The necessity for clean and sustainable energy has shifted the energy sector’s interest in renewable energy sources. Photovoltaics (PV) is the most popular renewable energy source because the sun is ubiquitous. However, several discrepancies exist in a PV system when implemented for real-world applications. Among several other existing problems related to Photovoltaics, in this work, we deal with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) under Partial Shading (PS) conditions. MPPT is a mechanism formulated as an optimization problem adjusting the PV to deliver the maximum power to the load. Under full insolation conditions, varying solar panel temperatures, and different loads MPPT problem is a convex optimization problem. However, when the PV’s surface is partially shaded, multiple power peaks are created in the power versus voltage (P-V) curve making MPPT non-convex.

Die deutschsprachige Minderheit ist aus der Kolonisierung Namibias als „Deutsch Südwest-Afrika“ hervorgegangen. Umfangreiche schriftliche und mündliche Kompetenzen in Deutsch, Englisch und Afrikaans sind üblich. Trotz des Einflusses der Kontaktsprachen gilt das namibische Deutsch im Vergleich zu anderen extraterritorialen Varietäten als standardnah. Meine Dissertation geht mit zwei Studien der Forschungsfrage nach: „Welche soziale Ordnung regiert die mehrsprachige Praxis und sprachliche Variation im Deutschen der deutschsprachigen Minderheit in Namibia?“ Die Selbstangaben der Teilnehmer*innen in der quantitative Fragebogenstudie zeigen eine für eine Minderheit erwartbare Ordnung mit starkem Gebrauch von Deutsch innerhalb der Gemeinschaft und der Verkehrssprachen Englisch und Afrikaans eher mit externen Kontakten. Trotz der Dominanz des Deutschen in der Familie sind auch Englisch und Afrikaans unter anderem durch gemischtsprachige Elternhäuser präsent. Zentraler Teil der Dissertation ist die explorativ-qualitative Diskursanalyse über die Wahrnehmung von Deutsch, Englisch, Afrikaans und der weiteren namibischen Kontaktsprachen Otjiherero, Oshivambo und Nama/Damara. Zentral in der Perzeption der Sprachformen des Deutschen ist eine ideologische Aushandlung zwischen „Reinheit“ und „Vermischung“ durch Entlehnungen. So ist die kontaktgeprägte Variante des Deutschen das distinktive Kennzeichen einer Identifikation als Namibianer*innen gegenüber den Deutschlanddeutschen. Die für die Zugehörigkeit zu Namibia stehende „Vermischung“ des Deutschen mit den Kontaktsprachen geht aber auch mit Befürchtungen eines vermeintlichen Sprachverlusts einher, dem mit einem ideologischen Regime der sprachlichen „Reinheit“ begegnet wird. Dies soll letztlich den Spracherhalt und damit Fortbestand der Minderheit garantieren. / The German-speaking minority emerged from the colonization of Namibia as "German Southwest Africa." Written and oral proficiency in German, English and Afrikaans is common. Despite the influence of contact languages, Namibian German is considered close to standard in comparison to other extraterritorial varieties. My dissertation applied two studies to address the research question: "What social order governs multilingual practice and linguistic variation in German among the German-speaking minority in Namibia?" The self-reports of the participants in the quantitative questionnaire study show an expected order for a minority with a strong use of German within the community and with external contacts more often the lingua franca English and Afrikaans. Despite the dominance of German within the family, English and Afrikaans are also present, especially through mixed-language parental homes. The central part of the dissertation is the exploratory qualitative discourse analysis on the perception of German, English, Afrikaans and the other Namibian contact languages Otjiherero, Oshivambo and Nama/Damara. Central to the perception of German language forms is an ideological negotiation between "purity" and "mixing" through lexical borrowing. Thus, the contact variety of German is the distinctive marker of identification as Namibians vis-à-vis Germany-Germans. However, the "mixing" of German with the contact languages, which stands for belonging to Namibia, is also accompanied by fears of a supposed loss of language, which is countered with an ideological regime of linguistic "purity". This is ultimately supposed to guarantee language preservation and continued existence of the minority.

