The future of the past: inherent atmospheres

This dissertation is an attempt to extract architecture from the site itself. Michelangelo, the Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer, famously said, Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. He clearly understood his role as the vessel by which an idea came to life in the physical world. In this light, the chosen site is treated much like a block of marble in the hands of a sculptor (the architect) and this dissertation is the documentation of the slow shaping, polishing, and final revealing of an idea. The design is conducted within the speculative future of the Breakwater in Cape Town Harbour. Two main interests are outlined: 1. Landscape: a desire to better understand architecture as the mediator between man and nature, essentially, and to view landscape as architecture and architecture as landscape through the dissolution of convention and the celebration of the imagination. Architectural space is treated as an extension of the site. 2. Rebirth: waste, as a by-product of contemporary consumer culture, is defined as something which no longer has value, something which is superfluous. The technological arm of this investigation is focused on the process of spatially re-imagining the breakwater site through the use de-constructed shipping vessels (machines which have become outdated and can no longer function in the post-industrial/information age). The main focus on landscape and rebirth filters through into the design of the Iziko Cape Town Maritime Museum to accurately represent the project's development from its theoretical founding to its speculative architectural resolution. Overall, this dissertation is focused on pushing the boundaries of spatial experience through the adaptation and re-imagining of a decommissioned ship. We know very well how to make good buildings which are comfortable and comply with council and environmental regulations. This endeavour is aimed at exploring new possibilities

Amphibian Mortality on Roads: A Case Study in Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamander Habitat

Amphibian populations have been declining at higher rates than bird and mammal populations. Agriculture, urbanization, including roads, and resource extraction continue to put pressure on all species. Roads in particular, are major sources of mortality. The Santa Cruz long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum), one of the most critically endangered species in the US, is one amphibian that is declining as a result of anthropogenic impacts, especially habitat loss and fragmentation due to urban development. Migration across roads puts these salamanders at risk from road-related death. This thesis quantified the rate of road mortality to these salamanders and other common amphibians during two A. m. croceum breeding-migration seasons in 2011-13 in a portion of the subspecies\u27 range. Vehicular traffic was a major source of mortality to the salamander. Through traffic doubled the overall vehicle load on roads where the A. m. croceum migrated to and from breeding ponds. The Pacific chorus frog was also killed on the roads. This common species can be used as an indicator of road mortality risk for rarer amphibians. This study indicated that measures to reduce road mortality to the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander could include restricting vehicular traffic on roads adjacent to salamander ponds by limiting traffic to residential use only during breeding migrations, installing structures to protect A. m. croceum while crossing roads, and potentially assisting animals crossing roads at nighttime during the breeding migrations

