The study of multiphase flow in porous media is highly relevant to many problems of great scientific importance, such as CO2 storage and enhanced oil recovery. Even though significant progress has been made in these areas, many challenges still remain. For instance, the leakage of stored CO2 may occur due to the capillary trapping failure of cap rock. Approximately 70% of oil cannot be easily recovered from underground, because the oil is held in tight porous rocks. Although CO2 storage and enhanced oil recovery are engineering processes at a geological scale, they are predominantly controlled by the transport and displacement of CO2 and reservoir fluids in aquifers and reservoirs, which are further controlled by wetting and fluid properties at pore scale. This work focuses on experimental investigations of pore-scale wetting and displacement of fluids and CO2 in porous core samples. Pore wetting, which has been measured based on contact angle, is a principal control on multiphase flow through porous media. However, contact angle measurement on other than flat surfaces still remains a challenge. In order to indicate the wetting in a small pore, a new pore contact angle measurement technique is developed in this study to directly measure the contact angles of fluids and CO2 in micron-sized pores. The equilibrium and dynamic contact angles of various liquids are directly measured in single glass capillaries, by studying the effects of surface tension, viscosity and chemical structure. The pore contact angles are compared with the contact angles on a planar substrate. The pore contact angle of a confined liquid in a glass capillary differs from the contact angle measured on a flat glass surface in an open space. Surface tension is not the only dominant factor affecting contact angle. The static contact angle in a glass pore also varies with liquid chemical structure. Viscosity and surface tension can significantly affect the dynamic pore contact angle. A new empirical correlation is developed based on our experimental data to describe dynamic pore wetting. The CO2-fluid contact angle in porous media is an important factor affecting the feasibility of long-term permanent CO2 storage. It determines CO2 flow and distribution in reservoirs or aquifers, and thus ultimately finally the storage capacity. CO2-fluid contact angles were measured in small water-wet pores and oil-wet pores, investigating the effect of CO2 phase (gas/liquid/supercritical). The CO2 phase significantly affects the CO2-fluid contact angle in an oil-wet pore. Supercritical CO2-fluid contact angles are larger than gas CO2-fluid contact angles, but are smaller than liquid CO2-fluid contact angles. However, this significant CO2 phase effect on contact angle was not observed in a water-wet pore. Another key issue considered in this study is two-phase flow displacement in porous media. This strongly relates to the important macroscopic parameters for multiphase flow transport in porous media, such as capillary pressure and relative permeability. Here CO2-water displacements are studied by conducting CO2 flooding experiments in a sandstone core sample, considering the effects of CO2 phase, pressure and CO2 injection rate. The capillary pressure-saturation curve, water production behaviour and relative permeability are investigated for gas CO2-water, liquid CO2-water and supercritical CO2-water displacements in porous media. The pressure-dependant drainage capillary pressures are obtained as a result of CO2-water interfacial tension. Various water production behaviours are obtained for gas CO2-water and liquid CO2-water displacements, mainly due to the effect of CO2 dissolution. The significant irregular capillary pressure-saturation curves and water production behaviors can be observed for the supercritical CO2-water displacements. The water and CO2 relative permeabilities for CO2-water displacements in a porous media are then predicted.

My artwork is fortified by three essential elements, vibrant color, luminous light, and repeated patterns found in nature. These elements unify my oil paintings and computer generated artwork and form a substructure that serves to magnify the unique concord found in nature.

I have created art that has evolved from my own personal experiences. Life is capricious, and with the changes wrought by age, joy, and grief, I have found this self-referential work inevitable. Here, I have documented the journey that has brought me through personal wars, battles, and truces. I have come to believe that although my individual experiences may be unique, my responses to them are not. Loss and victory are universal.

Master of Science / Department of Electrical Engineering / William Kuhn / Q-enhanced Filters have been researched extensively, but have not been often implemented into receiver architectures due to inherent challenges in the design and stability of these filters. However, recent works have successfully addressed Q-enhanced filter designs which are viable for receiver implementation with tuning algorithms to achieve temperature stability. This work continues these efforts with the redesign of a Two-Pole Q-Enhanced Band-Pass filter tested at narrower fractional bandwidths than previous work of less than one percent and considers potential significant improvements in receiver performance using this filer. The Q-enhanced filter redesign ports the existing filter to a new integrated circuit technology which performs better at higher frequencies. The redesign in particular addresses problems in the previous design. The frequency divider design is modified, resistance tuning is added, and additional modifications to the overall filter functionality are implemented. General problems in obtaining an ideal passband shape by eliminating unwanted coupling are addressed. The supporting software for the tuning algorithm is modified to use analog controls and shown to achieve further narrowed bandwidths of 5 MHz and 2.5 MHz at center frequencies of 500 MHz, which are demonstrated to be temperature stable. Future software modifications are described to prepare the existing code base for the new filter design. Potential applications for a Q-enhanced filter include improving the performance of receiver designs. One of the most important performance parameters of a receiver is its spurious response rejection. To explore this behavior, an automated test system is developed to characterize receivers, and four receivers are tested. The test results are presented in a novel graphical display, which is used to evaluate receiver performance and compare receivers. These results motivated the development of a potential modified superheterodyne receiver architecture using the Q-enhanced filter as an image filter and an IF filter. The viability of this receiver design is tested and shown to provide significant improvements to receiver’s spurious rejection response.

