The purpose of this research was to determine the potential capacity for improved participation through community-based approaches to small hydroelectric development in the Indian Himalayas. The objectives of the research were: (1) to establish the current roles of the civic, public and private sectors in small hydro development; (2) to examine the potential for learning through participation during the development of small hydro projects; (3) to determine the potential for using community-based environmental assessment in future projects; (4) to investigate the benefits of community-driven small hydro development, and (5) to determine the implications of the findings for environmental policy and decision-making. Data were gathered using Participatory Rural Appraisal methods including semi-structured interviews, transect walks, and landscape analysis. There were five case study projects (Niti, Bampa, Jumma, Malari and Bamini/Badrinath), each in the Indo-Tibetan border region of the Indian Himalayas. The plants are all run of river, and range in capacity from 25 kW to 1.2 MW. Four of the villages had no electricity prior to the development of the small-hydro plants, while one had a prior connection to the state electrical grid (Bamini/Badrinath). The villages are inhabited by Bhotia tribespeople, and are occupied only during the summer growing season. The residents travel to lower altitude villages for the winter months. The most successful project examined, in the village of Malari, was one where community development and energy needs were considered simultaneously, and where the local community was highly involved in planning, construction and operation. The less successful projects were those where community involvement and development, sound planning, and detailed geographic information about the site were lacking in their development and operation; such as was observed in the village of Jumma, where the plant never began operations because it was damaged by an avalanche prior to its inauguration. PLEASE NOTE: As of January 2007 the State of Uttaranchal was renamed Uttarakhand. The change is not reflected in this thesis.

Stowaway/matrix attachment regions (S/MARS) are sequences of DNA that anchor chromatin to the nuclear matrix, function in gene expression, chromatin organization, and conformation. Current identification tools in Eukaryotes rely on a small population of known S/MARs for search criterion. This study presents bioinformatics prediction of S/MARs across various genomes using the program Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), providing an opportunity to identify putative S/MARs for further characterization and a novel application of BLAST for S/MAR identification. Two wheat S/MARs were used to identify homologous sequences, within the true grasses, or Gramineae. The evidence suggests that S/MARs are prolific in Gramineae species, specifically in the related subspecies Triticeae. In addition, stowaway-like sequences associated with predicted S/MARs within Gramineae species are present, found to be in association with predicted S/MARs in Gramineae, and proposed to be the product of an unknown duplication mechanism and bear no significant association with S/MARs. / Department of Biology

Une image hyperspectrale est formée par un ensemble de bandes spectrales contenant les informations correspondantes à un intervalle du spectre électromagnétique. Le grand avantage de l'imagerie hyperspectrale par rapport l'imagerie traditionnelle est la capacité de mesurer le rayonnement électromagnétique dans le visible et dans d'autres longueurs d'onde. Cette caractéristique permet la détection des différences subtiles existantes parmi les plusieurs objets composant une image. Le traitement de ces images aussi volumineuses nécessite le développement d'algorithmes avancés qui permettent une exploitation optimale des données hyperspectrales. La représentation traditionnelle de ces images est un ensemble de mesures spectrales, ou spectres, une pour chaque pixel de l'image. Le principal inconvénient de cette représentation est que le pixel est l'unité la plus fondamentale des images numériques. Une analyse individuelle des spectres formant une image hyperspectrale fournit une information qui n'est pas optimale. Dans ce cadre, il est nécessaire d'établir des connexions entre les pixels d'une image hyperspectral afin de distinguer des formes dans l'image qui caractérisent leur contenu. Les représentations basées sur des régions fournissent un moyen de réaliser un premier niveau d'abstraction permettant une réduction du nombre d'éléments à traiter et une obtention des informations sémantiques du contenu de l'image. Ce type de représentations fournit une nette amélioration par rapport la représentation classique basée sur des pixels individuels. Sous le titre "La représentation et le traitement des images hyperspectrales en utilisant l'arbre binaire de partitions", cette thèse propose la construction d'une nouvelle représentation hiérarchique d'images hyperspectrales basée sur des régions : l'arbre binaire des partitions (ou BPT, sigles en anglais). Cette nouvelle représentation peut être interprétée comme un ensemble de régions de l'image dans une structure arborescente. L'arbre binaire de partitions peut être utilisé pour représenter : (i) la décomposition d'une image en plusieurs régions ayant un contenu sémantique et (ii) les différentes relations d'inclusion des régions dans la scène. L'arbre binaire de partitions est basée sur la construction d'un algorithme itératif de fusion de régions. La construction du BPT a été étudiée dans cette thèse par l'étude de différents modèles de représentation d'une région hyperspectrale et de différentes distances de similitude entre deux régions hyperspectrales. Cette recherche a été nécessaire en face la grande dimensionalité et complexité des données qui font nécessaire la définition d'un modèle de région et d'une distance de similarité spécifiques. Grâce à la structure en forme d'arbre, le BPT permet la définition d'un grand nombre de techniques pour un traitement avancé des images hyperspectrales. Ces techniques sont typiquement basées sur l'élagage de l'arbre grâce auquel les régions les plus intéressantes pour une application donnée sont extraites. Cette thèse se concentre sur trois applications particulières : la segmentation, la classification et la détection d'objets dans les images hyperspectrales. Les résultats expérimentaux obtenus sur différentes jeux de données montrent les qualités de la représentation BPT.

Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief, expressed bewilderment that intruding whites expected Indians to sell land. "Sell a country!" he exclaimed, "Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?"

