The present dissertation investigates grammatical gender representation and processing in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as a first (L1) and a second (L2) language. It mainly examines whether L2 can process gender agreement in a native-like manner, and the extent to which L2 processing is influenced by the properties of the L2 speakers’ L1. Additionally, it examines whether L2 gender agreement processing is influenced by noun animacy (animate and inanimate) and word order (verb-subject and subject-verb). A series of experiments using both online and offline techniques were conducted to address these questions. In all of the experiments, gender agreement between verb and nouns was examined. The first series of experiments examined native speakers of MSA (n=49) using a self-paced reading task (SPR), an event-related potential (ERP) experiment, and a grammaticality judgment (GJ) task. Results of these experiments revealed that native speakers were sensitive to grammatical violations. Native speakers showed longer reaction times (RT) in the SPR task, and a P600 effect in the ERP, in responses to sentences with mismatched gender agreement as compared to sentences with matched gender agreement. They also performed at ceiling in the GJ task. The second series of experiments examined L2 speakers of MSA (n=74) using an SPR task, and a GJ task. Both experiments included adult L2 speakers whom were divided into two subgroups, -Gender and +Gender, based on whether or not their L1s has a grammatical gender system. The results of both experiments revealed that both groups were sensitive to gender agreement violations. The L2 speakers showed longer RTs, in the SPR task, in responses to sentences with mismatched gender agreement as compared to sentences with matched gender agreement. No difference was found between the L2 groups in this task. The L2 speakers also performed well in the GJ task, as they were able to correctly identify the grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. Interestingly in this task, the -Gender group outperformed +Gender group, which could be due to proficiency in the L2 as the former group obtained a better score on the proficiency task, or it could be that +Gender group showed negative transfer from their L1s. Based on the results of these two experiments, this dissertation argues that late L2 speakers are not restricted to their L1 grammar, and thus, they are able to acquire gender agreement system of their L2 even if this feature is not instantiated in their L1. The results provide converging evidence for the FTFA rather than FFFH model, as it appears that the -Gender group was able to reset their L1 gender parameter according to the L2 gender values. Although the L2 speakers were advanced, they showed slower RTs than the native speakers in the SPR task, and lower accuracy in the GJT. However, it is possible that they are still in the process of acquiring gender agreement of MSA and have not reached their final stage of acquisition. This is supported by the fact that some L2 speakers from both -Gender and +Gender groups performed as well as native speakers in both SPR and GJ tasks. Regarding the effect of animacy, the L2 speakers had slower RT and lower accuracy on sentences with inanimate nouns than on those with animate ones, which is in line with previous L2 studies (Anton-Medez, 1999; Alarcón, 2009; Gelin, & Bugaiska, 2014). The native speakers, on the other hand, showed no effect of animacy in both SPR task and GJT. Further, no N400 effect was observed as a result of semantic gender agreement violations in the ERP experiment. Finally, the results revealed a potential effect of word order. Both the native and L2 speakers showed longer RTs on VS word order than SV word order in the SPR task. Further the native speakers showed earlier and greater P600 effect on VS word order than SV word order in the ERP. This result suggests that processing gender agreement violation is more complex in the VS word order than in the SV word order due to the inherent asymmetry in the subject-verb agreement system in the two-word orders in MSA.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden erstmalig Mikrostrukturreaktoren bei der partiellen Oxidation von 1-Buten zu Maleinsäureanhydrid (MSA) eingesetzt. Diese stark exotherme, heterogen katalysierte Umsetzung fand hierbei in Stapeln mikrostrukturierter Aluminiumfolien statt, welche durch parallele Strömungskanäle mit katalytisch wirksamen Oberflächenschichten charakterisiert sind. Als Aktivkomponenten kamen Vanadium-, Phosphor- und Titanoxide zur Anwendung. Ein Vergleich von drei kompakten Mikrostrukturreaktoren mit Kanaldurchmessern der Mikrokanäle von 0,08, 0,2 bzw. 0,4 mm mit einem Schüttgutreaktor wurde durchgeführt. Vorausgehend war die Entwicklung von 3 verschiedenen Methoden zur Immobilisierung von V2O5 und P2O5 auf dem Katalysatorträger bei jeweils unterschiedlichen Katalysatorvorläufern. Die Herstellungsparameter der geeignetsten Immobilisierungsmethode wurden, entsprechend einem Screening in Schüttgutreaktoren, systematisch variiert. Die katalytische Aktivierung der Folien erfolgte nach der gleichen Präparationsvorschrift die zur Herstellung des „besten“ Katalysator-Schüttguts führte. Bei der partiellen Oxidation von 1-Buten außerhalb des Explosionsbereiches bestanden nur geringfügige Unterschiede zwischen den MSA-Selektivitäten im Schüttgut bzw. in der Mikrostruktur (33%). In letzterer wurden hingegen um den Faktor 3 bis 5 höhere Raum-Zeit-Ausbeuten als im Schüttgut erzielt. Des weiteren konnte die partielle Oxidation von 1-Buten innerhalb des Explosionsbereiches ausschließlich in den Mikrostrukturreaktoren explosionssicher - und ohne Anzeichen auf instabile Betriebspunkte – gehandhabt werden. Begleitend dazu fand die Entwicklung und der Einsatz dreier modularer Mikrostrukturreaktoren bei der partiellen Oxidation von 1-Buten statt. Praktische Ergebnisse wurden anhand eines entwickelten Reaktormodells bestätigt.

