In the last decade, design and application of negative materials have been one of the most interesting subjects in the electromagnetic research. The extraordinary properties of double negative (DNG) and single negative (SNG) materials have been studied extensively over this period. In this thesis, one of the unusual properties of negative materials, the evanescent amplification, is used to improve the sensitivity of the near field probes. The effect of placing DNG and SNG layers between the near field probes and the targets are investigated theoretically. A sensitivity definition is introduced for evanescent probes and it is shown using quantitative measures that the sensitivity can be increased using DNG and SNG materials for a target in vacuum and for a buried target. The electromagnetic loss of the negative materials and the mismatch between the material properties of the host medium and DNG and SNG materials are studied. Using an unmatched DNG layer or SNG layer enhances the sensitivity within an evanescent spectrum range while a lossless and matched DNG layer improves the sensitivity of entire evanescent spectrum. The idea of using negative materials is implemented over conventional near field probes by numerical experiments. Sensitivities of open-ended waveguides and open-ended coaxial lines for a specific application are studied in the presence of negative materials. In the case of precursor pitting detection on airplane bodies, the sensitivity of an open-ended waveguide probe is increased by 35 times for a λ/10 sized cubic crack. It is also shown that the negative material increases the quality of the image generated by the probe. The sensitivity improvement is also verified for an open-ended coaxial line. A 11 times improvement is achieved for a similar detection practice, with a λ/20 sized crack. The effect of coaxial line size and the dielectric material on the sensitivity enhancement are studied. The improvement is studied theoretically and numerically for an electrically small dipole. Theoretical studies show that when a small dipole is placed within a spherical shell made of DNG materials, the antenna parameters of the dipole becomes more sensitive to the position of a target placed outside the negative material shell. The field distribution generated by a small dipole in a multilayered spherical medium is studied for this purpose. Numerical analysis of a small dipole placed next to a planar DNG layer is presented. The DNG layer increases the sensitivity of the dipole due to a λ/30 sized metallic target by 5.5 times. To provide experimental verification, the sensitivity of an electrically small loop is studied. SNG materials with a negative permeability around 1.25 GHz are designed using modified split ring resonators (MSRR). By using the effective parameters of the designed structure, a sensitivity improvement of 10 times is achieved numerically. The improvement is verified using fabricated MSRR structures. The sensitivity of the small loop is enhanced by 9 times for a λ/12.2 sized metallic target. The sensitivity improvements are achieved within the frequency band where the MSRR structures behave as a μ-negative SNG material.

In this paper I examine the validity of technical analysis for the Swedish stock index OMXS30 between 2001-12-28 and 2011-12-30.  Results indicate that OMXS30 followed a non-random walk and that technical trading rules had predictive power over future price movements. Results also suggest that technical trading rules could be used to outperform a buy-and-hold strategy.

I en single case experimental design (SCED) av crossover typ med fyra deltagare med insomni undersöktes möjligheten till att manipulera mängden negativa tankar innan insomning genom tillämpningen av två olika tankeexperiment, savoring och framkallad ruminering. Bland resultaten fanns signifikanta samband mellan mängd negativa tankar innan insomning och sömnkvalité, insomningslatens och antal uppvaknanden. Samband fanns även mellan mängd negativa tankar och obehag över tankarna. Dock visade det sig att experimenten inte påverkade mängden negativa tankar innan insomning då de sömnrelaterade faktorerna varierade oberoende av experiment. Variationen i de olika skattningarna på måtten gjorde att inga slutsatser kunde dras kring vad som orsakade sömnbesvären hos deltagarna eller vilken roll mängden negativa tankar hade för dessa. Resultatet diskuteras i förhållande till tidigare forskning. / The possibility of manipulating the amount of negative thoughts before sleep onset in four subjects with insomnia was investigated in a single case crossover experimental design (SCED). The attempt to change the amount of thoughts consisted of two experimental conditions, savoring and induced rumination. Significant correlations were found between the amount of negative thoughts before sleep onset and quality of sleep, sleep onset latency and number of awakenings. There were also correlations between the amount of negative thoughts and distress related to the thoughts. The experiments did, however, not influence the amount of negative thoughts before sleep onset. Conclusions concerning causal factors of the sleep difficulties and the impact of the amount of negative thoughts were made impossible by the large variability in the scores. The results are discussed in relation to previous research.

