In Pueblo\u27s Wake; Flawed Leadership and the Role of Juche in the Capture of the USS Pueblo

On January 23, 1968, North Korea attacked and seized an American Navy spy ship, the USS Pueblo. In the process, one American sailor was mortally wounded and another ten crew members were injured, including the ship\u27s commanding officer. The crew was held for eleven months in a North Korean prison. Today, the ship remains in North Korea as a gray, steel museum, glorifying the success of the Democratic People\u27s Republic of Korea\u27s Navy in its struggle against the imperialist American aggressors. This thesis examines two primary question: How could the capture and retention of a U.S. Navy warship by a minor military state occur? What was the motive of the North Koreans? My conclusion is that the Pueblo incident occurred because of inadequate American leadership at multiple levels within the U.S. Government and U.S. Navy and because of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung\u27s strict adherence to the Juche ideology. Congress and the U.S. Navy conducted exhaustive post-incident hearings and investigations, which became one of the issues that bedeviled and degraded Lyndon Johnson\u27s presidency. The Pueblo hearings and investigations, with their finger-pointing and attempts to deflect or attribute blame, became a sideshow that caught and held the interest of the media and the public. They distracted the president in the midst of the over-shadowing Vietnam War at the expense of Johnson\u27s greater interest and legacy, his social programs. This study links failures in American leadership to Cold War political and foreign policy practices to disregard for North Korean ideology. Its conclusions offer a broader understanding of the causal factors surrounding the Pueblo incident

Identification of Regulators of Seed Imbibition in Arabidopsis thaliana

Water is the most important limiting factor required for germination. To regulate water entry and retention by the seed, several evolutionarily adapted strategies have evolved. Amongst seed-producing species, a range of permeabilities exist and these are typically regulated by the properties of the seed covering layers. In all cases once water is permitted entry and encounters the embryo, it responds, and overtime will progress through three phases that are concomitant with germination. Phase I is characterized by rapid water movement and seed swelling as water flows down its gradient, and initiates germination. This phase is passive since all seeds can imbibe water, including dead, alive, dormant, and non-dormant seeds. In Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis), the seed coat is considered permeable to water and is hypothesized to play a passive role in regulating the initial water entry and progression through phase I imbibition. We provide evidence that phase I seed imbibition is a more complex process than previously predicted. With the development and optimization of an imbibition assay we carried out a reverse genetics screen. This resulted in the identification of more than 25 genotypes with a range of early seed imbibition phenotypes. Furthermore, it was discovered that imbibitional swelling can be altered by dormancy and after-ripening (AR) depending on the genotype. From the list of genotypes that we identified, two basic Leucine Zipper (bZIP) transcription factors, VirE2-INTERACTING PROTEIN 1 (VIP1) and bZIP59 were identified as regulators of imbibition and further characterized. We have determined that bZIP59 is a negative regulator and VIP1 may be a positive regulator of imbibition. VIP1 and bZIP59 are hypothesized to genetically interact to regulate this and other seed-related functions. Additionally, bZIP59 maternally regulates imbibition and early evidence suggests its involvement in β-sitosterol production. Finally, we conclude that imbibition is regulated by both the seed coat and zygotic tissues by unknown factors that are predetermined during seed development and modified by AR in some cases. This work provides compelling evidence that imbibition can be genetically manipulated in permeable seeds, a relatively novel concept that may be utilized to produce drought- and flood-resistant seeds.Ph.D.2024-06-28 00:00:0

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Detection of Immunoglobulin M Antibodies Against <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i>

A new principle that uses anti-immunoglobulin M-coated polystyrene microtiter plates for the detection of immunoglobulin M antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was developed. </jats:p