CU Dissertations
Pages
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- Uncertainty analysis and multi-objective control design of methanol-feed nitrification-denitrification process in municipal wastewater treatment plants
- In this study, a full-scale methanol-fed nitrification-denitrification process with methanol as external carbon source was studied. This process has been widely used in the municipal wastewater treatment plants to lessen the total nitrogen amount of treated wastewater prior to discharge to the receiving water or into the water recycling system. When methanol is available as an electron donor over a long term, a new type of specialist heterotrophic bacteria is enriched in the activated sludge culture; these bacteria are collectively referred to as methylotrophs and they have a unique reactions and stoichiometric and kinetic properties. The common activated sludge models (ASMs) do not include the methylotrophic reactions into their reaction network table. Therefore, ASM1 was modified by adding three new reactions and two new constituents to take into consideration the methylotrophic microorganism as well as generalist heterotrophic and autotrophic bacteria. To calibrate the modified ASM, approximately 7,000 samples were collected over a period of 150 days from effluent as well as in the reactor tanks from Blue Plains advanced wastewater treatment plant in Washington DC. To earn a prior knowledge about the endogenous respiration rate and the observed biomass yield of the denitrifying methylotrophic biomass, a series of secondary batch tests were conducted to measure denitrification rates and observed biomass yields. The regression analysis on the declining denitrification rate data showed 95% confidence intervals of 0.130 ± 0.017 day-1 for the endogenous respiration rate under aerobic conditions at 20°C, 0.102 ± 0.013 day-1 under anoxic conditions at 20°C, and 0.214 ± 0.044 day-1 under aerobic conditions at 25°C. The observed biomass yield value showed an increasing trend from approximately 0.2 to 0.6 when the starvation time increased from 0 to 10 days. The Bayesian parameter estimation framework was used to evaluate the ability of the measured data from the lab-scale and full-scale nitrification-denitrification bioreactor to reduce the uncertainty associated with the bio-kinetic and stoichiometric parameters of the modified ASM. In this framework, the batch test results plus the reported values in the literatures and other studies were used as prior knowledge for the unknown parameter values, and the collected measured data were used as evidence points to obtain the posterior distribution for the unknown parameter of the modified ASM. A hybrid genetic algorithm and the Bayesian inference were used to perform deterministic and probabilistic parameter estimations, respectively. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to explain the ability of the data to provide information about each of the parameters. The results showed that the uncertainty on the estimates of the most sensitive parameters (including growth rate, decay rate, and yield coefficients) decreased with respect to the prior information. Both the deterministic and stochastic calibrated ASM were used for model uncertainty analysis, alternative methanol dose criteria analysis to minimize the methanol consumption, prediction of system performance under different operating conditions, and control of the processes in the wastewater treatment plant. In the application point of view, the calibrated modified ASM was used in a feed-forward multi-objective model predictive control (MPC) scheme to minimize the overall operating cost of the methanol-fed nitrification-denitrification system while meeting the regulatory thresholds for effluent quality., Environmental engineering, Water resources management, Activated Sludge Model, Bayesian inference, denitrification, Markov Chain Monte Carlo, nitrification, wastewater treatment, Civil Engineering, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Civil Engineering. The Catholic University of America
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- Understanding the molecular basis of human craniofacial disorders using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism
- Twist family members are highly conserved basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors that are important for mesoderm development in all animals. Twist either forms homodimers or heterodimers with other bHLH proteins through their HLH domains. Twist-containing dimers regulate the expression of downstream target genes by binding an enhancer element called the E-box (CANNTG). Humans have two paralogous genes, TWIST1 and TWIST2, and mutations in each gene have been identified in specific craniofacial disorders. Sweeney-Cox (SwCoS) and Barber-Say syndrome (BSS) are craniofacial disorders that are caused by heterozygous mutations in TWIST1 and TWIST2, respectively. C. elegans has a single Twist homolog, known as HLH-8. C. elegans strains with the analogous disease alleles in HLH-8 that are found in SwCoS and BSS are referred to as Glu29 mutants. When expression of an HLH-8 target gene, arg-1, was examined in these mutants, it was found in the head mesodermal cell (HMC) and enteric muscles (EMs) but not in vulval muscles (VMs). These observations indicate that these Glu29 alleles retain some tissue-specific transcriptional activity. The studies in this dissertation have been aimed to better understanding the mechanism of how Glu29 mutants are activating transcription of arg-1. First, we wanted to determine if Glu29 mutants maintain their dimerization properties. Thus, to test protein-protein interactions, we used biomolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) method. We established this method and tested proteins dimerization pattern for wild-type and Glu29 HLH-8 in vivo. During these studies, we discovered that as human TWIST1/2, HLH-8 partner choice can be determined by its phosphorylation state. Although wild-type and Glu29 HLH-8 