No description available.

No description available.

Ce travail de thèse consiste à utiliser les données satellitaires de SST (température de surface), SSS (salinité de surface), et Chl-a (chlorophylle-a), pour l’interpolation de la fugacité du CO2 (fCO2) dans la couche de surface de l’océan Atlantique tropical, pour les saisons de la période 2002-2013. Trois types de données ont été utilisés : in situ (BD (base de données) SOCAT V.3) ; satellitaires (capteurs : MODIS-A, Sea-WIFS, et SMOS) ; et assimilées (BD SODA V.2.2.4). La première étape était la classification des données en se basant sur la SST. La deuxième étape était l’interpolation de la fCO2 (pour chaque classe de chaque saison), en utilisant des RNs (réseaux de neurones artificiels) de type feedforward, avec un apprentissage de type backpropagation. Les résultats obtenus (RMSEs (root mean square error) variant de 8,8 à 15,7 µatm) permettent de confirmer l’importance de : traiter les saisons séparément, classifier les données, et choisir le meilleur RN en fonction des résultats de la généralisation. Ceci a permis l’élaboration de 138 fichiers CSV (Comma-separated values) de fCO2 mensuelle, avec une résolution de 4 km x 4 km, pour la période allant de juillet 2002 à décembre 2013. / This thesis work consists of using satellite data of SST (sea surface temperature), SSS (sea surface salinity), and Chl-a (chlorophyll-a), in order to interpolate the CO2 fugacity (fCO2) in the surface of the tropical Atlantic ocean, for seasons of the period 2002-2013. Three data types were used: in situ (SOCAT V.3 DB (database)); satellite (MODIS-A, Sea-WIFS, and SMOS sensors); and assimilated (SODA V.2.2.4 DB). The first step was the data classification based on SST. The second step was the fCO2 interpolation (for each class of each season), using feedforward NNs (artificial neural networks) with a backpropagation learning method. Obtained results (RMSEs (root mean square error) between 8,8 and 15,7 µatm) confirm the importance of: process each season separately, pass through data classification step, and choose the best NN on the basis of generalization step results. This allowed the development of 138 monthly fCO2 CSV (Comma-separated values) file, with 4 km x 4 km spatial resolution, for the period from July 2002 to December 2013.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

My dissertation interrogates Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s representation of African women in her literary oeuvre. I argue that her female characters bear witness to intersecting oppressions of African women portraying them as being extremely marginalized at home and lacking achievable alternate homes. This study also interrogates Adichie’s feminist philosophy and posits that she typically agitates for equality for all regardless of sex, gender, race, and/or other defining identities. Lastly, I argue that Adichie uses the practice of the African novel to rewrite the character of African women in African literature where her uniqueness hinges on her interrogation of the place of Africans in contemporary world culture, in turn, uses the novel to critique society’s hierarchies of privilege and oppression and of stereotypical representation of Africa and Africans in the world arena.

Noon is a West-Atlantic language of the Cangin subgroup, spoken by 25 000 people in central Senegal, in and around the town of Thies. The aim of this study is to provide a full grammatical description of Noon, since no such study has been done on the language. We have not followed a specific linguistic model as framework, but rather tried to work from the classical approach of presenting the structures in the grammatical units of the language, from morphology to discourse, All analysis is presented with language examples from data collected in the Thies area over the years 1994-1998. The study is divided into 11 chapters, followed by a short interlinearised text sample with a free translation. The first chapter presents a brief overview of the phonology and the morphophonological processes that take place in affixation. Another important feature described in this section is the restricted regressive vowel harmony process, based on the ATR feature. In chapters 2-3, the nominal system is described, including the noun class system of 6 basic classes with which most nominals are in agreement. There is also a threefold locative distinction present in determined nominals. This locative distinction is further elaborated in the demonstratives. Chapter 4 treats prepositions and adverbs. In chapters 5-6, verbal morphology and the verb phrase are presented, A major feature of the Noon verb is the derivational affixation which, apart from carrying aspectual information, also has bearing on the valency of the verb. The conjugational system is based on affixation, but also on the use of auxiliaries and particles. Chapter 7 deals with conjunctions, particles and interjections, and chapter 8 treats clause structures: independent ones, both verbal and non-verbal, but also dependent clauses. In chapter 9, different simple sentence types are described, followed by the complex sentences, including serial and reduplicative types. Chapter 10 depicts some important features that occur on the discourse level such as the wider use of spatial deixis in temporal and textual references. Finally, in chapter 11 is presented a comparative view of some of the major dialect differences in Noon.

