In recent years the normativity of thought and meaning has been the subject of an extensive debate. What is at issue is whether intentionality has normative features, and if so, whether that constitutes a problem for naturalistic attempts to account for intentional phenomena. The origin of the debate is Saul Kripke’s interpretation of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, published in Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. Kripke claimed, on behalf of Wittgenstein, that dispositional accounts of linguistic meaning - accounts, i.e., which attempt to reduce semantic phenomena to facts about how speakers are disposed to employ words - fail to ground the factuality of semantic statements. From this, and other arguments, the far reaching conclusion was drawn by Kripke’s Wittgenstein that there are no semantic facts, that every application of a word is “a leap in the dark”. This position has become known as meaning scepticism. In the present essay, it will be argued that meaning scepticism is incoherent, but that the normativity argument is interesting in its own right. The development of the debate will be traced, primarily through detailed consideration of the writings of Paul Boghossian, who has shifted the focus from the normativity of linguistic meaning to that of belief. It will be contended that even though Boghossian’s attempt to locate a normativity of belief fails, there is a related form of normativity that has to do with the intrinsic badness of false beliefs. Also, suggestions made by Kripke regarding the normativity of intentions will be investigated, and related to contemporary arguments in the philosophy of rationality. The tentative conclusion is that there are some interesting kinds of normativity associated with the intentional, but of a somewhat different variety than those usually discussed.

The present thesis is devoted to theoretical studies of pulse propagation of light through linear and nonlinear media, and of light-induced nuclear dynamics. The first part of the thesis addresses propagation of light pulses in linear periodical media - photonic crystals. The main accent was put on studies of the angular properties of two qualitatively different types of photonic crystals: holographic photonic crystals, and impurity band based photonic crystals. The anisotropy of band structure, group velocity and pulse delay with respect to the light polarization are analyzed. In the second part of the thesis a strict theory of nonlinear propagation of a few strong interacting light beams is presented. The key idea of this approach is a self-consistent solution of the nonlinear wave equation and the density matrix equations of the material. This technique is applied to studies of dynamics of cavityless lasing generated by ultra-fast multi-photon excitation. It is shown that interaction of co- and counter-propagating pulses of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) affects the dynamics and efficiency of nonlinear conversion. Our dynamical theory allows to explain the asymmetric spectral properties of the forward and backward ASE pulses, which were observed in recent experiment with different dye molecules. It is shown that the ASE spectral profile changes drastically when the pump intensity approaches the threshold level. The effect of the temporal self-pulsation of ASE is studied in detail. The third part of the thesis is devoted to light-induced nuclear dynamics. Time- and frequency-resolved X-ray spectroscopy of molecules driven by strong and coherent infrared (IR) pulses shows that the phase of the IR field strongly influences the trajectory of the nuclear wave packet, and hence, the X-ray spectrum. Such a dependence arises due to the interference of one (X-ray) and two-photon (X-ray + IR) excitation channels. The phase of the light influences the dynamics also when the Rabi frequency approaches the vibrational frequency, breaking down the rotating-wave approximation. The probe X-ray spectra are also sensitive to the delay time, the duration, and the shape of the pulses. The evolution of the nuclear wave packets in the dissociative core-excited state affects the dynamics of resonant Auger scattering from fixed-in-space molecules. One of the important dynamical effects is the atomic-like resonance which experiences electronic Doppler shift. We predict that the scattering of the Auger electrons by nearby atoms leads to new Doppler shifted resonances. These extra resonances show sharp maxima in the bond directions, which makes them very promising as probes for local molecular structure using energy and angular resolved electron-ion coincidence techniques. Our theory provides prediction of several new effects, but also results that are in good agreement with the available experimental data. / QC 20100906

