Nature\u27s Humans: Presence, Absence, Transformation -- Photography Selected by Chris Jackson

Photography selected by Chris Jackson, featuring the following artists: Bill Bodish Cynthia Chang Phuong Phan Janet Powel

Investigation of the effects of engineered surface texture on the formation of biofilms leading to periprosthetic joint infection

With an ever-increasing populous requiring a total arthroplasty procedure and in particular Total Hip Arthroplasties (THA), the associated complications will become ever more apparent [8]. Although heralded as being amongst the most successful surgeries performed within orthopaedics, significant complications such as Periprosthetic Joint Infection (PJI) still occur within 2% of surgeries [10]. The treatment of PJI faces challenges due to the predisposition of the bacteria to form biofilms upon the biomaterial surface. Eradication of biofilms is difficult and is hampered by them becoming recalcitrant to antibiotic approaches and often the only course of treatment is a revision procedure. However, with a revision procedure the incidence of PJI increases. Exhaustive efforts across research are being spent on novel and innovative ways to eradicate biofilm formation upon an engineered biomaterial surface. Engineered surface within the context of this thesis refers to one that has been designed for purpose of being a biomaterial, that is one that incorporates intentional characteristics, topographies and or properties. A common thread between published literature is that the surface itself can influence the tendency of bacteria to colonise the surface and surface roughness is a crucial indicator of the magnitude of the biofilm formation. The work conducted within this thesis was devised in such a way as to investigate this microbial/ biomaterial interface through the application of advanced metrology techniques and microbiological processes in combination with surface modification methodologies. Areal surface characterisation was applied, contrary to the much more commonly reported, profile measurements and thus allows for a deeper understanding and true indication of the surface.A series of Ti6Al4V surfaces were developed containing prosthesis relevant surfaces/ coatings and modified surfaces to investigate their influence over biofilm formation. A thorough surface characterisation was conducted alongside the growth of Staphylococcus aureus biofilms upon the surface. The findings concluded that the influence of the surface is profound on the magnitude of growth, with surface parameters describing texture contributions and feature spacing showing the highest statistical correlation with growth, with linear trends present throughout the studies. Surfaces that were engineered to promote osseointegration for the overall success of the implant, exhibiting a highly stochastic, porous surface exhibited orders of magnitude increases in biofilm formation in comparison to alternate prosthesis relevant finishes such as a grit blasting. Studies were aimed at highlighting key features and characteristics that influence the growth. Within literature a commonly reported observation is that the increase in surface area inherent with an increase in surface roughness harbours increased bacterial colonisation, the findings from studies contained within have found that this may be a generalised observation and parameters defining where this increase occurs within the topography may better describe this relationship. Finally, the influence of measurement configuration was investigated for datasets acquired through computed tomography. It was found that these configurable set-up parameters dictate the quality of the datasets obtained, with significant impact on parameters and characteristics extracted from the surface

Gender and Representation: Economic Performance and the Emergence of Women in State Politics

A plethora of literature in gender and representation has been devoted to understanding disparities that occur during campaigns. More recently, the shift has been toward candidate emergence and the decision of individual women to run in the United States. In this vein, we are curious whether women are likely to run for office following times of economic prosperity or disparity, respectively. We hypothesize that when the state of the economy is generally decreasing in terms of declining GDP per capita and growing unemployment rates, fewer women will emerge to run for office. In times of worse economic performance, we argued that voters will show less interest in a broader range of topics besides those that will directly affect their personal economic well-being. This will happen because they feel less safe in their economic position. We suggest that this will lead to fewer women feeling encouraged to run for office because they anticipate a lower probability of winning. This may be attributable to asymmetrical partisan gender gaps and decreased confidence to run on platforms typically supported by female politicians like issues affecting women, children, and families, and the promotion of the arts, rather than an economic focus typical to male campaigns. We analyzed state level data from 2009 to 2018 looking at state GDP per capita, unemployment rate by state, incumbency, and the number of women running for state executive in each state. We find initial support for part of the hypothesis. Unemployment rates seem to have a statistically significant and negative affect on female candidate emergence. GDP per capita was a statistically significant measure, however this measure did not directly play a role in the relationship between candidate emergence. The results of this study offer insight and speculation into female candidate emergence and more generally for understanding gender and representation

Myth Understanding

Myth Understanding is a prototype of an interactive educational program geared towards elementary school children. It provides self-paced instruction, mixing animation, graphics, and sound with information pertaining to earth science. Mythological characters from ancient Greece are sources which provide the child with scientific as well as historic information. In effect, children learn about ancient Greek mythology as they discover the mysteries and makeup of the earth. Children are given the flexibility to decide on what information to view ac cording to their own personal preference. Meticulous attention was given to the artwork interface design and layout. Myth Understanding incorporates multimedia design to make Greek mythology and earth science come alive, exhibiting facts that are not only illustrative, but at the same time entertaining and informative. The evolution of Myth Understanding will be explored in the following chapters. Initial concepts, research, character development and tqaechnical considerations will be addressed. My main goal is to stimulate, educate, and entertain children about Greek mythology and earth science. Myth Under standing provides them with a passport to the time of myths and magic

Theory for differential transport of scalars in sheared stratified turbulence

Scalars with different molecular diffusivities can be transported at different rates in a strongly stratified, weakly turbulent flow. Rapid distortion theory (RDT) is used to examine the mechanisms responsible for differential diffusion of scalars in a sheared stratified flow. The theory, which applies when the flow is strongly stratified, predicts upgradient flux and its wavenumber dependence, which previous direct numerical simulations have shown to be important in differential diffusion. The net effect of shear on differential diffusion depends on the Grashof number, or the relative importance of buoyancy and viscous effects. RDT also allows the effects of the density ratio, Schmidt number, Lewis number, scalar activity and mean shear to be examined without the high computational cost of direct numerical simulation. RDT predicts that differential diffusion will increase with increasing density ratio, but only at low Grashof number. When the Lewis number is fixed, the Grashof number below which differential diffusion occurs decreases with increasing Schmidt number, and when one of the Schmidt numbers is fixed, differential diffusion decreases with increasing Lewis number. Also, differential transport of passive scalars increases when the Schmidt number of the scalar stratifying the flow increases

El valor del trabajo doméstico en Canadá, 1986

Sin resume