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War and Agriculture: Three Decades of Agricultural Land Use and Land Cover Change in IraqGibson, Glen R. 14 May 2012 (has links)
The main objective of this dissertation was to assess whether cultivated area in Iraq, as estimated using satellite remote sensing, changed during and as a result of war and sanctions. The first study used MODIS NDVI data during OIF and the end of UN sanctions to study changes in cultivated area for Iraq as a whole and to identify spatial patterns. The results revealed significant changes in cultivated area for Iraq as a whole, with cultivated area decreasing over 35,000 ha per year. Regionally, there was little change in cultivated area in northern governorates in the Kurdish Autonomous Region, significant decreases in governorates in central Iraq, and initial increases in governorates containing the southern marshlands followed by decreases related to drought. The second study used Landsat images converted to NDVI to study changes in cultivated area in central Iraq for four periods of conflict, and relates those changes to effects on food security. The results indicated that cultivated area changed little between the Iran-Iraq War (1980 to 1988) and the Gulf War (1990 to 1991), increased by 20 percent (from 1.72 to 2.04 Mha) during the period of United Nations sanctions (1990 to 2003), and dropped to below pre-sanction levels (1.40 Mha) during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003 to 2011). Finally, the third study builds on findings from the second study to address patterns of agricultural land abandonment in central Iraq. The largest areas of abandoned land were those cultivated during the Late Sanctions period (2000-2003). Further, the results indicate that proximity to surface water and roads are strong indicators of continuity of agricultural land use, and that abandoned lands are positioned in peripheral regions more distant from surface water and the transportation grid. We also found that surface soil salinity is increasing in the cultivated lands of central Iraq, regardless of whether it was cultivated during every period or during only a single period. The overall findings indicate that the UN sanctions had the greatest impact on cultivated area, which increased during sanctions, when food imports all but ceased, and then decreased after sanctions ended and food imports resumed. / Ph. D.
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The effects of an uncertain abandonment value on the investment decisionAdkins, Roger, Paxson, D. 02 March 2016 (has links)
Yes / Using a three-factor stochastic real option model framework, this paper examines the effects of abandonment on the investment decision. Abandonment is classified according to whether the opportunity arises for an active operating asset post-investment, or for holding the project opportunity pre-investment. Separate analytical models are developed for the alternative forms of abandonment optionality. Numerical sensitivity analysis shows that the presence of a post-investment abandonment opportunity makes the investment opportunity appear to be more attractive because of the abandonment option value, but not by a considerable amount. Also, in contrast to the standard real option finding, an abandonment value volatility increase produces a project value threshold fall owing to the increase in the abandonment option value.
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[en] HIGHER EDUCATION AND ITS CONTRADICTIONS: THE CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS TO GRADUATE / [pt] O ENSINO SUPERIOR E SUAS CONTRADIÇÕES: OS DESAFIOS PARA OS ESTUDANTES CONCLUÍREM A GRADUAÇÃODANIELE DOS SANTOS VITORINO 22 February 2021 (has links)
[pt] Esta pesquisa buscou compreender o fenômeno de evasão sob as modalidades de abandono e trancamento de matrícula dos estudantes de uma instituição comunitária de ensino superior. Para a realização da investigação, foram utilizados três instrumentos de análise, a saber: dados históricos de matrículas realizadas, abandono e trancamento de matrícula disponibilizados pela instituição pesquisada, compreendendo o período entre 1995 e 2019; as respostas de um questionário solicitado a cada estudante que optou por realizar o trancamento da matrícula entre 2014 e 2019. E, para melhor compreender as motivações que dificultam a permanência na universidade lançamos mão de uma entrevista semiestruturada com nove alunos que declararam ter pensado em desistir da universidade em algum momento do curso. Com os resultados, observamos que o processo de evasão, ainda que inerente ao ensino superior, nem sempre está relacionado ao fracasso ou à desistência dos estudantes. Observamos que o processo de adaptação exige dos alunos uma série de habilidades, desde o ajustamento das expectativas aos cursos até as habilidades de socialização e de buscar por meios de sentir-se pertencente ao universo da academia. A investigação nos direciona para a conclusão de que um planejamento da instituição com relação ao ajustamento dos estudantes à vida universitária pode configurar-se como um fator importante na decisão do aluno ingressante entre sair ou permanecer na universidade. / [en] This research sought to understand the phenomenon of evasion under the modalities of abandonment and locking the enrollment of students at a community institution of higher education. In order to carry out the investigation, three instruments of analysis were used, namely: historical data of enrollments carried out, abandonment and locking of enrollment provided by the researched institution, covering the period between 1995 and 2019; the responses to a questionnaire requested from each student who chose to close the enrollment between 2014 and 2019. And, to better understand the motivations that make it difficult to stay at the university, we used a semi-structured interview with nine students who declared that they had thought about quitting the university at some point during the course. With the results, we observed that the dropout process, although inherent to higher education, not always related to students failure or abandonment. We observed that the adaptation process requires students to have a series of skills, from adjusting expectations to courses to socializing skills and looking for ways to feel that they belong to the universe of academia. The investigation leads us to the conclusion that an institution s planning regarding the adjustment of students to university life can be configured as an important factor in the decision of the incoming student between leaving or staying at the university.
