Digital Commons Network^™

Portable High-Performance Indexing For Vector Product Format Spatial Databases, Engin Colak

Theses and Dissertations

Geo-spatial databases have an overall performance problem because of their complexity and large size. For this reason, many researchers seek new ways to improve the overall performance of geo-spatial databases. Typically, these research efforts are focused on complex indexing structures and query processing methods to capture the relationships between the individual features of fully-functional geo-spatial databases. Visualization applications, such as combat simulators and mission planning tools, suffer from the general performance problems associated with geo-spatial databases. This research focuses on building a high-performance geo-spatial database for visualization applications. The main approach is to simplify the complex data model and to …

Comparing Bottled Water And Tap Water: Experiments In Risk Communication, Branden B. Johnson

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

The author discusses results of experiments in risk communication comparing bottled water and tap water.

Verification Of Mm5 Cloud Microphysics Schemes For East Asia, Dean J. Carter

Theses and Dissertations

Using the 3-Dimensional Variational Analysis data assimilation scheme and the (MM5), input observations were denied in three different categories: total, upper air, and surface observation denial. Two control groups were run using all available data as received by AFWA. The main control group used a 6 hours old first guess as a baseline. The data denied test cases and the secondary control group used a 30-hour old first guess because it was not possible to deny data from the first guess. The secondary control group was used to estimate errors resulting from the use of different first guess forecasts between …

The Resurrection Of A River: The Umatilla And Its Salmon, Christopher Ward Shelley

Dissertations and Theses

Until the 1990s, salmon had been extinct from the Umatilla River for over 70 years. The struggle to bring salmon back to this river is a compelling story that exemplifies some of the new relationships in Columbia River Basin salmon management.

The Umatilla River and the disappearance of its salmon was a local issue. Irrigation interests had used the river so thoroughly it ceased to flow during the late summer and fall months-precisely when salmon needed it for migration. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation saw decided that they would change that: they would figure out a way …

Distribution, Abundance And Habitat Use Of American White Pelicans In The Delta Region Of Mississippi And Along The Western Gulf Of Mexico Coast, D. Tommy King, Thomas C. Michot

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Aerial surveys of American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) were conducted over coastal Louisiana and the delta region of Mississippi on 1-2 days during December, February, and April each year from 1997 to 1999. Additional surveys were conducted in coastal Texas and Mexico during January 1998 and 1999. The numbers, location, and habitat of all pelicans observed were recorded. The coastal zone of Louisiana consistently had higher numbers of pelicans (18,000 to 35,000 birds) than other areas surveyed (3,000 to 8,000 birds), indicating that Louisiana may be the most important wintering area for American White Pelicans east of the …

A Gis To Select Plant Species For Erosion Control Along California Highways, Michael Curto, Brent Hallock, Misty Scharff

Earth and Soil Sciences

Through road construction and maintenance activities, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) actively manages roadside rights-of-way that transect California's 41 million hectares (101 million acres), spanning over 3,000 meters of elevational change from seashore to subalpine. State and federal highways are grouped into 12 districts, each encompassing from one to 11 of the state's 58 counties. District personnel are typically responsible for implementing site-specific adaptations of general statewide guidelines for shortto long-term erosion control following construction or storm damage. Many erosion control projects involve reestablishing vegetation through seeding where the precarious life stages of germination and establishment are controlled by …

Development Of Analytical Systems And Monitoring Of Vocs Emissions During Polymer Processing, Qin Xiang

Dissertations

A method using direct flame ionization detector (FID) measurement was developed to study total volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions during thermal degradation of polymers. This was used to estimate organic emissions from both virgin polymer resins and commingled plastics. The effects of process parameters, i. e., temperature, heating rate and residence time, were also studied. Significant VOCs emissions were observed at normal processing temperatures, particularly from recycled polymers. Each polymer showed a distinct evolution pattern during its thermal degradation. Kinetics of VOCs emissions were also studied using a non-isothermal technique. The kinetic parameters were in agreement with data from the …

Cxquery: A Novel Xml Query Language, Peter Revesz, Yi Chen

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

XML is becoming the data exchange standard on the Internet. Previously proposed XML query languages, such as XQuery, Quilt, YALT, Lorel, and XML-QL, lack schema definition of the query result; therefore, they are limited for defining views, integrating data, updating, and further querying, all of which are often needed in e-Business applications. We propose a novel XML query language called CXQuery, which defines the schema of the query results explicitly and can easily define views, and integrate, update, and query XML data. In addition, CXQuery can express spatial and spatio-temporal queries using a constraint-based querying approach.

