Dissertations / Theses: 'Science-General'

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Phelan, Michelle P. "General Education Science and Special Education Teachers' Experiences with Inclusive Middle School Science Classrooms." Thesis, Lindenwood University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10816481.

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While inclusion of students with disabilities has been a topic of debate for decades, uncertainty still exists concerning best practices for their participation in general education contexts (Carter et al., 2016). This study was designed to investigate teachers’ experiences and perceptions with inclusion in general education science classrooms. While students with disabilities are generally included in general education science classrooms today, statistics show students with disabilities are graduating from high school unprepared to major in science-related fields or to enter the workforce in science-related careers (Brusca-Vega, Alexander, & Kamin, 2014). Therefore, the content area of science was targeted for the purposes of this study. Five similar school districts in southwest Missouri were selected for this study. Middle school science and special education teachers were interviewed to obtain perceptions concerning inclusion of students with disabilities in general education science classrooms. Information gathered was compared with the literature reviewed to identify themes, ensure validity, and ascertain conclusions. After analyzing the data, it was revealed all students benefit both academically and socially when effective inclusive practices are incorporated in general education science classrooms. These benefits are dependent upon teachers’ self-efficacy and attitudes and collaboration between and among special education and general education teachers. Paraprofessional support for students with disabilities can contribute to successful inclusion in general education science classrooms.

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Biscotte, Stephen Michael. "Exploring Aesthetic Experiences in the Undergraduate General Education Science Classroom." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/73413.

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Citizens must have a minimal level of STEM-literacy to work alongside scientists to tackle both current and future global challenges. How can general education, the one piece of the undergraduate experience every student completes, contribute to this development? And science learning is dependent on having transformative aesthetic experiences in the science classroom. These memorable experiences involve powerful connection between students and the world around them. If these types of experiences are necessary for science learning and growth, are students in introductory science courses having them? If so, what relationship might they have with students' desires to pursue further science study? This dissertation explores these questions through two manuscripts. The first, a theoretical piece published in the Journal of General Education in 2015, argues that non-STEM students must have transformative aesthetic experiences in their undergraduate general education science course to develop the level of understanding needed to engage with challenging scientific issues in the future. This claim is substantiated by bringing together the work of Dewey and Deweyan scholars on the nature and impact of aesthetic experiences in science and science education with the general education reform efforts and desired outcomes for an informed and engaged citizenry. The second manuscript, an empirical piece, explores the lived experience of non-STEM students in an introductory geosciences course. A phenomenological research methodology is deployed to capture the 'essence' of the lived experience of a STEM-philic student in general education science. In addition, Uhrmacher's CRISPA framework is used to analyze the participants' most memorable course moments for the presence or absence of aesthetic experiences. In explication of the data, it shows that students are in fact having aesthetic experiences (or connecting to prior aesthetic experiences) and these experiences are related to their desires to pursue further STEM study.
Ph. D.

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Cassani, Mary Kay. "IMPACT OF SCALE-UP ON SCIENCE TEACHING SELF-EFFICACY OF STUDENTS IN GENERAL EDUCATION SCIENCE COURSES." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2008. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3258.

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of two pedagogical models used in general education science on non-majors' science teaching self-efficacy. Science teaching self-efficacy can be influenced by inquiry and cooperative learning, through cognitive mechanisms described by Bandura (1997). The Student Centered Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) model of inquiry and cooperative learning incorporates cooperative learning and inquiry-guided learning in large enrollment combined lecture-laboratory classes (Oliver-Hoyo & Beichner, 2004). SCALE-UP was adopted by a small but rapidly growing public university in the southeastern United States in three undergraduate, general education science courses for non-science majors in the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 semesters. Students in these courses were compared with students in three other general education science courses for non-science majors taught with the standard teaching model at the host university. The standard model combines lecture and laboratory in the same course, with smaller enrollments and utilizes cooperative learning. Science teaching self-efficacy was measured using the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument – B (STEBI-B; Bleicher, 2004). A science teaching self-efficacy score was computed from the Personal Science Teaching Efficacy (PTSE) factor of the instrument. Using non-parametric statistics, no significant difference was found between teaching models, between genders, within models, among instructors, or among courses. The number of previous science courses was significantly correlated with PTSE score. Student responses to open-ended questions indicated that students felt the larger enrollment in the SCALE-UP room reduced individual teacher attention but that the large round SCALE-UP tables promoted group interaction. Students responded positively to cooperative and hands-on activities, and would encourage inclusion of more such activities in all of the courses. The large enrollment SCALE-UP model as implemented at the host university did not increase science teaching self-efficacy of non-science majors, as hypothesized. This was likely due to limited modification of standard cooperative activities according to the inquiry-guided SCALE-UP model. It was also found that larger SCALE-UP enrollments did not decrease science teaching self-efficacy when standard cooperative activities were used in the larger class.
Ed.D.
Department of Educational Studies
Education
Curriculum and Instruction EdD

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Lewis, Anna. "A Comparative Study of Six Decades of General Science Textbooks: Evaluating the Evolution of Science Content." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2008. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0002633.

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Hariharan, Joya R. "Science in the general educational development (GED) curriculum : analyzing the science portion of GED programs and exploring adult students' attitudes toward science /." The Ohio State University, 1997. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487948158627868.

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Lancashire, J. A. "An historical study of the popularisation of science in general science periodicals in Britain, c. 1890 - c. 1939." Thesis, University of Kent, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.380610.

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Armeni, Christina. "From whom the general public chooses to learn science : a case study." Thesis, McGill University, 2004. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79818.

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The purpose of this study was to examine what a national public science educator does when attempting to educate the general public. This investigation was conducted with the goal of expanding the literature on the treatment of science in multimedia to include descriptive work on whom the general public goes to learn science. The science educator's work in radio, television, and print were explored through interview and content analyses with themes and patterns emerging. The educator appeared to apply a loose formula of keeping a finger on the public's pulse, exhibiting scientific rigor, using variables and techniques such as props and demonstrations, including elements of popular culture, inserting interesting facts, injecting humor, and telling stories.

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Mason-Wilkes, Will. "Science as religion? : science communication and elective modernism." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2018. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/109735/.

