This thesis applies a resilience lens to investigate conversions of farmland from conventional to organic status as transformations in social-ecological systems. Transformation is widely promoted in resilience literature yet there are relatively few empirical studies of transformation at multiple scales. This research addresses this distinct gap in understanding by analysing dimensions of transformations including the roles of key individuals, social-ecological innovation, and different capacities to manage dynamic change. Resilience concepts and ideas are embedded in action research practice to provide new directions and insights on transformation. These insights are the result of a process of research that engaged with the Tamar Valley Organics Group, UK, during the period 2012 to 2016. Reflective interviews, mental models interviews, and participatory scenario planning research activities facilitate past, present and future perspectives on transformation. The findings of these research methods are synthesised to elaborate a resilience perspective on transformation. Transformations are identified as intertwined fundamental shifts in understanding and management of agroecosystem fertility. These transformations emerge from processes of self-organisation and social learning that are shaped by distinct contributions from key individuals across temporal and spatial scales. Innovation builds capacities to manage uncertain dynamics of agroecosystem fertility. Signals of social-ecological innovation are identified but are considered more akin to processes of adaptive management. These findings act as the foundations for a more nuanced set of issues to emerge. Transformations involve complex cross-scale interplay between small and large changes. It is the way in which these cross-scale dynamics work with each other, and the ways in which different capacities change, that informs a more grounded understanding of transformations in social-ecological systems.

The present study determined how object-based alignment effects are influenced by the arrangement of the stimuli and response options. It is well established that the magnitude of these effects differ depending on the mode of responding. This finding has often been used to support claims that viewing photograph images of graspable objects can automatically trigger motor representations, regardless of the intentions of the observer. Our findings instead suggest that the distinction between response modes is primarily a difference in response discriminability. More importantly, it was found that this influence of response discriminability works in a completely opposite manner, dependent on the technique used to center the frying pan stimuli. Pixel-centered stimuli produced a handle-based alignment effect that was enhanced under conditions of high response discriminability. Object-centered stimuli produced a body-based alignment effect that was diminished under conditions of high-response discriminability. These findings provide overwhelming evidence that qualitatively different principles govern the alignment effect found with pixel-centered and object-centered stimuli. Crucially, these finding also provide strong evidence against the notion that motor representations are triggered by images of graspable objects in the absence of an intention to act. / Graduate

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The pronunciamiento was a political practice with its origins in early nineteenth-century Spain. It was a form of political petitioning usually undertaken by coalitions of military and civilian actors to make demands against regional and national governments and negotiate political change. The petitions were generally accompanied with the threat of the use of military force should the demands not be met. As such, pronunciamientos have been defined by Will Fowler as “forceful negotiations.” The pronunciamiento developed as a political practice in a context of institutional disarray and contested legitimacy as a response to the constitutional crisis in Spain (1812-1820), and it became a particularly popular political tool in early independent Mexico (1821-1876) in a context in which successive governments experimented with new political systems. The fact that the institutions these governments created needed to acquire a political legitimacy that was stable enough to replace that of the Ancien Regime would prove problematic. It would be this context of uncertain legitimacies that would allow the pronunciamiento to develop a legitimacy of its own. It was an extra-constitutional, subversive form of political participation. It was used as a last resort by political actors who believed that, in the particular circumstance of having constitutional routes closed to them or of the government having broken the social pact, they had a right to insurrection to protect the people from the abuses of unjust or tyrannical government. As it developed in early independent Mexico, the pronuciamiento became one of the most used practices for effecting political change. Pronunciamientos were used at one time or another by political actors of all social classes and political persuasions. They preceded most of the major political changes of the period on both a regional and national scale, be they changes in government, the introduction of new laws or a change of political system. Pronunciamientos have often been referred to in the historiography of early independent Mexico as military revolts or coups. The pronunciamiento has thus been seen as a cause of instability and evidence of praetorianism in the political life of nineteenth-century Spain and independent Mexico. However, recent and current research on the subject, including the project at the University of St Andrews “The Pronunciamiento in Independent Mexico 1821 – 1876” of which this PhD is a part, has resulted in a revision of this narrow view of pronunciamientos as revolts and coups. The project and its affiliated researchers have developed a picture of the pronunciamiento as a political practice which was much more intimately involved with the newly developing constitutional institutions than previously thought. This PhD is a contribution to that revision which uses regional history to analyse the nature and evolution of the pronunciamiento. It is a study of the dynamics of and political actors involved in pronunciamientos in the state of Jalisco in western Mexico between 1821 and 1852. Jalisco in the early national period was a geopolitically important state and a popular place from which to launch pronunciamientos. Many political actors from within and without the state chose to launch pronunciamientos from Jalisco some of which had a significant impact on regional and national politics. To date there has been no thoroughgoing study of the phenomenon of the pronunciamiento as it developed in Jalisco. This analysis of the pronunciamientos which took place in Jalisco shows that pronunciamientos were used by all political actors to effect political change and had a very real effect on the lives of those directly involved as well as those of the general public who witnessed pronunciamientos on the streets of their towns and cities. It shows how pronunciamientos became closely interconnected with the newly developing constitutional institutions and how, while most pronunciamientos were recognized by all political actors as potential bearers of instability, the pronunciamiento was also considered to be a legitimate form of political participation given the extraordinary circumstance of a lack of recognised or legitimate government. The research demonstrates that pronunciamientos launched in Jalisco had a central part to play in the development of the new political order in the “age of democratic revolutions” and during the transition Mexico underwent from having a traditional corporate society and polity to acquiring a modern liberal one. The findings of this study provide an insight into the way in which political culture developed in Jalisco in the early national period. Alongside regional studies into the pronunciamientos launched in the San Luis Potosí and Yucatán in a similar period carried out by Kerry McDonald and Shara Ali, this research helps to develop a picture of how Mexican pronunciamientos worked at a local level allowing for more accurate generalisations to be made regarding the pronunciamiento as a practice on a national scale. The study also contributes to an understanding of how politics worked in Mexico in periods of institutional disarray, uncertain legitimacy and political transition and how insurrectionary political forms became legitimised.