Mount Keumgang (Geography And History), Thomas Dolan

Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Developing Industrial Ecosystems: Approaches, Cases, And Tools, Marian Chertow, Michelle Portlock

Yale School of the Environment Bulletin Series

No abstract provided.

Gauge Theory And Stein Fillings Of Certain 3-Manifolds, Andras I. Stipsicz

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In the following we show that a Stein filling S of the 3-torus T^3 is homeomorphic to D^2 \times T^2. In the proof we also show that if S is Stein and \partial S is diffeomorphic to the Seifert fibered 3-manifold -\Sigma (2,3,11) then b_1(S)=0 and Q_S=H. Similar results are obtained for the Poincaré homology sphere \pm \Sigma (2,3,5); in studying these fillings we apply recent gauge theoretic results, and prove our theorems by determining certain Seiberg-Witten invariants.

A New Megalonychid Sloth From The Late Wisconsinan Of The Dominican Republic, Elizabeth Rega, Donald A. Mcfarlane, Joyce Lundberg, Keith Christenson

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

An unusually well preserved skull, mandible, and indisputably associated post-cranial elements of new sloth, Acratocnus (Miocnus), were recovered from a cave in Jaragua National Park, Dominican Republic. The animal died lying in a rimstone pool and was rapidly coated with a thin calcite patina. We have documented a late Wisconsinan age for this specimen by inorganic 14C radiometric dating of the patina, with supporting data on the carbon systematics of the speleothems in this cave. This sloth is described as a new species on the basis of the distinctive morphology and relative size of cranial and mandibular features. We consider …

A Middle Pleistocene Age And Biogeography For The Extinct Rodent Megalomys Curazensis From Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, Donald A. Mcfarlane, Joyce Lundberg

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

The extinct oryzomyine rodent Megalomys curazensis has been known from abundant but fragmentary remains on the island of Curaçao since 1959. Here we demonstrate an age of 130 000 to 400 000 years before present based on geomorphological context, and propose a biogeographical model for the genus.

A Late Quaternary Paleoecological Record From Caves Of Southern Jamaica, West Indies, Donald A. Mcfarlane, Joyce Lundberg, A.G. Fincham

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

Studies of an unusual and diverse system of caves in coastal southern Jamaica have yielded a paleoclimatic record associated with a fossil vertebrate record that provides useful insights into the poorly documented paleoecology of latest Wisconsinan and Holocene Jamaica. Episodes of significantly increased precipitation during the Holocene have left characteristic deposits of speleothems, and have supported both faunal and archaeological communities that were dependent on these mesic conditions. Deposits of fossil bat guano preserved in the caves provide a δ¹³C record of alternating mesic and xeric climatic episodes that supports the interpretation of the faunal and archaeological record.

Estimation Of Depth-Area Relationships Using Radar-Rainfall Data, S. Rocky Durrans, Lesley T. Julian, Michael Yekta

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Depth-area relationships, such as those published by the National Weather Service in TP 40 and the NOAA Atlas 2, enable conversion of point rainfall depths to areal average depths for the same storm duration and recurrence interval. This problem of conversion is most germane to hydrologic analyses for moderate to large drainage basins, where point rainfall depths are not representative of the spatial distribution of a storm event. Historically, depth-area relationships have been developed on the basis of data from dense networks of recording gauges. However, with the ongoing accumulation of radar-rainfall records, radar-rainfall data represent an alternative to gauging …

Resource Law Notes Newsletter, No. 53, Winter, Feb. 2002, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Resource Law Notes: The Newsletter of the Natural Resources Law Center (1984-2002)

No abstract provided.

