CALIBRATION OF NON-NUCLEAR DEVICES FOR CONSTRUCTION QUALITY CONTROL OF COMPACTED SOILS

Inadequate compaction of a soil subgrade can lead to detrimental outcomes that are not only costly but dangerous to the general public. To avoid this, quality control (QC) devices such as the nuclear density gauge (NDG) are currently being used to monitor the compaction and moisture content of soil subgrades. However, regulatory concerns associated with the NDG have encouraged federal and state agencies, as well as the heavy civil construction industry to consider non-nuclear devices for QC testing of compacted soils. One such non-nuclear device is the Soil Density Gauge (SDG), which utilizes electromagnetic wave propagation to obtain soil properties such as wet unit weight and moisture content. This research shows that through using soil-specific trend lines, the SDG has the capability of obtaining an equivalent NDG wet unit weight. Alongside the SDG, two dielectric moisture probes were also evaluated and through a calibration process on compacted soils, a general moisture content trend line was developed. This general moisture content trend line related outputted volumetric moisture contents from the moisture probes to gravimetric moisture contents. Field data were then plotted along with the general moisture content trend line to show that these devices have the potential of predicting gravimetric moisture contents. By combining the results of the SDG and moisture probe analyses, graphs were then developed that relate SDG wet unit weights to NDG dry unit weights using soil and moisture-specific trend lines

Broad and thematic remodeling of the surfaceome and glycoproteome on isogenic cells transformed with driving proliferative oncogenes.

The cell surface proteome, the surfaceome, is the interface for engaging the extracellular space in normal and cancer cells. Here we apply quantitative proteomics of N-linked glycoproteins to reveal how a collection of some 700 surface proteins is dramatically remodeled in an isogenic breast epithelial cell line stably expressing any of six of the most prominent proliferative oncogenes, including the receptor tyrosine kinases, EGFR and HER2, and downstream signaling partners such as KRAS, BRAF, MEK, and AKT. We find that each oncogene has somewhat different surfaceomes, but the functions of these proteins are harmonized by common biological themes including up-regulation of nutrient transporters, down-regulation of adhesion molecules and tumor suppressing phosphatases, and alteration in immune modulators. Addition of a potent MEK inhibitor that blocks MAPK signaling brings each oncogene-induced surfaceome back to a common state reflecting the strong dependence of the oncogene on the MAPK pathway to propagate signaling. Cell surface protein capture is mediated by covalent tagging of surface glycans, yet current methods do not afford sequencing of intact glycopeptides. Thus, we complement the surfaceome data with whole cell glycoproteomics enabled by a recently developed technique called activated ion electron transfer dissociation (AI-ETD). We found massive oncogene-induced changes to the glycoproteome and differential increases in complex hybrid glycans, especially for KRAS and HER2 oncogenes. Overall, these studies provide a broad systems-level view of how specific driver oncogenes remodel the surfaceome and the glycoproteome in a cell autologous fashion, and suggest possible surface targets, and combinations thereof, for drug and biomarker discovery

Towards the Refinement of DHTs

The implications of cooperative configurations have been far-reaching and pervasive. After years of private research into the memory bus, we prove the investigation of evolutionary programming, demonstrates the important importance of artificial intelligence. We motivate a “fuzzy” tool for simulating context-free grammar, which we call Cacochymy

Geoengineering Governance: Addressing the Problems of Moral Corruption, Moral Hazard, and Intergenerational Inclusion

