In the past, human rights have often been studied as philosophical or legal concepts. In this thesis, Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis is adopted to examine them as social practices, specifically focusing on the human right to food. This is done through a discursive analysis of a corpus of documents drawn from FIAN International, a human rights organization advocating for the human right to food, and La Via Campesina, an international peasant organization which also aims to realize the right to food but is not itself a human rights organization. Findings highlight how each of the organizations define the right to food, and show that these differences are tied to the structure of the organizations themselves. This suggests that human rights organizations such as FIAN are more constrained by their need to balance legitimacy and programmatic visions than are other types of organizations in the struggle for meaningful social change.

In the past, human rights have often been studied as philosophical or legal concepts. In this thesis, Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis is adopted to examine them as social practices, specifically focusing on the human right to food. This is done through a discursive analysis of a corpus of documents drawn from FIAN International, a human rights organization advocating for the human right to food, and La Via Campesina, an international peasant organization which also aims to realize the right to food but is not itself a human rights organization. Findings highlight how each of the organizations define the right to food, and show that these differences are tied to the structure of the organizations themselves. This suggests that human rights organizations such as FIAN are more constrained by their need to balance legitimacy and programmatic visions than are other types of organizations in the struggle for meaningful social change.

Seagrass habitats in South Florida are exceptionally valuable. They play an important ecological role in the coastal environment by stabilizing sediment, providing habitat for other species and supporting a whole food web. The availability of light and nutrients in aquatic ecosystems are the driving factors behind seagrass distribution. Water quality has been known to influence the abundance, distribution and composition of seagrass beds. South Florida has extensive diverse coastal communities. Throughout its human development dramatic changes have occurred in its natural ecosystems. In South Florida, many examples of seagrass habitat loss are documented, with a variety of contributing factors. The present research investigates the spatial and temporal patterns in benthic vegetation of the North Biscayne Bay marine basin, located just south of the heavily urbanized Port of Miami. The area has been altered significantly through dredging projects to widen and deepen the channels around the port facilities in order to accommodate larger vessels. This study focuses primarily on environmental and physical conditions that are likely to alter the distribution of seagrass. The availability of light and nutrients in aquatic ecosystems are the driving factors behind seagrass distribution and therefore one may expect seagrass degradation if any drastic changes occurred in these parameters. Project data used were collected from the South Florida Fish and Invertebrate Assessment Network project (FIAN), an element of the greater Everglades Restoration Program. Additional Environmental and physical data were obtained from the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The FIAN Port of Miami (POM) study location is dominated by three species of seagrass: Thalassia testudinum, Syringodium filiforme, and Halodule wrightii. Analysis has shown that over the seven-year period, 2005 - 2011 the state of the seagrass has been fairly stable with minor perturbances (p > 0.05). There are some seasonal fluctuations evident in seagrass cover-densities, but minimal change was observed between the spring and fall (p > 0.05). Syringodium is the dominant species, followed by Thalassia and Halodule within the POM. Environmental and physical conditions from FIAN (salinity, temperature, sediment depth, turbidity, etc.) varied between years and seasons; however, most measurements remained in the ideal range for seagrass growth. Water depth, sediment depth, and turbidity were significant predictors of seagrass occurrence in the POM; however, water depth was the only major predictor of seagrass cover-density. The available environmental and physical data from the SFWMD showed minimal changes in the environmental and physical measurements across available sample years and are in the ideal range for seagrass. Turbidity has improved since the completion of the port construction and major weather disturbances (hurricanes) in 2005. Minimal changes were detected during the seven year study period (2005-2011) within the seagrass habitat of the heavily urbanized region of POM.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:33:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 426530.pdf: 142953 bytes, checksum: 73cadc1017d33321e5b100c7b1745af5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-27 / O presente trabalho tem por finalidade analisar o contrato de fian?a prestada de forma adjeta ao contrato de loca??o, bem como os efeitos emergentes para o fiador. O objetivo primordial ? verificar se a penhora do ?nico im?vel residencial do fiador, que serve para a sua moradia e de sua fam?lia, visando satisfazer interesse exclusivamente patrimonial do credor, na hip?tese de o devedor principal o locat?rio n?o adimplir com a obriga??o pactuada, encontra suped?neo jur?dico no nosso sistema jur?dico. Para isso, faz-se um estudo sobre o contrato de fian?a sob a perspectiva do bem de fam?lia legal, que foi institu?do no nosso ordenamento jur?dico, por meio da Lei n? 8.009/90. Tamb?m, estuda-se o contrato de fian?a na ?tica dos direitos fundamentais e, tamb?m, sob o fen?meno da constitucionaliza??o do direito civil. O aprofundamento te?rico do estudo teve como t?cnica a pesquisa bibliogr?fica, consistindo na an?lise de legisla??o, doutrinas, jurisprud?ncias e artigos jur?dicos, utilizando-se do m?todo indutivo para formalizar o trabalho. Este estudo propiciou, de forma sucinta, estender os conhecimentos da mat?ria abordada, refutando a possibilidade, prima facie, de constri??o judicial sobre o ?nico im?vel do fiador que serve para a sua moradia e de sua fam?lia, sobretudo frente aos princ?pios veiculados nas disposi??es legais dos artigos 1?, III, e 6?, ambos da Constitui??o Federal.