination of these flexible finite calculation techniques …  Read more

Caco-2 cells were incubated with 2.5 ug/ml Brefeldin A for up to 2 hours prior to fixation. The 2 hour incubation was sometimes followed by 1 or 2 hours of chase. In the Golgi apparatus of untreated cells, CMPase enzyme activity was localized to the TGN, TPPase activity to trans saccules and NADPase activity to middle saccules. In cells treated for 5 minutes, tubulovesicular clusters (tvc's), normally seen at the cis face of Golgi stacks in control cells, expanded greatly in size. By 15 minutes, the Golgi apparatus disappeared and was replaced by numerous tubular structures some of which, TPPase …  Read more

The generation of spectrally pure analog sinewave with predictable characteristics is an important issue of mixed-signal testing. Digital frequency synthesizers exhibit many good features but current implementations are area expensive. This dissertation will study a novel digital frequency synthesizer approach based on digital resonators and delta-sigma modulation. Except for a 1-bit digital-to-analog converter, the analog signal generator implementation is entirely digital allowing precise control over the amplitude and frequency of oscillation. It may therefore be tested using digital methods, making this signal generator attractive for analog built-in self-test (BIST) implementations. Furthermore, this signal generation method is area efficient as it …  Read more

Straub, David (Supervisor)  Read more

Optics is receiving increasing attention as an attractive technology to implement high performance backplanes. The growth in the fields of digital telecommunications and parallel computing is demanding backplanes with ever-increasing interconnection densities and data transfer rates (2, 5). As a possible solution to the limitations of electrical backplanes (9), research into free-space photonic backplanes is underway at McGill University (1). The field of research into photonic backplane architectures is new and relatively small amounts of literature are available on the subject. Hence, the research effort at McGill represents one of the first architectural level studies in the field of free-space …  Read more

Short/branched chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (SBCAD), a member of the acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (ACD) family of enzymes, catalyzes the oxidation of branched chain fatty acids and the branched chain amino acids isoleucine and valine. This research project focuses on expression studies of the SBCAD gene. Northern blot analysis detected two SBCAD mRNA species of 2.7 and 6.5 kb in various human tissues and cell types. A single 4.1 and 2.0 kb SBCAD message was detected in rat and pig tissues, respectively, revealing a species difference in SBCAD mRNA size. Studies of human and rat SBCAD tissue-specificity and relative abundance, at both the …  Read more

The use of quotation is a crucial element in Bernd Alois Zimmermann's (1918-1970) creative thinking. This thesis explores the evolution of Zimmermann's compositional approach to the use of this procedure. The first chapter defines four categories of borrowing which correspond, although in a non-exclusive manner, to the features which characterize four compositional periods: stylisation, homage, teleological genesis and pluralism (A compositional technique defined by the composer around 1960 and aiming at representing a spherical conception of time). The second chapter considers the nature, source and content of the quotations and focuses on the recurrence of the identical fragments, themes and …  Read more

This thesis focuses on presenting a theoretical and methodological framework that can be used to better understand the ability of different forms of tourism development to meet this key objective of sustainable development. I begin with a presentation of past attempts to grapple with the links that exist between tourism and the development process. It is shown that the theoretical approaches which dominated the tourism literature in the late 1970s and 1980s are unable to cope with the rapid changes occurring in the industry. In particular, these theories struggle to acknowledge and explain the growth of alternative forms of tourism. …  Read more

The numerous illustrations--or better yet demonstrations--in Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionnaire Raisonne of Gothic architecture were the most powerful means of implementing biological metaphors in order to transfer or situate the discourse of architecture within the realm of nineteenth century positivistic science. Viollet-le-Duc borrowed dissective strategies of representation from the field of anatomy to implement his alternate 'vision' for appropriating architectural knowledge. By inscribing anatomical metaphors within his architectural drawings, Viollet-le-Duc could filter the viewer's conception of architecture through his own appropriation of anatomy's critical and selective methods of representation. This scientific approach to architectural drawing was in perfect harmony with Viollet-le-Duc's textual …  Read more

Isma'ilism, one of the most colourful and dynamic sects of Islam, boasts a rich and fascinating history. This thesis studies the life and works of Nur Muhammad Shah, a gifted exponent of the Isma'ili Sat Panth movement in Indo-Pakistan during the 15th/16th centuries. Sat Panth, the Path of Truth, is the highly mystical form of Isma'ilism which resulted from conversion efforts in the Subcontinent during the eleventh and subsequent centuries. The legacy of the order which was fostered is to be found in its corpus of sacred religious literature known as Ginans, an appellation that suggests supreme, gnostic knowledge. The …  Read more

