Adequate hydration is critical for optimal performance and health. Fluid requirements of collegiate athletes are unique due to training and competition, travel, school schedules, and stressors common in college environments. Inattention to these factors may contribute to suboptimal hydration. Importantly, loss of 1-2% of body weight by dehydration can impair physical and cognitive performance. As such, development of valid and reliable tools to assess hydration status in collegiate athletes is needed. The purpose of this study was to assess the validity of urine color (UC) as a measure of hydration status in collegiate athletes. A secondary purpose was to evaluate the utility of indexes of hydration status for UC and urine specific gravity (USG) established by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA). To address this, 62 NCAA Division I collegiate athletes provided a urine sample ≤30 minutes of exercise for UC self-assessment (UCsub) and experimenter-assessment (UCres) using the UC chart developed by Armstrong et al. (1994) and for USG measurement via refractometry (1). Habitual dietary intake was assessed by 24-hr recalls. There was a significant positive correlation between USG and both UCsub (r=0.679, p<0.001) and UCres (r=0.772, p<0.001). In addition, the USG based on UC was inconsistent with hydration/dehydration categories established by ACSM and NATA. These findings suggest that UC, even when self-assessed by the athlete, is a valid method for assessing hydration status in NCAA division I college athletes. However, some modification of ACSM and NATA hydration categories may be warranted. 1. Armstrong LE, Maresh CM, Castellani JW, et al. Urinary indices of hydration status. Int J Sport Nutr. 1994;4(3):265-279. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7987361. Accessed October 26, 2016. / Master of Science / Staying well hydrated is important for athletes’ health and to help them perform at their best. College athletes fluid needs are unique because of their training and competition schedules, class schedules, frequent travel, and emotional stress that is common for college students. Without conscious efforts to consume enough fluid during the day, athletes may not be well hydrated. Small decreases in body weight from dehydration can result in negative consequences for physical and mental performance. This is why it is important to develop tools that can accurately and consistently determine how hydrated athletes are. The purpose of this study was to see if urine color could accurately determine if college athletes were well hydrated or dehydrated. Also, the usefulness of hydration categories for urine color and urine specific gravity (USG) from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) were tested. Our study recruited 62 NCAA Division I college athletes. Participants provided a urine sample where researchers and participants determined the urine color of the sample based on a urine color chart and USG was measured (1). In addition, a list of all foods and beverage consumed by participants were recorded for three days. Our correlational analysis suggest that UC, even when self-assessed by the athlete, can accurately determine if NCAA division I college athletes are well-hydrated or not. In addition, our results suggest that some modification made be needed to the ACSM and NATA hydration categories.

This thesis presents the design, simulation, and evaluation of a passive, wearable, and human-scale actuator that includes pulleys and uses polymers for energy storage. Repetitive tasks such as packing boxes on an assembly line may require high strength movements of the shoulder, arm, and hand and may result in musculoskeletal disorders. With the objective to offset the weight of the arm and thereby lower the forces on the muscles in the shoulder and arm, this actuator is able to provide gravity compensation for the upper extremities of workers, if used in conjunction with an arm exoskeleton. The actuator is passive, meaning that it does not use motors or sensors, but instead creates a force on a cable that is a function of the displacement of the cable. This thesis details the design of the actuator and the selection of an appropriate polymer for use with the actuator. To determine the best polymer for this application, tests were conducted on nine polymers to ind their average Young's modulus and their hysteresis. A 90A abrasion-resistant polyurethane rubber belt was used in the final design due to its high modulus and low hysteresis. The final actuator design was tested in an Instron machine to validate its performance. During testing, the actuator provided 720N in extension and 530N in retraction, which are roughly 112% and 83% of the torque required to lift a human arm, respectively. / Master of Science / The development of industry increases productivity, and brings convenience to people’s life, but in the meantime it also increases work-related illnesses. Based on such condition, mechanical devices such as exoskeletons can be applied to support arms of wearer to perform tasks for longer durations and with less effort. In this thesis, we present a wearable actuator that contains pulleys and polymer belts. With rather light weight and small size, the actuator is located on the waist of wearer, and connected to the arm exoskeleton by cable. As the arm moves, the polymer belts within the actuator will be stretched and counteract the effects of movements. All in all, the design of the actuator must be portable, light-weight and with simple design that can be sufficient to meet actual requirements.

