In this thesis, in order to study the structural, optical and electrical transport properties of Tl2In2S3Se, TlInSeS and Tl2In2SSe3 crystals, X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopic analysis (EDSA), transmission, reflection, photoluminescence (PL), thermally stimulated current (TSC) and photoconductivity decay (PC) measurements were carried out. Lattice parameters and atomic composition of these crystals were determined from XRD and EDSA experiments, respectively. By the help of transmission and reflection experiments, the room temperature absorption data were analyzed and it was revealed the coexistence of indirect and direct band gap energies of the studied crystals. Moreover, the refractive index dispersion parameters - oscillator energies, dispersion energies, oscillator strengths, oscillator wavelengths and zero-frequency refractive indexes were determined. Temperature-dependent transmission measurements made it possible to find the rate of change of indirect band gaps with temperature, absolute zero values of the band gap energies and Debye temperatures of these crystals. From the analysis of the transmission and reflection measurements, it was established that, there is a decrease in the values of indirect and direct band gaps energies and an increase in zero-frequency refractive indexes with increasing of selenium content. PL measurements were carried out to obtain the detailed information about recombination levels in crystals studied. The behavior of PL spectra were investigated as a function of laser excitation intensity and temperature. The variation of the spectra with laser excitation intensity and temperature suggested that the observed emission bands in these crystals were due to the donor-acceptor pair recombination. TSC measurements were carried out with various heating rates at different illumination temperatures to obtain information about trap levels in these crystals. The mean activation energies, attempt-to-escape frequencies, concentrations and capture cross sections of the traps were determined as a result of TSC spectra analysis. The analysis of experimental TSC curves registered at different light illumination temperatures revealed the exponential trap distribution in the studied crystals. From the analysis of PC measurements, carrier lifetimes were obtained.

Silicon is the most important semiconducting material for optoelectronics owing to its suitable and tunable physical properties. Even though there are several alternatives, silicon based solar cells are still the most widely produced and commercially feasible system. Extensive efforts have been spent in order to increase the efficiency and decrease the cost of these systems. The studies that do not focus on replacement of the semiconducting material, mostly concentrate on the developments that could be brought by nanotechnological approaches. In this aspect, utilization of silicon nanowires has been predicted to improve the efficiency of the silicon based solar cell technology. Moreover, besides solar cells, silicon nanowires have been investigated for many other electronic systems such as thermoelectrics, light emitting diodes, biological/chemical sensors, photodetectors and lithium ion v batteries. Therefore, production of silicon nanowires through a cost-effective and well controlled method could make important contributions to many fields. In this thesis, electroless etching method, which is a novel and solution based method enabling vertically aligned silicon nanowire array fabrication over large areas, is investigated. A detailed parametric study resulting in a full control over the resultant nanowire morphology is provided. The parameters affecting the structure have been determined as etching time, solution temperature, solution concentration, pressure and starting wafer characteristics. The results show that electroless etching method could replace the conventional silicon nanowire fabrication methods. It was shown that specific nanowire lengths for any application, can be obtained simply by adjusting the parameters of electroless etching system. One of the most crucial features of vertically aligned silicon nanowire arrays is their remarkable antireflective properties. The optical reflectivity measurements showed that 42% reflectivity of pristine polished silicon wafer decreases down to 1% following fabrication of silicon nanowire arrays on their surface. This unique characteristic reveals that these nanowires could be used as antireflective surfaces in solar cells. Moreover, it was determined that p-n heterojunctions that are formed by silicon nanowires, namely radial heterojunctions, would yield higher efficiencies compared to planar heterojunctions because of the dramatic increase in the charge carrier collection efficiency and orthogonal photon absorption. On this subject, n-type silicon nanowire arrays were fabricated by electroless etching followed by drop casting Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) organic layer on these nanowires as the complementary layer, forming the radial heterojunction. The energy conversion efficiency of silicon nanowire / PEDOT: PSS device was found as 5.30%, while planar silicon / PEDOT: PSS control device displayed only 0.62% efficiency. Developments and optimizations in both the electroless etching method and solar cell models could lead to important developments in photovoltaic industry.