Thema der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Untersuchung ausgewählter niederdimensionaler Schichtgittersysteme, wobei das Hauptinteresse in der Erforschung der elektronischen Struktur im Zusammenhang mit Interkalationsexperimenten liegt. Einkristalline Graphit-, TiSe2- und TaSe2-Proben wurden vor und nach der Interkalation mit winkelaufgelöster Photoemission, Fermi- und Isoenergieflächenmessungen und Elektronenbeugung (LEED) analysiert. Als Interkalationsmaterialien wurden U, Eu, Gd und Cs verwendet. Die experimentellen Daten wurden mit Ergebnissen von LDA-LCAO-Bandstrukturrechnungen und Simulationen im Rahmen eines Single-Impurity-Anderson-Modells verglichen. Neben dem Einfluß unterschiedlicher Valenzelektronen der interkalierten Atome auf den Einlagerungsprozeß werden Fragen zum Lokalisierungsverhalten von 4f- und 5f-Zuständen und zu den Veränderungen in der Dimensionalität der Verbindungen durch die Einlagerung diskutiert. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit befaßt sich mit Untersuchungen zur temperaturabhängigen Ausbildung von Ladungsdichtewellen in 1T-TaSe2. / Subject of the present thesis are investigations of selected low-dimensional layered lattice systems, with the principal goal to study the electronic structure in relation to intercalation experiments. Single-crystalline graphite-, TiSe2 - and TaSe2- samples were analyzed by angle-resolved photoemission, Fermi- and isoenergy-surface measurements, and low energy electron diffraction experiments before and after intercalation. U, Eu, Gd, and Cs were used as materials for the intercalation process. The experimental results were compared with theoretical LDA-LCAO band-structure calculations and with simulations in the framework of a single-impurity Anderson model. In addition to the influence of different numbers of valence electrons from intercalated atoms, questions concerning the localization of 4f and 5f states and changes in the dimensionality of the compounds due to the intercalation process are discussed. Investigations of the temperature dependent formation of charge density waves in 1T-TaSe2 complete this work.

No description available.

Thema der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Untersuchung ausgewählter niederdimensionaler Schichtgittersysteme, wobei das Hauptinteresse in der Erforschung der elektronischen Struktur im Zusammenhang mit Interkalationsexperimenten liegt. Einkristalline Graphit-, TiSe2- und TaSe2-Proben wurden vor und nach der Interkalation mit winkelaufgelöster Photoemission, Fermi- und Isoenergieflächenmessungen und Elektronenbeugung (LEED) analysiert. Als Interkalationsmaterialien wurden U, Eu, Gd und Cs verwendet. Die experimentellen Daten wurden mit Ergebnissen von LDA-LCAO-Bandstrukturrechnungen und Simulationen im Rahmen eines Single-Impurity-Anderson-Modells verglichen. Neben dem Einfluß unterschiedlicher Valenzelektronen der interkalierten Atome auf den Einlagerungsprozeß werden Fragen zum Lokalisierungsverhalten von 4f- und 5f-Zuständen und zu den Veränderungen in der Dimensionalität der Verbindungen durch die Einlagerung diskutiert. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit befaßt sich mit Untersuchungen zur temperaturabhängigen Ausbildung von Ladungsdichtewellen in 1T-TaSe2. / Subject of the present thesis are investigations of selected low-dimensional layered lattice systems, with the principal goal to study the electronic structure in relation to intercalation experiments. Single-crystalline graphite-, TiSe2 - and TaSe2- samples were analyzed by angle-resolved photoemission, Fermi- and isoenergy-surface measurements, and low energy electron diffraction experiments before and after intercalation. U, Eu, Gd, and Cs were used as materials for the intercalation process. The experimental results were compared with theoretical LDA-LCAO band-structure calculations and with simulations in the framework of a single-impurity Anderson model. In addition to the influence of different numbers of valence electrons from intercalated atoms, questions concerning the localization of 4f and 5f states and changes in the dimensionality of the compounds due to the intercalation process are discussed. Investigations of the temperature dependent formation of charge density waves in 1T-TaSe2 complete this work.

