Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Comment On 'Simulation Of A Two-Dimensional Rayleigh-Bénard System Using The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Method, Alejandro Garcia, F. Baras, M. Malek Mansour

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Consistent Boltzmann Algorithm, Alejandro Garcia, F. Alexander, B. Alder

Faculty Publications

The direct simulation Monte Carlo method for the Boltzmann equation is modified by an additional displacement in the advection process and an enhanced collision rate in order to obtain the exact hard sphere equation of state at all densities. This leads to consistent thermodynamic and transport properties in the low density (Boltzmann) regime. At higher densities transport properties are comparable to the predictions of the Enskog model. The algorithm is faster than molecular dynamics at low and moderate densities and readily run on a parallel architecture

Tectonic Development Of Panama, Costa Rica, And The Colombian Andes: Constraints From Global Positioning System Geodetic Studies And Gravity, James N. Kellogg, Victor Vega

Faculty Publications

Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements suggest the existence of a rigid Panama- Costa Rica microplate that is moving northward relative to the stable Caribbean Plate. Northward motion of South America relative to the Caribbean plate is independently suggested by the April 1991 Costa Rica earthquake, active folding in the North Panama deformed belt, and a south-dipping Wadati-Benioff zone beneath Panama. Panama may also be continuing to collide eastward with the northern Andes. Rapid subduction is occurring at the Middle America (72mm/yr), Ecuador (70mm/yr), and Colombia (50mm/yr) trenches. The northern Andes are moving northeastward relative to stable South America. Preliminary GPS …

New Optical Cell Design For Laser Flash Photolysis Studies In Supercritical Fluids, Steven R. Goates, Milton L. Lee, Qin Ji, Edward M. Eyring, Rudi Van Eldik, Kedika Bal Reddy

Faculty Publications

A high-pressure optical cell has been designed that achieves an effective separation between the chemical sample and the pressurizing medium and system. This design limits possible sample contamination and catalytic effects under supercritical fluid sample conditions. Laser flash photolysis experiments were carried out on molybdenum hexacarbonyl dissolved in supercritical CO2. The thermal ring closure reaction of the species Mo(CO)5L, where L is 2,2- bipyridine was found to proceed at rates comparable to those measured previously in liquid benzene or toluene. Much larger activation volumes were found for the reaction in supercritical CO2 than in liquid toluene.

Using Multiple Statistical Prototypes To Classify Continuously Valued Data, Tony R. Martinez, Dan A. Ventura

Faculty Publications

Multiple Statistical Prototypes (MSP) is a modification of a standard minimum distance classification scheme that generates muItiple prototypes per class using a modified greedy heuristic. Empirical comparison of MSP with other well-known learning algorithms shows MSP to be a robust algorithm that uses a very simple premise to produce good generalization and achieve parsimonious hypothesis representation.

Student Evaluations Of Teaching Effectiveness: The Interpretation Of Observational Data And The Principle Of Faute De Mieux, B. Burt Gerstman

Faculty Publications

Student opinion surveys are important but widely misunderstood tools for evaluating teaching effectiveness. In this brief review, an analogy is drawn between the use and interpretation of observational data for public health and biomedical research and the use of student opinion data in evaluating teach ing effectiveness. Sources of systematic error in the form of selection bias, information bias, and confounding are defined and illustrated. Original data concerning intermittent "quid pro quo" confounding (i.e., the effect of expected grades on student evaluations of teaching) are presented. Finally, the principle of faute de mieux ("lack of anything better") and the interpretation …

Slow Motion In One-Dimensional Cahn-Morral Systems, Christopher P. Grant

Faculty Publications

In this paper we study one-dimensional Cahn-Morral systems, which are the multicomponent analogues of the Cahn-Hilliard model for phase separation and coarsening in binary mixtures. In particular, we examine solutions that start with initial data close to the preferred phases except at finitely many transition points where the data has sharp transition layers, and we show that such solutions may evolve exponentially slowly; i.e., if ε is the interaction length then there exists a constant C such that in exp(C/ε) units of time the change in such a solution is o(1). This corresponds to extremely slow coarsening of a multicomponent …

