This study aimed to examine whether trigeminal nerve injury induces chronic nociceptive behaviour and central sensitization (CS) in functionally identified medullary dorsal horn (MDH) nociceptive neurons in mice, and whether CS in acute and chronic orofacial pain models and nociceptive behaviour in the chronic model are affected by systemic administration of pregabalin. Infraorbital nerve injury induced chronic facial mechanical allodynia as well as MDH CS; acute noxious tooth pulp stimulation also induced MDS CS. Systemic administration of pregabalin attenuated the nerve injury-induced allodynia as well as the MDH CS in both the chronic and acute pain models. These findings reveal that MDH CS occurs in mouse models of acute and chronic orofacial pain and that pregabalin may prove useful clinically in acute and chronic orofacial pain states.

A significant body of research documents the experiences of war correspondents and the impact covering conflict has on them. Far fewer studies focus on the impact that covering everyday trauma has on journalists. This Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) explores, at an idiographic level, the life worlds of six journalists from sub-Saharan Africa, and how each of them makes sense of the everyday trauma they experience in their work. The findings show that in each journalist's case, witnessing others' pain and trauma had a life changing impact; that empathy helped them cope with what they saw and experienced; and that they shared a tolerance for risk-taking. Journalists are the eyes and ears of the public. The study suggests that if journalists have the necessary emotional tools to cope with the stress they encounter in their work, everyone benefits: the journalists, their media organizations, the people whose stories they tell, and society. It is therefore important to take journalists' emotional coping strategies into account, so as not to cement the notion that feeling numb in the face of emotional trauma is simply business as usual.

No description available.

Compliant mechanisms (CMs) take advantage of the deformation of their flexible members to transfer motion, force, or energy, offering attractive advantages in terms of manufacturing and performance over traditional rigid-body mechanisms (RBMs). This dissertation aims to advance the topology optimization (TO) technique (1) to design CMs that are more effective in performing their functions while being sufficiently strong to resist yield or fatigue failure; and (2) to design CMs from the perspective of mechanisms rather than that of structures, particularly with the insight into the concepts of joints, actuations, and functions of mechanisms. The existing TO frameworks generally result in CMs that are much like load-bearing structures, limiting the applications of CMs. These CMs (1) do not have joints, (2) are actuated by a translational force, and (3) can only do simple work such as amplifying motion or gripping. Three TO frameworks for the synthesis of CMs are proposed in this dissertation and they are summarized below. First, a framework was developed for the design of efficient and strong CMs. The widely used stiffness-flexibility criterion for CM design with TO results in lumped CMs that are intrinsically efficient in transferring motion, force, or energy but are prone to high localized stress and thus weak to resist yield or fatigue failure. Indeed, distributed CMs may have a better stress distribution than lumped CMs but have the weakness of being less efficient in motion, force, or energy transfer than lumped CMs. Based on this observation, the proposed framework rendered the concept of hybrid systems, hybrid CMs in this case. Further, the hybridization was achieved by a proposed super flexure hinge element and a design criterion called input stroke criterion in addition to the traditional stiffness-flexibility criterion. Both theoretical exploration and CM design examples are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The proposed framework has two main contributions to the field of CMs: (1) a new design philosophy, i.e., hybrid CMs through TO techniques and (2) a new design criterion—input stroke. Second, a systematic framework was developed for the integrated design of CMs and actuators for the motion generation task. Both rotary actuators and bending actuators were considered. The approach can simultaneously synthesize the optimal structural topology and actuator placement for the desired position, orientation, and shape of the target link in the system while satisfying the constraints such as buckling constraint, yield stress constraint and valid connectivity constraint. A geometrically nonlinear finite element analysis was performed for CMs driven by a bending actuator and CMs driven by a rotary actuator. Novel parameterization schemes were developed to represent the placements of both types of actuators. A new valid connectivity scheme was also developed to check whether a design has valid connectivity among regions of interest based on the concept of directed graphs. Three design examples were constructed and a compliant finger was designed and fabricated. The results demonstrated that the proposed approach is able to simultaneously determine the structure of a CM and the optimal locations of actuators, either a bending actuator or a rotary actuator, to guide a flexible link into desired configurations. Third, the concept of a module view of mechanisms was proposed to represent RBMs and CMs in a general way, particularly using five basic modules: compliant link, rigid link, pin joint, compliant joint, and rigid joint; this concept was further developed for the unified synthesis of the two types of mechanisms, and the synthesis approach was thus coined as module optimization technique—a generalization of TO. Based on the hinge element in the finite element approach developed at TU Delft (Netherlands in early 1970), a beam-hinge model was proposed to describe the connection among modules, which result in a finite element model for both RBMs and CMs. Then, the concept of TO was borrowed to module optimization, particularly to determine the “stay” or “leave” of modules that mesh a design domain. The salient merits with the hinge element include (1) a natural way to describe various types of connections between two elements or modules and (2) a provision of the possibility to specify the rotational input and output motion as a design problem. Several examples were constructed to demonstrate that one may obtain a RBM, or a partially CM, or a fully CM for a given mechanical task using the module optimization approach.

