This thesis focuses on the ways in which identity and ritual converge within the emancipatory performances of the Trinidad Carnival and the Caribbean inspired Carnivals of Notting Hill and Cardiff. The work looks as the ways in which Carnival performances can be interpreted in order to investigate how these interpretations can be practically utilised within art-making or art presentation. The thesis develops an innovative reading of the word mas' (masquerade/mask) offering new perspectives that can serve as a nucleus for ways of engaging with and analysing Carnival. The consideration of mas' as a performance activity with traits that can be manifested within and outside of the Carnival environment is highly relevant and has been applied in my practical art experiment called 'Mama dat is Mas'. The project also aims to analyse the ways in which re-interpretations of mas' can engage with issues of social anxiety and feelings of displacement.

This study is intended to be a critical examination of the role of law and the legal profession in Urban pinning and development in the context of East Africa. It discusses the actual, proposed and possible functions of law and gives a critical analysis of shortcomings in the existing law and attitudes towards the planning process. It begins by discussing the various notions of plmning and development and what these mean to different groups of people whose work relate to the subject of planning and development. The first three chapters may be regarded as setting the scene in that they outline the perspective of the study, describe the region and its people, deal with the current and future problems of urbanization, discuss the land tenure systems and evaluate the processes of acquiring land for urban planning and developnent. The middle of the thesis, and particularly chapter five examines the organs, institutions, bureaucracies and. infrastructures of urban agglomerations. Chapter six deals with land use planning, the aims and objectives in such planning and how the resulting plans are implemented and enforced. Of special interest are the functions fulfilled or to be fulfilled by lawyers in this process. Chapter seven discusses housing as one of the important objectives of planning and evaluates the agencies of developzent including foreign investments, building societies and self-help projects. Included in this chapter are urban rates and rents. The last chapter is a resume of the study but concentrates on what the author has called "The Lawyer's 'brief' in Urban Planning and Development". The theeme of the study has been that planning and development is a multi-purpose, multi-disciplinary subject in which law must play its part. Consequently, there has been considerable use of materials and authorities traditionally regarded as "non-legal". One of the fascinating points in this kind of study is the use and analysis of such materials and authorities for the purpose of producing a legal discourse.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

This is a sociolinguistic investigation that examines variation in the use of two ancient features in the Tihāmi Qaḥṭāni dialect as spoken in two villages (al-Jawwa in the highlands and al-Farša in the lowlands) in ʿAsīr, southwest Saudi Arabia. The data are analysed within the framework of the variationist sociolinguistic paradigm and subjected to statistical testing using Rbrul. In addition to ‘linguistic environment’, ‘age’ and ‘gender’ as independent variables, the study analyses the effect of geographical location on the structure of variation and the trajectory of language change. The first linguistic variable is phonological, the Arabic sound ḍād, and the second linguistic variable is morpho-phonological, definite article m-. The Tihāmi Qaḥṭāni dialect preserves ancient realisations of these features. This is a dialect that traditionally has a lateral realisation of ḍād, and m- definite article, both of which are ancient Semitic features. A total of twenty eight speakers were sampled from the two communities. The data were obtained through sociolinguistic interviews. The results show that there is considerable variation in the use of both variables. The structure of this variation is influenced by social, linguistic and spatial factors. The incoming variants, emphatic interdental fricative [ðˤ] for (ḍād) and l-article for m-article, are koine forms. In the case of ḍād, the quantitative analysis shows that it is undergoing change towards [ðˤ]. This change is led by younger women in both communities, while men in general and older women lag behind. Analysis of m-article shows change in progress in the lowland community only (al-Farša). In this case too, the younger women are found to be in the lead. The qualitative analysis of the data shows that ambition, attitudes, tribal identity and mobility influence variation in the use of the traditional features. The analysis underlines the benefits of quantitative sociolinguistic methods towards understanding historical linguistic developments.

