<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">This thesis is a discourse analysis of five testimonies from South Africa&rsquo / s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The aim of the analysis is to explore the ways in which the testifiers perform their identities, construe their experiences of life under apartheid, and position themselves and their audiences in relation to these experiences. The shaping role of context &ndash / both local and historical &ndash / is also considered.</p> </font></font></p>

This thesis examines the relationship between truth, justice, and reconciliation by comparing the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Rwandan Gacaca Court System. / Graduate

This treatise addresses the influence of the addition of short dispersed and integral fibres made of alkali-resistant glass on the fracture behaviour of textile-reinforced concrete (TRC). A series of uniaxial, deformation-controlled tension tests was performed to study the strength-, deformation-, and fracturebehaviour of thin, narrow plates made of TRC both with and without the addition of short fibres. Furthermore, uniaxial tension tests on specimens reinforced with only short fibres and single-fibre pullout tests were carried out to gain a better understanding of crack-bridging behaviour, which suppresses crack growth and widening. Various effects of the addition of short fibre on the stress-strain relationship and cracking behaviour of TRC were observed and discussed with reference to microscopic investigation of fractured surfaces.

High shear mixing offers a promising solution for particle dispersion in a liquid with intensive turbulence and high shear rate, and has been widely used in the chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries. However, a practical high shear mixing process has not yet been adapted to solve the particle agglomeration in metallurgy due to the high service temperature and reactive environment of liquid metal. In this study, the effect of high shear mixing using the newly designed rotor-stator high shear device have been investigated with both Al and Mg matrix composites reinforced with SiC particles through casting. The microstructural observation of high shear treated Al and Mg composites show improved particle distribution uniformity in the as-cast state. Increased mechanical properties and reduced volume fraction of porosity are also obtained in the composite samples processed with high shear. With the melt conditioning procedure developed for twin roll casting process, two distinct solutions has been provided for thin gauge Mg strip casting with advanced microstructure and defect control. The melt conditioning treatment activates the MgO as heterogeneous nuclei of α-Mg through dispersion from continuous films to discrete particles. Thus enhanced heterogeneous nucleation in the twin roll casting process not only refines the α-Mg grain size but also eliminates the centre line segregation through equiaxed grain growth and localized solute distribution. The grain refinement of the α-Mg through SiC addition has also been studied through EBSD and crystallographic approaches. Two reproducible and distinct crystallographic orientation relationships between α-SiC (6H) and α-Mg have been determined: [1010]SiC//[2113]Mg, (0006)SiC//(1011)Mg, (1216)SiC//(2202)Mg and [0110]SiC//[1100]Mg, (0006)SiC// (0002)Mg, (2110)SiC//(1120)Mg.

Foram coletadas amostras de uma chapa grossa temperada, de aço microligado ao boro com 8 mm de espessura. O aço foi produzido em aciaria do tipo LD, laminado na forma de chapa grossa em laminador de cadeira única reversível e finalmente recebeu tratamento de têmpera em forno de tubos radiantes e máquina de têmpera com fluxo de água. Todas as etapas de produção tiveram os parâmetros de processo controlados para obtenção das melhores propriedades possíveis. As amostras foram retiradas da região situada a um quarto da largura da chapa e submetidas a diversos ciclos térmicos em aparelho de dilatometria. Com auxílio de técnicas de microscopia ótica, microscopia eletrônica de varredura e medidas de dureza, o aço pôde ser caracterizado e foi possível levantar as curvas de resfriamento contínuo (TRC). As microestruturas revelaram a presença de múltiplos microconstituintes, principalmente em resfriamentos a partir de resfriamentos 25°C/s, quando surgem elementos aciculares como ferrita acicular e bainita misturados com ferrita poligonal e perlita. Acima desta taxa de resfriamento o campo perlítico é suprimido e a partir de 45°C/s surge a martensita. A 100°C/s a microestrutura é dominada predominantemente por martensita. As amostras resfriadas nas 3 taxas mais severas também revelaram a presença de austenita retida e constituinte MA, detectados por meio de difração de raios-x e ataque com reagente de Klemm. / Samples were taken from a quenched plate with 8mm thickness and chemical composition consisting of carbon, manganese, silicon, aluminum, niobium, titanium and boron. The steel was produced in LD converter, rolled in a reversible single chair rolling mill and quenched in a radiating tube furnace and quenching machine with water flow. All production stages had the process parameters controlled to obtain the best possible properties. The samples were extracted from a position situated at one quarter of the plate´s width and submitted to various thermal cycles in dilatometry device. With the aid of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and hardness measurements, the steel could be characterized and the continuous cooling transformation curves could (CCT) be plotted. The microstructures revealed the presence of multiple components, especially when cooling rates reach 25°C/s, where acicular elements, like acicular ferrite and bainite, are found along with polygonal ferrite and pearlite. Above this cooling rate the pearlite field is suppressed and starting at 45°C/s martensite was found. At 100°C/s the microstructure is mainly martensitic. The samples cooled at the 3 most severe rates also revealed the presence of retained austenite and MA constituent, which were detected by x-ray diffraction and attack using Klemm reagent.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis is a discourse analysis of five testimonies from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The aim of the analysis is to explore the ways in which the testifiers perform their identities, construe their experiences of life under apartheid, and position themselves and their audiences in relation to these experiences. The shaping role of context – both local and historical – is also considered.

