Calling Shotgun: The History and Politics of Japan's Bid for a Permanent United Nations Security Council Position

Since the founding of the United Nations and the establishment of the Security Council there have been no changes to the makeup of the permanent membership. Indeed, with the exception of one amendment to increase the size of the rotating membership from six to ten the Security Council has continued unchanged. In the fifty-plus years since the founding of the world body and the victory over the Axis Powers that served as the impetus for its creation, the world has changed dramatically. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has ceased to exist; the Republic of China has been exiled to Taiwan and undergone remarkable economic and democratic changes; the British Empire has morphed into the Commonwealth and the French Empire has collapsed. New states have come to the forefront to challenge the post-war status quo. Some, like Egypt and India, were colonial possessions of the imperial powers. Others, like Germany and Japan, were the defeated powers of the Second World War. Japan in particular has a unique economic, financial, political and military history that deserves special consideration as it relates to its ambition for a permanent United Nations Security Council position. Furthermore, the motives and justifications for why it pursues such a seat and the opposition it has received deserve just as much attention. This thesis traces the views of the leading figures in Japanese politics from the founding of the United Nations to the present and demonstrates that from the beginning Japan realized that the UN was a legitimizing force for their new place in the new post-war world. It also demonstrates clearly that lacking a clear definition of what a permanent UN Security Council contender looks like aspirant states are forced to create their own portfolios. Therefore Japan relies heavily on its strengths as an undisputed economic and financial power. Furthermore, it shows that despite strict Constitutional constraints on the use of the military Japan's force is modern, well-funded and well-maintained. Finally, it catalogues opposition to expanding the Security Council into three distinct categories and explains them in their modern geopolitical context

Emerging Infectious Disease and the Imperiled Relict Leopard Frog

The disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the aquatic fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has emerged as a major contributing factor for worldwide amphibian declines. Although relatively recently described, the impacts from the disease this pathogen causes have been definitively tied to amphibian declines, including some that occurred decades ago. In some cases, declines of individual species occurred with little documentation and are thus poorly understood. The relict leopard frog (Rana onca = Lithobates onca) has experienced such a decline and by the latter part of the 20th century only occurred in two general areas in southern Nevada. Recent research has found Bd within the historical range of the species and that the species shows evidence of potential resistance to chytridiomycosis. Those authors, however, noted that the Bd strains used were not from the local environment and they speculated on possible attenuation. I addressed these concerns by challenging an anuran species known to be susceptible to chytridiomycosis to one of the previously used Bd isolates (SLL) that showed hypovirulence towards R. onca. I also performed a disease transmission experiment intended to increase virulence in SLL towards R. onca in an attempt to elucidate the possibility of attenuation. In other experiments, I isolated Bd from anurans in the local environment, and then used these isolates to challenge juvenile R. onca, as well as an earlier life-stage thought to be more vulnerable to chytridiomycosis. My results indicate that the SLL isolate is still virulent toward a susceptible host species, but R. onca continued to appear resistant toward this particular isolate. My challenge experiments using local isolates of Bd, however, showed that R. onca is susceptible to chytridiomycosis from two Bd isolates found in southern Nevada, as well as an isolate I acquired from a commercial vender. I found that frogs from a currently Bd infected area cleared infections and survived in much higher proportions than those from a Bd-free area. This population-level effect, however, was dependent on life-stage and recently metamorphosed frogs from both areas showed low survivorship when challenged with Bd

Reconfigurable Liquid-Metal Circuits and Antennas: Magnetic and Pressure-Based Actuation for Improved Performance at Microwave Frequencies

M.S. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

Commissioning a 400 Hz rotary inverter

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-115).This dissertation covers the commissioning and testing of an aircraft's constant frequency alternator as the power supply for the Blue Parrot radar. The Blue Parrot is an X-band radar which forms part of the navigation and weapon-aiming system onboard the Buccaneer S-50 SAAF aircraft. The radar set uses a source of three-phase power at 400 Hz, which the constant frequency alternator can supply with the aid of certain auxiliary systems. The auxiliary systems include a prime mover, blower fan and a telemetering system. The prime mover has high starting currents which were reduced significantly by the use of a soft-starter. During testing, the constant frequency alternator started overheating and a blower fan was selected based on its thermal requirements. Significant cooling of the constant frequency alternator's case temperature was achieved by the use of a blower fan and shroud. The generator control unit monitors and regulates all parameters on the unit except for case temperature and blower fan pressure. A telemetering system was designed and built to monitor and display these parameters

The effect of ph and applied electrical potential on oil removal from a solid surface in the presence of four types of surfactant solutions

Effective aqueous-based cleaning depends on the appropriate selection of surfactant(s). and pH conditions. Experiments involving the detachment of oil droplets from a metal surface m the presence of surfactant solutions are undertaken to observe the variation of droplet shape, particularly contact angle, and the time required for droplet removal. In parallel, tests of oil removal from the same metal surface in an industrial ultrasonic bath have been conducted under similar conditions. Similar trends are found for both types of tests, that is, conditions for which droplets detach more quickly also correspond to conditions of greater oil removal in an ultrasonic bath. Experiments of drop removal time and cleaning effectiveness in surfactant solutions of altered pH are conducted to better understand the role surfactants adsorbed at the surface play in the detachment process. Negatively charged oil/aqueous interfaces exhibit more efficient cleaning as well as drop removal kinetics at high surfactant solution pH, while positively charged oil/water interfaces exhibit faster detachment at low pH. Experiments are conducted, in parallel, in which the surface to be cleaned is connected directly to a low voltage power supply. A similar cleaning procedure is performed in which the dependent variable is applied electrical potential. Applied electrical potential ranges from 0 to ±4 volts (current is limited to near zero) with respect to the surfactant solution. Trends indicate that surfactant solutions containing nonionic (Triton X-100) surfactants exhibit better cleaning and faster oil drop detachment as the applied electrical potential increases in the positive direction. Cationic (CTAB) surfactant solutions perform better cleaning as voltage increases in the negative direction. Amonic (SDS) surfactant solutions perform better as voltage increases regardless of the polanty. Tests involving a zwitterionic (Chaps) surfactant support the three previous case trends. The pH and applied electrical potential is interpreted by a mechanistic model focusing on the adsorption of surfactant ions at the aqueous/solid interface and the electrostatic repulsion/attraction to the oil drop

