The Hunger Games: Food Prices, Ethnic Cleavages and Nonviolent Unrest in Africa

Nonviolent movements are more successful when mobilizing large and diverse numbers of participants. However, while there has been considerable research on the outcomes of nonviolent campaigns, far less is known about the initial emergence of nonviolent action. A growing literature suggests ethnic divisions may undermine the ability of activists to engage in mass nonviolent mobilization across diverse social lines. Yet many large and diverse nonviolent movements have successfully emerged in various ethnically divided societies across the world. I argue that nonviolent mobilization is made possible in ethnically polarized contexts when broader cross-cutting grievances are present as they enable local activists to widen their appeal across social lines. I focus on food price spikes as an example of a cross-cutting issue that is likely to affect consumers from different ethnic groups. The unique and symbolic nature of food price spikes facilitates nonviolent mobilization across ethnic lines and provides clear short-term incentives for many people to participate in protests against the government. Using new spatially disaggregated data on government targeted nonviolent action, I analyse grid-cell years across 41 African countries (1990–2008). I find strong evidence that food price spikes increase the likelihood of nonviolent action in politically excluded and ethnically diverse locations

Content Area Teachers’ Perspectives and Practices in Reading Instruction in Grades 9-12

A rural school district identified a problem among high school content classrooms of insufficient attention to instruction aimed at enabling students to comprehend content area text material. Concerns about attention to reading instruction in content classrooms are also evident on the national level. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the perspectives and reading instructional practices of secondary content area teachers in math, science, and history. The conceptual framework of self-efficacy guided the study, as the perspectives of the teachers revealed what motivated them to move beyond their pedagogical comfort zone to meet the needs all students. The research questions were focused on the perspectives of teachers toward providing reading instruction in content area classrooms, instructional strategies teachers viewed as supporting reading comprehension and approaches they identified for reducing the barriers to incorporating reading instruction. Data were collected from 4 purposefully selected teachers in Grades 9-12 through semistructured interviews and examination of lesson plans. Data analysis involved an inductive search of patterns and themes of teacher perspectives and instructional practices. The findings showed that the teachers wanted to advance their knowledge of content reading instruction through content specific professional development and continuous support from mentors. Results have the potential for positive social change through identifying professional development to assist teachers with improving reading comprehension within content area reading instruction

Chromaffin granule membrane

1. Chromaffin granule membranes have been prepared from bovine adrenal medullae. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel elctrophoresis of the membranes, in the presence of dithiothreitol, revealed 66 bands ranging in molecular weight c 150,000 to 10,000 daltons. The maajority of the bands were minor staining components. 2. The granule membranes also contain several glycoproteins (ten) which could be stained in gels of the membranes by a variety of methods (the periodic acid - Schiff, dansyl hydrazine and fluorescein isothiocyanate conjugated concanavilin A and wheat germ agglutinin stains and tritration with [3H]-borohydride following periodate or galactose oxidase treatment of the membranes)

Orofacial fine motor control impairments in congenital spasticity: Evidence against hypertonusrelated performance deficits

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1212/WNL.34.2.145.Motor impairments in the line force control of lips, tongue, and jaw were measured in subjects with congenital spasticity. Because these orofacial motor systems are not uniformly endowed with muscle spindles and monosynaptic reflexes, quantification of these motor impairments addresses the question of whether stretch reflex hypertonus is a positive or negative sign. The results indicated that hyperactive muscle spindle-based monosynaptic reflexes are not a causal factor in these voluntary orofacial motor impairments. These data also indicated that motor impairments were disproportionately greater at finer levels of isometric force control. These fine control measures appear useful as a quantitative index of general voluntary motor deficit

Ethno-Political Inequalities and Intra-State Conflict

This thesis investigates the relationship between ethnic-based political inequalities and political conflict. Building on recent theoretical and methodological advancements, I develop three empirical chapters that investigate distinct, yet unrelated mechanisms linking ethno-political configurations to disparate forms of contentious action. These chapters each utilise quantitative methods, and new subnational-level and actor-level data, to uncover a number of important findings regarding types of conflict behaviour not captured by civil war analyses. The first empirical chapter focuses on ethnic riots, a type of non-militarised violence involving violent clashes between civilians of rival ethnic groups. I argue that this previously overlooked form of political violence is likely to emerge when there is: politically dominant ethnic groups coexisting with a group facing systematic political discrimination or a loss of power. I find support for this argument through the first cross-national and subnational analysis of ethnic riots in Africa. The second empirical chapter focuses on the incidence of mass nonviolent action, which involves the mobilisation of large numbers of diverse people. I argue that cleavages within and across ethnic groups often undermine this kind of political mobilisation, but that cross cutting grievances can overcome this issue and facilitate resistance. Testing this argument sub-nationally, I find support for my argument that the relationship between ethno-political inequalities and nonviolent action is dependent on the existence of cross-cutting grievances, as this provides opportunities for disparate groups to unite against the state. The final empirical chapter (co-authored with Govinda Clayton and Andrew Thompson) explores the relationship between ethnic militias, either recruited from politically dominant or disadvantaged ethnic groups, and civil war duration. We thereby move beyond assumptions that the government-side is unitary. We argue that coethnic PGMs (i.e. those recruited from the same ethnicity as the ruling elite) are associated with longer conflicts, as they have strong incentives to maintain ethno-political power and further polarise ethnic divisions. We find strong support for these claims in a global time-series cross sectional analysis

