General Personality Disorder: A study into the core components of personality pathology

This thesis explores the structure of various models of General Personality Disorder (PD) and severity levels of PD. In the first part of this thesis, a model of functional impairment, i.e. Livesley's adaptive failure model, as a definition of General PD, and a model of structural impairment, i.e. Kernberg's model of ego- organisation, as a definition of core features of PD, are investigated. The psychometric properties of the General Assessment of Personality Disorders (GAPD), as an instrument for assessing the core features of PD, and the Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO), as a measure of the structural model of Kernberg are described. Also, in a study using item-response theory (IRT), markers of a general level of personality (dys)functioning are identified. These markers and models of general personality dysfunction are compared with the Alternative DSM-5 model for PD. Part two of this thesis explores the relationships between models of general personality dysfunction and models of personality traits. It shows that models of general PD can be distinguished from the Five-Factor Model of personality, and it describes a study towards the incremental value of models of personality dysfunction and models of personality traits in the prediction of the presence and severity of PDs. Finally it presents a brief communication concerning the question whether the extreme endpoints of the Five-Factor Model domains are intrinsically maladaptive. The results of the study are discussed in the context of the proposed changes of the definition of PD for the DSM-5, and clinical applications are formulated

Identifying the optimal use of CTCs in the early staging phase of breast cancer

Objectives: Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the blood can give important information about the prognosis and treatment options for cancer patients. Methods like cell-search are not sensitive enough because the blood samples are small (7,5 mL). Currently a technique is developed which can separate CTCs from the whole blood and is called the CTC Trap. This study addresses the potential impact of implementing the CTC Trap in addition to currently used imaging techniques in early staging of primary stage I-III breast cancer in women. Methods: The early staging process has been identified using the Dutch breast cancer guideline. This process is displayed in a decision tree. Three points in this process have been identified as possible implementation options for the CTC Trap. A simulation model has been built in Excel to simulate the cost-effectiveness of implementing the CTC Trap at these three different points. Results: Potentially relevant points for the CTC trap are: 1) following negative sentinel lymph node procedure to test for micro metastases, 2) following negative result of initial MRI to test for (micro-) metastases, 3) following negative results of further imaging. Usual care resulted in an average survival of 2,42 years, a 3-year survival of 93,71%, 1,51 QALYs and a cost of € 992,56. When implemented at all 3 implementation points simultaneously CTC Trap resulted in an average survival of 2,84 years, a 3-year survival of 97,46 %, 1,84 QALYS and a total cost of € 6.035,45. Conclusions: CTCs clearly have the potential to improve overall survival. Use of CTCs can potentially improve survival with 0,42 years and improve QALYs with 0,34. Costs do increase at all options but from a health economic perspective it is most valuable to implement CTC Trap in option 1) following negative sentinel lymph node procedure to test for (micro-) metastases

Mechanism of thermally activated c-axis dissipation in layered High-Tc_c superconductors at high fields

We propose a simple model which explains experimental behavior of $c$-axis resistivity in layered High-T$_c$ superconductors at high fields in a limited temperature range. It is generally accepted that the in-plane dissipation at low temperatures is caused by small concentration of mobile pancake vortices whose diffusive motion is thermally activated. We demonstrate that in such situation a finite conductivity appears also in $c$-direction due to the phase slips between the planes caused by the mobile pancakes. The model gives universal relation between the components of conductivity which is in good agreement with experimental data.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 2 Postscript figure

Full Bulk Spin Polarization and Intrinsic Tunnel Barriers at the Surface of Layered Manganites

Transmission of information using the spin of the electron as well as its charge requires a high degree of spin polarization at surfaces. At surfaces however this degree of polarization can be quenched by competing interactions. Using a combination of surface sensitive x-ray and tunneling probes, we show for the quasi-two-dimensional bilayer manganites that the outermost Mn-O bilayer, alone, is affected: it is a 1-nm thick insulator that exhibits no long-range ferromagnetic order while the next bilayer displays the full spin polarization of the bulk. Such an abrupt localization of the surface effects is due to the two-dimensional nature of the layered manganite while the loss of ferromagnetism is attributed to weakened double exchange in the reconstructed surface bilayer and a resultant antiferromagnetic phase. The creation of a well-defined surface insulator demonstrates the ability to naturally self-assemble two of the most demanding components of an ideal magnetic tunnel junction.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

