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Traditional methods like pruning and breeding have historically been used in crop production to divert photoassimilates to harvested organs, but molecular biotechnology is now poised to significantly increase yield by manipulating resource partitioning. It was hypothesized that metabolic engineering in targeted sink tissues can favor resource partitioning to increase harvest. Raffinose Family Oligosaccharides (RFOs) are naturally occurring oligosaccharides that are widespread in plants and are responsible for carbon transport, storage and protection against cold and drought stress. Transgenic plants (GRS47, GRS63) were engineered to generate and transport more RFOs through the phloem than the wild type plants. The transgenic lines produced more RFOs and the RFOs were also detected in their phloem exudates. But the 14CO2 labeling and subsequent thin layer chromatography analysis showed that the RFOs were most likely sequestered in an inactive pool and accumulate over time. Crossing GRS47 and GRS63 lines with MIPS1 plants (that produces more myo-inositol, a substrate in the RFO biosynthetic pathway) did not significantly increase the RFOs in the crossed lines. For future manipulation of RFO degradation in sink organs, the roles of the endogenous α-galactosidases were analyzed. The alkaline α-galactosidases (AtSIP1 and AtSIP2 in Arabidopsis) are most likely responsible for digesting RFOs in the cytoplasm and may influence the ability to manipulate RFO levels in engineered plants. Atsip1/2 (AtSIP1/AtSIP2 double-knockout plants) were generated and phenotypically characterized based on seed germination patterns, flowering time, and sugar content to observe the impact on RFO sugar levels. The observations and analysis from these lines provide a basis for further insight in the manipulation of resource allocation between source and sink tissues in plants for future research.

Single piles and pile groups are frequently subjected to high lateral forces. The safety and functionality of many structures depends on the ability of the supporting pile foundation to resist the resulting lateral forces. In the analysis and design of laterally loaded piles, two criterions usually govern. First, the deflection at the working load should not be so excessive as to impair the proper function of the supporting member. Second, the ultimate strength of the pile should be high enough to take the load imposed on it under the worst loading condition. Typically, pile length, pile section, soil type, and pile restraint dictate the analysis. This paper presents different methods, specifically Broms' method and the p-y method, for both the analysis and design of laterally loaded single piles. Both linear and nonlinear analyses are considered. The measured results of several full-scale field tests performed by Lymon Reese are compared to computed results using Broms' method of analysis and the p-y method of analysis. Observations are made as to the correlation between the results and recommendations are made as to the applicability of the accepted methods for the analysis and design of laterally loaded piles.

Thesis advisor: Noah P. Snyder / Estimating annual phosphorus (P) loading in impaired fresh water bodies is necessary to identify and prioritize management activities. A variety of monitoring programs and water quality models have been developed to estimate P loading in impaired watersheds. However, uncertainty associated with annual riverine P loads tends to receive less attention. This study addresses this gap by exploring the range in annual total phosphorus (TP) loads from two common load estimation methods using data collected in the Charles River watershed (CRW) in eastern Massachusetts. The CRW has two P Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) reports due to impairments with respect to excessive summer algal growth. Three estimation methods are used in this thesis to quantify annual TP loads (LY): the concentration-discharge relationship (CQ), the land use coefficient (LUC) method, and the average concentration, continuous discharge (ACQ) method. LY derived using the LUC method spanned an average relative percent range of 214% at each site, whereas LY results from the concentration-discharge method spanned an average relative percent range of 56%. While results of the CQ method produced a narrower range of LY, the CQ relationship is subject to seasonal dependencies and inconsistency through time. Seasonal terms in the LOADEST program, a publicly available and commonly used statistics tool, do allow the model estimates to capture trends through time, an advantage over the LUC method. Results of an interlaboratory comparison of P concentrations demonstrate the potentially large role of analytical uncertainty in LY estimation. Significant discrepancies between the results of each method for a single location and time suggest that loading estimates and consequently management priorities may be dependent on the estimation technique employed. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.

The majority of gymnasts are young girls. Training hours required to meet competition demands are high and gymnasts begin serious training at a young age. Concerns regarding injury risk are substantial and may be the result of repeated high impact loads experienced during landings from dismounts, tumbling and vaulting. There is currently little information available to coaches regarding the quantity of training that is safe or not safe. The use of acceleration was tested for its efficacy for use in the field to examine risk factors for injury. Risk factors examined were loading and fatigue. Kinematics, ground reaction forces and acceleration were measured during landing from gymnastics skills and also pre- and post fatigue during landing from a vertical jump and a 35cm drop in the laboratory. A pilot study was performed in the field to examine accelerations during gymnastics skills pre- and post-training. Lower body kinematics of landing were notably different between gymnastics skills analysed. Joint positions at touchdown and range of motion available during landing due to these joint positions affect the ability to contribute to energy absorption. Peak ground reaction forces and peak accelerations measured at the pelvis showed significant differences between skills landing on both the hands and the feet. The peak acceleration during landing from gymnastics skills was positively correlated with the peak ground reaction force. A large variability stiffness during landing meant that an estimation of ground reaction force using simple modelling was not successful in improving the correlation. After a fatiguing jumping and landing task peak accelerations measured at the pelvis during landing were increased indicating the use of acceleration for identifying fatigue. Pilot field testing of acceleration during landing from gymnastics skills showed similar results to laboratory results. Pre- and post-training measurements showed no difference in peak accelerations during landing from the skills analysed. The training session completed was not demanding enough to induce enough fatigue to be seen in acceleration values Acceleration has potential to be used to quantify repeated loading and accumulative effects in gymnastics, as well as the presence of fatigue in gymnasts during training sessions.

Wide spaced reinforced masonry (WSRM) walls that contain vertical reinforced cores at horizontal spacing up to 2000mm are commonly used in high wind zones of Australia although their inplane shear resistance is not well understood. This thesis aims at providing better insight into the behaviour of WSRM walls subjected to inplane lateral loading through experimental and numerical investigations. The interactions between the unreinforced masonry (URM) panels and vertical reinforced cores are first determined using an elastic finite element analysis and the potential failure paths hypothesized. The hypotheses are then validated using a series of full-scale WSRM and Non-WSRM wall tests under monotonic and cyclic lateral loading by keeping the spacing between the vertical reinforced cores as the main design variable. Load-displacement response of these shear walls indicates that the current classification of the WSRM in AS3700 (2001) as those walls containing vertical reinforced grouted cores at 2000mm maximum spacing is appropriate. A finite element model (FEM) based on an explicit solution algorithm is developed for predicting the response of the masonry shear walls tested under static loading. The FEM has adopted macroscopic masonry failure criteria and flow rules, damaged plasticity model for grout and tension-only model for reinforcing bars reported in the literature, and predicted crack opening and post-peak load behaviour of the shear walls. By minimising the kinetic energy using appropriate time scaling, the FEM has provided reasonable and efficient prediction of load flow, crack patterns and load–displacement curves of the shear walls. The FEM is further validated using full-scale tests on WSRM walls of aspect ratios and pre-compression different to that tested before. The validated FEM is used to examine the appropriateness of the prescriptive design details for WSRM concrete masonry shear walls provided in AS3700 (2001) allowing for a large scatter in material properties. It is shown that the inplane shear capacity formula provided in AS3700 (2001) for squat WSRM shear walls is non-conservative.