Based on oral histories of agriculture and health in the Mae Chaem valley, northern Thailand, this work documents changing child health and medical practice since the 1950's and explores possible connections with increasing pesticide use. The research shows how local knowledge can help us understand relationships between changing technology, ecology, and human health. Parents and farmers in the Mae Chaem valley of Chiang Mai province, Northern Thailand, live at the intersection of multiple local and global streams of land use and child health biotechnology. Based on systematically collected autobiographical oral histories from parents and farmers, as well as interviews and participant observation with land use and child health experts the study considers the relationships between child health and land use change, and particularly the rise of pesticide intensive cash cropping, since the late 1950’s. Introductory chapters on theory and methods precede a description of the ethnographic context. Case studies illustrating parent and farmer histories of child health and land use change spanning fifty years are provided. Seven streams of biotechnical expertise are identified, and mini-ethnographies are provided for each including domestic, Buddhist, Muang, spirit, market, national, and Christian. These seven streams are analyzed using actor-network theory (ANT) with relationships to particular notions of ontology, cosmology, and ecology. Results demonstrate the ongoing importance of parents and farmers as decision making agents at the intersection of multiple and competing cultural and biotechnical streams, even where they face efforts by large multinational corporations or other agencies to advertise, constrain and monopolize local biotechnical choice. Within the fifty year time period under consideration, the oral histories describe particular child health and land use trends. These locally perceived trends provide challenging perspectives on the relationship between ‘development’ and child health in Thailand. While children die far less often now than in the past, oral histories suggest that both children and fields now suffer from more kinds of illness, and more often, than before. In particular, both qualitative and more quantitative analysis suggests differences in the experience of child health among pesticide and non-pesticide using households.

This thesis presents the effect of dispersion and Multi Access Interference (MAI) of optical fiber on the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of a Direct Sequence Optical Code Division Multiple Access (DS-OCDMA) network by means of intensity modulation and optical receiver correlators. By using Matlab simulations, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) versus Received Optical Power (ROP) of an OCDMA transmission system can be evaluated with a so-called 7-chip m-sequence for different numbers of system users. This can be done for the ROP versus BER for various lengths of single mode optical fiber by taking into consideration the dispersion effect in the optical fiber. Matlab simulations can be performed in order to illustrate the reduction of the dispersion index gamma, or to visualize different scenarios, e.g., what amount of transmitted power is required in order to obtain a BER of 10-9 when the length of the optical fiber is increased.

To take advantage of the high speed in an optic fiber, one of the basic concept in fiber optic communication is to allow several users to simultaneously transmit data over the channel. One technique that provides multiple access is it fiber optic-code division multiple access (FO-CDMA). In FO-CDMA each user is assigned one or more signature sequences called codewords, which are subsets of a type of optical orthogonal code (OOC). The channel input/output consists of the superposition of several users codewords and at the receiver end an optical correlator extracts the information. In the parallel code constructions, presented in this report, each user j is assigned a subset Cj from a code C. The subsets are disjoint and their union is the whole set C. A new way to map the information bits is to insert up to L zeros before each codeword from Cj and let this represent information aswell. This gives high rates for active users but an investigation is needed to ensure that this does not compromise the systems wanted property of sending information with a small probability of errors for all users. Therefore a simulation environment has been implemented in Matlab. The result from these simulations shows that BER for the L parallel codes is acceptable and not much higher than for the traditional constructions. Because of the higher rate these construction should be preferred but an analysis if a hardware implementation is possible.

