Important parameter groups in thermal protection of polymers

The problem of thermal protection is explored for two idiosyncratic reactive systems, namely a sacrificial heat-sink material and an intumescent system where a dynamically evolving insulation layer is produced from an initially thin coating. Relatively simple mathematical models of both systems are proposed that encompass the important physical characteristics of each situation and these models are analysed using a mixture of numerical and analytical techniques. Important dimensionless parameter groups are identified and domains of parameter space where thermal performance is particularly goodor particularly bad- are identified

From Poet to Activist: Sarojini Naidu and Her Battles against Colonial Oppression and Misogyny in 20th-Century India

Sarojini Naidu was a prominent poet and activist during the early twentieth century, yet few have ever heard her name. A child prodigy turned romantic poet, she shocked the world with her words and used her growing fame to advocate for Indian independence alongside famous nationalist Mahatma Gandhi. Her fluidity as a poet helped her captivate international audiences, and her charisma moved the masses to support her causes. Fighting for nationalism, she never forgot about her sisters, and Indian women still celebrate Naidu today for her impact as a feminist. Naidu’s poetic mastery, her charisma as an orator, and her political influence have since been forgotten, but this article intends to restore her status as an international icon and remind people of her merit

Perceptions of Equity and Fairness in the Division of Household Labor: Evidence from a Rural County

The division of household labor among dual-earner couples has been the focus of much research, and the finding that the women in these relationships perform more domestic tasks than their male counterparts is well documented. Hochschild (1989) found this occurrence to be true among the dual-earners in her study, and she even confirmed this finding fourteen years later in a revised edition of her book. Additionally, in a review of literature on the division of household labor, Beth Anne Shelton and Daphne John (1996) concluded that even when women work outside of the home, they still complete more housework than men. Not only has research shown that women maintain more responsibility for household labor, but studies have also revealed that the unequal division of labor can detrimentally affect women. A study by Bielby and Bielby (1989) showed that if women remain responsible for the bulk of domestic work, they may not be able to form strong identities with their careers. Therefore, the family role could potentially jeopardize the importance women give to their work. Lennon and Rosenfield (1994) and Chloe E. Bird (1999) revealed that women who view the distribution of household labor as unfair are more likely to experience depression. Furthermore, marital satisfaction decreases for women and men when the division of housework is viewed as unfair, yet the likelihood of divorce for women, but not men, increases when the division is seen as unfair (Frisco and Williams 2003)

Maintaining places of social inclusion : Ebola and the emergency department

We introduce the concept of places of social inclusion—institutions endowed by a society or a community with material resources, meaning, and values at geographic sites where citizens can access services for specific needs—as taken-for-granted, essential, and inherently precarious. Based on our study of an emergency department that was disrupted by the threat of the Ebola virus in 2014, we develop a process model to explain how a place of social inclusion can be maintained by custodians. We show how these custodians—in our fieldsite, doctors and nurses—experience and engage in institutional work to manage different levels of tension between the value of inclusion and the reality of finite resources, as well as tension between inclusion and the desire for safety. We also demonstrate how the interplay of custodians’ emotions is integral to maintaining the place of social inclusion. The primary contribution of our study is to shine light on places of social inclusion as important institutions in democratic society. We also reveal the theoretical and practical importance of places as institutions, deepen understanding of custodians and custodianship as a form of institutional work, and offer new insight into the dynamic processes that connect emotions and institutional work

Consequences of Caring: The Manifestation of Compassion Fatigue in High School Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this research study was to explore the symptoms of compassion fatigue as experienced by teachers in grades 9-12 during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the research on the effects of compassion fatigue on educators is relatively sparse, the literature regarding compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma in other helping professions revealed a 12-symptom framework. Data collection strategies included individual virtual interviews and field notes. Analysis of data occurred in four phases: (a) analyzing transcripts and identifying themes, (b) categorization of data under the 12 symptoms of compassion fatigue, (c) building the explanation in narrative form, and (d) re-examination of the data. The triangulation of data protected the credibility of the analysis through multiple interview sources and member checking. The results revealed that the physical, emotional, professional, and personal experiences described in the teacher interviews exemplified the 12 established symptoms of compassion fatigue. The results suggested that concern for student experiences during the pandemic combined with other contributing factors to manifest a variety of individual symptoms in participants. The most common contributing factors for participants included concerns for the physical and emotional health and wellbeing of students, student academic issues, feelings of being overwhelmed/overloaded at work, and anger and frustration with the school administration and the school system. The themes that emerged from the data analysis indicate that the most common manifested symptoms include lack of sleep, stress and anxiety, thoughts of leaving the teaching profession, and disconnection from family and friends