Waterjet Cutting Of Cross-Linked Glass, Fang Yuan, John A. Johnson, David D. Allred, Robert H. Todd

Faculty Publications

The cutting of cross-linked glasses such as silica and Corning 7059 can be difficult. We conducted an experimental study to determine the feasibility of using a high-speed waterjet to cut thin Corning 7095 glass. Cutting using either pure de-ionized high pressure water at 380 MPa (55 000 psi) or de-ionized water with entrained garnet abrasive was studied. The roughness of the cut surfaces was measured and compared. Photomicrographs were taken of glass examples cut at different traversing rates with pure water and with the abrasive entrained waterjet. Comparative studies of cutting with and without the entrained abrasive material showed that …

Xenon 147-Nm Resonance Ƒ Value And Trapped Decay Rates, H. M. Anderson, Scott D. Bergeson, D. A. Doughty, J. E. Lawler

Faculty Publications

The absorption oscillator strength of the xenon 147-nm resonance transition is measured to be 0.264±0.016. This value is from direct absorption measurements with equivalent widths from ≈ 1 to ≈ 10 cm-1. This ƒ-value measurement is compared to others in the literature and is used in Monte Carlo simulations of trapped decay rates. The simulations include an angle-dependent partial frequency redistribution. The simulation results are compared to trapped decay rates in the literature.

A Preliminary Mass Balance Model Of Primary Productivity And Dissolved Oxygen In The Mississippi River Plume/Inner Gulf Shelf Region, Victor J. Bierman Jr., Scott C. Hinz, William J. Wiseman Jr., Nancy N. Rabalais, R. Eugene Turner

Faculty Publications

A deterministic, mass balance model for phytoplankton, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen was applied to the Mississippi River Plume/Inner Gulf Shelf (MRP/IGS) region. The model was calibrated to a comprehensive set of field data collected during July 1990 at over 200 sampling stations in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The spatial domain of the model is represented by a three-dimensional, 21-segment water-column .grid extending from the Mississippi River Delta west to the Louisiana-Texas border, and from the shoreline seaward to the 30-60 m bathymetric contours. Diagnostic analyses and numerical experiments were conducted with the calibrated model to better understand the environmental …

Comparison Of Continuous Records Of Near-Bottom Dissolved Oxygen From The Hypoxia Zone Along The Louisiana Coast, Nancy N. Rabalais, William J. Wiseman, R. Eugene Turner

Faculty Publications

Oxygen depletion is a seasonally dominant feature of the lower water column on the highly-stratified, riverine-influenced continental shelf of Louisiana. The areal extent of hypoxia (bottom waters ≤2 mg l−1 dissolved oxygen) in mid-summer may encompass up to 9,500 km2, from the Mississippi River delta to the upper Texas coast, with the spatial configuration of the zone varying interannually. We placed two continuously recording oxygen meters (Endeco 1184) within 1 m of the seabed in 20-m water depth at two locations 77 km apart where we previously documented midsummer bottom water hypoxia. The oxygen meters recorded considerably different oxygen conditions …

Semiclassical Quantization Of A Nonintegrable System: Pushing The Fourier Method Into The Chaotic Regime, Karl Sohlberg, Randall B. Shirts

Faculty Publications

Semiclassical Einstein–Brillouin–Keller (EBK) quantization of the nonintegrable Hénon–Heiles Hamiltonian succeeds using the Fourier transform method of Martens and Ezra. Two innovations are required for this success: (1) the use of tunneling corrected quantizing actions obtained from an approximate, one-dimensional Hamiltonian and (2) exploitation of intermediate-time approximate quasiperiodicity or "vague tori'' wherein the Fourier transform of chaotic motion over 10–100 vibrational periods allows the determination of frequencies and amplitudes which approximate motion during the time interval. Approximate tori, actions, and EBK energy levels are then straightforward. We use an interpolation method to smooth over small resonance zones that are not expected …

