Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Silica-Cemented Terrace Edges, Central California Coast, Lynn E. Moody, R. C. Graham

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

The morphologic development of soils on marine terraces is a function of terrace age and geomorphic evolution. In this study, interrelationships between terrace landscape evolution and pedogenic silica cementation were investigated. Soil morphology, micromorphology, selective dissolution, penetration resistance, and hydraulic conductivity were used to determine the nature and extent of the cementation and evaluate the effect of cementation on soil properties. Soils on the interior part of the terrace (coarse-loamy, mixed, thermic Typic Epiaquolls) contain plinthite, continuous throughout the entire terrace, cemented to the extent that it is only slowly permeable. A seasonally perched water table develops above the plinthite, …

Implementing Uneven-Aged Redwood Management At Cal Poly's School Forest, An Update, Douglas D. Piirto, Richard P. Thompson, Kevin L. Piper

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

California Polytechnic State University's School Ranch and Forest, called Swanton Pacific Ranch, is located just north of Santa Cruz, California and encompasses approximately 3,800 acres of crop, range, and forested areas. Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don] Endl.), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirb.] Franco var. menziesii) and tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus [Hook. & Arn.] Rehd.) occur on approciximately 1,900 acres of the Swanton Pacific Ranch and at Valencia. Because of its high stumpage value, coast redwood is the preferred management species. In addition to economic reality, California Forest Practice laws severely limit the extent of stand manipulation that …

Agent-Based Expert Assistance For Visual Problem Solving, Erika Rogers, Robin R. Murphy, Barb Ericson

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper presents a domain-independent architecture for facilitating visual problem solving between robots or softbots and humans. The architecture defines virtual and human agents in terms of their inherent cognitive and perceptual abilities, and their weak and strong knowledge sources. It introduces a third agent, an expert assistant called teleVIA, to mediate the flow of information, facilitate cooperation, filter and cache data, and generate the appropriate visual displays. The agent architecture addresses the technical issues of using an expert assistant to coordinate perception, thought, and action, manage sensing and perception, facilitate diagnosis, and to support the collaboration between people and …

Molecular Engineering Of Side-Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymers By Living Polymerizations, Coleen Pugh, Alan L. Kiste

Chemistry and Biochemistry

“Living” anionic, cationic, metalloporphyrin and ring-opening metathesis polymerizations have been used to prepare well-defined side-chain liquid crystalline homopolymers, block and graft copolymers and statistical copolymers. This paper analyzes their successes and failures by reviewing the mechanistic aspects and experimental conditions of each type of polymerization, and identifies other classes of mesogenic monomers that could be polymerized in a controlled manner in the future. The emerging structure/property relationships are then identified using well-defined SCLCPs in which only one structural feature is varied while all others remain constant.

The thermal transitions of liquid crystalline polymethacrylates, polynorbomenes and poly(viny1 ether)s reach their limiting …

Review Of The Nuclear Black Market, Global Organized Crime Project, David W. Hafemeister

Physics

No abstract provided.

Summing Up: Questions And Answers On The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, David W. Hafemeister

Physics

My experiences with the ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, and the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty have led me to conclude that presenting technical issues early in the process greatly reduces their politicization during the ratification end game. This chapter summarizes the important issues that will be raised during the debate on ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. It uses a compact question and answer format to cover the following topics: I. Nuclear Proliferation, II. Nuclear Arms Control, III. Warhead Reliability and Yield for National Security, IV. Warhead Safety, V. Verification, …

A Child's Flashlight And Rc Circuit Concepts, Matthew J. Moelter, Rand S. Worland

Physics

No abstract provided.

Reflections On The Gao Report On The Nuclear Triad, David W. Hafemeister

Physics

Senate Hearings on the GAO report on the nuclear triad and on the START treaty showed that vulnerabilities of the U.S. triad were vastly over‐stated, that the performance of new projected strategic systems was over‐estimated, and that the performance of existing U.S. strategic systems was under‐estimated. These exaggerations enhanced the psychological (Freud) aspects of the Cold War and compromised logic (Newton).