EXPLORING HOW GRADUATES OF THE NEBRASKA WATER LEADERS ACADEMY INFLUENCE COMMUNITY CAPITALS: TWO CASE STUDIES

Natural resources are foundational to any community and so leadership regarding those resources is a key factor to consider in order to understand communities. The vitality and strength of a community, however, is not solely dependent upon the natural resources available to it but depends on the collection of assets and individuals within it. This study sought to understand how individual leaders, graduates of the Nebraska Water Leaders Academy, influence each of the seven community capitals outlined by Flora, Flora, and Gasteyer (2016), and how their individual civic capacity, as defined by Sun and Anderson (2012), contribute to community capacity. Twelve graduates of the Academy and eighteen members of their communities were interviewed to comprise two qualitative case studies, one from the graduates’ perspective, and one from the community members’ perspective. Eight themes emerged from the interviews with graduates and nine themes emerged from interviews with community members. Findings reveal that graduates had the greatest influence on community capitals by bringing others together for a common purpose rather than focusing on individual viewpoints and by utilizing bonding and bridging social capital to equip communities with additional resources. By influencing their community’s capitals and acting with community interests in mind, Academy graduates strengthen collective capacity and increase ability to address challenges. Advisor: Mark E. Burbac

Evaluation of L1 Residence for Perceptron Filter Enhanced Signature Path Prefetcher

Rapid advancement of integrated circuit technology described by Moore’s Law has greatly increased computational power. Processors have taken advantage of this by increasing computation rates, while memory has gained increased capacity. As processor operation speeds have greatly exceeded memory access times, computer architects have added multiple levels of caches to avoid penalties for repeat accesses to memory. While this is an improvement, architects have further improved access efficiency by developing methods of prefetching data from memory to hide the latency penalty usually incurred on a cache miss. Previous work at Texas A&M and their submission to the Third Data Prefetching Championship (DPC3) primarily consisted of L2 cache prefetching. L1 prefetching has been less explored than L2 due to hardware limitations on implementation. In this paper, I attempt to evaluate the effect of L1 residence for Texas A&M’s Perceptron Filtered Signature Path Prefetcher (PPF). While an unoptimized movement of the PPF from the L2 to the L1 showed performance degradation, optimizations such as using the L1 data stream to prefetch to all cache levels and updating table sizes and lengths have matched L2 performance

EXPLORING HOW GRADUATES OF THE NEBRASKA WATER LEADERS ACADEMY INFLUENCE COMMUNITY CAPITALS: TWO CASE STUDIES

Natural resources are foundational to any community and so leadership regarding those resources is a key factor to consider in order to understand communities. The vitality and strength of a community, however, is not solely dependent upon the natural resources available to it but depends on the collection of assets and individuals within it. This study sought to understand how individual leaders, graduates of the Nebraska Water Leaders Academy, influence each of the seven community capitals outlined by Flora, Flora, and Gasteyer (2016), and how their individual civic capacity, as defined by Sun and Anderson (2012), contribute to community capacity. Twelve graduates of the Academy and eighteen members of their communities were interviewed to comprise two qualitative case studies, one from the graduates’ perspective, and one from the community members’ perspective. Eight themes emerged from the interviews with graduates and nine themes emerged from interviews with community members. Findings reveal that graduates had the greatest influence on community capitals by bringing others together for a common purpose rather than focusing on individual viewpoints and by utilizing bonding and bridging social capital to equip communities with additional resources. By influencing their community’s capitals and acting with community interests in mind, Academy graduates strengthen collective capacity and increase ability to address challenges. Advisor: Mark E. Burbac

Vermiculture: A Viable Solution for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract Vermiculture is the cultivation of worms to produce compost. Worm farming for agricultural purposes uses specific worms that consume the organic waste in which they live and breed. Vermicomposting is biotechnology for the conversion of wastes into nutrient-rich agriculture amendments. The application of these amendments can improve the physical, biological, and chemical properties of the soil. Worm excrement enhances soil health, which improves plant health. When our plant and crop performance are enhanced, we see increased yields and improved quality. Vermicompost can boost crop production without the synthetic fertilizers that pollute our environment and decrease the health of people and plants. Vermicompost production recycles food trash, paper sludge, livestock manure, and yard debris. This action reduces the expansion of landfills and returns the waste to the earth as a valuable fertilizer. Vermiculture has been referred to as the \u27Second Green Revolution\u27 by replacing harsh chemical inputs with organic matter. Other environmental benefits are the decreased use of water irrigation, improved pest resistance, and reduced weed growth. The biodiversity of increased microorganisms in our soils is supported by vermicompost. Vermiculture biotechnology expounds on the importance of environmental sustainability and economic stability. Keywords: vermiculture, compost, sustainability, agriculture, biotechnolog