This study examined the acid-base and ionoregulatory responses by the skin and kidney of adult bullfrogs (Rana catesbiana) during recovery from non-respiratory acidoses. Acidosis was induced by intravascular infusions of HCl (3,000 uequiv/kg), or NH4Cl (4,000 uequiv/kg), or by 45 min enforced submergence. Infused acids were immediately buffered by the extracellular fluids (ECF) and moved rapidly into the intracellular compartment. Clearance of the acid load was slow (> 24 h post-infusion) and only in NH4Cl loaded frogs was the full amount cleared within 5 days. Excess acid was excreted primarily by increased renal NH4+ effluxes. The skin contributed very little to the net acid excretion; instead large "base" losses ("acid" uptake) occurred. Acid infusions also resulted in large ion losses and elevated water uptake across the skin, with electrolytes and water moving down chemical gradients. Frogs infused with HCl died within 96 h; NH4Cl loaded frogs all survived.Forced submergence resulted in a severe lactacidosis which was corrected in 12 h by a combination of renal/cutaneous acid excretion (9:1 ratio) and metabolic utilization of lactate and H+ (~ 95% of excess acid load). Acid excretion occurred primarily as NH4+ efflux by the kidney and skin. A 1:1 exchange of Na+ influx/NH4+, efflux across the skin was found (r = 0.94; P < 0.01) when Jin Na+ was elevated over basal levels (30-40 uequiv/kg·h). Lactate and net acid effluxes by the skin and kidney diminished by 24 h post-disturbance and accounted for 4 to 6% of the total estimated load to the animal. All frogs survived the diving protocol. Restoration of acid-base state in acidotic bullfrogs by ECF and non-ECF mechanisms, as well as the renal and cutaneous responses to the acidosis, is discussed and compared to that of other vertebrates. It is concluded that anurans, and the bullfrog in particular, are poor regulators of acid-base state but instead are very tolerant to marked disturbances of acid-base balance. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

Concurrent programs are known to be complicated because synchronisation is required amongst the processes in order to ensure safety (nothing bad ever happens) and progress (something good eventually happens). Due to possible interference from other processes, a straightforward rearrangement of statements within a process can lead to dramatic changes in the behaviour of a program, even if the behaviour of the process executing in isolation is unaltered. Verifying concurrent programs using informal arguments are usually unconvincing, which makes formal methods a necessity. However, formal proofs can be challenging due to the complexity of concurrent programs. Furthermore, safety and progress properties are proved using fundamentally different techniques. Within the literature, safety has been given considerably more attention than progress. One method of formally verifying a concurrent program is to develop the program, then perform a post-hoc verification using one of the many available frameworks. However, this approach tends to be optimistic because the developed program seldom satisfies its requirements. When a proof becomes difficult, it can be unclear whether the proof technique or the program itself is at fault. Furthermore, following any modifications to program code, a verification may need to be repeated from the beginning. An alternative approach is to develop a program using a verify-while-develop paradigm. Here, one starts with a simple program together with the safety and progress requirements that need to be established. Each derivation step consists of a verification, followed by introduction of new program code motivated using the proofs themselves. Because a program is developed side-by-side with its proof, the completed program satisfies the original requirements. Our point of departure for this thesis is the Feijen and van Gasteren method for deriving concurrent programs, which uses the logic of Owicki and Gries. Although Feijen and van Gasteren derive several concurrent programs, because the Owicki-Gries logic does not include a logic of progress, their derivations only consider safety properties formally. Progress is considered post-hoc to the derivation using informal arguments. Furthermore, rules on how programs may be modified have not been presented, i.e., a program may be arbitrarily modified and hence unspecified behaviours may be introduced. In this thesis, we develop a framework for developing concurrent programs in the verify-while-develop paradigm. Our framework incorporates linear temporal logic, LTL, and hence both safety and progress properties may be given full consideration. We examine foundational aspects of progress by formalising minimal progress, weak fairness and strong fairness, which allow scheduler assumptions to be described. We formally define progress terms such as individual progress, individual deadlock, liveness, etc (which are properties of blocking programs) and wait-, lock-, and obstruction-freedom (which are properties of non-blocking programs). Then, we explore the inter-relationships between the various terms under the different fairness assumptions. Because LTL is known to be difficult to work with directly, we incorporate the logic of Owicki-Gries (for proving safety) and the leads-to relation from UNITY (for proving progress) within our framework. Following the nomenclature of Feijen and van Gasteren, our techniques are kept calculational, which aids derivation. We prove soundness of our framework by proving theorems that relate our techniques to the LTL definitions. Furthermore, we introduce several methods for proving progress using a well-founded relation, which keeps proofs of progress scalable. During program derivation, in order to ensure unspecified behaviour is not introduced, it is also important to verify a refinement, i.e., show that every behaviour of the final (more complex) program is a possible behaviour of the abstract representation. To facilitate this, we introduce the concept of an enforced property, which is a property that the program code does not satisfy, but is required of the final program. Enforced properties may be any LTL formula, and hence may represent both safety and progress requirements. We formalise stepwise refinement of programs with enforced properties, so that code is introduced in a manner that satisfies the enforced properties, yet refinement of the original program is guaranteed. We present derivations of several concurrent programs from the literature.

