Relatively common factors that lead to reduced well-being and a poor work environment are the experience of lack of variation and lack of development at work. An attempt to solve this work environment problem is internal mobility. The aim of the present study was to examine municipal employees’ experience of internal mobility and its possible outcome on job satisfaction at the workplace. A qualitative interview study was conducted with seven employees who performed one or more voluntary internal job transfers in a medium-sized municipality. The employees were interviewed with a semi-structured interview guide which then was analyzed with a thematic analysis. The employees experience of internal mobility and job satisfaction resulted in four themes: the workplace as a social network, safety challenges to thrive at work, motivation and meaningfulness and the balance between inner and outer circumstances. The results have been discussed mainly in relation to the employees experience of control and support, variation, competency, autonomy, motivation, meaningfulness, setting boundaries and group dynamics. Theories that mainly captured these were self-determination theory demand-control-support-model. Connections were also made to Hackman and Oldhams theory of motivation. The conclusions drawn were that internal mobility can increase employees’ development and increase their feelings of competency, autonomy, motivation and give a better work-life-balance which in turn can increase their job satisfaction. / Relativt vanliga faktorer som leder till minskad trivsel och dålig arbetsmiljö är upplevelsen av brist på variation och avsaknad av utveckling i arbetet. Ett försök till lösning på detta arbetsmiljöproblem är intern rörlighet. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka kommunanställdas upplevelse av intern rörlighet och dess möjliga inverkan på arbetstillfredsställelse på arbetsplatsen. En kvalitativ intervjustudie genomfördes med sju anställda som utfört ett eller fler frivilliga interna jobbyten i en medelstor kommun. För intervjuerna användes en semistrukturerad intervjuguide, som sedan analyserades enligt tematisk analysmetod. Intervjupersonernas upplevelse av intern rörlighet och arbetstillfredsställelse resulterade i fyra teman: jobbet som social plattform, trygghetsutmaning och utveckling, motivation och meningsfullhet samt balansgången mellan inre och yttre omständigheter. Resultatet diskuterades främst i relation till medarbetarnas upplevelse av kontroll och stöd, variation, kompetens, autonomi, motivation, meningsfullhet, gränsdragning och gruppdynamik. Teorier som huvudsakligen fångade detta var självbestämmandeteorin, krav-kontroll-stöd modellen, work-life balance och känsla av sammanhang. Vidare har även kopplingar kunnat göras till Hackman och Oldhams motivationsteori. Slutsatserna som drogs var att intern rörlighet kan bidra till utveckling och öka anställdas känsla av kompetens, autonomi, motivation och ge bättre work-life-balance, vilket i sin tur kan öka deras arbetstillfredsställelse.

The aim of the present study was to characterize participants’ abilities to answer binary yes/no questions by mentally manipulating imagery to produce imagined changes in luminance, which would in turn cause reflexive perturbations in pupil diameter. First, a paired association was established with participants, linking “yes” responses with imagining a “sunny sky” and “no” responses with imagining a “dark room”. Participants (N=20) then answered 16 yes/no questions using this response method, in place of providing verbal or gestural (e.g., head nod) answers. Pupil diameters were recorded for a period of 8000 ms following each stimulus question while participants maintained the mental image that corresponded with their answer. We hypothesized that on average, “no” responses would yield a pupil dilation and increased diameter relative to baseline, while “yes” responses would instead result in constrictions and smaller pupil diameters compared to baseline. A 2-factor repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), where time was one factor and response type (i.e., yes or no) was the other, revealed a statistically significant interaction of time and response type, a significant main effect of time, and a trend toward significance for response type in aggregated group data. Item level discrimination consisted of comparing the mean pupil diameter in response to a single item for a single participant (e.g., “yes” response on one trial) to the mean pupil diameter of all contrasting responses for that same participant (e.g., all “no” response trials). This method achieved a 64.5% discrimination accuracy. This investigation affirmed the plausibility of leveraging pupillometry and luminance-based mental imagery in favor of an alternative communication system for individuals who are locked-in, as well as its potential as a screening tool. However, further investigation is warranted prior to its implementation. / Communication Sciences

The bandwidth demanding in the access network has been increasing rapidly over the past several years. The predominant broadband access network solutions deployed today are digital subscriber line (DSL) and community antenna television (CATV) (cable TV) based networks. However, the passive optical network (PON) which is a point to multipoint access network based on optical fibers provides much higher bandwidth compared to current access networks based on copper lines. Incorporating wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in a PON allows a much higher bandwidth compared to the standard PON which operates in the single wavelength mode where the one wavelength is used for upstream transmission and another different wavelength is used for downstream transmission. Moreover, WDM-PON offers the advantages in terms of capacity, low latency and service transparency. In the past five years WDM-PON technology has been developed to a mature for commercial consideration. In this thesis, we start from some fundamentals about WDM-PON and the technology challenge for WDM-PON which is to avoid the need for expensive wavelength selective optical components in the end-user optical network unit (ONU). Then we investigate Injection Locked Fabry-Perot Laser Diode with narrow band amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise as an approach to be a wavelength independent ONU. We study its theoretical model and compare the experimental results with the simulation results based on the theoretical model. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

This dissertation consists of two essays. In the first essay, I examine the source of momentum in stock returns. The reversal of momentum returns has been interpreted as evidence that momentum results from delayed overreaction to information. I examine momentum and reversals conditional on firms’ share issuance (net of repurchases) during the momentum holding period and show that (1) among losers, the momentum returns are statistically significant, but the reversals are non-existent, for both issuers and non-issuers; (2) among winners, momentum and reversals are restricted to issuers, but are non-existent among non-issuers. After further conditioning on firm size, I find that winner reversals are restricted to small, equity issuing firms. After excluding these small issuers from the sample, the remaining firms have strong momentum profits with no accompanying reversals. The evidence suggests that the return reversals are a manifestation of the poor performance of equity issuing firms. Further, while investor overreaction potentially contributes to the momentum among winners, a large fraction of firms do not earn any significant abnormal returns following initial price continuation, suggesting that underreaction, and not delayed overreaction to information, is the dominant source of momentum in stock returns. In the second essay, I examine alternative explanations of reversals in stock returns. George and Hwang (2007) find that long-term reversals in stock returns are driven by investors’ incentive to defer payment of taxes on locked-in capital gains rather than by overreaction to information. I show that return reversals are instead attributable to the negative relationship between firms’ composite share issuance and future stock returns documented in Daniel and Titman (2006). The ability of locked-in capital gains measures to forecast stock returns is largely subsumed by the composite share issuance measure. My results do not support the hypothesis that capital gains taxes drive long-term return reversals. / Ph. D.

Within recent years, interest in the installation of solar-based, wind-based, and various other renewable Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and Energy Storage (ES) systems has risen; in part due to rising energy costs, demand for cleaner power generation, increased power quality demands, and the need for additional protection against brownouts and blackouts. A viable solution for these requirements consists of installation of small-scale DER and ES systems at the single-phase (1Φ) distribution level to provide ancillary services such as peak load shaving, Static-VAr Compensation (STATCOM), ES, and Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) capabilities through the creation of microgrid systems. To interconnect DER and ES systems, power electronic converters are needed with not only control systems that operate in multiple modes of operation, but with islanding detection and resynchronization capabilities for isolation from and reclosure to the grid. The proposed system includes control architecture capable of operating in multiple modes, and with the ability to smoothly transfer between modes. Phase-Locked Loops (PLLs), islanding detection schemes, and resynchronization protocols are developed to support the control functionality proposed. Stationary frame PLL developments proposed in this work improve upon existing methods by eliminating steady-state noise/ripple without using Low-Pass Filters (LPFs), increasing frequency/phase tracking speeds for a wide range of disturbances, and retaining robustness for weakly interconnected systems. An islanding detection scheme for the stationary frame control is achieved through the stability of the PLL system interaction with the converter control. The proposed detection method relies upon the conditional stability of the PLL controller which is sensitive to grid-disconnections. This method is advantageous over other methods of active islanding detection mainly due to the need for those methods to perturb the output to test for islanding conditions. The PLL stability method does not inject signal perturbations into the output of the converter, but instead is designed to be stable while grid-connected, but inherently unstable for grid-disconnections. Resynchronization and reclosure to the grid is an important control aspect for microgrid systems that have the ability to operate in stand-alone, backup modes while disconnected from the grid. The resynchronization method proposed utilizes a dual PLL tracking system which minimizes voltage transients during the resynchronization process; while a logic-based reclosure algorithm ensures minimal magnitude, frequency, and phase mismatches between the grid and an isolated microgrid system to prevent inrush currents between the grid and stand-alone microgrid system. / Ph. D.

