No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

<p> The issue of southern Thailand becoming the next battleground for international <i> jihadist</i> terrorist organizations&mdash;such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or Jemaah Islamiyah&mdash;has reemerged as a prominent security concern following the defeats sustained by ISIS in the Middle East and the dispersion of its fighting force. While the prospect was hotly debated a decade ago, the majority of contemporary scholarship contends that <i> jihadism</i> will find little audience with the Malay Muslims in Thailand&rsquo;s Deep South, whose Shafi&rsquo;i population does not espouse the conservative Salafist beliefs underlying global <i>jihad</i>&mdash;a religiously-charged violent campaign against <i>infidels</i> (non-believers), <i> munafik</i> (traitorous Muslims), and bastions of state secularism and Western liberal values. It is furthermore believed that because southern Thailand&rsquo;s armed groups are fighting a nationalist struggle for independence, as opposed to fighting for more ideological reasons, they would not be amenable to <i>jihadist</i> involvement in their conflict. </p><p> Although it is true that Malay-Muslim militants in Thailand have declined offers of foreign fighters from international terrorist organizations, the cooperation between various separatist movements in Mindanao and global <i> jihadist</i> groups reveals that ethno-nationalism and ideological dissonance are insufficient causes for a rejection of <i>jihadism</i>. Rather, I argue that secessionists develop ties with <i>jihadist</i> groups when they are in need of political, financial, or military support they cannot secure from a legal entity, such as a state. This often occurs when one militant faction breaks away from its state-sponsored parent group following the signing of a peace deal it considers unappealing. Insurgent groups in Thailand have been inclined to distance themselves from <i>jihadism</i> because they have already acquired state patronage from Malaysia, and association with terrorist organizations would likely undermine that relationship. Strategic decisions to cooperate with <i>jihadist</i> organizations are thus executed according to a cost-benefit analysis and are not exclusively determined by ideological predilections.</p><p>

<p> Li Deyu (787-850) is known to history as a powerful minister, a cultivated aristocrat with a taste for the rare, a military strategist of uncommon perception, a wily participant in court factionalism, and an exile. He was all of these things. He was also a poet of singular abilities. His chosen style of poetry was the <i>fu.</i></p><p> The genre <i>fu</i> is often translated with the English "rhapsody." Specialists now prefer to romanize it simply as <i>fu</i>, for it is a complex and irreducibly Chinese form of writing. <i>Fu</i> are poems written in rhymed couplets, predominately composed of tetrasyllabic and hexasyllabic lines. They can range from four lines to hundreds of lines in length. The majority of Li Deyu's extant <i>fu</i> are between fifty and seventy lines long. In the ninth century, <i>fu</i> can be lyrical, descriptive, philosophical, historical, or any combination of these. They may contain interspersed prose sections or even whole dialogues. Often they are preceded by a prose preface which describes their circumstances of composition. They are aurally rich, as is all poetry.</p><p> In short the <i>fu</i> is a style of poetry as complex and many-faceted as the man which this dissertation investigates. This is the first specialized study of Li Deyu's <i>fu</i> in any language which treats them in depth. I show that, in addition to their artistic value, Li Deyu's <i>fu</i> poetry offers a window into the world of ninth century China that affords a different view from other genres of poetry. My examination also reveals that medieval manuscript culture may be more reliably durable than hitherto supposed.</p><p> Chapter One places Li Deyu in a biographical setting which portrays his formative experiences with his father. In the process of composing a <i> fu</i>, Li Deyu then reenacts those experiences for his young son.</p><p> Chapter Two examines the blossoming of lotuses in medieval China. The lotus, ever a divine symbol of Buddhism, has an unexpected alter-ego in <i> fu</i> poetry. Its use by medieval poets, wed to both the bloom and the gathering of the plant, is most handsomely seen in the <i>fu.</i> Li Deyu's two <i>fu</i> on different lotus flowers are intimately attached to his personal life. This chapter explores the aspect of feminine sensuality connected to the lotus.</p><p> Chapter Three, conversely, scrutinizes the masculine sensuality attached to lotus flowers in medieval China. How male poets treat this topic can only be understood with reference to the feminine typology explicated in Chapter Two.</p><p> Chapter Fur recreates Li Deyu's poetic guidebook to birds. All of the species which he describes live into modern times. They have not biologically evolved in a way which we can notice in that short span of a little more than one thousand years. Yet, if one desires to see their glory as Li Deyu perceived it, one must consult his poetry. As we watch Li Deyu watching birds, we see extinct poetic avian fauna reanimated.</p>

