This thesis deals with the dam of the Šeberák pond. This water reservoir is included in III. category of historical water works. The dam is currently showing minor defects, but could be seriously damaged by extraordinary circumstances. The aim of this thesis is to accomplish an engineering geological survey of the dam, to assess its competence and recommend remediation measures. For the purpose of the survey, core boreholes and dynamic penetration tests were performed. Soil samples were taken from the drilling cores for laboratory soil tests. Geomorphological, geological and hydrogeological conditions were described, one longitudinal geological section of the dam and four cross-sections were constructed. Based on evaluated field works and obtained data from the pond manager, the engineering geological conditions of the dam body were described. The most serious concern is the intensity of water seep throught the dam in flood situations. Solution options have been recommended for each part and problem of the dam.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Linguistic Landscape (LL) is a rapidly growing area of investigation that concerns itself with the attention to language, cultural objects and images displayed in public spaces. Prompted by caveats of the earlier traditional studies which included counting the visibility of languages, the fixity of signs, coupled with methodological issues that lacked data triangulation, new approaches emerged. In this present study, framed as A Social Semiotic Analysis of Mini-Bus Taxis as Mobilescapes in Cape Town, specific inquiry about the emergence of language use through an analysis of the evolution of messages that are inscribed on taxis that transport people within Cape Town and between Cape Town and other cities around South Africa is made to disentangle these caveats. / 2023

No description available.

The scarcity of housing has led more and more developers to turn to the conversion of former industrial areas into residential areas. Brownfield redevelopment involves the cleanup of contaminated soil to eliminate any health or environmental risk. The quantification of the amount of pollutant in soil is essential to carry out an efficient remediation. It involves sampling and analyzing the soil to determine the concentration of pollutant at a finite number of locations. It is therefore necessary to assess the pollutant amount at unknown locations to estimate the pollution for the whole site. The existing methods used by the depollution actors often lead to underestimation or overestimation of the contamination possibly creating environmental, economic and legal issues. This study aims to compare different methods to assess the mass of pollutant using data from a site contaminated with chlorinated solvents. The methods comprise currently used methods (Mean 1, Mean 2), simple interpolation methods (Thiessen Polygons, Natural Neighbor, Inverse Distance Weighting) and a method based on a complete geostatistical approach (Conditional Simulations). They are compared to determine the variability of the results obtained with a specific set of data depending on the chosen method. The deterministic methods, although easy to apply, will often underestimate the mass of pollutants contained in soil whereas the geostatistical approach can give a more realistic result, but is complex to implement.

This paper examined how well different levels of visual abstraction in 2D characters can be remediated into 3D, focusing on the viewer’s opinion of the character and perception of its role or personality. Artifacts of two characters—six artifacts in total—were used in order to examine this. Each character’s artifacts consisted of 1) a visually abstracted 2D design, 2) an abstraction-preserving 3D model, and 3) a non-abstraction-preserving 3D model. Six participants were interviewed, and were asked to state their opinion of each artifact as well as their interpretation of its role and personality. The results showed that a 2D to 3D remediation method aimed at preserving design choices either did not affect the viewer’sopinion of the character, or made them like the 3D character more than the 2D version. Furthermore, the perception of character personality had slight differences in the abstraction-preserving 3D model compared to the 2D image.

Health care professionals and nurse educators are concerned about increasing percentage of first time test takers failing the NCLEX-RN exam. The purpose of this retrospective study was to examine predictive accuracy of the Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) RN Comprehensive Predictor for passing or failing the NCLEX-RN exam in a cohort of nursing students (N = 195). South Eastern Technical College in South Carolina is in jeopardy of losing accreditation for their nursing program because of the low percentage of first time test takers failing. The college's pass rate on the NCLEX-RN exam has been below the national and state averages for the last 2 years. Guided by Bloom's taxonomy and Knowles' andragogical model of learning as the theoretical mainstay, factors that predict success with the NCLEX-RN exam for first time test takers were examined. Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to determine if a relationship existed between NCLEX-RN scores and the independent variables. A Pearson r correlation test was conducted to address whether the ATI Comprehensive Predictor accurately predict student success with the NCLEX-RN exam on first attempt. Multiple regression was employed to test for a significant relationship between prenursing GPA, final GPA, age, gender, and ATI predictor scores. Regression analysis results showed ATI Predictor scores to significantly predict student success with the NCLEX-RN exam on first attempt. Based on findings, a Structured Learning Assistance program was proposed to assist in preparing students for NCLEX-RN success. Positive social change occurs within the community, nursing programs, and health care by increased NCLEX-RN pass rates enhancing the number of nurses entering into health care.

Arsenic (As), a known carcinogen, is a groundwater contaminant in many parts of the world. Arsenic contamination is enhanced through carbon addition, such as biostimulation, a remediation process, which has been used to remove trichloroethylene (TCE) from sediment and groundwater. Two studies were designed to evaluate the effect of different carbon sources on the removal of TCE through dechlorination and on As solubilization and mobilization in response to carbon addition. The first set of columns (15.2 cm diameter, 183 cm long) used whey, Newman Zone® standard surfactant emulsified oil, Newman Zone® nonionic surfactant emulsified oil, and no carbon controls as carbon and energy sources and were fed for 7.5 years. The second set (7.62 cm diameter and length) used whey, lactate, and no carbon control as carbon sources with columns being dismantled and analyzed over a 5-month time period. These studies showed that reducing conditions, caused by the carbon sources, was the driving force for As mobilization as As(V) was reduced to the more mobile As(III). Total As mass in the sediment was lost with all carbon treatments within the first study with whey having a greater loss; however, within the second study, both whey and lactate treatments had the same extent of As mass loss over time. The results also indicated that some As could be attenuating with carbonates or other highly soluble minerals.

