Purpose: Lung function is typically characterized by spirometer measurements, which do not offer spatially specific information. Imaging during exhalation provides spatial information but is challenging due to large movement over a short time. The purpose of this work is to provide a solution to lung imaging during forced expiration using accelerated magnetic resonance imaging. The method uses radial golden angle stack-of-stars gradient echo acquisition and compressed sensing reconstruction. Methods: A technique for dynamic three-dimensional imaging of the lungs from highly undersampled data is developed and tested on six subjects. This method takes advantage of image sparsity, both spatially and temporally, including the use of reference frames called bookends. Sparsity, with respect to total variation, and residual from the bookends, enables reconstruction from an extremely limited amount of data. Results: Dynamic three-dimensional images can be captured at sub-150 ms temporal resolution, using only three (or less) acquired radial lines per slice per timepoint. The images have a spatial resolution of 4.6 x 4.6 x 10 mm. Lung volume calculations based on image segmentation are compared to those from simultaneously acquired spirometer measurements. Conclusion: Dynamic lung imaging during forced expiration is made possible by compressed sensing accelerated dynamic three-dimensional radial magnetic resonance imaging. (C) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Student Number : 0007982H - MA Dissertation - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities / Children fulfil various roles within armed forces including, active combat and offering support services such as spying and domestic services. Girls make up to 40 per cent of child soldiers in some states. Although in existence, data on girl soldiers has many gaps and tends to focus primarily on the sexual exploitation of girls. Arguably, this undercuts the other difficulties of girl’s participation in conflict, and reintegration into the post-conflict society. The international community has attempted to take up the global problem of child soldiers through various conventions yet; very few of these specifically focus on gender-based violations against children. The dissertation examines the international response to girl soldiers. The central hypotheses being that; girls- as a population group- are ignored in the international human rights regime. Furthermore, girl soldiers are disenfranchised owing to their dual identities of being female and children. The problem is addressed by firstly, defining the international human rights regime and its sub-regimes and secondly, showing its inadequacies in relation to girl soldiers. Uganda is used as a case study to test the hypothesis. Ultimately, this dissertation attempts to show that the international community has ignored a population group that is in need of protection.

- Protection of a forced heir and his disinheritance The protection of the forced heir has always been perceived as a clash of the will of the descendant and the principle of family cohesion. The objective of my thesis is to describe legal regulation of the forced heir and institutes related to this issue, i.e. their protection and disinheritance not only from the point of view of the current legal regulation according to the Civil Code No. 89/2012 Coll., but also from the point of view of their historical development. The diploma thesis is structured into four main chapters which are divided into subchapters. The purpose of the first chapter is to familiarize readers with the issue of inheritance law by defining its basic terms, revealing historical development from the time of Roman law through the ABGB General Civil Code to the modern legislation from 1950 and 1964 and taking account of their impact on the current legal system. The second chapter deals with the definition of the term of a forced heir, the determination of the size of the right to a forced share based on the age of the descendant, its determination with the possibility of inclusion and the principle for its payment. Furthermore, there are discussed the ways of protecting the rights of the forced heir. The third chapter deals with...

This study explores the extent to which the implementation of the National Program for Reproductive Health and Family Planning by the Peruvian Government had consequences in the lives of women who underwent sterilizations. This study is based on a feminist methodology and used interviews as a method of data collection in order to privilege women’s voices and lived experiences from a gender perspective. It addresses notions of biopower and the concept of reproductive health within a framework of intersectionality. Finally, by linking women’s testimonies with the theoretical framework, it was possible to identify that specific Peruvian women, in vulnerable and poor conditions, were targeted by the Government because they did not represent the idea of development, and since then, women are dealing with physical, emotional, and social consequences.

