Processes that influence the early life stages of fishes can significantly impact population dynamics, yet they continue to be poorly understood. This dissertation examined relationships between the environment, early life history traits (ELHTs), behavior, and post-settlement survival for a coral reef fish, Stegastes partitus, in the upper Florida Keys, to elucidate how they influence juvenile demography. Otolith analysis of settlers and recruits coupled with environmental data revealed that S. partitus surviving the early juvenile period settled at larger sizes and grew slower post-settlement. Water temperature also influenced the ranges of these and other ELHTs as well as the intensity and direction of selective mortality processes acting on some of these traits (i.e., pelagic larval duration, mean larval growth). Otolith analysis was paired with behavioral observations of newly settled juvenile S. partitus in the field to reveal that the relationship between size-at-settlement, early juvenile growth and survival is behaviorally-mediated. Individuals that were larger at settlement were more active (i.e., spent less time sheltered, swam farther from shelters) and grew more slowly post-settlement. Likewise, slower juvenile growth was associated with greater activity, more conspecific aggression, and faster escape swimming speeds. A six-year time series of recruitment densities revealed substantial temporal (interannual, seasonal, lunar) and spatial (by microhabitat, conspecific density) variability in recruitment which influenced the composition of recruits. For instance, larvae settling during the darkest phases of the moon were larger at settlement, but selective mortality processes during brighter periods removed more of the smallest settlers, resulting in juveniles with similar sizes-at-settlement regardless of when they arrived to the reef. Because recruitment strength and composition varied temporally, genetic markers (6 microsatellite and 1 mitochondrial loci) were used to determine if the genetic composition of monthly cohorts of settling larvae and juveniles also varies interannually, monthly, or across life stages. A lack of genetic structure suggested that S. partitus has a large effective population size and variation in ELHTs is not likely the result of successful spawning of a disproportionately small group of adults. As a whole, these results reveal processes associated with larval supply and post-settlement life that collectively shape juvenile demography.

Background: Women's empowerment is hypothesized as a predictor of reproductive health outcomes. It is believed that empowered girls and women are more likely to delay marriage, plan their pregnancies, receive prenatal care, and have their childbirth attended by a skilled health provider. The objective of this study was to assess the association between women's empowerment and use of modern contraception among a representative sample of Nigerian women. Methods: This study used the 2003, 2008, and 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data. The analytic sample was restricted to 35,633 women who expressed no desire to have children within 2 years following each survey, were undecided about timing for children, and who reported no desire for more children. Measures of women's empowerment included their ability to partake in decisions pertaining to their healthcare, large household purchases, and visit to their family or relatives. Multivariable regression models adjusting for respondent's age at first birth, religion, education, wealth status, number of children, and geopolitical region were used to measure the association between empowerment and use of modern contraceptives. Results: The proportion of women who participated in decisions to visit their relatives increased from 42.5% in 2003 to 50.6% in 2013. The prevalence of women involved in decision-making related to large household purchases increased from 24.3% in 2003 to 41.1% in 2013, while the proportion of those who partook in decision related to their health care increased from 28.4% in 2003 to 41.9% in 2013. Use of modern contraception was positively associated with women's participation in decisions related to large household purchases [2008: adjusted OR (aOR) = 1.15; 95% CI = 1.01-1.31] and (2013; aOR = 1.60; 1.40-1.83), health care [2008: (aOR = 1.20; 1.04-1.39) and (2013; aOR = 1.39; 1.22-1.59)], and visiting family or relatives [2013; aOR = 1.58; 1.36-1.83]. The prevalence of modern contraceptive use among women with need for contraception increased marginally from 11.1% in 2003 to 12.8% in 2013.

This thesis examines the structural and conjunuctural constraints that inhibit the emergence of a civil society and democracy in Ethiopia, 1991-2005. Freedom and democracy are taken as precondition for development and social transformation. It introduces a model of how state and society relationship affects development and social transformation in transitional societies placing freedom as a pivotal link. The thesis establishes a marked continuum in the modalities of state and society relationship throughout the three post-War governments in Ethiopia. It examines the current state/society relationship and highlights lack of freedom as the major constraint. This is examined against the backdrop of what the historical realm for social change in post-War Ethiopia is, namely freedom and democracy. It examines the policies of the current government (EPRDF) on non-state organizations, the 'theoretical' rationales it advanced and how the perceptions that the ruling party held back in 1975 haven't changed. It holds that the government exacerbated the problem of the fragile relationship it had with society. The thesis also examines the government's policy on ethnicity as the 'rationale' that governs the functions of its institutions of governance and deconstructs the concepts of EPRRDF's "revolutionary democracy", the dichotomy between quality and quantity as well as between cadres and experts. It also deconstructs the EPRDF's thesis on the "national question" both in terms of its claims to have proceeded from the positions of the old student movement on the one hand and from the Marxian theoretical perception on the "national question" on the other. The analysis is extended to examine, within the poverty-unfreedom nexus, the development challenges that Ethiopia currently faces. Four major development challenges are advanced for examination: gender, environment, rural development and population. The thesis concludes that the EPRDF has failed to resolve these structural problems. EPRDF's exclusion of the nascent civil society, suppression of freedom and official political opposition are taken as the main factors behind the failure. The case of the 2005 elections is presented as a sequel to the thesis. / Sociology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)