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My central concern in this thesis is how science should be understood by the public. I argue that science should be understood, and valued for, the formative aspirations of the scientific community. The formative aspirations of the scientific community are the values members try to uphold as members of the group, even when this is not always possible. These aspirations are constitutive of the scientific ‘form of life’. I argue that science and religion are distinct forms of life, and through their formative aspirations can be differentiated from one another. Drawing on the theory of Elective Modernism (Collins and Evans 2017), I argue that the formative aspirations of science overlap with democratic values. Media representations of science shape public understanding. Non-fiction television is a ubiquitous and trusted medium for the communication of science. Non-fiction science television programme makers were interviewed to understand the process of science television production: the pressures, tensions and constraints inherent to this process. I analyse representations of science in British non-fiction television programmes and argue that a ‘religious’ portrayal of science can be identified in some programmes. I identify a contrasting ‘secular’ portrayal of science in other programmes. The religious portrayal presents science as providing a definitive creation narrative. In this portrayal scientific knowledge is presented as a set of certain and immutable truths which are revealed by nature with little or no human intervention. In this portrayal science is presented as providing meaning. The secular portrayal’s representation aligns more closely with a sociological understanding of science. In this portrayal scientific knowledge is represented as requiring human skill to produce and as being subject to change, revision and debate. Science in this portrayal is represented as producing both positive and negative outcomes for society. From the perspective of Elective Modernism, if citizens are to properly understand, engage with and value science they need an understanding informed by sociological conceptions of science which emphasise science’s formative aspirations as its defining characteristic. The requirements for the production of an ‘elective modernist’ portrayal of science, one which foregrounds the formative aspirations of science, are discussed. The problematic consequences of the religious portrayal of science are laid out. Presenting science as a religion disguises its formative aspirations. This provides an inaccurate picture of how science works and a widespread (mis)understanding of science as a religion would undermine democratic society.

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Dixon, Matthew. "Population-centric warfare : how popular support determines civil war outcomes." Thesis, University of Essex, 2017. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/18853/.

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In recent years, the most technologically advanced militaries in the world have toiled against guerrilla forces. Counterinsurgent doctrine focuses on a government’s lack of popular support to explain this. Academic literature, however, currently treats popular mobilisation as a dependent variable, rather than using it as a framework for understanding the dynamics and outcomes of civil wars. This thesis represents a first step to address this disparity and incorporate popular support into the comparative study of civil war outcomes. I explore what popular support provides conflict actors, what determines population behaviour and how the ability of conflict actors to generate support determines the dynamics and outcome of a conflict. I conclude that popular support, or the battle for ‘hearts and minds’, is crucial to the power of conflict actors, but only when it is understood as a contribution, not shared preferences. Based on this analysis I propose a framework for studying civil conflict that focuses on the regenerative capacity of the two belligerents. The key battleground in any civil war is rebel efforts to degrade the sovereign structures the government uses to generate support from the population. If rebels can achieve this, the government collapses and the rebels can win the war even if they are smaller or fail to score any battlefield successes. I test this model using a quantitative analysis of 65 civil wars and four in-depth cases studies. Overall there is strong empirical support for the model of conflict developed in this thesis, raising a number of theoretical and practical implications. Most importantly, I find that strengthening institutions of governance, be they formal or informal, is the best method for governments to defeat rebel groups, while rebels win by undermining socioeconomic activity.

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Florin, Dominque Anne. "How does science influence policy? Health promotion for coronary heart disease by general practitioners." Thesis, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (University of London), 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.286480.

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Ryan, Daniel. "Nouveaux médias, nouvelles politiques? La politique canadienne et québécoise à l'ère des Nouvelles technologies de l'information et des communications (NTIC)." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/27552.

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La mondialisation, la complexification des relations politiques nationales et internationales ainsi que l'émergence de sphères décisionnelles extraétatiques semblent miner la capacité d'action politique de l'État. Peu à peu se perd la capacité instituante de l'État qui est substituée par une logique réactive et gestionnaire. Au coeur de ce processus de transformation de la politique gouvernementale, on doit reconnaître l'apport des médias et des nouvelles technologies de l'information et des communications (NTIC). Secondes par des technologies de plus en plus performantes, les médias sont d'une importance grandissante en politique de par leur capacité de légitimation des acteurs politiques. C'est dans cette perspective donc que nous estimons que le succès politique dépend du succès et de l'image médiatique. Une question fondamentale traverse notre étude: l'État peut-il toujours être porteur de changement et d'innovation politique, et ce, malgré les lacunes du système médiatico-politique en place?

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Prado, Donoso Maximiliano. "Pluralism, political deliberation and religion : an analysis of the role of religious arguments in public political debate." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0024/MQ50960.pdf.

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Dixon, Jeffrey C. "Where does Turkey belong? examining Europeans' attitudes and liberal-democratic values in Turkey, the European Union, and the Muslim world /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2006. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3229589.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Sociology, 2006.
"Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 5, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-08, Section: A, page: 3169. Adviser: Robert V. Robinson.

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Choi, Sungmun. "Essays on politics and economics of monetary transfers." Thesis, Princeton University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3562186.

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This dissertation contains three essays that study monetary transfers.

The first chapter studies the effect of a politician's vote in the legislature on monetary contributions that the politician receives from interest groups after the vote. I first develop models to show that interest groups have an incentive to make monetary contributions to politicians not only before politicians vote but also after they vote. Then I find evidence that voting in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) of 2008 has increased the amount of monetary contributions that the members of the U.S. House of Representatives receive from the interest groups in the financial sector after the passage of the EESA.

The second chapter studies the effect of a politician's ideological strength on monetary contributions that the politician receives from interest groups. If interest groups care mainly about current policy outcomes, they will make monetary contributions to ideologically neutral politicians who are often pivotal voters in the legislature. However, if interest groups care more about future policy outcomes, they have an incentive to make monetary contributions to politicians who share similar policy preferences, i.e. liberal (conservative) interest groups will make contributions to liberal (conservative, respectively) politicians, to help those politicians win the election and continue to serve in the legislature. I first develop a model incorporating these two opposing effects. Then I find evidence that ideologically neutral politicians receive more monetary contributions from interest groups. This result suggests that interest groups are primarily motivated by the short-run incentive.

The third chapter studies monetary transfers from parents to children. Unlike most other taxes, the estate tax is levied only on a very small number of very large estates. There is an exemption level of the tax below which there is no tax liability. This threshold divides taxpayers sharply into two groups: those who paid the estate tax when their parent passed away and those who did not. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find evidence that those who have experience of paying the estate tax at their parent's death are more actively engaged in estate tax avoidance behavior for their children.

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Hart, Douglass F. "Predicting political revolution." Thesis, The University of North Dakota, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1541640.

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My thesis study examines the economic and sociological factors associated with political revolutions in order to create a predictive model. I do this by using statistical methods with nation level panel data collected from public domain sources. I anticipate being able to create a predictive model that provides a probability forecast of a country undergoing political revolution within a two year time-frame.

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Zimmermann, Cagla. "The Gezi Park demonstrations 2013 - A case study of Turkey." Thesis, Webster University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1525994.

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Social mobilization, which is a "change process" that today occurs in many countries, is commonly explained through social movement theories with most studies emphasizing economic indicators. However, the recent uprising in Taksim Square, Istanbul, which began in May 2013, contradicts these economic explanations of social mobilization, because the Turkish economy is generally considered to be still developing. Against this background, the main goal of the present study is to apply and discuss what previous studies have found with regard to the phenomenon of social mobilization and to suggest that the New Social Movement Theory is one of the most suitable tools to explain this mobilization in the context of Turkey. The study proposes an analysis of the question "What factors contributed to the social mobilization in Gezi Park demonstrations?" by comparing two different time periods, 2003-2005 and 2011-2013, in recent Turkish politics. The analysis concludes that in line with the significant decline in democracy in the country and the increasing conservative policy-making and the authoritarian style of the Government, the demands of individuals changed vividly. A significant number of citizens have felt supressed, unheard and excluded. However, the Gezi Park movement did not occur merely as a defense of identity and different lifestyles but also sought more progressive social change within the country.

