Multiple-quantum-well (M.Q.W.) and quantum-confined-stark-effect (Q.C.S.E.) have been widely used in designing and fabricating electroabsorption modulators. In this paper, material InAlAs/InGaAlAs near 1500nm transition is used to be our target for designing and fabricating EAM due to its high band-offset ratio (electron to hole) and the strong exciton effect. A calculation model for quantum well absorption has been developed to design EAM active region. Asymmetrically inserting a thin-spiked potential barrier into wide Q.W. structure, the Q.W. can have high efficiency of Q.C.S.E. without lowing the electron-hole wave function overlap integral, causing high electroabsorption coefficient and optical modulation. Tuning material composition (~-0.4% tensile strain ) is also used for polarization independence characteristics. Traveling-wave EAM based on InAlAs / InGaAlAs material system is also fabricated and measured. Polarization independence 2~5 dB operation, low voltage swing of 1V for 15 dB extinction ratio, high-speed electrical-to-optical response with ¡V3dB bandwidth of >20GHz at 50£[ termination have been achieved showing high potential in broad band fiber optical communication.

O aumento crescente da ocorrência de fármacos e produtos de cuidados pessoais (Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products PPCPs) no ambiente aquático pode causar efeitos adversos à saúde humana e às comunidades aquáticas. O risco ambiental dos PPCPs, associado à possibilidade de efeitos sinérgicos entre estes compostos, assim como o aumento do uso de compostos orgânicos sintéticos, desencadearam grande preocupação com relação ao potencial tóxico à biota. O Triclosan (5-cloro-2-(2,4-diclorofenoxy)-fenol) é um produto farmacêutico mundialmente utilizado pelo seu mecanismo de efeito bactericida, sendo encontrado em pelo menos 932 produtos, como shampoos, sabonetes, desodorantes, loções, pastas de dentes, detergentes, roupas esportivas entre outros. Atualmente, estudos sobre a toxicidade do Triclosan na água e, principalmente, nos sedimentos, são escassos. Sabe-se que a fotodegradação deste produto gera dioxinas e, no momento, órgãos ambientais, como a EPA, discutem se haverá ou não restrições ao uso. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar os efeitos do Triclosan na mortalidade da larva de inseto Chironomus xanthus, e mortalidade e reprodução do microcrustáceo Ceriodaphnia dubia, expostos a sedimentos marcados com Triclosan, com base nas metodologias da EPA e OECD. O valor médio de CE50;96H obtido nos testes de toxicidade aguda com C. xanthus foi de 45,26 mg.Kg-1. Os testes de toxicidade crônica com C. dubia com sedimento marcado foram realizados de acordo com os procedimentos de Burton & MacPherson (1995). A concentração de efeito não observado (CENO) e a menor concentração de efeito observado (CEO) foram de 5,78 e 6,94 mg.Kg-1, respectivamente. Palavras-chave: Triclosan, fármaco, Chironomus xanthus, Ceriodaphnia / in the aquatic environment cause adverse effects on the human health and aquatic communities. The environmental risk of the PPCPs associated with the possibility of synergic effects between PCPPs and the increase of the use of synthetic organic compounds, unchained a great concern on the toxic potential to biota aquatic. Triclosan (5-cloro-2-(2,4-diclorofenoxy)-fenol) is a pharmaceutical compound widely used due your antibacterial mechanism effect, found in at least 932 products such as shampoos, toilet soaps, deodorants, lotions, toothpaste, detergents, socks and underwear, among others. Currently, studies about the Triclosan toxicity in the water and, mainly in the sediment, are poorly. We have the knowledge that the photodegradation of this product results into dichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, and now it has great discussion on environmental agencies, like EPA, about the release or restriction of this product. The aim of this work is to assess the effects of Triclosan on mortality of insect larvae Chironomus xanthus and mortality and reproduction inhibiton of microcrustacea Ceriodaphnia dubia exposed to Triclosan spiked sediments based on standard methods EPA and OECD. The EC50;96H obtained on acute toxicity tests with C. xanthus was 45,26 mg.Kg-1. The chronic toxicity tests with C. dubia using spiked sediments were performed following the procedure in Burton & MacPherson (1995). A no-observed-effect concentrations (NOEC) and lowest-observed-effect concentration (LOEC) were 5,78 e 6,94 mg.Kg-1, respectively.