proteins are not able to form homodimers in vivo, Phospho-null HLH-8 proteins do form homodimers. The 385 bp arg-1 promoter region contains three different E box DNA sequences (E1-E2-E3) bound by either HLH-8/HLH-8 homodimers or HLH-8/HLH-2 heterodimers. Upon examining the region near the E-boxes, a GT box was identified previously that promotes arg-1 expression in the VMs. The GT box isn’t bound by any of HLH-8-containing dimers, suggesting that there is an additional factor (X) that contributes to arg-1 expression in the VMs. To further understand the molecular basis of how Glu29 mutants activate arg-1 expression, we used the yeast one-hybrid assay (Y1H) to identify (X). Results from this experiment revealed HMG-11 as an accessory protein that binds to the GT box sequence, cooperate with HLH-8, and regulates arg-1 expression in VMs. Therefore, in Glu29 mutants, this cooperation may be defective which disrupts arg-1 expression in VMs., Developmental biology, C. elegans, HLH-8, TWIST, Biology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Biology. The Catholic University of America
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- Hermeneutics of Scandal and Marginality
- Typescript., Thesis (Ph. D.--Religion)--Catholic University of America, 1995., Bibliography: leaves 389-398.
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- Implementation of the Asthma Control Test in Primary Care to Improve Patient Outcomes
- Background: Asthma is one of the major chronic diseases in the pediatric population affecting 9.5% of children. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recommends the use of the Childhood-Asthma Control Test or the Asthma Control Test for periodic assessment of asthma control as one of the four validated instruments. Despite the recommendation from the national guidelines, research has shown adherence to the guidelines is suboptimal.Purpose: The purpose of this evidence-based project was to implement the Childhood-Asthma Control Test or the Asthma Control Test screening tools into the primary care practice to improve management of patients with asthma by more accurately addressing asthma control. The anticipated outcomes of this project were improved identification of asthma control from the patient and/or family’s perspective in accordance with the national guidelines and optimization of asthma management based upon the level of control.Methods: The Iowa Model-Revised: Evidence-Based Practice to Promote Excellence in Health Care was used to guide this evidence-based project. An educational program was devised and presented to the providers and nursing staff of the clinic. A systematic change was implemented. The project was a pre and post implementation study comparing two different groups of patients with asthma seen at the clinic over five-week periods.Results: Prior to implementation, only 1 APRN had used a single Asthma Control Test. After the implementation of the educational program and project, 82.6% of APRNs and 30.7% of pediatric resident physicians utilized an Asthma Control Test resulting in identification of 9 (21%) patients who were considered not well-controlled. All (100%) of those children identified as not well-controlled through the Asthma Control Test received an adjustment in their medication therapy and one child was referred to pulmonary medicine for further evaluation. Conclusion: The C-ACT and ACT are simple, self-administered, validated questionnaires that can easily be incorporated into a primary care practice to assess the level of asthma control and to identify patients with asthma that is not well controlled., Nursing, Asthma, Asthma Control Test, Pediatrics, Nursing, Degree Awarded: D.N.P. Nursing. The Catholic University of America
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- Poverty in al-Ghazali's Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din
- Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Religion and Culture. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation researches the meaning and function of poverty (faqr) in the thought of the Muslim theologian al-Ghazali (d. 1111), whose Ihya includes an entire book of material devoted to the subject. Here, we find poverty used as a foundational stage of spiritual development in the trajectory of al-Ghazali's mystical ethics, so that a Muslim who becomes materially poor begins a journey along a path that leads to God and thus overcoming the poverty of existence inherent to all of creation. Although Jesus appears in this text as an important exemplar for both poverty and the related renunciation (zuhd) in al-Ghazali's work, the author chooses another figure to represent the highest manifestation of poverty in this life: the Prophet Muhammad's wife 'A'isha. Her detachment from the wealth of the world demonstrates her attainment to the level of "one without need" (mustaghni), a designation that aligns her, and any other who reaches it, with the divine attribute of Needlessness (al-Ghani), and thus with God. This understanding of poverty as a spiritual ideal is then contextualized at various levels: in relation to the broader thought of al-Ghazali, in reference to his historical sources and interlocutors, and inter-religiously in comparison with the writings on poverty of the thirteenth-century Franciscan tradition. Using three primary currents of thought on poverty that emerge from the Franciscan poverty disputes, this dissertation establishes a heuristic device that allows for an inter-religious comparison between al-Ghazali and Bonaventure, both of whom occupy moderate theological positions on poverty in relation to their own religious traditions. This comparison results in the recognition of both superficial similarities and deeper doctrinal and theological differences about Jesus's role in exemplifying poverty. Such a comparison leads to a mutual understanding of the two theological traditions studied here, and to the realization that differing interpretations of the figure of Jesus can result in inter-religious enrichment.
