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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Constructing Britain's road network : the scientific governance of British roads and their users, 1900-1963

Cook, Justine Denise January 2018 (has links)
This dissertation argues that the period 1900-1963 may be seen as one in which various models for the governance of roads and their users were developed. Demands for governance came from road campaigners and governmental bodies; these various groups called for, and attempted to implement, such governance in various ways. Of all these methods, scientific governance, via experiment and road network architecture, came decisively to supervene. The development of centralised and localised forms of governance, channelled through the civil and traffic engineering implemented by its County Surveyors, facilitated the state governance of Britain's road network and its users. The co-operation of road users was vital to the success of this state governance. Previously a law unto themselves, road users (most especially motorists) were self-governed by a gentlemanly code of tacit rules of the road. Overhauling the mindset and behaviour of road users first required the reform of the systematic structures of highway administration, along with legislative enforcement. This, however, was dependent upon the premise of central governance and thus government acceptance of roads as a national responsibility. This state of affairs brought with it two important factors. First, the financial means to fund road improvement measures was provided. Second, centres of scientific investigations were established, and credible methods developed, to explore advanced methods of construction and systems of traffic control. Understanding the interaction of roads, vehicles, and users was fundamental to the successful implementation of scientific governance. Roads were a socio-technical problem that required a scientific solution, both in terms of their physical construction and in terms of the ways in which they were used, and used safely. Science was in-built into in the driving experience through such innovations as the use of white lines, the implementation of speed limits, road layouts and road signs. Together, these and other developments constructed the British road network, and worked as means of governing user behaviour. The result of all these factors and developments was the State-based, scientific governance of British roads and their users.
2

Patterns of resource distribution and exploitation by the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the Eurasian badger (Meles meles) : a comparative study

Hofer, Heribert January 1986 (has links)
Thirteen badgers and 20 foxes were radio-tracked in the Wytham Estate, Oxfordshire, between 1981 and 1983. Thirteen badger and 10 fox groups were identified from radio-tracking and bait marking. Badger groups (mean size 1982: 4.45, 1983: 5.82) occupied contiguous territories (size: 22-75 ha) with boundaries marked by latrines. Seasonal variation in marking intensity and choice of marking sites presumably were responses to changing intrusion pressure. Fox groups (mean size: 2.6) occupied stable territories (size: 22- 104 ha) with little overlap. Faeces deposition by foxes facilitated territory marking. Earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris) dominated the diet of badgers (63 % estimated dry weight EDW, faeces), followed by cereals, fruits and other Invertebrates. Diet was highly variable between groups and seasons. For foxes, lagomorphs (20 % EDW) and earthworms (33 % EDW) were the most important prey, followed by scavenge and fruits. Variation in diet between groups and seasons was marked in lagomorphs but not earthworms. Multlvarlate analyses of habitat parameters revealed a low-dimensional 'resource space' that could be divided into conventional habitat categories. Censuses of prey species indicated that resource presence varied consistently between habitat categories. Key habitats occurred at fairly constant proportions in territories of both species) their dispersion partly determined the configuration of territory boundaries. The proportions of specific habitats per territory were correlated with the proportions of certain prey items in diets. space use by individuals was analysed by spatial autocorrelation methods, variation in space use by foxes was attributed to variation in resource dispersion. In contrast, individual badgers were similar in their use of space. Here, small-scale heterogeneity in intensity of use may reflect local earthworm availability, in one studied fox group, males and females differed in range use. Individuals in one studied badger group coordinated their use of space probably to minimize foraging interference. It is suggested that group living in Wytham badgers is a response to defending resources, and a model is proposed to explain how the spatial and social organisation of male and female badgers relate to the characteristics of the resources they require.
3

