Rapporten är ett examensarbete som utförts i den avslutande delen av Högskoleingenjörsprogrammet i Maskinteknik. Examensarbetet är utfört av Anders Dedorsson Ylén, student vid fakulteten för hälsa, teknik- och naturvetenskap på Karlstads Universitet. Examensarbetet har utförts på Arvika Smide AB vars uppdrag gick ut på att införa SPS vid pressgrupp 5, samt undersöka hur väl företaget jobbar med ISO/TS 16949.  I rapporten finns en teoretisk del om SPS och ISO standarden ISO/TS 16949. Vidare beskrivs hur SPS använts som metod för att mäta maskinens duglighet och behov av underhåll, samt hur mätningarna utförts. Här beskrivs också av vad som skett vid renovering av smidespressen och vilka resultateten blev av mätningar gjorda efter arbetet. Lämplig metod för att se vart företaget befinner sig i sitt arbete med ISO/TS 16949 och förslag på förbättrat arbete med ISO/TS redovisas. Rapporten redovisar att SPS kan vara ett styrande medel vid tillståndsbaserat underhåll på en smidespress och hur företaget kan utveckla sitt arbete med ISO/TS 16949. / The report is a master thesis carried out in the final part of the Bachelor of Science education in Mechanical Engineering. The work is carried out by Anders Dedorsson Ylén, a student at the Faculty of Health, technology and natural science at the University of Karlstad. The work has been performed at Arvika Smide AB, whose mission was to introduce SPS at the pressgroup 5, and examine how well the company is working with ISO/TS 16949. The report contains a theoretical part about SPS and ISO standard ISO/TS 16949. It also describes how SPS can be used as a method for measuring machine condition and maintenance needs, and how the test's are carried out. It describes what has happened in the renovation of the forging press, and the results of measurements made after the renovation work was done. An appropriate method is presented to be able to see where the company is in its work with ISO/TS 16949 and suggestions for improved work with ISO/TS is suggested. The report shows that the SPS can be used as a guideline in condition-based maintenance of a forging press and how the company can improve its work with ISO/TS 16949.

Il lavoro di tesi analizza da un punto di vista metodologico e concettuale le narrazioni di malattia delle persone affette da sclerosi multipla. Lo scopo della ricerca è duplice: da un lato quello di indagare quali siano le trame narrative di coloro che raccontano la diagnosi della loro malattia, e dall’altro di analizzare i vissuti di malattia attraverso le categorie della sociologia della salute e della medicina e dell’antropologia medica. / The thesis analyses the narratives of illness of patients affected by multiple sclerosis from the methodological and conceptual point of view. On the one hand, it investigates which are the narrative threads of those who refer of their disease's diagnosis; in parallel it analyses the experiences of the disease through the theoretical framework of sociology of health and medicine adopting the epistemic categories medical anthropology

Les matériaux émetteurs et les lasers solides sont largement employés dans le domaine de l’optique et des sciences des matériaux en tant que sources d’excitation, pour des mesures expérimentales, des applications médicales, de la mise en forme ou de la découpe de métaux…Récemment des valeurs d’efficacité laser prometteuses ont été obtenues à partir de céramiques transparentes qui résultent de procédés de mises en forme plus rapides et moins couteux de matériaux à l’état cristallisé.Les travaux de recherche proposés sont centrés sur une matrice cubique dopée par des ions Eu3+ de formule Y3NbO7. Les voies de synthèse sont optimisées pour obtenir une phase pure présentant des grains homogènes en taille et de morphologie sphérique. Les paramètres SPS tels que la montée en température, la température et la durée de frittage ainsi que la pression sont ajustés pour favoriser la densification des pastilles.La spectroscopie de luminescence des ions europium trivalents est employée pour optimiser les paramètres étudiés. Les émissions enregistrées couplées à la diffraction des rayons X et à la microscopie électronique en transmission soulignent l’existence de plusieurs environnements distordus autour des ions dopants dans le réseau de type fluorine lacunaire. La cristallisation rapide obtenue par SPS, couplée à la nature du niobate de terre rare, conducteur ionique, conduit à une démixtion de la solution solide de Y3NbO7 en deux fluorines distinctes. La composition finale de la pastille est conditionnée par le ratio cationique Nb/Y. / Emitting materials and all solid state lasers are widely used in the field of optical applications and materials science as a source of excitement, instrumental measurements, medical applications, metal shaping…Recently promising laser efficiencies were recorded on transparent ceramics which results from a cheaper and faster ways to obtain crystallized materials.This investigation is focused on the cubic Eu3+ doped Y3NbO7 matrix. The synthesis route is optimized in order to obtain a pure phase which presents a homogeneous morphology of spherical grains. Several SPS parameters as heating rate, temperature, duration time and pressure are adjusted in order to increase the densification of the pellets. Luminescence spectroscopy of trivalent europium ions is used to optimize these parameters. The emission data coupled with X-Ray diffraction analysis and electronic diffraction microscopy highlight the existence of several distorted environments of the doping element in the defective fluorite type Y3NbO7 host lattice. Indeed, the fast and high crystallization rate obtained after SPS coupled with the ionic conductivity of the matrix make possible a phase composition splitting into two fluorites. The final composition of the pellet is driven by the ratio between niobium and yttrium elements.

