Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Boy-love (or BL) manga (comic book) is a subgenre of Japanese girl’s manga. It features the homoerotic relationships between beautiful young boys and is popular among young straight women. This thesis explores the transnational influence of BL manga on young women and examines how Chinese female readers perceive and interpret this cultural artifact. An online survey has been conducted to answer key questions including: Who consumes BL productions in Chinese-speaking communities, how is BL fandom formed and what are the patterns of such fandom. Outcomes indicate women enjoy the queer fantasy deriving from reading BL manga and such fantasy should not be stigmatized or pathologized.

Master of Science / Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering / Stacy L. Hutchinson / A field study was conducted at Fort Riley, Kansas from late spring to early winter of 2007 to investigate the ability of vegetated filter strips (VFS) to attenuate pollutants resulting from military activities, the impact of different management practices (i.e. burning and mowing) on VFS performance, and the effects of vegetation on hydrological components of VFS, especially infiltration and runoff. Two native tallgrass VFS sites, each comprising three plots, located in the military training area of Fort Riley were used for this study. Fifteen rainfall events were simulated on each site along with overland application of water containing nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and sediment. At the end of the season both VFS were managed by mowing or burning and a final rainfall simulation was done. Variables including rainfall, infiltration, runon, runoff, above ground biomass density, pollutant concentrations of runon and runoff, and soil moisture were measured and used in the data analysis. Hydrograph development, water balance, and mass balance calculations were carried out in order to calculate the pollutant trapping efficiencies (PTE) of the VFS. Statistical analysis was done by fitting several regression models. Mean comparisons were also done for variables and variance was decomposed into time, plot and site effects at an alpha = 0.05. Results showed that on average the VFS attenuated 84 % of total nitrogen, 24 % of total phosphorous and 95 % of sediments. Regression models showed that infiltration percentage and biomass density have a positive correlation with PTE. Runoff volume and PTE were negatively correlated. Soil moisture was negatively correlated with infiltration and time to runoff. With increasing biomass density, percentage of water infiltrating and time of concentration increased. Management practices, especially burning, tended to reduce PTE. Also, both management practices reduced infiltration percentage and time of concentration. PTE reduced with intensifying rainfall and increased when rainfall faded off. Phosphorous was the most sensitive pollutant for intense storm conditions followed by nitrogen, while sediment was comparatively insensitive.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Increasingly, military managers are requiring better and more efficient use of Special Use Airspace (SUA) and Military Operating Areas (MOA). To date, there has been no automated method for determining airspace utilization within the R-2508 Complex. This paper describes the development of a computer based airspace management tool called Airspace Utilization Reporting System (AURS). AURS receives aircraft beacon radar data from an air traffic control automation system used within the R-2508 Complex. The system processes this data in a customized Oracle database format and responds to query requests, making any information about aircraft activities and airspace utilization available to the user. AURS operates continuously 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The system provides a tool for near complete analysis of all transponder equipped aircraft activities and utilization information within the 20,000 square miles R-2508 airspace Complex. In this paper we also provide detailed AURS reports and examples of military and civilian aircraft activities obtained with AURS.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Malgorzata J. Rys / Centerline rumble strips (CLRS) are effective in preventing cross-over crashes and are promoted in the United States (U.S.) as a low-cost safety measure. However, there may be negative issues and/or concerns that question their use under certain road conditions. This dissertation is the result of studying these issues and concerns to provide guidance to policy makers on future installations of CLRS, based on current good practices and on the results of specific investigations of exterior noise, safety effectiveness, economics, and drivers’ behavior, including their interaction with shoulders and shoulder rumble strips (SRS). From a survey conducted, good practices in the U.S. were summarized. From a before-and-after study of CLRS safety effectiveness, results showed that total correctable crashes were reduced by 29.21%. Crashes involving fatalities and injuries were reduced by 34.05%. Cross-over crashes were reduced by 67.19%, and run-off-the-road crashes were reduced by 19.19%. Both Naïve and Empirical Bayes methods were applied and showed statistically similar results. There was no statistical difference between football shaped and rectangular shaped CLRS. From the external noise study performed, it was found that external noise depends on vehicle speed, type of vehicle, and distance. Both football and rectangular CLRS substantially increased the levels of external noise at distances up to 45 m (150 ft). Therefore, before installing CLRS, the distance from houses or businesses should be considered. A distance of 60 m (200 ft) was recommended as the limit of the potential exterior noise problem area. From a study of drivers’ behavior, the analyzed configurations of rumble strips and shoulder width levels affected vehicular lateral position and speed levels, although speed deviations were not practically significant. The study of safety performance function models provided technical and economical recommendations for installation of CLRS. Overall, this study recommends the installation of CLRS on rural, two-lane, undivided rural roads in Kansas. Both patterns, rectangular and football, currently installed in Kansas have provided crash reductions, which have been reflected in economic benefits for society. Shoulder width and traffic volume should be considered as crash predictors for enhancement of the benefits. Guidelines were recommended for future better applications of CLRS.

