Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Tulloch Ditching, Carl Hershner, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science, Wetlands Program

Reports

No abstract provided.

Coastal Land And Groundwater For Horticulture From Gingin To Augusta, Dennis Van Gool, Werner Runge

Resource management technical reports

Due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure needs, labour requirements and transport costs, horticulture is often located near major urban centres. This study focuses on the coastal plain region from Gingin to Augusta. This region accommodates over 80% of Western Australia’s population and includes the State’s major urban centres. This region accounts for over half the State’s horticultural production with a gross value of production of $244 million (adjusted ABS values, see section 1.2). Increasing population pressures and increasing demand for horticultural produce have resulted in competition for the limited land resources in this area.

Thermal Degradation Of Polystyrene, Poly(1,4-Butadiene) And Copolymers Of Styrene And 1,4-Butadiene Irradiated Under Air Or Argon With 60co-Γ-Rays, W. Schnabel, Galina F. Levchik, Charles Wilkie, David D. Jiang, Sergei V. Levchik

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

⁶⁰Co-γ-irradiated samples of polystyrene (PSt), poly(1,4-butadiene), (PBD), and two poly(styrene-co-butadiene)s containing 25 and 75% BD were subjected to thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), in the presence and absence of O₂. In the case of PSt the irradiation caused a significant shift in T_onset, the onset temperature for mass loss, to higher temperatures, whereas in the cases of the BD-containing polymers irradiation caused a decrease in T_onset (oxic irradiation) or had little or no effect on T_onset (anoxic irradiation). The amount of non-volatile residue formed in the cases of BD-containing polymers was augmented by …

Use Of Evolutionary Factor Analysis In The Spectroelectrochemistry Of Escherichia Coli Sulfite Reductase Hemoprotein And A Mo/Fe/S Cluster, Robert L. Keesey, Michael D. Ryan

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

The deconvolution of spectroelectrochemical data is often quite difficult if the spectra of intermediates are not known. Factor analysis, however, has been shown to be a powerful technique which can make it possible to deconvolute overlapping spectra. In this work, evolving factor analysis will be used to determine the number of intermediates and the spectra of those species for two typical spectroelectrochemical experiments:  linear scan voltammetry and chronoabsorptometry in a thin-layer cell. The first system was the reduction of E. coli sulfite reductase hemoprotein (SiR-HP). Principal factor analysis indicated that three species were present. By using evolving factor analysis, …

Investigation Of The Determinants Of African Savanna Vegetation Distribution: A Case Study From The Lower Omo Basin, Ethiopia, Catherine A. Schloeder

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Organization has little information on the extent and ecological determinants of plant species composition and distribution in Omo National Park. Elsewhere, the determinants of African savanna vegetation dynamics have been the focus of numerous investigations, yet our understanding of the hierarchical nature and relative importance of any relationships remains very general. As well, our ability to derive predictions about vegetation responses is limited to extreme generalizations. African savanna landscape ecotones have received even less attention than most landscapes. In this dissertation, I test hypotheses about plant species distribution-determinant relationships in Omo National Park, a park that …

Ultraviolet-B Radiation: Effects On Pollen Of 34 Taxa, And Inheritance Patterns And Carryover Of Radiation Response In Arabidopsis, Javad Torabinejad

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although considerable research has addressed effects of elevated ultraviolet-B (UV-8) radiation on vegetative plant structures and processes, the reproductive biology and patterns of inheritance of UV-B tolerance have received much less attention. I examined the effects of UV-B radiation on pollen of 34 taxa. I also addressed questions concerning the patterns of inheritance of UV-B tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana and examined potential cumulative carryover effects of UV-B exposure through multiple generations of this species.

In the first study, a significant reduction in pollen germination occurred in only five species, but pollen tube growth in more than half of the species …

Construction And Analysis Of A Family Of Numerical Methods For Hyperbolic Conservation Laws With Stiff Source Terms, Cinnamon Hillyard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Numerical schemes for the partial differential equations used to characterize stiffly forced conservation laws are constructed and analyzed. Partial differential equations of this form are found in many physical applications including modeling gas dynamics, fluid flow, and combustion. Many difficulties arise when trying to approximate solutions to stiffly forced conservation laws numerically. Some of these numerical difficulties are investigated.

A new class of numerical schemes is developed to overcome some of these problems. The numerical schemes are constructed using an infinite sequence of conservation laws.

Restrictions are given on the schemes that guarantee they maintain a uniform bound and satisfy …

Chemical And Hydrostratigraphic Characterization Of Ground Water And Surface Water Interactions In Cache Valley, Utah, J. Mike Robinson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A series of five east-west and two north-south hydrostratigraphic cross sections were drawn from drillers' logs of water wells within the southern half of Cache Valley, Utah. These cross-sections demonstrate that ground water flow to streams is restricted by a continuous low- II permeability layer, nearly 100-feet thick. This layer was correlated to the lake-bottom deposits of the Bonneville (30,000 -13,000 years ago) and Little Valley (140,000 - 90,000 years ago) cycles of the ancient Lake Bonneville.

