<p>Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1978</p> / digitalisering@umu

The Swedish curriculum for preschool (Lpfö 98, 2010, p. 5, 6, 9) emphasizes that teaching and learning should be made in a joyful and lustful manor. But it does not explicitly express how this should (or could) be conducted. One of my main motives with this paper is to examine one plausible interpretation how to combine joy and learning. Out of some theories that I have come across in the litterateur when studying to become a preschool teacher I decided to do a study for further examination, both theoretically and empirically. The theories that I based this study on are: radical aesthetics, Lev Vygotskijs theories on imagination and creativity, and theories concerning motivation and emotional attachment. My basic motives and questions are presented in the context that mathematical thinking is elemental for further intellectual development:  Is it beneficial to connect emotions and imagination with aesthetic experiences to help obtain mathematical understanding? Mathematics is abstract. So can abstract practices through aesthetics help to develop the abstract thinking required for mathematical development?  These questions led me to construct a methodology based on two separate methods to present geometry through tangram. The first I refer to as ordinary and formal, geometrical figures were plainly presented with their mathematical terms - this was used as a control. The other had the same terms as the previous, but also had the aesthetic elements of a saga to trigger emotion and ones imagination and fantasy. These were simultaneously used in a preschool on two groups of 4-5 year olds during a period of three weeks; this to see if any results could be made out of the difference of the two methods. Along with this I have also examined previous research and theories that address these subjects to see if connections could be made concerning my basic assumptions. Further the study also tries to interpret what defines aesthetics and if there is an interpretation that suits this study. I find that the results, both theoretically och empirically, shows that there is reason to further investigate these connections and methods. It appears to be some advantages with didactics from an aesthetic preset. The study is however way too small to show causal relations and it needs to be further developed for a more profound scientific evaluation and added accurate representation of the questions the study holds at hand.

The synthesis of type-enriched semiconducting or metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (sc/m-SWCNTs) with high quality by means of catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) are essential prerequisites for implementing of SWCNTs into nanodevices. In particular, the Fe−Co bimetallic catalysts system is promising due to its ability to grow SWCNTs by CCVD. However, there is still a gap in understanding how to adjust catalyst composition aiming further improvements in SWCNTs properties with respect to the electronic type. In particular, formation of well-defined nanoalloy of bimetallic catalysts during catalyst conditioning as well as its impact on SWCNTs growth are not clearly understood. Here we present a systematic investigation on effects of catalyst composition based on different Molar ratios of Fe:Co catalysts on the properties of CCVD grown SWCNTs using Raman spectroscopy. After CVD growth of SWCNTs on different molar ratios of Fe:Co, We find that by using molar ratio of Fe:Co=1:1.5, growth of SWNTs that are strongly dominated by two types of semiconducting tubes, the (7,5) and (12,1) tubes, can be achieved.

This thesis consists of two distinct parts. The first part, based on the first two accompanied papers, is in the field of topological phases of matter and the second part, based on the third accompanied paper, looks at a problem in the field of quantum graphs, a rapidly growing field of mathematical physics. First, we investigate the entanglement property of the Laughlin state by looking at the rank of the reduced density operator when particles are divided into two groups. We show that the problem of determining this rank translates itself into a  question about symmetric polynomials, namely, one has to determine the lower bound for the degree in each variable of the symmetric polynomials that vanish under a transformation that clusters the particles into groups of equal size and then brings the particles in each group together. Although we were not able to prove this, but we were able to determine the lower bound for the total degree of symmetric polynomials that vanish under the  transformation described. Moreover, we were able to characterize all symmetric polynomials that vanish under this transformation. In the second paper, we introduce a one-dimensional model of interacting su(2)k anyons. The specific feature of this model is that, through pairing terms present in the Hamiltonian,  the number of anyons of the chain can fluctuate. We also take into account the possibility that anyons hop to empty neighboring sites. We investigate the model in five different points of the parameter space. At one of these points, the Hamiltonian of the model becomes a sum of projectors and we determine the explicit form of all the zero-energy ground states for odd values of k. At the other four points, the system is integrable and we determine the behavior of the model at these integrable points. In particular, we show that the system is critical and determine the CFT describing the system at these points. It is known that there are non-Hermitian Hamiltonians whose spectra are entirely real. This property can be understood in terms of a certain symmetry of these Hamiltonians, known as PT-symmetry. It is also known that the spectrum of a non-Hermitian PT-symmetric Hamiltonian has reflection symmetry with respect to the real axis. We then ask the reverse question whether or not the reflection symmetry of a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian necessarily implies that the Hamiltonian is PT-symmetric. In the context of quantum graphs, we introduce a model for which the answer to this question is positive.

