Liu, Ye. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-149). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendix II in Chinese.

This thesis takes examples from villager’s experiences of change, how they perceive it and how they imagine their futures. The poor are often portrayed as passive recipients of change rather than agents of it and this thesis is a challenge to that. In-depth ethnography and life course analysis help us understand the meanings attached to people’s own experiences of change and illustrate that villagers are not merely ‘forgetting their feet’ (veuaa leum dteen- cows forget their feet, Thai proverb) in a teleological manner but are negotiating adverse structures to provide security and family wellbeing.<br /> An actor oriented approach is used as it highlights experiences of change and reactions to it whilst also taking into account the adverse political economy and imperfect institutional landscape. Changes that have been happening in one village in North-eastern Thailand are described and the failure of collective forms of resistance to provide adequate security is analysed. The rest of the thesis then goes on to look at change through individual and household strategies. Cohort analysis is used to explore differences in generations. An individual life course approach is then used to show how people strategise for their present and future wellbeing. Intergenerational analysis is also used to understand the bargaining between generations. Findings show the intergenerational contract is not only flexible but is also being re-worked to better fit the changes in society, not necessarily breaking down. Families are evolving and are finding new ways to keep bargains whilst also taking advantage of new identities and lifestyles. Findings show the active negotiation of the rural poor as agents of change; this change is dependent on place and the life course and sometimes entails large tradeoffs but seen in the wider context is supporting the reproduction and survival of families and rural values. <br /> I argue that perceived ideological similarities between families and the state that families should provide their own welfare without dependency is lessening pressure on the state to increase state welfare. However, there are differences between state ‘sufficiency economy’ versions of welfare and what poor families need. Pressure is building for better welfare, but it needs to be done in a way that facilitates and strengthens family provision.

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Loggerhead sea turtles nest on either the Atlantic or Gulf coast of Florida. The hatchlings from these nests migrate offshore in opposite directions. The purpose of my study was to determine if Gulf coast hatchlings use magnetic maps, as Atlantic coast hatchlings do, both to locate areas favorable for survival in the Gulf of Mexico and to orient appropriately within surface currents that could transport them into the Atlantic Ocean. To find out, I presented Gulf coast hatchlings with magnetic fields corresponding to different locations inside the Gulf, and within currents leading into (Florida Straits) and within (Gulf Stream) the western portion of the Atlantic Ocean. I conclude that Gulf coast hatchlings (i) use a high resolution magnetic map for navigation within the Gulf of Mexico, (ii) initially remain within the eastern Gulf, but later may (iii) gain entry into currents that transport them into Atlantic waters. / by Maria W. Merrill. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Chlamydia trachomatis infection targets the mucosal epithelium, where squamous and columnar epithelia can be found. Research on Chlamydia trachomatis-epithelia interaction has predominantly focused on columnar epithelia, with very little known on how Chlamydia trachomatis interacts with the squamous epithelium. The stratification and differentiation processes found in the squamous epithelium might influence chlamydial growth and infection dissemination. For this reason, 3D stratified squamous epithelial cultures were adapted to mimic the stratified squamous epithelium, and chlamydial infection was characterized. Chlamydia trachomatis infection in monolayers and 3D cultures were monitored by immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy to characterize inclusion growth and chlamydial interconversion between elementary and reticulate body. We observed that the stratified epithelium varied in susceptibility to Chlamydia trachomatis infection. The undifferentiated basal cells were susceptible to infection, while the terminally differentiated upper layers were resistant. If given access to the basal layer Chlamydia trachomatis is able to disseminate and disrupt the epithelial. This disruption have clinical relevance, such as facilitating secondary infection by other STIs. The use of a punch biopsy in 3D cultures revealed that infected samples were unable to close the wound as efficiently as the mock-infected sample. A simplified 2D wound healing assay confirmed these observations. Additionally, this correlated with a reorganization of hemidesmosomes in Chlamydia trachomatis-infected cells but, most importantly, in bystander uninfected cells within the infected sample. The lack of motility and the hemidesmosomes reorganization was shown to be dependent on myosin II contractility and the chlamydial protein CTL0480. This chlamydial protein recruits MYPT1 to the inclusion membrane, which could potentially prevent the cell from controlling the actomyosin tension. In summary, this is the first study to use a 3D stratified epithelial to determine how Chlamydia interacts with this physiologically relevant tissue. Most importantly, this work demonstrates that Chlamydia trachomatis is able to alter the organization of hemidesmosomes which has never been reported for any other bacterial pathogen.

