Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Salinity And Hydrology Of The Upper Slab Hut Catchment, R Ferdowsian, A T. Ryder

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

A Stochastic Analog To The Richardson's Arms Race Model, John Fricks

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this thesis, a stochastic version of the Richardson's arms race model is developed through the method of birth-death processes. The expected value of the model is explored and shown to be analogous to the original deterministic arms race model. The numerical method of randomization is then expanded and applied to the stochastic model. A comparison is then made between outcomes of the deterministic and stochastic models.

The Effects Of Phosphorus Enrichment On The Dominant Phytoplankton Communities Of Chaney Lake, Kathy Tehrani

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Chaney Lake is a temporary karst wetland located in southern Warren County, Kentucky. Because of an impermeable chert layer between the surface and the porous limestone, Chaney Lake fills with water over the winter and spring and then gradually drains over the summer. Three experiments were conducted over the course of the 1998 flooding season to assess the effects of phosphorus addition on the phytoplankton community in Chaney Lake. Ten plastic-sided mesocosms were constructed and placed in the marsh area of the wetland at three different periods: early spring, early summer, and late summer. Phosphorus in the form of K2HPO4 …

Comparison Of An Advanced Mercury Analyzer With The Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Technique For The Determination Of Mercury In Coal, Dong Li

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

For over 30 years the industry standard method for mercury analysis has been the cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometric technique (CVAAS). Recent developments in improving this technique have focused on procedures for concentrating mercury in the analyte or materials to improve detection. The LECO Corporation produces an Advanced Mercury Analyzer, the AMA-254, for analysis of the solid and liquid samples. The system allows for the thermal heating of the sample to decompose the sample and release mercury, which is concentrated in a gold amalgam. Thermal desorption of the mercury from the amalgam is detected by atomic absorption spectroscopy. A comparison …

Depositional And Diagenetic Relationships Of The Honaker-Nolichucky Formational Boundary (Middle Cambrian, Conasauga Group), Southern Appalachians, Gary Alan Ottinger

Masters Theses

The upper Honaker and lower Nolichucky Formations (Middle Cambrian, Conasauga Group) in northeastern Tennessee comprise part of a thick pericratonic Cambro-Ordovician passive margin sequence along the eastern edge of North America. Throughout the Cambrian, the interplay of autocyclic controls, including sediment supply, tectonism and accompanying subsidence, and eustasy, resulted in various sedimentary architectures, including the Conasauga platform and intrashelf basin adjacent to the craton. To date, the Middle Cambrian westerly carbonate sections adjacent to and within the intrashelf basin (near Knoxville) have been studied in considerable detail. Particularly, these studies have proposed a third-order sequence boundary near Knoxville as well …

Modeling Macrophytes Of The Columbia Slough, Oregon, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Columbia Slough is a tidally influenced freshwater system of wetlands, channels, and lakes located within the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. It is a eutrophic water body susceptible to algae blooms and crashes and periods of high pH which violate water quality standards. High nutrient loads from groundwater principally controls algae productivity. Past structural changes to the Columbia Slough have included filling of wetlands and lakes and the construction of levees, dikes, culverts and irrigation channels. These changes have altered the natural flow dynamics creating an environment more conducive to eutrophication. …

Mobile Agents And The Future Of The Internet, David Kotz, Robert S. Gray

Dartmouth Scholarship

Use of the Internet has exploded in recent years with the appearance of the World-Wide Web. In this paper, we show how current technological trends may lead to a system based substantially on mobile code, and in many cases, mobile agents. We discuss several technical and non-technical hurdles along the path to that eventuality. It seems likely that, within a few years, nearly all major Internet sites will be capable of hosting and willing to host some form of mobile code or mobile agents.

Back To Basics – Statistics For Logisticians, Caroline Lubert

Caroline P Lubert

No abstract provided.

The Discovery-Oriented Approach To Organic Chemistry. 2. Selectivity In Alcohol Oxidation. An Exercise In 1H Nmr Spectroscopy For Sophomore Organic Laboratories, Ram S. Mohan, Steven R. Shadwick

Ram S. Mohan

An Explanation Of Observed Trends In The X-Ray Emission From Single Wolf-Rayet Stars., R. Ignace, L. M. Oskinova

Richard Ignace

The O and early B star winds show empirical correlations between X-ray (L_x) and Bolometric (L_Bol) luminosity as well as wind properties such as wind momentum and wind kinetic energy. Wolf-Rayet stars do not. We discuss scaling relations to qualitatively explain this lack of correlation among the WR winds and to quantitatively reproduce the observed ratio of X-ray luminosities between the N-rich WN types and C-rich WC types. If (a) the filling factor of hot X-ray emitting gas varies as (M⊙/v_\infty)(-1) for stars of different mass loss and terminal speed and (b) the ambient Wolf-Rayet wind component is optically thick …

Science And Security Watch: A Threat To The United States From Foreign Graduate Students Training In Physics?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article critiques concerns of some United States (US) security analysts that foreign graduate students in physics who train at universities within the US present security vulnerabilities for the US.

