Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Iowa Academy Of Science Membership Directory, 1999-2000, Iowa Academy Of Science

Iowa Academy of Science Documents

Contents:

Editorial Board, Journal ... 5
Committees ... 6
Sections ... 18
ISTS Regional Directors ... 22
Awards of Merit ... 24
Excellence in Science Teaching Awards ... 25
Past Presidents ... 26
Membership Roster ... 27
Corporate Sponsors ... 70

Surface Resistance Measurements Of Superconducting Niobium Samples With A Triaxial Cavity, Paul Martin Boccard

Physics Theses & Dissertations

This experimental study has revealed and investigated many of the physical issues that affect accurate measurement of the surface resistance for small samples consisting of superconducting niobium films on copper substrates. It is believed that this work provides the groundwork for future research directed towards solving this important problem. Accurate measurement of surface resistance for such samples is needed to allow the rapid evaluation and optimization of the deposition parameters necessary for manufacturing low-loss superconducting niobium films.

A superconducting niobium triaxial cavity was investigated to determine its suitability for measuring the residual surface resistance of copper samples that were sputter-coated …

Smart Objects, Dumb Archives: A User-Centric, Layered Digital Library Framework, Kurt Maly, Michael L. Nelson, Mohammad Zubair

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Discusses digital libraries, interoperability, and interfaces to access them, and proposes one universal protocol for communication for simple archives based on the hypertext transfer protocol (http). Describes the creation of a special class of digital objects called buckets, archives based on a NASA collection, and a set of digital library services. (Author/LRW)

Light Aircraft Management System, Evan Karjalainen

Theses : Honours

This report details methods to construct a flight data logging system that can be used to manage student flight and aircraft maintenance records. These methods utilise GPS, embedded processors and associated software to depict the occurrence of landings, "Touch and Goes" and record aircraft total flight time. By manipulating these methods it was possible to produce a usable data-logging unit which facilitated the automation of flight maneuver recording. This datatogging unit was constructed from embedded components and interfaced with a user defined database. Perusal of the details within should provide the reader with a clear understanding of the tasks involved …

Evaluating Oral Histories For Restoration Ecology, Margaret Robertson

Theses : Honours

Significant ecological restoration is required in the agricultural regions of south-western Australia. Environmental history, including local knowledge based on long-term observation of the biophysical environment, can help guide this process. Scientists already use local anecdotal information because other information sources are absent or too recent, yet they are often skeptical of its veracity. This study focused on whether environmental oral histories can be evaluated for factual accuracy and their capacity to be useful in the restoration process. Some of the complexities associated with linking environmental histories with restoration ecology, and the role played by oral histories in establishing the link …

Software Quality Function Deployment : A Method For Building Better Software, Dean Carruthers

Theses : Honours

In recent years it is becoming increasingly more apparent that quality even more than productivity is emerging as the key issue in the development of software. The quality systems currently employed by most software companies however arc simply not up to the task, traditional quality systems focus upon conformance to company standards, automation to eliminate human error and in some cases quality improvement teams. These traditional quality assurance methods lead to quality as defined from the organizations point of view, all work performed is done to their standards, however a what it is that makes a quality product is defined …

Modeling Of Catastrophic Events With Applications To Insurance, Mary Noga

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

Tornadoes effect every area in the continental United States. There are great differences in the number and amount of damages caused by tornadoes in different regions. The mid-west is nicknamed tornado alley, because of the large number of tornadoes in this region each year. A tornado is commonly described as a "rapidly rotating, slender, funnel-shaped cloud."

The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has data on tornadoes over the past four years. This data includes the state, date, and damage done by each tornado. For the purpose of this study a data-set including all tornadoes causing over ten million in damages …

Distributed Artificial Intelligence In A Virtual Reality Setting: A Case Study, Rebecca Lohr

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

Artificial intelligence, or Al, is a fascinating area of research. Al refers to the attempt to create a computer program, known as an intelligent agent, which can "think" and operate in a complex, changing environment. Many problems have been discovered in attempting to develop these intelligent agents, including the simulation of learning, planning, and natural language understanding. While researching these issues, a new branch of Al research has developed. Researchers discovered that there are other problems associated with how intelligent agents work together to solve problems. This field of research has become known as distributed artificial intelligence, or DAI.

