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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
141

Displays of Deference, Projections of Power : The English East India Company in Japan, 1615–1622

Hioki, Tami January 2023 (has links)
From 1613 to 1623, the English East India Company (EIC) maintained a trading post at Hirado, Japan. This trading post was one of the first that the EIC established, and because England was far from the empire it would one day become, Company members had to adjust to local customs and respect the laws of Japan in order to conduct business there. Among the many adaptations the EIC factors underwent, frequent visits to the Tokugawa shogun’s court were required of the EIC. This thesis will investigate the EIC’s journeys to the shogun’s court as well as its time at court to study the way in which the English interacted with the Japanese and conformed to Japanese society. This thesis will also discuss practices of gift giving in which the English participated. This study uses the diary of Richard Cocks, the head of the Hirado trading post, to focus on the period between 1615 and 1622. Alison Games’s concept of “cosmopolitanism” and Sanjay Subrahmanyam’s concept of “connected histories” frame this study to demonstrate how England’s and the EIC’s relatively weak status at the beginning of the seventeenth century required EIC members to assimilate into Japanese society. The EIC’s experiences while traveling through Japan, visiting the shogun’s court, and exchanging gifts emphasized the power difference between the EIC and the Tokugawa shogunate and other high-ranking Japanese. The policies the shogunate enforced to strengthen its authority and prevent rebellions also required the EIC to demonstrate their subservience to the shogun’s power, which affected the Company’s ability to trade. Since the English did not hold the authority to make demands of the shogun, they were forced to abide by the laws and customs of the land, which only further served to emphasize their subordinate position to the shogunate.
142

Earthquake risk mitigation of hospital facilities: a case study of Vancouver General Hospital

O'Hanley, Jean A. 11 1900 (has links)
The purpose of this study is to critically examine whether hospitals located in high seismic risk areas such as Vancouver can respond as post-disaster facilities in the aftermath of a major earthquake. Earthquake experience in California during the 1971 San Fernando and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquakes in particular demonstrate that hospitals may be vulnerable and rendered unable to fully respond to their communities needs. In the case of earthquakes, risk management methods are limited to two strategies: pre-event mitigation to reduce the effects of the earthquake on life safety and loss of property; and providing recovery services after the event. In the case of post-disaster hospitals, experience shows that mitigation strategies ensure the functionality of the facility. Therefore, mitigation strategies must not only include structural mitigation to protect the life safety of its occupants, they must also include strategies which ensure the functionality of both the building operations as well as that of therapeutic and diagnostic medical equipment in the aftermath of an earthquake. Vancouver General Hospital is used as a case study to critically examine seismic pre-event mitigation strategies which include: the structures; building operation and medical equipment which are dependent on the supply of potable water and power. Findings of this study indicate that the current supply of potable water is not reliable and that some of VGH's essential building operations and medical equipment will not be functional due to losses in water pressures and disruptions in service. This study recommends that VGH should consider mitigation strategies which make the hospital independent of outside sources of both water and power supply in order to meet its emergency role as a post-disaster facility following an earthquake. The functionality of VGH in the aftermath of a major earthquake will be seriously curtailed unless there is adequate storage of potable water on site to meet the emergency needs of this hospital.
143

Earthquake risk mitigation of hospital facilities: a case study of Vancouver General Hospital

O'Hanley, Jean A. 11 1900 (has links)
The purpose of this study is to critically examine whether hospitals located in high seismic risk areas such as Vancouver can respond as post-disaster facilities in the aftermath of a major earthquake. Earthquake experience in California during the 1971 San Fernando and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquakes in particular demonstrate that hospitals may be vulnerable and rendered unable to fully respond to their communities needs. In the case of earthquakes, risk management methods are limited to two strategies: pre-event mitigation to reduce the effects of the earthquake on life safety and loss of property; and providing recovery services after the event. In the case of post-disaster hospitals, experience shows that mitigation strategies ensure the functionality of the facility. Therefore, mitigation strategies must not only include structural mitigation to protect the life safety of its occupants, they must also include strategies which ensure the functionality of both the building operations as well as that of therapeutic and diagnostic medical equipment in the aftermath of an earthquake. Vancouver General Hospital is used as a case study to critically examine seismic pre-event mitigation strategies which include: the structures; building operation and medical equipment which are dependent on the supply of potable water and power. Findings of this study indicate that the current supply of potable water is not reliable and that some of VGH's essential building operations and medical equipment will not be functional due to losses in water pressures and disruptions in service. This study recommends that VGH should consider mitigation strategies which make the hospital independent of outside sources of both water and power supply in order to meet its emergency role as a post-disaster facility following an earthquake. The functionality of VGH in the aftermath of a major earthquake will be seriously curtailed unless there is adequate storage of potable water on site to meet the emergency needs of this hospital. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate
144

