Thesis supervisor: Jerald L. Schnoor. Thesis supervisor: Craig L. Just. Includes bibliographic references (p. 186-196).

Forestry is a major industry in Sweden and the most common method to harvest timber is to clear-cut large areas. Clear-cutting can alter multiple physical, chemical, and ecological characteristics of headwater streams. To minimize these effects, vegetated riparian ‘buffers zones’ are often spared along streams and lakes. Despite this, there are uncertainties regarding optimal width of buffers to safeguard streams from clearcutting effects. In this study, I ask how riparian buffer width influences stream macroinvertebrate communities, and how this influence may be altered by summer drought. I tested this in 24 headwater streams, half located in northern Sweden and the other half in southern Sweden. Streams in each region included four different buffer width categories (n = 3), including: “no buffer” (no trees left post-harvest), “thin buffer” (< 5 m), “moderate buffer” (> 5 m) and “reference” (no harvest). I analysed a suite of metrics that describe the abundance, richness, and composition of macroinvertebrates, and compared these across streams with different buffer properties. Regionally, southern streams had marginally greater taxonomic richness and relative abundance of sensitive taxa compared to northern counterparts, regardless of buffer conditions. Further, thin and absent buffers performed the best across several macroinvertebrate metrics, particularly for southern streams. Antecedent drought had no observable effects on macroinvertebrate communities, but taxonomic richness across region was positively correlated with stream pH. Overall, my findings, while tentative given low statistical power, suggest that retaining coniferous-dominated buffers may not lead to the desired ecological outcomes in boreal headwaters.

Final article is available at "wileyonlinelibrary.com" Takako Okamoto, Masaki Mandai, Noriomi Matsumura, Ken Yamaguchi, Hiroshi Kondoh, Yasuaki Amano, Tsukasa Baba, Junzo Hamanishi, Kaoru Abiko, Kenzo Kosaka, Susan K. Murphy, Seiichi Mori, Ikuo Konishi "Hepatocyte nuclear factor-1β (HNF-1β) promotes glucose uptake and glycolytic activity in ovarian clear cell carcinoma" Molecular Carcinogenesis 54:35–49 (2013) / 京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(医学) / 乙第12804号 / 論医博第2076号 / 新制||医||1001(附属図書館) / 80848 / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 野田 亮, 教授 武藤 学, 教授 稲垣 暢也 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to quantify the potential impacts of clearcutting on hydrologic and water quality components, and assess potential forest biomass production and perform sensitivity analysis of crop parameters to predict forest biomass in the Upper Pearl River Watershed. Results based on clearcutting indicated that the hydrologic and water quality components increases with increase in percentage of forest area harvested. The most significant effect was observed from 55% and 75% harvesting scenarios. The results based on SWAT’s performance to simulate potential forest biomass production showed satisfactory performance and revealed that the watershed has the potential to produce approximately 49 tons/ha of annual forest biomass. The results also revealed that predicted forest biomass was sensitive to three out of the seven crop parameters: Fraction of maximum leaf area index, corresponding to 1stpoint on the optimal leaf area development curve, Radiation use efficiency and maximum LAI.

No description available.

Yes / River dynamics and sediment transport play an important role in river bed morphology. Building a bridge pier along the river alters the cross-section of the river and causes the change in flow processes. These changes are mainly responsible for pier scour. In this paper, the usage of collars to reduce scour around circular piers has been investigated. The collars with different diameters and depth positions have been studied using previous data and additional data collected in the present study to assess their effectiveness in reducing scour. Using a wide range of measured data, an empirical equation to compute the maximum scour depth around the circular piers in the presence of collars has been proposed. The proposed equation has been validated and proven to be applicable to a wide range of pier layouts. It has been found that the maximum efficiency can be achieved by fixing the collar at bed level and adopting a collar diameter 1.5–2.5 times of pier diameter.