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The Orphanage of Things: A Narrative of AbandonmentElgemiabby, Malaz 01 January 2015 (has links)
In Sudan, 110 babies are abandoned in the streets of Khartoum every month. The majority of abandoned children are born out of wedlock. Young women with illegitimate pregnancies are often ostracized by their families and society, and the lack of emotional, financial and legal support has led many to take desperate measures, including the abandonment of their children. Relinquishing mothers exist like ghosts in Sudanese society. The only evidence of the mother’s experience is her anonymous, abandoned child. In order to understand and examine this phenomenon, I used ethnographic performance art informed by design research practice (Performative Research Design). I performed various acts of abandonment to examine the mechanism and psychology of the act of abandonment. I endeavored through concrete, lived experiences to better empathize with the relinquishing mother and create awareness of the wider psychological and social complexities of child abandonment.
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Reaktiveringsmejl : En metod för ökad lönsamhet? / Reactivtion e-mails : A tool for an increased profitability?Berntsson, Emma, Berggren, Evelina January 2018 (has links)
Trots att e-handeln har ökat under de senaste decennierna, är konverteringsgraden för onlinebutiker inom modesegmentet fortfarande låg. Detta kan bero på det fenomen som kallas “shopping cart abandonment”, vilket innebär att kunder lägger varor i sina virtuella varukorgar men inte sluför köpet. Det finns många anledningar till varför kunderna agerar på detta sätt. En av de vanligaste orsakerna är att det föredragna betalningsalternativet inte är tillgängligt. Eftersom alla fall av shopping cart abandonment innebär en förlorad försäljning är det viktigt för onlineföretag att arbeta mot en högre konverteringsgrad då även den minsta ökningen av slutförda köp innebär en ökad lönsamhet. Därför bör det vara av intresse för alla onlineföretag att upprätta rutiner för att se till att kunderna kommer att slutföra sina köp. Ett sätt att göra detta är att påminna kunderna via e-mejl om produkterna i den övergivna kundvagnen. Dessa mejl kallas reaktiveringsmejl och innebär i grunden att företaget skickar ett mejl till de kunder som övergivit sin virtuella varukorg. Huvudfokus i denna studie är reaktiveringsmejl med syfte att undersöka hur e-handelsföretag inom mode och textilbranschen använder reaktiveringsmejl och om de i så fall sett en ökning i konverteringsgraden. För att uppfylla syftet har två olika datainsamlingsmetoder använts. Först och främst genomfördes ett experiment bland e-handelsföretag inom det valda segmentet för att på så vis få en bild av hur vanligt det är att använda reaktiveringsmejl. Efter detta genomfördes telefonintervjuer med ett antal av dessa företag för att få en mer djupgående förståelse kring reaktiveringsmejl. Undersökningens resultat visar att användningen av dessa e-postmeddelanden inte är så vanlig, men däremot att det är ett framgångsrikt sätt att minska förekomsten av shopping cart abandonment samt öka konverteringsgraden. / Even though e-retail has increased over the last few decades, the conversion rate for online stores in the fashion segment is still relatively low. This might be due to a phenomenon called “shopping cart abandonment”, which means that online customers place products in their virtual carts but never follow through with a purchase. There are many reasons why customers balk before the very last click. One of the more common causes is that the preferred payment option is not available. However, since all cases of shopping cart abandonment mean lost sales, it is important for online companies to work towards a higher conversion rate since even the smallest increase in completed purchases results in increased profitability. Therefore, it should be of interest for all online enterprises to establish procedures to ensure that customers will complete their online purchases. One way to do this is to remind the customers via e-mail about the products in the abandoned cart, which is called reactivation e-mails, and basically means that online companies send e-mails to the customers who abandoned their virtual carts. The main focus for this thesis is reactivation e-mails, with the purpose to examine how online enterprises in the fashion and textile segment use reactivation e-mails and if they have seen an increase in