Chasing Peacocks

Chasing Peacocks is a collection of personal essays that explores the author\u27s life through her travels, interactions with family, and struggles with teaching

Official Knowledge: Validation Mechanisms for Knowledge Management Systems

One of the most important roles of a knowledge management system is as a filter to verify, authenticate, or justify the knowledge of an organization. The knowledge that passes this filter and is retained or otherwise deemed valuable by the system is official knowledge, the knowledge sanctioned by an organization. In this study, twenty-two articles that describe typologies of knowledge management systems were reviewed for their insights into knowledge validation. The articles were reviewed in the context of intellectual parentage with each article belonging to one of ten lines of inquiry spawning from five preeminent knowledge management articles. The results of this metastudy identify epistemology, knowledge transfer, the application environment, and the social process of sensemaking as valuable considerations for the design of validation mechanisms. A checklist of these considerations serves as the primary contribution of this study. Implications for future work in the design of validation mechanisms for knowledge management systems are discussed

Towards Improving the Properties and Furthering Acceptance of Advanced Technology Nuclear Fuels

To avoid detrimental environmental impacts from climate change, the world community needs to push for the use of clean energy technologies. Development of proposed advanced technology nuclear fuels supports efforts to ensure nuclear energy is included as a non-carbon emitting source of electricity generation. Advanced technology nuclear fuels, also referred to as accident tolerant fuels (ATFs), have received renewed interest for use in the current nuclear reactor fleet as well as in advanced reactor technologies due to their high uranium loading, desirable thermophysical properties, and performance under irradiation as compared to the benchmark oxide fuel. A limiting consideration for the implementation of these ATFs is their poor performance in oxidative and corrosion conditions, as well as challenges associated with synthesis and fabrication. As a full understanding of these ATFs has not been achieved, this work aims to advance the state of knowledge related to these fuels and their composites in corrosion conditions, their grain growth mechanisms, and includes efforts to improve thermal conductivity in the benchmark oxide fuel using these ATFs. Chapter Two presents a study of uranium mononitride (UN) and UN composites with uranium dioxide (UO2) under hydrothermal corrosion conditions to assess the mechanism of degradation at elevated temperatures, identified as secondary phase formation at the grain boundaries leading to pellet collapse. Chapter Three combines experimental and theoretical studies of composite systems, UN-Zr and UN-Y, for the purposes of improving the corrosion resistance of monolithic UN. The results indicate the formation of undesirable secondary phases in the sintered materials and provided insight to the atomic level structural changes which occurred due to the addition of the metallic constituents. An extensive review (included as Appendices A, B, and C) of the state of the literature for oxidation performance of UN, triuranium disilicide (U3Si2), uranium carbide (UC), and uranium diboride (UB2), was performed to identify the challenges and opportunities to alloyed and composite architectures of these ATF candidates to mitigate corrosion behavior. In addition, an understanding of the microstructural evolution during the fabrication of various fuel forms, such as grain growth, is important in predicting its performance under irradiation (e.g., fracture, creep, fission gas release, thermal conductivity, etc.). Accordingly, it is important to understand the driving force behind grain growth and the factors which influence it. Chapter Four presents a fundamental study on grain growth in conventionally sintered UN. The study identified the most likely mechanism and proposed an activation energy for grain growth with a discussion on the factors that influenced it, as well as the lack of expected texture present in the sintered samples. Chapter Five describes work on successful incorporation of uranium diboride (UB2, another ATF candidate) to a UO2 matrix via conventional fabrication and sintering methods, for the purposes of improving overall thermal conductivity of the bulk composite. Presented together, this work provides foundational inquiry and analysis which can be used to further research on ATF candidates and assist in acceleration of qualifying these fuels for use in the current and future nuclear reactor fleets

An immunohistochemical study of beta-catenin in HNPCC colon tumours

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-55).Beta-catenin is normally complexed with adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) protein and E-cadherin adhesion molecule, and localized on the cell membrane. If APC/beta-catenin is disrupted, beta-catenin transfers into the nucleus, where it functions as a transcriptional activator, causing unregulated cell proliferation. The localisation of beta-catenin in H NPCC adenomas has not been studied but a shift in beta-catenin to the nucleus has been previously demonstrated in a range of col 0 recta I cancers, including those in HNPCC. The aim of the first part of the study was to determine whether there is a beta-catenin shift occurring as an early event in HNPCC tumours. Coded sections of tumours were immunohistochemically stained with antibody against beta-catenin and counterstained in haematoxylin. 14 HNPCC adenomas, 13 HNPCC carcinomas, 10 FAP adenomas, 10 FAP carcinomas, 10 sporadic adenomas and carcinomas and 10 juvenile polyps -three with dysplasia and seven without- were studied. A score was given for loss of membrane staining (0-1), presence of cytoplasmic staining (0-2) or nuclear staining (0- 2) and a total out of five obtained. An shift in beta-catenin was demonstrated at the adenoma phase in HNPCC. HNPCC, tumours were compared with sporadic tumours and a statistically significant similarity in prevalence of beta-catenin shift found in adenomas and carcinomas. The early shift in beta-catenin in HNPCC led to the second part of the study evaluating the "down-stream" effects of this shift in HNPCC tumours. TheHNPCC sections were immunohistochemically stained with E-cadherin, cmyc and cyclin 01. The results showed a positive correlation between Ecadherin loss, increased cyclin 01 and a shift in beta-catenin. No significant change in c-myc or correlation between c-myc and a shift of beta-catenin was found. In conclusion the study indicates that disruption of the APC/beta-catenin pathway plays a similar role in HNPCC tumours to that in sporadic tumours. A notable exeption is the effect on c-myc and further study is needed in this regard

Using RDF to Model the Structure and Process of Systems

Many systems can be described in terms of networks of discrete elements and their various relationships to one another. A semantic network, or multi-relational network, is a directed labeled graph consisting of a heterogeneous set of entities connected by a heterogeneous set of relationships. Semantic networks serve as a promising general-purpose modeling substrate for complex systems. Various standardized formats and tools are now available to support practical, large-scale semantic network models. First, the Resource Description Framework (RDF) offers a standardized semantic network data model that can be further formalized by ontology modeling languages such as RDF Schema (RDFS) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL). Second, the recent introduction of highly performant triple-stores (i.e. semantic network databases) allows semantic network models on the order of $10^9$ edges to be efficiently stored and manipulated. RDF and its related technologies are currently used extensively in the domains of computer science, digital library science, and the biological sciences. This article will provide an introduction to RDF/RDFS/OWL and an examination of its suitability to model discrete element complex systems.Comment: International Conference on Complex Systems, Boston MA, October 200

Therapists\u27 use of the graded repetitive arm supplementary program (GRASP) intervention: A practice implementation survey study

The aims of this study were: (1) to explore the extent of practice implementation of GRASP in the United Kingdom; (2) using an implementation framework, to explore UK therapists\u27 opinions of implementing GRASP; and (3) if GRASP is found to be used in the United Kingdom, to investigate differences in opinions between therapists who are using GRASP in practice and those who are not

Database Trials Marketing Plan

This document details the marketing plan created by the Electronic Resources Librarian and the Strategic Marketing & Outreach Librarian to market upcoming database trials at the KSU Library System. It includes responsibilities for all collaborators essential to marketing database trials to the KSU community, the timeline, and the digital and physical marketing strategy used by the Strategic Marketing & Outreach Librarian and the Liaison Coordinator