Em resposta à crescente perda de biodiversidade, diversos países adotam políticas de compensação que buscam equilibrar a destruição do habitat local restaurando, aprimorando e / ou protegendo áreas. Tais mecanismos são cada vez mais importantes no setor de mineração, onde a perda de habitat pode ser inevitável devido à rigidez locacional dos recursos minerais e com a coincidência com as áreas de importância da biodiversidade. Buscando contribuir para o avanço da compreensão da prática atual de compensação por perda de biodiversidade, investigamos as práticas adotadas em três minerações de calcário, em conformidade com a Lei da Mata Atlântica, lei federal que visa proteger este hotspot. Foram adotados os mecanismos de proteção e restauração em razões de área de 1: 1 a 1: 5. As principais dificuldades relatadas pelos atores chave foi encontrar áreas adequadas, métodos para calcular perdas residuais e incertezas sobre o sucesso da restauração. As melhores práticas recomendadas internacionalmente são parcialmente seguidas, com maior aderência observada para o caso cuja avaliação de impacto ambiental foi mais detalhada e forneceu uma base mais forte para planejar a compensação. Os resultados sugerem que a qualidade do planejamento e implementação de compensações está diretamente relacionada à qualidade da avaliação de impacto ambiental e, portanto, do licenciamento ambiental. / In response to the increasing loss of biodiversity, several countries have adopted offsetting policies that seek to balance local habitat destruction by restoring, enhancing and/or protecting equivalent values offsite. Such mechanisms are increasingly important in quarrying, where habitat loss may be unavoidable due to colocation of mineral resources and areas of biodiversity importance. Seeking to contribute to advance understanding of the current practice of biodiversity offsetting, we investigated actions required for environmental approval of three limestone quarries in compliance with Brazil\'s Atlantic Forest Act, a federal law that aims at protecting this biodiversity hotspot. Both protection and restoration offsets were applied at area ratios from 1:1.1 to 1:5. The main difficulties reported by practitioners are to find suitable areas, methods to calculate residual losses and uncertainties about the success of restoration. Internationally recommended best practices are partially followed with the highest adherence observed for the case whose environmental impact statement was more detailed and provided a stronger basis for designing the offset. Results suggest that the quality of offset planning and implementation is directly related to the quality of the environmental impact assessment.

No description available.

Many rivers are affected by man-induced regulations of stream-flow. The effects of these on the instream biota have been studied widely and it is generally accepted that assessment tools for the management of regulated rivers are of vital importance. In particular predictive instream habitat models like the Physical Habitat Simulation Model (PHABSIM) have become popular for this purpose with users world-wide. These models predict discharge-related changes in instream habitat availability for target species by modelling the hydraulic geometry of the river reach on the one and the microhabitat preferences of the species on the other side. Despite their popularity, validation studies for this approach have met many difficulties which are mostly related to the biological part of the model, the habitat preference curves. A review of these studies undertaken here reveals that very little information has been published on two main assumptions of the models: 1. The habitat preference of a species is independent of stream discharge 2. The habitat preference of a species is independent of the species population density Most validation studies are undertaken in field situations. As such they frequently have had problems relating to sampling the microhabitat use consistently, a lack of experimental control and variations in other secondary variables. It was thus decided to conduct controlled experiments in a large indoor flume. Young-of-year Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) caught in a nearby stream were stocked into pool-riffle sequences, landscaped within a natural substrate, in observation areas of 3.6 metres length and 1 metre width. Microhabitat use of fish was recorded at three different discharges within a 15-fold discharge variation. It was found that the mean column velocity preference of the juvenile salmon, calculated by the standard method, varied largely, mainly due to a shift of preference for low water velocities. "Weighted usable area" (WUA) calculations, the final output of instream habitat models, varied up to two-fold due to these differences in preference. Habitat preference also varied with population density. Fish preferred the riffle habitat at low population density and the pool habitat during high population density. Fish used higher mean column velocities during low population density. There are hence fundamental problems related to the approach of using density functions as preference indices as is commonly done for building habitat preference curves, because of a bias for habitat availability. A new approach using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is taken by comparing the microhabitat conditions fish experience at their chosen positions with the conditions fish would have experienced had they maintained the positions used at the other discharges. It was found that fish adjusted their positions towards significantly different microhabitats between low flow positions and the positions at the other two flows. This research demonstrates how microhabitat use and preference of wild-caught juvenile salmon varied with discharge and population density in a large near-natural flume. The error introduced by these variations to instream habitat model predictions was large. It confirms that habitat preference curves built as density functions on empirical fish observation data are bound to misrepresent the overall habitat requirements of a species life stage which in the case of juvenile salmon appeared wide and flexible over the range of discharge.

The swimbladder of Atlantic and Pacific herring has a pneumatic duct arising from the stomach caecum and a direct posterior opening to the exterior. The thesis is advanced that these peculiarities are associated with differences in function which may be related to the life of the herring. Herring obtain swimbladder gas by swallowing air at the surface but not by secretion or bacterial gas generation over one week. Gas release from the swimbladder through the posterior duct occurs in response to pressure reduction, sympathomimetic drugs and atropine and is inhibited by spinal section or brain removal suggesting a gas release mechanism involving the central nervous system. Gas loss through the pneumatic duct is prevented by the swimbladder valve which opens in response to adrenalin. The swimbladder responds to adrenalin by moving its contained gas anteriorly and to pilocarpine by increasing internal gas pressure. The pneumatic duct, normally fluid filled, controls the applied pressure at which gas flow in either direction starts and finishes. This duct mechanically prevents the entry of particulate matter from the stomach and is able to remove air bubbles leaving a mean net force of 3.2 dynes/ml downwards to be compensated for by movements of the fish. As the herring swimbladder functions as a hydrostatic organ the low skeletal body content and high fat content results in a low swimbladder volume, so reducing the change in density with depth, an advantage to a fish undergoing diurnal vertical migrations. It was calculated that herring of Passamaquoddy Bay, N.B. can descend to their median daytime depth of 10 metres in August and 35 metres in February for sinking factors of 1016 and 1018 respectively. Predation may be reduced by the ability of herring to complete air uptake rapidly, to move upward without restriction by expelling any excess gas through the posterior duct and to liberate gas in times of stress in response to adrenaline so increasing body density and permitting rapid downward movement. Thus in many ways the herring because of its anatomical modifications has been able to adapt the physostome condition successfully to its marine environment. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate