En esta Tesis Doctoral se analiza el fenómeno de la pérdida de confinamiento en el plano de aplicación de la carga de componentes industriales y estructuras. El análisis ordinario propuesto por la mecánica de la fractura no tiene en cuenta este fenómeno, dando lugar a resultados que en muchos casos son excesivamente conservadores.Los orígenes de la pérdida de confinamiento son diversos, destacando la superficialidad del defecto, el predominio de cargas de tracción y el efecto entalla. Las distintas teorías existentes analizan estos fenómenos de forma independiente.Este trabajo propone un modelo global justificado teóricamente que analiza de forma conjunta las diferentes fuentes de pérdida de confinamiento. Con objeto de validarlo, se presentan los resultados del programa experimental realizado al efecto y, posteriormente, se comparan dichos resultados con las predicciones del modelo. / This Doctorate Thesis analyses the phenomenon of the loss of constraint on the load application plane on industrial components and structures. The ordinary assessments proposed by the Fracture Mechanics Theory do not take into account this phenomenon, giving many times overconservative results.Two clearly distinct sources of low constraint are distinguished: that caused by the predominance of tensile loads and shallow defects and that produced by the notch effect. Both types of loss of constraint have been analysed by several authors, but in a rather disjointed way and without a global focus that might allow cases in which both situations arise simultaneously to be analysed.This work proposes an overall constraint procedure, theoretically justified, that allows analysing situations where the different sources of constraint coexist. Also, the results of the validation experimental programme are presented and compared to the predictions of the model.

My dissertation addresses the debate on the impact of foreign direct investment on physical integrity rights. I evaluate competing theories from the neoliberal and historical structuralist schools of thought. According to the former, FDI generally leads to better human rights practices. The latter, in contrast, is characterized as postulating a direct link between FDI and repression. By and large, the literature seems to support the neoliberal view (and, by extension, disconfirm the historical structuralist view). Yet in spite of the scholarly consensus, I argue that it is premature to conclude the debate. Scholars appear to have misunderstood the causal mechanism that historical structuralists believe link FDI to repression of physical integrity rights. They ignore a crucial variable that, as historical structuralists imply, mediates the effects of FDI on the level of repression: domestic unrest. We should only expect repression to increase when high levels of FDI coincide with domestic unrest. In order to safeguard their investments, MNCs lend support to friendly host governments (either directly or through their home government), which paves the way for further repression. In this paper, I will attempt to redress this problem by offering a more refined version of the historical structuralist model, and by assessing – both quantitatively and qualitatively - its effects on human rights. Probit regression models will be used to test both the neoliberal and historical structuralist propositions on a sample of low- and lower-middle-income countries from the years 1981-2004. I then conduct two case studies on Algeria and Lesotho. To briefly summarize this study’s main findings, the quantitative data largely disconfirms the neoliberal theory that FDI reduces the repression of physical integrity rights over time. In contrast, there is stronger evidence for the structuralist theory that countries with large flows of FDI are more repressive in times of domestic unrest. Case study analysis largely supports these statistical findings and, in the case of Algeria, suggests ways to modify structuralism. Specifically, the Algerian case illustrates how repression is more likely in industries that are more labor-intensive and are concentrated in densely-populated regions.

The use of Web applications is a growing area. While the possibilities and functionalities are increasing, so is the complexity of them, together with the threats against them because the complexity also opens up the application to vulnerabilities. It is therefore important for developers to know how a web application can be developed with security in mind. This study’s intention has been to create an introductory documentation of what kind of techniques that exists which can produce higher security, which methods there can be within the development process and what to think about when programming secure web applications. In this paper we have investigated how theoretical manuals in the IT security department handles that area, and interviewed two developers from two different companies to see how they use security in their web applications. The study has an exploratory technical perspective and does not explain how to practically use and interconnecting different security-enhancing technologies, but is more suppose to give a first glance at what is available and sow a seed for those interested to continue reading further about the subject. The results of the study was generated through comparison of the theoretical material with the empirical material, to then conclude the most prominent points of what are different and similar between those materials. During the study some key points has been revealed for development: Responsibility for safety in the application lies, in the cases we looked at, with the developers to describe the technical possibilities and hence vulnerabilities when the client usually does not possess the same technical skills for that. The customer was, as the cases we studied, often not so proactive on safety and does not value it very high (if it was not a security-critical business such as being involved with defense technology). Because the customer in such cases didn’t put security as high priority, there existed a lack of motivation to spend extra money to combat threats that were not considered significant. In cases where extra recourses were spent on security, a measurement was developed that security should not cost more than the value of what it protects else the cost is unjustified. Finally it is noted that it is technically difficult to protect against human errors that can disarm the security, for example a simple or misplaced password.