Orientador: Laan Mendes de Barros / Banca: Waldomiro de Castro / Banca: Maximiliano Martin Vicente / Resumo: A proposta dessa pesquisa é estudar os motivos que levam os professores a utilizarem ou não as Histórias em Quadrinhos como recurso auxiliar e estimulador no processo de aprendizagem na sala de aula. Trata-se de uma mídia cultural popular que utilizada adequadamente, pode abordar diferentes faixas etárias, níveis de ensino e diversas questões sociais, políticas, históricas, geográficas, entre outros. Num tempo em que as mídias digitais competem com a figura do professor, é fundamental valorizar este profissional que busca diferentes recursos embasados a partir de conceitos de Educomunicação a fim de trazer mais uma ferramenta auxiliadora e atrativa para os educandos passando conceitos e conteúdos da grade curricular. / Abstract: The purpose of this research is to study the reasons that lead teachers to use - or not - COMICS as an auxiliary and stimulating resource in the process of in classroom learning. It is a popular cultural media that, when used properly, can address different age groups, levels of education and many social, political, historical, and geographical topics, among others. At a time when digital media competes with the teacher, it is essencial to value this professional that seeks different resources based on concepts of "Educommunication" in order to bring useful and attractive tools in transmitting concepts and contents of the curriculum to students / Mestre

Orientador: Antonio de Pádua Lima Filho / Resumo: A liga Al-Si A413 foi utilizada para fabricação de tiras metálicas fundidas por cilindro único e por cilindro duplo, aqui chamado processo de reolaminação. Esta liga não é adequada para obtenção de tiras metálicas por laminação convencional devido às partículas frágeis de Si. Por outro lado, a reolaminação é um processo viável para obter tiras metálicas dessa liga. Neste trabalho, a liga Al-Si A413 foi fundida e vazada com diferentes temperaturas em uma calha metálica inclinada a 20º numa vazão de 14 cm³/s para se obter um material semissólido que alimenta um bocal cerâmico (150 cm³) junto ao cilindro inferior. Na reolaminação, o espaçamento entre os cilindros foi de 1,5 mm. Os cilindros na cadeira de laminação são feitos de aço ao carbono comum e têm aproximadamente 105 mm de diâmetro e 100 mm de largura. A região coquilhada/colunar formada no cilindro inferior arrasta a lama metálica a uma velocidade de 0,2 m/s para ser processada tanto por cilindro único como por reolaminação. Para ambos os processos as tiras metálicas fundidas têm uma espessura de 2 mm, aproximadamente. Na saída da cadeira de laminação, as tiras são resfriadas até a temperatura ambiente por chuveiros de água. O equipamento utilizado para a fabricação das tiras metálicas, chamado de “Strip Caster”, passou por inovações durante este trabalho de mestrado: molas de alívio de pressão foram instaladas no cilindro superior e o cilindro inferior foi substituído por um outro cilindro com refrigeração interna. O “S... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The Al-Si A413 alloy was used in order to produce metallic strips with the single roll and twin roll processes, this last one is known as rheolamination. This alloy is not suitable to obtain metallic strips with the conventional lamination due to the brittle particles of silicon. On the other hand, the rheolamination is a suitable process to obtain metallic strips of this alloy. In this work, Al-Si A413 alloy was melted and poured at 680 ºC on a cooling slope at 20º with a flow rate of 14 cm³/s in order to obtain a semisolid material feeding the ceramic nozzle (150 cm³) at the lower roll. The two rolls of the roll stand are separated with a gap of approximately 1.5 mm, have approximately 105 mm in diameter and are made of carbon steel. The chill/columnar layer formed at the lower roll drags the metallic slurry at a rate of 0.2 m/s to be processed by single roll or twin-roll. Both processes obatin a metallic cast strip with a thickness of 2 mm, approximately. At the exit of the stand roll, the strips are cooled to the room temperature with water showers. The equipment used to produce metallic strips, called “Strip Caster”, suffered some inovations during this work: springs was attached to the upper roll in order to reduce the lamination pressure and the lower roll was substituted with an other roll with internal cooling. The Strip Caster was instrumented with two load cell in order to measure the forming forces and with thermocouples to measure the temperatures during the fabr... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Abstract Methods are proposed to take account of the effect of emergent vegetation (which covers only part of the channel bed) on conveyance and depth-averaged velocity in open channels. For emergent vegetation strips parallel to the flow direction, discharge can be predicted separately for each vegetated or non-vegetated zone. The equations of Kaiser (1985) and Nuding (1991, 1994) can predict the influence of the vegetation on conveyance within the non-vegetated zone via the composite roughness formula of Pavlovski (1931). In order to predict the lateral distribution of depth-averaged velocity within the non-vegetated zone, the equations of Nuding (1991, 1994) have been modified to take account of the relation between non-vegetated zone width, apparent shear stress on the vegetation interface and the maximum velocity which will occur. For more complex geometries, two-dimensional numerical hydraulic models using existing software and existing relations for the prediction of eddy viscosity are recommended.

[pt] O presente trabalho analisa as histórias em quadrinhos de Mauricio de Sousa sob a ótica da Semiologia, avaliando o uso do Mito para a transmissão de um conteúdo ideológico. Para essa análise, foi necessário situar os quadrinhos no âmbito do Design Gráfico e entender que a construção da mensagem utiliza-se não só da imagem, mas também do texto, como elementos de construção de significado. Pôde-se perceber que as figuras ditas mitológicas, presentes na obra de Mauricio de Sousa - especificamente nos quadrinhos da Turma do Chico Bento e da Turma do Papa-Capim publicados nos anos de 2004 e 2005 -, transitam pelos quadros contracenando com as demais personagens. Fazem parte do conteúdo não em ambientes metafísicos, mas tomando o lugar do humano, como qualquer outra personagem nos espaços narrativos das histórias que são referendos do real. Assim, os ambientes ou lugares narrativos das histórias de Mauricio de Sousa permitem que animais, objetos, figuras folclóricas e até plantas sejam representados como humanos, com características antropomórficas, dotados de razão e personalidade, sendo assimilados desta forma pelo imaginário do interlocutor.A pesquisa procurou levantar as imagens presentes nos temas tratados e, assim, pelo viés do design gráfico, vem trazendo algumas questões semiológicas na abordagem a respeito do Mito - baseando- se, principalmente, nos conceitos de Barthes sobre o assunto - usando o conteúdo imagético da obra de Mauricio de Sousa. / [en] This research analyses Mauricio de Sousa´s cartoons under the semiotics´ view by analysing the myth as a communication tool of some ideology content. In order to carry on this analysis, it was necessary place the cartoons into the graphic design scope and understand the construction of the message uses not only image, but also text as building elements of the significance. By studying the so-called mythological characters from Mauricio de Sousa´s work - specially the cartoons from Chico Bento´s and Papa-Capim´s Gangs published in 2004 and 2005 -, the study realised that its flows through the cartoons by playing with others characters, in the same content, not just in metaphysic environment but taken place the human, like any other, into the narrative places that are the reference of the real. Therefore we can say that the environment or the Mauricio de Sousa´s cartoons narrative places, allow animals, objects, folkloric characters and even plants being represented like humans with anthropomorphic characteristic endowed with reason and personality being assimilated by the interlocutor imagination. This analysis, the research tried to discuss the images on the themes through the graphic design view point, bring together some questions on semiology about the myth - based upon, specially, Barthes´ concepts about the subject - by using the imaginary contents from Mauricio de Sousa´s work.

