Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Genetic Analysis Of The Henry Mountains Bison Herd, Dustin H. Ranglack, Lauren K. Dobson, Johan T. Du Toit, James Derr

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Wild American plains bison (Bison bison) populations virtually disappeared in the late 1800s, with some remnant animals retained in what would become Yellowstone National Park and on private ranches. Some of these private bison were intentionally crossbred with cattle for commercial purposes. This forced hybridization resulted in both mitochondrial and nuclear introgression of cattle genes into some of the extant bison genome. As the private populations grew, excess animals, along with their history of cattle genetics, provided founders for newly established public bison populations. Of the US public bison herds, only those in Yellowstone and Wind Cave National Parks (YNP …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 15, 2015, Richard Tinker

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 15, 2015 (12/15/15) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

U.S. Vehicle Efficiency Standards, Derek Baylog

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

The United States is a driving force of the global economy and a major innovator in the technology sector. For decades the world has looked to The United States as a leader of great technological advancements with the strong economy to allow investors a chance make these technologies a reality. So why is it now that we lag behind other countries when it comes to making our technology energy efficient? Sure we’ve been steadily growing our production of renewable resources with wind and solar energy, bet we are still behind in the second largest source of pollution, transportation. According to …

Evaluation Of Viirs Land Surface Temperature Using Crest-Safe Air, Snow Surface, And Soil Temperature Data, Carlos L. Pérez Díaz, Tarendra Lakhankar, Peter Romanov, Reza Khanbilvardi, Yunyue Yu

Publications and Research

In this study, the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Land Surface Temperature (LST) Environmental Data Record (EDR) was evaluated against snow surface (T-skin) and near-surface air temperature (T-air) ground observations recorded at the Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center—Snow Analysis and Field Experiment (CREST-SAFE), located in Caribou, ME, USA during the winters of 2013 and 2014. The satellite LST corroboration of snow-covered areas is imperative because high-latitude regions are often physically inaccessible and there is a need to complement the data from the existing meteorological station networks. T-skin is not a standard meteorological parameter commonly observed at synoptic …

Method Of Lines Transpose: An Efficient A-Stable Solver For Wave Propagation, Matthew Causley, Andrew Christlieb, Eric Wolf

Mathematics Publications

Building upon recent results obtained in [7,8,9], we describe an efficient second order, A-stable scheme for solving the wave equation, based on the method of lines transpose (MOLT), and the resulting semi-discrete (i.e. continuous in space) boundary value problem. In [7], A-stable schemes of high order were derived, and in [9] a high order, fast O(N) spatial solver was derived, which is matrix-free and is based on dimensional-splitting. In this work, are interested in building a wave solver, and our main concern is the development of boundary conditions. We demonstrate all desired boundary conditions for a wave solver, including outflow …

The Young Solar Analogs Project. I. Spectroscopic And Photometric Methods And Multi-Year Timescale Spectroscopic Results, R. O. Gray, Jon M. Saken, C. J. Corbally, M. M. Briley, R. A. Lambert, I. M. Newsome, M. F. Seeds, Y. Kahvaz

Physics Faculty Research

This is the first in a series of papers presenting methods and results from the Young Solar Analogs Project, which began in 2007. This project monitors both spectroscopically and photometrically a set of 31 young (300–1500 Myr) solar-type stars with the goal of gaining insight into the space environment of the Earth during the period when life first appeared. From our spectroscopic observations we derive the Mount Wilson S chromospheric activity index (SMW), and describe the method we use to transform our instrumental indices to SMW without the need for a color term. We introduce three photospheric …

Supermassive Black Hole Seed Formation At High Redshifts: Long-Term Evolution Of The Direct Collapse, Isaac Shlosman, Jun-Hwan Choi, Mitchell C. Begelman, Kentaro Nagamine

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We use cosmological adaptive mesh refinement code enzo zoom-in simulations to study the long-term evolution of the collapsing gas within dark matter haloes at z. This direct collapse process is a leading candidate for rapid formation of supermassive black hole (SMBH) seeds. To circumvent the Courant condition at small radii, we apply the sink particle method, focusing on evolution on scales ∼0.01–10 pc. The collapse proceeds in two stages, with the secondary runaway happening within the central 10 pc. The sink particles form when the collapsing gas requires additional refinement of the grid size at the highest refinement level. …

