The development of a new catalyst system by The Dow Chemical Company has resulted in the production of isotactic polypropylene and propylene/ethylene copolymers with a unique defect and comonomer distribution. This work investigated the morphology and optical properties of cast and compression molded films made from the homopolymer and copolymers with up to 20 mol% ethylene comonomer. The defect distribution of the Dow Chemical copolymers resulted in materials with lower crystallinity than Ziegler-Natta or metallocene-made materials of similar ethylene content. These materials exhibited a gamma-phase crystal content ranging from 0-95%, depending on ethylene content, processing condition, and catalyst type. The gamma-phase crystal content of quiescently crystallized copolymer films was found to significantly influence their bulk optical properties, presumably through a change in the spherulite birefringence. The bulk haze, clarity, and transparency of a homopolymer film were degraded through annealing treatments, which decreased the fraction of gamma-phase crystallinity and increased the thickness of existing lamellae, resulting in an increased intensity of scattered light and a corresponding degradation in the optical properties of the film. The haze, clarity, transparency, and gloss of the copolymer films were found to improve at higher comonomer content and higher cooling rates. The variation in the length scale and degree of disorder in the bulk morphology of films processed under different conditions was shown to correlate with the optical quality of the films, with smaller scale morphologies scattering less light and resulting in films with better optical properties. It was also shown that no single metric can completely describe the optical quality of a polymer film; the relative importance of haze, transparency, and gloss, which depends on the intended application of the film, was discussed. The influence of surface scattering from the films was controlled through the compression molding of films using substrates of different surface roughness. The contribution of light scattered from the surface of the films was isolated and found to play a significant role in the degradation of optical quality. / Ph. D.

In "Who are You," I narrate seven vignettes of my lived experiences from childhood through the beginning of my Ph. D. I examine how they directly relate to the relationships I build with my students as a teacher in an urban public high school. I deconstruct how my experiences push me to break standard professional teacher boundaries in order to support and advocate for my students. I discuss the realities of my lived experiences and the impact they have had on me personally, educationally, and professionally. I explain my choice for using narrative vignettes tied to the Lewis Carroll novels Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and their connection with my adolescent and professional experiences. I explain my choice of autoethnography as my method and how I have come to terms with the vulnerability necessary to successfully use this genre of qualitative research while learning about the difficulties and benefits of the method. In "Where Soul Meets Body," I reflect on occurred during those experiences, and how they shaped the person and the teacher I am today. I reflect on the collapse of family, the effects of divorce on my actions, the seeking of solace and emotional repair, the effects of abusive relationships, the changes in my identity, the rebuilding of my identity, and the impact of my lived experiences on my teaching pedagogy. I reflect on the need for transparency and vulnerability in teaching. I explore how the acceptance and realization of my lived experiences has a deep impact on personal pedagogy, practices, and meaningful relationships with students, specifically in an urban school setting. I explore how my personal experiences intertwine with my students' personal experiences and how all teachers need to acknowledge the importance of transparency and vulnerability in their pedagogy. / Doctor of Philosophy / In "Who are You," I narrate seven stories from my life. I begin with my childhood and continue through the beginning of my Ph. D. I look at how they directly relate to the relationships I build with my students as a teacher in a public high school. I take apart how my experiences help me to support and advocate for my students. I discuss how my experiences influenced me personally, educationally, and professionally. I write about why I chose to use stories and why I used the Lewis Carroll novels Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass to connect them with my adolescent and professional experiences. I explain why I chose to use a research method that is completely a reflection of myself. I also discuss how I have come to terms with being vulnerable necessary to successfully when writing about oneself. In "Where Soul Meets Body," I look at what ac during those experiences, and how they shaped the person and the teacher I am today. I reflect on how my family changed and how my parent's divorce caused a change in my personality and actions. I also look at how I began to look for relationships I thought I had lost due to my parent's divorce. I explore abusive relationships and how I was able to heal from those relationships. I talk about the need for teachers to be open with who they are as teachers. I write about how my life often is similar to what my students experience and how it is helpful if all teachers include self-reflection as part of their teaching practice. urban school setting.