A prototype reinforced concrete moment frame representative of low-rise office buildings in the Central and Eastern United States from the 1950s-1970s was designed and selected for evaluation under seismic loads. A plane frame specimen from the prototype was incorporated into the design of a test-bed of four full-scale, side-by-side nominally identical structures that could be evaluated independently. The testing of the first frame serves as the topic of this dissertation. The specimen was two bays x two stories x 9-ft. wide. A new method for testing full-scale structures under seismic loads was proposed that used a hydraulic linear inertial shaker (LIS) to impart seismic loads. The response of the structure was monitored using 155 strain gages, 38 linear variable differential transformers, six string potentiometers, and 42 accelerometers. The response of the frame to a series of 25 load histories using the nees@UCLA LIS was marked by gradual structural softening and minimal yielding of the steel reinforcing throughout the structure. At a first interstory drift of 1.5% some yielding of the reinforcing bars was measured. Between 1.5% and 2% first interstory drift, a global sway mechanism formed when the failure of a splice at the base of the first story west column led to a cascading set of failures within other first-story column splices. The experimental behavior suggests previous scaled testing of similar structures may have inadequately represented the vulnerability column splices. The design of the test-bed, response of the structure to seismic loads, qualitative evaluation of the test method, and implications on future research are discussed.

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) is a joint National Aeronautics and Space Administration / Deutsches Zentrum für Luftund Raumfahrt (NASA/DLR) mission to map the time-variable and mean gravity field of the Earth, and was launched on March 17, 2002. The nature of the gravity field inverse problem amplifies the noise in the data that creeps into the mid and high degree and order harmonic coefficients of the earth's gravity fields for monthly variability, making the GRACE estimation problem ill-posed. These errors, due to the use of imperfect models and data noise, are manifested as peculiar errors in the gravity estimates as north-south striping in the monthly global maps of equivalent water heights. In order to reduce these errors, this study develops a methodology based on Tikhonov regularization technique using the L-curve method in combination with orthogonal transformation method. L-curve is a popular aid for determining a suitable value of the regularization parameter when solving linear discrete ill-posed problems using Tikhonov regularization. However, the computational effort required to determine the L-curve can be prohibitive for a large scale problem like GRACE. This study implements a parameter-choice method, using Lanczos bidiagonalization that is a computationally inexpensive approximation to L-curve called L-ribbon. This method projects a large estimation problem on a problem of size of about two orders of magnitude smaller. Using the knowledge of the characteristics of the systematic errors in the GRACE solutions, this study designs a new regularization matrix that reduces the systematic errors without attenuating the signal. The regularization matrix provides a constraint on the geopotential coefficients as a function of its degree and order. The regularization algorithms are implemented in a parallel computing environment for this study. A five year time-series of the candidate regularized solutions show markedly reduced systematic errors without any reduction in the variability signal compared to the unconstrained solutions. The variability signals in the regularized series show good agreement with the hydrological models in the small and medium sized river basins and also show non-seasonal signals in the oceans without the need for post-processing. / text

The Bouguer correction using a mean sea level reduction datum compensates the gravitational effect of the mass of the terrain above sea level. This correction generally results in long -wavelength Bouguer gravity anomalies if the mass of the terrain is isostatically compensated. These anomalies correlate with regional elevations, especially in areas with significant regional variations in elevation, such as western North America. The adverse effect of this correlation is that other anomalies of potential interest in a tectonic or geologic analysis may be overshadowed. To circumvent this problem in an analysis of gravity in Arizona, a residual Bouguer gravity anomaly map has been constructed for the state in which a trend surface of the elevation is used as the reduction datum in the Bouguer correction. Elevation values from topographic maps and not gravity station elevations have been used to prepare the regional elevation datum because station elevations do not adequately sample the range in elevations. Small- and large-wavelength residual Bouguer gravity anomalies and trends of anomalies are brought out more clearly by the residual Bouguer gravity anomaly map than by previous gravity maps. The most prominent features in the residual anomalies are a strong gravity gradient 50 km wide striking west -northwest across southern Arizona and a large wavelength residual Bouguer gravity anomaly low in the Coconino Plateau of northwest Arizona . The long-wavelength residual Bouguer gravity anomalies reflect lateral density variations in the crust and mantle that may be related to lateral temperature variations.

