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The delivery of precipitation through large and small scale precipitation features plays a key role in the hydrological cycle. Therefore, it is important to understand how the organization of precipitation will change as the earth warms. The organization of precipitation can be characterized into either widespread, mesoscale precipitation features (MPF) or short-lived, isolated precipitation features (IPF). The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was used to simulate precipitation features at a 3 km resolution during the 17-22 June 2010 period in the Southeast US under present and future climate conditions. In this methodology, the model is first run in present climate mode and then rerun with an adjusted initial state that adds projected temperature anomalies for the 2090s based on Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). In the future climate simulations, small changes in precipitation occurred under RCP4.5 warming, but many significant changes were noted under RCP8.5 warming. Domain-averaged precipitation increased in the future climate simulations, with the largest changes over the ocean relative to the continent. In the future climates, IPF grew larger in length and eventually coalesced into MPF, reducing the total number of IPF and increasing the number of MPF. IPF and MPF also extended deeper into the troposphere and produced more precipitation overall.

Performed in cooperation with the School of Mineral Engineering, University of Washington. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Mode of access: Internet.

The United States Department of Energy’s Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) Fuel Development and Qualification Program will be irradiating eight separate tri-isotopic (TRISO) particle fuel (in compact form) experiments in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). These irradiations and fuel development are being accomplished to support development of the next generation reactors in the United States. The ATR has a long history of irradiation testing in support of reactor development and the INL has been designated as the United States Department of Energy’s lead laboratory for nuclear energy development. These AGR fuel experiments will be irradiated over the next ten years to demonstrate and qualify new particle fuel for use in high temperature gas reactors. The experiments, which will each consist of six separate capsules, will be irradiated in an inert sweep gas atmosphere with individual on-line temperature monitoring and control for each capsule. The swept gas will also have on-line fission product monitoring to track performance of the fuel in each individual capsule during irradiation. The design of the first experiment (designated AGR-1) was completed in 2005, and the fabrication and assembly of the test train as well as the support systems and fission product monitoring system that monitor and control the experiment during irradiation were completed in September 2006. The experiment was inserted in the ATR in December 2006, and is serving as a shakedown test of the multi-capsule experiment design that will be used in the subsequent irradiations as well as a test of the early variants of the fuel produced under this program. The experiment test train as well as the monitoring, control, and data collection systems are discussed and the status of the experiment is provided.

We are currently amidst a 6th mass extinction event precipitated by anthropogenic alterations of the environment, specifically urbanization. There have been declines across all classes of vertebrates, however amphibians have suffered the greatest declines among vertebrates. Urbanization is among the most detrimental types of habitat modifications because as areas are converted and modified to meet human needs it increases susceptibility and exposure to disease and chemicals, increases the probability of encountering invasive species, alters climate and microclimates, and ultimately leads to decreased recruitment and population size in amphibian populations. This disrupts the moist, cool conditions many amphibians rely on for basic survival conditions, and if these conditions for reproduction and foraging are not met, alteration in behavior or physiological processes may be observed. In response to stressors, many amphibians release a stress hormone called corticosterone. Corticosterone helps amphibians respond to a stressor appropriately by suppressing acutely nonessential functions such as digestion, reproduction, and growth, thereby freeing energy for vital processes such as muscle metabolism. It has been shown that some species of salamanders respond physiologically to environmental changes, suggesting a link between habitat quality and physiological stress response that could be crucial for evaluating the effects of habitat alterations. This study looks at the physiological response of Eastern red-backed salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, living in urban and non-urban sites using a novel method of stress hormone collection. We found that salamanders living in urban sites had lower levels of dermal corticosterone than those living in non-urban areas. This finding could be explained by microclimate effects that differ at each site or by the effects chronic stress may be having on the salamanders in the urban sites. ; URAP - Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program ; No embargo ; Academic Major: ...

In this paper, implications of the quasi-steady approach to numerical solutions of two-phase flow problems are addressed by the application of basic principles. First, a simple criterion to determine the limitations of the quasi-steady approach is discussed. This criterion is used to determine the minimum time-step size required during the quasi-steady solution. Using this same concept, a method for making truly transient problems artifically quasi-steady is developed. Finally, these concepts are applied to a simple interfacial heat-transfer problem. The numerical instability that results from the quasi-steady approach during the explicit solution of this problem is investigated.

The SBE19 Brussels - BAMB-CIRCPATH "Building as Material Banks - A Pathway for a Circular held in Brussels on 5 to 7 of February 2019, is an initiative of the Consortium of the H2020 BAMB Project together with the Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) series of conferences. Being within the SBE series, this event gathers the support of CIB International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction, iiSBE International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment, the United Nations Environment Programme, and FIDIC International Federation of Consulting Engineers. The goal of this series of regional and international conferences is to disseminate innovative policies and developments in the field of sustainable urban environment to a broad international audience of specialists in policy, design, construction and operation of buildings and related infrastructure. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

To improve the overall quality of education within under-performing schools across the United States and, in particular, to improve outcomes for diverse learners, it is imperative to find ways to increase the adoption of evidence-based practices. This study aims to illuminate the barriers and facilitators that confront teachers in the sustained implementation of arts integration using a scientifically research-based Constructivist methodology. Arts Integration (AI) has been proven to increase students’ literacy, mathematics, and critical thinking skills. For decades, the U.S. Department of Education has funded research studies revealing the efficacy of arts integration. Data, however, indicate a lack of sustained implementation of arts integration, most notably in schools where interventions targeting student literacy development are sorely needed. As observed in many schools hosting government-funded arts integration programs, AI curricula and strategies are often not sustained beyond the exit of the teaching artists and the depletion of grant-based funding. This qualitative study utilizes an educational ecosystem as the theoretical framework. The levels of the ecosystem are the microsystem (the individual teacher), the mesosystem (school culture), the exosystem (accountability structures), and the macrosystem (American public schools). The study, designed as a narrative inquiry, draws narrative accounts from participating teachers and teaching artists through semi-structured interviews. Interview questions elicit data to address the five research questions.

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2013 ; An examination of two computer programs used for estimating wind energy, RETScreen and System Advisor Model (SAM), are examined and compared to measured data from a wind farm. Wind speed and electrical production estimated by these programs are examined and compared to the measured data. Both programs assume no losses and predict data for an ideal wind farm. Measured data on the other hand includes losses within the farm (e.g. array loss, airfoil loss and availability loss). According to results, RETScreen underestimates the electrical production by 35% and SAM overestimates it by 26%.

The main emphasis of the INTOR first wall/blanket/shield (FWBS) during this period has been upon the tritium breeding issues. The objective is to develop a FWBS concept which produces the tritium requirement for INTOR operation and uses a small fraction of the first wall surface area. The FWBS is constrained by the dimensions of the reference design and the protection criteria required for different reactor components. The blanket extrapolation to commercial power reactor conditions and the proper temperature for power extraction have been sacrificed to achieve the highest possible local tritium breeding ratio (TBR). In addition, several other factors that have been considered in the blanket survey study include safety, reliability, lifetime fluence, number of burn cycles, simplicity, cost, and development issues. The implications of different tritium supply scenarios were discussed from the cost and availability for INTOR conditions. A wide variety of blanket options was explored in a preliminary way to determine feasibility and to see if they can satisfy the INTOR conditions. This survey and related issues are summarized in this report. Also discussed are material design requirements, thermal hydraulic considerations, structure analyses, tritium permeation through the first wall into the coolant, and tritium inventory.