Data Warehouse Applications In Modern Day Business, Carla Mounir Issa

Theses Digitization Project

Data warehousing provides organizations with strategic tools to achieve the competitive advantage that organazations are constantly seeking. The use of tools such as data mining, indexing and summaries enables management to retrieve information and perform thorough analysis, planning and forcasting to meet the changes in the market environment. in addition, The data warehouse is providing security measures that, if properly implemented and planned, are helping organizations ensure that their data quality and validity remain intact.

Assessing Vulnerability To Agricultural Drought: A Nebraska Case Study, Olga V. Wilhelmi, Donald A. Wilhite

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Recent drought events in the United States and the magnitude of drought losses indicate the continuing vulnerability of the country to drought. Until recently, drought management in many states, including Nebraska, has been largely response oriented with little or no attention to mitigation and preparedness. In 1998, Nebraska began to revise its drought plan in order to place more emphasis on mitigation. One of the main aspects of drought mitigation and planning is the assessment of who and what is vulnerable and why. This paper presents a method for spatial, Geographic Information Systems-based assessment of agricultural drought vulnerability in Nebraska. …

Spatial Representation Of Agroclimatology In A Study Of Agricultural Drought, Olga V. Wilhelmi, Kenneth Hubbard, Donald A. Wilhite

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Agricultural drought is the leading cause for crop failure throughout the world. In the USA, significant impacts of recent droughts on agricultural production indicate the continuing vulnerability of the country to drought. This paper presents a methodology for spatial representation of the agroclimatic component of agricultural drought vulnerability. This methodology was developed as a part of an integrated assessment of drought vulnerability. For the spatial analysis, the state of Nebraska was selected as a study area because of the considerable variation in climatology, soil characteristics, land use, and cropping patterns. The underlying approach assumes that the best spatial characterization of …

Ua56/1 Fact Book, Wku Institutional Research

WKU Administration Documents

Statistical and demographic profile of WKU.

Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, And Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants In U.S. Streams, 1999-2000: A National Reconnaissance, Dana Kolpin, Edward Furlong, Michael Meyer, E. Michael Thurman, Steven Zaugg, Larry Barber, Herbert Buxton

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

To provide the first nationwide reconnaissance of the occurrence of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants (OWCs) in water resources, the U.S. Geological Survey used five newly developed analytical methods to measure concentrations of 95 OWCs in water samples from a network of 139 streams across 30 states during 1999 and 2000. The selection of sampling sites was biased toward streams susceptible to contamination (i.e. downstream of intense urbanization and livestock production). OWCs were prevalent during this study, being found in 80% of the streams sampled. The compounds detected represent a wide range of residential, industrial, and agricultural origins …

Holocene Multidecadal And Multicentennial Droughts Affecting Northern California And Nevada, Larry Benson, Michaele Kashgarian, Robert Rye, Steve Lund, Fred Paillet, Joseph Smoot, Cynthia Kester, Scott Mensing, Dave Meko, Susan Landström

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Continuous, high-resolution δ¹⁸O records from cored sediments of Pyramid Lake, Nevada, indicate that oscillations in the hydrologic balance occurred, on average, about every 150 years (yr) during the past 7630 calendar years (cal yr). The records are not stationary; during the past 2740 yr, drought durations ranged from 20 to 100 yr and intervals between droughts ranged from 80 to 230 yr. Comparison of tree-ring-based reconstructions of climate change for the past 1200 yr from the Sierra Nevada and the El Malpais region of northwest New Mexico indicates that severe droughts associated with Anasazi withdrawal from Chaco Canyon …

Arktos: An Intelligent System For Satellite Sea Ice Image Analysis, Leen-Kiat Soh

School of Computing: Technical Reports

We present an intelligent system for satellite sea ice image analysis named ARKTOS (Advanced Reasoning using Knowledge for Typing Of Sea ice). The underlying methodology of ARKTOS is to perform fully automated analysis of sea ice images by mimicking the reasoning process of sea ice experts and photo-interpreters. Hence, our approach is feature-based, rule-based classification supported by multisource data fusion and knowledge bases. A feature can be an ice floe, for example. ARKTOS computes a host of descriptors for that feature and then applies expert rules to classify the floe into one of several ice classes. ARKTOS also incorporates information …