their conversion rate. To fulfill the purpose, companies within the chosen segment that offer online retail to their customers, have been interviewed about the subject and the findings show that the use of these e-mails is an effective way to increase the conversion rate and decrease the occurrence of shopping cart abandonment. Two different methods for data collection have been used for this study. Firstly, an experiment was conducted among e-commerce companies within the selected segment in order to determine how common it is to use reactivation emails. Secondly, telephone interviews were conducted with several of these companies to gain a deeper understanding of reactivation emails. The results of this survey show that the use of these emails is not very common, but it is clearly a very effective way to reduce the occurrence of shopping cart abandonment. It also increases conversion rates and given the relatively low cost to implement, it should be embraced industry wide.
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Kvinnors upplevelse av stöd i samband med tidigt missfallThell, Petra, Weehuizen, Åsa January 2016 (has links)
Tidiga missfall är vanligt förekommande och det kan ha stor psykisk påverkan på kvinnan. Hon kan känna sig deprimerad och uppleva sorg en längre tid efter missfallet. Studier har visat att kvinnor behöver stöd och samtal för att lättare kunna hantera sorgen. Barnmorskan arbetar utefter en personcentrerad vård där kvinnans fysiska och psykiska behov står i centrum. Barnmorskans roll är att finnas där för kvinnan och hjälpa henne i sorgeprocessen. Kvinnor kan ha olika tankar om vad som är bäst för henne vid missfallet och behovet av stöd kan se olika ut. Vården vid missfall bedrivs på olika sätt i olika delar av Sverige. Syftet med studien är att belysa kvinnors upplevelse av stöd från vårdpersonal i samband med tidigt missfall. Metoden som använts är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med en induktiv ansats. Sju kvinnor från olika delar av Sverige har intervjuats. Studien resulterade i fem kategorier: Övergivenhet, Bekräftelse, Ovisshet, Trygghet och Maktlöshet med temat; En variation av känslor som påverkar helhetsupplevelsen. Det finns en tydligare plan i vården för de kvinnor som haft upprepade missfall än de som haft enstaka missfall. Det var en skillnad mellan dessa grupper när det gäller vilket stöd de fått. Trots att vårdpersonalen är medveten om missfallets påverkan på kvinnan så upplever kvinnorna att de inte fått det individanpassade stöd som de önskat. Barnmorskan bör i större utsträckning ha ansvaret för kvinnor som genomgår missfall då detta ligger inom deras profession, sexuell och reproduktiv hälsa. Alla kvinnor bör få en mer jämlik vård när vården är personcentrerad redan vid första missfallet. / Early miscarriages are common, and it can have a major psychological impact on a woman. She may feel depressed and experience grief for a long time after. Studies have shown that women need support and interlocution to more easily handle the grief. The midwife work according to a person-centered care where the woman's physical and psychological needs are central. The midwife role is to be there for the woman and help her in the grieving process. Women may have different ideas about what is best for her at her miscarriage and the need for support can take different forms. Care for miscarriage is conducted in different ways in different parts of Sweden. The purpose of the study is to highlight women's experiences of support from health professionals in connection with early miscarriage. The method used is qualitative content analysis using an inductive approach. Seven women from different parts of Sweden were interviewed. The study resulted in five categories: Abandonment, Confirmation, Uncertainty, Confidence and Powerlessness with the theme; A variety of feelings that affect the overall experience. There is a clearer plan of care for women with recurrent miscarriages than for those with a single miscarriage. There was a difference between these groups in terms of the support they received. Although the care staff is aware of the miscarriage impact on the woman, the experiences of the women were that they did not receive the individualized support they required. The midwife should to a greater extent be responsible for women undergoing miscarriage when this is within their profession, sexual and reproductive health. All women should get a more equitable care if the care is person-centered at the first miscarriage.
