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RESEARCH QUESTION How can we use green infrastructure to improve the stormwater quality in the suburb of Ahuriri? ABSTRACT Due to changes in the world climate, Napier, a city on the west coast of New Zealand is facing stormwater pollution problems.Perfume Point which is a costal park at the downstream of Ahuriri surbub, suffered from stormwater pollution.This study have shown that some of Napier's stormwater flows through surface runoff, residential areas, and industrial areas and finally merges into Ahuriri and the surrounding harbour. In addition to this, stormwater collected from the roads flows into the estuary along with pollutants. As a result, the Health Authority in Hawkes Bay warns people against any contact with the water in Ahuriri. In particular, untreated rainwater can pose a more severe risk to the environment and people's health. The study aims to use green infrastructure to help improve water quality in Perfumr Point. It sets a series of objectives based on the current situation, including assessing and analysing existing problems with the Napier stormwater system and development around the Ahuriri River. The current study collects data relating to land use, natural conditions and infrastructure around the city by analysing existing theories and case studies. Furthermore, the study will conduct a site survey around the site to analyse specific locations, conditions, issues and opportunities for future development. Building on existing issues, the research question was posed: How can we use green infrastructure to improve the stormwater quality in the suburb of Ahuriri? Based on a literature review of green infrastructure, water sensitive urban design and low impact urban design and development, the creation of rain gardens, depressions, roof gardens, permeable facilities and artificial wetlands throughout the catchment area could help to purify stormwater. A site analysis of the entire catchment area was carried out using ArcGIS. The results showed that stormwater problems will become more of a problem. However, the creation of wetland parks at the Perfume Point, rain gardens, permeable pavements and green infrastructure throughout the catchment can effectively reduce the impact of stormwater pollution. In addition, it is also essential to provide a space for residential activities at Perfume Point.

Coupling the hemodynamics with the pathophysiology of human intracranial aneurysm (IA) has been a subject of interest for eventually obtaining the reliable prediction of subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by aneurysm rupture. In recent works, the stability of flow patterns, regions of impingement, size of jets, wall shear stress (WSS), and the formation of vortices are considered to be the major causes of aneurysm rupture. A trending conclusion from the qualitative analysis of patient-specific cases is that aneurysms with simple stable flow patterns and large impingement region are safer than those with complex unstable flow pattern and small impingement region. When it comes to clinic, some physical experiments such as the testing of medical devices could not be operated on human body. Thus, preclinical animal models are introduced as surrogates. In the study of human IA, the most commonly used elastase-induced rabbit model has been found that it could only generate limited flow pattern due to the unrealistic retrograde flow condition inside the aneurysm. A novel method of creating bifurcation-like rabbit model for limiting retrograde flow was proposed recently and two new bifurcation-like rabbit aneurysms with different geometry were created in Mayo clinic. However, only the performance of the one with relative generalized geometry was testified. In this paper, the other novel bifurcation-like rabbit aneurysm model with irregular long sac was investigated and its hemodynamics performance has been extensively evaluated by using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method. The methodology of creating this rabbit aneurysm model, the construction of geometric model in the computer and the setting of boundary conditions will be described in detail. The robustness of this rabbit model has also been investigated by modifying the essential geometric variables of the model. Additionally, quantitative analysis of flow pattern changes was given as supplement for the robustness study. The result showed that this rabbit model with irregular long sac is capable of generating interest-relevant flow types and robust enough under geometric perturbation. It could serve as an extra evidence that the novel bifurcation-like rabbit model is powerful and robust enough for extrapolating results of animal experiments into human study.

As multi-touch mobile computing devices and open-air gesture sensing technology become increasingly commoditized and affordable, they are also becoming more widely adopted. It became necessary to create new interaction design specifically for gesture-based interfaces to meet the growing needs of users. However, a deeper understanding of the interplay between gesture, and visual and sonic output is needed to make meaningful advances in design. This thesis addresses this crucial step in development by investigating the interrelation between gesture-based input, and visual representation and feedback, in gesture-driven creative computing. This thesis underscores the importance that not all gestures are created equal, and there are multiple factors that affect their performance. For example, a drag gesture in visual programming scenario performs differently than in a target acquisition task. The work presented here (i) examines the role of visual representation and mapping in gesture input, (ii) quantifies user performance differences in gesture input to examine the effect of multiple factors on gesture interactions, and (iii) develops tools and platforms for exploring visual representations of gestures. A range of gesture spaces and scenarios, from continuous sound control with open-air gestures to mobile visual programming with discrete gesture-driven commands, was assessed. Findings from this thesis reveals a rich space of complex interrelations between gesture input and visual feedback and representations. The contributions of this thesis also includes the development of an augmented musical keyboard with 3-D continuous gesture input and projected visualization, as well as a touch-driven visual programming environment for interactively constructing dynamic interfaces. These designs were evaluated by a series of user studies in which gesture-to-sound mapping was found to have a significant affect on user performance, along with other factors such as the selection of visual representation and device size. A number of counter-intuitive findings point to the potentially complex interactions between factors such as device size, task and scenarios, which exposes the need for further research. For example, the size of the device was found to have contradictory effects in two different scenarios. Furthermore, this work presents a multi-touch gestural environment to support the prototyping of gesture interactions.

In recent years, there have been dramatic shifts in cellular and telecommunication industries. As smartphones are dominating on the cellphone market, more and more people use these mobile devices to access internet either through third generation network or IEEE802.11 wireless local area network. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has been widely used in IEEE802.11 wireless local area network and fourth generation network. This paper will focus on the design and implementation of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing system on field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The major components of an OFDM system include a modulator, an N-input inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT), two root raised cosine filters (RRC filter), an N-input Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and a demodulator. These components are designed by using very-high-speed integrated circuits (VHSIC) hardware description language (VHDL) under development environment of ModelSim, and then implemented onto Altera cyclone II EP2C35F672C6. The FFT accuracy is measured by comparing outputs from ModelSim to Matlab. The performance of the developed OFDM is evaluated in a wireless communication testbed.