Based on oral histories of agriculture and health in the Mae Chaem valley, northern Thailand, this work documents changing child health and medical practice since the 1950's and explores possible connections with increasing pesticide use. The research shows how local knowledge can help us understand relationships between changing technology, ecology, and human health. Parents and farmers in the Mae Chaem valley of Chiang Mai province, Northern Thailand, live at the intersection of multiple local and global streams of land use and child health biotechnology. Based on systematically collected autobiographical oral histories from parents and farmers, as well as interviews and participant observation with land use and child health experts the study considers the relationships between child health and land use change, and particularly the rise of pesticide intensive cash cropping, since the late 1950’s. Introductory chapters on theory and methods precede a description of the ethnographic context. Case studies illustrating parent and farmer histories of child health and land use change spanning fifty years are provided. Seven streams of biotechnical expertise are identified, and mini-ethnographies are provided for each including domestic, Buddhist, Muang, spirit, market, national, and Christian. These seven streams are analyzed using actor-network theory (ANT) with relationships to particular notions of ontology, cosmology, and ecology. Results demonstrate the ongoing importance of parents and farmers as decision making agents at the intersection of multiple and competing cultural and biotechnical streams, even where they face efforts by large multinational corporations or other agencies to advertise, constrain and monopolize local biotechnical choice. Within the fifty year time period under consideration, the oral histories describe particular child health and land use trends. These locally perceived trends provide challenging perspectives on the relationship between ‘development’ and child health in Thailand. While children die far less often now than in the past, oral histories suggest that both children and fields now suffer from more kinds of illness, and more often, than before. In particular, both qualitative and more quantitative analysis suggests differences in the experience of child health among pesticide and non-pesticide using households. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

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This research is about Mai kadra massacre that happened on Nov. 9 2020 during the Ethiopian National Defense Force law enforcement operation against the Tigray regional state. The massacre has ended with two conflicting narratives. This short research is therefore to clearly analyze secondary data collected (sources) against the two narratives of the massacre. Though there were difficulties to get as many documents as possible, the already collected data with some additional sources were used to answer the research questions and to give solutions for the research problems. At the beginning, this study presented the details of all the main documents to explain what claims about the Mai kadra massacre have raised. Secondly, claimed reasons about the massacre have discussed to answer one of the research questions (why the massacre has happened?) based on the secondary data collected and some other related documents. At last, the different themes formed have been analyzed against the two opposing narratives of this study. In relation to data analysis, thematic analysis under qualitative approach is used. Significant and essential theme ideas are drawn out from the data collected and organized in to different themes. All the themes are described and summarized according to their position about the two conflicting narratives in order to give clear information for readers. Opinions of the researcher are also added.

<p>Foreign Direct investment (FDI) has been recognized as a vital source of development for African countries, which are mainly capital importing countries. This has led to a quest for effective regulation of the activities of foreign investors in a country while considering the profit making goals of the investors as well. As there is a need to strike a balance between the need to regulate entry and activities of investors and reaping the immense benefits of FDI such as growth and development. The regulation of FDI thus becomes important. However, there is no universal multilateral agreement on Investment (MAI) that binds most states oft the world. What we have is attempts at regional levels to regulate Investment uniformly. This quest has led to debates with many developing countries (Africa Inclusive) resisting attempts to formulate a MAI. This paper will start with an introduction of the importance of FDI as well as the various attempts that have been made to regulate FID on a multilateral level. Then the paper will go on to examine two Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) Botswana-China BIT on Promotion and Protection of Investments 2000,Czech-Tunisia BIT for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investment 1997, and two Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) - Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 1990 and the investment provisions of the U.S &ndash / Morocco Free Trade Agreement 2004, to identify those trends that are common to these agreements that have been entered into by African countries. It will examine these provisions in line with the rights and obligations they create for the investors as well as the host countries.</p>

