Дисертації з теми "Environmental objects"
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1
Karmanska, Anna. "Environmental Assessment of Ukraine Emerald Network Objects in the Uranium Extraction Area." Thesis, National Aviation University, 2020. https://er.nau.edu.ua/handle/NAU/49667.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Робота публікується згідно наказу ректора від 21.01.2020 р. №008/од "Про перевірку кваліфікаційних робіт на академічний плагіат у 2019-2020 навчальному році". Керівник проекту: доцент, к. г.-м.н. Дудар Тамара ВікторівнаObject of research: environment assessment of Natural Preserve Fund objects within the uranium mining area. Subject of research: the Natural Preserve Fund objects in the vicinity of uranium mining area. Aim оf research: Natural substances within the internal antigenic load, as well as exposed elements of the Emerald Network. Methods of research: The references to the creation of Emerald Network projects in the gloomy countries of Ukraine are very relevant today, using analytical and scientific work within the framework of a strong supervisory body, and its work on natural resources.Аnalysis of the creation of the Emerald Company facilities will help to evaluate the stations that require the Council of Europe to approximate the legislation of Ukraine, which seek to investigate the Berne Convention and its necessary recommendations and recommendations.
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Karmanska, Anna. "Environmental Assessment of Ukraine Emerald Network Objects in the Uranium Extraction Area." Thesis, National Aviation University, 2020. http://er.nau.edu.ua/handle/NAU/41531.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Робота публікується згідно наказу ректора від 21.01.2020 р. №008/од "Про перевірку кваліфікаційних робіт на академічний плагіат у 2019-2020 навчальному році". Керівник проекту: доцент, к. г.-м.н. Дудар Тамара ВікторівнаObject of research: environment assessment of Natural Preserve Fund objects within the uranium mining area. Subject of research: the Natural Preserve Fund objects in the vicinity of uranium mining area. Aim оf research: Natural substances within the internal antigenic load, as well as exposed elements of the Emerald Network. Methods of research: The references to the creation of Emerald Network projects in the gloomy countries of Ukraine are very relevant today, using analytical and scientific work within the framework of a strong supervisory body, and its work on natural resources.Аnalysis of the creation of the Emerald Company facilities will help to evaluate the stations that require the Council of Europe to approximate the legislation of Ukraine, which seek to investigate the Berne Convention and its necessary recommendations and recommendations.
3
King, C. M. "Living with environmental change in the endorheic oasis systems of the Northern Sahara." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7abb8c24-c7ad-4daf-892d-21b98c2c7398.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
The oases of the northern Sahara illustrate the possibility that people and nature can work together to enhance life in a harsh and variable environment. This research investigates fifty years of experiences of living with environmental change in oasis systems, bringing together new data, archived environmental records and cultivators` observations. These are combined to gain insight into the environmental change processes, and the experiences gained by people through living with them in this regional context. Two detailed case studies deepen understanding of the socioeconomic dimensions and significance of these changes over the past two decades. The findings show how environmental changes constrained smallholders` traditional ecosystem management practices. Collective associations were weakened or disintegrated. National systems for environmental management and monitoring were overwhelmed. International recommendations for economic approaches to resource management and innovation to address water scarcity did not prove effective. On the other hand, instances where the international market transition appeared to be creating new opportunities for the restoration of common pool resource management were also identified. This investigation enabled a new perspective on the global dryland management debate to be generated in a context where research has most commonly been concentrated on national sectoral objectives for productivity and desert reclamation. Theoretical insights regarding the application of interdisciplinary research to understand environmental change, further research needs, and potential solutions are directly transferable to other regions where desiccation, salinization and groundwater degradation are accelerating due to climatic and global market-driven changes in land and water use.
4
Wilkin, Teddy. "Environmental effects on great tit life-histories." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f93e4bc9-4419-4713-b009-08ab98b8d950.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Explaining variation between individuals is a central concept in ecology. Phenotypic variation is the product of genes, environments and their interactions. In contrast to genotypes which are fixed within individuals, environments vary considerably in time and space and have measurable effects on phenotypic quality between and within individuals. The aim of the current work was to identify environmental sources of life-history variation in a wild population of the great tit. The size of Thiessen polygons formed around c. 8000 nestboxes occupied over a 41 year period was used to estimate breeding density at the level of the individual. Linear mixed modelling showed that birds breeding in large territories laid more eggs and produced heavier fledglings that were more likely to survive to breed, than those in smaller territories. Systematic capping of territory sizes revealed that birds breeding in territories more than 2ha in size were unconstrained by density. This method of measuring individual density identified important relationships between density and life-histories and allowed for the accurate separation of other environmental effects usually confounded by density. For example, the life-histories and breeding density of woodland passerines often both vary with distance from the woodland edge. Using the Thiessen polygons to control for density we were able to independently examine edge effects on life-histories. Results confirmed higher density at edges and independently showed that birds near the woodland edge tended to lay smaller clutches of larger eggs later in the season, than birds away from the edge, probably due differences in habitat quality. A further use of Thiessen polygons was to determine the scale at which to measure oak availability in the vicinity of each occupied nestbox. Birds breeding in oak rich polygons laid larger clutches, earlier in the season and had heavier nestlings than birds in oak poor polygons, independently of density and edge effects. What's more, including oaks in life-history models, reduced or eliminated the effect of the Thiessen polygons, suggesting that density dependent life-histories are to some extent explained by reduced oak availability at high density. Clutch size, fledgling mass and recruitment were also found to correlate with local soil calcium. Analyses performed at several spatial scales found the greatest effect of calcium at scales of c.500m. This figure may indicate the average distance females were travelling to obtain calcium rich food during periods of high demands. That breeding environments strongly affect life-histories has been demonstrated by the above work. However, no correlations were found between natal environment and the subsequent life-histories of recruited individuals, probably due to high mortality in great tits, which favours current condition over any character that conveys benefits later in life. This result shows that long-term effects of rearing environments cannot be assumed as it depends on the life-history conditions under which they are found. The results of this study suggest a pervasive role of fine-scale environment variation in determining the life-histories of individual great tits. Moreover, the study demonstrates the efficacy of GIS to model such variation and applying it to explaining life-history variation in long-term databases.
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O'Hara, Sarah L. "Late Holocene environmental change in the Basin of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, México." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1996. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:03490297-1dc7-4946-ab8c-8f9eaf03dcac.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis describes late Holocene environmental changes in the Basin of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico. Using palaeolimnological evidence it is possible to conclude that the Basin of Pátzcuaro has suffered at least three episodes of disturbance within the last 3,600 years. A minor episode of erosion began about 3,500 years ago and is believed to have been triggered by the onset of sedentary agriculture within the basin. A second, more severe phase of disturbance, occurred between about 2,500 and 1,200 years B.P. during which time there was extensive degradation in the northern part of the catchment; widespread gullying is believed to have occurred at this time. The recent, most intense period of erosion began about 850 years B.P., coinciding with the arrival of the Purépecha in the basin. There is no evidence to suggest that degradation within the catchment intensified after the arrival of the Spanish 470 years B.P. However, a change in the style of erosion from predominantly sheet-wash to gully erosion occurred at approximately 400-500 years B.P. and may reflect the introduction of new agricultural techniques by the Spanish. Fluctuations in the level of Lake Pátzcuaro have been used to infer late Holocene climatic change. Prior to 4,000 years B.P. dry conditions prevailed. An abrupt change to wetter conditions occurred between about 3,600 and 3,200 years B.P. before becoming more arid. Wetter conditions between 2,500 and 1,200 years B.P. can be inferred from the lake sediment record. The driest period in the record occurred between 1,200 and 850 B.P. Fluctuations in the level of the lake over the last 600 years have been determined from historical records. The lake rose between 600 and 470 years B.P. and remained high until approximately 300 years B.P. after which time the lake level fell once again.
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Scotford, Eloise A. K. "The role of environmental principles in the decisions of the European Union courts and New South Wales Land and Environment Court." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2010. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:23d02748-1197-4f33-a6c6-b98fdbf7c5d1.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
The thesis is a comparative legal analysis of environmental principles in environmental law. Environmental principles are novel concepts in environmental law and they have a high profile in environmental law scholarship. This high profile is promoted by two factors – the high hopes that environmental law scholars have for environmental principles, and the increasing prevalence of environmental principles in legal systems, particularly in case law. This thesis analyses the latter, mapping doctrinal developments involving environmental principles in two jurisdictions and court systems – the courts of the European Union and the New South Wales Land and Environment Court. This doctrinal mapping has both narrow and broad aims. Narrowly, it identifies the legal roles in fact taken on by environmental principles within legal systems. Broadly, and building on this assessment, it responds to scholarly hopes that environmental principles (can) perform a range of significant roles in environmental law, including solving both environmental problems and legal problems in environmental law scholarship. These hopes are based on assumptions about environmental principles that have methodological weaknesses, including that environmental principles are universal and that they fit pre-existing models of ‘legal principles’ drawn from other areas of legal scholarship. The thesis exposes these methodological problems and concludes that environmental principles are not panaceas for pressing and perceived problems in environmental law. It does this by showing that the legal roles of environmental principles, which are significant in environmental law and its current evolution, can only be understood by closely analysing the legal cultures in which they feature. This is a conclusion for environmental law scholarship generally – while environmental issues and problems may be urgent and often global, legal analysis of the law that applies to those problems requires close engagement with legal systems and cultures, as they are and as they develop.
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Mehta, Dhvani. "The environmental rule of law in India." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:730202ce-f2c4-4d2f-9575-938a728fe82a.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis offers a new conceptual framework - the environmental rule of law - to describe weaknesses in the development of Indian environmental law, and uses this description to critique the dominant discourse on environmental institutional reform. A secondary framework-fragmentation is also used to supplement the analysis of Indian environmental law. Part I develops the conceptual framework of the environmental rule of law by considering the special challenges that the inherent polycentric and interdisciplinary nature of environmental law present for commonly understood rule of law values such as clarity, certainty and consistency. It also relies on Jeremy Waldron's conception of articulated governance to demonstrate that the rule of law is linked to the principle of separation of powers. This conception lays emphasis on the role of the three institutions of government - the legislature, the executive and the judiciary - in strengthening or weakening the rule of law. To determine institutional contribution to the rule of law, I develop three broad indicators to assess the legal quality of the instruments of each of these institutions of government. These indicators are: a) capacity of statutes to guide executive and judicial behaviour by goal-setting and balancing competing interests; b) the ability of the executive to make flexible yet reasoned decisions grounded in primary legislation; and c) the use of statutory interpretation and consistent standards of judicial review by the courts as they give effect to environmental rights and principles. Through the use of case studies in Part II that span environmental impact assessment, forest conservation, and indigenous rights, I demonstrate that the lack of adherence to these indicators produces a body of environmental law that is fragmented i.e. one characterised by multiple overlapping yet self-contained legal regimes with conflicting provisions and the absence of unifying norms. In Part III, I use this understanding of fragmentation to critically analyse environmental legal and institutional reform proposals. I show that existing proposals address only the structure, rather than the process of functioning of the institutions of government. The rule of law framework that I develop also has potential for application to other areas of the law.
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Hadfield, Ruth M. "Studies on the genetic and environmental basis of endometriosis." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e55c6bc0-80f0-4622-b8d3-d50e2af39f10.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
There is now considerable evidence that endometriosis is likely to be a complex multifactorial trait, such as diabetes or asthma, in which a number of susceptibility loci interact with each other, and the environment, to produce the disease phenotype. This thesis presents studies on the genetic and environmental basis of endometriosis in both a non-human primate model and in women. The study of the autopsy records of 399 female rhesus monkeys identified 81 (20%) with spontaneous endometriosis. Age, exposure to ≥ 3 oestradiol implants (relative risk 9.7, P < 0.001) or ≥ 1 hysterotomy (relative risk 5.8, P = 0.006) were significant risk factors as determined by conditional logistic regression. Living descendants of the affected animals had MRI scans which suggested that 8/113 (7%) had at least one endometriotic lesion >1 cm in diameter. Segregation analysis was conducted on the resulting 12 pedigrees, which contained 64 half sib-pairs, 2 full sibpairs and 11 mother-daughter pairs. Human, affected sib-pairs and families were recruited for the OXEGENE study to conduct sib-pair analysis using microsatellite markers at 10cM resolution across the entire genome. MRI studies of the first-degree relatives of women with rAFS stage III-IV disease estimated that the relative risk (λR) may be as high as 14 (95% Cl 4.8 - 30.3). Candidate gene studies, comparing the frequency of the GALT N314D polymorphism, the CYP1A1 MspI polymorphism and the GSTM1 and T1 null mutations in two case groups, with either sporadic disease or a family history of endometriosis, and two control groups, did not show evidence of association. Linkage analysis using three microsatellite markers and 50 affected sib-pairs in the region to which GSTM1 maps (1p13) did not show evidence of linkage to this region. However, there was an apparent relationship between the presence of both the GSTM1 null mutation and the CYP1A1 MspI polymorphism and an increased risk of endometriosis. The initial findings of a sib-pair analysis, using 29 microsatellite markers across chromosome one in 128 affected sib-pairs, did not reveal evidence of linkage. These findings provide some insight into the aetiology of endometriosis in women.