This thesis is concerned with how geoengineering, specifically Stratospheric Sulphur aerosol Injection (SSI), could be ethically governed. Geoengineering refers to a set of technologies which can be used to affect the global temperature, such as SSI. Geoengineering has been proposed as possible response to climate change. This thesis focuses on three problems which the ethical governance of SSI faces: namely the problems of moral corruption, moral hazard and intergenerational inclusion. The result of this is that the thesis furthers our understanding of how SSI governance could address each of these three problems. By doing so the thesis contributes t an important debate on how SSI should be governed. The first chapter presents a case in favour of the importance of the ethical governance of SSI. Chapter two introduces two framings which are seldom used together, the risk-risk trade off frame, and the perfect moral storm frame. Chapter two argues that it is important to adopt both of these frames if we are going to consider geoengineering governance. The benefit of these frames is that they provide a context against which thinking about SSI governance occurs. Chapter three explains the problem of moral corruption, and argues that a well-functioning accountability mechanism could help to address it. In making this argument, the chapter shows that transparency, publicity, and accountability are poorly understood in reports on geoengineering governance, in which these principles are often endorsed. The chapter offers a clearer account of the meaning of these principles, and why it is essential to be aware of the relationship between transparency and these other principles if they going to be used to address moral corruption or any problem in SSI governance. Chapter four provides conceptual clarity to the often-cited moral hazard concern about SSI. The chapter breaks the moral hazard problem down into five different variables. By doing so this analysis highlights the lack ambiguity and disagreement in the literature about the moral hazard.. This chapter also provides an answer to the question of should we act on the hazard if the empirical evidence about the hazard effect is inconclusive. Drawing on the work of Henry Shue on threshold likelihoods, I argue that we should act on the moral hazard problem even if the empirical evidence is inconclusive, due to the mechanisms by which the hazard can occur being well-understood, and that these mechanism are accumulating. . Chapter five explores the possibility of secrecy as a response to the moral hazard concern. The chapter has four components. Firstly it provides clarity about how secrecy can be understood. Secondly, it considers what this theoretical account of secrecy teaches us about the practice of secrecy. This is done by applying the theory to the historical example of the Manhattan project, which highlights some key components of governing in secrecy. Thirdly, the chapter shows us why we should expect such an approach to secrecy to be effective at addressing the moral hazard problem. Fourthly, the chapter has a normative component, whereby it considers instrumental reasons to be opposed to secrecy in SSI governance despite its promise in addressing the moral hazard problem. Chapter 6 considers the question of intergenerational inclusion in decision-making about SSI. It identifies representation of interests as the appropriate form of inclusion for future people. It argues in favour of ‘A Statement of What is Owed to the Future’, whereby the minimal interests of future generations are expressed and accepted by states. The chapter proceeds by considering different mechanisms through which these interests could be represented, and argues in favour of a second chamber as the ideal mechanism through which this can occur. . The idea of ethical SSI governance is complicated and confusing, it faces many challenges, and we face a genuine risk of SSI being governed in a poor or unethical way. Even if agents wished to govern SSI ethically it is not at all clear how this can be done. This thesis makes the prospect of ethical SSI governance more attainable by helping agents understand what to do in light of three important ethical problems SSI governance ought to address

Untangling Typechecking of Intersections and Unions

Intersection and union types denote conjunctions and disjunctions of properties. Using bidirectional typechecking, intersection types are relatively straightforward, but union types present challenges. For union types, we can case-analyze a subterm of union type when it appears in evaluation position (replacing the subterm with a variable, and checking that term twice under appropriate assumptions). This technique preserves soundness in a call-by-value semantics. Sadly, there are so many choices of subterms that a direct implementation is not practical. But carefully transforming programs into let-normal form drastically reduces the number of choices. The key results are soundness and completeness: a typing derivation (in the system with too many subterm choices) exists for a program if and only if a derivation exists for the let-normalized program.Comment: In Proceedings ITRS 2010, arXiv:1101.410

Solvent Exfoliation of Electronic-Grade, Two-Dimensional Black Phosphorus

Solution dispersions of two-dimensional (2D) black phosphorus (BP), often referred to as phosphorene, are achieved by solvent exfoliation. These pristine, electronic-grade BP dispersions are produced with anhydrous, organic solvents in a sealed tip ultrasonication system, which circumvents BP degradation that would otherwise occur via solvated oxygen or water. Among conventional solvents, n-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP) is found to provide stable, highly concentrated (~0.4 mg/mL) BP dispersions. Atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy show that the structure and chemistry of solvent-exfoliated BP nanosheets are comparable to mechanically exfoliated BP flakes. Additionally, residual NMP from the liquid-phase processing suppresses the rate of BP oxidation in ambient conditions. Solvent-exfoliated BP nanosheet field-effect transistors (FETs) exhibit ambipolar behavior with current on/off ratios and mobilities up to ~10000 and ~50 cm^2/(V*s), respectively. Overall, this study shows that stable, highly concentrated, electronic-grade 2D BP dispersions can be realized by scalable solvent exfoliation, thereby presenting opportunities for large-area, high-performance BP device applications.Comment: 6 figures, 31 pages, including supporting informatio