Driven Front And Interface Of A Fluid-Flow Model In 2+1-Dimensions, Michael J. Leaseburg, Ras B. Pandey

Faculty Publications

Computer simulations are performed to study the motion of the front and the growth of the interface width in a model of fluid flow driven by a biased field in 2+1 dimensions. The initial motion of the front is diffusive, which is followed by a nondiffusive power-law behavior in the long-time regime; the power-law exponent is nonuniversal, varying with the strength of the driven field. The growth of the interface width saturates in the asymptotic time regime. The saturated width W scales with both the driven field B as well as the transverse length L of the sample, leading to …

A Vlsi Implementation Of A Parallel, Self-Organizing Learning Model, Tony R. Martinez, George L. Rudolph, Linton G. Salmon, Matthew G. Stout

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a VLSI implementation of the Priority Adaptive Self-organizing Concurrent System (PASOCS) learning model that is built using a multi-chip module (MCM) substrate. Many current hardware implementations of neural network learning models are direct implementations of classical neural network structures - a large number of sample computing nodes connected by a dense number of weighted links. PASOCS is one of a class of ASOCS (Adaptive Self-Organizing Concurrent System) connectionist models whose overall goal is the same as classical neural networks models, but whose functional mechanisms differ significantly. This model has potential application in areas such as pattern recognition, …

Spiders: A New User Interface For Rotation And Visualization Of N-Dimensional Point Sets, William A. Barrett, Kirk L. Duffin

Faculty Publications

We present a new method for creating n-dimensional rotation matrices from manipulating the projections of n-dimensional data coordinate axes onto a viewing plane. A user interface for n-dimensional rotation is implemented. The interface is shown to have no rotational hysteresis.

The Structure And Dynamics Of The Cs2 Molecular Ion, Karl Sohlberg, Chan Yibai

Faculty Publications

Several common elementary methods of computing molecular properties, prerequisite to molecular dynamics studies, are tested for their validity for CS+2. Judged sufficiently accurate, these methods are then used to aid in investigating the collisionally activated dissociation of CS+2 upon impact with xenon. Rice–Ramsperger–Kassel–Marcus (RRKM) unimolecular decay rate calculations are presented and compared to experimental studies employing collisional activation. RRKM theory is shown to reproduce the experimental results for collision energies near threshold. When corrected for vibrational anharmonicity, the RRKM calculation shows agreement with the experimental results over a slightly wider range of energies. A discussion is given on the applicability …

Emitted Current Instability From Silicon Field Emission Emitters Due To Sputtering By Residual Gas Ions, W.I. Karain, Larry V. Knight, David D. Allred, A. Reyes-Mena

Faculty Publications

We have fabricated arrays of silicon field emitters using semiconductor lithography techniques. The density of the tips was 10^5/cm^2. The maximum current that can be extracted from each emitter is limited by resistive heating. We have investigated how the electron current emitted changes under constant applied voltage. We found that the current is very sensitive to the vacuum conditions. We attribute this to sputtering of the emitters due to ionized residual gas molecules. The poorer the vacuum, the higher the instability in the current. We studied this phenomenon at 10^6 and 10-x Torr. The model of two concentric spherical shells …

Mesostructure Of Photoluminescent Porous Silicon, David D. Allred, F. Ruiz, C. Vázquez-López, Jesus González-Hernández, G. Romero-Paredes, R. Peña-Sierra, G. Torres-Delgado

Faculty Publications

Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize the microstructure of photoluminescent porous silicon (PS) layers formed by the anodic etching (HF:H2O:ethanol), at various current densities, of p-type (100) silicon wafers possessing resitivity in the range 1-2 Ω cm. Existing models for the origin of luminescence in PS are not supported by our observations. Cross-sectional as well as surface atomic force micrographs show the material to be clumpy rather than columnar; rodlike structures are not observed down to a scale of 40 nm. A three-dimensional model of the mesostructure of porous silicon is discussed. Room-temperature …

