<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p><strong>Essay in Political Science, D-level, spring 2010. “Do the American mass media serve foreign policy interests? – A scrutiny of two American newspapers’ coverage of the <em>coup d’état </em>in Honduras in the summer of 2009”, Author: David Scott. Tutor: Anders Broman</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The bias of the American mass media has been widely discussed among scholars. Not only has this phenomenon caught the attention of political scientists, but also academics from other scientific fields. Two of the most known researchers of the American media are the linguist Noam Chomsky and the professor of Finance Edward Herman. They apply, on the American media, a so called “propaganda model” which claims that the media will serve the interests of the domestic power elites. One of the interests that the media try to satisfy is the foreign policy goals of the American state, which is to vilify enemy states and idealize client states. This thesis is applied on the American media coverage of the <em>coup d’état </em>that resulted in the ousting of leftist President Manuel Zelaya from the presidency in Honduras in 2009. In this case the model predicts that Zelaya will be vilified as an enemy and that the cause of the coup will be portrayed as legitimate. The essay studies, in the newspapers <em>New York Times </em>and <em>Wall Street Journal, </em>the portraiture of three aspects of the coup: the cause of the coup, the role of the military and the victims of violence and, finally, Zelaya as a president and the support to versus the resistance against his presidency. Through a textual analysis of the material, the essay concludes that there is a bias and that this means that the propaganda model can be verified. The bias consists of that the papers tend to legitimize the clients (the perpetrators of the coup) by portraying Zelaya as violator of the Honduran constitution and as a radical leftist aligned with Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez. The legitimization goes further through the toning down of the military’s role in the use of violence against demonstrators. Although this is the bias, it must be stressed that it is subtle and has been detected through an extensive interpretation of the material.</p>

Biological invasions are an important issue of global change and an increased understanding of invasion processes is of crucial importance for both conservation managers and international trade. In this thesis, I have studied the invasion of the brown seaweed Fucus evanescens, to investigate the fate and effect of a perennial, habitat-forming seaweed introduced to a coastal ecosystem. A long-term study of the spread of F. evanescens in Öresund (southern Sweden) showed that the species was able to expand its range quickly during the first 20 years after the introduction, but that the expansion has been slow during the subsequent 30 years. Both in Öresund and in Skagerrak, the species is largely restricted to sites where native fucoids are scarce. Laboratory experiments showed that the restricted spread of F. evanescens cannot be explained by the investigated abiotic factors (wave exposure and salinity), although salinity restricts the species from spreading into the Baltic Sea. Neither did I find evidence for that herbivores or epibiota provide biotic resistance to the invader. On the contrary, F. evanescens was less consumed by native herbivores, both compared to the native fucoids and to F. evanescens populations in its native range, and little overgrown by epiphytes. Instead, the restricted spread may be due to competition from native seaweeds, probably by pre-occupation of space, and the establishment has probably been facilitated by disturbance. The studies provided little support for a general enemy release in introduced seaweeds. The low herbivore consumption of F. evanescens in Sweden could not be explained by release from specialist herbivores. Instead, high levels of chemical anti-herbivore defence metabolites (phlorotannins) could explain the pattern of herbivore preference for different fucoids. Likewise, the low epibiotic colonisation of F. evanescens plants could be explained by high resistance to epibiotic survival. This shows that colonisation of invading seaweeds by native herbivores and epibionts depends on properties of the invading species. The large differences between fucoid species in their quality as food and habitat for epibionts and herbivores imply that invasions of such habitat-forming species may have a considerable effect on a number of other species in shallow coastal areas. However, since F. evanescens did not exclude other fucoids in its new range, its effect on the recipient biota is probably small.

