To meet ambitious net-zero greenhouse gas emission targets by 2050, large-scale CO₂ reduction and removal are required. Nature-based solutions have been proposed as a potential aid to this process. Mangrove ecosystems, as well as their conservation and restoration, have the potential to make significant contributions in Saudi Arabia and other coastal regions. While field measurements of carbon assimilation rate and leaf area index (LAI) in mangroves provide important insights into carbon fluxes, they are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and limited when covering large areas. To address this issue, multispectral images captured by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are used to generate spectral vegetation indices, which can then be used to build regression models for estimating mangrove LAI and carbon capture capabilities. The carbon assimilation rate measurements in the field for studying both diurnal and sub-seasonal fluxes revealed that Avicennia marina has a high carbon assimilation rate peak in the morning, which decreases thereafter, and a smaller peak in the afternoon. Furthermore, comparing all the studied sites, the KAM site (June) had the highest morning overall carbon assimilation rate values, ranging from 15- 20 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹, followed by Island (October) ranging from 10- 17 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹, and finally Rheem (February) ranging from 5- 15 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹. Moreover, the acquired multispectral images were used to generate spectral vegetation indices, which were then used as input to build a random forest algorithm for estimating the LAI of mangroves. Following an evaluation of each mangrove site, the Rheem site dataset yielded the best Random forest algorithm (R²= 0.88 and RMSE= 0.39), so this model was used to create high resolution spatially distributed LAI-based maps for all of the mangrove sites studied. Knowing the carbon uptake per leaf area as well as the total leaf area (based on UAV-derived LAI estimates) within a mangrove site enabled us to create carbon capture maps (kg C yr⁻¹ per pixel) for all of the sites studied. To enable a more complete carbon accounting of mangrove ecosystems, future research should explore remote sensing approaches for inferring carbon assimilation in both belowground biomass and soils.

By 2050, food consumption and agricultural water use will increase as a result of a global population that is projected to reach 9 billion people. To address this food and water security challenge, there has been increased attention towards the concept of sustainable agriculture, which has a broad aim of securing food and water resources while preserving the environment for future generations. An element of this is the use of precision agriculture, which is designed to provide the right inputs, at the right time and in the right place. In order to optimize nutrient application, water intakes, and the profitability of agricultural areas, it is necessary to improve our understating and predictability of agricultural systems at high spatio-temporal scales. The underlying goal of the research presented herein is to advance the monitoring of croplands and crop yield through high-resolution satellite data. In addressing this, we explore the utility of daily CubeSat imagery to produce the highest spatial resolution (3 m) estimates of leaf area index and crop water use ever retrieved from space, providing an enhanced capacity to provide new insights into precision agriculture. The novel insights on crop health and conditions derived from CubeSat data are combined with the predictive ability of crop models, with the aim of improving crop yield predictions. To explore the latter, a sensitivity analysis-linked Bayesian inference framework was developed, offering a tool for calibrating crop models while simultaneously quantifying the uncertainty in input parameters. The effect of integrating higher spatio-temporal resolution data in crop models was tested by developing an approach that assimilates CubeSat imagery into a crop model for early season yield prediction at the within-field scale. In addition to satellite data, the utility of even higher spatial resolution products from unmanned aerial vehicles was also examined in the last section of the thesis, where future research avenues are outlined. Here, an assessment of crop height is presented, which is linked to field biomass through the use of structure from motion techniques. These results offer further insights into small-scale field variabilities from an on-demand basis, and represent the cutting-edge of precision agricultural advances.