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Palmer, Clare. "Process theology and the challenge of environmental ethics." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1993. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7592ee99-6439-4bd9-82cb-a8d47077911a.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
The aim of this thesis is to examine process theology in the light of questions raised by environmental issues. To facilitate this study, different approaches to the nonhuman natural world developed in environmental philosophy - in particular in environmental ethics - are compared with the work of process theologians. The primary focus is on the systems of A.N.Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, but John Cobb, Jay McDaniel and Daniel Dombrowski are also considered. In Chapter 1, the derivation of value and the formation of ethics in process thinking is examined, and its ethical methodology and content compared with classical utilitarianism and more recent consequentialist approaches to the nonhuman natural world. Ensuing problems including justice, replaceability, the identification of value with experience and the subjectivity of value judgments are considered. In Chapter 2, process ethics is compared with deontological approaches to environmental ethics which focus on the value of individual organisms and natural objects: in particular, the work of Paul Taylor. Problems generated by egalitarianism, individualism and the inability to affirm environmental restitution are examined. The capacity of process thinking to resist such criticisms is assessed. Collective consequentialist ethical approaches to the environment, characterized by Aldo Leopold and J.Baird Callicott, are laid alongside process ethics in Chapter 3. This raises questions concerning the nature of species and ecosystems, and the use of metaphors such as organism, community and society to describe them. The focus moves in Chapter 4 onto a comparison of the metaphysics and ethics of the Deep Ecology movement with that of process theology. This comparison concentrates on two main themes: attitudes to 'holism' and to the 'extension and realization of the self'. Finally, the question whether process theology should reform itself as a better response to environmental ethics is examined. Some suggestions about possible reformation are proffered, but it is tentatively concluded that process thinking is an inappropriate basis for environmental philosophy.
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Webersik, Christian. "Reinterpreting environmental scarcity and conflict : evidence from Somalia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2005. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:24a25a02-75f2-4070-b39f-f9baba51bd12.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
The thesis explores links between resources and conflict in contemporary Somalia. The central research questions were: Why did a society which is believed to be resilient and adaptive to its harsh environment become vulnerable? To what extent did environmental factors contribute to the emergence of conflict? How can natural resource scarcity and abundance be related to the existence of, or potential for, violent conflict, bearing in mind the historical, political, economic and cultural context of conflict? Can other determining factors such as power-relations, access to trade, or clan affiliation be linked to lower economic, institutional, and social performance and associated with higher levels of violent conflict? If a link can be made, this will help to forecast where conflict might take place. Because Somalia is largely an arid country, highly susceptible to natural disasters, and because its people have been victims of severe famine in recent decades, my starting point for this research was to investigate literature on the supposed environmental causes of conflict. Analysis of the literature which links environmental degradation and scarcity to state-collapse or civil war suggested, however, that such linkages are problematic. I argue instead that people engage in violent conflict in Somalia because they struggle to establish control over valuable resources. These resources are likely to be renewables, such as cash crops in the form of plantations in riverine areas, cereals in the Bay region, and charcoal in the coastal region of Brawa. Conflict arose over the struggle to monopolise these resources, and over the distribution of profits. Clan leaders sought to expand a source of 'tax' revenue by controlling trade networks, seaports and airports. This general approach may explain why southern Somalia has experienced continuous insecurity over the past decade.
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Hewitt, Dominic James. "Probing environmental effects on gas-phase protein structure." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6856e99f-c802-4b96-ba7c-8fc98456f6a0.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Growth in the use of mass spectrometry as an analytical tool for studying protein structure and functionality has posed questions regarding correlation of native structures and observed gas-phase conformations for proteins. This thesis explores the relationship between the solution-phase and gas-phase structures of soluble proteins, and investigates the effect of the lipid environment on membrane proteins. To assess gas-phase structure, ion-mobility mass spectrometry was used to measure directly the collision cross-sections of soluble proteins across a broad mass range. These collision cross-sections values were then compared with those derived from solution-phase data, calculated from dynamic light scattering experiments. Using computational methods collision cross-sections were calculated from structures reported in the protein data bank using a variety of techniques. Differing physical environments in solution and gas phases are not shown to affect protein structure by the dynamic light scattering and ion-mobility measurements. Contrastingly the computational calculations demonstrate that there is less correspondence between x-ray structures and their gas-phase counterparts. Despite the effect that lipid environment has on membrane protein structure, capturing this native environment has been challenging. Lipodisqs look to overcome this problem by removing the portion of the membrane surrounding the embedded protein. Lipodisqs were investigated as potential vehicles for membrane protein mass spectrometry and compared with conventional detergent based approaches. Lower charge states are observed for proteins released from lipodisqs, compared to those released from detergent micelles, increasing the probability of native features being retained including native-like protein-lipid interactions. Lipodisqs therefore demonstrate significant potential as a tool for membrane protein mass spectrometry. In summary, through this body of experimental work relationships have been established between gas-phase and solution-phase structures as well as computational methods. The use of Lipodisqs to eject membrane proteins from regions of the native membrane has been investigated.
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McMahon, Robert Kieran. "Bureaucratic motivations : an examination of motivations in the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Environment Agency for England and Wales." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:49d505fd-475f-4064-8591-0052c83d902a.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis examines the motivations of bureaucrats in two government agencies: the Environmental Protection Agency in the US, and the Environment Agency for England and Wales. The model employed in this work is a Trifocal Model which utilises Rational Choice, Institutional and Cultural approaches in answering the thesis question. The aim of this work is two-fold: one aim is to explain motivations in two agencies; the second aim is to suggest why the existing literature in the field of bureaucracy often fails to capture the diversity of bureaucratic motivations. The claim is that the adherence to one particular paradigmatic approach prevents scholars from attaining a comprehensive understanding of motivations. This work focuses on two elements of the Trifocal Approach, namely institutional and cultural explanations. Rational Choice explanations are given a limited explanatory role in this work, in large part because of the restricted usefulness of an approach which takes the preferences of agents as given. This thesis uses a scientific approach to the analysis of qualitative data, allowing other researchers to make use of, and indeed to question, the findings presented below. The argument in this thesis suggests why scholars must pay more attention to what those people within bureaucracies tell us about themselves and their motivations. To take the preferences of agents as givens is to ignore much of what is most important about the study of politics that is, where preferences come from, and how they shape the political behaviour we observe in bureaucracies. This thesis will show that public sector reforms are often flawed, often failing to consider the interplay of cultural and institutional effects, and how these effects have a bearing on the motivations of staff in organisations undergoing reform. Furthermore, cultural and institutional factors must be considered whenever one considers the question what is it that motivates bureaucrats.
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Dias, Juçara dos Santos Ferreira. "Objetos de aprendizagem: seu potencial de reuso na prática da educação ambiental para a população negra." Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 2014. http://tede.biblioteca.ufpb.br:8080/handle/tede/7725.
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This work is motivated by the concern expressed by educators with the use of technology in education in the context of environmental education, when the Brazilian reality is black majority in the classroom of public education. Your goal is to investigate the potential of Learning Object reuse for the study of the environment in a critical approach, paying attention to the occurrence of the practice of environmental racism. In this sense, we sought to understand the reasons which led to environmental education as a topic to be addressed in Brazilian education, reflecting on the environmental education in the postmodern scenario and its specificity in dealing with issues that affect the majority of black people. The following is the identification of learning objects available for the study of the environment, so that it is feasible to point out the learning object features in the reuse potential is satisfactory and meets the issues related to teaching and learning processes, including Join the black population. The research is characterized as applied, qualitative and exploratory. The applied technical procedure was the content analysis. How locus, the International Bank of Educational Objects was elected (BIOE) as Learning Object search field (OA) focused on the study of the environment. It was concluded that the critical study of perspective of the environment can be achieved with the use of OA with a greater degree of reuse, in which it seeks, through its content, favor the approach of specific issues, such as environmental racism.
O presente trabalho tem como motivação a preocupação expressa pelos educadores com a utilização das tecnologias na educação no contexto da educação ambiental, quando a realidade brasileira é de maioria negra na sala de aula da educação pública. O seu objetivo é investigar o potencial de reuso de Objetos de Aprendizagem destinados ao estudo do meio ambiente numa abordagem crítica, atentando-se para a ocorrência da prática do racismo ambiental. Nesse sentido, buscou-se compreender os fundamentos que levaram a educação ambiental como um tema a ser abordado na educação brasileira, refletindo acerca da educação ambiental no cenário pós-moderno e sua especificidade no trato de questões que atingem a maioria da população negra brasileira. Segue-se a identificação de objetos de aprendizagem disponíveis para o estudo do meio ambiente, para que seja viável apontar as características do objeto de aprendizagem em que o potencial de reuso seja satisfatório e atenda a questões relacionadas com processos de ensino e aprendizagem, dos quais participe a população negra. A pesquisa caracteriza-se como aplicada, qualitativa e exploratória. O procedimento técnico aplicado foi o da análise de conteúdo. Como lócus, foi eleito o Banco Internacional de Objetos Educacionais (BIOE) como campo de pesquisa de Objetos de Aprendizagem (OA) voltados para o estudo do meio ambiente. Concluiu-se que a perspectiva de estudo crítico do meio ambiente pode ser atingida com a utilização de OA com maior grau de reuso, nos quais se busque, através do seu conteúdo, favorecer a abordagem de questões específicas, como o racismo ambiental.
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Holmes, Jonathan Anthony. "Pliocene and Quaternary environmental change in Kashmir, north-west Himalaya." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1989. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e9bb6cf8-93a8-4471-9c55-7ed84044dc3c.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Late Cainozoic environmental changes in Kashmir (33°30' to 34°30' N: 74°10' to 75°30' E) have been reconstructed using a range of techniques. The sedimentary record in Kashmir consists of a thick (>1000m) basin-fill sequence known as the Karewa group, together with glacial and related sediments in the surrounding mountain flanks. The Karewa sediments are fluviolacustrine in origin and comprise alternations of conglomerates, sands and clayey silts. Work on the lower Karewa formation, which has previously been dated palaeomagnetically to between 4 and 0.4 MaBP, involved the semi- quantitative analysis of clay-mineral assemblages by X-ray diffraction.The clay minerals in the lower Karewa mudstones are interpreted as detrital clays which reflect weathering within Kashmir basin. The analyses showed a change in clay mineralogy between about 2.5 and 2.3MaBP, from abundant kaolinite to abundant smectite. Work on the upper Karewa formation involved field description and mapping of facies, sedimentological analysis, dating using thermoluminescence (TL) and amino-acid racemization, and analysis of ostracod assemblages from lacustrine sediments. Areal restriction of the lake in Kashmir occurred about 0.4MaBP with the rapid uplift of the Pir Panjal Range. Sedimentological data show that aeolian dust formed a major input into the lake. Ostracod assemblages show that the lake itself was cool, shallow, alkaline and had abundant plant macrophytes, The lake drained between 120 and SOkaBP. Stratigraphical, sedimentological and faunal evidence suggests that this was a result of tectonically-induced drainage rather than climatically-induced desiccation. The glacial history of the surrounding mountain flanks was reconstructed by field mapping of glacial sediments and dated using TL and radiocarbon methods. Present and past patterns of glaciation wore assessed by the determination of equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs), glaciation thresholds (GTs) and cirque aJtitudes. Glaciers extended to 2150 m a.s.l in the Great Himalayan flank and 2600 m a.s.l. in the Pir Panjal. There is evidence for only 2 pre-Holucene advances in Kashmir, the older of which predates 35kaBP. Present patterns of glacierization indicate a SW to NE rise in the height of ELAs and GTs suggesting topographic and precipitation control. An apparent reversal of trends during the past is explained by Quaternary uplift of the Pir Panjal Range.
