Inaug.-diss.--Würzburg. / "Literatur": p. vii-x.

The purpose of this study is to find analytical solutions to Laplacian field problems rela-tive to arbitrary configurations of spheres based on novel translational addition theorems derived specifically for scalar Laplacian functions. These theorems are used to express in analytic form the fields due to individual spheres in system of coordinates attached to other spheres, thus allowing for the exact boundary conditions to be imposed. In the literature, translational addition theorems are available for scalar cylindrical and spherical wave functions. Such theorems are not directly available for the general solu-tion of the Laplace equation. This thesis presents the derivation of the required translational addition theorems for the general solution of Laplace equation in spherical coordinates and then the application of these theorems to find analytical solutions to some electrostatic and magnetostatic field problems relative to arbitrarily located spheres. Computation results for electric and magnetic spheres have been generated and numerical results are compared with the re-sults obtained by other methods available in the literature for two sphere systems. Such numerical data, of known accuracy, are also useful for validating various approximate numerical methods.

The purpose of this study is to find analytical solutions to Laplacian field problems rela-tive to arbitrary configurations of spheres based on novel translational addition theorems derived specifically for scalar Laplacian functions. These theorems are used to express in analytic form the fields due to individual spheres in system of coordinates attached to other spheres, thus allowing for the exact boundary conditions to be imposed. In the literature, translational addition theorems are available for scalar cylindrical and spherical wave functions. Such theorems are not directly available for the general solu-tion of the Laplace equation. This thesis presents the derivation of the required translational addition theorems for the general solution of Laplace equation in spherical coordinates and then the application of these theorems to find analytical solutions to some electrostatic and magnetostatic field problems relative to arbitrarily located spheres. Computation results for electric and magnetic spheres have been generated and numerical results are compared with the re-sults obtained by other methods available in the literature for two sphere systems. Such numerical data, of known accuracy, are also useful for validating various approximate numerical methods.

Inaug.-diss.--Würzburg. / "Literatur": p. vii-x.

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that possess embryonic stem (ES) cell-like properties are generated through the use of the Yamanaka transcription factors, OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and MYC (OSKM). Advanced transgene delivery methods utilizing non-integrating viruses for transduction of target cells has provided new opportunities for regenerative medicine in humans and other species. We sought to use this technology to generate equine iPS cells to address challenges in equine regenerative medicine. Umbilical cord matrix mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) were transduced with the non-integrating Sendai virus encoding for the OSKM transcription factors. The cells initially were cultured on mouse embryonic feeder cells supplemented with LIF (10 ng/mL) and FGF2 (4 ng/mL). Transduction generated 21 initial colonies. Of these, four survived beyond 20 passages. The transduced equine cells morphologically resembled ES cells and expressed cell surface antigens indicative of ES cells. Molecular evaluation revealed the cells maintained expression of endogenous OSKM while the exogenous OSK transgenes were extinguished, but MYC was maintained. The transduced equine cells did not express the ES marker NANOG, but did express the trophectoderm markers CDX2 and TFAP2A. Both OCT4 and CDX2 were colocalized to the nucleus. The transduced equine cells were termed equine induced trophoblast (iTr) cells. Culture of the iTr cell in suspension resulted in formation of blastocyst-like spheres rather than solid cell aggregates indicative of ES and iPS cells. The iTr cells were transitioned to a feeder free monolayer culture. Transformation of the iTr cells to the spherical arrangement stimulated expression of genes that mark differentiation of trophoblast cells and up-regulated 250 transcripts over the monolayer arrangement. The iTr monolayer arrangement up-regulated 50 transcripts compared to the spherical arrangement. The iTr spheres respond to BMP4, EGF, and FGF2 by phosphorylating signal transduction proteins. Addition of BMP4, EGF, or FGF2 in combined pairs was able to alter TFAP2A, NEU1, and SLC35A1 expression. The generation of iTr cells by transduction of the Yamanaka reprogramming factors is not unique to equine cells. However, this report marks the generation of the first equine trophoblast cell line capable of recapitulating early equine trophoblast development. The new iTr line could prove valuable in gaining greater understanding of equine trophectoderm development. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this thesis is to discover the meaning of, and relationship among, what Kierkegaard refers to in his writings as the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious spheres of existence. The sources consulted cover the majority of Kierkegaard's pseudonymous writings. In the first chapter it is shown that Kierkegaard developed the concept of spheres of existence in an effort to show that philosophical categories must be derived from the structure of existence rather than the structure of thought. Contrary to Hegel, Kierkegaard maintains that in existence thought and being can never be identified, but are dialectically related in the sense of being in dialogue with each other. It is the principle of mediation to which Kierkegaard most objects. The consequence of the identification of thought and being is to put them into an immediate relationship to each other and thereby remove from thought its traditional philosophical function of elucidating and directing being. Kierkegaard uses the word existence to refer to the giveness of being, the facticity of the individual. It is in recognizing that the Hegelian attitude toward the dialectical character of existence represents a possible mode of consciousness and that his own attitude represents an opposing mode that Kierkegaard distinguishes between the aesthetic and the ethical spheres of existence. The third sphere of existence, the religious, arises from the possibility that consciousness may relate itself to that which underlies existence, i.e. God. The identification of the spheres of existence with the self-conscious development of human subjectivity is further supported by Kierkegaard's discussion of the self in Sickness Unto Death. Kierkegaard maintains that if one is to secure a position in the flux that is existence, consciousness must cease to be passive and establish itself through resolution. Hence a sphere of existence is defined not only by its moce of consciousness but by its telos. In the second chapter it is shown that the aesthetic consciousness is an immediate, non-reflexive consciousness which has its telos in the external world. It reveals itself as an essentially unstable and unfree consciousness in that it is vulnerable to events over which it has no control. This vulnerability is the sign of despair, which is the occasion for consciousness to heal itself in self-choosing or abdicate its task to exercise itself as free spirit in the dialogue of thought and being. In the phenomenon of irony Kierkegaard finds an illustration of what he calls "boundary zones" to the spheres of existence, by which he means the consciousness of the ideal and all it involves without the choice of it. In the "boundary zone" there is no telos in the proper sense as consciousness entertains the telos of both spheres it bounds. In the third chapter ethical consciousness is seen to be a reflexive, self-choosing consciousness. The self that is chosen is personal existence, which reveals itself as given, in virtue of which one has a history and because of which one must repent. The ethical telos is the eternal validity of the self, which reveals itself as the universal human. Kierkegaard characterizes the ethical choice as absolute, and thus, even though the choice is of subjectivity, the qualification of absolute rules out the possibility of capricious and anarchic subjectivity. such an absolute choice, Kierkegaard believes, must give continuity to the self and must recognize its relation or dependence on something other than itself as it immediately is. With the subjectivity of choice arises the danger of temptation in the form of the possibility of a teleological suspension of the ethical. With this possibility arises the awareness that the self did not create itself but was created by Another, to Whom consciousness may establish a relationship. At this point consciousness may again enter a "boundary zone" of existence as the humorous consciousness, prior to the decision to relate itself to God. In the fourth chapter it is seen that consciousness, in its awareness of itself as dependent is also aware of itself as separated from that on which it defends, and hence that it can assume two attitudes toward this separation, that of resignation and that of faith. When the religious consciousness is characterized by resignation, Kierkegaard calls it religiousness A. When it is characterized by faith, he calls it religiousness B. In religiousness A the dialectical character of existence becomes fully explicit and consciousness becomes a sufferin; consciousness because the continuity it desires cannot be achieved in existence. Hence, in religiousness A consciousness resigns itself to a life of strife. In religiousness A consciousness has arrived as close to the truth as it is able through its own effort. Religiousness B is possible only if the condition for truth is given by God. The condition is faith, not as an exercise of thought, but as a mode of being. The temporality and finitude that characterized personal existence and separate it from its eternal happiness are made compatible with the religious telos in the person of Christ. That is, Christ is the only true mediction. However, Kierkegaard emphasizes that belief in this mediation is possible only at the offense of thought. In the last chapter it is asserted that the significance of Kierkegaard's conception of spheres of existence is that existence is not absurd, and that while man is not self-creating, he is self-choosing. / 2031-01-01

I have studied the effects of polydispersity on the phase behaviour of suspensions of PMMA colloidal spheres on their own and in the presence of non-adsorbed polymer. I systematically explored the volume fraction-polydispersity phase behaviour of hard spheres (with radii R =167, 244, 300 and 303nm) through direct observations and crystallography measurements. I observed normal crystallisation for sigma < 7:5%, and no crystals at sigma > 18%. Samples at sigma ~~ 9.5% showed crystal-fluid coexistence between 0:52 < phi < 0:56 but no fully crystalline be- haviour above this region. This may be explained by slow particle diffusion in the dense metastable fluid and a glass transition, possibly involving only the larger particles. The addition of random coil polymer (radius of gyration rg) to a suspension of single-sized spherical colloidal particles induces an attractive depletion potential which, for size ratios Xi = rg=R < 0:2, has the effect of expanding the crystal-fluid coexistence region. Surprisingly, when such a polymer solution (with Xi = 0:1), with a range of concentrations cp, is added to a polydisperse colloidal suspension (sigma ~~ 10%), crystal formation is actually suppressed. This can be explained by the fact that the polymer compresses the nascent crystal phase to volume fractions greater than the maximum phi permitted for polydisperse spheres. By modifying existing free energy equations to include the effects of colloidal polydispersity we also succeed in reproducing the observed phase diagram. Larger added polymer (Xi > 0:3) introduces a region of stable gas-liquid coexistence. In systems where crystallisation is suppressed due to polydispersity, this will theoretically be the only transition. By preparing many samples over a range of phi and cp this prediction was observed experimentally for Xi = 0:5. Fractionation studies on coexisting phases enabled verification of a recent universal law of fractionation in slightly polydisperse systems.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2005. / Title from title screen. Jeremy Crampton, committee chair; Christine Skwiot, Dona Stewart, committee members. Electronic text (116 p. : ill., maps (some col.)). Description based on contents viewed Apr. 27, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-116).

No description available.

A common characteristic of the theoretical developments within the field of social media marketing is that activities to which consumers devote themselves in social media settings shift power from firms to consumers. Extant literature has therefore analysed the practices of consumers within social media and their potential implications for marketing. The current state of social media, however, suggests that these settings are undergoing a process of transformation. Although social media were initially characterised as non-commercial in nature, firms have started to manage interactions within these digital landscapes. From initially being characterised by its social base, this development implies that social media have become increasingly commercialised. The aim of this dissertation is to expand the literature on social media by describing the process through which they evolve from their initially social character to a commercial utility. More specifically, it seeks to develop a conceptual framework that captures the role of marketing processes that lead to the commercialisation of these spheres. This is done mainly through a netnographic study of the Swedish fashion blogosphere in order to explain how and why consumers and professionals interact, organise, create and appropriate commercial values in the fashion blogosphere. Drawing on theory of spheres, this dissertation proposes a sphereological understanding of social media that expands the role of marketing. It is suggested that social media may be understood as a collection of micro-spheres that, together, comprise a densely connected foam of spatiality and place. In these spheres, consumers, together with commercial actors, take part in practices that become increasingly commercial. In that sense, marketing takes the roles of navigating social media in search of symbolic meanings of value, and of affecting, negotiating and redefining atmospheres of places in the social media landscape. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense the following paper was unpublished and had the status as follows. Paper 2: Accepted.</p>