Slow photon, or light with reduced group velocity, is a unique phenomenon found in photonic crystals that theoreticians have long suggested to be invaluable for increasing the efficiency of light-driven processes. This thesis demonstrates experimentally the feasibility of using slow photons to optically amplify photochemistry of both organic and inorganic systems. The effect of photonic properties on organic photochemistry was investigated by tracing out the wavelength-dependent rate of photoisomerization of azobenzene anchored on silica opals. The application of slow photons to inorganic photochemical processes was realized by molding nanocrystalline titania into an inverse opal structure and investigating its photodegradation efficiency in relation to the photonic properties. Changes in the photodegradation efficiency were directly linked to modifications of the electronic band gap absorption as a result of the photonic properties. The highest enhancement of twofold was achieved when the energy of the slow photons overlaps with the electronic band gap absorption, such that the loss of light due to photonic stop-band reflection was significantly reduced. In addition, the strength of slow-photon amplification with respect to the macroscopic structural order was studied by introducing controlled disorder via the incorporation of guest spheres into the opal templates. For the first time, a correlation between structural order, photonic properties and a photochemical process was established. The ability to combine slow-photon optical amplification with chemical enhancement was further achieved by incorporating platinum nanoparticles in inverse titania opals where the platinum nanoparticles increased the lifetimes of the higher population of electron-hole pairs arising from slow photon. Overall, various important factors governing the slow photon enhancement were investigated in detail, including the energy of the photonic stop band, angle dependence, thickness of the film, degree of structural order, filling fraction of the dielectric material and diffusion of a second medium if present. Theoretical calculations based on scalar-wave approximation in support of the experimental findings were provided wherever possible. The findings provide a blueprint for achieving optical amplification using slow photons in the broad range of photochemical or photophysical processes.

The vulnerability and movement behaviour of slow moving slides are investigated. The study focuses on slides moving at rates ranging from a few millimetres a year like extremely slow slides, to 13 meters per month, the upper velocity range of slow slides. An extensive review of the effect of pore pressure changes on movement reactivation of shallow and moderately thick slides is presented. The time dependent behaviour of fine geotechnical materials is also reviewed. Although the literature has reported many cases where the accumulation of slow movements led to a complete collapse of buildings, failure of embankment slopes carrying highways or railways and serviceability problems for dams and bridges, little attention has been paid to the vulnerability to slow moving slides. Hence, this thesis aims to provide more insight into the actual damage to facilities founded on slow moving slides. More than fifty cases of extremely slow, very slow and slow slides adversely affecting urban communities, highways, railways, bridges, dams and linear infrastructure are reviewed. The survey enables the development of new damage-extent scales that use the slide velocity to help assess the degree of damage to a facility founded on a landslide-prone area. Vulnerability is an important component of the specific risk. The other component is the hazard or the probability of occurrence of a certain damaging phenomenon like landslides. Defining the causal factors of the landslide movements and their contributions to the total movement is an important step towards the evaluation of the hazard. Hence, the geomechanical behaviour of two typical deep-seated and moderately thick slides, the Little Chief Slide and the Little Smoky Slide, respectively, are investigated. The objective is to determine all the triggers and causal factors of movement and to quantify their contribution to the total movement. The study involves groundwater flow modeling of one of the two slides, an extensive field monitoring of pore pressures and displacements and an investigation of the creep behaviour both in the field and in the laboratory. The outcome of the study shows that the total movement of each of the two slides can be separated into creep and seasonal movements. The contribution of each component is quantitatively defined. The quantification of the different causal factors aids in choosing the proper mitigation option in addition to predicting the future movement rates after the chosen remedial measures have been installed. / Geotechnical Engineering

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [78]-89).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-48).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-89).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-69).

