Ion Exchange Experiments – Water Softening and Deionization

The purpose of the project was to create ion exchange experiments to be used by junior chemical engineering students in Chemical Engineering Laboratory (4200:360). The lab activities are to build upon each other and closely resemble what is done in industry. A lab manual was created delineating each activity and its corresponding background, instructions, schematic, and assignment. Using the tools for designing an ion exchange system, taught throughout the experiments, the students will present a design proposal. The ion exchange activities are based on labs currently being completed at other universities, as well as designed to illustrate the chemical engineering concepts behind ion exchange. Water softeners are one of the most common ion exchangers available on the market. They are also most often used for ion exchange labs because of their simplicity in nature. During the design of the activities, I strove to incorporate all the aspects of designing an ion exchanger. By incorporating all aspects of designing an ion exchanger I was able to determine step by step how to go from an idea to having all the information needed to create an industrial sized ion exchanger

Skin in the Game: Providing Redress for American Sports\u27 Appropriation of Native American Iconography

To date, legal efforts to eradicate the use of Native American iconography in American sports have focused on the concept of Indian nicknames as disparaging terms and Indian mascots as harmful images. But subjective claims of harm are hard to prove and are often thwarted by First Amendment protections because judges remain reluctant to regulate expressive and commercial freedom of speech based on offense. And while a 2014 ruling by the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancelling six of the Washington Redskins’ trademark registrations was a landmark moment for name-change advocates, the decision could be overturned on appeal. This paper outlines a different approach in exploring the legal validity of American Indian sports nicknames and mascots by examining trademark, copyright, and right of publicity laws that govern the appropriation of personal and brand identity. While the commercial use of one\u27s identity is protected under right of publicity laws, this legal principle is rarely evoked in legal petitions brought by activists, resolutions encouraged by legislators, or by the many scholars who agree on the harmful effects of cultural misappropriation. Based on my case study of the Chicago Blackhawks, an NHL team using the moniker of a legendary Indian chief, I offer a proposal that uses existing right of publicity law to challenge the unfettered appropriation of Native American indicia of identity

Evaluating How Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Interventions Affect the Wellbeing of Indigenous Communities in the North Rupununi, Guyana

Having its roots in computer science and information systems, the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) in development has arguably been dominated by technocentric approaches, mainly concerned with describing and managing the mechanisms of technology diffusion and adoption. However, the high failure rate of many ICT for development (ICT4D) interventions and their limited focus on wellbeing impact has drawn attention to the needs for designing better evaluation frameworks to help make sense of the complex realities in which ICT interventions take place, and for interrogating the usefulness of mainstream approaches on the impact of ICT4D interventions on wellbeing. Efforts to operationalise the capability approach, and to apply it to the field of ICT4D constitute an increasingly popular alternative in this regard. The alternative shifts the focus of ICT4D evaluation away from an exclusive focus on technology access and use, towards understanding their multidimensional development outcomes, including their impact on wellbeing. One avenue, which has largely been underexplored, is the potential contribution of systems thinking approaches for further strengthening the focus on multidimensional development outcomes while improving the practical applicability of ICT4D evaluations. This doctoral research sets out to explore how systems thinking concepts and techniques can be used to complement existing approaches so as to increase the success rate of ICT4D interventions, as measured by their effect on the wellbeing of intended beneficiaries. Drawing on multiple theoretical influences, including the capability approach, systemic inquiry, critical theory and pragmatism, this thesis evaluates four ICT4D interventions, including a researcher-led ICT4D intervention, which have all taken place in Indigenous communities of the North Rupununi, Guyana, between 2005 and 2015. The findings of this study suggest that the wellbeing impact of ICT4D interventions is primarily determined by whether they are introduced to address locally-defined needs and the extent to which beneficiary communities are involved in their design, implementation and evaluation. It argues that applying concepts and techniques from systems thinking can help address some of the criticism and shortcomings of established and emerging approaches for evaluating ICT4D interventions, by looking beyond efficiency and optimisation towards questions of participation, power, purpose and values. The research then outlines the contours of a Systemic Implementation and Evaluation (SIE) framework, as a way to draw attention to the inevitable clashes of worldviews that characterise interventions involving multiple stakeholders, and to allow a critical reflection on the nature of these interventions and the changes brought about. It concludes by producing a series of policy recommendations associated with enhancing the impact of ICT4D interventions on Indigenous wellbeing

Fourth-order dispersion mediated modulation instability in dispersion oscillating fibers

We investigate the role played by fourth-order dispersion on the modulation instability process in dispersion oscillating fibers. It not only leads to the appearance of instability sidebands in the normal dispersion regime (as in uniform fibers), but also to a new class of large detuned instability peaks that we ascribe to the variation of dispersion. All these theoretical predictions are experimentally confirmed. (C) 2013 Optical Society of Americ

Robust Encryption, Extended

Robustness is a notion often tacitly assumed while working with encrypted data. Roughly speaking, it states that a ciphertext cannot be decrypted under different keys. Initially formalized in a public-key context, it has been further extended to key-encapsulation mechanisms, and more recently to pseudorandom functions, message authentication codes and authenticated encryption. In this work, we motivate the importance of establishing similar guarantees for functional encryption schemes, even under adversarially generated keys. Our main security notion is intended to capture the scenario where a ciphertext obtained under a master key (corresponding to Authority 1) is decrypted by functional keys issued under a different master key (Authority 2). Furthermore, we show there exist simple functional encryption schemes where robustness under adversarial key-generation is not achieved. As a secondary and independent result, we formalize robustness for digital signatures – a signature should not verify under multiple keys – and point out that certain signature schemes are not robust when the keys are adversarially generated. We present simple, generic transforms that turn a scheme into a robust one, while maintaining the original scheme’s security. For the case of public-key functional encryption, we look into ciphertext anonymity and provide a transform achieving it

Hemorrhagic valsalva retinopathy in a pregnant woman: Rétinopathie hémorragique de valsalva chez une femme enceinte

Valsalva retinopathy is caused by a sudden increase in intra-thoracic or abdominal pressure, following forced expiration, with mouth and nose closed (Valsalva maneuver). Increased venous pressure may result in rupture of the superficial retinal capillaries, causing haemorrhagic detachment of the retinal inner limit membrane and, eventually, vitreous haemorrhage. The associated visual loss can be profound if hemorrhage occurs in the premacular region. We report a case of Valsalva retinopathy in a pregnant woman at 24 weeks of amenorrhea. A 36 years old patient, who consulted for brutal visual acuity decrease of the left eye, evolving since 24 hours, following the exercises of gymnastics. The refraction has showed a decrease of visual acuity in the left eye to the point the patient can”see the hand moving”, while the visual acuity remained normal in the right eye. La rétinopathie de Valsalva est causée par une augmentation soudaine de la pression intra-thoracique ou abdominale, suite à une expiration forcée, avec la bouche et le nez fermés (manoeuvre de Valsalva). Cette augmentation de la pression veineuse peut entraîner une rupture des capillaires superficiels de la rétine, entraînant un décollement hémorragique de la membrane interne de la rétine et, éventuellement, une hémorragie du vitré. La perte visuelle associée peut être profonde si une hémorragie survient dans la région prémaculaire. Nous rapportons un cas de rétinopathie de Valsalva chez une parturiente de 36 ans à 24 semaines d’amenorhée, ayant consulté pour une diminution brutale de l’acuité visuelle de l’oeil gauche, évoluant depuis 24 heures après les exercices de gymnastique. La réfraction a démontré une diminution de l’acuité visuelle dans l’oeil gauche pour permettre à la main de bouger », alors que l’acuité visuelle est restée normale dans l’oeil droit

Echographie des noeuds lymphatiques, des vaisseaux sanguins, du thymus, et de la rate chez les ruminants domestiques

L’échographie est un examen complémentaire très répandu en médecine des carnivores mais encore peu utilisé par les vétérinaires ruraux en dehors des suivis de reproduction. Les vaisseaux sanguins, les noeuds lymphatiques, la rate et le thymus sont des organes pour lesquels il est difficile d’établir un diagnostic en cas d’affection ; soit parce qu’ils ne sont pas accessibles à l’examen clinique, soit parce que la palpation seule ne permet pas d’identifier les différentes pathologies possibles. Cette étude renseigne l’anatomie de ces organes accessibles par échographie ainsi que leur apparence échographique physiologique. Elle présente aussi des cas cliniques d’animaux hospitalisés à l’ENVT ayant eu une atteinte de ces organes afin d’établir une banque non exhaustive d’images pathologique