Education continues to define social positions and reproduce social inequalities. Deficiencies in education may lead to disadvantages at both the individual and societal levels, and lower qualifications are usually obtained by already disadvantaged youths. One of the biggest problems in this regard is dropping out (also named early school-leaving)—i.e. young people who leave the education system before completing upper secondary school. Many interventions have attempted to prevent or discourage students from dropping out of school. Among them there are two straightforward systemic policies: raising the age of compulsory schooling and creating alternative tracks for completing education. They aimed to achieve the same goal—reducing dropping out—but using different strategies. Despite the diffusion of these reforms, it is not clear to what extent one or both may succeed in their goal. Both of these policies were actively pursued in Italy in a less than five-year period—from 1999 to 2003. In 1999, the so-called Berlinguer reform extended compulsory schooling from age 14 to 15, and in 2003 the State-Regions Congress introduced experimental vocational and training programmes (IFP). These intensive changes allow for the comparison of these two interventions in a single context one after the other, but no extensive studies have been made so far. The dissertation seeks to address this lacuna by making the best use of the available data. The broad question of the thesis is whether the extension of compulsory schooling and/or the creation of new vocational and training programmes have modified students’ (and families’) dropping-out decisions. To answer, propensity score matching, counterfactual time series, segmented regression, region fixed effect and individual multilevel cross-classified logistic analyses are used. The results are framed in the theoretical debates about education: its roles, its expansion, its contribute to (in)equality and its policies.

Taking note of the emergence of illiberal forms of governance across Western Europe, a liberal and democratic region, this thesis endeavors to unravel one particular manifestation of this tendency, illiberal secularism. Specifically, it asks how secularism has been discursively (trans)formed in political contexts so as to allow for the emergence of illiberal forms of social and religious governance. To address this question, this thesis analyzes the discursive enactment of ideological secularism by Italian state actors in three cases—the Crucifix, the Burqa, and the Charter cases. Building on critical and discursive perspectives, this thesis argues that secularism is an ideology that shapes thinking and action and provides a conceptualization of, and an answer to, the problem of diversity. Thus, it proposes to study secularism as a political category that works as a stake in, and as a means through which contemporary contests over religion and diversity are conducted. In methodological terms, these considerations lead to a combined analytical endeavor, which focuses on both the conceptual grammar of secularism and the discursive practices through which state actors (re)construct this ideological formation. Conducting conceptual and critical discourse analyses, this thesis reveals the argumentative structures and the main ideational and relational assumptions of Italian state actors’ discourses. It demonstrates that, in all three cases, these actors revise secular–religious demarcations in ways that expand the secular power of the state over the religious realm and, moreover, allow for the revision of liberal entitlements and for the resetting of the boundaries that define the political community. Notably, this thesis finds that it is through the secularization of Christianity, the culturalization of liberalism, and the othering of Muslims that some state actors reconcile secularism and illiberalism, thereby promoting practices that restrict and violate important liberal values and achievements, such as religious freedom and political unity.