The most productive aquifers in the valley, collectively termed the principal aquifer , are in the southeast corner , approximately between Smithfield and …

Cenozoic Structural And Stratigraphic Evolution Of The Southeastern Salmon Basin, East-Central Idaho, James J. Blankenau

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The southeastern Salmon basin (SB) of east-central Idaho is a complex east-dipping half graben containing four unconformity-bounded sequences of Tertiary volcanic, alluvial fan, lacustrine, and fluvial deposits. From oldest to youngest these are the Challis volcanic group, sedimentary rocks of Tendoy (new name), sedimentary rocks of Sacajaweja (new name), and Quaternary-Tertiary deposits . The thick sequence of volcanic rocks was deposited in a southeast-trending paleovalley . New mapping, cross-cutting relationships, ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age determinations, and angular unconformities show that the SB has experienced at least four episodes of extension, and that it lies in the core of an …

Sequence Stratigraphy And Paleoecology Of The Middle Cambrian Spence Shale Member Of The Langston Formation Of Northeastern Utah And Southeastern Idaho, Scott H. Wright

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Middle Cambrian Spence Shale Member contains meter-scale, shallowing-up cycles (parasequences) and record approximately 360 ky of deposition. These meter-scale cycles are nested within transgressive systems tracts (TST) and highstand systems tracts (HST) which reflect different stages of a lower-order, higher-magnitude sea-level excursion.

Fossil assemblages are located in stratigraphic positions within the Spence Shale Member that can be predicted on the basis of sequence architecture. The cycle architecture, taphonomy, and geochemistry of the Spence parasequences confirm synthetic sections and theoretical models of meter-scale cycles developed in other studies. Delineation of meter-scale cycles, based on taphonomic and sedimentologic criteria, allows high-resolution …

The Role Of Iron And Reactive Oxygen Species In Particulate Air Pollution-Dependent Biochemical And Biological Activities, Kevin Richard Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Particulate air pollution is known to exacerbate respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, in humans. It has been proposed that transition meta ls from inhaled particles may play a role in this exacerbation by generating radical species leading to damage in the lungs.

The aim of this research was to determine the role that iron from particulate air pollution played in the generation of reactive oxygen species and subsequently the induction of inflammatory mediators in cells in culture. The production of reactive oxygen species by particulate air pollution was found to be dependent on the mobilization …

A Social Analysis Of Grazing Management On National Forest Lands: A Case Study In Catron County, New Mexico, Alexis S. Watts

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The rural west in this country faces increased national pressure concerning the management of natural resources on public lands. Issues regarding natural resource management are becoming more important as they continue to affect rural communities and capture the attention of a variety of interest groups. Natural resource managers are increasingly required to consider social dimensions of resource use and management. Lack of consideration in these areas can lead to dissatisfied, and even hostile, local residents and interest groups. Often land managers face criticism from many groups at once as a result of management decisions.

This study analyzed a particular resource …

Measurement Of Angle-Resolved Secondary Electron Spectra, Robert Davies

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Theoretical formulations of secondary electron emission over the past 20 years have exceeded the confirming ability of available measurements. An instrument has been developed and tested for the purpose of obtaining simultaneous angle- and energy-resolved (AER) secondary and backscattered electron measurements for energetic electrons incident on conducting surfaces. The instrument is found to be in good working order and the data quality found to be excellent for nearly all angles and energies investigated. A representative set of AER measurements has been acquired for 1500 eV electrons normally incident on polycrystalline gold. The data have been used to construct angle-resolved (AR) …

Vessiot: A Maple Package For Varational And Tensor Calculus In Multiple Coordinate Frames, Charles E. Miller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Maple V package Vessiot is an extensive set of procedures for performing computations in variational and tensor calculus. Vessiot is an extension of a previous package, Helmholtz, which was written by Cinnamon Hillyard for performing operations in the calculus of variations. The original set of commands included standard operators on differential forms, Euler-Lagrange operators, the Lie bracket operator, Lie derivatives, and homotopy operators. These capabilities are preserved in Vessiot, and enhanced so as to function in a multiple coordinate frame context. In addition, a substantial number of general tensor operations have been added to the package. These include standard …

Reply [To “Comment On “Sks Splitting Beneath Continental Rifts Zones” By Gao Et Al.”], Stephen S. Gao, Paul M. Davis, Kelly H. Liu, Philip D. Slack, Andrew W. Rigor, Yuliy A. Zorin, Valentina V. Mordvinova, Vladimir M. Kozhevnikov, Nikolai A. Logatchev