Johan A. Warden tog fram sin modell om motståndaren som ett system för att genom denna hitta dess svagheter. Modellen visade sig vara mycket användbar inom mellanstatliga konflikter och var mycket effektiv vid planerandet och genomförandet av USA:s offensiv mot Irak under inledningen av Gulfkriget. Men kopplat mot irreguljära konflikter har Wardens modell stött på mycket kritik då den anses spelat ut sin roll och därför inte längre kan anses applicerbar vid planerandet av luftoperationer inom denna typ av krigföring. Denna uppsats skall se om det är precisionsvapen och användandet av dessa som räddar kvar Warden inom planeringen av luftoperationer inom irreguljär krigföring. / John A. Warden developed the Five ring model and the enemy as a system. These models where used as a tool to find the enemies weak points. These models proved useful in a conventional conflict, and where very effective during the planning and execution of Operation Desert Storm. In recent times Wardens theories has been a subject of a debate, stating that they have played out there role as an effect of irregular warfare. This essay is going to try to see if it is precision-guided munitions that save Wardens theories in the fields of modern air-warfare planning in irregular warfare.

The use of Private Military Companies (PMCs) has become an increasingly common feature of contemporary armed conflict. Because of their autonomous contractual status, PMCs have presented governments with problems of accountability on several levels, including violations of international human rights and humanitarian law (IHL) standards. This thesis argues that PMCs should be considered to be non-state actors (NSAs), subject to international law from both an International Relations Theory and a Legal Theory perspective. This conclusion is linked to the issue of whether individual PMC employees can be treated as legitimate combatants according to IHL. State practice has not led to a clear understanding of the definition of combatant, a problem which has been compounded by a lack of government policy on the use of PMCs. Using Canadian experience as a case study, the thesis concludes that IHL suggests two options for regularizing the status of PMCs which would both strengthen accountability and uphold the rule of law.

The use of Private Military Companies (PMCs) has become an increasingly common feature of contemporary armed conflict. Because of their autonomous contractual status, PMCs have presented governments with problems of accountability on several levels, including violations of international human rights and humanitarian law (IHL) standards. This thesis argues that PMCs should be considered to be non-state actors (NSAs), subject to international law from both an International Relations Theory and a Legal Theory perspective. This conclusion is linked to the issue of whether individual PMC employees can be treated as legitimate combatants according to IHL. State practice has not led to a clear understanding of the definition of combatant, a problem which has been compounded by a lack of government policy on the use of PMCs. Using Canadian experience as a case study, the thesis concludes that IHL suggests two options for regularizing the status of PMCs which would both strengthen accountability and uphold the rule of law.

Ce mémoire offre un résumé de l’état de la recherche quant à la perception des Japonais et de l’ennemi japonais aux États-Unis avant et pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Il en ressort que la question plus spécifique du traitement réservé à l’ennemi japonais et à la responsabilité des actions de guerre perpétrées par celui-ci dans les journaux américains mérite d’être approfondie. L’analyse des articles publiés dans les trois mois suivant l’attaque japonaise de Pearl Harbour et précédant la fin officielle de la guerre dans trois grands périodiques américains de l’époque suggère que ceux-ci offrirent un traitement de l’ennemi japonais similaire à celui présent dans l’ensemble des autres média américains de l’époque, mais que ce traitement est généralement plus nuancé et éclaté dans les trois mois précédant la fin de la guerre. Certaines dissensions importantes peuvent y être constatée quant à la question de la responsabilité des actions de guerre japonaises entre les périodiques, ce qui suggère l’existence de points de vue, de valeurs et de perceptions différentes des Japonais aux États-Unis pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. / This master’s thesis offers a summary of the state of research on the perception of the Japanese enemy in the United States before and during World War II which reveals that the question of the American newspapers’ treatment of the Japanese enemy and of who is accountable for Japan’s actions during the war deserves more attention. An analysis of the articles published in three major American newspapers in the three months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and preceding the official end of the war suggests that the American newspapers presented the Japanese enemy in a light similar to that of the other media. However, this treatment of the Japanese and the Japanese enemy tended to be more nuanced and varied in the three months preceding the end of the war as important dissensions appeared between the newspapers about the accountability of Japan’s war actions, which suggests the existence of different values and perceptions of the Japanese people in general within the United States.

