This thesis aims to explore the Transdniestr conflict in Moldova by examining the involvements of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Russian Federation in their attempts at finding a working solution to this conflict. The thesis focuses on the reasons for the emergence of the Transdniestr conflict, the initiatives for the settlement of this conflict, and the causes, as of today, why the conflicting parties and the mediators have not been successful in reaching a working settlement. Contrary to the line of thinking on this conflict which suggests that the conflict has its roots in domestic factors in Moldova and Transdniestr such as ethnicity, socio-economic underdevelopment and the weakness of democratic institutions, this thesis argues that the primary reason behind the persistence of this conflict is international. It is the radically different definitions of the conflict by the OSCE and the Russian Federation that makes the conflict very difficult to solve. Russia tends to value the Transdniestr region as a geostrategic tool for maintaining its influence over post-Soviet Moldova and its neighbourhood. Since the involvement of the OSCE in this conflict limits Russia&rsquo / s capacity to use the Transdniestr region as a geostrategic tool, it becomes extremely difficult to alter the status quo that contributes to the existing impasse rather than to its opening of new avenues for the peaceful settlement of this conflict.

Muskeg or peat deposits cover large areas in northern Manitoba. Test sections of a newly constructed highway on peat were instrumented to investigate their performance and to develop more economical means of construction method. Test Section ‘A’ was constructed with geotextile base layer while Section ‘B’ was with geotextile and corduroys (timber logs). The test sections were constructed during winter for ease in mobilizing construction equipment at the site when the ground was frozen and were instrumented to observe its behaviour and performance. Settlements were measured using monitoring plates and pins. Ground temperatures were measured using thermistors. Porewater pressures were measured using vibrating wire piezometers. Peat in the study area has an average thickness of 4m, with the upper layer classified as fibrous and the lower layer as amorphous with strong to complete decomposition. Standard laboratory tests were conducted on bored samples from the site. Hydraulic conductivity tests were carried out at different vertical pressures to determine its permeability. Thermal conductivity was determined at frozen and unfrozen state of peat. Conventional incremental oedometer tests were conducted to determine the compressibility parameters and secondary compression indices of the peat layers. Constant-rate-of-strain (CRS) tests were also performed to supplement the results obtained from the conventional method. Isotropically-Consolidated Undrained (CIŪ) triaxial tests were carried out to determine the shear strength of peat. A commercially-available computer program was used in the numerical modelling to simulate the field performance of the instrumented sections. The results from numerical modelling were reasonably close to the measured values in the field. Laboratory-scale physical modelling was undertaken to understand further the operating mechanisms involved in the performance of the two test sections under a more controlled environment. Artificial transparent clay that has similar deformation properties with most of the natural clays and peats was used as foundation material. It allows determination of spatial deformations beneath the embankment using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. The load-settlement behaviour in the field was also reasonably simulated in the laboratory-scaled physical model. Deformation patterns from PIV indicate that embankment with geotextile layer and corduroy has smaller settlements and lateral movements in the foundation compared to that of the embankment with only geotextile layer.

This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.

Vegetables and fruit appear to confer protection against various diseases, but most adults in South Africa eat substantially less than the recommended amounts. Many barriers and factors that influence vegetable consumption have been identified in the literature. One major barrier is the perishability of vegetables. Frozen vegetables can be a useful way in encouraging greater intakes. Some consumers are, however, of the opinion that processing destroy nutrients to a large extent. There is, therefore, a lack of understanding of the freezing process. Research on the attitudes of consumers towards frozen vegetables in South Africa is limited. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of consumers regarding the link between frozen and fresh vegetables and health and the attributes of frozen vegetables. Subjects/Setting: One thousand nine hundred and ninety seven South African respondents, representative of the four major race groups of South Africa (whites, blacks, coloureds and Indians) were randomly chosen from metropolitan areas from the nine provinces in South Africa. Questionnaires, existing of 17 food-related sections, including subsections on vegetables and health, were designed by researchers in co-operation with business partners. MARKINOR, a market research company, was contracted to collect the data. Respondents were questioned regarding their attitudes towards the link between frozen and fresh vegetables and health. Statistical analysis performed: The quantitative data produced by the survey was analysed by using the StatisticaⓇ-programme in order to generate the relevant tabulations, descriptive statistics and statistical tests. Results: Overall, the attitudes of consumers towards frozen vegetables were found to be negative. Practical and statistically significant attitude differences towards frozen vegetables were found between most variables. Results from this study revealed that different levels of education, age and gender do not have a big influence on consumer's attitudes towards frozen vegetables. However, practical and statistically significant differences were found between the various LSM (Living Standards Measure) groups, especially with regard to the convenience of frozen vegetables. Results also indicated that Indians, the age group 61+ and males were the most negative towards frozen vegetables. Almost 75% of all consumers indicated that they never eat frozen vegetables. Only 1% of consumers in the LSM group 2 own a fridge/freezer. An alarmingly 26% of all consumers indicated that they are not convinced that vegetables are healthy. Application/Conclusions: Nutrition professionals should use these findings to target messages in health-promotion programmes to increase the overall consumption of vegetables. The use of frozen vegetables by consumers with frozen storage facilities should be promoted aggressively. Consumers also need practical advice on how to overcome the barriers to dietary change. Nutrition counseling efforts should also be aimed specifically at increasing frozen vegetable consumption among targeted subgroups, particularly Indians, males and the age group 61+. It is strongly recommended that suitable measuring instruments be developed for assessing the knowledge and attitude of South Africans towards vegetable and fruit consumption and the ability of individuals to improve their health. The results of this study may prove to be very useful in this regard. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Climate change and warming have been linked to enhanced coastal erosion in the arctic. Specifically, permafrost is believed to be thawing at greater rates, and wave dynamics are expected to increase in intensity. As a result, thermokarst activity, which includes the occurrence of retrogressive thaw slumps, will be more frequent along arctic coasts. / The availability of airborne and spaceborne imagery in the arctic over the last fifty years has made possible the temporal analysis of permafrost and ground ice-related erosion. The objectives of this thesis are (1) the creation of a large scale database for horizontal coastal retreat on Herschel Island for the 1952-2000 timespan, (2) the investigation of retrogressive thaw slump activity over the same period and its relation to coastal erosion, and (3) the elaboration of stereophotogrammetric techniques to investigate retrogressive thaw slump activity volumetrically. Herschel Island, located on the northern coast of the Yukon Territory, was chosen as the study site for this research, because of the widespread presence of retrogressive thaw slumps and the lack of data for coastal erosion during the last fifty years. / Photogrammetric tools were used to create orthorectified and stereo-images of the Island for the years 1952, 1970, 2000 and 2004 from airphoto archives and Ikonos (1 m resolution) imagery. Coastal erosion was found to be stable or declining on Herschel Island except in the vicinity of retrogressive thaw slumps. In addition, retrogressive thaw slumps were identified on the imagery and observed to have increased in frequency for the 1952-2000 period. / Stereophotogrammetric analysis of two retrogressive thaw slumps showed that eroded sediment volumes from these landforms are considerable and should be included in future assessments of sediment release from arctic coasts to the oceanic shelves.

The term palsa is a Fennoscandian word for a peaty hillock or mound having a permafrost core composed of alternating layers of segregated ice lenses, and organic or mineral soil. This dissertation presents results of a study on the morphology, ecology, cryotic structure, and thermal regime of 6 palsas sites in the Schefferville area and offers a new categorization of these features based on their cryotic structure. Eighteen palsa sites were located within a 35 km radius of Schefferville and six of these sites were investigated in detail. Palsas ranged from 5.6-59.0 m in length and up to 1.1 m in height. Most were located in valleys formed by the strong ridge-valley topography of the Labrador trough. Analysis of plant macrofossils suggests a successional change from hydrophilic species 10-15 cm below the palsa surface to relatively xerophilic species on the palsa surface. The transition zone between these vegetation associations indicates when the peat surface was heaved above the water table and thus, the initiation of the palsa. Surface vegetation on the palsas is used to indicate stage or category of development. Lichens and shrubs combined with small amounts of bare peat suggest a stable palsa. Large areas of bare peat on the surface of palsas resulting from erosion indicates degradation. Healthy sedges on the palsa surface indicate aggrading conditions. Ground ice within palsas ranged from small discontinuous ice lenses within peat to large lenses at the peat mineral soil contact and within the mineral soil. The depth of snow on the palsa surface varied on both a temporal and spatial basis. Active layer depths were not greatly affected by the depth of winter snow. Climatic parameters, such as heating degree days and bright sunshine hours, were found to predict maximum active layer depths more accurately than Stefan's equation. This dissertation shows that palsas with both organic and mineral soil cores are common permafrost features in the Schefferville area

Meltwater reaching the base of the snowpack may either infiltrate the underlying stratum, run off, or refreeze, forming a basal ice layer. Frozen ground underneath a melting snowpack constrains infiltration promoting runoff and refreezing. Compositional changes in chemistry take place for each of these flowpaths as a result of phase change, contact between meltwater and soil, and mixing between meltwater and soil water. Meltwater ion concentrations and infiltration rate into frozen soils both decline rapidly as snowmelt progresses. Their temporal association is highly non-linear and the covariance must be compensated for in order to use time-averaged values to calculate chemical infiltration over a melt event. This temporal covariance is termed �enhanced infiltration� and represents the additional ion load that infiltrates due to the timing of high meltwater ion concentration and infiltration rate. Both theoretical and experimental assessments of the impact of enhanced infiltration showed that it causes a greater ion load to infiltrate leading to relative dilute runoff water. Sensitivity analysis showed that the magnitude of enhanced infiltration is governed by initial snow water equivalent, average melt rate, and meltwater ion concentration factor. Based on alterations in water chemistry due to various effects, including enhanced infiltration, three major flowpaths could be distinguished: overland flow, organic interflow, and mineral interflow. Laboratory experiments were carried out in a temperature-controlled environment to identify compositional changes in water from these flowpaths. Samples of meltwater, runoff, and interflow were filtered and analyzed for major anions and cations. Chemical signatures for each flowpath were determined by normalizing runoff and interflow concentrations using meltwater concentrations. Results showed that changes in ion concentrations were most significant for H+, NO3�, NH4+, Mg2+, and Ca2+. Repeated flushes of meltwater through each interflowpath caused a washout of ions. In the field, samples of soil water and ponding water were collected daily from a Rocky Mountain hillslope during snowmelt. Their normalized chemical compositions were compared to the laboratory-identified signatures to evaluate the flowpath. The majority of the flowpaths sampled had chemical signatures, which indicated mineral interflow, only 10% showed unmixed organic interflow.

Vegetables and fruit appear to confer protection against various diseases, but most adults in South Africa eat substantially less than the recommended amounts. Many barriers and factors that influence vegetable consumption have been identified in the literature. One major barrier is the perishability of vegetables. Frozen vegetables can be a useful way in encouraging greater intakes. Some consumers are, however, of the opinion that processing destroy nutrients to a large extent. There is, therefore, a lack of understanding of the freezing process. Research on the attitudes of consumers towards frozen vegetables in South Africa is limited. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of consumers regarding the link between frozen and fresh vegetables and health and the attributes of frozen vegetables. Subjects/Setting: One thousand nine hundred and ninety seven South African respondents, representative of the four major race groups of South Africa (whites, blacks, coloureds and Indians) were randomly chosen from metropolitan areas from the nine provinces in South Africa. Questionnaires, existing of 17 food-related sections, including subsections on vegetables and health, were designed by researchers in co-operation with business partners. MARKINOR, a market research company, was contracted to collect the data. Respondents were questioned regarding their attitudes towards the link between frozen and fresh vegetables and health. Statistical analysis performed: The quantitative data produced by the survey was analysed by using the StatisticaⓇ-programme in order to generate the relevant tabulations, descriptive statistics and statistical tests. Results: Overall, the attitudes of consumers towards frozen vegetables were found to be negative. Practical and statistically significant attitude differences towards frozen vegetables were found between most variables. Results from this study revealed that different levels of education, age and gender do not have a big influence on consumer's attitudes towards frozen vegetables. However, practical and statistically significant differences were found between the various LSM (Living Standards Measure) groups, especially with regard to the convenience of frozen vegetables. Results also indicated that Indians, the age group 61+ and males were the most negative towards frozen vegetables. Almost 75% of all consumers indicated that they never eat frozen vegetables. Only 1% of consumers in the LSM group 2 own a fridge/freezer. An alarmingly 26% of all consumers indicated that they are not convinced that vegetables are healthy. Application/Conclusions: Nutrition professionals should use these findings to target messages in health-promotion programmes to increase the overall consumption of vegetables. The use of frozen vegetables by consumers with frozen storage facilities should be promoted aggressively. Consumers also need practical advice on how to overcome the barriers to dietary change. Nutrition counseling efforts should also be aimed specifically at increasing frozen vegetable consumption among targeted subgroups, particularly Indians, males and the age group 61+. It is strongly recommended that suitable measuring instruments be developed for assessing the knowledge and attitude of South Africans towards vegetable and fruit consumption and the ability of individuals to improve their health. The results of this study may prove to be very useful in this regard. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

A first approximation of ground ice volume for the area surrounding Eureka, Nunavut, indicates that it comprises 30.8% of the upper 5.9 m of permafrost. Volume depends on the type of ice examined, ranging from 1.8 to 69.0% in different regions of the study area. Excess ice makes up 17.7% of the total volume of frozen materials in the study area. Melt of ground ice in the past has produced thermokarst features which include ground subsidence of up to 3.2 m, formation of tundra ponds, degradation of ice wedges, thaw slumps greater than 50 m across, gullying, and numerous active layer detachment slides. With a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the rise in mean annual temperatures for the area is projected to be 4.9 to 6.6°C, which would lengthen the thaw season and increase thaw depths by up to 70 cm. The expected geomorphic changes to the landscape are discussed.

The search for extraterrestrial life begins with understanding how life developed and evolved on our own planet. Earth's polar regions provide a unique setting conducive to developing the methodologies and techniques that will be needed to find new life forms either as living organisms or as some biological signal in a sedimentary record. / The highest latitude perennial spring system in a region of thick, continuous permafrost resides in the Arctic archipelago of northern Canada. At Expedition Fiord on Axel Heiberg Island there are two sets of springs that provide useful analogs to liquid water habitats that may have existed on Mars. The springs occur in a region with a mean annual air temperature of -15.5° C. Spring flow rates and discharge temperatures are constant throughout the year. Filamentous bacteria, biofilms and mineral precipitates occur in association with the emergent, anoxic brine flowing from the springs. / Preliminary data on the microbial composition of the spring water has been obtained by applying the culture-independent approach. The majority (76%) of the fifty-five environtaxa showed high sequence similarity to Thiomicrospira species (sulfur-oxidizing organism). Other sequences show high similarity to sulfate-reducing members of the delta (Desulfocapsa sp.) and epsilon (Sulfurospirillum sp.) proteobacterium groups. A single sequence was found to have 99% sequence similarity to species of the genus Haloanaerobium a group of low G+C Gram positive, anaerobic, halophiles (Rainey et al. 1995). / A combined flow and thermal model of the Axel Heiberg springs has demonstrated how such springs are able to persist throughout the year despite temperatures that fall to below -50°C during the winter darkness. Dissolved gases emanating from the springs provide evidence of the origin of the water for the springs as well as placing constraints upon the residence time. The gas is composed primarily of N2 with relative concentrations of Ar, Kr, and Xe almost identical to air. No O2 is detectable and Ne is 60% of air values. We believe that ~50% of this gas originates from the direct release of air by nearby alpine glaciers and local ice sheets into groundwater that infiltrates sub-ice sedimentary deposits.