O aumento crescente da ocorrência de fármacos e produtos de cuidados pessoais (Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products PPCPs) no ambiente aquático pode causar efeitos adversos à saúde humana e às comunidades aquáticas. O risco ambiental dos PPCPs, associado à possibilidade de efeitos sinérgicos entre estes compostos, assim como o aumento do uso de compostos orgânicos sintéticos, desencadearam grande preocupação com relação ao potencial tóxico à biota. O Triclosan (5-cloro-2-(2,4-diclorofenoxy)-fenol) é um produto farmacêutico mundialmente utilizado pelo seu mecanismo de efeito bactericida, sendo encontrado em pelo menos 932 produtos, como shampoos, sabonetes, desodorantes, loções, pastas de dentes, detergentes, roupas esportivas entre outros. Atualmente, estudos sobre a toxicidade do Triclosan na água e, principalmente, nos sedimentos, são escassos. Sabe-se que a fotodegradação deste produto gera dioxinas e, no momento, órgãos ambientais, como a EPA, discutem se haverá ou não restrições ao uso. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar os efeitos do Triclosan na mortalidade da larva de inseto Chironomus xanthus, e mortalidade e reprodução do microcrustáceo Ceriodaphnia dubia, expostos a sedimentos marcados com Triclosan, com base nas metodologias da EPA e OECD. O valor médio de CE50;96H obtido nos testes de toxicidade aguda com C. xanthus foi de 45,26 mg.Kg-1. Os testes de toxicidade crônica com C. dubia com sedimento marcado foram realizados de acordo com os procedimentos de Burton & MacPherson (1995). A concentração de efeito não observado (CENO) e a menor concentração de efeito observado (CEO) foram de 5,78 e 6,94 mg.Kg-1, respectivamente. Palavras-chave: Triclosan, fármaco, Chironomus xanthus, Ceriodaphnia / in the aquatic environment cause adverse effects on the human health and aquatic communities. The environmental risk of the PPCPs associated with the possibility of synergic effects between PCPPs and the increase of the use of synthetic organic compounds, unchained a great concern on the toxic potential to biota aquatic. Triclosan (5-cloro-2-(2,4-diclorofenoxy)-fenol) is a pharmaceutical compound widely used due your antibacterial mechanism effect, found in at least 932 products such as shampoos, toilet soaps, deodorants, lotions, toothpaste, detergents, socks and underwear, among others. Currently, studies about the Triclosan toxicity in the water and, mainly in the sediment, are poorly. We have the knowledge that the photodegradation of this product results into dichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, and now it has great discussion on environmental agencies, like EPA, about the release or restriction of this product. The aim of this work is to assess the effects of Triclosan on mortality of insect larvae Chironomus xanthus and mortality and reproduction inhibiton of microcrustacea Ceriodaphnia dubia exposed to Triclosan spiked sediments based on standard methods EPA and OECD. The EC50;96H obtained on acute toxicity tests with C. xanthus was 45,26 mg.Kg-1. The chronic toxicity tests with C. dubia using spiked sediments were performed following the procedure in Burton & MacPherson (1995). A no-observed-effect concentrations (NOEC) and lowest-observed-effect concentration (LOEC) were 5,78 e 6,94 mg.Kg-1, respectively.

<div>Biosolids-based fertilizers are sold to the public to provide beneficial nutrients and organic matter for plant production. They are commonly applied to community gardens, municipal lands, reclamation projects, and golf courses. These fertilizers, however, may also contain a variety of trace organic contaminants, which can be persistent in the environment. Our work sought to quantify the persistence of biosolids contaminants in community garden soils. The commercial biosolids-based fertilizer, OCEANGRO®, was amended to two community garden soils to determine the first-order half-lives of four model contaminants: carbamazepine, miconazole, triclocarban, and triclosan. The criteria for their selection included biosolids occurrence, ecotoxicity, antimicrobial function, and knowledge gaps. Aerobic biosolids-amended soil microcosms were incubated at 22 ± 1 °C and approximately 80% field capacity. Sacrificial sampling occurred seven times over 180 days through multi-step solvent extractions. Detection and quantification were done on a high-performance liquid chromatograph tandem triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer. Results indicated that biosolids contaminants persist in soils with some having modeled half-lives in the hundreds of days. Additional analyses of solvent-spiked contaminant degradation and porewater desorption were performed to provide greater insight into possible limitations on resident biosolids contaminant degradation and to form a better comparative basis to previous literature. Solvent-spiked contaminants degraded more quickly than those resident within biosolids, which indicate that data using the former may underestimate persistence in real-world environments. The porewater analysis allowed for the desorption coefficient to be calculated for all four model resident contaminants. Disparities in the trends of these desorption coefficients and solvent-spiked degradation rates showed that desorption from the biosolids matrix may have been a limiting factor to resident degradation for only some of our four model contaminants. Nonetheless, the demonstrated persistence of these contaminants necessitates long-term thinking in relation to biosolids application. More work is needed on the potential hazards associated with biosolids use in public lands regarding ecotoxicity and antimicrobial resistance.</div>

No description available.