Background and objectives: This study set out to explore identities among university students from forced migrant backgrounds. Issues related to identity have been found to contribute to the specific and significant challenges this student group can face in higher education. The research question was: how do students from forced migrant backgrounds understand their identities. Focusing on identities, through a dialogical narrative lens, offered a route into investigating the subjective and intersubjective experiences of forced migrant-background students, as well as processes of change associated with being at university, and how wider discourses may impact upon them. Methodology: Three participants from forced migrant backgrounds who had recently completed university studies were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were employed to generate data. Interviews incorporated the use of an artefact: participants were invited to bring an object which represented something about their identities. Data were analysed using dialogical narrative analysis. This involved focusing on aspects of positioning, the use of small stories, and multivoicedness, in the interview encounters. Attention was given both to what participants said about their identities, and the ways in which they constructed these identities. Analysis: Analysis of participants' narratives is presented individually and structured according to interrelated themes, each conveying some aspect of their identities. Themes include 'activist and ambassador', and 'not representing what is expected'. Commonalities identified in ways of expressing, understanding and adapting identities across the narratives are also presented, in the form of five elements which fit together to form a narrative synthesis. The elements are: education as important for identity; being different; identity transformation, as part of being a university student; using new power and identities to react against injustices; and, facilitating this, identity choice and agency. Reflexive considerations, fundamental to the dialogical narrative research approach, are discussed. Discussion and conclusions: A key contribution to knowledge is that despite facing adversity, forced migrant-background students make use of their identity transformations - attributed in part to their university participation - to respond proactively to societal forces which may discriminate against them and others. Methodologically, both dialogical narrative analysis and the use of artefacts are found to contribute to investigating issues of identity. Indications for counselling psychologists include the importance of promoting awareness among practitioners of the complex issues forced migrant students often face. For higher education institutions as well as counselling psychologists, the importance of providing adequate support for these students is emphasised. It is highlighted that research into forced migration issues fits with counselling psychology's commitment to social justice, in terms of supporting groups at risk of marginalisation. It also aligns with calls within the discipline for increased attention to issues regarding race, culture and ethnicity, which intersect with forced migration. The wide-ranging potential benefits of supporting students from forced migrant backgrounds towards educational success are outlined.

This thesis examines the theatre of Sheffield-based theatre group Forced Entertainment in terms of what art historian Robert Hewison terms 'Social Surrealism'. This term describes a politically engaged series of art practices that developed in Britain under Margaret Thatcher in the late nineteen-eighties. 'Social Surrealist' theatre makers adopted a radically different set of aesthetic strategies to the more traditional leftist political theatre tradition of 'social realism'. While Hewison links these practices to the so-called 'classical' Surrealism theorised by Andr?? Breton, I will argue that a more appropriate and useful Surrealist lineage to account for Forced Entertainment's theatre can be found in the writings of Andr?? Breton's main Surrealist rival, Georges Bataille. This thesis focuses on Bataille's notion of 'the formless' or formlessness, that which undoes and unravels the security and fixity of form, and uses this as a theoretical concept to account for the aesthetics and unravelling theatre practice of Forced Entertainment. This thesis then examines a selection of theatre works by Forced Entertainment, tracing the ways in which these works undo theatre using formlessness.

With the present drive in turbomachine engine developmenttowards thinner and lighter bladings, closer spaced blade rowsand higher aerodynamic loads per blade row and blade, advanceddesign criteria and accurate prediction methods for vibrationalproblems such as forced response become increasingly importantin order to be able to address and avoid fatigue failures ofthe machine early in the design process. The present worksupports both the search for applicable design criteria and thedevelopment of advanced prediction methods for forced responsein transonic turbine stages. It is aimed at a betterunderstanding of the unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms thatgovern forced response in transonic turbine stages and furtherdevelopment of numerical methods for rotor stator interactionpredictions. The investigation of the unsteady aerodynamic excitationmechanisms is based on numerical predictions of thethree-dimensional unsteady flow field in representative testturbine stages. It is conducted in three successive steps. Thefirst step is a documentation of the pressure perturbations onthe blade surface and the distortion sources in the bladepassage. This is performed in a phenomenological manner so thatthe observed pressure perturbations are related to thedistortion phenomena that are present in the blade passage. Thesecond step is the definition of applicable measures toquantify the pressure perturbation strength on the bladesurface. In the third step, the pressure perturbations areintegrated along the blade arc to obtain the dynamic bladeforce. The study comprises an investigation of operationvariations and addresses radial forcing variations. With thehelp of this bottom-up approach the basic forcing mechanisms oftransonic turbine stages are established and potential routesto control the aerodynamic forcing are presented. For the computation of rotor stator interaction aerodynamicsfor stages with arbitrary pitch ratios a new numerical methodhas been developed, validated and demonstrated on a transonicturbine test stage. The method, which solves the unsteadythree-dimensional Euler equations, is formulated in thefour-dimensional time-space domain and the derivation of themethod is general such that both phase lagged boundaryconditions and moving grids are considered. Time-inclination isutilised to account for unequal pitchwise periodicity bydistributing time co-ordinates at grid nodes such that thephase lagged boundary conditions can be employed. The method isdemonstrated in a comparative study on a transonic turbinestage with a nominal non integer blade count ratio and anadjusted blade count ratio with a scaled rotor geometry. Thepredictions show significant differences in the blade pressureperturbation signal of the second vane passing frequency, whichwould motivate the application of the new method for rotorstator predictions with non-integer blade count ratios.

