abstract: Because of their favorable ionic and/or electronic conductivity, non-stoichiometric oxides are utilized for energy storage, energy conversion, sensing, catalysis, gas separation, and information technologies, both potential and commercialized. Charge transport in these materials is influenced strongly by grain boundaries, which exhibit fluctuations in composition, chemistry and atomic structure within Ångstroms or nanometers. Here, studies are presented that elucidate the interplay between macroscopic electrical conductivity, microscopic character, and local composition and electronic structure of grain boundaries in polycrystalline ceria-based (CeO2) solid solutions. AC impedance spectroscopy is employed to measure macroscopic electrical conductivity of grain boundaries, and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in the aberration-correction scanning transmission electron microscope (AC-STEM) is used to quantify local composition and electronic structure. Electron diffraction orientation imaging microscopy is employed to assess microscopic grain boundary character, and links these macro- and nanoscopic techniques across length scales. A model system, CaxCe1-xO2-x-δ, is used to systematically investigate relationships between nominal Ca2+ concentration, grain boundary ionic conductivity, microscale character, and local solute concentration. Grain boundary conductivity varied by several orders of magnitude over the composition range, and assessment of grain boundary character highlighted the critical influence of local composition on conductivity. Ceria containing Gd3+ and Pr3+/4+ was also investigated following previous theoretical work predicting superior ionic conductivity relative to state-of-the-art GdxCe1-xO2-x/2-δ. The grain boundary conductivity was nearly 100 times greater than expected and a factor four enrichment of Pr concentration was observed at the grain boundary, which suggested electronic conduction that was cited as the origin of the enhanced conductivity. This finding inspired the development of two EELS-based experimental approaches to elucidate the effect of Pr enrichment on grain boundary conductivity. One employed ultra-high energy resolution (~10 meV) monochromated EELS to characterize Pr inter-bandgap electronic states. Alternatively, STEM nanodiffraction orientation imaging coupled with AC-STEM EELS was employed to estimate the composition of the entire grain boundary population in a polycrystalline material. These compositional data were the input to a thermodynamic model used to predict electrical properties of the grain boundary population. These results suggest improved DC ionic conduction and enhanced electronic conduction under AC conditions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Materials Science and Engineering 2016

Orientador: Jose Marcos Pinto da Cunha / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T01:26:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rippel_Ricardo_D.pdf: 4797986 bytes, checksum: bf1e2d38422bc66268946db82b73370b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: O desenvolvimento de uma região de modo geral se vincula à dinâmica populacional e à organização do capital; que transformam as condições ¿ambientais locais¿, moldando-as segundo seu interesse. Como o deslocamento de pessoas e de investimentos para uma área determinada está relacionado com o comportamento da economia e com o processo de inserção e unificação dos mercados das regiões, a análise da relação migração e desenvolvimento é relevante. O Oeste do Paraná é o objeto de pesquisa por conjugar uma situação na qual o seu desenvolvimento deuse conectado com a migração na área. De formação socioeconômica recente, a região inseriu-se no modelo de desenvolvimento nacional de ocupação de fronteiras e no processo de transnacionalização do capital agrícola. Embora na etapa de ocupação de seu território tenha atraído grande leva de imigrantes, seu desenvolvimento inverteu este processo, tornando a área um lugar de elevada evasão populacional, em curto espaço de tempo. De modo que ao estudo interessa aferir os níveis de interferência das migrações no desenvolvimento da área e vice-versa. Para analisar este processo, foram utilizados dados censitários de diferentes escalas espaciais, abrangendo os níveis interestaduais, intra-estadual e intra-regional / Abstract: The development of an area is linked in general to the population dynamics and to the organization of the capital that transform the "local environmental" conditions, molding them according to its interest. As people¿s displacement and investments in a determined area is related to the behavior of the economy and to the insertion process and unification of the markets of the region it is relevant to analyze the relationship between migration and development. In this study, the West of Paraná state is the research object due to the conjugation of a situation in which the development is connected to the migration in the area. As a result of recent socioeconomic formation, this area was inserted in the model of national development of occupation of borders and in the process of transnationalization of the agricultural capital. Although in the period of occupation the territory has attracted a great amount of immigrants, its development inverted this process transforming the area into a place of high population escape, in a short space of time. Thus, the aim is to check the levels of interference of the migrations in the development of the area and vice-versa. In the analysis of this process, census data of different space scales were used, including the following levels: interstate, intra-state and intra-regional / Doutorado / Demografia / Doutor em Demografia

