Atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition of vanadium, chromium and titanium oxides

The atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition of vanadium, chromium and titanium oxides has been studied. Metal halide and oxyhalide precursors were used, vanadium tetrachloride and oxychloride, chromium oxychloride and titanium tetrachloride were reacted with water and methanol, ethanol and ethyl acetate. These reactions formed vanadium oxide, chromium oxide and titanium oxide films which were deposited onto glass substrates. The APCVD reaction of VCl4 with water at temperatures above 450 C was found to result in the formation of transparent yellow V2O5 films which adhered well to the glass substrate. Below this temperature no film formation was observed. The films were found to have no chlorine contamination by XPS analysis and showed minimal photocatalytic ability. The APCVD reaction of VOCl3 showed similar results to the VCl4 / H2O system with the notable exception that film deposition was observed to occur at all temperatures above 350 C. The films were shown to have little contamination from carbon by XPS. The APCVD reaction of chromyl chloride with water was found to produce green Cr2O3 films similar in colour to bulk Cr203 powder, at temperatures above 400 C. The films showed good adherence to the glass surface with little carbon contamination by XPS. Analogous reactions between chromyl chloride and an organic solvent such as ethanol, methanol and ethyl acetate also produced Cr203 coatings. The coatings were transparent brown in colour and showed preferential growth in the 110 plane. The films showed little carbon contamination by XPS. TiO2 films were grown by the APCVD reaction of TiCl4 with water, ethanol, methanol and ethyl acetate. The major product in all reactions was the anatase form of TiO2. The thicker films had a hazy / white appearance whilst thinner films were transparent. All films adhered well to the glass surface and had low carbon contamination. The films were shown to be very effective photocatalysts. All films were analysed by Raman spectroscopy, and vis / NIR transmission reflection spectroscopy. A new APCVD system was designed and constructed to facilitate this work, described in this thesis. Further a computer program was written in order to interface the data for the vis / NIR instrumentation

Identifying and Treating Food Insecurity

13% of Vermont households are food insecure, an increase of 45% since 2000. 25,400 children and 7,800 seniors in Vermont live with food insecurity. Based on metrics including poor health, hospitalizations, and lower educational productivity, food insecurity cost the State of Vermont $340,000,000 in 2010 alone.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1017/thumbnail.jp

Intelligent Agents for Disaster Management

ALADDIN [1] is a multi-disciplinary project that is developing novel techniques, architectures, and mechanisms for multi-agent systems in uncertain and dynamic environments. The application focus of the project is disaster management. Research within a number of themes is being pursued and this is considering different aspects of the interaction between autonomous agents and the decentralised system architectures that support those interactions. The aim of the research is to contribute to building more robust multi-agent systems for future applications in disaster management and other similar domains

Outlandish Authors: Innocenzo Fede and Musical Patronage at the Stuart Court in London and in Exile.

This dissertation analyzes musical patronage at the courts of Charles II (r. 1660–1685) and James II (r. 1685–1688) and argues that the 1688 exile of the Stuart court to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, was a key catalyst for the introduction of foreign musical styles in France in the post-Lully era. It focuses on the music of Stuart court composer Innocenzo Fede (ca.1660–ca.1732) who presided over the substantially Italian musical culture at the exiled court. In the wake of the pioneering work of Edward Corp in the early 1990s scholars have recognized the exiled Stuart court as an important center for the cultivation Italian music in France. This study, however, is the first to engage Fede’s secular chamber music analytically, and includes an examination of his cantatas, independent arias, and sonatas. It also identifies Queen Mary of Modena (1658–1718), the Italian wife of James II, as the primary patron of music and art at the exiled Stuart court. This analysis of Fede’s music not only illuminates his obscure oeuvre, but also provides a new perspective on the activities of Mary of Modena as a musical patron, highlighting her potentially surprising support of secular music. This dissertation argues that a politically and religiously motivated English receptivity to foreign styles stimulated the French adoption of Italian forms, and suggests that Fede’s contribution to the transmission of Italian cantata in France was more significant than previously recognized.PHDMusic: MusicologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100039/1/nickfiel_1.pd

Investigation of multicomponent adsorption isotherms in chromatography using high-throughput formats

Adsorption isotherms in chromatography are critical in determining the separation of solutes during column separations. Multicomponent protein adsorption isotherms, which are relevant during the downstream processing of biopharmaceutical products, have received limited study historically. The studies and methodologies which have been assessed have mainly focused on small, simple, chromophore containing proteins which have limited applicability to industrially relevant bio-therapeutics. The reasons why this area of study has received limited attention include the experimental effort associated with generating such large data sets as well as the difficulty in obtaining data of good enough quality. The work explored here presents and optimises the deployment of highthroughput chromatography formats as well as automated liquid handling systems in order to elucidate adsorption isotherms of proteins. Additionally, alternative rapid analytical methods involving the collection of protein UV spectra in conjunction with multivariate data analysis have been applied to quantify protein mixtures. These rapid high-throughput methods decrease the experimental effort associated with multicomponent isotherm studies. 3 binary isotherms and 1 ternary isotherm have been studied for larger, non-chromophore containing model proteins. The propagation of error in single component and multicomponent isotherms has been investigated to understand what drives the propensity for error as well as methods to mitigate problematic regions of investigation. The fitting of the multicomponent ion exchange isotherms across multiple salt levels to isotherm formalisms proved elusive which precluded their application for in silico modelling of column separation. Short of that a heuristic optimisation of a binary mixture was achieved quantifying eluted fractions using the UV spectra multivariate method