Agriculture And Nature Conservation In The Moravian Karst (Czech Republic), Ivan Balák, Jozef Janèo, Leos Stefka, Pavel Bosák

International Journal of Speleology

Moravian karst is a narrow strip of limestone with long history of settlement, agricultural use and man impact to karst. It is naturally divided into smaller units - karst plateaus - separated by deep valleys (glens). Each plateau has different proportion of land use, i.e. the percentage of agricultural land, forests, etc. The agricultural land constitutes now up to 70% in the north and max. 30% in the centre and south of the total area of plateaus. Intensive agricultural use of the arable land since 60ties of this Century caused great impact to quality of soils and groundwater by overdoses …

Compute As Fast As The Engineers Can Think! Utrafast Computing Team Final Report, Robert T. Biedron, P. Mehrotra, Michael L. Nelson, M. L. Preston, J. J. Rehder, J. L. Rogersm, D. H. Rudy, J. Sobieski, O. O. Storaasli

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This report documents findings and recommendations by the Ultrafast Computing Team (UCT). In the period 10-12/98, UCT reviewed design case scenarios for a supersonic transport and a reusable launch vehicle to derive computing requirements necessary for support of a design process with efficiency so radically improved that human thought rather than the computer paces the process. Assessment of the present computing capability against the above requirements indicated a need for further improvement in computing speed by several orders of magnitude to reduce time to solution from tens of hours to seconds in major applications. Evaluation of the trends in computer …

A Digital Library For The National Advisory Committee For Aeronautics, Michael L. Nelson

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We describe the digital library (DL) for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the NACA Technical Report Server (NACATRS). The predecessor organization for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NACA existed from 1915 until 1958. The primary manifestation of NACA's research was the NACA report series. We describe the process of converting this collection of reports to digital format and making it available on the World Wide Web (WWW) and is a node in the NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS). We describe the current state of the project, the resulting DL technology developed from the project, and the …

Reconfigurable Shift Switching Parallel Comparators, R. Lin, S. Olariu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present novel asynchronous VLSI comparator schemes which are based on recently proposed reconfigurable shift switch logic and the traditional (precharged) CMOS domino logic. The schemes always produce a semaphore as a by-product of the process to indicate the end of domino process, which requires no additional delay and a minimal number of additional devices. For a large percentage of inputs the computations are much faster than traditional synchronous comparators due to the full utilization of the inherent speed of the circuits. Also the schemes are simple, area compact and stable.

(Ω, Ξ)-Logic: On The Algebraic Extension Of Coalgebraic Specifications, Rolf Hennicker, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We present an extension of standard coalgebraic specification techniques for statebased systems which allows us to integrate constants and n-ary operations in a smooth way and, moreover, leads to a simplification of the coalgebraic structure of the models of a specification. The framework of (Ω,Ξ)-logic can be considered as the result of a translation of concepts of observational logic (cf. [9]) into the coalgebraic world. As a particular outcome we obtain the notion of an (Ω, Ξ)- structure and a sound and complete proof system for (first-order) observational properties of specifications.

Stable Isotope And Crystal Chemistry Of Tourmaline Across Pegmatite - Country Rock Boundaries At Black Mountain And Mount Mica, Southwestern Maine, U.S.A, Darby Dyar, Charles V. Guidott, Daniel P. Core, Katherine M. Wearn, Michael A. Wise, Carl A. Francis, Kathleen Johnson, John B. Brady, J. David Robertson, Laura R. Cross

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

Major element and stable isotope chemistry of tourmaline from two complexly-zoned rare element pegmatites has been studied to gain insights into the processes by which the pegmatites were formed. Two locations in the Oxford Pegmatite Field of western Maine, U.S.A., were chosen for this study: Black Mountain, an isolated body located in sillimanite zone, highly sulfidic metapelites and quartzite; and Mount Mica, which is bounded by schists and pegmatite and aplitic granite bodies commonly having gradational contacts with each other. At each locality, tourmaline was sampled from the surrounding country rocks into the contact and wall zones through to the …

Description Of Non-Precision In Experimental Field Scores, Adedapo Odulaja

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Visual assessments are usually carried out on crop experimental plots with different treatments in order to determine the level of some factor, such as disease or pest infestation and damage, which are scored for incidence or severity using a pre-determined range of scores. Real data collected in the form of scores on experimental fields are usually non-precise. This non-precision may be due to the scorer's inconsistency and judgmental error. It may also be due to the apparent interdependency of the scores, since a scorer will naturally compare the score of previous plots in order to determine the score of the …

Spatial Distribution And Habitat Characterization Of Anopheline Mosquito Larvae In Western Kenya, Noboru Minakawa, Clifford M. Mutero, John I. Githure, John C. Beier, Guiyun Yan

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Studies were conducted to characterize larval habitats of anopheline mosquitoes and to analyze spatial heterogeneity of mosquito species in the Suba District of western Kenya. A total of 128 aquatic habitats containing mosquito larvae were sampled, and 2,209 anopheline and 10,538 culicine larvae were collected. The habitats were characterized based on size, pH, distance to the nearest house and to the shore of Lake Victoria, coverage of canopy, surface debris, algae and emergent plants, turbidity, substrate, and habitat types. Microscopic identification of third and fourth-instar anopheline larvae did not yield any Anopheles funestus or other anophelines. A total of 829 …

Fire On The Plateau: Conflict And Endurance In The American Southwest, Charles F. Wilkinson

Books, Reports, and Studies

This digital resource contains only an abstract, cover image and table of contents information from the published book.

Print copy of book is available in the University of Colorado’s Wise Law Library: http://lawpac.colorado.edu/record=b235993~S0

Contents: Introduction : The Colorado Plateau -- PART ONE : BEDROCK: Route 66 -- Mexican hat -- Deseret -- Coyote -- Vishnu -- PART TWO : CONFLICTS AND CONQUESTS: Kykotsmovi -- Jack -- Uintah -- Phoenix -- Rosa -- Cretaceous -- Junction Dam -- PART THREE : ENDURANCE: Cedar Mesa Canyon -- Black Mesa -- Kachina -- Druid Arch -- Mount Blanca -- Afterword

From Reclamation To Sustainability: Water, Agriculture, And The Environment In The American West, Lawrence J. Macdonnell

Books, Reports, and Studies

This digital resource contains only an abstract, cover image and table of contents information from the published book.

Print copy of book is available in the University of Colorado’s Wise Law Library: http://lawpac.colorado.edu/record=b236740~S0

Contents: Introduction : Living in a land of limited water -- PART 1. THE LOWER ARKANSAS VALLEY : AFTER THE WATER IS GONE: Colorado's Arkansas River -- Watering and cultivating the prairie -- Stretching a limited water supply -- Irrigation water for sale? -- A hostile takeover? -- Looking ahead -- PART 2. THE GRAND VALLEY, COLORADO : WHERE FRUIT, FISH, AND GROWTH COLLIDE: Growing peaches in …

Field Methods To Enhance Degradation Of Nitrate In Surficial Soils, Urko Atxotegi Alegria

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

An environmental field study was conducted from April to October 1998 in the Black Hawk County, Iowa. The main goal of the study was to find an appropriate field method to enhance degradation of nitrates in the surficial soil. Seven different methods were developed in the study to compare between four variables. The variables that were investigated were the source of nitrates, the moisture content of the soil, the uptake by plants and the total carbon content of the soil. The investigation has also been conducted to find out the specific influence of each parameter on landuse. A weather station …

Uneconomic Growth: In Theory, In Fact, In History, And In Relation To Globalization, Herman E. Daly

Clemens Lecture Series

No abstract provided.

Scienceworks: A University-Based Science Outreach Group, Rochelle Payne Ondracek, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky

Diandra Leslie-Pelecky Publications

ScienceWorks is a science and engineering outreach group at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, comprised of faculty, graduate students, undergraduates and community volunteers. We are brought together by one goal - to make science fun and accessible for everyone. ScienceWorks has developed over 30 modules that emphasize a range of scientific and engineering topics and guide the participants in discovery-based learning. Modules cover a wide variety of topics, including pressure, materials, electromagnetism, archaeology, DNA, optics and fracture. Most ScienceWorks modules involve hands-on activities. In Electromagnetism for example, students are asked to use a length of wire and a nail to …

X-Ray Crystal Structures And The Facile Oxidative (Au−C) Cleavage Of The Dimethylaurate(I) And Tetramethylaurate(Iii) Homologues, Dunming Zhu, Sergey V. Lindeman, Jay K. Kochi

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

Dimethylaurate(I) has been prepared as the crystalline tetrabutylammonium salt for comparison with the known tetramethylaurate(III) analogue. The linear structure of dimethylaurate(I) and the square-planar structure of tetramethylaurate(III) have both been confirmed by X-ray crystallography. One-electron oxidation of dimethylaurate(I) by either ferrocenium or arenediazonium cations produces the metastable dimethylgold(II) intermediate, which can be trapped as the paramagnetic 9,10-phenanthrenequinone (PQ) adduct. Otherwise, dimethylgold(II) is subject to rapid reductive elimination of ethane and affords metallic gold (mirror). The analogous oxidation of tetramethylaurate(III) by ferrocenium, arenediazonium, or nitrosonium cations also proceeds via electron transfer to generate the putative tetramethylgold(IV) intermediate. The highly unstable (CH …