Dentre os representantes de Campanulariidae, o gênero Orthopyxis é conhecido pela ampla plasticidade morfológica de suas espécies, bem como pela semelhança com o gênero Campanularia. Essas características levaram à descrição de muitas espécies nominais no Atlântico sul-ocidental e confusões com o gênero Campanularia, dificultando a identificação das espécies. Nesse contexto, este estudo teve os objetivos de (1) rever as ocorrências de Orthopyxis no Atlântico sul-ocidental, (2) compreender a variação morfológica intra-específica de Orthopyxis e delimitar suas espécies por meio de estudo morfométrico e molecular, e (3) compreender as relações entre os gêneros Orthopyxis e Campanularia no Atlântico sul-ocidental, levantando evidências morfológicas e moleculares que pudessem delimitá-los. A análise das sequências de DNA resultou no monofiletismo do gênero Orthopyxis e na delimitação das espécies O. sargassicola, O. integra e O. crenata, esta última um novo registro para o Atlântico sul-ocidental. As análises morfológicas permitiram identificar os caracteres informativos para a delimitação dessas linhagens, bem como a amplitude de variação dos caracteres morfológicos frequentemente utilizados para diagnose das espécies de Orthopyxis. Esse estudo aponta evidências morfológicas informativas para a delimitação dos gêneros, principalmente em relação ao cnidoma. O presente estudo do gênero Orthopyxis no Atlântico sul-ocidental poderá servir como modelo para o delineamento de outras pesquisas envolvendo a família Campanulariidae, ao mostrar que as espécies podem ser corretamente delimitadas a partir de análises morfológicas e moleculares. / Within the Campanulariidae, the genus Orthopyxis is known for its morphological plasticity and resemblance with the genus Campanularia. These characteristics have led to the description of numerous nominal species in the southwestern Atlantic, and also to considerable confusion with the genus Campanularia, making taxonomic identification very difficult. In this context, the goal of this study was to (1) review the occurrences of Orthopyxis in the southwestern Atlantic, (2) understand its intraspecific morphological variation and delimit species using morphological and molecular data, and (3) investigate the relationships between Orthopyxis and Campanularia to find morphological and molecular evidence for their delimitation. The molecular analyses resulted in a monophyletic Orthopyxis, and in the delimitation of O. sargassicola, O. integra, and O. crenata, the latter a new record for the southwestern Atlantic. The morphological analyses identified the characters that are most informative for the delimitation of these lineages, as well as the amplitude of morphological variation within the characters frequently used in the taxonomy of Orthopyxis.This study identified some morphological evidence for the delimitation of both genera, especially in relation to the cnidae. The present study of the genus Orthopyxis in the southwestern Atlantic can be used as a model for the delineation of future investigations of the family Campanulariidae, in the sense that species may be successfully delimited with an integrated morphological and molecular approach.

