Digital Commons Network^™

Plastic Deformation And Effective Strain Hardening Coefficient Of Irradiated Fe-9wt%Cr Ods Alloy By Nano-Indentation And Tem, Corey Kenneth Dolph

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to characterize changes in the yielding, and effective strain hardening coefficient of an oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloy upon exposure to irradiation. It is well known that irradiation produces a supersaturation of defects, which alters the mechanical properties of a material. In order to engineer materials for use in advanced nuclear reactors, the long-term effects of neutron irradiation on mechanical performance must be understood. However, high-dose neutron exposure is often simulated using ion bombardment. Unfortunately, ion irradiation results in a shallow damage layer that prevents traditional bulk mechanical characterization methods from being utilized. A …

A Small Acoustic Goniometer For General Purpose Research, Michael Pook

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Understanding acoustic events and monitoring their occurrence is a useful aspect of many research projects. In particular, acoustic goniometry allows researchers to determine the source of an event based solely on the sound it produces. The vast majority of the acoustic goniometry research projects used custom hardware targeted to the specific application under test. Unfortunately, due to the wide range of sensing applications, a flexible general purpose hardware/firmware system does not exist for this research. This dissertation focuses on the development of such a system which encourages the continued exploration of general purpose hardware/firmware and lowers barriers to research in …

Net Effects Of Gasoline Price Changes On Transit Ridership In U.S. Urban Areas, Mti Report 12-19, Hiroyuki Iseki, Rubaba Ali

Mineta Transportation Institute

Using panel data of transit ridership and gasoline prices for ten selected U.S. urbanized areas over the time period of 2002 to 2011, this study analyzes the effect of gasoline prices on ridership of the four main transit modes—bus, light rail, heavy rail, and commuter rail—as well as their aggregate ridership. Improving upon past studies on the subject, this study accounts for endogeneity between the supply of services and ridership, and controls for a comprehensive list of factors that may potentially influence transit ridership. This study also examines short- and long-term effects and non-constant effects at different gasoline prices. The …

A Look At Commercial Building Energy Use And Energy Efficiency Technologies From 1980 To Present, Marvin M. Arroyo

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Energy consumption has increased considerably in the last fifty years as population rises. At the same time, design and efficiency of all equipment used in commercial buildings have changed as well. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how HVAC systems have changed and how they have affected energy consumption. Entities like the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) facilitate the data-gathering process by offering databases of energy information from actual monthly energy bills to promote public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. Moreover, in order to …

Industrial Energy Consumption, Benchmarking, And Analysis In The United States, Daniel Maldonado

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the energy consumption of the industrial sector in the United States, and to identify the tools that can be used to minimize the consumption and improve the energy efficiency of all facilities in the country. The first part of the paper is a historical analysis of the industrial sector energy consumption, where the different energy sources are identified. The second part details different electronic tools that will provide facilities the ability of performing benchmarking, in order to understand their energy performance. Finally, the third part of this paper provides information about the …

Deposition And Characterization Of Carbon Nanotubes (Cnts) Based Films For Sensing Applications, Amila C. Dissanayake

Dissertations

The advent of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has opened up lot of novel applications because of their unique electrical and mechanical properties. CNTs are well known material for its exceptional electrical, mechanical, optical, thermal and chemical properties. A single-wall nanotube (SWNT) can be either semiconducting, metallic or semi-metallic, based on its chirality and diameter. SWNTs can be used in transistor device as active channels due to high electron mobility (~10000 cm2/(V s), electrical interconnects, nano-scale circuits, field-emission displays, light-emitting devices and thermal heat sinks due to low resistivity, high current density (~109A cm-2) and high thermal conductivity (~3500 W m-1). Further, …

Mega Wall Block Welded Wire Mesh Connection, Tyler B. Loertscher

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls restrain hillslopes to unnatural gradients using reinforced soil. Traditional MSE walls are constructed of large reinforced concrete panels bolted to steel strips for soil reinforcement. Segmented Retaining Walls (SRWs) are a form of MSE walls composed of precast concrete modular blocks that incorporate geosynthetic soil reinforcement. In comparison, traditional MSE walls have faster construction times and are typically stronger, but SRWs have increased in popularity because they are much cheaper to build.