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- Iteration of Mass
- by Charles J. Becker., Typescript., Thesis (S.T.D.)--Catholic University of America, 1962., Bibliography: leaves 63-68., Also available in microfilm.
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- The Distribution of Volatiles in Protoplanetary Disks
- Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Physics. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation addresses several distinct goals, all relating to the distribution of molecular gas in planet-forming regions of protoplanetary disks surrounding young, Sun-like stars. First, water surface snow line radii are measured for four classical protoplanetary disks. These measurements have been theoretically predicted using hydrodynamic and radiative transfer models but with contrasting results (Kennedy and Kenyon, 2008; Martin and Livio, 2013), and until now have not yet been measured using observations. Next a detailed analysis of the inner disk chemistry of one classical disk from the sample is presented and the long-standing question is addressed: to what degree is interstellar chemistry inherited by planet-forming material, or are protoplanetary disks themselves intrinsic "chemical factories" (Pontoppidan et al., 2014; van Dishoeck et al., 2014).Finally, rare CO isotopologue emission in the inner disk region of one transitional disk is presented. Transitional disks have inner regions heavily depleted in small dust grains, with known gaps in their dust structures. Estimates of the inner and outer disk gas-to- dust mass ratios may support evidence for dust clearing due to grain growth, and/or developing planetesimals.Two-dimensional radiative transfer modeling is used to retrieve dust density and temperature structures and render infrared line spectra. These models constitute modeling grids used to fit a parameterized gas distribution to the data. Best-fit model parameters determine the radial location where water vapor is observed to decrease by orders of magnitude, thus allowing the retrieval of surface snow line locations in the classical disk sample. This modeling framework is also applied to retrieve the molecular concentrations of H2O, CO, HCN, C2H2, and CO2 for one classical disk in the same sample, so that its inner disk chemistry can be compared to that of cold molecular clouds and solar system comets (Pontoppidan and Blevins, 2014). Lastly, the dust modeling framework is applied to observations of the transitional disk, SR 21, to estimate gas-to-dust mass ratios in the inner planet-forming region and beyond.Results are obtained addressing each research goal. First, water surface snow lines are measured at ~ 3 - 11 AU for the classical disk sample. Assuming a canonical gas-to-dust ratio of 100, as well as coupled gas and dust temperatures, the best-fit inner water abundances become implausibly high (0.01-1.0 per H2). Conversely, models in which the gas and dust temperatures are decoupled leads to canonical inner disk water abundances of ~ 10-4 per H2, while retaining gas-to-dust ratios of 100. That is, the evidence for gas-dust decoupling in disk surfaces is stronger than for enhanced gas-to-dust ratios.Next concentrations of dominant molecular carriers of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen in the terrestrial region around 1 AU for classical disk RNO 90 were retrieved and compared to the chemical inventory of dense clouds and protostellar envelopes. The results argue that inner disk chemistry is, as expected, fundamentally different from prestellar chemistry. The clearest discriminant is the concentration of CO2, which is extremely low in disks, but one of the most abundant constituents of dense clouds and protostellar envelopes.Lastly, the gas-to-dust mass ratio in the inner planet-forming region (less than or equal to 10 AU) of the SR 21 transitional disk is estimated. The best-fit dust continuum model results require dust depletion along with an increased gas-to-dust ratio in the inner disk to adequately model the observations in the near- to mid-infrared wavelength regions. The outer disk region can be modeled without dust depletion using a canonical gas-to-dust ratio of 100. Finally ideas for future work, addressing each research goal, is presented.