Yes / Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose that consumer choice be guided by price fairness judgements to increase consumer satisfaction and subsequently enhance market efficiency. Consumers en masse lack the information to judge price fairness, thereby causing their ability to influence the economy to be overlooked. Design/methodology/approach – This is an argumentative and conceptual work that aims to initiate a debate on this important yet unexplored issue. The arguments presented in the paper are based on economic and technological considerations. Findings – The measure for enabling a consumer price fairness judgement is unit cost information – the cost incurred by a firm to produce a product and/or service. The benefits and challenges stemming from the availability of unit cost information (i.e. cost transparency) to consumers and companies are presented and the likely impact of cost transparency on addressing information asymmetries between buyers and sellers are discussed. Originality/value – Although a significant body of knowledge exists on issues such as price transparency and how it is driven and enabled by the growth of the Internet, there is little or no evidence of research yet on issues related to cost transparency. The authors believe this work would create a new line of research for scholarly community leading to an impact on practice.

Laser-plasma-based ion accelerators are becoming a versatile platform to drive different fields of applied research and life sciences, for example translational research in radiation oncology. To ensure stable accelerator performance, complete control over the ion source, i.e., the high-intensity laser-solid interaction, is required. However, idealized interaction conditions are almost impossible to reach, as the utilized high-power lasers always feature a non-negligible amount of light preceding the laser peak. This leading edge of the laser pulse usually exceeds the ionization potential of bound electrons much earlier than the arrival of the high-power laser peak and the solid-density target undergoes significant modifications even before the actual high-intensity laser-plasma interaction starts. Control over this so-called target pre-expansion is a key requirement to achieve quantitative agreement between numerical simulations and experiments of high-intensity laser-solid interactions. This thesis investigates several aspects that are relevant to improve the capability of simulations to model realistic experimental scenarios. The corresponding experiments are conducted with cryogenic hydrogen-jet targets and the DRACO-PW laser at peak intensities between 10^12 W/cm^2 and 10^21 W/cm^2 . The experimental implementation of time-resolved optical-probing diagnostics and technical innovations with respect to the technique of off-harmonic optical probing overcome the disturbances by parasitic plasma self-emission and allow for unprecedented observations of the target evolution during the laser-target interactions. The laser-induced breakdown of solids, i.e., the phase transition from the solid to the plasma state, can be considered as an heuristic starting point of high-intensity laser-solid interactions. As it is highly relevant to simulations of target pre-expansion, Chapter 3 of this thesis presents time-resolved measurements of laser-induced breakdown in laser-target interactions at peak intensities between 0.6 * 10^21 W/cm^2 and 5.7 * 10^21 W/cm^2 . By increasing the peak intensity, a lowering of the applicable threshold intensity of laser-induced breakdown well below the appearance intensity of barrier-suppression ionization occurs. The observation demonstrates the relevance of the pulse-duration dependence of laser-induced breakdown and laser-induced damage threshold to the starting point of high-intensity laser-solid interactions. To apply the results to other laser-target assemblies, we provide a detailed instruction of how to pinpoint the starting point by comparing measurements of the laser contrast with a characterization study of the target-specific thresholds of laser-induced breakdown at low laser intensity. Chapter 4 of this thesis presents an example of how optical-probing diagnostics are able to estimate target pre-expansion as a starting condition for particle-in-cell simulations. The measurement allows to restrict the surface gradient of the pre-expanded plasma density to an exponential scalelength between 0.06 um and 0.13 um. Furthermore, the plasma-expansion dynamics induced by the ultra-relativistic laser peak are computed and post-processed by ray-tracing simulations. A comparison to the experimental results yields that the formation of the measured shadowgrams is governed by refraction in the plasma-density gradients and that the observed volumetric transparency of the target at 1.4 ps after the laser peak is not caused by relativistically induced transparency but by plasma expansion into vacuum instead.

