Strong electron correlation lies at the root of many quantum collective phenomena observed in solids, including high Tc superconductivity. Theoretically, the problem of many interacting electrons is difficult to treat, however, and a microscopic understanding of strongly correlated systems remains one of the foremost challenges in modern physics. A particularly clean realisation of this general problem is found in magnetic systems, where theory and experiment are both well developed and complementary. The role of the chemist in this endeavour is to provide model experimental systems to both inspire new developments in theory and to confirm existing predictions. This thesis aims to demonstrate aspects of both synthesis and physical characterisation of such model systems, with particular emphasis on materials which exhibit unusual quantum ground states due to a combination of reduced dimensionality, low spin, and geometric frustration. Four materials are considered: The first among these is a new material, KTi(SO4)2·(H2O), which was prepared using a hydrothermal route, and characterised by magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, and high field magnetisation measurements. Fitting exact diagonalisation and series expansion results to these data imply that KTi(SO4)2·(H2O)is a long-sought experimental realization of the S = 1/2 Heisenberg frustrated (J1 − J2) chain model in the dimerised regime of the phase diagram. The anhydrous analogue of KTi(SO4)2·(H2O), KTi(SO4)2, was also investigated, and found by magnetic neutron scattering to exemplify the S = 1/2 Heisenberg anisotropic triangular lattice model in the 1D chain limit. The final two materials discussed are the naturally occurring minerals volborthite and herbertsmithite, both thought to realise the S = 1/2 Heisenberg kagome antiferromagnet model. Diffuse and inelastic magnetic neutron scattering experiments, however, indicate that the kagome physics are partially destroyed by defects in the former and lattice distortion in the latter.

Titel: Att vårda under rädsla- en litteraturstudie om vårdpersonals upplevelser av hot och våld inom psykiatrisk vård. Bakgrund: Rapporter visar att hot och våld är vanligt förekommande inom vård och omsorg. Våld förekommer i alla delar av vården, men det finns vissa avdelningar som är mer utsatta för våld än andra, exempelvis psykiatrin. Det verbala och fysiska våldet skapar en otrygg miljö och kan ge allvarliga konsekvenser för både för personal och patienter. Syfte: Att beskriva vårdpersonals upplevelser av hot och våld inom psykiatrisk vård. Metod: En litteraturstudie baserad på åtta artiklar med kvalitativ ansats. Dessa artiklarna granskades, analyserades och sammanställdes. Resultat: Hot och våld orsakade starka känslor som rädsla och ilska hos vårdpersonal som påverkade arbetet och privatlivet negativt. Den otrygga arbetsmiljön utgjorde ett hot mot vårdpersonalens yrkesroll och självbild. Våld på en psykiatrisk avdelning ansågs oundvikligt, och vårdpersonals förmodades acceptera det som en del av arbetet. Våldet hanterades och förebyggdes med olika strategier, samtidigt som stöd från chefer var bristfälligt. Konklusion: Våld mot vårdpersonal inom psykiatri är ett relativt outforskat ämne som är i behov av mer forskning. vårdpersonalen blir lidande av fysiska och psykiska konsekvenser, som påverkar vårdandet av patienterna och vårdpersonalens hälsa. För att förbättra arbetssituationen krävs mer utbildning för vårdpersonal i hantering av våld. Nyckelord: Vårdpersonal, Psykiatri, Hot och våld, Arbetsrelaterat våld / Title: Working under fear- a literature review about nursing staff’s experiences of threat and violence in psychiatric care. Background: Reports show that threat and violence is a common phenomenon in healthcare. It appears in every part of healthcare, but some units are at more risk than others, for example psychiatric care. The verbal and physical violence creates an insecure work environment and can cause serious consequences for both personnel and patients. Aim: To describe psychiatric nursing staff’s perceptions of threat and violence in psychiatric care. Methods: A literature review based on eight qualitative articles. These articles were examined, analyzed and compiled. Results: Threat and violence caused strong emotional reactions, like fear and anger, among nursing staff that influenced the work and their private life. The unsafe work environment composed a threat to the nursing staff’s professional role and self image. It was percieved that violence were unavoidable, and that nursing staff were expected to accept violence as a part of the job. Violence were handled and prevented with different strategies, while manegement support were lacking. Conclusion: Violence against nursing staff in psychiatric care are a relatively unexplored subject in need of more research. Nursing staff are suffering both physical and psychological damage due to violence in the workplace, which also effects the care given to patients and the nursing staff’s own health. To improve the work situation the nursing staff need more education in handling violence. Keywords: Nursing staff, Psychiatry, Threat and violence, Workrelated violence

