At the intersection of higher education and politics, there is demand for an easily understood measure of student success. Graduation rate is the current measure of choice, but the definition of graduation rate excludes many categories of students and types of success particularly applicable to community colleges. The purpose of...
The reduction in mechanical load imparted on the body during spaceflight presents unique physiological challenges. One detrimental and seemingly unavoidable response to microgravity is rapid bone loss. This adaptation is hazardous not only to astronaut health, but to the success of long-duration exploration-class missions. Skeletal adaptation to spaceflight in astronauts...
Designation of areas as marine wilderness has been proposed as a strategy for managing the increasing threats facing the world’s oceans. Although social factors influence marine protected area success, the human dimensions of marine wilderness remain minimally explored. This thesis examines views of marine wilderness expressed by a representative sample...
Several solar energy models exist, but all models must balance: computational runtime, light complexity, and model output volume. These models span the spectrum of simplistic global solar energy equation sets to complex light ray-tracing models. Spatiotemporally inaccurate representations of solar energy may cause compounding simulation effects and introduce unknown modeling...
Developing accurate predictive distribution models requires adequately representing relevant spatial and temporal scales, as these scales are ultimately reflective of the relationships between distributions and influential environmental conditions. In this research, we considered both spatial and temporal scale and the influence each has on predicting broad-scale distributions of two disparate...
The goal of this project is to contribute to the development of design values for cross-laminated timber (CLT) diaphragms in the seismic load-resisting system for buildings. Monotonic and cyclic tests to determine strength and stiffness characteristics of 2.44 m (8 ft) long shear connections with common self-tapping screws were performed....
Partitioning of trivalent actinides (in particular, americium and curium) from the
fission produced light lanthanides is a major concern of used nuclear fuel reprocessing for
the purposes of waste disposal. Several solvent extraction processes have been developed
to address these chemically difficult separations. The historically employed TALSPEAK
Process utilizes di-2-ethylhexyl...
Due to the growing complexity, sophistication, and interconnectedness of present day engineered products and services, the use of ontologies in engineering design is becoming more widespread. An ontology provides a standardized way of describing concepts in a domain of interest and the relationships between these concepts to better understand the...
Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) is a viable technology for near-term interplanetary exploration. Of the candidate mission architectures that are currently available for a crewed Mars mission, NTP permits the greatest flexibility in launch window selection and provides the shortest possible trip time, thereby reducing risks associated with cosmic ray exposure,...
Recent sensor System-on-Chips (SoC) have enabled significant advances in energy-efficiency by incorporating various micro-powered building blocks. Unfortunately, most of these sensor systems do not address the high power cost associated with data storage and transmission, which in some cases vastly exceeds the power consumed by the rest of the SoC....