Civil Rights - Employment Discrimination - Title VII - Prima Facie Violation

The Supreme Court of the United States has held that a non-discriminatory bottom line is no defense to a prima facie claim of employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. \ Connecticut v. Teal, 102 S. Ct. 2525 (1982)

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationSport psychology researchers have long been interested in the antecedents and; consequences of stress in athletes. However, despite anecdotal, research, and conceptual evidence for the positive benefits of stress in athletes, no studies have been undertaken that systematically explore the phenomenon of stress-related growth (SRG) in the context of competitive sport. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of (SRG) in Division I intercollegiate athletes. An explanatory mixed methods design was employed. After an initial quantitative phase, qualitative data served as a follow-up to obtain more in-depth responses about SRG in Division I athletes. Less than half (43%) of the athletes reported a moderate to large degree of growth in response to their most difficult sport stressor in the past 3 years. The results of the regression analyses revealed that several demographic, stressor-related, and cognitive appraisal variables contributed significantly to the prediction of SRG. Most notably, being female, feeling more stress currently, and perceiving more control over the occurrence of the stressor all predicted more growth. Interviews with 11 athletes from the larger sample resulted in the emergence of four dimensions: (a) Personal and Sociocultural Context, (b) Disruption, (c) Social Support, and (d) Positive Psychosocial Outcomes. Based on these four dimensions, a conceptual model of SRG was developed. Athletes' struggles and attempts to work through their most difficult sport stressor led them to perceive personal growth in the form of a new life philosophy, self changes, and interpersonal changes. Social support was critical in facilitating athletes' attempts to work through and make meaning from their stressor. The entire SRG process was framed by athletes' life context, including personal; characteristics and sociocultural conditions. Researchers who are interested in conducting; future studies on SRG in sport should consider employing prospective designs, testing plausible rival hypotheses for growth, and examining SRG in at-risk groups of athletes. Coaches can facilitate growth in their athletes by providing them with emotional support and encouragement. Practitioners should be aware of the potential for growth in their clients, and guide athletes as they attempt to make sense of their struggles

A binarisation heuristic for non-convex quadratic programming with box constraints

Non-convex quadratic programming with box constraints is a fundamental problem in the global optimization literature, being one of the simplest NP-hard nonlinear programs. We present a new heuristic for this problem, which enables one to obtain solutions of excellent quality in reasonable computing times. The heuristic consists of four phases: binarisation, convexification, branch-and-Bound, and local optimisation. Some very encouraging computational results are given

New valid inequalities and facets for the simple plant location problem

The Simple Plant Location Problem is a well-known (and NP-hard) combinatorial optimisation problem, with applications in logistics. We present a new family of valid inequalities for the associated family of polyhedra, and show that it contains an exponentially large number of new facet-defining members. We also present a new procedure, called facility augmentation, which enables one to derive even more valid and facet-defining inequalities

Revisão do processo de auto cicatrização aplicado em argamassas e caldas de injeção: uma proposta de pesquisa experimental

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com a UTFPR - Universidade Tecnológica Federal do ParanáPatrimônios históricos, como antigas construções, são um tipo de documento histórico vulnerável devido à exposição a diversos intemperismos naturais e antropogênicos. Na Europa, muitos dos patrimônios históricos são formados por alvenaria de pedra, os quais muitas vezes apresentam baixa compacidade (devido à presença de vazios internos e fissuras) e ligações inadequadas. Para manter estas estruturas, sem danificar seus aspectos estéticos e estruturais, é necessário realizar estudos de reabilitação. A principal técnica de reabilitação recomendada pelo Conselho Nacional dos Monumentos e Sítios (ICOMOS) é a aplicação de caldas de injeção. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo estudar a possibilidade da aplicação de materiais autocicatrizantes nas caldas de injeção. A auto cicatrização é o processo automático realizado pelo material de selar parcialmente ou completamente suas fissuras. Para isto, foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica das tecnologias dos processos autocicatrizantes e avaliada a possibilidade da aplicação desta técnica em caldas de injeção de alvenaria antiga à base de cal. Verificou-se que os métodos autógenos como o uso de cinzas volantes e o uso de polímeros superabsorventes podem ser compatíveis com a técnica de injeção de caldas, com destaque para a utilização de microcápsulas. Os compostos biológicos (Bacillus sphaericus, Bacillus megaterium) e os químicos (epóxi, o silicato de sódio), apresentam baixa porosidade e baixa taxa de exsudação (tais propriedades são desejadas em injeções de caldas). Por fim, ressalta-se a importância desta investigação para a área de reabilitação de patrimônios históricos pois possibilita uma maximização nos processos restaurativos.Historical heritage, such as ancient buildings, are a type of fragile historical document due to exposure to various natural and anthropogenic weathering. In Europe, many of the historical patrimonies are formed by stone masonry, which often have low compactness (due to the presence of internal voids and fissures) and inadequate connections. To maintain these structures, without damaging their aesthetic and structural aspects, it is necessary to carry out rehabilitation studies. The main rehabilitation technique recommended by the National Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is the application of injection grout. The present work aims to study the possibility of applying self-healing in injection grouts. Selfhealing is the automatic process carried out by the material to partially or completely seal its cracks. For this, a bibliographic review of the technologies of the self-healing processes was carried out and the possibility of applying this technique in old limebased masonry injection grouts was evaluated. It was found that autogenous methods such as the use of fly ash and the use of superabsorbent polymers can be compatible with the injection technique, with emphasis on the use of microcapsules. Biological compounds (Bacillus sphaericus, Bacillus megaterium) and chemical compounds (epoxy, sodium silicate) have low porosity and low exudation rate (such properties are desired in grout injections). Finally, the importance of this investigation for the area of rehabilitation of historical heritage is highlighted, as it allows for a maximization of the restorative processes