The detection and identification of the oxygenated class of ignitable liquids is a complex issue for the fire debris analyst. The oxygenated compounds are difficult to recover using traditional analytical techniques since their chemical characteristics are vastly different from those of the petroleum products that compose the majority of the ignitable liquid classes. Previous research has demonstrated that the use of zeolite 13X as an adsorbent in heated passive headspace concentration provides increased recovery of oxygenated compounds in comparison to the conventional activated charcoal adsorbent. This hypothesis was further tested in this work using more realistic casework scenarios. Various carpet, carpet padding and wood types were utilized in a number of burn conditions in order to determine if any substrate interferences were present; as well as to monitor the recovery of oxygenated compounds from these substrates using the proposed zeolite extraction method. The substrates explored did not contribute significant background interference to complicate the identification of the oxygenated compounds. In addition, small volumes of the oxygenated ignitable liquids were easily recovered and identified from all burn states using the zeolite method. A dual-mode extraction with both zeolites and activated charcoal strips as adsorbents was utilized with mixtures of oxygenated compounds and petroleum products to determine if a variety of ignitable liquid classes could be detected and identified in the presence of a variety of substrate matrices within a single extraction protocol. The dual-mode extraction showed that both the oxygenated compounds and petroleum products could be detected and identified using a single extraction protocol in the presence of various substrate matrices. Lastly, an experiment was devised to compare the recovery of the oxygenated compounds using various total available surface areas of both zeolites and activated charcoal strips in order to determine which adsorbent exhibits a greater recovery when all other experimental conditions remain constant. When the surface areas were equalized between the zeolites and activated charcoal strips, the activated charcoal exhibited a greater recovery of the oxygenated compounds. However, the cost effectiveness of the zeolites allows for a greater amount of zeolite beads to be used in order to achieve the same recovery as the activated charcoal strips for a much lower price. Therefore, the findings from this work, in combination with previous research, continue to support the use of zeolite 13X as an alternative adsorbent for the recovery of oxygenated ignitable liquids from fire debris evidence.

O objetivo deste trabalho é fazer uma aproximação teórico-prática entre tiras cômicas e piadas. Defende-se a idéia de que ambas compartilham estratégias textuais semelhantes para provocar efeito de humor. A pesquisa revela também que há características comuns na composição dos dois gêneros. Pelo caráter interdisciplinar dos objetos de estudo - que envolvem elementos verbais orais, verbais escritos e visuais -, fezse necessária a utilização de diferentes campos teóricos. Da Lingüística, utilizamos os elementos ligados às Teorias do Texto, que trabalham o processo de formação do sentido dentro de um ponto de vista sociocognitivo interacional e que permitem um diálogo com outros campos científicos afins, como a Análise da Conversação, o estudo dos gêneros, as teorias da narrativa e os estudos sobre imagens. Das diferentes teorias do humor, extraemse os elementos constituintes do texto humorístico, em especial o princípio da incongruência, que quebra a expectativa do leitor/ouvinte, gerando humor. As idéias lingüístico-humorísticas são debatidas nos capítulos da Parte I. A parte seguinte é dedicada a uma releitura de teorias da área da Comunicação que trabalham diferentes pesquisas sobre histórias em quadrinhos, que abarcam as tiras cômicas. Com base em conceitos claros do que sejam piada e tira cômica, bem como quais são as estratégias utilizadas pelos dois gêneros, parte-se para a aplicação dos conceitos em um corpus de 40 tiras, análise que compõe a terceira parte do estudo. / The aim of this thesis es to study theorical and practical similarities between comic strips and jokes. The idea is to defend that both of them share similar text strategies to provoke humor effect. The research reveals that there are common characteristics in both genres composition. By the interdisciplinal character of the objects of study - which involve oral, written and visual verbal elements, - it was necessary to make use of different theorical areas. From Linguistic, we took elements related to the Text Theories, which deal with the sense formation process inside of na interational social-cognitive viewpoint and allow a dialog with other kindred scientific areas, such as the Conversation Analysis, the study of genres, narrative theories and studies abaout images. From the different humor theories, it was extracted components of humoristic text, specially the incongruence principle, which breaks the reader/listener expectance, making humor. The linguistichumoristic ideas are debated in the chapters of Part I. The following part isso dedicated to reading of the Communication area theories which deal with different researches about comics, including the comic strips. Based on a clear concepts of what are jokes and comic strips, as well as what are strategies used by both genres, we went for concepts application in a corpus of 40 strips, being this analysis the third part of the study.