No description available.

acase@tulane.edu / Background Violence against women (VAW) is a global epidemic, estimated to affect between 10-60% of all women at some point during their life. VAW is associated with a host of poor physical, emotional, and reproductive health outcomes and is a significant financial burden.. Displaced populations are theorized to be particularly at risk, though little quality evidence to back up this claim exists thus far. Haiti presents a unique opportunity to analyze the effect of displacement due to the recent earthquake on experience of various forms of IPV. The effect of displacement on various forms of IPV (physical, emotional, and sexual) were analyzed to understand whether women who were displaced were at greater risk of experience of IPV and sexual assault. Methods Two waves of Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data were used to analyze the association between displacement and experience of intimate partner violence as well as forced sex. Various individual-level controls were also included. Outcome variables were all binary, with the exception of an ordinal variable that classified severity of physical IPV. Difference-in-Difference logit and multinomial logit regressions were performed. Where appropriate, bootstrapping, propensity score weighting, and sub-group analyses techniques were also used. Results There was a marginally significant relationship between women who were displaced after the 2010 earthquake and physical IPV, but the risk did not change significantly between waves. For all outcomes, displacement was not significant. In the multinomial logit model, using no experience of physical violence as the comparison group, displaced women were significantly more likely to experience less severe forms of physical IPV. Education, while a significant protective factor prior to the earthquake, became far less protective in a post-disaster context. Conclusion This study added to the limited research done on post-disaster displacement and various forms of GBV. The results indicate that women who were displaced in Haiti after the earthquake were not necessarily at increased risk of VAW compared to non-displaced Haitians. This is in line with the existing data that did have a comparison group, and indicates that displacement in and of itself is not significant risk factor for IPV and sexual assaults. Further high-quality research is needed to fully understand the relationship between disasters and VAW. / 1 / Nicholas John Thomas

Wire mesh dampers are under investigation because they are seen as replacements for squeeze film dampers as a source of direct stiffness and damping at bearing locations. There are several advantages of wire mesh dampers over squeeze film dampers, including: temperature insensitivity, oil-free operation, and the ability to contain large amplitude vibrations. Furthermore, due to their direct damping and lack of cross-coupled stiffness, the wire mesh reduces the response to imbalance and increases the stability of the system. The objective of this research was to determine the properties of wire mesh dampers under large amplitude vibrations. Impact testing was first conducted on the wire mesh as a means of obtaining the large amplitudes that were of interest. Next, to verify the results, a second methodology was employed using shaker testing. It was found that both the stiffness and hysteretic damping decrease with increasing displacement. However, they both approached asymptotes around 2 mils of displacement, and further increases in displacement had significantly less effect on the properties. Once the results were verified to be consistent, equations were obtained to describe the response of the wire mesh dampers. These equations were then used to create a new design workbook, which would allow an engineer to determine the properties of wire mesh dampers under conditions that they might experience.

No description available.

Wire mesh dampers are under investigation because they are seen as replacements for squeeze film dampers as a source of direct stiffness and damping at bearing locations. There are several advantages of wire mesh dampers over squeeze film dampers, including: temperature insensitivity, oil-free operation, and the ability to contain large amplitude vibrations. Furthermore, due to their direct damping and lack of cross-coupled stiffness, the wire mesh reduces the response to imbalance and increases the stability of the system. The objective of this research was to determine the properties of wire mesh dampers under large amplitude vibrations. Impact testing was first conducted on the wire mesh as a means of obtaining the large amplitudes that were of interest. Next, to verify the results, a second methodology was employed using shaker testing. It was found that both the stiffness and hysteretic damping decrease with increasing displacement. However, they both approached asymptotes around 2 mils of displacement, and further increases in displacement had significantly less effect on the properties. Once the results were verified to be consistent, equations were obtained to describe the response of the wire mesh dampers. These equations were then used to create a new design workbook, which would allow an engineer to determine the properties of wire mesh dampers under conditions that they might experience.