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Tran, Martino. "Modelling innovation diffusion in complex energy-transport systems." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:30ab651b-7c5a-4a4b-a905-6d86b5507042.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Global sustainable energy and environmental policies have increased the need to understand how new energy innovations diffuse into the market. The transport sector is currently a major source of unsustainable energy use contributing ~20-25% global CO2 emissions. Although the potential benefits of alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) technologies to reduce CO2 emissions and fossil fuel dependency have been demonstrated, many uncertainties exist in their market diffusion. It is also not well understood how policy can influence rapid diffusion of AFVs. To transition to a more sustainable energy-transport system, we need to understand the market conditions and factors necessary for triggering widespread adoption of new energy innovations such as AFVs. Modelling the diffusion of innovations is one way to explain why some ideas and technologies spread through society successfully, while others do not. These diffusion processes are characterized by non-linear interactions between heterogeneous agents in complex networked systems. Diffusion theory has typically been applied to consumer durable goods but has found less application to new energy and environmental innovations. There is much scope for advanced diffusion methods to inform energy policy. This depends upon understanding how consumer behaviour and technologies interact and can influence each other over time. There is also need to understand the underlying mechanisms that influence adoption behaviour among heterogeneous agents. This thesis tackles the above issues using a combination of empirical data analysis, scenarios, and simulation modelling as follows: 1) We first develop the empirical basis for assessing innovation diffusion from a technology-behavioural perspective, where we explicitly account for interactions between consumer preferences and technological performance across different spatial and temporal scales; 2) Scenarios are then used to disaggregate consumer markets and analyze the technological and behavioural factors that might trigger large-scale adoption of AFVs; 3) We then case-analyze the UK transport sector and develop a model of the dynamics between how vehicle technologies and consumer preferences can change and influence the diffusion process; 4) Finally, we develop exploratory simulations to assess how social network effects can influence individual adoption behaviour; 5) We close with policy implications of our findings, contributions and limitations of the thesis, and possible avenues for taking the research forward.
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Smith, Hannah. "Metabolic adaptations to micro-environmental stress in tumour spheroids." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3651d265-ddc0-4258-b3f7-2a0242697d21.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Alterations in energy metabolism due to factors including cellular stress from the hostile tumour micro-environment are a emerging cancer hallmark. Distinct hypoxic and quiescent cell populations develop, which are resistant to chemotherapy due to lack of proliferation, drug inactivity in the altered redox status of the cell and enhanced drug biotransformation. The present study characterises the metabolic strategies employed by these distinct populations of cancer cells. The in vitro 3-dimensional tumour spheroid model, which reflects tumour architecture and behaviour, cultured under different micro-environmental conditions was utilized in this study. Metabolic enzyme activity and expression, overall metabolic flux rates for nutrients, metabolomics profiles of specific pathways and tissue status were assessed. Metabolic adaptations consistent with the Warburg effect were observed in fully oxygenated, proliferative tumour spheroids, with glucose being metabolised to produce lactate. Additionally, metabolomics investigations determined glucose was metabolised by the pentose phosphate pathway, demonstrated by high enrichment of glucose-derived carbon in 6-phophogluconate. The extraction of 39.7 ± 7.6 μ moles (mg protein) -1 glutamine from the medium over 24 hours was observed in these spheroids, consistent with glutaminolysis pathway activity. A 2-fold higher rate of glycolytic flux (measured by production of 3h2O from 5-3H-glucose) was measured in hypoxic tumour spheroids, despite reduced levels of glycolytic enzymes being determined. Surprisingly, although lower rates of glycolysis (2.6-fold) were measured in quiescent spheroids, increased glycolytic enzyme activities (HK 1.9 fold, PK 2 fold and LDH 1.8 fold), glucose (1.9 fold over 24 hours) and glutamine uptake (5.5 fold over 12 hours) as well as lactate production (1.8 fold) were measured, relative to their proliferating counterparts. This study demonstrates that metabolic strategies employed by tumour spheroids differ upon exposure to distinct micro-environmental stresses, additionally identifying hexokinase as a potential therapeutic target for the inhibition of glycolysis under all micro-environmental stress conditions analysed.
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Woods, Clare A. "Respiratory carbon loss in plant tissues under environmental stress." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:829338ba-7c5a-41b8-9cdd-ead4646e161e.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Crop productivity is a balance between carbon gain by photosynthetic assimilation of CO2 and the release of fixed carbon as CO2 via respiration. Respiration is the process by which carbohydrates are oxidised to produce ATP to fuel biochemical reactions, whilst simultaneously releasing CO2 as a by-product; therefore, increased demand for ATP or decreased efficiency of ATP production by uncoupling of the mitochondrial electron transport chain results in greater CO2 production. ATP produced by respiration is either used to support processes involved in growth or to power cell maintenance processes, such as macromolecule turnover or maintenance of membrane ion gradients. Respiration increases when plants are exposed to high temperatures; a factor that will become increasingly important as we try to maximise food production as the global climate changes. However, it is unknown if increased respiration at high temperature is necessary to provide energy to support growth, is a consequence of increased ATP consumption for maintenance processes or is due to increased mitochondrial uncoupling at high temperature. Flux measurements showed that CO2 production by excised Arabidopsis thaliana roots increases with temperature up to 37°C. Although growth also increased up to 37°C resulting in increased respiration associated with growth processes, the majority of overall CO2 production at high temperatures could be accounted for by non-growth respiration. An analysis of ATP-consuming processes demonstrated that protein turnover and maintenance of ion gradients collectively account for the majority of maintenance respiration, but that ATP consumption for the maintenance of ion gradients is quantitatively more important than protein turnover at high temperature. Furthermore, a decrease in in vivo P/O ratio at high temperature was demonstrated; the results presented suggest that this is most likely due to increased basal proton leak across the inner mitochondrial membrane. It can be concluded that increased CO2 production at high temperature results from a combination of increased ATP consumption for the maintenance of ion gradients and a decrease in coupling of the mitochondrial electron transport chain through a common mechanism of increased membrane fluidity and ion leak.
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Figura, Richard [Verfasser], and Pedro José [Akademischer Betreuer] Marrón. "Efficient data collection with heterogeneous cooperating objects for environmental monitoring / Richard Figura ; Betreuer: Pedro José Marrón." Duisburg, 2020. http://d-nb.info/1212362578/34.
Повний текст джерела
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Chow, Wing Yin. "Genetic and environmental influences on learning Chinese language and literacy skills." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2010. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e5e30dc9-a694-4c9e-af4f-43f70b610deb.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis investigated the etiology of individual differences in Chinese language and literacy skills with a two-wave longitudinal design using a sample of 312 Chinese twin pairs aged 3 to 11 in Hong Kong. Children were individually given tasks of Chinese word reading, receptive vocabulary, phonological memory, tone awareness, syllable and rhyme awareness, rapid automatized naming, morphological awareness, and orthographic skills, as well as nonverbal reasoning and audiometric screening tests. They were tested again on the same tasks, except nonverbal reasoning, one year after the initial testing. Children’s saliva was collected to perform SNP testing for zygosity determination. Also, their demographic information, home literacy environment profile, and motivation for learning text, were obtained from parent-rated questionnaires. Overall, there were four major findings on Chinese language and literacy abilities with the effects of age and nonverbal reasoning controlled for. First, genes and environments had differential influences on various skills, and there was a possibility of different etiology in language and reading development. Second, socioeconomic status and home literacy environment were plausible mediators but not moderators of general language and reading abilities. Third, the stability of various skills across a one-year time period was mainly mediated by genetic influences, but shared environmental factors also influenced syllable and rhyme awareness. Also, new genetic and environmental factors came into play at Time 2 for word reading, and results suggested new genetic influences and new shared environmental influences emerged at Time 2 for tone awareness and morphological awareness respectively. Fourth, both genes and environments contributed to parent-rated communicative ability and motivation for learning text. Furthermore, the link between word reading and parent-rated motivation was mediated by genetic processes. The universality of the genetic and environmental origins across languages and their specificity to Chinese, as well as the implications of these findings, were discussed.
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Prill, Nadine. "Effects of environmental change on plant performance and plant-herbivore interactions." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c58761e9-666c-4b7d-a78a-d70de7f253d4.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Global environmental change fundamentally affects plants and their interactions with other species, and this has profound impacts on communities and ultimately ecosystems. In order to understand the mechanisms involved, we need to elaborate on the combined effects of different global change drivers on multiple levels of plant organization, including the biochemical level (production of defence compounds), the whole organism, the population, and the plant-herbivore interaction level. This thesis investigates (1) the combined effects of factors related to climate change and habitat fragmentation on Brassica nigra and (2) the effects of Zn soil pollution on the heavy metal hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens at these different levels. Common garden and greenhouse experiments with B. nigra applied drought stress and elevated CO2 to examine climate change impacts, while crossing treatments (inbreeding and between-population outbreeding) were used to investigate habitat fragmentation effects. Heterosis was lost under drought stress, and there were several interactive effects of the experimental treatments that varied within and among populations. In a greenhouse experiment with N. caerulescens, plants were grown on soil with different amounts of zinc. Plants had greater herbivore resistance when grown on Zn-amended soil, and invested more in herbivore tolerance when grown on soil without added Zn. In general, the results indicate that factors related to global environmental change have complex and interactive effects on different levels of plant organization. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for ecology, evolution and conservation.
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Kong, Liang. "Bismuth oxybromide-based photocatalysts for solar energy utilisation and environmental remediation." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c95ee3cc-b276-4c69-8b3f-eb60cc64e1c0.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis reports the investigation of Bismuth oxybromide (BiOBr) semiconductor material as an efficient photocatalyst for the sunlight harvesting as well as environmental cleanup. I have utilised different synthetic methodologies to obtain BiOBr and its derivatives, such as co-precipitation, ultrasonification, and photo-deposition; and have studied their structural and optical properties by X-ray diffraction and surface analysis techniques. I report the synthesis and characterisation of two new p-n heterojunction systems, AgBr-BiOBr and BiOBr-ZnFe2O4, and have performed initial studies on photocatalytic reaction and their catalytic decomposition mechanisms. I have also reported the surface modification method including the deposition of noble metal on BiOBr to investigate the role played by the noble metal and the interactions between semiconductor and metal using various characterisation measurements. Furthermore, a continuous series of BiOBr-BiOI solid solutions were synthesised, characterised and the photocatalytic degradation was performed on the as-obtained semiconductors, to study the band structure properties of the solid solutions.
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Feddersen, John Alexander. "Essays in international economics and the environment." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:aa2b64d1-d4cd-4f8f-b83c-1b1ad435f2ea.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
I consider the influence of foreign environmental policy on domestic manufacturing activity using theory and empirics. A tractable three-country spatial model yields a theory of locational com- parative advantage in the production of pollution-intensive manufactured goods: greater market access to countries with stringent environmental policy encourages output in the polluting sector. Operationalizing the model empirically, I find robust evidence that high market access to countries with stringent environmental policy increases manufacturing value added. Both the theoretical and empirical analyses suggest that estimates of the Pollution Haven Effect that ignore third country environmental policy - yet make the stable unit treatment value assumption - can be misleading. Chapter Two We investigate the impact of short-term weather and long-term climate on self-reported life satisfaction using panel data. We find robust evidence that day-to-day weather variation impacts life satisfaction by a similar magnitude to acquiring a mild disability. Utilizing two sources of variation in the cognitive complexity of satisfaction questions, we present evidence that weather bias arises because of the cognitive challenge of reporting life satisfaction. Consistent with past studies, we detect a relationship between long-term climate and life satisfaction without individual fixed effects. This relationship is not robust to individual fixed effects, suggesting climate does not directly influence life satisfaction. Chapter Three This chapter considers the related policy challenges of deindustrialisation and 'leakage' which can arise when environmental regulation is differentiated across regions. A dynamic two-region 'New Economic Geography' (NEG) model is adopted in which agglomeration forces may make firms tolerant of regulatory disadvantage. Each region ratifies an international environmental agreement (IEA) requiring it to tax transboundary pollution created by local firms. In contrast to previous NEG studies, the model adopted is considerably more tractable, enabling comparative static analysis to be conducted analytically rather than through computer simulation. The model is extended to consider the relationship between the prescribed tax rates and deindustrialisation caused by the relocation of firms. Firm relocation in response to a given tax differential depends crucially on trade costs and the initial location (configuration) of industry. For some industry configurations, agglomeration forces are strong and a set of tax differentials exist which cause no international relocation of polluting firms. For other initial industry configurations in which agglomeration forces are weaker, the same set of tax differentials may cause complete inter-national relocation to the less stringently regulated region. Trade liberalization can actually make industry less likely to relocate in response to a regulatory disadvantage. The model is further extended to consider the issue of carbon leakage, which arises in the regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For relatively low tax differentials, agglomeration forces create rents which tend to anchor industry in the higher taxing region, avoiding carbon leakage. If the tax differential is too great, however, agglomeration forces cause all firms to relocate to the lower taxing region where they optimally emit more GHGs. Environmental outcomes may therefore be improved by reducing the tax rate in the higher taxing region in order to discourage industry relocation. When industry is diversified between regions, firms respond to higher (lower) relative domestic taxes by increasing (decreasing) output and polluting more (less).
