My research has focused on the identification, assemblage dynamics, and horizontal distribution patterns of larval fishes around rocky reefs in the Gulf of California, Mexico. In Chapter One, I analyze a series of light-trap collections taken over 35 nights at San Carlos, Sonora. Nearly 14,000 larvae from 19 families were collected. The five most abundant families contributed 90% of the larvae and the top ten families contributed 99%. Larvae of non-pelagic spawners (gobiids, labrisomids, tripterygiids, chaenopsids, pomacentrids, and bythitids) dominated the collections. Larval catches ranged from 7.5 to 2330.3 larvae/45 min, but changes in catch rate were not related to changes in ambient moonlight. In contrast, the volume of zooplankton collected was correlated with moonlight intensity. Dynamics of the ten dominant fish families were highly variable, but in most cases a large proportion of the larvae were caught on just a few nights. Taxonomic and size selectivities were apparently less severe in my study than in previous Australian studies, and the use of light-traps should be explored further. In Chapter Two, I outline the prediction that larvae of small, non-pelagic spawning fishes should more frequently be retained over reefs during development than fishes with other combinations of body size and egg type, and I describe my research testing this prediction. I made about 160 collections of fish larvae with a light-trap and plankton net at 1, 20, and 100 m from rocky shorelines. These collections yielded 27,265 larvae from about 50 families. Based on larval size frequencies, near-reef concentration gradients, and abundances offshore, I identified four families that can complete development over the reef but also have larvae dispersed offshore (Clupeidae, Engraulididae, Gerreidae, and Haemulidae). In addition, I identified seven families that primarily develop over reefs and have few or no larvae dispersed offshore (Tripterygiidae, Chaenopsidae, some Labrisomidae, Dactyloscopidae, some Gobiidae, Gobiesocidae, and Bythitidae). Adults of these seven families are mostly small, non-pelagic spawners. Larvae from four taxa of larger non-pelagic spawners (Ophioblennius, Labrisomus, Balistes, and Pomacentridae) did not appear to develop over reefs. These findings are in accord with the prediction I made. Chapter Three is a preliminary guide to identification of Gulf of California blennioid larvae. Although blennioid larvae are poorly known and few species have been described, they are well represented (ca. 20,000 larvae from five families) in my collections taken near reefs in the Gulf. Illustrations of 20 species, and brief descriptions of key characters for these and several additional species, are provided. More detailed taxonomic studies on Gulf blenniid, dactyloscopid, tripterygiid, labrisomid, and chaenopsid larvae are in progress.

Understanding how institutions affect or shape fisheries performance is an important part of providing practical insights for the development of management strategies that promote sustainable fishing. In the Gulf of California there is widespread evidence of declines in fish stocks upon which small-scale fisheries depend and these declines are largely attributed to policy failures. Using methods commonly used in social sciences, I investigated the formal and informal rules regulating resource use by smallscale fishers from two fishing communities in the Northern Gulf of California (NGC), Bahía de Kino and Bahía de los Ángeles, Mexico, and their effects on fisheries sustainability. Some of the main results are summarized below: a) The percentage of fishers holding fishing rights and actually using them to report and commercialize catch was quite small in both communities (fishing rights are usually in the hands of absentee operators). b) Current policies and policy changes do not reach the fishers in a direct and formalized way in any of these communities, and these policies are shaped with no participation of local fishers. c) Current policy tools show poor performance in practice and have been ineffective (at the moment) in promoting sustainable fishing practices by fishery stakeholders. Neither community has been able to manage their resources sustainably. Results also suggest some potentials that could lead to more sustainable fishing practices in both communities: d) The presence of informal rights (fishers' sense of ownership) over the fishing grounds in the surroundings of their home communities. Generally, local fishers do not conform to or enforce the individual boundaries of the fishing rights they hold (or work under), but they do care about and defend an area that they perceive as belonging to their community as a whole, particularly when there are "outsiders" coming in. e) The presence of strong support from the fishers for implementing improved regulatory measures for local fisheries. Specific recommendations for each case study are provided with the aim of enhancing rules legitimacy and improving management outcomes.

No description available.

