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The Murray Ledger And Times, December 15, 2015, The Murray Ledger And Times

The Murray Ledger & Times

No abstract provided.

Academic E-Books: Publishers, Librarians, And Users, Suzanne M. Ward, Robert S. Freeman, Judith M. Nixon

Purdue University Press Books

Academic E-Books: Publishers, Librarians, and Users provides readers with a view of the changing and emerging roles of electronic books in higher education. The three main sections contain contributions by experts in the publisher/vendor arena, as well as by librarians who report on both the challenges of offering and managing e-books and on the issues surrounding patron use of e-books. The case study section offers perspectives from seven different sizes and types of libraries whose librarians describe innovative and thought-provoking projects involving e-books.

Read about perspectives on e-books from organizations as diverse as a commercial publisher and an association press. …

Endangered Species, Endangered Treaties: Protecting Treaty Rights, Economic Development, And Tribal Consultation Under Secretarial Order 3206, Jeremy Wood

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A ‘Fresh Eyes’ Look At Improving The Effectiveness Of Engineering Group Design Projects, A Kyte

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Micro-Determinants Of Income Inequality And Consumption In Rural Bangladesh, S Rahman

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

The paper examines the extent to which household and regional characteristics influence income inequality and consumption/welfare based on an in-depth survey of 406 households from 21 villages in three regions of Bangladesh. Results show that the overall Gini coefficient for rural incomes is 0.43 but Gini-decomposition revealed that the contribution of mixed crop production to inequality is just 10 percent while “Green Revolution” technology contributes almost 29 percent. Land ownership, farm capital assets, modern irrigation, non-agricultural income, and household head”s education significantly increase consumption. Tenants and households with more dependents are doubly disadvantaged and consume significantly less. Regional factors also …

Assessment Of Changes Of Extreme Wave Conditions At The German Baltic Sea Coast On The Basis Of Future Climate Change Scenarios, Norman Dreier, Christian Schlamkow, Peter Fröhle, Dörte Salecker, Zhenshan Xu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Information on possible changes in extreme wave heights is needed to determine the future effectiveness and safety of coastal and flood protection structures. In this study, an assessment of possible changes in the extreme wave heights at selected locations along the German Baltic Sea coast has been carried out on the basis of numerical simulations of waves in the western Baltic Sea and regional climate model data for the past and the future (1961-2100). The future climate change signal of significant wave heights with a return period of 200 years mainly depends on: (i) the location, (ii) the climate change …

Seabed Scour Around A Breakwater A Case Study In Mailiao Harbor, I-Fu Lin, I-Fan Tseng, Chung-Pan Lee, Guan-Yu Chen

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

According to a field measurement in 2012, the bathymetry in the area of Mailiao Harbor, located in the middle of Taiwan's west coast, has scouring hole with a size distribution of approximately 500 x 100 m. The maximum scour depth is 26 m (from -22 m eroded to -48 m). Although scour has become a major threat to breakwaters and navigational safety, it can be predicted cost-effectively, reliably, and rapidly by applying the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation. In this study, numerical simulation of tidal current and typhoon waves was performed to investigate the causes of the scouring hole …

Viscous Flow Fields Induced By A Breaking Solitary Wave Over A Shelf, Ching-Jer Huang, Yen-Tsen Lin, Chun-Yuan Lin

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This work investigates the viscous flow fields induced by a solitary wave passing over a shelf or a step. The proposed numerical model solves the unsteady two-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations and the turbulence equations. The finite-analytical scheme is used to discretize the differential equations involved in the RANS model. The particle level set method is adopted to capture the complex free surface evolution. Accuracy of the proposed model in simulating breaking solitary wave on a shelf is verified by comparing numerical wave profiles from the incident stage to the beginning of jet fall with the experimental data. Following …

Variations Of Statistics For Random Waves Propagating Over A Bar, Yu-Xiang Ma, Xiao-Zhou Ma, Guo-Hai Dong

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

A series of physical experiments were conducted on the variations of statistics (skewness, kurtosis, groupiness) in random waves propagating over a submerged symmetrical bar. Random waves were generated using JONSWAP spectra while varying initial spectral width, wave height and peak frequency. It was found that the initial spectral width has a negligible effect on the variations of these statistical parameters. An abrupt change in wave groupiness is caused by wave breaking. Variations in the skewness and kurtosis mainly depend on the local water depth and wave height and period. Furthermore, the relationship between the skewness and kurtosis in the shoaling …