With the end of the Cold War it is imperative that we re‐examine the basic premises that guided the choices of the strategic nuclear systems. The initial bottom line is that these systems were successful in that they did …

Computer Assistance In Discovering Formulas And Theorems In System Engineering Ii, J. W. Helton, Mark Stankus, Kurt Schneider

Mathematics

[HSWcdc94] focused on procedures for simplifying complicated expressions automatically. [HScdc95] turned to the adventurous pursuit of developing a highly computer assisted method for “discovering” certain types of formulas and theorems.

It is often the case that some variables in the formulation of a problem are not the natural “coordinates” for solution of the problem. Gröbner Basis Algorithms, which lie at the core of our method, are very good at eliminating unknowns, but have no way of finding good changes of variables. This paper gives a way of incorporating changes of variables into our method.

As an example, we “discover” the …

M-Isometric Transformations Of Hilbert Space, Iii, Jim Alger, Mark Stankus

Mathematics

No abstract provided.

A Note On Distributions Of True Versus Fabricated Data, Theodore P. Hill

Research Scholars in Residence

New empirical evidence and statistical derivations of Benford’s Law have led to successful goodness-of fit tests to detect fraud in accounting data. Several recent case studies support the hypothesis that fabricated data does not conform to expected true digital frequencies.

Reverse Engineering Of Computer-Based Navy Systems, Lonnie R. Welch, Guohui Yu, Binoy Ravindran, Franz J. Kurfess, Jorge Henriques, Mark Wilson, Antonio L. Samuel, Michael W. Masters

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The financial pressure to meet the need for change in computer-based systems through evolution rather than through revolution has spawned the discipline of reengineering. One driving factor of reengineering is that it is increasingly becoming the case that enhanced requirements placed on computer-based systems are overstressing the processing resources of the systems. Thus, the distribution of processing load over highly parallel and distributed hardware architectures has become part of the reengineering process for computer-based Navy systems.

This paper presents an intermediate representation (IR) for capturing features of computer-based systems to enable reengineering for concurrency. A novel feature of the IR …

Re-Engineering Technical Education In Industry Through Interactive Multimedia Computer-Based Training, Yolanda Kennedy, Erika Rogers

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper describes current work on re-engineering a short technical course in the area of Non-Destructive Evaluation/Inspection (NDE/I) sponsored by Boeing’s Defense and Space Group. The subject of the course is Eddy Current Testing, and is currently taught over a period of two days using traditional view foils and hand-built artifacts. An overview of some of the course material is presented together with how techniques such as task analysis and storyboarding are being used to design interactive multimedia training modules to support this course.

Interactive Student Support For Introductory Computer Science Courses, Barb Ericson, Erika Rogers

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper describes the development of interactive multimedia modules which provide supplementary tutorials on basic topics covered in introductory computer science classes. Two such modules were implemented on the topics of number conversions and basic operating system information. The first versions of the tutorials were evaluated in a study using protocol collection and a post-test with a number of student participants. Results from this study led to the re-design of several portions of the tutorials, which now have a greater level of interaction and progressive assistance for problem-solving.

In Search Of An Improved Science And Public-Policy Process, David W. Hafemeister

Physics

No abstract provided.

The Current Energy Situation: Summary Points, David W. Hafemeister, A. Brecher, A. Fainberg, R. Howes, R. Socolow, D. Bodansky, P. Craig, B. Hammer, S. Smith, E. Stechel

Physics

Energy problems are now being largely ignored, despite their continuing importance. The near-disappearance of energy from the U.S. public agenda is apparent in the scant attention given to energy topics by the media and by public figures. Some suggestions for governmental action were stimulated by the rise in gasoline prices in the Spring of 1996, but the matter was treated as a short-term anomaly -- not as a harbinger of more severe difficulties to come. This lack of long term concern is perhaps natural, because fuel supplies are generally ample and prices are still relatively low, with the real cost …

