Thesis (Honors)--Liberty University Honors Program, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thèse de doctorat : Sciences de l'univers et de l'environnement. Physique des aérosols : Paris 12 : 2007. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr. : 119 réf.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 244-247). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-125). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Abstract The cedi is Ghana’s official currency which was introduced on July 19, 1965. The loss in the value of the cedi since its introduction cannot be overestimated. Owing to the low values of the notes and coins(due to persistent loss in value), huge quantities had to be printed and minted resulting in huge cost to the central bank. Meanwhile commercial banks were facing high cash based transaction cost because relatively large quantities of notes were needed for transactions. There was also high risk involved in cash based transaction to the banks and their clients. Bank customers were becoming more uncomfortable carrying huge quantities of cash to and from the banks. These customers also had to spend more time at the banking halls to get served. These and other factors reduced the interest and confidence of the general public in the financial sector affecting banking businesses. The re denomination of the cedi was done in 2007, to deal with these ’huge dead-weight burden’ on the banks and the entire economy of Ghana. The objective of this study is to explore its impact on some variables affecting commercial banking businesses. These are cost, operational risk, deposit mobilization, ATM operations, and reliability and convenience of banking services. A pluralistic approach was adopted for this research and the results of both the quantitative and qualitative study done in analyzing my hypothesis reaffirmed each other and provided valuable findings and deeper understanding of the impact of the re denomination on the business of the financial institutions. The main findings showed the following: 1) The re denomination had not affected costs in banks, 2) The re denomination has generally reduced operational loss risks, 3) The re denomination has generally improved deposit mobilization, 4) The re denomination has improved the reliability and profitability of ATM s, 5) The re denomination has improved the reliability and convenience of banking services. With this study I hope to provide new insights on how re denomination affects the business of financial institutions who are key partners to the central banks in the successful implementation of such exercise. I also hope to provide valuable recommendations on how banks can deal with the challenges that may be presented by a re denomination / +233-024-6734104

Following the precedent decision to expand the power of immigration enforcement set by the Immigration and Nationality Act Section 287(g), the Department of Homeland Security developed its own partnership agreement with local police to increase detection and deportation efforts through its 2008 policy, Secure Communities (S-Comm). S-Comm represents the nation’s “largest expansion of local involvement in immigration enforcement in the nation’s history” (Cox & Miles 2013, pg. 93). Although slated to enhance public safety by removing “criminal aliens” convicted of serious offenses, S-Comm has broaden its scope to achieve attrition in the undocumented immigrant population more generally by also focusing on the removal of those who violate low-level and immigration laws, as well as those who have recently entered the U.S. illegally. Its implementation and enforcement procedures, however, have been found to disproportionately target foreign-born Mexican residents relative to other undocumented individuals, which may lead to negative consequences for S-Comm’s efficacy. Has S-Comm effectively reduced the size of the Mexican immigrant population in the U.S.? Exploiting the variation in the timing of its implementation as well as the disparate levels of its enforcement, my research extends a quasi-experimental design to investigate S-Comm’s effect on the size of local Mexican immigrant populations. Testing the influence of S-Comm’s implementation and enforcement will reveal the salience of passing laws that target unauthorized migration—an empirical contribution to previous work that has only assessed state and local policies. Moreover, such results may also enhance theoretical knowledge of punitive practices formulated to produce deterrence. / text

Digital analytic tools offer great potential to enhance town and city planning. Software that facilitates the modeling of possible urban design future scenarios can help planners and stakeholders in a city simulate economic, ecological, and social impacts of urban design choices. The Envision Tomorrow analytic suite is a software program that has been used to enhance participatory, small-group urban planning exercises in the Sustainable Places Project in four small cities in central Texas. This suite features formula-based measurements that relate aspects of the built environment, such as parking ratios and land uses, to indicators related to sustainability impacts. These outcomes range from demographic and density characteristics of new planning scenarios to their effects on municipal budgets and household water and energy consumption. Envision Tomorrow is analyzed in terms of its use in the Sustainable Places Project. While the town scenarios designed in this process reflect strong sustainable design principles, process analysis and stakeholder interviews suggest that the analytic indicators did not have major impacts on the community design process itself. Software use should be combined with more focus on outreach and education efforts to make modeling more representative and effective. / text

The impact of liquid drops on solid surfaces is a ubiquitous phenomenon in our everyday experience; nevertheless, a general understanding of the dynamics governing droplet impact remains elusive. The impact event is understood within a commonly accepted hydrodynamic picture: impact initiates with a rapid shock and a subsequent ejection of a sheet leading to beautiful splashing patterns. However, this picture ignores the essential role of the air that is trapped between the impacting drop and the surface. We describe a new imaging modality that is sensitive to the behavior right at the surface. We show that a very thin film of air, only a few tens of nanometers thick, remains trapped between the falling drop and the surface as the drop spreads. The thin film of air serves to lubricate the drop enabling the fluid to skate on the air film laterally outward at surprisingly high velocities, consistent with theoretical predictions. We directly visualize the rapid spreading dynamics succeeding the impact of a droplet of fluid on a solid, dry surface. We show that the approach of the spreading liquid toward the surface is unstable, and lift-off of the spreading front away from the surface occurs. Lift-off ensues well before the liquid contacts the surface, in contrast with prevailing paradigm where lift-off of the liquid is contingent on solid-liquid contact and the formation of a viscous boundary layer. We show that when a drop impacts an atomically smooth mica surface, a strikingly stable nanometer thin layer of air remains trapped between the liquid and the solid. This layer occludes the formation of contact, and ultimately causes the complete rebound of the drop. / Engineering and Applied Sciences

The purpose of this study was to develop a model of post-traumatic osteoarthritis in the palmar metacarpal condyle and to evaluate the timing of the early events following impact trauma on subchondral bone and articular cartilage. In each of 12 skeletally mature horses, an impact injury was created on the palmar metacarpal condyle of one randomly chosen limb, under arthroscopic and fluoroscopic guidance. A low to moderate level of forced exercise was instituted; and horses were evaluated clinically via lameness examinations, synovial fluid analysis, and radiographs. Macroscopic examination, micro-computed tomography, and sample collection were performed following euthanasia at one month (3 horses), 4 months (4 horses), and 8-10 months (5 horses) after impact injury. There was variability in impact-lesion location, depth, and area on macroscopic inspection; histologic evaluation revealed more consistent cartilage defects due to impact injury. Cartilage degeneration, in terms of color and clarity, was observed in impacted joints. The mean sulfated glycosaminoglycan (sGAG) concentration from cartilage at the impact site was significantly lower than for a similar site in control limbs. Higher concentrations of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) were observed in synovial fluid from impacted joints. Bone viability, as evaluated by the Alamar blue assay, was significantly decreased in impact specimens versus control specimens one month after impact injury. This impact injury model caused lesions consistent with mild focal osteoarthritis in the palmar metacarpophalangeal joint, involving cartilage more than subchondral bone. Further development is required to create a reliable and consistent model of naturally occurring post-traumatic osteoarthritis at this site. / Equine Guelph, University of Guelph

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