Over the last 50 years significant advancements have been made in the southern yellow pine (SYP) forests in the U.S. south. Due to silvicultural changes and large scale reforestation efforts the US south has seen significant increases in standing volume (more than 120% over the period). Landowners that grow SYP plantations largely manage for trees that are harvested to produce dimensional lumber. With the changes in growth patterns it is of interest if there have been any changes in structural properties of the lumber that is produced from timber grown today. Landowners desire confirmation that what they are doing in terms of management is maintaining the quality and strength of lumber that the market demands. This information is critical because timberland owners’ plant and manage trees that will ultimately be brought to market at lumber 25-40 years into the future. In an effort to provide clarity to this topic this dissertation investigates: 1) The extent to which the specific gravity (SG), bending strength (modulus of rupture, MOR), and bending stiffness (modulus of elasticity, MOE) of small clear specimens of SYP have changed, particularly with respect to reduction(s), during the interval from approximately 1965 to 2015. 2) The extent to which the compression parallel to grain and perpendicular to grain strength of small clear specimens of SYP have changed, particularly with respect to reduction(s), during the interval from approximately 1965 to 2015. Use statistical analysis of variance to investigate potential differences among data from a historical 1966 data set, a 2014 in-grade data set, and a 2018 staircase material data set. 3) The nature of the relationship between and among SG, MOE, and MOR of small clear specimens of SYP and how these relationships may have changed, during the interval from approximately 1965 to 2015. Use statistical regression analysis to explore changes to the interrelationships of SG, MOE, and MOR among the three samples, with particular interest toward how these may impact or influence non-destructive evaluation. This work consists of 3 independent chapters using varying appropriate statistical methods and is accompanied by an introduction and conclusion.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wishes to minimize the overall operational costs of their aviation security detection systems. These systems consist of a collection of security devices. The objective of this research is to develop an algorithm to design the optimal system of devices. The Secure Air Flight Effectiveness (SAFE) Model accomplishes this objective by using the probability of detection and the probability of giving a false alarm for each individual device. A Generalized Hill Climbing (GHC) algorithm was implemented to identify the system with the minimum operational cost. Suggestions for future research directions are also included. / Master of Science

It is known that subsidence cracking may cause premature deterioration of concrete slab structures in salt laden environments. Chlorides from either deicing salts or marine environments may cause chloride-induced corrosion of the reinforcing steel resulting in spalling of the cover concrete. Concrete specimens with 16 mm (# 5) diameter bars were cast with various cover depths, bar spacing and two concrete mixture types to determine the influence that epoxy coated reinforcement, cement type and bar spacing may have on the probability of subsidence cracking in bridge deck slabs. It was determined that there is not a significant difference in the probability of cracking of concrete between concrete cast with epoxy coated reinforcing steel and bare reinforcing steel. Concrete subsidence cracking was found to be dependent upon the clear cover depth and cement type. / Master of Science

The current proposed unmanned aircraft system (UAS) detect and avoid standards require the same safety metrics, even when in close proximity to the ground or structures. This requirement has the potential to hinder low altitude small unmanned aircraft operations, such as local package delivery and utility inspection. One of the main safety metrics for UASs to adhere to is a ``well clear" volume that quantifies the vertical and horizontal separation UASs are required to maintain from manned aircraft. The current volume of 2000 feet horizontal and +/- 250 feet vertical does not provide credit for the safety benefit of being close to an obstacle where manned aircraft do not fly and could prove to be too restricting for low-level flight operations (i.e., under 400 feet above ground level). This thesis suggests using smaller safety metric volumes than the well clear volume to demonstrate that operations at lower altitudes can still be proven to be just as safe as if they were held to the larger well clear volume standard by using obstacle and terrain shielding. The research leverages simulation to analyze different safety metrics and provides an example use case in which the methodology of shielded operations is applied to demonstrate how this methodology can be applied for a safety case. / Master of Science / With the development of small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) technologies have come many practical and regulatory challenges, especially in low altitude airspaces. At lower altitudes, manned aircraft are likely to be operating at lower velocities and restricting standards require UASs to maneuver against aircraft that may not present a significant risk of collision. The excessive avoidance maneuvering can cause the successful execution of even simple operations such as package delivery or survey operations to become difficult. The strict requirements have the potential to specifically inhibit sUAS beyond visual line-of-sight commercial operations, which are of great interest to the industry. This thesis describes a method for demonstrating an equivalent level of safety of small UAS operations when utilizing avoidance algorithms that leverage obstacle and terrain awareness. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that by remaining close to obstacles, which pose a hazard to other aircraft, an unmanned aircraft can lower the risk of a mid-air collision and to demonstrate an equivalent level of safety for operations using a reduced safety metrics.