The diet of Powerful Owls (Ninox strenua) living at Christmas Hills, 35km north-east of Melbourne was examined by analysis of 686 regurgitated pellets collected over two years. An aid was also developed to help identify potential mammalian prey species based on hair and skeletal characteristics. The following features were found to be most useful in distinguishing between the three species of arboreal marsupials - Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus), Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) and Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps): - Cross-sectional width of primary guard hairs. - The size and shape of the nasal, frontal, parietal and squamosal bones of the skull. - Dentition. The size and shape of the upper incisor, canine and premolar teeth. The size and shape of the lower incisor and premolar teeth. - The size of the humerus. The Sugar Glider has a much smaller humerus than that of the Common Ringtail Possum and the Common Brushtail Possum. In the Common Brushtail Possum the entepicondyle ends in a very sharp point but the Common Ringtail Possum this point is not as sharp. - The Common Ringtail Possum’s femur has a very prominent trochanter which projects further than that in the Common Brushtail Possum. The femur of the Sugar Glider is distinguished by having a very large depression between the condyle and the trochanter. - The Common Brushtail Possum’s scapula has a narrower lower blade (relative to length) than that in the Common Ringtail Possum. The scapula of the Sugar Glider is smaller in size than that of the other two possums.The pelvic girdle Of the Common Brushtail Possum has a much wider ischium than those of the Common Brushtail Possum and the Sugar Glider. The ilium of the Sugar is much narrower and smaller than that of the other two possums Mammalian prey was found in 89%, insects in 13% and birds in 10% of the pellets. Of the mammals, Common Ringtail Possums occurred most frequently in the pellets over the year. There was no seasonal difference in the frequency of occurrence of Common Ringtail Possums and Sugar Gliders in pellets. However, Common Brushtail Possums were more likely to be taken in spring than in the other seasons. More adult Common Ringtail Possums were taken as prey than were other age classes over the year, except in summer when high numbers of young were consumed by the owls. The habitat of the Powerful Owl was examined by ground surveys and spotlight surveys in sixteen sites within the Warrandyte-Kinglake Nature Conservation Link. Four categories of survey sites were chosen with the following features. Category A - Sites with a dense understorey of shrubs and small trees, as well as many old trees (>10/ha) which might be suitable for nest hollows. Category B - Sites which lacked a dense understorey of shrubs and small trees and containing few or no old trees suitable for nest hollows. Category C - Sites with a dense understorey of shrubs and small trees but containing few or no old trees suitable for nest hollows. Category D - Sites which lacked a dense understorey of shrubs and small trees but having old trees (>10/ha) which might be suitable for nest hollows. High prey densities strongly correlated with the presence of hollows at these sites. In the light of the results, management recommendations were made for the future conservation of the Powerful Owls living at Christmas Hills. The following recommendations were particularly important: 1. Cleared or semi - cleared land within the Warrandyte Kinglake Nature Conservation Link be revegetated using indigenous species of eucalypts and waffles in order to provide a contiguous native forest corridor for the movement of possums and gliders between the Yarra River Valley and the Kinglake Plateau. 2. Continued planting of Eucalyptus spp. and Acacia spp. in the forested areas of the Warrandyte-Kinglake Nature Conservation Link. 3. Continued protection of healthy living trees to provide a continuous supply of hollow trees. 4. No falling of dead standing trees for firewood collecting as these can provide nest hollows for prey species of the Powerful Owl.

For a graph G = (V, E), a non-empty set S ⊆ V is a defensive alliance if for every vertex v in S, v has at most one more neighbor in V - S than it has in S, and S is an offensive alliance if for every v ∈ V - S that has a neighbor in S, v has more neighbors in S than in V - S. A powerful alliance is both defensive and offensive. We initiate the study of powerful alliances in graphs.

