SEX-SPECIFIC GROWTH AND LONGEVITY OF ‘EHU’, Etelis carbunculus (FAMILY LUTJANIDAE), WITHIN THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO

M.S.M.S. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 201

Aeroponic test bed for hypergravity research

Taking one pound of food to space costs over $10,000. A plant growth chamber in space would help reduce the cost of transporting food by creating a healthy, long-term source of food that can be used for extended space missions. Currently, there is a lack of knowledge in gravity response mechanisms of plants to facilitate employing such a system. The overarching goal of this project is to add to the current body of knowledge related to growing plants in space by conducting research regarding the effect of hypergravity on cherry belle radish growth. To successfully accomplish this goal, an aeroponic test bed that induces hypergravitational fields ranging from 3gs to 5gs while also providing the nutrients and lighting necessary for growing cherry belle radishes was constructed

Comparing Perceptions of Effectiveness of On-Campus and Hybrid Apparel Ph.D. Programs

Currently, one distance textile and apparel-related Ph.D. program exists. It is offered in a hybrid format, which entails on-campus summer courses, and asynchronous and synchronous online courses. Formative assessment of this Ph.D. program option was undertaken to ensure not only student satisfaction, but also that the program\u27s academic competencies are met for the sake of student preparedness and maintenance of the program\u27s reputation. Hence, the purpose of the present study was to compare perceptions of the program\u27s effectiveness between samples of (a) on-campus and hybrid students and (b) students and faculty members who work within both formats of the Ph.D. program. Researchers administered a qualitative online survey to a purposively selected sample of faculty, hybrid graduate students, and on-campus graduate students in the textile and apparel Ph.D. program. Overall, respondents reported satisfaction with the program\u27s effectiveness and appreciated the uniqueness of the hybrid program

Dichroism in helicoidal crystals

Accounting for the interactions of light with heterogeneous, anisotropic, absorbing, optically active media is part of the characterization of complex, transparent materials. Stained biological structures in thin tissue sections share many of these features, but systematic optical analyses beyond the employ of the simple petrographic microscopes have not be established. Here, this accounting is made for polycrystalline, spherulitic bundles of twisted d-mannitol lamellae grown from melts containing light-absorbing molecules. It has long been known that a significant percentage of molecular crystals readily grow as helicoidal ribbons with mesoscale pitches, but a general appreciation of the commonality of these non-classical crystal forms has been lost. Helicoidal crystal twisting was typically assayed by analyzing refractivity modulation in the petrographic microscope. However, by growing twisted crystals from melts in the presence of dissolved, light-absorbing molecules, crystal twisting can be assayed by analyzing the dichroism, both linear and circular. The term "helicoidal dichroism" is used here to describe the optical consequences of anisotropic absorbers precessing around radii of twisted crystalline fibrils or lamellae. d-Mannitol twists in two polymorphic forms, α and δ. The two polymorphs, when grown from supercooled melts in the presence of a variety of histochemical stains and textile dyes, are strongly dichroic in linearly polarized white light. The bis-azo dye Chicago sky blue is modeled because it is most absorbing when parallel and perpendicular to the radial axes in the respective spherulitic polymorphs. Optical properties were measured using Mueller matrix imaging polarimetry and simulated by taking into account the microstructure of the lamellae. The optical analysis of the dyed, patterned polycrystals clarifies aspects of the mesostructure that can be difficult to extract from bundles of tightly packed fibrils