Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Active Collaboration Learning Environments: The Class Of Web 2.0, Dirk Hovorka, Michael J. Rees

Michael J Rees

The maturity and increased integration of online collaboration, networking, and research tools offer Information Systems faculty opportunities to provide unique learning environments at multiple levels. A growing ensemble of Web 2.0 technologies provide the background to introduce and explore fundamental aspects of information system development, design, application, and use, while simultaneously providing a functional suite of tools which will aid students in other aspects of their university learning. A selection of these technologies and case studies of their classroom usage is discussed. In addition, an agenda for research in both pedagogy and in information systems phenomena is outlined.

Wile: A Very Low Cost Web-Based Integrated Learning Environment, David A. Baker, Michael J. Rees

Michael J Rees

Today, Learning Management Systems (LMS), both commercial and open source, are available to implement web-based learning environments, yet they require large servers, a team of support staff, and have expensive licensing costs. Open source LMS alternatives often run on leaner machines, but hiring a team to support the system can be costly. The complexity and cost of undertaking the implementation of an LMS can often be taxing on a smaller institution, but they must offer an LMS to compete with other institutions. WILE (Web-Integrated Learning Environment) is an LMS that uses combinations of either free or low-cost services already available …

The Diffusion Of Rfid Implants For Access Control And Epayments: Case Study On Baja Beach Club In Barcelona, K. Michael, M.G. Michael

M. G. Michael

RFID implants for humans have been used in a variety of contexts since their commercial inception in 2003. The VeriChip product which typically carries a 16 digit number was first marketed as an identification device in the ehealth space (e.g. for emergency response), then as an access control mechanism (e.g. security), and finally as an epayment solution (e.g. the purchase of drinks at clubs). This paper investigates the story behind RFID implants for club patronage access control and epayment. The study uses a two-fold qualitative approach in the collection of data for the single case study of the Baja Beach …

Using A Social Informatics Framework To Study The Effects Of Location-Based Social Networking On Relationships Between People: A Review Of Literature, Sarah Jean Fusco, K. Michael, M.G. Michael

M. G. Michael

This paper is predominantly a review of literature on the emerging mobile application area known as location-based social networking. The study applies the social informatics framework to the exploratory question of what effect location based social networking may have on relationships between people. The classification model used in the paper relates previous research on location based services and online social networking together. Specifically the wider study is concerned with literature which identifies the impact of technology on trust with respect to friendship. This paper attempts to draw out the motivations behind using location based social networking applications and the implications …

Social-Technical Issues Facing The Humancentric Rfid Implantee Sub-Culture Through The Eyes Of Amal Graafstra, Amal Graafstra, K. Michael, M.G. Michael

M. G. Michael

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and transponders have traditionally been used to identify domesticated animals so that they can be reunited with their owners in the event that they stray. In the late 1990s, industry started to investigate the benefits of using RFID to identifying non-living things throughout the supply chain toward new efficiencies in business operations. Not long after, people began to consider the possibilities of getting RFID tag or transponder implants for themselves. Mr Amal Graafstra of the United States is one of the first, and probably most well-known ‘do it yourselfer’ (DIY) implantees, who enjoys building customized projects …

Using A Social Informatics Framework To Study The Effects Of Location-Based Social Networking On Relationships Between People: A Review Of Literature, Sarah Jean Fusco, K. Michael, M.G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

This paper is predominantly a review of literature on the emerging mobile application area known as location-based social networking. The study applies the social informatics framework to the exploratory question of what effect location based social networking may have on relationships between people. The classification model used in the paper relates previous research on location based services and online social networking together. Specifically the wider study is concerned with literature which identifies the impact of technology on trust with respect to friendship. This paper attempts to draw out the motivations behind using location based social networking applications and the implications …

Social-Technical Issues Facing The Humancentric Rfid Implantee Sub-Culture Through The Eyes Of Amal Graafstra, Amal Graafstra, K. Michael, M.G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and transponders have traditionally been used to identify domesticated animals so that they can be reunited with their owners in the event that they stray. In the late 1990s, industry started to investigate the benefits of using RFID to identifying non-living things throughout the supply chain toward new efficiencies in business operations. Not long after, people began to consider the possibilities of getting RFID tag or transponder implants for themselves. Mr Amal Graafstra of the United States is one of the first, and probably most well-known ‘do it yourselfer’ (DIY) implantees, who enjoys building customized projects …

The Diffusion Of Rfid Implants For Access Control And Epayments: Case Study On Baja Beach Club In Barcelona, K. Michael, M.G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

RFID implants for humans have been used in a variety of contexts since their commercial inception in 2003. The VeriChip product which typically carries a 16 digit number was first marketed as an identification device in the ehealth space (e.g. for emergency response), then as an access control mechanism (e.g. security), and finally as an epayment solution (e.g. the purchase of drinks at clubs). This paper investigates the story behind RFID implants for club patronage access control and epayment. The study uses a two-fold qualitative approach in the collection of data for the single case study of the Baja Beach …