Raman Spectroscopic Study Of The Formation Of T-Mosi2 From Mo/Si Multilayers, Ming Cai, David D. Allred, A. Reyes-Mena

Faculty Publications

We have used Raman spectroscopy, large- and small-angle x-ray diffraction spectroscopy of sputter-deposited, vacuum-annealed, soft x-ray Mo/Si thin-film multilayers to study the physics of silicide formation. Two sets of multilayer samples with d-spacing 8.4 and 2.0 nm have been studied. Annealing at temperatures above 800 °C causes a gradual formation of amorphous MoSi2 interfaces between the Si and Mo layers. The transition from amorphous to crystalline MoSi2 is abrupt. The experimental results indicate that nucleation is the dominant process for the early stage and crystallization is the dominant process after nucleation is well advanced. In the thicker multilayer, a portion …

Coastal Eutrophication Near The Mississippi River Delta, R. Eugene Turner, Nancy Rabalais

Faculty Publications

CHANGES in delivery of river-borne nutrients such as dissolved phosphate, nitrate and silicate, owing to land-use changes and anthropogenic emissions, are known to result in eutrophication1— enhanced phytoplankton blooms—and more severe hypoxic events2–1 in many enclosed bays and seas. Although similar ecological effects might be expected on continental shelves, the occurrence of such eutrophication has remained unresolved5. Here we present evidence of eutrophication of the continental shelf near the outflow of the Mississippi river, obtained by quantifying biologically bound silica (BSi) in diatom remnants within dated sediment cores. BSi accumulation rates are greatest in water depths of 20 to 50 …

Absence Of Size Dependence Of The Kondo Resistivity, V. Chandrasekhar, P. Santhanam, N. A. Penebre, Richard A. Webb, H. Vloeberghs, C. Van Haesendonck, Y. Bruynseraede

Faculty Publications

We have measured the low temperature resistivity of AuFe wires in the dilute magnetic impurity limit as a function of wire width, temperature, and magnetic field. When the width dependence of the electron-electron interaction contribution to the resistivity is taken into account, the temperature dependence of the remaining Kondo contribution to the resistivity of all samples with the same impurity concentration is identical. Similar behavior is observed for the magnetic field dependent resistivity. Thus, the Kondo contribution to the resistivity is independent of width down to 38 nm, much smaller than the Kondo length ξ_K=ħv_F/k_{B …}

A Multi-Chip Module Implementation Of A Neural Network, Tony R. Martinez, George L. Rudolph, Linton G. Salmon, Matthew G. Stout

Faculty Publications

The requirement for dense interconnect in artificial neural network systems has led researchers to seek high-density interconnect technologies. This paper reports an implementation using multi-chip modules (MCMs) as the interconnect medium. The specific system described is a self-organizing, parallel, and dynamic learning model which requires a dense interconnect technology for effective implementation; this requirement is fulfilled by exploiting MCM technology. The ideas presented in this paper regarding an MCM implementation of artificial neural networks are versatile and can be adapted to apply to other neural network and connectionist models.

The Value Of Salt Marsh Edge Vs Interior As A Habitat For Fish And Decapod Crustaceans In A Louisiana Tidal Marsh, G. W. Peterson, R. Eugene Turner

Faculty Publications

Flume nets of various lengths and a 3-m seine were used to sample the fishes and macrocrustaceans using a flooded Louisiana salt marsh and the adjacent tidal creek. The experiment allowed for species-specific comparisons of the flooded marsh at the creek edge versus the interior. Of the 37,667 organisms collected in flume nets from January through November 1989, 89% were decapods (nine species) and 11% were fish (29 species). An additional 18,539 organisms (75% decapods and 25% fish) were collected from concurrent seine samples taken from July through November. Comparison of catches among different flume lengths and low tide versus …

A Rationale For Coastal Wetland Restoration Through Spoil Bank Management In Louisiana, Usa, R. Eugene Turner, E. M. Swenson, J. M. Lee