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Rhodes, Christopher. "Political Christianity: Internal Organization, Preferences and Church Political Activity." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:14226091.

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This dissertation examines the role of internal structure of religious organizations in influencing these organizations’ interactions with incumbent governments and ultimately determining the political activities of religious groups. This dissertation fits within a body of literature known as the political economy of religion. I expand upon this literature by examining religious groups in terms of internal organization, focusing on Christian churches in Africa, with Kenya as my primary case country. The central argument of this dissertation is that churches (national-level denominations) with certain organizational features – centralized leadership, authoritarian decision-making procedures, and lack of internal accountability mechanisms – are more likely to have friendlier interactions with governments and therefore tend to adopt more pro-government political stances compared to churches that lack these features. This relationship operates through two mechanisms. First, centralized churches possess negotiation advantages over decentralized churches. Second, centralized, authoritarian churches can more easily be co-opted by incumbent governments. The dissertation also expand upon existing literature by offering a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the preferences of governments and churches vis-à-vis one another, proposing that churches seek to maximize number of church members, member faithfulness, and resources, while governments seek ideological support, citizen mobilization, and social service provision from churches. These arguments are examined by historical comparative case studies of five of the largest Christian denominations in Kenya over the course of the country’s first three post-independence presidents. Through qualitative historical analysis, combined with information gathered through fieldwork in Kenya, the dissertation demonstrates how the preferences of these churches and governments, mediated through the internal organizations of the churches, influenced church-state relations and ultimately determined the churches’ political stances. The impact of internal organization is greater than factors such as ethnicity or theological conservatism/liberalism. The dissertation tests these arguments through a quantitative analysis of church political orientation using national-level data on Christian churches and countries across Africa from independence through 2010. The results of the statistical analyses show significant effects of organizational features such as centralization, consistent with the arguments made concerning Kenya. The dissertation then gives brief qualitative analysis of church-state relations for several of the African churches included in the quantitative dataset.

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Lada, Akos. "The Clash of Brothers: Wars to Avoid Diffusion in a Contagious World." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17464374.

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My dissertation explores macro-level questions in Political Economy. Using the toolbox of Economics, I find a new reason for international conflict: cultural similarity. Two culturally similar nations may have very different political regimes (e.g. the two Koreas). The cultural similarity encourages citizens to compare the different political regimes, which in turn threatens a dictator. I formalize this process of political contagion in an infinitely-repeated bargaining model and show that more cultural similarity gives a politically-threatened dictator greater incentive to start a war against a democracy. The leader wants to ensure that his citizens see the other nation as an enemy rather than a role model. I test the implications of my model using cross-national statistical analysis, historical case studies, and text analysis. My cross-national statistical data set combines cultural similarity measures of up to 200x200 country pairs with data on wars among these nations between 1816 and 2008. In panel regressions which include country-pair fixed effects, I find that when two countries share culture (measured by religion, race, and civilization), but differ in their political institutions, they are up to 80 % more likely to fight a war. My results are stronger between physically distant country-pairs, which suggests that cultural affinity is not mismeasured physical proximity but a distinct factor in wars. I complement my analysis by considering an extension of my theory to domestic conflict, and by exploring the implications of wars creating shared identity.
Political Economy and Government

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Fonseca, Galvis Angela M. "Essays on Political Economy." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17465326.

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This dissertation consists of three essays on political economy. The first essay studies the effect of competition on media bias in the context of U.S. newspapers in the period 1870-1910. We measure bias as the intensity with which different newspapers cover scandals. We collected data on 121 scandals and 157 newspapers. We also collected data on the partisanship, frequency of publication, and circulation of the newspapers in our sample, as well as of the newspapers circulating in the same cities as those in our sample. Results indicate that partisan newspapers cover scandals involving the opposition party's politicians more intensely and cover scandals involving their own party's politicians more lightly. We find evidence that competition decreases the degree of media bias. The point estimates suggest that compared to a newspaper in a monopoly position, a newspaper facing two competitors will on average exhibits less than 50% as much overall bias in coverage intensity. The second essay shows how voters make choices even in single-party authoritarian elections where the number of candidates equals the number of parliamentary seats. Cuban citizens signal approval of, candidates within the framework of the regime. Voters support candidates who have grassroots links and experience of local multi-candidate electoral contestation. Voters choose based not on clientelist incentives but on the limited political information available to them, namely, posted biographies and direct knowledge of local candidates, friends and neighbors, who run in their communities. Voters have chosen, however, without rejecting the Cuban Communist Party. The third essay studies the unintended effects of the 2003 electoral reform in Colombia. In a context with fragmented and clientelistic parties and an electoral system that incentivizes intra-party competition instead of party discipline, scholars such as Shugart and Carey (1995) recommend the adoption of electoral reforms. A reform such as this was implemented in Colombia. What was unexpected was that the reform would promote a significant increase in the number of candidates running in each district. The effect of this was a lowering of the minimum threshold of the vote share required to obtain a seat, thereby maintaining clientelism as a viable campaigning strategy.
Political Economy and Government

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Khaldi, Mousa M. M. "An exploratory study of Palestinian science teachers' views of the nature of science." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2010. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13380/.

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This mixed methods study investigates Palestinian science teachers' views of the nature of science (NOS), with an in-depth exploration of the nature, causes and context of these views, and the possible reasons why teachers hold such views. The research provides suggestions of possible ways to improve Palestinian science teachers' views of NOS, and the factors within the Palestinian context that might either facilitate or hamper efforts to promote teachers' understanding of NOS. Quantitative data were collected during the first phase of the study from a sample of 277 teachers working in three areas in Palestine. Twelve teachers were randomly selected for the second qualitative phase. In line with the regional and global literature, the results of the closed NOS survey, the open-ended questionnaire and the individual semi-structured interviews revealed that Palestinian science teachers hold relatively naive, traditional views of most of the main tenets of NOS. During the qualitative phase, a series of semi-structured interviews was also carried out with ten Palestinian academics to explore in depth their views and suggestions concerning the nature, causes and context of teachers' views of NOS. They identified possible factors responsible for this apparent naivete in teachers' views and suggested ways to improve their understanding of NOS. The analysis of academics' responses revealed eight main factors that might explain the naivete of teachers' views of NOS: Palestinian socio-cultural background, education policy, teachers' own personal values, teaching approaches at school and university levels, science textbooks, teacher training programmes, educational supervision and school resources. Possible ways to improve teachers' views of NOS could be grouped in six main areas: tertiary science teaching and teacher preparation programmes, teaching as a well-resourced profession, Palestinian science textbooks, education supervision and in-service teacher training, educational leadership and administration system, and public scientific literacy and critical awareness. Finally, there is a consideration of the possible implications of these findings for teaching and teacher education in Palestine, for policy making bodies in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, for methodology, and for future research in the area.