An integrated source of spectrally filtered correlated photons for large scale quantum photonic systems

We demonstrate the generation of quantum-correlated photon-pairs combined with the spectral filtering of the pump field by more than 95dB using Bragg reflectors and electrically tunable ring resonators. Moreover, we perform demultiplexing and routing of signal and idler photons after transferring them via a fiber to a second identical chip. Non-classical two-photon temporal correlations with a coincidence-to-accidental ratio of 50 are measured without further off-chip filtering. Our system, fabricated with high yield and reproducibility in a CMOS process, paves the way toward truly large-scale quantum photonic circuits by allowing sources and detectors of single photons to be integrated on the same chip.Comment: 4 figure

Nonlinear characterisation of a silicon integrated Bragg waveguide filter

Bragg waveguides are promising optical filters for pump suppression in spontaneous Four-Wave Mixing (FWM) photon sources. In this work, we investigate the generation of unwanted photon pairs in the filter itself. We do this by taking advantage of the relation between spontaneous and classical FWM, which allows for the precise characterisation of the nonlinear response of the device. The pair generation rate estimated from the classical measurement is compared with the theoretical value calculated by means of a full quantum model of the filter, which also allows to investigate the spectral properties of the generated pairs. We find a good agreement between theory and experiment, confirming that stimulated FWM is a valuable approach to characterise the nonlinear response of an integrated filter, and that the pairs generated in a Bragg waveguide are not a serious issue for the operation of a fully integrated nonclassical source

On the Lovász theta function and some variants

The Lovász theta function of a graph is a well-known upper bound on the stability number. It can be computed efficiently by solving a semidefinite program (SDP). Actually, one can solve either of two SDPs, one due to Lovász and the other to Gr�ötschel et al. The former SDP is often thought to be preferable computationally, since it has fewer variables and constraints. We derive some new results on these two equivalent SDPs. The surprising result is that, if we weaken the SDPs by aggregating constraints, or strengthen them by adding cutting planes, the equivalence breaks down. In particular, the Gr�ötschel et al. scheme typically yields a stronger bound than the Lovász one

Energy correlations of photon pairs generated by a silicon microring resonator probed by Stimulated Four Wave Mixing

Compact silicon integrated devices, such as micro-ring resonators, have recently been demonstrated as efficient sources of quantum correlated photon pairs. The mass production of integrated devices demands the implementation of fast and reliable techniques to monitor the device performances. In the case of time-energy correlations, this is particularly challenging, as it requires high spectral resolution that is not currently achievable in coincidence measurements. Here we reconstruct the joint spectral density of photons pairs generated by spontaneous four-wave mixing in a silicon ring resonator by studying the corresponding stimulated process, namely stimulated four wave mixing. We show that this approach, featuring high spectral resolution and short measurement times, allows one to discriminate between nearly-uncorrelated and highly-correlated photon pairs.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

On the Lovász theta function and some variants

The Lovász theta function of a graph is a well-known upper bound on the stability number. It can be computed efficiently by solving a semidefinite program (SDP). Actually, one can solve either of two SDPs, one due to Lovász and the other to Gr�ötschel et al. The former SDP is often thought to be preferable computationally, since it has fewer variables and constraints. We derive some new results on these two equivalent SDPs. The surprising result is that, if we weaken the SDPs by aggregating constraints, or strengthen them by adding cutting planes, the equivalence breaks down. In particular, the Gr�ötschel et al. scheme typically yields a stronger bound than the Lovász one