Faculty Publications

The rationale and outline of an implementation plan for restoring coastal wetlands in Louisiana is presented. The rationale for the plan is based on reversing the consequences of documented cause-and-effect relationships between wetland loss and hydrologic change. The main feature is to modify the extensive interlocking network of dredged spoil deposits, or spoil banks, by reestablishing a more natural water flow at moderate flow velocity (/sec). Guidelines for site selection from thousands of potential sites are proposed. Examples of suitable sites are given for intermediate marshes. These sites exhibit rapid deterioration following partial or complete hydrologic impoundment, implying a strong …

Proof Of Correctness For Asocs Aa3 Networks, J. Cory Barker, Tony R. Martinez

Faculty Publications

This paper analyzes adaptive algorithm 3 (AA3) of adaptive self-organizing concurrent systems (ASOCS) and proves that AA3 correctly fulfills the rules presented. Several different models for ASOCS have been developed. AA3 uses a distributed mechanism for implementing rules so correctness is not obvious. An ASOCS is an adaptive network composed of many simple computing elements operating in parallel. An ASOCS operates in one of two modes: learning and processing. In learning mode, rules are presented to the ASOCS and incorporated in a self-organizing fashion. In processing mode, the ASOCS acts as a parallel hardware circuit that performs the function defined …

Listening To Free Fall With The Macrecorder, Thomas O. Callaway, James C. Dennis

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fast Accurate Simulation Of Large Shared Memory Multiprocessors, Bob Boothe Phd

Faculty Publications

Fast computer simulation is an essential tool in the design of large parallel computers. We discuss the design and performance of our Fast Accurate Simulation Tool, FAST. We start by summarizing the tradeoffs made in the designs of this and other simulators. The key ideas used in this simulator involve execution driven simulation techniques that modify the object code of the application program being studied. This produces an augmented version of the code that is directly executed and performs much of the work of the simulation. We extend the previous work in execution driven simulation by introducing several new uses …

Comparison Of Dietary Overlap Between Allopatric And Sympatric Geckos, Paul D. Klawinski, R. Kathryn Vaughan, Daniel Saenz, William Godwin

Faculty Publications

Two gecko species, Hemidactylus turcicus and Cyrtopodion scabrum, have been introduced into the Port of Galveston, Texas. While H. turcicus has been established for a longer period of time, the relatively recent introduction of C. scabrum near the entrance of the Port has apparently led to the displacement of H. turcicus in that area. This has resulted in a distribution in which the two populations’ are largely allopatric except for a narrow band of sympatry at the periphery of each of their ranges. We examined stomach contents of both species in allopatry and sympatry in order to determine if …

Backfilling Canals To Restore Wetlands: Empirical Results In Coastal Louisiana, R. Eugene Turner, James M. Lee, Christopher Neill

Faculty Publications

Wetland restoration is largely a developing science and engineering enterprise. Analyses of results are too few and constrained to observations over a few years. We report here on the effectiveness of one restoration technique used sparsely in coastal Louisiana for several decades. Canals have been dredged in coastal Louisiana wetlands since 1938 for oil and gas exploration and extraction. These canals are typically dredged to 2.5 m depth and are 20 to 40 m wide. Canal lengths vary from 100 m to several 1000s m in the case of outer continental shelf pipeline canals that cross the wetlands.

Today, thousands …

Direct Simulation Monte Carlo For Thin Film Bearings, Alejandro Garcia, B. Alder, F. J. Alexander

Faculty Publications

The direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) scheme is used to study the gas flow under a read/write head positioned nanometers above a moving disk drive platter (the slider bearing problem). In most cases, impressive agreement is found between the particle-based simulation and numerical solutions of the continuum hydrodynamic Reynolds equation which has been corrected for slip. However, at very high platter speeds the gas is far from equilibrium, and the load capacity for the slider bearing cannot be accurately computed from the hydrodynamic pressure.