Internationell handel är snarare en regel än undantag i dagens globala samhälle, och en del av denna handel genomförs dagligen genom landsöverskridande kredittransaktioner. Som konsekvens av detta har standardavtal utvecklats på krediträttens område, med syfte att kunna användas av parter oavsett land. Dessa standardavtal är författade på engelska och utgår ifrån anglosaxisk rätt. Emedan kreditavtal, utformade enligt anglosaxisk standardavtalsmodell, är mycket omfattande är uppsatsens syfte att utreda i vilken mån dessa avtal kan förkortas och göras mer lätthanterliga. Syftet är även att ge parter som använder sig av kreditavtal, utformade efter nämnd standardavtalsmodell, en anvisning om hur utvalda delar i dessa avtal överensstämmer med svensk lag. Med ett förenklat avtal skulle berörda parter vinna tid och därmed göra ekonomisk vinning. Vidare skulle ett förenklat avtal, genom att bli kortare, bli mer lätthanterligt och därmed torde även missförstånd som skulle kunna leda till tvist lättare kunna undvikas. Uppsatsen kommer endast att behandla kreditavtal upprättade mellan enbart svenska parter. Uppsatsen kommer att utgå ifrån dels LMA:s standardkreditavtal och dels ett faktiskt kreditavtal mellan två svenska parter. Traditionell juridisk metod kommer att användas och således kommer den svenska lagstiftningen att vara den primära rättskällan, men även förarbeten, prejudikat och doktrin kommer att tas i beaktning. Kommersiella kreditavtals funktion och användning kommer att beskrivas, och dessutom kommer en diskussion att föras angående svensk rätts reglering på området. För att belysa de fördelar samt nackdelar som följer vid användning av dessa kreditavtal kommer kredittagares respektive kreditgivares perspektiv att ges. Vi ser en ökad användning av kommersiella standardkreditavtal utformade efter anglosaxisk avtalsmodell. Dock är dessa avtal omfattande och preciserade, därmed är en anpassning till svensk rätt är nödvändig för att dess användning ska vara befogad. Med en sådan anpassning torde dessa avtals användning i Sverige öka och kunna användas även vid mindre transaktioner.

The aim of this study was to examine differences between happy and unhappy people, with respect to individuals interpretations, their attributonal style and in what way the priming effect is related to their attributional style and well-being. The participants were 74 senior high school and 21 undergraduate college students. Participants were asked to read a short story, some words were in bold type, and thereafter for their subjective perception of the words in bold type loading and memory of them in a recognition list. Attributional style was operationalized with an own constructed instrument. The results show that happy individuals interpreted more words as positive than negative in comparission with unhappy individuals. No correlation between participants well-being and global or attributional style for negative events were found. Both groups showed a tendency to be more optimistic than pessimstic for positive events. No differences were found for either memory or priming of loaded words. In sum the results suggest that happy individuals tend to conceive the world more positive.