In this thesis, land surface emissivity variations are examined with respect to the land surface type, wavelength, and time (season and month) for the seven selected regions in Turkey using MODIS emissivity database and precipitation amount. Investigating land surface emissivity variations are important in many applications and it is known that studies about these variations are done for many regions except Turkey. This study is prior knowledge for Turkey to be used in infrared (IR) background models, surface radiation budget calculations, and land cover type classifications specific for Turkey. The results indicate that precipitation has a great influence on monthly/seasonal emissivity values depending on the land cover type and causes spectral emissivity variations. As a result, we determined appropriate IR wavelengths for the investigation of the seasonal emissivity variations and seasonal factors causing emissivity variations according to the land cover types.

In dieser Diplomarbeit wird eine Beziehungsstruktur von Konstrukten erarbeitet und empirisch geprüft, die den grundsätzlichen und insbesondere den differenzierten Einfluss von Vertrauen auf die Zufriedenheit mit einem spezifischen Kontakt zwischen Bürger und Behörde abbildet.

Verbundprojekt "Entwicklung einer Systemlösung für die Schulen der Stadt Chemnitz zur Unterstützung des fachübergreifenden Einsatzes neuer Medien" (SyS-C) Förderkennzeichen: 01NM254B Laufzeit des Vorhabens: 01.06.2004 bis 31.05.2007 Durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung und den Europäischen Sozialfonds gefördertes Projekt Abstract: Mit dem Projekt SyS-C hat die Stadt Chemnitz eine zentrale Systemlösung für alle Chemnitzer Schulen geschaffen, die diesen eine zeitgemäße IT-Lösung zu bezahlbaren Kosten zur Verfügung stellt. Die Lösung entlastet die Lehrenden von administrativen Aufgaben, ist einfach zu bedienen und macht so für die Lehrkräfte die Nutzung der neuen Medien dauerhaft und mit hoher Verlässlichkeit möglich. Die Lösung besteht aus einer Schulserver-Software, die speziell die Anforderungen des schulischen Alltags berücksichtigt, für alle Schulformen geeignet ist, plattformunabhängig Client-Systeme unterstützt und zentral administriert werden kann. Auf dieser Basis werden alle Schulen über VPN-Verbindungen mit dem in Chemnitz aufgebauten Schulrechenzentrum verbunden. Dieses Intranet ist die Basis der zentralen Administration. Das Dokument beschreibt den technischen Aufbau der Systemlösung und speziell den Aufbau des Schulrechenzentrums. Es wird die Netztopologie beschrieben und die einzelnen Komponenten im Schulrechenzentrum werden erläutert. Weiterhin wird auf Ausfallszenarien eingegangen.

Verbundprojekt "Entwicklung einer Systemlösung für die Schulen der Stadt Chemnitz zur Unterstützung des fachübergreifenden Einsatzes neuer Medien" (SyS-C) Förderkennzeichen: 01NM254B Laufzeit des Vorhabens: 01.06.2004 bis 31.05.2007 Durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung und den Europäischen Sozialfonds gefördertes Projekt Abstract: Mit dem Projekt SyS-C hat die Stadt Chemnitz eine zentrale Systemlösung für alle Chemnitzer Schulen geschaffen, die diesen eine zeitgemäße IT-Lösung zu bezahlbaren Kosten zur Verfügung stellt. Die Lösung entlastet die Lehrenden von administrativen Aufgaben, ist einfach zu bedienen und macht so für die Lehrkräfte die Nutzung der neuen Medien dauerhaft und mit hoher Verlässlichkeit möglich. Die Lösung besteht aus einer Schulserver-Software, die speziell die Anforderungen des schulischen Alltags berücksichtigt, für alle Schulformen geeignet ist, plattformunabhängig Client-Systeme unterstützt und zentral administriert werden kann. Auf dieser Basis werden alle Schulen über VPN-Verbindungen mit dem in Chemnitz aufgebauten Schulrechenzentrum verbunden. Dieses Intranet ist die Basis der zentralen Administration. Die Arbeit bewertet die geltenden rechtlichen Vorschriften für die Barrierefreiheit. Speziell werden Vorgaben für den Einsatz von Informationstechnik betrachtet.