We study Gaussian sample covariance matrices with population covariance a bounded-rank perturbation of the identity, as well as Wigner matrices with bounded-rank additive perturbations. The top eigenvalues are known to exhibit a phase transition in the large size limit: with weak perturbations they follow Tracy-Widom statistics as in the unperturbed case, while above a threshold there are outliers with independent Gaussian fluctuations. Baik, Ben Arous and Péché (2005) described the transition in the complex case and conjectured a similar picture in the real case, the latter of most relevance to high-dimensional data analysis. Resolving the conjecture, we prove that in all cases the top eigenvalues have a limit near the phase transition. Our starting point is the work of Rámirez, Rider and Virág (2006) on the general beta random matrix soft edge. For rank one perturbations, a modified tridiagonal form converges to the known random Schrödinger operator on the half-line but with a boundary condition that depends on the perturbation. For general finite-rank perturbations we develop a new band form; it converges to a limiting operator with matrix-valued potential. The low-lying eigenvalues describe the limit, jointly as the perturbation varies in a fixed subspace. Their laws are also characterized in terms of a diffusion related to Dyson's Brownian motion and in terms of a linear parabolic PDE. We offer a related heuristic for the supercritical behaviour and rigorously treat the supercritical asymptotics of the ground state of the limiting operator. In a further development, we use the PDE to make the first explicit connection between a general beta characterization and the celebrated Painlevé representations of Tracy and Widom (1993, 1996). In particular, for beta = 2,4 we give novel proofs of the latter. Finally, we report briefly on evidence suggesting that the PDE provides a stable, even efficient method for numerical evaluation of the Tracy-Widom distributions, their general beta analogues and the deformations discussed and introduced here. This thesis is based in part on work to be published jointly with Bálint Virág.

We study Gaussian sample covariance matrices with population covariance a bounded-rank perturbation of the identity, as well as Wigner matrices with bounded-rank additive perturbations. The top eigenvalues are known to exhibit a phase transition in the large size limit: with weak perturbations they follow Tracy-Widom statistics as in the unperturbed case, while above a threshold there are outliers with independent Gaussian fluctuations. Baik, Ben Arous and Péché (2005) described the transition in the complex case and conjectured a similar picture in the real case, the latter of most relevance to high-dimensional data analysis. Resolving the conjecture, we prove that in all cases the top eigenvalues have a limit near the phase transition. Our starting point is the work of Rámirez, Rider and Virág (2006) on the general beta random matrix soft edge. For rank one perturbations, a modified tridiagonal form converges to the known random Schrödinger operator on the half-line but with a boundary condition that depends on the perturbation. For general finite-rank perturbations we develop a new band form; it converges to a limiting operator with matrix-valued potential. The low-lying eigenvalues describe the limit, jointly as the perturbation varies in a fixed subspace. Their laws are also characterized in terms of a diffusion related to Dyson's Brownian motion and in terms of a linear parabolic PDE. We offer a related heuristic for the supercritical behaviour and rigorously treat the supercritical asymptotics of the ground state of the limiting operator. In a further development, we use the PDE to make the first explicit connection between a general beta characterization and the celebrated Painlevé representations of Tracy and Widom (1993, 1996). In particular, for beta = 2,4 we give novel proofs of the latter. Finally, we report briefly on evidence suggesting that the PDE provides a stable, even efficient method for numerical evaluation of the Tracy-Widom distributions, their general beta analogues and the deformations discussed and introduced here. This thesis is based in part on work to be published jointly with Bálint Virág.

