Two experiments were conducted at the University of Kentucky, Eden Shale Farm, Owenton, KY to evaluate the use of MTB-100TM (Alltech, Inc., Nicholasville, KY) to alleviate the symptoms of fescue toxicity when lactating Angus x Beefmaster cows and their calves grazed endophyte-infected KY-31 tall fescue. Experiment 1 provided a carbohydrate based toxin adsorbent, MTB-100TM, ad libitum in a commercial mineral supplement to project a daily consumption rate of 0, 20 or 40 g of MTB-100TM per cow. Cows were weighed, assigned a body condition score (BCS) and hair coat score (HC), rectal temperatures were recorded and fecal grab samples were taken for ergovaline (EV) and lysergic acid (LA) analysis every 35 days for three grazing seasons (May to September). Calves were also weighed and assigned a HC score. Although MTB-100TM did not improve cow or calf performance, cows older than 4 years and those with greater Beefmaster breeding exhibited a higher tolerance to fescue toxicity than 2 and 3-yr-olds and cows with greater Angus breeding. Experiment 2 was conducted to evaluate the response of lactating beef cows and their calves to strategic supplementation with MTB-100TM. MTB-100TM was mixed with a complete mineral so daily intake was projected to be 0 or 20 g/cow. The experimental period extended from May 5 to October 2 and was divided into 3 strategic periods: P1 = May 5 to July 5; P2 = July 5 to August 31; P3 = August 31 to October 2. Treatments were either 0 or 20 g•cow-1•d-1 MTB-100TM within a period (Treatment 1 = 0, 0, 0; Treatment 2 = 20, 0, 20; Treatment 3 = 0, 20, 0; Treatment 4 = 20, 20, 0; and Treatment 5 = 20, 20, 20). Cow and calf performance was measured the same as Exp. 1, but every 21 days. Supplementation early in the grazing season tended to improve cow weight gain and body condition; however, there was no effect on calf performance. Fecal output of EV and LA did not increase in either experiment with supplementation. In conclusion, strategically invoked MTB-100TM consumption can increase performance of cows grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue forage.

abstract / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Area sensitivity of North American grassland birds is a significant conservation concern; yet, its causes are not known. I used point count data from 20 tall-grass prairie patches in Southern Manitoba to assess the relative importance of patch size, edge proximity, and landscape composition on the densities and species richness of grassland songbirds. The degree to which the landscape surrounding point count plots was open, as opposed to forested or urban, had a positive effect on species richness and the densities of most focal species, and was more important than patch size, edge proximity, or habitat amount. These results suggest that landscape openness, not patch size (with which it is usually correlated) drives area sensitivity. Small grassland patches embedded in open landscapes are less susceptible to area sensitivity and may be of high conservation value for grassland birds. / February 2017

In our research, we have investigated the influence of tall- and flat organizational structures on authentic leadership in the Swedish- and German context. The research was approached by the systems view and the data were analysed through Grounded Theory. Our aim was to research in which dimension authentic leadership is enabled or restricted to a larger extent – tall- or flat organizations. We discovered that authentic leadership can be performed in both, however it might be more or less encouraged. Hierarchical structures could be seen as a tool for performing authentic leadership – which we were able to confirm in the German context. While flat organizational structures could enable leaders and followers to act according to their true inner selves as well – which we were able to observe in the Swedish context. Interesting differences between tall- and flat organizational structures in Sweden and Germany were observed in terms of authentic leadership performance.

Submitted in the fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2011. / The main objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of conversion of crude tall oil and tall oil fatty acids into biodiesel. During the Kraft pulping process, Crude Tall Oil originates as tall oil soap, which is separated from recovered black liquor. The soap is then converted to Crude Tall Oil by acidulation with sulphuric acid. The Crude Tall Oil is then fractionated by distillation to produce tall oil fatty acids (TOFA), rosin and pitch. There were a number of conversional methods that were considered but proved to be inappropriate. A base-catalyzed method was inappropriate with due to the high free fatty acid content on the feedstock, and the acid-base catalyzed method was inappropriate due to the long reaction times and large excess of methanol required. An enzyme based conversion method was also found to be inappropriate because of the high price attached to the purchasing of the enzymes and the stability of the enzyme. A procedure of choice was the supercritical methanol treatment, due to the fact that it requires no separate catalyst. A procedure was developed for both the feedstocks (i.e. crude tall oil and tall oil fatty acids) using the supercritical methanol treatment. In supercritical methanol treatment, feedstock and methanol were charged to a reactor and were subjected to temperatures and pressures beyond the critical point of methanol (Tc = 240 °C, Pc = 35 bar). The maximum biodiesel yield obtained from Crude tall oil was 66% and was 81% for the tall oil fatty acids that was produced in a single stage process. The temperature and methanol to feedstock ratio effects was also found to yield a maximum biodiesel yield at 325°C and 40:1 respectively. A 20 minutes reaction time was found to be appropriate for the maximum yield of biodiesel. The final biodiesel produced was also evaluated against a commercial biodiesel product and its parameters measured. The biodiesel resulting from the tall oil fatty acid yielded parameters that were acceptable according to ASTM D6751 specifications for biodiesel. The biodiesel produced from the crude tall oil did not meet the ASTM D6751 specification, and this was mostly attributed to the presence of unsaponifiables which hindered the conversion of oil into biodiesel. / M

No description available.

Nos últimos anos cresceu o interesse por construir edifícios cada vez mais altos, os quais estampam o poderio tecnológico e econômico das nações. Concomitantemente as estruturas se tornaram mais esbeltas e flexíveis e os fenômenos dinâmicos oriundos da ação do vento, que em edificações baixas não representam grande relevância no carregamento, começam a surgir e apresentar seus efeitos. Desta maneira, é importante conhecer como se desenvolve o escoamento do ar e a distribuição das pressões no entorno destas estruturas. Neste trabalho, caracteriza-se aerodinamicamente, através de dados oriundos de ensaios em túnel de vento, dois empreendimentos reais e presentes na engenharia nacional. Os carregamentos foram gerados através da integração simultânea de pressões e transformados em espectros de força, os quais auxiliam na visualização da energia cinética contida nas rajadas, na ocorrência de desprendimento cadenciado de vórtices, martelamento e na influência que as edificações vizinhas apresentam no escoamento. A análise é realizada local e globalmente, possibilitando verificar em que “zona”, ou faixa de altura, é mais significante para o carregamento da estrutura como um todo. O fenômeno de desprendimento de vórtices é caracterizado por um pico no espectro transversal à incidência do vento. Quando existem edificações ou obstáculos na região a barlavento, a estrutura pode ser martelada até a altura média destes obstáculos. Por fim, os resultados aqui apresentados podem servir de auxílio no pré-dimensionamento de estruturas com configurações similares, como comparativo e validação para pesquisas futuras e como referencial na elaboração de códigos normativos referentes ao tema. Destaca-se a importância de ensaios em túnel de vento, principalmente quando a estrutura a ser analisada possui um detalhamento arquitetônico complexo. Estes ensaios permitem ao projetista simular todos os casos de carregamento e os efeitos de vizinhança com maior confiabilidade e precisão em relação a métodos simplificados contidos, atualmente, em códigos e normas. / In recent years many high-rise buildings have been built, which are a way to represent the economic and technological power of nations. Concomitantly, the structures have become slender and more flexible, and the dynamic phenomena of wind, which in low buildings do not represent a great relevance in the loading, start to show their effects. In this way, it is extremely important to know how the wind flow and the pressure distribution occur around these structures. In this research, two real projects, present in the national engineering, are characterized aerodynamically through data from wind tunnel tests. The loadings were processed through the simultaneous integration of pressures and transformed into force spectra, which aid in the visualization of the kinetic energy contained in the bursts, in the occurrence of vortex shedding, buffeting and the influence of the neighboring buildings on the wind flow. The analysis is performed locally and globally, making it possible to verify which "zone", or height range, is more significant to the loading of the structure as a whole. It can be seen that the phenomenon of vortex shedding is characterized by a peak in the crosswind spectrum and the buffeting phenomenon appears when there are buildings or obstacles in the windward region. Finally, the results presented here can be helpful in the pre-design of structures with similar configurations, in the comparison and validation for future researches and as a reference in the review of normative codes. Emphasis is given to the importance of wind tunnel testing, which allows the designer to simulate all loading cases and neighborhood effects with greater precision compared to simplified methods currently contained in codes and standards.