Collagen is one of the most important and abundant proteins in mammals. It consists of three left-handed PPII helixes coiled along a common axis to form a very compact right-handed super helix. The primary structure is shown to be (Gly-Xaa-Yaa)n repeats with high content of prolyl residues at both Xaa and Yaa positions. <i>Cis-trans</i> isomerization of the prolyl amide bonds is one of the rate-limiting steps during collagen triple helix folding. The conformationally locked alkene isosteres Fmoc-Gly-Ψ[(E)CH=C]-Pro-Hyp(tBu)-OH and Fmoc-Pro-Ψ[(E)CH=C]-Pro-OH were designed and synthesized. The synthesis of the Gly-Pro isostere had no stereo-control, and the two diastereomers of the tripeptide isostere Fmoc-Gly-Ψ[(E)CH=C]-Pro-Hyp(tBu)-OBn were separated by normal phase HPLC. Although the stereoselectivity of the asymmetric reduction was not good for the Pro-Pro isostere, the resulting diastereomers was separable by flash chromatography, and the absolute stereochemistry of the two diastereomers was determined by Mosher's method. The Gly-Pro alkenyl peptides, and their control peptide Ac-(Gly-Pro-Hyp)8-Gly-Gly-Tyr-NH2 were synthesized and purified. All three peptides showed a maximum around 225 nm and a minimum close to 200 nm in the CD spectra, which indicated the formation of PPII helixes. The Tm value of the control peptide was determined to be 50.0 °C. The peptide with Gly-Ψ[(E)CH=C]-L-Pro-Hyp as the guest triplet formed a stable triple helix with a Tm value of 28.3 °C. The peptide with Gly-Ψ[(E)CH=C]-D-Pro-Hyp as the guest triplet showed a linear decrease in the ellipticity with increasing temperature, which indicated that no triple helix was formed. The Pro-Pro alkenyl peptide and its control peptide H-(Pro-Pro-Gly)₁₀-OH were synthesized and purified. The T_m value of control peptide was determined to be 31.6 °C by extrapolation to 0 M TMAO in PBS buffer, which was very close to the measured value of 31.5 °C. The Pro-Pro alkenyl peptide began to show a maximum around 225 nm in the CD spectra when the concentration of TMAO was higher than 2.5 M. After extrapolation to 0 M TMAO, the T_m value was determined to be –22.0 °C. These results indicate that the backbone inter-chain hydrogen bond is one of the major forces in stabilizing the collagen triple helix, while <i>cis-trans</i> isomerization has limited contribution. The intrinsic properties of the amide bond may have huge influence on the stability of the collagen triple helix. The helix-turn-helix motif is an important tertiary structure in DNA-binding proteins. Stepwise modifications of the Antennapedia HTH peptide (27-55) were performed to improve the helicity and stability. The peptide with more side-chain ion-pairs was over 4 times more helical than the native Antp peptide, while the Ala-based peptide was over 9 times more helical than the native peptide. A 12-membered ring, Fmoc-protected HTH-turn mimic was designed and synthesized, and was ready for solid phase peptide synthesis. The solubility of the cyclic peptide was very poor, and the purification of the final product was very difficult. The solubility problem might also affect solid phase peptide synthesis in the future. / Ph. D.

M.S.

