M.Tech. (Chiropractic) / The purpose of this study was to establish whether cervical spinal manipulation induces an appreciable and sustainable alteration in muscle torque performance regarding the elbow flexor muscles. Forty asymptomatic individuals participated in this study. Twenty individuals were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. Participants selected had to be between 18 and 40 years of age and had to present with cervical motion restrictions involving the fourth to sixth cervical vertebrae, as determined by motion palpation assessment. Participants were randomly recruited from the University of Johannesburg and surrounding areas, based on their response to information pamphlets and word of mouth. The experimental group received cervical spinal manipulation involving the lower cervical segments on three separate occasions. The control group received no intervention. Elbow flexion torque assessments were conducted using the Biodex System 3, isokinetic dynamometer. Two assessments were done prior to intervention and one test following one week of intervention, to ascertain whether cervical manipulation can provoke a sustainable improvement in elbow flexion performance. Cervical range of motion (CROM) assessment was used as a secondary objective evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the manipulation procedures, considering that improvement in cervical range of motion following spinal manipulation is well documented. Minimal improvement in elbow flexion torque involving both arms was observed in the experimental group following one weeks‟ intervention however, no statistical significance was reported. Gender relations regarding the elbow flexion torque performances revealed and improvement in strength in the male participants and a reduction in performance in the female participants. Statistical significance was reported although the significance regarding intervention remains unclear. No sustainable improvement in elbow flexion torque was revealed following spinal manipulative therapy and therefore does not provide conclusive evidence to substantiate the motor neuron excitability theory. The contradictory results with regards to the female participants bring into context an indefinite and unfamiliar neuromusculoskeletal paradigm which requires additional research to clarify these anomalous findings.

Gays and lesbians have long struggled for their rights as citizens, yet only recently has their struggle been truly politicized in a way that fosters mobilization. When and why social movements coalesce despite the many obstacles to collective action are fundamental questions in comparative politics. While examining social movements is worthwhile, it is important to examine not only when and why a social movement forms, but also when and why a social movement is successful. This dissertation tackles the latter of these objectives, focusing on when and why social movements have success in terms of their duration from the time of their formation until their desired policy output is produced.

M.Ing. / This study describes a new class of mechanism to provide leg like motion, for use in a new type of walking machine, that is larger and simpler than electromechanical machines that are currently available. The mechanism is located in a historic context, and current technology in this area is reviewed. The problem of calculating the geometry of the complex mechanism is solved using an innovative solution based on coordinate geometry, which may be extended to solve other planar mechanisms of either greater or lesser complexity. All assumptions have been detailed. The analysis covers both the motion and the power requirements required to make the mechanism move. Structural aspects, which may affect any practical walking machine, are covered. A software implementation has been developed, providing output to demonstrate that the model developed reflects reality, within the limits of the assumptions made.

Conventional wisdom portrays ethnic minorities as likely victims of democratization who often fall prey to nationalist aggression fueled by power-seeking elites. Yet, history is replete with newly democratic states that have not only avoided targeted violence against ethnic "others" but also sought to reconcile with aggrieved ethnic minorities through concessions over self-determination. In light of conventional wisdom, this picture is puzzling and raises two important questions: 1) Why is self-determination reform so frequently observed during democratization periods? 2) Why do some democratizing states accommodate minority demands for self-determination while others continue to neglect minority grievances, or worse, become a breeding ground for exclusionary nationalism and minority repression? This dissertation is dedicated to addressing these questions. To answer the first question, I develop a novel theory of self-determination reform that explains the conditions under which government leaders develop both the capacity and incentives to introduce policies that devolve some degree of autonomy to separatist minorities. The theory pinpoints early democratization as a critical juncture where two key conditions necessary for self-determination reform - limited institutional constraints to rule and threats to elite survival - are most likely to be observed together. During early democratization, newly democratic governments are able to push forward radical policy changes without the meddling of institutionally empowered veto players, who typically gain more leverage as the democratic regime consolidates. Matching this capacity for reform are democratizers' strategic incentives to co-opt ethnic separatists. The source of these incentives, I argue, is the emergence of threats to elite survival during the early democratization period, which may be posed by a number of anti-democratic forces including the loyalists of the authoritarian regime and coup-plotting military factions. Amidst political instability, extending an olive branch to separatist minorities helps threatened democratizers strengthen their hand vis-a-vis imminent threats to their survival by containing separatist violence in the periphery and preventing tactical alliances between center-seeking and separatist rebel groups. In certain paths to democracy, democratizers also develop reputational incentives for self-determination reform, which helps establish democratic credentials through signaling a clean break with authoritarian practices. I test my hypotheses using a mixed-method research design, combining statistical analyses of large-N data with a detailed case study of the Philippines-Moro relations during the country's transition to democracy in the mid-1980s. The quantitative findings confirm my hypotheses about the domestic political conditions that are most conducive to minority accommodation, as well as the relationship between democratization and self-determination reform. The Philippines chapter illustrates how strategic and reputational incentives for minority accommodation drive self-determination reform in early democracies, drawing on evidence from secondary sources and semi-structured interviews conducted during fieldwork in Manila. In later chapters, I turn to my second research question and explore the variation in transition outcomes for separatist minorities across democratizing states. The key insight is that conciliatory steps towards ethnic separatists is a likely outcome in all types of transition paths marked by political instability, with the exception of coerced incumbent-led transitions where the incumbent views electoral competition as the primary threat to its survival prospects. In addition to this exception, non-conciliatory outcomes may also be observed in top-down transitions led by powerful autocrats who democratize voluntarily and do so without allowing the transition process to generate any threats to their survival. Case studies of Spain, Nicaragua and Turkey introduced in the last chapter help probe the generalizability of the theory and illustrate how different transition paths shape democratizers' policies towards separatists disputes. Altogether, my dissertation project presents a novel theory of self-determination reform, as well as undertaking the first systematic analysis of the conditions under which democratization paves the way for state-minority reconciliation. More broadly, the theory and findings also add nuance to current thinking about democratization and ethnic minorities, providing evidence that transition processes are not closely associated with minority victimization and ethnic violence as is commonly assumed.