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Araral, Eduardo K. "Decentralization puzzles a political economy analysis of irrigation reform in the Philippines /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2006. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3215225.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Dept. of Political Science, 2006.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1506. Adviser: Elinor S. Ostrom. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 19, 2007)."

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Rahbek-Clemmensen, Jon. "Beyond 'the soldier and the state' : the theoretical framework of elite civil-military relations." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2013. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/782/.

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Though the civil-military relations field has seen a lot of theoretical work in recent years, the field still lacks consistent overarching theories. This dissertation argues that the field requires a new and better theoretical framework. Scholars do not agree about how to define key concepts or how these concepts affect one another. They therefore have a tendency to talk past one another when debating and developing theories of civil-military relations. This dissertation develops a new and more sophisticated theoretical framework for elite civil-military relations. The field’s current theoretical framework was developed by Samuel Huntington in The Soldier and the State. This dissertation uses his framework as a starting point for a larger conceptual analysis, where political and military sociology, international relations, political theory, and military science are used to define the key concepts of civil-military relations. There are two heterogeneous types of civil-military relations that should be studied separately: societal civil-military relations and elite civil-military relations. Political science approaches to civil-military relations, such as this dissertation, typically focus on the latter type. Elite civil-military relations consist of two separate fields of study: civilian control and military effectiveness. Elite civil-military relations function as a system that essentially depends on civilian overall preferences, the mutual trust between soldiers and civilians, the institutional set-up of the state, and the actual skills of civilian and military elites. The dissertation challenges several of the field’s established truths. It shows that one cannot claim that one civilian control policy is superior a priori. Instead, the choice of policy depends on the situational circumstances. It also shows that military professionalism plays a less significant role than commonly thought. It clarifies that civilian control depends on both the internal norms of the officer corps and the external control institutions of the state. Finally, it demonstrates that Samuel Huntington’s work, though clearly impressive for its time, lacks the sophistication needed of a modern social science theory and theoretical framework. It therefore argues that the civil-military relations field should move beyond The Soldier and the State.

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Grillos, Tara. "Participation, Power and Preferences in International Development." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:23845452.

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Participatory development is widely touted as the remedy for ineffective and disempowering top-down development models of the past. However, participation can take many different forms, so an important open question for effective delivery of development assistance is: Which forms of participation influence which development outcomes under which circumstances? In this dissertation, I identify six key areas of research related to participatory development: the initial adoption of a participatory institution, the decision by individuals to participate or not, the direct outcomes of the participatory process, the effects on participants themselves, changes in the process over time, and carefully selected comparisons across contexts. I then make specific contributions to three of these areas through empirical research. The first essay, Popular Participation, Reciprocity Norms and Conservation Incentives in Bolivia, examines the decision to participate. In it, I compare the characteristics of participants and non-participants in a compensation program for environmental conservation in Bolivia, and I show that in addition to material incentives, social embeddedness plays a role in motivating participation. The second essay, Poverty Targeting and Elite Capture in Participatory Planning in Indonesia, addresses the direct outcomes of participation. In it, I examine the geographical distribution of the outcomes of a participatory planning process in Indonesia, and I show that the benefits are captured most by the least poor areas, but that this occurs in ways distinct from how capture is typically conceived. The third essay, Gender Inequality and the Multi-Dimensionality of Power in Northern Kenya, addresses the effects of participation on the empowerment of participants themselves. In it, I assess the impact on women’s empowerment of a program meant to enhance women’s political participation in northern Kenya, and I find that while the program largely fails to promote political participation, it has an impact on women’s empowerment within the household, very likely due to a component of the program which engaged directly with men. Overarching themes that emerge across these studies include (1) the importance of increased conceptual clarity not only with respect to the various forms that participation can take and the various goals it can be invoked to seek, but also regarding various hypothesized effects of and motivations for participation, (2) the potential relevance of the implementing agency and its relationship with pre-existing, overlapping social institutions, and (3) the usefulness of engaging with literature on psychology and behavioral economics. Understudied areas for future research include the evolution over time of a particular participatory process and more systematic comparisons of participatory processes across settings.
Public Policy

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Garcia, Ignacio Molina 1950. "Armed with a ballot: The rise of La Raza Unida Party in Texas." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291552.

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In 1970 a group of Mexican Americans in Crystal City, Texas came together to form El Partido de La Raza Unida (The Raza Unida Party) and challenged the Anglos that had governed there for years. From that beginning came a state-wide party that ran a candidate for governor in 1972 and in a short period took political control of two counties and numerous other elected positions throughout the state. This thesis looks at two aspects in the development of the Raza Unida Party. It reviews the years leading up to the founding of the Mexican American Youth organization, which was the precursor of the party, and it focuses on the strategies used by this group to organize Mexican Americans into a voting bloc. It is the premise of this thesis that La Raza Unida Party, more than any other Mexican American organization before it, was responsible for Mexican Americans becoming participants in the electoral process in larger numbers than ever before.

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Chan, Man Tak. "A study of the implementation of primary science within the Hong Kong general studies curriculum." Thesis, University of Hull, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.397072.

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Edlebeck, Catherine. "The Relationship of General Science Grades to Program Completion in an Associate Degree Nursing Program." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2048.

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High attrition of nursing students in the United States may contribute to a shortage of registered nurses and inefficient use of scarce resources. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between nursing student grades in 3 science prerequisites and length of time to program completion on each of the study college's 4 campuses. Ausubel's theory of subsumption, wherein a learner's ability to meaningfully learn new data depends on the existing cognitive structure within which the new material is assimilated, was used as a theoretical framework. Prerequisite science course grades for 575 nursing students attending a Midwestern technical and community college with 4 campuses were obtained along with data on program completion. Grade data from 2005-2015 were analyzed using a 1-way or Welch ANOVA and Pearson product-moment correlation. Significant differences were found among campuses in both mean science grades and time to completion. Most science course grades did not demonstrate a significant correlation with time to completion. Based on these findings, it is possible that student preparation in general science courses is not equivalent among campuses and may not provide the cognitive structure necessary for meaningful learning in nursing courses. To enable faculty from both disciplines to collaboratively document, examine, and align content in science and nursing courses, a curriculum mapping project was designed. Registered nurse graduates contribute to the economic and social well-being of their communities. By providing more insight about science and nursing courses and degree completion, this study is intended to promote positive social change.

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Clapham, Richard James. "Developing high performance linear Carangiform swimming." Thesis, University of Essex, 2015. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/16550/.

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This thesis examines the linear swimming motion of Carangiform fish, and investigates how to improve the swimming performance of robotic fish within the fields of kinematic modeling and mechanical engineering, in a successful attempt to replicate the high performance of real fish. Intensive research was conducted in order to study the Carangiform swimming motion, where observational studies of the common carp were undertaken. Firstly, a full-body length Carangiform swimming motion is proposed to coordinate the anterior, mid-body and posterior displacements in an attempt to reduce the large kinematic errors in the existing free swimming robotic fish. It optimizes the forces around the centre of mass and initiates the starting moment of added mass upstream therefore increasing performance, in terms of swimming speed. The introduced pattern is experimentally tested against the traditional approach (of posterior confined body motion). A first generation robotic fish is devised with a novel mechanical drive system operating in the two swimming patterns. It is shown conclusively that by coordinating the full-body length of the Carangiform swimming motion a significant increase in linear swimming speed is gained over the traditional posterior confined wave form and reduces the large kinematic errors seen in existing free swimming robotic fish (Achieving the cruising speeds of real fish). Based on the experimental results of the first generation, a further three robotic fish are developed: (A) iSplash-OPTIMIZE: it becomes clear that further tuning of the kinematic parameters may provide a greater performance increase in the distance travelled per tail beat. (B) iSplash-II: it shows that combining the critical aspects of the mechanical drive system of iSplash-I with higher frequencies and higher productive forces can significantly increase maximum velocity. This prototype is able to outperform real Carangiform fish in terms of average maximum velocity (measured in body lengths/ second) and endurance, the duration that top speed is maintained. (C) iSplash-MICRO: it verifies that the mechanical drive system could be reduced in scale to improve navigational exploration, whilst retaining high-speed swimming performance. A small robotic fish is detailed with an equivalent maximum velocity (BL/s) to real fish.

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May, David Keith. "Individual and collective human rights| The contributions of Jacques Maritain, Gustavo Gutierrez, and Martha Nussbaum." Thesis, The Florida State University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3564926.

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Abstract The proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations on December 10, 1948 gave birth to the contemporary human rights movement. Despite the worldwide influence the idea of human rights has enjoyed, the concept of human rights has been plagued by a number of criticisms. Among the most pervasive and persistent criticisms of human rights are that they represent an individualist viewpoint, and they are a relative product of Western society that are hardly universal. One purpose of this dissertation is to challenge these criticisms. However, in recent decades the idea of human rights has been expanded past its original individual focus to incorporate the idea of collective, or group rights. The juxtaposition of universal, individual rights with particular, collective rights raises anew the issues of individualism and universalism in the human rights debate. In this dissertation, I compare the work of the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, the Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez, and the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum in order to yield a contextually sensitive natural law approach to human rights that will serve as a common justificatory basis for individual and collective human rights. This common justificatory basis is capable of addressing the questions of individualism and universalism generated by the theoretical tensions generated by the juxtaposition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which enshrines individual, universal rights, and the more recent United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), which enshrines more particularistic, group rights.

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29

Nahm, Alison. "Measuring Political Preferences of the U.S. Voting Population." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:14398553.

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Political polarization is a common topic in the news and media, but not much has been done to understand the distribution of the preferences of the U.S. voting population. Political scientists have drawn different conclusions on the current state of political polarization within the U.S. voting population based on survey data and basic spatial voting models. In this work, I present a spatial voting model that analyzes voting data at a more fine-grained level in order to use Bayesian techniques to infer the underlying distribution of political preferences of the population. Further, I verify these results by comparing it to alternative public opinion measurements and measuring the accuracy in completing prediction tasks. This work adds a new perspective to the current discussion within the political science community of the recent trends of political polarization.

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Huang, Bi Yun. "Analyzing a social movement's use of Internet resource mobilization, new social movement theories and the case of Falun Gong /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2009. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3386686.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Library and Information Science, 2009.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 15, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4498. Adviser: Howard S. Rosenbaum.

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Cockerham, David M. "Toward a common democratic faith the political ethics of John Dewey and Jacques Maritain /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2006. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3238498.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Religious Studies, 2006.
"Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 12, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-10, Section: A, page: 3837. Adviser: Richard B. Miller.

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32

Maclaine, Sarah Elizabeth. "The production of living, tissue engineered, bone graft from progenitor cells using nanotechnology." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2013. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4558/.

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The principal aim of this research was the development of a technique (based upon the effects of nanoscale topography) that facilitates the in vitro expansion of bone graft for subsequent implantation. Nanoscale topography increases the bioactivity of a material and stimulates specific responses at the molecular level (third generation biomaterial properties). Nanoscale topography thus confers these third generation properties upon biomaterials that are otherwise first generation (bioinert) or second generation (bioresorbable or bioactive) in nature. Two topographies (nanopits and nanoislands) were embossed into the clinically licensed bioresorbable polymer Polycaprolactone (PCL). A protocol was developed which enabled three dimensional cell culture using double-sided embossing of substrates, seeding of both sides, and vertical positioning of the substrates during cell culture. Human bone marrow was harvested and the mononuclear cell fraction culture expanded. These human bone marrow cells (HBMCs) were used for cellular analysis of substrate bioactivity. In addition, acellular analysis of substrate patterning and degradation was also performed. The osteogenic behaviour (and cell line specificity) was demonstrated using alizarin red staining, immunohistochemistry, real-time polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR), and quantitative PCR (qPCR). The osteogenicity of PCL was increased by the presence of nanotopography, and by the incorporation of hydroxyapatite (HA) into the PCL forming a hydroxyapatite-PCL composite (HAPCL). The performance of these substrates was compared to exposure to bone morphogenic protein 2 (BMP2), and the use of osteogenic media. The protocol from shim production to bone marrow harvesting and vertical cell culture on nanoembossed PCL has been shown to be reproducible and potentially applicable to economical larger scale production.

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Dang, Wenting. "Stretchable interconnects for smart integration of sensors in wearable and robotic applications." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/40994/.

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Stretchable electronic systems are needed in realising a wide range of applications, such as wearable healthcare monitoring where stretching movements are present. Current electronics and sensors are rigid and non-stretchable. However, after integrating with stretchable interconnects, the overall system is able to withstand a certain degree of bending, stretching and twisting. The presence of stretchable interconnects bridges rigid sensors to stretchable sensing networks. In this thesis, stretchable interconnects focusing on the conductive polymer Poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) , the composite and the metallic-polyimide (PI) are presented. Three type of stretchable interconnects were developed including gold (Au) -PEDOT:PSS hybrid film interconnects, Graphite-PEDOT:PSS composite interconnects and Au-PI dual-layered interconnects. The Au-PEDOT:PSS hybrid interconnects' stretchability can reach 72%. The composite exhibits a stretchability of 80% but with an extremely high variation in resistance (100000%). The Au-PI interconnects that have a serpentine shape with the arc degree of 260° reveal the highest stretchability, up to 101%, and its resistance variation remains within 0.2%. Further, the encapsulation effect, cyclic stretching, and contact pad's influence, are also investigated. To demonstrate the application of developed stretchable interconnects, this thesis also presents the optimised interconnects integrated with the electrochemical pH sensor and CNT-based strain sensor. The integrated stretchable system with electrochemical pH sensor is able to wirelessly monitor the sweat pH. The whole system can withstand up to 53% strain and more than 500 cycles at 30% strain. For the CNT-based strain sensor, the sensor is integrated on the pneumatically actuated soft robotic finger to monitor the bending radius (23 mm) of the finger. In this way, the movement of the soft robotic finger can be controlled. These two examples of sensor's integration with stretchable interconnects successfully demonstrate the concept of stretchable sensing network. Further work will focus on realising a higher density sensing and higher multifunctional sensing stretchable system seamlessly integrated with cloth fibres.

