Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Chemistry / Takashi Ito / We have investigated the orientation of cylindrical domains in thin films of a polystyrene–poly(methylmethacrylate) diblock copolymer (PS-b-PMMA) on planar substrates having different surface roughnesses and hydrophilicities. The research in this dissertation covers the substrate surface modifications, the enhancement of the diblock copolymer film coating, and the refinement of the treatments leading to nanoporous material. Treatment of the substrate with organic mercaptans forming self-assembled-monolayer (SAM), leading to various hydrophilicities of the surfaces, was inconclusive as far as orienting the PMMA domains in the PS matrix due to thermal instability of some thiols. This directed us to a different approach involving substrate roughness. PS-b-PMMA films of 20~200 nm thick were prepared via spin-coating on silicon, gold or indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates, and annealed in vacuum at 170 °C for 60 hours to induce the formation of cylindrical PMMA domains. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images indicated the domain orientation at the free surface. In PS-b-PMMA films much thicker than the domain periodicity (L0), the domains were oriented perpendicularly to the free surface regardless of underlying substrates, reflecting the balanced interactions of PS and PMMA blocks at the polymer–vacuum interface. In films having thickness similar to L0, vertically oriented domains were observed on the Au and ITO surfaces that are covered with nanoscale grains, whereas horizontal domains were observed on the smooth Si substrates. In particular, the cylindrical PMMA domains were efficiently perpendicularly aligned when the grain size nearly was equal to L0. The perpendicular domain alignment induced by the substrate roughness was corroborated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) for gold substrates coated with PS-b-PMMA films whose PMMA domains were removed by UV and subsequent acetic acid treatments. The CV data also suggested that the PMMA domains were successfully removed, leaving a nanoporous stable PS matrix on the substrate.

This study focuses on the issue of internalised racism depicted in contemporary African American children’s and young adult literature, utilising Critical Race Theory (CRT) as its key theoretical framework. The study addresses three main thesis questions: (i) What effects does internalised racism have on the marginalised characters, and what are its manifestations? (ii) What narrative strategies have been utilised by the authors to help the characters regain and reclaim their sense of self? (iii) What is the contribution of CRT to children’s and young adult literature? Through critical analyses of the following texts-Tanita S Davis’s (2009) Mare’s War, Jacqueline Woodson’s (2007) Feathers and her 1994’s I Hadn’t Meanto Tell You This, Sharon G Flake’s (2005) Who Am I Without Him and her 1998’s The Skin I’m In, and Sapphire’s (1996) Push—the study examines the effects of internalised racism and offers the young characters the way forward. From a CRT standpoint, it is argued that the study shifts the boundary of literary landscape and enriches both race and literary scholarships by offering new messages, viewpoints and positions, and, crucially, developing a new critical discourse regarding the issue of internalised racism, particularly in critical literary research representing children’s and young adult literature. It defamiliarises the very issue that otherwise has become normalised in American racial discourse, and reaffirms the relevance of ‘race, racism, and racialisation’ in the American landscape. It also argues that literary texts included in this study are a consequential chapter of African American history, or “a new collective history”, which can be used to heal both the individual and the collective, balance the stories, and alter the dominant discourse. The study also analyses the concept of paradigmatic optimism typically found in children’s and young adult literature, and argues that this generic feature is not a flaw but is rather a different trait.

Der Vertrag von Lissabon führt - ebenso wie auch schon die Verfassung für Europa - einen Kompetenztatbestand für energiepolitische Maßnahmen in das gemeinschaftliche Primärrecht ein. Es überrascht, dass weder die Gegner noch die Befürworter des Reformwerks sich dieses Umstands in besonderer Weise angenommen und ihn für ihre Argumentation genützt haben. So eignen sich doch Themen wie Energieknappheit, -ausfälle und die gestiegenen Energiepreise ausgezeichnet für nationalstaatliche Stimmungsmache. Der neue Energieartikel verfolgt, wie bisher auch schon die Europäische Gemeinschaft, drei energiepolitische Ziele: Nachhaltigkeit, Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Versorgungssicherheit. Zur Klärung der Frage inwieweit dieser Energieartikel die Energiepolitik der EG verändern kann, wird aufbauend auf einem kurzen Abriss des Status quo des gemeinschaftlichen Energierechts, die neu eingeführten Energiekompetenz der Union einer kritischen Betrachtung unterzogen. Inhaltlich ist der Energieartikel des Vertrags von Lissabon seinem Vorgänger sehr ähnlich. Doch findet sich in der neuen Fassung der von Polen initiierte Einschub, wonach die gemeinschaftliche Energiepolitik "im Geiste der Solidarität zwischen den Mitgliedstaaten" zu verfolgen ist. Dieses Solidaritätsprinzip, das sich wie ein roter Faden durch das gesamte neue Vertragswerk zieht, kann - besonders im Energiebereich - eine enorme Wirkungskraft entfalten, wenn seine Inkorporation nicht zu einer rein politischen Aussage wird. (Autorenabstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