Towards A State Of Uberveillance, M.G. Michael, K. Michael

M. G. Michael

Überveillance is an emerging concept, and neither its application nor its power have yet fully arrived [38]. For some time, Roger Clarke’s [12, p. 498] 1988 dataveillance concept has been prevalent: the “systematic use of personal data systems in the investigation or monitoring of the actions of one or more persons.” Almost twenty years on, technology has developed so much and the national security context has altered so greatly [52], that there is a pressing need to formulate a new term to convey both the resent reality, and the Realpolitik (policy primarily based on power) of our times. However, if …

Abundance And Ecological Significance Of The Clam Rangia Cuneata (Sowerby, 1831) In The Upper Barataria Estuary (Louisiana, Usa), Wai Hing Wong, Nancy N. Rabalais, R. Eugene Turner

Faculty Publications

We proposed that Rangia cuneata (Sowerby, 1831) is an important estuarine bivalve with ecological significance in three coastal lakes in Barataria Bay, Gulf of Mexico—Lake Cataouatche, Lake Salvador and Lac des Allemands. Our goals were to determine the abundance and distribution of Rangia in these lakes and to measure clearance times to elucidate its potential impacts on phytoplankton communities. The estimated average densities of R. cuneata in Lake Cataouatche, Lake Salvador, and Lac des Allemands were 63, 157, and 107 individuals m−2, respectively, which is 30% lower than that observed in nearby Lake Pontchartrain. The size of clams in Lake …

Supersymmetric Lattices, Simon Catterall

Physics - All Scholarship

Discretization of supersymmetric theories is an old problem in lattice field theory. It has resisted solution until quite recently when new ideas drawn from orbifold constructions and topological field theory have been brought to bear on the question. The result has been the creation of a new class of lattice gauge theory in which the lattice action is invariant under one or more supersymmetries. The resultant theories are local and free of doublers and in the case of Yang-Mills theories also possess exact gauge invariance. In principle they form the basis for a truly non-perturbative definition of the continuum supersymmetric …

Hec: Collaborative Research: Sam^2 Toolkit: Scalable And Adaptive Metadata Management For High-End Computing, Yifeng Zhu

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The increasing demand for Exa-byte-scale storage capacity by high end computing applications requires a higher level of scalability and dependability than that provided by current file and storage systems. The proposal deals with file systems research for metadata management of scalable cluster-based parallel and distributed file storage systems in the HEC environment. It aims to develop a scalable and adaptive metadata management (SAM2) toolkit to extend features of and fully leverage the peak performance promised by state-of-the-art cluster-based parallel and distributed file storage systems used by the high performance computing community. There is a large body of research on data …

Virtual Container Attestation: Customized Trusted Containers For On-Demand Computing., Katelin A. Bailey

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

In today's computing environment, data is moving to central locations and most computers are merely used to access the data. Today is the era of cloud computing and distributed computing, where users have control over neither data nor computation. As this trend continues there is an increasing frequency of mutually distrustful parties being forced to interact and share resources with each other in potentially dangerous situations. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a means of creating trust between two entities, or at the very least providing some means of determining the trust level of a given machine. Current approaches …

Slides: Climate Change And Public Lands: Examples From National Parks, Stephen Saunders

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Stephen Saunders, President, The Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (Denver, CO)

40 slides

Slides: Climate Change Adaptation And The Federal Lands, Robert L. Glicksman

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Robert L. Glicksman, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law, George Washington University Law School (Washington, D.C.)

12 slides

Slides: Second Thoughts About The Antiquities Act: Does The Process For Public Land Decisionmaking Have An Ethical Dimension?, James R. Rasband

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: James R. Rasband, Dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University (Provo, UT)

32 slides

Structural Diversity In Crystal Chemistry: Rational Design Strategies Toward The Synthesis Of Functional Metal-Organic Materials, Amy J. Cairns

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Metal-Organic Materials (MOMs) represent an important class of solid-state crystalline materials. Their countless attractive attributes make them uniquely suited to potentially resolve many present and future utilitarian societal challenges ranging from energy and the environment, all the way to include biology and medicine. Since the birth of coordination chemistry, the self-assembly of organic molecules with metal ions has produced a plethora of simple and complex architectures, many of which possess diverse pore and channel systems in a periodic array. In its infancy however this field was primarily fueled by burgeoning serendipitous discoveries, with no regard to a rational design approach …

Non-Gaussianity From Self-Ordering Scalar Fields, Daniel G. Figueroa, Robert R. Caldwell, Marc Kamionkowski

Dartmouth Scholarship

The Universe may harbor relics of the post-inflationary epoch in the form of a network of self-ordered scalar fields. Such fossils, while consistent with current cosmological data at trace levels, may leave too weak an imprint on the cosmic microwave background and the large-scale distribution of matter to allow for direct detection. The non-Gaussian statistics of the density perturbations induced by these fields, however, permit a direct means to probe for these relics. Here we calculate the bispectrum that arises in models of self-ordered scalar fields. We find a compact analytic expression for the bispectrum, evaluate it numerically, and provide …