Wikstrӧm’s Situational Action Theory (SAT) proposes a general theory of crime causation that addresses two sets of interactions between individuals and their situation/environment. These interactions predict whether or not individuals choose a criminal action. The current study utilized self-report data on intimate partner violence collected at a large urban university in Florida (n=1124) to test this process by examining both direct and interactive effects proposed by the theory. Specifically, this study examines the direct effects of moral propensity, temptations/provocations, self-control and perpetual deterrence on intimate partner violence as well as the various interactions among them as derived from the theory. This study is the first complete test of SAT to date.

This master's thesis deals with the civil action. A civil action denotes a pleading of the plaintiff to initiate a civil procedure. It represents a fundamental act based on the disposition principle of the party seeking protection of their private rights that they claim to be endangered or violated before a court of law. Thus, a civil action is a manifestation of the right to legal protection and in connection to that right, the obligation of the state is to ensure that all parties can enforce their rights in a stipulated way of actions before an independent and unbiased court of law. This master's thesis is divided in the following seven chapters: historical development, civil procedure, rules of civil procedures, actions, types of actions, disposition principles with complaints and the types of demanded outcomes of the plaintiffs. The contents of the first chapter are the historical development of civil actions. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part is devoted to the Roman action, where the character and form of the action in Roman law are described and further the single types of actions that the Roman law had are outlined. The second part deals with the historical development of actions in the Czech lands, i.e. from the ancient times, through the period of absolutism until today....

The aim of this diploma thesis dedicated to the issue of incidental disputes in insolvency proceeding was to determine the incidental disputes in proceedings, categorize them systematically, outline their character and set a comprehensive overview of these disputes. Within the insolvency proceedings incidental disputes are largely solved as case law, which the author of this work deals within the description of the various types of disputes. The thesis is divided into fourteen chapters, which are further divided into subsections and parts. The first two chapters are devoted to insolvency proceeding in general, especially when the character and purpose of the insolvency proceeding as well as the conceptual definition of insolvency proceeding and its consequences are outlined, because without these underlying premise would be impossible to describe the issue as a whole. Incidental disputes have undergone throughout history certain development and as an incidental are spoken only in the 90s of the 20th century. The third chapter of the thesis is dedicated to the historical development of insolvency proceedings in Czech territory and comparisons applicable regulation of insolvency proceedings with modifications beginning in the 1781 and the issue of the general bankruptcy order compared to other...