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Lew, Stephen F. "Meaningful measurement and applications of environmental, social, and governance information." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:06a9e769-9fdd-4afd-b0e1-f5012456ba89.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
In the remarkable developments that have occurred recently in all sectors of society, e.g. environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration, responsible investing, social entrepreneurship, and strategic philanthropy, the measurement of extra-financial (or non- financial or external) information remains a key issue. While 'making a difference' is the goal of such developments, no integrated externality measurement framework (IEMF) has been proposed, recognized as a reasonable candidate, or adopted by practitioners. The overall objective of this thesis is to develop such an IEMF which would facilitate meaningful measurements and interpretations of the 'quantum of difference' (e.g. in the context of ESG information) and applications thereof towards resource allocation strategies. The aim is not so much to develop some putative 'perfectly accurate model of reality' but an epistemic framework which would serve as a communicative and organizational anchor. The overall objective derives to five research imperatives, which are responded to by five core chapters in the thesis. The following key findings emerge: Finding 1. The ESG metric landscape exists in a patchwork. In particular, while social impact metrics have proliferated recently, they constitute an incoherent domain of its own, separate from the environmental and governance metric literatures. In devising an IEMF, the key challenges include aggregating disparate metrics and disaggregating causalities. Once such a framework has been devised and adopted by practitioners, one can innovate various resource allocation strategies. Finding 2. The attitudes and approaches toward measurement and metrics can broadly be typologized as being fetishistic, positivistic, cynical, and pragmatic. Taking the pragmatic stance allows us to ascribe an appropriate epistemic status to metrics and calibrates the philosophical proclivity of the culminating IEMF. Finding 3. A geography of philanthropic governance exists. In particular, there are variegated similarities and differences in the perceptions and usage of ecosocial metrics. Significant overlaps in the domain and geographic foci of giving signify the feasibility of meaningful comparison, competition and collaboration among such organizations with metrics at the centrepiece. Finding 4. While best practice benchmarks in the usage of metrics in driving positive tangible changes are rare, a highly innovative integrated rural development program known as Saemaul Undong serves as a solid example. It is possible to maximize the efficiency in resource-deployment, induce participation and competition, and scale a parochial initiative to a national level through the usage of performance metrics. Finding 5. Calibrating appropriate philosophical stance, aggregating widely disparate measuranda, disaggregating casual attribution are among the key challenges towards developing an IEMF. Identifying and adopting appropriate formalisms facilitate addressing such challenges. For adoption in practice, however, one must factor in human expertise and judgements when making resource deployment decisions along with the numbers calculated through such a framework. The findings above constitute a series of 'firsts' of the kind in each relevant bodies of literature, paving the way for further explorations.
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Burns, Moya L. "Environmental change and the structure and functioning of invertebrate communities." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:33239b5d-d6ef-4f14-9052-70bb9e290fd3.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Land-use change and climate change are considered to be the greatest threats to biodiversity globally. The conversion of natural habitats into agricultural land with remnant patches of the original habitat left embedded within an anthropogenic matrix is one of the main land-use changes. This has been shown to alter species richness and abundance, depending on factors such as remnant area and isolation. Climate change has caused species to shift their distributions, alter their phenologies or risk going extinct. The interaction of habitat fragmentation and climate change exacerbates these problems when the lack of suitable habitat within a species dispersal limits prevents a species from tracking changing climates, forcing its adaptation or extinction. One method attempting to remedy this is to restore habitats in a network across landscapes in order to reduce the isolation between natural communities and increase connectivity across landscape. These areas have been largely assessed using a species-centred approach. In this thesis I investigate these elements of environmental change, and the potential mitigation process of habitat restoration, using a food web and functional approach to assess how these factors affect the structure and functioning of invertebrate communities. In Chapter 2 I describe the results of a landscape scale study into the effects of habitat fragmentation on sub-tropical rainforest communities in Australia. Using cavity-nesting bees, wasps and their parasitoids as a study community I show that fragmentation effects such as fragment area, isolation and edge effects can impact different trophic levels to different extents, but that this does not necessarily result in a change to the ecosystem function of parasitism. Using a field-based manipulative experiment, In Chapter 3 I investigate the effects of altered rainfall regimes which may be a consequence of climate change on host-parasitoid food webs and parasitism in a temperate grassland. I show that changes to precipitation regimes disrupts host-parasitoid synchrony between a common grassland leaf-mining insect Stephensia brunichella and its parasitoid Pholetesor arisba. These changes do not cause food web changes at the scale studied, but demonstrate the potential for climate change to alter host-parasitoid synchrony and hence the ecosystem service of parasitism. Utilising a long-term experiment into the effects of different grazing regimes on the restoration of lowland calcareous grassland in the UK on former arable land, in Chapter 4 I address the impacts of restoration on quantitative food web structure and parasitism. I show that although grazing regime can affect trophic level composition differentially, this does not translate into overall changes in food web structure or parasitism at the field scale studied. Using the same field experiment, and a novel method for assessing soil ecosystem feeding activity by invertebrates, I investigate the impacts of seasonal grazing regime on soil ecosystem function (Chapter 5). I show that the season of grazing has an impact on the vertical profile of soil ecosystem functioning. I discuss the potential implications of this novel finding for the future of restoration studies and the importance of including below ground processes in ecological studies of environmental change. This thesis shows that research into the effects of anthropogenically induced environmental change can benefit from a food web and ecosystem functioning approach. However, experimental field studies at larger spatial scales and the inclusion of species traits are needed to fully address these questions.
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Alonso, Wladimir Jimenez. "Vector host choice and the environmental context of mosquito-borne virus transmission." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:bc3632b8-321a-4751-8797-80b40098ec27.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
The present thesis explored ethological and geographical approaches for the investigation of vector-borne parasites. In the first part, the role of associative learning on vector preferences for hosts was investigated through a comprehensive series of behavioural experiments using the vector of dengue and yellow fever diseases, the mosquito Aedes aegypti. To this end, the possibility that the mosquitoes were able to associate unconditional stimuli with particular odours and visual patterns to which they were responsive was explored, but no evidence supporting the hypothesis that associative learning abilities are present in adults of this species was found. A critical review of the literature on learning in mosquitoes conducted afterward allowed the reinterpretation of findings in the field, narrowing the scope of evidence suggesting the existence of these cognitive abilities in some species. In the second part of the thesis, the distribution and evolution of mosquito-borne viruses was investigated with the use of geo-coded environmental data and spatial statistics. Initially, the eco-climates associated with the distribution of Japanese encephalitis virus were described and modelled, allowing the production of a worldwide predictive map defining the probability of each region to develop this disease in the future. Predominating amongst those areas shown to be under high risk were the equatorial regions of South America and Africa. The methodology used to infer such patterns – non-linear discriminant analysis – was subsequently explored with a number of simulations. Overall, differences in the choice of parameters required for the analysis were shown to lead to differences in the final outputs produced, basically in those cases where the environmental range for which predictions are generated is not rigorously limited. Finally, eco-climate surrogates for the evolution of the Japanese encephalitis serocomplex were investigated, but the current environmental distances between the viruses did not seem to be associated with the events leading to their speciation.
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Giulio, Disanto. "Genetic and environmental factors influencing susceptibility to the complex disease multiple sclerosis." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e44ea559-b48f-4e03-944c-7703f31a3aa6.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Multiple sclerosis is a complex immune mediated condition of the central nervous system characterized by myelin loss and progressive neurodegeneration. The risk of developing MS is influenced by both genetic and environmental agents and, among them, several lines of evidence support a role for vitamin D deficiency, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and smoking in the aetiology of this disease. The aim of this work was to further elucidate how nature and nurture act in the causal cascade leading to MS. In chapter 1, I show that the main genetic factor in adult MS (the HLA-DRB1*1501 allele) plays an equally important role in paediatric cases of MS (PMS) and that EBV negative PMS patients represent a separate entity characterized by lower age at disease onset, lower female to male ratio and a trend towards a lower frequency of the HLA-DRB1*1501 allele. In chapter 2, I provide evidence in support of month of birth having a role on MS risk and T cell production and that vitamin D may underlie this effect. In chapter 3 I demonstrate the presence of a link between vitamin D deficiency and the immune response against EBV, whereby the proportion of EBV seropositive MS patients and controls increases with increasing latitude and high dose vitamin D supplementation appears to reduce the level of antibodies against this virus. In chapter 4, I show that MS associated genetic variants are located in genomic regions that exert a regulatory function and are active in immune cell types. In chapter 5, I illustrate how vitamin D receptor binding is also located within active regulatory regions in immune cells and that this is particularly evident near MS associated genes. Finally, in chapter 6, I use chromatin data on more than 100 different cell types and conclude that MS associated genetic variants are particularly active in T helper, T cytotoxic and B cells. Further work is needed to elucidate how genetic and environmental agents play a role in the cause of MS and to develop effective strategies for disease treatment and prevention.
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McGahey, Daniel John. "Maintaining opportunism and mobility in drylands : the impact of veterinary cordon fences in Botswana." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2af8453c-4554-4d83-8cf4-f9eae02fc5c2.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
The recent revival of debates concerning livestock development in Africa follows the more widespread acceptance of paradigm shifts within rangeland science, and maintaining pastoral mobility is now recognised as fundamental for the future survival of pastoralism and sustainability of dryland environments. However, in southern Africa communal pastoral drylands continue to be enclosed and dissected by large-scale barrier fences designed to control livestock diseases, thus protecting lucrative livestock export agreements. This interdisciplinary research examines the extent to which these veterinary cordon fences have changed people’s access to, and effective management of, natural resources in northern Botswana and how fence-restricted resource use by livestock, wildlife and people has changed the natural environment. Critical political ecology informed the approach, given its emphasis on socio-political and historical influences on resource access, mobility and user relationships. This enabled the biophysical effects of social changes to be investigated fully, thereby moving beyond a tradition of discipline-based studies often resulting in severely repressive rangeland policies. The research demonstrates how enclosure by veterinary cordon fences restricts patterns of resource access and mobility within pastoral drylands, with serious implications for both social and environmental sustainability. Enclosure increases the vulnerability of people to risks and natural hazards, while resource access constraints and pastoral adaptations to enclosure have favoured the increasing commercialisation of livestock production, thus obstructing pathways into pastoralism. While widespread environmental change in livestock areas cannot be attributed thus far to enclosure, the curtailment of wild migratory herbivores at the wildlife–livestock interface has caused some large-scale structural vegetation changes and there are indications that fence induced sedentarisation could be accentuating existing degradation trends. Given these changes, future rangeland policies in Africa should be aware of the social and environmental impacts associated with export-led disease management infrastructure and consider alternative, less intrusive, approaches to livestock development and disease control in extensive pastoral drylands.