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34

White, Anna Dorothy. "Regulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in adipose tissue by AMP-activated protein kinase." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/30816/.

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Obesity and type 2 diabetes are a growing concern worldwide and changes within adipose tissue are implicated in their development. Adipocytes contain a complete renin angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) implicated in obesity-related complications. The energy regulating kinase AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has anti-inflammatory properties in adipose tissue and systemic insulin sensitising effects. Initial studies compared the human adipocyte model SW872 with the well-described murine 3T3-L1 adipocyte model. AMPK signalling in SW872 adipocytes was evident with similar responses to two structurally-unrelated AMPK activators, AICAR and A769662 compared with 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Key components of the RAAS were present in SW872 adipocytes and induced upon adipocyte differentiation. AICAR and A769662 were found to negatively regulate classical RAAS components including the mineralocorticoid receptor and angiotensinogen whilst upregulating the ratio of expression of angiotensin converting enzyme-2 to angiotensin converting enzyme-1. However, AMPK activation increased aldosterone secretion and the downstream target SGK1. Interestingly, angiotensin II, likely via the type 2 angiotensin II receptor, and angiotensin 1-7, likely via the Mas receptor, both increased AMPK activity. Despite this AMPK activation there was no effect of angiotensin 1-7 seen on inflammatory processes or insulin signalling in adipocytes so the functional effects of this AMPK activation remain unknown. Wild type and AMPKα1-/- mice were subjected to 12 weeks of high fat diet (HFD) with no significant metabolic differences. Interestingly, the adipose tissue from AMPKα1-/- mice fed chow diet showed increased basal inflammatory signalling which decreased following HFD suggesting a possible pro-inflammatory effect of AMPK upon HFD exposure. However, the systemic RAAS appeared to be upregulated in the AMPKα1-/- HFD group. The cross-talk between AMPK and RAAS in adipose tissue likely has an important part to play in the development of obesity-related disorders and this work identifies several potential therapeutic avenues.

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Scott, Kirstin W. "The Politics of Healthcare Quality." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467364.

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Improving the quality of care provided by the U.S. healthcare system is an important societal goal. Policymakers who wish to operationalize this goal must navigate an increasingly polarized health policymaking environment. In this dissertation, I examine three stakeholders who can influence this environment: the public, state governors, and health care providers. In Chapter 1, I explore attitudes of and experiences with health care quality among Democrats and Republicans. Relying on a national survey of 1,508 American adults, I find that regardless of having a recent medical issue, Democrats express greater concerns about national quality of care problems relative to Republicans. At the same time, I find no difference in their personal experiences with quality of care received while hospitalized or with healthcare providers. In Chapter 2, I examine how gubernatorial candidates treat health policy in the 2012 and 2014 elections given the states’ increasing role in ACA implementation, which can collectively impact the quality of care provided nationally. After generating a novel database of all gubernatorial candidates’ campaign websites, I summarize the presence of healthcare content, framing of health system problems, and issue engagement with the ACA and its key coverage provisions in these two elections. I find the majority of gubernatorial candidates discuss health policy but are selective in their focus. Republicans, who are more likely than Democrats to express their views specifically regarding the ACA (which they nearly all refer to as “Obamacare”), won the majority of these 47 gubernatorial seats. Winning candidates from both parties discussed the Medicaid expansion decision of their state, with some expressing intentions to reverse course relative to their current expansion status. In Chapter 3, I examine a trend expected to grow under the ACA: hospital-physician integration. Using national hospital and Medicare data from 2003-2012, I document the rise of hospital employment of physicians and examine whether or not this yields improvements in mortality, readmission rates, length of stay or patient satisfaction. Though I find that a plurality of hospitals now enter into employment relationships with physicians, this study provides no evidence that these changes are associated with improvements in quality of care.
Health Policy

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Beaumont, Tim John. "Mill, Method, and the Art of Life." Thesis, Harvard University, 2016. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493435.

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For Mill, the Art of Life requires one to find the appropriate quasi-Platonic balance between Morality, Nobility, and Prudence. In consequence, his Art of Life could fail in any of three ways, corresponding to the assignment of undue scope to any one department at the expense of the remainder. This thesis uses analytical methods, including de dicto and de re interpretation, to unlock the fundamental axiological and existential premises which give Mill’s Art of Life its unity, its creative tensions, and can guide the reconstruction of his system today.
Government

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37

Scalet, Steven Paul. "Justice, liberalism, and responsibility." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288997.

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This dissertation addresses the importance of conceptions of responsibility for contemporary theories of justice. I criticize recent defenses of liberalism which try to proceed without conceptions of responsibility. I argue that a conception of neutrality does not provide adequate support for defending a liberal theory of justice. I defend this claim by examining Brian Barry's recent defense of neutrality liberalism. His idea of neutrality reduces to an indefensible skeptical argument about conceptions of the good. I next examine John Rawls's account of political liberalism. I argue that his approach fails to appropriately address the persons and traditions that would be sacrificed within a Rawlsian liberal order. Rawls's notion of reasonableness and his argument from the burdens of judgment are insufficient bases to develop a liberal theory of justice. I then examine the idea of equality and its relationship with responsibility. Egalitarians describe the ideal of equality as the most fundamental notion for a theory of justice. They also interpret other traditions--such as the contractarian approaches of Barry and Rawls--in terms of this commitment to moral equality. Through a discussion of Ronald Dworkin's liberal egalitarianism, I argue that any plausible interpretation of moral equality must rely on an account of personal responsibility. Claims about responsibility, I argue, must be at the core of any theory of theory of justice. In the last chapter, I consider what a theory of justice should be about. I argue that the common assumption that justice is about devising principles to regulate institutions distorts how we should organize concerns of justice. Justice is about people treating each other with the respect and dignity that they are due. Problems about institutional design must be responsive to an account of individual responsibilities of justice, rather than the contemporary liberal approach of devising institutional principles prior to and with regulative primacy.

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38

Rodriguez, Luna Juan Carlos. "Particle sorting and automatic particle identification for advanced medical diagnostics." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/9072/.