Goal fluency, pessimism and disengagement in depression

Despite the development of prominent theoretical models of goal motivation and its importance in daily life, research has rarely examined goal dysregulation processes in clinical depression. Here we aimed to investigate problematic aspects of goal regulation in clinically depressed adults, relative to controls. Depressed participants (n = 42) were recruited from two Improving Access to Psychological Therapy clinics in north-west England. Control participants (n = 51) were recruited from the same region. Participants generated personal approach goals (e.g., improve my marathon time) and avoidance goals (e.g., avoid getting upset over little things) and completed self-report measures of goal attainment likelihood and depressive symptoms. Participants also completed a measure of ease of disengagement from unattainable goals and re-engagement with new goals. Compared to controls, depressed participants reported fewer approach goals (but not more avoidance goals), rated their approach goal (rewarding) outcomes as less likely to happen and avoidance goal (threatening) outcomes as more likely to happen. Depressed participants also reported greater ease of disengagement from unattainable goals and more difficulty re-engaging with new goals than controls. Our findings extend current knowledge of the psychopathology of depression from a goal regulation perspective, suggesting that pessimism around goal pursuit accompanies fewer approach goal pursuits and a general tendency to disengage when difficulties are encountered

OPTIMISING MECHANICAL POWER OUTPUT IN WEIGHTED BACK SQUATS - A JOINT LEVEL ANALYSIS

When performing resistance training to improve muscular power output it is desirable to train with a resistance that maximises mechanical power. Previous studies investigating what resistance maximises power output show varied results and generally lack mechanistic conclusions. To address this we studied the whole-body and lower-limb joint mechanics of weighted back squatting. Ten male rowers performed maximal power squats with an Olympic bar and weights equivalent to 0, 10, 20, 40, 60 & 80% of their 1 RM. Whole-body power did not peak at a single resistance but over the range of 20-60%. This was owing to a trade-off in knee and hip powers that were maximised at 20% and 60%, respectively. When determining training resistances, practitioners should consider what joint powers should be emphasised in relation to the mechanics of the target sport

Fetal Medial Habenula Transplants: Innervation of the Rat Interpeduncular Nucleus

The effects of donor age and site of placement on the survival of fetal medial habenula (MH) transplants into adult rats hosts were examined. The innervation of the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN) in such cases was also examined. Explants of MH consisting of the medial-dorsal lip of the third ventricle were held in vitro for 1—2 days. Colloidal gold conjugated to wheat germ agglutinin was added for the last 18 hours to label the cells. Four of 16 cases with E19 derived transplants contained donor neurons. Markedly larger transplants were present in 95% of 20 cases with E16 derived transplants. Sites in the ventral midbrain were successful, while limited or no survival occurred at sites more remote from IPN. Retrograde labeling of transplant neurons was present in each case studied with HRP injection into host IPN. Colloidal gold-labeled macrophages, some oriented capillaries and GFAP-positive processes marked the donor-host interface. In EM the interface was evident only by the difference in tissue elements in the transplant versus host. Numerous synapses of Gray types I and II were present in the transplant. Excellent survival of MH neurons, donor/host interfaces, innervation of IPN by the transplant and fine structure in and around the transplants, all suggest that such preparations are suitable for further experimental analysis of the habenulo-interpeduncular system

Body Satisfaction, Weight Gain, and Binge Eating Among Overweight Adolescent Girls

Objective: To examine if body satisfaction is associated with body mass index (BMI) change and whether it protects against the development of frequent binge eating among overweight and obese adolescent girls. Methods: We used prospective data from 9 waves of an ongoing cohort study of adolescents, the Growing Up Today Study. At enrollment in 1996, participants were 9 to 14 years old. Questionnaires were mailed to participants annually until 2001, then biennially through 2007. Girls who were overweight or obese in 1996 were included in the analysis (n=1 559). Our outcomes were annual change in BMI and incident frequent binge eating, defined as binge eating at least weekly and no use of compensatory behaviors. Results: At baseline, 57.2% of the overweight and obese girls were at least somewhat satisfied with their bodies. During 11 years of follow-up, 9.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) [7.8, 10.8]) of the girls started to binge eat frequently. Controlling for BMI and other confounders, overweight and obese girls who reported being at least somewhat satisfied with their bodies made smaller BMI gains (β=−0.10 kg/m$^2$, 95% CI [−0.19, −0.02]) and had 61% lower odds of starting to binge eat frequently (odds ratio (OR)=0.39, 95% CI [0.24, 0.64]) than their less satisfied peers. Compared to girls who were the least satisfied with their bodies, girls who were the most satisfied had 85% lower odds of starting to binge eat frequently (OR=0.15, 95% CI [0.06, 0.37]). The association between body satisfaction and starting to binge eat frequently was stronger for younger adolescents than older adolescents. Conclusions: While body dissatisfaction is common among overweight and obese girls, body satisfaction may protect against excessive weight gain and binge eating. Prevention of body dissatisfaction must begin early and should be considered as a component of both obesity and eating disorder prevention programs