No description available.

Nanocrystalline £\-Zr condensates deposited by ion beam sputtering on the NaCl (100) surfaces and then annealed at 100 oC to 750 oC in air. The phases present were identified by transmission electron microscopy to be nanometer-size £\-Zr+ZrO¡B£\-Zr+ZrO+c-ZrO2¡Bc-ZrO2¡Bc-+t-ZrO2¡Bt-ZrO2¡Band t-+m-ZrO2 phase assemblages with increasing annealing temperature. The zirconia showed strong {100} preferred orientation due to parallel epitaxy with NaCl (100) when annealed between 150 oC and 500 oC in air. The c- and t-zirconia condensates also showed (111)-specific coalescence among themselves. The c- and/or t-ZrO2 formation can be accounted for by the small grain size, the presence of low-valence Zr cation and the lateral constraint of the neighboring grains.

none

Vårdpersonal har i studier beskrivits utsättas för stress, emotionell utmattning samt utbrändhet genom lågt inflytande eller låg kontroll över ställda krav. Studier inom offentlig verksamhet visar också att det finns arbetstagare som befunnit sig i arbetsplatsinlåsning, yrkesinlåsning eller i dubbelinlåsning. Denna enkätstudie ämnade att med mätinstrumentet Psykosocial arbetsmiljökartläggning (PAK) mäta två klinikers psykosociala arbetsmiljö hos 109 undersköterskor och skötare på ett sjukhus i Mellansverige. Studien ämnade även att mäta om arbetsplatsinlåsning, yrkesinlåsning samt dubbelinlåsning förekom och om det fanns ett samband mellan den psykosociala arbetsmiljön och inlåsningsbegreppen. Resultatet av den psykosociala arbetsmiljöns mätning visade att egenkontroll, arbetsledning och arbetsbelastning skattades lågt medan stimulans och arbetsgemenskap skattades positivt. Antal inlåsta individer översteg 20 % på alla inlåsningsbegrepp. Studien fann även ett statistiskt signifikant samband mellan begreppet psykosocial arbetsmiljö och arbetsplats/-yrkesinlåsning samt dubbelinlåsning. Studien bör gå vidare med kvalitativ metodik, att hos arbetstagarna ta reda på de bakomliggande orsakerna till studiens resultat.

U.S. money market securities have been found to exhibit behavior consistent with preferred habitat for liquidity around year-ends (Griffiths and Winters (1997, 2004)). In particular, repurchase agreement and commercial paper yields tend to increase when the security begins to mature across the end of the year, and return to normal levels after the year-end obligations have been paid but before the calendar year-end. The competing hypothesis, window dressing by financial intermediaries around disclosure dates, requires that the increase in yields be sustained until after the turn of the year. This study is aimed at finding whether the behavior of international money markets around year-ends and quarter-ends is more consistent with preferred habitat for liquidity or window dressing. This is done by analyzing changes in LIBOR for different currencies around quarter-ends. A second part of the study considers the effect of preferred habitat on the term structure of short-term interest rates. The expectations hypothesis of the term structure posits that future expected interest rates are implied by the current term structure. Empirical research suggests that the expectations hypothesis often does not hold, especially at the short end of the term structure. Preferred habitat for liquidity in short-term rates may be one of the reasons for the failure of expectations. The same LIBOR data set is used to test for the expectations in the presence of preferred habitat for liquidity. The empirical results of this study suggest that preferred habitat for liquidity in the short-term rates around quarter-ends and year-ends is not responsible for the failure of the expectations hypothesis in the data.

No description available.

Circular or Angular data occur in many fields of applied statistics. A common problem of interest in circular data is estimating a preferred direction and its corresponding distribution. This problem is complicated by the so-called wrap-around effect, which exists because there is no minimum or maximum on the circle. The usual statistics employed for linear data are inappropriate for directional data, as they do not account for the circular nature of directional data. Common choices for summarizing the preferred direction are the sample circular mean, and sample circular median. A newly proposed circular analog of the Hodges-Lehmann estimator is proposed, as an alternative estimate of preferred direction. The new measure of preferred direction is a robust compromise between circular mean and circular median. Theoretical results show that the new measure of preferred direction is asymptotically more efficient than the circular median and that its asymptotic efficiency relative to the circular mean is quite comparable. Descriptions of how to use the methods for constructing confidence intervals and testing hypotheses are provided. Simulation results demonstrate the relative strengths and weaknesses of the new approach for a variety of distributions. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Yvette D. Kuiper / Crystallographic Preferred Orientations (CPO) are common in deformed rocks, and usually result from crystal plastic deformation by dislocation creep. Whether deformation mechanisms that occur at lower differential stress and lower temperature than dislocation creep, such as Dissolution-Precipitation Creep (DPC), may result in the development of a CPO is less certain. DPC, a process also known as pressure-solution creep or dissolution creep, has caused substantial removal and reprecipitation of quartz within the Purgatory Conglomerate of Rhode Island. The conglomerate is exposed within the southeastern region of the Pennsylvanian Narragansett basin and experienced folding during the Alleghanian orogeny. Strain within the southeastern portion of the Narragansett basin increases from west to east and is associated with a metamorphic gradient from very low grade greenschist facies in the west to the lower biotite zone in the east. Within the Pugatory Conglomerate DPC has led to the dissolution of quartz along cobble surfaces perpendicular to the shortening direction, and to be precipitated as overgrowths at the ends of the cobbles (strain shadows), parallel to the maximum extension direction. This offers a unique opportunity to study the effects of dissolution and precipitation separately, because the quartz grains within the cobbles experienced dissolution only, while precipitation occurred in the strain shadows. Cathodoluminescence (CL) analysis was conducted on regions within the strain shadow in order to determine what amount of the quartz was formed authigenically. The results suggest that quartz-rich areas of the strain shadow were comprised primarily of authigenic quartz and formed channels or wedges. Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) analysis was used to test whether quartz dissolution processes within the cobbles and/or quartz precipitation within the strain shadows resulted in CPO development. Quartz grain c-axis orientations of various domains within the cobbles and strain shadows indicate that CPO patterns are absent in both domains of dissolution and of precipitation irrespective of the degree of strain or metamorphic grade. The existence of discrete mica selvages along the cobble margins suggests that quartz dissolution only occurred along the cobble surface and did not affect the grains, or result in a CPO, within the cobble's interior. Quartz precipitation within the strain shadows did not result in a CPO, probably because the strain shadows are truly localized regions of low strain with little to no differential stress, allowing quartz grain growth in random orientations. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Geology and Geophysics.

Since 2011, the Institute of Petrology and Structural Geology, Charles University in Prague, worked with CIP - Computer Integrated Polarization microscopy as fast, inexpensive measurement of c-axis orientation of uniaxial minerals, mostly quartz in high definition. CIP method is developed from the early nineties in Switzerland (Heilbronner & Pauli 1993) and later in many other workplaces. The aim of this work was testing and calibration of optical and camera equipment to verify the accuracy and reliability of data obtained. Served as an independent measurement of EBSD (Electron Backscatter Diffraction) data obtained from the same part of the studied thinsections. The data obtained were analyzed by quantitative analysis of microstructures (PolyLX - MATLABTM toolbox; Lexa 2003). The samples used for testing the methodology mentioned were taken on the profile of Hvězdná and Zdobnice near Rokytnice in the Eagle Mountains by contact orlica-snieznik complex and its mantle. Field studies showed the existence of west dipping shear zone along the said contact and deformed orthogneiss show a macroscopic superposition of several deformation events. The resulting frequency histograms similarities and differences of angles c-axes and angles misorientace grains have a high consensus in the azimuthal criterion, axes...