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CASTRO, GABRIELA VARANDA DE. "INTERIOR DESIGN AND CONSUMPTION: THE PERCEPTION OF THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS IN FURNITURE AND DECORATIVE OBJECTS." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2008. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=13338@1.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOTodo projeto de design que promete mudanças deve, afinal, comunicar-se de uma maneira eficiente com seu público. E todo projeto sustentável deve tornar clara a sua sugestão de transformação da sociedade. Mais que modelar formas e funções, designers criam idéias e propostas, que seus consumidores ou usuários finais percebem ou não. Portanto, esse novo valor simbólico conferido pelo design, aqui neste trabalho chamado de valor sustentável, deve ser visto como uma oportunidade para comunicar uma idéia, uma proposta de mudança social e cultural, que precisa ser percebida, do ponto de vista do consumo. Para verificar como produtos de design sustentável se comunicam com seu público, esta dissertação apresenta uma pesquisa bibliográfica e um trabalho de campo realizado junto a um grupo de trinta consumidores de móveis e objetos decorativos, de três lojas de decoração da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Uma pesquisa qualitativa, composta de uma entrevista em profundidade, e uma pesquisa quantitativa, utilizando a técnica da análise conjunta, foram aplicadas junto aos consumidores, para avaliar a percepção do valor sustentável em peças decorativas e verificar sua eficiência como agente transformador e facilitador de mudanças.
Every design project that promises changes must, after all, establish an efficient communication with their public. And all sustainable projects should make clear their suggestion of transformation of the society. More than modeling forms and functions, designers create ideas and proposals, which their customers or end users perceive or not. Therefore, this new symbolic value given by design, here in this paper called sustainable value, should be seen as an opportunity to communicate an idea, a proposal of cultural and social change, which needs to be perceived, in terms of consumption. To verify how products of sustainable design communicate with their public, this dissertation presents a bibliographical research and a field research carried out among a group of thirty consumers of furniture and decorative objects, from three decoration stores of the city of Rio de Janeiro. A qualitative research, consisting of an in-depth interview, and a quantitative research, using the conjoint analysis technique, were applied to consumers, to assess the perception of the sustainable value in decorative pieces and verify its effectiveness as a transforming agent and changes facilitator.
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Severson, David T. "A study of the cellular and environmental context of Barrett's esophagus." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:088fe233-8b47-4ce5-aa84-6a74ddfa89d4.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Barrett's esophagus is a pre-malignant lesion leading to esophageal adeno-carcinoma, where presence of Barrett's carries a seven fold increase in risk of developing cancer. The histology of Barrett's esophagus is diverse, containing squamous, gastric, and intestinal features, and the origin of the lesion is still under considerable debate. Professor Lu's research group aims to define the molecular features underlying the Barrett's lesion and elucidate the functional origin of the lesion. Because pathogens and commensals have previously been reported to be important in other cancers of the upper gastro-intestinal tract, we also aim to explore the role of microbes and viruses in Barrett's esophagus. We sequenced 3069 single cell RNA samples from endoscopic biopsies of the Barrett's lesion and relevant normal tissue in the upper gastro-intestinal tract and positive and negative controls. In order to draw meaningful conclusions from these single cell RNA data concerning the functional origin of Barrett's, we needed to identify robust relationships between single cell observations across tissue types. However, technical variance is a major confounding factor in single-cell RNA sequencing and could distort any such observed relationships. Therefore, I developed BEARscc, a tool that evaluates cluster robustness to noise by simulating experiment-specific technical replicates. I demonstrate that the tool improves the unsupervised classification of cells and aids the interpretation of single-cell RNA-seq experiments. I apply BEARscc to our single cell RNA-sequencing cohort and find striking similarity between the esophagus submucosal glandular ducts and a subset of Barrett's cells with undi erentiated characteristics. Using BEARscc, I also provide a robust description of the substructure of normal esophageal, gastric, and duodenal tissues. In order to characterize any microbial or viral presence in the microenvironment of Barrett's, I developed a pipeline, poshTitan, to identify pathogens and commensals in next generation sequencing data. I demonstrate that the poshTitan identifies pathogens with known associations in nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma whole tissue RNA-sequencing and gastric adenocarcinoma whole genome sequencing data. I apply the poshTitan to whole tissue and single cell RNA-sequencing samples of Barrett's esophagus and normal controls and find no clear pattern of pathogen or commensal association with disease.
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Le, Thuy. "The clinical and environmental epidemiology of Penicillium marneffei infection in Vietnam." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2328a810-672f-404f-a5a1-4b7eec6d9140.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Infection due to Penicillium marneffei (renamed to Talaromyces marneffei in 2011) has emerged as an important public health problem over the past two decades due to the arrival of the HIV epidemic in Asia. Since 2004, P. marneffei has become the second most common pathogen isolated from routine blood culture, after Cryptococcus neoformans, at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, the largest referral centre for HIV care in southern Vietnam. The clinical epidemiology of P. marneffei infection has not been studied in Vietnam. The fundamental epidemiological questions regarding the pathogen reservoirs and risks of acquisition remain poorly understood. The diagnosis relies on isolation of the pathogen from clinical specimens and can take up to 14 days to identify, resulting in delayed initiation of therapy which is associated with worse treatment outcomes. This thesis aims to increase knowledge and understanding of the clinical and environmental epidemiology of P. marneffei infection and to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis of P. marneffei infection. The Précis provides a brief background and rationale for the thesis. Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter and provides an overview of the epidemiology, ecology, mycology, pathology, immunology, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of P. marneffei infection. Chapter 2 summarizes the incidence and features of P. marneffei admissions at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City over a 13 year period. During this period, 795 patients with P. marneffei infection were identified and hospital charts were obtainable for 513 (65%) patients. The data showed clear seasonality with an increase in incidence of approximately 30% during the rainy season compared to the dry season. The clinical and microbiological features and treatment outcomes of the patients were characterised. Poor outcome, defined as death or worsening disease at hospital discharge, occurred in 28% of patients. History of injection drug use, shorter duration of illness, absence of fever or skin lesions, higher respiratory rates, and lower platelet counts independently predicted poor outcome. Chapter 3 describes an analysis of meteorological factors that determine penicilliosis incidence in Ho Chi Minh City. Humidity, rather than precipitation, was the most important factor that governs the seasonality of penicilliosis. Higher humidity was associated with increased odds of penicilliosis versus cryptococcosis admissions. The infection incubation period was estimated to be between one and three weeks. Chapter 4 describes an analysis of exposure and behavioural risk factors for penicilliosis based on a matched case control study of 205 culture-confirmed HIV-infected penicilliosis cases and 405 HIV-infected controls recruited from two major HIV referral centres in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Penicilliosis was independently associated with proximity or exposure to tropical plants and exposure to farmed animals. The geographical analysis showed that patients living in or traveling to the highland regions were at increased risk for penicilliosis in southern Vietnam. Chapter 5 describes the development of a Taqman real-time PCR assay based on a novel Mp1 gene target unique to P. marneffei for rapid detection of P. marneffei infection in patient plasma. The assay was tested in 70 plasma samples from HIV-infected patients (50 with culture-confirmed penicilliosis, 20 with other opportunistic infections) and showed a clinical specificity of 100% (20/20) and sensitivity of 70.4% (19/27) and 52.2% (12/23) prior to and within 24-48 hours of antifungal therapy administration, respectively. Chapter 6 is an overview discussion interpreting the implications of the major findings and the future direction of P. marneffei research. The work of this thesis increases knowledge of the clinical epidemiology of P. marneffei infection in Vietnam, providing essential data for the design of prospective studies to improve the diagnosis and treatment of P. marneffei infection in Asia. The data suggest that multiple environmental factors including humidity, tropical plants, farmed animals, and highland location, are important drivers of P. marneffei infection in southern Vietnam. The real-time PCR assay showed potential as a rapid ârule-in' test for P. marneffei in this pilot study and should be prospectively evaluated in a large cohort to determine if it can improve diagnostic speed and crucially, impact patient outcomes. Prevention, diagnosis and elimination all require further research to reduce the high mortality following clinical disease caused by P. marneffei in Asia.
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Morrissey, James. "Mobility in context : exploring the impact of environmental stress on mobility decisions in northern Ethiopia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a18572b7-1ff1-49b5-8188-07a95e85f4bb.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis examines the relationship between environmental stress and human mobility with a view to understanding the impacts of climate change on human migration. Using a conjuncture of political ecology and migration theory, it firstly explores the literature on 'environmental refugees' identifying a distinction between general agreement on the existence of a relationship between environmental stress and migration, and debate over the appropriateness of the 'environmental refugee' as a suitable means for representing that relationship. Secondly this conjuncture is used to examine accounts from farmers and migrants in northern Ethiopia, with a focus on understanding how environmental and non-environmental factors interact to shape mobility decisions in a context of environmental stresses, thought analogous to those predicted to accompany future climate change. The principal finding of the study is that although environmental stress matters in mobility decisions, it does so due to the context of non-environmental factors in which it occurs, not in spite of them. With this in mind the work provides a framework of additive, vulnerability, enabling and barrier effects as a means for elaborating our understanding of how environmental and non-environmental factors interact to determine mobility strategies in a context of environmental stress. Focussing on the role of non-environmental factors, the work reveals that while biophysical features operate at a macro-scale to shape mobility decisions, these decisions are determined by non-environmental features operating at a micro-scale. The research then traces differences in the existence of these micro-scale, non-environmental, factors across two field sites, finding that their origins lie in both historical and contemporary forces of regional and global political economy. As such, the work concludes that understanding the relationship between climate change and human migration will require a contextualisation of that relationship within this broader framework.
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Wachtmeister, Marcus. "Driving towards more flexibility? : China's environmental and climate policy in the automotive sector." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a525684b-072d-4288-9216-52a9321051ee.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This doctoral dissertation examines the mode and efficacy of environmental and climate policy in China’s automotive sector. The ascent of China’s automobile market to the largest worldwide has detrimental effects on the country’s energy security situation, worsens environmental pollution, and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental and climate policy measures to ameliorate these repercussions are the most apt tools available to the Chinese government. The objective of this dissertation is to identify the dominant mode of environmental and climate policies in China’s automotive industry and to assess the efficacy of select policy instruments. It does so by asking whether a uniform national approach to policy instrument adoption can be discerned that reflects China’s institutional and administrative history or whether modal exceptions exist. Secondly, if modal differences exist, to what extent do different instruments confirm the current understanding of the advantages and pitfalls of individual policy instrument types? And finally, how do Chinese instruments compare to those in other ambits in terms of policy mode and instrument efficacy? The literature on policy instruments holds that, due to their alleged efficiency advantages, incentive-based instruments dominate the political agenda of industrialised countries and international organisations (environmental consensus). This favouring of flexible instruments in academic and political circles contrasts with an evident lack of incentive-based instruments in practice and an observed lack of efficiency of some of those instruments actually implemented. Moreover, the policy mode adopted in developing countries and emerging markets has not yet received sufficient academic attention despite significant differences in institutional design, enforcement capacities, resources, and development paths that may imply reason for modal deviation. Applying a blend of qualitative and quantitative social sciences research methods, I add the case of China to the comparative literature and show that command-and-control regulation indeed forms the backbone of environmental and climate policy in China’s automotive industry. At the same time, modal differences exist between national regulation and local/ municipal incentive-based policy as well as in the electric vehicle sector, which shows a trend towards more incentive-based instruments and flexibility mechanisms in conventional regulation. Compared to other ambits, China has established a relatively flexible policy regime, at least for the case of vehicle efficiency standards. For the time being, incentive-based instruments remain comparatively ineffective and flexibility mechanisms in conventional regulation have an erosive effect on instrument stringency.
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Percival, Lawrence. "Exploring the use of mercury in reconstructing the environmental impacts of Large Igneous Provinces." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:eb84e4a0-5229-405b-8c8d-a015f601ca39.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) represent geologically rapid emplacements of vast quantities of igneous material into/onto Earth's crust. There is a marked correlation in the known ages of LIPs and Mesozoic extinctions and other environmental perturbations, suggesting a possible causal link between these events. However, uncertainties in matching LIP basalt ages to the stratigraphic record of Mesozoic events mean that a sedimentary tracer of volcanism would better indicate a precise coincidence between the two phenomena. Mercury (Hg) has shown potential as such a proxy. Volcanism is a major source of Hg to the natural environment, and its relatively long atmospheric residence time (0.5â2 years) allows global distribution of the element before it is deposited to sediments. However, questions remain about how the manner of LIP emplacement might influence its impact on the Hg cycle, as well as how sedimentary processes may locally overprint any global signal. Here, the Hg records of three Mesozoic events are investigated: the end-Triassic extinction (TJ: ~201.5 Ma), Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE 2: ~94 Ma), and the latest Cretaceous (KâPg: ~67â66 Ma). These events coincided with markedly different LIPs: OAE 2 with multiple submarine LIPs; the KâPg and TJ with subaerial LIPs; with the TJ also featuring release of additional thermogenic volatiles from intrusion of organic-rich lithologies by LIP sills. Additionally, mercury is used with osmium and carbon isotopes to study the temporal relationships between volcanism, weathering, and the carbon cycle during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (~183 Ma). This work highlights the links between LIP volcanism and other surface processes, and shows that subaerial LIPs featuring thermogenic emissions are most likely to perturb the global Hg cycle, with the record of such perturbations dependent on the nature of the sedimentary archive.