The Skyrme Model For Baryons, Joseph Schechter, H. Weigel

Physics - All Scholarship

We review the Skyrme model approach which treats baryons as solitons of an effective meson theory. We start out with a historical introduction and a concise discussion of the original two flavor Skyrme model and its interpretation. Then we develop the theme, motivated by the large N_C approximation of QCD, that the {\it effective} Lagrangian of QCD is in fact one which contains just mesons of all spins. When this Lagrangian is (at least approximately) determined from the meson sector it should then yield a zero parameter description of the baryons. We next discuss the concept of chiral symmetry and …

Acquisition Of An Automated Powder X-Ray Diffraction System, Charles V. Guidotti, Edward S. Grew, Martin Yates

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

This grant provides $70,295 as one-half support of the costs of acquiring a state-of-the-art powder X-ray diffractometer (XRD) that will be housed in a newly constructed Global Sciences building on the Orono campus of the University of Maine. This acquisition will allow these PI's to continue their internationally recognized research programs in petrologic mineralogy including studies of the phase equilibria of solid solutions in metamorphic rocks and borosilicates. The characterization of both structural properties and mineralogic identification of unknowns is fundamental to these researchers and the establishment of a modern XRD facility at the University of Maine will benefit a …

Essays In Mechanism Design., Suresh Mutuswami Dr.

Doctoral Theses

The theory of implementation or mechanism design had its origins in the debates in the 1930s between Hayek, Lange and Lerner on the informational efficiency of the market economy. However, it was the work of Hurwicz in the 1950s and the 1960s which formalised the insights of Hayek, Lange and Lerner and paved the way for the body of work that followed his pioneering effort.In addition to the considerable theoretical literature on mechanism de- sign'. there also exists a body of literature which uses the mechanism design approach to address specific problems. Some examples of work in this vein include …

Numerical Investigation Of The Thermodynamic Limit For Ground States In Models With Quenched Disorder, Alan Middleton

Physics - All Scholarship

The effect of open boundary conditions for four models with quenched disorder are studied in finite samples by numerical ground state calculations. Extrapolation to the infinite volume limit indicates that the configurations in ``windows'' of fixed size converge to a unique configuration, up to global symmetries. The scaling of this convergence is consistent with calculations based on the fractal dimension of domain walls. These results provide strong evidence for the ``two-state'' picture of the low temperature behavior of these models. Convergence in three-dimensional systems can require relatively large windows.

Mechanism For A Next-To-Lowest Lying Scalar Meson Nonet, Joseph Schechter, Deirdre Black, Amir H. Fariborz

Physics - All Scholarship

Recent work suggests the existence of a non-conventional lowest-lying scalar nonet containing the a0(980). Then the a0(1450) and also the K0*(1430) are likely candidates to belong to a conventional p-wave q \bar q nonet. However a comparison of their properties with those expected on this basis reveals a number of puzzling features. It is pointed out that these puzzles can be resolved in a natural and robust way by assuming a ``bare'' conventional p-wave scalar q \bar q nonet to mix with a lighter four quark qq \bar q \bar q scalar nonet to form new ``physical'' states. The essential …

Likely And Unlikely Events In International Security Affairs: An Example From The People's Republic Of China, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes a human judgment shortfall in international security decision making based on statistical probabilities.

Chemical Characteristics Of Air From Differing Source Regions During The Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics A (Pem-Tropics A), Ashley S. Board, H Fuelberg, G L. Gregory, B J. Heikes, Martin G. Schultz, D R. Blake, Jack E. Dibb, S T. Sandholm, R. Talbot

Earth Sciences

Ten-day backward trajectories are used to determine the origins of air parcels arriving at airborne DC-8 chemical measurement sites during NASA's Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics A (PEM-T) that was conducted during August-October 1996. Those sites at which the air had a common geographical origin and transport history are grouped together, and statistical measures of chemical characteristics are computed. Temporal changes in potential temperature are used to determine whether trajectories experience a significant convective influence during the 10-day period. Those trajectories that do not experience a significant convective influence are divided into four geographical categories depending on their origins and paths. Air …