Den här uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur präster ser på asylsökande som konverterar till kristendom. Den ämnar även studera hur prästerna talar om de asylsökande, hur de ser på de asylsökandes aktörskap, om de förändrar eller reproducerar maktordningen de finns i samt hur de ser på sin egen roll i processen. Materialet är insamlat med semi-strukturerade intervjuer med sju präster från olika stift inom Svenska kyrkan. Undersökningen är gjord med hjälp av kritisk diskursanalys och teorin som använts har främst byggt på Edward Saids Orientalism. Bland de sju informanter som intervjuats finns det två tydliga grupperingar av inställningar. Fyra präster är tveksamma till att döpa asylsökande och tre är positiva. De tveksamma ger de asylsökande mindre agens, de reproducerar maktordningen där de själva är överst och de talar om de asylsökande som om de är utsatta och som att de behöver hjälp att fatta rätt beslut. De som uttrycker sig positivt till att döpa asylsökande ger de asylsökande agens, de förändrar till stor del maktordningen och de talar om de asylsökande som aktörer och individer.

Bakgrund Den svenska förskolan ska enligt läroplanen främja barns utveckling på många sätt. Ett sätt att utöka lärandet i verksamheten är att använda sig av pedagogiska måltider och på så vis implementera läroplanens olika delar även i måltidssituationerna. Syfte Att undersöka hur läroplanen integreras i förskoleverksamhetens måltidssituationer genom att utforska hur förskolepersonal arbetar och tänker kring den pedagogiska måltiden. Metod Fem intervjuer med förskolepersonal genomfördes i Umeå med hjälp av en semistrukturerad frågeguide. Intervjuerna spelades in och transkriberades ordagrant för att sedan analyseras med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat Den pedagogiska måltiden användes och olika pedagogiska strategier för detta beskrevs, som till exempel matematik med potatisar. På grund av tidsbrist var detta dock inte alltid möjligt att göra fullt ut i alla måltidssituationer och det var därför främst under luncherna som planerad pedagogisk verksamhet pågick. Huvudmålet var att främja barnens utveckling och inflytande genom att stötta dem att klara av måltidssituationerna så självständigt som möjligt. Barnens inflytande över sin måltid var viktigt, och än viktigare var det förhållningssätt som informanterna förmedlade till barnen. Inför barnen försökte informanterna hålla sina egna åsikter och tankarna om den mat som serverades, till exempel kvaliteteten, för sig själva. Slutsats Informanterna såg måltiderna som ett tillfälle för pedagogisk verksamhet och ett sätt att implementera läroplanens delar. Tidsbrist och andra yttre faktorer var saker som kunde påverka och minska den pedagogiska insatsen kring vissa måltider. Barnens inflytande över och delaktighet i måltidssituationerna var ett sätt att utöka barnens självständighet och förmåga att kunna själv. Den pedagogiska måltiden uppfattades som en naturlig del av verksamheten men även som ett område värt att utöka längre fram.

Carbon nanostructures have emerged as a key material in nanotechnology and continuously find new areas of applications. Particularly, they are attractive due to their excellent properties as support for catalyst nanostructures leading to highly efficient composite materials for various electrochemical applications. The interest in these structures is further increased by the possibility to alter their electronic and structural properties by various methods. Heteroatom doping of carbon nanostructures is one of the approaches which may induce intrinsic catalytic activity in these materials. In addition, such introduction of guest elements into the hexagonal carbon skeleton provides strong nucleation sites which facilitate the stabilization of nanostructures on their surface. In this thesis we present detailed studies on the nitrogen incorporation into carbon nanostructures, particularly carbon nanotubes and reduced graphene oxide. Due to the high impact of nitrogen configuration on the intrinsic electrocatalytic properties of carbon nanostructures, we investigated the nitrogen functionalities using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Based on our achievements we could assign the most electrocatalytic active nitrogen site in nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) for catalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) which is an important reaction in energy conversion systems such as fuel cells. We then used nitrogen-doped carbon nanostructures as a key component to manufacture hybrid material, where the nitrogen doped nanostructures has a role of both stabilizing the nanostructures and to work as conductive additive to assist the charge transfer from the other constituents suffering from inherently poor conductivity. Our hybrid material comprising transition metal oxides (Fe2O3 and Co3O4) anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon nanostructure were used to both manufacture an exotic type of graphene nanoscrolls, as well as studied and evaluated as an electrocatalyst in various electrochemical reactions. We show that the self-assembled electrodes exhibited better performance and higher stability compared to when the same material was loaded on common current collectors such as fluorine tin oxide (FTO) coated glass and glassy carbon electrode, with both higher current densities, more efficient charge transfer and lower overpotentials for oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions, the two important processes in a water splitting device. Our NCNTs-based electrodes showed further excellent performance in lithium ion batteries with high cyclability and capacity. The thesis gives insight into processes, materials, and methods that can be utilized to manufacture an efficient water splitting device, based on earth-abundant self-assembled materials. It further represents a significant advancement of the role of nitrogen in heteroatom-doped nanostructures, both regarding their intrinsic catalytic activity, as well as their role for stabilizing nanostructures.