Användningen av GPS-teknik har på senare år tagit ett stort steg framåt. I dag finns den inbyggd i våra datormobiler som inte sällan rapporterar var vi befinner oss. I denna uppsats undersöks hur datormobilanvändare påverkas av datormobilens inbyggda GPS. Teknik utvecklas ständigt, det som var nytt i går kan kännas gammalt i dag. De senare åren har försäljningen av datormobiler expanderat kraftigt. I takt med detta har Internet blivit något som människor ständigt bär med sig. Då allt fler datormobiler sålts har även mobilapplikationer blivit allt vanligare. Många av dagens applikationer kräver GPS för att fungera och sociala medier erbjuder användare att dela med sig av positionering i samband med inlägg och uppdateringar. En fråga som uppstår i och med detta handlar om bevakning och integritet. I denna uppsats redovisar vi hur datormobilanvändare ser på lokaliseringsfunktionen i mobiltelefonen och hur de ser på GPS-teknologin överlag. De främsta för- och nackdelarna diskuteras och sätts i proportion till varandra. / The use of GPS technology has during the last couple of years made significant progress. Today GPS is a standard function in modern cellphones. The GPS function in the cellphones enables tracking and is also one of the fundamental building stones in many smartphone applications. This essay investigates how users are affected by the GPS function in modern smartphones. Technology is always changing, smartphones and GPS are no exceptions. During the last year the sales and usage of smartphones has increased significantly. As the Internet gets more and more available and people have the possibility to go online with their mobile phones, the usage of smartphone applications also have increased. As of this, applications are now a well-known concept. Many applications need location data in order to function. It’s the smartphones GPS-functionality, built in to whatever application that provides data for positioning. Different social media provides users with their location, which can be used in status updates. A question that often comes up is about the personal integrity and monitoring that follows with GPS tracking. In this essay smartphone users share their comments about the technology. The primary advantages and disadvantages are discussed in proportions to each other.

The way printed circuit board interconnects for high-speed digital signals are designed ultimately determines the performance that can be achieved for a certain interface, thus having a profound impact on whether the complete communication channel will comply with the desired standard specification or not. Good understanding and methods for anticipating and verifying this behaviour through computer simulations and practical measurements are therefore essential. Characterization of an interconnect can be performed either in the time domain or in the frequency domain. Regardless of the domain chosen, a method for unobstrusively connecting to the test object is required. After various different attempts it could be concluded that frequency domain measurements using a vector network analyzer together with microwave probes will provide the best measurement fidelity and ease of use. In turn, this method requires the test object to be prepared for the measurement. Advanced computer simulation software is available, but comes with the drawback of dramatically increasing the requirements on computational resources for improved accuracy. In general, these simulators can be configured to show good agreement with measurements at frequencies as high as ten gigahertz. For ideal interconnects, the simplest and, thus, fastest methods will provide good enough accuracy. These simple methods should be complemented with the results from more accurate simulations in cases where the physical structure is complex or in other ways deviates from the ideal. Several practical routing situations were found to introduce severe signal integrity issues. Through appropriate use of the methods developed in this thesis, these can be identified in the design process and thereby avoided.