Comparison Between Consistent Coupled-Mode System And Eigenfunction Matching Method For Solving Water Wave Scattering, Chia-Cheng Tsai, Wan-Rong Chou

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Both the consistent coupled-mode system (CCMS) and the eigenfunction matching method (EMM) are well-known models for simulating the propagation of small-amplitude water waves over variable bathymetry. In this study, a thorough comparison is performed through numerical experiments. For the CCMS, a bottom-sloping mode is coupled in the mildslope equation with evanescent modes, then the CCMS are discretized by the finite-element method with high-order shape functions. For the EMM, the bottom profile is approximated in terms of successive flat shelves separated by abrupt steps, and then eigensolutions on the shelves are matched by the conservation of mass and momentum. To perform …

Statistical Analysis On The Long-Term Observations Of Typhoon Waves In The Taiwan Sea, Dong-Jiing Doong, Cheng-Han Tsai, Ying-Chih Chen, Jen-Ping Peng, Ching-Jer Huang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Seventeen data buoys were deployed in the Taiwan Sea since 1997. These buoys have made measurement for more than 100 typhoons. The purpose of this paper is to study the statistical characteristics of the observed typhoon waves. High resolution directional wave spectra are obtained by analyzing the buoy data. The Significant Typhoon Wave Height (SWTH) and the Duration of Large Waves (DLW) are proposed to indicate the sea severity of typhoons. The joint effect of the SWTH and the DLW is used to assess possible impact by the typhoon waves to the coast, using the damage curve calibrated from historical …

Discussions On The Occurrence Probabilities Of Observed Freak Waves, Aifeng Tao, Ji Peng, Jinhai Zheng, Yao Wang, Yuqing Wu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Field observational is the most direct and reliable research approach to investigate the freak waves, particularly for the occurrence probability. In order to present the latest research state, the results related to the observed freak waves from six sea areas are summarized and analyzed with comparisons. Three key conclusions are addressed. Firstly, both the occurrence probability and the strength of freak waves vary much for different sea areas. It is shown that there is still no answer to the big question of whether freak waves are rare events. Secondly, there is no single accepted, unified definition of freak waves. It …

A Critical Analysis Of Neural Buddhism's Explanation Of Moral Transformation, Jeffrey R. Dickson

Liberty Theological Review

As non-theistic arguments for morality become increasingly sophisticated and complex, they are harder to criticize without first admiring their skillful design and near-artistry. One such argument involves a relatively new innovation that is the child of naturalism and eastern philosophy—Neural Buddhism. Like two world-renowned designers collaborating on a new garment, Naturalism and Buddhism have come together in this distinct program to offer something inventive, especially in its explanation of moral transformation. However, this critical analysis will ultimately reveal that Neural Buddhism’s explanation of moral transformation is incapable of providing good answers to several compelling criticisms.

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 …

Measurement, Modeling, And Mitigation Of Lead Impacts From General Aviation, Stephen Neil Feinberg

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Airborne lead (Pb) has been regulated as a criteria pollutant by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since the Clean Air Act and its amendments in the 1970s. During the 1970s, atmospheric Pb emissions were dominated by the combustion of leaded automobile fuel and metals manufacturing. Over time, those emissions have decreased greatly and according to the EPA the largest emitter of Pb today is piston-engine aircraft. Additionally, in 2008 the EPA reduced the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for Pb by an order of magnitude. These combined factors served as the impetus for further study of general …

Novel Applications Of Electrostatic Precipitators In Coal - Biomass Combustion Systems, He Jing

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Pulverized coal combustion is an important source of electricity production worldwide. However, it is also a primary air pollution emission (particulate matters, mercury, etc.) source. Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are widely used in coal-fired power plants to control particulate matters. This dissertation contributes in the study of the pollution formation from coal combustion processes and pollution control based on ESPs in the following three aspects: (1) explore novel applications of ESPs in particulate matters and mercury removal; (2) develop and evaluate an compact electrostatic precipitator for sampling purpose, which can support offline fly ash particle analysis; (3) study the submicrometer particle …

Relating Neural Dynamics To Olfactory Coding And Behavior, Chao Li

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Sensory stimuli often evoke temporal patterns of spiking activity across a population of neurons in the early processing stages. What features of these spatiotemporal responses encode behaviorally relevant information, and how dynamic processing of sensory signals facilitates information processing are fundamental problems in sensory neuroscience that remain to be understood. In this thesis, I have investigated these issues using a relatively simple invertebrate model (locusts; Schistocerca americana).