Verbundprojekt "Entwicklung einer Systemlösung für die Schulen der Stadt Chemnitz zur Unterstützung des fachübergreifenden Einsatzes neuer Medien" (SyS-C) Förderkennzeichen: 01NM254B Laufzeit des Vorhabens: 01.06.2004 bis 31.05.2007 Durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung und den Europäischen Sozialfonds gefördertes Projekt Abstract: Mit dem Projekt SyS-C hat die Stadt Chemnitz eine zentrale Systemlösung für alle Chemnitzer Schulen geschaffen, die diesen eine zeitgemäße IT-Lösung zu bezahlbaren Kosten zur Verfügung stellt. Die Lösung entlastet die Lehrenden von administrativen Aufgaben, ist einfach zu bedienen und macht so für die Lehrkräfte die Nutzung der neuen Medien dauerhaft und mit hoher Verlässlichkeit möglich. Die Lösung besteht aus einer Schulserver-Software, die speziell die Anforderungen des schulischen Alltags berücksichtigt, für alle Schulformen geeignet ist, plattformunabhängig Client-Systeme unterstützt und zentral administriert werden kann. Auf dieser Basis werden alle Schulen über VPN-Verbindungen mit dem in Chemnitz aufgebauten Schulrechenzentrum verbunden. Dieses Intranet ist die Basis der zentralen Administration. Die Arbeit untersucht verschiedene Architekturen und Lösungen für den Aufbau von Schulnetzen. Die im Projekt SyS-C eingesetzte Software wird dabei besonders berücksichtigt. Es werden Vorschläge für die Verbesserung und Weiterentwicklung der Software gemacht.

The existing literature concerning the impact of cross-border merger activity on domestic wages can be split into two camps: 1) those focusing on positive 'spillover' effects; 2) those focusing on negative 'bargaining' effects. Motivated in part by the lack of scholarship spanning these two literatures, we provide a theoretical model that nests these two mechanisms in one conceptual framework. From our theoretical model we are able to predict that 'spillover' effects tend to be more dominant under low unionization rates, while 'bargaining' effects tend to be more dominant under high unionization rates; furthermore, 'spillover' effects tend to be more dominant with inward cross-border mergers, while 'bargaining' effects tend to be more dominant with outward cross-border mergers. We employ comprehensive panel data on wages, unionization and merger activity for US industry sectors over the 1986-2001 period in order to test the impact of cross-border merger activity on domestic wages. We find support for our propositions in that higher unionization rates make it more likely that cross-border mergers generate wage decreases, while outward cross-border mergers more likely involve wage decreases than do inward cross-border mergers. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Using income and other individual data from EU-SILC for Germany and Austria, we analyze wage discrimination for three break-ups: gender, sector of employment, and country of origin. Using the method of Machado and Mata [2005] the discrimination over the whole range of the wage distribution is estimated. Significance of results is checked via confidence interval estimates along the lines of Melly [2006]. To narrow down the extent of discrimination both basic decomposition possibilities are compared. The economies of Germany and Austria appear structurally very similar. Especially the institutional setting of the labor markets seem to be closely comparable. One would, therefore, expect to find similar levels and structures of wage discrimination. Our findings deviate from this conjecture significantly. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The experimental setup which consisted of the Jarrell-Ash Ebert type scanning monochromator, the Hamamatsu Si PIN Photodiode, a PC connected ADC card and a Tungstenstriplamp operated at different temperatures was assembled. The different parts needing calibration were calibrated with spectral response calibration techniques suitable for our purposes and connected to the experimental setup in a proper way. Spectral response calibrations and transmission measurements in the range 450-800 nm were carried out.