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Ochoa, Ochoa Leticia Margarita. "Amphibian diversity conservation in a changing world : a view from Mexico." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1febba22-e47f-48e2-9b35-2e3e51f7132b.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Amphibians are the most abundant terrestrial vertebrates on Earth. They are crucial in maintaining the transfer of energy and matter from freshwater to terrestrial systems and are also indicators of ecosystem health. Mexico hosts great amphibian diversity with high levels of endemism. Nevertheless, the knowledge of amphibian ecology in the country is at an early stage. This thesis aspires to contribute to the knowledge of Mexican amphibian ecology and to the understanding of the processes underlying amphibian responses to environmental changes. To do so the thesis includes: 1) analyses from fine scales (at landscape level) based on data from two consecutive rainy seasons of fieldwork (nocturnal sampling), in two protected areas in southern Mexico, La Pera and Nahá; 2) at regional scales, analyses based on spatial databases of conservation instruments (i.e. environmental services, governmental, private, and community protected areas, etc.) generated specifically for Mexico; 3) to coarse scales (the whole country), analyses based on ecological niche modelling using the most complete database for Mexican amphibian records and climate layers developed purposely for the country. Thus, the thesis involves different time-scale processes, from ecological to biogeographical. In addition this thesis contains an analysis of the media representation of amphibian biodiversity threats and issues, specifically climate change, based on literature research. I was involved in the process of generating most of the databases used in this thesis. Whilst the main theme of this thesis is amphibian conservation, it also encompasses a wide range of specific subjects. Firstly, foundational knowledge about amphibian conservation is established in Chapter I. Also, the region, Chiapas in southern Mexico, where the fieldwork was carried out for two consecutive years (2009-2010) is described within a historical context and a glossary of terms is presented. In Chapter II, based on one year of fieldwork in two fragmented protected areas (PAs) of different management category, one state and one biosphere reserve, I examine how community structure is related to key features of the environment. The possible effects of governance issues in protected areas and their relationship with the drivers of amphibian metacommunities are also explored. A total of 144 transects were sampled from 33 patches in La Pera and 140 transects from 36 patches in Nahá. In each transect environmental variables were recorded. Partial Canonical Correspondence Analyses (partial CCA) indicated that the drivers of metacommunity patterns vary between the sampled landscapes. Habitat structure explained more of the community variation than either space or weather conditions: > 50% for La Pera and 30% Nahá; but the relationship to geographical space and local climate varied greatly. The differences in relationships among the environmental variables and between them and the amphibian metacommunities finds expression also in the pattern of human exploitation of these areas, which has latterly at least also found expression through differing governance. In Chapter III, the effects of environmental variation on metacommunities structure are explored. Metacommunity theory assumes that emergent properties can be determined that characterise a set of linked communities within a landscape. It follows that change in environmental conditions should generate changes in the metacommunity structure. In La Pera a total of 30 patches were sampled, with a total of 120 transects in 2009, and 133 transects in 2010. In Nahá 31 patches were sampled, with a total of 111 transects in 2009 and 122 transects in 2010. In the analyses of this chapter only transects sampled in both years are included. The total number of individuals increased greatly from 2009 to 2010, but the most abundant species between surveyed years varied slightly, in both areas. In La Pera metacommunity the structure changed from quasi-Clementsian to quasi-Gleasonian, while in Nahá it changed from Clementsian to Gleasonian. CCA show that the variance explained between years was similar. Re-arrangements in the metacommunity structures linked to environmental changes are observed. Results show that amphibian metacommunity structure can change with short environmental changes or disturbances, mainly weather variations from one year to another. This would suggest that metacommunity structures are a dynamic property in fluctuating systems. The aim of Chapter IV is to assess patterns of beta diversity for Mexican terrestrial vertebrates, and explore their relationships with environmental heterogeneity metrics at different spatial scales, identifying the most important surrogates at each spatial scale. The analyses in this chapter are based on the most complete database of Mexican terrestrial vertebrates, comprising distribution maps of 2513 species: 883 resident birds, 344 mammals, 364 amphibians and 811 reptiles. Higher β-diversity values are found along mountain ranges for amphibians, reptiles and mammals, whereas for birds high values are also found on the Mexican Plateau. Results demonstrate that the relationships between β-diversity and the environmental heterogeneity surrogates vary in form and strength across scale and between vertebrate groups. In Chapter V, I set out to characterize at fine scale, alpha and beta diversity patterns for Mexican amphibians and analyze how these patterns might change under a moderate climate-change scenario, and to highlight the overall consequences for amphibian diversity at the country level. The analyses are performed with a climatic envelope modelling approach using MaxEnt and a set of climatic layers developed specifically for Mexico. Models of future scenarios for Mexican amphibian alpha and beta diversity for 2020, 2050, 2080, show that high levels of species extinctions follow if low dispersal capability and high presence thresholds are used, but the overall geographic pattern of beta diversity remains stable. Zones of high beta diversity are associated with topographic formations, whilst the values of beta diversity initially increase, then decline over time under a moderate climate scenario. Extinctions (complete loss of range within country boundaries) are particularly intense during the period 2020–2050. The results imply that heterogeneous zones associated with mountain ranges will remain particularly important for amphibian diversity and thus such areas should be targeted for continued conservation prioritization in the face of climate change scenario. There is an inevitable degree of uncertainty associated with future climate projections and the possible ecological and biogeographical responses. Nevertheless, the climate change projections are typically translated in the media as certain. Chapter VI illustrates the interplay of these competing communication goals, through a review of the representations of the golden toad (Incilius [Bufo] periglenes) in print media and in peer-reviewed literature. The concept of “distanciation”, which means placing a distance between two connected issues (cause and effect), is introduced in this chapter, along with the potential issues that this process may generate in the implementation of conservation strategies. Distanciation is a perception created in the members of the audience of the media, but does not imply a total separation regarding an issue. For example, the audience is interested in the news about climate change effects, but they feel distant because the effects of climate change might be evident within a large time period (i.e. 2050); and although the causes are occurring now, the audience does not see the urgent need to act. Chapter VII represents the first attempt to analyze the status of conservation of some microendemic amphibians in Latin America when some social initiatives (e.g. private and community reserves) are included in the assessment. The efficiency of the existing set of governmental protected areas (PA), and the contribution of social initiatives for land protection of amphibians are evaluated. The chapter shows how the role of land conservation, through social initiatives, is fast becoming a crucial element for the survival of a substantial number of species not protected by state-designated PA. Given the current speed of land use change, we cannot expect to save all species from extinction, and so it must be decided, rather quickly, how to focus the limited resources available to prevent the greatest number of extinctions. In Chapter VIII, a simple conservation triage method is proposed. Using this triage method, the threat status for 145 micro-endemic Mexican amphibian species is evaluated, alongside potential threat abatement responses derived from existing policy instruments and social initiatives. Both indicators are combined to provide broad-scale conservation strategies that would best suit amphibian micro-endemic buffered areas (AMBAs) in Mexico. Results show that almost 25% of the species analysed urgently need field-base verification to confirm their persistence; for the rest, a conservation strategy is developed based on existing conservation instruments. Monitoring populations is essential in order to understand temporal patterns of community change and to better comprehend the underlying processes that shape and maintain biodiversity. These aspects, along with a general discussion focused mainly on the distanciation problem are addressed in Chapter IX.
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Chun, Jane M. "Livelihoods under stress : household assets and responses to environmental change in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:db88c118-2287-46aa-8793-37b764f38047.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis is a response to broad stroked claims that climate change and sea-level rise will cause mass displacements in areas such as the Mekong Delta. Instead, I argue for a more nuanced approach to understanding vulnerability and household response measures in contexts of environmental stress, and highlight the importance of deciphering differentiations of vulnerability across households of varying characteristics. I propose that in this way, by empirically understanding differentiated household vulnerabilities and response measures to stress rather than focusing on one type of stressor (environmental change) and response (migration), we would be better positioned to holistically address the root causes of vulnerability. To this end, I take a micro household-level approach, using an asset vulnerability framework, to assess the role of various household assets in mediating vulnerability and resilience in the rural Mekong Delta context. As a result, we are able to understand the interactions of numerous elements, including the effects of environmental stress and mobility decision-making processes, within the context of household asset profiles, which are in turn shaped by the broader political ecology. The main findings of this study furthermore include the ‘counterintuitive’ role of environmental stress, where it is found to be one of many stressors, often paling in comparison to the pressure of others. In the process of analysing resettlement outcomes, we encounter the process of vulnerability shifts, whereby some vulnerabilities are alleviated while others are increased as a result of resettlement. Finally, in terms of the link between environmental change and migration, a direct relationship is found to be tenuous. Instead, the key drivers, deterrents, and facilitators of migration are identified, pointing to the significance of assets and their role in shaping mobility decisions and outcomes for households. This leads us to not only think about those who move, but also those who do not have the option to move as a result of their poor asset profiles.
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Nathan, Roger P. "Numerical modelling of environmental dose rate and its application to trapped-charge dating." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2010. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3da656e8-5514-4fed-85d1-8664e5dc1932.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Accurate estimation of environmental dose rate is essential for high-resolution trapped-charge dating. Beta and gamma emissions from simulated sediments containing radioactive uranium, thorium and potassium are modelled in contexts that are spatially heterogeneous. Dose rate was modelled using Monte Carlo radiation transport codes MCNP and PENELOPE. A number of key issues that affect dose rate evaluation are examined and updated corrections are calculated. Granular structures used for geometrical input into the models were simulated using randomly packed ellipsoids. The pair correlation function and chord length distributions were derived. The effects of water content on dose rate were modelled and compared with cavity theory. Apart from activity dilution, the variation of grain size or water content was shown to be significant for gamma radiations due to the transition from charged particle equilibrium. The standard correction for beta dose rate due to grain size was found to be satisfactory although sensitivity to grain shape and material should be taken into account. Dose rate modeling was applied to three dating studies of early human fossils: Skhul V, Israel skull; Hofmeyr, South Africa skull and the Forbes’ Quarry, Gibraltar skull. The spatial modelling was implemented using computerised tomographic (CT) images and dose rate found to be modified significantly by the presence of the skull in the sediment. Time evolution of the dose rate was examined for the latter two skulls and dates of 36±3ka (Hofmeyr) and 55-95ka (Forbes’ Quarry) were calculated.
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Fido, Deborah R. E. "Teaching controversial environmental issues in 16-19 A level geography : possibilities and problems." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7ff29bea-35bc-416d-ab76-9409fb09d8be.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Environmental issues are often controversial and involve a range of possible viewpoints or attitudes. They are poorly understood hi the general population and, even amongst well respected scientists, there is often little consensus as to the causes and effects of environmental problems. Teachers are sometimes accused of exacerbating this situation by indoctrinating children with simplistic 'green slogans', rather than teaching a deeper understanding of the complexity of the issues. However, the advice provided for teachers is contradictory: much of the literature on teaching environmental issues encourages teachers to promote pro-environmental attitudes or behaviour, whilst simultaneously encouraging independence of thought amongst their students. Literature on teaching environmental and other controversial issues suggests several possible teaching strategies, but all are open to criticism on varying grounds and therefore provide little in the way of guidance for teachers. This study examines the beliefs and practices of three experienced geography teachers in relation to teaching about controversial environmental issues in the Schools' Council 16-19 A level course. This course was one of the first to embrace the teaching of controversial environmental issues, and provides explicit guidance for teachers on the development of students' environmental attitudes. Using unstructured observation, and informant-style interviews with the teachers and their sixth form students, the research investigates the similarities and differences between the teachers' beliefs and practices, and considers the educational problems and possibilities with teaching controversial environmental issues. The findings reveal a substantial divergence between the teachers' beliefs and the espoused aims of both the environmental education literature and the 16-19 syllabus. These teachers reject the aim of promoting pro-environmental attitudes in favour of a form of balanced learning. This involves the twin aims of providing access to a diversity of viewpoints, whilst maintaining a stance of non-intervention, by which they hope to encourage students to make independent decisions about appropriate environmental behaviour. A variety of imaginative teaching strategies are utilised in the pursuit of these aims. However, the findings of this study also illustrate the difficulties encountered by these teachers in trying to implement their beliefs, problems which can be explained by the influence of various constraints, such as the syllabus and examinations, the students' behaviour and characteristics, the subject matter being taught, and the teachers' own knowledge, pedagogical skills, and attitudes.
