Study of visual representations of the first human colonisations of new territories offers evidence of archaeology's continued complicity in the production of ideologically-loaded imagery. Despite years of theorising about the slippery and powerful nature of visualisation, the practice of colouring scholarly and popular archaeological texts with supposedly objective pictures (e.g., maps, photographs, tables, illustrations and drawings) has yet to be disrupted. This thesis uses depictions of the first peopling of North America, Australia and Oceania to show that even our most scientific renderings of the past are often little more than reflections of the status quo. As archaeological images move between scientific and popular culture (through academic journals, texts, encyclopedias, popular magazines, websites and children's books), it is argued that they feed back on one another in such a way as to turn present-day socio-political circumstances into the prehistoric "realities" of first peoples. Using a mixed methodology of semiological, discourse, content and compositional analysis, this thesis speaks critically about archaeological engagements with imagery in an attempt to encourage closer looks at how contemporary visual artefacts have enabled us to find ourselves in the record of prehistory.

Around the globe recent initiatives to implement new identity card schemes have proved contentious. In some countries governments have dropped these initiatives because of the fear of popular backlash, in others governments have gone ahead and implemented the new systems but have dealt with substantial popular opposition. Yet in Spain, in 2006 a new national identity card was introduced putting the country at the forefront of Europe in the implementation of new generation identity cards and there was barely any opposition. To date more than 12.5 million Spanish citizens have received this new document and the cost of the project already exceeds 314 million Euros. So what explains these developments? Why has a new national identity card been introduced? Why has there been comparatively little opposition? To address these questions this thesis presents a qualitative-historical case study of Spain’s national identity card. This study will permit analysis into how global forces promoting new forms of identification (administrative, technological and corporate) are interacting with distinctive Spanish institutions, attitudes and legacies. Because there is a shortage of secondary literature regarding the topic, the study reviews policy documentation, legislative debate, media sources and survey data, and analyses the findings from a set of key informant interviews with individuals from the government, private sector, academia, NGO’s and the Spanish Data Protection Agency.

This work presents three new classes of 6-oxoverdazyl radicals. Each of these classes of radicals bears a different substituent in the 3-position of the verdazyl ring. These classes include N-heteroaromatic monoverdazyls, oligopyridine diradicals, and ferrocenyl-based verdazyl radicals and diradicals. With the exception of the ferrocenyl-based radicals, these verdazyl radicals have been designed to serve as ligands and the direct metal-radical interactions have been explored. The ferrocenyl verdazyls have been designed to investigate the indirect interactions between iron(II) and the covalently linked verdazyl radical. All verdazyl radicals and precursors were fully characterized and the metal-radical magnetic interactions were investigated where structural characterization was available. A series of bidentate verdazyl radical ligands were prepared and the metal-radical magnetic interactions have been investigated. The magnetic susceptibility data for the octahedral complexes indicates that cobalt(II) couples ferromagnetically (Jco_vd = +95 cm-l) and iron(II) antiferromagnetically (JFe_vd = -66 cm-1) to the verdazyl radical. The nature of these interactions appears to be dictated by orbital symmetry and is consistent with previously reported nickel and manganese verdazyl complexes. This work also demonstrates that imidizole-based verdazyl radicals are effective ligands in tetrahedral copper(I) complexes. Oligopyridine-based diradicals have been designed as ligands, but decompose in solution preventing metal complexation. An attempt was made to construct grids as a higher order molecular structure. To this end, a diradical ligand with the topology necessary to form discrete grid architectures was synthesized, but has not yet demonstrated the ability to coordinate to metal ions. Other monoverdazyl radicals that are symmetrically substituted in the N1 and N5 positions were also investigated as potential grid forming ligands. A series of ferrocenyl verdazyl and methylated ferrocenyl verdazyls were prepared to investigate the electronic and magnetic interactions between the ferrocene and verdazyl electrophores. As evidenced by UV-Vis and electrochemical solution measurements, the two electrophores exhibit mutual electronic perturbations. In the case of the methylated ferrocene derivatives the degree and pattern of methylation appears to have a regiospecific influence on the verdazyl electrochemistry. In the solid state Mössbauer data is consistent with a Fe2+ ground state and there is no evidence of Fe3+ at or below room temperature. Weak antiferromagnetic behaviour (|J| < -13 cm-1) was observed within and between pairs of ferrocenyl monoverdazyls in the solid state. In order to investigate the interactions between radicals separated by an organometallic spacer, a ferrocenyl verdazyl diradical was prepared. The ferrocene diradical demonstrated significant differences between the solid state and solution phase. While the ferrocene diradical and ferrocene monoverdazyl exhibited similar solution electronic properties, the magnetic properties were vastly different. In solution the spins associated with the diradical appeared to be weakly coupled, but in the solid state the diradical has been characterized as a strongly coupled antiferromagnetic π-dimer. This is the first example of a verdazyl π-dimer. The π-dimer appears to be diamagnetic with the lower limit of exchange estimated at Jinter ≈ 2000 cm 1.

Robust statistics is an extension of classical parametric statistics, which provides a safeguard against gross errors in experiments. Effectively, robustness properties of Uhlig's Q-estimators are examined and compared with that. of Rocke's Ai-estimators. In particular, the finite-sample implosion and explosion breakdown points are inves-tigated and introduced into constructing robust designs for the one-way random effects model. Optimal robust designs based on Uhlig's Q-estimation are similar to the ones based on Rocke's M-estimation. Ultimately. robust estimation procedures would provide steady and reliable estimates of model parameters in case of the occurrence of outliers.