實驗設計中，我們假設在區塊中存在一趨勢效應(trend effect)。此趨勢效應影響觀察值，也影響我們對區塊效應(block effect)和處理效應(treatment effect)的估計。此種設計模式不同於一般的區塊設計模式，因此須將趨勢效應加人設計模式中。 　　Bradley and Yeh (1980)研究和討論此種趨勢效應在區塊設計模式中之影響，並定義出無趨勢設計(trend-free design)。所謂無趨勢設計，乃是在區塊設計模式中，趨勢效應被抵消不影響處理效應之分析。Bradley and Yeh (1983)推導了一個線性無趨勢設計存在的必要條件是r(k+1)≡0(mod 2)其中k為區塊大小，r為處理出現的次數。 　　Bradley and Yeh進一步預測任一滿足r(k+1)≡0(mod2)的區塊設計，經過在區塊中處理位置調整後，可變為一個線性無趨勢設計。本篇論文的主要目的乃是在探討給定一GD設計(group-divisibledesigns)，檢驗和推導此預測是否為真。 / Yeh and Bradley conjectured that every binary connected block design with blocks of size k and a constant replication numberr for each treatment can be converted to a linear trend-free design by permuting the positions of theatments within blocks if and only if r(k+1)≡0 (mod 2). Chai and Majumdar (1993) proved that any BIB design which satisfies r(k+1)≡0 (mod 2) is even can be converted to a linear trend-free design. In this thesis, we want to examine this conjecture is true or not for group-divisible designs (GD designs).

Metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and Gaucher disease (GD) are caused by a deficiency of arylsulphatase A (ASA) and b-glucocerebrosidase (GBA), respectively. They are lysosomal storage disorders with a heterogeneous clinical spectrum encompassing visceral, skeletal and neurologic involvement resulting in high morbidity and mortality. The overall aim of this study is to elucidate the genetic component/s of high ASA and GBA enzyme activity in normal healthy individuals with the ultimate goal of using this information to produce greater protein activity from a recombinant protein. A wide variation in ASA and GBA enzyme activity levels has been observed in the normal population. The first objective of this project was to identify and characterise single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the arylsulphatase A (ARSA) and glucocerebrosidase (GBA) genes that are responsible for determining the levels of expressed enzyme activity in the normal population. The second objective was to assess the contribution of transcriptional regulation and TCP80 mediated translational control to normal enzyme variation. TCP80, a translational control protein that interacts with the GBA coding region, is a splice variant of the interleukin binding factor 3 (ILF3) gene. Ten samples from individuals with high ASA activity and twenty samples from individuals with high GBA activity were screened for polymorphisms via denaturing high pressure liquid chromatography (dHPLC) and sequencing. The frequency of these polymorphisms in the normal population was determined using dot-blot hybridisation. Fifteen ARSA polymorphisms (4 promoter, 5 coding, 5 intronic and 1 poly(A) signal) and two GBA polymorphisms (1 intronic and 1 in 3¢-UTR) were identified. Two low frequency ASA polymorphisms (2723A > G, W193C) were found to be correlated with low activity, while another low frequency ASA polymorphism (1101+123C > T) was found to be correlated with high activity in a population of 113 individuals. Real time PCR was used to measure mRNA levels of GBA, ASA and LF3 along with enzyme activity levels of GBA and ASA in two cell types (leucocytes and skin fibroblasts) from four healthy individuals and seven cell lines (HL60, THP1, Huh7, U118, SW1353, Hep G2, and B-cells). Transcriptional control was evident for all three genes with GBA mRNA levels varying over 30 fold, ASA mRNA levels varying over seven fold and ILF3 levels varying more than 24 fold. The 5¢-flanking region of GBA was investigated for the cis-elements responsible for tissue-specific expression. However, it was not possible to demonstrate that the cis-element region was influencing GBA expression. Translational efficiency was measured using the magnitude of the mRNA:enzyme activity ratio as an indicator. GBA translational inefficiency was most pronounced in B cells which require four times more mRNA molecules than hepatocytes (Hep G2) and over 25 times more mRNA molecules than chondrocytes (SW1353) to produce one unit of GBA enzyme activity. Except in B-cells, GBA translational efficiency appears to increase as ILF3 mRNA levels decrease. The tissue-specific variation observed in the protein levels of the ILF3 splice variants, TCP80 and DRBP76, may play a role. The correlation of several low frequency SNPs with low ASA enzyme activity or high ASA activity indicates a role in determining the distribution of enzyme activity levels in the normal population. However, there do not appear to be any common high activity polymorphisms. Knowledge of the exact mechanisms responsible for the observed transcriptional and translational control of these lysosomal genes will greatly enhance the understanding of genotype-phenotype correlation and the contribution of genetic variants to natural variation.

