Thesis (M.S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. / Matthew J. Realff, Committee Member ; Farrokh Mistree, Committee Member ; Berdinus A. Bras, Committee Chair. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-195).

Thesis (Ph. D. (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-181).

Thesis (M.U.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves iv-iv).

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet, 2003. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references.

In the last several decades the number of the fatalities related to criminally inflicted cranial gunshot wounds has increased (Aarabi et al.; Jena et al., 2014; Mota et al., 2003). Back-spattered bloodstain patterns are often important in investigations of cranial gunshot fatalities, particularly when there is a doubt whether the death is suicide or homicide. Back-spatter is the projection of blood and tissue back toward the firearm. However, the mechanism of creation of the backspatter is not understood well. There are several hypotheses, which describe the formation of the backspatter. However, as it is difficult to study the internal mechanics of formation of the backspatter in animal experiments as the head is opaque and sample properties vary from animal to animal. Performing ballistic experiments on human cadavers is rarely not possible for ethical reasons. An alternative is to build a realistic physical 3D model of the human head, which can be used for reconstruction of crime scenes and BPA training purposes. This requires a simulant material for each layer of the human head. In order to build a realistic model of human head, it is necessary to understand the effect of the each layer of the human head to the generation of the back-spatter. Simulant materials offer the possibility of safe, well‐controlled experiments. Suitable simulants must be biologically inert, be stable over some reasonable shelf‐life, and respond to ballistic penetration in the same way as the responding human tissues. Traditionally 10-20% (w/w) gelatine have been used as a simulant for human soft tissues in ballistic experiments. However, 10-20% of gelatine has never been validated as a brain simulant. Moreover, due to the viscoelastic nature of the brain it is not possible to find the exact mechanical properties of the brain at ballistic strain rates. Therefore, in this study several experiments were designed to obtain qualitative and quantitative data using high speed cameras to compare different concentrations of gelatine and new composite material with the bovine and ovine brains. Factors such as the form of the fragmentation, velocity of the ejected material, expansion rate, stopping distance, absorption of kinetic energy and effect of the suction as well as ejection of the air from the wound cavity and its involvement in the generation of the backspatter have been investigated. Furthermore, in this study a new composite material has been developed, which is able to create more realistic form of the fragmentation and expansion rate compared to the all different percentage of the gelatine. The results of this study suggested that none of the concentrations the gelatine used in this study were capable of recreating the form of the damage to the one observed from bovine and ovine brain. The elastic response of the brain tissue is much lower that observed in gelatine samples. None of the simulants reproduced the stopping distance or form of the damage seen in bovine brain. Suction and ejection of the air as a result of creation of the temporary cavity has a direct relation to the elasticity of the material. For example, by reducing the percentage of the gelatine the velocity of the air drawn into the cavity increases however, the reverse scenario can be seen for the ejection of the air. This study showed that elastic response of the brain tissue was not enough to eject the brain and biological materials out of the cranium. However, the intracranial pressure raises as the projectile passes through the head. This pressure has the potential of ejecting the brain and biological material backward and create back-spatter. Finally, the results of this study suggested that for each specific type of experiment, a unique simulant must be designed to meet the requirements for that particular experiment.

I staden finns ingen socialdioxid. Detta sammanfattar den underliggande problemställningen som har legat till grund för hela arbetet. Hur ska vi mäta social hållbarhet och jämställa dess faktorer mot ekologi och ekonomi? Vi står inför en rad stora sociala utmaningar i och med den rådande bostadsbristen och urbaniseringen, detta kräver att vi vågar testa nya metoder i stadsbyggandet. Men hur ska vi utvärdera, mäta och breda plats för det sociala perspektivet? Eller måste vi bara tvingas inse att sociala konsekvenser är ”omätbara”? Hållbarhet som begrepp har många gånger avfärdats för att vara allt för öppet och vitt. Därför krävs det metoder för att definiera hållbarhet och gör begreppet konkret och arbetbart i planeringsskedet. Detta har i Sverige bland annat gjorts för den ekologiska hållbarheten genom miljöbalken och kravet på miljöbedömningar, som sedan kan utmynna i en miljökonsekvensbeskrivning (MKB). För den sociala hållbarheten har det inte på sammasätt utvecklats några verktyg. På senare tid har dock den sociala hållbarheten blivit en allt större fråga. Till exempel har Göteborg genom projektet ”Social hållbar utveckling år 2020” tagit fram en kunskapsmatris för bedömning av social hållbarhet i planeringen. Ett antal mindre kommuner, däribland Gällivare, har tagit fram så kallade sociala konsekvensbeskrivningar (SKB) som är ett verktyg för att konceptualisera den sociala hållbarheten i planeringen. Men hur fungerar egentligen sociala konsekvensbeskrivningar i praktiken och hur kan de integreras i planerings-och gestaltningsprocessen? I arbetet diskuteras begreppet sociala konsekvensbeskrivningar och dess förhållande till det sociala hållbarhetsbegreppet samt vad sociala konsekvenser egentligen innebär. Vidare diskuteras även för-och nackdelar av konceptualisering genom framförallt checklistor och designprinciper. Arbetet omfattas av en generell forsknings-och kunskapsöversikt, samt en fallstudie över Gällivares arbete med social hållbarhet genom strategiska dokument och SKB. Slutligen översätts teorin och analyserna till ett planförslag med fokus på att stärka den sociala hållbarheten i Gällivare.  I arbetet konstateras bland annat att sociala konsekvensbeskrivningar ännu är ett svagt begrepp ur en svensk kontext. Begreppet har inte slagit rot på samma sätt som sitt syskon, MKB, och detta skapar en begreppsförvirring som påverkar SKB-begreppet negativt. För att gå vidare krävs det att vi kan enas om ett begrepp för att förflytta diskussionen från: ”Vad betyder SKB?” till att istället fråga oss ”Hur ska SKB användas för komplettera den övriga planprocessen och konceptualisera sociala konsekvenser på bästa sätt?” För att den sociala hållbarheten ska bli en självklar del av processen krävs det att vi kan enas om ramverk och riktlinjer för att möjliggöra för bredare samverkan och diskussion.