This thesis examines the structural and conjunuctural constraints that inhibit the emergence of a civil society and democracy in Ethiopia, 1991-2005. Freedom and democracy are taken as precondition for development and social transformation. It introduces a model of how state and society relationship affects development and social transformation in transitional societies placing freedom as a pivotal link. The thesis establishes a marked continuum in the modalities of state and society relationship throughout the three post-War governments in Ethiopia. It examines the current state/society relationship and highlights lack of freedom as the major constraint. This is examined against the backdrop of what the historical realm for social change in post-War Ethiopia is, namely freedom and democracy. It examines the policies of the current government (EPRDF) on non-state organizations, the 'theoretical' rationales it advanced and how the perceptions that the ruling party held back in 1975 haven't changed. It holds that the government exacerbated the problem of the fragile relationship it had with society. The thesis also examines the government's policy on ethnicity as the 'rationale' that governs the functions of its institutions of governance and deconstructs the concepts of EPRRDF's "revolutionary democracy", the dichotomy between quality and quantity as well as between cadres and experts. It also deconstructs the EPRDF's thesis on the "national question" both in terms of its claims to have proceeded from the positions of the old student movement on the one hand and from the Marxian theoretical perception on the "national question" on the other. The analysis is extended to examine, within the poverty-unfreedom nexus, the development challenges that Ethiopia currently faces. Four major development challenges are advanced for examination: gender, environment, rural development and population. The thesis concludes that the EPRDF has failed to resolve these structural problems. EPRDF's exclusion of the nascent civil society, suppression of freedom and official political opposition are taken as the main factors behind the failure. The case of the 2005 elections is presented as a sequel to the thesis. / Sociology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)

La population - en son sens originel de processus de peuplement - est un sujet étonnamment absent de l'énorme volume d’études sur Adam Smith. Ce thème était au centre de la philosophie morale et de l'économie politique du 18e siècle, les deux domaines auxquels les contributions de Smith sont les plus connues. Son importance dans l’œuvre de Smith a été obscurcie au 20e siècle par une focalisation étroite sur les questions économiques dans la littérature secondaire. Pour une analyse intégrale de son œuvre, il est essentiel que la place centrale du peuplement soit révélée. Trois thèmes aujourd'hui considérés comme essentiels au projet de Smith sont ainsi intimement liés à la population : le lien entre division du travail et étendue du marché ; la théorie des quatre stades du progrès de la société ; et le lien entre développement rural et urbain, lui-même au centre du plaidoyer de Smith pour la liberté du commerce. Le marché est un concept aujourd'hui assimilé au fonctionnement du système économique capitaliste ; pour Smith, il décrivait la faculté de commercer, aux vecteurs essentiellement démographiques et géographiques. Le progrès de la société est à la fois cause et effet de la croissance de la population. En son sein se trouve l'interrelation symbiotique entre le développement rural et urbain que Smith appelait le «progrès naturel de l'opulence». Adopter l’optique smithienne plutôt que néo-malthusienne dans l'examen des dynamiques de population et de développement - y compris l'analyse de la transition démographique - conduit alors à une reconsidération fondamentale des interactions causales entre mortalité, fécondité, richesse et variables institutionnelles. / Population - in its original sense of the process of peopling - is a topic surprisingly absent from the huge volume of scholarship on Adam Smith. This topic was central to 18th century moral philosophy and political economy, the two fields Smith most famously contributed to. Its importance in Smith’s work was obscured in the 20th century by a narrow focus on economic matters in the secondary literature. For an undivided analysis of Smith’s oeuvre it is crucial that the central position of the peopling process be brought to light. Three topics that are today recognised as essential to Smith’s project are thus intimately connected to population: the relation between the division of labour and the extent of the market; the stadial theory of progress; and the link between the development of town and country, itself central to Smith’s advocacy of the freedom of trade. The market is a concept read today through an institutional lens linking it to the functioning of the capitalist economic system; Smith conceived of it as facility for trade, with essentially demographic and geographic vectors. The progress of society is both cause and effect of the growth of population. At its core is the symbiotic interrelationship between rural and urban development that Smith called the “natural progress of opulence”. In turn, looking at dynamics of population and development - including the analysis of the demographic transition - through a Smithian rather than a neo-Malthusian lens leads to a fundamental reconsideration of causal interactions between mortality, fertility, wealth and institutional variables.

No abstract provided / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)