A solid-phase extraction (SPE) method was developed for the determination of organochlorine pesticides, namely aldrin, alpha-BHC, beta-BHC, delta-BHC, dieldrin, endosulfan I, endosulfan II, endosulfan sulfate, endrin, endrin aldehyde, lindane, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, 4,4’-DDD, 4,4’-DDE and 4,4’- DDT in water. The effect of extraction conditions, such as the addition of sodium chloride and methanol to the sample prior to loading was studied. The sample was concentrated by a plain polystyrene-divinylbenzene resin, and the extract was eluted by ethyl acetate. Qualification and quantification of the target pesticides were performedby gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in the full-scan and selected ion-monitoring mode, respectively, and for better detection of pesticides in field samples the mass spectrometer was altered from electron ionization (EI) to chemical ionization mode (CI). The repeatability of the method for MilliQ-water fortified with pesticides at a level of 0.1 to 0.6 µg/l ranged from 8 to 18%, and the obtained recoveries ranged from 67 to 135%. The method was evaluated for the determination of organochlorine pesticides in fourteen surface- and groundwater samples taken from locations along King Talal Dam, King Abdullah Canal and Zarqa River in the Jordan Valley. The limit of detection of the pesticides residues in 500-ml field water samples ranged from 0.0009 to 15.7 ng/l. The obtained results confirmed the presence of trace amounts of some organochlorine pesticides in the analyzed samples, i.e. lindane and endosulfan compounds.

This paper presents a study of the computer game ”Minesweeper”. The aim of the game is to search through a rectangular area of mined squares without hitting any mines. By using a strategy based on making every operation as safe as possible, series of the game have been simulated. The size of the playground is four times four squares. The si- mulations indicate how often the game will succeed and which square is the best one to start at. The strategy demands advanced mathematical calculations. The account of these is the ma- jor part of my work. My investigation shows that if there are three hidden mines the game will succeed about two times out of three. It also shows that the best startingpoint is a corner.

Quantum theory has the distinction among physical theories of currently underpinning most of modern physics, while remaining essentially mysterious, with no general agreement about the nature of its principles or the underlying reality. Recently, the rise of quantum information science has shown that thinking in operational or information-theoretic terms can be extremely enlightening, and that a fruitful direction for understanding quantum theory is to study it in the context of more general probabilistic theories. The framework for such theories will be reviewed in the Chapter Two. In Chapter Three we will study a property of quantum theory called self-duality, which is a correspondence between states and observables. In particular, we will show that self-duality follows from a computational primitive called bit symmetry, which states that every logical bit can be mapped to any other logical bit by a reversible transformation. In Chapter Four we will study a notion of probabilistic interference based on a hierarchy of interference-type experiments involving multiple slits. We characterize theories which do not exhibit interference in experiments with k slits, and give a simple operational interpretation. We also prove a connection between bit symmetric theories which possess certain natural transformations, and those which exhibit at most two-slit interference. In Chapter Five we will focus on reconstructing the algebraic structures of quantum theory. We will show that the closest cousins to standard quantum theory, namely the finite-dimensional Jordan-algebraic theories, can be characterized by three simple principles: (1) a generalized spectral decomposition, (2) a high degree of symmetry, and (3) a generalization of the von Neumann-Luders projection postulate. Finally, we also show that the absence of three-slit interference may be used as an alternative to the third principle. In Chapter Six, we focus on quantum statistical mechanics and the problem of understanding how its characteristic features can be derived from an exact treatment of the underlying quantum system. Our central assumptions are sufficiently complex dynamics encoded as a condition on the complexity of the eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian, and an information theoretic restriction on measurement resources. We show that for almost all Hamiltonian systems measurement outcome probabilities are indistinguishable from the uniform distribution.