Neutron scattering measurements were used to investigate the magnetic and crystal structure and magnetic excitations of three compounds characterized as low-dimensional quantum magnets. The materials are frustrated systems with low spin quantum number. The first was a powder sample of AgNiO₂. The Ni ions form a triangular lattice antiferromagnet in which, according to the published crystal structure, both the orbital order and magnetic couplings are frustrated. However, it is shown here that there was a small distortion of the crystal structure at 365 K, which is proposed to result from charge disproportionation and this relieves the orbital frustration. The magnetic structure was investigated and, below 20 K, the triangular lattice of electron-rich Ni sites was observed to order into antiferromagnetic stripes. Investigations of the magnetic excitations showed that the main dispersions were within the triangular plane, indicating a strong two-dimensionality. The dispersion was larger along the stripes than between the stripes of collinear spins. The second material investigated was CoNb₂O₆, a quasi Ising-like ferromagnet. It was studied with a magnetic field applied transverse to the Ising direction. The magnetic field introduced quantum fluctuations which drove a phase transition at a field comparable to the main exchange interaction. The phase diagram of the magnetic order was mapped outs and a transition from an ordered phase to a paramagnetic phase was identified at high field. This low-temperature high-field phase transition was further investigated by inelastic neutron scattering measurements to observe the change in the energy gap and magnetic excitation spectrum on either side of the transition. The spectrum had two components in the ordered phase and had sharp magnon modes in the paramagnetic phase. The third material was the spin-half layered antiferromagnet CuSb₂O₆. It has a square lattice of Cu²⁺ ions in which the main interaction is across only one diagonal of the square. The magnetic structure was studied by neutron scattering with a field applied along the direction of the zero-field ordered moment. A spin-flop was observed at low field and there was evidence for a high-field transition. The magnetic excitation spectrum was unusual in that it had an intense resonance at 13 meV at the magnetic Brillouin zone boundary.

The understanding of gene movement in plant species is critical to the management of both plant and animal species reliant on that plant. Pollen is the mechanism by which plants pass their genetic material from one generation to the next. Pollen dispersal studies have focused primarily on purely random diffusion processes, while this may be a good assumption for species pollinated mainly by abiotic means, such as wind, it is most likely an over simplification for species that are pollinated by biotic means, such as insects [3]. Correlated random walk (CRW) models are a model of animal movement [10] and have been successfully used to explore the movement of animals in varying ecological contexts [1]. An agent-based model (ABM) is developed to describe pollen movement via insects as a correlated random walk (CRW). This model is used to explore how insect path lengths and pollen distribution are affected by the varying turning angle and plant density.

Accounting for respiration motion during imaging helps improve targeting precision in radiation therapy. Respiratory motion can be a major source of error in determining the position of thoracic and upper abdominal tumor targets during radiotherapy. Thus, extracting respiratory motion is a key task in radiation therapy planning. Respiration-correlated or four-dimensional CT (4DCT) imaging techniques have been recently integrated into imaging systems for verifying tumor position during treatment and managing respiration-induced tissue motion. The quality of the 4D reconstructed volumes is highly affected by the respiratory signal extracted and the phase sorting method used. This thesis is divided into two parts. In the first part, two image-based respiratory signal extraction methods are proposed and evaluated. Those methods are able to extract the respiratory signals from CBCT images without using external sources, implanted markers or even dependence on any structure in the images such as the diaphragm. The first method, called Local Intensity Feature Tracking (LIFT), extracts the respiratory signal depending on feature points extracted and tracked through the sequence of projections. The second method, called Intensity Flow Dimensionality Reduction (IFDR), detects the respiration signal by computing the optical flow motion of every pixel in each pair of adjacent projections. Then, the motion variance in the optical flow dataset is extracted using linear and non-linear dimensionality reduction techniques to represent a respiratory signal. Experiments conducted on clinical datasets showed that the respiratory signal was successfully extracted using both proposed methods and it correlates well with standard respiratory signals such as diaphragm position and the internal markers’ signal. In the second part of this thesis, 4D-CBCT reconstruction based on different phase sorting techniques is studied. The quality of the 4D reconstructed images is evaluated and compared for different phase sorting methods such as internal markers, external markers and image-based methods (LIFT and IFDR). Also, a method for generating additional projections to be used in 4D-CBCT reconstruction is proposed to reduce the artifacts that result when reconstructing from an insufficient number of projections. Experimental results showed that the feasibility of the proposed method in recovering the edges and reducing the streak artifacts.