When Addressing Climate Change, Don’T Forget Animal Agriculture, Aaron Matzke

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

As COP 21 closes in Paris, global animal agriculture is a topic that has eluded the international media. Animal agriculture is responsible for more global greenhouse gas emissions than transportation according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization. With global population and prosperity rising, the global meat supply is expected to nearly double by 2050. This increase in production will only be achieved if significant steps are taken to promote sustainability through existing techniques globally, and to regulate air contamination in industrial feedlots in the United States. Alternative meat production methods, which have seen considerable investment recently, could supplement animal …

From JEff=1/2 Insulator To P-Wave Superconductor In Single-Crystal Sr2Ir1−XRuXO4 (0≤X≤1), Shujuan Yuan, Saicharan Aswartham, Jsaminka Terzic, H. Zheng, H. D. Zhao, P. Schlottmann, Gang Cao

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Sr₂IrO₄ is a magnetic insulator assisted by strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) whereas Sr₂RuO₄ is a p-wave superconductor. The contrasting ground states have been shown to result from the critical role of the strong SOC in the iridate. Our investigation of structural, transport, and magnetic properties reveals that substituting 4dRu⁴⁺(4d⁴) ions for 5dIr⁴⁺(5d⁵) ions in Sr₂IrO₄ directly adds holes to the t_2g bands, reduces the SOC, and thus rebalances the competing energies in single-crystal Sr …

Mineralogy And Geochemistry Of Late Archean And Paleoproterozoic Granites And Pegmatites In The Northern Penokean Terrane Of Marquette And Dickinson Counties, Michigan, Christopher M. Johnson, Christopher M. Van Daalen

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on mineralogy, geochemistry, and origin of eight pegmatites and two spatially associated granites of Late Archean and Paleoproterozoic ages located in Marquette and Dickinson Counties, Michigan. Biotite geochemistry reveals that both granites and all pegmatites are peraluminous and have an orogenic signature. However, bulk composition reveals the Humboldt granite is a peraluminous A-type granite and the Bell Creek granite is a peraluminous mix between I-, S-, and A-type granites. The Republic Mine pegmatite appears to be geochemically similar to the Bell Creek granite and Grizzly pegmatite. The Crockley pegmatite is genetically related to the Humboldt granite. The …

Designing Synthetic Pathways For Several 2-Thio-Substituted-3h-Phenothiazin-3-Ones In Preparation For Testing In Treatment Of Central Nervous System Disorders, Preston H. Palm, Herman H. Odens

Capstone Research Projects

This paper investigates possible synthetic pathways for two 2-thio-substituted-3H-phenothiazin-3-ones (7). A two step reaction in which 1,4-benzoquinone (1) is first reacted with an alkylthiol (2) in the presence of sodium periodate (NaIO₄) and then treated with 2-aminothiophenol (5) followed by a second oxidation with sodium periodate was demonstrated to be effective in synthesizing 2-(phenylthio)-3H-phenothiazin-3-one (12). The same synthetic approach was shown to be ineffective in the synthesis of 2-(cyclopentylthio)-3H-phenothiazin-3-one (16) due to the fact that the first step was incapable of synthesizing 2-(cyclopentylthio)-1,4-benzoquinone (14). Several other synthetic routes were also proven to be ineffective. This …

A Preliminary Assessment Of Water Partitioning And Ecohydrological Coupling In Northern Headwaters Using Stable Isotopes And Conceptual Runoff Models, James P. Mcnamara

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We combined a conceptual rainfall-runoff model and input–output relationships of stable isotopes to understand ecohydrological influences on hydrological partitioning in snow-influenced northern catchments. Six sites in Sweden (Krycklan), Canada (Wolf Creek; Baker Creek; Dorset), Scotland (Girnock) and the USA (Dry Creek) span moisture and energy gradients found at high latitudes. A meta-analysis was carried out using the Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) model to estimate the main storage changes characterizing annual water balances. Annual snowpack storage importance was ranked as Wolf Creek > Krycklan > Dorset > Baker Creek > Dry Creek > Girnock. The subsequent rate and longevity of melt were reflected in calibrated parameters …

