No description available.

The computational modeling of clothing has received increasing attention since the late 1980's with the desire to study and animate clothing-wearer interactions. Within a clothing modeling framework, it is necessary to model the mechanical behavior of woven fabrics. An important aspect of modeling the mechanics of woven fabrics is capturing realistic stress-strain behaviors which are invariably anisotropic, nonlinear, and hysteretic in that they feature irrecoverable deformation when loadings are removed from the fabric. The objective of this research is to develop a fabric constitutive model that captures the primary features of anisotropy, nonlinearity, and hysteresis, and that can be easily implemented in a nonlinear, large deformation shell finite element framework for general clothing-wearer interaction modeling. To achieve the objective, biaxial responses of four different woven fabrics were experimentally measured under a battery of load-unload uniaxial stress tests performed in the fabrics' warp, weft, and bias 45° directions. Axial deformations were measured precisely using LVDTs, and transverse deformations were measured less precisely using photogrammetric methods. Such measurements yielded insight on the different fabrics' membrane properties such as nonlinear Young's moduli in the warp and weft directions, shear moduli, and Poisson's ratios. These membrane behaviors were captured in an incremental constitutive model that uses polynomial fitting of a fabric's loading warp and weft Young's moduli, and polynomial fitting of the membrane shear modulus. Measured membrane Poisson's ratios of the different fabrics were found to be asymmetrical and highly variable between fabric types. All of these effects were integrated in a nonsymmetrical incremental constitutive model that relates Piola-Kirchhoff stress to Green-Lagrangian strain. For numerical implementation in a shell finite element framework, the woven fabric's warp and weft directions relative to an individual element's lamina coordinate system are specified in the undeformed configuration of the fabric and are denoted as the local material coordinate system. As the fabric undergoes arbitrary deformations, the local Piola-Kirchoff stress, the Green-Lagrange strain, and its increment at a point in the fabric are transformed to the material coordinate system in which the stress is updated. The updated state of Piola-Kirchoff stress in the material coordinate system is then rotated back into the local lamina coordinate system for usage in finite element force and stiffness calculations. This new realistic material model for woven fabrics is successfully implemented and tested in a variety of computations such as simulation of quasi-static material tests, and dynamic fabric "drape" and "poke" tests.

No description available.

This study of laboratory based instruction at higher secondary school level was an attempt to gain some insight into the effectiveness of three laboratory instruction methods: cooperative group instruction method, individualised instruction method and lecture demonstration method on biology achievement and retention. A Randomised subjects, Pre-test Post-test Comparative Methods Design was applied. Three groups of students from a year 11 class in Pakistan conducted experiments using the different laboratory instruction methods. Pre-tests, achievement tests after the experiments and retention tests one month later were administered. Results showed no significant difference between the groups on total achievement and retention, nor was there any significant difference on knowledge and comprehension test scores or skills performance. Future research investigating a similar problem is suggested / Master of Education (Hons)

