Three-dimensional macroporous structures (‘opals’ and ‘inverse opals’) can be produced by colloidal crystal templating, one of the most intensively studied areas in materials science today. There are several potential advantages of lithium-ion battery electrodes based on inverse opal structures. High electrode surface, easier electrolyte access to the bulk of electrode and reduced lithium diffusion lengths allow higher discharge rates. Highly open structures provide for better mechanical stability to volume swings during cycling. Silicon is one of the most promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Its theoretical capacity exceeds capacities of all other materials besides metallic lithium. Silicon is abundant, cheap, and its use would allow for incorporation of microbattery production into the semiconductor manufacturing. Performance of silicon is restricted mainly by large volume changes during cycling. The objective of this work was to investigate how the inverse opal structures influence the performance of silicon electrodes. Several types of silicon-based inverse opal films were synthesised, and their electrochemical performance was studied. Amorphous silicon inverse opals were fabricated via chemical vapour deposition and characterised by various techniques. Galvanostatic cycling of these materials confirmed the feasibility of the approach taken, since the electrodes demonstrated high capacities and decent capacity retentions. The rate performance of amorphous silicon inverse opals was unsatisfactory due to low conductivity of silicon. The conductivity of silicon inverse opals was improved by crystallisation. Nanocrystalline silicon inverse opals demonstrated much better rate capabilities, but the capacities faded to zero after several cycles. Silicon-carbon composite inverse opal materials were synthesised by depositing a thin layer of carbon via pyrolysis of a sucrose-based precursor onto the silicon inverse opals in an attempt to further increase conductivity and achieve mechanical stabilisation of the structures. The amount of carbon deposited proved to be insufficient to stabilise the structures, and silicon-carbon composites demonstrated unsatisfactory electrochemical behaviour. Carbon inverse opals were coated with amorphous silicon producing another type of macroporous composites. These electrodes demonstrated significant improvement both in capacity retentions and in rate capabilities. The inner carbon matrix not only increased the material conductivity, but also resulted in lower silicon pulverisation during cycling.

Sammanfattning Inom de flesta företag finns möjligheter att påverka rörelsekapitalet genom Working Capital Management. Detta kan även förkortas WCM, vilket enligt Deloof (2003) kan definieras som arbetet med att styra företagets rörelsekapital. De flesta företag har dessutom avsevärda summor uppbundna i rörelsekapitalet, vilket medför att WCM har en betydande roll på företagets lönsamhet. I strävan efter att nå ett optimalt rörelsekapital finns det dock risk att företagen drabbas av negativa effekter. Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att undersöka effekterna av WCM och hur dessa effekter påverkas utifrån hanteringen av WCM. Metod: Studien består av en kvantitativ enkätundersökning riktad till svenska tillverkande företag. Analys: Att frigöra kapital beskrivs som det främsta motivet för att genomföra WCM. Det framgår också att initiativ till beslut om en minskning av rörelsekapitalet är centraliserade och det är sällsynt att initiativ startar i den operativa verksamheten. Det sker däremot en nära samverkan i processen av en minskning av rörelsekapitalet mellan de som initierar WCM och den operativa verksamheten. Studien visar att de flesta företag inte upplever några negativa effekter av WCM. De negativa effekter som uppmärksammas inträffar främst i produktionen och gentemot kunder. Slutsats: Svenska tillverkande företag anser att WCM är en högt prioriterad fråga. De beslut som fattas inom WCM medför att ju längre bort från verksamheten besluten tas desto fler negativa effekter medför detta. I arbetet med WCM förekommer en hög grad av samverkan. Det har även framkommit att ökad samverkan mellan ledning och den operativa verksamheten minskar negativa effekter i samband med WCM. Nyckelord: WCM, Working Capital Management, rörelsekapital, rörelsekapitalbindning, samverkan, beslut, negativa effekter / Abstract Most companies are able to influence the working capital through use of Working Capital Management (WCM). According to Deloof (2003), WCM can be defined as the process of controlling a company’s working capital. Since many companies have substantial sums tied up in the working capital, WCM can have a significant role in the company’s profitability. In the pursuit of finding an optimal working capital, there is a risk that companies will experience negative effects.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of WCM and how these effects are influenced by how the WCM is managed within the company. Methodology: The study consists of a quantitative survey directed to Swedish manufacturing companies. Analysis: Releasing capital is put forward as the main motive for WCM. It also appears that the initiative for decisions regarding reduction of working capital tend to be centralized, since these initiatives rarely start in the business operations. There is however a close interaction in the process of a reduction in working capital between those who initiate WCM and the operations. The majority of companies within this study do not experience any negative effects of WCM, but when it occurs it is mainly within the production processes or in customer relations. Conclusion: Swedish manufacturing companies believe that WCM is of high priority. This study indicates that negative effects will occur increasingly if decision-making is centralized. Working with WCM requires a high degree of collaboration as the results of this study also points out that through increased interaction between management and operations, negative effects associated with WCM can be reduced. Keywords: WCM, Working Capital Management, working capital, collaboration, decisions and negative effects