Av olika anledningar klarar inte alla föräldrar av att tillgodose sina barns behov vilket kan påverka barnen och deras utveckling negativt. För att få barnets perspektiv på hur det är att växa upp under sådana förhållanden genomför vi denna studie med syftet att få ökad kunskap och förståelse för hur det kan vara för ett barn att växa upp i en familj där föräldrar av olika anledningar brister i sin omsorgsförmåga. Det är en litteraturstudie baserad på självbiografier där numera vuxna personer retrospektivt beskriver hur de upplevt sin barndom. Vi har använt oss av narrativ metod eftersom det ger oss möjlighet att få en fördjupad förståelse av berättarens upplevelser. Våra resultat visar att det sker en förändring av roller i familjen och att barnen får axla mycket stort ansvar hemma. De tar hand om hushållet, syskon och även sina föräldrar. De upplever rädsla på grund av det oförutsägbara agerandet från sin förälder och utanförskap, speciellt i skolmiljö. Det sociala nätverkat kan vara avgörande för att stödja dem i deras liv och ge dem en positiv utveckling, tyvärr har samhället inte full ut kunnat ge dem det stöd de behöver. / For different reasons not all parents are capable of giving their children what they need and that may have a negative effect on children´s development. In order to get the children´s perspective we carry out this study. The aim of this study was to get more knowledge and understanding of children´s experiences of growing up in a family where the parenthood is lacking, based on autobiographies where now grownups describes their experiences of childhood in a retrospective. We use a narrative method because it allows us to reach a deeper understanding of their experiences. Our result shows that there i a change in roles in the family and that these children take on a big responsibility for their family and home. They take care of basic housework, their siblings and their parents. They experience fear because of the unpredictable behavior from their parents and alienation, especially in the school environment. The social network is crucial to support them and give their life and development a positive direction, but sorry to say the society haven´t been able to give them enough help.

<p>Negative differential conductivity (NDC) is a nonlinear property of electronic transport for high electric field strength found in materials and devices such as semiconductor superlattices, bulk GaAs and Gunn diodes. In spatially extended systems, NDC can cause rich dynamics such as static and mobile field domains and moving charge fronts. In this thesis, these phenomena are studied theoretically and numerically for semiconductor superlattices. Two classes of models are considered: a discrete model based on sequential resonant tunneling between neighboring quantum wells is used to described charge transport in weakly-coupled superlattices, and a continuum model based on the miniband transport is used to describe charge transport strongly-coupled superlattices.</p> <p>The superlattice is a spatially extended nonlinear system consisting a periodic arrangement of quantum wells (e.g., GaAs) and barriers (e.g., AlAs). Using a discrete model and only considering one spatial dimension, we find that the boundary condition at the injecting contact has a great influence on the dynamical behavior for both fixed voltage and transient response. Static or moving field domains are usually inevitable in this system. In order to suppress field domains, we add a side shunting layer parallel to the growth direction of the superlattice. In this case, the model includes both vertical and lateral spatial degrees of freedom. We first study a shunted weakly-coupled superlattice for a wide range of material parameters. The field domains are found to be suppressed for superlattices with small lateral size and good connection between the shunt and the quantum wells of the superlattice. As the lateral size of the superlattice increases, the uniform field configuration loses its stability to either static or dynamic field domains, regardless of shunt properties. A lower quality shunt generally leads to regular and chaotic current oscillations and complex spatio-temporal dynamics in the field profile. Bifurcations separating static and dynamic behaviors are characterized and found to be dependent on the shunt properties. Then we adopt the model to study the shunted strongly-coupled superlattice with the continuum model. Key structural parameters associated with both the shunt layer and SL are identified for which the shunt layer stabilizes a uniform electric field profile. These results support the possibility to realize a SL-based THz oscillator with a carefully designed structure.</p> <p>Another important behavior of the static field domains in the weakly-coupled superlattice is bistability, i.e., two possible states (i.e., electric field configurations) for a single voltage. Noise can drive the system from one of these states (the metastable state) to the other one (the globally stable state). The process of escape from the metastable state can be viewed as a stochastic first-passage process in a high-dimensional system that possesses complex stability eigenvalues and for which a global potential energy function does not exist. This process is simulated using a stochastic differential equation system which incorporates shot noise. The mean switching time &tau; is fitted to an exponential expression <italic>e</italic><super>(Vth-V)<super>&alpha;</super>/D</super>, where V_th denotes the voltage at the end of the current branch. The exponent &alpha; in the fitting curve deviates from 1.5 which is predicted for a generic one dimensional system. We develop an algorithm to determine an effective locally valid potential. Principal component analysis is applied to find the most probable path for switching from the metastable current state.</p> / Dissertation

