The onion thrips, Thrips tabaci (Thysanoptera, Thripidae) is a polyphagous pest of Allium crops in the UK and considerable effort and expenditure is employed in its control. Despite this, overall understanding of the biology and behaviour of T. tabaci is poor and this project addresses some of these deficiencies in knowledge. The relationship between T. tabaci development and temperature was investigated using linear and non-linear descriptors. The most accurate descriptor was a non-linear logistic curve. A forecasting system was developed to predict population trends in the field using field temperature data to estimate the progression of development over time. It was not possible to predict field population trends accurately and possible reasons for this are discussed. The effect of temperature and of leaf quality on behaviour was examined. A range of different behaviours were identified, classified and shown to have a direct relationship with both temperature and leaf quality. The potential for such information to help to explain and predict patterns of behaviour seen in the field is discussed. The diel periodicity of the intra-plant distribution of T. tabaci was examined and a clear pattern identified. A high proportion of adults were located on exposed portions of host plants in the early afternoon. An experiment was conducted, focusing on this potential window of vulnerability, using a novel control technique involving irrigation. No significant control of thrips was achieved, but further investigations into the potential of such strategies are recommended. Field populations of T. tabaci were monitored between 2004 and 2008. Throughout this period thrips were most numerous in late summer and overwintered as adults. The monitoring data were examined in light of what has been learnt about T. tabaci biology and behaviour in this study. Recommendations are made about future work on forecasting and control.

No description available.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Actors and singers mainly use their voices as theatrical communication instruments. The production of sound - for singing, speech and other derivatives - makes use of the same physiological mechanics. This indicates that the anatomical components are applicable to all of the the above mentioned. The goal of exploring the anatomy and physiology of the voice mechanics is to enhance the artist's and the theoretic's awareness of the dynamic process. Even though it does not replace technical training in voice production, it is still of cardinal importance. By being in possession of a worthy knowledge of the voice and body as an instrument of unity, singers and actors can challenge their instruments to the maximum. In this way professional vocal artists can finally come into contact with their humanness to create a mature character on stage. The correct body posture, breathing methods, resonance and articulation play an important role in ensuring good projection. Successful projection and resonance can only take place if the whole of the sound production instrument is working in a physiologically correct manner. Research has been done on the leading theater theorists' expectations of the regarding voice production. It was specifically their opinions that initiated the modern approach to sound production in terms of speech and singing in the modern theatre. A sound production experiment, focusing on the challenge of the human voice, was staged as a theatre production, and was analysed. The presentation was predominantly based on the ideas of the directors. These ideas were discussed in the previous chapter. This study explores the phsyiological mechanism that produces sound to promote the creative commerce with sound. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Akteurs en sangers gebruik hoofsaaklik hulle stemme as 'n teatrale kommunikasie-instrument. Die produksie van klank - vir sang, spraak en ander geluide - spruit uit dieselfde fisiologiese meganika. Dit dui daarop dat dieselfde anatomiese komponent vir bogenoemde van toepassing is. Die verkenning van die anatomie en fisiologie van die stem-meganika het ten doel om die kunstenaar en teoretikus se bewustheid van die dinamiese proses uit te brei. Hoewel dit geensins die tegniese opleiding in stemgebruik vervang nie, is dit steeds van kardinale belang. Deur oor'n waardige kennis van die stem en liggaam as eenheids-instrument vir die teaterkunstenaar te beskik, kan sangers en akteurs hul instrumente tot die uiterstes uitdaag. Op hierdie manier kom 'n professionele stemgebruiker uiteindelik in aanraking met sy/haar potensiaal en kan sodoende 'n volwaardige karakter op die verhoog skep word. Die korrekte liggaamshouding, asemhalingsmetode, resonansie en artikulasie speel 'n kardinale rol in goeie projeksie. Suksesvolle projeksie en resonansie kan slegs geskied indien die hele klankproduksie-instrument op 'n natuurwetmatige wyse in werking is. Daar is ook navorsing gedoen oor die toonaangewende teaterteoretici se verwagtinge t.o.v. stemproduksie. Dit was juis hierdie persone se opinies wat die huidige aanwending van klankproduksie in terme van spraak en sang in die moderne teater geïnisieer het. 'n Klankproduksie-eksperiment (wat gefokus is op die uitdaging van die menslike stem) is in die vorm van 'n teaterproduksie gedoen waarin die uitgangspunte van die regisseurs wat in die vorige hoofstuk bespreek is, prakties ondersoek is. Die juiste doel van hierdie studie is dus om 'n ondersoek te loods na die fisiologiese meganisme wat klankproduksie by die menslike stem tot gevolg het, en uiteindelik die kreatiewe omgang met klank in terme van die spraaken die verwante sangstem te promoveer.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The aim of this master thesis is to discuss cultural attractiveness in the selected cities of Dublin and Vilnius. As the term cultural attractiveness is used in various aspects in different ways, it becomes necessary to define it for the extents of this thesis. To define culture in the city there were criterions of common basic values – tolerance, openness and diversity – described, according to the creative class theory raised by Richard Florida in “The rise of the creative class”. The list of criterions was expanded from the results of discussions held in the course of European Spatial Planning and between Professor Jan – Evert Nilsson and the authors of the thesis. In the main body of the thesis the effect of each criterion in the selected case studies is analyzed. The authors find out that the importance of each criterion can differ according to the case. However, each criterion’s result does not necessary mean lesser cultural attractiveness. The thesis highlight that cultural attractiveness is defined by the combination of the discussed elements/criterions.

