Part I: Various image reconstruction algorithms used for subsurface targets are reviewed. It is shown how some approximate wavefield inversion techniques: Stripmap Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Kirchhoff Migration (KM) and Frequency-Wavenumber (FK) migration are developed from various models for wavefield scattering. The similarities of these techniques are delineated both from a theoretical and practical perspective and it is shown that Stripmap SAR is, computationally, almost identical to FK migration. A plane wave interpretation of both Stripmap SAR and FK migration is used to show why they are so similar. The electromagnetic assumptions made in the image reconstruction algorithms are highlighted. In addition, it is shown that, theoretically, FK and KM are identical. Image reconstruction results for KM, Stripmap SAR and FK are shown for both synthetic and experimental Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data. Subjectively the reconstructed images show little difference, but computationally, Stripmap SAR (and therefore, FK migration) are much more efficient. Part II: A preliminary investigation into the use of the Singularity Expansion Method (SEM) for use in identifying landmines is completed using a Finite-Difference Time-Domain code to simulate a simplified GPR system. The Total Least Squares Matrix Pencil Method (TLS-MPM) is used to determine the complex poles from an arbitrary late-time signal. Both dielectric and metallic targets buried in lossless and lossy half-spaces are considered. Complex poles (resonances) of targets change significantly when the objects are buried in an external medium, and perturbation formulae for Perfect Electric Conductor (PEC) and dielectric targets are highlighted and used. These perturbation formulae are developed for homogenous surrounding media, and their utilization for the half-space (layered medium) GPR problem causes inaccuracies in their predictions. The results show that the decay rate (real part) of the complex poles is not suitable for identification in this problem, but that with further research, the resonant frequency (imaginary part) of the complex poles shows promise as an identification feature. / February 2005

This thesis is an ethnographic study of place-making in a war-altered landscape. It describes over a decade of resettlement efforts in a village in northwest Cambodia. As war drew to a close in the late 1990s, land on the former frontlines was allotted to those willing to risk occupancy on possibly mined terrain. Area resettlement was driven by need, forged by hope, and fraught with physical risk and material dangers. Food security and the prospect of acquiring land rights required settlers’ physical presence in and active engagement with the materialities of a forested landscape strewn with the remnants of war and the ruins of earlier settlements. Residents' conceptual and corporeal engagements with place were influenced by longstanding Khmer depictions of the srok, the ordered and cultivated landscape of agriculture and human dwelling, and the prai, the wild and fecund landscape of the forest, replete with powerful but often malevolent spirits. The srok was the landscape that the inhabitants of Handsome village longed to dwell within and struggled to create. The area’s pre-war reputation as a famously fertile agricultural zone had drawn many of its residents to risk the hazards of resettlement. The dream of the srok drove residents' actions in the actively dangerous, ever fluctuating terrain. In addition to being envisioned, the place was intimately known and directly experienced through the corporeal bodies of its inhabitants and their engagements with its material assemblages. Making the srok involved arduous physical effort in a constantly shifting material environment along with concentrated social and conceptual work. Resettlement did not merely entail hewing fields out of forests and removing mines and ordnance, but also encompassed attempts to transition into peacetime—to move from soldiering to farming, to come to rest after years of mobility and displacement, and to recreate social and moral order. This study analyzes successes and failures in place-making processes, illustrating how different aspects of landscape posed both affordances and constraints to these processes. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which material assemblages contributed to uncertainty in place-making efforts, illustrating that the material dimensions of landscape may resist as much as they acquiesce to human alteration. On a material level, place-making was a struggle that pitted human agency and will against an active and agentive landscape. Village residents were interacting with material environs in a constant state of change and becoming. The unsettling material traces of the past and the continuing threat some remnants posed in the present contributed to the ongoing indeterminacy residents experienced about the state and contents of the once famous ground. The landscape that residents sought to form and fix was always in danger of undoing its formation and categorization and revealing itself to be something else. Yet despite their failures at establishing and fixing the srok in the constantly shifting landscape of Handsome village, residents maintained their quest to transform the present configuration of place into the landscape and the future that they desired.