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Vauchez et al. [this issue] (hereinafter refered to as VBN) interpret the petrologic, tomographic, and anisotropy data from continental rifts to support a model of continental rifting [Nicolas, 1993; Nicolas et al., 1994] in which the lithosphere splits along the rift axis and asthenosphere flows in from the sides to fill the resulting gap. We suggest here that the data can also be described by a model in which the lower lithosphere is modified or eroded by active mantle upwelling over a region of significantly greater dimensions than the rift graben and that partial melt developing in the upwelling …

Analysis Of Fats And Fat-Soluble Components In Foods Using Supercritical Fluid Extraction And Chromatographic Techniques, Sneha Patel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to develop experimental procedures for the extraction of fats from common foods using SFE and to determine by chromatographic techniques the fat-soluble components that are extracted with the fats. In this study various food samples were examined including french fries from Wendy's, McDonald's and Burger King, as well as potato chips, peanut butter and donuts. Soxtec extraction was used as the standard method for comparison of results (percentage of fat) obtained from SFE. Gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry were used for the determination of fat-soluble components (fatty acids), after extraction of fat from …

An Immobolized Surfactant Extraction Technique Compatible With High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Ultraviolet Visible Detection, Ming Zhu

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Surfactant mediated extractions are analogous to liquid-liquid extractions (LLE) except surfactants are used as extractants instead of organic solvents. The benefit for using surfactants for extractions includes lower toxicity, lower associated costs and direct compatibility with high performance liquid chromatography techniques. In this study, a novel immobilized surfactant extraction method was developed. In this method, the cationic alklytrimethylamrnonium surfactants are immobilized onto a strong cationic exchange resin through ion exchange. This surfactant-resin material is placed in a column and aqueous solutions containing analytes are passed through. The analytes are retained by the long carbon chain of the surfactant molecules and …

The Origin Of Brucite In Hydrothermally Altered Limestone Near Devil Peak, Nevada, Rhonda L. Knupp

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Open-space brucite was identified in veins crosscutting hydrothermally altered limestone near the Devil Peak rhyolite plug in southern Nevada. The brucite occurs with serpentine, calcite, chalcedony, hydromagnesite, dolomite, and clinochlore.

Brucite usually forms as a replacement mineral, but textural evidence indicates that the brucite at Devil Peak precipitated in open space. The presence of chalcedony in veins indicates the temperature of the hydrothermal fluid was <180^oC during and after mineral deposition. Thermodynamic modeling shows this temperature is too low for replacement brucite to form, thus the low temperature of alteration may be a factor in this unusual occurrence of …

Notepals: Lightweight Note Sharing By The Group, For The Group, Richard C. Davis, James A. Landay, Victor Chen, Jonathan Huang, Rebecca B. Lee, Francis Li, James Lin, Charles B. Morrey, Morgan N. Price, Bill N. Schilit

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

NotePals is a lightweight note sharing system that gives group members easy access to each others experiences through their personal notes. The system allows notes taken by group members in any context to be uploaded to a shared repository. Group members view these notes with browsers that allow them to retrieve all notes taken in a given context or to access notes from other related notes or documents. This is possible because NotePals records the context in which each note is created (e.g., its author, subject, and creation time). The system is lightweight because it fits easily into group members …

Economic Markets As A Means Of Open Mobile-Agent Systems, Jonathan Bredin, David Kotz, Daniela Rus

Dartmouth Scholarship

Mobile-agent systems have gained popularity in use because they ease the application design process by giving software engineers greater flexibility. Although the value of any network is dependent on both the number of users and the number of sites participating in the network, there is little motivation for systems to donate resources to arbitrary agents. We propose to remedy the problem by imposing an economic market on mobile-agent systems where agents purchase resources from host sites and sell services to users and other agents. Host sites accumulate revenues, which are distributed to users to be used to launch more agents. …

Geochemistry And Petrogenesis Of The Bonanza King Mafic Intrusive Complex, Trinity Terrane Ophiolite, California, Keith R. Willse

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Bonanza King mafic intrusive complex (MIC) (>25 km^2₎ of the Trinity terrane ophiolite, northern California, consists of cogenetic plutonic and dike lithologies. Steep intrusive contacts exist between cumulate pyroxenite, isotropic gabbro, and peridotite country rock. Near vertical east-west trending, bimodal dikes intruded gabbro and are centered within the complex. Geochemical modeling indicates taht accumulation/fractionation of a gabbroic parental magma produced lithologic trends of cumulate pyroxenite and fractionated gabbro and dike lithologies. Similarities between all lithologies suggest cogenetic formation of all the elements of the Bonanza King MIC during the Late Silurian (431 +/- 3).

