Com a atual preocupação ambiental e a necessidade de se conhecer os processos que regem o movimento da água e de solutos no solo, são necessários estudos que possibilitem aumentar a eficiência do uso de insumos no setor agrícola, que de certa forma possam mitigar o impacto das atividades deste setor sobre contaminação de águas subterrâneas. Portanto, objetivou-se com a presente pesquisa verificar os parâmetros de transporte do íon nitrato, diante de uma análise da influência dos respectivos íons acompanhantes, a partir de fontes distintas de nitrato, em seu deslocamento, com a elaboração de curvas de distribuição de efluentes (Breakthrough Curves (BTC)), em condições de amostras de solo deformadas e indeformadas. O trabalho foi realizado em condições de solo saturado e regime permanente, via aplicação de uma solução de nitrato na concentração de 50 g m-3 de NO3 -, por três diferentes fontes (Ca(NO3)2, NH4NO3 e KNO3), para dois tipos distintos de solos tropicais: Latossolo Vermelho Amarelo e Nitossolo Vermelho. O experimento foi conduzido no Laboratório de Solos e Qualidade de Água, do Departamento de Engenharia de Biossistemas da Escola Superior de Agricultura \"Luiz de Queiroz\", em Piracicaba - SP. Os parâmetros de transporte do íon nitrato na concentração de 50 g m-3 nos respectivos solos foram obtidos por um ajuste numérico utilizando-se o software STANMOD. Pelos resultados obtidos, pôde-se verificar que o deslocamento do nitrato está atrelado com as caraterísticas dos solos e que houve maiores efeitos de lixiviação para o Nitossolo Vermelho. Em termos da influência dos cátions acompanhantes do nitrato, em suas diferentes fontes distintas, pode-se dizer que não foram observados seus efeitos na mobilidade do nitrato no perfil do solo. / With the current environmental concerns and the need to understand the processes that govern the movement of water and solutes in soil, studies are needed to allow increasing the efficiency of input use in agriculture that somehow can mitigate the impact of activities of this sector on groundwater contamination. Therefore, the objective of this work was to verify the transport parameters of the nitrate, by analyzing the influence of the accompanying cation on nitrate displacement, through the development of distributions curves of effluents (Breakthrough Curves (BTC)), under conditions of disturbed and undisturbed samples in saturated soil and steady state conditions, via application of nitrate solution at a concentration of 50 g m-3 NO3 -, by three different sources (Ca(NO3)2, NH4NO3 and KNO3) and for two types of tropical soils: Yellow Oxisol and Anfisol. The experiment was conducted in the Laboratory of Soil and Water Quality, Department of Biosystems Engineering from Escola Superior de Agricultura \"Luiz de Queiroz\", Piracicaba - SP. The transport parameters of the nitrate at a concentration of 50 g m-3 in their respective soils were obtained by a numerical fit using the software STANMOD. From the results, it could be seen that the nitrate displacement is linked with the soil characteristics and the leaching was higher in Anfisol. In terms of the influence of accompanying cations of nitrate, in its various different sources, it can be said that their effects were not observed in nitrate mobility in the soil profile.

Thesis advisor: Andrea Vicini / Thesis advisor: Kristin E. Heyer / It might be unusual to identify the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a country where expulsions put at flagrant risk thousands of small farmers to make way for economic projects or natural resources extraction, as is the case in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, India, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The lack of documentation and data greatly contributes to silencing the victims of dislocations in Eastern Congo. This research, therefore, voices six critical claims by raising the ethical question: how can Christian ethics—in the only African country with the greatest proportion (43.2 million) of baptized Catholics—humanize involuntary displacement and resettlement of communities? While the “resource curse theory” has revealed the challenges of a country riddled with economic constraints, political instability, and mining-induced conflicts, this research proposes the “protological ethics of land” as one approach to dislocations in the era of extractive industries. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

