The Effect of Sprinkler Spray on Combustion Products Leaving a Compartment

Performance based design (PBD) is becoming increasingly popular for designing structures that would not be possible using prescriptive- based codes. To effectively use PBD, engineers need to have access to engineering tools that can predict how a structure would be affected in fire scenarios. Building on previous work, 27 full scale fire tests were performed in attempt to determine a method to account for the effect of a single sprinkler on fire induced doorway flows. A new engineering tool was developed based on integrating the superposition of mass flux profiles in the doorway for both fire-only and sprinkler-only conditions. The results of this study are a first step to being able to predict the effect of a sprinkler on fire induced doorway flows from a compartment

Messages in the Medium: The Relationships Among Black Media Images, Racial Identity, Body Image, and the Racial Socialization of Black Youth

Despite modest research relating racism and media (Tynes & Ward, 2009; Ward, 2004), how Black youth interpret negative stereotype images of Black people promulgated in the media has not adequately been explored. This dissertation study examines the relationships among exposure to Black media images, racial identity, racial socialization, body image and self-esteem for 14- to 21-year-old Black youth. Focus groups were administered to learn about how Black youth interpret Black media images and whether they could identify negative stereotype messages. Next, survey data was collected to pilot the Black Media Messages Questionnaire and to examine the relationships among Black media images, racial identity, racial socialization, body image and self-esteem scores of Black youth. Confirmatory factor analysis of the BMMQ revealed a 3 scale (Black Media Message Belief, Black Media Message TV Frequency and Black Media Message Magazine Frequency) six-factor solution. The BMMQ factors were found to have significant correlations with age, body image, Black History Knowledge, racial identity and racial/ethnic (R/E) socialization. Although there were few significant ANOVA findings for racial/ethnic socialization MANOVA analyses resulted in significant relationships among age, gender, R/E coping and R/E stereotypical socialization. A four cluster racial identity solution resulted in distinct profiles that were found to have significant interactions with gender, age, body image, Black history knowledge, endorsement of negative stereotype media messages and racial ideology scores. The findings suggest racial identity, racial socialization and Black History knowledge play a role in whether Black youth identify and endorse stereotypical media images of Black people

A fine group of fellows: Civilian advisors, Eisenhower, and national security planning

When President Dwight Eisenhower took office in January 1953, he was immediately faced with the challenges of the cold war. Throughout his two terms Eisenhower was forced to adapt to political changes within the Soviet Union, the advent of the hydrogen bomb, the development of ICBMs, and the dangers of radioactive fallout. Constantly facing new threats and fears in a rapidly changing technological world, Eisenhower often had to rethink certain security issues and make critical decisions. One tool which Eisenhower used to help him in his decision-making process was civilian committees. Historian Richard Immerman recently wrote, Eisenhower unquestionably valued civilian input. But why he did so is less clear. 1 This study explains why Eisenhower used civilian committees as part of his decision-making process in national security planning and why he stopped using them. There are three examples of civilian committees which highlight Eisenhower\u27s decision-making process, his devotion to the \u27Great Equation,\u27 his strategic thinking, and his response to the rapid changes brought about by scientific and technological advances in weapon development and national security: the Solarium Exercise (1953), the Killian Committee (1955), and the Gaither Committee (1957).2. My thesis is that using civilian committees was an integral part of Eisenhower\u27s decision-making process as long as he controlled the groups. They brought to the NSC deliberations a fresh, frequently changing civilian point of view. 3 They allowed the president and his national security staff to hear all sides of a debate. They served as educators and often recommended innovative solutions to national security problems. They served without being burdened by political or interservice rivalries. And Eisenhower used them deliberately. When the Gaither Committee did not operate within the rules Eisenhower had come to expect from these committees, he reevaluated the usefulness of such committees and decided against their use. The press leaks and campaigning by Gaither Committee members for the report made it difficult for Eisenhower to use the committee\u27s report as he had intended. He lost control of the process, became suspicious of the service of civilians, and ultimately left office warning the public about the danger of public policy becoming captive of the scientific-technological elite. 4. 1Immerman, review of The Gaither Committee, Eisenhower, and the Cold War, by David Snead, H-Net Reviews , November 2000, . 2The official name of the Killian Committee, chaired by James Killian, was the Technological Capabilities Panel. The official name of the Gaither Committee, chaired by Rowan Gaither, was The Security Resources Panel. 3Letter Lay to Coller, 7/25/55, EL, WHO OSANSA, NSC Series, Administrative Sub series, Box 4 Consultants-NSC July 1954--Aug 1956] (4). 4Eisenhower, Farewell Address, Public Papers of the President, 1960--61

The Use of Orientalism in the Drama of Elizabeth Inchbald

Throughout the eighteenth century, interest in the East continued to flourish and incentives to travel there increased. As colonial expansion grew, the middle class began touring abroad with their entire families. Returning home full of excitement from their adventures in exotic places, they felt compelled to publish travel books and to share what they had seen. The materials and interpretations of the East that appeared in the travel books captured the imagination of numerous writers in England and created a large body of literature in which the Orient was the background. One of these writers was Elizabeth Simpson Inchbald. This study closely analyzed three of her plays (The Mogul Tale, Such Things Are, and Wise Man of the East) to show how the Orient influenced her writing and to determine how accurate her depiction of the East was. Results of this investigation indicated that Mrs. Inchbald probably got exposed to Oriental literature from her study of the French language and literature. The French were the first to translate Oriental literature. Even though none of Mrs. Inchbald\u27s plays were translations, several Oriental elements were included, such as character names, settings, and customs

Does Openness to Trade Make Countries More Vulnerable to Sudden Stops, or Less? Using Gravity to Establish Causality

Openness to trade is one factor that has been identified as determining whether a country is prone to sudden stops in capital inflows, crashes in currencies, or severe recessions. Some believe that openness raises vulnerability to foreign shocks, while others believe that it makes adjustment to crises less painful. Several authors have offered empirical evidence that having a large tradable sector reduces the contraction necessary to adjust to a given cut-off in funding. This would help explain lower vulnerability to crises in Asia than in Latin America. Such studies may, however, be subject to the problem that trade is endogenous. Using the gravity instrument for trade openness, which is constructed from geographical determinants of bilateral trade, this paper finds that openness indeed makes countries less vulnerable, both to severe sudden stops and currency crashes, and that the relationship is even stronger when correcting for the endogeneity of trade.

