Man, Xiaofei. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-162). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

The de-industrialisation of the UK economy caused by globalised international markets, advancements in technology and production with changing consumer demands have made much of what was ‘traditional’ manufacturing redundant; this has led to industrial restructuring or even collapse, resulting in mass job redundancies. Market and industrial pressures have intensified since the late 1990s, culminating in the symbolic collapse of MG Rover in 2005 in addition to other key producers in the West Midlands, which represented the end of mass automotive production in the region (Donnelly et al. 2012). This came alongside various geographical, political and economic factors, including the restructuring of regional development agencies, prolonged industrial decline and a period of national economic recession, which presented challenges for any recovery. This thesis examines more precisely the closure of the commercial vehicle manufacturer LDV in 2009, once a part of the larger conglomerate British Leyland. The closure further reinforced the decline in UK automotive manufacturing until that point. The research involves the corporate collapse of LDV and the local government reaction to the closure and the following re-employment pathways of the redundant LDV workforce. The research continues the discussion of plant closures and the issues that redundant workers face when engaged in the labour market during economic recession. In particular, the thesis contribution employs a qualitative approach to examine the difficulties faced by the office tier, or ‘white collar’, workers who possess relatively high skills and who regarded as flexible and less vulnerable workers within the labour market. Yet this research exposes that highly skilled specialist workers are themselves also subject to unique issues when adjusting to the labour market. This topic is covered through the concept of worker trajectories: the research illustrates the unique employability issues and job precariousness that highly skilled workers can experience. The research concludes that the ability of highly skilled redundant workers to adapt effectively requires local job recovery strategies to implement short- and long-term policies with an emphasis on better job search and network development for individuals to sustain a resilient economy, and to mitigate the effects of plant closure upon redundant workers and maintain high skills within the region.

In this thesis, I investigate different Contextualist strategies for responding to the sceptical Argument from Ignorance (AI). Such responses are notable for not challenging the Principle of Epistemic Closure (widely held to be primarily responsible for the argument's conclusion). I am concerned to explore Contextualism's ability to respond to AI in a way which does not result in an uncomfortable concession to scepticism. In Part 1, I discuss Semantic Contextualism; in Part 2, I investigate how AI fares with regards to transmission of warrant when AI utilises either invariantist or Contextualist presuppositions; and in Part 3, I discuss whether Epistemic Contextualism succeeds where Semantic Contextualism fails, arguing that it does. I conclude with an endorsement of Epistemic Contextualism. Part 1: I demonstrate that Semantic Contextualism, of which I will consider three different varieties (externalist, internalist, presuppositionalist), is overly concessive to scepticism because it results in the following four difficulties: (1) knowledge attributions of the form 'I know/S knows that ~B' (where B stands for the sceptical brain-in-a-vat hypothesis) are invariably false; (2) the sceptical context is extremely easy to install; (3) scepticism is said to result from entirely ordinary epistemic practices and; (4) the sceptical context is taken to be an entirely legitimate context of ascription. I conclude Part 1 with the claim that Semantic Contextualism is overly concessive to scepticism. Part 2: Previously, Moore's Proof of an External World has been diagnosed with failing to transmit the warrant on offer for its premises to its conclusion. I argue that it is possible likewise to charge AI with transmission failure but that this cannot be done when some of the conceptual resources of Contextualism are brought to bear on AI. I show that AI can be charged with transmission failure when it is interpreted in support of invariantist (context-unrestricted) scepticism and that only when it is viewed as an argument for a context-restricted form of scepticism does it succeed in transmitting warrant. In this way, the sceptical consequences of AI are considerably reduced. Part 3: The conceptual resources newly deployed in Part 2, which show that a context-restricted, as opposed to invariantist, interpretation of AI can succeed in transmitting warrant, are borrowed from Michael Williams' Epistemic form of Contextualism. But is this form of Contextualism as concessive to scepticism as I showed Semantic Contextualism to be? I argue that it does not represent an overly concessive position vis-a-vis scepticism and therefore represents a superior Contextualist position and response to scepticism. To establish this conclusion, I interrogate the strategy and main elements of Williams' theoretical diagnosis of scepticism and his resultant version of Contextualism so as to determine the extent to which scepticism can be allayed by it. Particular attention is paid to specifying issues that Williams does not discuss, most prominently how the sceptical context has to be understood in order for it to resist his theoretical diagnosis of scepticism and what makes toleration of such resistance by context-bound scepticism reasonable. I conclude my thesis with an endorsement of Williams' Epistemic Contextualism.