O objeto da pesquisa é a requalificação de edifícios altos residenciais acima de 15 pavimentos, situados no centro da cidade de São Paulo e construídos entre 1930 e 1964, sendo a maioria de um cômodo, conhecidos como kitchenettes, com ênfase nas possibilidades de renovação arquitetônica e requalificação tecnológica para sua reocupação, visando as questões de desempenho ambiental. No momento atual das cidades modernas, um número significativo de edifícios de médio e grande porte, encontrados em diferentes partes do mundo, inevitavelmente necessitam e recorrem a projetos de requalificação arquitetônica e tecnológica. É verificado que o centro da cidade de São Paulo possui um estoque edificado obsoleto e uma grande potencialidade para receber novas edificações, além de requalificar as existentes. Com isso, o objetivo principal desta pesquisa é qualificar o edifício existente provendo conforto ergonômico, térmico, luminoso e acústico, mediante padrões e critérios pré-estabelecidos de desempenho ambiental. Como resultado é verificado que existem possibilidades de intervenção que permite ao edifício alcançar melhor desempenho ambiental, com um redesenho das unidades a fim de criar apartamentos de um e dois dormitórios, melhorando o aproveitamento da ventilação e iluminação natural e inserindo barreiras contra o ruído urbano nas fachadas. / The object of this research is the refurbishment of tall buildings over 15 floors, situated in the center of city of São Paulo and built between 1930 and 1964, most of them with just one bedroom, known as kitchenetts, with emphasis on opportunities of architectural upgraded and technological refurbishment for them reoccupation, targeting the issues of environmental performance. In the actual moment of modern cities, a significant number of medium and big buildings, found in different parts of the world, inevitably need and require projects of architectural and technological refurbishment. It is verified that São Paulo downtown has a built obsolete inventory and it is prone to receive new buildings, besides the refurbishment of existing ones. Thus, the main aim of this research is to refurbish the actual building, providing it with ergonomic, thermal, light and sound comfort through standards and pre-determined criteria of environmental performance. As a result it is found that there are intervention possibilities that allows the building reach a better environmental performance, with a new units drawing with the aim of create apartments of one or two bedrooms, improving the use of natural ventilation and lighting and putting barriers against urban noises in the buildings front.

Techniques for preliminary analysis of various tall building systems subjected to lateral loads have been studied herein. Three computer programs written in Matlab® graphical user interface language for use on any personal computer are presented. Two of these programs incorporate interactive graphics. A program called Wall_Frame_2D is introduced for two-dimensional analysis of shear wall-frame interactive structures, using the shear-flexural cantilever analogy. The rigid outrigger approach was utilized to develop a program called Outrigger Program to analyze multi-outrigger braced tall buildings. In addition, a program called Frame Tube was developed which allows analysis of single and quad-bundled framed tube structures. The tube grids are replaced with an equivalent orthotropic plate, and the governing differential equations are solved in closed form. Results for lateral deflections, rotations, and moment, shear, and torque distributions within the various resisting elements are compared against other preliminary and "exact" matrix analysis methods for several examples. SAP2000 was used to obtain "exact" results. The approximate analyses are found to give reasonable results and a fairly good indication of the behavior of the actual structure. These programs are proposed for inclusion in a knowledge-based approach to preliminary tall building design. The tall building design process is outlined and criteria are given for the incorporation of these "Resource Level Knowledge Modules" into an integrated tall building design system.

The frame tube buildings have been the most efficient structural system used for building which is in the range of 40-100storey. The soaring heights and the demanding structural efficiency have led to them having smaller reserves of stiffness and consequently stability. In this thesis a Non-linear analysis and stability check of frame-tube building is done. Nonlinear analysis offers several options for addressing problems of nonlinearity and in this work focus is on Geometric Non-linearity. The main sources can be identified as P-Æ’´ effect of gravity loading acting on a transversely displaced structure due to lateral loading and can also be due to member imperfections, such as member camber and out of plumb erection of the frame. During analysis the element response keep continuously changing as a function of the applied load so simple step computing methods have been employed instead of direct analytical methods. The problem here is dealt in a piece wise linear way and solved. In this thesis a program using the matrix approach has been developed. The program developed can calculate the buckling load and can do Linear and Non-linear analysis using the Mat-lab as the computing platform. Numerical results obtained from the program have been compared with the Finite Element software Mastan2. The comparative solutions presented later on in the report clearly prove the accuracy of the program and go on to show, how exploiting simple matrix equation can help solve the most complex structures in fraction of seconds. The program is modular in structure. It provides opportunity for user to make minor manipulation or can append his own module to make it work for his specific needs and will get reliable results.