The genus Nekemias (Vitaceae) was first recognized by Rafinesque in 1838. It has been treated as a synonym of Ampelopsis Michx. Recent phylogenetic studies suggest that Ampelopsis as traditionally delimited is paraphyletic. To maintain the monophyly of each of the genera of Vitaceae, we herein segregate the Ampelopsissect.Leeaceifoliae lineage from Ampelopsis and recognize these taxa in Nekemia...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease characterized by the selective loss of motor neurons. There is no effective treatment or drug against ALS, and the precise mechanisms leading to the selective loss of motor neurons are still unknown. We investigated the effect of a Chinese prescription, Wen-Pi-Tang, on the ALS model mouse SOD1(G93A). Although the or...

A taxonomic synopsis of the Altingiaceae is presented, including the taxonomic enumeration and distribution of 15 recognized species based on studies of 1,500 specimens from 24 herbaria throughout the distributional range of the taxa. Previous phylogenetic analyses based on several molecular markers have shown that Altingia and Semiliquidambar are nested within Liquidambar. All Altingia and Sem...

To my grandparents. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my adviser, Nicholas P. Carter, for his guidance and support all through my graduate study. Many thanks to my project team members, Hillery C. Hunter and Azmat Hussain, who have contributed to this work in many ways. Also thanks to Wen-Mei Hwu for his guidance in the Memory-Efficient EPIC Architecture project. Thanks to the Semicondu...

Since 1976 Hilary Putnam has drawn parallels between his ‘internal’, ‘pragmatic’, ‘natural’ or ‘common-sense’ realism and Kant’s transcendental idealism. Putnam reads Kant as rejecting the then current metaphysical picture with its in-built assumptions of a unique, mind-independent world, and truth understood as correspondence between the mind and that ready-made world. Putnam reads Kant as ove...