Dermatologic depictions in film are often used to symbolize evil. To ascertain whether certain dermatologic characteristics are more representative of evil in movies, skin findings in film characters before and after evil transformation were compared using the Good Movie Characters Turned Bad poll courtesy of The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The poll ranked the 35 most remarkable moral transformations in cinema. Data was analyzed from 27 characters who met study criteria and there was a statistically significant, greater number of dermatologic features seen in characters after an evil transformation. Periorbital hyperpigmentation, infraorbital edema, alopecia, pallor, and nonspecific hyperpigmented skin abnormalities (telangiectasias, ecchymosis) were dermatologic traits that were found at a statistically significantly higher frequency post-evil transformation. This work suggests an effort should be made to educate audiences and film makers that skin conditions in reality are not a marker of evil intent.

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One of the major questions in evolutionary biology is, how changes in development over time result in diversity of adult body plans. Spiralia are a highly diverse group of protostome taxa, in terms of their adult body plans, but which nonetheless share a highly conserved pattern of early cell divisions, called spiral cleavage. Thus, in the early embryos of spiralian taxa, homologous blastomeres are identifiable on the basis of their embryonic origins and their subsequent fates in later development. One of the best-known examples of such homologous blastomeres are the precursors of left and right mesoderm, which arise from the bilateral division of a cell classically known as micromere 4d. Given the dramatic differences among body plans of various spiralian species (consider the mesoderm of an unsegmented mollusk and that of a segmented annelid, such as the leech, for example), it is obvious that the 4d lineages must diverge at some point in development of different species.

In the leech Helobdella, a clitellate annelid, the homolog of the cell 4d is called DM" and its bilateral division gives rise to two large stem cells (M teloblasts) whose iterated divisions yield precursors (m blast cells) of segmental mesoderm. In this work I present new plasmid driven high-resolution cell lineage tracing techniques. Using high-resolution tracers in conjunction with standard tracers, I have been able to study the early progeny of the M teloblasts in great detail. I have found that each M teloblast produces six precursors of non-segmental mesoderm, prior to initiating the production of purely segmental blast cells. While all segmental blast cells undergo identical stereotyped early divisions and give rise to homologous definitive pattern elements, the early clonal distributions of the first six cells, as well as their definitive contributions differ from each other and from the segmental blast cells. The early mesodermal progeny make major contributions to anterior non-segmental mesoderm especially throughout the head and the muscular proboscis, an eversible, specialized feeding apparatus.

Collaborative work with Ayaki Nakamoto on more detailed analysis of the 4d lineage in the oligochaete Tubifex revealed that, in this annelid too, the 4d lineage makes contributions to anterior non-segmental mesoderm. However, unlike Helobdella, Tubifex ingest sediments and are filter feeders, and thus have different head and foregut morphology. In accord with these differences, I find that the anterior contributions of the M lineage differ between these two annelids. These differences illustrate that the 4d lineage exhibits evolutionary plasticity and that potentially small changes in the developmental program of the M teloblasts can result in a diversity of adult body plans.

Following Matsubara, Sebastodes is synonymized with Sebastes.

The form known as S. helvomaculatits found in southern California is distinguished from that species and described as S. simulator, n. sp. S. rhodochloris (Jordan and Gilbert) is synonymized with S. helvomaculatus Ayres, and the form called S. rhodochloris by Phillips is described as S. ensifer, n. sp. S. eos of authors is a complex and a new species, S. rosenblatti, is described. In addition, three other new species, S. noting, S. lentiginossus and S. exsul, are described. Full description is given to each of the seven remaining species of the subgenus Sebastomus. Forms occurring in the southern hemisphere are all referred to as S. capensis. On the basis of similarities in meristics, body configuration, and color patterns, relationships among species of Sebastomus are discussed.

Meristic numbers in species of Sebastomus are found to be constant ontogenetically and geographically. Vertebral counts tend to be higher in northern species of Sebastes than in southern ones. Variability of meristic numbers is discussed, using the coefficient of variation as a criterion.

Allometry and its significance in taxonomy is discussed. Morphometric characters in speciea of Sebastomus are found to vary geographically. Both slopes and intercepts of the allometric regressions are equally susceptible to variation. There seems to be a correlation between growth rate and body form within a population.

Distributional data for all eastern North Pacific species of Sebastes are presented, with 34 new range records. Species of Sebastes are concentrated in the area from 34 to 38°N. As many as 50 species may occur in the same latitudinal range. There seems to have been a barrier near the latitude of San Francisco. A hypothesis involving differentiation following crossing of this barrier can explain the observed pattern of species distribution.

Growth of Sebastes umbrosus is studied in detail, using otoliths for age determination. Growth data back-calculated from otolith measurements are compared with those from average lengths of age groups and the discrepancy is discussed. This species can attain an age of 17 but mortality seems to increase after age 7. A Bertalanffy curve describes growth of this species well. Lee's Phenomenon is demonstrated and is explained as result of size-dependent mortality. No compensatory growth is detected and there is no correlation between early and subsequent growth. Fish that grew fast in early years, however, continue to be larger. There is no difference in growth rate between sexes. Individuals from Tanner Bank seem to grow more slowly than those from La Jolla.

Growth data of S. rosaoeus, S. ensifer, S. chlorostictus, and S. dallii are also presented, and, along with those of S. umbrosus are compared with those of other species of Sebastes.

Individuals of small species of Sebastomus such as umbrosus and ensifer may reach sexual maturity at age 3, whereas those of large species such as constellatus, chlorostictus, and rosenblatti generally do not mature until 10 years old or older. Species of Sebastomus spawn from February to July. Young of the year have been found to settle to the bottom starting from October.

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

meat

By

Husayn Burris Carnegie

Master of Fine Arts in English

University of California, Irvine, 2016

Professor Michael Ryan, Chair

I write poems because I am sad. I write poems because I think that all of us are sad, are inherently sad, and have precious few tools to cope with this. Which is not to say this text is an exploration of the human condition of sadness, but rather, that this is a text filled with sad poems. I wrote these poems by looking inward first, then by looking outward. What follows is what I saw. I do not know if these are good poems or if these are bad poems, but they are surely sad poems. They are my poems and they have helped to keep me here.

Tyrosinase, an important oxidase involved in the primary immune response in humans, can sometimes become problematic as it can catalyze undesirable oxidation reactions. Therefore, for decades there has been a strong pharmaceutical interest in the discovery of novel inhibitors of this enzyme. Recent studies have also indicated that tyrosinase inhibitors can potentially be used in the treatment of melanoma cancer. Over the years, a number of new tyrosinase inhibitors have been isolated from various natural sources, although marine natural products (MNPs) have contributed only a small number of promising candidates. In this regard, the exploration of tyrosinase inhibitors from marine cyanobacteria has been especially understudied. This research therefore mainly focused on the discovery of new tyrosinase inhibitors of marine cyanobacterial and algal origins. A colorimetric fungal tyrosinase inhibitory assay was used to screen extracts, fractions, and pure compounds for anti-tyrosinase activity. Scytonemin monomer (ScyM), the monomeric structure of the well-known cyanobacterial sunscreen pigment scytonemin (Scy), was found to have the highest tyrosinase inhibitory score and was more potent than the commercial standard inhibitor kojic acid (KA). Consequently, ScyM has become our top compound and we explored a series of follow-up studies on its structure, inhibitory power, and mode of inhibition.