As a result of European externalization of the politics of migration, Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries like Morocco are increasingly co-opted to deter asylum-seekers and other migrants. These latter, criminalized and labelled as ‘illegal’, are prevented from reaching a Europe whose economy nevertheless partially relies on the precarious and low-cost labour of sans-papiers. As Morocco shifts from a country of mainly emigration to also a country of ‘transit’ and immigration, thousands of Sub- Saharan migrants find themselves ‘stranded’, unable to go further, return or gain a meaningful legal status in Morocco. The research focuses on the two poor and densely populated neighbourhoods of Douar Hajja and Maadid, often called after the larger, adjacent neighbourhood Taqaddoum (‘progress’ in Arabic). Reputed to be violent and dangerous, they host a visible, (im)mobile population of irregular, sub-Saharan migrants struggling to cope with everyday life and (re)considering their uncertain migratory journeys. This research engages with recent critical debates in anthropology over ‘mobility’ and ‘illegalization’ to examine how ‘irregular’ sub-Saharan migrants cope with violent abuses and attempt to exert control over their lives in a Moroccan marginal neighbourhood. Exploring migrants’ imagination and hope, it focuses particularly on migrants’ circumscribed agency as well as emerging social relationships and political participation. Rather than adding to the profuse production of migration studies concepts, the thesis contends that migrants’ own articulations of notions such as ‘adventure’ and ‘objective’ offer an analytical tool to overcome some of the pitfalls of other concepts (e.g. transit, imagined community) which do not completely succeed in accounting for migrants’ experiences; their own ambiguities and limits are useful in uncovering some of the dilemmas faced by migrants in Morocco.