Pt-Symmetric Optical Lattices, Konstantinos G. Makris, Ramy El-Ganainy, Demetrios N. Christodoulides, Z. H. Musslimani

Ramy El-Ganainy

The basic properties of Floquet-Bloch (FB) modes in parity-time (PT )-symmetric optical lattices are examined in detail. Due to the parity-time symmetry of such complex periodic potentials, the corresponding FB modes are skewed (nonorthogonal) and nonreciprocal. The conjugate pairs of these FB modes are obtained by reflecting both the spatial coordinate and the Bloch momentum number itself. The orthogonality conditions are analytically derived for a single cell, for both a finite and an infinite lattice. Some of the peculiarities associated with the diffraction dynamics in PT lattices such as nonreciprocity, power oscillations, and phase dislocations, are also examined.

Basking Behavior Of Emydid Turtles (Chysemys Picta Marginata, Graptemys Geographica, And Trachemys Scripta Elegans) In An Urban Landscape, W. Peterman, Travis Ryan

Travis J. Ryan

Basking is common in emydid turtles and is generally accepted to be in thermoregulatory behavior. In 2004, we quantified and described the basking behavior of turtles in the Central Canal of Indianapolis. This canal system runs through an urban landscape that is dominated by fragmented woodlots, residential areas. and commercial areas. We observed that basking turtles exhibited variable basking behavior. with spatial and temporal shins in basking behavior from east-facing banks in the morning to west-facing banks in the afternoon. Turtles in the Central Canal are subject to frequent disturbance, which altered basking behavior. Many turtles forewent aerial basking on …

The Mexican Spotted Owl Controversy: An Example Of The Esa’S Dominant Role In Federal Land Use Planning, Norman D. James

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

19 pages, including illustrations and a map.

Includes footnotes.

Includes a 7 page publication by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southwest Region, titled: Changing Conditions in Southwestern Forests and Implications on Land Stewardship.

Some Reflections On Fish And Wildlife Resources (Report Chapter Nine), Todd True

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

4 pages.

Includes Proposed Revisions to the National Objectives, Principles and Standards for Water and Related Resources Implementation Studies

Slides: Water Management On Public Lands: Chapter 8 Of The Pllrc Report, Michael Gheleta

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Michael Gheleta, U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor (Lakewood, CO)

12 slides

Slides: Chapter 7 Of The Commission Report, David L. Bernhardt

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: David L. Bernhardt, Partner, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck (Washington, DC) and former Solicitor for U.S. Department of the Interior

14 slides

Slides: America's Redrock Wilderness, Scott Groene

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Scott Groene, Executive Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (Moab, UT)

23 slides

Slides: Grazing On The Public Lands, William G. Myers Iii

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: William G. Myers III, Partner, Holland & Hart; former Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior (Boise, ID)

8 slides

Slides: Livestock Grazing On The Public Lands, Joe Feller

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Joe Feller, Professor of Law, Arizona State University Law School; Visiting Professor, University of Colorado Law School

33 slides

Slides: The Spotted Owl Controversy: An Example Of The Esa's Dominant Role In Federal Land Use Planning, Norman D. James

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: Norman D. James, Director, Fennemore Craig, PC (Phoenix, AZ)

17 slides

Approximation Of Stationary Statistical Properties Of Dissipative Dynamical Systems: Time Discretization, Xiaoming Wang

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We consider temporal approximation of stationary statistical properties of dissipative infinite-dimensional dynamical systems. We demonstrate that stationary statistical properties of the time discrete approximations, i.e., numerical scheme, converge to those of the underlying continuous dissipative infinite-dimensional dynamical system under three very natural assumptions as the time step approaches zero. the three conditions that are sufficient for the convergence of the stationary statistical properties are: (1) uniform dissipativity of the scheme in the sense that the union of the global attractors for the numerical approximations is pre-compact in the phase space; (2) convergence of the solutions of the numerical scheme to …

Tooth Chipping Can Reveal The Diet And Bite Forces Of Fossil Hominins, Paul J. Constantino, James Jin-Wu Lee, Herzl Chai, Bernhard Zipfel, Charles Ziscovici, Brian R. Lawn, Peter W. Lucas

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

Mammalian tooth enamel is often chipped, providing clear evidence for localized contacts with large hard food objects. Here, we apply a simple fracture equation to estimate peak bite forces directly from chip size. Many fossil hominins exhibit antemortem chips on their posterior teeth, indicating their use of high bite forces. The inference that these species must have consumed large hard foods such as seeds is supported by the occurrence of similar chips among known modern-day seed predators such as orangutans and peccaries. The existence of tooth chip signatures also provides a way of identifying the consumption of rarely eaten foods …