Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

From Fail-Safe To Safe-To-Fail: Sustainability And Resilience In The New Urban World, Jack F. Ahern

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Abstract: The extent to which the 21st Century world will be "sustainable" depends in large part on the sustainability of cities. Early ideas on implementing sustainability focused on concepts of achieving stability, practicing effective management and the control of change and growth-- a "fail-safe" mentality. More recent thinking about change, disturbance, uncertainty, and adaptability is fundamental to the emerging science of resilience, the capacity of systems to reorganize and recover from change and disturbance without changing to other states-- in other words, systems that are "safe to fail." While the concept of resilience is intellectually intriguing, it remains largely unpracticed …

On The Orders Of Periodic Diffeomorphisms Of 4-Manifolds, Wm Chen

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

This paper initiated an investigation on the following question: Suppose that a smooth 4 -manifold does not admit any smooth circle actions. Does there exist a constant C>0 such that the manifold supports no smooth Zp -actions of prime order for p>C ? We gave affirmative results to this question for the case of holomorphic and symplectic actions, with an interesting finding that the constant C in the holomorphic case is topological in nature, while in the symplectic case it involves also the smooth structure of the manifold.

Institute Overview, Morton Sternheim

STEM Digital

Digital cameras and computers are widely available for students and teachers. However, they are mainly used for documentation: creating PPT presentations, handouts, posters, etc. STEM DIGITAL shows how digital image analysis can be applied to environmental (and other) research in STEM courses. Application to studies of air quality, water quality, arsenic contamination, climate change, diffusion, etc.

Digital Camera Basics, Stephen Schneider

STEM Digital

No abstract provided.

Measuring Lengths And Areas With Adi. Student Guide, Morton Sternheim

STEM Digital

No abstract provided.

Measuring G With Movie Tracker, Stephen Schneider

STEM Digital

No abstract provided.

Detecting And Mixing Colors, Rob Snyder

STEM Digital

How can Analyzing Digital Images software reveal the differences between primary colors of light and primary colors of paints or pigments?

Measuring The Acceleration Of Falling Objects, John Pickle

STEM Digital

Earth's gravity pulls all objects toward its center, and near the Earth's surface. Objects in free fall accelerate at 9.8 m/s² vertically downward, provided air resistance is negligible. This value of acceleration is often referred to as "g". There are many ways to measure this rate of acceleration, and most require a timing device. Typically, stopwatches are the least expensive technology, so these are commonly available in high school science classrooms. With the recent addition of movie cameras on cell phones and digital cameras, another timing tool is available at moderate cost (free if the school policy …

Leaf Leaching Experiment, David Reckhow

STEM Digital

Water treatment engineers and public health officials need to pay careful attention to the presence of dissolved organic matter in water supplies selected for human consumption (i.e., raw drinking waters).

Measuring Albedo With Adi - An Intensity Application, Morton Sternheim

STEM Digital

Why are Polar Regions more affected by global warming than other parts of the globe? One reason (there are others) is that as sea ice melts and more open water appears, more energy is absorbed, and warming accelerates. This is a form of positive feedback and it makes the polar climate change faster than the climate in temperate areas. Increasing vegetation on land also has a similar positive feedback effect. This effect is a change in the albedo – the fraction of the incident sunlight that is reflected back to space.

Stem Digital And Adi In The Classroom, Jennifer Welborn

STEM Digital

Applications of ADI by students at Amherst Regional Middle School

Co2 Diffusion Through Gelatin Experiment, Jennifer Welborn

STEM Digital

An example of measuring lengths.

Natural Organic Matter In Water, David Reckhow

STEM Digital

Formation in Watersheds and Removal in Water Treatment

Using Adi To Quantify A Color Change In Crayfish, Jennifer Welborn

STEM Digital

Do Crayfish Change Color If Their Environment Changes? A Guided Inquiry Lab for 7th grade Life Science

Background: There is anecdotal evidence from bass fisherman that crayfish are able to change color depending on their surroundings. A (cursory) literature review of this phenomenon showed that no formal research has been done in this area. Students had an additional informal lesson about research funding (or lack thereof) because of this finding.

Students designed and conducted a controlled experiment to see the effect of changing environment color on crayfish color.

ADI was used to quantify a color change.

Human Variation In Skin Color And Race As A Social Construct, Jennifer Welborn

STEM Digital

This lesson is part of evolution unit which follows heredity and genetics

The lesson is interdisciplinary in nature in that I discuss the concept of race as a social construct and the idea that there are “black, white, red, yellow” skinned people is something that people developed. It is not based on biology. Race groupings are human-made groups.

Students first learn about mixing light and how to determine black and white from an ADI analysis. They learn that red and green = yellow, etc.

They then photograph each other’s forearms and analyze the images using ADI.

We then discuss skin …

Air Quality: Carbon Dioxide, Deborah Carlisle, Stephen Schneider

STEM Digital

Measuring CO2 with BTB and ADI.

Measuring Angles With Adi, Stephen Schneider

STEM Digital

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Digital Images (Adi) Resources, Rob Snyder

STEM Digital

Basic introduction to installing and using ADI

Arsenic Project Topics, Julian Tyson

STEM Digital

How do analytical chemists make light work in tracking potentially harmful chemicals?

Water Treatment Experiments, David Reckhow

STEM Digital

•The water industry spends a lot of money and effort on removal of natural organic matter (NOM) from drinking waters •Problems with NOM (the more NOM the bigger problem) –NOM interferes with the ability of water treatment systems to remove substances that cause disease •Pathogenic organisms •Toxic chemicals –NOM reacts with chlorine‐based disinfectants forming carcinogenic organic byproducts

Experimental Design For Ozone Projects, Deborah Carlisle, Stephen Schneider

STEM Digital

No abstract provided.