Soemmerring’s rings consist of a ring of lens epithelial derived cells that grow along the periphery of an aphakic lens capsule, or around an intraocular lens. These rings when visualized frontally, appear opaque, however, in some cases the cells that compose these rings are organized in the same fashion as those in normal transparent adult lenses. Thus, our purpose was to test whether any part of the adult Soemmerring’s ring could be transparent and how this related to morphological factors. To study this, 16 Soemmerring’s rings were extracted from donor eye globes. After imaging, they were thickly sectioned sagittally in order to analyze the degrees of transparency of different areas. All samples were also histologically analyzed using alpha smooth muscle actin, Vimentin, wheat germ agglutinin and DAPI. Our results showed that many samples had some transparent areas, mostly towards the center of their cross-section. Of the factors that we analyzed, only lens fiber organization at the bow region and an increased area of mature lens fiber cells had a significant relation to the degree of transparency at the center. Thus, we can conclude that as Soemmerring’s rings mature, they can develop organized and transparent areas of lens cells.

The fashion industry is gradually shifting from its dependence on a wasteful system towards the integration of increasingly sustainable practices. Accordingly, players in the fashion industry are beginning to communicate sustainability through channels such as Sustainability Reporting and Social Media. This study’s purpose is to explore the connections between annual Sustainability Reporting and Social Media by observing the way they convey Sustainability Communication. Each key concept of this study is researched at length by current academics, however, the combination of the three in the context of Sustainable Fashion is not well researched. Sustainable Fashion is understood as the next reality for the industry, embracing all aspects of the Triple Bottom Line, to overcome current challenges. Hence, engaging in Sustainability Communication and Reporting is a step towards transparency, in which the role of Social Media is growing. Studying Sustainability Communication through Social Media and Sustainability Reporting provides an idea of how Sustainable Fashion brands communicate their sustainability efforts. Two Swedish companies were observed, Dedicated and Lindex, both with a focus on elements of the Triple Bottom Line: Environmental and social sustainability respectively. The study was conducted with an explorative and abductive approach, through a Qualitative Content Analysis following two main parts: Firstly, analyzing the content of the brands’ sustainability reports, and secondly analyzing and categorizing the content of their Instagram posts. A final analysis examined contents from sustainability reports and Social Media to identify diverse Sustainability Communication practices. The main findings were discussed in line with the set purpose. First, the analysis suggested that Sustainability Communication is disparate from reports to Social Media. As Social Media was seldom used to disclose their sustainability practices, it was instead embedded in the brands’ identities. When sustainability practices were communicated on Social Media, only a portion reflected the reports’ contents. Second, it was observed that despite the different sustainability focus between the brands and the lack of mandatory reporting standards, the two approached Sustainability Communication similarly. Overall, according to the findings and supported by previous research, Social Media presents an opportunity for brands to communicate their complex sustainability activities in a simplified way. Harnessing it can potentially heighten transparency and make information accessible to most consumers. The managerial contributions of this study concern managers for Sustainable Fashion brands to understand and synthesize their Sustainability Communication on Social Media.

Automated vehicles (AVs) are promising applications of artificial intelligence (AI). While human drivers benefit from AVs, including long-distance support and collision prevention, we do not always understand how AV systems function and make decisions. Consequently, drivers might develop inaccurate mental models and form unrealistic expectations of these systems, leading to unwanted incidents. Although efforts have been made to support drivers' understanding of AVs through in-vehicle visual and auditory interfaces and warnings, these may not be sufficient or effective in addressing user confusion and overtrust in in-vehicle technologies, sometimes even creating negative experiences. To address this challenge, this dissertation conducts a series of studies to explore the possibility of using the in-vehicle intelligent agent (IVIA) in the form of the speech user interface to support drivers, aiming to enhance safety, performance, and satisfaction in conditionally automated vehicles. First, two expert workshops were conducted to identify design considerations for general IVIAs in the driving context. Next, to better understand the effectiveness of different IVIA designs in conditionally automated