The major part of my dissertation consists of thin films deposited using atomic layer deposition on flat and powder substrates. It details the various optimization experiments for process parameters like dose time, purge time, temperature, and pressure on silicon shards and powder substrates. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) was used to characterize these films over a wide wavelength range (191-1688 nm). An optical model with a BEMA (Bruggeman effective medium approximation) layer was used to fit the ellipsometric data to investigate the optical properties of the alumina surface. The optimized process parameters on the flat surfaces were used for coating powder substrates. I propose a set of experiments to optimize the conditions for coating of powders and high aspect ratio structures by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The coated powders were analyzed by surface analytical techniques like X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, transmission electron microscopy, energy X-ray dispersive spectroscopy (EDAX), and BET. The first chapter introduces the technique of atomic layer deposition, and details its advantages and limitations over conventional thin film deposition techniques like chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition. The second chapter details the initial deposition experiments performed on flat surfaces and characterization of thin films using surface analytical tools. I conducted multi-sample analysis on eleven different thin films for calculation of optical constants of alumina. The third chapter introduces thin film deposition experiments performed on powder substrates, several challenges associated with achieving conformal thin films and characterization. The fourth chapter details the experiments to achieve unilateral ALD achieved on one side of the substrates. The fifth chapter details various unconventional materials including liquid water, Coca-Cola, a coffee bean, nitrogen gas, human tooth, and printed office paper, which were analyzed by near ambient pressure XPS (NAP-XPS). This dissertation contains appendices of other tutorial articles I wrote on obtaining optical constants liquid samples using spectroscopic ellipsometry, and good experimental techniques for maintenance of vacuum equipment.

The major part of my dissertation consists of thin films deposited using atomic layer deposition on flat and powder substrates. It details the various optimization experiments for process parameters like dose time, purge time, temperature, and pressure on silicon shards and powder substrates. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) was used to characterize these films over a wide wavelength range (191-1688 nm). An optical model with a BEMA (Bruggeman effective medium approximation) layer was used to fit the ellipsometric data to investigate the optical properties of the alumina surface. The optimized process parameters on the flat surfaces were used for coating powder substrates. I propose a set of experiments to optimize the conditions for coating of powders and high aspect ratio structures by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The coated powders were analyzed by surface analytical techniques like X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, transmission electron microscopy, energy X-ray dispersive spectroscopy (EDAX), and BET. The first chapter introduces the technique of atomic layer deposition, and details its advantages and limitations over conventional thin film deposition techniques like chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition. The second chapter details the initial deposition experiments performed on flat surfaces and characterization of thin films using surface analytical tools. I conducted multi-sample analysis on eleven different thin films for calculation of optical constants of alumina. The third chapter introduces thin film deposition experiments performed on powder substrates, several challenges associated with achieving conformal thin films and characterization. The fourth chapter details the experiments to achieve unilateral ALD achieved on one side of the substrates. The fifth chapter details various unconventional materials including liquid water, Coca-Cola, a coffee bean, nitrogen gas, human tooth, and printed office paper, which were analyzed by near ambient pressure XPS (NAP-XPS). This dissertation contains appendices of other tutorial articles I wrote on obtaining optical constants liquid samples using spectroscopic ellipsometry, and good experimental techniques for maintenance of vacuum equipment.