Lake-rich thermokarst landscapes, such as Old Crow Flats (OCF) in northern Yukon, Canada have been identified as amongst the most vulnerable to climate change. This has raised concerns of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation (VGFN) and Parks Canada (Vuntut National Park) about the ecological integrity of this significant wetland. The influence of climate change on the hydroecological conditions of thermokarst lakes are complex and vary across the landscape, thus long-term hydroecological monitoring is essential to adequately assess the ecological integrity of the aquatic ecosystem and how it is changing over time. In a genuine interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, this thesis establishes an integrated approach using isotope hydrology, aquatic ecology, and paleolimnology to develop a robust long-term aquatic monitoring program that has already been adopted by Parks Canada. In collaboration with Parks Canada, 14 of 58 lakes that were previously studied during the International Polar Year from 2007-09 were selected to represent monitoring lakes. Lakes were sampled in early June and late August/early September 2010-11. Water samples for analysis of hydrogen and oxygen isotope composition and chemistry (i.e., ions and nutrients) were collected to track hydrological and limnological conditions. Artificial substrates were deployed in June and accrued algae were collected at the end of the ice-free season to assess community composition and abundance. Sediment coring was conducted in a culturally-significant lake (Zelma Lake – OCF06) to reconstruct long-term baseline hydroecological conditions over the past three centuries. Radiometric dating techniques (137Cs, 210Pb) were used to develop a sediment core chronology. Baseline hydroecological conditions were reconstructed through analyses of loss-on-ignition, bulk organic carbon and nitrogen elemental and isotope compositions, and pigments. Meteorological data and a multi-year evaporation pan experiment were used to develop a robust isotope framework, which provides the basis for interpreting five years (2007-11) of lake water isotope measurements and deriving knowledge of hydrological conditions for the monitoring lakes. Using this framework and the coupled-isotope tracer method, isotopic compositions of input water (δI) and evaporation-to-inflow (E/I) ratios were calculated and provide key hydrological information for each sampling interval. δ¬I values distinguish snowmelt- and rainfall-sourced lakes, with δP representing a threshold between the two isotopic-based hydrologic regimes. A Mann-Kendall test showed that three lakes (OCF11, 26, and 49) displayed significant increasing trends in δI values indicating a potential transition from snowmelt-sourced to rainfall-sourced isotope-based hydrologic-regimes. E/I ratios >0.5 signifies lakes that are evaporation-dominated with positive water balances and E/I ratios >1 indicates lakes that are evaporation-dominated with negative water balances. Six lakes in OCF (OCF06, 19, 37, 46, 49, and 58) surpass the 0.5 threshold and three of these lakes (OCF06, 19, and 46) crossed the significant evaporation threshold (E/I > 1) during dry climatic conditions. Multi-proxy paleolimnology analysis conducted on Zelma Lake reveals different hydroecological transitions during the past ~330 years that include: phase 1 (~1678-1900) characterized by stable hydroecological conditions; thermokarst expansion (~1900-1943) marked by decreases in productivity; phase 2 (~1943-2007) distinguished by increasing productivity; and a post drainage phase following rapid drainage in 2007 characterized by further increases in productivity. The stratigraphy of Zelma Lake shows that hydroecological conditions in dynamic landscapes such as OCF are complex and require multi-proxy paleolimnological analysis. In particular, organic matter, δ13Corg, and pigment concentrations are important parameters to consider when interpreting past hydroecological conditions, thermokarst expansion, and lake drainage events.

Academic dishonesty has been widely reported to be a prevalent occurrence among university students and yet little research has been done to explore, in depth, the meanings the phenomenon holds for students. In response to this gap in research, the purpose of this study was to discover senior Education students understandings of academic honesty and dishonesty. A naturalistic research design was employed and the data were the verbatim discussions of five groups of senior Education degree program students from two western Canadian universities.<p> Findings were focused on the substantive, structural, and future applicability in students understandings. Essential elements of academic dishonesty appearing in students understandings were existence of rules, intent to break those rules, and resulting unearned grade advantages. These elements were extrapolated to serve as a baseline definition of academic dishonesty and as principles of culpability. Numerous situational considerations were volunteered by students that described enticements, deterrents, and beliefs about likelihoods associated with academic honesty and dishonesty. These considerations served as structures for the contemplation of risk that appeared prevalent in students understandings. Future applicability in students understandings was centred on expectations for teaching and professionalism. As teachers, students expected to need to respond to and prevent academic dishonesty. When working in a professional environment, they expected little need to acknowledge sources and a more collaborative climate overall that, for them, meant concerns for academic dishonesty had less relevance. Students expectations suggested rules for teaching and they contrasted the environments experienced as students with those anticipated as teachers.<p> The findings of this study were integrated to suggest students vision of a system for academic honesty that bears some similarity to a moral system. Also extrapolated were four metaphors for the roles of students in the university related to concerns for academic dishonesty: student as subject, student as moral agent, student as trainee, and student as competitor. Implications for higher education policy development and communication were based on students focus on grades and students sense of subculture for academic honesty and dishonesty. Students deference to the authority of the professor suggested implications for instructional practice. A lack of monitoring of students and professors behaviours related to academic honesty and dishonesty had implications for administrative practice in terms of fostering norms for academic integrity. A model for discernment of the student voice is proposed for student concerns appearing to be most freely and richly explored in a discussion among students. Recommendations for approaches to future research of this nature and for research questions and student populations bring the dissertation to a close.