driving, a driving simulator study (n=24) was conducted to evaluate four types of IVIA designs varying by embodiment conditions and speech styles. The findings indicated that conversational agents were preferred and yielded better driving performance, while robot agents caused greater visual distraction. Then, contextual inquiries with 10 drivers owning vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) were conducted to identify user needs and the learning process when interacting with in-vehicle technologies, focusing on interface feedback and warnings. Subsequently, through expert interviews with seven experts from AI, social science, and human-computer interaction domains, design considerations were synthesized for improving the explainability of AVs and preventing associated risks. With information gathered from the first four studies, three types of adaptive IVIAs were developed based on human-automation function allocation and investigated in terms of their effectiveness on drivers' response time, driving performance, and subjective evaluations through a driving simulator study (n=39). The findings indicated that although drivers preferred more information provided to them, their response time to road hazards might be degraded when receiving more information, indicating the importance of the balance between safety and satisfaction. Taken together, this dissertation indicates the potential of adopting IVIAs to enhance the explainability of future AVs. It also provides key design guidelines for developing IVIAs and constructing explanations critical for safer and more satisfying AVs. / Doctor of Philosophy / Automated vehicles (AVs) are an exciting application of artificial intelligence (AI). While these vehicles offer benefits like helping with long-distance driving and preventing accidents, people often do not understand how they work or make decisions. This lack of understanding can lead to unrealistic expectations and potentially dangerous situations. Even though there are visual and sound alerts in these cars to help drivers, they are not always sufficient to prevent confusion and over-reliance on technology, sometimes making the driving experience worse. To address this challenge, this dissertation explores the use of in-vehicle intelligent agents (IVIAs), in the form of speech assistant, to help drivers better understand and interact with AVs, aiming to improve safety, performance, and overall satisfaction in semi-automated vehicles. First, two expert workshops helped identify key design features for IVIAs. Then, a driving simulator study with 24 participants tested four different designs of IVIAs varying in appearance and how they spoke. The results showed that people preferred conversational agents, which led to better driving behaviors, while robot-like agents caused more visual distractions. Then, through contextual inquiries with 10 drivers who own vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), I identified user needs and how they learn to interact with in-car technologies, focusing on feedback and warnings. Subsequently, I conducted expert interviews with seven professionals from AI, social science, and human-computer interaction fields, which provided further insights into facilitating the explainability of AVs and preventing associated risks. With the information gathered, three types of adaptive IVIAs were developed based on whether the driver was actively in control of the vehicle, or the driving automation system was in control. The effectiveness of these agents was evaluated through drivers' brake and steer response time, driving performance, and user satisfaction through another driving simulator study with 39 participants. The findings indicate that although drivers appreciated more detailed explanations, their response time to road hazards slowed down, highlighting the need to balance safety and satisfaction. Overall, this research shows the potential of using IVIAs to make AVs easier to understand and safer to use. It also offers important design guidelines for creating these IVIAs and their speech contents to improve the driving experience.

O albinismo e uma alteracao genetica rara que compromete a producao de melanina. As alteracoes clinicas consistem na falta de pigmentacao da pele, cabelo e pelos. Apresenta alteracoes oftalmologicas importantes, que comprometem a acuidade visual de forma severa, na grande maioria dos casos. As alteracoes oftalmologicas sao, ametropias, nistagmo, rarefacao do epitelio pigmentado da iris e da retina, hipoplasia foveal e decussacao anomala do nervo optico. Este estudo foi dividido em tres diferentes partes com os seguintes objetivos principais: Parte 1: Analise comparativa entre o grau de transparencia da iris (GTI), o grau de transparencia da retina (GTR) e a espessura da regiao macular com a acuidade visual nos pacientes com albinismo. Parte 2: Teste de sensibilidade ao contraste espacial de luminancia e ofuscamento com lentes de contato filtrantes em ambientes claros e escuros. Parte 3: Avaliacao da visao de cores, utilizando\\se o teste de Pranchas de Ishihara e o Cambridge Color Test (CCT). Material\' e\' Métodos: Participaram do estudo 121 individuos albinos, com idade media de 31,18 (} 