<p> The <i>khrueangsai pii chawaa</i> ("Thai stringed instruments with Javanese oboe") ensemble in central Thailand is a unique and highly-regarded ensemble known for its repertoire, idiosyncratic tuning, high level of technical difficulty, and exceptionable virtuosity. <i>Khrueangsai pii chawaa</i> is reserved for very special royal functions including processions and dramatic performances of royal literature. Royal authority indirectly controls the performance and transmission of the ensemble and its repertoire, which is now maintained professionally only by the Fine Arts Department of the Thai government. At present only a few musicians are capable of performing or teaching the repertoire and performance style for this ensemble. The selection of new students is competitive and politicized. The <i>khrueangsai pii chawaa </i> ensemble is rare and kept largely outside of the gaze of ordinary spectators in Thai society. Nonetheless, a few individuals in institutions outside of Bangkok have tried to build <i>khrueangsai pii chawaa</i> ensembles, challenging the limits of authority and exposing tensions within the musical community. I argue that royal authority functions to keep this musical ensemble endangered by design, so that those chosen to participate maintain a powerful control over the tradition and repertoire and thereby preserve their unique social status.</p>

<p> In Chapter 1 I estimate economic returns to communist party membership in China. To overcome the problem of underreporting income, I propose a new method to impute family income based on the Engel rule. Using data from China Household Income Project, I find that for party member families the underreported family incomes, the difference between the imputed and reported income, are 27% and 17% of the reported incomes in 1995 and 2002 respectively, and that non-party member families do not underreport household incomes, consistent with the assumption. The estimated rates of return to party membership based on the imputed income are two-and-a-half to four times of those based on the reported income and are also substantially larger than the previous estimates reported in the economics literature.</p><p> In Chapter 2 I examine the impact of the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) on the private transfer behavior of non-coresident adult children toward their elderly parents in rural China. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey and the regression discontinuity design and difference in difference method (RD-DiD), I find no evidence that pension payment from the NRPS program significantly crowds out economic support from adult children to their elderly parents. The heterogeneous effects at different income percentiles indicate that pension payment significantly increases the probability of receiving gross transfers, the net amount of transfers as well as the likelihood of positive net transfer for those elderlies with low income. The empirical findings suggest that the NRPS program is an effective tool for general poverty reduction and social protection for the targeted elderly population. </p><p> In Chapter 3 I examine how the commute time affects labor supply. The theoretical model I construct does not offer clear-cut predictions. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, I find that commute time has no effect on daily labor supply but has a negative effect on work days per week and weekly labor supply. These findings are different from those for Germany and Spain, and are potentially related to unique features of the labor supply and the labor market in China. Further, the effect of commute time on workdays per week is stronger for workers who change jobs and for high skill occupation workers who do not change jobs. The effects of commute time on labor supply do not differ between males and females.</p>

<p> This study is based on the extraction and sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA from 132 ancient human samples from central Mongolia dating to the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age (Xiongnu) and Mongol Empire periods. The data collected were compared to mtDNA gene pools from multiple published studies of ancient and modern human populations from across Eurasia with particular focus on Eurasian steppe populations. The results of these analyses support a model of human migration showing an original eastern population on the Neolithic Mongol Steppe that admixed with a western population, which had migrated onto the eastern Eurasian steppe zone during the Neolithic. This study demonstrates western Eurasian DNA on the eastern Eurasian steppe as far as the Mongol Steppe by the Late Neolithic, and reveals a significant western component in the Bronze Age population of Central Mongolia. It supports an indigenous population as the origin of the Xiongnu, confirms that the Xiongnu had a strongly admixed mtDNA gene pool, and indicates that a significant shift towards eastern mtDNA occurred between the Xiongnu Empire and Mongol Empire periods, which has continued up to the present.</p><p>

<p> Millions of Vietnamese have migrated to the United States, after having endured the traumas of war. To meet the mental health needs of populations, who encounter both socioemotional and cultural adjustment challenges, social workers have approached such individuals with a culturally relevant approach. This has been implemented through cultural matching of providers to consumers. Given that the social worker&rsquo;s role is to be an ongoing learner of clients&rsquo; experiences, the proposed program aims to improve culturally matched services by underscoring that cultural nuances exist, despite providers fitting the same ethnic profile as consumers. The purpose of the project was to develop a cultural humility training for the Vietnamese Community of Orange County, a nonprofit organization that provides comprehensive social services to the Vietnamese. The potential funding source for the project was identified as the California Wellness Foundation. Actual submission and funding were not required for the completion of this thesis.</p>

<p> The Asian summer monsoon supplies around 3 billion people with much of their yearly supply of freshwater, necessary for human consumption as well as in agriculture and industry. In many regions, particularly along the Ganges River in India and in northern China, use of freshwater far exceeds natural recharge rates. Given the high population density of these regions, a substantial fraction of Asia's population is therefore critically sensitive to interannual changes in the supply of freshwater by the monsoon, as well as potential future change under 21st century warming. This dissertation focuses on understanding the atmospheric dynamics of the leading mode of July-August Asian Monsoon rainfall variability, which links two major subsystems: the South Asian and East Asian monsoons. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>