No description available.

Masters of Art / The starting point of this thesis is the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Missing Person’s Task Team (MPTT), two instruments of the post-apartheid government, both of which have directly attended to the disappeared dead. The disappeared dead are defined in this thesis as persons abducted and subject to enforced disappearances, as well as those killed in other political circumstances whose bodies were buried by the apartheid state, in some cases as unnamed paupers, thus denying families the opportunity to bury and mourn according to familial or cultural norms. Today the MPTT still seeks to locate the gravesites of the disappeared dead, to exhume, identify and to return the mortal remains to their families.

In consideration of TRC Call to Action 63.3 that asks teachers to facilitate cultural understanding, mutual respect, and empathy between First Nations and non-Indigenous students, my thesis sought to find out if a collective, collaborative, story-making activity with four Grade 5-6 students of different cultural backgrounds, including one First Nations student, could further the objectives of Call 63.3. The results of my research suggest that a collective and collaborative story-making activity does, on its own, further two of these reconciliation objectives, mutual respect, and empathy. The third objective, cultural understanding, could probably not been achieved without the intervention of a knowledgeable Indigenous adult, in my case, Annie, (a pseudonym) who was consulted by the story-makers during the scripted “mentor” part of the 12-part hero/ine’s journey story-making process. Using primarily a Posthumanist framework that also integrated some arts-based research/research-creation and critical discourse theoretical orientations for my analysis, I found that an extended focus on a single-story task by four students, not only brought them into a closer relationship with each other, thus facilitating mutual respect and empathy, it also permitted them to imagine a common vision of education. The education world they imagined, in which an educational reconciliation might be realized, was informed, in part, by Indigenous ways of knowing and teaching.

Strain hardening cement-based composites (SHCC) and textile reinforced concrete (TRC) are two types of novel cementitious materials which can be used for strengthening structural elements against impact loading. Under tensile loading, these composites exhibit a strain hardening behavior, accompanied with formation of multiple cracks. The multiple cracking and strain hardening behavior yield a high strain and energy absorption capacity, thus making SHCC and TRC suitable materials for impact resistant structures or protective layers. The design and optimization of such composites for impact resistant applications require a comprehensive characterization of their behavior under various impact loadings. Specifically, the rate dependent behavior of the composites and their constituents, i.e. matrix, reinforcement, and their bond, need to be described. In the context of dynamic testing, SHCC, TRC and their constituents require customized experimental setups. The geometry of the sample, ductility of the material, the need for adapters and their influence on the measurements, as well as the influence of inertia are the key aspects which should be considered in developing the impact testing setups. The thesis at hand deals with the development process of various impact testing setups for both composite scale and constituent scale. The crucial aspects to be taken into account are discussed extensively. As a result, a gravity driven split-Hopkinson tension bar was developed. The setup was used for performing impact tension experiments on SHCC, TRC and yarn-matrix bond. Moreover, its applicability for performing impact shear experiments was examined. Additionally, a mini split-Hopkinson tension bar for high speed micromechanical experiments was designed and built. In the case of compressive loading, the performance of SHCC was investigated in a split-Hopkinson pressure bar. The obtained results, with focus on tensile experiments, were evaluated concerning their accuracy, and susceptibility to inertia effects. Full-field displacement measurement obtained by digital image correlation (DIC) was used in all impact experiments as a tool for visualizing and explaining the fracture process of the material in conjunction with the standard wave analysis performed in the split-Hopkinson bars.Moreover, the rate dependent behaviors of the composites were clarified with respect to the rate dependent behavior of their constituents.