Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Sci-Tech Book News Reviews, Susan Fingerman

Sci-Tech News

This section consists of 100 book reviews selected from Sci-Tech Book News, reprinted with the permission of Book News, Inc.

Geology And Structure Of The Rough Creek Area, Western Kentucky, William D. Johnson Jr., Howard R. Schwalb

Bulletin--KGS

The Rough Creek area is a rectangular area about 113 mi east to west and 35 mi north to south encompassing about 3,900 mi² in west-central and western Kentucky. The Ohio River delineates most of the western border with Illinois and locally also part of the northern border with Indiana. The northeast corner of the area is about 27 mi southwest of Louisville. The principal cities are Owensboro and Henderson.

The Precambrian basement has been penetrated in only two wells in western Kentucky at depths somewhat greater than 14,000 ft. Basement is projected to underlie much of the area …

Progress Towards The Synthesis Of Type B Polycyclic Polyprenylated Acylphloroglucinol 7-Epi-Clusianone, Pushpa Suresh Jayasekara Mudiyanselage

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Plants of the family Guttiferae produce polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols (PPAPs), which have interesting biological activities including anticancer and antibacterial properties. The main structural features of PPAPs comprise of bicyclo[3.3.1]nonane-2,4,9-triketone with one acyl group together with prenyl, geranyl, or other C₁₀H₁₇ groups. 7-epi-Clusianone, a type B PPAP with C-7 endo stereochemistry, is being approached by establishing the cis relationship with C(4) allyl group and C(2) methyl ester in the early stage of the synthesis. Then C(2) methyl ester is converted to alkyne aldehyde and syn reduction followed by intramolecular aldol reaction to give bicyclo[3.3.1]nonane structure with …

Soil Water And Crop Growth Processes In A Farmer's Field, Susmitha Surendran Nambuthiri

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The study was aimed to provide information on local biomass development during crop growth using ground based optical sensors and to incorporate the local crop status to a crop growth simulation model to improve understanding on inherent variability of crop field. The experiment was conducted in a farmer’s field located near Princeton in Caldwell County, Western Kentucky. Data collection on soil, crop and weather variables was carried out in the farm from 2006 December to 2008 October. During this period corn (Zea mays L.) and winter wheat (Triticum sp) were grown in the field. A 450 m …

Tunneling Spectroscopy Study Of Calcium Ruthenate, Anthony Bautista

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The ruthenates are perhaps one of the most diverse group of materials known up to date. These compounds exhibit a wide array of behaviors ranging from the exotic pwave superconductivity in Sr₂RuO₄, to the itinerant ferromagnetism in SrRuO₃, and the Mott-insulating behavior in Ca₂RuO₄. One of the most intriguing compounds belonging to this group is Ca₃Ru₂O₇ which is known to undergo an antiferromagnetic ordering at 56K and an insulating transition at 48K. Most intriguing, however, is the behavior displayed by this compound in the presence …

Scwds Briefs: Volume 26, Number 1 (April 2010), Gary L. Doster , Editor, Scwds Briefs, Michael J. Yabsley

Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study: Publications

Table of Contents:

AI Diagnostics Research

White Nose Syndrome Update

More CWD News

Pneumonia Kills Bighorn Sheep

MCF in a Key Deer

National Feral Swine Mapping System

Brucella suis in North America

Sam Hamilton

Scwds Briefs: Volume 25, Number 4 (January 2010), Gary L. Doster , Editor, Scwds Briefs, Michael J. Yabsley

Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study: Publications

Table of Contents:

White Nose Syndrome News

CWD Found in Virginia

Serosurveys of Feral Swine

AI Serology in Wild Birds

Chagas Disease Studies

SCWDS Bont Tick Surveillance

Brain Tumor in Deer

Exotic Animal Imports and Public Health

Loss of Two SCWDS Friends

Probing Equilibrium By Nonequilibrium Dynamics: Aging In Co/Cr Superlattices, Tathagata Mukherjee, M. Pleimling, Christian Binek