The work of John Dee (1527-1608) posits an approach to architecture based upon the concept of wonder. Sympathetic correspondences permeate Dee's disparate practical activities and architectural discourse. His contributions to astronomy, alchemy, cartography and navigation are grounded in the intersubjective cosmology of the Renaissance. It is in Dee's Mathematicall Praeface (1570), which promotes mathematics as a natural philosophy, that the architect's metier is aligned with the marvellous and established as an art encompassing numerous disciplines. Dee's syncretic formulation of architecture is distinctly attuned to the alchemical and magical discourses pervading the Renaissance and established in relation to his hieroglyphic "Monas" …  Read more

The catalysis of the transesterification reaction of 2-hydroxypropyl p-nitrophenyl phosphate HPNP by a series of copper(II) complexes is investigated. Dichloro- ((bis(benzimidazol-2-ylmethyl)amine)copper(II)$ rm rbrack{ cdot}CH sb3OH (Cu(N3))$ and chloro- ((bis(benzimidazol-2ylmethyl)hydroxyethylamine)copper(II)$ rm rbrack chloride{ cdot}3(H sb2O)$ (Cu(N3OH)) are the most reactive mononuclear catalysts for promoting HPNP cleavage. A second order dependence on catalyst and a second order hydroxide dependence is observed for the transesterification reaction of HPNP promoted by Cu(N3). A mechanism is proposed in which a dimerized complex provides double Lewis acid activation followed by nucleophilic attack of the internal alkoxide of HPNP. A dinuclear copper(II) complex dichloro- ((N,N,N$ sp prime$,N$ …  Read more

A review of the literature strongly suggests that poor family dynamics play a critical role in an adolescent's choice of suicide. This thesis examines the literature and research findings on adolescent suicide and family functioning. It will bring together recent findings to help professionals access the information on adolescent suicide as it relates to the family. The psychosocial and cognitive theories of development are explored to provide a framework for understanding adolescents and the reasons for the choices and problem solving they make in their quest for identity. Since social workers are increasingly implicated in the prevention of youth suicide, …  Read more

The time course of the spontaneous current spikes produced by the release of the catecholamines from individual vesicles was examined in bovine chromaffin cells by using the carbon filament technique in the amperometric mode. Frequency histograms of the rise and decay times of the current spikes showed a paucity of very short duration events. Scatterograms of the rise and decay times consistently showed a positive relation, and the best fitted lines intercepted the ordinate (the axis of the decay time) at: 16.06 $ pm$ 6.45 msec (n = 11). The effect of temperature changes upon the time course of release …  Read more

The causes of recent episodes of forest decline in Canada have not yet been fully determined. Current explanations include the effects of acid depositon as well as natural causes such as climate stress. This thesis takes a geographic approach and undertakes risk-response comparisons in order to examined the problem of maple forest dieback in the Appalachian region of Quebec. Geographic Information Systems are used to map a series of forest decline risk factors relating to soil characteristics and topography. The individual risk factors, as well as models comprising weighted combinations of risk factors, are compared with actual defoliation patterns. Forest …  Read more

The phase morphology of injection moulded blends of polypropylene (PP) and ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) changes dramatically throughout the sample and especially across the sample thickness. In particular, the development of a laminar structure was evaluated by image analysis of scanning electron micrographs. The results indicate that a laminar morphology is most likely to develop in the shear zone, as maxima in particle size and aspect ratio are observed in directions parallel and transverse to flow in this region of the sample. This laminar structure is more pronounced at high concentrations of the EVOH minor phase, and at low …  Read more

Music education is an important element in the development of the whole child. The school is a place where children learn about and are directly influenced by things that make a lasting impression on their development. What better place for music to be taught? Music is a course of study that can have a direct influence on a child's lifetime tastes and values for the arts. This study investigates the effects of an Alternative Instrumental Music Program on grade three children, at an elementary school situated on the West Island of Montreal, Quebec. One of the two classes involved in …  Read more