Networked wireless sensor systems have the potential to play a major role in critical applications including: environmental monitoring of chemical/biological attacks; condition-based maintenance of vehicles, ships and aircraft; real-time monitoring of civil infrastructure including roads, bridges etc.; security and surveillance for homeland defense systems; and battlefield surveillance and monitoring. Such wireless sensor networks can provide remote monitoring and control of operations of large-scale systems using low-power, low-cost, "throw-away" sensor nodes. This thesis focuses on two aspects of wireless sensor node development: (1) post-IC assembly of nanosensor devices onto prefabricated complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits using a technique called dielectrophoretic (DEP) assembly; and (2) design of a low-power SiGe BiCMOS multi-band ultra-wideband (UWB) transmitter for wireless communications with other nodes and/or a central control unit in a wireless sensor network. For the first part of this work, a DEP assembly test chip was designed and fabricated using the five-metal core CMOS platform technology of Motorola's HiP6W low-voltage 0.18_m Si/SiGe BiCMOS process. The CMOS chip size was 2.5mm x 2.5 mm. The required AC signal for assembling nanowires is provided to the bottom electrodes defined in the Metal 4 (M4) layer of the IC process. This signal is then capacitively coupled to the top/assembly electrodes defined in the top metal (M5) layer that is also interconnected to appropriate readout circuitry. The placement and alignment of the nanowires on the top electrodes are defined by dielectrophoretic forces that act on the nanowires. For proof of concept purposes, metallic rhodium nanowires ((length = 5μm and diameter = 250 nm) were used in this thesis to demonstrate assembly onto the prefabricated CMOS chip. The rhodium nanowires were manufactured using a nanotemplated electroplating technique. In general, the DEP assembly technique can be used to manipulate a wider range of nanoscale devices (nanowire sensors, nanotubes, etc.), allowing their individual assembly onto prefabricated CMOS chips and can be extended to integrate diverse functionalized nanosensors with sensor readout, data conversion and data communication functionalities in a single-chip environment. In addition, this technique provides a highly-manufacturable platform for the development of multifunctional wireless sensor nodes based on assembled nano-sensor devices. The resistances of the assembled nanowires were measured to be on the order of 110 Ω consistent with prior prototype results. Several issues involved in achieving successful assembly of nanowires and good electrical continuity between the nanowires and metal layers of IC processes are addressed in this thesis. The importance of chemical/mechanical planarization (CMP) technique in modern IC processes and considerations for electrical isolation of readout circuit from the assembly sites are discussed. For the second part of this work, a multi-band hopping ultrawideband transmitter was designed to operate in three different frequency bands namely, 4.8 GHz, 6.4 GHz and 8.0 GHz. As a part of this effort, this thesis includes the design of a CMOS phase/frequency detector (PFD), a CMOS pseudo-random code generator and an on-chip passive loop filter, which were designed for the multi-band PLL frequency synthesizer. The CMOS PFD provided phase tracking over a range of -2π to +2π radians. The on-chip passive loop filter was designed for a 62_ phase margin, 250 μA-charge pump output current and 4 MHz-PLL loop-bandwidth. The CMOS pseudorandom code generator provided a two-bit output that helped switch the frequency bands of the UWB transmitter. With all these components, along with a BiCMOS VCO, a CMOS charge pump and a CMOS frequency divider, the simulated PLL frequency synthesizer locked within a relatively short time of 700ns in all three design frequency bands. The die area for the multi-band UWB transmitter as laid out was 1.5 mm x 1.0 mm. Future work proposed by this thesis includes sequential assembly of diverse functionalized gas/chemical nanosensor elements into arrays in order to realize highly sensitive "electronic noses". With integration of such diverse functionalized nano-scale sensors with low-power read-out and data communication system, a versatile and commercially viable low-power wireless sensor system can be realized. / Master of Science

Signal generation at high frequency has become increasingly important in numerous wireline and wireless applications. In many gigahertz and millimeter-wave frequency ranges, conventional frequency generation techniques have encountered several design challenges in terms of frequency tuning range, phase noise, and power consumption. Recently, injection locking has been a popular technique to solve these design challenges for frequency generation. However, the narrow locking range of the injection locking techniques limits their use. Furthermore, they suffer from significant reference spur issues. This dissertation presents novel frequency generation techniques based on envelope detection for low-phase-noise signal generation using injection-locked frequency multipliers (ILFMs). Several calibration techniques using envelope detection are introduced to solve conventional problems in injection locking. The proposed topologies are demonstrated with 0.13um CMOS technology for the following injection-locked frequency generators. First, a mixed-mode injection-frequency locked loop (IFLL) is presented for calibrating locking range and phase noise of an injection-locked oscillator (ILO). The IFLL autonomously tracks the injection frequency by processing the AM modulated envelope signal bearing a frequency difference between injection frequency and ILO free-running frequency in digital feedback. Second, a quadrature injection-locked frequency tripler using third-harmonic phase shifters is proposed. Two capacitively-degenerated differential pairs are utilized for quadrature injection signals, thereby increasing injection-locking range and reducing phase error. Next, an injection-locked clock multiplier using an envelope-based frequency tracking loop is presented for a low phase noise signal and low reference spur. In the proposed technique, an envelope detector constantly monitors the VCO's output waveform distortion caused by frequency difference between the VCO frequency and reference frequency. Therefore, the proposed techniques can compensate for frequency variation of the VCO due to PVT variations. Finally, this dissertation presents a subharmonically injection-locked PLL (SILPLL), which is cascaded with a quadrature ILO. The proposed SILPLL adopts an envelope-detection based injection-timing calibration for synchronous reference pulse injection into a VCO. With one of the largest frequency division ratios (N=80) reported so far, the SILPLL can achieve low RMS jitter and reference spur. / Ph. D.

No description available.