In today's competitive business and industrial environment, it is becoming more crucial than ever to assess precisely process losses due to non-compliance to customer specifications. To assess these losses, industry is extensively using Process Capability Indices for performance evaluation of their processes. Determination of the performance capability of a stable process using the standard process capability indices such as and requires that the underlying quality characteristics data follow a normal distribution. However it is an undisputed fact that real processes very often produce non-normal quality characteristics data and also these quality characteristics are very often correlated with each other. For such non-normal and correlated multivariate quality characteristics, application of standard capability measures using conventional methods can lead to erroneous results. The research undertaken in this PhD thesis presents several capability assessment methods to estimate more precisely and accurately process performances based on univariate as well as multivariate quality characteristics. The proposed capability assessment methods also take into account the correlation, variance and covariance as well as non-normality issues of the quality characteristics data. A comprehensive review of the existing univariate and multivariate PCI estimations have been provided. We have proposed fitting Burr XII distributions to continuous positively skewed data. The proportion of nonconformance (PNC) for process measurements is then obtained by using Burr XII distribution, rather than through the traditional practice of fitting different distributions to real data. Maximum likelihood method is deployed to improve the accuracy of PCI based on Burr XII distribution. Different numerical methods such as Evolutionary and Simulated Annealing algorithms are deployed to estimate parameters of the fitted Burr XII distribution. We have also introduced new transformation method called Best Root Transformation approach to transform non-normal data to normal data and then apply the traditional PCI method to estimate the proportion of non-conforming data. Another approach which has been introduced in this thesis is to deploy Burr XII cumulative density function for PCI estimation using Cumulative Density Function technique. The proposed approach is in contrast to the approach adopted in the research literature i.e. use of best-fitting density function from known distributions to non-normal data for PCI estimation. The proposed CDF technique has also been extended to estimate process capability for bivariate non-normal quality characteristics data. A new multivariate capability index based on the Generalized Covariance Distance (GCD) is proposed. This novel approach reduces the dimension of multivariate data by transforming correlated variables into univariate ones through a metric function. This approach evaluates process capability for correlated non-normal multivariate quality characteristics. Unlike the Geometric Distance approach, GCD approach takes into account the scaling effect of the variance-covariance matrix and produces a Covariance Distance variable that is based on the Mahanalobis distance. Another novelty introduced in this research is to approximate the distribution of these distances by a Burr XII distribution and then estimate its parameters using numerical search algorithm. It is demonstrates that the proportion of nonconformance (PNC) using proposed method is very close to the actual PNC value.