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Thesis advisor: Ziqiang Wang / Angle-resloved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is a powerful technique to study the electronic structure in solids. Its unique ability of resolving the energy and momentum information of electrons inside a solid provides an essential tool in measuring the electronic structure of solids. ARPES has made great contributions in the understanding of correlated system such as high-T_c superconductors and ruthenates. The Metal-insulator transition is a fundamental problem in condensed matter physics. The calcium substituted strontium ruthenate, Ca_2-xSr_xRuO₄, provides a good platform to study the metal-insulator transition in multi-orbital systems. This system has a complex phase diagram that evolves from a <italic>p</italic>-wave superconductor to a Mott insulator. One of important projects of this thesis focuses on Ca_2-xSr_xRuO₄ The growing evidence for coexistence of itinerant electrons and local moments in transition metals with nearly degenerate d orbitals suggests that one or more electron orbitals undergo a Mott transition while the others remain itinerant. We have observed a novel orbital selective Mott transition (OSMT) in Ca_1.8Sr_0.2RuO₄ by ARPES. While we observed two sets of dispersing bands and Fermi surfaces (FSs) associated with the doubly-degenerate d_yz and d_zx orbitals, the Fermi surface associated with the d_xy orbital which has a wider bandwidth is missing as a consequence of selective Mott localization. Our theoretical calculations have demonstrated that this unusual OSMT is mainly driven by the combined effects of inter-orbital carrier transfer, superlattice potentials and orbital degeneracy, whereas the bandwidth difference plays a less important role. Another important project of this thesis focuses on the recently discovered iron-pnictides superconductors. The idea of inter-FS scattering associated with the near-nesting condition has been proposed to explain the superconductivity in the pnictides. The near-nesting condition varies upon the carrier doping which shifts the chemical potential. We have performed a systematic photoemission study of the chemical potential shift as a function of doping in a pnictide system based on BaFe₂As₂. The experimentally determined chemical potential shift is consistent with the prediction of a rigid band shift picture by the renormalized first-principle band calculations. This leads to an electron-hole asymmetry (EHA) due to different Fermi velocities for different FS sheets, which can be calculated from the Lindhard function of susceptibility. This built-in EHA from the band structure, which is fully consistent with the experimental phase diagram, strongly supports that inter-FS scattering over the near-nesting Fermi surfaces plays a vital role in the superconductivity of the iron pnictides. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Physics.

Thesis advisor: Ziqiang Wang / Exotic phases and associated phase transitions in low dimensions have been a fascinating frontier and a driving force in modern condensed matter physics since the 80s. Due to strong correlation effect, they are beyond the description of mean-field theory based on a single-particle picture and Landau's symmetry-breaking theory of phase transitions. These new phases of matter require new physical quantities to characterize them and new languages to describe them. This thesis is devoted to the study on exotic phases of correlated electrons in two spatial dimensions. We present the following efforts in understanding two-dimensional exotic phases: (1) Using Zn vertex algebra, we give a complete classification and characterization of different one-component fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states, including their ground state properties and quasiparticles. (2) In terms of a non-unitary transformation, we obtain the exact form of statistical interactions between composite fermions in the lowest Landau level (LLL) with v=1/(2m), m=1,2... By studying the pairing instability of composite fermions we theoretically explains recently observed FQHE in LLL with v=1/2,1/4. (3) We classify different Z2 spin liquids (SLs) on kagome lattice in Schwinger-fermion representation using projective symmetry group (PSG). We propose one most promising candidate for the numerically discovered SL state in nearest-neighbor Heisenberg model on kagome lattice}. (4) By analyzing different Z2 spin liquids on honeycomb lattice within PSG classification, we find out the nature of the gapped SL phase in honeycomb lattice Hubbard model, labeled sublattice pairing state (SPS) in Schwinger-fermion representation. We also identify the neighboring magnetic phase of SPS as a chiral-antiferromagnetic (CAF) phase and analyze the continuous phase transition between SPS and CAF phase. For the first time we identify a SL called 0-flux state in Schwinger-boson representation with one (SPS) in Schwinger-fermion representation by a duality transformation. (5) We show that when certain non-collinear magnetic order coexists in a singlet nodal superconductor, there will be Majorana bound states in vortex cores/on the edges of the superconductor. This proposal opens a window for discovering Majorana fermions in strongly correlated electrons. (6) Motivated by recent numerical discovery of fractionalized phases in topological flat bands, we construct wavefunctions for spin-polarized fractional Chern insulators (FCI) and time reversal symmetric fractional topological insulators (FTI) by parton approach. We show that lattice symmetries give rise to different FCI/FTI states even with the same filling fraction. For the first time we construct FTI wavefunctions in the absence of spin conservation which preserve all lattice symmetries. The constructed wavefunctions also set up the framework for future variational Monte Carlo simulations. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Physics.