Quantum dynamics of non-linear optomechanical systems

This thesis explores the dynamics of optomechanical systems, which use radiation pressure to couple together optical and mechanical modes. Such systems display dynamics ranging from the quantum to the classical, with a variety of applications including ground state cooling and precision measurements. In this thesis two different geometries are presented for such a system in the form of the ‘reflective’ and ‘dispersive’ systems. Different aspects of the dynamics are investigated numerically and analytically. Firstly the reflective system is introduced, which consists of a cavity formed from a fixed and a moveable mirror. The optical frequency of the cavity couples linearly to the moveable mirror’s position. This geometry is explored as the cavity is driven by a laser, revealing a range of dynamical states in the mirror as the drive frequency is varied. An alternative geometry is presented in the form of the dispersive optomechanical system. Two fixed mirrors with a partially transmitting membrane at the centre provide a cavity supporting two optical modes, that couple approximately linearly or quadratically to the membrane position, depending on where the membrane is fixed. The system is explored in both linear and quadratic coupling regimes. Quadratic coupling is explored for a single optical mode by selecting a high tunnelling rate through the membrane. The dynamics of the membrane are explored via a similar set of techniques to those applied to the reflective system. Linear coupling for two optical modes is explored in the regimes of blue and red detuning. First resolved sideband cooling is explored, providing an alternative approach ground state cooling (which has been explored for the reflective case). Finally, strongly driving the system over a range of coupling strengths induces classical behaviour, extending from limit cycle oscillations to chaotic motion

Ground Improvement for Oil Tank Farm in Indonesia

This case study describes the use of ground improvement to treat a highly variable site, where new oil storage tanks were constructed. Varied techniques were used comprising a combination of dynamic compaction, preload, vertical drains and replacement. Settlement data from the storage tanks during water test shows the treatment to have been successful

Quantum dynamics of non-linear optomechanical systems

This thesis explores the dynamics of optomechanical systems, which use radiation pressure to couple together optical and mechanical modes. Such systems display dynamics ranging from the quantum to the classical, with a variety of applications including ground state cooling and precision measurements. In this thesis two different geometries are presented for such a system in the form of the ‘reflective’ and ‘dispersive’ systems. Different aspects of the dynamics are investigated numerically and analytically. Firstly the reflective system is introduced, which consists of a cavity formed from a fixed and a moveable mirror. The optical frequency of the cavity couples linearly to the moveable mirror’s position. This geometry is explored as the cavity is driven by a laser, revealing a range of dynamical states in the mirror as the drive frequency is varied. An alternative geometry is presented in the form of the dispersive optomechanical system. Two fixed mirrors with a partially transmitting membrane at the centre provide a cavity supporting two optical modes, that couple approximately linearly or quadratically to the membrane position, depending on where the membrane is fixed. The system is explored in both linear and quadratic coupling regimes. Quadratic coupling is explored for a single optical mode by selecting a high tunnelling rate through the membrane. The dynamics of the membrane are explored via a similar set of techniques to those applied to the reflective system. Linear coupling for two optical modes is explored in the regimes of blue and red detuning. First resolved sideband cooling is explored, providing an alternative approach ground state cooling (which has been explored for the reflective case). Finally, strongly driving the system over a range of coupling strengths induces classical behaviour, extending from limit cycle oscillations to chaotic motion

The sound of violets: the ethnographic potency of poetry?

This paper takes the form of a dialogue between the two authors, and is in two halves, the first half discursive and propositional, and the second half exemplifying the rhetorical, epistemological and metaphysical affordances of poetry in critically scrutinising the rhetoric, epistemology and metaphysics of educational management discourse. Phipps and Saunders explore, through ideas and poems, how poetry can interrupt and/or illuminate dominant values in education and in educational research methods, such as: • alternatives to the military metaphors – targets, strategies and the like – that dominate the soundscape of education; • the kinds and qualities of the cognitive and feeling spaces that might be opened up by the shifting of methodological boundaries; • the considerable work done in ethnography on the use of the poetic: anthropologists have long used poetry as a medium for expressing their sense of empathic connection to their field and their subjects, particularly in considering the creativity and meaning-making that characterise all human societies in different ways; • the particular rhetorical affordances of poetry, as a discipline, as a practice, as an art, as patterned breath; its capacity to shift phonemic, and therewith methodological, authority; its offering of redress to linear and reductive attempts at scripting social life, as always already given and without alternative