Bridges play an important role in society, especially during the post-earthquake period that enables emergency vehicles and traffic for safe egress and ingress to minimize the loss of property and life. However, some past earthquakes have resulted in large horizontal displacements on the superstructure that have lead to unseating of bridge spans and unexpected pounding forces that damaged critical components such as bearings and anchor bolts. To this end, a new bearing system, referred to as a stopperbearing system (SBS), is proposed as one solution to address the vulnerability of bridge bearings and other components. The horizontal displacement of a deck can be limited to a desired range using the SBS. The nonlinear load-deformation behavior of the SBS is obtained from ABAQUS and used to define the SBS within reinforced concrete analytical bridge models developed in SAP2000, which are subjected to the 1999 Chi- Chi, Taiwan earthquake ground motion (1.01g - E-W component and 0.43g - N-S component). The results from the nonlinear time history analyses show that the SBS is effective in limiting bridge deck displacements and pounding effects. Preliminary analytical modeling of the SBS shows promise as a solution to displacement control of bridge decks for overall enhancement of bridge performance during seismic events.

Thesis--Catholic University of America. / Bibliography: p. 67-73.

This thesis examines the workings of “home” for the displaced individual in contemporary contexts: whether a counterpoint for disorientation arising from displacement, for example, or an attempt to assert control in the very process of identity negotiation across geographical distances, “home” in the novels of White Teeth by Zadie Smith and Ignorance by Milan Kundera, especially, offer an important study of the quest for home through an unexpected anchor of exile. The signifier of ultimate security and belonging in pre-modern eras, God has been destabilized in the post-war, contemporary context. “Home,” like the notional God, that is, has been destabilized by social forces of the diaspora, where “home,” in addition to the physical native place of birth or permanent place of shelter, can take on forms of imaginary exile/unbelonging within the same place without physical estrangement; as Martin Heidegger recognizes home can paradoxically be constituted as a form of control, namely from the inside out: from the existential feeling of “not being at home.” Samad, Irena and Josef of White Teeth and Ignorance, respectively, are analyzed on their alternative quests for control of identity. Replacing the trace of God with a trace now of “home,” Samad, Irena and Josef face limitless freedom outside their native and geographic contexts, which entails at the same time a sense of disorientation. They feel compelled to achieve meaningful identity based on a left-over notion of “home,” or, in the converse, to utilize what they control as “home” to avoid at least self-annihilation. This thesis contends in the contemporary narratives studied that there is a tendency for the individual to avoid estrangement or perceived unnatural “provisional” separations from the idea of “home”; and, second, therefore to seek to control of identity formation in the name of seeking “home.” Such control is desired by reflex of aversion to estrangement, which can be felt with the liberation from God or the distances from the geographies or assumptions of “home.” This thesis will expound, therefore, upon the stages of estrangement through, first, an initial and tentative placement of “home”; then, displacement through physical departure; exile revisited; attempts at re-placement along a nostalgic trace of belonging toward a “home” in the identity negotiation; and the “returnability” of the displaced person to adopt a native “home” after prolonged absence. In conclusion, considering the placement of the self somewhere, in order to gain control over identity inside an environment of dis-placement; in physical and updated “exile” away from place of birth; or even in the form of tragic imagination to be discussed, a trace of “home” (like an absent “god” in Waiting for Godot, for example) cannot be relinquished altogether as a point of reference for reinvention of identity while it can still be reinvented and updated at the same time. However, even this trace remains an illusion of the displaced person, reflecting an ache for certainty of roots as a point of reference for identity formation, rather than a route, running backwards or forwards, towards a feasible alternative “home.” / published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis--Catholic University of America. / Bibliography: p. 67-73.

Oil wealth enriches Nigeria, but it has not improved the lives of the majority of the masses living in the oil-bearing areas of the Niger Delta. Niger Delta region has been exposed to environmental risks that have caused many to lose their means of livelihood, triggering high level of poverty in the region. This study examines the impact of oil-related environmental problems and how it has induced human displacement in the Niger Delta. Furthermore, it examined the efficacy of the Nigerian environmental policies as it related to the oil-bearing areas. The research found that oil activities have caused more harm than good in the Niger Delta. At present, the oil-bearing areas remain marginalized from the mainstream economic, social, and political activities in Nigeria. The Nigerian government’s top-down approach to the development of the oil-bearing areas has not been people-centered and participatory. The paper also made some viable recommendations.