Objective: The study assesses the impact of dual enrollment participation on remediation and completion for traditional first time, full-time freshmen at a community college in Northeast Tennessee. Method: This study began with the full population of 1,232 students who enrolled between 2008 and 2012 at a community college in northeast Tennessee the fall semester after finishing high school. The population was required to have American College Testing (ACT) scores, completely fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), enroll full-time as a degree-seeking student, and complete the first fall semester. Propensity score matching was utilized to eliminate self-selection bias and enable parametric comparisons using optimal matching of dual enrollment participants and non-participants while controlling for a range of covariates. Results: The analyses showed that community college students who participated in dual enrollment were (a) 9% or nearly 3.4 times less likely to take remediation, (b) 26% or nearly 2.5 times more likely to graduate in 2 years, and (c) 28% or nearly 1.5 times more likely to graduate in 3 years. Contributions: This study contributes to the literature showing that dual enrollment reduces remediation rates and assists in timely completions for community college students. Policy recommendations are to increase equitable participation, normalize dual enrollment for students academically able to do college coursework, align state terminology with the nation, and improve data for future research.

In situ chemical oxidation is a promising technology for the remediation of persistent subsurface contamination. Increasingly, the persulfate ion is being studied for use in these systems, both on its own as a strong oxidant and as the precursor to the even more reactive sulfate radical. Persulfate has been shown to treat a wide range of contaminants, from traditional Superfund contaminants such as chlorinated solvents to emerging pharmaceutical contaminants. Additionally, persulfate ISCO can be tailored to site and pollutant specific characteristics based on the method of persulfate activation (e.g., energy and catalysis activation) to the sulfate radical. Thermal activation of persulfate is particularly promising because it can be easily controlled, requires no additional reagents, and commonly creates only non-toxic end products. While persulfate in-situ chemical oxidation technology is being commercially used, a mechanistic study of the physical and chemical processes controlling the effectiveness of this remedial approach is not well documented in the literature. Published work characterizing persulfate ISCO largely focuses on reactions in aqueous, batch systems, which fail to provide crucial design data when working with ever transient, multi-phase groundwater systems. The purpose of this research was twofold. Initial studies characterized the overall transport behavior of unactivated and thermally-activated persulfate (20, 60, and 90°C) in one-dimensional soil column systems packed with a natural sandy porous media. This necessitated the development of a flow-through, temperature-controlled, continuous-injection system for the delivery of heat-activated persulfate. Finally, as a proof of concept, experiments were conducted to investigate persulfate ISCO as a remedial approach for residual-phase trichloroethylene (TCE), a commonly detected, persistent subsurface contaminant. At all activation temperatures investigated, persulfate exhibited ideal transport behavior with negligible differences in the observed breakthrough curves of persulfate ion and nonreactive tracers in miscible displacement experiments. Additionally, moment analysis of the breakthrough curves measured for persulfate ion in solution indicated negligible interaction of persulfate with the sandy material under steady-state flow (average retardation factor equaled 1.00 ± 0.021). Persulfate ISCO for residual-phase trichloroethylene (TCE) was characterized at two flow rates, 0.2 mL/min and 0.5 mL/min, resulting in two degrees of apparent persulfate activation, 39.5% and 24.6%, respectively. Both ISCO soil column systems showed an initial, long-term plateau in effluent concentrations measured for TCE indicating steady-state dissolution of pure phase TCE. Effluent concentrations of TCE began decreasing after 75 and 100 pore volumes (normalized for the residual fraction of TCE in individual soil columns) in the 39.5% and 24.6% activated persulfate columns as compared to 110 pore volumes in the control study (flushed with electrolyte only). Pseudo first-order rate constants for the decreasing TCE concentrations were calculated using log-linear regression analysis. The measured reaction rate constants for the control, the 0.2 mL/min (39.5% activation) study, and the 0.5 mL/min (24.6% activation) study equaled 0.044, 0.063, and 0.083 hr-1, respectively. Additionally, moment analysis of the complete dissolution of TCE in the persulfate/activated persulfate remediation systems indicated approximately 33% degradation/oxidation of TCE mass present. As shown by this and other work, persulfate has enormous potential as a subsurface remediation technology. A more thorough understanding of the physical and chemical mechanisms controlling the behavior and application of persulfate in the subsurface, especially under transient conditions, is necessary for the growth of this technology. By characterizing heat-activated persulfate under dynamic conditions, describing the overall transport of persulfate/activated persulfate in a natural porous media, as well as a proof of concept for the ISCO treatment of a residual nonaqueous phase liquid, this work aids in improving the implementation of persulfate ISCO systems.

Magister Artium - MA / With advances and information technology innovation, and the rise of revenue through advertisements, producers and content creators have become creative in the selection of cultural and semiotic materialities, and linguistic resources for the production of advertisements. Bearing in mind, the political landscape of South Africa and its history, producers have an abundance of cultural and semiotic artefacts in time and space to draw from, and to indulge their creative licence to come up with novel designs and concepts for their advertisements and brand identities. The thesis explored the use of local and transnational linguistic and other cultural objects as semiotic material in the design and construction of selected Chicken Licken advertisements. The specific objectives explored include; 1) local and global cultural elements in selected Chicken Licken advertisements; 2) the local and global identity affiliations in advertisement selection and production; and, 3) the translocalization and transnationalization of cultural flows as represented through semiotic materials.