The use of Private Military Companies (PMCs) has become an increasingly common feature of contemporary armed conflict. Because of their autonomous contractual status, PMCs have presented governments with problems of accountability on several levels, including violations of international human rights and humanitarian law (IHL) standards. This thesis argues that PMCs should be considered to be non-state actors (NSAs), subject to international law from both an International Relations Theory and a Legal Theory perspective. This conclusion is linked to the issue of whether individual PMC employees can be treated as legitimate combatants according to IHL. State practice has not led to a clear understanding of the definition of combatant, a problem which has been compounded by a lack of government policy on the use of PMCs. Using Canadian experience as a case study, the thesis concludes that IHL suggests two options for regularizing the status of PMCs which would both strengthen accountability and uphold the rule of law.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:30:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 1034963 bytes, checksum: 2f8ddfdc0ab599a1ee63766057899a95 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-22 / Worldwide sugar cane plantations suffer the pest attack A major pest is the sugarcane borer Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). A striking feature of D. saccharalis is the penetration on the stalk, feeding on the tissues; affecting the developmet point, resulting in a condition known as "dead heart" due to the presence of the fungus Colletotrichum falcatum The plants can protect itself from herbivores attack by a combination of constitutive and/or inducible defenses that reduces the performance of herbivores, interrupting the spread of the damage. Accordingly, plants respond to feeding herbivorous arthropods producing a series of secondary metabolites, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are known to attract natural enemies. Natural enemies such as parasitoids, are able to exploit these volatiles to locate their prey, for exemple, using feeding chemical signals. Thus, behavioral studies are important for understanding the interactions that occur between organisms in a food Web. As the knowledge of the chemical compounds that mediate the location of plants infested with herbivores by natural enemies, to have a better understanding of insect-plant interaction influencing the third trophic level. Given this, in this study was investigated the responses of cotesia flavipes (Cameron) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) to volatile plant sugar cane rustic and current (Archi, White pararia and RB867515) unscathed and infested by D. saccharalis. In the chapter 1 was investigated the preferences of C. flavipes to the set of plants induced to herbivory and plants unharmed in laboratory and semi-field conditions. The results show that the parasitic wasp provides different responses, in the laboratory showed choice for infested specie and semi-infested field conditions show no preference, but present parasitism in the host. In the second chapter we identify the volatile compounds emitted by plants infested with D. Saccharalis and undamaged plants of sugarcane. To access this result was used for GC-MS for the identiñcation of compounds, showing that when compared uninjured plants with infested plants were found and identified a larger quantity of volatile components in the infested plants, especially on the species Archi and White pararia, the profile of volatile of the specie RB867515 is very similar between infested and unharmed sugar cane plants. The results obtained through the identification of these volatile compounds may explain the outputs obtained in the chapter 1, which may mediate the foraging behavior of C. flavipes. In general it can be concluded that this wasp showed parasitism, independently of the complex plant-herbivore, reducing infestation and damage by D. saccharalis in sugarcane plants. / Em todo o mundo plantações de cana de açúcar sofrem o ataque de pragas. Uma das principais pragas é a broca da cana Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), uma caraterística marcante de D. saccharalis é a penetração no colmo, onde se alimenta do tecido afetando o ponto de desenvolvimento, produzindo o chamado "coração morto" devido à presença do fungo Colletotrichum falcatum. As plantas se protegem contra o ataque dos herbívoros através da combinação de defensas constitutivas e/ou induzidas que reduzem o desempenho dos herbívoros, interrompendo a propagação do dano. Consequentemente, as plantas respondem à alimentação de herbívoros artrópodes produzindo uma série de compostos secundários, incluindo os compostos voláteis orgânicos (VOCs), os quais são conhecidos por atrair os inimigos naturais. Os inimigos naturais como parasitoides, são capazes de explorar esses voláteis para localizar seus hospedeiros, como por exemplo, usando os sinais químicos da alimentação. Dessa forma, estudos de comportamento para fontes de odores são importantes para o entendimento das interações que ocorrem entre os organismos em uma teia alimentar. Assim como o conhecimento dos compostos químicos que meiam a localização de plantas infestadas com herbívoros pelos inimigos naturais, para ter uma melhor compreensão da interação inseto-planta influenciando o terceiro nível trófico. Diante isto, este trabalho investigou as respostas de Cotesia flavipes (Cameron) (Hymenóptera: Braconidae) aos voláteis de plantas de cana de açúcar rústicas e atual (Archi, White pararia e RB867515), ilesas e infestadas por D. saccharalis. No capítulo 1 foram investigadas as preferências de C. flavipes ao conjunto de plantas induzidas a herbivoria e plantas ilesas tanto em laboratório quanto em condições de semi-campo. Os resultados mostram que a vespa parasítica apresenta diferentes respostas, sendo que em laboratório mostra escolha por espécies infestadas quanto em semi-campo não mostra preferência, no entanto apresentando parasitismo no hospedeiro. No segundo capítulo identificamos os compostos voláteis emitidos por plantas infestadas com D. saccharalis e plantas ilesas de cana de açúcar. Para acessar a esse resultado foi utilizado o GC-MS para a identificação dos compostos, mostrando que quando comparamos plantas ilesas com plantas infestadas foram encontrados e identificados uma quantidade superior de compostos voláteis nas plantas infestadas, principalmente das espécies Archi e White pararia, já que o perfil de voláteis da espécie RB867515 é bastante similar quando ilesa e infestada. Os resultados obtidos através da identificação destes compostos voláteis podem explicar as respostas obtidas no capítulo 1, os quais podem mediar no comportamento de forrageamento de C. flavipes. Em linhas gerais, pode-se concluir que esta vespa apresenta parasitismo independente do complexo planta-herbívoro, reduzindo a infestação e o dano por parte de D. saccharalis em plantas de cana de açúcar.