Einstein's field equations are a system of ten partial differential equations. For a special class of spacetimes known as Gowdy spacetimes, the number of equations is reduced due to additional structure of two dimensional isometry groups with mutually orthogonal Killing vectors. In this thesis, we focus on a particular model of Gowdy spacetimes known as the polarized T3 model, and provide an explicit solution to Einstein's equations.

In orbit, finding the "bottom" of your coffee cup is a non-trivial task. Subtle forces often masked by gravity influence the containment and transport of fluids aboard spacecraft, often in surprising non-intuitive ways. Terrestrial experience with capillary forces is typically relegated to the micro-scale, but engineering community exposure to large length scale capillary fluidics critical to spacecraft fluid management design is low indeed. Low-cost drop towers and fast-to-flight International Space Station (ISS) experiments are increasing designer exposure to this fresh field of study. This work first provides a wide variety of drop tower tests that demonstrate fundamental and applied capillary fluidics phenomena related to liquid droplets and gas bubbles. New observations in droplet auto-ejection, droplet combustion, forced jet combustion, puddle jumping, bubble jumping, and passive phase separation are presented. We also present the Capillary Beverage Experiment on ISS as a fun and enlightening application of capillary fluidics where containment and passive control of poorly wetting aqueous capillary systems is observed. Astronauts are able to smell their coffee from the open stable container while still drinking in an Earth-like manner with the role of gravity replaced by the combined effects of surface tension, wetting, and special container geometry. The design, manufacture, low-g demonstrations, and quantitative performance of the Space Cups are highlighted. Comparisons of numerical simulations, drop tower experiments, and ISS experiments testify to the prospects of new no-moving-parts capillary solutions for certain water-based life support operations aboard spacecraft.

Um dos sistemas utilizados na geofísica de exploração são os sistemas gravimétricos aerotransportados. Estes sistemas, no entanto,necessitam parametrizações para aferir a qualidade dos levantamentos executados. Com a introdução da aerogravimetria no Brasil, através do levantamento da Bacia do Parnaíba, foi necessário desenvolver uma área de testes para aferição destes equipamentos. Em 2004 foram implantadas 166 estações gravimétricas na região da pista de teste, localizada no município de Tietê, SP. Devido ao crescente interesse na utilização do tensor gradiente da gravidade no estudo de localização de jazidas minerais tornou-se necessário gerar modelos geofísicos mais detalhados com o objetivo de localizar alvos rasos em subsuperfície. Com a finalidade de melhorar o limite de resolução dos testes realizados utilizando diferentes sistemas gravimétricos aerotransportados foi realizado um adensamento da malha gravimétrica da pista teste de Tietê. Para tanto, foram implementadas novas estações gravimétricas, distribuídas em diferentes espaçamentos, estabelecendo a primeira pista brasileira para calibração de aerogravimetria escalar e sistemas de aerogradiometria gravimétrica 3D. / Airborne gravimetric systems are among geophysical systems applied to expl oration. These systems rely on parametrization to gauge the quality of surveys. With the introduction of airborne gravity surveys in Brazil, with the Parnaiba Basin survey, demand for an equipment calibration lane arose.In 2004, 166 gravity stations were set in the test lane area located in the municipality of Tietê, SP. The need for more detailed geophysical models capable of identifying shallow targets resulted from surging interest in applying gravity gradiometric tensor to locate mineral deposits. The Tietê test lane was densified in order to improve the resolution limitation in tests of a range of airborne gravity systems. To achieve that, new gravity stations were set with different spacing. This stablished the first Brazilian calibration lane for scalar gravimetry and 3D airborne gravity gradiometry systems.