This thesis is a qualitative case study that explores the experiences of unaccompanied Afghan asylum seeking minors in Greece – a largely neglected area empirically, in migration-related social science research – despite the fact that migration has been an issue of mounting concern recently. The study sets out to bridge this gap hence, to provide insights of the paths of young people as individuals in their own right, and of the dynamics and processes of their forced migrations. The research contributes to contemporary debates about migration and childhood. The thesis takes a broader approach that highlights the connections across borders and covers the multiple facets of unaccompanied minors’ experiences and feelings; pre-exile, during journeys, and on arrival in Greece. The future plans and motivations of the young respondents are also discussed. Information in relation to young respondent’s experiences, emotions and thoughts was collected in a series of in-depth interviews, focus groups and participatory activities. Data was also gathered by professionals and public figures with the aim to identify how these young people are treated and perceived inside and outside of the reception centres in Greece. The data indicates that these young respondents are deeply and negatively affected by experiences of loss, separation, discrimination, abuse, and long-lasting hardships to be found throughout their histories of movement. Their accounts are renegotiated tales where notions of belonging and identity are shaped along the way, and the boundaries drawn around childhood and adulthood are often fragile and fluid. The events of young people’s movements are reported as having been poignant, rendering them in a continuous, transitional state of existence. This stage ‘in between’, it is argued to be intricately entangled with the prolonged political insecurity which in some instances, extents to the condition of statelessness. The analysis of young respondents’ experiences revealed an overt gap between entitlements which are theoretically attributed to unaccompanied minors, regarding their social, political and legal rights – irrespective of their legal status – and pragmatic barriers to be found on the ground; on the streets, at borders, in detention, in police stations, and in reception centres, these young people are imperilled to the process of dehumanization. This process is understood to be a product of social and political violence implicated in local and transnational contexts. A combination of structural factors and practices has been found to be compounded by inhuman actions such as; the commodification process, the classification process, poverty, stigmatization, institutional racism and the ambiguity of political status. The findings further indicated that young respondents had mixed and distinct feelings of their experiences and responded to the process of dehumanization in very different ways; some developed robust resilient mechanisms along the way and formed important social networks for their survival and others felt powerless, and incapable mentally to lead their lives. The data indicated that the type of care and support varied significantly among the reception centres. There was a spectrum of attitudes towards the presence of the young respondents, showing sympathy and welcoming responses but also prejudice, stereotypes and xenophobia. These appeared at professional, government and public levels. Implications are discussed in relation to the punitive policies and practices that demoralise the rights and needs of the young people, hence potential strategies are suggested for reforming aspects of the child welfare/asylum system. The thesis concludes that these young respondents have a uniquely strong claim to social and political rights that will give them back their lost ‘ordinariness’.

Contemporary population displacement trends are impacting cities located in developing countries in unprecedented ways. This scenario is reflected in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, which from May 2016 to January of 2017, experienced the massive arrival of Haitians seeking asylum in the United States. My thesis addresses the Haitians’ patterns of displacement and the actors involved in their migratory processes including governmental and non-governmental authorities in Mexico and the United States. Because of the complexity of displacement today, I argue that in order to comprehend patterns and responses to displacement, it is necessary to use a multi-scalar global perspective that addresses the relationship between time and space as well as the relationship between politics and power. Furthermore, I argue that the Haitians' arrival to the U.S.-Mexico border is an illustration of crisis migration, which views displacement as the result of a combination of social, political, economic, and environmental crises.

This paper adopts a psychoanalytical approach to Toni Morrison’s Beloved by focusing on the significance of 124 Bluestone Road and the entity Beloved, as both a character and a source of displacement for the other characters as a result of the traumatic events that plagued them throughout the novel. In order to accomplish this, a close reading of passages dealing with this location’s haunting and the manifestation of Beloved as the flesh and blood spirit will be used to discuss the meaning behind the metaphor. Furthermore, certain psychological and literary terms will be utilized in the course of this analysis including: personification, repression, possession, metaphor, displacement and the uncanny in order to attempt to answer the question about how the author used these devices to narrate the trauma of the characters Sethe, Denver and Paul D, giving merit to their symbolic struggle with the trauma of their past and its negative impact on their identities.

This thesis includes experimental and theoretical work performed to investigate the behaviour of ground anchors in sand. The anchor footing used was a circular plate connected to a tie rod. The experimental work was carried out by installing the anchor in a l830mm x 1830mm x l220mm deep tank containing dry sand. The sand sample was prepared by using a vibrator fixed to the bottom of the tank. The anchor was pulled out at a constant rate of strain and the load-displacement curve was recorded on a plotter. The vibration of the tank was defined by deter.mining the acceleratton and amplitude of the motion in the horizontal and vertical directions. A density tube and a hydraulic gauge were designed to investigate the distribution of stresses in sand. The variation of the vibration time, the constant rate of strain, the shaf V plate diameter, the plate thickness/plate diameter, and the boundary distance with the load-displacement curve were also investigated. The load-displacement curve of different diameter plates embedded at various depths for different times of vibration were recorded. To investigate the behaviour of ground anchors theoretically, the finite element technique was used and a computer progra~ developed. A linear stress-strain relationship was used to predj.ct and investigate the behaviour of the anchor. A non-linear stress-strain relationship and a failure criterion were also used to predict the load-displacement curve of the vertical anchor. The effect of the parameters which were investigated experimentally were also examined. The distribution of the load on the anchor plate and the extent of the failure zone were plotted. The predicted and experimental results in this thesis were compared with laboratory and field results obtained by previous researchers.

In the autumn of 2017 the #metoo-movement came to change a whole world. In Sweden, many #metoo-movements started, one of which was #vardeljus. #vardeljus means “Let there be light”, and was a movement of anonymous women in The Church of Sweden. The women wanted to illustrate how women have been sexually harassed in the organization. #vardeljus was also a blog with the same name, where the women shared their stories. In this essay, I have studied how the #vardeljus-movement highlighted existing gender structures in The Church of Sweden, and whether or not the movement contributed to an authority displacement. In relation to this, I examined in what way the theory of mediaziation could be useful in the study of these topics. In the making of this study, I have mainly relied on the theory of mediaziation as the main theory. In addition I have also benefited from ideas found in the theory of authority displacement as well as from adding a gender perspective. The text material of my choice was the #vardeljus-movement, publicated in the newspaper Kyrkans tidning, and a selection from the associated blog with same name - #vardeljus. The method of this study has been a systematic text analysis, wherein I have placed my text material in categories. These categories were power, gender structure, sexually harassment and authority displacement. The study found that the #vardeljus-movement illustrated gender structures in The Church of Sweden. These were expressed through sexually harassment, and abuse of power from authorities in the church. Another result of the study was that the movement started a process of an authority displacement, where previously silent stories were heard. In relation to these conclusions, the theory of mediaziation has been used to analyse how these gender structures and authority displacements are presented in the #vardeljus-movement, and how new medias are provided to these conclusions.