<p>"We Can Learn to Mother Ourselves": The Queer Survival of Black Feminism 1968-1996 addresses the questions of mothering and survival from a queer, diasporic literary perspective, arguing that the literary practices of Black feminists Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Alexis De Veaux and Barbara Smith enable a counternarrative to a neoliberal logic that criminalizes Black mothering and the survival of Black people outside and after their utility to capital. Treating Audre Lorde and June Jordan as primary theorists of mothering and survival, and Alexis De Veaux and Barbara Smith as key literary historical figures in the queer manifestation of Black feminist modes of literary production, this dissertation uses previously unavailable archival material, and queer of color critique and critical Black diasporic theoretical approaches to create an intergenerative reading practice. An intergenerative reading practice interrupts the social reproduction of meaning and value across time, and places untimely literary moments and products in poetic relationship to each other in order to reveal the possibility of another meaning of life. Ultimately this dissertation functions as a sample narrative towards the alternate meaning of life that the poetic breaks of Black feminist literary production in the queer spaces of counter-cultural markets, classrooms, autonomous publishing collectives make possible, concluding that mothering is indeed a reflexive and queer way of reading the present in the service of a substantively different future in which our outlawed love survives.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis analyzes the impact of two external challenges, the Palestinian dimension and the outbreak of al-Aqsa intifada, and the US war in Iraq in transforming the politics of identity in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Kingdom of Jordan, created as a part of post-war settlement in 1921, considered as the most &amp / #8216 / artifical&amp / #8217 / among all the states in the Middle East that has been successfully consolidated. Since Jordan was not the ancestral land of Hashemite family, the establishment of the Kingdom of Jordan posited the country at the core of discussions on identity and nation-building. In addition, the identity formation in Jordan offers a case that can easily be found in most parts of the Middle East where multiple sub-state and supra-state identities demarcate and shape the formulation of popular loyalties. Given the historical and political linkage that has closely bound Jordanian and Palestinian entities, Jordanian political history as a separate entity has for the most part coincided with Palestinian national movement. The Palestinian issue has become central to Jordan&amp / #8217 / s politics of identity particularly with Jordan&amp / #8217 / s annexation of the West Bank in 1950 and the incorporation of the Palestinians into Jordanian society. The huge influx of Palestinian community led to the emergence of an &amp / #8216 / ethnic division&amp / #8217 / between the East Bankers (native Jordanians) and the West Bankers (Palestinian origin Jordanians). Since the annexation of the West Bank territories, the Kingdom opted to build a hybrid Jordanian identity to integrate Palestinian descents into Jordan. Jordan has lately caught between two external challenges across its western and eastern borders. The outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada in 2000 and the US war in Iraq in 2003 have devastatingly transformed Jordan&amp / #8217 / s identity formation. The &amp / #8216 / Jordan First, Arab Second&amp / #8217 / Campaign constitutes regime&amp / #8217 / s primary response to cope with these regional crises. The &amp / #8216 / Jordan First&amp / #8217 / initiative epitomizes a new era in the Kingdom, not only for re-building Jordanian norms and expectations, but also helps to notice the de-liberalizing efforts of the monarchy to contain and demolish any kind of opposition posed by domestic unrest. These two external disturbances will, therefore, help to illustrate that a causal relationship between identity and foreign policy can be drawn in the case of Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

This thesis analyzes the evolution of the relationship between the Hashemite regime and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood from 1946 to 2007. Reformist and pragmatic rhetoric of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood distinct from the most of other Muslim Brotherhood branches operating in different countries in the Middle East enabled it to set up relatively harmonious relations with the Hashemite regime without being declared as illegal even in crisis periods. While focusing on this interesting case, this study reveals that the relationship between the Hashemite regime and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is mostly affected and shaped by two variables: regime survival concern and the regional context. In this regard, it maintains that the relations between the two parties have evolved around the policies of coexistence, cooperation, control and repression as well as containment with respect to the change in regime&rsquo / s survival concern and regional developments related to the Palestinian issue. This thesis argues that the period from 1946, when the Muslim Brotherhood was legalized as a charitable organization in Jordan, to the end of 1980s is generally marked with a coherent and cooperative relations between the two parties since their interests overlapped. However, since the beginning of 1990s the relationship began to deteriorate due to a shift in the interests of both parties as a result of developments in the regional context, namely Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the rise of political Islam globally.

<p>In this essay I argue that the plot in Sunrise with Sea Monster, written by Irish writer Neil Jordan, is based on the Oedipal myth, such as interpreted by Freud and psychoanalyst literary theory. By applying aspects of this theory we discover meanings buried within the novel. The Oedipus situation arises when the main character Donal falls in love with his piano teacher Rose, but so does his father, who decides to marry her. The desire both men have for the same woman creates a conflict of interest, as well as leading to a series of betrayals, of which the worst and ultimate one is of the father, Sam, by the son, Donal. The situation is not helped further by the lack of communication which exists between the two men. When the Oedipal stage is overcome, when both Rose and Sam are out of the picture, this leads to a sort of reconciliation between Sam and Donal. Betrayal and reconciliation are the two main themes and these are governed by the Oedipal framework of the novel. I also argue that the imagery, in particular that of water and what it is connected to adds depth to the novel as well as closely relating to the main themes and the Oedipal background: the diverse aspects of the Oedipal conflict are expressed symbolically, metaphorically etc. in the novel.</p>

