Abstract This work describes the design of external lightning protection system for thatched roofed structures. Lightning is a natural phenomenon that has an unpredictable strike location. Therefore in creating an external LPS, it is possible to create a path for the discharge that minimizes its harmful effects to a structure. There are many international documents and standards that describe methods of providing lightning protection. It has traditionally been accepted practice to install lightning protection masts near a thatched structure. However in solving one problem a number of others may have been created. This work explores alternative lightning protection designs for thatched roofed structures. Tests were performed in a laboratory environment to determine the level at which that will ignite from a direct strike to thatch material. These tests were performed using a combination impulse generator. It was found that thatch started to smoke at 10 kA. And ignition of the thatch occurred at 20 kA with a charge of 45 C.

Storm surge above the levee crest elevation combined with levee wave overtopping can place large shear stresses on the levee landward slope face. Previous research has examined overtopping flow conditions, but the resulting shear stress has not been thoroughly analyzed. The purpose of this thesis is to examine multiple combinations of overtopping flow conditions and the resultant shear stress along the levee’s landward slope. This thesis presents measurements of depth, velocity, discharge, and wave height, and it estimates shear stress using data collected from a scaled physical model. Shear stress is estimated using three equations including a version of Saint-Venant equations that accounts for unsteady, non-uniform flow. The objective of this thesis is to develop shear stress estimates on the landward slope of a levee during combined wave and surge overtopping for conditions and dimensions typical to levees along the Gulf coast of the United States.

This study utilizes farm yield data to generate the relationship between farm and county yields, and farm and crop reporting district (CRD) yields by using seemingly unrelated regression (SUR). The relationships are used to examine whether CRD level insurance is a viable alternative for county level Group Risk Plan (GRP) or Group Risk Insurance Protection (GRIP) by generating the certainty equivalent for each producer under different insurance scenarios, which includes no insurance, county level insurance and CRD level insurance under different scales and risk aversion coefficient levels. The analysis is conducted for Iowa CRD 10, Ohio CRD 10, Georgia CRD 70, Mississippi CRD 40, and Kansas CRD 30. This study also analyzes how well deep loss and shallow loss programs perform in different production regions by looking at the marginal certainty equivalent effects.

No description available.

Anthropogenic activities such as oil spills are major sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollution in the environment. Bivalves such as C. virginica can accumulate high levels of PAHs in tissue due to a limited metabolic capacity for these compounds. Accordingly, bivalves have served as key biomonitoring species for contaminants and exposure to PAH through seafood consumption can also be an important risk to human health due to the toxic and carcinogenic potential of these compounds. For evaluating bivalve PAH levels, conventional analyses are limited due to extensive time and expense and unreliability. This work demonstrates the application of immunological techniques to overcome such limitations in conventional techniques and to explore PAH kinetics and partitioning mechanisms within oysters. Biosensor technology coupled with a PAH antibody was employed to rapidly and inexpensively screen PAH levels in adult oysters in an Elizabeth River watershed monitoring survey. Through a novel extension of a fundamental chemistry theory, PAH concentrations measured in oyster fluid by biosensor were used to predict tissue concentrations. Biosensor-derived predictions had a strong association with tissue concentrations measured by conventional chemical analysis. A strong association between the biosensor and tissue concentrations when compared against regulatory PAH thresholds and efficient mapping of PAH levels throughout the watershed, demonstrates the real-world value of the method. The biosensor was also employed in PAH kinetics studies. Oysters were exposed to crude oil water accommodated fractions (WAF) in the laboratory to explore the application of the biosensor in oil spill response; however, further work is needed to improve the precision of biosensor-derived predictions at non-steady state. In a field exposure study, PAH levels in cultured triploid and diploid oysters deployed at a PAH hotspot in the Elizabeth River were compared to wild oysters inhabiting the site. Differences in PAH kinetic trends were observed between oyster fluid and tissue. When combined with the observed differences in PAH levels in specific tissue types between transplanted and wild oysters, there is evidence that internal partitioning and tissue-specific kinetic rates may be important factors in determining the overall PAH body burden in an oyster and warrants further investigation to improve precision in future biomonitoring efforts. The fluorescently tagged PAH antibody was also employed in an immunohistochemical (IHC) technique to visualize complex PAH mixtures within oyster tissue. Oysters were collected throughout the laboratory WAF exposure, and the observed change in signal intensity in tissue followed a similar trend to measured PAH concentrations. In visualizing transplanted vs. wild oyster tissue, the trends in signal intensity supported the differences observed in tissue-specific PAH concentrations between groups. Overall, the biosensor shows promise as a tool to overcome current analytical challenges faced in environmental monitoring of biota. While further work is needed to understand the influence of chemical and biological factors on PAH kinetics and biosensor-derived tissue predictions, the unique analytical features of these technologies are valuable for addressing these mechanistic questions. When coupled with IHC, these immunologic techniques can provide new insight to address complexities in environmental pollution and health risk assessments that cannot be as feasibly and inexpensively answered by standard methods.

This document only includes an excerpt of the corresponding thesis or dissertation. To request a digital scan of the full text, please contact the Ruth Lilly Medical Library's Interlibrary Loan Department (rlmlill@iu.edu).

The aim of this study was to assess the durability of commercially available coatings on cross- laminated timber (CLT) during natural and artificial weathering and against wood decay fungus. The CLT samples coated with twelve coatings were tested based on their moisture exclusion, water repellency, volumetric swelling and anti-swelling efficiency. Among all the tested coatings, only five (A, C, F, I and J) were able to promote water repellency and limiting dimensional changes. The top five coatings were then tested on CLT blocks exposed to natural (Starkville-MS and Madison-WI) and artificial weathering conditions and brown-rot fungi (G. trabeum). Variables such as visual ratings, water uptake, color and gloss change were determined during both weathering procedures. Damage caused by Gloeophyllum trabeum on uncoated and coated CLT was analyzed based on visual appearance and weight loss. For the coatings C and F, the visual rakings and color change results indicated high consistency during outdoor exposure. The artificial weathering showed that coating C and F were the most resistant to chalking, lightness, color and gloss change. In the soil block test, coating C obtained satisfactory performance against G. trabeum with weight loss of 1.33%. Coatings F and J did not offer any protection to water penetration, which eventually contributed to fungal development. For future, new coatings specifically designed for the protection of high percentages of end-grain in CLT panels should be a target of research and development.

No description available.

The first version that was uploaded to Macsphere was the incorrect version. I was advised to re-upload the correct version. / This research project interviewed child protection workers to understand how they used strengths-based theory and the Signs of Safety model in practice to facilitate engagement and build rapport with families. In addition, child protection workers were asked for their definitions of engagement and rapport building, since these concepts have multiple definitions in child welfare. In semi-structured individual interviews, child protection workers provided their perspectives regarding what fostered or hindered their efforts to engage with families. A structural and critical lens was applied to the analysis of the data, to reveal what organizational and relational factors positively or negatively influenced engagement. This study found that all workers identified strengths-based theory and the Signs of Safety model as producing positive outcomes. The workers‟ descriptions of strengths-based practice included positive aspects such as being forthright about their role and their mandate, and working from the family‟s strengths instead of focusing solely on risk. Workers‟ responses regarding the Signs of Safety model varied. Two workers were from an agency (CAS-A) that promoted and used Signs of Safety with families, and two workers were from an agency (CAS-B) that had just began to use the model in settings with colleagues. Workers‟ descriptions of the model were positive and highlighted the collaborative aspects of the model, its inclusion of the family in planning, and affording the workers with a balanced assessment that contained elements of safety and risk. In contrast, this study found that despite the strengths-based focus of these approaches, they had limitations. Workers described factors within and external to the worker/client relationship that influenced whether or not workers would use either approach. All workers discussed instances when engagement with a family was not successful, and consistently MSW Thesis – L.A. Mabo McMaster School of Social Work iv described client resistance as a barrier to the process. However, this study found that client resistance was connected to power dynamics present in the worker/client relationship, and the dual role workers had to assume to do their job and satisfy their agency mandate. The workers interviewed for this study described reverting to their role of investigator, when the family was resistant. This study found that a worker‟s authority was implied, and related to a family‟s feelings of powerlessness and fear. All workers provided examples of both types of resistance. As a result, this study concluded that strengths-based approaches could not address the issue of power, and were effective only with the family‟s cooperation. Workers described wanting to apply strengths-based approaches but felt overwhelmed by organizational factors such as time constraints due to caseloads, and excessive administrative burden. This study found that these factors were influenced by Provincial policy, which emphasizes productivity and cost efficiency over family engagement. Workers identified lack of agency support to apply strengths-based approaches as a barrier, with the exception being CAS-A, that promoted the Signs of Safety model and permitted its workers to be interviewed for this study. The findings of this study have direct implications for practice and future research. To address the issues identified by this research, practice and policy may need to be modified to promote strengths-based practices to offer services that will meet the needs and safety of the child and family. Further research is recommended, with a larger sample from an agency that uses strengths-based practice and the Signs of Safety model, to determine whether positive outcomes can be linked with these approaches. It is also recommended that research include the perspectives of child protection workers and families. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