Catalysts based on the first-row (3d) transition metals are commonly seen in chemical and biological reactions. To understand the role of the transition metal in the catalyst, the element specific technique core level spectroscopy is used to probe the electronic structure and geometric properties centered around the metal site. Different types of X-ray spectra can be applied to probe the metal 3d character orbitals involved in reactions, which make it possible to identify and characterize the reactive sites of samples in different forms. A detailed interpretation and understanding of the different X-ray spectra requires a unified method which can be used to model different types of X-ray spectra, e.g., soft and hard X-rays. In this thesis, theoretical investigations of the electronic structures of 3d transition metal complexes through X-ray spectroscopy are presented. The restricted active space method (RAS) is used to successfully reproduce different types of X-ray spectra by including all important spectral effects: multiplet structures, spin-orbit coupling, charge-transfer excitations, ligand field splitting and 3d-4p orbital hybridization. Different prototypes of molecules are adopted to test the applicability of the RAS theory. The metal L edge X-ray absorption (XAS) spectra of low spin complexes [Fe(CN)6]n and [Fe(P)(ImH)2]n in ferrous and ferric oxidation state are discussed. The RAS calculations on iron L edge spectra of these comparing complexes have been performed to fingerprint the oxidation states of metal ion, and different ligand environments. The Fe(P) system has several low-lying spin states in the ground state, which is used as a model to identify unknown species by their spectroscopic fingerprints through RAS spectra simulations. To pave the route of understanding the electronic structure of oxygen evolution complex of Mn4CaO5 cluster, the MnII(acac)2 and MnIII(acac)3 are adopted as prototypical Mn-complexes. The 3d partial fluorescence yield-XAS are employed on the Mn L-edge in solution. Combining experiments and RAS calculations, primary questions related to the oxidation state and spin state are discussed. The first application to simulate the metal K pre-edge XAS of mono-iron complexes and iron dimer using RAS method beyond the electric dipole is completed by implementing the approximate origin independent calculations for the intensities. The K pre-edge spectrum of centrosymmetric complex [FeCl6]n– ferrous state is discussed as s and a donor model systems. The intensity of the K pre-edge increases significantly if the centrosymmetric environment is broken, e:g:, when going from a six-coordinate to the four-coordinate site in [FeCl4]n. Distortions from centrosymmetry allow for 3d-4p orbital hybridization, which gives rise to electric dipole-allowed transitions in the K pre-edge region. In order to deliver ample electronic structure details with high resolution in the hard X-ray energy range, the two-photon 1s2p resonant inelastic X-ray scattering process is employed. Upon the above successful applications of one-photon iron L edge and K pre-edge spectra, the RAS method is extended to simulate and interpret the 1s2p resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectra of [Fe(CN)6]n in ferrous and ferric oxidation states. The RAS applications on X-ray simulations are not restricted to the presented spectra in the thesis, it can be applied to the photon process of interest by including the corresponding core and valence orbitals of the sample.

In this work, a study of a recent approach in the design of light-driven molecular motors is presented. The approach involves enabling part of the motor to obtain aromatic-like properties through photoexcitation, and is found to significantly facilitate the rotary motion by reducing the barriers normally present in the excited-state potential energy surfaces of rotary motors.

Den föreliggande studien ämnade undersöka elever på estetiska programmets uppfattningar av musikaliska kunskaper samt deras tolkningar av kunskapssynen i läroplanen. För att undersöka detta genomfördes sex halvstrukturerade gruppintervjuer med tre elever i varje grupp på tre skolor utspridda i Sverige. Data analyserades utifrån ett fenomenografiskt perspektiv där fokuslåg på att finna likheter och skillnader i elevernas uppfattningar. Resultatet i studien visar på att eleverna har en subjektiv syn på musikaliska kunskaper där känslor och förmedlingen av dessa känslor i musicerandet är centralt. Musikaliska kunskaper definieras enligt eleverna utifrån den kontext utövaren befinner sig i och av dess åhörare, vilket menas att musikaliska kunskaper inte nödvändigtvis tolkas utifrån ett neutralt perspektiv utan musikanten har en musikalisk frihet att förmedla musik via känslomässig kommunikation och det är detta som är musikalisk kunskap. Studien visade även på elevernas uppfattningar av läroplanen som ett komplicerat dokumentsom inte alltid gynnar elevernas musikaliska utveckling. Trots det tycker eleverna att läroplanen behövs för läraren som hjälp och styrning i lärarens undervisning. Studien visar att det finns brister mellan lärare och elever i kommunikation vad det gäller förståelse av läroplanen. Denna situation har lett till att eleverna många gånger valt att inte läsa läroplanen då de upplever att det finns risk att bygga upp egna förväntningar som inte stämmer överens med lärarens förväntningar.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka legitimerade grundlärare i fritidshems erfarenheter av mötet mellan de kunskaper de har från sin utbildning och de kunskaper arbetet i fritidshem kräver av dem. I studien används kvalitativ metod där materialet har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Tolkningen av materialet har sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i fenomenologin samt används fenomenologin och hermeneutiken som analysmetoder.  I resultatet uttrycks en önskan om att moment i utbildningen ska läggas till eller göras om för att få möjlighet att tillägna sig fler kunskaper. Respondenterna beskriver att grundlärarutbildningen med inriktning mot arbete i fritidshem övervägande har varit bra men att de saknar en fördjupning i vissa kurser. Vidare diskuteras om en fördjupning är möjlig eller om det då krävs en revidering eller förlängning av utbildningen. Resultatet visar att den verksamhetsförlagda utbildningen är en bidragande faktor i att förstå och uppleva hur verksamheten fungerar. Det framkommer att den verksamhetsförlagda utbildningen möjliggör omvandlingen mellan teoretisk kunskap och praktisk verksamhet. Vidare framgår det att samtliga respondenter upplever att utbytet av erfarenheter har stor betydelse för kunskapsutvecklingen både under och efter utbildningen. Det respondenterna har beskrivit är hur kollegor på olika sätt visat sig särskilt viktiga för deras fortsatta kunskapsutveckling.