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The physical separation of micro-particles is very important in many research field as diverse as chemistry and medicine. The main goal of the current separation techniques is to extract micro-particles such as cells at a high processing rates and purity. Chromatography, for instance, is commonly applied for the detection and enrichment of pathogens, which is useful for the medical diagnostics of parasitic infections. Many separation techniques have been developed over the years, applying physical phenomena of different kinds and/or taking advantage of unique physical properties of the particles themselves. From all of these techniques, one that has remained popular over the years is Dielectrophoresys(DEP). One of the main reasons for its popularity is that it does not require markers of any kind; it takes advantage of differences in the particle’s polarizability, size and shape. Another distinctive characteristic of dielectrophoresis is its selectivity due to its capacity to be controlled using frequency and voltage amplitude and its suitability for small microfluidic systems. In very general terms the work I have done during my PhD studies was oriented towards the development of novel and robust technology for aiding in the micro-particle sorting and bio-particle recognition by using computer tools. The ideas and concepts I will be introducing throughout this document were allowed total freedom to evolve and change to better fulfill the main goals of the project and also to better adapt to the many technical challenges I had to face during my research. As well as developing a new dielectrophoresis method I have also tried to maximize the impact of this work by doing it in a truly accessible way for anyone, regardless if they are interested in basic research, a possible application or just looking to adapt this concepts and tools for a different purpose. The central work in this PhD thesis focuses on two main topics: - Computerized bio-particle tracking and identification using a machine-learning algorithm that incorporates a number of predictors, including colour histogram comparison. - A portable dielectrophoresis(DEP) electronic device able to tailor the potential across a microfluidic channel for particle separation. The first project is about computerized vision system designed to track and identify micro-particles of interest through the use of video microscopy, machine learning and other video processing tools. This system uses a novel particle recognition algorithm to improve specificity and speed during the tracking and identification process. We show the detection and classification of different types of cells in a diluted blood sample using a machine-learning algorithm that makes use of a number of predictors, including shape and color histogram comparison. This software can be considered as a stand alone piece of work. Its open source nature makes it ideal for scientific purposes or as a starting point for a different application. In the context of this PhD thesis, however, it is an invaluable tool for validating and quantifying experimental results obtained from the micro-particle separator experiments presented in Chapter 4. The central piece of work in this PhD thesis is introduced in Chapter 4. This project is about the development of a all-in-one continuous flow DEP based microparticle separator which uses a system of individually addressable electrodes to shape and control the particle’s potential energy profile across the entirety of a microfluidic channel. These tailored potential landscapes are created by averaging the electric field generated by 64 individual electrodes, where the electronic device has complete control over each electrode’s on/off state, frequency, AC voltage amplitude and pulse duration. All the characteristics of the potential landscapes are controlled wirelessly through a mobile phone application. These specially designed potential landscapes allow us to make lateral sorting and/or concentration of a binary mixture of particles at the same time they move through a microfluidic channel; all this without the need for buffer flows or additional external forces. One of the outstanding characteristics of this new sorting technique is that it relays exclusively on negative DEP. Most previous techniques require a combination of positive and negative DEP and possibly and external force of different nature to achieve particle sorting; all of which requires the use of a crossover frequency and hence a careful control of the conductivity of the suspending medium. Here by using only negative DEP we eschew the careful control over the conductivity of the suspending medium and the use of any other external force; all this contributes to make our device small and robust. In addition to this, our electronic device was designed to include all the supporting electronics it needs in a small and robust printed circuit board that can also be operated by batteries. We present simulation results to illustrate the physics behind this new technique along with experimental results demonstrating the separation of polystyrene beads.

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Dulak-Lis, Maria Gabriela. "PARP1, TRPM2 and redox signalling in hypertension-associated vascular dysfunction." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/30660/.

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While oxidative stress and dysregulation of Ca2+ homeostasis in vascular signalling are hallmarks of hypertension-associated vascular injury, downstream molecular mechanisms that govern reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent regulation of ion channels in hypertension are complex and have not yet been fully elucidated. Activation of poly(ADPribose)-polymerase 1 (PARP1) in response to oxidative stress and DNA damage leads to subsequent activation of transient receptor potential melastatin 2 (TRPM2), an ion channel that regulates Na+ and Ca2+ influx. Considering that ROS generation and Ca2+ influx are increased in hypertension we hypothesised that redox regulation of PARP1-TRPM2 may play a role in vascular injury and target organ-damage associated with hypertension. The proof of concept was tested in a TRPM2-overexpressing human embryonic kidney cell line and the relationship between ROS, PARP1 and TRPM2 was studied in vitro, in human vascular smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells. The regulatory role of PARP1 and TRPM2 on vascular function was assessed in isolated resistance arteries from LinA3 mice, a transgenic model expressing human renin gene resulting in chronic hypertension. Finally, the effects of pharmacological inhibition of PARP1 on blood pressure, target organ damage and cellular signalling were evaluated in vivo in hypertensive LinA3 mice. To our knowledge, findings from this study provide the first evidence in clinically-relevant models, that the redox-sensitive PARP1-TRPM2 pathway regulates vascular contraction in the context of hypertension. This is supported by the following findings: i) The in vitro studies demonstrated that PARP1 and TRPM2 facilitate Ang II and oxidant-dependent activation of a pro-contractile protein MLC20 and partially reduce the anti-contractile activity of MYPT1. ii) The ex vivo experiments on mesenteric resistance arteries from LinA3 mice confirmed that the PARP1-TRPM2 pathway exacerbates vascular hypercontractility of the arteries isolated from hypertensive mice. iii) In vivo inhibition of PARP1 had significant effects on renal and cardiac Akt/PKB-dependent signalling, leading to upregulation of prosurvival and anti-apoptotic proteins, effects that were independent of blood pressure lowering. Overall, the studies presented in this thesis highlight a novel pathway linking ROS to vascular signalling pathways through PARP1 and TRPM2. Dysregulation of this system, in the context of oxidative stress in hypertension, may play a role in hypertension-associated vascular injury and target organ damage. While the present studies have opened the field, further investigations to unambiguously prove the importance of the ROS-PARP1-TRPM2-Ca2+ axis in hypertension are required.

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40

Gui, Jianjun. "Direct visual and inertial odometry for monocular mobile platforms." Thesis, University of Essex, 2018. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/21726/.

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Nowadays visual and inertial information is readily available from small mobile platforms, such as quadcopters. However, due to the limitation of onboard resource and capability, it is still a challenge to developing localisation and mapping estimation algorithms for small size mobile platforms. Visual-based techniques for tracking or motion estimation related tasks have been developed abundantly, especially using interest points as features. However, such sparse feature-based methods are quickly getting divergence, due to noise, partial occlusion or light condition variation in views. Only in recent years, direct visual based approaches, which densely, semi-densely or statistically use pixel information reveal significant improvement in algorithm robustness and stability. On the other hand, inertial sensors measure the changes in angular velocity and linear acceleration, which can be further integrated to predict relative velocity, position and orientation for mobile platforms. In practical usage, the accumulated error from inertial sensors is often compensated by cameras, while the loss of agile egomotion from visual sensors can be compensated by inertial-based motion estimation. Based on the complementary nature of visual and inertial information, in this research, we focus on how to use the direct visual based approaches to providing location information through a monocular camera, while fusing with the inertial information to enhance the robustness and accuracy. The proposed algorithms can be applied to practical datasets which are collected from mobile platforms. Particularly, direct-based and mutual information based methods are explored in details. Two visual-inertial odometry algorithms are proposed in the framework of multi-state constraint Kalman filter. They are also tested with the real data from a flying robot in complex indoor and outdoor environments. The results show that the direct-based methods have the merits of robustness in image processing and accuracy in the case of moving along straight lines with a slight rotation. Furthermore, the visual and inertial fusion strategies are investigated to build their intrinsic links, then the improvement done by iterative steps in filtering propagation is proposed. As an addition, for experimental implementation, a self-made flying robot for data collection is also developed.

