Thesis (M.S. in Engineering Acoustics)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): S.E. Forsythe, S.R. Baker. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

<p> Turkey's most controversial religious figure is the Muslim cleric and author Fethullah G&uuml;len, whose followers have established around one thousand schools in 135 countries. Since 2003, the G&uuml;len-affiliated educational non-profit T&Uuml;RK&Ccedil;EDER has organized the International Turkish Olympiad, a competition for children enrolled in the G&uuml;len schools. The showpiece of this event is its song contest, in which students perform well-known Turkish songs before live audiences of thousands in cities all over Turkey and reach millions more via television broadcasts and the Internet. While the contest resembles American Idol in its focus on individual singers and Eurovision in its nationalistic overtones, the fact that the singers are performing songs associated with a nationality not their own raises intriguing questions about the intended message of the competition as well as about its publics. To answer these questions, I analyzed YouTube videos of the competition and examined YouTube comments, popular websites, and newspaper opinion columns. I conclude that the performers themselves are meant to feel an affinity with Turkish culture and values, while Turkish audiences receive a demonstration that G&uuml;len's brand of Islam is compatible with Turkish nationalism. Moreover, the competition reaches a multiplicity of publics both within and beyond Turkey. While some of these can be characterized as essentially oppositional counterpublics, I find that, in the case of the Turkish Olympiad, the dichotomy between rational public and emotional or irrational counterpublic established collectively by such theorists of publics as J&uuml;rgen Habermas and Michael Warner begins to break down.</p>

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) aims to reduce CO₂ emissions by capturing CO₂ from sources and injecting it into geologic reservoirs for enhanced hydrocarbon recovery and storage. One concern is that unintentional CO₂ and reservoir gas release to the surface may occur through seepage pathways such as fractures and/or improperly plugged wells. We hypothesize that CO₂ and CH₄ migration into the vadose zone and subsequent O₂ dilution and Eh and pH changes could create an increased potential for metal mobilization, which could potentially contaminate ground and surface waters. This potential has not been addressed elsewhere. Goals of this study are to understand how the potential for metal mobilization through soil pore water may increase due to CO₂ and CH₄ and to assess potential impact to aquifers and/or the biosphere. The study was conducted at a CCUS site in Cranfield, MS, where localized seepage of CH₄ (45%) from depth reaches the surface and oxidizes to CO₂ (34%) in the vadose zone near a plugged well. Four sediment cores (4.5-9m long) were collected in a transect extending from a background site through the area of anomalously high soil gas CO₂ and CH₄ concentrations. Sediment samples were analyzed for Eh and pH using slurries (1:1 vol. with DI water) in the field and for occluded gas concentrations, metal (Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) concentrations, moisture content, organic carbon content, and grain size in the laboratory. Data from the background reference area (no gas anomaly: occluded gas ~21% O₂, <1% CO₂, 0% CH₄) showed oxidized conditions (Eh from 464-508mV) and neutral pH (7.0-7.8) whereas samples collected near the gas anomaly (13-21% O₂, 0.1-5% CO₂, <0.1% CH₄) were more reducing (Eh 133-566mV) and more acidic (pH = 5.3-8.0). Significant correlations were found between Eh and O₂ (r = 0.95), pH and CO₂ (r = -0.88), and between these parameters and acid-leachable metals in samples from within the soil gas anomaly. Correlations quickly weaken away from the anomaly. Statistically, total metal concentrations, except for Ba, are similar in all cores. Acid-mobile metal concentrations, above 5m, increase toward the gas anomaly. The percent of water-mobile metals is very low (<2%) for all metals in all cores, indicating freely-mobile metals are not affected by elevated CO₂/CH₄. Conclusions are: 1) oxidation of CH₄ to CO₂ depletes O₂ causing reducing conditions; 2) high CO₂ and low O₂ affect Eh and pH of sediments which in turn alters mineralogy and bond strength between sediments and adsorbed ions; 3) intrusion of strongly acidic fluids (pH of acid used was 0.39) into these sediments could potentially remove weakly bonded metals or dissolve minerals. Implications from this study are that Eh needs to be considered along with pH when analyzing contamination potential, and that exposure of sediments to reducing, followed by acidic conditions, increases the potential for metal mobilization in the vadose zone. More research is needed to determine the concentration of gases (CO₂, CH₄ and O₂) that will create Eh and pH levels that could affect the mineralogy and sorption mechanism potentially leading to metal mobilization. Methods for assessing potential metal mobilization may be useful for site characterization and risk assessment. / text