Hispanic American Catholics are a growing immigrant population in the United States, with Hispanic cultures and Catholicism woven together in unique ways. This situation presents a window through which can be examined the dynamic between individualism and religiosity. Four logistic regression models were estimated utilizing data from the Pew Research Center 2013 Survey of U.S. Latinos, in order to investigate the correlates of Hispanic American Catholic support for women in the Catholic priesthood. Religious individualism (self-determination) was measured in two dimensions, while cultural individualism (acculturation) was measured in one dimension. The first three regression models test three hypotheses related to religious and cultural individualism, while the fourth model factors in all of the variables used. Findings generally supported the saliency of religious individualism over against the hierarchal dogma of the Catholic Church, but not the saliency of cultural individualism. However, findings also exposed the complexities inherent in both Catholic religiosity and acculturation among Hispanic American Catholics.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate what circumstances supports inherited responsibility to afford reparations. The general arguments for and against inherited obligations are presented and discussed. Hereafter, Denmark and Australia’s forced assimilation policies are examined in order to establish their responsibilities to correct the past injustice. The general arguments are applied when scrutinizing the cases. It is visible that it remains difficult to determine a nation’s responsibilities to correct past injustices, however, once considering the continuance of communities as well as inherited benefits and desert-claims, it seems justified that nations also inherit liabilities. The thesis is argumentative and normative in nature, entailing suggestions both for and against inherited responsibility. Once nations recognize that the purpose is to correct an injustice, and not take responsibility for its occurrence, it becomes clear that nations ought to accept inherited responsibility to afford reparations.

Assimilative behavioral strategies provide continuity through maintenance of similarities, traditions, and interactions, while accommodative strategies result in social innovation through the creation of new modes and interactive patterns (J. Block, 1982; J . H. Block, 1983). It was hypothesized that females would show assimilative discourse patterns through the maintenance of conversational topics, while males would show accommodative patterns through more frequent changes in conversational topic, and that the roots of this pattern lie in family conversation. Nineteen families were videotaped at one month, four months, and four years following the birth of their second child. Results showed that gender-differentiated use of assimilation and accommodation was more true for sibling dyads than for the parent-child relationship.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第18081号 / 理博第3959号 / 新制||理||1571(附属図書館) / 30939 / 京都大学大学院理学研究科地球惑星科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 宮﨑 真一, 教授 福田 洋一, 教授 平原 和朗 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Masters in Fine Art by Research Wits School of Art (Division of Fine Art) January 2016 / The Ugandan diaspora to South Africa is a relatively small community with a short history of country of origin to adoptive country relation prior to its development. The cultural legacy of this community is comparatively dilute. Personal narratives from members of this community describe economic prospects and international aspirations as reasons for migration. These same reasons affect the potential for cultural manifestation. The pageant trope expresses the hyphenated relationship to national pride of Ugandans living in South Africa. The Miss Uganda SA pageant, a pageant developed by and catered to the Ugandan diaspora in South Africa, is a central case study in assessing the consequences of a hyphenated identity. Artists such as Benon Lutaaya and Lilian Nabulime give a visual illustration and develop a discussion about what cultural manifestation of Ugandans living in diaspora’s could potentially look like, and how it is affected by hyphenation

For several decades, the subject of immigrants and the integration of them has been a highly debated subject, both in politics and research. As the number of immigrants only seems to increase, the relevance of economic assimilation does aswell. The existing research within this field largely focuses on immigrants’ wage development while less attention is paid to their employment levels, implying that there are gaps in the literature. This thesis aims to contribute to filling the gap by examining how the role of governmental spending on labor market programs affects the employment rate amongst immigrants as a proxy for economic assimilation. This paper utilizes a panel data that observes 28 OECD member countries between the years 2004–2018. All the observations are obtained from the OECD Statistics database. The panel data is applied to a fixed effects linear Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model. While the hypothesis in this paper suggests that economic assimilation is promoted by increased LMP spending, the results indicated on the opposite; increased LMP spending seems to decrease immigrant employment rate by 2.4% and thus not promoting economic assimilation of immigrants. Though uncertain, this effect seems to weaken considering time lags.

This study examines several critical factors deemed to be important in examining why children from Mexico and Central America decide to take risks by traveling alone to unfamiliar places, such as the U.S., in such large numbers. An exploration of present day and historical backgrounds provide insight for social, political, and economic conditions that assist in shaping the landscape and outlook of Central Americans and Mexicans, particularly children on a daily basis.

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