No description available.

As microprocessors move towards higher frequencies, lower operating voltages and higher power consumption, supplying noise-free power to the ICs becomes increasingly challenging. Decoupling capacitors with low inductance interconnections are critical to meet the power supply impedance targets. A variety of capacitors are used today to provide decoupling at different frequencies. Surface-mount multi-layer ceramic capacitors currently used at package level provide decoupling only till about 100 MHz because of the component and lead inductances. Embedding thin film capacitors into the package can expand the operating range of package level capacitors to low GHz frequencies. Thin films with capacitance of several microfarads and organic-compatible processes are required for embedding decoupling capacitors at package level. The organic-compatible high-permittivity materials available today do not provide adequate capacitance for the application on hand. While ferroelectric thin films can provide the required capacitance, processing temperatures over 300o C are required to achieve crystalline films with high permittivity. Hence, there is a need to develop novel materials and processes to integrate decoupling capacitors into currently prevalent organic packages. To this end, hydrothermal synthesis and sol-gel synthesis of BaTiO3 films were explored in this study. BaTiO3 films were synthesized by low temperature hydrothermal conversion of metallic titanium. Hydrothermal process parameters such as bath molarity and temperature were optimized to obtain thin films with grain sizes close to 100 nm, at temperatures less than 100o C. Novel post-hydrothermal treatments were developed to improve the dielectric properties of the films. Sol-gel process requires sintering at >700o C to obtain crystalline BaTiO3 films. However, the films can be synthesized on free-standing copper foils and subsequently integrated into organic packages using lamination. Prevention of foil oxidation during sintering is critical. Nickel and titanium barriers explored in this study were ineffective due to instabilities at the interfaces. Hence, films were synthesized on bare copper foils by controlling the oxygen partial pressure during sintering. Using these techniques BaTiO3 thin films with capacitances of 400 1000 nF/cm2 and breakdown voltages of 6 15 V were demonstrated. The films synthesized via either techniques exhibited stable dielectric properties up to 8 GHz owing to fine grain sizes.

The primary objective of this work is to develop the (rationalist) thesis of integrity or the integral view in the realm of legal-political thought. This view consists in the elaboration of the essential-conceptual interdependency of law, the political authority (i.e. the state) and the universal moral standpoint of justice (i.e. the standpoint encapsulated by the idea of human rights in our age) in a way avoiding the shortfalls of legal-moralism illustrated by the natural-law-theories. The rationalist thesis of integrity suggests that the elements within the complex nexus of the law, the state, and justice can neither be divorced from nor be assimilated into each other. This evidently refutes the (positivist) thesis of separation which breaks off the cord between law and the state, on the one hand, and the moral standpoint of justice, on the other hand. However, the thesis of integrity equally opposes the theses of assimilation whereby either law and political authority are assimilated into morality (&ldquo / the moralist-naivety&rdquo / ) or law and justice are assimilated into brute political force (&ldquo / the realist-cynicism&rdquo / ). In brief, the integral view gives each element its due in the nexus of law, the state and the universal moral idea of justice (i.e. human rights). In this work, this view is strived to be deduced from a comparative critical-examination of three legal-political theories, each of which is taken as representing a particular approach beyond legal-moralism. These are Hans Kelsen&rsquo / s Pure-Theory-of-Law representing the positivist approach, Carl Schmitt&rsquo / s Concrete-Order-Thinking representing the realist approach, and Otfried H&ouml / ffe&rsquo / s Ethical-Philosophy-of-Law-and-the-State representing the rationalist approach.