An Investigation Of Size Exclusion And Diffusion Controlled Membrane Fouling

The reduction of membrane productivity (i.e. membrane fouling) during operation occurs in virtually all membrane applications. Membrane fouling originates from the method by which membranes operate: contaminants are rejected by the membrane and retained on the feed side of the membrane while treated water passes through the membrane. The accumulation of these contaminants on the feed side of the membrane results in increased operating pressures, increased backwashing frequencies, increased chemical cleaning frequencies, and increased membrane replacement frequencies. The most significant practical implication of membrane fouling is increased operating and maintenance costs. As such, membrane fouling must be properly managed to ensure successful and efficient operation of membrane systems. This document presents four independent studies regarding the fouling of size exclusion and diffusion controlled membranes. A brief description of each study is presented below. The first study systematically investigated the fouling characteristics of various thin film composite polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes using a high organic surficial groundwater obtained from the City of Plantation, Florida. Prior to bench-scale fouling experiments, surface properties of the selected RO and NF membranes were carefully analysed in order to correlate the rate and extent of fouling to membrane surface characteristics, such as roughness, charge and hydrophobicity. More specifically, the surface roughness was characterized by atomic force microscopy, while the surface charge and hydrophobicity of the membranes were evaluated through zeta potential and contact angle measurements, respectively. The results indicated that membrane fouling became more severe with increasing surface roughness, as measured by the surface area difference, which accounts for both magnitude and frequency of surface peaks. Surface roughness was correlated to flux decline; however, surface charge was not. The limited range of hydrophobicity of the flat sheet studies prohibited conclusions regarding the correlation of flux decline and hydrophobicity. Mass loading and resistance models were developed in the second study to describe changes in solvent mass transfer (membrane productivity) over time of operation. Changes in the observed solvent mass transfer coefficient of four low pressure reverse osmosis membranes were correlated to feed water quality in a 2,000 hour pilot study. Independent variables utilized for model development included: temperature, initial solvent mass transfer coefficient, water loading, ultraviolet absorbance, turbidity, and monochloramine concentration. Models were generated by data collected throughout this study and were subsequently used to predict the solvent mass transfer coefficient. The sensitivity of each model with respect to monochloramine concentration was also analyzed. In the third study, mass loading and resistance models were generated to predict changes in solvent mass transfer (membrane productivity) with operating time for three reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes. Variations in the observed solvent mass transfer coefficient of these membranes treating filtered secondary effluent were correlated to the initial solvent mass transfer coefficient, temperature, and water loading in a 2,000 hour pilot study. Independent variables evaluated during model development included: temperature, initial solvent mass transfer coefficient, water loading, total dissolved solids, orthophosphorous, silica, total organic carbon, and turbidity. All models were generated by data collected throughout this study. Autopsies performed on membrane elements indicated membranes that received microfiltered water accumulated significantly more dissolved organic carbon and polysaccharides on their surface than membranes that received ultrafiltered water. Series of filtration experiments were systematically performed to investigate physical and chemical factors affecting the efficiency of backwashing during microfiltration of colloidal suspensions in the fourth study. Throughout this study, all experiments were conducted in dead-end filtration mode utilizing an outside-in, hollow-fiber module with a nominal pore size of 0.1 µm. Silica particles (mean diameter ~ 0.14 µm) were used as model colloids. Using a flux decline model based on the Happel\u27s cell for the hydraulic resistance of the particle layer, the cake structure was determined from experimental fouling data and then correlated to backwash efficiency. Modeling of experimental data revealed no noticeable changes in cake layer structure when feed particle concentration and operating pressure increased. Specifically, the packing density of the cake layer (l-cake porosity) in the cake layer ranged from 0.66 to 0.67, which corresponds well to random packing density. However, the particle packing density increased drastically with ionic strength. The results of backwashing experiments demonstrated that the efficiency of backwashing decreased significantly with increasing solution ionic strength, while backwash efficiency did not vary when particle concentration and operating pressure increased. This finding suggests that backwash efficiency is closely related to the structure of the cake layer formed during particle filtration. More densely packed cake layers were formed under high ionic strength, and consequently less flux was recovered per given backwash volume during backwashing

Spectral absorption of marine stratocumulus clouds derived from in situ cloud radiation measurements

A multiwavelength scanning radiometer was used to measure the angular distribution of scattered radiation deep within a cloud layer at discrete wavelengths between 0.5 and 2.3 microns. The relative angular distribution of the intensity field at each wavelength is used to determine the similarity parameter, and hence single scattering albedo, of the cloud at that wavelength using the diffusion domain method. In addition to the spectral similarity parameter, the analysis provides a good estimate of the optical thickness of the cloud beneath the aircraft. In addition to the radiation measurements, microphysical and thermodynamic measurements were obtained from which the expected similarity parameter spectrum was calculated using accepted values of the refractive index of liquid water and the transmission function of water vapor. An analysis is presented for the results obtained for a 50 km section of clean marine stratocumulus clouds on 10 July 1987. These observations were obtained off the coast of California from the University of Washington Convair C-131A aircraft as part of the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE). A comparison of the experimentally-derived similarity parameter spectrum with that expected theoretically from the cloud droplet size distribution measured simultaneously from the aircraft is presented. The measurements and theory are in very close agreement for this case of clean maritime clouds

Virtual world security inspection

Virtual property theft is a serious problem that exists in virtual worlds. Legitimate users of these worlds invest considerable amounts of time, effort and real-world money into obtaining virtual property, but unfortunately, are becoming victims of theft in high numbers. It is reported that there are over 1 billion registered users of virtual worlds containing virtual property items worth an estimated US$50 billion dollars. The problem of virtual property theft is complex, involving many legal, social and technological issues. The software used to access virtual worlds is of great importance as they form the primary interface to these worlds and as such the primary interface to conduct virtual property theft. The security vulnerabilities of virtual world applications have not, to date, been examined. This study aims to use the process of software inspection to discover security vulnerabilities that may exist within virtual world software – vulnerabilities that enable virtual property theft to occur. Analyzing three well know virtual world applications World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and Entropia Universe, this research utilized security analysis tools and scenario testing with focus on authentication, trading, intruder detection and virtual property recovery. It was discovered that all three examples were susceptible to keylogging, mail and direct trade methods were the most likely method for transferring stolen items, intrusion detection is of critical concern to all VWEs tested, stolen items were unable to be recovered in all cases and lastly occurrences of theft were undetectable in all cases. The results gained in this study present the key problem areas which need to be addressed to improve security and reduce the occurrence of virtual property theft

Cloud absorption properties as derived from airborne measurements of scattered radiation within clouds

Researchers briefly review the diffusion domain method for deriving the cloud similarity parameter and present preliminary analyses of the results thus far obtained. The presentation concentrates on the following points: (1) intercomparison of calibrated reflected intensities between the cloud absorption radiometer and the U.K. multispectral cloud radiometer; (2) quality control tests required to select those portions of an aircraft flight for which measurements are obtained within the diffusion domain; (3) case studies of the spectral similarity parameter of marine stratocumulus clouds; and comparisons of the experimentally-derived similarity parameter spectrum with that expected theoretically from the cloud droplet size distribution obtained from in situ observations

Volunteerism among hospitalists and non-hospitalists at academic and community medical centers in North Carolina

Volunteerism is common in the United States, though less is known about volunteerism among medical professionals. We aimed to record and compare volunteer activities among hospitalists and non-hospitalists in academic and community centers.Includes bibliographical reference

Effects of Olfactory Sense on Chocolate Craving

Chocolate has been referred to as one of the most socially acceptable addictions. It is one of America’s most craved foods, and women tend to crave it more frequently than men. Kemps and Tiggemann (2013) conducted an innovative experiment to reconcile the ideas of mental imagery, scent, and craving. After presenting images of sweet foods and having female undergraduate students smell a neutral scent, the researchers found that the neutral smell decreased craving for sweet foods. In the present study, researchers sought to replicate many aspects of Kemps and Tiggemann’s design. This new study went one step further, though: in addition to anticipating that a neutral or fresh scent would reduce one’s craving level, there was also an anticipation that smelling a sweet scent would increase craving levels. To test the research hypothesis, female undergraduate students received three smell conditions (no scent, fresh scent, and sweet scent) in the experiment. The order of the three conditions was counterbalanced. In all conditions, the students were shown a series of 12 images of chocolate food (cakes, muffins, ice cream, and brownies) on a large projector screen. Each image appeared for five seconds and was followed by an eight second retention period, during which participants were instructed to smell one of the essential oils. The students inhaled Slique essential oil in the fresh scent condition, inhaled vanilla essential oil in the sweet scent condition, and inhaled no essential oil in the control condition. After inhaling the scent, the students were asked to rate their craving level for the food just presented in the image on a 100 mm visual analogue scale. An analysis based on the 93 participants’ craving responses revealed a significant effect of the olfactory conditions, (F=73.813, p\u3c.001). That is, the students’ level of craving for chocolate food was higher in the sweet scent condition (M=59.31, SD=4.85), but lower in the fresh scent condition (M=34.65, SD=4.79), compared to the control condition (M=46.97, SD=6.67). These findings are important for a variety of populations including practitioners, nutritionists, and individuals seeking to curb their cravings or lose weight

Malware detection and prevention system based on multi-stage rules

The continuously rising Internet attacks pose severe challenges to develop an effective Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to detect known and unknown malicious attack. In order to address the problem of detecting known, unknown attacks and identify an attack grouped, the authors provide a new multi stage rules for detecting anomalies in multi-stage rules. The authors used the RIPPER for rule generation, which is capable to create rule sets more quickly and can determine the attack types with smaller numbers of rules. These rules would be efficient to apply for Signature Intrusion Detection System (SIDS) and Anomaly Intrusion Detection System (AIDS)