Neglected by traditional literary histories or misrepresented in gender-specific criticism, Eliza Haywood is properly a novelist whose innovations can be seen in the works of Defoe and Richardson. This thesis examines selected novels by the London-based Haywood (1693?-1756) in light of their contributions to the novel form. It begins by considering her romance novellas as adaptations of the popular scandal novels of Delariviere Manley. Haywood's early fiction combines the concerns of amatory fiction with the political expediencies of satire. Over the course of her career, Haywood's early romance novellas expanded to become conduct novels. In their endorsement of a prudent …  Read more

Paidoussis, Michael P. (Supervisor)  Read more

Cell adhesion molecules (CAM) have been implicated in the process of cancer metastasis. However, the interactions of metastatic tumor cells with organ parenchymal cells-hepatocytes particularly the relevance of tumor-cell-hepatocyte adhesion to liver metastasis is still not fully understood. We have investigated the role of tumor cell-hepatocyte interaction in liver metastasis using liver metastatic subline H-59 of the Lewis lung carcinoma. A monoclonal antibody (MAb) C-11 was produced which was highly specific to liver metastatic H-59 cells. Our in vitro studies showed that this MAb and its F(ab)2 fragments could block tumor H-59 cell adhesion to hepatocytes. The molecule detected by …  Read more

In this study, a rapidly east-coastal cyclogenesis event that took place during 3-4 October 1987 is investigated using a nested-grid version of the Penn State/NCAR mesoscale model (MM4) with a fine mesh grid size of 25 km. It is shown that the MM4 model reproduces reasonably well the growth of the cyclone from a coastal frontal zone, its subsequent track, intensity, circulation structures and its associated precipitation. It is found that the coastal cyclogenesis occurs in a favorable large-scale environment with pronounced thermal advection in the lower troposphere and marked potential vorticity (PV) concentration aloft associated with the tropopause depression. …  Read more

The technique of extraction with supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO$ sb2$), which is now used routinely for the recovery of non-polar analytes from a variety of liquid and semipermeable solid media, was extended to the efficient extraction of metal ions. Measurements of the solubilities in SC-CO$ sb2$ corroborated the hypothesis that the non-polar character of a series of tetraalkylammoniun dialkyldithiocarbamates ion pairs was influenced (i) primarily by the chain length of the alkyl substituent(s) on the carbamate nitrogen and (ii) to a lesser extent, by the chain length of the alkyl substituent(s) on the ammonium counter ion. In operation, analyte metal(s) …  Read more

High frequency turbulent temperature measurements were performed above clipped grass in the lower atmospheric surface layer in conjunction with three-dimensional turbulent velocities. Measurements were also made of turbulent temperature inside a corn canopy and at the canopy top. The 500Hz temperature time series were collected over periods of varying intervals, to a maximum of 24 hours. The multifractal analysis was performed on several datasets. First scaling properties of the temperature and the velocity fields were examined. Our results suggest that scaling is not observed throughout the entire range but on different regimes. The physically related regimes corresponding to the clipped …  Read more

Both lettuce and pepper crops are routinely grown as transplants in Quebec. Previous research has shown that both of these plants respond well to endomycorrhizae with a resulting improvement in plant growth and yield. Although many studies have been conducted on endomycorrhizal inoculation of transplants most were looking at the end result, i.e. yields, and did not focus on changes occurring at the transplant stage. This series of experiments was conducted to look at the effect of inoculation at the transplant stage. Lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv. Parris Island Cos) and pepper (Capsicum annuum cv. Hybrid Bell Boy) were inoculated with …  Read more

Although the Soviet partisan movement in the Second World War was one of a kind, in the sense that it was far more substantial than any comparable phenomenon in the West, the Jewish role within it had its own historical peculiarities. If Jewish motives for taking up arms against the occupying forces of the Third Reich were much the same as those of other partisans, they were forced to come to terms with the anti-Semitism not only of their Axis foes, but of so-called collaborators, anti-Nazi but anti-Soviet nationalists, and anti-Nazi but anti-Semitic Soviet partisans. This subject has not been …  Read more

The electrical and mechanical properties of electrically conductive fiber composites were measured and related to composite microstructure. Samples were manufactured by compression molding, extrusion, and injection molding to determine the effect of processing method on fiber length and orientation. A strong correlation between the processing-induced fiber-phase microstructure and the measured properties is found. The results are highly dependent on the type of conductive fiber. Computer-generated flow-field models are able to illustrate the thermal and flow processes which affect microstructure. A simple orientation model gives good qualitative agreement with experimental observations in injection molded composites. Two models for predicting volume resistivity …  Read more