À l’aube du XXe siècle, en Chine, un groupe d’intellectuels et d’auteurs se retrouve à la source d’un nouveau mouvement culturel et politique. Les sinologues les appellent les « auteurs du 4-Mai ». Ils ont pour objectif de transformer la Chine, de mettre en place une forme de modernité à l’aide de la littérature. Du rejet de la tradition confucéenne jusqu’à la diffusion des idées du communisme, ils semblent être au cœur de toutes les transformations socio-politiques qu’a connues le pays. L’époque du 4-Mai est un moment charnière dans l’histoire de la Chine. Située juste après la chute du dernier empereur Qing et juste avant la victoire du Parti Communiste Chinois, c’est une époque où la société chinoise a connu une réorganisation. Les intellectuels de cette époque ne font pas exception, une nouvelle configuration se met en place. C’est à l’aide de la sociologie de Norbert Elias que je tenterai de comprendre quelle est la configuration qui permet le développement conjoint, dans une relation d’interdépendance, de la littérature et de la politique. Une nouvelle configuration qui se construit avec les intellectuels du 4-Mai, est différente de celle que formaient les mandarins confucéens de l’époque impériale. Les divers éléments qui permettent aux auteurs du 4-Mai de passer d’une configuration à l’autre (nouveaux thèmes dans la littérature, façons d’être moderne, engagement politique) sont aussi les éléments qui influencent le monde politique, démontrant l’interdépendance des deux sphères. / At the dawn of the twentieth century, in China, a group of intellectuals and writers find themselves at the beginning of a new cultural and politic movement. Sinologists call them the “May-Fourth writers”. They have for goal to transform China, implement a form of modernity in using literature. From the rejection of Confucian tradition to the promotion of the Communist ideas, they seem to be in the middle of every social and political transformation that the country has experienced. The May Fourth era is a turning point in the history of China. It begins just after the fall of the last Qing emperor and ends just before the victory of the Chinese Communist Party, it is a time where the Chinese society was reorganized. The intellectuals were no exception, a new configuration is under construction. It is with the sociology of Norbert Elias that I will try to understand which configuration allow the development of both literature and politics in an interdependent relationship. The new configuration that characterizes the May Fourth writers is different than the one that characterize the Confucian mandarins of the Imperial age. The various elements who allow the May Fourth writers to pass to a configuration to another (new themes in literature, a way to be modern, political commitment) are also the elements that influence the political world, showing the interdependence between them.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the turbulent changes within the Irish society affected the face of modern Irish drama. Ireland, originally a rural country bound by religious dogmas and its own colonial past, underwent a considerable amount of development in the latter half of the 20th century; it was predominantly manifested through an increased Celtic Tiger economic prosperity and decreasing influence of the Catholic Church. The central interest of Irish culture has always been the effort to define a unifying national metanarrative and identity. In the beginning of the 20th century this desire was motivated by a struggle to establish a vital opposition between Ireland and Great Britain and definitely renounce its depreciating status of a former colony. However, in the second half of the 20th century the discrepancy between the nationalist ideology driven idea of Irish identity (whose value has always been questionable to say the least) and its modern reality became unbridgeable. The introduction of this thesis is dedicated to summarizing the changes within the Irish society in the course of the 20th century. A brief characterization of this turbulent development should justify the urge of more recent artists to re-formulate the Irish national metanarrative to suit the 20th century...

