Neotropical cichlid fishes are highly diverse and occupy diverse environments. Visual pigment evolution has been important in the diversification of African rift lake cichlids, but little is known of Neotropical cichlid visual systems. This thesis addresses the molecular evolution of rhodopsin in the Geophagini tribe of Neotropical cichlids. We use likelihood-based codon models of molecular evolution and newly isolated sequences for Neotropical cichlid rhodopsin to compare patterns of selective constraint among Neotropical, African rift lake, and African riverine cichlid rhodopsin. We provide evidence for differences in selective constraint among clades, with positive selection occurring in the Neotropical and African rift lake clades. Further, we find variation in selective constraint within geophagine cichlids. Our results suggest that Clade model C may be more appropriate than branch-site models for investigating variation in selective constraint among clades. Neotropical cichlids are emerging as an excellent system for investigating molecular evolution in visual pigments.

The purpose of this study is to investigate online customer-perceived value in relation to the online purchase of tourism products in Taiwan. The concept of value has been discussed in different fields for a long time. This study synthesises findings from these areas in order to identify the key antecedents and consequences which influence customer-perceived value in a B2C e-commerce setting. The customer-perceived value model which is developed broadens the value literature by integrating a range of key variables (i.e. price, quality, sacrifice and satisfaction) into a single theoretical framework. A systematic process of model development is followed to ensure a robust foundation for assembling the measure. A mixed-method research approach has been employed in order to gather in-depth data from a wide area, thereby enhancing the reliability and validity of the analysis. 40 company respondents from 18 companies and 45 consumers were interviewed in the exploratory phase, which enabled the components of the customer-perceived values to be considered. By co-operating with Taiwanese travel agents 914 usable consumer questionnaires were collected in the main survey. The model was tested in a retail setting using a sample of real consumers who were in the process of searching for a tourism product. The findings suggest that Taiwanese consumers, place greater importance on the sacrifice associated with purchasing tourism products than they do on the price, quality and satisfaction elements. The proposed customer-perceived value model explains greater variance in the value construct than other models from the literature, indicating strong analytical support for the framework.

Convention Theory sees government, market, community and general public work with each other by coordination. Over time, this coordination yields faith and trust, i.e. public good for all. This research employs Convention Theory as an aid to understanding the public disputes brought by two new urban renewal policies in Hong Kong before and after the 1997 handover. It compares two major cases representing the two new policies. Through an examination of the processes of these social disputes and each patty's justifications in the different, case studies, this thesis explores the differentiation between them in terms of people's and specific communities' expectation, faith and trust in public policies under the British administration and the new Hong Kong SAR administration. It brings in historical and political contexts to illustrate how and why people frame a new public policy with established social conventions so as to judge its impacts on self, community and public interests. A new public policy that becomes a cause for public dispute inevitably jeopardises this coordination. A change in suzerainty, then, sharply exposes work of this underlying coordination and its jeopardy. This explains the very different evaluations and actions by groups facing the same policy concurrently. Further, the thesis attempts to ascertain the reasons for such difference. Time plays a crucial role in this framework, one that supplements the critical ambit of Convention Theory. The time frame for the two case studies (1988-2008) allows for a comprehensive and continuous comparison of co-ordination, confidence and tmst between communities, society and government before and after Hong Kong's suzerainty changed from Britain to China in 1997. By contextualising two cases; the first evolving over the years 1988-2004 and the second, 2002-2008, this thesis assesses the impact of this change, both in terms of the evolution of governmental and administrative bodies and their affect on perceptions of justice, faith and trust, and on people's perceptions of how this change affected both their own self-interest as well as the interest of Hong Kong per se. Hence this study applies Convention Theory and extends it through its analysis of the role and impact of contextual socio-political change during this time. The in-depth comparative analysis reveals how the pursuit of collective private interests at the community level later evolves into a pursuit for democracy, which links the community to a wider public-whose support it both solicits and wins-as a counterweight to widespread morally and politically iniquitous, unjust and indefensible outcomes. Thus, the evidence furthers Convention Theory's dynamic view of a community's collective cognition and critical capacity that transmutes from the private and familiar to incorporate the public in the transformation from a private dispute made public. This thesis argues that the social values