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável, 2016. / Submitted by Fernanda Percia França (fernandafranca@bce.unb.br) on 2016-05-06T18:07:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_ChiaraGentile.pdf: 6651716 bytes, checksum: 7b14596c4805d31f06009801002cde23 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Guimaraes Jacqueline(jacqueline.guimaraes@bce.unb.br) on 2016-05-12T11:34:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_ChiaraGentile.pdf: 6651716 bytes, checksum: 7b14596c4805d31f06009801002cde23 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-12T11:34:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_ChiaraGentile.pdf: 6651716 bytes, checksum: 7b14596c4805d31f06009801002cde23 (MD5) / O movimento SlowFood, após mais de 25 anos do surgimento, atua hoje em nível internacional, promovendo sistemas de produção e comercialização de alimentos que visam a sustentabilidade ambiental e social, em prol de produtos típicos e de pequenos produtores. No Brasil, o SlowFood vivencia uma história peculiar e alcança uma difusão notável. Este trabalho tem por objetivos (1) a reconstrução e interpretação históricas do surgimento e da difusão do movimento SlowFood na Itália e no Brasil; (2) o estudo da aplicação prática dos princípios pregados pelo movimento, seu papel e sua contribuição em projetos de valorização de produções alimentícias visando o desenvolvimento local (projetos Fortaleza); (3) a identificação e análise dos fatores socioculturais, institucionais e históricos que favorecem ou obstam a evolução exitosa de projetos de desenvolvimento embasados na valorização de recursos e do capital social territoriais. A pesquisa histórica sobre origem e evolução do movimento nos dois países está baseada em fontes bibliográficas e em fontes orais primárias, por meio de entrevistas com testemunhas-chave. A análise dos projetos foi realizada a partir da seleção de oito estudos de caso (quatro projetos na Itália, quatro no Brasil), por meio de visitas em campo, entrevistas, material fotográfico e fontes escritas. Isto foi alcançado por meio de levantamento de dados quantitativos e qualitativos sobre a história e o andamento dos projetos e de histórias de vida dos atores envolvidos. Entre os resultados principais, destaca-se que: (a) a conscientização e a preocupação com os aspectos sociais, políticos e ambientais relativos ao alimento, a seus processos produtivos e à sua procedência, por parte do público consumidor no Brasil e na Itália, refletem a conjuntura histórica e econômica peculiar que cada um dos dois países atravessa, mas, apesar de diferenças estruturais e culturais substanciais, existem sinais de aproximação; (b) no Brasil, desde o princípio, a atuação do movimento SlowFood toma o caminho da parceria governamental oficial e da gestão vertical, com consequências específicas sobre a configuração e atuação do movimento; (c) no âmbito dos projetos locais, o SlowFood funciona como agente e catalisador de percursos de desenvolvimento territorial apenas em contextos onde sua intervenção é acessória e integradora, quando as redes e as atitudes socioculturais idôneas à valorização dos recursos locais preexistem e independem da atuação do SlowFood; (d) existem conjuntos de fatores de diversas naturezas que propiciam ou dificultam o bom andamento dos projetos, os quais estão estritamente ligados à presença/ausência de capacitação e cultura cívica. Com base nisso, foi possível concluir que o SlowFood, no Brasil, achou âmbitos de atuação apropriados, dando vida a formas autóctones do movimento; que existem alguns tópicos socioculturais transversais interligando o desdobramento dos projetos realizados na Itália e no Brasil e em suas diferentes regiões; que, em relação a isso, não existe pré-determinação de tipo cultural ou institucional, mas sim existem variáveis históricas influentes e, ao mesmo tempo, espaço para a mudança. E, ainda, que os maiores e mais ricos repositórios de capital social primordial são representados por relações da mesma tipologia daquelas que constituem os obstáculos principais para a realização de boas práticas e da comunidade cívica. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / The Slow Food movement, since its creation more than 25 years ago, currently operates internationally, by promoting social and environmental sustainable systems of food production and food marketing and by promoting typical products and small producers. In Brazil, the Slow Food movement experiences a peculiar history and achieves a remarkable diffusion. This work aims to: (1) make a historical interpretation of the origin and diffusion of the Slow Food movement in Italy and Brazil; (2) study the implementation of the principles stated by the movement, its role and contribution in the enhancement of the projects of food production for the local development (Presidia projects); (3) identify and analyse the