Introduction: Velopharyngeal inadequacy (VPI) may result in inappropriate oral/nasal coupling during the production of speech sounds, resulting in unwanted nasal resonance and/or nasal air emission. Orthognathic surgeries such as maxillary and/or mandibular advancements are also known to change skeletal and muscular structures resulting in changes affecting velopharyngeal closure (VPC). Although many studies have reported on the effect of maxillary advancement surgery on VPI for patients with cleft lip and palate, the effect of mandibular advancement on VPI has not been studied at length. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effect of temporary prosthetic mandibular advancement on velopharyngeal function. Methods: Fourteen subjects (7 males, 7 females) with no history of craniofacial abnormalities or speech disorders were recruited. The mean age was 35 years (range = 26-60). Acoustic nasalance measurements were obtained during nasal sentences and during sentences without nasal consonants in two conditions; normally, and while wearing an elastic mandibular advancement (EMA) appliance to advance the mandible by 13mm. In addition, subjects were asked to produce five repetitions of the sentence "Ten men came in when Jane left" while recordings were obtained with a videoendoscopy/phototransducer system that sensed the amount of light passing through the velopharyngeal orifice. The endoscope and fiber optic light were inserted through the subject's middle nasal meatus and positioned above the velum. The phototransducer fiber was extended through the velopharyngeal port into the upper oropharynx to detect light passing through the orifice as the velopharyngeal mechanism opened and closed. Individual subject's outcomes with and without the EMA appliance were analyzed statistically using paired t-test for Nasalance test, and one-way ANOVA/independent samples t-test for phototransducer test. Results: Nasalance did not deteriorate, but significantly decreased for the ‘nasal’ sentences after mandibular advancement, whereas changes in nasalance were not significant for the sentences containing no nasal consonants after mandibular advancement. Mandibular advancement by a 13 mm using an EMA appliance did not significantly affect VPC. Instead, large variability among subjects in response to mandibular advancement. For 7 of the 14 subjects, the extent of VPC decreased significantly (p < .05) under the advanced mandible condition compared to the normal condition (without the EMA appliance). On the other hand, 5 subjects showed significantly (p < .05) increased VPC when their mandibles were advanced. For 2 subjects, VPC was not significantly changed with the advanced mandible. Conclusions: The outcomes of this study suggested that there was no statistical evidence to support that nasality was deteriorated by a 13mm mandibular advancement, which agreed with recent studies describing velopharyngeal function and nasality after orthognathic surgeries. VPC was not affected by mandibular advancement. Responses of the nasalance and VPC to mandibular advancement were dependent on the individuals. Further investigation such as electromyography method is needed to understand how velopharyngeal function and speech respond to mandibular advancement more definitely.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Categorical closure operators were introduced by Dikranjan and Giuli in [DG87] and then developed by these authors and Tholen in [DGT89]. These operators have played an important role in the development of Categorical Topology by introducing topological concepts, such as connectedness, separatedness and compactness, in an arbitrary category and they provide a uni ed approach to various mathematical notions. Motivated by the theory of these operators, the categorical notion of interior operators was introduced by Vorster in [Vor00]. While there is a notational symmetry between categorical closure and interior operators, a detailed analysis shows that the two operators are not categorically dual to each other, that is: it is not true in general that whatever one does with respect to closure operators may be done relative to interior operators. Indeed, the continuity condition of categorical closure operators can be expressed in terms of images or equivalently, preimages, in the same way as the usual topological closure describes continuity in terms of images or preimages along continuous maps. However, unlike the case of categorical closure operators, the continuity condition of categorical interior operators can not be described in terms of images. Consequently, the general theory of categorical interior operators is not equivalent to the one of closure operators. Moreover, the categorical dual closure operator introduced in [DT15] does not lead to interior operators. As a consequence, the study of categorical interior operators in their own right is interesting.

The Hamersley Yandi Iron Ore Mine of Hamersley Iron Pty. Ltd. is located in the Pilbara region, Western Australia, approximately 90km north west of the town of Newman. The iron ore has accumulated in a palaeochannel as an enriched Channel Iron Deposit (CID). Mining in other parts of this palaeochannel has been practised since 1991. Named deposits in the province are, from west to east, Munjina, Pool, Meander, Western, Central, Eastern, Junction and the Billiard deposits.Presently the CID acts as an aquifer and transmits water through its fracture system. It is the main conduit for the regional groundwater. The Water and Rivers Commission of Western Australia considers the groundwater in the alluvial beds of the Weeli Wolli Creek overlying the CID to be a useful resource. The groundwater is currently used for stock watering so the quality should be preserved.Part of the four possible closure plans of the Yandi Mine is to backfill the excavated channel with waste rock from the mining operation. The waste material will consist of the uneconomic grade lateritic pisolite iron ore, together with colluvium and alluvium overburden. The closure plans will also leave behind two pit lakes.The impact of these closure plans vary but each plan will leave pit lakes containing water with high salinity and this may adversely affect the quality of the groundwater downstream of the lakes.The hydraulic conductivity of the shallow aquifer may be impaired by swelling clays found in parts of the waste material. This impact would be reduced if the chosen closure plan was one with hydrogeological flow management.The water quality downstream of the pit lakes will change and the environmental impact on the groundwater will depend on which closure plan is chosen. This thesis suggests a number of options for consideration.

Most histories and reports of Mount Morgan concentrate on the mining experience and financial achievements of the first Company rather than the mining town. This dissertation presents a social history of Mount Morgan that addresses the establishment, rise and fall of the town during the period of the first syndicate and succeeding company, 1883-1927. The thesis contends that the transformation of the landscape was to industrial, urban space where the working-class attitudes of miners and others defined a town character, despite the aspiration of many to social status through private enterprise and public influence. Further, the scope of research encompassed local involvement in colonial and state politics, and the presence of local government authority, law courts and press that placed an urban stamp on the town. Issues discussed also relate to geographic, climatic and single company influences that caused the difference between Mount Morgan and other mining towns that did not survive. The traditional perception of mining town impermanence was contradicted at Mount Morgan, where town and suburban communities were witness to a range of collective support in religious adherence, benefit associations, fraternalism and ritual, leisure, sport, education, and social cohesion in times of mining disaster. Moreover, despite increasing familial connections, antagonistic attitudes prevailed between the defensively parochial town of Mount Morgan and the nearby regional centre of Rockhampton. The rise of unionism at Mount Morgan challenged an apathetic working-class population to workplace solidarity in reaction to the Company's long established, almost feudal control of the town as well as the mine. It is argued that, despite a decade of failing ore markets and soaring production costs at the mine, the attitudes and actions of a union dominated workforce were paramount in decline of the town and ultimate closure of the mine. Mount Morgan survived the exodus of thousands of residents. A defiant place, the town exhibited a pride bolstered by the perpetuation of myths that presented a public image shielded from the life-long realities of economic and social adversity.

This thesis describes the implementation of the conditional moment closure (CMC) combustion model in a numerical scheme and its application to the modelling of enclosure fires. Prediction of carbon monoxide (CO) in the upper smoke layer of enclosure fires is of primary interest because it is a common cause of death. The CO concentration cannot be easily predicted by empirical means, so a method is needed which models the chemistry of a quenched, turbulent fire plume and subsequent mixing within an enclosed space. CMC is a turbulent combustion model which has been researched for over a decade. It has provided predictions of major and minor species in jet diffusion flames. The extension to enclosure fires is a new application for which the flow is complex and temperatures are well below adiabatic conditions. Advances are made in the numerical implementation of CMC. The governing combustion equations are cast in a conserved, finite volume formulation for which boundary conditions are uniquely defined. Computational efficiency is improved through two criteria which allow the reduction in the size of the computational domain without any loss of accuracy. Modelling results are compared to experimental data for natural gas fires burning under a hood. Comparison is made in the recirculating, post-flame region of the flow where temperatures are low and reactions are quenched. Due to the spatial flux terms contained in the governing equations, CMC is able to model the situation where chemical species are produced in the high temperature fire-plume and then transported to non-reacting regions. Predictions of CO and other species are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data over a range of lean and rich hood-fire conditions. Sensitivity of results to chemistry, temperature and modelling closures is inves- tigated. Species predictions are shown to be quite different for the two detailed chemical mechanisms used. Temperature conditions within the hood effect the for- mation of species in the plume prior to quenching and subsequently species predic- tions in the post-flame region are also effected. Clipped Gaussian and ß-function probability density functions (PDFs) are used for the stochastic mixture fraction. Species predictions in the plume are sensitive to the form of the PDF but in the post-flame region, where the ß-function approaches a Gaussian form, predictions are relatively insensitive. Two models are used for the conditional scalar dissipation: a uniform model, where the conditional quantity is set equal to the unconditional scalar dissipation across all mixture fraction space; and a model which is consistent with the PDF transport equation. In the plume, predictions of minor species are sensitive to the modelling used, but in the recirculating, post-flame region species are not significantly effected.

No description available.

Living in the countryside can be complex and is often a matter of daily movements in order to make all activities fit into one’s life. The structure of everyday life is also about the interplay between political decisions and physical structures. This thesis shows the consequences of change to the rural landscape for daily life. In this case, the change was brought about by the closure of two rural schools in Ydre, Sweden. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the meaning of rural schools in the development of local society and identity, and how such meaning is based on people’s time-spatial everyday stories. The study focuses on how households interpret change and the problems that arise from the closure of rural schools. Studying this is accomplished through interviews with twelve households with schoolchildren of varying ages and is based on a time-geographical perspec-tive. In the spring of 2009, qualitative interviews were carried out concerning rural life and the possible effect of closure-threatened schools on their daily lives. In the autumn of 2009, the schools were closed, and the same families were visited and the household studies fol-lowed up with further interviews. Thus, the study investigates local circumstances, how householders adapt to structural changes, how this creates patterns in their everyday lives and activities, and how schools and private life are connected.  One conclusion here is that the householders are concerned about their local community. They highlight the importance of the rural school, which they consider exclusive and not just a resource for the children but the community as a whole. Thereby, they highlight their hope that their area is seen as attractive by visitors; by people looking for somewhere to settle down; and also by themselves, the inhabitants. A school is not just a place for teaching; it is also an important place where parents can meet; it is a part of social life; and it is a place where social networks are created and decisions about everyday life are made. Through stud-ies of the school closures and people’s everyday experiences, some of the complexities of countryside life and problems appear in a more human-centred and everyday perspective.