The purpose of this research was to determine the potential capacity for improved participation through community-based approaches to small hydroelectric development in the Indian Himalayas. The objectives of the research were: (1) to establish the current roles of the civic, public and private sectors in small hydro development; (2) to examine the potential for learning through participation during the development of small hydro projects; (3) to determine the potential for using community-based environmental assessment in future projects; (4) to investigate the benefits of community-driven small hydro development, and (5) to determine the implications of the findings for environmental policy and decision-making. Data were gathered using Participatory Rural Appraisal methods including semi-structured interviews, transect walks, and landscape analysis. There were five case study projects (Niti, Bampa, Jumma, Malari and Bamini/Badrinath), each in the Indo-Tibetan border region of the Indian Himalayas. The plants are all run of river, and range in capacity from 25 kW to 1.2 MW. Four of the villages had no electricity prior to the development of the small-hydro plants, while one had a prior connection to the state electrical grid (Bamini/Badrinath). The villages are inhabited by Bhotia tribespeople, and are occupied only during the summer growing season. The residents travel to lower altitude villages for the winter months. The most successful project examined, in the village of Malari, was one where community development and energy needs were considered simultaneously, and where the local community was highly involved in planning, construction and operation. The less successful projects were those where community involvement and development, sound planning, and detailed geographic information about the site were lacking in their development and operation; such as was observed in the village of Jumma, where the plant never began operations because it was damaged by an avalanche prior to its inauguration. PLEASE NOTE: As of January 2007 the State of Uttaranchal was renamed Uttarakhand. The change is not reflected in this thesis.

This paper adopts a spatial econometric perspective to analyse regional convergence of per capita income in Europe in 1995 to 2000 and, moreover, relaxes the assumption of a single steady-state growth path which appears to be out of tune with reality of empirical dynamics. The two-club spatial error convergence model with groupwise heteroskedasticity is found to be most appropriate for the data at hand. Two empirical key findings are worthwhile to note. The first is that the data provide much support for unconditional ß-convergence in Europe. The second is that the usual convergence conclusions hold. But they do so for reasons that are not revealed by the classical test equation that is typical in mainstream economics literature. (authors' abstract)

This paper investigates the impact of knowledge capital stocks on total factor productivity through the lens of the knowledge capital model proposed by Griliches (1979), augmented with a spatially discounted cross-region knowledge spillover pool variable. The objective is to shift attention from firms and industries to regions and to estimate the impact of cross-region knowledge spillovers on total factor productivity (TFP) in Europe. The dependent variable is the region-level TFP, measured in terms of the superlative TFP index suggested by Caves, Christensen and Diewert (1982). This index describes how efficiently each region transforms physical capital and labour into output. The explanatory variables are internal and out-of-region stocks of knowledge, the latter capturing the contribution of cross-region knowledge spillovers. We construct patent stocks to proxy regional knowledge capital stocks for N=203 regions over the 1997- 2002 time period. In estimating the effects we implement a spatial panel data model that controls for the spatial autocorrelation due to neighbouring regions and the individual heterogeneity across regions. The findings provide a fairly remarkable confirmation of the role of knowledge capital contributing to productivity differences among regions, and add an important spatial dimension to the discussion, by showing that productivity effects of knowledge spillovers increase with geographic proximity. (authors' abstract)

Alvars are naturally open habitats which are found in the Great Lakes region in North America and in Scandinavia. The insect fauna of four types of alvars (grassland, grassland savanna, shrubland and pavement) was sampled in the summer of 1996 on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. A total of 9791 specimens from four target insect groups (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Homoptera: Auchenorrhyncha, Hymenoptera: Symphyta and Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea) was identified. Results showed that the grassland savanna and grassland alvars supported the highest number of insect specimens whereas the pavement alvar supported the highest number of species. The origin of the fauna differed between the taxa depending on their closer association with specific microclimatic conditions (Carabidae) or on the presence of host plants (Auchenorrhynca). This first inventory of alvar insects in North America revealed the presence of a high number of species of interest to conservation (rare, disjunct or restricted species).

We assess empirically the changes in returns to education at the subnational level in Uganda using the Uganda National Household Surveys for 2002/2003 and 2005/2006. Our results indicate that average returns to schooling tended to converge across regions in the last decade. The overall trend in convergence of returns to schooling took place at all levels of educational attainment and this behaviour in returns to education is mostly driven by the dynamics of returns to schooling in urban areas. We analyse subnational convergence in returns to education and unveil deviant dynamics in Northern Uganda. We discuss the potential challenges to inclusive economic growth in Uganda which are implied by our results. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The definition of the periphery can be made in in different ways, based on the concepts emphisized in different theoretical discussions. Correspondingly, different peripheries appear in Europe from the perspectives of these different definitions. The thesis puts forward five different definitions of the periphery / definition of the periphery based on income and income growth differentials / definition of the periphery by using economic structure, employment and population potentials / definition of the periphery based on welfare conditions / definition of the periphery based on externalities / and definition of the periphery based on endogenous growth dynamics. All these definitions produce different core-periphery maps of Europe. The evidence is based on the use of cluster analysis to identify different groups of regions homogenous in terms of variables that belong to every one of these five definitions. The result confirms that there are different peripheries in Europe. One region that is categorised as core can fall into a peripheral group in a different clasification. This shows that there is not only one type of periphery in Europe, but that different peripheries appear in case of the usage of different variables. The thesis also argues that there is a need for regional policies that do not the define the periphery as a homogenous area by considering only income differentials, but that identifies different peripheries that have different needs and problems, and devise instruments accordingly.