Christian Binek Publications

Magnetization relaxation is investigated in a structurally ordered magnetic Co/Cr superlattice. Tailored nanoscale periodicity creates mesoscopic spatial magnetic correlations with slow relaxation dynamics when quenching the system into a nonequilibrium state. Magnetization transients are measured after exposing the heterostructure to a magnetic set field for various waiting times. Scaling analysis reveals an asymptotic powerlaw behavior in accordance with a full aging scenario. The temperature dependence of the relaxation exponent shows pronounced anomalies at the equilibrium phase transitions of the antiferromagnetic superstructure and the ferromagnetic to paramagnetic transition of the Co layers. The latter leaves only weak fingerprints in the equilibrium …

Investigating Fabrication Methods For Micro Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Man Yang

Dissertations

A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is a green energy technology that offers a cleaner and efficient alternative to fossil fuels. The efficiency and utility of SOFCs can be enhanced by fabricating miniaturized component structures within the fuel cell footprint. This research focuses on the microfabrication of parallel-connected inter-digitized design of micro single chamber SOFC (μ-SC-SOFCs). In this dissertation, candidate micro/nano fabrication techniques to precisely fabricate micro patterns on planar substrates have been studied. These include EBL, soft lithography, photolithography, and direct-writing. After analyzing preliminary results, two combinational approaches were further investigated. The first method involves the combination of the …

The Occurrence Of Chestnut Lamprey (Lchthyomyzon Castaneus; Pisces: Petromyzontidae) In The Chariton River In South-Central Iowa, Mark K. Flammang, John R. Olson

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

In the mid-1990s, Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Fisheries Bureau biologists began receiving reports from anglers of a parasitic lamprey attached to fish taken immediately downstream from Rathbun Lake on the Chariton River in south-central Iowa; these reports have continued to present. In 2002, the IDNR received and identified a chestnut lamprey (Ichthyomyzon castaneus Girard) from an angler who removed the lamprey from a common carp (Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus) he captured. This record was the first for a lamprey from the Chariton River drainage in Iowa. Five additional specimens of chestnut lamprey have been collected and identified …

The Vascular Flora Of Boone County, Iowa (2005-2008), Jimmie D. Thompson

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

A vascular plant survey of Boone County, Iowa was conducted from 2005 to 2008 during which 1016 taxa (of which 761, or 75%, are native to central Iowa) were encountered (vouchered and/or observed). A search of literature and the vouchers of Iowa State University's Ada Hayden Herbarium (ISC) revealed 82 additional taxa (of which 57, or 70%, are native to Iowa), unvouchered or unobserved during the current study, as having occurred in the county. This total of 1098 taxa (979 species, 57 varieties, 39 subspecies, 23 hybrids) places Boone County first in vascular plant richness among 18 published county inventories …

Research Report 2010, College Of Arts And Sciences

Physics Research Reports

• Introduction
• From the Chairperson
• Astronomy
• Atomic and Molecular Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Physics Education
• Research and Public Lectures at WMU
• Personnel January 1-December 31, 2010

Mechanistic And Computational Studies Of Oxidatively-Induced Aryl-Cf3 Bond Formation At Palladium, J. Brannon Gary

Faculty Publications

This article describes the rational design of 1st generation systems for oxidatively-induced Aryl– CF3 bond-forming reductive elimination from PdII. Treatment of (dtbpy)PdII(Aryl)(CF3) (dtbpy = di-tert-butylbipyridine) with NFTPT (N-fluoro-1,3,5-trimethylpyridium triflate) afforded the isolable PdIV intermediate (dtbpy)PdIV(Aryl)(CF3)(F)(OTf). Thermolysis of this complex at 80 °C resulted in Aryl–CF3 bond-formation. Detailed experimental and computational mechanistic studies have been conducted to gain insights into the key reductive elimination step. Reductive elimination from this PdIV species proceeds via pre-equilibrium dissociation of TfO− followed by Aryl–CF3 coupling. DFT calculations reveal that the transition state for Aryl–CF3 bond formation involves the CF3 acting as an electrophile with the …