‘The non-dialectical mean between which extremes are suspended constitutes something like an interface, which is the condition of the possibility and impossibility of seemingly seamless systems and structures. When radically conceived, this interface extends beyond every margin of difference to ‘contaminate’ opposites that once seemed fixed.’ (Taylor 1997: 269) The site is positioned at the juxtaposition of: poor opposite rich, inviting opposite closed, dense urban fabric opposite sprawling suburban, exclusive opposite inclusive. Therefore the question arise: when dealing with an island placed amidst these contradictions, how do you include and acknowledge all? By providing for the one inevitably leads to the exclusion of the other, yet again reinforcing the legacy apartheid left South African urban environments. Therefore, the search for the INbetween informs the merging of these realms by means of a public park and recreational youth facility at the juxtaposition of these contrasting realms. The merge creates a dynamic tension between public / private, rich / poor, active / contemplative, movement / rest and inside / outside which informs the design philosophy. The architecture investigates the fading of boundaries. The design problem is a youth facility with recreational, educational and counselling functions, for youth living within the inner city area of Hillbrow, Houghton, Berea and Parktown. It is part of the City of Johannesburg’s Child Friendly City Initiative (CFCI) and will be managed by Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) operating in the area. Therefore, the centre will be a facility of which youth can take ownership of. A platform for ‘accidental’ interaction between the people from these different communities. The centre needs to provide opportunities and facilities that would entice, intrigue and motivate in order to resist the attraction of street life and drugs, through the provision of recreational activities, entertainment, educational facilities in the form of skills and entrepreneurial training, counseling and medical assistance. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Architecture / unrestricted

This qualitative study explores how roles are constructed within interprofessional health care teams. It focuses on elucidating the different types of role boundaries, the influences on role construction and the implications for professionals and patients. A comparative case study was conducted with two interprofessional primary health care teams. The data collection included a total of 26 interviews (13 with each team) and non-participant observations of team meetings (2-3 meetings at each site). Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data and a model was developed to represent the emergent findings. The role boundaries are organized around interprofessional interactions (autonomous-collaborative boundaries) and the distribution of tasks (interchangeable-differentiated boundaries). Salient influences are categorized as structural, interpersonal and individual dynamics. The implications of role construction include professional satisfaction and more favourable wait times for patients. The elements in this conceptual model may be transferable to other interprofessional primary health care teams. It may benefit these teams by raising awareness of the potential impact of various within-team influences on role construction.

The trustworthiness of the blood pressure (BP) readings acquired by oscillometric home-based monitoring systems is a challenging issue that requires patients to see the doctor for trusted measurements, especially those who are obese or have cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension or atrial fibrillation. Even with the most accurate monitors one may get different readings if BP is repeatedly measured. Trusted BP readings are those measured with accurate devices at proper measurement conditions. The accurate monitors need an indicator to assure the trustworthiness of the measured BP. In this work, a novel algorithm called the Dynamic Threshold Algorithm (DTA) is proposed that calculates trusted boundaries of the measured systolic and diastolic pressures from the recorded oscillometric waveforms. The DTA determines a threshold from the heart rate of subjects to locate the oscillometric pulse at the mean arterial pressure (PULSEMAP) and uses the peak, trough, and pressure of the located pulse to calculate the trusted boundaries. In terms of accuracy, a modeling approach is employed to estimate BP from the arterial lumen area oscillations model in the diastolic region (ALA-based). The model requires compliance parameter ‘c’ to estimate BP. To this end, a pre-developed linear regression model between ‘c’ and the corresponding amplitude ratio of the PULSEMAP is employed to evaluate ‘c’. The proposed method uses ‘c’ and estimates BP by minimizing differences between peak and trough amplitudes of the actual and corresponding simulated waveforms. The proposed DTA and ALA-based methods were tested on two datasets of healthy subjects and one dataset of sick subjects with cardiovascular diseases, and results were validated against corresponding references and compared with two popular maximum amplitude and maximum/minimum slope algorithms. Mean absolute error (MAE) and standard deviation of errors (STDE) are used to evaluate and compare the results. For healthy subjects, the MAE of the estimated systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressures was improved up to 57% and 57% with an STDE of 55% and 62%, respectively. For sick subjects, the MAE was improved up to 40% and 29% with an STDE of 36% and 20% for SBP and DBP, respectively.