The present thesis is about shifting narrations of desire, changing stories of family, sexuality, and the self uttered by same-sex desiring women in contemporary Greece. It is chronologically situated from the end of the I 970s —when a feminist and lesbian discourse, mainly Western imported, emerged in Greece- up to the present, and is primarily based in Athens, the capital city, and Eressos, a summer resort on the island of Lesvos. Narrations of desire should be examined in relation to the specific socio-cultural contexts in which they appear, since they are largely depending on the specificities of each society and shaped by local cultures. In Greece this context is formed by the significance of family, kinship and the importance of motherhood, and the influence of Western imported discourses on lesbianism and same-sex sexualities. From the end of the lOs onwards, a lesbian movement began to emerge in Greece, groups were formed, articles were published, bars were opened and Eressos was established as an international lesbian meeting place. Yet, same-sex desiring women's participation in the so-called 'lesbian scene' is relatively small and they are reluctant to adopt the term 'lesbian' for their self-identification. The reason is that, although recent global and economic forces enabled the diffusion of global identities and the transformation of intimacy beyond the homo/hetero divide, the way such changes are accepted, negated and negotiated in each society is intrinsically related to traditional and more dominant stories on gender and sexuality. In Greece such stories are imbued with the imperatives of marriage and procreation. Therefore new narrations of desire and stories of the self are being uttered, but they do not claim for a lesbian identity nor do they claim for a gender deconstniction, according to the Western example. What they are about is the claim for the recognition of an autonomous desire, a desire which is independent of men or the acquisition of children, the right to be one's self and to be recognized as a whole person. Due to the importance of family and kinship ties these stories are told not in public but in the privacy of homes and usually when parents are absent. But even if daughters feel 'brave' enough to speak about their lives, desires and hopes, there are parents, -especially mothers acting as guardians of domestic order-, who refuse to listen, with the outcome that silence enhances itself as the primary means for sustaining family relations.

Animal health problems such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and foot and mouth disease caused significant problems for government in the last two decades of the twentieth century. The ministry responsible for animal health policy, MAFF, was replaced by a new department, Defra, which was given a wider role than simply agriculture and farming, and claimed that it would work in a new, more open and transparent way, with wider stakeholder participation. This thesis evaluates this claim and, in particular, asks how far Defra has adopted a way of working consistent with the ideas of ‘new governance.’ It argues that Defra does work in a new governance manner but that this approach is applied inconsistently in the animal health policy sector. Two recent animal health policies – the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy (AHWS) and the bovine tuberculosis strategy serve as case studies to illustrate the argument. The empirical work - interviews, observation and document analysis examines how Defra delivers these policies in practice. A policy network model is then used to examine and explain the extent of network change over time. Key findings are that a distinctive new governance approach can be seen in the case of the AHWS. However, in the case of bovine TB, the lack of stakeholder consensus has limited the opportunity for partnership working, stakeholder participation and open policy making.

Gay male culture is suffused with indications of the importance of women and bonds with women. Indeed the Stonewall riots, mythologised moment of the birth of modern gay politics, are often said to have been catalysed by gay male grief at the death of Judy Garland. Why should a culture apparently founded on same-sex desire be so preoccupied with relationships across gender difference? The thesis attempts to map the shape and effects of bonds with women by using a materialist analytical framework in relation to texts and their critical retinue. The first chapter looks at A Streetcar Named Desire, a play that has engendered significant cultural contest which spans key historical and political shifts in the nature of gay male identity. This chapter attempts to show how a diverse range of critical engagements with Tennessee Williams's work, including authoritative and resistant, heterosexual, homosexual and queer ones, exhibit considerable investment in the proposition that the playwright's sexuality not only structures a libidinous desire, but a gender identification. The second chapter situates gay men within the homosocial gender bonds mapped by Eve Sedgwick, and draws attention to the dissident opportunities gay male culture has exploited within this narrative system. It goes on to examine the potential political and cultural links between such strategies and the resistance of straight women who are also organised as homosocial subjects. This chapter includes a reading of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction as homosocial text and looks at a number of autobiographical and journalistic writings which identify a predominant dissident strategy which I refer to as heterosocial bonds. The latter part of the thesis comprises two complementary chapters. The first of these, chapter three, assesses the plausibility of heterosocial bonding in the representations of relationships between straight women, lesbians and gay men in the American situation comedy Roseanne. Chapter four conducts a similar inquiry in relation to Pedro Almodovar and the representational alignment he makes with women in the film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The analysis conducted in both of these chapters attempts to treat the texts not only as generic and formal representations,but as attempted acts of bonding. The thesis attempts to judge the political expediency and effectiveness of heterosocial bonding, and locates the difficulty and contingency of such endeavours within the fabric of homosocial structures.

<p>Establishing Swedish corporations in different parts of the world means that companies will face other corporate cultures, different or partly different, from their own. Cultures in USA seem quite similar to the Swedish culture, but there are most certainly differences, even if they exist under the surface. Cultural differences can cause further problems than those that normally exist in the initial phase of an establishment.</p><p>The question we wanted to bring an answer to in this project was: Which cultural related differences might cause problems for a Swedish company, establishing in the USA, from an organizational point of view?</p><p>The purpose with this report is to find out which cultural differences there are between the Swedish management and the American. To se possible differences we first studied the two cultures one by one.</p><p>We interviewed six companies that are established in USA. They all had Swedish owners, who also are managers in the companies. Together with extensive empirical studies and theories on management, as well as on national differences between cultures, we came to a conclusion:</p><p>If the Swedish manager is aware of the existence of cultural differences, and therefore is adjustable and observant to any differences, there should not be any problems neither to establish nor to lead a company in USA.</p>