Normal cardiac function is dependent on a healthy conduction system to maintain coordinated and synchronised activity. In the presence of heart failure, dyssynchronous ventricular activation due to left bundle branch block or right ventricular pacing can result in worsening symptoms and increased mortality; cardiac resynchronisation therapy in the form of biventricular pacing has therefore become an established and effective treatment. However, it also appears that right ventricular pacing can be a cause of heart failure in some individuals, even when there is no evidence of associated pre-existing cardiac disease. A better understanding of the processes leading to dyssynchrony-induced cardiomyopathy will allow better identification and treatment of patients who are at risk, and will contribute to our knowledge about heart failure in general. This PhD adopted a translational approach to cardiac dyssynchrony, by developing a novel model of atrial-synchronous ventricular pacing in adult Welsh Mountain sheep. The right ventricle was paced from the apex continuously for 3 months at a rate that was determined by the intrinsic atrial rate; this allowed the ventricular activation pattern to be altered without changing the heart rate. In parallel, a previously-developed model of rapid ventricular pacing was studied. In this model, the heart was paced continuously at a fixed rate of 210 bpm, which led to the development of symptomatic heart failure. In vivo parameters were characterised using standard clinical techniques of electrocardiography and echocardiography. Autonomic nervous system activity was investigated by examining the heart rate responses to pharmacological blockade using atropine and propranolol, and to beta-adrenergic stimulation using dobutamine. Heart rate variability was analysed in the time and frequency domains. In vitro, patch clamping studies were performed on ventricular myocytes isolated through enzymatic digestion from the interventricular septum and left ventricular free wall. Using the perforated patch current clamp technique at 37 C, action potential duration was measured and the associated triggered calcium transient was analysed using the calcium-sensitive fluorescent indicator Fura-2AM.Heart failure was associated with in vivo evidence of autonomic dysfunction, including a 38 % increase in the resting heart rate, blunting of the heart rate response to dobutamine, and almost complete loss of vagal tonic heart rate control. This pattern was not present in dyssynchrony. At a cellular level, normal sheep had heterogeneity of action potential duration, which was longer in the septum than the free wall. Heart failure disrupted this pattern, and was also associated with approximately a 40 % reduction in the magnitude of the calcium transient in both the septum and the free wall. Dyssynchrony was associated with a similar reduction in the calcium transient, but this was isolated to the free wall. RV apical pacing therefore induced a phenotype that resembled a localised cardiomyopathy, but without the associated autonomic dysfunction of the heart failure model. However, it was possible to identify a subgroup within these subjects that displayed a pattern of autonomic changes similar to those seen in heart failure, and this appeared to be associated with the most profound cellular changes. This raises the possibility that early dyssynchrony-induced cardiomyopathy may manifest as changes in the autonomic profile, which may be detectable in clinical practice.

The purpose of the study is to increase understanding of how political decisions are implemented in public organizations. The focus of the study is on the impact of human action on organizational structures. The empirical material consists of interviews with politicians and civil servants working in the public organization. The material is analyzed primarily using Ahrne's theory of organizational centenaries. The theories of disconnection and inertia are also used in the analysis. The study's findings show that the human action is important in an implementation process. Crucial interpretations, based on human actions, are made at politicians and civil servants level. This results in people's own interests having a decisive role in the implementation process. The political structure gives the officials space to interpret political decisions, which leads to an interest-driven way of working. With sociological knowledge, it can be shown that man has a need for human interpretation because we are social beings. The present study shows that we can´t ignore the human action of organizations when the organization is made up of people.

M.A. / Statistics show an increase in the number of cases of abused and neglected children handled by the Child Protection Unit. These particular statistics indicate only the number of reported cases, which according to Lewis (1999) and Starke (1995) should be tripled to estimate the true number of children being abused every day. Action research was selected for this study to assist the parents and the children in extending their understanding of their situation and thus resolve problems that confront them. A high percentage of parents are aware that abuse and neglect exists in their relationships; they are also aware that behavioural problems may be exhibited by their children as a result of exposure to abuse and neglect. There is a growing need for counselling, guidance and support amongst the youth to be assertive, and be safe in their contexts. The psycho-education programme was based on the model of psychoeducation. Psycho-education as an alternative does not focus on sick or abnormal behaviour but rather has as its core a preventative focus-training in skills to solve problems now and in the future. During group work the children were trained to collectively experience, explore and communicate their feelings, and to learn alternative ways of dealing with abuse and neglect in their different contexts. The programme's effectiveness was evaluated. All the children acquired prevention concepts after the exposure to the programme. Fifty six percent of the parents observed some improvement in their children's behaviour, and eighty percent of the children reported that they were still afraid to talk to their parents about issues of discipline, for example corporal punishment.