This thesis explores a problem of how to evaluate environmental projects under the Carbon Cap-and-Trade Scheme (CCTS) from the perspective of an individual firm. The focus is the integration of a real option approach for project investment timing and financial carbon option approach for carbon credit management. The real option is for a mid or long term decision on when to invest on the environmental project, and the financial option is for a supplementary decision to hedge short-term residue risks. Two uncertainties (the carbon price and carbon credit demand) are considered, and their changes are represented by a lattice of multiple orders. Dynamic programming and linear stochastic programming are used to solve this integrated option problem under the carbon uncertainty. Numerical sensitivity analyses are also conducted by changing the parameters for the carbon price and carbon credit demand. The integrated approach can help a firm to make environmental investment decision and hedge carbon credit risks effectively under the CCTS. This research cn also helps examine the effects of different regulatory tools realted to implementing environmental projects and financial options by manufacturing firms under the CCTS so that policy-makers could design more effective environmental regulations reducing GHG emissions and manufacturers’ financial risks. Adviser: Jeonghan Ko

E47, an alternative splice product of the transcription factor 3 (TCF3) gene, has been mechanistically linked with multiple leukemias and lymphomas, and thus it is of great public health importance to study the mechanisms by which E47 influences the development of the hematopoietic system. Throughout life, all mature blood cells are constantly replenished from rare, self-renewing bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and downstream non-renewing multipotent progenitors (MPPs). Little is known about the gene regulatory network that controls the integrity of these essential bone marrow subsets. Previous evidence has suggested a crucial role for the transcription factor E47 in lymphocyte lineage commitment. However, the specific stages of hematopoiesis that require E47 and the underlying mechanisms through which it acts on remain unclear. Our study aims to elucidate the role of the transcription factor E47 in the earliest, multipotent stages of hematopoiesis. Using E47 deficient mice, we found that E47 is required for the development and functional integrity of uncommitted hematopoietic progenitors. Our results showed that E47 deficient mice had a 50-70% reduction in non-renewing MPPs, and the residual MPPs failed to initiate V(D)J recombination, a hallmark of lymphoid lineage progression. The long-term lineage repopulation and self-renewal activities of the primitive HSCs are also compromised in the absence of E47. Not only were the in vivo long-term repopulating HSCs reduced by 3 fold in the bone marrow of E47 deficient mice, but also these HSCs displayed poor self-renewal efficiency by serial transplantation. The compromised self-renewal of E47 null HSCs appears to be associated with premature exhaustion due to over-proliferation under replication stress. The multipotent hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells from E47 deficient mice displayed a striking hyperproliferation following transplantation stress, and they exhibited increased susceptibility to in vivo challenge with a mitotoxic drug. Finally, loss of function and gain of function assays identified the cell cycle inhibitor p21 as a target gene of E47. Together, these observations suggested that E47 regulates the development and functional potential of multipotent hematopoietic subsets, probably through effects on p21-mediated cell cycle quiescence. These findings might provide novel mechanistic insights into hematopoietic damage repair and malignant transformation.

Fatigue is a common experience that reduces productivity and increases chance of injury, and has been reported as one of most common symptoms with greatest impact on quality-of-life parameters in cancer patients. Neural mechanisms behind fatigue and cancer related fatigue (CRF) are not well known. Recent research has shown dissociation between changes in brain and muscle signals during voluntary muscle fatigue, which may suggest weakening of functional corticomuscular coupling (fCMC). However, this weakening of brain-muscle coupling has never been directly evaluated. More important information could be gained if fCMC is directly detected during fatigue because a voluntary muscle contraction depends on integration of the entire chain of events and is a complex interaction of different components from the central nervous system to peripheral systems. This research, first, evaluated the effect of muscle fatigue on fCMC in healthy people by determining electroencephalography (EEG)-electromyography (EMG) coherence during two stages of a sustained voluntary muscle contraction, one with minimal fatigue and the other with severer fatigue. The obtained results suggest that despite an elevation of the power for both the EEG and EMG activities with muscle fatigue, the fatigue weakens strength of fCMC between the two signals. Secondly, given the fact that there is larger discrepancy between central and peripheral fatigue in CRF, the effect of cancer related fatigue on fCMC was evaluated by comparing EEG-EMG coherence during a muscle fatigue task in CRF patients with healthy controls. CRF patients showed significantly lower fCMC compared to healthy controls during minimal fatigue stage which may be caused by possible pathophysiological impairments in the patients. Finally, to better understand dynamic fatigue effect on fCMC, a single trial coherence estimation based on Morlet wavelet was developed and applied to investigate fatigue effect on fCMC in single trial during repetitive maximal muscle contractions. It was revealed that the decreasing pattern of the fCMC varied among the subjects but the overall decreasing trend was consistent across subjects. The results from the single-trial study suggest it is possible to detect more dynamic fCMC adaptations under acute neuromuscular instability conditions, such as muscle fatigue. This research reveals that muscle fatigue impairs normal coupling between the central and peripheral neuromuscular systems, which could be a major factor contributing to worsened performance under fatigue influence. In general, cancer patients with fatigue symptom exhibit substantially weakened fCMC, even without influence of muscle fatigue. The findings are potentially important in understanding neural mechanisms of muscle fatigue and cancer related fatigue, and in guiding development of new methodologies to improve diagnosis and treatment of fatigue symptoms in clinical populations.