The company director : commerce, state and society

Brock, Aske Laursen January 2017 (has links)
This thesis traces the social networks of company directors involved in multinational commerce during the seventeenth century. It places commerce and directors at the centre of key economic, political and social developments during the seventeenth century, answering three interrelated questions: how did relationships between different corporate spheres change during the seventeenth century? How did the director develop as a socioeconomic agent during the seventeenth century? How did directors influence the formation of the English political economy? The first chapter defines the company director and places them in the wider historiographical traditions, while also outlining the methodological approaches used throughout the thesis. Chapter two examines how debates concerning the Virginia Company affected the wider community of company directors in the first decades of the seventeenth century, demonstrating how disparities in visions for trade created friction, which in turn affected the formation of governance in other companies. The third chapter analyses how the networks of different groups of directors developed during the civil wars and Interregnum period. The tension between the varied parties drove fertile debates on company formats, which stretched existing notions of corporate governance. Following on from this, chapter four traces how directors purged and counter-purged one another in during the Restoration. New networks were shaped by private trade overseas, by new extra-company institutions and by increased competition between companies. The growing differences between the Levant Company and the East India Company inspires renewed debates over directors' role. The fifth chapter investigates how directors became familiar in England during the late seventeenth century. The joint stock boom of the 1690s gave a new presence to commercial corporate governance in England, while the links between the director community and the English state were further cemented by foundation of the Bank of England. The final chapter examines the foundation of the New East India Company in 1698, as well as the subsequent merger of the old and new companies. The new company fractured and expanded of the director community. However, the merger between the two companies ignored contemporary political ideologies, and forged the directors' networks into a corporate superstructure. The dissertation challenges the assumption that conflicts between insiders and outsiders in the commercial community accelerated the formation of the English political economy by tracing networks across a community of diverse individuals. It offers a new understanding of the relationship between commerce, politics and society in seventeenth century England, and demonstrates the importance of company directors as socioeconomic agents, emphasising the social nature of the early modern trading corporation.
4

The effects of experience on tool use by Capuchin monkeys

Babitz, Mindy Ann January 1999 (has links)
This thesis investigated effects of manipulative experience on tool-using ability of tufted capuchins. Two groups of capuchins were tested on variations of a tool-using task, involving use of an object as a tool to dislodge a reward from a tube. The tasks were modelled after those developed by Visalberghi and Limongelli (1994) and Visalberghi and Trinca (1989). One group of monkeys was provided the opportunity to manipulate task materials without reward; the other group was not. Experiment 1 required subjects to push a rod through the tube. Experience with task materials improved capuchins' efficiency, evidenced by faster completion of trials. In Experiment 2, short pipes could be combined to create a tool of sufficient length. Due to procedural problems, results were inconclusive. Experiment 3 required subjects to manufacture the appropriate tool. Experience with task materials improved capuchins' performance, evidenced by faster completion of trials, less frequent performance of inefficient behaviours, and decrease in errors across trials. When capuchins' performance was compared with enculturated chimpanzees tested previously on the task (Visalberghi, Fragaszy, and Savage-Rumbaugh, 1995), experienced capuchins performed as efficiently after 15 trials as had chimpanzees originally. In Experiment 4, subjects had to dislodge the reward from a tube containing a trap. Because successful levels of performance were not reached, results were inconclusive. In Experiments 5 and 6, appreciation of object affordances was examined. The capuchins demonstrated an ability to distinguish between functional characteristics of objects. These results suggest previous claims regarding limitations of capuchin tool-use may have underestimated their abilities. Further, because object experience enhances tool-using ability, previous comparisons of capuchins with enculturated chimpanzees seem to have misrepresented the magnitude of difference in their abilities. However, future research comparing species with the same experiential backgrounds is necessary to elaborate on differences in cognitive processes underlying capuchin and chimpanzee tool-using behaviour.
5