This thesis focuses on the genre of libretto, the sung words for music theatre. The “little book” which accompanies every operatic performance is not just an extended program note to the spectacle, but in fact a substantial literary form in its own right. However, despite the immense influence of Wagner, the output from librettists in an operatic collaboration, has been serious ignored; indeed in opera the aesthetic function of language is frequently diminished and foreshortened, because it is often re-directed by and within the music. The result is that librettists are often seen as offering words to be “decomposed” by composers in the process of operatic collaboration. Opera, in the English language, finally achieved its rightful status, alongside its European counterparts, during the second half of the twentieth century. The thesis is intended to encompass something of the vast diversity of this genre and discusses a number of individual works as constituting legitimate literary artefacts in their own right. There will be five chapters featured in the thesis and each chapter is devoting to a specific theme.

Pagrindinis šio magistro baigiamojo darbo tikslas buvo apžvelgti kai kurių algoritmų ir jų kombinacijų pritaikymą daugiamačiams sekų šablonams analizuoti ir įgyvendinti algoritmą, gebantį tai atlikti. Buvo aprašyta FP-Tree medžio struktūra, kuri yra skirta kompaktiškai saugoti kritiniams (pvz., dažnai pasikartojantiems) duomenims, pateiktas FP-Growth algoritmas, galintis analizuoti tokią duomenų struktūrą ir rezultate pateikiantis visų dažnų elementų šablonų aibę. Pristatyta modifikuotų FP-Growth ir PrefixSpan algoritmų kombinacija – MD-PS-FPG algoritmas, pateikti kai kurių atliktų testavimų rezultatai, tolimesnių darbų pagrindiniai tikslai ir pan. / The main goal of this master final work was to present some of the algorithms and their combinations for the multidimensional sequence pattern mining and implement an algorithm, that is capable of doing that. FP-Tree, that is used to store critical (for example, often repeated) data, was described. FP-Growth algorithm, that can analyze FP-Tree structure and give frequent pattern set as a result, was presented. MD-PS-FPG algorithm – a combination of modified FP-Growth and PrefixSpan algorithms – was introduced. The results of some tests, further work objectives and other things were also presented.

The project has demonstrated the use of both poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) PS-DVB and silica monolithic columns for the separation of nitro-compounds. Methods were developed with PS-DVB and ODS silica packed columns for the separation of these compounds. The first part of the project was the preparation of the monolithic stationary phases prepared from PS-DVB of (250 μm I.D. × 70 mm) functionalized with methacrylate by in-situ polymerisation. The alkylated PS-DVB then was used successfully for the first time in the separation of three aryl nitro-compounds (2-NA, 1,4-DNB and 4-NT) on micro-HPLC. However, the efficiency of this column was poor N = 318 (4675/m).The second part of the thesis used a commercial column (Chromolith Performance from Merck), with different diameters for the separation of nitro-compounds. Nitrocompounds were analysed on both Chromolith Performance 3 mm I.D. column and Chromolith Performance 4 mm I.D. column by HPLC/UV. Van Deemter plots showed that the 3 mm I.D. column gave higher efficiencies at higher flow rates than the 4.6 mm I.D. column. The plate number was 8216 (H = 0.0121 mm) at a flow rate of 0.4 ml/min (1.0206 mm/sec) and for Chromolith 4.6 mm I.D. it was 9436 (H = 0.0105 mm) at a flow rate of 0.8 ml/min (0.8577 mm/sec). The nitro-compounds analysed in this study were nitroaromatic, nitramines and nitrate esters which are used in the manufacture of explosives. These compounds were analysed for the first time using a Chromolith Performance 3 mm I.D. column on LCMS using both ESI and APCI in negative ionization modes. The sensitivity was higher in the APCI than the ESI mode in terms of higher intensity and lower background noise especially for nitroaromatic compounds. The LC-ESI-MS method was evaluated by injection of samples of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) in different concentrations. Calibration curves were constructed over the range of 1-1000 pg/μl with a correlation coefficient of (R2 = 0.9986) and with a concentration range between 1-200 ng/μl with a correlation coefficient of (R2 = 0.9971) and were found to be linear. The limit of detection (LOT) for pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) was 5 pg/μl at a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3:1 and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 10 pg/μl at a signal-to-noise ratio of 10:1. The applicability of the monolithic column for the LC-ESI-MS method was evaluated by injection of samples of the commercial explosives, P9 and Semtex 1H. The results showed that Semtex 1H contains 35% PETN using calibration curve 1-200 ng/μl and was much higher than in P9 0.0082% using calibration curve 1-1000 pg/μl.