Novel Integrated System Architecture for an Autonomous Jumping Micro-Robot

As the capability and complexity of robotic platforms continue to evolve from the macro to micro-scale, innovation of such systems is driven by the notion that a robot must be able to sense, think, and act [1]. The traditional architecture of a robotic platform consists of a structural layer upon which, actuators, controls, power, and communication modules are integrated for optimal system performance. The structural layer, for many micro-scale platforms, has commonly been implemented using a silicon die, thus leading to robotic platforms referred to as "walking chips" [2]. In this thesis, the first-ever jumping microrobotic platform is demonstrated using a hybrid integration approach to assemble on-board sensing and power directly onto a polymer chassis. The microrobot detects a change in light intensity and ignites 0.21mg of integrated nanoporous energetic silicon, resulting in 246µJ of kinetic energy and a vertical jump height of 8cm

Finding Museum Visitors with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Will Art Help In The Search?

Visiting a museum can be a tremendously stressful event for families that include children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).  The goal of this research study was to find what concerns families have when visiting a museum, if there are any intervention materials caregivers prefer, to examine behaviors of children with ASD while in the museum, and to see if an art-making activity after the museum visit could be directly tied to the museum experience.  Results indicated that museums continue to be stressful for families, and parents would like materials to help reduce anxiety in their children before and during the visit.  While in the museum, parents tried to focus their children’s attention on interesting things, but many children became overly excited and desired spaces within the museum to be more active.  Art-making after the museum visit allowed children to reflect back on what they saw and did during their experience

Competitive partitioning of rotational energy in gas ensemble equilibration

A wide-ranging computational study of equilibration in binary mixtures of diatomic gases reveals the existence of competition between the constituent species for the orbital angular momentum and energy available on collision with the bath gas. The ensembles consist of a bath gas AB(v;j), and a highly excited minor component CD(v';j'), present in the ratio AB:CD = 10:1. Each ensemble contains 8000 molecules. Rotational temperatures (T(r)) are found to differ widely at equilibration with T(r)(AB)/T(r)(CD) varying from 2.74 to 0.92, indicating unequal partitioning of rotational energy and angular momentum between the two species. Unusually, low values of T(r) are found generally to be associated with diatomics of low reduced mass. To test effects of the equi-partition theorem on low T(r) we undertook calculations on HF(6;4) in N(2)(0;10) over the range 100-2000 K. No significant change in T(r)(N2)/T(r)(HF) was found. Two potential sources of rotational inequality are examined in detail. The first is possible asymmetry of -Δj and +Δj probabilities for molecules in mid- to high j states resulting from the quadratic dependence of rotational energy on j. The second is the efficiency of conversion of orbital angular momentum, generated on collision with bath gas molecules, into molecular rotation. Comparison of these two possible effects with computed T(r)(AB)/T(r)(CD) shows the efficiency factor to be an excellent predictor of partitioning between the two species. Our finding that T(r) values for molecules such as HF and OH are considerably lower than other modal temperatures suggests that the determination of gas ensemble temperatures from Boltzmann fits to rotational distributions of diatomics of low reduced mass may require a degree of caution

Survey of forensically-important Calliphoridae in Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica, West Indies

The first research to be done in Jamaica on forensically-important species was conducted at the Government of Jamaica Forensic Laboratory in Kingston and St. Andrew in two phases. Phase 1was conducted from July 5 to July 24, 2007, and phase 2 was conducted from February 11 to February 28, 2008. In the phase 1 study, one local black colored Landrace pig (Sus scrofa L.) carcass that weighed 21kg was used as a model for human bodies to determine the rate of decomposition and the pattern of insect succession on decomposing bodies in Jamaica. Ants were the first arthropods to arrive at the carcass, followed by the Calliphorid, C. macellaria (Fabricius). Both adults and larvae of Cochliomyia macellaria (F.), Chrysomya rufifaces (Macquart), and Chrysomya megacephala (F.) were collected from the bait 1. Larvae of Chrysomya rufifaces (M.) showed aggressive predatory behavior against other 2nd and 3rd instar Cochliomyia macellaria (F) and Chrysomya megacephala (F.). Ambient temperature had a negative effect on the developmental rate of C. rufifaces larvae and the rate of carcass decomposition. The carcass reached the dry stage by day 5 and the decomposition was completed by day 13. Most larvae were burned or desiccated on day 3. Maggot mass sustain temperatures of 14 oC above ambient temperatures over a three-day period during which had a negative impact on the duration and size of C. rufifaces larvae. Phase 2 of the study used two bait types: bait 2 (fresh goat head) and bait 3 (fresh tilapia fish). Larvae collected and reared from bait 2 produced Chrysomya megacephala and Lucilia lucigerens. Eggs collected from bait 3 were reared which produced only adult C. megacephala. The relative distribution of species was different in July, 2007, than in February, 2008. Chrysomya megacephala (F.) was the only common species collected for both phases. The species Lucilia lucigerens (James) is the only indigenous species collected during the phase 2 study in February, 2008. Larvae of C. megacephala and L. lucigerens emerged as adults in eight plus and sixteen plus days, respectively, at an average ambient temperature of 26 oC and 63 % relative humidity