Part I: Various image reconstruction algorithms used for subsurface targets are reviewed. It is shown how some approximate wavefield inversion techniques: Stripmap Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Kirchhoff Migration (KM) and Frequency-Wavenumber (FK) migration are developed from various models for wavefield scattering. The similarities of these techniques are delineated both from a theoretical and practical perspective and it is shown that Stripmap SAR is, computationally, almost identical to FK migration. A plane wave interpretation of both Stripmap SAR and FK migration is used to show why they are so similar. The electromagnetic assumptions made in the image reconstruction algorithms are highlighted. In addition, it is shown that, theoretically, FK and KM are identical. Image reconstruction results for KM, Stripmap SAR and FK are shown for both synthetic and experimental Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data. Subjectively the reconstructed images show little difference, but computationally, Stripmap SAR (and therefore, FK migration) are much more efficient. Part II: A preliminary investigation into the use of the Singularity Expansion Method (SEM) for use in identifying landmines is completed using a Finite-Difference Time-Domain code to simulate a simplified GPR system. The Total Least Squares Matrix Pencil Method (TLS-MPM) is used to determine the complex poles from an arbitrary late-time signal. Both dielectric and metallic targets buried in lossless and lossy half-spaces are considered. Complex poles (resonances) of targets change significantly when the objects are buried in an external medium, and perturbation formulae for Perfect Electric Conductor (PEC) and dielectric targets are highlighted and used. These perturbation formulae are developed for homogenous surrounding media, and their utilization for the half-space (layered medium) GPR problem causes inaccuracies in their predictions. The results show that the decay rate (real part) of the complex poles is not suitable for identification in this problem, but that with further research, the resonant frequency (imaginary part) of the complex poles shows promise as an identification feature.

Part I: Various image reconstruction algorithms used for subsurface targets are reviewed. It is shown how some approximate wavefield inversion techniques: Stripmap Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Kirchhoff Migration (KM) and Frequency-Wavenumber (FK) migration are developed from various models for wavefield scattering. The similarities of these techniques are delineated both from a theoretical and practical perspective and it is shown that Stripmap SAR is, computationally, almost identical to FK migration. A plane wave interpretation of both Stripmap SAR and FK migration is used to show why they are so similar. The electromagnetic assumptions made in the image reconstruction algorithms are highlighted. In addition, it is shown that, theoretically, FK and KM are identical. Image reconstruction results for KM, Stripmap SAR and FK are shown for both synthetic and experimental Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data. Subjectively the reconstructed images show little difference, but computationally, Stripmap SAR (and therefore, FK migration) are much more efficient. Part II: A preliminary investigation into the use of the Singularity Expansion Method (SEM) for use in identifying landmines is completed using a Finite-Difference Time-Domain code to simulate a simplified GPR system. The Total Least Squares Matrix Pencil Method (TLS-MPM) is used to determine the complex poles from an arbitrary late-time signal. Both dielectric and metallic targets buried in lossless and lossy half-spaces are considered. Complex poles (resonances) of targets change significantly when the objects are buried in an external medium, and perturbation formulae for Perfect Electric Conductor (PEC) and dielectric targets are highlighted and used. These perturbation formulae are developed for homogenous surrounding media, and their utilization for the half-space (layered medium) GPR problem causes inaccuracies in their predictions. The results show that the decay rate (real part) of the complex poles is not suitable for identification in this problem, but that with further research, the resonant frequency (imaginary part) of the complex poles shows promise as an identification feature.

This paper describes the design and simulation of a microwave band, high resolution imaging ground penetrating radar. A conceptual explanation is given on the mechanics of wave-based imaging, followed by the governing radar equations. The performance specifications for the imaging system are given as inputs to the radar equations, which output the full system specifications. Those specifications are entered into a MATLAB simulation, and the simulation results are discussed with respect to both the mechanics and the desired performance. Finally, this paper discusses limitations of the design, both with the simulations and anticipated issues if the device is fully realized. / Master of Science

