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Improved equations for predicting future dominant height, diameters, and number of surviving trees in a forest stand were developed for loblolly pine in the mid-Gulf region of southern United States using tree data from 115 stands across the region. The data were split into two sets and models were fitted on each data set using contemporary statistical modeling approaches in SAS® and R® software. Several models were fitted and compared. Fitted models were evaluated based on twoold cross validation techniques. The best equations had high fit indices and acceptable prediction standard errors. Model parameter estimates were significant at 5% significance level and exhibited logical model behavior. In the future, the system level performance of these equations will be evaluated after which the equations will be incorporated into the Cutover Sites Loblolly Pine growth and yield simulator developed and maintained by the Mississippi Forest and Wildlife Research Center.

This thesis seeks to establish William H. Taft’s influence over the U.S. experiment with empire in the Philippines. It shows how a politician who is often characterised as a loyal servant of Theodore Roosevelt, at least before 1909, was in fact a key driver of policy decisions. Taft’s views of empire may have been built on the ideas of others, but his own synthesis of these ideas and the career path he followed during this period single him out as one of the most influential figures in U.S.-Philippine relations. Taft saw the Philippine relationship as a long-term prospect and foresaw a future where the islands would eventually become a dominion of a United States, like the relationship between Great Britain and Canada. This, it is argued here, was Taft’s distinct “imperial vision.” This thesis reassesses the role of Taft in the American imperial experiment in the Philippines between the years 1900 and 1921. During this period Taft was the highest-profile figure arguing consistently for a permanent imperial relationship with the Philippine Islands. Various historians have covered Philippine affairs during this period, but none has made such a detailed analysis of Taft as a leader in guiding Philippine policy toward retention. Taft held a number of high-level roles during the period 1900-1913 – when the Republican Party continuously controlled Philippine policy – which allowed him to maintain a permanent influence over the nature of U.S.-Philippine relations. After this period Taft had less direct influence, but utilised his experience, reputation and contacts to speak out against the Democratic Party’s policy for the islands and became the figurehead of a campaign to retain the Philippines.

This thesis explores the international politics of Pakistan’s conditional sovereignty through a comparative analysis of Pakistan-US relations during the Cold War (1979-88) and the War on Terror (2001-08). The thesis seeks to understand whether the end of the Cold War restructured, reshaped and reconfigured US attitudes towards Pakistan when caught up in a new geo-political conflict, namely the War on Terror. The thesis is constructed around three main arguments focusing on Pakistan’s sovereignty, US foreign assistance to Pakistan and Pakistan’s state failure. Firstly, the thesis demonstrates that US conditions on Pakistan’s sovereignty fluctuate according to whether or not the US is strategically interested in Pakistan. In both cases, different sets of conditions are applied to Pakistan’s sovereignty. The thesis also details Pakistan’s response to these conditions on its sovereignty. Secondly, the thesis argues that given the importance of the normative value of state failure in the post-9/11 US policy and its absence in the War on Terror as a condition on Pakistan’s sovereignty, it is expected that Pakistan’s state failure status will come to dominate the conditions on Pakistan’s sovereignty when the US is not strategically interested. Thirdly, the conditions on Pakistan’s sovereignty are a means to secure Pakistan’s compliance to US demands, by either withholding foreign assistance or disbursing it. In that case then, given the centrality of human rights and state failure in post-9/11 international relations, the thesis demonstrates that US statebuilding efforts remain pivoted on US political interests rather than human rights and development. The qualitative research includes elite interviews, unclassified documents and builds on existing literature, while the quantitative portion involves statistical data.

L’évaluation de la vascularisation tumorale par l’échographie de contraste ultrasonore a montré son intérêt pour déterminer l’efficacité des traitements anti-angiogéniques. Malgré tout, cette technique suscite de nombreux questionnements concernant la sensibilité des méthodes de quantification du signal ultrasonore. Pour répondre à cette problématique, il a été question dans cette thèse de développer la première modélisation numérique de l’écoulement du sang et des agents de contraste dans des réseaux vasculaires pour étudier les méthodes de quantification du signal ultrasonore et leurs sensibilités par rapport à des variations de volume du réseau tumoral et des vitesses du sang. Une première étape de la thèse a consisté à valider, par une comparaison expérimentale, les hypothèses faites pour la modélisation numérique et principalement la prise en compte du sang comme un fluide Newtonien homogène. La modélisation numérique a permis de mettre en évidence les paramètres les plus sensibles aux modifications du débit vasculaire tumorale que sont l’aire sous la courbe, le rehaussement maximal et la pente de la courbe de rehaussement du signal dans le cadre de la méthode semi-quantitative. Lorsqu’il s’agit de suivre les variations du volume vasculaire tumoral, il apparait que la méthode quantitative par deconvolution de la fonction artérielle est plus sensible. Les méthodes de quantification ont également été étudiées par le biais d’une étude in vivo sur 44 souris. Cette approche numérique de l’écoulement des agents de contraste est prometteuse et peut permettre à terme une évaluation plus large des autres méthodes de quantification développées à ce jour pour l’échographie de contraste. / Evaluation of tumor vascularization by dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasonography showed interest for the assessment of the effectiveness of anti-angiogenic treatments. Nevertheless, this technique raises many questions about the sensitivity of quantification methods of the ultrasound signal. To address this issue, this thesis focused on the development of the first digital modeling of blood flow and contrast agents in vascular networks to study the methods of quantification of the ultrasound signal and theirs sensitivity according to variations of tumor network volume and blood velocity. A first step of the thesis was to validate by an experimental comparison, the assumptions of the digital modeling and mainly the taking into account of the blood as a homogeneous Newtonian fluid. Digital modeling allowed to highlight parameters sensitive to the modification of the blood flow which are in the case of the semi-quantitative method the area under the enhancement curve, the maximum of the enhancement curve and the slope of the enhancement curve. When it comes to follow variations of the tumor vascular volume, it appears that the quantitative method by deconvolution of the arterial function is more sensitive. The quantification methods have also been investigated throught an in vivo study of 44 mice. This digital approach of the flow of the contrast agents is promising and may eventually enable a more extensive evaluation of other quantification methods developed in dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasonography to date.

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Presidential transitions mark the starting point of any regime change in the US federal executive. During this period newly elected Presidents structure their Whitehouse, fill thousands of political appointments and select their policy priorities. Using Carl Brauer's observations on the successful conduct of presidential transitions this thesis examines the personnel and policy choices of Bill Clinton during his 1992-1993 presidential transition. Presidential transition success is, according to Brauer, reliant upon the awareness of four essential factors; early planning, White House structure, setting a legislative agenda and assessing personal strengths and weaknesses. These factors form a framework for the analysis of four domestic policy issue areas. The policies considered are national service, economic and budgetary policy, health care reform and the use of Executive Orders as a policy-making tool. These issues reflect the broad policy intentions of the Clinton administration during its first year in office. In linking the processes of personnel and policy selection across these issue areas this thesis considers the extent to which the Clinton administration was able to achieve its stated aims and objectives in 1992 and 1993. Assessments are made concerning the levels of success in each of the four factors and conclusions are drawn about the influence of the transition on the conduct of the Clinton presidency. In examining Bill Clinton's use of Executive Orders in the cases of homosexuals in the military and the reauthorisation of abortion practices a new perspective on the conduct of the modern presidency is unveiled.