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Godfrey, Elinor. "Social and environmental determinants of changing distribution and incidence of tick-borne encephalitis in Western Europe." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fd0a7241-b85f-4d49-abe4-a5ec4057c96e.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
In Western Europe the incidence of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) has increased over the last 30 years, coupled with changes in distribution. Modifications in the TBE enzootic cycle, through a combination of changes in temperature, vertebrate abundance and habitat suitability may have increased the risk of TBE in recent years. In Switzerland, analysis using satellite-derived climate data demonstrated that the environment of areas with TBE since the 1980s and areas that recently became endemic for TBE have become more similar between 2001 and 2009. This was coupled with an increase in April, May and June temperature, which could have affected the tick population and/or human exposure to ticks. Deer and boar abundance also changed in some cantons. In Germany, spatio-temporal modelling demonstrated the importance of temperature, vertebrate abundance and unemployment in the incidence and distribution of TBE between 2001 and 2009. Changes in TBE reporting, April, May and June temperature, vertebrate abundance and pesticide use may have contributed to increases in TBE in 1992 and 2001. Human exposure patterns, however, appear to be as important as the enzootic cycle in shaping the incidence of TBE, not only in determining the overall trend but also in interacting with the weekly, seasonal and yearly patterns of tick hazard to give the observed incidence. In Switzerland, in weeks with warm, sunny weather, human exposure to ticks is promoted and short-term increases in tick bites are seen. Human outdoor activity also shifts the seasonal pattern of tick bites, when compared with tick questing. There was no apparent increase in time spent in outdoor activities between the 1990s and 2000s in Italy, Germany and Austria, but survey data demonstrated that walking and hiking were already popular activities across Europe by the 1990s. The popularity of mushroom and berry foraging as a source of income in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, coupled with the expense of vaccination, provide an inverse link between economic wellbeing and TBE risk. Correspondingly, in 2009, the economic recession was associated with an increase with TBE in these three countries.
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Nowag, Julian. "Competition law, state aid law and free-movement law : the case of the environmental integration obligation." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b14c7740-cac8-4084-acf8-86ff9c053e6c.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis investigates competition law, State aid law and free-movement law in their interaction with Article 11 TFEU’s obligation to integrate environmental protection requirements into all activities and policies of the Union. The Article is formulated in broad and sweeping terms which makes integrating environmental protection requirements complex and context-dependent. The challenge of integrating environmental considerations is further increased as such integration in competition, State aid and free- movement law is different from other areas of EU action. The three areas are the core provisions protecting the internal market by prohibiting certain actions of the Member States and undertakings. Unlike in other areas, the EU is therefore not in the position to develop or design the actions but has to scrutinise the measure according to pre-established parameters. To address this challenge, a novel functional approach to environmental integration is developed. The approach should facilitate a better understanding of environmental integration and in particular its application to competition law, State aid and free-movement law. An important element of this thesis equally the comparison between the three areas of law. It sheds light on conceptual issues that are not only relevant to the integration of environmental protection. The comparison advances the understanding in relation to questions such as how restrictions are defined and how the respective balancing tests are applied. The contribution of this research is therefore twofold. One the one hand, it compares how the different tests in competition, State aid and free-movement law operate, thereby offering opportunities for cross-fertilisation. On the other hand, this comparison and the improvements suggested as a result help to conceptualise environmental integration thereby paving the way for a more transparent and consistent integration of environmental protection in competition, State aid and free-movement law.
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Anderson, Jamie Kathleen. "Human and environmental change at North Atlantic coastal settlements, ca. AD 900-1700 : a chronological perspective." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f1e55ad1-c690-4935-93df-249e59314171.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
How environmental change affects human settlement is a research question that is becoming increasingly important to us in the twenty-first century. The North Atlantic, from ca. AD 900-1800, is currently one of the most well-studied regions and times for answering this research question. Norse exploration of the North Atlantic and subsequent colonisation and settlement - both short- and long-term - of the various islands there has been interpreted as a narrative of adaptation to new and changing environmental conditions. Although there is a relative wealth of archaeological and environmental data from the region, chronology remains an area needing further study. This thesis synthesises a wide range of scientific chronological data - constructing new chronologies for two small-scale landscapes in case studies from Iceland and Orkney, and then using Bayesian modelling to derive new analyses from published dating information throughout the region - in order to work towards a cohesive narrative of North Atlantic settlement and adaptation that includes scientific chronologies.
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Ecker, Michaela Sarah. "Two million years of environmental change : a case study from Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape, South Africa." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f458923a-5b59-4d0a-91f4-83111b4e28dc.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
The arid interior of South Africa lacks long, continuous and well-dated climate and environmental proxy records that can be compared with cultural sequences and with broader global climate records. This thesis develops the first substantial terrestrial environmental sequence for the interior of southern Africa at the site of Wonderwerk Cave, spanning two million years of prehistory. Changes in vegetation and humidity over time were investigated by means of carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis on fossil herbivore enamel and ostrich eggshell, creating two independent proxy datasets. The Holocene record was used as a baseline for comparing the Pleistocene sequence, but required chronological tightening. Therefore, nine new radiocarbon dates were obtained, and calibrated and modelled with existing dates to provide a firmer chronology. The ostrich eggshell isotope record suggests arid but variable conditions, with distinct phases of increased humidity in the Early Pleistocene and mid-Holocene. Enamel stable isotope results show clear differences in local resource availability between the Early and Mid-Pleistocene, and then between the Pleistocene and Holocene, with an overall trend of increasing aridity. In particular, the onset of dietary specialisation in grazers at 0.8Ma is linked to expanding C4 grasslands. Aridity was not the driver behind the increase in C4 grasses, but changing pCO2 levels at the Mid Pleistocene transition were identified as a possible key factor. The presence of C3 and C4 grasses in the Early Pleistocene, when compared to the domination of C4 grasses today, was fostered by reduced rainfall seasonality. Regional independent developments have to be considered, as other regions in South and East Africa show C4 dominated diets in herbivores at earlier times than at Wonderwerk Cave. In the Holocene, higher temporal resolution indicates phases of environmental change coinciding with changes in the cultural record.
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Bailey, Meghan. "Unequal adaptation : socially differentiated responses to environmental change and food insecurity among smallholder farmers." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:48688400-1c0f-4195-b9fd-38f214297d1f.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Achieving food security in a changing climate is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. For subsistence-oriented farming families who experience firsthand pressures on their food system - population growth, environmental degradation and climate change, to name only a few - adaptation has become an urgent necessity. The ability to 'adapt and benefit' through a suite of climate change adaptation interventions that build adaptive capacity is touted by many humanitarian and development institutions as integral to food security today. However, adapting and benefiting is often a far reach for many smallholder farming families, who more commonly manage multiple interdependent stressors through a mix of adaptive actions and negative coping strategies. The relative benefit of this mix of adaptive and coping strategies is socially differentiated, varying by location and both between and within households. This combination of strategies, or the variety of options to enact livelihood outcomes, is framed as a response space. This thesis explores the impact of social differentiation on the adaptive capacity of subsistence-oriented farming families experiencing food insecurity and environmental change. Using a case study of two villages in the Upper West region of Ghana, it investigates how adaptive capacity and response spaces differ based on points of social differentiation; the drivers that limit or exacerbate adaptive capacity and response spaces; and the implications of these responses for humanitarian, development, and government programmes that aim to support these populations. These questions are approached using mixed methods (embedded direct observation, the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index household and individual survey, participatory action research exercises, child growth and hospital admissions records, focus groups, and key informant interviews) and a unique conceptual framework which draws heavily from systems thinking, feminist research theory, Sen's capabilities approach and grounded theory. I followed context-specific local drivers to deeply examine the familial and cultural political lives of households to better understand the interdependent nature of empowerment within the household, the distribution of scarce food, control over livelihoods and income, the management of poverty-induced stress, and the risk these drivers pose to public health. Out of this research, a multi-level vulnerability landscape surfaced, characterized by a food system on the margins and unequal adaptation within the case study population. The research led to the following insights: farmers experience multiple disadvantages being located in the Upper West of Ghana as compared to southern regions, and are underserved by multiple governmental and NGO institutions; farmers in turn experience heterogeneous vulnerability and access to response spaces at the community level, which are deeply entrenched in social norms that favour adult male bodies, male spaces, and male-typical productive roles; and, at the same time, there are individuals and families that stand outside these trends and are able to adapt and benefit, which highlights the need for an intersectional approach when examining the household and sub-household context. The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals include a pledge to âleave no one behind' in the pursuit to 'free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet'. Understanding the differing vulnerability of subsistence-oriented smallholder farming populations, as well as the ways their response spaces and adaptive capacity have been differently shaped, will be important for the program design and targeting strategies of interventions to achieve this goal. This thesis aims to contribute to this enormous task.
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Choi, Myung-Ae. "Governing deceleration : the natures, times, and spaces of ecotourism in South Korea." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0327cadd-3379-4d27-b22b-46a5cc92c63a.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis explores the governmentalities of ecotourism in South Korea in relation to the specific historical-political experience of accelerated modernisation, focussing on three selected analytical themes of nature, time, and space. It develops a theoretical framework that combines Foucauldian governmentality analysis with concepts and insights related to nature, time and space developed in more-than-human and relational geographies and cognate social sciences. Drawing on three cases of tidal flat tourism, countryside walking, and whale tourism, it first examines the assemblages and technologies of ecotourism governance. It argues that ecotourism in South Korea is characterised by a decentralised mode of governance involving an array of political actors. This mode relies less on sovereign power and more on disciplinary and biopolitical techniques. Second, it examines the ways in which political technologies relating to nature, time, and space are engaged in the governmentalities of South Korean ecotourism. The analysis centres on: understandings of nature enacted through the discourse of saengmyeong [life] and therapeutic experiences; a discourse of slowness enacted through a paradoxical temporal organisation of accelerated slowness; and the multiple spatial relations entangled in the geographical-historical connections of South Korean modernisation. Together, these political technologies are deployed to create an ecotourism subject who cares about the self and the environment, which differs from the prevalent South Korean positions of the disciplined worker and the practical user of nature. This thesis argues that ecotourism in South Korea serves as a new biopolitical intervention to conduct the conduct of its human participants in ways that differ from those established through accelerated modernisation. By offering one of the first social science accounts of ecotourism in South Korea, it provides novel concepts and practices for the analysis of ecotourism. These differ from the mainstream approaches that deploy a political economy framework and focus largely on examples drawn from Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
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Mulyani, Mari. "The interplay between the REDD+ mechanism and forest-related institutions in Indonesia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:23a98db8-6cc6-4e32-a82c-1e4eb069338a.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
A policy mechanism known as REDD+ (‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and enhancing forest carbon stocks and conservation’) is designed to contribute to climate change mitigation efforts and simultaneously support developing countries’ national development agendas. This is effected by providing REDD+ host countries with financial incentives to produce measurable reductions in carbon emissions beyond what would have occurred without REDD+. Indonesia is a key target of the REDD+ mechanism for several reasons, eg: (i) its forests support 10% of the world's remaining tropical rain forests and represent the fourth largest forest carbon stock globally, (ii) 80% of its GHG emissions result from deforestation and forest degradation, and (iii) it has the potential to reduce up to 120 million tons of CO2 per year. Consequently, to date Indonesia has received donor’s commitments of nearly US$2 billion for REDD+ development. Given this profile, Indonesia’s success in implementing REDD+ can contribute significantly to the efficacy of REDD+ globally. However, achieving this potential is undermined by a set of long-standing problems inherent within Indonesia’s forest institutions, including issues of corruption, coordination, uncertainty in the forests’ legal system, capacity to manage forests at multiple levels of government, and the use of forest concessions to consolidate political power. This thesis asks the primary research question: “How do REDD+ institutions effect governance reform within Indonesia’s existing national and sub-national forest institutions?” 'Institutionalism', in particular the concept of 'institutional interplay' is the main conceptual framework deployed and grounded in the context of the vertical interplay between the internationally-formulated REDD+ mechanism and Indonesia's forest institutions. Guided by the themes that emerged from the data collected, this research explored and expanded certain analytical approaches within the perspectives of institutionalism and governance, namely ‘historical institutionalism’, ‘clientelism’, 'critical juncture', ‘policy networks’ and ‘social learning’. This thesis adopted the ‘four paper route’ and employed mixed methods of data collection (ie interview, shadowing, and policy document review). It found that during the process of institutional interplay as REDD+ institutions deployed the principles of good governance, advanced a robust system of measurement, reporting and verification of reductions in carbon emission, attracted large funding, and involved a broad range and multi-scale of actors, the REDD+ mechanism produced 'collateral benefits'. The tangible form of these benefits was the production of new policy instruments, eg the 'national REDD+ strategy' (paper 2), 'one map initiative' (paper 3), and ‘village agreement’ (paper 4) through which a significant body of evidence showed the capability of REDD+ to effect governance reform within and beyond Indonesia's forestry sector. Paper 1, revealed how policy actors perceived REDD+ and as such provides the basis of these three papers. The positive results of institutional interplay that occurred were determined not only by the characteristic of REDD+ institutions themselves but also by the existence of domestic reformists and the national reform agenda.