Mitochondria are usually considered simply as the “powerhouses of the cell”, however in recent years it has become apparent that mitochondria are also of fundamental importance in programmed cell death (PCD), which refers to cell death resulting from a controlled, genetically defined pathway. In Arabidopsis, PCD induced by either heat shock or treatment with strong oxidants is found to be correlated with an early and irreversible change in mitochondrial morphology which manifests as an increase in the size of individual mitochondria. In addition, PCD causes a clustering of mitochondria and loss of motility. In this study, I have used two arginase negative mutant Arabidopsis lines (argah1-1 and argah2-1) which have elevated cellular NO concentrations to examine the effect of nitrosative stress on mitochondria undergoing PCD. Another three different Arabidopsis lines (mito-GFP/mTalin-mCherry, mito-GFP/MAP4-mCherry, mito- mCherry/EB1b-GFP) were used to visualize cytoskeletal elements alongside mitochondria to examine the mechanisms responsible for the mitochondrial morphology transition, clustering and motility inhibition. Results indicate that the elevated concentration of NO found in arginase negative mutants is not sufficient to induce PCD. There was no significant mitochondrial morphology or dynamic change detected between arginase negative mutants and wild type plants, with or without a heat shock. Disruption of either actin or microtubule (MT) cytoskeletal elements leads to the formation of mitochondrial clusters, although they showed different cluster morphology and sizes. Mitochondrial clusters were observed to be moving along the remaining actin cables after a mild heat treatment or cytoskeletal depolymerizing drug treatment. Intact microtubules or MT plus ends visualized with EB1b did not show any interaction with mitochondria under normal conditions. However, after a mild heat stress, EB1b appeared to be associated with clusters of enlarged, possibly swollen mitochondria.

This paper presents the results of a critical discourse analysis of a selection of Canada’s security texts and argues that the country’s security discourses construct Muslims as dangerous and different from the normative Canadian. The research relies on a social constructionist understanding of discourse and the recognition that our state’s representatives and agents, operating from positions of discursive power, wield disproportionate influence in directing the national conversation and managing the signals that shape our social attitudes and imaginaries. By persistently qualifying terrorism with Islam, portraying the terrorist figure as a religiously and ideologically-motivated actor opposed to ‘Western values’ and by casting suspicion on the ordinary behaviour of Muslims, Canada’s security discourses produce a mental model in which Islam and its followers are associated with a propensity for terrorist violence. The discourses also naturalize the idea that Muslims are in need of surveillance, not only by the state’s agents, but by the public itself. When examined alongside a body of research illustrating Canada’s ‘visible minority’ population continues to be negatively affected by dominant group discrimination, the results of the study raise questions about the culpability of state representatives in the reproduction of ideas of difference which continue to inform the country’s social imaginary and hinder the equality and inclusivity of minority groups within the national collective.

The purpose of this experiment was to compare the effects of combining negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement during teaching with the effects of using positive reinforcement alone. A behavior was trained under two stimulus conditions and procedures. One method involved presenting the cue ven and reinforcing successive approximations to the target behavior. The other method involved presenting the cue punir, physically prompting the target behavior by pulling the leash, and delivering a reinforcer. Three other behaviors were trained using the two cues contingent on their occurrence. The results suggest that stimuli associated with both a positive reinforcer and an aversive stimulus produce a different dynamic than a situation that uses positive reinforcement or punishment alone.

This study analyzes negative particle variation (i.e., the variable presence or absence of the negative particle ne) in synchronous French chat discourse within a labovian-inspired framework. Selected morphosyntactic, lexical, and phonological constraints are considered. Multivariate analyses performed by GoldVarb 2001 revealed that subject type (i.e., NP, [- overt] subject environment, pronoun) and the phonological environment preceding the position of neregardless of its presence or absenceare determining factors in the variation. In addition, discursive-pragmatic effect was explored in a sub-sample of data. The results indicate that ne is seldom present in verbal negation during explanatory discourse style, yet it is very likely to be retained in ludic, emphatic, and proverbial styles.

Aim: The overall aim of this study is to describe experiences of, and the association between, fear of childbirth and birth experiences of women with fear ofchildbirth. Methods: In studies I, II, and IV, a reflective lifeworld approach based on phenomenological philosophy was used to describe women’s experiences of fear of childbirth (I), previous birth experiences (II), and fear of childbirth and of birth experience in a long-term perspective (IV). In study III, differences between women who reported fear of childbirth and those who did not were calculated using risk ratios with a 95 % confidence interval and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Data were collected from interviews with eight (I) and nine (II) pregnant women with intense fear of childbirth, and with six women who had sought care for intense fear of childbirth 7 to 11 years prior to the interview (IV), and via questionnaire from a sample of 763 women during pregnancy and again one year following birth (III). Findings: Fear of childbirth was described as “to lose oneself as a woman into loneliness” (I). Previous birth experience was described as “a sense of not being present in the delivery room and an incomplete childbirth experience” (II). Fear of childbirth was associated with a previous negative birth experience and a previous emergency caesarean section (III). From a long-term perspective, fear of childbirth and birth experience was described as “an effort to make all the pieces come together” (IV). Conclusions: This thesis generates evidence on the importance of previous birth experience for women with fear of childbirth, from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. These perspectives illustrate the complexity where women´s experiences in the delivery room are central. To avoid creating fear of childbirth, it is important that maternity care services focus on women’s birth experiences and critically evaluate care in relation to childbirth.