The dissertation explores the field of information policy in a historic setting in Sweden, namely the early 1970s. At the time the question of privacy in relation to databanks, data systems and personal records was intensively discussed in all public media, starting in the fall of 1970 when a large-scale population census was carried out in Sweden. The political discussions and public debate resulted in the first Swedish data protection law, Datalag (1973:289), and was counted as one of the first of this type of national legislation in the world. The focus of the empirical study lies in the analysis of the lines of arguments, political reasoning and debates concerning privacy, data protection, information and technology in documents such as official reports, committee reports, proposals and parliamentary records and publications that were produced in the policy process preceding the new legislation. The public debate itself is investigated through the editorials and reports in the daily press of the time. A combination of discourse analysis and agenda-setting theory, as it is presented and used by the political scientist John W Kingdon, constitutes the theoretical framework of the thesis. The study is introduced with a discussion concerning discourse and language use in politics, and here Norman Faircloughs CDA, Critical Discourse Analysis, has been the main inspiration. Kingdon’s agendasetting model contributes with an interesting theoretical perspective on the social and political context of the discourses under study. The research questions also draw upon library and information science and theoretical work within the area of information policy, with issues concerning notions of information and technology, for example information as a public good versus private good in the market, and information as a free or restricted/protected resource. The main findings of the study imply that the political discussion and debate on databanks and privacy were heavily influenced by a public-oriented discourse focusing mainly on governmental authorities’ own use of information systems holding personal data. The new legislation, datalag (1973:289) could also be seen as a tool that sanctions governmental authorities’ extensive use and dependence on new data technologies and automatic data-processing in building up the welfare state and the growing public sector. The discourse was also based on a mixed notion of the new technology, perceiving data technology mainly as the “big machine” which contains a vast amount of personal information. This, at a time when the technology itself was transforming rapidly from bulky machines to personal computers. The practical effects of this discourse could be seen, for example, in the serious underestimation of the overall use of automatic data-processing in society as a whole, the use of which the legislation was set to regulate. When it comes to agenda-setting the public debate together with the activities of different actors in parliament had a major influence on the outcome of the work of the commission of inquiry that was set up. The public debate affected how the problem area of databanks and privacy was considered, but the commission formulated the actual legislation independently, without interference or adjustments by the social democratic government. / <p>Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen framläggs till offentlig granskning kl. 13.15 fredagen den</p><p>11 september 2009 i hörsalen C204, Högskolan i Borås, Allégatan 1 Institutionen Biblioteks- och Informationsvetenskap/Bibliotekshögskolan, Högskolan i Borås och Göteborgs universitet</p>