Biodiversity Of Fungi In Red Imported Fire Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Mounds, Jennifer A. Zettler, Thomas M. Mcinnis Jr., Craig R. Allen, Timothy P. Spira

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, became established in North America more than 70 yr ago, and it currently occupies most of the southeastern United States. Fire ants change the physical and chemical components of soil, which likely infuence soil fungi in ant mounds. To determine the effects of fire ants on soil fungi, we sampled soil from fire ant mounds and the surrounding nonmound soil. In addition, we sampled soil from the nests of the native ant Aphaenogaster texana carolinensis Wheeler. We found that both fire ant mounds and native ant nests had greater fungal abundance but …

Integrating Environmental Education With Family And Consumer Science Education, Trina Lin Stangland

All Graduate Projects

This project provides lessons and activities for the integration of environmental education throughout the family and consumer science curriculum. The project reflects the most current standards including the Washington State Environmental Education Guidelines and Essential Academic Learning Requirements, as well as the Family and Consumer Science National Standards. Many appropriate areas of implementation were discovered in the review of literature. The lessons and activities presented in this project are informed by the literature and are, subsequently, diverse and desirable for family and consumer science education. Each lesson or activity includes detailed information on which standards they reflect as well as …

Stimulation And Modeling Of Pond Formations On The Asteroid 433 Eros, Justin Thompson

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

"Ponds" are surface features that appear to be the result of the deposition of finer material on the asteroid's regolith, the layer of loose sediment that blankets the entire asteroid. Ponds were discovered by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft in January, 2001, on the asteroid 433 Eros. The objective of experimentation is to simulate the development of these ponds in the Andromeda planetary sciences environmental chamber. The Andromeda Chamber offers a unique ability to simulate surface environments that occur on Eros. The chamber was used to simulate the processes that occur as Eros emits gas through its outer surface, including the …

Australia: An Integrated Curriculum Unit, Grades 2-4, Institute For The Development Of Gifted Education, Ricks Center For Gifted Children, University Of Denver

Ricks Curriculum Units Series

An integrated curriculum is an instructional approach that connects the disciplines to an underlying theme or topic. Immersing students in an integrated-thematic unit provides the backdrop for experiences to occur across the disciplines. Shaping coursework around integrated themes is especially appropriate for gifted students, however using an integrated-thematic curriculum is appropriate for all learners as it develops students' abilities to make connections, to solve problems by looking at multiple perspectives, and to integrate information from different fields of experience. An integrated-thematic curriculum permits students to be active participants in their own learning as they design their own explorations and take …

2002-2003 Nova Southeastern University Farquhar Center For Undergraduate Studies Catalog, Nova Southeastern University

Undergraduate Programs Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Variation In Overstory Nitrogen Uptake In A Small, High-Elevation Southern Appalachian Spruce-Fir Watershed, M. Barker, H. Van Miegroet, N. S. Nicholas, I. F. Creed

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

High-elevation red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) – Fraser fir (Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poir.) forests of the southern Appalachians exhibit considerable spatial heterogeneity in structure, and possibly in N uptake, because of a combination of natural disturbances and heavy fir mortality caused by infestations of the exotic balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae Ratz). The objectives of this study are to determine spatial variability in tree N uptake in a small high-elevation catchment in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, compare outcomes among calculation methods, and assess the influence of stand and landscape properties on N uptake. Tree N uptake is estimated …

Mathematics For Non-Science Majors Chemistry Course, D. D. Shillady

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

A chemistry course developed for non-science majors has been taught at Virginia Commonwealth University for the past five years. CHEM 112 uses current event articles from science magazines to make use of a verbal channel of learning in non-science majors, but some mathematics is necessary. Examples are given of successful presentation of nuclear chemistry and data needed for a balanced discussion of global warming. Manipulation of symbols in balancing chemical and nuclear reactions, simple algebra, and logarithms for pH and unit analysis of simple stoichiometric conversions are fundamental to basic chemistry. The population of a voting democracy could benefit from …