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.

Among various non-smooth dynamic systems, the periodically forced oscillation system with impact is perhaps the most common in engineering applications. Usually it has an oscillator with fixed or unfixed stops. The dynamics becomes complicate due to the impact against the stops. Sometimes it leads to bifurcation and even turns to chaos. Its present applications include MEMS switch device, escapement in watch movement and so on. / As a branch of mechanics, the multi-body dynamic system is well-studied. In particular, the non-smooth dynamical system attracts many researchers because of its importance and diversity. The main behaviours of such a system include contact (slip-stick motion), friction and impact. Although various models have been developed for these behaviours and their results are often satisfactory, the truth is that they are still far from completion. In the past twenty some years, various new methods have been developed. However, none of them is universally applicable. One of the difficulties is that there are a number of explicit discontinuities, such as: (a) Coulomb friction gives a discontinuous law for the forces as a function of velocities, and (b) The contact conditions give forces that are not only discontinuous in position, but also unbounded and give rise to discontinuities in the velocities. / This thesis presents a systematic study on the periodically forced oscillation system with impact. Various existing methods are discussed and compared. In particular, impulsive differential equation, Poincare map and perturbation theory are applied. Two practical cases are included: a first-order system and the Swiss lever escapement mechanism. The latter has significant engineering value as the Swiss level escapement is the key component of mechanical watch movement. The precision dynamic model has very high numerical accuracy in describing/predicting their dynamics. The research helps to optimize the design of a commercial product. The model is validated by means of experiment. / Fu, Yu. / Adviser: Du Ruxu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: B, page: 3745. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-142). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Written with a contemporary European context of economic, social and reproductive crisis in mind, this thesis presents research about, from and for social movements that struggle against precarity, austerity and capitalist accumulation. Based on accounts and analyses of feminist-autonomist militant practice and networks, this research project revolves around two terms: care and creativity. It maps out a historical-genealogical shift from a paradigm of creativity (reflected in neoliberal governance as well as in social movements of the decades before and after the millenium) to one oriented around care (reflected in the neo-communitarian policy as well as practices of commoning that arise with social and economic crisis in Europe). Structured into three broad sections on work, organisation and governance, the questions at stake here revolve around the possibilities and imaginaries of politics that affirm care and creativity in relation to one another. On the level of work, this means struggles within and against precarity, reproductive and illegalized work; on the level of organisation, it means relating the figure of the network to that of the care chain and the family, confronting new transnational forms of alliance and care; and on the level of governance, it is the relation between neoliberalism and its new communitarian forms that is in question. What the collectives, campaigns and networks constituting the ‘field’ of this research have in common is that they re-think the contemporary relations between autonomy and heteronomy, the global and the situated, as well as macro- and micropolitics. Dwelling on collective experiences and knowledges, this investigation takes care to articulate the dimensions of subjectivity, relation and association with those of economy and governance. Concerned and engaged with contexts of struggle and commoning in the face of crisis politics, precarity and dispersed sociality, a methodology of militant participatory-action research serves to map out contexts of practice in Spain, the UK and Argentina as of 2010-2013.