This thesis focuses on a relatively new manner of looking into the discretionary decisions implemented bypowerful social actors - judges, prosecutors, and police officers- resulting in detremential effects for African Americans in the criminal justice system. While it is common to look into inequality in the system, there has not been much research done on the frame of thinking of these actors when making these decisions. This study will develop the concept of the "white framing model" while simultaneously demanding change.The white framing model will be developed by linking four theoretical concepts the white racial frame, systemic racism, interest convergence, and Eurocentric law. This thesis found the thinking of these actors from this frame has resulted in surmountable amounts of discrimination and a disproportionate amount of African Americans in prison. Seventy percent of African Americans have reported an experience of a discriminatory nature compared to 36% reported by their white counterparts in their lifetimes. These discriminatory acts are often experienced through interaction with law enforcement agencies that are in place to provide social order. Further results show the overall consequences for black men were being imprisoned 11.8 times more than whites. This study provides evidence that uncovers the covert racist nature of the criminal justice system that can be ignored by the untrained eye. Future work will involve change in policies, people holding these positions, and implementation of these solutions. These policy implementations include demanding a critical mass of African Americans to occupy powerful social positions, and the implementation of programs to reflect assistance for people of color. These solutions will not only provide a representative sample in criminal justice positions, but also make a difference in a system that is often unjust to people of color.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have grown significantly over the years and are today considered to be one of the most influential and powerful actors in the world when it comes to defending democracy and upholding various rights. When it comes to human rights, Amnesty International is one of the largest and most respected NGO in the world. Amnesty International works for a world where all the human rights should be respected and can be enjoyed by all the people of the world. Despite the important work of Amnesty International, knowledge of Amnesty International and other NGOs are very limited. The knowledge that exists is considered to be very simplistic, since NGOs are much more complex than one actually thinks. This study is therefore an effort to increase the knowledge and understanding of Amnesty International and NGOs. Using the “Stakeholder theory”, Amnesty International will be analyzed to examine how powerful and effective it is. Various stakeholders in the form of governments in countries and the media will be used to analyze their relationship with Amnesty International in terms of being able to influence. The findings has shown that because Amnesty International lives on donations, they depend on having a high membership base and reputation. Amnesty International prioritizes therefore topics based on how much the interest there are from the public opinion and in the media. This, instead of Amnesty International focusing and working in the countries where the most serious human rights violations occur and take place. Therefore, Amnesty International as a NGO will be weakened in its effort to be effective in changing and influencing the human rights in the world.

I det här examensarbetet har jag valt att undersöka undervisningsmetoden "Grej of the Day" (GOTD) inom ramen för samhällsorienterande ämnen, SO, med fokus på mellanstadiet. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka kunskapsdimensioner i SO som lärare talar om när de talar om metoden GOTD. Studiens syfte besvaras med kvalitativ metod i form av intervjuer. Åtta lärare (främst på mellanstadiet) intervjuas om varför de använder metoden GOTD, vad de undervisar om och vilken typ av kunskap de menar att eleverna utvecklar inom ämnet SO. Det empiriska materialet analyseras med utgångspunkt i ett par olika teoretiska ramverk. Resultatet visar att lärarna är mycket positiva till metoden av olika skäl. De menar bland annat att eleverna utvecklar olika typer av kunskaper, inte bara inom SO. GOTD används till stor del ämnesövergripande i undervisningen. Lärarna uttrycker att eleverna utvecklar kunskaper om fakta och begrepp, något som i studien benämns som kunskaper av första ordningen. De menar också att eleverna tränar förmågor, kunskaper av andra ordningen; disciplinära och interdisciplinära. I studien konstateras även att den kunskap som eleverna utvecklar skulle kunna ses kraftfull kunskap. Lärarna talar alltså om olika kunskapsdimensioner eller olika typer av kunskap när de talar om GOTD; dels kunskaper av första och andra ordningen men möjligtvis också kraftfull kunskap (powerful knowledge). / <p>SO</p>

In this submission I explore the role played by discourse in the development of pupils' understanding of school-subject knowledge in secondary school classrooms in England, following changes to GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) specifications in 2015. Changes to the structure, the subject content, and the assessment of GCSEs were made in an effort to focus on 'powerful knowledge' during the Key Stage (KS) 4 curriculum (for pupils aged 14 - 16 years old) and in order to promote an emphasis on knowledge that is based on academic disciplines. My research looks at the concept of powerful knowledge, based in a critical realist epistemology and a social realist theory of knowledge, and the extent to which all young people are likely to access knowledge that is powerful in the classroom. I argue that access for all pupils to the means by which to judge knowledge claims and thereby challenge and change society - the transformational power of knowledge - underpins a social justice agenda. My research explores a less-developed aspect of the social realist debate on powerful knowledge, a pedagogic discourse to enable a move away from merely teaching factual or content knowledge. I propose that for knowledge to be powerful teachers and pupils need to be 'epistemologically aware'. My case-study research contributes new empirical findings to the literature on pedagogic discourse for a powerful knowledge curriculum. I discuss the learning trajectories of 15 pupils (including five from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds) from two Year 10 'case' classes observed over a 12-week period, during which they studied a novel as part of their GCSE English literature course. 'Thinking notes' and concept mapping were introduced as innovative data-gathering and analytical tools with which to gain a unique and detailed analysis of pupils' learning over the series of lessons given during the 12-week period. I discuss the teachers' conceptual framing of their discipline and the role that this, together with pupils' experiences and backgrounds, has in the re-contextualisation of discipline-based knowledge in the classroom. I conclude that pedagogic discourse that makes the epistemic logic and related concepts of a subject explicit - an epistemological awareness - may enable pupils from both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds to build systems of meaning that transcend their everyday understanding of the world and the context in which they view it to access powerful knowledge. I present a conceptualisation of a powerful knowledge pedagogic discourse for the study of a novel in the KS4 English literature classroom.