Gamma-Rays From The Quasar Pks 1441+25: Story Of An Escape, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al

Physical Sciences Publications

Outbursts from gamma-ray quasars provide insights on the relativistic jets of active galactic nuclei and constraints on the diffuse radiation fields that fill the universe. The detection of significant emission above 100 GeV from a distant quasar would show that some of the radiated gamma-rays escape pair-production interactions with low-energy photons, be it the extragalactic background light (EBL), or the radiation near the supermassive black hole lying at the jet's base. VERITAS detected gamma-ray emission up to ~200 GeV from PKS 1441+25 (z = 0.939) during 2015 April, a period of high activity across all wavelengths. This observation of …

A Seismic Transect Across West Antarctica: Evidence For Mantle Thermal Anomalies Beneath The Bentley Subglacial Trench And The Marie Byrd Land Dome, Andrew J. Lloyd, Douglas A. Wiens, Andrew A. Nyblade, Sridhar Anandakrishnan, Richard C. Aster, Audrey D. Huerta, Terry J. Wilson, Ian W. D. Dalziel, Patrick J. Shore, Dapeng Zhao

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

West Antarctica consists of several tectonically diverse terranes, including the West Antarctic Rift System, a topographic low region of extended continental crust. In contrast, the adjacent Marie Byrd Land and Ellsworth-Whitmore mountains crustal blocks are on average over 1km higher, with the former dominated by polygenetic shield and stratovolcanoes protruding through the West Antarctic ice sheet and the latter having a Precambrian basement. The upper mantle structure of these regions is important for inferring the geologic history and tectonic processes, as well as the influence of the solid earth on ice sheet dynamics. Yet this structure is poorly constrained due …

Odu, William & Mary Seek Funds For Joint Center On Sea-Level Rise, Dave Mayfield

News Items

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of 89zr-Siderophores As Molecular Imaging Agents For Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Of Bacterial Infections, Nora C. M. Goscinski

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Siderophores are small molecules synthesized by bacteria to harvest Fe³⁺ from their environment. In infection scenarios, their production can increase infection virulence by increasing the ability of bacteria to obtain Fe³⁺ and therefore grow more rapidly. The selective uptake of siderophores in vivo in multi-bacteria environments indicates that this class of molecules has a potential use as selective imaging agents. In this work, DFO-NCS and a library of trihydroxamate siderophores were evaluated as vehicles to deliver ⁸⁹Zr selectively to bacteria for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging of bacterial infections.

Productive work with radiometals involves thorough knowledge of …

Applying Bayesian Machine Learning Methods To Theoretical Surface Science, Shane Carr

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Machine learning is a rapidly evolving field in computer science with increasingly many applications to other domains. In this thesis, I present a Bayesian machine learning approach to solving a problem in theoretical surface science: calculating the preferred active site on a catalyst surface for a given adsorbate molecule. I formulate the problem as a low-dimensional objective function. I show how the objective function can be approximated into a certain confidence interval using just one iteration of the self-consistent field (SCF) loop in density functional theory (DFT). I then use Bayesian optimization to perform a global search for the solution. …

Quaternary Chronology And Stratigraphy Of Mickey Springs, Oregon, Leslie Allen Mowbray

Dissertations and Theses

Mickey Springs in the Alvord Desert, southeast Oregon, is analogous to other Basin and Range hydrothermal systems where the requisite conditions of heat source and permeable pathways are met through crustal thinning due to normal faulting. This study examines the morphology and lifespan of near-surface spring features through use of ground penetrating radar, thermoluminescence (TL) dating, and elevation modeling. Duration of hydrothermal activity at Mickey Springs has not previously been determined, and age determinations of sinter at the site are conflicting. The reason for and timing of this change in silica saturation in the hydrothermal fluid has not been resolved. …

Engineering A Healthier Watershed: Middle School Students Use Engineering Design To Lessen The Impact Of Their Campus' Impervious Surfaces On Their Local Watershed, Elizabeth Claire Gardner