15,47) anos, o que totalizou 242 olhos. Os participantes foram divididos em diferentes grupos nas tres partes do estudo, alguns participaram de uma ou mais partes. Na primeira parte os participantes foram submetidos a consulta oftalmologica, classificacao do grau de transparencia da iris e da retina em uma nova classificacao baseada em quatro diferentes graus de transparencia, alem de avaliacao foveal pelo exame de Tomografia de Coerencia Optica (OCT). Na segunda parte, os participantes foram submetidos ao teste de contraste computadorizado, utilizando lentes de contato filtrante e transparentes, em ambientes claros e escuros. Nesta etapa foi avaliada a influencia da lente filtrante na sensibilidade de contraste visual dos individuos com albinismo. Na terceira parte, os participantes foram submetidos aos testes de Pranchas de Ishihara e de Cambridge Colour Test (CCT), para avaliacao da visao de cores nos pacientes albinos. Resultados: Os resultados foram os seguintes: Parte\'1: A correlacao entre AV logMAR e GTI foi positiva (+0,569) e significativa (p<0,001). A correlacao entre AV logMAR e GTR foi positiva (+0,531) e significativa (p<0,001). A correlacao entre AV logMAR e a espessura macular nao foi significativa (p=0,105). A correlacao entre GTI e GTR foi positiva (+ 0,627) e significativa (p<0,001). A correlacao entre espessura macular e GTI nao foi significativa (p=0,397). A correlacao entre espessura macular e GTR nao foi significativa (p=0,458). Parte 2: Houve melhora estatisticamente significante da sensibilidade ao contraste com as lentes filtrantes em relacao as lentes transparentes no ambiente de ofuscamento (claro), na frequencia de 0,3 cpg, 0,6 cpg e 1,0 cpg (ciclos por grau). Nao houve melhora significante nas frequencia 2,0 cpg e 4,0 cpg. Nao houve melhora estatisticamente significante da sensibilidade ao contraste de lentes filtrantes em relacao as lentes transparentes no ambiente escuro (penumbra) em nenhuma das frequencias espaciais estudadas. Parte\' 3: Todos os individuos com albinismo nao apresentaram nenhuma alteracao de visao de cores no teste de Pranchas de Ishihara. O CCT demonstrou piora no limiar de deteccao de cores significativa nos eixos protan (p=0,021) e deutan (p=0,017), mas nao houve diferenca no eixo tritan (p=0,212). Os testes estatisticos sugerem que uma amostra maior seja estudada para validacao dos resultados / Albinism is a rare genetic alteration that compromises the production of melanine in all body tissues. The clinical alterations are the lack of pigment in the skin and hair. It presents important ophthalmological changes that compromise the visual acuity, in most cases. The ophthalmological changes are: ametropia, nystagmus, iris pigmented epithelium rarefaction, retina pigmented epithelium rarefaction, foveal hipoplasia and abnormal optic nerve decussation. This study has been divided in three different parts and had the following main objectives: Part 1, comparative analysis of the iris transparency degree (ITD), the retina transparency degree (RTD) and macular thickness with the visual acuity in albino patients. Part 2: Spatial contrast sensitivity test of luminance and outshine wearing contact lenses with filters in light and dark environments. Part 3: color vision evaluation using the Ishihara Test and the Cambridge Color Test (CCT). For the study 121 individuals with albinism were included with an average of 31,18 years old } 15,47, a total of 242 eyes. The participants were divided in different groups in the three parts of the study, some participated in one or more parts. In the first part the participants have been through an ophthalmological exam, classification of the iris transparency degree (ITD) and the retinal transparency degree (RTD) by a new classification based in 4 different degrees of transparency. Foveal evaluation by the Optic Coherence Tomography exam (OCT) was made in the first part of this study. In the second part, the participants have been submitted to the computerized contrast test, using filtered and transparent contact lenses in light and dark environments. In this part the influence of the filtering lenses in the visual contrast sensitivity in the albinism patients has been evaluated. In the third part, the participants have been submitted to Ishihara Test and Cambridge Color Test in order to evaluate the color vision in albino patients. The results are as follows: Part\' 1: the correlation between visual acuity in Logarithm of the Minimum Angle of Resolution (logMAR) and ITD was positive (+0,569) and significant (p<0,001). The correlation between visual acuity in logMAR and RTD was positive (+0,531) and significant (p<0,001). The correlation between visual acuity in logMAR and the macular thickness was not significant (p=0,105). The correlation between ITD and RTD was positive (+ 0,627) and significant (p<0,001). The correlation between the macular thickness and the ITD was not significant (p=0,397). The correlation between the macular thickness and the RTD was not significant (p=0,458). Part\'2: There has been a statistically significant improvement of the contrast sensitivity wearing the filtering lenses in relation to the transparent ones in bright environment, in the frequencies of 0,3 cycles per degree (cpd), 0,6 cpd and 1,0 cpd. There has been no significant improvement in the frequencies 2,0 cpd and 4,0 cpd. There has been no statistically significant improvement in contrast sensitivity wearing the filtering lenses in relation to the transparent one in the dark environment (shadow) in any of the spatial frequencies studied. Part\' 3: all albinism patients did not present any color vision change in the Ishihara Test. The CCT has shown a worsening in the color detection threshold in the protan axis (p=0,021) and deutan axis (p=0,017), but there has been no difference in the tritan axis (p=0,212). The statistic tests show that a bigger sample is recommended to confirm part 3 results