Bakgrund: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) är ett vårdprogram skapat för att förbättra återhämtning och minska kroppens stresspåslag efter kirurgi. Det första ERAS- programmet utvecklades år 2012 för kolorektalkirurgi.  Kolorektalcancer drabbar ca 6 400 personer/år i Sverige, och ca 2 600 personer dör årligen. Detta gör det till en av de vanligaste cancerformerna, och den behandlas med kirurgi. Fler och fler sjukhus vårdar patienter, med denna typ av cancer, enligt vårdprogrammet ERAS. Det har visat sig att det har gett patienter en kortare vårdtid, färre komplikationer och i och med detta blir kostnaderna inte lika höga. Syfte: Syftet är att beskriva patienters upplevelse av att vårdas enligt ERAS vid kolorektalkirurgi. Metod: En litteraturöversikt baserat på 10 empiriska studier. Databaserna PubMed och CINAHL användes vid datainsamlingen. Virginia Hendersons omvårdnadsteori utgjorde litteraturöversiktens teoretiska referensram. Resultat: Fem teman identifierades som beskrev patienternas upplevelse av ERAS vid kolorektalkirurgi. Dessa teman var: information, vårdpersonalens bemötande, delaktighet i sin egen vård, nutrition och vårdmiljö. Resultatet visar att mer information behövs och att både informationen och vården måste vara individanpassad. Slutsats: Patienterna upplever inte att ERAS individanpassar informationen vilket gör den svårförstådd och ger en känsla av att inte ha kontroll. Programmet skulle behöva göra individanpassningar för att passa alla typer av patienter och för att kunna ge patienterna möjlighet till att vara delaktiga i sin vård. Genom att vårdpersonal får en ökad förståelse för patienternas upplevelser kan vårdprogrammet förbättras.

<div> <div> <div> <p>In the last two decades, higher education researchers have reported numerous benefits of integrating technology tools in course instruction and their subsequent impact on the students’ learning process. In spite of the accumulation of the large amount of evidence and multiple calls to adopt technology tools in instruction, traditional lecturing is observed to dominate and continue being the preferred mode of instruction in STEM courses. One of the major reasons for the shortage of large-scale adoption of technology-based instruction is attributed to the lack of knowledge and skills of STEM instructors on how to effectively integrate technology tools into their courses. Most faculty development programs that are organized to help instructors build the necessary knowledge and skills end up introducing different technology tools to the instructors without truly helping them understand how to contextualize the tools based on the course requirements and learning needs of the study. This study aimed to understand the experiences of how engineering faculty in India learn to integrate technology tools as part of a 6-week faculty development program. </p> <p>Seven engineering faculty from a single institution attended the 6-week program to redesign a course of their choice by integrating educational technology tools. A conceptual framework called Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) was used to understand how the instructors learned to integrate technology tools into their respective courses. TPACK is a widely used framework that depicts an instructor’s knowledge of educational technology as a multifaceted construct that is combined with their knowledge of the course content and pedagogy. A qualitative case study approach was used in this study to understand how the engineering faculty developed TPACK and highlight the challenges that they encountered while integrating technology tools into their courses. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data that was collected through semi- structured interviews, reflection journals, and final reflections. </p> </div> </div> <div> <div> <p>11 </p> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div> <div> <p>The findings from the study indicate that the faculty developed TPACK in three stages. In the first stage, they developed basic knowledge of content, pedagogy, and technology (also called basic sub-domains of TPACK). The faculty in the next stage formed mental models to intersect and understand the interrelations between the three basic sub-domains. In the last stage, the faculty developed TPACK by building a meta-conceptual awareness of how to utilize the knowledge gained in stage two to address the limitations in their current mode of instruction and the learning needs of the students. It was observed that the faculty after developing TPACK started to emphasize on a more student-centric mode of instruction. The faculty reported to encounter challenges while constructing mental models as they were unable to critically reflect on their courses. They faced difficulty while identifying and integrating technology tools as a result of low- technology self-efficacy. Faculty reported to overcome these challenges and receive support from the other participants as a result of a community of practice that was established prior to the start of the faculty development program. The study at the end provides recommendations to faculty developers on how to design and facilitate effective workshops that are aimed to help instructors integrate technology tools. A model which was developed from the findings of the study is provided to promote large scale integration of technology-based instruction in universities. </p> </div> </div> </div>

