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Asteroids are diverse and numerous solar system objects, from the large number of objects in the main asteroid belt to the relatively small near-Earth population. Understanding their physical properties is essential to understanding the evolution of the solar system, and asteroid morphology is a complex field in its own right. The histories of individual asteroids, and particularly near-Earth objects, reflect continuous interaction among their shapes, rotation states, and orbits due to the effects of radiation pressure. Radar astronomy has provided detailed information on the orbits, sizes,...

The focus of this thesis is the study of the electronic and magnetic structure of three representative members of Fe-bearing rock-forming silicates, viz. orthoferrosilite (Fe2+2Si2O6), almandine (Fe2+3Al2(SiO4)3) and andradite (Ca3Fe3+2(SiO4)3). These minerals have attracted significant attention due to their abundance in the Earth's crust and mantle, and because crystallised silicates are main components of cosmic dust which is the most abundant raw material in the Universe. For this purpose quantum mechanical first principles electronic structure calculations are performed by the most effici...

This dissertation compares the learning environment of elite military academies in the U.S. and Malaysia, namely the United States Military Academy, New York (West Point) and the Military Academy of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (MAM). The dissertation began as an investigation of the place of e-learning and simulation technologies in educating future military officers. It was assumed that as modern technologies for war and defence have changed, so too must the military academies accommodate to that – especially in producing the right kind of officers who will lead the defence of the nation. Research...

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with the utilization of preadjudicatory detention among juveniles in the United States. Specifically, this study identified: (a) the philosophical basis associated with the utilization of the preadjudicatory detention of juveniles, (b) the legal origins of the preadjudicatory detention of juveniles, (c) a number of theoretical perspectives associated with the use of preadjudicatory detention of juveniles, and (d) whether legal (i.e., prior record, offense, etc.) or extralegal factors (i.e., race, gender, etc.) were associated wit...

In Germany, political foundations (Stiftungen) play an important role in shaping civil society through political democracy education. The foundations, however, have also committed themselves to strengthening democratic political and societal structures abroad. Their joint mission abroad is the contribution to democratic structures, information and debate in the countries and regions they are working in. They complement the official German foreign policy, but choose their own priorities and strategies. The focus of this thesis is the German political foundations as actors in democracy assist...

The majority of the people who make up the United States' seasonal agricultural workforce are nonimmigrant Mexican citizens. Immigration policies such as the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and the H-2A agricultural guest worker program were meant to encourage growers to employ legal labor workforces. A study of the laws and practices that eventually resulted in the H-2A program shows how and why the demographics are predominantly Mexican. In addition, such study is revealing as to why the US enacted the H-2A program-including definitional details of the program itself. However, does...

This thesis focuses on iterative methods for the treatment of the steady state neutron transport equation in slab geometry, bounded convex domain of Rn (n = 2,3) and in 1-D spherical geometry. We introduce a generic Alternate Direction Implicit (ADI)-like iterative method based on positive definite and m-accretive splitting (PAS) for linear operator equations with operators admitting such splitting. This method converges unconditionally and its SOR acceleration yields convergence results similar to those obtained in presence of finite dimensional systems with matrices possessing the Young pr...

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of 10 selected academically successful African American male leaders. In this study, "academic success" was defined as these African American men who attained a master's or postgraduate degree such as a M.D., Ph.D., or J.D. Even though there is bountiful research on the deficiencies in the lives of African American males, it is still unclear what conditions lead African American men to higher educational attainment. The goal of this study was to also add to the deficient, ever-emerging body of research in the ...

For centuries, we have known that our dynamic universe is adorned by cosmic fireworks: energetic and ephemeral beacons of light from a single star that are a million (nova) to a billion (supernova) times brighter than our sun. However, it had been an age-old conundrum that the brightest nova is approximately 1000 times fainter than the faintest supernova; why should nature leave such a wide "gap"? In search of an answer, I undertook three systematic surveys for my thesis. Since I was looking for transients fainter, faster and rarer than supernovae, I focused my search on galaxies in the loc...

The aim of this study was to establish what is known about the treatment of schizoid personality disorder using psychodynamic psychotherapies, by conducting a systematic review of the literature. The limitations of this approach are set out, followed by an account of the development of the use of the term in descriptive psychiatry and the psychodynamic literature. The inclusion criteria used were studies in English and of adults, that had a methodology, had confirmed a diagnosis of schizoid personality disorder in the subject during the study, that used any type of psychodynamic approach, and ...