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Suffering and political thought : a theological consideration of the propriety of suffering as a category in political thoughtMcGregor, Brodie January 2014 (has links)
This thesis examines the propriety of suffering as a category in political thought. This complex subject matter is approached by examining two responses, and the disagreement arising between these responses, to the perceived failure of politics, modernity and religion in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. The first response to these failures considered is a theological response, representing a politics based on belief, in which we turn to the writings of J.B. Metz as a representative of this position. The second response considered is the philosophical civic humanism of Hannah Arendt as a seminal representative of what we term a politics based on unbelief. Our question regarding suffering as a category in political thought brings our two representative thinkers into disagreement. Metz presents a vision of political life in which belief – and specifically Christian belief – must liberate itself from privatising forces which confine belief and a response to suffering to the private sphere as a matter of individual concern and inward piety. For Metz the issue of suffering is not merely a matter of individual private concern but of political action. Central to his argument are his understanding of theodicy that forms part of his critique of modernity, the central place he gives Christ’s cry of dereliction in theology and his concept of Leiden an Gott. Arendt, representative of politics strictly separated from religion on Modernity’s grounds, robustly argues that concerns which are matters of the private sphere, that is the household, have invaded the public realm and in doing so have destroyed politics. Suffering is such a concern and it introduces to politics the ‘problem of necessity’ and impinges upon her concept of human freedom. She therefore represents the antithesis of Metz’s position. In order to answer our question regarding suffering our argument focuses by engaging with the issues of freedom and forgiveness. This move is important in establishing the basis on which suffering can appear in the political realm. This thesis argues for and concludes that theology provides the means for a reconciliation of the antinomies between the private and public spheres, between suffering and political thought. We therefore conclude that suffering is an appropriate concern of political life and compassion in the form of Christian charity can take an appropriate form in the political sphere.
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We Left Lassie Behind: Defense Personnel Relocation, Animal Abandonment, and Shelter ImpactsGriffiths, Gabriele 01 January 2015 (has links)
When Department of Defense (DoD) personnel receive orders to relocate to a new duty installation, nearly one third abandon their companion animals, which negatively affects the local shelters' costs, personnel, and capabilities to provide quality care for shelter animals. There is a lack of research on relevant policies among local government policy makers, installation commanders, directors of animal shelters, and animal rights advocates about the abandonment of companion animals by DoD personnel. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to investigate the relationship between the influx of abandoned DoD companion animals and the management and logistical (including financial) operations of 2 publicly funded animal shelters near a Midwest DoD installation. The theoretical framework was Merton's theory of unintended consequences. Data were collected through interviews with 2 shelter directors, 10 surveys completed by shelter personnel, and a review of the shelters' logistical and financial documents spanning fiscal years 2013 - 2014. Data were analyzed after coding for themes and patterns. According to study findings, the abandonment of companion animals by DoD personnel has a negative impact on the shelters' finances, shelter personnel workload and stress, and the quality of life for incoming animals as well as those already in the shelters. The implications for positive social change are to inform policy makers of the importance of implementing policies to keep DoD companion animals with families, thereby easing transitions for those at risk, which helps to maintain the financial solvency of animal shelters, reduce stress for shelter personnel, and help companion animals to adjust as they are adopted into new homes.