Honour culture is a constructed social problem and can be defined on the basis of several different ideas. The phenomenon of honour culture is complex and multidimensional and from a constructivist perspective, the concept of honour culture leads up to unwarranted fears and stigmatization of people living with honour norms. This qualitative study shows how several young boys and girls live with a culture of honour without feeling oppressed or limited. The purpose was to use the survey to shed light on how young people think about their opportunities in life in a context of honour. Although they expressed several rules that entailed limits and prohibitions, they meant that it was not something they perceived as problematic. There are extensive studies about violence, oppression and murder that are linked to the honour context. It shows that the strong family bond that characterizes the honour culture is based on the fears that young people have of their parents. They fear the consequences of breaking the norms of honour but also for disappointing their parents. Based on this study, it appears that young people have good opportunities to shape their own lives, but the respondents accentuate that the parents and the relationship with them are both important and meaningful. The parents’ desire and will for how they should live their lives weighed just as heavily as their own will, and so they were willing to compromise in order to please the parents. The reason, according to the respondents, was the high level of trust they had in their parents.

Female adolescents who engage in sexually abusive behaviors are an understudied population not well represented in the broader literature describing persons who have committed sexual offenses. Much of what is known related to etiology and important predictors of sexual crime is drawn from adult and male populations. However, there are potential differences that may have implications for prevention and treatment. For example, factors like offense characteristics and sexual boundaries in the home vary among male and female juveniles who sexually offend. By analyzing differences and patterns in sexual offending behaviors at younger ages, we can expand upon knowledge for future offense prevention among similar individuals. In the current study, we examined characteristics of a sample of five female adolescents receiving outpatient treatment for sexually abusive behaviors in comparison with empirical findings related to adult female sexual offenders and a sample of male adolescents receiving residential treatment for sexually abusive behavior. We hypothesized that females in the sample will evidence a history of poorer sexual boundaries in the home and a greater likelihood of sexual abuse victimization than males. We also predicted that females in the sample would have younger, more male, and fewer stranger sexual abuse victims than the males in the sample. Data are archival in nature and were obtained from an adolescent facility providing residential and outpatient sex offender treatment services. Variables related to offense characteristics include those describing frequency and onset of offending, offense types, and victim features. For sexual boundaries in the home, we examined a range of variables describing sexual abuse, sexual behaviors, and pornography use/exposure within the youth’s home of origin. While our sample of female adolescents who have engaged in sexually abusive behavior is small, such information can move us closer to understanding important contributors to the perpetration of sexual violence in this unique population. The first hypothesis on sexual boundaries in the home was supported. We found that all females in the sample experienced poor sexual boundaries in the home, compared to approximately 68% of males. Similarly, all females reported sexual abuse victimization and 61% of males reported sexual abuse victimization. The second hypothesis on crime characteristics was supported. Victim characteristics varied between genders, with all victims of females who engaged in sexually abusive behaviors being between the ages of 5 and 9. Male victims varied between ages 0 and 30, with most falling between ages 5 and 9. Approximately 80% of females had offended against a male while about 60% of the males had offended against a male. No females offended against a stranger, though approximately 5% of males did.

Title: To belong or not? - A qualitative study about agencies employees organizational boundaries.    The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship that agencies employees have with boundaries at their customer company. This was investigated based on the degree of which the agencies employees were confronted by organizational boundaries, what these boundaries could depend on and how the agencies employees reacted on this. The methodological choice resulted in eight semi-structured interviews. Where the interview group consisted of current and former agencies employees as well as both women and men. The theoretical framework that we used to answer our purpose is Organizational boundaries, Exit - voice and loyalty and the Stranger.   The results of the study showed that agencies employees could perceive the organizational boundaries in different ways and that they also could be affected by them in varying degrees. The level of organizational boundaries has proven to be based to some extent by the selection of the industry for the agency employee. In addition to this it also has an effect why the customer companies chose to take in agencies employees and finally for how long time an agencies employee has been at their respective customer company. The borders also seem to depend on why the agencies employees choose to be an agency employee. Interviewees who aimed to be employed by the client company tried to become part of that company and to exceed the limits that they were faced with. This in contrast to other interviewees that did not have the same goals and therefore could accept their position in relation to organizational boundaries and settle as a "stranger". Finally, the person's own actions in the form of commitment and indifference could also affect whether the organizational boundaries remained or were blurred.

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