In locusts, odorants are transduced into electrical signals by olfactory sensory neurons in the antenna and are subsequently relayed to the downstream neural circuit in the antennal lobe (analogous to the olfactory bulb …

Molecularly Targeted Nanoparticles For Modulation Of Inflammatory Mediators In Atherosclerosis, Rohun Udatta Palekar

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The enzyme thrombin has been demonstrated through experimental and clinical studies to play a crucial role in mediating both inflammation and thrombosis in atherosclerosis. The cellular effects of thrombin in promoting atherosclerosis involve the activation of signaling pathways that result in the secretion of a host of various chemokines, cytokines, cell adhesion molecules, etc. that promote vascular inflammation. Due in part to thrombin and other pro-atherogenic molecules, this prolonged inflammatory state in atherosclerosis results in the deterioration of the endothelium, increasing the risk of focal thrombosis. Current treatment strategies to address the role of thrombin in atherosclerosis, despite efficacy of …

Electronic Musical Instrument To Generate Musical Tones To Imitate A Stringed Instrument, Mizuki Nakagawa, Ikuo Tanaka, Shun Takai

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Provided are an electronic musical instrument, computer storage device, and method for generating tone. A sound source in an electronic musical instrument generates a first tone at a first pitch in response to a first tone generation instruction received by an input device of the electronic musical instrument. A second tone generation instruction is received to generate a second tone at a second pitch while generating the first tone at the sound source. A determination is made of a pitch difference of the first and the second pitches. The sound source is controlled to generate the second tone and to …

Clinical Application Of Electrocardiographic Imaging In Patients With Ischemic Cardiomyopathy, Early Repolarization Syndrome And Brugada Syndrome, Junjie Zhang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Electrocardiographic Imaging (ECGI) is a noninvasive modality for human application in both research and clinical settings. It is an important tool for investigation of abnormal electrophysiological (EP) substrates and arrhythmias in patients. Multi-channel body surface potential recordings and the patient-specific heart-torso geometry from ECG gated computed tomography are processed by ECGI algorithms to reconstruct epicardial potentials, electrograms and patterns of activation and repolarization. ECGI is able to continuously generate high-resolution, panoramic EP maps of the entire heart on a beat-by-beat basis, which cannot be achieved with invasive catheter mapping.

ECGI was applied in ischemic cardiomyopathy patients to characterize the abnormal …

Cyber-Physical Co-Design Of Wireless Control Systems, Bo Li

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Wireless sensor-actuator network (WSAN) technology is gaining rapid adoption in process industries because of its advantages in lowering deployment and maintenance cost in challenging environments. While early success of industrial WSANs has been recognized, significant potential remains in exploring WSANs as unified networks for industrial plants.

This thesis research explores a cyber-physical co-design approach to design wireless control systems. To enable holistic studies of wireless control systems, we have developed the Wireless Cyber-Physical Simulator (WCPS), an integrated co-simulation environment that integrates Simulink and our implementation of WSANs based on the industrial WirelessHART standard. We further develop novel WSAN protocols tailored …

Automating Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning By Using Hierarchical Optimization, Paras Babu Tiwari

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) optimizes the beam’s intensity to deliver the prescribed dose to the target while minimizing the radiation exposure to normal structures. The IMRT optimization is a complex optimization problem because of the multiple conflicting objectives in it. Due to the complexity of the optimization, the IMRT treatment planning is still a trial and error process. Hierarchical optimization was proposed to automate the treatment planning process, but its potential has not been demonstrated in a clinical setting. Moreover, hierarchical optimization is slower than the traditional optimization. The dissertation studied a sampling algorithm to reduce the hierarchical …