This thesis investigates Japan's contribution to United Nations (UN)-sponsored peacekeeping operations (UNPKO) by locating sources of activism and passivism in Japan's foreign policymaking process. In particular, it examines the influence of factors, such as Japan's traditional post-W.W.II commitment to pacifism, its relationships with the US and its East Asian neighbours, and the role of the UN. The introduction provides a broad overview of the remit of the thesis as well as clarifying its ontological commitments and justifying the topics of focus, Japan and the UN. Chapter One constructs a detailed theoretical approach to this topic by rejecting traditional realist, liberal, and Marxist interpretations of international politics and, instead, highlighting the study of norms in international society. Chapter Two centres on the topic of UN peacekeeping operations and explains how this practice has become a norm of international society. Chapter Three introduces the topic of Japan's foreign policy by examining traditional approaches and interpretations. It also utilises the approach outlined in Chapter One and examines Japan's contribution to PKO from the time of admission to the UN in 1956 through to the eve of the outbreak of the Second Gulf War. Chapter Four looks at Japan's response to the Second Gulf War from the financial contribution through to the legislation adopted to facilitate the despatch of the Self-Defence Forces (SDF). It demonstrates the initial power of traditional norms in shaping policy and how this changed with the rise of the influence of the UN. Chapter Five takes the first despatch of the SDF to Cambodia as its case study and reveals how the traditional norms of domestic-rooted pacifism and the opposition of East Asian nations to Japanese re-militarisation continued to be eroded. Chapter Six looks at the most recent of the SDF's despatches to Mozambique, Rwanda and the Golan Heights and demonstrates the continued influence of the US as well as the consolidated power of the UN, in contrast to the declining influence of pacifism and Japan's East Asian neighbours. Taking this empirical investigation into account, the conclusion reappraises the importance of norms in Japan's foreign policy making process, and highlights the influence of the UN.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Under meteorological conditions associated with extreme cold air outbreaks (CAO) off the U.S. East Coast, large ocean waves sometimes develop along the North Wall of the Gulf Stream. These wave events produce wave heights above those expected given the short fetch and moderate winds. The highest waves are often very localized, which suggests localized forcing by the atmosphere. In this study, results from four cases are examined to characterize the role of high resolution, mesoscale wind forcing in generating localized regions of large ocean waves during events with large air-sea temperature differences. A known "true" atmosphere is simulated through the use of the Navy's Coupled Oceanographic and Atmospheric Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS). Model surface wind output from COAMPS is used to generate a wave field using Wavewatch Three (WW3), which is then compared to buoy observations and ship reports. Results of these cases show the mesoscale wind forcing of ocean waves during CAO and the importance of mesoscale atmospheric modeling in localized generation of ocean wind waves. Additionally, empirical wave forecast techniques are compared to WW3 model output for these cases to further reinforce the mesoscale atmospheric forcing during rapid growth of wind wave events in fetch limited environments. / Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

This analysis examines and explains the emergent model of crisis management manifest at the end of the first decade of the post-Cold War era. The end of the Cold War heralded fundamental and widespread changes in many ways but it did not, as events continue to demonstrate, confine to history the phenomenon of international crises. Indeed, evidence suggests that the post-Cold War period has witnessed an increase rather than a decrease in the incidence of crises. However, what has changed is what constitutes a crisis, the range of responses available to those who manage them and the criteria by which a successful outcome may be gauged. Changes too are apparent in time-scales and attitudes of decision-makers. These changes are not constants in all crisis situations: moreover, their impact varies. Whilst this transition is evolutionary and incremental, it is nonetheless fundamental and real. The transition from the Cold War model of crisis management to the post-Cold War model has not been smooth or by deliberate design: it has evolved somewhat haphazardly. Using the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis as a template of Cold War crisis management, comparison and contrast is made with the three post-Cold War crises in which the major powers became entangled; the 1990-91 Gulf War, the Bosnian crisis which lasted from 1991 until 1995, and the 1998-99 Kosovo crisis. This analysis examines what has changed, whilst assessing any change in import of what has not. To do this necessitates drawing upon a variety of topics that merited detailed study in their own right. However, this paper does not seek to provide a history of UN operations, nor is it an analysis of pure strategic theory or a treatise on United States foreign policy. The most obvious differences between the two eras are to be found in the changed relationship between the United States and Russia, formerly the USSR, and consequently the significant reduction in the likelihood of global nuclear conflict. With the nuclear threshold so dramatically raised and the starkness of strategic superpower stand-off removed, other features of crises have been afforded commensurately greater prominence. Indeed the removal of restraint conditioned by the certain knowledge of mutual destruction has coincided with an increase in the incidence of crises.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Laszlo Kulcsar / Nepali women are often barred from going abroad through discriminatory state policies, and the women engaging in foreign employment are generally perceived as "loose" women in Nepalese society. The female migrant workers are also represented as lacking "agency" and "victims" of sex trafficking in the Nepalese media. Despite the unfavorable socio-political contexts, a substantial number of Nepali women have engaged in transnational labor migration in the last two decades, often "illegally" by using the open Nepal-India border to reach the destination countries. The study investigates the impact of women's migration on the dominant discourse relating to female workers' sexuality and agency by analyzing the experiences of female workers from Chitwan, Nepal, who have returned after working as housemaids in the Persian Gulf. The study finds that the dominant discourse is both contested and reproduced during the emigration process and after the return of female workers. However, the dominant discourse is overall restructured in the emigrant communities due to women's participation in foreign employment and return with diverse experiences. As women's varied migration experiences are hardly reported in the national media, the discursive change in the local communities does not necessarily bring a (similar) change in the national discourse. While violence prevailed against female workers in the Gulf, most acts of violence were indirect and non-physical. The extreme forms of violence, such as physical and sexual abuses, which are usually reported in the media, were somewhat uncommon. The major complaints of the respondents were low wages, withholding and non-payment of wages, withholding of passport, extremely long hours of work, constant criticism, lack of adequate rest, and the feeling of confinement. The violence against the housemaids was largely facilitated by the sponsorship-based labor recruitment system in the Gulf that bound the migrant workers with their employers. At the micro level, the living arrangement (having to live with the employers) was also a contributing factor to violence against the female workers. The female workers who were employed in a household with multiple housemaids were less likely to experience violence than those who were the only maid in the employer's house.