L'étude des fluides géologiques passe par la description précise des propriétés thermodynamiques des systèmes eau - gaz sur de larges gammes de températures, pressions et compositions à partir d'équations d'état. Les équations d'état cubiques de type Van der Waals couramment utilisées telles que Soave Redlich Kwong (SRK) ou Peng Robinson permettent des calculs simples à mettre en oeuvre sur de larges gammes de températures et de pressions à partir des paramètres critiques des fluides étudiés. En revanche, la précision de ces modèles se dégrade lorsque l'eau devient un composant majeur du mélange puisque ni l'association par liaisons hydrogène ni les interactions dipolaires ne sont prises en compte dans ces modèles.<br />Sur le principe de la factorisation des fonctions de partition, l'énergie de Helmholtz d'un fluide peut être écrite sous la forme de la somme des différentes contributions énergétiques. Le modéle développé ici pour H2O et H2S considère trois contributions : celle du fluide de référence de type Van der Waals prise en compte par une équation cubique, celle de l'association par liaison hydrogène par un terme issu du modèle Cubic Plus Association (CPA) et celle des interactions dipolaires entre molécules non liées par la théorie Mean Spherical Approximation (MSA). Le modèle CPAMSA ainsi proposé est à six paramètres ajustables dont trois sont des grandeurs physiques compatibles avec leur estimation expérimentale.<br />Les propriétés thermodynamiques de l'eau pure sont ainsi sensiblement mieux reproduites qu'avec le modèle CPA le long de l'équilibre liquide - vapeur et les extrapolations à plus hautes températures et pressions sont satisfaisantes. De même, la prise en compte des interactions dipolaires dans la molécule H2S améliore significativement les calculs volumétriques effectués avec une équation d'état cubique simple.<br />Des règles de mélange simples entre molécules dipolaires ont été élaborées afin de modéliser le système binaire H2O - H2S par une approche symétrique. Les compositions des phases à l'équilibre liquide - vapeur sont reproduites avec des écarts moyens aux données expérimentales inférieurs à 7% tout comme pour les systèmes H2O - CO2 et H2O - CH4. Excepté pour ce dernier système, les paramètres d'interaction binaire ajustés sur les données expérimentales sont proches de zéro confirmant que le modèle proposé prend bien en compte les principales contributions énergétiques de ces fluides.

Application of Diffusion Tensor Imaging to Brain Gray and White Ma er A In the present work we explore the gray and white ma er applicability of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). To evaluate effect of ferritin-bound iron on gray ma er contrast in DTI, we created an in vitro model consisting of agarose gel phantoms doped with ferritin, and validated our results in vivo on healthy volunteer subjects - years of age in the basal ganglia. We further explored the application of DTI to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple system atrophy (MSA); neurodegenerative diseases with gray and white ma er pathophysiological components. In the ALS study, patients and age- and sex-matched controls were recruited, while the MSA study included probable MSA subjects ( MSA-P, MSA-C) and age- and sex-matched controls. We found that ferritin-bound iron may make a signi cant contribution to DTI scalars in gray ma er regions of the brain, mediated by eigenvalue repulsion. is has important implications for DTI studies targeting gray ma er regions, especially in adolescence and in diseases associated with altered brain-iron load. In ALS, we found altered diffusion in the corona radiata and callosal body, and changes in R in the caudate nucleus and frontal white ma er. In MSA, we observed widespread white ma er changes associated...

The goal of this master’s thesis was design of the inspection procedure for hammer and trigger of the specific revolver model. Thesis was developed in cooperation with the manufacturer of the revolvers. The theoretical part deals with the MSA methodology, which is used to assess acceptability of measurement systems. The practical part describes the current measurement system and performs gage repeatability and reproducibility study. It was confirmed that the current measurement system requires improvement. Subsequently coordinate systems were designed, based on functional features of the hammer and trigger. Automated optical measurements, based on the coordinate systems, were performed. The results from these measurements were again assessed by the gage R&R study. The analysis confirmed improvement of acceptability of the designed measurement systems. Based on these results, it is recommended to apply suggested procedures in practice. Results and recommendations of this master’s thesis can contribute to develop metrology in the company and improve the existing measurement system.