<p>Cilj ove doktorske disertacija&nbsp; bio je razvoj&nbsp; novih, osetljivih, selektivnih i ekonomski<br />isplativih&nbsp; voltametrijskih&nbsp; radnih&nbsp; elektroda&nbsp; za&nbsp; praćenje&nbsp; odabranih&nbsp; analita&nbsp; kako&nbsp; u<br />laboratorijskim tako i pri terenskim uslovima.&nbsp; Ispitivana je&nbsp; mogućnost primene&nbsp; ovih&nbsp; radnih&nbsp; elektroda&nbsp; primenom&nbsp; voltametrijskih&nbsp; metoda&nbsp; kako&nbsp; u&nbsp; model&nbsp; rastvorima&nbsp; tako&nbsp; i&nbsp; u&nbsp; pojedinim realnim sistemima. SW-ASV&nbsp; zasnovana&nbsp; na&nbsp; elektrodama&nbsp; od&nbsp; staklastog&nbsp; ugljenika&nbsp; povr&scaron;inski modifikovanim&nbsp; Bi-MWCNT&nbsp; i&nbsp; BiOCl-MWCNT&nbsp; je&nbsp; primenjena&nbsp; za&nbsp; određivanje&nbsp; jona&nbsp; Pb(II)&nbsp; i Cd(II)&nbsp; pri&nbsp; optimizovanim&nbsp; uslovima&nbsp; merenja.&nbsp; Određivanje&nbsp; ciljnih&nbsp; jona&nbsp; vr&scaron;eno&nbsp; je&nbsp; pri&nbsp; radnom potencijalu&nbsp; od&nbsp; -1,2&nbsp; V&nbsp; (izmeren&nbsp; u&nbsp; odnosu&nbsp; na&nbsp; zasićenu&nbsp; kalomelovu&nbsp; elektrodu)&nbsp; i&nbsp; vremenu<br />elektrodepozicije jona&nbsp; od 120 s. Sva merenja su izvr&scaron;ena u rastvoru acetatnog pufera čija je pH-vrednost iznosila&nbsp; 4,0. Primenjeni koncentracioni opseg ciljnih analita iznosio je&nbsp; od 5 do 50&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm ^-3 .&nbsp; Primenom&nbsp; ovog&nbsp; tipa&nbsp; elektrode&nbsp; dobijene&nbsp; su&nbsp; vrednosti&nbsp; granice&nbsp; detekcije&nbsp; za&nbsp; jone Pb(II) i Cd(II) 0,57&nbsp; &mu;g dm ^-3i 1,2 &mu;g dm^-3 , redom. Dobijena RSD iznosila je manje od 10% za oba&nbsp; jona.&nbsp; Ova&nbsp; metoda&nbsp; je&nbsp; primenjena&nbsp; i&nbsp; za&nbsp; određivanje&nbsp; ciljnih&nbsp; jona&nbsp; u&nbsp; realnom&nbsp; uzorku&nbsp; porne vode&nbsp; sedimenta&nbsp; a&nbsp; rezultati&nbsp; dobijeni&nbsp; optimizovanom&nbsp; voltametrijskom&nbsp; metodom&nbsp; su&nbsp; u&nbsp; dobroj saglasnosti sa rezultatima koji su dobijeni primenom komparativne GFAAS metode. Bizmut oksihlorid-vi&scaron;ezidne ugljenične nanocevi kompozitni materijal je primenjen za povr&scaron;insko&nbsp; modifikovanje&nbsp; elektrode&nbsp; od&nbsp; staklastog&nbsp; ugljenika&nbsp; za&nbsp; brzo&nbsp; i&nbsp; jednostavno voltametrijsko&nbsp; određivanje&nbsp; tragova&nbsp; Zn(II)-jona&nbsp; primenom&nbsp; SW-ASV&nbsp; metode.&nbsp; BiOClMWCNT/GCE je pokazala linearan analitički odgovor u&nbsp; osegu koncentracija od&nbsp; 2,50 do&nbsp; 80,0 &mu;g&nbsp; dm ^-3sa dobijenom vredno&scaron;ću GD 0,75 &mu;g&nbsp; dm^-3pri akumulacionom vremenu od&nbsp; 120 s&nbsp; i potencijalu&nbsp; elektrodepozicije&nbsp; -1,40&nbsp; V&nbsp; u&nbsp; odnosu&nbsp; na&nbsp; ZKE.&nbsp; Merenja&nbsp; su&nbsp; vr&scaron;ena&nbsp; u&nbsp; acetatnom puferu pH 4,5. Dobijena RSD iznosila je 4,8 %. Upoređene su performanse novodizajnirane BiOCl-MWCNT/GCE elektrode&nbsp; i&nbsp; tradicionalne elektrode na bazi bizmut filma (BiF/GCE), MWCNT/GCE,&nbsp; BiF-MWCNT/GCE&nbsp; i&nbsp; nemodifikovane&nbsp; GC&nbsp; elektrode.&nbsp; Novodizajnirana elektroda je primenjena za&nbsp; detekciju&nbsp; i određivanje&nbsp; Zn(II)-jona&nbsp; u realnim&nbsp; uzorcima kao &scaron;to su<br />dijetetski&nbsp; suplement&nbsp; i&nbsp; pekarski&nbsp; kvasac.&nbsp; Dobijeni&nbsp; rezultati&nbsp; su&nbsp; uporedivi&nbsp; sa&nbsp; deklarisanom vredno&scaron;ću&nbsp; u&nbsp; slučaju&nbsp; dijetetskog&nbsp; suplementa&nbsp; a&nbsp; u&nbsp; slučaju&nbsp; pekarskog&nbsp; kvasca&nbsp; sa&nbsp; rezultatima dobijenih komparativnom FAAS .