Evolutionary consequences of habitat fragmentation: selection on plant phenotypic traits

Habitat fragmentation is considered to be one of the major threats to biological diversity worldwide. Plant-animal interactions have often been found to be disrupted by habitat fragmentation, and mutualists are known to exert selective pressures on plant phenotypic traits. The two major aims of this thesis were to investigate fragmentation effects on phenotypic selection on plant traits and to determine if fragmented plant populations are able to respond to such selection pressures. The study was conducted with the perennial, self-incompatible plant species Phyteuma spicatum, which occurs in highly fragmented deciduous hardwood forests in north-western Germany. Results of the four studies integrated in this thesis show, that selection pressures on plant phenotypic traits may be stronger in small or low-density populations and small populations may suffer from reduced heritable trait variation compared to large populations. However, patterns were quite variable within this study system

Don\u27t Be Such a Girl, I\u27m Only Joking! Post-alternative Comedy, British Panel Shows, and Masculine Spaces

This thesis discusses the gender disparity in British panel shows. In February 2014 the BBC’s Director of Television enforced a quota stating panel shows needed to include one woman per episode. This quota did not fully address the ways in which the gender imbalance was created. This thesis argues that the gender imbalance stems from post-feminist sensibilities and masculine-centric trends in British comedy and culture. This work demonstrates this through a discourse analysis of the opinions expressed about panel shows by the British popular press and media personalities from 2002 to 2017. The discourse analysis exposes patterns where British producers ignored the easily observed male dominance of panel shows. Arguments and opinions posed in these discourses demonstrate how British media personalities and the British public adopted post-feminist assumptions. Then, the panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats is analyzed to show how British comedy panel shows fit into post-alternative comedy styles and lad culture, which both favor heterosexual masculine identities. The comedy used in this show exposes how post-feminism, post-alternative comedy, and lad culture combine to create a masculine space. In order to fix the gender disparity, these contexts would need to change

Misery Loves Company: Spreading the Costs of CERCLA Cleanup

The typical case arising under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act\u27 (CERCLA) involves hazardous waste generation and disposal spanning several decades by companies no longer in existence. Subsequent attempts at cleanup by federal and state governments and private parties, as well as legal battles over the ultimate responsibility, are also at issue in the typical CERCLA case. A single party is rarely responsible for the toxic waste pollution of a site. Usually, a toxic waste site, such as a landfill, will have numerous potentially responsible parties (PRPs): generators;transporters; current owners and their lessees; former owners and operators and their successor corporations; individual corporate officers; and even governmental agencies. Ideally, the liability of each PRP would equal its proportionate share of the cleanup costs

Language, Space, and Power: A Critical Look at Bilingual Education

Through the close analysis of and critical discussion surrounding a fifth-grade dual-immersion classroom, Hadi-Tabassum explores the often inequitable role of language in the classroom. In her critical ethnographic study entitled Language, Space and Power: A Critical Look at Bilingual Education, young learners of both Spanish and English are observed as they engage themselves in various classroom tasks and metalinguistic discussions. Based on the ethnographic observation, parallels are drawn between such concepts as identity, language, and power. As a result, Hadi-Tabassum is able to explore what she deems the third space, a space where awareness focuses upon a desire to overcome linguistic borders and boundaries. Through an emphasis upon discourse rather than language acquisition, the author shows how conflicts over language use and the mediation of these conflicts arise

Reciprocities between Political Thought and Political Culture: Hannah Arendt and America

In seinem Buch Arendt and America untersucht Richard H. King das faszinierende Verhältnis zwischen der Politischen Theorie Hannah Arendts und dem Land, in das sie 1941 als deutsche Jüdin immigrierte. Die Hauptthese Kings lautet: Arendt hat die politische Kultur der USA geprägt – und die politische Kultur Americas wiederum Hannah Arendt. King setzt sich dabei unter anderem mit Arendts Haltungen zu „racial inequality“, der Amerikanischen Revolution, sowie mit ihrem polarisierenden Werk Eichmann in Jerusalem beziehungsweise der anschließenden Kontroverse darüber auseinander. In seiner dichten Studie erwartet er dabei allerhand Vorwissen über die Geschichte und die Inhalte der amerikanischen, aber auch der europäischen Denktraditionen, genauso wie über Hannah Arendts Politischer Theorie im Allgemeinen.In Arendt and America, Richard H. King examines the fascinating relationship between the political theory of Hannah Arendt and the country to which she, as a German Jew, immigrated in 1941. King argues that Arendt left important traces on the political culture of the USA, and that America, in turn, influenced Arendt profoundly. Among others, the author addresses Arendt’s stances on racial inequality in the US, the American Revolution, and her polarizing report Eichmann in Jerusalem and the subsequent controversy over it. In his densely written study, King presupposes his reader’s knowledge of the history and the contents of the American, but also the European, traditions of thought, as well as of Hannah Arendt’s political theory in general

Television’s Media Archaeology. Present State and Possible Directions

https://manifold.umn.edu/read/cc-frame-005-television-media-archaeology/section/23f39021-f1b1-411f-a248-b48b5b3796f