The behavioural ecology of young baboons

Marsh, Frances J. January 1993 (has links)
It is hypothesised that young baboons are potentially vulnerable to the effects of seasonal stress. Data were collected on the behaviour of this age group during a 12 month field study of a troop of olive baboons (Papio anubis) on the Laikipia plateau, Kenya, using a hand-held computer and a new program written by the author. Long-term environmental records for this site were continued. At this site there is a seasonal pattern of rainfall with inter-annual variation. Measures of biomass indicate that there are seasonal fluctuations in baboon food availability. Patterns in the occurrence of one component of the baboon's diet, Acacia species, are presented. The varying behaviour of the troop as a whole is related to food availability. Differential use of the home range and observed sub-trooping behaviour are interpreted as adaptive strategies for living in a seasonal environment. Developmental change in the behaviour associated with the mother-offspring relationship is described. Patterns in the time spent in contact with and close proximity to the mother from this site are compared with those from other sites, and striking similarities are found. Many of the behavioural activities of infants and young juveniles, i.e. feeding, moving, types of exploring, visually attending, grooming, and receiving affiliative approaches, exhibit patterns of developmental change. Interactions between activities are examined in the context of the complete activity budget. The effect of seasonal stress on young baboons is examined by using a technique of curve fitting. Data are compared between periods of higher and lower food availability. Significantly more time is spent feeding and less time spent in social and attending activities in the 'worst' than the 'best' months. Young baboons vary their diets seasonally. There is evidence that older infants (weanlings) are more vulnerable to the impact of seasonal stress than either young infants or young juveniles.
6

Post-conflict behaviour and relationship quality of cercopithecine primates

Castles, Duncan Lorimer January 1997 (has links)
This thesis investigates the nature of post-conflict behaviour and relationships among individuals in two captive groups of pigtail macaques, Macaca nemestrina, and one wild troop of olive baboons, Papio anubis. Data were collected during periods of seven and twelve months respectively. In both pigtail groups, conflicts were more frequently reconciled between opponents with strong affiliative ties. However, reconciliation was twice as common in the well-established group where individuals' social networks were more compact. It is argued that the more intense ties produced by restricted networks increased the likelihood of reconciliation. Reconciliation was demonstrated among wild olive baboons, occurring at a rate consistent with a relatively intolerant dominance style. Opponents who were close kin or of similar rank reconciled relatively frequently, but reconciliation rarely followed conflicts associated with food. Olive baboons did not 'console' each other, consistent with the hypothesis that consolation requires an ability to empathise with victim distress. Initiation of post-conflict attacks on third parties was not elevated in victims of aggression. Among the baboons, both victims and initiators of aggression exhibited elevated rates of post-conflict self-directed behaviour (a combined measure of scratching, autogrooming, body-shaking and yawning). Reconciliation reduced both SDB and the incidence of further aggression. However, reconciliation only reduced SDB among individuals involved in conflicts in which they had both received and delivered aggression. Female baboons showed significantly higher rates of SDB when their nearest neighbour (within 5 m) was a dominant conspecific than when he or she was a subordinate individual, supporting the hypothesis that SDB indexes stress in primates. This result suggests that SDB can be used to index relationship security in primates.
7

The function of 'referential' calls in two fission-fusion species : spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Teixidor, Patricia January 1997 (has links)
The problems of what primates communicate with their vocalizations and to what extent they refer to events in the external environment are raised in numerous studies of primate vocal communication. To investigate these issues, I concentrate on the calls of two primate species with a similar fission-fusion social organization. I report here the results of a one year field study on the Central American spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi frontatus) and of a captive study on the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). I collected observational data and conducted playback experiments on two types of calls of the spider monkey, whinnies and alarm barks. Spider monkeys use two functionally distinct whinnies, a feeding whinny and a locational whinny. Detailed acoustic analyses of whinnies given in different contexts showed that in three females an acoustic feature-number of arches in the fundamental frequency of the call- could be used to differentiate between them. Although the whinnies of different monkeys within the same community exhibit enough acoustical differences for individual vocal recognition to take place, spider monkeys did not discriminate familiar individuals' whinnies from those of strangers from another community. In predator contexts spider monkeys use barks to attract other conspecifics to a site. However, my data do not support the existence of two types of alarm barks for aerial versus terrestrial predators. I conducted two different types of experiments on the calling behaviour of captive chimpanzees in response to food-finding. I examined whether the quantity and divisibility of food, or the presence of an audience, influence calling behaviour. Chimpanzees' food- associated calls, i.e. rough grunts, functioned to indicate food availability, and they were produced or suppressed depending on how shareable the food was and whether or not other individuals were nearly. Several spider monkeys' and chimpanzees' calls have the ability to function referentially, but cannot be considered devoid of a motivational content.
8