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between the impacts of climate change and transboundary water management (TWM) mechanisms. The thesis does so through a case study of the transboundary water agreements between Israel, Palestine and Jordan – states that share the transboundary waters in the Jordan River Basin (JRB), a basin that lies in a region of high political tensions and decreasing precipitation. By using empirical climate data on precipitation, temperature and general climate change projections for the basin, the author seeks to understand how these environmental changes will challenge TWM in the JRB. By using qualitative methods to examine the water agreements through the method of process tracing, the thesis seeks to understand how the water agreements are constructed to handle changes in waterflow due to climate change. The results show that the transboundary mechanisms, the water agreements and Joint Water Committees (JWC), managing the transboundary waters in the JRB, possess weak mechanisms to manage changes in waterflow. As a consequence, the whole basin might experience increasing political pressures in the future over the fulfilment of water allocation provisions. The thesis further suggests that the TWM structures in the case lack awareness and mechanisms to handle climate change impacts. On the other hand, the JWCs have an institutional capacity, expertise, and mandate in managing these potential risks in the future. However, incidents in the past, manifest that decreased waterflow leads to increasing political tensions and conflicts between the states in the basin due to the lack of conflict resolution mechanisms in the TWM structures. In order to establish a sustainable TWM in the JRB, the suggested recommendation is that climate change impacts ought to be embedded into the water agreements by incorporating flexible mechanisms for water allocation. In addition, the conflict resolution mechanisms should be strengthened.

This thesis project addresses Islamic water management by presenting case studies on regional water issues and analyzing the extent to which Muslim-majority states behave in a way consistent with Islamic shariah law. The case studies presented in this thesis address both international cooperation related to the management of trans-boundary water basins (the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates River Basins) and domestic water management strategies employed by Muslim-majority states in the MENA region (Jordan and Yemen). In each case, it is not clear that there is consistency between the Islamic ideals discussed by academics and the actual techniques employed by various states. In international attempts at managing the shared waters of the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates Basins, the fact that many riparian states have Muslim-majority populations does not appear to make the management of trans-boundary resources any easier or more successful. The implications for Islamic water management at the domestic level is also unclear – with shariah playing a positive role in Jordanian attempts at water conservation but promoting the over-exploitation of resources in Yemen. Although shariah appears to play a limited role in the management of trans-boundary water resources, it seems to be better suited for informing how states internally manage their endowments of freshwater resources. / text

The Press in Transition adopts a comparative approach to transitional print institutions worldwide. It is based on some 150 interviews and archival research on four continents, over a decade of unprecedented global transformation and upheaval. The dissertation seeks to fill a serious gap in the existing literature on democratization and political transition. Theoretical chapters advance a comparative model of press functioning (Chapter 1) and a more tentative model of transitional media, with a strong focus on the mainstream press (Chapter 6). The bulk of the work consists of four case-studies, each drawn from a different geographical region (indeed, continent) and a markedly different "type" of liberalization or transition process. The case of Nicaragua (Chapter 2) stands out somewhat. It concentrates almost exclusively on a single newspaper, Barricada, the former official organ of the Sandinista Front. The newspaper's transformations in the 1990s are, however, set against the backdrop of Barricades history since 1979, intra-Sandinista politics during and after the revolutionary era, and the more general interplay of media and politics in Nicaragua. The remaining three case-studies (South Africa, Jordan, and Russia: Chaps. 3-5) combine system-level analysis with micro-level portraits of transitional institutions and individuals. The core of the theoretical analysis lies in a delineation of "mobilizing" and "professional" imperatives. The former I attach mainly to sponsors and managers of media institutions; the latter mainly - not exclusively or universally — to the editorial side of the operation. The interplay of these variables I see as integral to an understanding of events at the case-study newspapers. The opening theoretical chapter situates mobilizing and professional imperatives as both dependent and independent variables. I argue that they reflect and respond to variables like underdevelopment, authoritarianism, and pre-existing media culture. But they also serve as founts of important and interesting initiatives, whether professional, political, or commercial. Significantly, too, they regularly conflict. The dissertation struggles to avoid heroicizing, but it also tries to show that tensions and upheavals — both small-scale and radically transformative - tend to derive from the clash of mobilizing and professional priorities.