Il semblerait que la recherche d’un premier principe ne puisse ni aboutir une fois pour toutes ni être abandonnée. L’objectif est de montrer, d’une part, que cette tension travaille l’apophatisme de Plotin et la déconstruction de Derrida en y induisant des difficultés symétriques, et, d’autre part, que l’exploration de ces difficultés suggère une doctrine « intermédiaire » du premier principe intégrant la tension en question. Leurs philosophies reposent toutes deux sur une instance que son excès radical conduit à déborder l’être et l’originarité, mais le néoplatonicien et le déconstructeur interprètent ce débordement de façons diamétralement opposées. Le premier la comprend comme un aboutissement de la quête d’origine, tandis que le second y voit une invitation à dépasser cette quête. D’un côté, Plotin pense une arkhè que sa transcendance radicale rend difficile à déconstruire, mais qui devrait aussi interdire d’en garantir l’existence et la fonction. Sa volonté de maintenir cette garantie induit une série de perturbations, notamment autour du thème de la matière. D’un autre côté, la déconstruction du principe repose sur l’usage d’un schème principiel dénié. Pour le montrer, il faut élaborer une présentation générale de la pensée derridienne, qui révèle une tension culminant avec l’occultation de cet usage par un positionnement anti-principiel. Il s’agit de montrer que l’auto-dépassement de l’arkhè ne représente ni une garantie ni une abolition, qu’il peut être intégré dans une conception originale fondée sur certains éléments propres à chacun de nos auteurs, et qui articule un premier principe métaphysique à une ontologie et à une éthique. / It would seem that the search for a first metaphysical principle cannot either succeed once for all or be abandoned. The objective is to show, on one hand, that this tension works Plotinus’ apophatism and Derrida’s deconstruction by causing in it symmetric difficulties, and, on the other hand, that the exploration of these difficulties suggests an "intermediate" doctrine of the first principle, integrating the tension. Their philosophies rest both on something that its radical excess drives beyond being and origin, but they give diametrically opposite interpretations of this situation.The Neoplatonist understands it as a success of the quest for the first principle, whereas the deconstructionist sees it as an invitation to give up this quest. On one side, Plotinus tries to think an arkhè which its radical transcendence makes difficult to deconstruct, but that should also forbid guaranteeing its existence and its function. His will to maintain this guarantee causes disturbances, in particular in his theory of matter. On the other hand, the deconstruction of the first principle requires the use of a transcendental schema, which is yet partially denied by Derrida. To show this, it is necessary to elaborate a general presentation of derridean thought, which reveals a tension, peaking with the attempt to conceal the use of foundational methods.Our aim is to show that the auto-exceeding of the arkhè is neither a guarantee nor an abolition, and that it can be integrated into an original conception based on certain elements from each of our authors, which associates a first metaphysical principle with an ontology and an ethics.

This paper explores topic modeling via unsupervised non-negative matrix factorization. This technique is used on a variety of sources in order to extract salient topics. From these topics, hidden entity networks are discovered and visualized in a graph representation. In addition, other visualization techniques such as examining the time series of a topic and examining the top words of a topic are used for evaluation and analysis. There is a large software component to this project, and so this paper will also focus on the design decisions that were made in order to make the program developed as versatile and extensible as possible.

The survival of organizations is dependent upon their legitimacy since legitimacy provides them with access to valuable resources. Organizations do not possess legitimacy, but rather it is ascribed to them by the society they are in when their actions meet societal expectations. Fulfillment of these societal expectations requires the moral and practical obligations of organizations which we call Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). To show their CSR performance, organizations have increasingly adopted the practice of CSR reporting. In CSR reporting, organizations are expected by their stakeholders to disclose both positive and negative aspects. Although disclosing negative aspects can pose a threat to organization’s legitimacy, a third party reporting them may cause more severe damages to the legitimacy of the organization. Therefore, organizations are motivated to legitimize their negative aspects by using legitimation strategies. Using the typology of Coombs and Holladay (1996), in combination with the legitimation strategies by Hahn and Lülfs (2014) as our frameworks, and the non-financial reports of the top ten German chemical companies as our illustrative cases, we investigate and interpret the choice of legitimation strategies used by organizations to report different types of negative aspects in CSR reports. Our findings show that there is a clear pattern in the use of corrective action as a legitimation strategy for all types of negative aspects. Furthermore, we identified instances, where a new type of legitimation strategy, which we called shifting blame legitimation strategy was used. We interpreted our findings using analytical reasoning and theoretical framework such as the concept of symbolic and substantive approach to interpret our findings. Based on the findings, we concluded that the dominant pattern identified falls under the substantive approach, theoretically known for helping companies retain their legitimacy.