<br />Elektroda od ugljenične paste je povr&scaron;inski modifikovana pripremljenim kompozitom<br />koji je&nbsp; izgrađen od vi&scaron;ezidnih ugljeničnih nanocevi i čestica&nbsp; Sb₂O_3.&nbsp; Kompozitni&nbsp; materijal&nbsp; je okarakterisan&nbsp; primenom&nbsp; TEM,&nbsp; EDS&nbsp; i&nbsp; XRD&nbsp; mernih&nbsp; tehnika.&nbsp; Sb₂O₃-MWCNT/CPE&nbsp; je okarakterisana primenom ciklične voltametrije a merenja su vr&scaron;ena u rastvoru hlorovodonične kiseline&nbsp; (pH&nbsp; 2,0).&nbsp; Primenom&nbsp; SW-ASV&nbsp; metode&nbsp; ova&nbsp; radna&nbsp; elektroda&nbsp; je&nbsp; upotrebljena&nbsp; za određivanje&nbsp; jona Pb(II) i Cd(II)&nbsp; u&nbsp; koncentracionom opsegu 2,0-40,0&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm&nbsp; ^-3za&nbsp; Pb(II)-jon&nbsp; i 2,0-40,0&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm ^-3 za&nbsp; Cd(II)-jon&nbsp; pri&nbsp; čemu&nbsp; su&nbsp; dobijene&nbsp; dobre&nbsp; linearne&nbsp; zavisnosti&nbsp; za&nbsp; oba&nbsp; ciljna jona.&nbsp; Optimalna&nbsp; procedura&nbsp; uključuje&nbsp; primenu&nbsp; Sb2O3-MWCNT/CPE&nbsp; u&nbsp; 0,01&nbsp; mol dm ^-3<br />hlorovodoničnoj kiselini uz vreme elektrodepozicije jona iz rastvora od 120&nbsp; s&nbsp; na&nbsp; potencijaluod&nbsp; -1,2&nbsp; V,&nbsp; pri&nbsp; čemu&nbsp; su&nbsp; dobijene&nbsp; vrednosti&nbsp; za&nbsp; GD&nbsp; 1,1&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm ^-3 Cd(II)&nbsp; i&nbsp; 1,6&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm ^-3 Pb(II). Optimizovana&nbsp; metoda&nbsp; zasnovana&nbsp; na&nbsp; ovom&nbsp; tipu&nbsp; voltametrijskog&nbsp; senzora&nbsp; je&nbsp; uspe&scaron;no primenjena&nbsp; za&nbsp; određivanje&nbsp; jona&nbsp; Cd(II)&nbsp; u&nbsp; obogaćenom&nbsp; uzorku&nbsp; česmenske&nbsp; vode,&nbsp; gde&nbsp; su&nbsp; se dobijene vrednosti u&nbsp; saglasnosti sa očekivanom. Elektroda od ugljenične paste povr&scaron;inski je&nbsp; modifikovana primenom&nbsp; Sb₂O₃-MWCNT nanokompozitnog&nbsp; materijala&nbsp; i&nbsp; primenjena&nbsp; za&nbsp; direktno&nbsp; voltametrijsko&nbsp; određivanje imidakloprida&nbsp; u&nbsp; model&nbsp; rastvorima.&nbsp; U&nbsp; cilju&nbsp; postizanja&nbsp; &scaron;to&nbsp; boljih&nbsp; analitičkih&nbsp; performansi optimizovani su eksperimentalni uslovi merenja kao &scaron;to su pH-vrednost rastvora pomoćnog elektrolita&nbsp; i&nbsp; kondicioniranje&nbsp; povr&scaron;ine&nbsp; voltametrijskog&nbsp; senzora.&nbsp; Kao&nbsp; optimalna&nbsp; pH-vrednost pomoćnog elektolita (Britton-Robinsonovog pufera) odabrana je pH 7,0, a ponavljanje ciklusa cikliranja najmanje 4 puta povoljno utiče na stabilnost&nbsp; voltametrijskih signala. Optimizovana metoda primenjena je za SW direktno katodno određivanje imidakloprida u koncentracionom intervalu od 1,41 do 32,77 &mu;g cm ^-3 uz dobijeni korelacioni faktor od 0,9995. Na osnovu dobijenih rezultata može se zaključiti da su razvijene analitičke metode pre svega&nbsp; osetljive,&nbsp; selektivne,&nbsp; reproduktivne&nbsp; i&nbsp;&nbsp; jednostavne&nbsp; &scaron;to&nbsp; omogućava&nbsp; njihovu&nbsp; primenu&nbsp; za veliki broj uzoraka.