This thesis presents a unique finite element investigation of the seismic behaviour of 2 retaining wall types – a rigid retaining wall and a cantilever retaining wall. The commercial finite element program PLAXIS2D was used to develop the numerical simulation models. The research includes: (1) validating the finite element model with the results of 3 previously existing centrifuge tests taken from literature; (2) investigating the seismic response of rigid and cantilever retaining walls including studying the effects of contribution of wall displacement, wall and backfill seismic inertia and stiffness of the foundation soil; (3) developing analytical methods to concrete the findings of the numerical models. Based on the results of the seismic response of a rigid retaining wall, a unique relationship between the seismic earth pressure and wall displacement has been developed for the active and passive modes of failure. The seismic active earth pressure has been found to be not dependent on the wall displacement while the seismic passive earth pressure has been found to be highly affected by the wall displacement. The maximum seismic passive earth pressure force and relative horizontal displacement are predicted when the ground earthquake acceleration is applied with maximum amplitude and minimum frequency content. The seismic response of the wall was not affected by the ratio of the frequency content of the earthquake to the natural frequency of the wall-soil system. For the cantilever retaining wall detailed structural integrity and global analyses have been carried out. It has been observed that the seismic earth pressure, computed at the stem and along a vertical virtual plane are found to be out of phase with each other during the entire duration of the earthquake, and hence, the structural integrity and global stability should be evaluated and assessed individually. A critical case for the structural integrity is observed when the earthquake acceleration is applied towards the backfill soil and has frequency content close to the natural frequency of the retaining wall, while, for the global stability, the critical case is observed when the earthquake acceleration has maximum amplitude and is applied towards the backfill soil with minimum frequency content. The structural integrity is also found to be highly dependent on the ratio between the frequency content of earthquake acceleration to the natural frequency of the cantilever retaining wall. The relative horizontal displacement of a rigid and cantilever retaining wall is found to be highly affected by the duration of the earthquake in contrast to what has been observed for the seismic earth pressure force. The structural integrity of a rigid and cantilever retaining wall reduces when the backfill soil has a higher relative density, while the global stability increases when the backfill soil has a high relative density during an earthquake. The results obtained from the analytical methods reveal that the wall seismic inertia force has a significant effect on the structural integrity only for the top of the stem while the base of the stem does not get affected significantly. The modified Newmark sliding block method provided a more reasonable estimation of the relative horizontal displacement of a rigid retaining wall and a cantilever retaining wall compared with the classic Newmark sliding block method.

As Christianity spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages, many believers attributed miraculous tales to the Virgin Mary and saints. In Camino de Santiago folklore, the Virgin Mary and Saint James intercede on behalf of pilgrims who cannot resolve a crisis without divine assistance. The Codex Calixtinus, a twelfth-century manuscript, contains such a story that occurs in Toulouse called "The Hanged Pilgrim." In this miracle, an innkeeper frames a pilgrim for theft and the local magistrate sentences the accused to hang as a consequence. However, the Virgin Mary and Saint James spare the pilgrim's life because of his devotion and the magistrate orders the pilgrim's release. Over centuries, pilgrims alter the original story as they retell it on the Camino trail. I argue that not only does this miracle of intercession change geographic location from France to the Iberian Peninsula, but that it also transforms from the Virgin Mary and Saint James saving an innocent pilgrim to female victims interceding on behalf of their betrayer and rapist. This analysis traces the displacement of "The Hanged Pilgrim" from a miracle in folklore and poetry to secular metaphoric reconciliation in a Spanish Golden Age play.

Extensive research has been carried out in both field and laboratory to explain water and solute movement under both saturated and unsaturated conditions. The importance of such work is obvious, since any attempt at exploring land reclamation by leaching or nutrient movement in plant feeding (to name only two) is subject to interpretations and theories of moisture flow. Water flow through soil during reclamation by leaching can be termed miscible displacement since soil water and leaching water do not have a distinct fluid-fluid interface and will physically mix. It is probable that miscible displacement investigations can contribute to an understanding of time-ion concentration relationships in land drainage. Much work is and has been done in the laboratory on moisture flow with particular reference to miscible displacement theories. This project investigates a portion of the overall miscible displacement phenomena in the field under conditions which would exist in practice. Specifically, an attempt is made to determine the relative importance of hydrodynamic dispersion and diffusion in a tile drained soil over a relatively impermeable clay using chloride as a tracer.