O objeto do presente trabalho é a análise das mudanças no regime jurídico do investimento estrangeiro ocorridas na última década. Após o estudo histórico sobre o desenvolvimento desse regime, as quatro tendências que conduziram a elaboração das regras daquele período são examinadas. A primeira delas foi a criação de regimes regionais, como as regras sobre o investimento internacional do NAFT A, ASEAN, APEC e Mercosul. A segunda, as tentativas de estabelecimento de um regime multilateral, como comprovam não só as negociações do MAI e das TRIM\'s, nos quadros da OCDE e OMC, como a consolidação pelo Banco Mundial das Diretivas sobre o investimento direto estrangeiro. Em terceiro lugar, o surgimento de normas internacionais setoriais, a exemplo do Tratado da Carta da Energia. E, por último, o crescimento extraordinário do número de acordos bilaterais sobre a matéria. O estudo leva em consideração a jurisprudência internacional, principalmente as sentenças proferidas pelo CIRDI. O exame dessas quatro tendências é seguido pelo estudo de dois regimes regionais que dizem respeito aos interesses brasileiros: o do Mercosul e o da ALCA. Se comparado com os regimes anteriores, aquele dos anos 90 se distingue por privilegiar a flexibilização das regras sobre o fluxo de capitais e o incremento de seu ganho. Preocupações com regras concernentes à proteção do investimento estrangeiro parecem estar ultrapassadas em razão de dois motivos. Inicialmente, pela implementação de seguros e garantias contra riscos políticos que, além de contornar o risco decorrente das interferências governamentais nos investimentos, também minimizou as discussões sobre as indenizações. Em segundo lugar, pelo endosso dado pela maioria dos países em desenvolvimento às políticas neoliberais -o que inibiu a ação governamental no regime doméstico do investimento internacional- e pela concorrência entre esses países em atrair esse investimento. O direito internacional dos investimentos passou a contar com poucas lacunas, a basear-se menos no costume e a formalizar-se em instrumentos. Questões vitais em décadas anteriores, como aquelas relativas à cláusula Calvo e aos critérios indenizatórios, foram resolvidas por tratados ou pela jurisprudência. Esta tomou-se abundante, consolidando um entendimento conservador. Objetivamente, pouco restou do discurso inflamado dos anos 60 e 70 sobre a NOEI. Desmontou-se o binômio investimento e desenvolvimento, desarticulando-se um sistema anterior chamado de Direito Internacional do Desenvolvimento. Essa desarticulação deu-se por caminhos diversos. O direito internacional dos investimentos, antes objeto de Resolução da ONU, teve seus debates transpostos para outras organização, como o Banco Mundial A preocupação com o desenvolvimento foi realocada de capítulo do Direito Econômico Internacional para o campo dos Direitos Humanos. Das quatro tendências acima, uma delas parece que não terá continuidade: o tratamento setorial da matéria. Todavia, nos próximos anos, as outras três continuarão a ser seguidas: não há indicação de refluxo nos acordos bilaterais; a busca por um regime multilateral irá continuar, como aponta o compromisso assumido na reunião da OMC, em Doha de assinatura das TR!M\'S em 2005; e, finalmente, as negociações da ALCA, que incluem disposições sobre investimentos, indicam continuidade na tendência regional. / The purpose of this work is to analyze the changes introduced in the international legal regime applicable to foreign investment in the last decade. After an historical study on the development of this regime, the four trends that shaped the elaboration of these rules during this period are examined. Firstly, the tendency to the creation of international regional regimes -like NAFTA, Mercosur, ASEAN and APEC\'s special rules on investment- is analyzed. Secondly, the several attempts to establish a multilateral regime on foreign investment -as evidenced by the negotiation of the MAL in the OECD, and of the TRIM\'s, in the WTO, as well as the edition of the Guidelines on Foreign Direct Investment by the Word Bank- are reviewed. In the third place, the international rules applicable to investments in special sectors, as is the case of the Energy Chart Treaty, are focused. Finally, the increase in number of the bilateral treaties is examined. This study takes into account the international jurisprudence, mainly the awards rendered by the lCSID. This exam is followed by the study of two regional regimes that affect Brazilian interests: the Mercosur and the FTAA. If compared with the previous regimes, the one that prevailed in the nineties appears to be more concerned with both the flexibility of the rules on the flow of capitals and the increase of earnings. Concerns about rules on the investment protection have vanished for two main reasons. Initially, the availability of insurance and guaranties against political risks besides minimizing the risks presented by any governmental interference on the investor\'s control over its investment, also contributes to make issues on the value of indemnities irrelevant. In the second place, the majority of the developing countries not just endorsed neo-liberal policies, which made governmental restrictive postures on foreign investment difficult, but have started to compete against each other to attract foreign capitals. The International Law on Investments turned into a system with few gaps, based rather on written treaties than on customary law. Crucial issues of the past few decades, like these related to the Calvo doctrine or to indemnities criteria, were solved by treaties and arbitral decisions. Not only did the jurisprudence become abundant, but also consolidated conservative views on the matter. Objectively, very little remained of the fiery speech on the NEIO. The dual investment and development was undone and the previous system of the International Law of Development collapsed. This collapse was caused by different reasons. The most determining, however, is the fact that the International Law on Investment, based before on customary roles and precariously settled by UN\'s resolutions, were relocated to different fora, like the World Bank. The concern with development switched from an important chapter of the International Economic Law to Human Rights\' domain. Amidst the four trends pointed out in this work, apparently just one will be discontinued in the near future: the sectorial treatment of foreign investment. Nonetheless, the others will continue to be present: there is no evidence of reflux in the signing of bilateral treaties; the search for a multilateral regime will continue, as shown in the commitment made in the WTO Conference of Doha, in 2001, fixing for 2005 the signing of the agreement on TRIM\'s; and finally, the negotiation of FTAA, including dispositions on investments, indicates that the regional tendency will remain.