A previous study showed that addition of β-cyclodextrin to goat milk made a difference to its flavour, but in an undescribed way. Cyclodextrins (CDs, comprising α- β- and γ-CD) may be able to bind the free branched chain fatty acids in goat milk responsible for the largely undesirable ‘goaty’ flavour. The primary aim was to test the effect of CDs on this flavour in goat milk and its products with a view to marketing goat milk products with reduced flavour intensity. A secondary aim was to test the effect of β-CD on skatole flavour, a characteristic flavour of milk from pasturefed ruminants. Study design and methods: The present study evaluates addition of mainly β-CD to goat milk, cow milk and their products to reduce undesirable flavours. The methods applied were mainly ranking and hedonic assessment in sensory experiments. The tests done were with CDs added to buffers and milks, some of which were flavour-enhanced with 4-methyloctanoic acid as a representative goaty fatty acid, or with skatole. Goat milk yoghurts were also tested. Free fatty acid concentrations, which may be affected by CD binding, were measured after separating cream and skim milk. The methods applied were standard dairy procedures: titration of free fatty acids in milk fat and the copper-salt method for measuring fatty acids in skim milk. A fungal lipase was added to milks to accelerate fat hydrolysis (lipolysis). This was done to increase the concentration of free fatty acids for several experimental purposes. Some minor experiments studies were also done, for example the comparative effect of lipases on goat milk and cow milk, and the lipolytic activity at different temperatures over different times. Results: The results of skatole experiments were inconclusive. The odour of 4-methyloctanoic acid was reduced in acidic buffers by addition of α- and β-CD, particularly the former. Alpha and β-CD were both effective in goaty flavour reduction in goat milk. γ-CD was not effective. In all this work differences were statistically significant to varying levels. Goaty flavour was reduced by addition of β-CD to goat milk yoghurt, but only when added before fermentation (P < 0.001), not after (P = 0.09). The liking scores for goat milk yoghurts for both plain and flavoured yoghurts increased with β-CD treatment (both P < 0.001 for 59 panellists). The chemistry experiments revealed a reduction of free fatty acid concentration in the fat phase when β-CD treatment was added to full cream cow milk. However, analysis of skim milk did not show a corresponding increase in concentration. Further experiments are required to reveal the fate of the ‘missing’ fatty acids. Conclusion: Overall it was shown that under certain conditions, CDs were effective in reducing goaty flavour in milk and yoghurts. Whereas CDs are approved for addition to foods in many countries – including the bellwether U.S.A. – formal approval by Food Standards Australia New Zealand has not yet been finalized. When it is, the way should be clear to market a range of more consumer-acceptable goat milk products in New Zealand as a primary market. In short, this research has significant commercial relevance.

This study of laboratory based instruction at higher secondary school level was an attempt to gain some insight into the effectiveness of three laboratory instruction methods: cooperative group instruction method, individualised instruction method and lecture demonstration method on biology achievement and retention. A Randomised subjects, Pre-test Post-test Comparative Methods Design was applied. Three groups of students from a year 11 class in Pakistan conducted experiments using the different laboratory instruction methods. Pre-tests, achievement tests after the experiments and retention tests one month later were administered. Results showed no significant difference between the groups on total achievement and retention, nor was there any significant difference on knowledge and comprehension test scores or skills performance. Future research investigating a similar problem is suggested / Master of Education (Hons)

Parmi les outils les plus classiques de l'Analyse Multivariée, les Composantes Principales sont aussi un des plus anciens puisqu'elles furent introduites il y a plus d'un siècle par Pearson (1901) et redécouvertes ensuite par Hotelling (1933). Aujourd'hui, cette méthode est abondamment utilisée en Sciences Sociales, en Economie, en Biologie et en Géographie pour ne citer que quelques disciplines. Elle a pour but de réduire de façon optimale (dans un certain sens) le nombre de variables contenues dans un jeu de données. A ce jour, les méthodes d'inférence utilisées en Analyse en Composantes Principales par les praticiens sont généralement fondées sur l'hypothèse de normalité des observations. Hypothèse qui peut, dans bien des situations, être remise en question. Le but de ce travail est de construire des procédures de test pour l'Analyse en Composantes Principales qui soient valides sous une famille plus importante de lois de probabilité, la famille des lois elliptiques. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons la méthodologie de Le Cam combinée au principe d'invariance. Ce dernier stipule que si une hypothèse nulle reste invariante sous l'action d'un groupe de transformations, alors, il faut se restreindre à des statistiques de test également invariantes sous l'action de ce groupe. Toutes les hypothèses nulles associées aux problèmes considérés dans ce travail sont invariantes sous l'action d'un groupe de transformations appellées monotones radiales. L'invariant maximal associé à ce groupe est le vecteur des signes multivariés et des rangs des distances de Mahalanobis entre les observations et l'origine. Les paramètres d'intérêt en Analyse en composantes Principales sont les vecteurs propres et valeurs propres de matrices définies positives. Ce qui implique que l'espace des paramètres n'est pas linéaire. Nous développons donc une manière d'obtenir des procédures optimales pour des suite d'experiences locales courbées. Les statistiques de test introduites sont optimales au sens de Le Cam et mesurables en l'invariant maximal décrit ci-dessus. Les procédures de test basées sur ces statistiques possèdent de nombreuses propriétés attractives: elles sont valides sous la famille des lois elliptiques, elles sont efficaces sous une densité spécifiée et possèdent de très bonnes efficacités asymptotiques relatives par rapport à leurs concurrentes. En particulier, lorsqu'elles sont basées sur des scores Gaussiens, elles sont aussi efficaces que les procédures Gaussiennes habituelles et sont bien plus efficaces que ces dernières si l'hypothèse de normalité des observations n'est pas remplie.