In the aftermath of Argentina’s last dictatorship (1976-1983), the organisations created by the relatives of the disappeared deployed the trope of a ‘wounded family’. The unspoken rule was that only those related by blood to the missing were entitled to ask for justice. This thesis queers this biological tradition. Drawing from performance studies and queer theory, it develops an alternative framework for understanding the transmission of trauma beyond bloodline inscriptions. It shows how grief brought into light an idea of community that exceeds traditional family ties. In order to demonstrate this, the thesis builds an archive of non-normative acts of mourning. This archive crosses different generations. The introduction utilises the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo’s statement ‘Our Children gave birth to us’ as the departure for a non-biological linage. Chapter 1 shows how the black humour that informs H.I.J.O.S., the association created by the children of the disappeared, works as a form of affective reparation in the face of loss. Chapter 2 proposes a dialogue between Los Rubios (Albertina Carri, 2003), M (Nicolás Prividera, 2007) and La mujer sin cabeza (Lucrecia Martel, 2008) to show how these films manage to displace the normative cult of the victim. Chapter 3 conceives the cooking sessions that take place at ESMA former detention camp as a form of conversion of this site of death. Chapter 4 explores Lola Arias’ Mi vida después (2009) as an intergenerational artefact for the transmission of trauma on- and off-stage. Chapter 5 considers Félix Bruzzone’s novella Los topos (2008) as the announcement of a new language of kinship. In conclusion, the thesis argues that the aftermath of violence not only produced pain but also new forms of pleasure. Ultimately, it sheds light on a new sense of ‘being together’ that has emerged in the wake of loss.

This essay describes the establishment of the colony movement and its allotment compounds in Sweden during the early part of the 20th century. During this time period a social housing reform program called “egna hem” was initiated which gave financial support in the form of state loans to build good homes in rural areas. One of the reasons for the reform was a widespread housing need in Sweden. My hypothesis is that the social housing reform helped pave the way for an expansion of the colony movement in Sweden. At the beginning of the 20th century, allotment compounds were established in many Swedish cities, including Kalmar within the timeframe 1910-1920. This investigation of the establishment of the colony movement and its allotment compounds in Sweden specifically focuses on development of the movement in Kalmar together with a comparison using earlier research. By examining the members' professional categories and how the board was selected, it is possible to find out if the movement was as open and democratic as it appeared. Furthermore, this essay gives specific focus on genus patterns and the situation for the women within the colony movement and its allotment compounds. The results indicates that social living reforms in Sweden may have helped pave the way for an expansion of the Swedish colony movement since there was a need for better living conditions. The membership lists also demonstrates that the colony movement principally was aimed at the working class and lower middle class. Furthermore, the investigation shows that garden work was a typically work for men while the women worked with reproductive chores such as refining and preserving of the harvest within the allotment garden. This investigation also confirms that no women were included in the compound boards of the allotment gardens, cementing the notion of an unequal society. During the 1950’s specific ladies clubs were formed within the allotment compounds with the purpose to socialize and arrange meetings and excursions. Finally this essay displays that the early colonists in Kalmar were made up by a variety of people with different living conditions.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The problem of this dissertation is psychological and sociological description and analysis of the appeals and activities of the John Birch Society as a movement of social protest of the radical right. The John Birch Society is one of the major organizations described in current journalistic treatments as radical right or as right-wing extremist. The Society came to public prominence in the spring of 1961 as awareness of its fairly widespread organizational accomplishments and of the more extreme opinions of its founder, Robert Welch, were brought to public attention by the press. The method included both library and field research. Library research, both before and after the field research, focused upon the provision of an adequate framework of psychological and sociological theory through which to perceive the setting, the leader, the organization and membership, and the ideology and activity of the John Birch Society. The primary data so perceived were those of many of the Birch Society publications, those provided by observers of local Birch Society conflicts in Gloucester, Little Rook, El Paso, Dallas, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Phoenix, and Wichita, and those provided by the participants on each side of these conflicts through interviews and, with many, through the administration of a questionnaire. Secondary data were provided by newspaper, newsmagazine, and personal correspondence descriptive of the leader, the organization, the membership, the ideology, and the local and national activities of the Birch Society. The conclusions of this dissertation are as follows: 1. The Birch Society functions as a fundamentalist reaction. 2. The top leadership of the Society is charismatic. 3. The organizational-leadership structure of the Society is an unstable mixture of both charismatic and rational-bureaucratic elements. 4. The stance of the Society as an aggressive sect is inherently unstable. 5. The activity and ideology of social protest represent the major appeal of the Society. 6. The conflict in which the Society engages is characteristically non-communal. 7. The ideology of the Society is substantively and formally logic-tight and, characteristically, those who affirm it are highly closed-minded. 8. Within our troubled setting, the ideology provides the social-psychological appeals of certainty, superiority, and self-righteousness and "justifies" aggression toward otherwise invulnerable objects of frustration. 9. As a fundamentalist reaction, the Society fails to serve its manifest function, none of its latent functions appear to be constructive, and some are latently dysfunctional even for its own existence. 10. The Society is well described as a movement of social protest of the radical right. These conclusions led the author to observe that the non-rational character of the Society tends to dominate and to obscure whatever fundwnental forces and issues may be in conflict. The implications of this observation, for the legitimated processes of the American democratic society, then led the author to the position that the only way to move conflicts with the Society into potentially constructive channels appears to be through insistence upon the norms of rational and communal conflict.