Constraints On The Age And Dilution Of Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics Biomass Burning Plumes From The Natural Radionuclide Tracer 210pb, Jack E. Dibb, R. Talbot, David Meeker, Eric Scheuer, N J. Blake, D R. Blake, G L. Gregory, G W. Sachse

Earth Sciences

During the NASA Global Troposphere Experiment Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics (PEM-Tropics) airborne sampling campaign we found unexpectedly high concentrations of aerosol-associated ²¹⁰Pb throughout the free troposphere over the South Pacific. Because of the remoteness of the study region, we expected specific activities to be generally less than 35 μBq m⁻³ but found an average in the free troposphere of 107 μBq m⁻³. This average was elevated by a large number of very active (up to 405 μBq m⁻³) samples that were associated with biomass burning plumes encountered on nearly every PEM-Tropics flight in the southern …

Ozone And Aerosol Distributions And Air Mass Characteristics Over The South Pacific During The Burning Season, Marta Fenn, Edward V. Browell, Carolyn Butler, William B. Grant, Susan A. Kooi, Marian B. Clayton, G L. Gregory, Reginald E. Newell, Yong Zhu, Jack E. Dibb, H Fuelberg, Bruce E. Anderson, A R. Bandy, D R. Blake, J D. Bradshaw, B J. Heikes, G W. Sachse, S T. Sandholm, H B. Singh, R. Talbot, D C. Thornton

Earth Sciences

In situ and laser remote measurements of gases and aerosols were made with airborne instrumentation to establish a baseline chemical signature of the atmosphere above the South Pacific Ocean during the NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE)/Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics A (PEM-Tropics A) conducted in August-October 1996. This paper discusses general characteristics of the air masses encountered during this experiment using an airborne lidar system for measurements of the large-scale variations in ozone (O₃) and aerosol distributions across the troposphere, calculated potential vorticity (PV) from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), and in situ measurements for comprehensive air …

Gravitational Radiation From Globular Clusters, M. Benacquista

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Space-based gravitational wave detectors will have the ability to observe continuous low-frequency gravitational radiation from binary star systems. They can determine the direction to continuous sources with an angular resolution approaching tens of arcminutes. This resolution should be sufficient to identify binary sources as members of some nearby globular clusters. Thus, gravitational radiation can be used to determine the population of hard binaries in globular clusters. For particularly hard binaries, the orbital period may change as a result of gravitational wave emission. If one of these binaries can be identified with a globular cluster, then the distance to that cluster …

The Hanle Effect As A Diagnostic Of Magnetic Fields In Stellar Envelopes Ii. Some Theoretical Results For Resolved Line Profiles., R. Ignace, J. P. Cassinelli, K. H. Nordsieck

Richard Ignace

A magnetic field diagnostic of stellar winds that uses the Hanle effect is discussed. This diagnostic pertains to the modification of resonance-line-scattering polarization in the presence of magnetic fields. The case for resolved polarized profiles of optically thin emission lines is considered, and some analytic results for an expanding equatorial disk are derived. Numerical results for a dipole magnetic field embedded in a spherical outflow are also presented. Although the considerations are somewhat simplified, the primary conclusion is that the modification or creation of line profile polarization by the Hanle effect can be used to discriminate between different magnetic field …

The Robustness Of Relaxation Rates In Constraint Satisfaction Networks, Tony R. Martinez, Dan A. Ventura, D. Randall Wilson, Brian Moncur

Faculty Publications

Constraint satisfaction networks contain nodes that receive weighted evidence from external sources and/or other nodes. A relaxation process allows the activation of nodes to affect neighboring nodes, which in turn can affect their neighbors, allowing information to travel through a network. When doing discrete updates (as in a software implementation of a relaxation network), a goal net or goal activation can be computed in response to the net input into a node, and a relaxation rate can then be used to determine how fast the node moves from its current value to its goal value. An open question was whether …

A Neural Model Of Centered Tri-Gram Speech Recognition, Tony R. Martinez, Dan A. Ventura, D. Randall Wilson, Brian Moncur

Faculty Publications

A relaxation network model that includes higher order weight connections is introduced. To demonstrate its utility, the model is applied to the speech recognition domain. Traditional speech recognition systems typically consider only that context preceding the word to be recognized. However, intuition suggests that considering both preceding context as well as following context should improve recognition accuracy. The work described here tests this hypothesis by applying the higher order relaxation network to consider both precedes and follows context in speech recognition. The results demonstrate both the general utility of the higher order relaxation network as well as its improvement over …