Thesis advisor: Stefan Hoderlein / This dissertation is divided into two parts. Part I - Dynamic Kidney Exchange In recent years, kidney paired donation (KPD) has an emerged as an attractive alternative for end-stage renal disease patients with incompatible living donors. However, we argue that the matching algorithm currently used by organ clearinghouses is inefficient, in the sense that a larger number of patients may be reached if kidney transplant centers take into consideration how their pool of patients and donors will evolve over time. In our work Two Novel Algorithms for Dynamic Kidney Exchange, we explore this claim and propose new computational algorithms to increase the cardinality of matchings in a discrete-time dynamic kidney exchange model with Poisson entries and Geometric deaths. Our algorithms are classified into direct prediction methods and multi-armed bandit methods. In the direct prediction method, we use machine learning estimator to produce a probability that each patient-donor pair should be matched today, as op- posed to being left for a future matching. The estimators are trained on offline optimal solutions. In contrast, in multi-armed bandit methods, we use simulations to evaluate the desirability of different matchings. Since the amount of different matchings is enormous, multi-armed bandits (MAB) are employed to decrease order to decrease the computational burden. Our methods are evaluated using simulations in a variety of simulation configurations. We find that the performance of at least one of our methods, based on multi-armed bandit algorithms, is able to uniformly dominate the myopic method that is used by kidney transplants in practice. We restrict our experiments to pairwise kidney exchange, but the methods described here are easily extensible, computational constraints permitting. Part II - Econometrics In our econometric paper Heterogenous Production Functions, Panel Data, and Productivity, we present methods for identification of moments and nonparametric marginal distributions of endogenous random coefficient models in fixed-T linear panel data models. Our identification strategy is constructive, immediately leading to relatively simple estimators that can be shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. Because our strategy makes use of special properties of “small” (measure-zero) subpopulations, our estimators are irregularly identified: they can be shown to be consistent and asymptotically Normal, but converge at rates slower than root-n. We provide an illustration of our methods by estimating first and second moments of random Cobb-Douglas coefficients in production functions, using Indian plant-level microdata. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Este trabalho de tese tem como objetivo principal propor uma abordagem alternativa para analisar dados Birnbaum-Saunders (BS) correlacionados com base em equações de estimação. Da classe ótima de funções de estimação proposta por Crowder (1987), derivamos uma classe ótima para a análise de dados correlacionados em que as distribuições marginais são assumidas log-BS e log-BS-t, respectivamente. Derivamos um processo iterativo para estimação dos parâmetros, métodos de diagnóstico, tais como análise de resíduos, distância de Cook e influência local sob três diferentes esquemas de perturbação: ponderação de casos, perturbação da variável resposta e perturbação individual de covariáveis. Estudos de simulação são desenvolvidos para cada modelo para avaliar as propriedades empíricas dos estimadores dos parâmetros de localização, forma e correlação. A abordagem apresentada é discutida em duas aplicações: o primeiro exemplo referente a um banco de dados sobre a produtividade de capital público nos 48 estados norte-americanos contíguos de 1970 a 1986 e o segundo exemplo referente a um estudo realizado na Escola de Educação Física e Esporte da Universidade de São Paulo (USP) durante 2016 em que 70 corredores foram avaliados em corridas em esteiras em três períodos distintos. / The aim of this thesis is to propose an alternative approach to analyze correlated Birnbaum-Saunders (BS) data based on estimating equations. From the optimal estimating functions class proposed by Crowder (1987), we derive an optimal class for the analysis of correlated data in which the marginal distributions are assumed either log-BS or log-BS-t. It is derived an iterative process, diagnostic procedures such as residual analysis, Cooks distance and local influence under three different perturbation schemes: case-weights, response variable perturbation and single-covariate perturbation. Simulation studies to assess the empirical properties of the parameters estimates are performed for each proposed model. The proposed methodology is discussed in two applications: the first one on a data set of public capital productivity of the contiguous 48 USA states, from 1970 to 1986, and the second data set refers to a study conducted in the School of Physical Education and Sport of the University of São Paulo (USP), during 2016, in which 70 runners were evaluated in running machines races in three periods.