Forced resettlement is an issue of great humanitarian concern. The disruption it brings to the lives of the people it affects cannot be fully expressed. Many of such people lose the ability of restoring their lives, never to regain it till they die. What is more alarming is when forced resettlement is not caused by conflict or natural disaster but rather conscious development projects like dams, where it is expected that great energy will be channelled towards reducing and if possible avoid the adverse impacts of such forceful resettlement as a matter of human and citizenship right. Sadly, in many instances this never happen. The aim of this study is to find out how the lessons learnt from the Akosombo forced resettlement in Ghana has been used in planning and implementing the on-going Bui forced resettlement also in Ghana. This study also tries to investigate the impacts of the planning and implementation process of the resettlement on the affected communities and households. In order to achieve the above goals, qualitative research methods were employed. The study used in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, direct and participatory observation techniques in accessing the experiences and feelings of the people involved. The informants include the institutions and professionals which undertook the forced resettlement and the affected people. The modernisation and alternative development theories were reviewed to determine which of these approaches is in practice. However, since Ghana claims it is using the World Bank Operational Policy (4.12), which is following an alternative development approach, concepts such as participation and rights are used. Additionally, concepts such as compensation and forced resettlement are also reviewed. It is discovered that, although many lessons have been learnt from the Akosombo forced resettlement, these lessons have not been effectively translated into action plans in order to undertake successful forced resettlement in Ghana. The challenges and errors in planning the Bui resettlement have therefore marred its successful implementation. This has resulted in more adverse impacts on the affected people than good ones such as infertile lands, low farm yield, poor housing structures and total ban on fishing in the Black Volta without alternative fishing grounds.

Att utöva våld i hederns namn har historiskt sätt existerat länge och kvinnor som gjorde sig skyldiga till utomäktenskapliga eller föräktenskapliga relationer fick allvarliga påföljder. Syftet med studien var att se hur olika yrkesverksamheter så som kvinnojouren, polisen, kuratorer och barnmorskor arbetar och samarbetar i hedersrelaterade ärenden och undersökt vilka komplikationer kan förekomma. Fjorton deltagare intervjuades. Hedersrelaterat våld präglas av patriarkala kulturer som innefattar hierarkisystem där underordnade individer tar skuld för skam. Resultatet visar att isoleringen från samhället och det sociala livet börjar stegvis och i tidig ålder. Det börjar att flickorna måste minska sociala umgängeskretsen därefter minskar de på träningstimmarna och desto äldre flickan blir desto mer ökar familjens kontrollbehov. Det är viktigt för yrkespersonerna att i detta sammanhang fånga upp signaler och upptäcka ”lindrigare våld” som kan tyda på hedersrelaterad problematik. Hedersrelaterat våld är ett komplext i den meningen att varje fall är unikt och problematikens grad varierar från fall till fall detta gäller även graden av våld och förtryck.

This research is aimed to study the storage tank design parameters effects on the efficiency of the large solar hot water system. Detailed CFD simulation for the storage tank coupled with TRNSYS program simulation for the entire solar hot water system will be performed to study the system performance under various thermal stratification baffles design for the storage tank. The study is made for three representative cities of Taiwan by input their typical-meteorological-year data (TMY data). The results indicate the performance of a large solar hot water system can be significantly improved with proper designed thermal stratification baffles in the storage tank.