The faces of British science : narrating lives in science since c.1945

Wainman, Ruth January 2017 (has links)
This thesis uses archived oral history interviews to trace the identities of scientists in narratives that capture their lived experiences of science. It draws upon fifty-four life history interviews with both men and women scientists from the British Library's 'An Oral History of British Science' (OHBS) archive. The OHBS was first established in 2009 to address the lack of comprehensive oral history archives devoted to documenting the personal experiences and memories of professionals involved in contemporary British science. In this thesis, however, the in-depth nature of these interviews are used to explore scientists' childhoods, careers and eventual retirement. This thesis therefore provides one of the first systematic attempts to draw together the personal accounts of professional scientists from a major public archive dedicated to science. In order to situate the study of scientists' lives, two fields of research are placed under scrutiny - oral history and history of science. In doing so, this thesis traces a longer tension between the 'history from below' approach of oral history and the 'great men' foundations of history of science when the two fields were still in their infancy. The different levels of emphasis that oral historians have placed on exploring issues such as trust, empathy and subjectivity have also been accompanied by a persistent scepticism found in history and associated studies in the sociology of science. Firstly, this thesis draws upon the democratic ethos of oral history in order to reconcile the trust and suspicion surrounding scientists' accounts of their lives. Secondly, the life history methodology of the OHBS interviews, which typically documents a whole person's life, draws attention to the importance of childhood and retirement for establishing scientists' identities as they sought to construct and reconstruct their lives in science. Lastly, it concludes with the implications of adopting an oral history approach to illuminate the contingent nature of scientists' identities.
9

Contested care : medicine and surgery during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

Browne, Jonathan Sebastian January 2017 (has links)
This thesis traces the important role played by Spanish medical personnel, particularly surgeons, in the development and organisation of their own medical services during the Spanish Civil War. This study, therefore, is not strictly a history of medicine during the conflict, nor does it seek to further explore international efforts in this regard; rather it analyses through an examination of the medical personnel involved on both sides, the causes, treatments and long term consequences of injury and trauma, including that of exile, on the wounded of the Spanish Civil War. This thesis, by picking over the bones of a wide body of literature and by engaging with a variety of different sources, forms an interlocking part of a new historiographical strand examining the origins and evolution of a traumatic conflict whose repercussions continue to be felt throughout Spain. Through its engagement with a diversity of sources, its analysis of the relationship between medicine and propaganda, and through an inclusive examination of the contribution made by Spanish medical professionals across Spain during the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, this thesis provides its own unique historical perspective of a conflict whose living legacy of trauma and of wounds unhealed is still alive in Spain today.
10

The Belgian army, society and military cultures, 1830-1918

Draper, Mario A. January 2016 (has links)
This thesis examines the conflicted relationship between the Belgian army and society from its independence in 1830 through to the end of the First World War in 1918. It assesses the role that the army played as a tool of nation building in what was a culturally, geographically, linguistically, and politically fractured country. Ultimately, the work argues that the army largely failed in this role as political interference in the institution restricted its ability to impact positively on the youth entrusted to its care. The machinations of the two dominant parties, the Catholics and the Liberals, helped reinforce local ties as opposed to fostering a wider sense of nationhood. The military implications were manifold. Not only was the army slow, within a continental context, to adopt conscription, only doing so in 1913, but the strong sense of anti-militarism within society equally held successive governments to account over necessary financial contributions towards other aspects of the military, such as the Civic Guard and the fortresses. When coupled with the issue of language among a majority Flemish rank and file commanded by a predominantly French-speaking officer corps, there was a real fear among domestic and foreign commentators that Belgium’s ability to uphold its unique imposed neutrality in the event of a future war was limited. Notwithstanding, its performance during the First World War was surprising and marked a brief interlude in the contested domestic affairs of the long nineteenth century, as opposition against the ‘other’ rallied the nation behind a single cause. It demonstrated that, despite an entrenched parochialism, multiple associations with the concept of Belgian nationality were extant, but required the crisis of the Great War in order to be clearly expressed.

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