In this research I investigated ecological attributes of Powerful Owls (Ninox strenua) in a continuum of habitats throughout the Yarra Valley corridor of Victoria, Australia. These habitats ranged from a highly urbanized parkland (the Yarra Valley Metropolitan Park) to a relatively undisturbed closed forest (Toolangi State Forest). Different aspects of the owls' ecology were investigated at six sites to determine whether their behaviour changed when they occupied habitats with different levels of urbanization and disturbance. The ecological attributes investigated were habitat utilization and habitat requirements (for both roosting and nesting), adult behaviour (through radio-tracking), juvenile behaviour and dispersal (through radio tracking), diet (through analysing regurgitated food pellets) and breeding success rates. A number of methods were used to capture adult Powerful Owls. These are described and their effectiveness discussed. The types of radio-transmitters and colour bands used for identification of owls are also described. The results showed that Powerful Owls are present and successfully breed in urban and suburban areas and that they can tolerate moderate levels of disturbance. However, Powerful Owls do require sites with high prey densities, roost trees and trees with suitable breeding hollows. In comparison with Powerful Owls living elsewhere in forests, the urban owls displayed higher tolerance levels to disturbance and were less selective in terms of habitat usage and diet. Home range sizes of urban Powerful Owls also appeared much smaller than those of the forest-dwelling Powerful Owls. This is probably due to the high prey densities in the urban areas. The ecology of the Powerful Owl is compared with that of two owl species from North America, the Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurind) and the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus). In particular, I compared the similarities and differences in habitat requirements and breeding successes in different habitats for the three species. Overall, it would appear that urban areas can support Powerful Owls providing some old-growth trees are maintained to provide nest hollows. Implications for the long-term management of Powerful Owls in urban areas are also discussed.

This thesis is devoted to the detectability of an inhomogeneous region possibly embedded in a noisy environment. It presents models and algorithms using the theory of the longest significant run and percolation. We analyze the computational results based on simulation. We consider the length of the significant nodes in a chain with good continuation in a square lattice of independent nodes. Inspired by the percolation theory, we first analyze the problem in a tree based model. We give the critical probability and find the decay rate of the probability of having a significant run with length k starting at the origin. We find that the asymptotic rate of the length of the significant run can be powerfully applied in the area of image detection. Examples are detection of filamentary structures in a background of uniform random points and target tracking problems. We set the threshold for the rejection region in these problems so that the false positives diminish quickly as we have more samples. Inspired by the convex set detection, we also give a fast and near optimal algorithm to detect a possibly inhomogeneous chain with good continuation in an image of pixels with white noise. We analyze the length of the longest significant chain after thresholding each pixel and consider the statistics over all significant chains. Such a strategy significantly reduces the complexity of the algorithm. The false positives are eliminated as the number of pixels increases. This extends the existing detection method related to the detection of inhomogeneous line segment in the literature.

abstract: This research work uses the Weather Research and Forecasting Model to study the effect of large wind farms with an area of 900 square kilometers and a high power density of 7.58 W/m2 on regional climate. Simulations were performed with a wind farm parameterization scheme turned on in south Oregon. Control cases were also run with the parameterization scheme turned off. The primary emphasis was on offshore wind farms. Some analysis on onshore wind farms was also performed. The effects of these wind farms were studied on the vertical profiles of temperature, wind speed, and moisture as well as on temperature and on wind speed near the surface and at hub height. The effects during the day and at night were compared. Seasonal variations were also studied by performing simulations in January and in July. It was seen that wind farms produce a reduction in wind speed at hub height and that the downward propagation of this reduction in wind speed lessens as the atmosphere becomes more stable. In all the cases studied, the wind farms produced a warming effect near the surface, with greater atmospheric stability leading to higher near-surface temperatures. It was also observed that wind farms caused a drying effect below the hub height and a moistening effect above it, because they had facilitated vertical transport of moisture in the air from the lower layers of the atmosphere to the layers of the atmosphere above the wind farm. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Mechanical Engineering 2016

Geografi är ett litet ämne i svenska skolor; i gymnasiet är det få elever som läser geografi och i grundskolan har det visats att lärarna ofta saknar högre utbildning inom ämnet och ser det som ett stödämne till övriga SO-ämnen. Det finns röster som vill höja ämnets status eftersom geografiska kunskaper anses viktigt för att förstå exempelvis klimatförändring. Dessutom finns det forskare som förespråkar mer fokus på ämneskunskaper i skolan för att eleverna ska kunna använda dem för att eventuellt kunna påverka i framtiden. Genom intervjuer med geografilärare på gymnasiet—med fokus på geografins bidrag och varför vi ska läsa geografi—visar det sig att de ser på ämnet som ett unikt sätt att binda samman andra ämnen, särskilt de naturvetenskapliga och samhällsvetenskapliga ämnena. Det finns även argument för geografi om att det bidrar till samhälle och personlig utveckling, det skulle kunna hjälpa till att uppfylla gymnasiets uppdrag samt övergripande mål och riktlinjer, och geografiska kunskaper kan förbereda eleverna får att vara med och påverka framtiden.