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<p>Synchrotron-based sulfur spectroscopy reveals a common concern for marine archaeological wood from seawater: accumulation of reduced sulfur compounds in two pathways. The distribution of sulfur species in the oak wood cell structure was mapped by scanning x-ray spectro-microscopy (SXM). Organically bound sulfur was found within lignin-rich parts, identified mainly as thiols and disulfides by sulfur K-edge x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. Particles of iron sulfides, which may form in the presence of corroding iron, appeared in wood cavities. Cores scanned by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) show that high sulfur accumulation is restricted to the surface layers for the Swedish shipwreck <i>Vasa</i>, while the distribution is rather uniform throughout the hull timbers of the <i>Mary Rose</i>, U.K. Laboratory experiments, exposing fresh pine to simulated seabed conditions, show that the organically bound sulfur develop in reactions between lignin, exposed by cellulose-degrading erosion bacteria, and hydrogen sulfide produced <i>in situ</i> by scavenging sulfate reducing bacteria. With bacteria inoculated from shipwreck samples also iron sulfides formed. The iron sulfides oxidise in high humidity, and are the probable main cause of the numerous outbreaks on the Vasa’s hull of acidic sulfate salts, which were identified by x-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The iron ions catalyse several wood-degrading oxidative processes. Multi-elemental analyses were performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ESCA). The present amounts of total S remaining in the <i>Vasa</i> and the <i>Mary Rose</i> are estimated to at least 2 tonnes. After the <i>Vasa´s</i> spray treatment with polyethylene glycol solutions ceased in 1979, the continuing oxidation processes are estimated to have produced 2 tonnes of sulfuric acid in the wood. Laboratory experiments to gently neutralize acidic <i>Vasa</i> wood by ammonia gas have been conducted with promising results.</p>

<p>We present a method for stable buildup of snow on surfaces of</p><p>arbitrary topology and geometric complexity. This is achieved by</p><p>tracing quantities of snow, so-called snow packages,</p><p>through a dynamic wind field. Dual compact level sets are used to</p><p>represent geometry as well as accumulated snow. The level sets</p><p>have also proven to be well suited for the internal boundaries for</p><p>our Navier-Stokes solver, which produces a wind field that changes</p><p>according to snow buildup. Our method is different from previous</p><p>work in that all the addition of snow is done by local operations,</p><p>avoiding computationally expensive global refinement procedures.</p><p>The main contribution of this work is a dual level set method for</p><p>particle interaction with level sets.</p>

The close proximity of the Nicoya Peninsula to the Cocos-Caribbean Subduction zone plate boundary makes it a prime location to use GPS to study episodic tremor and slip. Nicoya Peninsula currently has operating networks of both continuous GPS (CGPS) and seismic stations designed to identify and characterize the pattern of episodic tremor and slip (ETS) events along the seismogenic zone under Costa Rica's Pacific Margin. The occurrence of slow slip events has been previously postulated in this region based on correlated fluid flow and seismic tremor events recorded near the margin wedge in 2000 and from sparse GPS observations in 2003. Paucity of data prevented details of these events from being resolved. In May 2007 a slow slip event was recorded on our densified GPS network. This slow slip event was also accompanied by seismic tremor, worked up by colleagues at the University of California - San Diego. I will present the GPS time series, correlated with the seismic tremor for the event in May 2007. I will also present the inferred pattern of slip on the plate interface from elastic half space inversion modeling compared with the tremor and Low Frequency Earthquake (LFE) locations. The geodetic slip and seismic tremor co-locate temporally very well. Spatially the seismic tremor and LFE locations are offset but not independent of both the up dip and down dip patches of geodetic slip. The identification of these slow slip events enhances our understanding of the nuances of the interseismic period. Previous studies of the interseismic strain accumulation patterns in the region of the Nicoya Peninsula have not accounted for the occurrence of slow slip, thus underestimating the magnitude of locking on the fault plane. My study resolves this bias by using our CGPS network to estimate the interseismic surface velocity field, accounting for the May 2007 slow slip event. I will present the results of this velocity field estimation and the results of inversions for locking patterns on the fault plane. My study has also elucidated a potential temporal variability in the locking pattern on the fault plane beneath Nicoya.

The thesis applies a modification of the concept of landscape to embody physical settings, social behaviour and affixed meanings. The argument focuses on both how a specific environment was created as well as perceived on four Estonian islands from the late seventeenth century until the present. Islands have clear natural boundaries, and thus they comprise well-defined entities. Physical environment is seen as an important factor in the formation of home and identity. Island life in Estonia was on the background of complicated power relations dominated by foreign ruling classes less restricted, and historically the islanders had better opportunities for gaining a livelihood. They were thus part of a common Baltic Sea world often passed by in native Estonian research, which has concentrated on mainland farming traditions. Living conditions on the islands were drastically changed by Soviet occupation after the Second World War when they came to belong to the strictly regulated border area towards the West. The occupation is seen as a focal point of the thesis lending it a before and after perspective. The local variation was great and therefore island communities and landscapes are critically examined in a long-term perspective focusing on settlement history, the outward signs of belonging to a place (kinship, way of doing things, skills, dialect, humour, traditions) and on landscape biography. It is argued that constant change was accommodated in the mental picture, but an abrupt one caused an idealisation of national cultural values. The mythical elements are examined after first establishing the content of the islescapes of home and of popular islescapes of the 1930s. At present, people are in the process of renewing contacts and revising their islescapes of memory and imagination into possible futures.

This thesis is the result of investigations regarding the processes in InAs III-V semiconductor surfaces induced by additional charge incorporated by adsorbates. The aim of the project is to study the development of the accumulation layer on the metal/InAs(111)A/B surfaces and its electronic structure. InAs(111)A is indium-terminated and InAs(111)B is arsenic-terminated. In addition, InAs(100) is also studied. These three substrates are different; InAs(111)A has a (2x2)-termination, explained by an indium vacancy model, and the clean surface exhibits a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). InAs(111)B(1x1) is bulk-truncated and unreconstructed and does not host a 2DEG. InAs(100)(4x2)/c(8x2) exhibits a more covalent character of the surface bonds compared to InAs(111)A/B, and the surface is terminated by a complex reconstruction. Photoelectron spectroscopy and LEED (low energy electron diffraction) have been used as the main tools to study surfaces with sub-monolayer to monolayer amounts of adsorbates. A photoemission peak related to a two-dimensional electron gas appears close to the Fermi level. This 2DEG has in most cases InAs bulk properties, since it is located in the InAs conduction band. A systematic study of core levels and valence bands reveals that the appearance of the 2DEGs is a complex process connected to the surface order. Adsorption of lead, tin or bismuth on InAs(111)B(1x1) induces emission from a 2DEG, but only at monolayer coverage and when the surface is ordered. Cobalt reacts strongly with InAs forming InCo islands and no accumulation is observed. Examination of Cs/InAs(111)B does not reveal any 2DEG and the surface reaction is strongly related to the clean surface stabilization process. Examination of the In-terminated InAs(111)A(2x2) surface shows that In reacts strongly with cobalt and tin adatoms and with oxygen in cases of large exposure, which decreases the 2DEG intensity, while adatoms of cesium and small doses of oxygen enhance the emission from the 2DEG. InAs(100) is terminated with one kind of atom - the InAs(100)(4x2)/c(8x2) is indium terminated. Bismuth creates dimers on the surface and a 2DEG is observed. More generally, this thesis describes some of the general physical background applied to surface science and 2DEG. The first part is a general overview of the processes on the surface. The second part concentrates on the methods related to preparation of samples, and the third part on the measurement methods. The photoelectron spectroscopy part concerns the theory used in mapping electronic structure. The inserted figures are taken from different experiments, including results for InAs(111)A not previously published. / QC 20100910

Synchrotron-based sulfur spectroscopy reveals a common concern for marine archaeological wood from seawater: accumulation of reduced sulfur compounds in two pathways. The distribution of sulfur species in the oak wood cell structure was mapped by scanning x-ray spectro-microscopy (SXM). Organically bound sulfur was found within lignin-rich parts, identified mainly as thiols and disulfides by sulfur K-edge x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. Particles of iron sulfides, which may form in the presence of corroding iron, appeared in wood cavities. Cores scanned by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) show that high sulfur accumulation is restricted to the surface layers for the Swedish shipwreck Vasa, while the distribution is rather uniform throughout the hull timbers of the Mary Rose, U.K. Laboratory experiments, exposing fresh pine to simulated seabed conditions, show that the organically bound sulfur develop in reactions between lignin, exposed by cellulose-degrading erosion bacteria, and hydrogen sulfide produced in situ by scavenging sulfate reducing bacteria. With bacteria inoculated from shipwreck samples also iron sulfides formed. The iron sulfides oxidise in high humidity, and are the probable main cause of the numerous outbreaks on the Vasa’s hull of acidic sulfate salts, which were identified by x-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The iron ions catalyse several wood-degrading oxidative processes. Multi-elemental analyses were performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ESCA). The present amounts of total S remaining in the Vasa and the Mary Rose are estimated to at least 2 tonnes. After the Vasa´s spray treatment with polyethylene glycol solutions ceased in 1979, the continuing oxidation processes are estimated to have produced 2 tonnes of sulfuric acid in the wood. Laboratory experiments to gently neutralize acidic Vasa wood by ammonia gas have been conducted with promising results.

The aim of this paper is to investigate if a revaluation of the Chinese renminbi is in China’s interest and whether or not a renminbi revaluation can contribute to correct the US current account deficit. For that purpose, advantages and disadvantages of a revaluation for China are discussed. Furthermore, the fundamental causes of the US current account deficit are analysed to evaluate to what extent a renminbi revaluation can correct this imbalance. The discussion is based on previous research in this area. The main result is that a revaluation of the Chinese renminbi is primarily beneficial for China. Additionally it is found that the fundamental causes of the US current account deficit are domestic macroeconomic conditions and not China’s exchange rate policy. Nevertheless, a renminbi revaluation can help to support to correct the imbalance situation. As evidence is found that a revaluation is beneficial for China, it is further analysed how the revaluation should be practically obtained. The basic result is that the renminbi revaluation should be initiated by more exchange rate flexibility rather than by a one-step appreciation.

There is something happening in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. There is an economic boom and the GDP is growing. But, what causes the economy to grow? Is the explanation factor accumulation or is there a technologic growth. The long-term growth in East Asia from 1960 to 1997 was misinterpreted by many. The purpose of this thesis is to determine how large the total factor productivity growth has been in Central Eastern Europe and the Baltic States between 1996 and 2001. The stated purpose is being tested by using growth accounting. The result differs between countries; some countries have a strong technological growth while others’ GDP growth is dependent on factor accumulation. The result of the latter, if it will continue, is a downturn in the GDP growth since it is not viable in the long term. / Vad är det som händer i Centrala Östeuropa och de Baltiska staterna? Deras ekonomier växer, men frågan är vad tillväxten kommer ifrån. Är det faktorackumulation eller teknologisk tillväxt? Den långvariga tillväxten i Östra Asien från 1960-talet fram till slutet av 1990-talet misstolkades av många. I den här uppsatsen undersöks vad som ligger till grund för tillväxten i de tidigare kommunistländerna. Med hjälp av ”growth accounting” estimeras vad var och en av kapital, arbetskraft och teknologisk utveckling bidrar med till utvecklingen. Resultatet var inte likartat för alla undersökta länder. Vissa länder hade en stark teknologisk tillväxt under den undersökta perioden, medan andra länders tillväxt enbart berodde på faktorackumulation. Resultatet av den senare, om detta kommer att fortsätta, är att tillväxten kommer att avta då faktorackumulerad tillväxt inte är långsiktig.

Most clonal plants exhibit a modular structure at multiple levels. At the level of the organs, they are characterized by functional modules, such as, internodes, leaves, branches. At the level of the genetic individual (clone or genet), they possess independent evolutionary and physiological units (ramets). These evolutionary units arise through the widespread phenomenon of clonal reproduction, achieved in a variety of ways including rhizomes, stolons, bulbils, or lateral roots. The focus of this study was Populus tremuloides, trembling aspen, a dioecious tree that reproduces sexually by seed and asexually through lateral roots. Local forest patches in western populations of Populus tremuloides consisted largely of multiple genotypes. Multi-clonal patches were dominated by a single genotype, and in one population (Riske Creek) we found several patches (five out of 17) consisting of a single genotype. A second consequence of modularity is that during the repeated cycle of ramet birth, development and death, somatic mutations have the opportunity to occur. Eventually, the clone becomes a mosaic of mutant and non-mutant cell lineages. We found that neutral somatic mutations accumulated across 14 microsatellite loci at a rate of between 10^-6 and 10^-5 per locus per year. We suggest that neutral genetic divergence, under a star phylogeny model of clonal growth, is an alternative way to estimate clone age. Previous estimates of clone age couple the mean growth rate per year of shoots with the area covered by the clone. This assumes a positive linear relationship between clone age and clone size. We found, however, no repeatable pattern across our populations in terms of the relationship of either shape or size to the number of somatic changes. A final consequence of modularity is that during clonal growth, natural selection is relaxed for traits involving sexual function. This means that mutations deleterious to sexual function can accumulate, reducing the overall sexual fitness of a clone. We coupled neutral genetic divergence within clones with pollen fitness data to infer the rate and effect of mildly deleterious mutations. Mutations reduced relative sexual fitness in clonal aspen populations by about 0.12x10^-3 to 1.01x10^-3 per year. Furthermore, the decline in sexual function with clone age is evidence that clonal organisms are vulnerable to the effects of senescence.