O estudo de teorias de calibre não-Abelianas fortemente acopladas, em especial de aspectos térmicos e fora do equilíbrio, é um problema central para a compreensão da Cromodinâmica Quântica (Quantum Chromodynamics - QCD) - em particular, para entender a evolução do Plasma de Quarks e Glúons (Quark-Gluon Plasma- QGP). A técnica mais promissora, QCD na rede, obteve sucesso ao tratar de fenômenos no vácuo e em equilíbrio térmico, como espectros e termodinâmica, mas enfrenta desafios consideráveis ao lidar com fenômenos fora do equilíbrio. Uma ferramenta adaptada para lidar com problemas envolvendo plasmas fortemente acoplados em tempo real é a dualidade gauge/gravity, que mapeia uma Teoria Quântica de Campos (Quantum Field Theory - QFT) fortemente acoplada em d dimensões em uma teoria de gravitação em d + 1 dimensões, a qual, de modo geral, é mais fácil de ser resolvida. Nesta tese, estudamos diversas aplicações da dualidade gauge/gravity em teorias não-Abelianas fortemente acopladas que modelam qualitativamente o QGP. Nós estudamos o cálculo holográfico do potencial entre um par quark-antiquark pesado (QQ) para dipolos QQ estáticos e se movendo com relação ao plasma, apresentando um formalismo geral para o cálculo da parte real e imaginária para uma grande classe de teorias gravitacionais duais. Um estudo da massa de Debye holográfica, baseado no maior comprimento de correlação de operadores ímpares por transformações de CT, foi empreendido, com aplicações em modelos bottom-up que reproduzem a termodinâmica da teoria de Yang-Mills SU(Nc) pura e da QCD. Para estes modelos, também calculamos vários coeficientes de transporte associados com o transporte de cargas no plasma, como a condutitividade elétrica, a constante de difusão de carga e coeficientes de transporte associados a uma teoria de hidrodinâmica relativística de segunda ordem. / The study of strongly coupled non-Abelian gauge theories, especially concerning their thermal and non-equilibrium aspects, is a central problem for understanding Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) - in particular, to understand the evolution of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). The most successful approach, lattice QCD, succeeds in dealing with vacuum and equilibrium phenomena, such as spectra and thermodynamics, but faces a considerable challenge when it comes to with non-equilibrium phenomena. A tool adapted to deal with real time problems in strongly coupled plasmas is the gauge/gravity, which maps a strongly coupled d dimensional Quantum Field Theory (QFT) to a d + 1 dimensional theory of gravity, which, in general, is easier to solve. In this thesis, we study several applications of the gauge/gravity duality to strongly coupled non-Abelian theories which model qualitatively the QGP. We deal with the holographic evaluation of the heavy quark-antiquark (Q Q) potential for static and moving QQ dipoles, presenting a general formalism for the computation of the real and imaginary parts for a large class of dual theories of gravity. A study of the holographic Debye mass, based on the largest screening length of CT-odd operators, is pursued, with applications on bottom-up holographic models that reproduce the thermodynamics of pure SU(Nc) Yang-Mills theory and QCD. For these models, we also compute several transport coefficients associated with charge transport in the plasma, such as the electric conductivity, the charge diffusion constant, and transport coefficients associated with a theory of second order relativistic hydrodynamics.

Um dos sistemas utilizados na geofísica de exploração são os sistemas gravimétricos aerotransportados. Estes sistemas, no entanto,necessitam parametrizações para aferir a qualidade dos levantamentos executados. Com a introdução da aerogravimetria no Brasil, através do levantamento da Bacia do Parnaíba, foi necessário desenvolver uma área de testes para aferição destes equipamentos. Em 2004 foram implantadas 166 estações gravimétricas na região da pista de teste, localizada no município de Tietê, SP. Devido ao crescente interesse na utilização do tensor gradiente da gravidade no estudo de localização de jazidas minerais tornou-se necessário gerar modelos geofísicos mais detalhados com o objetivo de localizar alvos rasos em subsuperfície. Com a finalidade de melhorar o limite de resolução dos testes realizados utilizando diferentes sistemas gravimétricos aerotransportados foi realizado um adensamento da malha gravimétrica da pista teste de Tietê. Para tanto, foram implementadas novas estações gravimétricas, distribuídas em diferentes espaçamentos, estabelecendo a primeira pista brasileira para calibração de aerogravimetria escalar e sistemas de aerogradiometria gravimétrica 3D. / Airborne gravimetric systems are among geophysical systems applied to expl oration. These systems rely on parametrization to gauge the quality of surveys. With the introduction of airborne gravity surveys in Brazil, with the Parnaiba Basin survey, demand for an equipment calibration lane arose.In 2004, 166 gravity stations were set in the test lane area located in the municipality of Tietê, SP. The need for more detailed geophysical models capable of identifying shallow targets resulted from surging interest in applying gravity gradiometric tensor to locate mineral deposits. The Tietê test lane was densified in order to improve the resolution limitation in tests of a range of airborne gravity systems. To achieve that, new gravity stations were set with different spacing. This stablished the first Brazilian calibration lane for scalar gravimetry and 3D airborne gravity gradiometry systems.