&nbsp; Merenjima u model i realnim rastvorima dokazana je mogućnost njihove primene&nbsp; u&nbsp;&nbsp; komplikovanim&nbsp; matriksima,&nbsp; pri&nbsp; različitim&nbsp; pH&nbsp; vredostima&nbsp; pri&nbsp; čemu&nbsp; su&nbsp; dobijeni<br />rezultati koji su u saglasnosti sa rezultatima primenjenih komparativnih metoda. Naravno, za dobijanje&nbsp; reprezentativnih&nbsp; rezultata&nbsp; neohodno&nbsp; je&nbsp; izvr&scaron;iti&nbsp; optimizaciju&nbsp; uslova&nbsp; merenja&nbsp; &scaron;to podrazumeva sam odabir supstrat-elektrode, odabir povr&scaron;inskog modifikatora i optimizaciju eksperimentalnih uslova merenja.</p> / <p>The&nbsp; aim of this&nbsp; Ph.D. thesis&nbsp; was the development of new, sensitive, selective and economically&nbsp; viable&nbsp; voltametric&nbsp; working&nbsp; electrode&nbsp; for&nbsp; continuous&nbsp; monitoring&nbsp; of&nbsp; different target&nbsp; analytes.&nbsp; The&nbsp; use&nbsp; of&nbsp; these&nbsp; advantaged&nbsp; working&nbsp; electrodes&nbsp; was&nbsp; investigated&nbsp; using voltametric methods both in model solutions and in certain real systems.SW-ASV&nbsp; based on glassy carbon&nbsp; electrode surface modified with&nbsp; Bi- MWCNT and BiOCl-MWCNT&nbsp; were&nbsp; applied&nbsp; for&nbsp; determination&nbsp; of&nbsp; Pb(II)&nbsp; and&nbsp; Cd(II)&nbsp; ions.&nbsp; Voltametric determination&nbsp; of&nbsp; Pb(II)&nbsp; and&nbsp; Cd(II)&nbsp; ions&nbsp; was&nbsp; performed&nbsp; at&nbsp; working&nbsp; potential&nbsp; of&nbsp; -1.2&nbsp; V (measured against the saturated calomel electrode) and time of electrodeposition of 120 s. All measurements were performed in acetate buffer solution pH 4.0. Concentration range of targetanalites were&nbsp; 5-50 &mu;g&nbsp; dm -3 . Using this type of electrode,&nbsp; obtained&nbsp; detection limits for&nbsp; Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions&nbsp; were&nbsp; 0.57&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm -3 and 1.2&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm -3 , respectively, with RSD lower than 10%.This&nbsp; method&nbsp; was&nbsp; applied&nbsp; for&nbsp; target&nbsp; ions&nbsp; determination&nbsp; in&nbsp; sediment&nbsp; pore&nbsp; water&nbsp; sample,&nbsp; and obtained results are comparable with those who are obtained using GFAAS method. Bismuth oxychloride-multiwalled carbon nanotubes composite material was applied for&nbsp; surface&nbsp; modification&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; glass-carbon&nbsp; electrode&nbsp; for&nbsp; quick&nbsp; and&nbsp; simple&nbsp; voltametric determination&nbsp; of&nbsp; Zn(II)&nbsp; ions&nbsp; using&nbsp; the&nbsp; SW-ASV&nbsp; method.&nbsp; BiOCl-MWCNT/GCE&nbsp; showed&nbsp; a linear&nbsp; analytical&nbsp; response&nbsp; in&nbsp; a&nbsp;&nbsp; concentration&nbsp; from&nbsp; 2.50&nbsp; to&nbsp; 80.0&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm -3 with&nbsp; a&nbsp; value&nbsp; of detection limit 0.75 &mu;g dm -3 at a acumulation time of 120 s and an electrodeposition potential of&nbsp; -1.40 V vs. saturated&nbsp; calomel electrode.&nbsp; Measurements were carried out in acetate buffer pH 4.5. The obtained&nbsp; value of the RSD&nbsp; was&nbsp; 4.8%. The performance of the newly designed BiOCl-MWCNT/GCE&nbsp; electrode,&nbsp; traditional&nbsp; bismuth-based&nbsp; electrode&nbsp; (BiF/GCE), MWCNT/GCE,&nbsp; BiF-MWCNT/GCE&nbsp; and&nbsp; unmodified&nbsp; GC&nbsp; electrodes&nbsp; were&nbsp; compared.