The aim of this thesis is to understand tax compliance decisions made by corporate SMEs in Uganda. The study draws on compliance models developed in other settings and explores their applicability in the Ugandan context using mixed methods. Firstly, the study investigates the roles played by tax fairness, trust in government and the URA, and the effects of audits and sanctions in influencing compliance . Secondly, the study explores the direct and indirect roles played by social norms in terms of influencing tax compliance among SMEs . Lastly, the study assesses the effects of corruption on compliance behaviour among SMEs. Survey and semi-structured interview data were collected concurrently. A survey was used to collect data from a total of 386 corporate SME owners and managers from Kampala Capital City Authority and the central and eastern regions. In addition, interviews were conducted with 26 corporate SME owners and managers about their perceptions of corporate tax system fairness in Uganda. The results, unlike those of other studies, show that corporate SME taxpayers are willing to pay their corporate taxes once they have put their trust in the government and tax authorities, even when the tax system is unfair. Also, audit probability and sanctions might not encourage corporate SMEs to comply with corporate tax rules. However, when URA is perceived as powerful where tax officers are able to discover tax non-compliance and impose severe sanctions, SME firms could be motivated to pay taxes due to the government. Importantly, corruption within the URA and the bureaucratic system of Uganda has a negative impact on tax fairness, which triggers corporate tax evasion. Indeed, I have identified four types of corruption that appear to have different impacts on attitudes towards compliance. Also, the results show that day-to-day tax compliance decisions made by corporate SMEs have more direct influence on corporate SMEs’ tax (non)compliance behaviour than ethical values do. However, SMEs’ willingness to comply is affected by how people who are close to each taxpayer think. Overall, the thesis advances scholarship by demonstrating that the Slippery Slope Framework does not hold in Uganda and that different types of social norm impact compliance differently. Corruption is identified as an important differentiating feature when compared to studies in developed countries.

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Enforced disappearances has been used as a repressive strategy by numerous Latin American states against tens of thousands of presumed political opponents and adversaries, starting in the 1960’s in Guatemala. In contemporary Latin America, Mexico holds the record for disappearances, both politically and non-politically motivated, with more than 30 000 cases reported since the beginning of the drug war in 2006. In response to the silence and impunity from the state, family members have been forced to organize in order to advance in the search for their relatives and for justice. Most of these family members are women. The aim of this study is to analyze women’s experiences of organizing as relatives to the forcefully disappeared in Mexico to explore possible connections between organization and empowerment. Empowerment is here understood from a feminist perspective, as a transformative factor that gives women increased feelings of ‘power to’, ‘power with’ and ‘power within’. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five women organized in four different family members’ organizations in Mexico. The results were analyzed against a theoretical framework consisting of previous research and theories on women’s organizing in Latin America, focusing on strategic and practical gender interests and theories on women’s empowerment, from a feminist and sociologist perspective. The analysis revealed that through the process of organizing, women developed a critical consciousness and access to new skills and resources that resulted in the women becoming more active, political and empowered subjects. The results also showed that despite women’s reasons for organizing being originally practical, to find their loved ones, during the process of organization, these reasons became more strategic and political, as a result of the empowerment process. The study concludes that women’s collective action is a source of empowerment even within organizations that does not have this as an outspoken aim and that the collectives of family members have provided a space for women to become active, conscious and critical citizens.

L’objet de cette recherche est d’examiner deux formes de violence d’Etat : la disparition forcée et la migration forcée, dans le contexte du conflit Kurde. Cette étude se fonde sur un travail de terrain conduit dans deux villes, représentatives du contexte des disparitions forcées, de la migration forcée et des projets de transformation urbaine, à savoir à İstanbul et à Şırnak. Ces formes de violence d’Etat sont examinées dans le contexte politico-historique des années 1990 en se centrant sur l’appareil d’Etat, l’espace juridique, la vie quotidienne et la mémoire. En outre, l’une des conséquences les plus importantes de la migration forcée, à savoir les projets de transformations urbaines, sont également étudiées afin d’approfondir l’analyse concernant les migrants Kurdes dans le milieu urbaine. La thèse principale de cette recherche est la suivante: les formes de violence d’Etat mise en œuvre pendant les années 1990 dans les marges spatiales et politiques de la Turquie offrent des informations cruciales permettant de procéder à une analyse approfondie de l’appareil d’Etat, de l’espace juridique et du débat sur la mémoire du centre-même de la Turquie. L’analyse de ces formes de violence d’Etat révèle également leurs dimensions holistiques, structurées et spatialisées qui façonnent les subjectivités et les performances de différentes parties prenantes, y compris des parents proches des disparus, des déplacés et des résidents des zones urbaines informelles. Les relations complexes, transformatrices et à multiples facettes entre la région kurde et le centre de la Turquie met en lumières l’interconnectivitée de ces entités géographiques, politiques et historiques qui sont beaucoup plus liées qu’elles n’y paraissent. / This study aims to examine two forms of state violence, namely, enforced disappearance and forced migration, in the context of Turkey’s Kurdish conflict. The analysis will be mainly based on a field research on two cities representative in the context of the enforced disappearance, forced migration and urban transformation projects, İstanbul and Şırnak. These forms of violence are investigated in the broader historico-political momentum of the 1990s focusing on state apparatus, juridical field, quotidian life and memory. Moreover, one of the crucial effects of the forced migration on the urgan space, urban transformation projects will also be evaluated for a deepened analysis of Kurdish migrants in the urban milieu. The main argument of the dissertation is the forms of state violence implemented at the spatial and political margin of Turkey during the 1990s offer crucial insights for a deepened analysis of the state apparatus, juridical field and memory debate of the very center of Turkey. An analysis of these forms of state violence also reveals their holistic, structured and spatialized dimensions that shaped subjectivities and performances of different stakeholders, including relatives of the forcibly disappeared, internally displaced persons and inhabitants of the informal urban areas. Complicated, transformatory and multi-faceted relations between the Kurdish region and the center of Turkey highlight the interconnectedness of these geographical, political and histroical entities that are far related than it appears.