There are many precast companies that produce different SRW block designs, these blocks have facing areas that range from 1 to 13.75 sq. …

Constitutionalizing Fetal Rights: A Salutary Tale From Ireland, Fiona De Londras

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In 1983, Ireland became the first country in the world to constitutionalize fetal rights. The 8th Amendment to the Constitution, passed by a referendum of the People, resulted in constitutional protection for “the right to life of the unborn,” which was deemed “equal” to the right to life of the “mother.” Since then, enshrining fetal rights in constitutions and in legislation has emerged as a key part of anti-abortion campaigning. This Article traces the constitutionalization of fetal rights in Ireland and its implications for law, politics, and women. In so doing, it provides a salutary tale of such an approach. …

Gentrification And Urban Public School Reforms: The Interest Divergence Dilemma, Erika K. Wilson

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Is It Mental?, Stuart Glennan

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Most philosophical debate over mental causation has been concerned with reconciling commonsense intuitions that there are causal interactions between the mental and the physical with philosophical theories of the nature of the mental that seem to suggest otherwise. My concern is with a different and more practical problem. We often confront some cognitive, affective, or bodily phenomenon, and wonder about its source – its etiology or its underlying causal basis. For instance, you might wonder whether your queasiness due to something you ate, or whether it is just nervousness, or whether your aunt’s memory loss is a neurological problem or …

Mitigating Pavement Edge Drop Off, Wayne Jensen, Niles Uerling

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The objective of this research was to investigate and document practices currently being used by the Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) districts and other State DOTs to mitigate pavement edge drop off. The NDOR has developed (or borrowed) and is currently incorporating into its standard practices several procedures that significantly decrease the incidence and magnitude of pavement edge-drop off. As these practices become more fully integrated into highway reconstruction projects, pavement edge drop off is expected to decrease dramatically. Localized areas of pavement edge drop off along paved lanes with bare or vegetated shoulders were noted as posing particular problems …

Diversity In American Graduate Education Admissions: Twenty-First-Century Challenges And Opportunities, Donald Mitchell Jr., Ph.D., Elizabeth A. Daniele

Executives, Administrators, & Staff Publications

While the legal precedent of affirmative action in U.S. higher education is well documented, graduate admissions practices that withstand strict scrutiny need further documentation. This chapter fills that gap in three ways. First, we briefly highlight the history of affirmative action in U.S. higher education as it relates to broadening the participation of URMs. Second, we offer best practices in U.S. graduate admissions that take into account the benefits of diversity while working within legal guidelines. We then close with considerations for future scholarship, policies, and practices.

Modeling Information Reliability And Maintenance: A Systematic Literature Review, Daysi A. Guerra Garcia

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Operating a business efficiently depends on effective everyday decision-making. In turn, those decisions are influenced by the quality of data used in the decision-making process, and maintaining good data quality becomes more challenging as a business expands. Protecting the quality of the data and the information it generates is a challenge faced by many companies across all industrial sectors. As companies begin to use data from these large data bases they will need to begin to develop strategies for maintaining and assessing the reliability of the information they generate using this data. A considerable amount of literature exists on data …

Exploring Model Error Through Post-Processing And An Ensemble Kalman Filter On Fire Weather Days, Michael Jon Erickson

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The proliferation of coupling atmospheric ensemble data to models in other related fields requires a priori knowledge of atmospheric ensemble biases specific to the desired application. In that spirit, this dissertation focuses on elucidating atmospheric ensemble model bias and error through a variety of different methods specific to fire weather days (FWDs) over the Northeast United States (NEUS). Other than a handful of studies that use models to predict fire indices for single fire seasons (Mölders 2008, Simpson et al. 2014), an extensive exploration of model performance specific to FWDs has not been attempted. Two unique definitions for FWDs are …

Advancing Numerical Prediction Of Physical And Biological Processes In Long Island Sound, Ling Liu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The occurrence and spread of hypoxia in coastal waters is known to depend strongly on nutrients, primary production, water column structure, wind and tidal mixing. Accurate prediction of the onset, intensity and areal extent of hypoxia remains a challenge. Previous modeling efforts have needed to ‘tune’ vertical mixing or phytoplankton respiration in order to obtain results that agree with field observations of dissolved oxygen (DO). We use a one-dimensional physical model coupled with a biogeochemical model to establish mechanistic links between factors involved in the evolution of seasonal hypoxia in western Long Island Sound. The coupled model includes bacterial dynamics, …

The Application Of Trajectory Analysis For An Early Warning System In Stem Courses, Un Jung Lee

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The retention of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors has become a national concern. “Early warning systems†(EWS) are being developed to identify students who perform poorly early in the semester so that interventions can be implemented. The research reported here utilizes clicker scores and review quiz scores collected in every class session for the longitudinal analysis, as well as pre-course concept inventory scores and self-reported student characteristics. Pre course concept inventory scores were significantly predictive of final course grade. Student demographic characteristics had a smaller fraction of final course grade explained. The cumulative average student clicker score was …