It is widely recognized that landmines pose a significant threat to the development and recovery of post-conflict societies. What is less well understood is the impact that these weapons have on the everyday lives and wellbeing of affected people and the environments in which they live. This thesis therefore seeks to deepen this understanding by presenting the findings from community-level qualitative research undertaken in Cambodia, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. I argue that it is essential to consider the effect that landmines have on people, the environments in which they live, and the relationships between people and environment. In order to explore this, I build on the notion of ‘wellbeing ecology’ introduced by White & Jha (2014). Wellbeing ecology is a place-sensitive approach that considers the inter-connected and dynamic social, economic, emotional, physical and spiritual relationships that people have with each other and their environments over time. By their very presence, landmines represent a threat to both social and natural systems. They also reconstitute people’s experience of place. I explore this in particular through the notion of contaminated landscapes, which draws on and takes forward work on therapeutic landscapes in health geography. My data reveals that local people and mine action actors understand the effects of landmines differently. While mine action actors focus predominantly on material impact, local people conceptualise landmine impact in a more holistic way, referring to its social, emotional, spiritual, psychological and physical meanings. Data from the village highlights the importance of place for wellbeing, revealing that living in a contaminated landscape negatively affects people’s quality of life materially, relationally and subjectively. This demonstrates how a wellbeing ecology approach can usefully add to the understanding of the experience of living with landmines and the effect this has on quality of life.

This thesis is exploring interactions of Japanese NGOs to be influential in official foreign aid from outside of the exclusive Japanese decision-making process. Three case studies have been undertaken to examine how Japanese NGOs have developed or adopted various means to exert influence on the government. Japanese NGOs have emerged as powerful actors in foreign aid under a policy of "Kao no Mieru Enjyo (visible Japanese aid)" in the 1990s following some domestic incidents and an international trend in development. However, the Japanese government has maintained a hostile attitude toward NGOs despite its official claim of regarding NGOs as 'partners'. The government's awkward reaction to NGOs comes from Japan's traditional idea of extreme respect for the government and looking down on citizenry. This traditional political culture of "Kan Son Min Pi (supremacy of bureaucracy)" has dominated Japan and that has made the government hostile to powerful outsiders such as NGOs, which may threaten their supremacy. The exclusive decision-making system, "the Iron Triangle", has also contributed to distance NGOs from the government. By this means, an atmosphere between NGOs and the government in Japan has been far from 'partnership'. Against this hostile environment, Japanese NGOs have developed and adopted interactions to exert influence. Various means have been used by each NGO in accordance with each speciality and operation field. The thesis has focused on three areas of Japan's foreign aid - development, anti-personnel landmines and environment - and undertaken three case studies. Four NGOs have been analysed - Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC), Japanese Campaign to Ban Landmines (JCBL), Greenpeace Japan and Friends of the Earth (FoE) Japan. Some NGOs have developed their own interactions and others have been adopted from international partners and authorities. On a whole, they have all crafted these interactions to suit the Japanese political culture. Among several interactions, building international networks and personal relationships with powerful individuals such as politicians have appeared to be most useful. These two interactions work effectively on Japan's reactive and highly personalised aspects of politics, which is reactive to external pressure (Gai-atsu) and rely heavily on the personality and ability of individual leaders. The case studies reveal that Japanese NGOs have exerted influence effectively by making use of these valuable interactions. However, Japanese NGOs are at a crossroad because of high turn-over of staff and a focus-shifting in Japan's foreign policy to sending Self-Defence Forces (SDF) overseas. NGOs also need to obtain solid financial source which is getting difficult after a downturn in the Japanese economy. These will be the issues that Japanese NGOs need to tackle soon in order to be true 'partner'.

Thesis (M.A. (Political & International Studies)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in International Relations.

No description available.

Minvapnet klassas fortfarande som en viktig faktor vid strid, dock har dess utveckling i den svenska Försvarsmakten hamnat i skymundan. Denna slutsats kan man dra om man ser till vilka uppgifter och vilken utrustning som i dagsläget finns för att minera. De hjälpmedel som finns och är brukbara är ytterst begränsade. Ett system som skulle kunna vända denna trend är en minkastare, något som bland annat tas upp i, för fältarbetesfunktionen, interna utvecklingsplaner. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida Försvarsmakten skulle kunna nyttja ett minkastarsystem, vad det skulle innebära för Försvarsmaktens förmåga att minera samt lyfta upp vilka kriterier ett sådant system skulle behöva leva upp till för att kunna nyttjas av svensk trupp. Huvuddelen av uppsatsen kretsar kring textanalyser av aktuella reglementen, styrdokument och utredningar. I och med den nära knytningen till Försvarsmakten används de grundläggande förmågorna som analysverktyg och som teorikoppling. Uppsatsens resultat påvisar att införandet av ett sådant system skulle utveckla arméns, och framförallt då ingenjörförbandens förmåga att minera. Dock kan den faktiska nyttan av ett sådant system ifrågasättas i dagens insatsinriktade Försvarsmakt.