Immigration policies such as temporary protected status and deferred enforced departure can serve as suitable humanitarian solutions to help displaced individuals. Notwithstanding, when implemented in the course of many years, the uncertainty and stress of living in limbo can pose significant challenges to beneficiaries and create a multifarious scenario for government leaders. This qualitative study examined the experience of Liberians, a group designated with temporary immigration protection in the United States since 1991, who have consequently formed lives in the United States while in temporary status. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the effects of temporary immigration policy, implemented as a long-term solution on the security of Liberians and their successful integration in the United States. The study was designed with a case study approach, which yielded a breadth of data collected through semistructured interviews of 9 members of the Liberian community. The research question aimed to understand the perceived effects of long-term implementation of temporary immigration policy on Liberians and their ability to feel secure and integrate into U.S. society. The data were analyzed using content analysis and revealed that irrespective of the challenges and angst of living in limbo, and evidence of some degree of marginalization, Liberians have progressed in many ways and are contributing members of U.S. society. The social change implications of this research include providing a voice to Liberians and others in similar circumstances and the potential for policymakers to consider how temporary immigration policies are implemented in the future.

Magister Legum - LLM (Criminal Justice and Procedure) / Enforced disappearances are a heinous violation of numerous human rights enshrined in many international conventions. However, they have not been adequately addressed in many jurisdictions. This crime is very common within countries on the continent of Africa, which despite having plenty of conflicts, under report cases of enforced disappearances. This research paper investigates the transitional justice mechanisms implemented in Uganda to deal with the phenomenon of enforced disappearances. It analyses the mechanisms implemented by the Government of Uganda and those by Non- Governmental Organisations. The paper examines also how the phenomenon of enforced disappearances has been dealt with in other countries such as Morocco, Kenya and South Africa. The paper suggests several recommendations to Uganda after having made a comparison with the selected countries on how to deal with the crime of enforced disappearances.

Independent control of the surface and bulk properties is advantageous for many applications such as adhesives, release coatings, and antimicrobial films. Traditional methods for achieving independent control typically require multiple processing steps such as wet-on-wet or wet-on-dry coating methods. Independent control over the surface properties can achieved in a single step utilizing the temporal and spatial control inherent to photopolymerization. Specifically, a co-photopolymerization of monomers with different reactivities in the presence of a light gradient is capable of producing a polymer film with a surface chemistry that differs from the bulk chemistry. The light gradient, produced via the concentration of photoinitiator in the formulation, results in a reaction gradient through the film with the higher rates of reaction occurring in the high light intensity regions of the film. The preferentially reacting monomer adds at a greater rate in the high light intensity regions resulting in non-uniform consumption yielding a concentration gradient. Consequently, diffusion of the preferentially reacting monomer from the bulk to the surface of the film and a counter-diffusion of the other monomer from the surface to the bulk of the film occurs from the non-uniform monomer consumption thus producing a film with a concentration gradient through the depth of the film with the preferentially reacting monomer enriching the high light intensity regions. A variety of kinetic differences capable of producing a stratified film will be presented including inherent monomer reactivity, number of functional groups per monomer, oxygen inhibition, thiol-ene chemistry, and Norrish type two initiation. Additionally, parameters that control the degree of stratification, such as methods of varying polymerization rate and the light gradient, will be examined. Changes in surface properties (such as contact angle, surface hardness, adhesion) and bulk properties (such as mechanical properties measured by dynamic mechanical analysis and polymer swelling) are studied as a function of stratification. Finally, a mathematical model which describes and predicts the production of stratified films via photopolymerization is presented. Photopolymerization allows for a facile, single step method of generating stratified films with controllable surface chemistries.