The thesis is dedicated to the understanding and characterization of brittle compressive fracture of columnar S2 ice. The work quantifies the strength of fresh-water S2 ice and investigates its characteristic brittle failure modes under biaxial...
Chlorinated ethenes are ubiquitous environmental pollutants of public concern due to their potential toxicity and carcinogenicity. Under appropriate conditions anaerobic bacteria mediate the dechlorination of perchloroethylene (a common dry...
The focus of this thesis is the study of nuclearity and exactness for groupoid crossed product C*-algebras. In particular, we present generalizations of two well-known facts from group dynamical systems and crossed products to the groupoid setting....
This study presents δ18O analyses of garnets microsampled by laser fluorination from two localities in the deep seated, Barrovian metamorphic terrane of eastern Vermont. The broad goals of the research were to constrain further the amount,...
Our conscious experience of memory often includes reconstuctions of the past in order to fill the gaps of forgotten events and details. The goal of this thesis is to use the tools of cognitive neuroscience to better understand the cognitive and...
Geology -- Guatemala -- Lake Atitlan area; Volcanism -- Guatemala -- Lake Atitlan area; Calderas -- Guatemala -- Lake Atitlan area.
Geological mapping, petrological and geophysical studies in the lake Atitlan area, Guatemala, have revealed four distinct periods of stratovolcano growth, each followed by major silicic eruptions and caldera collapse. The first period (12 - 11 my...
Biological conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals offers recognized benefits. The absence of systematic methodologies for scaling up such conversion is an important issue related to realizing these benefits. This thesis addresses this scale...
The Dartmouth Stellar Evolution Program, a state of the art stellar evolution code, has been modified and expanded to increase its versatility. The modifications include: the ability to self-consistently model stars with arbitrary chemical...
A sustainable energy future is critical for environmental and strategic reasons. One alternative to petroleum used for transportation is ethanol derived from cellulosic biomass. The major barrier for biomass conversion is a cost effective method...
Problem Statement Patient safety in the modern hospital is supported by multiple human and technological systems, and this type of high-risk/high-complexity domain requires multiple layers of protection against harm. This fault-tolerant approach is...
Cellulolytic microorganisms hold promise for industrially applied microbial cellulose utilization in the generation biofuels from renewable resources. Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP), a one-step process combining cellulase production, cellulose...
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease its pathogenesis is linked with cholesterol metabolism. Acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferases (ACATs) are key enzymes involved in cholesterol homeostasis that catalyze the...