Theme of the Master’s thesis is analysis of process for production of small plates. Main parts of the thesis are analysis of the production process, process mapping, data capture, analysis of the data by Pareto analysis and find causes of nonconformities. Causes analysis is based on data analysis and process observation. It is divided to chapters by factors which are influencing the process. Optimization measures are designed with regard to their simplicity of realization and system in organization.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / infarction (MI) affects many parts of the western world and in South Africa alone it is estimated that MI is responsible for 1 in 6 deaths (17.3%). Traditional diagnostic methods for MI include an electrocardiograms and blood tests. The problem with these diagnostic methods are that they are time consuming, require large sample volumes, expensive equipment and complicated machinery. To achieve early detection of MI the discovery of specific, sensitive and reliable biomarkers are required. Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) has been identified as a reliable biomarker for MI due to the fact that it has a defined cutoff of 100 pg/ml and it is not susceptible to patient‘s age which could make early detection of BNP complicated. Early detection methods for BNP has been based on immunoradiometric assays but problems associated with immunoradiometric assays are that there is a restricted availability of antigens and incubation of the labeled antibody could take up to two weeks which affects the patients waiting time on results. Electrochemical biosensors are emerging as early detection method for MI because they can be designed to be sensitive, specific to BNP at a low cost. This research study reported for the first the successful fabrication and implementation of highly sensitive mercaptosuccinic acid capped nickel selenide quantum dots (MSA-NiSe2 QDs) aptasensor for the detection of BNP. The poly-dispersed MSA-NiSe2 QDs were synthesized via an inexpensive, simple and reproducible aqueous microwave assisted irradiation method. The prepared MSA-NiSe2 QDs were characterized by Ultraviolet spectroscopy (UV-Vis), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), High Resolution Transmission/Scanning Electron Microscopy (HR TEM/SEM) and Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXSpace). The electrochemical properties of the MSA-NiSe2 QDs were investigated by Cylic Voltammetry (CV) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). HR-TEM revealed the formation of small sized MSA-NiSe2 QDs about 4 nm in diameter which was complemented by SAXSpace. UV-Vis studies showed absorption peaks in the ultraviolet region (100-400 nm) confirming the small size of these QDs as well confirming the direct and indirect bandgap of the QDs. XRD confirmed that the QDs are crystalline and belong to the bulk cubic MSA-NiSe2 QDs phase. FTIR studies confirmed the successful capping of MSA on the QDs due to the disappearance of the thiol peak at 2652 cm-1. Electrochemical studies revealed that the MSA-NiSe2 QDs showed good electrochemical properties on screen printed carbon electrodes (SPCE) which allowed them to be used as a mediating platform between the aptamer and SPCE. The successful detection of BNP was achieved by an incubation process between the aptamer drop coated on the MSA-NiSe2 QDs/SPCE surface overnight. The response of the MSA-NiSe2 QDs based aptasensor towards different concentrations of BNP was studied by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). DPV showed a good linearly with correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.98. DPV also showed a high sensitivity (0.4513 μA/ pg/mL) towards detecting BNP with a detection limit of 11.93 pg/ml. The value of 11.93 pg/ml falls within the negative predictive value range of 10-100 pg/ml for early-stage diagnosis of BNP.

The usefulness of digitized documents is directly related to the quality of the extracted text. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has reached a point where well-formatted and clean machine- printed documents are easily recognizable by current commercial OCR products; however, older or degraded machine-printed documents present problems to OCR engines resulting in word error rates (WER) that severely limit either automated or manual use of the extracted text. Major archives of historical machine-printed documents are being assembled around the globe, requiring an accurate transcription of the text for the automated creation of descriptive metadata, full-text searching, and information extraction. Given document images to be transcribed, ensemble recognition methods with multiple sources of evidence from the original document image and information sources external to the document have been shown in this and related work to improve output. This research introduces new methods of evidence extraction, feature engineering, and evidence combination to correct errors from state-of-the-art OCR engines. This work also investigates the success and failure of ensemble methods in the OCR error correction task, as well as the conditions under which these ensemble recognition methods reduce the Word Error Rate (WER), improving the quality of the OCR transcription, showing that the average document word error rate can be reduced below the WER of a state-of-the-art commercial OCR system by between 7.4% and 28.6% depending on the test corpus and methods. This research on OCR error correction contributes within the larger field of ensemble methods as follows. Four unique corpora for OCR error correction are introduced: The Eisenhower Communiqués, a collection of typewritten documents from 1944 to 1945; The Nineteenth Century Mormon Articles Newspaper Index from 1831 to 1900; and two synthetic corpora based on the Enron (2001) and the Reuters (1997) datasets. The Reverse Dijkstra Heuristic is introduced as a novel admissible heuristic for the A* exact alignment algorithm. The impact of the heuristic is a dramatic reduction in the number of nodes processed during text alignment as compared to the baseline method. From the aligned text, the method developed here creates a lattice of competing hypotheses for word tokens. In contrast to much of the work in this field, the word token lattice is created from a character alignment, preserving split and merged tokens within the hypothesis columns of the lattice. This alignment method more explicitly identifies competing word hypotheses which may otherwise have been split apart by a word alignment. Lastly, this research explores, in order of increasing contribution to word error rate reduction: voting among hypotheses, decision lists based on an in-domain training set, ensemble recognition methods with novel feature sets, multiple binarizations of the same document image, and training on synthetic document images.