Dissertations and Theses

It is important that students understand not only how their local watershed functions, but also how it is being impacted by impervious surfaces. Additionally, students need experience exploring the scientific and engineering practices that are necessary for a strong STEM background. With this knowledge students can be empowered to tackle this real and local problem using engineering design, a powerful practice gaining momentum and clarity through its prominence in the recent Framework for K-12 Science Education. Twenty classes of suburban sixth-graders participated in a new five-week Watershed Engineering Design Unit taught by their regular science teachers. Students engaged in scientific …

Integrated Step Selection Analysis: Bridgingthe Gap Between Resource Selection And Animal Movement, Tal Avgar, Jonathan R. Potts, Mark A. Lewis, Mark S. Boyce

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

A resource selection function is a model of the likelihood that an available spatial unit will be used by an animal, given its resource value. But how do we appropriately define availability? Step selection analysis deals with this problem at the scale of the observed positional data, by matching each ‘used step’ (connecting two consecutive observed positions of the animal) with a set of ‘available steps’ randomly sampled from a distribution of observed steps or their characteristics. Here we present a simple extension to this approach, termed integrated step selection analysis (iSSA), which relaxes the implicit assumption that observed movement …

Where Is The Warfare? The Impact Of Sola Scriptura On Science And Religion Dialogue, William James Richardson

Senior Theses

I have two aims with the publication of this thesis. The first is to contribute to the recent scholarly work that seeks to discredit the popular, yet fallacious, warfare model of science and religion. A nuanced investigation shows that the warfare evident in popular discourse cannot easily be attributed to a conflict between the essence of science and religion. Rather “science” and “religion” are interpreted as something else entirely. The New Atheists equate science with scientism, and religion is often associated with the Biblical inerrantism of many Protestant Christians. Both ideologies are grounded in an empiricist epistemological framework founded by …

Momentum Of Particles From Time-Of-Flight Measurements, Joseph Best

Senior Theses

In order to find the momentum of particles from time of flight measurements, I used a program called Geant4 to simulate experiments. I made a simple two detector setup, and I recreated a real world experiment. I spent a lot of time learning to code in C++ so I could use Geant4 correctly. I simulated these experiments shooting electrons, muons, and pions through the geometry and measured the time at two points in their flight. Subtracting the second time from the first gave me the time of flight distribution for each particle. I used ROOT to draw histograms of the …

The Force Of Water: Columbia After The Flood, Rebecca Johnson

Senior Theses

Nearly two months have passed, and South Carolina is still recovering from the unprecedented inundation of rain that pelted down in early October. Record amounts of precipitation pounded the state over just a few days, resulting in the flooding and erosion of land, the deterioration of public infrastructure and the loss of human life and capital.

The worst of it was in the capital city. Columbia recorded the highest water levels and the highest number of fatalities of all the affected areas. The city’s utilities could not handle the torrent of water: dams were destroyed, canals were compromised, roads were …

Investigating The Complexity Of Impact Crater Ejecta, Michael Raymond Zanetti

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The formation of an impact crater ejecta blanket can be viewed as a form of organized chaos. Material that is ejected from a crater is heavily brecciated, but falls back to the surface along ballistic trajectories, generally preserving an inverted sense of the original stratigraphy. As the ejecta re-impacts the area surrounding the crater it forms a thick blanket of ejected material and reworked target surface that gradually thins away from the crater rim. Within the crater, crater modification processes, such as wall terrace formation and impact melt drainage, transform the crater in expectable ways.

The approach adopted in this …

Optical-Optical Double Resonance, Laser Induced Fluorescence, And Revision Of The Signs Of The Spin-Spin Constants Of The Boron Carbide (Bc) Free Radical, Fumie X. Sunahori, Ramya Nagarajan, Dennis J. Clouthier

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The cold boroncarbide free radical (BC X  ⁴Σ⁻) has been produced in a pulsed discharge free jet expansion using a precursor mixture of trimethylborane in high pressure argon. High resolution laser induced fluorescencespectra have been obtained for the B  ⁴Σ⁻–X  ⁴Σ⁻ and E  ⁴Π–X  ⁴Σ⁻ band systems of both ¹¹BC and ¹⁰BC. An optical-optical double resonance (OODR) scheme was implemented to study the finer details of both band systems. This involved pumping a single rotational level of the B state with one laser and then …

A Generally Efficient Targeted Minimum Loss Based Estimator, Mark J. Van Der Laan

U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Suppose we observe n independent and identically distributed observations of a finite dimensional bounded random variable. This article is concerned with the construction of an efficient targeted minimum loss-based estimator (TMLE) of a pathwise differentiable target parameter based on a realistic statistical model.