This thesis describes the social organisation of Kurdish refugee communities and is a contribution to the theoretical discussion of the concept of diaspora. Field research methods were used in this comparative sociological study among Kurdish refugees from Turkey, Iraq and Iran, who live in exile in Finland and England. The writer uses rich ethnographic material to describe the social organisation of the Kurdish refugee communities. The thesis introduces new arguments about, and suggests a rethinking of, the process of integration among refugees. In many different ways refugees living in exile have a continuous relation to their societies of origin. The thesis describes various transnational social relations and networks among the Kurdish refugees. It is argued that the Kurds in exile can be regarded as a diaspora. The concept of diaspora highlights the refugees' continuous relation to their countries of origin. However, the transnational social networks and associations can also be important resources for the refugees in their new country of settlement. There is also reason to remember the importance of social structures and exclusionary policies in the country of settlement. The comparison of the two different countries of settlement shows that these structures and policies have a great impact on how the refugees will be integrated into the receiving society. It is argued that a study of refugee communities needs to take into account refugees' relations to both the society of origin and the society of settlement. The writer emphasises that a diaspora can be understood as a transnational social organisation relating both to the country of origin and the country of settlement. Thus, it is argued that the concept of diaspora is a useful analytical tool for an understanding of the transnational social reality in which refugees live.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the way in which sexualities and identities are involved in the creation of patriarchal relations, ethnic hierarchies and colonial power in the context of "Comfort Women". The women were considered sexual slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II. I attempt to show the It) ways in which masculinity, femininity, and national identity were re/constructed through the enforcement of the subject-positionings of gender, colonialism and nationalism. The questions I raise and attempt to answer are: What kinds of masculinity and femininity of the Japanese soldiers and Korean "Comfort Women" respectively, and the national identities of both, were re/constructed through the comfort station system? How were the positionings of the "Comfort Women" enacted through daily practices and ideology, and what were the consequences of the re/construction of their identity? Finally, how did the "Comfort Women" position themselves in the face of the imposition of gender and national identities, by Japanese colonial and Korean nationalist power? I use personal narratives, including testimonies and life histories of the former Korean "Comfort Women" and Japanese veterans obtained from my interviews with them as well as from testimonies already released. I interviewed thirteen former Korean "Comfort Women" and seventeen Japanese veterans. Thirteen out of the veterans were 'rehabilitated' in China after World War El, the remaining four were not. I also occasionally use official documents on the comfort station system, which were issued by the Japanese military and the Western Allies. I argue that the development of gender and national identities contributed to the construction of Japanese colonialism, and that the "Comfort Women" system helped to produce and reproduce Japan as an imperial state with power over the lives and human resources of the colonies. In particular, the maintenance of the military system depended on the circulation of these concepts of masculinity and femininity. The regulation of masculine and feminine sexuality and national identities through the military comfort station system was a crucial means through which Japan expanded its colonies by military means.

This study critically examines the position of women in post-colonial societies across the Arab region and the structuring of female experience and gender by patriarchy, class, literacy, religion and historical conditions such as colonization, neo-imperialism and the rise of capitalism. The male writing of the female body and the perception of the latter as a field of power within the Arabo-Muslim culture constitutes the framework of the thesis. This critical approach also informs the growing feminist scholarship on the subject of the so-called Arab woman in the area under study. The notion of the feminine delivered by male dogmatic discourses, whether old or new, traditional or modern, orthodox or profane, is briefly presented in the first part of the dissertation while the deconstruction of such a referential setting by feminist academic work is undertaken in Part two as an attempt to integrate notions of womanhood, sexuality, identity, culture, religious belief, statehood, and material factors into a discursive order. Sexual difference becomes problematized within the critical assessment of the fictional voices developed by women, their exploration of concepts of sexual behaviour and their analysis of how gender ideology permeates the modernist endeavours of the post-colonial state in its efforts at development. A significant predicament is highlighted by the thesis: the cultural discourse on women, enduringly linked to their functions within the private realm, copulation and reproduction, as indicated by both the fictional and the scholarly literature, clashes with the developmentalist endeavours which require active roles within the public sphere. The conflict and indeterminacies generated by such a discrepancy are projected as an essential framework for understanding the construction of women as the 'subordinate sex' at various levels. It is also read as a fundamental dilemma that post-colonial societies across the Mediterranean have yet to address in order to resolve, at least partly, their present socio-economic crisis. The notion of woman is further essentialized within concepts of difference drawn by other dominant discourses examined in Part three. Perspectives of neo-colonialism emanating from the post-industrial First World become a framework in which to insert the work of feminist academics from North Africa and the Middle East as well as definitions of women, whether in the world at large or in more academic terms. The furthest concern of the debate on the 'women question' is to underline however the significance of feminism to operate as a major socio-political force within the post-colonial world. The findings of this research already indicate that the various movements for female emancipation taking place in the region open up new possibilities of struggle for economic growth, equality and secular democracy.

This thesis examines the contribution of the Private Military and Security Industry (PMSI), as an element of the United States (US) total force, to the US military capability in pursuing Phase IV Operations in Iraq from 2003 until 2011. In order to do so, the study proposes a typology of five types of contribution categories which define the link between the ends demanded by the US government (strategic goals) and the use of the PMSI as a tool to help achieve them. By incorporating a model from the operations management field, the Hayes and Wheelwright's Four-Stage model, this thesis identifies the categories of Assistant, Implementer, Crucial Supporter, Driver, and Spoiler as distinct forms of engagement, constituting a framework for the assessment of the nature of the relationship between the contractors’ activities and the strategic goals they sought to help achieve. Applied to the case studies of armed private security services and base support services, this framework reveals that contractors became the Crucial Supporter of the US military efforts in Phase IV Operations in Iraq. In the aftermath of the ill-planned regime-change, followed by unforeseen operational circumstances on the ground, and constrained by the US domestic policy reservations towards prolonged nation-building efforts, the US government found both armed security contractors and base support contractors to be a critical asset of the US military strategy on the ground. Through their constructive contribution towards the size of the deployable force, the available timeframe, the objectives and the strategic goal of these operations, they became a key partner of the US military efforts in Iraq. Utilising a descriptive and exploratory approach, and relying on a range of sources, including official documents, semistructured interviews and publicly available video testimonies of US veterans from Iraq, this thesis highlights the PMSI’s strategic value in a complex expeditionary operation while providing a detailed insight in the complexity of modern warfare.