Combining Cross-Validation And Confidence To Measure Fitness, Tony R. Martinez, D. Randall Wilson

Faculty Publications

Neural network and machine learning algorithms often have parameters that must be tuned for good performance on a particular task. Leave-one-out cross-validation (LCV) accuracy is often used to measure the fitness of a set of parameter values. However, small changes in parameters often have no effect on LCV accuracy. Many learning algorithms can measure the confidence of a classification decision, but often confidence alone is an inappropriate measure of fitness. This paper proposes a combined measure of Cross- Validation and Confidence (CVC) for obtaining a continuous measure of fitness for sets of parameters in learning algorithms. This paper also proposes …

The Little Neuron That Could, Timothy L. Andersen, Tony R. Martinez

Faculty Publications

SLPs (single layer perceptrons) oflen exhibit reasonable generalization performance on many problems of interest. However, due to the well known limitations of SLPs very little effort has been made to improve their performance. This paper proposes a method for improving the performance of SLPs called "wagging" (weight averaging). This method involves training several different SLPs on the same training data, and then averaging their weights to obtain a single SLP. The performance of the wagged SLP is compared with other more complex learning algorithms (bp, c4.5, ibl, MML, etc) on 15 data sets from real world problem domains. Surprisingly, the …

Cross Validation And Mlp Architecture Selection, Timothy L. Andersen, Tony R. Martinez

Faculty Publications

The performance of cross validation (CV) based MLP architecture selection is examined using 14 real world problem domains. When testing many different network architectures the results show that CV is only slightly more likely than random to select the optimal network architecture, and that the strategy of using the simplest available network architecture performs better than CV in this case. Experimental evidence suggests several reasons for the poor performance of CV. In addition, three general strategies which lead to significant increase in the performance of CV are proposed. While this paper focuses on using CV to select the optimal MLP …

Extending The Power And Capacity Of Constraint Satisfaction Networks, Tony R. Martinez, Xinchuan Zeng

Faculty Publications

This work focuses on improving the Hopfield network for solving optimization problems. Although much work has been done in this area, the performance of the Hopfield network is still not satisfactory in terms of valid convergence and quality of solutions. We address this issue in this work by combing a new activation function (EBA) and a new relaxation procedure (CR) in order to improve the performance of the Hopfield network. Each of EBA and CR has been individually demonstrated capable of substantially improving the performance. The combined approach has been evaluated through 20,000 simulations based on 200 randomly generated city …

An Ellam Scheme For Advection-Diffusion Equations In Two Dimensions, Hong Wang, Helge K. Dahle, Richard E. Ewing, Magne S. Espedal, Robert Sharpley, Shushuang Man

Faculty Publications

We develop an Eulerian--Lagrangian localized adjoint method (ELLAM) to solve two-dimensional advection-diffusion equations with all combinations of inflow and outflow Dirichlet, Neumann, and flux boundary conditions. The ELLAM formalism provides a systematic framework for implementation of general boundary conditions, leading to mass-conservative numerical schemes. The computational advantages of the ELLAM approximation have been demonstrated for a number of one-dimensional transport systems; practical implementations of ELLAM schemes in multiple spatial dimensions that require careful algorithm development are discussed in detail in this paper. Extensive numerical results are presented to compare the ELLAM scheme with many widely used numerical methods and to …

Protein Adducts Of Iso[4]Levuglandin E2, A Product Of The Isoprostane Pathway, In Oxidized Low Density Lipoprotein, Robert G. Salomon, Wei Sha, Cynthia Brame, Kamaljit Kaur, Ganesamoorthy Subbanagounder, June O'Neil, Henry F. Hoff, L. Jackson Roberts Ii

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Levuglandin (LG) E₂, a cytotoxic seco prostanoic acid co-generated with prostaglandins by nonenzymatic rearrangements of the cyclooxygenase-derived endoperoxide, prostaglandin H₂, avidly binds to proteins. That LGE₂-protein adducts can also be generated nonenzymatically is demonstrated by their production during free radical-induced oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL). Like oxidized LDL, LGE₂-LDL, but not native LDL, undergoes receptor-mediated uptake and impaired processing by macrophage cells. Since radical-induced lipid oxidation produces isomers of prostaglandins, isoprostanes (isoPs), via endoperoxide intermediates, we postulated previously that a similar family of LG isomers, isoLGs, is cogenerated with isoPs. Now …