Krasnoiarsk, 1917 : the making of Soviet power in central Siberia

Dickins, Alistair January 2015 (has links)
This thesis investigates the formation of power structures in a revolutionary setting. It takes as a case study the central Siberian city of Krasnoiarsk, in which a powerful Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies emerged during the period March-October 1917. The Krasnoiarsk Soviet was an elective council established during the overthrow of Tsarist authorities. Throughout 1917, it became a vital component of an emerging local and regional power structure, assuming growing responsibility for a number of core state tasks. As well as providing a new empirical case study to English-language literature on 1917, the thesis employs a nuanced analytical approach which challenges existing conceptualisations of state power in revolution and the role played by local soviets. State power in revolutionary Russia has often been viewed as something to be contested between different political groupings and organisations seeking to assert their own outright control. This view is captured neatly by the formulation of “dual power”, in which soviets and Provisional Government organisations constructed alternative power bases in an attempt to wield outright control. Accordingly, the soviets’ growing political strength indicated an ability to marginalise other groups and organisations seeking to wield power. By contrast, this thesis does not seek to explain how power in revolutionary Krasnoiarsk was “captured” or otherwise controlled by the Soviet alone. Instead, it applies a critical interpretation of state power proposed by Bob Jessop and other theorists, who view the state as a site of interaction and negotiation between multiple autonomous organisations and social actors, all of which have a stake in the way it operates in practice. It focuses on the emergence of a “soviet power” writ small, in which the Krasnoiarsk Soviet became an authoritative organisation within a broader constellation of revolutionary actors. Without denying the Soviet’s centrality within this power structure, the thesis does not explain its role simply as the monopolisation of authority over other would-be contenders. Rather, it sees the Soviet’s importance in its ability to establish itself as a focal point for interactions between multiple actors which, collectively, shaped state power at a local and regional level. It considers how the forms and practices of revolutionary power developed through these interactions and how these interactions in turn transformed the roles of actors and organisations engaging them. In order to unpick the complex and dynamic processes of revolutionary power, the thesis employs three core methodological concepts: institutions, mobilisation, and ideology. It makes several important and original arguments. Firstly, it emphasises the autonomy of social actors which supported the Soviet and engaged in its politics, demonstrating the extent to which they were able to shape its political functions and structures according to their own concerns. Secondly, it reveals the importance of skilled administrative personnel to Soviet work, highlighting the invaluable practical roles they played in the regulation of provisions and their ability to influence Soviet policy measures on this issue. Thirdly, it demonstrates the close cooperation between the Soviet and other local governmental and administrative bodies, including the city Duma and provisions regulatory organisations, which remained vital to fulfilling state functions throughout 1917. Finally, it discusses how the Soviet and socialist activists challenged established power relationships between Krasnoiarsk, as a locality, and all-Russian state authorities, revealing the growing importance they attached to securing greater local autonomy in revolution and the changing ways local actors viewed their role in wider all-Russian politics.
145

Archaeological methodology and art making : excavating parallels

Simonis, Esther Malan 30 November 2006 (has links)
See file 01 / Art History, Visual Arts & Music / (M.A. (Visual Arts))
146

Three Dimensional Dynamic Response of Reinforced Concrete Bridges Under Spatially Varying Seismic Ground Motions

