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Play and the Public Realm
Get PDFPlay is what makes us human. Play provides new perspectives which are required. Play promotes relationship, of those close to us and those in public, both needed relationships. We are more connected than ever in the modern day, yet we feel distant from our fellow man, especially when we meet him on the street. Symptoms of isolation include an unbalanced personal life and an empty social life. The comfort one feels at home, even with other people, is rarely or never experienced in public. The modern city can function as a creative space, but rediscovering the power of the public realm through play can promote a unique and ethical togetherness
Thinking Ahead: Preparing Young Minds for a Future World
Get PDFChange occurs in a variety of ways. Sometimes overnight,
sometimes silently over years. Consider the revolutions of the
past forty years. Those in 2020 alone. Ponder the magnitude of
changes our children will experience over the coming century.
This thesis explores the relationship between future realities
and our current understandings. Quantitative research,
logical argumentation, and correlational research will offer a
comprehensive look into the patterns of this ever-changing
world. Case study analysis and qualitative research assess
learning environments and understanding of building form as
a key contributor to user experience. An independent learning
environment, a museum of the future blended with a library of
knowledge, allows an opportunity for a grand demonstration
of architecture?s powerful ability to inspire and educate
Soil Biological Functioning and Recovery in Soils Disturbed From Bakken Oil and Gas Activities
Get PDFOil and gas activity-related soil disturbances can alter soil properties and reduce microbial function, which is crucial for nutrient cycling and proper soil function. The goal of this research was to investigate effects of remediation techniques on soil biological property recovery following various types of oil and gas disturbances. A series of studies evaluating microbial abundance, crop growth, and biological properties were conducted on crude oil-contaminated subsoils remediated either with thermal desorption or land farming. Thermally desorbed subsoil achieved similar yields to non-contaminated topsoil after four years. Additionally, biological properties in blended soil (1:1 topsoil to subsoil) were studied using two biostimulant inoculant products. Overall, biostimulant amendment improved microbial responses and plant growth over the control. While blended subsoil and/or remediated subsoil could replace topsoil during instances of topsoil scarcity and can facilitate soil biological property recovery similar to topsoil, biostimulants improved biological metrics regardless of soil blend
Hygrothermal Effects of Air Cavities Behind Claddings on Building Envelopes
Get PDFAir cavity behind claddings within building envelope provides an approach to mitigating building moisture-related issues as well as improving the building?s thermal performance. However, studies in literature commonly assume the cavity air as still and thus neglect the influence of mixed convection on the performance of building envelope. In addition, the drying performance of the air cavities remains unknown, and commonly a rectangular unicellular cavity is improperly assumed to simplify the investigation of the hygrothermal performance of a cladding system. Moreover, the literature lacks a study of the effect of humid air in the air cavity on heat and mass transfer. Therefore, it necessitates advanced problem formulation and solving to comprehensively study the effects of air cavities behind claddings on the performance of building envelope. The specific objectives are to 1) investigate potential of self-drying siding with raised air cavities for building envelopes; 2) study the effects of the cavity depth in mixed convection of air cavity for building envelopes; 3) analyze the effects of humid air in an air cavity on mass and heat transfer with phase change at the wall. To achieve these objectives, firstly, this study redefines the drying potential of air cavity taking into account the air cavity depth related to the shape irregularity and the inlet and outlet uncertainties. Then the formulated problems of mixed convection of air cavities behind sidings are solved with a perturbation method and SIMPLER algorithm. The results show that the drying performance is found to be heavily dependent on the cavity depth. Further, increasing the ratio of the siding depth to the air cavity depth amplifies the cavity air?s velocity, temperature, and mass fraction at cavity walls, as well as the heat and mass transfer across cavities. Consequently, this study demonstrated that humid air with the phase change and the cavity depth have the significant effects on the hygrothermal performance of building envelopes. The outcome of this study provides valuable guidance on the thermal performance evaluation of air cavity and has the potential of improving the design of claddings for the overall hygrothermal performance of building envelope
Symbolic Power Decompositions of Disjoint Cycle Graphs
Get PDFWe study the connection between the odd cycles of a finite, simple graph G and the symbolic powers of its edge ideal. When the odd cycles of G are disjoint, we give a decomposition of the symbolic powers of the edge ideal based on the number and size of the odd cycles of G. This shows that the symbolic powers of the edge ideal are completely dependent on the odd cycles of G. We then use this decomposition to develop formulae and bounds for invariants of symbolic powers
?You Are an Experience!?: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Characters in Children's Animated Series
Get PDFWestern society has slowly evolved to accept the identities of LGBTQ+ people. With strides forward in laws and public opinion, queer people are overall more accepted now than they have been in previous decades. However, there remains a social resistance to accepting transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people. While queer sexualities are more widely embraced, queer genders are not. Public debate surrounding the rights of TGNC people provide evidence to the prejudice, as cisgender people discuss whether transgender people should be allowed to participate in sports or hold any position of recognition in the social sphere. This discrimination can be seen reflected and perpetuated by popular culture. Television in particular serves as both a mirror and teacher of social norms (Herek, 1990; Luther & Legg Jr., 2010), including the consensus around queer identities. As such, this study approaches popular television from a critical discourse analysis framework in order to understand the power dynamics that exist within television communication. Specifically, I focus on the affordances and audience considerations of children?s cartoons, which are often the first media socialization that children encounter. Because of this, children are apt to learn social norms from whichever cartoons they consume. When children watch television programs containing positive depictions of queer people, they can learn to understand and respect the existence of queer people, and possibly even understand their own gender and romantic identities more thoroughly. Likewise, children who watch television featuring TGNC people can learn more specifically what it means to exist outside of arbitrarily mandated binaries of sex and gender. My analysis considered a sample of episodes from 20 children?s cartoons which featured TGNC characters. In the subsequent discussion, I concluded that the series analyzed often represented five major themes: TGNC people as exceptional at all costs, the backgrounded roles of TGNC people, TGNC characters favoring masculinity as a default, the rebellions of TGNC characters, and utopian series contexts which included TGNC characters. I end by presenting implications and recommendations of the study
Three Essays on Railroad Safety Analysis Using Non-Parametric Statistical Methods
Get PDFhe FRA mandated railroad companies to install a new monitoring system known as Positive Train Control (PTC). This system overlays sensors, signals, and transponders over existing track and other wayside infrastructure. Technologists designed the system to prevent accidents mainly caused by human negligence and communications. However, PTC will not address track-related defects, which is the second dominant cause of accidents.