High-Power Broadly Tunable Picosecond Ir Laser System For Use In Nonlinear Spectroscopic Applications, D. E. Gragson, B. M. Mccarty, G. L. Richmond, D. S. Alavi

Chemistry and Biochemistry

We developed a high-power tunable picosecond IR laser system suitable for nonlinear spectroscopic investigations. We employ a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier that produces 1.9-ps, 17-cm⁻¹, 800-nm pulses at 1 kHz as a pump source. White-light generation in ethylene glycol and optical parametric amplification in potassium titanyl phosphate are used to produce the IR pulses. The tuning range extends from 2.4 to 3.8 μm in the idler and 1.0 to 1.2 μm in the signal. A total efficiency (signal plus idler) as high as 20% was achieved. The spatial, spectral, and temporal characteristics of the IR beam are presented along …

Review Of Dark Sun: The Making Of The Hydrogen Bomb By Richard Rhodes, David W. Hafemeister

Physics

No abstract provided.

Strongly-Consistent, Distribution-Free Confidence Intervals For Quantiles, David Gilat, Theodore P. Hill

Research Scholars in Residence

Strongly-consistent, distribution-free confidence intervals are derived to estimate the fixed quantiles of an arbitrary unknown distribution, based on order statistics of an iid sequence from that distribution. This new method, unlike classical estimates, works for totally arbitrary (including discontinuous) distributions, and is based on recent one-sided strong laws of large numbers.

Magnetic Properties Of Tunicate Blood Cells. Ii. Ascidia Ceratodes, Kenneth Kustin, William E. Robinson, Richard B. Frankel, K. Spartalian

Physics

The magnetic properties of intact blood cells of the tunicate Ascidia ceratodes have been measured up to 50 kOe with a SQUID susceptometer. Analysis of total metal contents by plasma emission spectroscopy and V(IV) content by epr indicates that approximately 5% of the accumulated vanadium is +4 vanadyl ion. Measured values of the magnetic moment M_P at different values of the applied magnetic field H over the temperature range T = 2–100 K depend on the magnitude of the field indicating magnetic anisotropy of the ground state. The slope of the M_P vs. H/T curve at …

Koala: An Object-Agent Design System, Kym J. Pohl, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper describes KOALA, a design system with primary focus on the predesign stage of architectural design. KOALA combines object-agent technology with high level representation to form a partnership between the human designer and the computer-based design environment. A diverse taxonomy of agents including Domain agents. Space agents, and Monitor agents work in a collaborative fashion to provide the human designer with expert evaluation and assistance in developing a design solution. Spaces, in their roles as agents attempt to formulate various design solutions based on individual perspectives through negotiation with other agents. The result is a highly interactive design environment …

Resource Letter Belfef-1: Biological Effects Of Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, David W. Hafemeister

Physics

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on the interaction of extremely low-frequency electromagnetic field (ELF/EMF) interactions with biological matter, and on the possibility that such interactions could have a harmful effect on human health. Journal articles and books are cited for the following topics: ELF/EMF theoretical interactions with biological cells, organs and organisms, magnetic dipole interactions, sensing by animals, biomedical–biophysical experiments, epidemiology, and litigation–mitigation risk issues.

Strong Laws For L- And U-Statistics, J. Aaronson, R. Burton, H. Dehling, D. Gilat, Theodore P. Hill, B. Weiss

Research Scholars in Residence

Strong laws of large numbers are given for L-statistics (linear combinations of order statistics) and for U-statistics (averages of kernels of random samples) for ergodic stationary processes, extending classical theorems of Hoeffding and of Helmers for iid sequences. Examples are given to show that strong and even weak convergence may fail if the given sufficient conditions are not satisfied, and an application is given to estimation of correlation dimension of invariant measures.