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Turner, Kyle Benjamin. "Schools and student obesity : research into school-level environmental associations and student weight-related factors." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:283b08e5-0cc6-4dae-bdcc-61a03ad38d43.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Background: This thesis investigated the role that primary schools play in promoting healthy eating and physical activity (PA) amongst students. The socio-ecological model (SEM) to health provided the theoretical framework for understanding the different levels of influence on childhood obesity. A systematic review of the evidence was published that looked at the relationship between the school setting and rates of student overweight and obesity (O&O). Its primary aim was to examine if there was a significant association between student Body Mass Index z-scores (zBMI) and the number of school environmental actions in place to promote healthy eating and PA amongst students. Methods: As part of a larger-scale investigation into childhood obesity led by the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Childhood Obesity in Victoria, Australia, student- and school-level data were collected using objective measures of student weight outcomes and self-report behavioural questionnaires (providing individual-level data), along with the Be Active Eat Well (BAEW) school environmental questionnaire (providing school-level data). Descriptive and regression analyses were completed to investigate statistical associations between student zBMI and results from the BAEW questionnaire, including once adjusted intermediary factors and clustering. Results: From a sample of 715 Year 4 and 6 students across 34 primary schools, males reported a significantly higher prevalence of O&O than females (34.3% and 28.7%, respectively) and further analyses were split by gender. Indigenous Australian students reported significantly higher rates of zBMI than non-Indigenous Australians (p-value = 0.001), but with only a small sample size (n = 23). A range of significant associations were found between individual-level factors. Fully adjusted multivariate regression models reported a significant association between student zBMI and the amount that schools did to promote healthy eating amongst female students (p-value = 0.007). Conclusion: The number of school-level actions in place to promote healthy eating was significantly associated with student zBMI in girls. This thesis was supportive of the hypothesis that schools play an important role in the prevention of childhood O&O. It makes a unique contribution to the evidence-base in terms of the methodology behind the study of school effects on student weight outcomes. It promotes the adoption of a socio-ecological approach to childhood obesity prevention, focused across all levels of society, and provides direction for future research and policy and legislation aimed at preventing childhood obesity in Australia and elsewhere.
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Siedenburg, Jules Renaldo. "Local knowledge of agriculture/environmental symbioses : farmers and natural resource management in Shinyanga District, Tanzania." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2004. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3463d167-a46d-48b3-892a-e4d299a20d07.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
In rural districts of Sub-Saharan Africa, livelihoods typically centre around peasant agriculture and herding. While historically effective, changing resource constraints associated with rapid population growth and resource degradation have put these livelihoods under strain. Dramatic shifts over recent years in agricultural policy and the prices of agricultural inputs and outputs have not helped. Together, such changes arguably amount to a set of destabilising influences and a relative paucity of advantageous opportunities. The question is whether local people successfully adapt their land-use strategies to these changing circumstances. 'Sustainable agriculture' technologies such as agroforestry practices represent an obvious means of adaptation to change in low-potential areas, which largely lack access to purchased agricultural inputs. Yet despite the promise these technologies have shown in farm trials, their adoption by farmers has generally been hesitant and limited. This has been widely interpreted as evidence that these technologies do not respond effectively to the needs of target beneficiaries. Based on a household survey from Shinyanga District, Tanzania, the study revisits the issues of adaptation to changing circumstances and technology adoption. It highlights the possibility that some households adapt to change more effectively than others, with some adopting advantageous available technologies while others do not. Its focus is on the differing knowledge and perceptions informing decisions vis-à-vis tree management, with a view to identifying distinct knowledge types within the wider body of local knowledge. The study posits then tests a theoretical model problematising local knowledge. It finds that integrating local knowledge variables into regressions of tree management practice greatly increases their explanatory power, suggesting that these variables do not simply reflect incentives, as suggested by contemporary theory. The implication is that problematic local knowledge may critically constrain rural livelihoods in areas facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Finally, diverse associations with observed knowledge patterns are considered, suggesting promising ways to build on this work.
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Gray, Claudia Louise. "Riparian reserves in oil palm plantations : biodiversity, ecological processes and ecosystem services." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7ef877f4-717d-4785-a8bc-fb95411e78c9.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
- As the human population expands, agricultural expansion and intensification will exert an increasing pressure on remaining habitats, especially in the tropics. Oil palm is one of the most rapidly expanding crops in these regions, and identifying management strategies that conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services in these landscapes is therefore a priority. I assess whether riparian forest fragments (riparian reserves) conserve species and the functions they support within oil palm landscapes. Riparian forests are legally required for their beneficial impact on hydrological dynamics and their potential to contribute to the conservation of terrestrial species is poorly documented. I focussed on two ecologically important indicator groups (ants and dung beetles) and the ecosystem processes that they support. Whilst protecting primary forest will remain the most important strategy for biodiversity conservation, I found that riparian reserves do support species of ants and dung beetles that would not otherwise persist in oil palm landscapes. However, the extent to which riparian reserves maintained key ecological functions differed between these two taxa. The amount of nutrient distribution carried out by ants in riparian reserves was similar to logged forest areas, and higher than in oil palm. In contrast, dung removal functions did not vary between these land uses. I also investigated how the vegetation structure and landscape context of riparian reserves affects the dung beetle communities they support. Increasing reserve width and proximity to other forest fragments had a positive impact on the species richness and diversity of dung beetles in riparian reserves. There was little evidence that riparian reserves enhance the provision of dung removal or pest control services in adjacent areas of oil palm. >The results provide evidence to support the introduction and/or enforcement of legislation to protect riparian forest reserves in order to conserve biodiversity and ecological processes in oil palm landscapes.
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Mangoldt, Charlotte von. "Student environmentalism in Beijing, China." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ef524063-dda5-4cda-a73a-f0d56b95f527.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This dissertation explores student environmentalism in Beijing, China. It traces students' political norms and values, explains their activism and experience of pollution, and investigates the role of environmental non-governmental organisation (ENGOs) in forming youth environmentalism. To serve these objectives, the work takes forward theories on youth activism and agency and recent debates on environmental health, environmentalism and ENGOs. This study was designed as a qualitative research project based primarily on interviews and complemented by ethnographic methods, content analysis, pictorial evidence and survey results provided by the Jane Goodall Institute China. Research findings and methodology are presented in four papers and a framing document. My work challenges labels of agency and activism as either protest and resistance or 'quiescence' and questions the influence of globalisation on activists' norms and values. I put forward 'fragmented activism' as a new concept to capture the nature of youth environmental activism in Beijing. I contribute to environmental health literature by tracing how young people develop discursive mechanisms to mitigate the fear of air pollution and argue that their response offers invaluable insights into the interplay between space and the body in polluted environments. This thesis further shows that the repertoire of student environmental associations in Beijing represents a type of 'place based environmentalism' (Smith, 2001) but argues that, whilst this may be a contradictory response to contemporary environmental issues, it is not usefully assessed against abstract and normative notions of what environmentalism should be. I also challenge scholarly assessments of ENGO action. By exploring ENGO strategies in China that rely on extant societal and governmental narratives about good citizenship and moral values - instead of radical alternatives to mainstream development models or political processes - I argue for new research paradigms guiding the study of environmental movements.
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Caldecott, Benjamin. "Stranded assets and environment-related risk." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:36137d36-8392-4ce9-8a51-709bc6495a17.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This thesis represents the first comprehensive attempt at providing conceptual and scholarly coherence to the topic of stranded assets and the environment. Over the last five years the topic has risen up the agenda and has become of significant interest to scholars and practitioners alike, as it has influenced a number of pressing issues facing investors, companies, policymakers, regulators, and civil society in relation to global environmental change. The thesis reveals how the topic developed and emerged, notably through a unique first-person account based on autoethnography and close dialogue. Four self- contained papers demonstrate the wide applicability of stranded assets, and further existing, relatively well-developed literatures (namely carbon budgets and stranded costs) and also two much less developed literatures (namely the calibration of climate policy to minimise stranded assets and policy mechanisms to quickly and efficiently strand assets). Though a significant amount has been written on stranded assets over a short period, there remain significant gaps in the literature. The thesis identifies substantial research opportunities, particularly to better connect our understanding of physical and societal environment-related risks; to improve our knowledge of perception and behaviour in relation to the creation and management of stranded assets; to expand the scope of work into new sectors and geographies; and to place stranded assets in an appropriate historical perspective. Stranded assets is, if anything, a geographical concept. The thesis makes the case for economic geography as the disciplinary home for stranded assets. The sub-discipline can both contribute to the development of stranded assets as a scholarly endeavour and itself benefit from interacting with a topic that intersects with some of the most pressing contemporary issues related to environmental sustainability.
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Scarborough, Peter D. "Environmental and behavioural determinants of geographic variation in coronary heart disease in England : an ecological study." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2009. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:271ef376-be81-440a-985b-811fa14434f0.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Coronary heart disease rates show substantial geographic variation in England, which could be due to environmental variables (e.g. climate, air quality) or behavioural risk factors for coronary heart disease within populations. Previous work investigating this geographic variation has either used ecological analysis (i.e. areas as units of observation) or individual-level analysis. Ecological studies have been unable to account adequately for differences in behavioural risk factors within populations; individual-level studies have been under-powered at the area-level to include all potentially explanatory environmental variables. This thesis reports on ecological multi-level and spatial error regression analyses of coronary heart disease mortality and hospitalisation rates for all wards in England using environmental variables and synthetic estimates of the prevalence of behavioural risk factors as explanatory variables. Existing sets of synthetic estimates were subjected to studies of their validity. Validated synthetic estimates of the prevalence of smoking, low fruit and vegetable consumption, raised blood pressure, obesity and raised cholesterol were combined into a single index of unhealthy lifestyle to take account of collinearity between them. Final models successfully explained around 80% of large scale geographic variation (i.e. variation between wards in different areas of the country) in mortality rates for coronary heart disease and 60% in hospitalisation rates, and around 20% of the small scale geographic variation (i.e. variation between wards in close proximity) in mortality rates, and 30% in hospitalisation rates. The climate explained around 15% of large scale geographic variation in coronary heart disease rates after adjustment for the index of unhealthy lifestyle and socioeconomic deprivation. Urbanicity and air pollution explained a small amount of small scale geographic variation in coronary heart disease rates. The majority of explained geographic variation was due to the index of unhealthy lifestyle and deprivation. The results of this thesis confirm and extend findings from the British Regional Heart Study, report on the validity of synthetic estimates currently used to guide healthcare resource allocation, and introduce an index of unhealthy lifestyle that could be used in future ecological studies of chronic disease.