The manifest excess of powers is one of the most invoked grounds for annulment in ICSID Arbitration. This thesis analyzes the main problems on this issue.

A new understanding of the damage formation mechanisms in Si is developed and investigated over an extended range of ion energy, dose, and irradiation temperature. A simple model for dealing with ion-induced damage is proposed, which is shown to be applicable over the range of implantation conditions. In particular the concept of defect "excesses" will be discussed. An excess exists in the lattice when there is a local surplus of one particular type of defect, such as an interstitial, over its complimentary defect (i.e., a vacancy). Mechanisms for producing such excesses by implantation will be discussed. The basis of this model specifies that accumulation of stable lattice damage during implantation depends upon the excess defects and not the total number of defects. The excess defect model is validated by fundamental damage studies involving ion implantation over a range of conditions. Confirmation of the model is provided by comparing damage profiles after implantation with computer simulation results. It will be shown that transport of ions in matter (TRIM) can be used effectively to model the ion-induced damage profile, i.e. excess defect distributions, by a simple subtraction process in which the spatially correlated defects are removed, thereby simulating recombination. Classic defect studies illuminate defect interactions from concomitant implantation of high- and medium-energy Si+-self ions. Also, the predictive quality of the excess defect model was tested by applying the model to develop several experiments to engineer excess defect concentrations to substantially change the nature and distribution of the defects. Not only are the excess defects shown to play a dominant role in defect-related processing issues, but their manipulation is demonstrated to be a powerful tool in tailoring the implantation process to achieve design goals. Pre-amorphization and dual implantation of different energetic ions are two primary investigative tools used in this work. Various analyses, including XTEM, RBS/channeling, PAS, and SIMS, provided experimental verification of the excess defect model disseminated within this dissertation.

Industrial waste heat has been around for hundreds of years and has long been assumed to be only a by-product of industrial activities. The purpose of the study was to contribute knowledge about the potential of waste heat energy as a resource from an economic and environmental perspective and to identify what important problems can be found in decision-making regarding the implementation of waste heat recovery systems. The study was conducted in the form of a case study with the engineering company Epiroc Drilling Tools AB in Fagersta as a study object. The waste heat survey showed that optimal recovery potential existed in the heat treatment furnaces' flares in the form of flue gases. The total waste heat energy available to be recycled in all 24 industrial furnaces of the workshop was estimated at between 1.63 to 1.92 GWh per year. The engineering company had a district heating demand of about 2.3 GWh in 2018. Investment in the waste heat recovery system would mean that the company can cover up to 83% of the plant's district heating needs. The engineering company aimed to, over a three-year period, among other things, reduce its total energy use by 20% and a recovery of the available waste heat energy could contribute 4.2 to 5.0% of the company's energy efficiency projects. A recovery of the waste heat was estimated to result in capital savings between SEK 900,000 to SEK 1,100,000 excluding VAT annually. The basic investment cost of the recycling system was estimated SEK 3,500,000 with an operating cost of SEK 220,000. The payback time was estimated to be about 4 years for the engineering company to fully repay the investment cost of the recycling system. Primary and secondary data collection resulted in answering what problems and obstacles could arise in decision making regarding investment and implementation of waste heat recovery systems. / Industriell spillvärme har funnits sedan flera hundra år tillbaka och har länge bara antagits vara en biprodukt från industriella aktiviteter. Syftet med studien var att bidra med kunskap om spillvärmeenergins potential som resurs ur ett ekonomiskt och miljömässigt perspektiv samt identifiera vilken betydelsefull problematik som kan finnas vid beslutsfattande om implementering av spillvärmeåtervinningssystem. Studien genomfördes i form av en fallstudie med verkstadsföretaget Epiroc Drilling Tools AB i Fagersta som studieobjekt. Spillvärmekartläggningen visade att optimal återvinningspotential fanns vid värmebehandlingsugnarnas avfacklingar i form av rökgaser. Den totala spillvärmeenergin som fanns tillgänglig att återvinna i verkstadens alla 24 industriella ugnar, uppskattades till mellan 1,63 till 1,92 GWh per år. Verkstadsföretaget hade 2018 ett fjärrvärmebehov på ca 2,3 GWh. Investering i spillvärmeåtervinningssystemet skulle innebära att företaget kan täcka upp till 83% anläggningens fjärrvärmebehov. Verkstadsföretaget hade som mål att under en treårsperiod, bland annat sänka sin totala energianvändning med 20% och en återvinning av den tillgängliga spillvärmeenergin skulle kunna bidra med 4,2 till 5,0% av företagets energieffektiveringsprojekt. En återvinning av spillvärmen uppskattades resultera i kapitala besparingar mellan 900 000 till 1 100 000 SEK exklusive moms årligen. Grundinvesteringskostnaden för återvinningssystemet uppskattades till 3 500 000 SEK med en driftkostnad på 220 000 SEK. Payback-tiden uppskattades till ca 4 år för verkstadsföretaget att helt återbetala investeringskostnaden för återvinningssystemet. Primär- och sekundärdatainsamling resulterade i att besvara vilken problematik och vilka hinder som kunde uppstå vid beslutsfattande gällande investering och implementering av spillvärmeåtervinningssystem.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第22659号 / 工博第4743号 / 新制||工||1741(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科電子工学専攻 / (主査)教授 山田 啓文, 教授 川上 養一, 准教授 杉山 和彦 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

