Comparing coastal storm impact to decadal change in barrier island ecosystems

Highly dynamic coastal systems respond to disturbance events with a combination of topographic and vegetative changes. Sea level rise impacts on barrier islands have been quantified, but storm effects on vegetation are limited. Here we quantified barrier island vegetation change in response to an isolated storm event and compared to long-term periods. We hypothesized that disturbance-resisting areas with high woody vegetation cover and/or high foredune elevation would experience minimal transitions after a storm event, whereas disturbance-reinforcing areas with low vegetation cover and low foredune elevation would experience greater transitions between ecosystem states after a storm event. Patterns of dissonance were found at the island-scale, as net loss of woodland cover occurred during the storm and a net gain occurred through decadal regimes, indicative of a slow growing late successive vegetation responding to disturbance. Using sub-islands transects, significant correlations between stable upland vegetation covers (both woodland and grassland) and percent bare suggests that the amount of upland land cover may be important in upland community response to storm events. Maximum bare elevation was significantly correlated to woodland cover, indicative of disturbance resisting domains. Significant correlations found between pre-storm woodland cover (both area and percent) and non-changing grasslands suggest that the existence of woody vegetation is dependent on the establishment and extent of stable grasslands. No correlations were found with area of marshland converted to upland post storm. My results did not fully support my hypothesis but document upland vegetation interactions with elevation amidst a moderate coastal storm

Modelling dry powder inhaler operation with the discrete element method

Dry powder inhalers (DPI) are a common asthma treatment. Despite the number of commercial devices available, little is known about their internal operation: the process of fluidising a powder dose into an inhalation airflow. This PhD aims to investigate this process, and demonstrate that it can be modelled computationally. . Experimental work is described to record high speed video of the dose fluidisation from simplified DPls. Typical DPI powders such as lactose are tested, along with cohesionless glass spheres and aluminium flakes. Two distinct dose fluidisation mechanisms are identified, labelled 'fracture' and 'erosion'. Lactose exhibits a fracture mechanism -- large agglomerates are produced as the powder bed cracks along lines of weakness. Glass or aluminium particles exhibit an erosion mechanism: powder is entrained into the flow as individual particles from the bed surface. The recorded video is quantitatively analysed to determine fluidisation timescales and pressures. Shear cell test results show that predicting the mechanism of fluidisation is not possible using averaged bulk powder properties. This suggests any DPI model must include the fundamental particle interactions. The discrete element method (OEM) is introduced as a computational technique capable of predicting DPI behaviour from individual particle properties. The numerical accuracy of the method is assessed, showing that time integration is limited to a maximum of 2nd order accuracy due to discontinuities in particle contact forces. A sensitivity analysis shows inter-particle cohesion is the dominant factor affecting OEM predictions. OEM is used to create a simple model of the dose fluidisation that occurs within a DPI. The results are compared with real powder behaviour. OEM is shown to capture the realistic fluidisation of both lactose and glass powder doses. It is concluded that OEM is a promising technique to predict DPI behaviour, although further work is required to quantify inter--particle cohesive parametersImperial Users onl

A Study of Language and Its Uses In Flute Performance and Pedagogy

Various tone colors can be produced on the flute in part by altering the shape of the lips, jaw and tongue movement, and air speed. As these actions are similar to those in the production of speech, flutists and flute teachers often associate aspects of playing with consonants and vowels. However, the shape of the oral cavity can vary depending on the spoken language of the flute-player. By becoming familiar with the pronunciations of different sounds from various languages, the flutist may discover a wider variety of tone colors at his/her disposal. This document will investigate the use of vowels in the teaching and performing of the flute, with specific emphasis on the differences among English, French, German, and Italian languages and possible uses in flute playing. This preliminary study will also focus on European flute teachers and American flute teachers and their perceptions on language and how it affects their own performance and teaching methods

Option 7: Kaltura Link Related Media, Kaltura Link to Remote Location, Sphynx PDF as Full Text

Kaltura Test Link Related Media Sphynx PDF Uploaded from Computer as Full Text First Page PDF selected for cover imagehttps://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/northernirelandarchive/1068/thumbnail.jp

An Example Podcast Writeup

This is an example of a podcast assignment\u27s accompanying document, including cover art, artist\u27s statement, and other stuff I will include later. An MP3 file is included as an additional file as an example of an audio recording.https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/soci258/1001/thumbnail.jp

Expanding the Genetic Code to Probe Biological Systems

The chemical modification of proteins has been a longstanding interest in the scientific community. In addition to the natural modifications necessary for life to function, unnatural covalent modifications are particularly useful because they facilitate research efforts that require the precise manipulation of protein, including the installation of fluorescent labels, post-translational modification mimics, and affinity reagents. Historically, appending such modifications onto proteins was achieved by generating covalent adducts onto one of the twenty canonical amino acids. However, such modifications are not site-selective, and may interfere with the native function of the modified protein. Genetic code expansion can overcome the limitations inherent to canonical amino acid modification, especially when bioorthogonal functional groups are incorporated. Using orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase-tRNA pairs, one can reliably obtain homogenous samples of modified protein in a site-selective manner. In order to fully understand the steric requirements of a rationally designed pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase, several large meta-substituted phenylalanine derivatives were synthesized and incorporated into superfolder green fluorescent protein using this synthetase. All synthesized substrates were incorporated, albeit with differing incorporation efficiencies. Moreover, this synthetase was found to incorporate 3-formyl-phenylalanine, an aldehyde-based amino acid that can be directly installed onto proteins. Prior to this work, only indirect post-translational approaches could install aldehydes, and these methodologies were limited as to where the modification could occur. Aldehyde labeling occurs rapidly at neutral pH, and peptide cyclization has been accomplished using the aldehyde to form a thiazolidine linkage with an N-terminal cysteine, further demonstrating the rich chemistry available to aldehydes. Finally, efforts to optimize azidophenylalanine bioconjugation led to a kinetic investigation of copper-catalyzed click chemistry, which led to a revision of the currently accepted mechanism; it is proposed that copper-catalyzed click chemistry requires two separate copper-chelating events, with one equivalent of copper binding to azide, and another equivalent of copper binding to alkyne. The work presented herein demonstrates that phenylalanine derivatives are useful substrates for probing and manipulating biological systems, as well as providing opportunities for discovery in chemical biology

The MetaZine Example Zine

This was created in Google Slides as an example of a zine which also provides background for zines in general, page examples from published zines, documentation for creating and including citations and bibliography, and links to further resources.https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/soci258/1000/thumbnail.jp

Option 8: Book Gallery, PDF main file MP3 additional file.

Uploading to a book gallery: Sphynx PDF as main file (cover image PDF first page selected) MP3 as additional filehttps://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/northernirelandarchive/1069/thumbnail.jp