In her 2016 article “Beyond Rights as Recognition, Black Twitter and Posthuman Coalitional Possibilities,” Pritha Prasad argues that the hashtag, one of the decade’s most omnipresent features of digital communication, functions as “a performative composing medium that not only demands relationality” and “call[s] for the recognition of both the Black...
Soils have a critical role in global carbon (C) cycling, containing one of the largest fast-cycling carbon stocks on earth. Robust representation of soil organic matter dynamics in Earth System Models is critical for future climate prediction. Current C cycling models assume that all C cycling in non-hydric (i.e. ‘upland’)...
Leads are long fractures wide enough for a ship to travel through the ice pack. Sea ice acts as a barrier between the ocean and the atmosphere, whereas leads allow the transfer of heat and moisture between the two. Leads play a role for marine mammals and are hunting grounds...
A significant number of Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings exist in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America that is a region of high seismicity, which could be subjected to both crustal and subduction zone earthquakes. The catastrophic and brittle failures associated with URM buildings in the past...
Turbines at wind projects pose a threat to birds and bats flying at altitudes within the rotor swept area. These animals die from colliding with the turbine blades. Estimating mortality, or the total number of bird or bat fatalities at a wind project, is critical to understanding environmental impacts of...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread environmental contaminants that occur in complex mixtures. These environmental mixtures can consist of both parent PAHs and their derivatives. Several parent PAHs are known or suspected mutagens and/or carcinogens, and a handful of PAH derivatives are known to be more potent mutagens and/or carcinogens...
Novel donor-typed ternary graphite intercalation compounds (GICs) are synthesized and characterized containing (1) pyrrolidinium cations with DMSO co-intercalates; (2) alkali metal cations with crown ether co-intercalates; and (3) alkali metal cations with polyethylene glycol co-intercalates. Structural and compositional data are obtained for the stable products. A new ether-amine co-intercalate exchange...
Background: Prior research has shown that distance learning courses have higher failure rates at community colleges then equivalent face-to-face to courses. There are a few programs and courses, however, that consistently achieve completion rates as high as or higher than their equivalent face-to-face courses. The research to date has not...
Biological invasions and climate change represent two preeminent threats to ecological communities and biodiversity, altering the distribution and abundance of species, disrupting existing species interactions and forming unprecedented ones, and creating novel ecological communities. Many of the most successful invasive species are also ecosystem engineers, species that physically modify the...
The role of ground motion duration on the seismic performance of civil engineering structures remains unclear. Thus, the role of earthquake strong ground motion duration is assessed in a three manuscript thesis, which includes: (1) assessment of the effects of ground motion duration on the seismic performance of a model...