Peña-Ramos, Carlos Enrique January 2011 (has links)
A new methodology is proposed to perform nonlinear time domain analysis on three-dimensional reinforced concrete bridge structures subjected to spatially varying seismic ground motions. A stochastic algorithm is implemented to generate unique and correlated time history records under each bridge support to model the spatial variability effects of seismic wave components traveling in the longitudinal and transverse direction of the bridge. Three-dimensional finite element models of highway bridges with variable geometry are considered where the nonlinear response is concentrated at bidirectional plastic hinges located at the pier end zones. The ductility demand at each pier is determined from the bidirectional rotations occurring at the plastic hinges during the seismic response evaluation of the bridge models. Variability of the soil characteristics along the length of the bridge is addressed by enforcing soil response spectrum compatibility of the generated time history records and of the dynamic stiffness properties of the spring sets modeling soil rigidity at the soil-foundation interface at each support location. The results on pier ductility demand values show that their magnitude depends on the type of soil under the pier supports, the pier location and the overall length and geometry of the bridge structure. Maximum ductility demand values were found to occur in piers supported on soft soils and located around the mid span of long multi-span bridges. The results also show that pier ductility demand values in the transverse direction of the bridge can be significantly different than the values in the longitudinal direction and in some instances, the maximum value occurs in the transverse direction. Moreover, results also show that ignoring the effects of spatial variability of the seismic excitation, the pier ductility demand can be severely underestimated. Finally, results show that increasing the vertical acceleration component in the seismic wave will generate an increase in the pier axial loads, which will reduce the ductility range of the pier plastic zones. As result, even though the increase in pier ductility demand associated with the increase in the vertical acceleration component was found to be relatively small, the number piers exhibiting significant structural damage increased.
147

Testing the Limits of Oral Narration: A Case Study on Armenian Genocide Survivors

Zaramian, Reuben 05 January 2012 (has links)
This research discusses communication and meaning in the context of orality, using a variety of theoretical perspectives, including memory theory, media and communication theory, and semiotics. Drawing on the work of Walter Ong, it provides new insight about the characteristics and limits of oralnarration by assessing the memes, tropes, and phraseological units in the oral narrations of Armenian Genocide survivors. This research identifies a list of replicable forms of stories and oral devices that are used by the group in question; it then proposes that oral narration of non-fictional topics designed to convey historical or episodic information to others is intuitive, reactive, directed, fuzzy, and sticky. Concerns about the legitimacy and historical value of the narrations under review do not play a role in this research; instead, the focal point is the meaning embedded in the form and structure of the narrations under study.
148

Advanced finite element analysis of deep excavation case histories

Dong, Yuepeng January 2014 (has links)
Deep excavations have been used worldwide for underground construction, but they also alter the ground conditions and induce ground movements which might cause risks to adjacent infrastructure. Field measurements are normally carried out during excavations to ensure their safety, and also provide valuable data to calibrate the results from the numerical analysis which is an effective way to investigate the performance of deep excavations. This thesis is concerned with evaluating the capability of advanced finite element analysis in reproducing various aspects of observed deep excavation behaviour in the field through back analysis of case histories. The finite element model developed considers both geotechnical and structural aspects such as (i) detailed geometry of the excavation and retaining structures, (ii) realistic material models for the soil, structures and the soil-structure interface, and (iii) correct construction sequences. Parametric studies are conducted first based on a simplified square excavation to understand the effect of several important aspects, e.g. (i) the merit of shell or solid elements to model the retaining wall, (ii) the effect of construction joints in the retaining wall, (iii) the effect of the operational stiffness of concrete structural components due to cracks, (iv) the thermal effect of concrete beams and floor slabs during curing process and due to variation of ambient temperature, (v) the effect of soil-structure interface behaviour, and (vi) the effect of stiffness and strength properties of the soil. Two more complex case histories are then investigated through fully 3D analyses to explore the influence of various factors such as (i) neglecting the small-strain stiffness nonlinearity in the soil model, (ii) the selected K_0 value to represent the initial stress state in the ground, (iii) the appropriate anisotropic wall properties to consider the joints in the diaphragm wall, (iv) the parameters governing the settlements of adjacent buildings and buried pipelines, (v) the effectiveness of ground improvement on reducing the building settlement, (vi) the variation of construction sequences, (vii) the effectiveness of earth berms, and (viii) ignoring the openings in the floor slabs. This research has strong practical implications, but cautions should also be taken in applications, e.g. element types and parameter selection.
149