This dissertation examines the role of extreme media (i.e. political talk radio and cable news opinion shows) on the political attitudes of viewers and listeners. I investigate whether extreme media has both positive and negative externalities for democratic citizenship. Specifically, I use laboratory experiments, national survey data, and qualitative interviews to test the impact of extreme media on viewers' political knowledge, trust in government, efficacy, and political tolerance. I use laboratory experiments in controlled settings to uncover the impact of viewership on political knowledge, trust in government, and efficacy. I confirm these lab findings with the national survey data, by using propensity score matching and ordered probit models to demonstrate that exposure to extreme media produces political knowledge and efficacy, but decreases trust in government. I further use process tracing to ascertain the motivations individuals use to choose to view extreme media. Finally, through subject interviews conducted as part of the self-selection portion via a 1 x 3 self-selection experiment, I find subjects seek out entertaining media specifically from ideologically similar outlets. This project advances the media and politics literature by demonstrating the capacity for extreme media to alter political behavior, attitudes, and information processing.

The cubic-kilometer sized IceCube neutrino observatory, constructed in the glacial ice at the South Pole, searches indirectly for dark matter via neutrinos from dark matter self-annihilations. It has a high discovery potential through striking signatures. This thesis presents searches for dark matter annihilations in the center of the Sun using experimental data collected with IceCube. The main physics analysis described here was performed for dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with the 79-string configuration of the IceCube neutrino telescope. For the first time, the DeepCore sub-array was included in the analysis, lowering the energy threshold and extending the search to the austral summer. Data from 317 days live-time are consistent with the expected background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos. Upper limits were set on the dark matter annihilation rate, with conversions to limits on the WIMP-proton scattering cross section, which initiates the WIMP capture process in the Sun.These are the most stringent spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross-sections limits to date above 35 GeV for most WIMP models. In addition, a formalism for quickly and directly comparing event-level IceCube data with arbitrary annihilation spectra in detailed model scans, considering not only total event counts but also event directions and energy estimators, is presented. Two analyses were made that show an application of this formalism to both model exclusion and parameter estimation in models of supersymmetry. An analysis was also conducted that extended for the first time indirect dark matter searches with neutrinos using IceCube data, to an alternative dark matter candidate, Kaluza-Klein particles, arising from theories with extra space-time dimensions. The methods developed for the solar dark matter search were applied to look for neutrino emission during a flare of the Crab Nebula in 2010.

In this study, I analyzed the Lactococcus lactis subspecies cremoris MG1363 stress response at sub-lethal alcohol levels during exponential growth phase at transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics levels. Ethanol, 1-butanol, 1-hexanol were the selected alcohols. Manganese- transporter- and arginine catabolic pathway genes were up-regulated by all alcohols suggesting they evoked oxidative and acidic stress. ATP manganese transporter genes, histidine- and galactose genes were also up-regulated. Purine- and pyrimidine synthesis genes were down-regulated. HPLC analysis displayed decreased biomass yield and glycolytic flux, suggesting increased glycolytic energy production and slowed down overall enzymatic rate. Proteomics analysis displayed differential expressed proteins associated with heat and oxidative stress.