Den 16 juni 2009 röstades regeringens proposition igenom som innebar att Sverige gick från ett värnpliktsförsvar till ett frivilligt försvar. Redan 2017 beslutade sedan regeringen att återaktivera plikten igen. Sveriges val att på relativt kort tid byta metod och system för att bygga och skapa sitt militära maktmedel kan ytterst ses som en förändring i dess militärstrategi som berör både resurs- och insatsstrategier baserat på politiska styrningar, det vill säga hur militära resurser ska skapas, utvecklas och hur de ska användas.  Denna fallstudies syfte är att pröva hur ett konstruktivistiskt perspektiv kan öka förståelsen för bakomliggande motiven och drivkrafter till dessa förändringar i den svenska försvarsstrategin. Genom att bättre förstå de bakomliggande resonemangen och avvägningar som gjorts från den politiska nivån ökar den militära professionens förmåga att verkställa den politiska viljan samt förståelsen för vilken typ av beslutsunderlag som den politiska nivån behöver. Debatt i media och offentliga politiska dokument analyseras med stöd av textanalys samt konstruktivistisk teoribildning. Resultatet visar att det konstruktivistiska perspektivet, i form av uppsatsens teoretiska lins, fungerar för att ur en stor mängd empiri kunna belysa faktorer, argument och idéer som skapar en mer komplett bild av beslutsfattandet vid och omkring fallets två analysenheter och genom detta bättre förstå besluten. Förståelsen innebär att perspektiven vidgats och fokuserats samt identifierat andra aspekter än de som vanligtvis lyfts fram i de rationella och konsekvenslogiska förklaringsmodellerna.

In the search for a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy source, artificial photosynthesis has been proposed  as a promising solution. Using water as a substrate, solar energy can be utilised to store energy in the chemical form of hydrogen fuel. In part of this global scientific effort, this thesis work focuses on enabling molecular dynamics simulations of a particular set of ruthenium centred  water oxidation catalysts. The new catalysts show great success because of a binuclear  reaction  pathway in aqueous solution which makes it very interesting to model and investigate. Utilising quantum  mechanical tools, a set of molecular mechanics force field parameters for Ru-involved bonds, angles, torsions, and partial charges was successfully obtained and examined. The work allows future large scale simulation of water  oxidation and oxygen evolution in order to gain understanding and improve artificial photosynthesis.

The purpose of this study is to observe what modifying the surface of cellulose nanofibrils may imply for their interactions with a surrounding saline aqueous solution. This will be studied by using GROMACS, a molecular dynamic simulation software. In particular, we will analyse the modified surfaces hydrophilicity compared to native nanocellulose. This will subsequently have an impact on the nanofibrils readiness to aggregate to one another and disperse in the solution. Specifically two types of surface modifications will be studied, sulfonation and carboxy- lation. The hydrophilicity of the surfaces will be determined by analysing the density profiles of the systems wherein the modified surfaces interacts with the aqueous solutions. Also, the energies from the interactions of the simulated systems will be studied. We concluded that both modifications increases the surfaces interactions with the sur- rounding solution. Modifying the surface of the cellulose nanofibril with sulfonate will increase the surfaces attraction towards water and may provide the best rate of dispersion in aqueous solutions and best prohibit aggregation. Carboxylation of the surface provides similar hydrophilic results as the sulfonation but not as prevalent.

Thermodynamically, native cellulose nano fibrils are more stable in an aggregated state. The aggregated state is however not useful from a material development perspective. Therefore much research has been done to stabilize the dispersal of the fibrils. One method to overcome this instability is by surface substitution of the O6 hydroxyl group with carboxylate groups, to make highly charged fibrils in aqueous solutions. It is therefore of much interest to understand the interaction of highly charged fibrils in aqueous solutions. In this study, we aim to model the interaction potential energy between native and surface modified cellulose nanofibrils in order to understand under what conditions the contribution from the dipole interactions can be neglected. To achieve this we propose to use a continuum electrostatic approach, modeling the electrostatic interactions as a function of the fibrils relative dipole orientation, separation, surface charge as well as ionic strength of the solution, by means of using the Poisson-Boltzmann equation.