Este trabalho apresenta uma contribuição ao estudo das flutuações quânticas dos feixes sonda e de bombeio na condição de transparência induzida por laser. Com esse estudo conseguimos observar nas flutuações dos campos uma manifestação do caráter coerente da interação dos átomos com os feixes. Para alcançar nosso objetivo, derivamos a teoria do fenômeno da transparência induzida tratando ambos feixes dentro do formalismo quântico. Com tal formulação, encontramos que a condição de transparência induzida corresponde a um estado de equilíbrio dinâmico do sistema átomo - campo de bombeio - campo sonda onde, os átomos redistribuem os fótons entre os campos, correlacionando os mesmos e alterando, ao mesmo tempo, as propriedades estatísticas desses feixes. Utilizando dois critérios diferentes, mostrando que a correlação entre os feixes sonda e de bombeio é de natureza quântica, o que possibilita a aplicação desse sistema, por exemplo, na informação e computação quânticas. Os resultados experimentais obtidos confirmaram as previsões teóricas em relação às flutuações quânticas dos campos, e a existência de uma correlação entre eles. Trata-se da primeira investigação experimental de propriedades estatísticas dos campos em transparência induzida. A correlação de intensidade medida é o primeiro passo para a observação de emaranhamento entre feixes sonda e de bombeio na condiçào de transparência induzida. / In this work we presente a contribution to the study of quantum fluctuations of pump and probe filds in the Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) condition. We observed in the fields fluctuations evidence of the coherent character of the interaction between the atoms and the fields. To reach our purpose, the fields were treated quantum-mechanically in deriving the theory of the EIT phenomenon. Using this formulation, we concluded that the EIT condition corresponds to a state of dynamical equilibrium of the system atom pump field probe field, where the atoms redistribute the photons between both fields, correlating them and, at the same time, affecting their statistical properties. By means of two different criteria we showed that such a correlation is of quantum nature, making possible the application of this system in, for example, quantum information and quantum computation. The theoretical predictions were corroborated by our experimental results regarding the quantum fluctuations and the existence of a correlation between the pump and probe fields. This is the first experiment to investigate statistical properties of the fields in EIT. The intensity correlation measured is the first step towards the observation of entanglement between the fields.

The General Data Protection Regulation grants data subjects the legal rights of transparency and intervenability. Ex post transparency provides users of data services with insight into how their personal data have been processed, and potentially clarifies what consequences will or may arise due to the processing of their data. Technological artefacts, ex post transparency-enhancing tools (TETs) convey such information to data subjects, provided the TETs are designed to suit the predisposition of their audience. Despite being a prerequisite for transparency, however, many of the TETs available to date lack usability in that their capabilities do not reflect the needs of their final users. The objective of this thesis is therefore to systematically apply the concept of human-centred design to ascertain design principles that demonstrably lead to the implementation of a TET that facilitates ex post transparency and supports intervenability. To this end, we classify the state of the art of usable ex post TETs published in the literature and discuss the gaps therein. Contextualising our findings in the domain of fitness tracking, we investigate to what extent individualisation can help accommodate the needs of users of online mobile health services. We introduce the notion of privacy notifications as a means to inform data subjects about incidences worthy of their attention and examine how far privacy personas reflect the preferences of distinctive groups of recipients. We suggest a catalogue of design guidelines that can serve as a basis for specifying context-sensitive requirements for the implementation of a TET that leverages privacy notifications to facilitate ex post transparency, and which also serve as criteria for the evaluation of a future prototype. / <p>Paper 2 ingick som manuskript i avhandlingen, nu publicerad.</p>