A new track monitoring system called Railway Autonomous Inspection Localization System (RAILS) was proposed to address track-related accidents. RAILS is based on low-cost sensor technology that identifies defect symptoms, ranks their severity, classifies defect types, and localizes their positions. So, RAILS technology can augment the PTC by identifying track-related issues.
The main objectives of this dissertation are: (1) To compare the potential performance of RAILS with traditional inspection methods based on its fundamental theory of operation; (2) To identify factors contributing to railroad accidents; and (3) To determine and rank factors responsible for severe financial damages caused by railroad accidents.The first two objectives will help compare the proposed technology and identify the major factors responsible for causing train accidents. The final objective will help to categorize accidents based on the potential financial damage severity. Categorizing such incidents would help to create a database that prioritizes issues and suggest possible countermeasure based on the problems.
The study's key findings are as follows: (1) RAILS is more efficient in conducting continuous inspection and identifying potential defects than traditional systems by 33%, with only two trains per day and a 50% first-pass detection probability; (2) Nonparametric methods provide implicit information about rail accidents and function better than parametric methods by highlighting factors that are responsible for causing accidents rather than identifying the cause-and-effect relationship; (3) The most significant reasons for causing the financial damages are the number of derailed freight cars and the absence of territory signalization; and (4) Nonparametric methods automatically categorize rail accidents and, using text narratives, highlight causative factors responsible for a train derailment
An Examination of Land Preparation Methods to Alleviate Common Issues Associated With Pipeline Reclamation
Get PDFPost-seeding land preparation methods can improve reclamation success; however, limited research is available for the Williston Basin. A field study evaluated four treatments: land imprinting, hydromulch, straw crimping, and the combination of hydromulch and land imprinting for their abilities to reduce simulated rainfall runoff and sediment losses and for their ability to promote plant growth. Straw crimping reduced total runoff and may likely be the best option for providing surface cover. However, vegetation establishment was found to be not significant among the treatments. Additionally, a laboratory study examined seven soils for their penetration resistances (PR) across variable water contents (?g) and bulk densities (Bd). Overall, as Bd increased so did PR, with increases in ?g diminishing PR increases, yet still building strongly correlated relationships (r2 > 0.90). These results will enable reclamation specialists to better define soil conditions and methods for improving soil water retention and overall soil function
An Agent-Based Model for the Water Allocation and Management of Hydraulic Fracturing
Get PDFAn agent-based model (ABM) is developed to simulate the impacts on streamflow and groundwater levels by the dramatic increase of hydraulic fracturing (HF) water use. To develop the agent-based model, institution theory is used to model the regulation policies, while evolutionary programming allows agents to select appropriate strategies when applying for potential water use permits. Cognitive maps endow agents? ability and willingness to compete for more water sales. All agents have their influence boundaries that restrict their competitive behavior toward their neighbors but not to non-neighboring agents. The decision-making process is constructed and parameterized with both quantitative and qualitative information. By linking institution theory, evolutionary programming, and cognitive maps, our approach is a new exploration of modeling the dynamics of coupled human-natural systems (CHNS) to address the high complexity of the decision-making process involved in the CHNS. The ABM is calibrated with HF water-use data, and the calibration results show that it is reliable in simulating water depot number, depot locations, and depot water uses. The SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model of the Little Muddy River basin and the MODFLOW of the Fox Hill-Hell Creek regional aquifer are coupled with the ABM to simulate the changes in streamflow and groundwater level, respectively, under different scenarios such as HF water demand, climate, and regulatory policies. The integrated modeling framework of ABM, SWAT, and MODFLOW can be used to support making scientifically sound policies in water allocation and management for hydraulic fracturing
Modification of Diglycidyl Ether of Bisphenol-A Epoxy Primer for Multi-Substrate Application
Get PDFTraditional vehicles and aircraft have consisted primarily of steel and aluminum alloys which due to their density, has resulted in various logistic problems including transportation, maneuverability, fuel efficiency. These hindrances have led to a major increase in the incorporation of composites material into this equipment. As the use of these composite increases, multi-substrate coating systems that can provide adequate corrosion protection to metal components, as well as superior adhesion and flexibility to the composites, are needed.
The goal of this work is the modification of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy coating systems for improved flexibility and adhesion for the development of multi-substrate primer. For this purpose, commercial additives of various chemistry (liquid rubber, polysulfide, novolac phenolic resins, silane coupling agents, and polyethers) were incorporated into a model epoxy-polyamine coating and their effect on flexibility and adhesion was investigated. Based on their performance, the top-performing additives were incorporated into a fully pigmented modified primer. Overall, the studies in this dissertation not only demonstrated improved flexibility and adhesion to metal and composites but also improved overall corrosion protection compared to an unmodified primer