ISEEK, a tool for high speed, concurrent, distributed forensic data acquisition

Electronic discovery (also written as e-discovery or eDiscovery) and digital forensics are processes in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and processed with the expectation that it may be used as evidence in legal proceedings. Electronic evidence plays a fundamental role in many aspects of litigation (Stanfield, 2009). However, both eDiscovery and digital forensic approaches that rely on the creation of an index as part of their processing are struggling to cope with the huge increases in hard disk storage capacity. This paper introduces a novel technology that meets the existing and future data volume challenges faced by practitioners in these areas. The technology also addresses the concerns of those responsible for maintaining corporate networks as it does not require installation of ‘agents’ nor does it have any significant impact on network bandwidth during the search and collection process, even when this involves many computers. The technology is the embodiment of a patented process that opens the way for the development of new functionality, such as the detection of malware, compliance with corporate Information Technology (IT) policies and IT auditing. The technology introduced in this paper has been incorporated into a commercial tool called ISEEK that has already been successfully deployed in a variety of environments

"She must not stir out of a darkened room": The Redpath Mansion Mystery

This paper accounts for private life in a prominent Gilded-Age Montreal bourgeois household as revealed in the sudden glare of publicity generated by a violent double shooting. We show how the tragic deaths of a mother and her son re-enforced fragile class connections between propriety and wealth, family relations and family image. Drawing on diaries, photographs and newspaper accounts, as well as published novels and poetry, we argue that the family deployed architecture, both the spaces of its own home and public monumental architecture in the city, to follow the dictates of a paradoxical imperative: intimacy had to be openly displayed, family private matters enacted in public rituals. The surviving family quickly began a series of manoeuvers designed to make secret the public event, and re-inscribe the deaths within class norms of decorum and conduct. The house itself, we claim, as a material object, figures in the complex interplay of inter-connected social relationships, behaviours and narratives that produce bourgeois respectability. Résumé Cet article relate la vie privée dans une éminente maison bourgeoise de l’âge d’or de Montréal, telle qu’elle s’est révélée sous l’éclairage brutal de la publicité occasionnée par une violente fusillade. Nous y montrons comment les morts tragiques d’une mère et de son fils ont renforcé de fragiles connexions de classe entre la propriété et la richesse, les relations familiales et l’image de la famille. En se basant sur des journaux intimes, des photographies et des articles de journaux, ainsi que sur des romans et des poésies publiés, nous avançons l’idée que la famille exposait l’architecture, autant les espaces de son propre foyer que l’architecture monumentale publique de la ville, pour se plier aux diktats d’un impératif paradoxal : l’intimité devait être ouvertement montrée, les problèmes familiaux privés joués dans des rituels publics. Les survivants de la famille ont rapidement entamé une série de manœuvres pour réduire au secret l’évènement public et pour réinscrire les personnes décédées au sein de normes de classe, de décorum et de conduite. Nous avançons que la maison elle-même, en tant qu’objet matériel, est présente dans le jeu complexe des relations sociales interconnectées, des comportements et des récits qui produisent la respectabilité bourgeoise

Understanding precision nitrogen stress to optimize the growth and lipid content tradeoff in oleaginous green microalgae

Nitrogen deficiency promotes lipid formation in many microalgae, but also limits growth and lipid productivity. In spite of numerous studies, there is poor understanding of the interactions of growth and lipid content, the time course of lipid accumulation and the magnitude of nitrogen deficiency required to stimulate lipid formation. These relationships were investigated in six species of oleaginous green algae, comparing high and low levels of deficiency. Nitrogen stress typically had disproportionate effects on growth and lipid content, with profound differences among species. Optimally balancing the tradeoffs required a wide range in nitrogen supply rate among species. Some species grew first and then accumulated lipids, while other species grew and accumulated lipids concurrently which resulted in increased lipid productivity. Accumulation of high lipid content generally resulted from a response to minimal stress. The data highlight the tremendous biodiversity that may be exploited to optimally produce lipids with precision nitrogen stress

Museum Space Usage Assessment

This project improved the utilization of limited exhibit and storage space at the Fire Services Museum of Victoria, which houses Australia\u27s largest collection of fire fighting memorabilia. The team produced floor plans covering 5,273 m2 of floor space at two different sites and careful compilations of visitor and staff preferences. Results include a new visitor guide, recommended enhancements of exhibit space (e.g., a hands-on uniform exhibit), and strategies to safeguard artifacts while using 65% less storage space

Enhancing Critical Thinking in Corporate Finance at a Christian University

Critical thinking is one of the key components to higher education. Before covering specific decision-making areas involving capital budgeting, a lecture is presented in which various critical thinking ideas are outlined. The primary focus is on logical fallacies. We have developed a presentation which encourages students to examine the importance of critical thinking skills that are usable in both undergraduate and graduate corporate finance classes. The lecture could easily be modified for use in any business discipline where critical thinking and logical flaws is relevant