&nbsp; The applied electrode shows very good electroanalytic properties when determining this target ion. Obtained results are in good agreement with declared value in case of dietetic suplement, and in the brewer&rsquo;s yeast sample results were comparable with FAAS results. Carbon&nbsp; paste&nbsp; electrode&nbsp; surface&nbsp; modified&nbsp; with&nbsp; new&nbsp; composite&nbsp; material&nbsp; based&nbsp; on multiwalled carbon nanotubes and&nbsp; Sb2O3&nbsp; particles. The composite is characterized by TEM, EDS and&nbsp; XRD measurment. Sb2O3- MWCNT/CPE was characterized by cyclic voltammetry and measurements were carried out in a&nbsp; hydrochloric acid&nbsp; solution&nbsp; (pH 2.0). Using the SWASV&nbsp; method,&nbsp; this&nbsp; working&nbsp; electrode&nbsp; was&nbsp; used&nbsp; to&nbsp; determine&nbsp; Pb(II),&nbsp; Cd(II)&nbsp; ions&nbsp; in&nbsp; the concentration range&nbsp; from&nbsp; 2.0&nbsp; to 40.0&nbsp; &mu;g dm -3 for Pb(II) and 2.0-40.0&nbsp; &mu;g dm -3 for Cd(II) ions. Newly&nbsp; designed&nbsp; sensor&nbsp; showed&nbsp; good&nbsp; linear&nbsp; dependences&nbsp; for&nbsp; both&nbsp; target&nbsp; ions.&nbsp; The&nbsp; most optimal&nbsp; procedure&nbsp; involving&nbsp; application&nbsp; of&nbsp; Sb2O3-MWCNT/CPE&nbsp; in&nbsp;&nbsp; .01&nbsp; mol&nbsp; dm -3 hydrochloric&nbsp; acid,&nbsp; with&nbsp; electroposition&nbsp; time&nbsp; of&nbsp; target&nbsp; ions&nbsp; 120&nbsp; s&nbsp; at&nbsp; a&nbsp; electrodeposition potential&nbsp; of&nbsp; -1.2&nbsp; V.&nbsp; Obtained&nbsp;&nbsp; values&nbsp; of&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; LOD&nbsp; 1,1&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm -3 for&nbsp; Cd(II)&nbsp; and&nbsp; for&nbsp; 1,6&nbsp; &mu;g&nbsp; dm -3 Pb(II)&nbsp; ions.&nbsp; An&nbsp; optimized&nbsp; method&nbsp; based&nbsp; on&nbsp; this&nbsp; type&nbsp; of&nbsp; voltametric&nbsp; sensor&nbsp; has&nbsp; been successfully&nbsp; applied&nbsp; for&nbsp; determination&nbsp; of&nbsp; Cd(II)&nbsp; ion&nbsp; in&nbsp; a&nbsp; spiked&nbsp; tap&nbsp; water&nbsp; sample.&nbsp; Results obtained during this measurment were in tune with expected results. CPE&nbsp; was&nbsp; surface&nbsp; modified&nbsp; using&nbsp; Sb2O3-MWCNT&nbsp; nanocomposite&nbsp; material&nbsp; and tested&nbsp; for&nbsp; direct&nbsp; voltametric&nbsp; determination&nbsp; of&nbsp; imidacloprid&nbsp; in&nbsp; model&nbsp; solutions.&nbsp; In&nbsp; order&nbsp; to achieve the best analytical performance, experimental conditions of measurement such as the pH value of the supporting electrolyte and conditioning of the voltametric sensor surface havebeen&nbsp; optimized.&nbsp; As&nbsp; an&nbsp; optimum&nbsp; pH&nbsp; value&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; supporting&nbsp; electrolyte&nbsp; (Britton-Robinson buffer), a pH 7.0 was selected, and the repeating cycles of the cycling process at least 4 times favorably&nbsp; influenced&nbsp; the&nbsp; stability&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; voltametric&nbsp; signals.&nbsp; The&nbsp; optimized&nbsp; method&nbsp; was applied for the SW direct cathodic determination&nbsp; of&nbsp; imidacloprid in the concentration range from 1.41 to 32.77 &mu;g cm -3&nbsp; with obtained correlation factor of 0.9995. Based on results it can be concluded that developed analytical methods are sensitive, selective, reproducibile and simple, which can enable their application for various number of samples. Measurements in the model and real solutions have demonstrated the possibility of their&nbsp; application&nbsp; in&nbsp; complicated&nbsp; matrices,&nbsp; at&nbsp; different&nbsp; pH,&nbsp; whereby&nbsp; obtained&nbsp; results&nbsp; are&nbsp; in accordance&nbsp; with&nbsp; the&nbsp; results&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; applied&nbsp; comparative&nbsp; methods.&nbsp; For&nbsp; obtainig&nbsp; of representative&nbsp; results&nbsp; it&nbsp; is&nbsp; necessary&nbsp; to&nbsp; optimize&nbsp; conditions&nbsp; of&nbsp; measurment&nbsp; which&nbsp; include: selection of substrat electrode, surface modifier and optimization of experimental condition.</p>