Dreissena And The Disappearance Of The Spring Phytoplankton Bloom In Lake Michigan, Henry A. Vanderploeg, James R. Liebig, Thomas F. Nalepa, Gary L. Fahnenstiel, Steven A. Pothoven

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

We determined the clearance rates of the profunda morph of the quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis) using seston and Cryptomonas ozolini, a high-quality algal food, for the temperature range 1–7 °C,which is the full temperature range this morph is likely to experience during isothermal conditions or in the hypolimnion of deep lakes. Experiments at 3 °C with the shallow-water morph of the quagga and the zebra mussel provided very similar results. The clearance rates were combined with dreissenid abundance in 0–30 m, 30–50 m, 50–90 m, and >90m depth zones of the southern basin of Lake Michigan to …

Effects Of Drought On Avian Community Structure, Thomas P. Albright, Anna M. Pidgeon, Chadwick D. Rittenhouse, Murray K. Clayton, Curtis H. Flather, Patrick D. Culbert, Brian D. Wardlows, Volker C. Radeloff

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Droughts are expected to become more frequent under global climate change. Avifauna depend on precipitation for hydration, cover, and food. While there are indications that avian communities respond negatively to drought, little is known about the response of birds with differing functional and behavioral traits, what time periods and indicators of drought are most relevant, or how response varies geographically at broad spatial scales. Our goals were thus to determine (1) how avian abundance and species richness are related to drought, (2) whether community variations are more related to vegetation vigor or precipitation deviations and at what time periods relationships …

Combined Effects Of Heat Waves And Droughts On Avian Communities Across The Conterminous United States, Thomas P. Albright, Anna M. Pidgeon, Chadwick D. Rittenhouse, Murray K. Clayton, Brian D. Wardlow, Curtis H. Flather, Patrick D. Culbert, Volker C. Radeloff

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Increasing surface temperatures and climatic variability associated with global climate change are expected to produce more frequent and intense heat waves and droughts in many parts of the world. Our goal was to elucidate the fundamental, but poorly understood, effects of these extreme weather events on avian communities across the conterminous United States. Specifically, we explored: (1) the effects of timing and duration of heat and drought events, (2) the effects of jointly occurring drought and heat waves relative to these events occurring in isolation, and (3) how effects vary among functional groups related to nest location and migratory habit, …

To Live And Die In Ca, Jane Frances Curnutt

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis investigates the nature of elementary cellular automata to better understand their relationship of the models they support to the biological organisms that create the mats and soil crusts found in extreme environments here on earth. Cellular automata have been used to study growth and patterns in forests, arid desert environments, predator-prey problems, and sea shells. It has also been used to study areas of diverse epidemiology and linguistics. Cellular automata have been used as the core of computer games as well. This investigation has led to develop a graphical grammar for simple cellular automata, using L-systems, a grammar …

Symmetric Generators Of Order 3, Stewart Contreras

Theses Digitization Project

The main purpose of this project is to construct finite homomorphic images of infinite semi-direct products.

Symmetric Generation, Dung Hoang Tri

Theses Digitization Project

In this thesis we construct finite homorphic images of infinite semi-direct products, 2*n : N, where 2*n is a free product of n copies the cyclic group of permutations on n letter.

An Investigation Of Kurosh's Theorem, Keith Anthony Earl

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project will be an exposition of the Kurosh Theorem and the necessary and suffcient condition that A must be algebraic and satisfy a P.I. to be locally finite.