Bringing Institutions Back In To Strategic Management: The Politics Of Digitally Mediated Institutional Change, Jane E. Fountain

National Center for Digital Government

No abstract provided.

Bioretention: Evaluating Their Effectiveness For Improving Water Quality In New England Urban Environments, Mary Dehais

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is one of the leading causes of water quality problems in the United States. Bioretention has become one of the more frequently used stormwater management practices for addressing NPS pollution in urbanized watersheds in New England. Yet despite increased acceptance, bioretention is not widely practiced. This study explores and evaluates the efficacy of bioretention for protecting urban water quality.

This research found that numerous monitoring methods are used by researchers and industry experts to assess the effectiveness of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) and low impact development (LID) practices that include bioretention. The two most common …

Electronic And Vibrational Spectroscopy Of Ni+(H2o), Jennifer S. Daluz

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The electronic and vibrational spectra of Ni⁺(H₂O) were measured using photofragment spectroscopy. In the electronic spectrum, photodissociation is observed at photon energies above 16875 cm^-1. The only fragment observed is Ni⁺. The electronic spectrum consists of well-resolved peaks spaced by ~340 cm^-1, due to a vibrational progression in the excited electronic state. These peaks have complex sub-structure, consisting of a triplet, spaced by ~30 cm^-1. The sub-structure is due to rotational structure in a perpendicular transition of a prolate top molecule. In addition to this major progression, there …

A High-Resolution Temperature Record From Lakes Of The Lofoten Islands, Northwestern Norway Based On A New Uk37 Temperature Calibration From In Situ Measurements, Xiaohui Huang

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Water filters and sediment trap samples were collected weekly from late May to early September 2009 from four lakes of the Lofoten archipelago, northwestern Norway, and were used to explore the applicability of the alkenone unsaturation index (UK37) for temperature reconstruction in limnic systems in the area. For the first time, we observed the occurrence of long-chain alkenones (LCAs) within the water columns of lakes in this region. Water filters from two of the four studied lakes contained measurable concentrations of alkenones that were restricted to spring turnover and disappeared with the onset of summer stratification. These results indicate that …

An Ecosystem Approach To The Sustainability Of Urbanizing Watersheds, Sarah L. Raposa

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Political boundaries make watershed planning difficult despite the influence of many state and federal programs. Broad, top-down, watershed initiatives fail to reach many municipalities due to human resources, time and legalities. Thus, a watershed ecosystem based approach to city planning should be utilized in order to integrate a holistic and scientific foundation for land use decisions. However, there is a need for research for developing and applying a watershed approach to urbanizing watersheds.

The goal of this study is to provide a series of science based transferable recommendations upon which municipalities can make land use planning decisions. These recommendations are …

On The Retrieval Of The Beam Transverse Wind Velocity Using Angles Of Arrival From Spatially Separated Light Sources, Shiril Tichkule

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

For optical propagation through the turbulent atmosphere, the angle of arrival (AOA) cross-correlation function obtained from two spatially separated light sources carries information regarding the transverse wind velocity averaged along the propagation path. Two methods for the retrieval of the beam transverse horizontal wind velocity, v_t, based on the estimation of the time delay to the peak and the slope at zero lag of the AOA cross-correlation function, are presented. Data collected over a two week long experimental campaign conducted at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) site near Erie, CO was analyzed. The RMS difference between 10 s estimates of …

Determinants Of Health Care Use Among Rural, Low-Income Mothers And Children: A Simultaneous Systems Approach To Negative Binomial Regression Modeling, Swetha Valluri

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The determinants of health care use among rural, low-income mothers and their children were assessed using a multi-state, longitudinal data set, Rural Families Speak. The results indicate that rural mothers’ decisions regarding health care utilization for themselves and for their child can be best modeled using a simultaneous systems approach to negative binomial regression. Mothers’ visits to a health care provider increased with higher self-assessed depression scores, increased number of child’s doctor visits, greater numbers of total children in the household, greater numbers of chronic conditions, need for prenatal or post-partum care, development of a new medical condition, and …

Pharmacological Chaperoning In Fabry Disease, Jerome Rogich

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Fabry Disease is an X-­‐linked lysosomal storage disorder characterized by a variety of symptoms including hypohydrosis, seizures, cardiac abnormalities, skin lesions, and chronic pain. These symptoms stem from a lack of functional endogenous α-­‐ Galactosidase A (α-­GAL), which leads to an accrual of its natural substrate. The severity of the disease symptoms can be directly correlated with the amount of residual enzyme activity. It has been shown that an imino sugar, 1-deoxygalactonojirimycin (DGJ), can increase enzymatic activity and clear excess substrate. This pH-­‐dependent chaperoning phenomenon is believed to arise from the presence of aspartic acid 170 in the active site. …

Jarosite Formation At The Davis Mine, Rowe, Massachusetts, Karen S. Miller

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This study investigates jarosite formation and stability patterns at the abandoned Davis Pyrite Mine in Rowe, Massachusetts. Jarosite, an iron-sulfate hydroxide, is found in acid mine drainage (AMD) environments, in acid sulfate soils, and on Mars. Jarosite and the iron oxides goethite and hematite are present at the site. Soil samples from the site were examined by XRD, SEM, and EDS. Five mineralogical areas were found, based on mineral abundance patterns. Jarosite exists in four of these areas. Two jarosite morphologies were identified. “Variable” jarosite, with partly-dissolved crystals of about 0.5 to 5 micrometers diameter, exists in spoil pile samples. …