Wallace Stevens was profoundly affected by Nietzsche’s declaration of the death of God and his poetry reflects an ongoing struggle to understand what it means to be a poet in an age of disbelief. Although Steven’s early poetry suggests that this loss of belief created a sense of crisis in the poet, his later work indicates a full acceptance, even an embracing, of this loss, recognising it as the inspiration for poesis. The thesis considers Stevens alongside of such thinkers as Nietzsche and (the later) Heidegger and shows how the poet came to regard the shaking of the metaphysical foundations as a gift offering the possibility for poetry.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Bakgrund: Parkinsons sjukdom är en kronisk, progressiv neurodegenerativ sjukdom. Den drabbar vanligen människor i åldrarna 50 – 60 år. Sjukdomsbilden varierar hos individer med PS. Gemensamt för personer med PS är att livet med kronisk sjukdom innebär en förändring av fysiska samt psykiska förmågor. PS är en av de vanligaste neurologiska sjukdomarna sett ur ett globalt perspektiv.Syfte: Syftet är att ta reda på hur det är att leva med PS, från ett patientperspektiv.Metod: En litteraturstudie baserad på 10 kvalitativa studier. Artiklarna har kvalitetsgranskats och analyserats. Databaser som använts i arbetet är Cinahl och Pubmed.Resultat: Att leva med PS innebär en förändring av fysiska och psykiska förmågor. Sjukdomen drabbar individer på olika sätt. Stöd och support rapporterades som en viktig del för att kunna hantera sjukdomen adekvat. Acceptans samt en positiv inställning visade sig nödvändigt för att kunna gå vidare med livet samt sjukdomen. Tre huvudkategorier bildades: Livet förändras, stöd och kunskap, och livet går vidare.Slutsats: PS medför olika komplikationer. Sjukdomens manifest skiljer sig mellan individer. Det är viktigt att personer med PS och deras anhöriga får information samt kunskap om sjukdomen. Detta för att minska på stigmatiseringen kring kronisk sjukdom, och för att vården skall kunna utformas på bästa sätt, med fokus på en personcentrerad omvårdnad

This thesis is written to promote and pursue an understanding of lesbian fandom and its function on the Internet. It will demonstrate how a particular television text Xena: Warrior Princess (X: WP) and a dedicated online fandom „xenasubtexttalk‟ (XSTT) of diverse lesbian fan membership gained empowerment and agency through their fan practices. Since the screening of the television fantasy series X: WP (1995-2001), there has been a marked increase in academic enquiry into lesbian fan culture on the Internet. This thesis contributes to the lesbian spectatorship of fandom with a specific interest in online fandom. This research suggests there are many readings of X: WP and the dedicated websites set up to discuss the series have increased during and post the series broadcast period. This study explores the contradictions, the gaps, and the differences between fan responses to the series, especially the lesbian discourse and fan fiction that developed during and after the television series ended. This investigation suggests that fan scholarship can obtain a new insight into lesbian Internet fan practices as a virtual space producing new lesbian fan online identities and discourses that challenge traditional forms of lesbian fandom. It does this by presenting three distinct, significant and interrelated layers of lesbian online textual engagement. While interrelated, these layers are separate and important as they each reveal new lesbian online fan performances of identity that challenge traditional performances of reading and writing habits of lesbian fans.