Seeing through the dark : probing structure and processes across galactic scales using Monte Carlo radiative transfer

Radiative transfer methods provide a path to uncover the intrinsic properties of astronomical objects from observations. The determination of the shape, size and brightness of many objects is complicated by the interaction of photons with the material in the intervening medium. In this thesis I have explored the use of 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer codes to investigate a variety of astronomical objects. A model has been created to calculate the transfer function for a simple model of the X-ray irradiated accretion disk around a massive black hole. I have reconciled the observationally derived accretion disk transfer function with a simple geometric model for the structure of the accretion disk in the active galactic nuclei Zw229-15. The results suggest that a change in the amount of flaring in the disk at ≈ 600AU, possibly due to the emergence of a disk wind, can explain the observations. By coupling a Monte Carlo photoionization code to a series of static snapshots of a numerical simulation of a star forming cloud I have been able to estimate the impact of photoionizing feedback on the stellar masses. It is estimated that the stellar mass formed over the course of the simulation is reduced by up to 38% by the action of photoionization feedback. I also illustrate the possible problems associated with stochastic sampling of the stellar initial mass function in clusters, on the number of ionizing photons produced. I have utilized multi-wavelength data for three low surface brightness disk galaxies to show that their dusty interstellar medium has a scale height equal to that of the stellar disk. This is in contrast to the structure seen in higher mass disk galaxies and may play a role in their low star formation rates

Intellectual Disability and Assistive Technology: Opening the GATE Wider

The World Health Organization has launched a program to promote Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology (GATE). The objective of the GATE program is to improve access to high quality, affordable assistive technology for people with varying disabilities, diseases, and age-related conditions. As a first step, GATE has developed the assistive products list, a list of priority assistive products based on addressing the greatest need at population level. A specific group of people who can benefit from user appropriate assistive technology are people with intellectual disabilities. However, the use of assistive products by people with intellectual disabilities is a neglected area of research and practice, and offers considerable opportunities for the advancement of population health and the realization of basic human rights. It is unknown how many people with intellectual disabilities globally have access to appropriate assistive products and which factors influence their access. We call for a much greater focus on people with intellectual disabilities within the GATE program. We present a framework for understanding the complex interaction between intellectual disability, health and wellbeing, and assistive technology

Between Culture and Curricula: Exploring Student and Faculty Experiences of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry

Undergraduate research and inquiry is a growing movement within the teaching and learning nexus, with many institutions developing their practices within this culture of education. This study aimed to identify the perceptions and experiences surrounding undergraduate research and inquiry among students and faculty at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada; assess the extent of research and inquiry in the design of undergraduate courses; and explore the facilitators and obstacles educators encounter when attempting to implement this educational approach. Although differences exist in student and faculty definitions of undergraduate research and inquiry, we found two principal models that characterize its structure and delivery—the scaffold model and bookend model. A third, the abstract model, does not employ the practice of inquiry. Despite numerous benefits unique to undergraduate research and inquiry education identified by stakeholders, notable barriers (such as funding, faculty buy-in, limited student experience, and inherent competition) hinder its progress. Overall, we found a diversity of undergraduate research and inquiry practices across the university, operating within varying cultures and comfort levels, which suggests unequal access for student learners

Visualizing Scholarship as Social Change

This visualization and accompanying short essay articulates both a broad definition of what constitutes “scholarship as social change,” any knowledge production that has a goal of exploring, articulating, and intervening in inequities and injustices, past and present, as well as projects that helped inspire the contributions of to the Curated Futures project (Gamifying Digital Collections, Remaking Space and Place, FLAME, and The Third Library and the Commons). It also invites readers to submit their own examples of projects that they think embody “scholarship as social change”

An investigation of the effect of direct water injection on detonation

This thesis document was issued under the authority of another institution, not NPS. At the time it was written, a copy was added to the NPS Library collection for reasons not now known. It has been included in the digital archive for its historical value to NPS. Not believed to be a CIVINS (Civilian Institutions) title.http://www.archive.org/details/investigationofe00seibU.S. Navy (U.S.N.) authors

The Third Library and the Commons

The idea of the “commons” is often invoked in discussions of the academic library’s future, but these references are usually vague and rhetorical. What exactly does it mean for the library to be organized as a commons, and what might such a library look like? Does the concept of the commons offer a useful lens for identifying the library’s injustices or shortcomings? How might we draw on the concept of the commons to see beyond the horizon of the contemporary library, toward a “Third Library” that truly advances decolonial and democratic ends? This essay engages with such questions and explores how the constituent elements of the academic library—its knowledge assets, its workers, and its physical spaces—might be reoriented toward the commons. It argues that such an orientation might facilitate the emergence of a Third Library that is able to organize resistance to contemporary capitalism’s impetus toward the privatization and enclosure of knowledge, and to help recover a democratic conception of knowledge as a public good

Game-Based Design for Inclusive and Accessible Digital Exhibits

Imagining the future of libraries and especially of digital exhibits cannot be completed without exploring the role games can play in the future of collection curation. Besides their popularity, games facilitate and inform our understanding through interactive engagement, and have been shown to serve as alternative modes for designing learning experiences and environments. We adopt such a perspective as we look into the ways gaming can inform the design of digital exhibits and help make digital collections more accessible and inclusive to a wider audience

Future Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Excavation (FLAME) - A Podcast Series of the CLIR Curated Futures Project

Our podcast series holds the microphone up to archivists, scholars, and museum staff who work with collections pertaining to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities. Thus far, two paths have emerged: (1) reinterpreting archival, library, museum content that come from predominantly white colonial perspectives; and (2) introducing underrepresented BIPOC narratives into the mainstream. Such efforts have already been evolving in local BIPOC libraries, archives, and museums, in neighborhoods, and in tribal communities. In speaking with BIPOC scholars, archivists, librarians and non-BIPOC allies, many have recommended establishing contact with the communities to whom the collections belong, making sure that they have gained full agency over the life cycle and uses of the materials that pertain to BIPOC cultures and points of view. We aim to understand how their archival practices provide more agency for BIPOC communities, differing from those practiced by the “first” university systems. In short, our work sits at the juncture of both a re-definition (especially for Predominantly White institutions) and a continuingly strengthened construction of archives (for BIPOC communities)