Text in English / The goals of this research were to explore, describe and explain the crime of associated robbery, which at the time of this study, was a scientifically unknown phenomenon. Associated robbery is defined as “a bank-related robbery (by association) of cash or attempt thereto, committed against a bank client or his/her delegate, at any stage while en-route to or from a bank branch, ATM or cash centre or inside the branch to effect a deposit, or, withdrawal” (SABRIC 2013:4) This robbery is divided into two main categories, namely robbery before cash deposit and robbery after cash withdrawal. As found in literature and also evident in the findings of this study, more incidents and related cash losses are reported from robbery after withdrawal, which is sub-divided into muti scam, money bomb and spiked drink. This study followed an exploratory, sequential, mixed-method research approach where the qualitative phase took place first – followed by the quantitative phase. The topic was firstly explored by collecting qualitative data via in-depth, one-on-one interviews (from a phenomenological point of view) where mutual meaning was sought, as understood by victims of associated robbery. To gather quantitative data, 500 bank clients (i.e. individuals, small business owners and stokvel/saving club members) completed a survey questionnaire. Their perspective on the phenomenon of associated robbery was thus explained and described through the use of descriptive statistics, particularly univariate and bivariate statistical analysis. The most significant contribution made by this study, is embedment of the preventative measures used by the banking industry and other stakeholders such as the SAPS into the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles approaches. This model is heavily grounded on 12 SCP strategies, namely: access control; deflecting offenders; controlling facilitation; entry/exist screening; formal surveillance; surveillance by employees; natural surveillance; target removal; reducing temptation; rule setting; stimulating conscience; and facilitating compliance. Furthermore, the model emphasises that the combating of associated robberies is a collaborative effort and thus the individual (bank client), the banking industry, the criminal justice system (CJS) and the general public all have to work together in fighting this endemic. The lack of knowledge mainly from a victim’s perspective was identified as one of the challenges faced. However, this presented an opportunity for this study to make a significant contribution to the development of scientific literature. Moreover, the use of opportunity theories to explain the reasons why individuals are victimised placed the phenomenon in the criminological research milieu – thus pioneering a way for researchers who may wish to conduct future research on the same topic. / Criminology and Security Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Criminology)