This thesis explores the extent to which, and the ways in which, KCC Live, a volunteer youth-led community radio station situated in Knowsley, neighbouring Liverpool, UK, provides a space for young people to find and realise their voices. The body of geographical work on radio has predominantly focussed on large-scale geopolitical questions at the international scale. In particular, there has been a deficit of research considering community radio in the UK. Research from other countries is not easily transferable, due to the specific regulatory paradigms in different countries. This study takes a step towards remedying the neglect of community radio in geographical research in the UK. This research project adopts a participatory design in collaboration with young people at KCC Live. Mixed methods were employed, including: 18 months of observant participation; interviews and focus groups with volunteers; interviews with management at KCC Live and Knowsley Community College; a listener survey, listener diaries, and follow-up interviews. Accompanying this thesis are two co-produced audio artefacts: an audio documentary named ‘Community to me is…’, which explores young people’s musings on community, and a three-part radio series called ‘What we found’, which discusses the findings of this research in audio form. First, my research provides insight into a twofold vision of youth voice as both restricted and creative concurrently. This thesis shows that community radio is not a cure-all solution for disenfranchised and silenced young people, as young people at KCC Live work within a pre-censored idea of speech. Second, this thesis finds that young people conceptualise the KCC Live community in multiple ways. These include: friendships which constitute communities of choice; geographic communities within specific locales; the functioning of KCC Live as a community of practice; imagined communities of listeners; and virtual communities, formed through use of social media. This research therefore advances recent debates that shift notions of community away from static place-based understandings to more networked approaches. Third, this thesis demonstrates that young people are capable of learning skills, locating resources and building networks, thereby generating their own stocks of social capital. It therefore challenges the dominant perception within the literature of young people as receivers, rather than producers, of social capital.

The objective of this study is to estimate 2-D spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity (Ks) of Zhuoshui River alluvial fan, Taiwan, using groundwater level data from 88 wells and stream stage data from 4 gauging stations. In order to accomplish this analysis, wavelet analysis is first carried out to investigate the periodic cycles of groundwater level, precipitation, and stream stage. The results of the analysis show that variations of groundwater level and stream stage are highly correlated in terms of seasonal and annual periods. Subsequently, seasonal variations of groundwater level in response to stream stage variation are utilized to estimate the Ks spatial distribution by spatiotemporal cross correlation analysis, cokriging, and river stage tomography. Prior to applications of these methods to the alluvial fan, performances of each approach are evaluated and compared with reference field of a noise free synthetic experiment. It is found that all of the approaches could yield similar general spatial pattern of Ks. Nevertheless, river stage tomography seems to reveal a higher resolution of spatial Ks distribution. When the geologic zones are provided in river stage tomography analysis as prior information, the accuracy of estimated Ks values improves. Finally, results of the applications to data of the alluvial fan reveal that the apex and southeast of the alluvial fan are regions with relative high Ks and the Ks values gradually decrease toward the shoreline of the fan. These two areas are considered as the possible main recharge regions of the aquifer. It is also observed that Ks at northern alluvial fan is slightly larger than that at southern. These findings seem consistent with the geologic evolution of this alluvial fan.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Fuel cells are long term solution for global energy needs. In current fuel cell technologies, Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells are known for quick start-up and ease of operation compared to other types of fuel cells. Operating PEM fuel cells at high temperature show promising applications for stationary combined heat and power application (CHP). The high operating temperature up to 160°C allows waste heat to be recovered for co-generation or tri-generation purposes. The commercially available PEM fuel cells operating at 160⁰C can tolerate up to 3% CO without significant loss of performance, making HT-PEM fuel cell viable choice when reformate is used. In reality these advantages convert to very little balance-of-plant compared to Nafion® based fuel cells operating at 60°C. However, there are some problems that prevent high temperature fuel cells from large scale commercialization. The cathode is said to have sluggish reaction kinetics and high cell potentials and operating temperature during fuel cell start-up may cause severe degradation. The formation of liquid water during the shut-down can cause the phosphoric acid to leach from the cell during operation. Efforts are being made to reduce the cost and increase the durability of fuel cell components (such as catalyst and membrane) at high temperatures. Apart from degradation issues, the problems are related to cost and performance. The performance of the PEM fuel cells depends on a lot of factors such as fuel cell design and assembly, operating conditions and the flow field design used on the cathode and anode plates. The flow field geometry is one important factor influencing the performance of fuel cells. The flow fields have significant effect on pressure and flow distribution inside the fuel cell. A homogeneous distribution of the reactant gases over the active catalyst surface leads to improved electrochemical reactions and thus enhances the performance of the fuel cell. So, the design of flow fields is one of the important issues for performance improvement of PEM fuel cell in terms of power density and efficiency. There are different types of flow fields available for PEM fuel cells such as serpentine, pin, interdigitated and straight flow fields but the most obvious choice is multiple serpentine. The same can be used for high temperature PEM fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) application with ease because of absence of liquid water during the high temperature operation and no need for complex water management.