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41

Kashin, Konstantin Daniel. "Essays on Political Methodology and Data Science." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17464583.

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This collection of six essays makes novel methodological contributions to causal inference, time-series cross-sectional forecasting, and supervised text analysis. The first three essays start from the premise that while randomized experiments are the gold standard for causal claims, randomization is not feasible or ethical for many questions in the social sciences. Researchers have thus devised methods that approximate experiments using nonexperimental control units to estimate counterfactuals. However, control units may be costly to obtain, incomparable to the treated units, or completely unavailable when all units are treated. We challenge the commonplace intuition that control units are necessary for causal inference. We propose conditions under which one can use post-treatment variables to estimate causal effects. At its core, we show when one can obtain identification of causal effects by comparing treated units to other treated units, without recourse to control units. The next two essays demonstrate that the U.S. Social Security Administration's (SSA) forecasting errors were approximately unbiased until about 2000, but then began to grow quickly, with increasingly overconfident uncertainty intervals. Moreover, the errors all turn out to be in the same potentially dangerous direction, each making the Social Security Trust Funds look healthier than they actually are. We also discover the cause of these findings with evidence from a large number of interviews we conducted with participants at every level of the forecasting and policy processes. Finally, the last essay develops a new dataset for studying the influence of business on public policy decisions across the American states. Compiling and digitizing nearly 1,000 leaked legislative proposals made by a leading business lobbying group in the states, along with digitized versions of all state legislation introduced or enacted between 1995 and 2013, we use a two-stage supervised classifier to categorize state bills as either sharing the same underlying concepts or specific language as business-drafted model bills. We find these business-backed bills were more likely to be introduced and enacted by legislatures lacking policy resources, such as those without full-time members and with few staffers.
Government

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42

Wang, Chien-hsün. "Political economy of village governance in contemporary China." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2006. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3210048.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Political Science, 2006.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-03, Section: A, page: 1080. Adviser: Elinor Ostrom. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed March 16, 2007)."

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43

Bessant, Sophie. "Exploring the interface of marketisation and education for sustainable development in English higher education." Thesis, Keele University, 2017. http://eprints.keele.ac.uk/4178/.

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This thesis explores the ideological and the practical relationship between Marketisation and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in English higher education (HE) – focusing on the political-economic ideology of Neoliberalism and associated public sector management philosophy of New Public Management (NPM) – in order to reveal how this relationship has influenced the pursuit, practice and development of ESD within England’s HE sector. This relationship is explored both in terms of the contradictions and challenges, as well as the synergies and opportunities, presented to the Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) agenda within the prevailing marketised context. Justification for this research was a lack of studies which have explicitly, specifically and empirically explored ESD in the context of increasing neoliberal marketisation. A unique research design was employed, consisting of a single embedded case study of the HESD movement and community of practice in England, using a theoretical framework which combines tenets of both Pragmatist and Interpretivist theoretical traditions. Fifty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with sustainability/ESD active staff across eight universities and five HE bodies in England, as well as a small number of HESD key informants. Results of this thesis suggest that there is an intrinsic ideological contradiction between ESD and marketisation in the contemporary HE environment in England, yet the practical relationship is much more complex. Findings point to an entrenched theory-practice gap between the ‘transformative’ HESD ideal found within mainstream HESD literature and the pragmatist reality of HESD developments occurring within English universities, which are largely incrementalist, reformist and deeply entwined within the marketised reality. Epistemological and value pluralism is offered as a way of appreciating that the marketised, liberal/traditional and sustainability roles, purposes, ideologies, values and realities of English HE are incontrovertibly conflicting, yet symbiotic in equal measure, and that marketisation and sustainability are separated by ideology, but not by practice.

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Tremblay, Jean-François. "Le rôle de l'État dans le déploiement des nouvelles technologies d'énergie renouvelable pour la production d'électricité : une étude de cas de l'énergie éolienne." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/4391.

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Cette these, appuyee sur une etude empirique approfondie du developpement commercial de la technologie eolienne dans le secteur de la production d'electricite de la fin des annees 70 a 1996, demontre l'importance qu'a joue l'intervention gouvernementale dans le processus decisionnel commercial qui permet de choisir entre les diverses formes de technologie et de carburant disponibles sur le marche. Abordee dans le contexte de l'impact du secteur energetique sur l'environnement comme c'est le cas avec le changement climatique, cette these relie economie et politique sur la question environnementale, tandis qu'elle repond egalement aux nombreuses inquietudes concernant la dereglementation recente des marches de l'electricite. En outre, la these demontre que, peu importe le niveau de libre concurrence de l'economie sectorielle, l'intervention de l'etat s'avere un element indispensable pour que la prise de decision cornmerciale prenne en compte ce qui est encore appele "externalite" environnementale.

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45

Johnson, Harry R. "Federal part I commissions of inquiry: A study of certain of their rights, obligations and privileges." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/4814.

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46

Ledermann, Robert. "Évaluation et estimation de la fiabilité de sondages électoraux, provinciaux, bipartisans et québécois de la période 1977-1985." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5088.

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47

Nootens, Geneviève. "La théorie de l'hégémonie de l'État dans la pensée d'Antonio Gramsci." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5562.

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48

Roussel, Diane. "La liberté et la propriété chez Robert Nozick." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5811.

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49

Dulude, Pierre. "Le libéralisme et la notion de démocratie chez John Stuart Mill." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6034.

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50

Riendeau, Natalie. "The conservative's dilemma: The case of Michael Oakeshott." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6099.

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The subject of the present thesis is the political thought of the 20th century British philosopher Michael Oakeshott. More precisely, we are interested with the relationship Oakeshott establishes and believes ought to exist between political theory and active politics. As we will show, because of his critique and opposition to what he terms Rationalism and Ideology, Oakeshott severely limits the definition and the role he attributes to political theory and the political theorist. Political theory and the role of the theorist are restricted to such an extent that when Oakeshott himself theorizes the state, we argue that he has tremendous difficulty respecting his own criteria. Therefore, we are interested in taking Oakeshott seriously, in order to see if he himself is able to respect the strict criteria he establishes regarding political theory when he goes about theorizing the state.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Science-General'

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