Approved for public release / This research was part of an ongoing program studying the concept of multi-material dielectrics (MMD) with dielectric constants much higher than homogenous materials. MMD described in this study have dielectric constants six orders of magnitude greater than the best single materials. This is achieved by mixing conductive particles with an insulating surface layer into a composite matrix phase composed of high surface area ceramic powder and aqueous electrolyte. Specifically examined in this study was micron-scale nickel powder treated in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) loaded into high surface area alumina powder and aqueous boric acid solution. This new class of dielectric, composite electrolyte dielectrics (CED), is employed in an electrostatic capacitor configuration and demonstrated dielectric constant of order 10 [raised to the 10th power] at approximately 1 Volt. Additionally, it is demonstrated that treated nickel can be loaded in high volume fractions in the CED configuration. Prior studies of composite capacitors indicated a general limitation due to shorting. This results from the onset of percolation due to excess loading of conductive phases. Insulated particles described herein are successfully loaded up to 40% by volume, far above typical percolation thresholds. Simple models are presented to explain results. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Objectionability and relative ineffectiveness The purpose of my thesis is to analyse the notion of relative ineffectiveness, the institute of private law, which serves as a protection of the creditor against the certain legal acts of his debtor. This institute was known as objectionability before the new civil code came into effect. The aim of this paper is to explain the importance of relative ineffectiveness and to distinguish this institute from the sanctions of the defective legal act. The first chapter of my thesis deals with the notion of legal act and its elements which are essential for the existence of the valid and effective legal act. The subsequent parts examine the results of the situations in which the requirements to elements of legal act are not fulfilled. The chapter Two deals with the defects of legal act causing its nonexistence. The following chapter Three concerns the sanction of invalidity and the chapter Four explains the notion of ineffectiveness. The explanation of those sanctions is important for its mutual differentiation and for the subsequent analysis of the institute of relative ineffectiveness, because only valid and effective legal act can be pronounced by court as relatively ineffective. After analysis of different types of sanctions of defective legal act, the...

Several factors impact the light irradiance and relative illumination produced by a lens system at its image plane. In addition to cosine-fourth-power radiometric law, image and pupil aberrations and light vignetting also count. We use an irradiance transport equation to derive a closed form solution that provides insight into how individual aberration terms affect the light irradiance and relative illumination. The theoretical results are in agreement with real ray tracing. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

We investigated the potential for using long-archived wood samples extracted from archaeological contexts at four Mississippian Period (AD 900–1600) settlements in eastern Tennessee for tree-ring dating purposes. Sixteen wood samples recovered from prehistoric sites were analyzed to: (1) crossmatch samples from each site with the intent of determining the relative chronological order of sites, (2) establish a floating prehistoric tree-ring chronology for eastern Tennessee, (3) determine the applicability of dendrochronology in prehistoric archaeology in eastern Tennessee, and (4) establish a strategy for future research in the region. We succeeded in crossmatching only three of the 16 tree-ring sequences against each other, representing two sites relatively close to each other: Upper Hampton and Watts Bar Reservoir. The average interseries correlation of these three samples was 0.74 with an average mean sensitivity of 0.26, and they were used to create a 131-year-long floating chronology. The remaining samples contained too few rings (15 to 43) for conclusive crossmatching. Our results demonstrate that dendrochronological techniques may be applied to the practice of prehistoric archaeology in the Southeastern U.S., but highlight the challenges that face dendroarchaeologists: (1) poor wood preservation at prehistoric sites, (2) too few rings in many samples, (3) the lack of a reference chronology long enough for absolute dating, and (4) the lack of a standard on-site sampling protocol to ensure the fragile wood samples remain intact.

Aim: To illuminate relatives need of support when caring for or supporting a person suffering from mental illness Background: Relatives of a person suffering from mental illness have different needs. It has for the past few years merely been little improvements in the relative's situation. Methods: Focus group interviews with fourteen relatives. Data were analyzed through manifest content analysis. Findings: Three categories were found: Functioning contact channels to the psychiatric health care organization, Need of an active support from the psychiatric health care organization and Need of support from community resources. Conclusion: The relatives need more attention and understanding for their situation. The support of relatives must be designed and monitored individually. A collaboration or a well-functioning relation with the psychiatric nurses, other professionals working in the health care organisation and social services gives a mutual respect and trust which in turn leads to that the relative is confirmed as an important resource in the care of the mentally ill person. The relatives need an increased support and understanding from the community.

Thesis advisor: John E. Ebel / Large magnitude offshore passive margin earthquakes are rare, making small magnitude events (M < 4) the predominant data available to study the mechanisms of seismicity along passive margins. This study is focused on a swarm of events (M2.1-M3.9) that occurred from 2012-2013 located in the Gulf of Maine (GM) along the Atlantic Passive Margin (APM) shelf break, a region with previously minimal recorded seismic activity. Relative locations were calculated for the earthquakes of the GM swarm and a moment tensor inversion method was used to calculate focal mechanisms for the two largest events in the swarm. The results of the relative location method constrained a fault orientation to a strike of 243° ± 3° and a dip of 25° ± 3°. The focal mechanisms for the two largest events were determined to be oblique normal faults with steeply dipping planes at depths between 12-18 km. For the largest event (M3.9), the strike is 235° ± 1°, with a dip of 77.7° ± .8° and a rake of -116.5° ± 3°, and for the second largest event (M3.7) the strike is 259° ± 3°, with a dip of 78° ± 2° and a rake of -58.8° ± 7°. By mapping the spatial extent of the relative hypocenters, I infer a potential fault size of 2.7 km by 2.4 km. If this entire area were to rupture at once in the future, an earthquake of M4.9-M5.0 could occur, a magnitude not large enough to be tsunamigenic in the GM. Based on Gutenberg-Richter relations from the eastern APM, if a M7 can occur in the GM, its estimated mean repeat time is 2,120-22,800 years, and it could be tsunamigenic depending on the event’s proximity to the continental slope. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Thesis advisor: Ina V.S. Mullis / Equity in educational outcomes, particularly reading, is an important policy issue in countries around the world. This dissertation used data from PIRLS 2006 to explore an approach to measuring equity in reading achievement internationally at the fourth grade. Relative risk ratios were selected as a measurement approach and were used to create a composite measure, the Relative Risk-Percentage (RRP) Equity Index, to compare equity in reading achievement across countries. This index was used to present the likelihood of scoring below the PIRLS 2006 Low International Benchmark for student groups that were traditionally at risk for low reading achievement compared to other students. The `at risk' student groups that were the focus of this study included those with low parental education, who spoke a language other than the language of instruction, who attended urban or rural schools, and who were boys. To complement the RRP Equity Index results, the relative likelihood of students scoring within the lower 20 percent of their country's reading achievement distribution was also presented. The results of these analyses showed that students with these characteristics were more likely than other fourth grade students to have low reading achievement in a number of the PIRLS 2006 countries. Overall, having parents with less than secondary education and not speaking the language of the test before starting school were associated with inequity in reading achievement in the largest number of PIRLS 2006 countries. As an example of how individual countries could further explore potential reasons for inequities in reading achievement highlighted by the RRP Equity Index, logistic regression models were built for Germany, Iran, and Romania. These models explored the extent to which statistically controlling for differences in resources could diminish the effect of being in an `at risk' group on reading achievement. In all three countries examined, resources explained a substantial proportion of the risk for low reading achievement. Though the logistic regression model results were country-specific, lacking books in the home was strongly associated with lower reading achievement in all three countries. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

This thesis focuses on probabilistic associative learning. One of the classic effects in this field is the stimulus associability effect for which I derive a statistically optimal inference model and a corresponding approximation that addresses a number of problems with the original account of Mackintosh. My proposed account of associability - a variable learning rate depending on a relative informativeness of stimuli - also accounts of the classic blocking effect \cite{kamin1969predictability} without the need for Prediction Error [PE] computation. Given that blocking was the main impetus for placing PE at the centre of learning theories, I critically re-evaluate other evidence for PE in learning, particularly the recent neuroimaging evidence. I conclude that the brain data are not as clear cut as often presumed. The main shortcoming of the evidence implicating PE in learning is that probabilistic associative learning is mostly described as a transition from one state of belief to another, yet those beliefs are typically observed only after multiple learning episodes and in a very coarse manner. To address this problem, I develop an experimental paradigm and accompanying statistical methods that allow one to infer the beliefs at any given point in time. However, even with the rich data provided by this new paradigm, the blocking effect still cannot provide conclusive evidence for the role of PE in learning. I solve this problem by deriving a novel conceptualisation of learning as a flow in probability space. This allows me to derive two novel effects that can unambiguously distinguish learning that is driven by PE from learning not driven by PE. I call these effectsgeneralized blocking and false blocking, given their inspiration by the original paradigm of Kamin (1969). These two effects can be generalized to the entirety of probability space, rather than just the two specific points provided by the paradigms used by Mackintosh and Kamin, and therefore offer greater sensitivity to differences in learning mechanisms. In particular, I demonstrate that these effects are necessary consequences of PE-driven learning, but not learning based on the relative informativeness of stimuli. Lastly I develop an online experiment to acquire data on the new paradigm from a large number (approximately 2000) of participants recruited via social media. The results of model fitting, together with statistical tests of generalized blocking and false blocking, provide strong evidence against a PE-driven account of learning, instead favouring the relative informativeness account derived at the start of the thesis.

Background: About 80 percent of the people dying in Sweden are considered to have been in need of palliative care. When death is approaching, due to age or illness, the ill person's and the relatives' needs must be met which is the main aim of palliative care. It has been increasingly common that people choose to be cared for in their own home in the end of life and therefore knowledge of the relatives' experience is important for the healthcare professionals. Aim: To highlight relatives' experience of palliative care at the end of life in the dying person's home. Method: A literature review based on qualitative studies. Eight articles were analyzed in five steps according to Friberg's qualitative content analysis for literature based studies. Results: Three main themes and six sub-themes emerged through the analysis. The main themes were: To fulfill a wish, To experience security and To be a caregiver. Conclusion: In order for relatives to feel confirmed as caregivers and to preserve a good health it is of great importance that the nurse communicates and makes them feel involved by giving them both support, information and the possibility to participate in the care but also to be unloaded. / Denna studie beskriver hur närstående upplever palliativ vård i hemmet vid livets slutskede. I Sverige väljer allt fler personer att vårdas i sitt hem den sista tiden i livet, vilket innebär att det också är fler närstående som är i behov av vård då även deras hälsa påverkas. Därför är kunskap om de närståendes upplevelser viktig för sjukvården. Resultatet i studien baseras på åtta vetenskapliga artiklar där studiens resultat presenteras i tre huvudteman och sex subteman. Resultatet visade att närstående upplevde ett krav och en förväntan att uppfylla den döende personens önskan. De kände även ett behov av att få stöd och information från sjuksköterskan, men också att vara delaktiga och bli bekräftade. Vårdandet påverkade både de närståendes hälsa och relationen till den döende personen, men genom att sjuksköterskan fanns där som ett stöd för dem kunde den betydelsefulla relationen mellan den döende personen och dennes närstående bevaras. Därför har sjuksköterskans närvaro en betydande roll i hur närstående upplever den palliativa vården vid livets slutskede.