In this thesis defects and impurities in CdTe have been studied with ab initio methods. CdTe is a II-VI semiconductor with many important applications such as γ- and X-ray detectors, solar cells and medical imaging. Even though CdTe has been studied for more than 70 years, some of its properties connected with defects and impurities, are still shrouded in mystery. Todays experimental techniques are highly developed and can provide rather detailed data, but require elaborate theoretical analysis. Here ab initio modelling comes into play and in particular density functional theory (DFT). When reviewing different theoretical studies of defects and impurities in CdTe, one finds a vast number of discrepancies between experiment and theory. Mismatches appear even between different theoretical studies. Although many problems, such as, for example, the semiconductor band gap underestimation or the spurious interaction between charged defects, are avoided by employing corrections or implementing new functionals, some of them still remain. Employing the hybrid functional HSE06, the following topics were studied in this thesis: - Te antisites: Experimental data predict the defect state to appear in the middle of the band gap, thus "pinning" the Fermi level. In contrast, our calculations show that Te antisite alone cannot be the reason for the Fermi level pinning, since it does not form a defect level in the middle of the band gap. Instead we propose that charge compensation between Te antisites in a (+2) state and Cd vacancies in a (-2) state explains the Fermi level pinning. - Cd vacancy: Electron paramagnetic resonance experiments clearly show the existence of a hole polaron for the (-1) charged vacancy. But DFT studies report a completely delocalised hole. In our studies, for the first time, this state was found in its proper geometrical configuration with a hole localisation stabilised by a Jahn-Teller distortion, thereby removing the discrepancy between experiment and theory. - Cd chalcogenides: Additionally, with particular focus on the hole localisation problem, the series of isovalent compounds (CdTe, CdSe and CdS) was studied to understand the mechanism of hole polaron formation. We explain the trend of the hole localisation in terms of Coulomb interaction, explicitly showing that the effect of electron correlation is negligible. - Cl-doped CdTe: The formation of a Cl - Cd vacancy complex explains the selfcompensation and selfpurification mechanism. We find Cl to annihilate the hole polaron. - Te antisite under deformation: In an attempt to tailor the energy position of the Te antisite defect level in the CdTe band gap, we studied CdTe under different deformations. It is shown that by a carefully chosen deformation the defect levels can be pushed closer to the valence and/or conduction band and hence the CdTe detector performance may be improved.

The purpose of this study is to re-analyze existing findings in order to demonstrate and summarize relationships between criteria and the sub-scales/dimensions of the Conditional Reasoning Test for Aggression (CRT-A): Externalizing, Internalizing, and Powerlessness. A CRT-A sub-scale was expected to relate more strongly with criteria categorized as being more relevant to the dimension that is represented by that sub-scale. For criteria that were categorized as relevant to only a subset of the dimensions represented by CRT-A sub-scales, the regression of a criterion on all three sub-scales was expected to create a better fitting model than the regression of a criterion on the CRT-A total score alone. Scales were also expected to interact to predict criteria. This was expected to be most likely when multiple dimensions of implicit aggression were activated by environmental factors to influence specific behaviors. Support was found for all expectations

The research began by examining professions, both historically and as they are today. It went on to investigate the nature of professional practice and professional competence. In particular, it attempted to throw fresh light on how professional competence is acquired and maintained. The research consisted of an extensive literature study and empirical work which included in- depth interviews with practitioners from 20 different professions. This was followed by a series of larger-scale postal surveys across six of these. The chosen professions ranged from traditional ones, including the Church, the Bar and Medicine, to newer professional-type occupations, such as Training, Personnel Management and Information Technology Consultancy. A total of 80 people were interviewed and a further 372 completed survey questionnaires. Following a review of existing models of competence, a new, 'provisional model of professional competence' was developed. This drew on a number of earlier models and related concepts, and was influenced by both reflective practitioner and competence based approaches to professional development. The new model was exposed to expert and academic criticism through a series of conference and journal papers, comments being received from a total of 70 people. The model was also tested empirically, after which a revised version was developed. The empirical stage of the research had a number of strands, in addition to being used for testing the model. It examined the nature of modem professions and tested the validity of certain characteristics traditionally associated with professions - altruism, autonomy, self- regulation, etc. It also examined the nature of professional practice and tested the validity of two competing epistemologies - 'technical-rationality' and 'knowing-in-action' (reflective practice). It investigated how professional competence is acquired, examining the contribution made by both formal development programmes and various kinds of informal experience to which practitioners are exposed. It sought to identify the conditions and environments that are important to professional learning, especially in early practice. Finally, it looked at how professionals maintain their competence through personal learning and continuing professional development (CPD). Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed throughout. Analysis of results led to the identification of 12 general learning processes or 'learning mechanisms'. These formed the basis of a taxonomy which was used to classify the range of informal learning experiences and events reported by respondents. Outputs from the research included: "a new model of professional competence; "a taxonomy of informal professional learning methods; "a proposed new (or modified) epistemology of professional practice; "a proposed new paradigm of professional development, together with a linked self- development paradigm; an exemplar professional development model; and "a number of practical suggestions for improving professional development programmes. The research has contributed to knowledge by throwing new light on the nature of both professional practice and professional competence, and providing insights into the ways in which people become effective in their professional roles

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-131). / Microfiche. / xvi, 131 leaves, bound ill. (some col.) 29 cm

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-117). / Microfiche. / xiv, 117 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.