Evaluation Of Shortwave Infrared Atmospheric Correction For Ocean Color Remote Sensing Of Chesapeake Bay, P. Jeremy Werdell, Bryan A. Franz, Sean W. Bailey

United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Publications

The NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer onboard the Aqua platform (MODIS-Aqua) provides a viable data stream for operational water quality monitoring of Chesapeake Bay. Marine geophysical products from MODIS-Aqua depend on the efficacy of the atmospheric correction process, which can be problematic in coastal environments. The operational atmospheric correction algorithm for MODISAqua requires an assumption of negligible near-infrared water-leaving radiance, nL_w(NIR). This assumption progressively degrades with increasing turbidity and, as such, methods exist to account for non-negligible nL_w(NIR) within the atmospheric correction process or to use alternate radiometric bands where the assumption is satisfied, such as …

Movements Of Satellite-Monitored Humpback Whales From New Caledonia, Claire Garrigue, Alexandre N. Zerbini, Ygor Geyer, Mads-Peter Heide-Jørgensen, Wakao Hanaoka, Phil Clapham

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Knowledge of the local and migratory movements of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) from New Caledonia is very limited. To investigate this topic, we attached satellite-monitored tags to 12 whales off southern New Caledonia. Tag longevity ranged from 1 to 52 days (X = 22.5 days). Tagged whales generally moved to the south or southeast, with several spending time in a previously unknown seamount habitat named Antigonia before resuming movement, generally toward Norfolk Island or New Zealand. However, 1 female with a calf traveled the entire length of the western coast of New Caledonia (~450 km) and then …

Geographic Variation Of Persistent Organic Pollutant Levels In Humpback Whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae) Feeding Areas Of The North Pacific And North Atlantic, Cristiane T. Elfes, Glenn R. Vanblaricom, Daryle Boyd, John Calambokidis, Phillip J. Clapham, Ronald W. Pearce, Jooke Robbins, Juan Carlos Salinas, Janice M. Straley, Paul R. Wade, Margaret M. Krahn

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Seasonal feeding behavior and high fidelity to feeding areas allow humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) to be used as biological indicators of regional contamination. Biopsy blubber samples from male individuals (n=67) were collected through SPLASH, a multinational research project, in eight North Pacific feeding grounds. Additional male samples (n=20) were collected from one North Atlantic feeding ground. Persistent organic pollutants were measured in the samples and used to assess contaminant distribution in the study areas. North Atlantic (Gulf of Maine) whales were more contaminated than North Pacific whales, showing the highest levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers …

Photographic Mark-Recapture Analysis Of Clustered Mammal-Eating Killer Whales Around The Aleutian Islands And Gulf Of Alaska, J. Durban, D. Ellifrit, M. Dahlheim, J. Waite, C. Matkin, L. Barrett-Lennard, G. Ellis, R. Pitman, R. Leduc, P. Wade

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

We used photographic mark-recapture methods to estimate the number of mammal-eating ‘‘transient’’ killer whales using the coastal waters from the central Gulf of Alaska to the central Aleutian Islands, around breeding rookeries of endangered Steller sea lions. We identified 154 individual killer whales from 6,489 photographs collected between July 2001 and August 2003. A Bayesian mixture model estimated seven distinct clusters (95% probability interval = 7–10) of individuals that were differentially covered by 14 boat-based surveys exhibiting varying degrees of association in space and time. Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods were used to sample identification probabilities across the distribution of …

A Mixed-Model Moving-Average Approach To Geostatistical Modeling In Stream Networks, Erin E. Peterson, Jay M. Ver Hoef

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Spatial autocorrelation is an intrinsic characteristic in freshwater stream environments where nested watersheds and flow connectivity may produce patterns that are not captured by Euclidean distance. Yet, many common autocovariance functions used in geostatistical models are statistically invalid when Euclidean distance is replaced with hydrologic distance. We use simple worked examples to illustrate a recently developed moving-average approach used to construct two types of valid autocovariance models that are based on hydrologic distances. These models were designed to represent the spatial configuration, longitudinal connectivity, discharge, and flow direction in a stream network. They also exhibit a different covariance structure than …