Parental magma …

The Geochronology And Geochemistry Of The Bearhead Rhyolite, Jemez Volcanic Field, New Mexico, Leigh Justet

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Around 82% of mapped Bearhead Rhyolite (Main Cluster) and Peralta Tuff appears to have been derived from a relatively long-lived (~680 ka), large, shallow (Earth's surface) magma chamber that did not produce a caldera-forming eruption. Although volatile contents were great enough (~ wt.% H₂O), no large-scale explosive eruptions occurred because magma may have been tectonically vented. The lack of systematic chemical variation within the Main Cluster with time during this ~680 ka interval may imply that erupted magmas were physically separated from each other by fault-formed cupolas in the roof of the magma chamber. These results are significant …

Small Extensions Of Witt Rings, Robert W. Fitzgerald

Articles and Preprints

We consider certain Witt ring extensions S of a noetherian Witt ring R obtained by adding one new generator. The conditions on the new generator are those known to hold when R is the Witt ring of a Field F, S is the Witt ring of a Field K and K/F is an odd degree extension. We show that if R is of elementary type then so is S.

Two Approaches To Critical Path Scheduling For A Heterogeneous Environment, Guangxia Liu

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Advances in computing and networking technologies are making large scale distributed heterogeneous computing a reality. Multi-Disciplinary Optimization (MDO) is a class of applications that is being addressed under this paradigm. It consists of multiple heterogeneous modules interacting with each other to solve an overall design problem. An efficient implementation of such an application requires scheduling heterogeneous modules (with different computing and disk 1/0 requirements) on a heterogeneous set of resources (with different CPU, memory, disk IO specifications).

Given a set of tasks and a set of resources, an optimal schedule of the tasks on the resources is very hard to …

“Every Breath You Take... ”: The Demographics Of Toxic Air Releases In Southern California, James Sadd, Manuel Pastor, J. Boer, Lori Snyder

James Sadd

In this article, the authors investigate the relationship between ethnicity and potential environmental hazards in the metropolitan Los Angeles area. Using a variety of techniques, including geographic information systems (GIS) mapping, univariate comparisons, and logit, ordered logit, and tobit regression analysis, the authors find that, even controlling for other factors such as income and the extent of manufacturing employment and land use, minority residents tend to be disproportionately located in neighborhoods surrounding toxic air emissions. The results generally support the propositions of the proponents of “environmental justice”; in the conclusion, they consider what this might mean for urban land use …

Statistics For Logisticians – Back To Basics, Caroline Lubert

Caroline P Lubert

No abstract provided.

The Correlation Of Physical Properties Of Organic Molecules With Computed Molecular Surface Areas., Robert Mebane, Shannon Schanley, Thomas Rybolt, Chrystal Bruce

Chrystal D. Bruce

The objective of this paper is to show that a student's understanding of molecular properties can be enhanced with the study of molecular surface areas obtained from readily available molecular modeling software.

Emisja Związków Fluoru Z Hutnictwa Żelaza, Marian Mazur, Marek Bogacki, Robert Oleniacz

Robert Oleniacz

The article presents the results of the last few years of comprehensive researches related to the emission of fluorine compounds from iron metallurgy in Poland. Determined of the levels of flue-gas concentrations and air emissions for fluorine in the form of gaseous and solid compounds, including water-soluble compounds (considered to be toxic). The study also made it possible to analyze of raw materials used in these processes taking into account fluorine content and its impact on the amount of fluorine compounds emitted to the air.

English title: Emissions of fluorine compounds with iron metallurgy.

Biogeography Of The Short-Tailed Shrews (Blarina Brevicauda And B. Carolinensis) In The Tennessee River Valley And Adjacent Areas Of The Midsouth, Michael Jeffries

Honors Theses

In response to conflicting reports of the distribution of the two species of Blarina (B. brevicauda and B. carolinensis) in the Tennessee Valley area, specimens from The Natural History Museum of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and The University of Georgia were analyzed. Cranial measurements were used in both a discriminant function analysis and a principle components analysis to determine species assignments. Blarina brevicauda was found in central Tennessee, the highlands of the Cumberland Plateau, and the mountains of far east Tennessee, whereas B. carolinensis was found in the Ridge and Valley of southeast Tennessee, separated from B. brevicauda …

The Open Source Revolution: Transforming The Software Industry With Help From The Government, Mitchell L. Stoltz

Pomona Senior Theses

A new method for making software is stealthily gaining ground in the computer industry, offering a promise of better, cheaper software and the empowerment of the user. The open source movement could revolutionize the software industry...if it succeeds. Open source means software that you are allowed to copy, modify, and give to friends. Source code , the lists of instructions which tell computers how to run, is readily available, allowing you to look inside the workings of a program and change it to suit your needs. A group of programmers, companies, users, and activists have gathered in support of this …