Il mio lavoro di tesi mira ad analizzare il processo di riforma fondiaria in atto dal 2009 in Burkina Faso, alla luce delle politiche di sviluppo rurale adottate a livello regionale (Africa occidentale francofona) e del percorso storico-politico che dalla conquista coloniale francese ci conduce all’ultima fase di democratizzazione del Burkina Faso. Ripercorrendo le principali strategie ed obiettivi di riforma agraria e fondiaria perseguiti dai Governi a livello regionale e nazionale intendo fare luce sui nodi irrisolti delle politiche di sviluppo rurale e sul rapporto politico che il Burkina Faso ha inteso costruire con il mondo rurale a partire dall’indipendenza, con un particolare focus sul periodo della rivoluzione sankarista (1983-1987). L’analisi storica dei sistemi di riconoscimento dei diritti locali di accesso e utilizzo della terra consente di avanzare riflessioni sull’ordine politico interno che i regimi coloniali e post-coloniali hanno inteso costruire con il mondo rurale e sull’effettiva inclusione della popolazione rurale nelle politiche di sviluppo adottate dai Governi a livello regionale e nazionale. Allo stesso tempo, identificando organi e istituzioni a cui è stato affidato a partire dall’indipendenza il potere di gestire le risorse e conferire diritti fondiari agli abitanti delle aree rurali ho intenzione di far emergere alcuni dei rapporti di forza e di potere esistenti tra livello nazionale e locale e il legame che intercorre tra di essi. L’obiettivo è quello di riflettere sulla possibilità che la riforma fondiaria in atto in Burkina Faso possa garantire una maggiore democraticità dei processi di sviluppo rurale e governance della terra. Attraverso l’analisi di tale processo di riforma è possibile contribuire al dibattito relativo alle strategie di sviluppo rurale in Africa occidentale tenendo conto delle problematicità politiche che tali processi di riforma si trovano ad affrontare / The ongoing international debate on rural development focuses on the legalization of land property rights as a mean to guarantee land tenure security, to promote agricultural investment and rural development. As a result in francophone West Africa new land policies have been elaborated with the specific aim of resolving a dual institutional and juridical system of land tenure which causes land conflicts and hinder economic growth. My thesis aims to analyze the ongoing process of land tenure reform in Burkina Faso in light of the rural development policies implemented in francophone West Africa since the colonial period. It also takes into account the rural development paths adopted by the Government of Burkina Faso from the French colonial conquest to the late democratization period. By retracing the main strategies of land and agrarian reform at regional and national level I shed light on the unresolved political relationship that the State has built with the rural population since independence. In particular I identify statutory and customary institutions who have been entrusted over time with the power to manage natural resources and to allocate land rights in order to bring out some of the power relationships existing between national and local levels. Through the historical analysis of land tenure systems I advance considerations on the inclusion of rural people in the rural development policies. The main aim is to reflect on the possibility of the ongoing land tenure reform in Burkina Faso to ensure a democratic governance of the land and a more inclusive process of rural development. With this focus on land tenure reform in Burkina Faso my thesis will lead to a critical analysis of the new wave of land policies in West Africa and contribute to the ongoing debate on rural development from a political point of view.

Le but de cette thèse a été l’évaluation d’une nouvelle technique de frittage, le spark plasma sintering (SPS) par rapport à une technique plus conventionnelle et employée par Saint-Gobain : le pressage à chaud (HP). La différence significative entre ces deux méthodes de frittage réside dans la manière de chauffer le système. Par HP, elle se fait par les résistances internes du four ; l’échantillon est alors chauffé par conduction thermique (de la matrice vers le compact de poudre). Par SPS, un courant électrique pulsé passe à travers l’outillage de compaction et/ou le compact de poudre à fritter, assurant alors le chauffage par effet Joule et conduction. Les vitesses de montée en température, accessibles par SPS, peuvent atteindre les 600°C/min, contre 20-30°C/min pour le HP, réduisant alors considérablement la durée des cycles thermiques. Pour pouvoir mettre en évidence un possible effet du courant, généré par le SPS, plusieurs matériaux pulvérulents présentant des conductivités électriques différentes, ont été sélectionnés (verre, zircone dopée, quasicristaux et cuivre). La comparaison entre HP et SPS s’est portée sur l’observation des microstructures post-frittage et sur la détermination des mécanismes de densification. Il a été ainsi montré que pour les matériaux moins conducteurs électriquement que la matrice en graphite, le courant passe à travers la matrice et n’a pas d’effet sur la microstructure et sur les mécanismes de densification du compact à fritter. Pour le cuivre, plus conducteur que le graphite, la microstructure ainsi que les mécanismes de densification sont différents entre SPS et HP. Le courant passe donc probablement à travers le compact de poudre. / The aim of this PhD thesis is the evaluation of a new technique of sintering, the spark plasma sintering (SPS), compared to a more conventional one, employed by Saint-Gobain, the hot-pressing (HP). The significant difference between both techniques is the way to heat. By HP, it is done by internal resistances of the HP furnace. The sample is heated by thermal conduction (from the die to the powder compact). By SPS, a pulsed direct current goes trough the compaction system and/or the powder compact. It provides the heating by Joule effect and thermal conduction. The SPS heating rates could reach 600 °C/min, versus 20 - 30 °C/min by HP, reducing drastically the duration of thermal cycles. To highlight a possible current effect, generated by SPS, different pulverulent materials having different electrical conductivities have been selected (soda-lime glass, quasicrystals, doped-zirconia and copper). The comparison between SPS and HP has been done on the microstructural observation of sintered samples and on identification of densification mechanisms. It has been shown that, for materials less conductive than the die in graphite, current goes through the die and has no effect on the microstructure nor on densification mechanisms of the powder compact. For copper, a more conductive material than graphite, both microstructures and densification mechanisms are different for SPS and HP. Current probably goes trough the powder compact.