Silicon has been the material of choice of the photonics industry over the last decade due to its easy integration with silicon electronics as well as its optical transparency in the near-infrared telecom wavelengths. Besides these, it has very high refractive index, and also a broad optical transparency window over the entire mid-IR till about 8[Mu]m. Photonic crystal is well known that it can slow down the speed of light. It also can provide a universal platform for microcavity optical resonators with high quality factor Q and small modal volumes. The slow light effect, high Q and small modal volumes enhance light-matter interaction, together with high refractive index of silicon can be utilized to build a highly sensitive, high throughput sensor with small footprint. In this research, we have demonstrated highly compact and sensitive silicon based photonic crystal biosensor by engineering the photonic crystal microcavity in both cavity size and cavity-waveguide coupling condition. We have developed solutions to increase biosensor throughput by integrating multimode interference device and improving the coupling efficiency to a slow light photonic crystal waveguides. We have also performed detailed investigations on silicon based photonic devices at mid-infrared region to develop an ideal platform for highly sensitive optical absorption spectroscopy on chip. The studies have led to the demonstration of the first slot waveguide, the first photonic crystal waveguide, and the first holey photonic crystal waveguide and first slotted photonic crystal waveguide in silicon-on-sapphire at mid-infrared. The solutions and devices we developed in our research could be very useful for people to realize an integrated photonic circuit for biological and chemical sensing in the future. / text

Chemistry and Biochemistry / Not available / text

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<p>In this dissertation I explore the relationship between spatial organization of domestic practices and their role in the process of community constitution at the local and regional levels during an enigmatic time period on the Iranian Plateau called the Proto-Elamite horizon. This horizon spans from the end of the fourth millennium and the beginning of the third millennium BCE (i.e. 3100-2700 B.C.E.) and marks the beginning of a period of widespread social and political administrative complexity on the Iranian Plateau. For this study, I reviewed the preliminary and published reports of 12 settlements that contain material culture of the Proto-Elamite horizon. I have chosen to investigate the daily practices and patterns of usage of domestic spaces in four of these settlements. I have studied the quality and quantity of macro-remains and artifacts, including architectural features, ceramics and small finds, to infer the types and intensities of daily practices, subsistence patterns and the way indoor and outdoor areas were used in each of these settlements. Then the results are compared in order to examine the similarities and differences among local communities and the possibility of the existence of a larger imagined community in this vast territory during this time period. In this study, I demonstrate that the perceived uniformity of the Proto-Elamite horizon in different settlements is only superficial. Due to the variations in the types and intensities of daily practices and the pattern of presumed domestic space usage, certainly social practices involved in creating and maintaining the Proto-Elamite communities were far from homogenous. The Proto-Elamite horizon as an imagined community functioned more or less as a network with nodes and links that in some cases bypassed certain geographic areas. The Proto-Elamite phenomenon was constituted of local and imagined communities coexisting as nested and/or cross-cutting entities. Shared living conditions in local communities and frequent interactions among their members gave each local community its own character different from the fluid larger imagined community. Ultimately however, local and imagined Proto-Elamite communities were not fully separate and distinct. The Proto-Elamite network was dynamic and did not penetrate every location into the same cultural mould.

<p> Using theories of nationalism from Anthony D. Smith, Benedict Anderson, and Barry Shenker, alterity as discussed by Kim Knott and Jonathan Z. Smith, and conversion theories from Joseph Rosenbloom, Lewis Rambo, and Andrew Buckser, this thesis examines four "snapshots" of Israelite/Jewish history for evidence of the use of conversion as a necessary component of "nation building." Periods analyzed include the Israelite Period, Post-Exilic Ezra and Nehemiah, Second Temple Hasmonean Kingdom, and the Late Antique Mishnaic Period. By analyzing primary sources and related scholarship, this thesis seeks to show that conversion is not only a necessary component of building an intentional community, but also that the early Jewish community leaders employed conversion as a means to ensure the continuity of their people and history.</p>

The Semantic Web is an endeavour to enhance the web with the ability to represent knowledge. The knowledge is expressed through what are called ontologies. In order to make ontologies useful, it is important to be able to match the knowledge represented in different ontologies. This task is commonly known as ontology alignment. Ontology alignment has been studied, but it remains an open problem with an annual competition dedicated to measure alignment tools' performance. Many alignment tools are computationally heavy, require training, or are useful in a specific field of study. We propose an ontology alignment method, NeCO, that builds on clone detection techniques to align ontologies. NeCO inherits the clone detection features, and it is light-weight, does not require training, and is useful for any ontology. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2014-01-29 14:38:52.873