Groundwater Nitrate Contamination Remediation Through Permeable Reactive Barriers On The Forge River, Long Island, New York, Amy Bronwan Pritt

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The Forge River on the south shore of Long Island is contaminated by nitrate. The Forge River leads into Moriches Bay. Nitrate contamination in the river leads to algal blooms, hypoxia of the river and eventually fish kills. The area surrounding the Forge River is largely residential and not sewered with the residents relying on septic systems for sewage disposal. Nitrate from even small septic systems has been found in groundwater as far as 100m down gradient. Other investigators have shown the occurrence of submarine groundwater discharge on Wills Creek, a tributary of the Forge River and my study site. …

Radium Isotopes As Tracers Of Pore Water Dynamics In Two Long Island Salt Marsh Systems, Camilo Salazar

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

A study of pore water residence time as traced by short-lived radium (Ra) isotopes (224Ra and 223Ra) was conducted on two marsh systems in the south shore of Long Island, New York. Pore water was collected in July (summer) and November-December (winter) of 2013 at depths of 20 cm and 120 cm over three-station transects from the inner marsh to the marsh edge adjacent to a tidal channel. One of the marsh systems is the Wertheim Nationals Wildlife Refuge (NWR), from which two marshes were sampled; Wertheim 1 (W1), a restored marsh, and Wertheim 2 (W2), non-restored. The second marsh …

Chemical Aging And Cloud Condensation Nuclei Activity Of Biomass Burning Aerosol Proxies In The Presence Of Oh Radicals, Jonathan Hall Slade

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Biomass burning aerosol (BBA) can adversely impact regional and global air quality and represents a significant source of organic aerosol (OA) to the atmosphere that can affect climate. Aerosol particles can alter the transfer of radiation in earth's atmosphere directly by scattering and absorbing radiation or indirectly via cloud formation. Gas-to-particle, also termed heterogeneous, oxidation reactions can significantly alter the particle's physical and chemical properties. In turn, this can lead to the degradation of biomolecular markers for air quality-related aerosol source apportionment studies, the particles' lifetime, and modify the particles' abilities to serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). However, the …

An Application Of Regression For Storm Surge Prediction Along The New York/New Jersey Coast In Climate Models, Keith J. Roberts

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Storm surge from extratropical cyclones can lead to significant coastal flooding, particularly along coastlines adjacent to wide and shallow continental shelves. In warming global climate simulations, studies have shown systematic regional changes to cyclones, which generate surges. However, there have been no formal studies that link regional cyclone changes to changes in the occurrence and intensity of surges along the densely populated New York/New Jersey coastline. A multi-linear regression (MLR) approach is developed to predict 3-hourly surge during the cool season months (Oct. 1-March 31) using climate model data. At the three stations the approach is applied to (The Battery …

Radium Isotopes As Tracers Of Pore Water Dynamics In Two Long Island Salt Marsh Systems, Camilo Salazar

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

A study of pore water residence time as traced by short-lived radium (Ra) isotopes (224Ra and 223Ra) was conducted on two marsh systems in the south shore of Long Island, New York. Pore water was collected in July (summer) and November-December (winter) of 2013 at depths of 20 cm and 120 cm over three-station transects from the inner marsh to the marsh edge adjacent to a tidal channel. One of the marsh systems is the Wertheim Nationals Wildlife Refuge (NWR), from which two marshes were sampled; Wertheim 1 (W1), a restored marsh, and Wertheim 2 (W2), non-restored. The second marsh …

Chemical Aging And Cloud Condensation Nuclei Activity Of Biomass Burning Aerosol Proxies In The Presence Of Oh Radicals, Jonathan Hall Slade

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Biomass burning aerosol (BBA) can adversely impact regional and global air quality and represents a significant source of organic aerosol (OA) to the atmosphere that can affect climate. Aerosol particles can alter the transfer of radiation in earth's atmosphere directly by scattering and absorbing radiation or indirectly via cloud formation. Gas-to-particle, also termed heterogeneous, oxidation reactions can significantly alter the particle's physical and chemical properties. In turn, this can lead to the degradation of biomolecular markers for air quality-related aerosol source apportionment studies, the particles' lifetime, and modify the particles' abilities to serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). However, the …

Space Acquisition Strategies Of Zostera Marina, Bradley Thomas Furman

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Seagrasses are a diverse group of clonal marine macrophytes. Their decline in recent decades has been an alarming component of estuarine urbanization, with large portions of historical coverage lost or degraded. Understanding patterns of dispersal and recruitment within and among the remaining populations is now critical to predicting the form and pace of recovery. Working in a developing eelgrass (Zostera marina) meadow in Shinnecock Bay, we combined field manipulations, genotypic surveys and correlative analyses to understand how vegetative growth and seedling recruitment contribute to space acquisition. First, we explored clonal foraging behavior and its effect on patch growth using subterranean …