This dissertation addresses issues in non-market valuation related to preference uncertainty and to the divergence between willingness to accept (WTA) and willingness to pay (WTP) in contingent valuation method. The contributions are two fold. First, the dissertation contributes to development in non-market valuation by comparing emerging approaches addressing preference uncertainty in the standard contingent valuation framework and by introducing a promising approach, the fuzzy random utility maximization model. Further, the study provides empirical support for the observed divergence between WTA and WTP using a simultaneous equation regression model. Second, the dissertation provides policy implications. The non-market valuation model was calibrated with a survey of western Canadian landowners in 2000 to determine their willingness to accept compensation for planting trees to mitigate climate change. WTA values were then used to analyze the cost effectiveness of sequestering carbon by converting agricultural land to forestry. While estimates of WTA are less than foregone agricultural values, average costs of creating carbon credits still exceed their projected value under a C02-emissions trading scheme. Another results from the survey of Nevada ranchers that asked about WTP for public forage and WTA compensation to part with grazing rights indicate that ranch size, public grazing allotment, financial distress, and long term commitment to ranching are all significant influences on the disparity between WTA and WTP, which gives valuable information to ranch policy.

The precise determination of the CKM matrix element |Vub| is crucial in testing the Standard Model mechanism for CP violation. From a sample of 88 million BB pairs collected with the MBAR detector, charmless semileptonic B decays are selected using simultaneous requirements on the electron energy, Ee, and the invariant mass squared of the electron-neutrino pair, q2. The partial branching fraction, unfolded for detector effects, is determined in a region of the q2-Ee plane where the dominating semileptonic decays to charm mesons are highly suppressed. Theoretical calculations based on the Heavy Quark Expansion allows for a determination of |Vub| = (3.95 ± 0.27 +0.58 -0:42 ± 0.25) x 10 3, where the errors represent experimental, heavy quark parameters and theoretical uncertainties, respectively.

C*-algebras from tilings are of particular interest. In 1998 J. Anderson and I. Putnam introduced a C*-algebra obtained from a substitution tiling that is viewed today as a standard invariant for this tilings. In this thesis we introduce another C*-algebra associated to a substitution tiling. We expect this C*-algebra to be in some sense a dual C*-algebra to the one introduced by Anderson and Putnam. but we were not able to make a precise statement. In our effort to characterize this new C*-algebras we prove that they are simple and can be constructed as an inductive limit of recursive subhomogenous algebras. We finish with K-theory computations for a number of examples.

The Orthopoxviruses (OPVs) comprise a group of viruses that possess very similar genomes; they vary considerably, however, in virulence. Among them, rabbitpox virus (RPXV) and monkeypox virus (MPXV) are the focus of this thesis. RPXV is closely related to vaccinia virus (VACV) but is significantly more virulent in rabbits. The West African isolates of MPXV, which also caused the human monkeypox 2003 outbreak in the USA. have different disease profiles from the Central African MPXV. To determine the basis for these differences, the complete genomes of RPXV-UTR and three West African isolates of MPXV were sequenced and analyzed. The result of the RPXV study indicates that 3 RPXV genes. alone or in combination. likely play a key role in the enhanced RPXV-UTR virulence over VACV isolates. These genes encode: the RING finger protein (RPXV-UTR 008), an ankyrin repeat family protein (RPXV-UTR 180) and the chemokine binding protein (RPXV-UTR 001/184) in the inverted terminal repeats (ITR) of RPXV. Examination of the evolutionary relationship between RPXV-UTR and other OPVs was carried out using the central DNA sequence of the genome that is conserved among all completely sequenced OPVs and also the protein sequences derived from the 49 genes present in all completely sequenced Chordopoxviruses (ChPV). The results of these analyses both confirm the hypothesis that RPXV-UTR is most similar to VACV. An animal study found that the Central African MPXV isolate is more virulent than the West African MPXV isolate. The comparison of the three West African isolates MPXV-COP-58. MPXV-SL-V70. and MPXV-WRAIR, and the Congo basin (Central Africa) isolate MPXV-ZAI-96-I-16 shows that the MPXV-ZAI-96-I-16 ORF D14L, which encodes an inhibitor of human complement, is most likely the virulence gene responsible for the pathogenesis differences between the West and Central African isolates. These results explain the lack of fatalities in the 2003 MPXV outbreak in the USA, which was caused by importation of a West African MPXV isolate.

A control scheme is presented for reducing dynamic coupling between an underwater robotic vehicle (URV) and a manipulator. During task execution the torques commanded at the manipulator joints lead to reactions at the junction point of the manipulator and vehicle. These reactions disturb the vehicle position and orientation and are the source of the vehicle-manipulator coupling. In underwater robotic vehicle-manipulator (URVM) applications, the URV serves as a base while the manipulator performs a required task. Therefore, it is necessary to hold the URV as stationary as possible. In the current work, URV thrusters are used to compensate for the dynamic coupling forces. Slotines sliding mode control approach is used to reduce the dynamic coupling present in URVM systems. The articulated body (AB) algorithm is used both for the time-domain simulation of the system and for the dynamic equations within the model-based sliding-mode controller. Finally, the results of time-domain numerical simulation of the proposed control scheme on a URVM system are presented.

Object recognition was studied by combining a continuous presentation paradigm and event related potentials (ERPs). Using the Random Image Structure Evolution program (RISE), the phase spectrum of object images was parametrically altered to produce a set of continuous noise-to-object sequences. The RISE technique controlled for the low level visual properties of the object image (i.e., luminance, contrast, spatial frequency). Although the stimulus transformation proceeded continuously and smoothly, perceptually, participants reported the abrupt onset of object recognition, distinct from noise, at a critical frame in the sequence. During electrophysiological recording, the critical onset frame was marked by increased activity in posterior-occipital and central-parietal components between 152 and 324 ms post stimulus onset of the critical frame. More broadly, this study also highlights the strength of the continuous presentation paradigm for investigating object adaptation effects with ERPs.