High dielectric constant materials have tremendous impact on miniaturization of devices that are used in various applications like wireless communication systems, microelectronics, global positioning systems, etc. To store electric charge in a very small space necessarily needs a capacitor with very high dielectric constant. Thus, these materials are very important in fabricating capacitors, or metal oxide semiconductor filed effect transistor (MOSFET). Among the existing commercially available devices, silicon-based microelectronic devices are commonly used based on the moderately stable dielectric constants of silicon with low losses and minimal temperature and frequency dependence. However, now-a-days, the perovskite based transition metal oxides have drawn attention that have the ability to fulfill all the requirements for being a good dielectric material in all the industrial applications. In this thesis we have studied a few selected perovskite based transition metal oxide systems in terms of their dielectric and magnetic behaviour. In Chapter 1, we have have given brief introductions about the some application of dielectric materials and the origin of dielectric and magnetic properties in the materials. We have also discussed about the polarisation in the dielectric materials to understand it’s frequency dependence and also to formalise different relaxation behaviour with the help of physical and mathematical explanation. In Chapter 2, we describe the various methodologies adopted in this thesis. In Chapter 3, we have studied the dielectric behaviour of Nd2NiMnO6, a rare earth based double perovskite ferromagnetic insulator. We successfully synthesised and characterised the compounds, settled the valency issues with the help of temperature dependent XAS of the transition metal atom in contrast to the existing controversy available in literature. We have found that this material shows relaxor kind behaviour with a colossal dielectric constant value. We have studied in details the origin of the colossal dielectric constant and the relaxation behaviour along with the a.c and d.c. transport properties. We have shown the origin of the ferromagnetism (TC ∼ 200 K) with a low temperature antiferromagnetic ordering (TN ∼ 55 K) with the help of detailed studies of temperature dependent d.c., a.c. magnetism and their XMCD. We have also investigated the isothermal variation of magnetodielectric and magnetoresistance behaviour as a function of magnetic field and their origin. In Chapter 4,we study the effect of cation anti-site disorder on the magnetic, dielectric and transport properties of another rare earth based ferromagnetic double perovskite insulator La2NiMnO6 by controlling different extent of anti-site disordered. We have confirmed the valency of the transition metal cations using XAS technique and followed by shown, different types of magnetic interaction between the transition metal cations using d.c magnetic, quantitative XMCD analysis and the origin of large dielectric response, a.c. transport & dielectric relaxation using temperature variation dielectric measurement as an experimental evidence in contrast of our previous speculation published in literature. We further have studied, the coupling between the magnetic and electric spin through isothermal magnetodielectric measurement. In Chapter 5, we have successfully synthesised and characterised a solid solution of YMnxIn1−xO3 series via different mol % of In doping in the multiferroic YMnO3 system. YMnO3 is a well known multiferroic material studied rigorously during past few decades. We have seen, YMnO3 which has a antiferromagnetic ordering temperature of ∼ 75 K suppressed with increasing the dopant concentration In. We have figured out the effect of In doping in the suppression of multiferroic phase and extended it to the dielectric properties. We have found that, the temperature dependence of dielectric constant shows an anomaly at the magnetic ordering temperature and studied magnetodielectric coupling. We have also investigated the temperature variation of dielectric relaxation and a.c. transport behaviour as a function of composition. In Chapter 6, we have identified the phase seperation and proposed a phase diagram as function of Gd doping in the Ho2−xGdxCuTiO6 double perovskite, where two end member, namely Ho2CuTiO6 and Gd2CuTiO6 are found to be in two different crystallographic phase as, hexagonal (P63cm) and orthorhombic (Pnmm), respectively. We have characterised the valency of the transition metal cations using XAS.We have seen very less temperature and frequency dependence of dielectric constant in hexagonal phase in compare to the orthorhombic phase and tried to figuring out from experimental analysis by performing temperature dependence dielectric const measurement. We also have shown the effect of doping in the origin of dielectric relaxation, a.c transport and magnetic behaviour of this system. In Chapter 7, we have synthesised and characterised successfully two different rare earth based layered perovskite La3Cu2VO9 and La4Cu3MoO12 compounds are of centrosymmetric space group. We have figured it of the valency of the different atoms present in the compound using XAS. We also do have observed the good temperature stability of dielectric constant of these materials and explored origin of mechanism in the dielectric relaxation, a.c. transport property by performing the temperature dependance dielectric measurement. The magnetic structure also have shown with the help of d.d. magnetic measurements. In Appendix A, we have seen the very stable dielectric constant constant from very low to above room temperature of the 2D nano PbS. The frequency stability of dielectric constant is also remarkable in compare to bulk PbS values available in literature. We have explored the origin of the conductivity and relaxation mechanism performing dielectric constant measurement. In conclusion, we investigate, in this thesis, dielectric properties of different transition metal oxides system and the mechanism of dielectric relaxation, a.c, d.c transport and their origin of magnetic response.