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L’abandon de l’enfant dans la civilisation et la littérature grecques jusqu’à la fin du quatrième siècle / Abandoned children in Greek civilization and literature until the end of the Fourth CenturyTitli, Chloé 28 November 2009 (has links)
L’abandon de l’enfant se présente sous deux jours contraires : récurrent dans la mythologie et la littérature, il n’est quasiment pas mentionné en tant que fait social dans les textes grecs d’époques archaïque et classique. L’historien possède fort peu de sources pour déterminer les circonstances et l’ampleur de l’exposition des nouveau-nés dans la civilisation grecque. Les ouvrages modernes la présentent souvent comme un acte anodin et fréquent, au point que les philosophes la préconiseraient à des fins eugénistes. Pourtant, une analyse rigoureuse des textes permet de dresser un bilan plus nuancé. Le jugement des chercheurs paraît influencé à tort par l’omniprésence des enfants abandonnés dans la littérature. Depuis les mythes fondateurs jusqu’à la Comédie nouvelle, des héros sont exposés à la naissance après un viol, un oracle ou un revers de fortune. Une étude littéraire de ce thème consistera alors à repérer des constantes transgénériques et des jeux d’intertextualité, mais aussi à mettre en lumière les spécificités de chaque genre. L’abandon se révèle ainsi être un motif polymorphe et non propre à la tragédie, malgré la célébrité actuelle d’Œdipe. / The abandonment of children is paradoxically twofold : though recurrent in mythology and literature, it is almost not mentioned as a social fact in Greek texts from the Archaic and Classical periods. Historians have very few sources at their disposal to determine the circumstances and the extent of newborn exposure in Greek civilization. Modern works often present it as a widespread act, to such a point that philosophers would advocate it for eugenic purposes. However, a rigorous analysis of the texts leads to more moderate conclusions. In their assessments, the scholars seem to be wrongly influenced by the omnipresence of abandoned children in literature. From the founding myths to the New comedy, heroes are exposed at birth after a rape, an oracle or a reversal of fortune. A literary study of that theme will then consist in spotting transgeneric constants and intertextual hints, but also in bringing to light the particularities of each genre. So abandonment appears to be a polymorphic pattern, not a distinctive feature of tragedy, in spite of the current celebrity of Oedipus.
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Habitats of Abandonment: Subjectivity and the Aesthetics of Dispossession from the Industrial Revolution to the Great DepressionCallahan, Clare January 2016 (has links)
<p>This dissertation draws on American literature from the Industrial Revolution to the Great Depression to fashion a theory of abandonment, a term that designates both a material reality and a conceptual framework; abandonment names what remains unincorporated into the governing economic, political, gender and racial logic. This study examines, therefore, literary representations of poverty, homelessness, forms of working-class labor, and the work that race and gender do within these conditions of existence. It arises from the intersection of the Marxist, feminist, poststructuralist, and queer theory that has sought not only to account for the inequitable economic distribution of goods but also to confront the deeper problem of injurious power structures and hierarchies. </p><p>The literature of abandonment discounts the practice of seeking recognition within a dominant structure of power; rather, abandonment brings to light the spatial practice of the subject’s struggle for re-signification of such structures. Thus, one can begin to conceive of the abandoned subject by asking what one produces when one inhabits a space typically deemed uninhabitable—by discovering forms of being where one’s being is impossible or illicit—because it is in this act that subjectivity for the otherwise abject becomes possible. This study asks more specifically how literature as an aesthetic practice imagines the production of an abandoned subjectivity and, by extension, alternative social, economic and political structures. </p><p>The driving question of this dissertation is, how can a concept such as abandonment allow one to address without interpellating its subject? That is, can one value the abandoned as such, without incorporating it into an injurious system of evaluation or the prevailing neoliberal discourse of recognition? This entails asking how these processes are represented as being deeply aesthetic and what the relationship is between literary form and “habitat.” That the fact of abandonment is not quite available for representation, at least not without recovering it from itself, but is available for inhabitation, is illustrated in each of the texts this dissertation examines. In bridging socioeconomic material and thematic readings with a study of literary form, this dissertation argues that literature itself performs the very calling into being and inhabitation of this spectral space; which is to say, literary form lays bare the spatial underpinnings of narrative, allowing one to enter into the currents of dispossession rather than their fixed social positions.</p> / Dissertation
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