1 Self-defense and Necessity: Current Issues Abstract This diploma thesis concerns the institutions of self-defense and necessity as circumstances excluding unlawfulness, and current issues related to them. Both institutions entail the possibility of individuals to act in order to protect their interests, as protected by criminal law. These interests can be individual or society-wide. Such conduct may be considered a criminal act, however, upon meeting statutory conditions, the unlawfulness of such conduct is excluded entirely. Therefore, it will not be a criminal act and the individual cannot be punished, neither under criminal law, nor legal rules of other legal areas. The aim of this thesis is to focus on current aspects of these institutions. Furthermore, the thesis explores whether the institutions' conditions are appropriately set for individuals acting within them and whether the legislation gives courts sufficient room for assessing specific situations. The resulting finding is that both institutions are effective at reacting to a large number of situations, including those that have only recently started emerging. The institutions' conditions are set in an accommodating manner, and allow the courts a wide margin of discretion. The first chapter defines the circumstances excluding unlawfulness in...

INTRODUCTION: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy causing infertility in women of reproductive age. According to the Rotterdam criteria, a PCOS diagnosis should be given if at least two of the following are met: 1) hyperandrogenism; 2) oligo-anovulation; and 3) polycystic ovarian morphology. Previous studies analyzing the prevalence of PCOS have done so in unselected and clinical populations but few studies have attempted to characterize the syndrome and its long-term outcomes within Electronic Health Records using International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes. OBJECTIVES: With a hospital-based electronic health record dataset, this thesis seeks to: (1) characterize PCOS in reproductively aged women (18-34) using the diagnostic codes (ICD-9 and ICD-10) versus the Rotterdam criteria, (2) determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS), Type 2 Diabetes, and cardiac events in women above age 35, (3) determine age of diagnosis for MetS and time to diagnosis of MetS. METHODS: The following 3 cohorts were queried on the Research Patient Data Registry (RPDR): 1) patients aged 18-34 with classic PCOS (phenotype A and B) but without an ICD diagnosis for PCOS, 2) patients aged 18-34 with a PCOS ICD-9/10 diagnosis and 3) patients above age 35 with a history or current diagnosis of PCOS. Their electronic health records (between January 1 , 2003 and December 31 , 2020) were ascertained from 9 Mass General Brigham institutions after IRB approval and analyzed on Software for Statistics and Data Science (STATA). RESULTS: Overall, RPDR identified 12,669 patients aged 18-34 who fit the Rotterdam criteria (under multiple phenotypes), 4646 of which had classic PCOS but lacked an ICD- 9/10 code for PCOS. RPDR also identified 9341 women aged 35 and above with a past or current diagnosis of PCOS. Hispanics/Latinas (18-34) were two times more likely to be undiagnosed when compared to Non-Hispanic Whites (OR: 2.25, 95% CI: 1.98-2.56). The prevalence of MetS, specified by a diagnostic code (277.7 or E88.81), and other cardiac conditions in women above age 35 were considerably lower than those found in the current literature. CONCLUSION: Databases such as RPDR allow for a detailed analysis of patient demographics, labs, procedures and diagnoses. Additionally, it allows for larger cohorts of patients matching more specific criteria to be ascertained. Future studies should compare the prevalence of individual features of MetS by ICD codes and analyze the cardiology reports to determine if the events are being reported but not codified. / 2023-11-30