Thesis advisor: Marc Landy / This thesis serves to clarify and concretize the controversy surrounding the debate on torture as it pertains to the War on Terror during the Bush Administration years. It argues that policy and rhetoric decisions made at the top of the political food chain contributed to the instances of abuse and torture that occurred in the various arenas of the war (i.e. Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, and CIA “black sites”). Such an argument is made through an analysis of what defines interrogation and torture, what techniques were in fact authorized, what factors went into determining which techniques to use, and what influence these techniques had on abuses that occurred. This thesis concludes with policy updates based on lessons learned and briefly addresses the efforts made by the Obama Administration in regards to torture, interrogation, and terrorism. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science Honors.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi realizar a dosimetria de filtros dinâmicos aprimorados (“Enhanced Dynamic Wedge" – EDW). Isso foi feito com dois intuitos: 1) a avaliação da implementação clínica do filtro dinâmico aprimorado considerando-se suas vantagens e desvantagens; e 2) a comparação entre a eficiência e a melhor aplicabilidade de três sistemas dosimétricos diferentes em conjunto com o filtro dinâmico aprimorado. Os sistemas dosimétricos utilizados foram: o Sistema de Imagem de Feixe (“Beam Image System" – BIS2G), da Scanditronix-Wellhöfer, uma câmara de ionização cilíndrica de 0,6 cm3 do tipo Farmer, e um arranjo linear de câmaras de ionização múltiplas (“Ionization Chamber Linear Detector Array") com 23 câmaras de ionização cilíndricas de 0,14 cm3, tipo Farmer. Com o Sistema de Imagem de Feixe – BIS2G foi possível obter curvas de fluência que permitiram analisar a simetria dos perfis de fluência, linearidade da dose, efeito da taxa de dose e efeito da gravidade, características diretamente ligadas à qualidade do funcionamento do filtro dinâmico aprimorado, além de ter sido possível também calcular o fator filtro para campos simétricos. Com a câmara de ionização mediu-se a porcentagem de dose em profundidade - PDP e calculou-se o fator filtro para campos simétricos e campos assimétricos (uma das vantagens do EDW). Com o arranjo linear de câmaras de ionização múltiplas foi possível obter curvas de isodose que permitiram a verificação da simetria e a comparação com os resultados obtidos com o BIS2G, além do cálculo do fator filtro para campos simétricos. O fator filtro calculado através de medidas tomadas com os três sistemas foi também comparado com resultados obtidos por dois formalismos, de Gibbons1 e de Klein et al 2, bem conhecidos da literatura e que serviram para a validação dos resultados e deste trabalho. Destas comparações verificou-se que os ângulos do filtro dinâmico aprimorado que apresentam maior diferença entre resultados obtidos e os formalismos foram os ângulos de 45º e de 60º em relação ao método de Klein et al que apresentaram diferenças de 2,1% em relação ao BIS2G, 1,9% em relação à câmara de ionização e 1,1% em relação ao arranjo linear de câmaras de ionização. / The purpose of this work was to accomplish the dosimetry of Enhanced Dynamic Wedge (EDW). It was carried out with two intents: 1) the evaluation of the clinical implementation of the EDW considering its advantages and disadvantages, and 2) the comparison among the efficiency and the better applicability of three different dosimetric systems in a set with the EDW. The dosimetric systems used were: the Beam Image System (BIS2G), from Scanditronix-Wellhöfer, a cylindrical ionization chamber of 0.6 cm3, type Farmer, and an ionization chamber linear detector array, composed by 23 cylindrical ionization chamber of 0.14 cm3, type Farmer. With the BIS2G was possible to plot graphs of fluence that allowed to analyze the symmetry of the graphs of fluence, linearity of the dose, dose rate effect, and gravity effect, features directly connected to the quality of the working of the EDW, further on having been possible to calculate the wedge factor for symmetric fields. With the ionization chamber it was measured the PDP and it was calculated the wedge factor for symmetric and asymmetric fields (one advantage of EDW). With the array it was possible to plot graphs of isodosis that allowed the checking of the symmetry and the comparison with the results obtained with the BIS2G, besides the calculation of the wedge factor for symmetric fields. The wedge factors obtained from the measurements of the three systems were also compared with the results of the formalisms, of Gibbons1 and of Klein et al 2, both well known if the literature, and that were used to validate the results and the work. From these comparisons was verified that the angles of the EDW that show more difference between the results and the formalisms were the 46º and 60º angles related to the method of Klein et al, which show differences of 2.12% related to BIS2G, 1.92% related to the ionization chamber, and 1.10% related to ionization chamber linear detector array.

Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) is an established process in wastewater treatment that uses bacteria to reduce phosphorus levels below regulatory discharge limits. Recently, in light of growing political concern over phosphorus sustainability, EBPR has also been recognised as a platform from which phosphorus may be recovered and recycled onto land as fertiliser. Operating EBPR to optimise performance and efficiency is therefore extremely important, but remains a challenge due to poor understanding of these bacterial ecosystems. Raman spectroscopy is a non-invasive, label-free, culture-independent technique capable of analysing live, single cells. Despite its advantages, Raman spectroscopy has been applied to study EBPR bacteria in just a handful of studies and thus has a low profile in this field of research. More work is required to investigate potential areas of application for Raman spectroscopy in EBPR research. The principal thesis presented here is that Raman spectroscopy could be used as a tool to improve EBPR. The Raman spectra used for this investigation were acquired from individual EBPR bacteria dried onto a calcium fluoride substrate. The bacterial samples were collected from three different sources, namely lab-scale sequencing batch reactors located in Edinburgh (University of Edinburgh, UK) and Boston (Northeastern University, USA), and a full-scale EBPR plant in Slough (Thames Water, UK). Using these spectra, some potential applications and limitations of Raman spectroscopy for improving EBPR were explored. In this foundation work, a particular emphasis on spectral analysis methods was kept in light of the benefits of automating analysis as well as the need for standardisation to be able to compare results between different studies and groups. Nine methods were compared for baselining Raman spectra of individual EBPR bacteria. From these, the “small-window moving average” (SWiMA) method was determined to be the best baselining technique for our purposes at the current time. In agreement with earlier studies, the Raman spectroscopic signatures of three key EBPR metabolites – polyphosphate, polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) and glycogen – were shown to be clearly identifiable in individual EBPR bacteria when present. The Raman shifts of characteristic spectral bands arising from polyphosphate were shown to vary significantly between samples and the implications of this were discussed. Examples of how the Raman spectra of individual bacteria can be modelled with multivariate tools to open up new areas for research were given. MCR modelling was demonstrated to offer a novel way to normalise the Raman spectra of individual EBPR bacteria prior to quantitative analysis. With the instrumental set-up in this work, the limit of detection (LOD) of aqueous polyphosphate samples was estimated to be approximately 0.08 M and 0.02 M for 10 second and 200 second acquisitions respectively. Future work is required to research ways in which a more comparable form of polyphosphate ‘standard’ might be prepared so that direct correlation can be drawn between measurements made on such a standard and measurements made in bacterial cells. Overall, several applications and challenges of Raman spectroscopy for the investigation of EBPR bacteria are presented in this work together with recommendation for how to process the spectral data. The conclusions drawn from this work indicate that Raman spectroscopy could be used as a tool to improve EBPR but further work is required to refine and apply these methods.

<p>Protein conformational transitions are fundamental to the functions of many proteins, and computational methods are valuable for elucidating the transitions that are not readily accessible by experimental techniques. Here we developed accelerated sampling methods to calculate optimized all-atom protein conformational transition paths. Adaptively biased path optimization (ABPO) is a computational simulation method to optimize the conformational transition path between two states. We first examined the transition paths of three systems with relatively simple transitions. The ways to define reduced variables were explored and transition paths were built at convergence of the optimizations. We constructed the all-atom conformational transition path between the active and the inactive states of the Src kinase domain. The C helix rotation was identified as the main free energy barrier in the all‑atom system, and the intermediate conformations and key interactions along the transition path were analyzed. This is the first demonstration of the robustness of a computational method for calculating protein conformational transitions without restraints to a specified path. We also evaluated protein‑peptide interactions using both molecular dynamics simulations and peptide docking. Long unbiased simulations were used to evaluate Src‑SSP interactions and complex stability in both implicit and explicit solvent. Molecular docking was used to build possible protein‑peptide interaction models, using both Src regulatory domain SH2 and the kinase domain. Possible Src‑SSP complexes were built as the first Src‑substrate complex structure models.</p>