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- Canonical Provisions for Catholic Schools
- by Conrad Humbert Boffa., "Bibliographical [i.e. Biographical] note": p. 205., Includes index., Thesis (J.C.D.)--Catholic University of America, 1939., Bibliography: p. 193-200.
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- Thomas Hobbes On Commodious Living. A Critical Examination of "The Safety of the People"
- Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Philosophy. The Catholic University of America, The current literature on Hobbes shows little interest in what can be regarded as central in Hobbes's theory of the state, namely, the notion of the safety of the people. However, in all of his major political works, Hobbes consistently indicates that the only reason human beings create a political association is to secure their safety. The present dissertation points out the primary importance of the Hobbesian notion of safety, and attempts to offer a proper understanding of it. In Hobbes, mere survival is far from what people pursue in social life, and securing the safety of the people cannot be reduced to securing bare life. The Hobbesian notion of safety can only be adequately understood in light of men's fundamental aspirations, and Hobbes regards war as mainly what frustrates the fulfillment of these human aspirations. His notion of war is more complex than appears at first sight. It goes beyond acts of fighting and of engaging in a physical conflict to include any social context or political state of affairs characterized by the predominance of a paralyzing fear in people's lives. This broad and complex notion of war points to a concept of safety that is ample enough to include any war-like situation from which people have to be protected. If the notion of safety refers to protection of people from war, and war refers not only to acts of physical violence, but to any fearful condition of life susceptible to cause a premature, preventable, and unnecessary death, then, to secure the safety of the people entails to free them from all such intolerable conditions of life. There is safety when different causes and fear of war-like situations are removed or significantly reduced to the point that people can pursue what they consider to be their goods and, hence, live a more contented life. In regard to the fragile and uncertain peace of our modern world, the need to reflect on the notion of safety becomes more urgent, and Hobbes remains undoubtedly one of the most important sources of inspiration.
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- Preexisting Music as a Disruptive Element in Historical Fiction Film
- The study of film music has become a significant discipline within musicology and film studies. While preexisting music has gained considerable popularity in recent cinema practice, early cinema used preexisting music sparingly. As a result, academic study of film music has largely engaged the subject of the classical Hollywood score, or a musical work designed to complement a specific film.Throughout the twentieth century, filmmakers expanded the art form in new and creative ways; one such undertaking was to use alternate music selections that could contribute deeper sources of meaning. In the new millennium, preexisting music in film has become something of a new standard, and scholars have recently begun to address these features. Though preexisting music does not impart significant meaning in every case, it is worth considering when, how, and in what ways preexisting music can bring denotative and connotative material alongside it. Such an additive meaning may not only enhance narrative signification, as is the general practice of the classical Hollywood score, but in some cases, meaning can be altered via the expression of social, cultural, economic and/or political associations stemming from the music’s origins.Historical fiction film presents, but is not limited to, narratives hinged upon true historical events or actual persons from history, while in many cases theorizing specific interactions that are not historically documented. As fictionalized narratives, they offer insight into what could have been, or what history might not tell us. Like any cinematic genre, historical fiction film includes classical scoring techniques and/or preexisting music. Musicological research has provided clear ways to evaluate whether a historical film includes accurately contemporaneous music. Interestingly, this is usually not the case. Filmmakers have largely depended on nineteenth-century compositional conventions, even to accompany narrative from previous centuries. In special cases,musical sources can contribute to a given scene or situation by addressing contemporaneousness itself. As such, the historical fiction film provides its own unique area of inquiry.The intent of this dissertation is to provide close readings of three historical fiction films, Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002), Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012). Each of these films use a considerable number of preexisting musical sources from various eras and with diverse musical styles. By examining connotative and denotative values of the preexisting musical sources in each, I attempt to interpret the intertextual relationship between image, dialogue, narrative, and music., Music, Film studies, Music history, Film Studies, Music History, Musicology, Music Theory, Musicology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Musicology. The Catholic University of America
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- Historical development of the use of ratios in financial statement analysis to 1933
- by Isadore Brown., Typescript., Thesis (Ph. D.--Econ.)--Catholic University of America, 1955., Bibliography: leaves 121-142.