This research focuses on cross-cultural differences in facework between English and German conversation. Specifically, the research addresses facework occurring as part and parcel of sociable conversation, as it is played out within moments of focused topic development - what I term 'sociable episodes'. Drawing on extant literature, the study identifies a range of communicative parameters along which English and German communicative style has been shown to differ, non more so than those suggesting different facework norms, and orientation to face needs as opposed to such things as ideational aspects of talk. In an attempt to address these differences, the study develops a model of facework - facework as alignment -which is posited as being appropriate to the study of essentially apolite conversational interaction. Further, although utilising the notions of ritual equilibrium (Goffman 1967) and positive - negative aspects of face (Brown and Levinson), the posited model of facework focuses specifically on aspects of sociable selfhood informing sociable conversation. It is argued that facework in sociable episodes is a matter of positive and negative alignment of sociable selves in and through the claiming of solidarity with and autonomy from other co-participants in terms of expressions of definitions, evaluations, experiences. In terms of English - German differences, these are demonstrated to be a matter of alignment of different sociable selves, ones normatively and routinely positively and negatively aligned in the achievement of sociable conversation, and ones indexing prevailing but culturally differing positive social values (Goffman 1967). The study concludes by identifying areas for future research based on the facework as alignment model developed and applied throughout the thesis.

Among the steady progression of disasters worldwide lie the numerous instances of fatality where crowds gather. The scale of these is particularly high at the Hajj in Makkah, where there are exceptionally high numbers of pedestrians in a number of confined areas and, depending on the time of year, all in searing heat. In order to reduce the likelihood of repetition in the future, the present thesis involved firstly determining the characteristics of the pedestrians attending the Hajj, and then collecting speed, flow and density data by observing them walking along one of the busiest roads between the Holy Mosque and the other holy sites, Ajyad Street. These were analyzed against various models from the literature including those of Greenshield, Weidmann and Greenberg, and it was found that none of these fitted convincingly, mostly because pilgrims do not walk at the maximum speeds that the crowd density allows. This thesis proposes the use instead of a maximum possible speed model based on a linear relationship between speed and density i.e. \(u\) ≤ 1.75 (1 - \(k\) /5.47) where \(u\) is speed (m/s) and \(k\) is density (people/m\(^2\)). It then goes on demonstrate with a simulation model that an increase of 50% in traffic with the current layout would result in severe overcrowding. This however could be avoided relatively easily by a particular combination of changing the directions of flow and the geometry of the road.

This thesis was based on five multi-agency, urban Partnerships at the heart of the Accommodate Project: An initiative that set out to stimulate grassroots resolution to the problem of refugee housing, settlement and integration, at a time when large numbers of people were arriving seeking asylum in the UK. Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs) were engaged by the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (hact) to work alongside housing providers, local authority partners and others, for three years in five cities where refugees were struggling to find permanent housing. My original contribution to knowledge concerned study of the Partnerships from the perspective of organisations working with the most socially excluded, the RCOs. The Partnerships created a structure where power could be brokered. Research was conducted in a critical realist tradition in order to discover the relationship between emerging themes. Connections made between structural barriers and local interaction meant this approach presented a bigger picture view that other methodologies might have overlooked. A longitudinal methodology tracked progression from the marginalised position that was the starting point for many RCOs, struggling to survive and fill the gaps in service provision for community members. By the end of the Project, RCO partners had changed attitudes, improved access to housing services and transformed institutional relations between social housing providers and refugees. Hact’s support for RCO capacity building was fundamental to their being able to influence the agenda, define the solutions and participate in policy decision-making. The Accommodate Project created a learning space that countered marginalisation by actively involving community groups in cross-sector partnerships. This study demonstrates that community empowerment is an accumulative yet uneven process. A participatory approach allows less engaged groups to learn quickly from those that are better established. If the intention of community empowerment is to lead to fundamental change, the role of active management strategies by a catalyst such as hact is paramount. The thesis deploys and develops theories of community empowerment and network management to conceptualise the social inclusion of marginalised groups.