Long-Term Recovery Patterns Of Arctic Tundra After Winter Seismic Exploration, Janet C. Jorgenson, Jay M. Ver Hoef, M. T. Jorgenson

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

In response to the increasing global demand for energy, oil exploration and development are expanding into frontier areas of the Arctic, where slow-growing tundra vegetation and the underlying permafrost soils are very sensitive to disturbance. The creation of vehicle trails on the tundra from seismic exploration for oil has accelerated in the past decade, and the cumulative impact represents a geographic footprint that covers a greater extent of Alaska’s North Slope tundra than all other direct human impacts combined. Seismic exploration for oil and gas was conducted on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, USA, in …

History And Fate Of A Small Isolated Population Of Weddell Seals At White Island, Antarctica, Thomas S. Gelatt, Corey S. Davis, Ian Stirling, Donald B. Siniff, Curtis Strobeck, Isabelle Delisle

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii Lesson) at White Island, Antarctica form a small, completely enclosed, natural population hypothesized to be of recent origin, likely founded by individuals from nearby Erebus Bay. This population constitutes an ideal model to document a founder event and ensuing genetic drift, with implications for conservation. Here we combined historical accounts, census and tagging data since the late 1960s, and genetic data (41 microsatellite loci and mitochondrial DNA sequences) from 84 individuals representing nearly all individuals present between 1990 and 2000 to investigate the history of the founding of the White Island population, document its population …

The Traceability/Trackability Of Illegal Trade In Whale Products: A Proposal To Evaluate The Technical Functionality Of Dna Registers, C. Scott Baker, R. L. Brownell Jr.

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

The Government of Japan, through the Institute for Cetacean Research (Tokyo), has established a DNA register for whales taken under special permit or otherwise destined for commercial markets (IWC 2005; IWC 2010a). The functionality of this DNA register, for the purposes of traceability/trackability, is critical to the current negotiations on the future of the IWC (IWC 2010b). Here we request access to the DNA register for 3 species of whales (fin, sei and Antarctic minke) for the purposes of tracking the origins of whale products purchased at commercial outlets in Seoul, South Korea and Santa Monica, US, as described in …

A Note On The Unprecedented Strandings Of 56 Deep-Diving Whales Along The Uk And Irish Coast, Sarah J. Dolman, Eunice Pinn, Robert J. Reid, Jason P. Barley, Rob Deaville, Paul D. Jepson, Mick O’Connell, Simon Berrow, Rod S. Penrose, Peter T. Stevick, Susannah Calderan, Kevin P. Robinson, Robert L. Brownell Jr., Mark P. Simmonds

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

In the first seven months of 2008, eighteen Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), four Sowerby’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon bidens), five unidentified beaked whales and twenty-nine long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) were reported stranded in the UK and Ireland. Decomposition of those animals investigated puts the predicted time of death at mid-January. Concerns that an unusual mortality event had taken place prompted further investigations. Most carcasses were too decomposed for necropsy. A summary of findings is presented here. Although the initial stranding of five Cuvier’s beaked whales in Scotland shared some similarities with atypical mass …

Social Cohesion Among Kin, Gene Flow Without Dispersal And The Evolution Of Population Genetic Structure In The Killer Whale (Orcinus Orca), M. Pilot, M. E. Dahlheim, A. R. Hoelzel

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

In social species, breeding system and gregarious behavior are key factors influencing the evolution of large-scale population genetic structure. The killer whale is a highly social apex predator showing genetic differentiation in sympatry between populations of foraging specialists (ecotypes), and low levels of genetic diversity overall. Our comparative assessments of kinship, parentage and dispersal reveal high levels of kinship within local populations and ongoing male-mediated gene flow among them, including among ecotypes that are maximally divergent within the mtDNA phylogeny. Dispersal from natal populations was rare, implying that gene flow occurs without dispersal, as a result of reproduction during temporary …