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- Competence in ecclesiastical tribunals
- null, Thesis (J.C.D.)--Catholic university of America, 1922.
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- Peace Through Strength: Pentagon policymakers, The Reagan Buildup, and America’s National Security Policy, 1981-1983.
- The 1970s saw the Soviet Union exert itself militarily and politically to challenge a weakened United States, war weary and politically disoriented after the Vietnam War. In order to curtail the growing influence of the Soviets abroad, Republican and Democratic administrations sought to decrease tensions by pursuing arms control agreements and using less inflammatory rhetoric when speaking about the Soviet Union, ushering in a period known as détente. However, during the 1980 presidential campaign, the staunch anti-communist Ronald Reagan challenged the idea that cooperation with the Soviets was beneficial to the United States and could contain the Soviet Union. To combat the rise of the Soviet Union, Reagan pledged to confront them internationally, a vow backed by an immense investment in the armed services.This study examines the connection between the Reagan administration’s national security policies and the Pentagon’s ballooning budget and has a two-fold purpose. First, it will examine the key policymakers within the Pentagon and their role in formulating, advocating, and influencing policies within the Pentagon and the larger national security policy discussion. This dissertation will explore the dilemmas that faced the policymakers and how their own ideas, and more importantly, their experiences shaped the way they interpreted Soviet intentions. While it should be assumed that the Pentagon does play a large role in developing security policy, historians have downplayed the significance of the Pentagon. The second purpose is to challenge the current historiographical narrative that contends ideology was the primary contributor to decision-making during the Reagan administration. By examining the investments made in nuclear weapons, conventional weapon systems, personnel and readiness, and many other military programs, this study will illuminate the priorities of key policymakers within the White House and Pentagon. It will also show the reliance of policymakers on the capability of the military to develop their strategic policies. In particular, although he was responsible for Pentagon, historians downplay the role of Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in foreign policy matters compared to other major members of Reagan’s cabinet. This study will place Weinberger back into the narrative of the Reagan administration., History, American history, Caspar Weinberger, Defense Buildup, Defense spending, National Security, Ronald Reagan, History, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America
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- An Examination of Elementary Teachers' Efficacy Beliefs and Their Perceptions and Use of Technology for Reading Instruction
- Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Education. The Catholic University of America, Reading is a consistent predictor of academic success (National Reading Panel, 2006). One avenue to improve students' reading achievement is with technology (Cheung and Slavin, 2012). Despite the possible benefits for integrating technology in reading classrooms, teachers do not use available technology (Bauer and Kenton, 2005; Levin and Wadmany, 2008). This study examined how Catholic elementary teachers' perceptions, and their self-efficacy, relate to their use of technology for teaching reading. Further, the research identified the factors that foster or inhibit the integration of technology. An electronic survey was administered and 115 teachers from a Catholic diocese in a mid-Atlantic suburb responded anonymously. The survey employed an adapted measure (Holden and Rada, 2011) derived from the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989). The sample consisted of predominantly mature, female teachers with about half having 10 or more years of teaching experience. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment tests and a correlation matrix, multiple regression analysis, ANOVA, and an independent-samples t-test. The survey's 5 subscales were highly reliable with strong Cronbach's alphas: perceptions (.95), attitudes toward using technology (.96), self-efficacy beliefs (.96), use (.90), and barriers to and facilitators for integration (.89). Teachers report access to technology, but express needs for specialized training and for additional equipment. Use was at the Tier 1 level, where teachers use technology for preparing to teach, rather than for actively engaging students with technology. There was a moderate positive relationship between teachers' sense of self-efficacy and use, r = .392, p < .01. The strongest correlation, though still moderate, was between teachers' perceptions and use, r = .49, p < .01. Teachers viewed beliefs about teaching (M = 5.52, SD = 1.48) and beliefs about technology (M = 5.33, SD = 1.59) positively, making them facilitators. Time for planning was viewed negatively (M = 4.12, SD = 1.93), making it a barrier to integration. Perceived usefulness elucidates why teachers use technology in teaching reading. By examining users' characteristics this study addressed the gap noted by Holden and Rada (2011). The current research also highlighted the significance of teacher-level factors such as teachers' perceptions about technology for their integration of technology in reading instruction.