The question of why individuals value identities like race and gender is a contested one. Scholars in the Reflected Appraisals tradition argue that members of minority groups experience identity devaluation and minority stress (Hacker 1992; Harris 1993; Meyer 1995; Tatum 1997; Hoff-Sommers 2000; McIntyre 2002) and come to value their identities less in empirical terms than do members of equivalent majority groups (Harris 1993; Hacker 1995). The thesis here is that the values individuals place upon in-group identities are determined by the prestige and power of their in-groups (Cornell and Hartmann 2006: 60). This argument has been advanced often in both domestic and multi-national contexts (Spinner-Halev and Theiss-Morse 2003), but several rigorous empirical tests so far fail to support it (Charles 2003). My dissertation is a comprehensive test of the hypothesis that membership in a minority in-group predicts lowered valuation of in-group identity. I employ ordinal and List Experiment surveys to determine whether members of four minority groups value their identities less than members of the equivalent majority groups (racial, sexual, heterosexual, religious) in terms of (1) placing lower monetary values upon them and (2) being hypothetically more willing to change them. My hypothesis is that identity valuation will not be status dependent: minority status will not generally correlate to a significant degree with lowered identity valuation, as development of oppositional identities allows minorities to value themselves despite potential discrimination (Stern 1995; Simein 2005). This thesis was largely although not totally confirmed. With several exceptions during my List Experiment research, American racial minority status does not correlate with lowered valuation of racial identity, and female sex does not correlate with lowered valuation of gender identity. Religious minorities do not generally value their religious identities less than Protestant Christians, to a statistically significant degree. However, I did find consistent negative and usually significant correlations between LGBT status and lowered valuation of sexual orientation. List Experiment results also indicate that whites may be less honest about their levels of in-group identification than are minorities.

Cette étude porte sur l'impact des fuites de CO2 provenant d'un réservoir géologique de stockage de CO2 sur un aquifère d'eau douce. Elle se distingue des autres études, réalisées sur le même thème, par la recherche et l'application, depuis l'échelle du laboratoire jusqu'à celle d'un site pilote, de nouveaux outils de monitoring et d'approche isotopique destinés à la détection précoce de fuite de CO2. Afin de tester ces outils, des échantillons solides et liquides provenant de l'aquifèrestratégique de l'Albien du Bassin de Paris ont été prélevés, analysés et utilisés pour une étude expérimentale en batch. Cette expérience permet de contraindre et de comprendre précisément les interactions eau-roche-CO2 et les réponses isotopiques. Une application grandeur nature en Norvège a permis de mettre en place ce programme isotopique et de suivre l'évolution de la composition isotopique en distinguant les processus et phénomènes naturels et les processus reliés à l'injection de CO2. Ces deux cas d'étude appliqués au contexte de détection de fuite de CO2 ont permis de choisir les outils isotopiques les meilleurs comme indicateurs indirects de la présence de CO2, dans le cas particulier des systèmes étudiés. L'efficience de ces outils isotopiques réside dans l'enregistrement de la trace laissée par la présence de CO2 au cours d'interactions eau/roche/CO2. L'utilisation de tels outils nécessite une méthodologie rigoureuse abordée dans ce manuscrit et nécessite d'être adaptée aux spécificités des sites envisagés. / This study deals with the impact of CO2 leakages out of geological storage into overlying freshwater aquifers. Compared to other existing studies, the major added value of this study lies, on the one hand, in the research of new monitoring tools and isotopic approach in the context of CCS aiming at early and sensitive detection of CO2 leakage and, on the other hand, in the application of these tools at the (limited) laboratory scale as well as at field scale. In order to test these tools, solid and liquid materials were sampled out of the major strategic drinking water Albian aquifer in the Paris Basin (France). We have then precisely characterized and used them within a batch experiment. This experiment yields interesting results which help understanding and constraining precisely the water-rock-CO2 interactions as well as the isotopic responses. A real scale application of the method was then performed in Norway. It was an opportunity to develop this isotopic program and to track the isotopic evolution composition, while differentiating the natural processes and the system response tothe CO2 injection. When applied to the detection of CO2 leakage context, the two case studies open the way for choosing the “best” isotopic tools as indirect indicators of CO2 presence in these specific systems. The efficiency of these isotopic tools comes from the recording of the CO2 footprint all along the water-rock-CO2 interactions. Using such tools imposes a rigorous methodology, which is tackled inthis manuscript. Furthermore, future application will require adapting to the specifics of a proposed site.

The aim of this literature study was to investigate the effects of biofouling in the Baltic Sea. This was done to increase environmental awareness and understanding of the importance of a sustainable marine environment. A systematic search in selected databases resulted in the study being based on tio research articles. The overall results of the study show that biofouling demonstrate negative effects, but the effects are not fully understood to date and the focus is still on economic aspects. Furthermore, it was observed that the studied organizations are currently focused on greenhouse gas issues, but they have also been paying attention to biofouling problems in recent time. The literature study provides important insights into the effects of biofouling.

This work follows the studies focused on obesity, its global extent and its serious health and economic impact. At the same time, the work examines the unsuccessful fight of public policies which try to reverse growing prevalence of obesity. Nevertheless, the main goal of the thesis is a discussion about priorities of new orientation in the research on the causes of the obesity epidemic and effectiveness of precautions that were taken in many countries and international organizations with the main aim to stop the obesity and its consequences. The discussion leads to the more detailed description of the problems connected with obesity, for instance, environmental aspects, housing culture in relation to physical activities, lifestyle in relation to advertisement/marketing, psychological and socio- psychological aspects, combating stress, etc. My intention was to find out utility of contemporary research on obesity for setting of policy fighting against obesity. At the same time, I wanted to find out other possible directions in the research into this field and discover how the discussion about priorities of the research in the experimental community proceeds. Two international dimensions of paradigmatic approaches separated to the certain degree can be considered as relevant with regard to the global...