L'institutionnalisation d'Émile Zola dans les manuels scolaires de lycée au XXème siècle. Étude de réception / The institutionalization of Émile Zola in high school textbooks in the twentieth century. Receiving study

Nastase, Alina Iuliana 22 December 2012 (has links)
L'institutionnalisation de Zola, comportant à la fois la consécration d'une image officielle et la labellisation d'un corpus textuel, doit être envisagée à travers des manuels scolaires, histoires littéraires, études critiques et générations de lecteurs, en tant que réconciliation des métadiscours et conciliation des horizons d'attente. Linéarités, stratifications, constellations sémantiques et formelles sont des visions différentes d'un même objet de lecture, à savoir le texte naturaliste. Une entité qui parcourt sans cesse, par le biais du paratexte - documents critiques, sons et images - prolongation de la lecture jusque dans la périphérie de l'espace textuel, un chemin à double sens. De l'univocité sémantique longuement promue sur le plan scolaire à travers une critique de l'intentionnalité au trop plein de « déstructuration » menant parfois à un non sens ; puis de l'approche structuraliste comme réaction contre l'historicité atrophiant les sens et claustrant la spontanéité du lecteur à l'approche thématique libérant les fantasmes de la lecture dans un monde de symboles, le texte zolien cherche à joindre son lecteur. Ainsi, tout au long de notre étude, nous sommes allée à sa rencontre. Nous n'avons fait qu'observer, noter et constater. À présent, nous laissons entièrement aux lecteurs le soin de conclure … et de recevoir. / The process institutionalising Zola, implying both a recognition of an official image and the labelling of a textual corpus should be considered, by examining school text books, history of literature books, essays and other critical studies, and readers' generations as reconciliation of metadiscourses and conciliation among several « horizons of expectation ». Semantic and formal linearities, stratifications, constellations are all different sides of the same reading object, i.e. the naturalistic text. This entity travels incessantly along a doubleway road through the paratext, an extension of the reading experience up to the peripherical text area : critical documents, sounds and images. From the semantic univocity, which was longly promoted at school level thanks to an intention-focused criticism, up to an overdestructuration sometimes leading to nonsense ; then, from the structural approach reacting against that historicity which atrophies sense and confines spontaneous reading up to a thematic approach liberating a whole world of symbols, Zola's text tends to reach its reader. Thus, we have tried to join his text all throughout this analysis. Indeed, we have simply observed, noted and attested. From now on, we assume that it belongs to readers to get to a conclusion and… to receive.
150

Prvkové a izotopické studium diferencovaných meteoritů a jeho význam pro původ a vývoj jejich mateřských těles / Elemental and isotopic study of differentiated meteorites and implications for the origin and evolution of their parent bodies

Halodová, Patricie January 2011 (has links)
ELEMENTAL AND ISOTOPIC STUDY OF DIFFERENTIATED METEORITES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THEIR PARENT BODIES Iron meteorites are differentiated meteorites composed largely of Fe-Ni alloys. The metallic phase of many iron meteorites shows a texture called the Widmanstätten pattern, which develops as a two-phase intergrowth of kamacite (α-bcc, ferrite) and taenite (γ-fcc, austenite), and forms by nucleation and growth of kamacite from taenite during slow cooling of the parent body. Selected iron meteorites - octahedrites of different structural and chemical groups (Canyon Diablo, Toluca, Bohumilitz, Horh Uul, Alt Biela, Nelson County, Gibeon and Joe Wright Mountain) were studied with intention to evaluate the scale and extent of Fe isotopic heterogeneities in iron meteorites and to find the possible link between the isotopic variations and thermal histories of the respective meteorite parent bodies. The Fe isotopic compositions of kamacite and taenite in the studied meteorites, obtained by three independent analytical techniques with different spatial resolution capabilities (laser ablation and solution MC ICP-MS and SIMS) show significant variations of up to ~4.5‰ in δ56 Fe. The taenite is isotopically heavier compared to kamacite in all studied meteorites. There is no correlation...

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