This thesis work deals with different aspects of the chemistry of La(III) and Gd(III) complexes, their interaction with DNA and proteins, photo-induced cleavage of double-stranded DNA, photocytotoxic effect on cancer cells, cell death mechanism and cellular localization behaviour. Chapter I gives an introduction to the metal-based anticancer agents with special emphasis on clinically used drugs and the growing field of lanthanide therapeutics. An overview of the current strategies of cancer treatment, especially photodynamic therapy (PDT), is presented. Mode of small molecule-DNA interactions and the mechanistic aspects associated with DNA photodamage reactions and PDT effect are discussed with selected examples of compounds that are known to photocleave DNA on exposure to light of different wavelengths. A brief discussion on the various therapeutic applications of the lanthanide compounds is also made. Chapter II presents the synthesis, characterization, DNA binding, BSA binding, photo-induced DNA cleavage activity and photocytotoxicity of La(III) and Gd(III) complexes of phenanthroline bases to explore the UV-A light-induced DNA cleavage activity and photocytotoxicity of the complexes. Chapter III describes the synthesis, characterization, DNA binding, photo-induced DNA cleavage activity and photocytotoxicity of La(III) and Gd(III) complexes of phenanthroline bases with an aim to improve the design of the complexes to achieve better solution stability and DNA binding of the complexes. Chapter IV presents the synthesis, characterization, DNA binding, and UV-A light-induced DNA photocleavage activity and photocytotoxicity of La(III) and Gd(III) complexes of pyridyl phenanthroline bases with an objective to improve the photoactivity of the complexes by introducing an additional pyridyl group. Cell death mechanism and confocal microscopic studies are also carried out to gain more insight into the PDT effect caused by light in the presence of the complex. Chapter V describes the synthesis and characterization of La(III) and Gd(III) complexes of terpyridine bases and acetylacetonate to study the complexes as a new class of photosensitizers to explore their DNA photocleavage activity and photocytotoxicity in HeLa cells. Effect of attaching a glucose moiety to the acetyl acetone (Hacac) ligand has been studied. The cellular uptake behaviour of the La(III) pyrenyl-terpyridine complexes has also been investigated. Finally, Chapter VI presents the synthesis and characterization of curcumin and glycosylated curcumin La(III) and Gd(III) complexes having terpyridine base with an objective to study the photoactivated anticancer activity of the complexes in visible light. This chapter describes the visible light-induced DNA cleavage activity and photocytotoxicity of the complexes by exploiting curcumin and glycosylated curcumin as the photosensitizer ligands. Study on the cellular uptake behavior of curcumin La(III) complexes having pyrenyl terpyridine ligand is also presented. The references have been assembled at the end of each chapter and indicated as superscript numbers in the text. The complexes presented in this thesis are represented by bold-faced numbers. Crystallographic data of the complexes which are characterized structurally by single crystal X-ray crystallography are provided in CIF format in the enclosed CD (Appendix-I). Due acknowledgements have been made wherever the work described is based on the findings of other investigators. Any unintentional omission that might have happened due to oversight or mistake is sincerely regretted.