Excellent passivation of germanium surfaces by POx/Al2O3 stacks

Passivation of germanium surfaces is vital for the application of germanium in next-generation electronic and photonic devices. In this work, it is demonstrated that stacks of phosphorous oxide and aluminum oxide (POx/Al2O3) provide excellent and stable passivation of germanium surfaces, with state-of-the-art surface recombination velocities down to 8.9 cm/s. The POx/Al2O3 stack also exhibits positive fixed charge on germanium, which makes it especially suited for passivation of highly doped n-type germanium surfaces. The chemical passivation mechanism is found to be related to the passivation of defects by hydrogen, which is mobilized by the formation of AlPO4 upon annealing. Furthermore, the GeOx interlayer is removed due to a kind of “self-cleaning” process during the deposition of POx/Al2O3 stacks on germanium, which may in part explain the excellent passivation quality. This self-cleaning of the interface may also allow simplified device fabrication workflows, as pretreatments may be omitted

Vortices in a Thin Film Superconductor with a Spherical Geometry

We report results from Monte Carlo simulations of a thin film superconductor in a spherical geometry within the lowest Landau level approximation. We observe the absence of a phase transition to a low temperature vortex solid phase with these boundary conditions; the system remains in the vortex liquid phase for all accessible temperatures. The correlation lengths are measured for phase coherence and density modulation. Both lengths display identical temperature dependences, with an asymptotic scaling form consistent with a continuous zero temperature transition. This contrasts with the first order freezing transition which is seen in the alternative quasi-periodic boundary conditions. The high temperature perturbation theory and the ground states of the spherical system suggest that the thermodynamic limit of the spherical geometry is the same as that on the flat plane. We discuss the advantages and drawbacks of simulations with different geometries, and compare with current experimental conclusions. The effect of having a large scale inhomogeneity in the applied field is also considered.Comment: This replacment contains substantial revisions: the new article is twice as long with new and different results on the thermodynamic limit on the sphere plus a full discussion on the alternative boundary conditions used in simulations in the LLL approximation. 19 pages, 12 encapsulated PostScript figures, 1 JPEG figure, uses RevTeX (with epsf

Absence of the Transition into Abrikosov Vortex State of Two-Dimensional Type-II Superconductor with Weak Pinning

The resistive properties of thin amorphous NbO_{x} films with weak pinning were investigated experimentally above and below the second critical field H_{c2}. As opposed to bulk type II superconductors with weak pinning where a sharp change of resistive properties at the transition into the Abrikosov state is observed at H_{c4}, some percent below H_{c2} (V.A.Marchenko and A.V.Nikulov, 1981), no qualitative change of resistive properties is observed down to a very low magnetic field, H_{c4} < 0.006 H_{c2}, in thin films with weak pinning. The smooth dependencies of the resistivity observed in these films can be described by paraconductivity theory both above and below H_{c2}. This means that the fluctuation superconducting state without phase coherence remains appreciably below H_{c2} in the two-dimensional superconductor with weak pinning. The difference the H_{c4}/H_{c2} values, i.e. position of the transition into the Abrikosov state, in three- and two-dimensional superconductors conforms to the Maki-Takayama result 1971 year according to which the Abrikosov solution 1957 year is valid only for a superconductor with finite dimensions. Because of the fluctuation this solution obtained in the mean field approximation is not valid in a relatively narrow region below H_{c2} for bulk superconductors with real dimensions and much below H_{c2} for thin films with real dimensions. The superconducting state without phase coherence should not be identified with the mythical vortex liquid because the vortex, as a singularity in superconducting state with phase coherence, can not exist without phase coherence.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure