The Modern Arch: An Analysis of the Preservation of Early Reinforced Concrete Arch Bridges in the U.S.

Reinforced concrete arch bridges came into use in the United States at the end of the 19th century, quickly developed in scale and complexity, and became a standard bridge type found across the country. The earliest examples of these bridges are significant because they illustrate the development of reinforced concrete technology and contemporary design trends. However, these structures are underrecognized for their significance and many have been demolished. This thesis aims to illustrate the significance of these bridges and to highlight the preservation challenges they face. The thesis details the development of early concrete arch bridges, discusses the existing policies governing their preservation, and analyzes the effectiveness of these policies through case studies in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. These case study bridges vary in design, condition of preservation, ownership, and significance, yet each bridge provides insights regarding the process of preservation and its challenges. In the analysis of these case studies, it is found that the significance of many early reinforced concrete arch bridges is not properly acknowledged, and they may be destroyed or suffer a loss of integrity as a result. These earliest reinforced concrete arch bridges are now about 120 years old and worthy of respectful attention. The insights and recommendations developed through the cases studied in this thesis are intended to help both preservation professionals and the general public evaluate other examples of this bridge type

Observation and analysis of in situ carbonaceous matter in Nakhla: Part I

New analyses of indigenous secondary material in the martian meteorite Nakhla reveal amorphous carbon-rich veins and dendrites. The texture and chemistry of this material resembles that of biogenically altered sub-ocean basaltic glasses

Observation and analysis of in situ carbonaceous matter in Nakhla: part II

Analysis of in situ carbonaceous matter in the Nakhla SNC meteorite has been carried out using a variety of techniques. Laser raman data shows the carbonaceous matter to be highly complex and static mass spectrometry has shown it to have an isotopic composition of '18 to '20' C

Challenges facing the United States of America in implementing universal coverage

In 2010, immediately before the United States of America (USA) implemented key features of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 18% of its residents younger than 65 years lacked health insurance. In the USA, gaps in health coverage and unhealthy lifestyles contribute to outcomes that often compare unfavourably with those observed in other high-income countries. By March 2014, the ACA had substantially changed health coverage in the USA but most of its main features - health insurance exchanges, Medicaid expansion, development of accountable care organizations and further oversight of insurance companies - remain works in progress. The ACA did not introduce the stringent spending controls found in many European health systems. It also explicitly prohibits the creation of institutes - for the assessment of the cost-effectiveness of pharmaceuticals, health services and technologies - comparable to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Haute Autorite de Sante in France or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee in Australia. The ACA was - and remains - weakened by a lack of cross-party political consensus. The ACA\u27s performance and its resulting acceptability to the general public will be critical to the Act\u27s future

Optimal control of atom transport for quantum gates in optical lattices

By means of optimal control techniques we model and optimize the manipulation of the external quantum state (center-of-mass motion) of atoms trapped in adjustable optical potentials. We consider in detail the cases of both non interacting and interacting atoms moving between neighboring sites in a lattice of a double-well optical potentials. Such a lattice can perform interaction-mediated entanglement of atom pairs and can realize two-qubit quantum gates. The optimized control sequences for the optical potential allow transport faster and with significantly larger fidelity than is possible with processes based on adiabatic transport.Comment: revised version: minor changes, 2 references added, published versio

Evaluation of the U.S. EPA/OSWER Preliminary Remediation Goal for Perchlorate in Groundwater: Focus on Exposure to Nursing Infants

BACKGROUND: Perchlorate is a common contaminant of drinking water and food. It competes with iodide for uptake into the thyroid, thus interfering with thyroid hormone production. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) set a groundwater preliminary remediation goal (PRG) of 24.5 μg/L to prevent exposure of pregnant women that would affect the fetus. This does not account for the greater exposure that is possible in nursing infants or for the relative source contribution (RSC), a factor normally used to lower the PRG due to nonwater exposures. OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to assess whether the OSWER PRG protects infants against exposures from breast-feeding, and to evaluate the perchlorate RSC. METHODS: We used Monte Carlo analysis to simulate nursing infant exposures associated with the OSWER PRG when combined with background perchlorate. RESULTS: The PRG can lead to a 7-fold increase in breast milk concentration, causing 90% of nursing infants to exceed the reference dose (RfD) (average exceedance, 2.8-fold). Drinking-water perchlorate must be < 6.9 μg/L to keep the median, and < 1.3 μg/L to keep the 90th-percentile nursing infant exposure below the RfD. This is 3.6- to 19-fold below the PRG. Analysis of biomonitoring data suggests an RSC of 0.7 for pregnant women and of 0.2 for nursing infants. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest that the RfD itself needs to be reevaluated because of hormonal effects in the general population. CONCLUSIONS: The OSWER PRG for perchlorate can be improved by considering infant exposures, by incorporating an RSC, and by being responsive to any changes in the RfD resulting from the new CDC data

Project Re•center dot Vision: disability at the edges of representation

The representational history of disabled people can largely be characterized as one of being put on display or hidden away. Self-representations have been a powerful part of the disability rights and culture movement, but recently scholars have analysed the ways in which these run the risk of creating a ‘single story’ that centres the experiences of white, western, physically disabled men. Here we introduce and theorize with Project Re•Vision, our arts-based research project that resists this singularity by creating and centring, without normalizing, representations that have previously been relegated to the margins. We draw from body becoming and new materialist theory to explore the dynamic ways in which positionality illuminates bodies of difference and open into a discussion about what is at stake when these stories are let loose into the world