socio-cultural, institutional and historical factors that might support or hinder the successful evolution of the local resource appreciation and of the territorial capital based on developing projects. The historical research on the origin and the evolution of the movement in the two countries is based on literature sources and primary oral sources, by interviewing key witnesses. The analysis of the project was achieved through the selection of eight case studies (four projects in Italy and four in Brazil), through field work, interviews, photographic material and written sources. This was achieved by collecting qualitative and quantitative data on the project history and progress, also through the collection of the life stories of those involved. Among the main findings, it is possible to emphasize: (a) that awareness and concern of the Italian and Brazilian consuming public for the social, political and environmental aspects related to food production processes and food origins reflect the distinctive historical and economic conditions that each of the two countries goes through; but in despite of the substantial structural and cultural differences, there are approximation signals; (b) that in Brazil, from the beginning, the role of the Slow Food movement takes the peculiar way of official government partnership and vertical management, with specific consequences on the configuration of the movement and the movement action; (c) that within the framework of the local projects, Slow Food movement works as an agent and catalysis of territorial development paths merely in contexts where its intervention is subsidiary and integrating, where suitable networks and socio-cultural attitudes for the enhancement of the local resources pre-exist, without relying on the performance of Slow Food; (d) that there are sets of different factors that promote or hinder the smooth progress of projects, which are closely linked to the presence / absence of empowerment and civic culture. On that basis, it was concluded that the Slow Food movement in Brazil finds suitable areas of activity, giving rise to autochthonous forms of the movement. There are some cross socio-cultural topics linking the unfolding of the projects carried out in Italy and in Brazil, and among Brazilian and Italian different regions; in this respect, institutional or cultural pre-determination does not exist, but there are influential historical variables and, at the same time, there is space for change. Also, we can conclude that the best and richest primary social capital repositories are represented by relations of the same type from those that are the main obstacles to good practices and civic community realization.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agronomy / Guihua Bai / Allan K. Fritz / Wheat leaf rust, caused by Puccinia triticina, is an important fungal disease worldwide. Growing resistant cultivars is an effective practice to reduce the losses caused by the disease, and using slow-rusting resistance genes can improve the durability of rust resistance in the cultivars. CI13227 is a winter wheat line that shows a high level of slow-rusting resistance to leaf rust and has been studied extensively. In this research, two recombinant inbreed line (RIL) populations derived from CI13227 x Suwon (104 RILs) and CI13227 x Everest (184 RILs) and one doubled haploid (DH) population derived from CI13227 x Lakin with 181 lines were used to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for slow leaf rusting resistance. Each population and its parents were evaluated for slow-rusting traits in two greenhouse experiments. A selected set of 384 simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs), single nucleotide polymorphism markers (SNPs) derived from genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS-SNPs) or 90K-SNP chip (90K-SNPs) were analyzed in the three populations. Six QTLs for slow-rusting resistance, QLr.hwwgru-2DS, QLr.hwwgru-7BL, QLr.hwwgru-7AL, QLr.hwwgru-3B_1, QLr.hwwgru-3B_2, and QLr.hwwgru-1D were detected in the three populations with three stable QTLs, QLr.hwwgru-2DS, QLr.hwwgru-7BL and QLr.hwwgru-7AL. These were detected and validated by Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR (KASP) markers converted from GBS-SNPs and 90K-SNPs in at least two populations. Another three QTLs were detected only in a single population, and either showed a minor effect or came from the susceptible parents. The KASP markers tightly linked to QLr.hwwgru-2DS (IWB34642, IWB8545 and GBS_snpj2228), QLr.hwwgru-7BL (GBS_snp1637 and IWB24039) and QLr.hwwgru-7AL (IWB73053 and IWB42182) are ready to be used in marker-assisted selection (MAS) to transfer these QTLs into wheat varieties to improve slow-rusting resistance in wheat.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between certain personality characteristics and achievement of slow learning children.