Based on longitudinal qualitative research, the paper analyses manifestations and mechanisms of the repression of activists of the Spanish protest movement 15M, and effects of this repression perceived by activists. To contextualize this, the background of the movement, its goals, and its achievements are described. The movement started in 2011, protesting the social crisis, the consequences of austerity policies, and corruption. It had viable effects on the framing of the current situation, in political attitudes and also, indirectly, on the political system. The Spanish government has responded to movement activities with repression and with new laws that interviewees characterize as a further restriction of the civil right to demonstrate and protest. Findings indicate that the combination of overt and covert repression have effects far beyond the manifest acts of the repression itself.

Context: Dorsiflexion range of motion (DFROM) is often limited in patients with chronic ankle instability (CAI). Whole-body vibration (WBV) may enhance DFROM by helping to reposition the talus and assisting with talocrural arthrokinematics. Objective: To determine if WBV can enhance DFROM in patients with ankle instability and determine if talar position is affected. Setting: Cohort study. Patients or Other Participants: A total of 25 subjects with CAI (17 women, 8 men; age = 22 ±2.101 years, mass = 72.4 ±17.9 kg, height = 171.2 ± 11.6 cm) participated. Intervention(s): Participants in the WBV group completed a 4-week (12 session) WBV program consisting of 6 sets of 30 s at 35 Hz High amplitude with 30 s rest in between standing on a 30° slant board. Participants in the dorsiflexion (DF) group completed a 4-week program without WBV consisting of 6 sets of 30 s standing on a 30° slant board with 30 s rest in between. Participants in the control (C) group did not receive any intervention. Main Outcome Measure(s): Lateral talus position via radiographic imaging, non-weight-bearing (NWB) DFROM, and weight-bearing (WB) DFROM were assessed preintervention, immediately postintervention, and 24 hours after the final intervention. Results: No significant change was detected in talus position measured by X-ray (F = 1.561; p < .05). NWB DFROM (F = 1.543; p < .05) and WB DFROM (F = .774; p < .05) measurements also did not result in significant changes after the WBV program. Conclusions: Four weeks of WBV treatments did not improve talus position or DFROM in ankle instability subjects.

Does the Internet facilitate anti-regime dissent within authoritarian states? I argue that the Internet fosters dissent mobilization through three factors: distance, decentralization and interaction. First, the Internet fosters dissent mobilization by allowing protesters to communicate relatively cheaply and instantaneously over great distances. While other communication mediums also reduce distance costs, the second factor, decentralization, allows dissenters to use the Internet to evade state controls and reduces the state's ability to restrict information flows. Third, the Internet's Interactive nature allows users to both become consumers and producers of information. Interactivity also fosters trust between users that can evolve into offline action. However, the empirical record consists almost entirely of open sourcenews reporting and qualitative studies, and there are few clear theoretical links between the traditional dissent and repression literatures and recent Internet mobilization theories. My goal in this project is to place a generalizable theory of Internet-mediated dissent within traditional mobilization context and more recent communication, computer science and legal literatures. I frame my theory of Internet mediated dissent through three components. The first component is Internet access as a mobilizing structure, in which I posit that Internet access creates conditions for social mobilization that are difficult for regimes to counter. The second component is the effect of Internetcensorship on Internet-facilitated dissent. For the third theoretical component, I assess that despite the type of censorship, increased Internet use eventually overwhelms the regime's capacity to censor information. I test my theoretical components through a series of large N cross national time series negative binomial regressions spanning 1999-2010. In the first test, I find that increased Internet access increased the likelihood of protest in non-democratic states. Results of the second tests are mixed: technical censorship has no effect on protest, soft controls decreased incidence of protest, and combined technical and soft programs increase the likelihood of protest, albeit the substantive effect is slight. In the third test, I hypothesize that Internet use eventually crosses a user threshold after which censorship is no longer effective. The results of the third test suggest that censorship is not effective regardless of Internet access levels. However, the influence of Internet use on protest tapers off once a specific threshold is reached. The dissertation proceeds as follows: in Chapter 2, I present literature review that frames my research question within previous empirical work. Next, in Chapter 3 I propose and illustrate my theory of Internet-mediated dissent. In Chapter 4, I test whether or not incidents of anti-regime protest increase as Internet use increases inside non-democratic states. I build on these results in Chapter 5, in which I test whether technical filters, soft controls or a combination of methods decrease the likelihood of protest inside non-democratic states, followed by a test for whether increasing Internet use overwhelms censorship programs. Finally, in chapter 6 I summarize my findings, discuss data complications, offer ideas for future research, and discuss the implications of this project.