My dissertation encompasses three different topics on empirical international trade and migration. The first chapter investigates the short run effects of regional trade agreements on trade costs. It is widely accepted that the reinforcement of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) aiming at trade costs reduction among trade partners requires time. This paper investigates the effects of RTAs on trade costs over time by using unique micro-price data. We confirm that having an RTA on average lowers trade costs significantly. Furthermore, data shows significant and negative effects of RTAs on trade costs over time. Specifically, besides the initial impact on trade costs, having an RTA continuously lower trade costs every year after the commencement of the RTA. The second chapter decomposes the overall effects of gravity variables on trade through three gravity channels: duties/tariffs (DC), transportation-costs (TC), and dyadic-preferences (PC). Compared to the existing literature, additional channel of PC is introduced and shown to dominate the other two channels, with adjacency contributing about 45 percent, distance about 32 percent, colony about 14 percent, free trade agreements about 7 percent, and language about 2 percent. The results imply that gravity variables mainly capture the effects of demand shifters rather than supply shifters (as implied by the existing literature). The third chapter utilizes an immigration inflow data set from OECD countries during the period of 1984 to 2015 to shed light on how institutional quality affects the immigration rate. With the analysis in the fixed-effects framework, we construct a set of country-time specific institutional quality indexes to examine their effects on the immigration rate. The paper shows that other than the network effects, GDP difference, and migration costs, institutional qualities in both destination and source countries matter when it comes to potential migration decisions. Specifically, better socioeconomic conditions in the destination countries, and worse foreign debt, budget balance, government stability, internal conflicts, and corruption conditions in the source countries increase the immigration inflow.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit interethnischen Freundschaften im Jugendalter. Die Studie soll der "Abkehr von einer Defizit- und Belastungsperspektive" dienen und zu einer ressourcenorientierten Betrachtung von jugendlichen Migranten beitragen. Im Zuge des Projektes "Sozialkapitaltransfer in interethnischen Beziehungen" wurden 24 Jugendliche der sechsten Jahrgangsstufe im Alter von elf bis 13 Jahren, größtenteils an Hauptschulen, zu ihrer Freundschaft mit einem andersethnischen Jugendlichen interviewt. Hierbei wird primär erarbeitet, welche inhaltlichen Austauschprozesse in interethnischen Freundschaften in der frühen Adoleszenz stattfinden. Es wird untersucht, was im Allgemeinen thematisch ausgetauscht wird und besonderes Augenmerk auf den inhaltlichen Austausch über das jeweils andere Herkunftsland gelegt. So wird geprüft, welche Priorität dem inhaltlichen Austausch über die verschiedenen Kulturen zukommt, über welche kulturellen Themenbereiche und bei welchen Gelegenheiten ein solcher Austausch stattfindet. Der kulturelle Austausch wird außerdem dahingehend betrachtet, ob sich Unterschiede hinsichtlich des Austauschs bei Mädchen- und Jungenfreundschaften bemerkbar machen. Im Hinblick auf die Auswirkungen interethnischer Freundschaften wird geprüft, ob der kulturelle Austausch die Einstellung gegenüber Angehörigen der jeweils anderen Kultur beeinflusst. Ferner wird untersucht, inwiefern ein Austausch sprachhabitueller Merkmale stattfindet. Als zusätzliche Rahmeninformation wird abschließend der Austausch sozialer Netzwerke in interethnischen Freundschaften untersucht. Ziel der Studie ist demnach herauszufinden, ob und in welchem Ausmaß in inter-ethnischen Freundschaften soziales Kapital in den genannten Bereichen vorhanden ist. Die theoretische Grundlage der vorliegenden Studie bilden der Sozialkapitalansatz nach Coleman (1991) sowie die Kommunikationstheorie nach Watzlawick (2007).

Some form of administrative review of executive action is accepted in the common law world for the reason that it serves certain basic values and goals. This study draws on political, legal and management theory in considering the values that underlie administrative review. It is primarily concerned with the role of tribunal review. A full range of values are considered, including fairness, justice, consistency, rationality, dignity, respect, accessibility, equity, efficiency and economy. Some are seen as fundamental to the administrative review system while others have different purposes. There is general agreement on many of the values and goals of administrative review. In their practical application however, values compete, overlap and evolve in accordance with economic, social, political and legal change. There are value tensions in, for instance, the role of independent tribunals as a check on the power of the executive while they are also within the executive, in the extent of the obligation on administrative tribunals to apply government policy and in the setting of proper limits of judicial review. There is continuing tension in demands for individual dignity and rights to fair treatment on the one hand and notions of the 'public interest' on the other. This thesis argues that the provision of tribunal review of administrative decisions is increasingly ideologically driven and focussed on 'functional' or 'management' values. At times these have trumped other values in decisions about entitlements to procedural fairness, access to review, effectiveness in public administration and the achievement of the 'correct and preferable' decision in the instant case. The focus of this thesis is a case study of migration decision-making. The importance of this area of study is evident in the potentially devastating consequences that migration decisions can have for individuals and families. In the context of Australia's history of inadequate and racially based migration policies, independent administrative review provides security against arbitrariness and discrimination in decision-making. An analysis of administrative review of decisions made under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) by the Migration Review Tribunal, and its predecessor the Immigration Review Tribunal, illustrates the claim that values, in their application, have real, practical and local importance. Issues of tribunal independence and accountability, the normative goal of review and procedural justice are considered in depth. It is argued that where compromises are made in administrative review, underlying values should be revealed so that their practical consequences may be better understood. The need to articulate and analyze these issues has never been greater. The Australian administrative review system is in a period of change analogous to that of the introduction of the 'new' administrative law in the 1970s. If tribunals are to continue to play an effective role then it is important to think clearly about how they can, in practice, embody the right mix of administrative law values.