Den amerikanske luftmaktsteoretikern John A Warden III har skrivit ett flertal artiklar och böcker om vad han anser är det bästa sättet att använda luftmakt. Warden förordar luftmaktens offensiva natur och eftersträvar ett snabbt, för egen del, fördelaktigt slut på en konflikt. Warden har bl.a. liknat fienden vid ett system, där han menar att strävan skall ligga i att slå ut fiendens ledarskikt vilket får tillföljd att dess vilja till strid upphör. I detta arbete ges en sammanfattning av, enligt författaren, centrala delar av Wardens teorier. Sammanfattningen mynnar ut i tre stycken parametrar som kommer att utgöra Wardens teorier i detta arbete. De tre parametrarna är "enemy as a system", "center of gravity" samt "parallell attack". Dessa parametrar ligger sedan till grund för en analys av Israels luftkampanjer i dess krig mot Hizbollah 2006, Operation Change of Direction samt dess krig mot Hamas 2008-09, Operation Cast Lead. Syftet med detta är att ta reda på om Israel använde sig av Wardens teorier under dessa båda operationer. Anledningen till valet av dessa två konflikter är att Israel bl.a. sin doktrin slagit fast att de aldrig har råd att förlora ett krig. Detta tvingar Israel att optimera sin taktisering. Slutsatsen blev att det tydligt går att se att Wardens teorier genomsyrade Operation Change of Direction. Det var enbart "parallell attack" som inte tydligt efterföljdes genom hela operationen. Under Operation Cast Lead däremot så följde Israel Wardens teorier i mycket mindre utsträckning. Det var enbart "center of gravity" som följdes genom hela den operationen.

This study investigates two questions about anti-predator behaviour of the red-backed shrike. 1) Is the red-backed shrike able to assess the differing dangers represented by various types or species of predators? 2) How does the red-backed shrike recognize the predator? We found, that the red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) adjusts its anti-predator behaviour by assessing the potential threat to themselves from different predator species and by assessing the chance of a successful attack. Further, we found that the presence of general raptor salient features is absolutely necessary for proper categorisation of the intruder as a predator, whereas the natural species-specific colouration in itself is an insufficient cue.