Based upon the COCOLOG (Conditional Observer and Controller Logic) logic control formalism, we present a framework, called a system of Markovian fragments, which permits efficient updating of the axiom sets of a COCOLOG system. The key idea is that one should only retain those axioms and theorems concerning the most recent state estimate of the controlled machine. This information is sufficient to evaluate the truth of conditional control formulas which only depend upon the current state estimate of the controlled machine. As a result, a Markovian fragment system is demonstrated to have virtually the same control power as a full …  Read more

Fuks, Abraham (Supervisor)  Read more

This study explores the philosophical, linguistic and textual interplay of absence and presence in Margaret Atwood's novel Cat's Eye. The premise of the thesis is that the novel posits language as a problematic communicative medium; as such, language conveys that meanings of words are flexible, mutable and transient. It is through frameworks which both establish states of absence and presence as well as destroy binary oppositions between the two that Cat's Eye conveys its positions about language. Thus, textual and extra-textual discourses about the natures of language and linguistic meaning are situated within recurrent thematic and formal attention to relationships …  Read more

The historiographic struggle over the representation of the Paris Commune, as begun by the daily press in 1871 and continued in the works of many subsequent scholars, is in fact part of a larger ideological battle. This thesis argues that in order to understand the significance of the Commune, it is necessary to return to contemporary writings. It studies the bourgeois reaction to the Paris Commune using as source material diaries, correspondence and monographs of upper class observers of the Commune. Through these writings, the Commune is seen as a socialist threat to bourgeois stability, and a sign of the …  Read more

Parallelizing compilers are increasingly relying on accurate data dependence information to exploit parallelism. This thesis addresses the problem of array data-flow analysis which provides more accurate information than traditional scalar data-flow analysis and array data dependence analysis. We describe the design and implementation of an array data-flow analyzer which has been integrated into our HPC compiler. The HPC compiler automatically parallelizes programs written in the HPC language, an extension of the C language, and generates SPMD codes for distributed memory machines. Two other important parts of the compiler, the automatic data and computation decomposition tool and the SPMD code generator, …  Read more

Sulfated glycoprotein-2 (SGP-2) is an acidic glycoprotein that has recently been discovered in numerous tissues including brain. This glycoprotein is involved in the response to diverse types of neuronal injury and synaptic remodelling. It is well established that estradiol treatment results in selective destruction of $ beta$-endorphin neurons in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus. The question addressed by this thesis is what effect SGP-2 plays in this estradiol-induced pathology. We have used immunocytochemistry to elucidate the distribution of SGP-2 in the normal and estradiol-lesioned hypothalamus. Unexpectedly, SGP-2-immunopositive perikarya occurred in a highly specific distribution in the normal rat hypothalamus. SGP-2-reactive neurons …  Read more

Mesulam's (1982) report describing six patients with a slowly progressive aphasia without accompanying signs of dementia led to the recognition of a syndrome now known as Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). Many more patients have been described since Mesulam's description was published: 171 published contacts with 112 patients diagnosed with the syndrome are reviewed in this thesis. However, the published literature is both unsystematic and incomplete, making it difficult to place the findings into a coherent theoretical framework. In addition, no previous work has specifically attempted to specify the difference between PPA and dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT), although the two …  Read more

Filter-feeding macrozooplankton were collected from 24 lakes in south-central Ontario to examine relationships between environmental factors and methyl mercury accumulation. Zooplankton methyl mercury levels ranged from 19 to 448 ng$ rm cdot g sp{-1}$ dry weight in the study lakes and were highest in zooplankton from acidic brownwater lakes. Water color and lake water pH were the best predictors of methyl mercury levels in zooplankton explaining 73% of the variation. Methyl mercury concentrations were positively correlated with water color and inversely correlated with lake water pH. Water color explained a greater portion of the overall variance in methyl mercury levels, …  Read more

In this thesis, we developed techniques which are capable of identifying single and multiple-input, linear and nonlinear systems. They were derived within an analytical framework which imposes few restrictions on the nature of the input signals, and includes the possibility of measurement noise. Extensive simulations demonstrated that these methods are robust in the presence of measurement noise, and that they can be used with highly coloured test inputs. A series of experiments were performed on a known, physical, nonlinear system to validate the simulation results. Finally, an investigation of the stretch reflex electromyogram was used to demonstrate the applicability of …  Read more