Many factors influence the propensity of young women to seek appropriate maternal healthcare, and they need to be considered when analyzing these women’s reproductive behavior. This study aimed to contribute to the analysis concerning Kenyan young women’s determinants on maternal healthcare-seeking behavior for the 5 years preceding the 2008/9 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. The specific objectives were to: investigate the individual and contextual variables that may explain maternal healthcare habits; measure the individual, household and community effect on maternal healthcare attitudes in young women; assess the link between young women’s characteristics and the use of facilities for maternal healthcare; find a relationship between young women’s behavior and the community where they live; examine how the role of the local presence of healthcare facilities influences reproductive behavior, and if the specificity of services offered by healthcare facilities affects their inclination to use healthcare facilities, and measure the geographic differences that influence the propensity to seek appropriate maternal healthcare. The analysis of factors associated with maternal healthcare-seeking behavior for young women in Kenya was investigated using multilevel models. We performed three major analyses, which concerned the individual and contextual determinants influencing antenatal care (discussed in Part 6), delivery care (Part 7), and postnatal care (Part 8). Our results show that there is a significant variation in antenatal, delivery and postnatal care between communities, even if the majority of variability is explained by individual characteristics. There are differences at the women’s level on the probability of receiving antenatal care and delivering in a healthcare facility instead of at home. Moreover, community factors and availability of healthcare facilities on the territory are also crucial in influencing young women’s behavior. Therefore, policies addressed to youth’s reproductive health should also consider geographic inequalities and different types of barriers in access to healthcare facilities.

The thesis analyses the making of the Shiite middle- and upper/entrepreneurial-class in Lebanon from the 1960s till the present day. The trajectory explores the historical, political and social (internal and external) factors that brought a sub-proletariat to mobilise and become an entrepreneurial bourgeoisie in the span of less than three generations. This work proposes the main theoretical hypothesis to unpack and reveal the trajectory of a very recent social class that through education, diaspora, political and social mobilisation evolved in a few years into a very peculiar bourgeoisie: whereas Christian-Maronite middle class practically produced political formations and benefited from them and from Maronite’s state supremacy (National Pact, 1943) reinforcing the community’s status quo, Shiites built their own bourgeoisie from within, and mobilised their “cadres” (Boltanski) not just to benefit from their renovated presence at the state level, but to oppose to it. The general Social Movement Theory (SMT), as well as a vast amount of the literature on (middle) class formation are therefore largely contradicted, opening up new territories for discussion on how to build a bourgeoisie without the state’s support (Social Mobilisation Theory, Resource Mobilisation Theory) and if, eventually, the middle class always produces democratic movements (the emergence of a social group out of backwardness and isolation into near dominance of a political order). The middle/upper class described here is at once an economic class related to the control of multiple forms of capital, and produced by local, national, and transnational networks related to flows of services, money, and education, and a culturally constructed social location and identity structured by economic as well as other forms of capital in relation to other groups in Lebanon.

Participation appeared in development discourses for the first time in the 1970s, as a generic call for the involvement of the poor in development initiatives. Over the last three decades, the initial perspectives on participation intended as a project method for poverty reduction have evolved into a coherent and articulated theoretical elaboration, in which participation figures among the paraphernalia of good governance promotion: participation has acquired the status of “new orthodoxy”. Nevertheless, the experience of the implementation of participatory approaches in development projects seemed to be in the majority of cases rather disappointing, since the transformative potential of ‘participation in development’ depends on a series of factors in which every project can actually differ from others: the ultimate aim of the approach promoted, its forms and contents and, last but not least, the socio-political context in which the participatory initiative is embedded. In Egypt, the signature of a project agreement between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Federal Republic of Germany, in 1998, inaugurated a Participatory Urban Management Programme (PUMP) to be implemented in Greater Cairo by the German Technical Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ) and the Ministry of Planning (now Ministry of Local Development) and the Governorates of Giza and Cairo as the main counterparts. Now, ten years after the beginning of the PUMP/PDP and close to its end (December 2010), it is possible to draw some conclusions about the scope, the significance and the effects of the participatory approach adopted by GTZ and appropriated by the Egyptian counterparts in dealing with the issue of informal areas and, more generally, of urban development. Our analysis follows three sets of questions: the first set regards the way ‘participation’ has been interpreted and concretised by PUMP and PDP. The second is about the emancipating potential of the ‘participatory approach’ and its ability to ‘empower’ the ‘marginalised’. The third focuses on one hand on the efficacy of GTZ strategy to lead to an improvement of the delivery service in informal areas (especially in terms of planning and policies), and on the other hand on the potential of GTZ development intervention to trigger an incremental process of ‘democratisation’ from below.