No description available.

The theoretical studies of several magnetic materials are presented in this thesis. To each of them, it was investigated the electronic structure, by means of density functional theory calculations, and/or magnetization dynamics, in the context of atomistic spin dynamics (ASD).  For bulk properties, we evaluate the magnon spectra of the heavy rare earths (Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, and Tm), using the exchange parameters and magnetic moments from first-principles calculations in ASD simulations. Additionally, we performed Monte Carlo simulations that nicely reproduced the qualitative trend of lowering of the critical temperatures across the series. Next, we discuss about the microscopic mechanism of the vanishingly low magnetic anisotropy of Permalloy using the concept of the orbital moment anisotropy for Fe and Ni atoms in the alloy.  Turning to surface magnetism, we discuss the use of exchange parameters computed by a noncollinear formalism for 6 monolayers of Fe on the Ir(001) substrate, in order to have a more accurate description of magnons at finite temperature and to obtain good comparison with experimental data. Besides that, we also studied surface magnons on 3 and 9 Ni monolayers on Cu(001) and Cu(111) in order to track the significant surface and/or interface effects and contrast it to properties that are fcc Ni bulk-like. Likewise, we used the Monte Carlo method to estimate the critical temperatures of Ni surfaces and compared with experimental data.  Finally, in the field of low dimensional magnetism, we present the ab-initio calculations for the electronic structure of Cr nanostructures of diverse geometries adsorbed on the Pd(111) surface, with focus on the formation of non-collinear spin configurations, either due to geometric frustration or the spin-orbit coupling provided by the substrate.

Disorder in crystalline materials can take different forms and originate from different sources. In particular, temperature introduces disorder in any kind of material. This can be observed as the appearance of vacant lattice sites in an otherwise perfect crystal, or as a random distribution of different elements on the same lattice in an alloy; at the same time, if the material is magnetic, temperature induces disorder also on the magnetic degrees of freedom. In this thesis, different levels of disorder associated to structure and magnetism are investigated by means of density functional theory and thermodynamic models. I start with diffusion of Ti vacancies in TiN, which is studied by means of nonequilibrium ab initio molecular dynamics using the color diffusion algorithm at different temperatures. The result is an Arrhenius behavior of Ti vacancy jump rates. A method to perform structural relaxations in magnetic materials in their hightemperature paramagnetic phase is then developed based on the disordered local moments approach in order to study vacancies, interstitial atoms, and combinations of defects in paramagnetic bcc Fe and B1 CrN, as well as the mixing enthalpy of bcc Fe1−xCrx random alloys. A correction to the energetics of every system due to the relaxation in the disordered magnetic state is observed in all cases. Not related to temperature and disorder, but very important for an accurate description of magnetic materials, is the choice of the exchange and correlation functional to be employed in the first principles calculations. We have investigated the performance of a recently developed meta-GGA functional, the strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) functional, in comparison with the more commonly used LDA and PBE on the ferromagnetic elemental solids bcc Fe, fcc Ni, and hcp Co, and SCAN it is found to give negligible improvements, if not a worsening, in the description of these materials. Finally, the coupling between vibrational and magnetic degrees of freedom is discussed by reviewing the literature and proposing an investigation of the influence of vibrations on longitudinal spin fluctuations. These excitations are here studied by means of thermodynamic models based on Landau expansion of the energy in even powers of the magnitude of the local magnetic moments. We find that vibrational and magnetic disorder alter the energy landscapes as a function of moment size also in bcc Fe, which is often considered a Heisenberg system, inducing a more itinerant electron behavior.