The basis of this work is to find how varying the grain size of materials contained in sandbags (sand and crumb rubber) effects the ballistic penetration of the projectiles from both the 7.62x39mm (308-short), and 9mm Luger cartridges. The sandbags were stacked in a pyramidal stacking configuration according to military specifications in order to simulate a section of a sandbag barrier or redoubt as would be seen on the battlefield. The projectiles were fired at the targets, and the velocity and penetration data was recorded. The results concern both military and civilian applications alike. The 7.62x39 round was found to experience more fragmentation as grain size increased, and was also found to have, on average, the least amount of penetration into the largest grains. The 9mm round was found to suffer negligible deformation in all of the various sizes of materials, and when fired at the two types of materials, showed a steady trend of decreasing penetration depth with increasing grain size. The sand had a wearing effect on the projectiles leaving them scared or fragmented and deformed while the rubber kept the rounds in pristine condition.

In Sweden, EU: s Water Framework Directive led to an investigation that started in April 2012 by the Swedish government, called Vattenverksamhetsutredningen freely translated to "Water Activities Survey", with the purpose to investigate the Environmental Code’s rules concerning water activities and water plants. The survey is divided into 3 reports, two sub-reports and a final report. One of the sub-report is focused on Swedish hydropower and the investigators found that many hydropower plants have old permits. One suggestion in the survey was to reconsider old permits so they would become consistence with today’s Environmental Code. There have been discussions regarding whether Sweden will lose much of its electricity production from hydropower as an outcome if the survey’s suggestions becomes reality. The aim with this literature study is to investigate how the EU: s Water Framework Directive and the Water Activities Survey will affect Swedish hydropower and if there will be a decrease in electricity production as an outcome if the suggestions made in the survey becomes reality. The results in this literature study shows that there will probably be a decrease in production for Swedish hydropower, but with how much is hard to say because the Swedish government has not yet decided what they will do with the suggested actions in the Water Activities Survey. A comparison is done with Sweden’s import and export statistics between the years 2001-2014 with a predicted loss of 13 TWh per year, which is a number taken from a survey made by Vattenfall. A comparison with a loss of half of 13 TWh per year is also done. Between the years 2001 and 2014 Sweden imported electricity 6 out of 14 years and exported electricity 8 out of 14 years. If adding the predicted loss of 13 TWh per year to the import and export statistics, Sweden would have had to import electricity 12 years and export 2 years. If adding a loss of 6.5 TWh per year Sweden would have had to import electricity 8 years and export 6 years. The conclusions is that Sweden will have to import a lot more electricity if only looking at import and export statistic if the loss of electricity is between 6.5-13 TWh per year.

This study investigates the relationship of student engagement with the design of structured group learning experiences (SGLEs) implemented by increasing numbers of community colleges. Using data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and the Community College Institutional Survey (CCIS), I employ Vygotsky's activity systems theory as a framework for interpreting the results of hierarchical linear models where student engagement measures are outcome variables, and the several covariates selected in terms of SGLEs as a social activity system. The results provide evidence that, among 24 different curricular elements of SGLEs, engagement is positively related to only a few of them, in particular co-curricular and community activities (campus or community service project(s), participation in campus activities/events outside the classroom, and service learning). There was limited evidence that engagement is related to duration and intensity of the programs; instead the evidence suggests that the people involved, both the personnel that teach and facilitate the programs, and the characteristics of the student participants, matter most to engagement. Even as this study provides the first views of the contours of student engagement within high-impact practices on a national scale, it also suggests that what may be important for engagement is that the programs bring people together for a purposeful experience at all. The results suggest the need for increased attention to co-curricular and community activities and professional development by practitioners; and for research, they propose hypotheses for further research such as the relative import of participation vis-à-vis program design, and they suggest new conceptual approaches to the study of high-impact practices generally. / text

This report is a case study of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that was prepared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Fort Worth District for the Upper Trinity River Central City Fort Worth, Texas EIS. It utilizes a system of best practices focused on four areas of concern: adequacy of the EIS public involvement and comment process, adequacy of the EIS content considerations, adequacy of analysis considerations, and adequacy of document quality. The basic premise of this report is that Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) should be analyzed outside of the Federal government in order to ensure that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) remains a healthy statute that continues to serve the public. This particular EIS was chosen because of the magnitude of the project and the potential ramifications it poses for the City of Fort Worth. An important goal of this report is to not only evaluate this particular EIS, but to use it as a means for answering some general questions about the employment of NEPA in the Dallas and Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex. Perhaps this report can also be of some assistance to individuals participating with the Corps’ preparation of the EIS for the Trinity River Corridor project in Dallas. / text