A negative index material (NIM), which possesses simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability, is an emerging material that has caught many researchers attention after it was first demonstrated in 2001. It has been shown that electromagnetic waves propagating in NIMs have some remarkable properties such as negative phase velocities and negative refraction and hold enormous promise for applications in imaging and optical communications. This dissertation is centered on investigating the unique aspects of the radiative properties of NIMs. Photon tunneling, which relies on evanescent waves to transfer radiative energy, has important applications in thin-film structures, microscale thermophotovoltaic devices, and scanning thermal microscopes. With multilayer thin-film structures, photon tunneling is shown to be greatly enhanced using NIM layers. The enhancement is attributed to the excitation of surface or bulk polaritons, and depends on the thicknesses of the NIM layers according to the phase matching condition. A new coherent thermal emission source is proposed by pairing a negative permittivity (but positive permeability) layer with a negative permeability (but positive permittivity) layer. The merits of such a coherent thermal emission source are that coherent thermal emission occurs for both s- and p-polarizations, without use of grating structures. Zero power reflectance from an NIM for both polarizations indicates the existence of the Brewster angles for both polarizations under certain conditions. The criteria for the Brewster angle are determined analytically and presented in a regime map. The findings on the unique radiative properties of NIMs may help develop advanced energy conversion devices. Motivated by the recent advancement in scanning probe microscopy, the last part of this dissertation focuses on prediction of the radiation heat transfer between two closely spaced semi-infinite media. The objective is to investigate the dopant concentration of silicon on the near-field radiation heat transfer. It is found that the radiative energy flux can be significantly augmented by using heavily doped silicon for the two media separated at nanometric distances. Large enhancement of radiation heat transfer at the nanoscale may have an impact on the development of near-field thermal probing and nanomanufacturing techniques.

The preparation and thermophysical properties of some In(I), Ga(I) and Ag(I) substituted NZP type materials were explored. Many compositions with the NZP framework show low and negative thermal expansion. Previously reported material, GaZr2(PO4(3, transforms from one NZP related phase into another NZP type phase due to oxidation under air above 300oC. In addition, it exhibits hysteresis under inert atmosphere; the cell parameters are different on heating and cooling cycles for a given temperature. The synthesis, and characterization of a new material, InZr2(PO4)3, is outlined. It crystallizes in space group R -3 c. In addition, as GaZr2(PO4)3, it oxidizes above 300oC under air and exhibits hysteresis under inert atmosphere. Furthermore, the synthesis of AgTixZr2-x(PO4)3 solid solution compositions, their ion exchange characteristics with Ga(I) and their thermophysical properties are described. Thermal expansion anisotropy (the difference between a and c ) of the solid solutions decreases as the bigger ion, Zr4+, is substituted by the smaller one, Ti4+. Thermal expansion characteristics of GaZr2(PO4)3, InZr2(PO4)3 and AgZr2(PO4)3 are compared with MZr2(PO4)3 ( M = Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs). Ionic radii for Ga(I) and In(I) in a six coordinate oxygen environment were proposed.

This thesis focuses on the micromechanical modeling of particulate viscoelastic composite materials in the quasi-static frequency domain to approximate macroscopic damping behavior and has two main objectives. The first objective is the development of a robust frequency dependent multiscale model. For this purpose, the self-consistent (SC) mean-field micromechanical model introduced by Cherkaoui et al [J. Eng. Mater. Technol. 116, 274-278 (1994)] is extended to include frequency dependence via the viscoelastic correspondence principal. The quasi-static model is then generalized using dilute strain concentration tensor formulation and validated by comparison with complex bounds from literature, acoustic and static experimental data, and established models. The second objective is SC model implementation as a tool for the design of high loss materials. This objective is met by integrating the SC model into a Compromise Decision Support Protocol (CDSP) to explore the microstructural design space of an automobile windshield. The integrated SC-CDSP design space exploration results definitively indicate that one microstructural variable dominates structure level acoustic isolation and rigidity: negative stiffness. The work concludes with a detailed description of the fundamental mechanisms leading to negative stiffness behavior and proposes two negative stiffness inclusion designs.