Master of Arts - International Relations / This research attempts to examine and explain the failure of UN diplomacy that was applied in Iraq from 1991 post-Gulf War to 2003. In order to achieve this, UN diplomatic instruments that included diplomatic negotiations, UN Resolutions, sanctions, and weapons inspections have been rigorously analysed within the context of ascertaining their diplomatic effectiveness. The report specifically focuses on the impact that was made by the diplomatic tools in an effort to peacefully disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. In addition, the report explores factors that undermined the use of the diplomatic instruments. A number of factors have been responsible for the failure of the UN diplomacy in Iraq. They include, among others, a structural problem in form of an enforcement mechanism in the UN Security Council Resolutions; lack of complementarity in the use of the diplomatic instruments, and implemented at an earlier phase of the disarmament crisis; use of the UN by some of its key members to pursue their interests; flaws in the overall US/UN policy toward Iraq; deeply entrenched hostilities between Iraq and the West especially US and Britain; the approach within which sanctions were modelled discouraged key diplomatic dialogue and negotiation; and the nature of the UN of being an association of sovereign countries largely limited diplomatic efforts to resolve the disarmament crisis. Thus, the report reveals factors ranging from the ineffectiveness of the UN diplomatic instruments to the flaws in the external influence- that is, the policy of the UN and some of its key members to have failed the UN diplomacy in Iraq.

Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / My thesis will be analyzing the politics of education in the Gulf in order to understand why education performance remains low. The problem extends beyond Islamic culture and rentierism. These are merely factors. The problem of education stems from the government itself in mismanaged bureaucracy and the ruling family that dominates politics. My thesis will be looking closely at Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar. My approach is looking at how the Ministry of Education or other departments responsible for implementing and enforcing education policy and how they function within the state and impact education performance for students. My thesis will cover a number of themes, such as; rentierism, culture (political, traditional, etc.), and other factors that impede education and development. My conclusion is that bureaucratic mismanagement with emphasis on rentier and cultural factors are the cause of generating the mismatch of skills making students ill prepared for the globalized world. The problems of education has differed since the 1960s to the present due to how oil shape politics and development. In addition, rentierism has changed and developed and forcing the Gulf to address more societal needs than previously before. The government is the main cause and will be discussed is how this mismanagement and centralized control over education does not prepare students for the workforce in a technologically advanced world.! / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Islamic Civilization and Societies.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 prompted an enormous survey effort to assess the under-studied, deep-ocean ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting samples and datasets afforded a unique opportunity to study the ecology of a poorly known group of mesopelagic fishes, the barracudinas (Aulopiformes: Paralepididae). Here we address several important data gaps regarding the ecology of the Paralepididae. Our results indicate that a majority of barracudina species are efficient at avoiding research-sized nets, suggesting that their overall abundance has been historically underestimated. Notable differences in vertical distribution, seasonal abundances of sizes classes, and diets were observed among the three major sub-groups of the family, with potential implications to ecosystem-based management of deep-pelagic fisheries. This thesis is dedicated to all the fish, squids, and shrimps that gave their lives to make these data and to those that endured the hardship of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection