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Abstract This thesis deals with the rotation-vibration theory and high resolution infrared spectroscopy of semirigid C3 molecules. Semirigid molecules form a class of molecules which are strongly bound with one well defined structure, and without low frequency internal motions. The theory, as well as the experimental studies of semirigid molecules are of special importance in the field of rotation-vibration spectroscopy. They provide a good starting point for interpreting and analyzing the spectra of practically all types of molecules. In this work, the theory is reviewed fromthe standpoint of one particular molecule, 13CH3I, which is a prolate symmetric top with C3 symmetry. The origin and the properties of the rotation-vibration Hamiltonian are discussed in detail. Molecular symmetry plays an important role in these studies. The expansion of the Hamiltonian for nuclear motion in powers of the vibrational operators converges rapidly as numerical examples thoughout the treatment indicate. The molecule is thus a good subject for the perturbation calculations, also reviewed here in detail. 13CH3I can be considered as a model example of semirigid molecules. From the spectroscopic point of view, this thesis is a study of the six fundamental bands of 13CH3I. The rotational analysis of the vibrational ground state is first given. Special attention is paid to obtaining the axial rotational constants which are problematic for symmetric top molecules. The relatively high energy level density of 13CH3I leads to several resonances. The fundamental bands, especially the higher ones, must therefore be treated as parts of band systems. Care is paid to properly take into account the effects of the near-lying vibrational levels on the constants of the fundamentals. Certain ambiguities in the rotation-vibration Hamiltonian of 13CH3I are also discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Timothy A. Bolton / This dissertation describes a search for the pair production of scalar top quarks, tilde[subscript] 1, using a luminosity of 995 pb[superscript-1] of data collected in p[bar over]p collisions with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider at a center-of-mass energy sqrt[s] = 1.96 TeV. Both scalar top quarks are assumed to decay into a charm quark and a neutralino, [tilde chi superscript 0 subscript 1]where [(tilde chi superscript 0 subscript 1)]is the lightest supersymmetric particle. This leads to a final state with two acoplanar charm jets and missing transverse energy. The yield of such events in data is found to be consistent with the expectations from known standard model processes. Sets of tilde [subscript 1] and tilde chi [superscript 0 subscript 1] masses are excluded at the 95% confidence level that substantially extend the domain excluded by previous searches. With the theoretical uncertainty on the pair production cross section taken into account, the largest limit for m[subscript tilde subscript 1] is m[subscript tilde chi subscript 1> 150 GeV, for m [subscript tilde chi negative 0 subscript 1]= 65 GeV.

To determine the optimum nitrogen application level required for the production of good quality ‘Drumhead’ cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) transplants, a glasshouse experiment was conducted. Depending on water requirements, transplants were fertigated every two days (for the first four weeks) and every day (for the last two weeks) by floating trays in plastic tubs containing nutrient solution at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 mg•L-1 N until field capacity was reached. Increasing nitrogen from 0 to 120 mg•L-1 increased shoot and root mass of cabbage transplants with more dry mass being partitioned to the shoot than to the roots. Nitrogen at 120 mg•L-1 N produced greatest fresh and dry shoot mass, plant height, leaf area, leaf tissue nitrogen, net assimilation rate, relative growth rate and leaf mass ratio. Nitrogen at 90 mg•L-1 improved dry root mass, pulling success, specific leaf area and leaf area ratio. Greatest values of root: shoot ratio and root mass ratio were obtained at 0 mg•L-1 N. Nitrogen at 90 mg•L-1 was best as it produced transplants with more vigorous root growth which pulled out easily from the seedling trays. To determine the best combination of spacing and nitrogen top-dressing for improved cabbage production under local conditions, a field experiment was conducted. Cabbage ‘Copenhagen Market’ transplants were spaced at 30 x 50 cm, 40 x 50 cm or 50 x 50 cm and fertilized with nitrogen as top-dressing at 50, 100 or 150 kg•ha-1 N applied in two splits (fourth and eighth week after transplanting). There were no interactions between spacing and nitrogen top-dressing for all measured variables. Nitrogen and spacing did not influence dry matter production and leaf tissue nitrogen. Furthermore, spacing did not affect core height and yield (per unit area) of trimmed cabbage heads. Nitrogen at 100 kg•ha-1 produced the greatest head mass and yield for untrimmed cabbage heads. The 30 x 50 cm spacing produced the highest yield of untrimmed heads while 50 x 50 cm spacing produced heavier heads. For trimmed heads, 100 kg•ha-1 N again produced the greatest head mass, head diameter, head height, core diameter and yield. Spacing did not affect the yield for trimmed heads. However, 40 x 50 cm spacing improved head diameter, head height and head mass while core diameter was larger with 50 x 50 cm spacing. The split application of 100 kg•ha-1 N as top-dressing was best for head mass and yield (per unit area) for trimmed and untrimmed heads. Choice of spacing would depend on whether trimmed or untrimmed heads are targeted. / Dissertation (M Inst Agrar (Horticulture))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Plant Production and Soil Science / unrestricted

This thesis presents measurements of the the spin correlation strength in top anti-top quark pair production at the LHC using the ATLAS detector. The data used corresponds to 4.6 fb−1 of integrated luminosity taken during 2011 at the LHC at a center of mass energy of 7 TeV. The spin correlation is studied utilising different observables with different sensitivities to the production mechanism, in particular to gluon-gluon fusion in the like or unlike helicity state, quark anti- quark annihilation in the unlike helicity state, or a combination of the three. In addition cuts are made on the invariant mass of the ttbar system to enhance or suppress contributions from different initial state production mechanisms. The analysis presented is a precision test of both ttbar production and decay in the SM. These measurements are compared to the most current theoretical predictions. No deviation from the SM expectation was observed. In a subset of the data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.1 fb−1, the hypothesis of zero spin correlation is excluded at 5.1 standard deviations.

Chapter 1: When Environmental Subsidies Backfire: The Case of Black Liquor and the Alternative Fuel Mixture Tax Credit: In 2005, the US government introduced the Alternative Fuel Mixture Tax Credit (AFMTC), which paid fifty cents/gallon for alternative fuel that was mixed and burned with traditional fuel. The American chemical pulp industry, which has traditionally burned ‘Black Liquor’, a residue of the pulping process, was able to make large claims on this subsidy in 2009 by mixing diesel fuel into a process where it was not required. This scenario exhibits two main downfalls of environmental subsidies: (i) the majority of the subsidy is paid to free-riders, and (ii) there are strong incentives towards overproduction and increased pollution. In this paper, the value of the AFMTC per tonne of chemical pulp is computed and used in a simulation using the Global Forest Products Model (Buongiorno, 2001) to calculate the effects of the AFMTC on the American and Canadian chemical pulp industries. The simulation suggests that the total amount paid to the American chemical pulp industry was US$7.63 billion, that American chemical pulp production rose by 2.5 million tonnes from the baseline, and Canadian production and exports to the US fell by 285,000 and 255,000 tonnes respectively, costing Canadian chemical pulp producers US$132 million in lost production. Using Canadian chemical pulp production and pollutant release data, production/release averages were developed. These averages suggest that the increase in American chemical pulp production led to significant increase in releases of greenhouse gases, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Chapter 2: The Alternative Fuel Mixture Tax Credit and the Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program: A Policy Comparison: In 2009, chemical pulp mills in the US and Canada were able to take advantage of two subsidy programs that paid mills fifty cents for every gallon of ‘Black Liquor’ burned during the pulping process. Black Liquor is a residue product from the production of chemical pulp, and is traditionally used as a fuel in further pulp production. These subsidies were the Alternative Fuel Mixture Tax Credit (AFMTC) in the US and the Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program (PPGTP) in Canada. Even though the AFMTC was a subsidy that applied to many industries, and the PPGTP was only available to chemical pulp mills, in the context of the chemical pulp industry only, the subsidies were almost identical: Both paid mills the same amount for undertaking the same activity, and mills were able to claim the subsidies for roughly the same amount of time. The key difference between the two programs was stipulations on how the money was to be spent. In the US, the AFMTC was a refundable tax credit, and simply another source of revenue for a recipient mill. In Canada, a recipient of PPGTP funds was required to spend the money on some form of capital investment that would increase energy efficiency or lower pollution emissions from the mill. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model with a representative chemical pulp mill in order to compare the effects that these two subsidies would have on the mill’s production of pulp (and in turn its production and use of black liquor), and its decision in whether to invest in a one-time capital improvement that would increase energy efficiency at the mill. The results from this model show that the PPGTP was a more effective policy than the AFMTC, in that it encouraged increased investment in energy efficiency, whereas the AFMTC did not. However, the PPGTP provides incentives to increase production, similar to the AFMTC, in two out of three possible outcomes. Even though the PPGTP is shown to be more effective than the AFMTC, it still exhibits several properties inherent in a second-best policy - because the subsidy is tied to production, it encouraged increased production, and may not have allocated funding in an efficient manner. Chapter 3: Naming, Shaming, and Abatement: Do Published ‘Top Emitter’ Lists Provide Incentive for Increasing Pollution Prevention Activities? Several works have measured the effects that publically disclosed pollutant release information has on the firms and facilities reporting the information. Most of these studies quantify the negative response that the information garners with the media, through some measure of media coverage, and measure the negative impact that this attention has on the firm; for example, by showing a negative effect on the respective company’s publically traded stock performance. Subsequent studies have then shown how these negative impacts from publicity cause firms to report lower emissions levels in following years. What is currently missing from this body of literature, however, is an examination of the step in between the firm receiving negative press and reporting lower emissions, namely, increased pollution abatement efforts on behalf of the publically labeled facility. In this paper, we attempt to gain a better understanding of this relationship by examining Canadian self-reported facility level data on pollution prevention activities from the National Pollutant Release Inventory. Two consistent samples of data are used to empirically test the effects that ‘Top Ten’ emitter lists, published by Environment Canada in the late 1990’s, had on the number of pollution prevention activities undertaken by facilities in the following year. The results from this work were inconclusive: Between these two samples, there was a noticeable decrease in the amount of pollution prevention activities reported in years after the cessation of the Top Ten publications. Under certain model specifications, a facility that was labeled as a Top Ten emitter is estimated to have 20% more pollution prevention activities undertaken compared to a facility that was not so labeled. It was also shown that a firm that reported new pollution abatement activities also had a significant reduction in releases. This finding, along with the decreasing trend in reported activities, raises a significant policy issue, as measures that clearly reduce reported emissions are being reported with less frequency in Canada.

The Master's thesis focuses on election campaign and communication strategy of political party TOP 09 in elections in 2013. The goal of this thesis is to analyze communication strategy of political party TOP 09 in election campaign, to analyze individual tools of communication and to evaluate the quality of their implementation. The thesis is divided into two parts. First theoretical part aims to define political marketing and his individual concepts and models, and then election campaigns and strategies. In analytical part of thesis it will be accomplished the strategic analysis of party TOP 09 and then analysis of communication strategy. Evaluation of communication strategy of political party TOP 09 and proposals to streamline is the important part of this thesis.

The passive perception of irrelevant actions can facilitate or interfere with the execution of one’s own actions, known as ‘automatic imitation’ (AI). For example, when one is pressing down on a button, reaction times (RTs) are faster when observing a finger depression (compatible action) and slower whilst observing a finger lift (incompatible action). This phenomenon has been attributed to the mirror neuron system and is thought to represent a laboratory model of spontaneous motor mimicry which facilitates social interactions. AI is typically reduced or absent when the observed movement is produced by a non-human agent. However, previous findings suggest that the magnitude of this ‘human bias’ can be modulated by top-down factors, such as attention and prior instructions regarding whether the movement was produced by a human or non-human agent. This thesis aimed to further examine the role of attention and belief regarding stimulus agency in automatic imitation. Participants were required to perform a pre-specified key press or release response to a diffuse yellow flash go signal. This response was either compatible or incompatible with the finger or object movement, which was presented simultaneously. AI was measured by subtracting compatible from incompatible RTs to calculate the compatibility effect. Experiments 1a, 1b, 2 and 7 focused on exploring the role of attention in AI. Experiment 1a revealed that the human bias is dependent on when the go signal occurs. AI was greater for the finger stimulus relative to the object stimulus when the go signal occurred during the movement, but not after the movement. It is suggested that attention to the movement is reduced when the go signal occurs after the movement. This implies that the human bias in AI is dependent on attention being directed towards the movement. Experiments 1b and 2 indicated that AI was removed if a visual dual task was added, but that AI remained and was greater when an auditory dual task was added. This indicates that AI was removed when the visual dual task competed for cognitive resources with action observation. The facilitation of AI when an auditory dual task was added suggests that the additional cognitive load may have occupied cognitive resources required for the inhibition of imitation. These findings highlight that AI is susceptible to attentional load, implying that AI is not a strongly automatic process. Experiment 7 explored whether the spread of attention modulates the magnitude of AI by comparing a ‘diffuse’ go signal to a ‘focused’ go signal which directed attention to the stimulus movement. Significantly larger AI effects were produced for the group of participants who saw the focused flash first, indicating that focusing attention on the spatial location of the movement increased AI, and furthermore that initially observing the focused flash ‘trained’ participants to pay attention to the stimulus movement in the diffuse flash condition. Experiments 3 and 4 examined why AI effects for non-human stimuli are more likely to be significant when trials are presented in separate blocks (e.g. human vs. non-human stimuli) as opposed to randomly mixed trials. It was hypothesised that this pattern of previous results could be due to less attention being drawn to stimulus differences when stimuli are presented separately as opposed to mixed with a block of trials. However, in both experiments, AI effects were present for the object stimulus in the group of participants who observed the block of finger trials first. This suggests that the prior observation of the finger movement caused a carry-over of human agency to the object stimulus. Experiments 5, 6, 8 and 9 directly explored the role of belief regarding stimulus agency in AI by instructing participants that the object movement was generated by a human finger movement. Experiments 5, 6 and 8 provided preliminary evidence that AI is affected by belief instructions, but the effects were weak or confounded by spatial stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effects (i.e. compatibility effects based on spatial correspondence of the stimulus and response location). Experiment 9 was designed to differentiate imitative compatibility from SRC effects, thus providing a pure measure of imitative compatibility. Imitative compatibility was present for the object stimulus after the belief manipulation. This demonstrates that a human belief regarding stimulus agency of the object modulated imitative compatibility effects due to the top-down knowledge that the movement was human generated, and not due to increased attention and SRC effects. The presented work has provided multiple lines of evidence which demonstrate that so-called ‘automatic’ imitation effects are strongly susceptible to top-down influences, including attention and belief regarding stimulus agency. The current work could be used to evaluate top-down modulation of imitation in autistic populations, as it has been proposed that top-down modulation of the automatic imitation pathway may be atypical in autism.

This study investigated the corrosion processes at the top and bottom of carbon steel pipelines transporting wet gases, and studied possible chemical mitigation strategies. First, immersion tests were carried out using carbon steel to study the effects of de-aeration with high purity nitrogen gas on the corrosion rate. Secondly, the corrosion rate was assessed for varying chloride ion concentrations in an aerated environment. In general, increasing de-aeration time changes the corrosion mechanism from mass transfer oxygen reduction to water reduction reaction. However, oxygen solubility controlled the corrosion process in aerated solution containing different chloride ion concentrations. A special two-electrode cell was designed for the top of the line corrosion (TLC) electrochemical measurements but a conventional three electrode cell was used for the bottom of the line corrosion (BLC) measurements. The TLC rate increases with temperature, and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) confirmed the presence of chukanovite {Fe2(CO3)(OH)2}and possibly ferrous carbonate corrosion products at 40oC and 60oC respectively. However, for the BLC, the cementite phase remained on the metal surface after preferential dissolution of the ferrite phase in the carbon steel. Addition of acetic acid (HAc) locally dissolved the initially FeCO3 film formed on the metal surface, causing local corrosion damage. Addition of methyl di ethanol amine (MDEA) as a pH stabiliser reduced TLC and BLC rates due to enhanced stability of FeCO3 at pH 5.7-6.3. When Zn2+ ions were added as ZnCl2, both Fe2O3 and ZnCO3 were formed at reduced corrosion rate. Whenever FeCO3 film was damaged/dissolved by HAc addition of neither pH stabiliser; MDEA nor hydrate preventer; mono ethylene glycol (MEG) could not re-establish a protective film on the metal surface. The following organic inhibitors were investigated as potential mitigators of TLC: 2-mercaptobenzimidazole (2MBI), 2-amino-5-ethyl-1,3,4-thiodiazole (AETDA), 2-phenyl-2-imidazoline (2PI), dicyclohexylamine (DHA), and a commercial inhibitor formulation (CI-A). The inhibition efficiency (IE%) was found to increase in the order CI-A > 2MBI > AETDA > DHA. Their efficiency increases (except DHA) with inhibitor concentrations both at top and bottom of the line. 2MBI and CI-A behaved as mixed inhibitors but AETDA behaved as cathodic inhibitor, all were best fitted to a simple Langmuir adsorption isotherm. However, IE% of DHA decreased at higher inhibitor concentrations. Surprisingly, 2PI inhibitor increased the corrosion rate, and the corrosion rate further increased with increase inhibitor concentrations. Weight loss measurements results of TLC are also presented which showed lower inhibition efficiency for all the inhibitors investigated compared with electrochemical measurements in similar environments. The free energy of adsorption (∆Goads values for 2MBI and AETDA are around -36kJ.mol-1 while for CI-A the value was -15kJ.mol-1 (-7kJ.mol-1 in the presence of HAc). This is evidence for adsorption of 2MBI and AETDA on the metal surface by chemisorption with CI-A by physisorption. XPS analysis confirmed the presence of FeCO3 and FeOOH as corrosion products in the brine solution in the absence and presence of HAc containing different corrosion inhibitors.

According to the predictive coding approach to perception, the brain uses predictions based on previous experience to optimise perception, by allocating more computational resources to important or unexpected stimuli. Overall, predictions allow faster and more accurate recognition, but occasionally, when the prediction is incorrect, it may lead to a misperception. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the influence of top - down processes on perceptual decisions. I utilised misperceptions as a signature of those top - down influences and Signal Detection Theory to assess their size, type and direction. I used Electroencephalography to determine the stage of information processing at which different types of predictions influence sensory processing.The empirical studies are clustered around Topic 1: Influence of Predictions on Perception, Topic 2: Types of Predictions and Topic 3: Value as Modulator of Perception.Studies clustered in Topic 1 analysed and quantified the influence of predictions on perceptual decisions and showed that misperceptions can be triggered by wrong predictions only in very specific circumstances. In particular, misperceptions occurred only if there was some degree of correspondence between the wrong prediction and the sensory input. Otherwise, predictions were easily rejected, increasing the overall accuracy. I also demonstrated that misperceptions were most likely to happen in a window on the continuum of input quality where the stimulus - related uncertainty was highest. Topic 2 comprised experiments investigating different types of predictions and their interaction. Behavioural (but not EEG) results revealed interference between passive and active expectations. The early event related (ERP) components N1 and P2, as well as the P300, were all modulated by expectations. Expected events either increased or decreased the P300 amplitude, depending on whether the expected item was predictable and thus ignored, or awaited and thus flagged for further processing. This suggests that P300 might be an index of top - down resource allocation. Experiments within Topic 3 studied the influence of values, as examples of executive processes, on perceptual decisions, using either natural or acquired high - value stimuli. The results suggested that the process of recognition is adjusted in a top - down manner to account for the cost and benefit values related to different outcomes. The trade - off between processing time and accuracy is not fixed, but can be adjusted to optimise recognition in the task at hand. Furthermore, value can change the focus of perception, resulting in different elements of the sensory input being amplified or ignored. Overall, these results showed that misperceptions are 'intelligent mistakes' - a by - product of a top-down, prediction - based optimisation strategy that decreases the computational load, while increasing accuracy and improving the allocation of computational resources.