In order to bridge the knowledge gap noted between Western and Chinese approaches to analysis of China’s TV media, this thesis sets out to propose an alternative methodological framework for investigation of the emergence, development and significance of a distinctive television genre categorised as ‘political history TV drama’ (PHTD), produced in Mainland China since the 1980s. Situating the genre in its historical and political contexts of production, I make particular reference to the orchestrating role of the Chinese state, the political re-articulation of Confucian values, and the reinventing of Chinese national identity. The thesis is composed of three parts. Part one includes the literature review of both Chinese and Western genre theory, followed by a discussion of further useful constructs to put in place the theoretical scaffolding for the study. In part two, the historical review concerns the production and political contexts of Chinese TV and TV drama in general. The third part applies this methodological framework to PHTD when contextualised in its Chinese setting, analysing its definitions, conventions, generic and cultural verisimilitudes, and hybridity. The third part is the core of the research, which investigates its rise to maturity, utilising a cultural and discursive account that encompasses: textual analysis; the study of its political and historical contexts; Chinese moral ideology and linguistics. A number of examples and case studies are examined as evidence for my perspective on questions of nationalism and Confucianism embedded in PHTD. The significance of this genre is in its reconstructed portrayal of the revived concept of a ‘patriarchal Confucian society’. Therefore, the thesis sets out the political, social and cultural landscape in which the genre is embedded in recognition of its representation of much more than just repackaged traditional narratives. In turn, this investigation helps to achieve a fuller understanding of the relation between political and intellectual forces, and the key role of nationalism combined with Confucianism in the media strategy of the Chinese authorities up until the first ten years of the 21st century.

‘Security’ has been undergoing a process of re-conceptualisation since the Cold War. Realism’s dominance meant that security concerned the survival of the nation-state in the face of military aggression. This clear-cut ‘traditional security’ has been contested since the 1970s, when ‘non-traditional security’ (NTS) covering non-military threats began to be discussed. Security Studies now encompasses varying approaches and interpretations. The concept of security is evolving substantially, but the debate is mostly limited to Western voices. Yet NTS has sparked a lively discourse in the PRC. The thesis establishes Chinese International Relations (IR) scholars’ understanding of NTS, based on the close textual analysis of academic publications and on interviews conducted with authors and other IR-specialists in China. It enquires into what these scholars mean when discussing NTS, and whether their conceptions differ from the mainstream, mainly Western, IR discourse. It then investigates the ten issues generally deemed NTS in the Chinese debate: culture and information security; terrorism and transnational crime; economic security and migration; energy and environmental security; and health and food security, analysing their conceptualisations, assigned importance, causes for variance within the debate, emerging political meanings and implications, and possible normative implications. The study shows that the scholarly NTS debate in China is diverse, ranging from a more statist expansion of national security to non-military threats to a theoretically deeper discourse which embraces individual security. Although the debate encompasses political purposes of vindicating state securitisation and advocating state management, some scholars’ arguments have normative implications of moving towards a people-centric view of security encouraging a change in global politics. The debate in China is still in flux, without universally accepted definitions, but a normative turn is evident which means that Chinese IR theory overall moves beyond descriptive theory. The study contributes to the wider research by adding to our understanding of how China ‘sees’ the world, and to the debate on NTS by critically examining the Chinese thought vis-à-vis the mainstream literature.

This thesis explores the US mediation strategies applied during the management of the Egyptian-Israeli dispute in the period of 1973-1975. More specifically, it focuses on the crucial US role in bringing Egypt and Israel towards a settlement from the 1973 October War to the brink of the Camp David settlement, realised under President Jimmy Carter. The centrepiece of the thesis is the mediation efforts during the Republican Presidencies of Richard Nixon (1969-74) and Gerald Ford (1974-77). This thesis examines how diverse contextual variables change and interact with the mediator’s methods of sequencing and packaging of the issues in conflict management. The key analysis emerges from Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s mediation, especially by looking at his ‘concession-hunting’ procedure and its accompanying ‘hard bargaining’ tactics after the 1973 October War. The analysis incorporates specific case studies of Kissinger’s mediation efforts, which led to the signature of the Sinai I and Sinai II disengagement agreements, but also resulted in the reassessment of the US foreign policy towards Israel in March 1975. In this thesis it will be seen that concession-hunting processes differed in their processes and outcomes This thesis concludes that in a protracted conflict, the concession-hunting is a method preferable for bridging the gap between the disputants, as compared to the holistic approach. If performed by a mediator with concrete ‘powers’, it extracts concessions in a gradual manner and allows for third party implementation of various methods to ‘soften up’ the hard negotiating positions of the disputants.