Critical Pressures In Multicomponent Lipid Monolayers, John P. Hagen, Harden M. Mcconnell

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Epifluorescence microscopy has been used previously to study coexisting liquid phases in lipid monolayers of dihydrocholesterol and dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine at the air/water interface. This binary mixture has a critical point at room temperature (22°C), a monolayer pressure of approx. 10 mN/m, and a composition in the vicinity of 20-30 mol% dihydrocholesterol. It is reported here that this critical pressure can be lowered, raised, or maintained constant by systematically replacing molecules of this phosphatidylcholine with molecules of a phosphatidylethanolamine, or an unsaturated phosphatidylcholine, or mixtures of the two, while maintaining the dihydrocholesterol concentration at 20 mol%. Thus, even complex mixtures of lipids …

Background Paper On "Power Line Fields And Public Health", David W. Hafemeister

Physics

No abstract provided.

Categorization Of Programs Using Neural Networks, Franz J. Kurfess, Lonnie R. Welch

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper describes some experiments based on the use of neural networks for assistance in the quality assessment of programs, especially in connection with the reengineering of legacy systems. We use Kohonen networks, or self-organizing maps, for the categorization of programs: programs with similar features are grouped together in a two-dimensional neighbourhood, whereas dissimilar programs are located far apart. Backpropagation networks are used for generalization purposes: based on a set of example programs whose relevant aspects have already been assessed, we would like to obtain an extrapolation of these assessments to new programs. The basis for these investigation is an …

Estimating Value Contribution Of Tree And Stand Condition, R. Joss Hanna, Richard P. Thompson, Douglas D. Piirto, Jay E. Noel

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Key issues in encouraging forest management at the interface level in the oak woodlands are fire abatement, stand improvement, infection reduction, and hazard tree removal. The development of effective management prescriptions for stand improvement and economic returns provide guidance for homeowners, appraisers, and realtors. The purpose of this research project was to determine the effects of stand characteristics (e.g., structure, density and health) on the value of urban/interface forested properties. In this study, the forest characteristic coefficients were statistically significant with an estimated value contribution of about $30,000 each, or over 22 percent of the median property’s value ($262,079).

Efficacy Of Herbicide Application Methods Used To Control Tanoak (Lithocarpus Densiflorus) In An Uneven-Aged Coast Redwood Management Context, Douglas D. Piirto, Brenda Smith, Eric K. Huff, Scott T. Robinson

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Three methods of tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus [Hook. & Arn.] Rehd.) control involving the application of the amine or ester form of triclopyr were evaluated in this coast redwood uneven-aged forest management study of herbicides. A cut-stump application with the amine form of triclopyr (Garlon 3A), frill cut with the amine form of triclopyr, basal-bark (outer surface) with the ester form of triclopyr (Garlon 4), and an untreated control were replicated three times. The tanoak control results in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirb.] Franco) and/ or coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don] Endl.) predominated stands obtained in earlier studies …

An Existence Result For Linear Partial Differential Equations With C∞ Coefficients In An Algebra Of Generalized Functions, Todor D. Todorov

Mathematics

We prove the existence of solutions for essentially all linear partial differential equations with C^∞-coefficients in an algebra of generalized functions, defined in the paper. In particular, we show that H. Lewy’s equation has solutions whenever its right-hand side is a classical C^∞-function.

Heat-Capacity And Magnetic Measurements On The Y(Ni2-XCoX)B2C System, C. C. Hoellwarth, P. Klavins, R. N. Shelton

Physics

We have performed field-and temperature-dependent magnetization, resistivity, and heat-capacity measurements on polycrystalline samples of the Y(Ni_2-xCo_x)B₂C system with 0.0≤x≤0.4. Values of T_c ,x₀,H_c2,Θ_D,λ and N(E_d) were determined for various samples. We observe that Θ_D increases with x, while all the other parameters decrease with x. The T_c vs x data can be described using the BCS theory and the measured values of N(E_f)and Θ_D. The results suggest that the decrease in T_c is due to the decrease in …