The canonical gradient of the target parameter at a particular data distribution will depend on the data distribution through an infinite dimensional nuisance parameter which can be defined as the minimizer of the expectation of a loss function (e.g., log-likelihood loss). For many models and target parameters the nuisance parameter can be split up in two components, …

A Continuum From Clear To Cloudy Hot-Jupiter Exoplanets Without Primordial Water Depletion, David K. Sing, Jonathan J. Fortney, Nikolay Nikolov, Hannah R. Wakeford, Tiffany Kataria, Thomas M. Evans, Suzanne Aigrain, Gilda E. Ballester, Adam Burrows, Drake Deming, Jean-Michel Désert, Neale P. Gibson, Gregory W. Henry, Catherine M. Huitson, Heather A. Knutson, Alain Lecavelier Des Etangs, Frederic Pont, Adam P. Showman, Alfred Vidal-Madjar, Michael H. Williamson, Paul A. Wilson

Information Systems and Engineering Management Research Publications

Thousands of transiting exoplanets have been discovered, but spectral analysis of their atmospheres has so far been dominated by a small number of exoplanets and data spanning relatively narrow wavelength ranges (such as 1.1–1.7 micrometres). Recent studies show that some hot-Jupiter exoplanets have much weaker water absorption features in their near-infrared spectra than predicted. The low amplitude of water signatures could be explained by very low water abundances, which may be a sign that water was depleted in the protoplanetary disk at the planet’s formation location, but it is unclear whether this level of depletion can actually occur. Alternatively, these …

Optical Spectroscopy And Chemometrics For Discrimination Of Dyed Textile Fibers And Magnetic Audio Tapes, Nathan C. Fuenffinger

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the application of both novel and standard chemometric approaches toward societal problems of interest in the areas of forensic science and cultural heritage preservation. Microspectrophotometry (MSP), a technique enabling measurements of absorption of electromagnetic radiation by microscopic materials in the ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) region, is widely used by forensic examiners for comparisons of metameric textile fibers. These comparisons are often hindered, however, by the raw or normalized spectra showing little detail or having few points of comparison. Derivative preprocessing can enhance structure in some instances. We have demonstrated through the use of multivariate statistics that derivatives are …

Spectroscopy And Chemometrics For Cultural Heritage And Forensics: Conservation Of Magnetic Tape By Identifying Degraded Polymer Signatures; And Characterizing The Chemiluminescent Reaction Of Luminol With Blood, Brianna Marie Cassidy

Theses and Dissertations

The first half of this manuscript focuses on the identification of degraded magnetic tape using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and multivariate statistics. For several decades before the digital era, magnetic tape was the dominant audio and visual recording medium. A majority of magnetic tapes contain polyester urethane (PEU) binders, which are known to degrade via hydrolysis, making the retrieval of recorded data difficult and at times impossible. Degraded tapes are currently identified through visual inspection followed by playback on vintage equipment. However, if degraded tapes are played, they are likely to stick and shed onto player …

Optical Second Harmonic Generation In The Batio3 Phase On Magnetically Aligned Multiferroic Nanofibers, Katia Gasperi

Theses and Dissertations

Multiferroic materials enable the exploration of electrical control of magnetic properties and vice versa. Their increasing interest is especially due to their potential applications in the industry of information storage. Thanks to recent progress in nanotechnology, they have also been found to have many other applications such as transducers and sensors, and they already occupy a unique place in the biomedical field. The objective of this project is to study multiferroic nanofibers made of cobalt ferrite CoFe2O4 (CFO) and barium titanate BaTiO3 (BTO) with a specific focus in the characterization of the ferroelectric phase. We researched the state of knowledge …