Data Structures And Algorithms For Scalable Ndn Forwarding, Haowei Yuan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Named Data Networking (NDN) is a recently proposed general-purpose network architecture that aims to address the limitations of the Internet Protocol (IP), while maintaining its strengths. NDN takes an information-centric approach, focusing on named data rather than computer addresses. In NDN, the content is identified by its name, and each NDN packet has a name that specifies the content it is fetching or delivering. Since there are no source and destination addresses in an NDN packet, it is forwarded based on a lookup of its name in the forwarding plane, which consists of the Forwarding Information Base (FIB), Pending Interest …

Understanding The Nano- And Macroscale Processes Impacting Arsenic Mobilization During Managed Aquifer Recharge Using Reclaimed Wastewater, Chelsea Wren Neil

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) utilizing reclaimed wastewater is a vital means of replenishing natural freshwater supplies in order to meet growing demands. Unfortunately, this process has been found to induce unfavorable geochemical reactions which mobilize arsenic from aquifer sediments. This process is further complicated by the simultaneous formation of iron(III) (hydr)oxide secondary minerals, which can sorb aqueous arsenic. It is crucial to fully elucidate these physico-chemical processes in order to establish safe MAR operations which minimize arsenic release. Thus, the mechanisms controlling arsenic release from arsenopyrite during MAR were investigated from the nano- to macroscale.

First, nanoscale iron(III) (hydr)oxide nucleation …

Segmentation And Strain Mapping Of A Beating Heart, Kenna Middleton

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Conventional methods of estimating deformation optically often compare image intensities before and after deformation to help estimate the strain fields. However, these current meth ods often introduce undesirable error that propagates through the system, growing larger through each strain calculation. These errors create false, concentrated regions of strain throughout the image. Additionally, gathering and evaluating images in three- and four dimensional space creates even more difficulty for conventional methods. Here, by imple menting new techniques of gathering four-dimensional ultrasound data sets and calculating deformation fields with traditional errors reduced three-fold, four-dimensional images were evaluated to create a novel visualization tool …

Investigating The Complexity Of Impact Crater Ejecta, Michael Raymond Zanetti

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student 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 …

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

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student 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. …

Copper And Zinc Oxide Composite Nanostructures For Solar Energy Harvesting, Fei Wu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Solar energy is a clean and sustainable energy source to counter global environmental issues of rising atmospheric CO2 levels and depletion of natural resources. To extract useful work from solar energy, silicon-based photovoltaic devices are extensively used. The technological maturity and the high quality of silicon (Si) make it a material of choice. However limitations in Si exist, ranging from its indirect band gap to low light absorption coefficient and energy and capital intensive crystal growth schemes. Therefore, alternate materials that are earth-abundant, benign and simpler to process are needed for developing new platforms for solar energy harvesting applications.

In …

Optimization Of Looped Airfoil Wind Turbine (Lawt) And Looped Airfoil Hydro-Turbine (Laht) Design Parameters For Maximum Power Generation, Binhe Song

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This focus of this research is on the study of the aerodynamic performance of a Looped Airfoil Wind Turbine (LAWT™) using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. The looped airfoil wind turbine (LAWT™) is a patented new technology by EverLift Wind Technology, Inc. for generating power from wind. It takes advantage of the superior lift force of a linearly traveling wing compared to the rotating blades in conventional wind turbine configurations. Compared to horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines, the LAWT™ can be manufactured with minimal cost because it does not require complex gear systems and its blades have a …

Thermally Evolved & Separated Composition Of Atmospheric Aerosols: Development And Application Of Advanced Data Analysis Techniques For A Thermal Desorption Aerosol Gas Chromatograph (Tag), Yaping Zhang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Atmospheric organic aerosols are composed of thousands of individual compounds, interacting with climate through changes in aerosol optical properties and cloud interactions, and can be detrimental to human health. Aerosol mass spectrometry (MS) and gas chromatography (GC)-separated MS measurements have been utilized to better characterize the chemical composition of this material that comes from a variety of sources and experiences continuous oxidation while in the atmosphere. This dissertation describes the development of a novel rapid data analysis method for grouping of major components within chromatography-separated measurements and first application using thermal desorption aerosol gas chromatograph (TAG) – MS data. Chromatograms …