The Application Of Trajectory Analysis For An Early Warning System In Stem Courses, Un Jung Lee

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The retention of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors has become a national concern. “Early warning systems†(EWS) are being developed to identify students who perform poorly early in the semester so that interventions can be implemented. The research reported here utilizes clicker scores and review quiz scores collected in every class session for the longitudinal analysis, as well as pre-course concept inventory scores and self-reported student characteristics. Pre course concept inventory scores were significantly predictive of final course grade. Student demographic characteristics had a smaller fraction of final course grade explained. The cumulative average student clicker score was …

Meteorological Factors Affecting Storm Surge Of Extra Tropical Cyclones Along The New York/New Jersey Coast, Aichen Niu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Storm surge is an abnormal rise or decrease of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted astronomical tide. It is a rise of coastal shallow water driven by a storm's surface wind and pressure gradient forces. There are at least four processes involved in altering tide levels during storms: the pressure effect, the direct wind effect, the effect of waves, and the rainfall effect. Extra-tropical storms cause an offshore rise of water. Unlike most tropical cyclone storm surge, extra-tropical storms can cause higher water levels across a large area for longer periods and can lead to significant …

Modeling Platelets On Parallel Computers, Seetha Malavika Pothapragada

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Mechanical Heart Valves (MHV) provides life-saving solutions to patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases. But these devices are often plagued by non-physiological flow patterns resulting in increased shear stress conditions. This leads to platelet damage, a precursor of thromboembolism, thus impeding the device usability and demanding lifelong anticoagulation treatments. While the flow and stresses are in the micron level, the platelet behavior is at the nm level, thus presenting a major computational challenge for simulating this multiscale multi-physics modeling problem. This dissertation focuses on using parallel computers to develop a computational framework based on n-particle simulations, defined by Coarse Grained Molecular …

Effects Of Processing And Medical Sterilization Techniques On 3d-Printed And Molded Polylactic Acid, Mariah Nicole Geritano

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Manufacturing industries have evolved tremendously in the past decade with the introduction of Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D Printing. The medical device industry has been a leader in adapting this new technology into research and development. 3D printing enables medical devices and implants to become more customizable, patient specific, and allows for low production numbers. This study compares the mechanical and thermal properties of traditionally manufactured parts versus parts manufactured through 3D printing before and after sterilization, and the ability of an FDM printer to produce reliable, identical samples. It was found that molded samples and 100% infill …

Biotinylated Self-Assembled Micelles As Potential Vehicles For Targeted Anti-Cancer Drug Delivery, Weiyi Li

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Chemotherapy is one of the most commonly used cancer treatments. However, many side effects could occur due to the non-specific bindings of extremely toxic anti-cancer drugs to healthy cells and organs. Targeted delivery has been developed to enhance the selectivity of drug delivery vehicle and minimize side effects of chemotherapy. In this study, the hydrophobically modified glycol chitosan (HGC) micelle was further modified with a biotin-avidin-biotin (B-A-B) strategy to improve the tumor-selective ability of HGC. Firstly, HGC was biotinylated either at the amine groups (NH2) or the hydroxyl groups (OH) on the chitosan main chain. Then the biotin-4-fluorescein, as a …

Breath Biomarkers Detection By Chemical Sensors, Yan Li

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Our breath is a very complex mixture of chemical compositions. Usually, the majority of our exhaled breath consists of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxides, water and inert gases. The remaining small fraction of breath contains thousands of components in trace amount, including inorganic gas molecules like nitric monoxide and diverse kinds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The concentrations of our exhaled gases are at a relatively stable level, though minor fluctuations may occur at different time of the day and they are also linked to the body status. Sometimes, if a specific breath gas of some appears to have an abnormal …

Development Of New Generation Of Ceramics For Environmentally Focused Chemical Separations, Girish Ramakrishnan

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation focuses on the use of composite materials for environmental applications. For the first time, applications of both fresh and aged concrete as inexpensive adsorbents for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) removal is demonstrated. Concrete is the most widely used composite material of the modern era. Cement manufacturing (a major component of concrete) is considered to be one of the leading contributors to air pollution, resulting in 7% of the global carbon dioxide emissions along with a number of other harmful pollutants such as oxides, mercury and particulates. These emissions aide in the formation of acid rain, smog, and toxic ground …