In 2011, a landslide displaced approximately six thousand people from the urbanized mountain slopes of La Paz, Bolivia. The municipal government of La Paz (GAMLP) managed the displacement by housing thousands of people in displacement camps throughout the city. By 2013, residents were attempting to return to still damaged lands. This research used participant observation and interviews with residents over eight weeks in 2013 to address the following questions: 1) What social, cultural, economic or historic factors influence the settling and then resettling of at-risk slope neighborhoods in La Paz, Bolivia? 2) What are the most pressing health needs of people who have returned to slope neighborhoods and people still living in displacement camps? The research found that the return to at-risk slope properties was supported by entrenched cultural and social meanings attached to land and home ownership. While scarcity of resources galvanized communities to pressure authorities with demonstrations and threats, it also created intra-barrio frictions that disrupted reconstruction, strained existing infrastructure capabilities and threatened to undermine community health.

The purpose of this research was to learn more about the ways that school and system leaders, access, engage with, share, and use research in their work. This research began with a framework developed by Levin (2004) and similar framing by Nutley et al (2007) suggesting that knowledge and use of research in schools depends on characteristics of the research itself (such as accessibility and perceived quality), characteristics of the educators and context (research background, interest level, supporting processes and structures) and the role of third party facilitators (such as professional media, experts, professional development providers) as distributors of knowledge. This study is meant to add to our understanding of the way research is taken up in secondary schools and districts by replicating and extending the recent work by Levin et al (2009) in a research study conducted with the Canadian Education Association (CEA) and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) entitled, “Research Use and its Impact in Secondary Education”. In general, educators, like other professionals, have relatively limited direct knowledge of current research and rely on versions of research findings that they encounter in their daily work or from colleagues (Levin et al, 2009). This study examined the processes and practices in place within secondary schools and across a district school board to determine the facilitators and barriers to research use. The study addressed the following research questions: 1. How do secondary school leaders access and use relevant research findings? 2. What are the main perceived barriers to the use of research by secondary school leaders? 3. In what ways does the school district support or hinder the use of research? These questions were designed to focus on the dynamics at the district level and the organizational capacity for knowledge mobilization. Data were collected through an online anonymous survey and semi-structured interviews. The online survey suggests that educators have a high regard for research in their professional practice, and that there is an array of opportunities for teachers and school administrators to engage with research. And, according to the respondents, the greatest challenge is finding the time to access the research. The findings also reveal that the although there is a high regard for research, research is generally not a priority in secondary schools and practice is based more on knowledge gained from colleagues or personal experience than from evidence-based research. The thesis concluded that there are many factors that both enable and hinder engagement with research and research use. Findings include the importance of culture and context of the school, the relationship between leaders’ actions and expectations and practice, relevancy of research to practice, the role of facilitation, the use of technology, and starting small to build a critical mass of teachers engaging with and using research in their practice.

The purpose of this research was to learn more about the ways that school and system leaders, access, engage with, share, and use research in their work. This research began with a framework developed by Levin (2004) and similar framing by Nutley et al (2007) suggesting that knowledge and use of research in schools depends on characteristics of the research itself (such as accessibility and perceived quality), characteristics of the educators and context (research background, interest level, supporting processes and structures) and the role of third party facilitators (such as professional media, experts, professional development providers) as distributors of knowledge. This study is meant to add to our understanding of the way research is taken up in secondary schools and districts by replicating and extending the recent work by Levin et al (2009) in a research study conducted with the Canadian Education Association (CEA) and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) entitled, “Research Use and its Impact in Secondary Education”. In general, educators, like other professionals, have relatively limited direct knowledge of current research and rely on versions of research findings that they encounter in their daily work or from colleagues (Levin et al, 2009). This study examined the processes and practices in place within secondary schools and across a district school board to determine the facilitators and barriers to research use. The study addressed the following research questions: 1. How do secondary school leaders access and use relevant research findings? 2. What are the main perceived barriers to the use of research by secondary school leaders? 3. In what ways does the school district support or hinder the use of research? These questions were designed to focus on the dynamics at the district level and the organizational capacity for knowledge mobilization. Data were collected through an online anonymous survey and semi-structured interviews. The online survey suggests that educators have a high regard for research in their professional practice, and that there is an array of opportunities for teachers and school administrators to engage with research. And, according to the respondents, the greatest challenge is finding the time to access the research. The findings also reveal that the although there is a high regard for research, research is generally not a priority in secondary schools and practice is based more on knowledge gained from colleagues or personal experience than from evidence-based research. The thesis concluded that there are many factors that both enable and hinder engagement with research and research use. Findings include the importance of culture and context of the school, the relationship between leaders’ actions and expectations and practice, relevancy of research to practice, the role of facilitation, the use of technology, and starting small to build a critical mass of teachers engaging with and using research in their practice.

No description available.

The purpose with this essay is to investigate Swedish political parties who have had or has a restrictive immigration policy containing opinions, that can be classified as xenophobic, and their history and development as a party. The focus in this essay is centred on the politicization that the parties Ny demokrati and Sverigedemokraterna have gone through and the mobilization they have reached. The material that will be handled in this matter are mainly the parties’ political programs that have been published in various forms, but these will be supplemented with secondary sources in the form of previous research, reviews by journalists and other literature. The result have shown that the development from 1970 – 1980´s to today considering these type of organizations is that they have changed in their appearance, in the matter of how they convey their message, and the actual appearance of the party members more than the message itself. The strongest evidence in this matter is Sverigedemokraterna which since the election 2010 has gained entrance in the Swedish parliament as a xenophobic party.

Mobilization of colloidal particulate matter (most important, clay particles) from a soil matrix in the subsurface environment is an important environmental process. As many contaminants tend to adsorb onto various colloidal mineral particles, co-transport of contaminants in association with mobilized particles could contribute significantly to the migration of these contaminants in the environment. Numerous studies have observed the effects of pH on colloid mobilization but have overlooked the possible direct role of acidity. This study looked at the role of acidity with H⁺ as a chemical agent. Through cyclic elution of a natural sand column with a weak acid and base solution, there was an increase in mobilized clay colloids. It was found that low concentrations of organic acids could assist in detaching surface clays through lysing of labile Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions. The H⁺ ions sever the chemical bonds between the grain surface and the colloidal surface by being substituted for the interstitial Ca and Mg ions. This substitution has been found to release over 1 kg of surface clay per 1 mole of H⁺ consumed. It was postulated that pH oscillation addition to proton dynamics could play a major role in subsurface colloid transport. The results from this study could help improve predicting of subsurface contaminant fronts and aid in managing contaminant transport in the soil water environments.

This study departs from Gállok, an area 40 kilometres northwest of the city Jokkmokk, in northern Sweden. This is a place to which local people and Saami reindeer herders have material interests and emotional bonds. The mining company JIMAB wants to prospect for extracting minerals from this area. In the summer of 2013 local people, Saamis and environmental activists gathered in Gállok in order to protest and make resistance against these plans. Activism was made, debate articles were written, demonstrations were organized and information about what was going on in Gállok was shared through social media. The aim of this study is to examine the cultural processes of the anti-mining movement, in particular the happenings in Gállok in summer 2013. How did this anti-mining movement take form? What kind of strategies and methods were used, in order to mobilize participants? This study focuses on the material and bodily aspects of resistance and activism. What kind of material interests lie behind the involvement? How do they use their bodies as tools to make resistance? Furthermore the current thesis examines some of the reasoning, questions and emotions that circulate in the movement. Around which questions and values do the participants in the anti-mining gather? How do emotions affect people's involvement? One of the main arguments of this study is that social movements can be understood both as political and cultural. Is this also the case with the anti-mining movement in Gállok? This study consists of 5 chapters and a summary. The first chapter presents the theories, methods and materials that have been used in this study. In chapter two the reader is presented to the historical background and context of the anti-mining movement. In the third chapter, we examine some of the main reasonings, questions and emotions that circulate in the movement. The fourth chapter focuses on the happenings that took place in Gállok in the summer of 2013, when activists, locals and Saami people where gathered to protest and make resistance. In the fifth chapter a anti-mining demonstration that took place in Jokkmokk in the winter of 2014 is analyzed. The conclusions are then drawn in the final brief summary.