Rainfall-runoff modeling in the United States has made extensive use of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) curve number method for computing infiltration losses from rainfall. Even though the method is well established and may be applied to a wide range of environments, it often results in highly erroneous runoff estimates for shallow water table environments. Flat topography, wetlands, and fine sands are characteristics that make places like Florida very different from the environments where the SCS method was originally developed. The SCS method arose from experiments with soils that are dominated by infiltration excess (Hortonian mechanism), where runoff occurs after rainfall intensity exceeds the infiltration capacity of the soil. In contrast, Florida is likely dominated by saturation excess runoff (Dunne mechanism), where the soil storage capacity between a shallow water table and the ground surface is filled, and all remaining rainfall becomes runoff. The sandy soils of Florida have very high infiltration capacities, and thus infiltration excess is less likely than saturation excess. As a consequence of the saturation-excess mechanism, wetlands expand in the wet season as the soil moisture storage around the perimeter is filled. A modified form of the SCS method is proposed with the objective that it is more suitable than the current method in flatly sloped, humid environments. Initial conditions, such as the pre-storm soil moisture profile and depth to water table, are critical when predicting runoff in these areas. Air encapsulation is addressed because its presence causes the soil storage capacity to be filled significantly faster than in its absence. Equations are presented that provide an estimate of the average depth to water table and average soil storage capacity in a catchment. Two Florida catchments and one runoff test bed were selected for testing the new methodology. The runoff test bed demonstrated the saturation-excess mechanism while the catchments provided larger-scale testing of the method. Though more data is needed to fully assess the performance of the method, the approach offers a more plausible mechanism for runoff estimation in shallow water table environments with sandy soils.

In this work I investigate the expulsion of carriers from nanostructures using the double-barrier quantum well (DBQW) as an example and discuss manifestations of this effect in the spectrum of the DBQW in absence of bias, and in the tunneling current in presence of bias. Assuming equality of the Fermi energy in all regions of the considered system, I compute the relative density of carriers localized in the DBQW and conclude that a fraction of carriers is expelled from this nanostructure.

Mortality patterns and trends in post-communist countries compared with low mortality populations Zhanyl Mukhtarova Abstract This research primarily addresses mortality patterns and trends in the post-communist countries of Central Asia, Central Europe and the Baltic region together with low mortality populations such as those of France, Spain and the United States of America. The aim of this research is to analyze mortality patterns and trends in selected post-communist countries and contrast them with low mortality populations between the period of 1990 and 2006. In this study, the main age-specific mortality intensities and the excess male mortality among the selected countries were analyzed. Moreover, the historical overview of mortality development in the selected countries and population longevity was discussed. Concurrently, the influence of socioeconomic conditions and healthy lifestyles and their implications and impact on declining mortality rates were revealed. The research clearly identified several important issues encasing the field of mortality, notably that more work and financial support is necessary to improve the health status of countries within Central Asia.

Renewable energies are fluctuating and the bigger its share on the Swedish energy market, the more fluctuating are the prices. Therefore, CHP plant operators as VEAB in Växjö, are more and more struggling to be competitive. There is, hence, a need of alternative options for the use of produced electricity, rather than being dependent on such a volatile and unclear market. Hydrogen production through water electrolysis could therefore be an alternative to be decoupled from the electricity business and instead being part of a promising, future hydrogen economy. Since state-of-the-art electrolysers have efficiencies between 51% and 75%, it was assessed that some of the efficiency losses could be recuperated by implementing the excess heat in an existing District heating (DH) grid. Calculations of the base scenario electrolyser with a power input of 870 kW showed, that an increase of the overall temperatures of the returning mass flow of the DH grid from 0,05°C to 0,23°C should be achievable. The economic analysis showed, that for this size of hydrogen production unit, the minimum hydrogen selling price (MHSP) would be 6,64 €/kg, which is not competitive on today’s market. However, the sensitivity analysis showed, that by a decreased investment cost, lower electricity prices and especially by scaling up the base scenario, the MHSP could be lowered significantly. Assuming a reduction of investment costs of 20% and scaling up the electrolyser by 1000% to 8700 kW, the MHSP resulted in 1,9 €/kg, a competitive price on the market. This study revealed that hydrogen production could be part of the future business model of CHP plant operators and provides a guideline on the feasibility of such a project.