Affinity Chromatography: A Review Of Clinical Applications, David S. Hage

David Hage Publications

Affinity chromatography is a type of liquid chromatography that makes use of biological-like interactions for the separation and specific analysis of sample components. This review describes the basic principles of affinity chromatography and examines its use in the testing of clinical samples, with an emphasis on HPLCbased methods. Some traditional applications of this approach include the use of boronate, lectin, protein A or protein G, and immunoaffinity supports for the direct quantification of solutes. Newer techniques that use antibody-based columns for on- or off-line sample extraction are examined in detail, as are methods that use affinity chromatography in combination with …

Biogenic Silica Records From The Bdp93 Drill Site And Adjacent Areas Of The Selenga Delta, Lake Baikal, Siberia, Steven M. Colman, John A. Peck, Josephine Hatton, Eugene B. Karabanov, John W. King

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Biogenic silica contents of sediments on the lower Selenga Delta and Buguldeika saddle in Lake Baikal show distinct fluctuations that reflect changes in diatom productivity, and ultimately, climate. The pattern of the upper 50 m of the section, dating from about 334 ka, is similar to that of the marine oxygen isotope record, increasingly so as the younger sediments become progressively finer grained and less locally derived with time. The last two interglaciations are marked by biogenic silica abundances similar to those of the Holocene. The equivalent of marine oxygenisotope stage 3 is distinctly intermediate in character between full glacial …

The Carbon Cycle And Biogeochemical Dynamics In Lake Sediments, Walter E. Dean

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The concentrations of organic carbon (OC) and CaCO₃ in lake sediments are often inversely related. This relation occurs in surface sediments from different locations in the same lake, surface sediments from different lakes, and with depth in Holocene sediments. Where data on accumulation rates are available, the relation holds for organic carbon and CaCO₃ accumulation rates as well. An increase of several percent OC is accompanied by a decrease of several tens of percent CaCO₃ indicating that the inverse relation is not due to simple dilution of one component by another. It appears from core data that …

200,000 Years Of Climate Change Recorded In Eolian Sediments Of The High Plains Of Eastern Colorado And Western Nebraska, Daniel R. Muhs, James Swinehart, David Loope, John N. Aleinikoff, Josh Been

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Loess and eolian sand cover vast areas of the western Great Plains of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado (Fig. 1). In recent studies of Quaternary climate change, there has been a renewed interest in loess and eolian sand. Much of the attention now given to loess stems from new studies of long loess sequences that contain detailed records of Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles, thought to be a terrestrial equivalent to the foraminiferal oxygen isotope record in deep-sea sediments (Fig. 2). Loess is also a direct record of atmospheric circulation, and identification of loess paleowinds in the geologic record can test atmospheric general …

Slip-Parallel Seismic Lineations On The Northern Hayward Fault, California, Felix Waldhauser, William L. Ellsworth, Alex Cole

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

A high-resolution relative earthquake location procedure is used to image the fine-scale seismicity structure of the northern Hayward fault, California. The seismicity defines a narrow, near-vertical fault zone containing horizontal alignments of hypocenters extending along the fault zone. The lineations persist over the 15-year observation interval, implying the localization of conditions on the fault where brittle failure conditions are met. The horizontal orientation of the lineations parallels the slip direction of the fault, suggesting that they are the result of the smearing of frictionally weak material along the fault plane over thousands of years.

Late Quaternary Loess In Northeastern Colorado: Part I—Age And Paleoclimatic Significance, Daniel R. Muhs, John N. Aleinikoff, Thomas W. Stafford Jr., Rolf Kihl, Josh Been, Shannon A. Mahan, Scott Cowherd

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Loess in eastern Colorado covers an estimated 14,000 km², and is the westernmost part of the North American midcontinent loess province. Stratigraphic studies indicate there were two periods of loess deposition in eastern Colorado during late Quaternary time. The first period spanned ca. 20,000 to 12,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. (ca. 20–14 ka) and correlates reasonably well with the culmination and retreat of Pinedale glaciers in the Colorado Front Range during the last glacial maximum. The second period of loess deposition occurred between ca. 11,000 and 9,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. This interval may be Holocene or may …

Late Quaternary Loess In Northeastern Colorado: Part Ii—Pb Isotopic Evidence For The Variability Of Loess Sources, John N. Aleinikoff, Daniel R. Muhs, Rebecca R. Sauer, C. Mark Fanning

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

A new application of the Pb isotopic tracer technique has been used to determine the relative importance of different silt sources for late Wisconsin loess in the central Great Plains of eastern Colorado. Samples of the Peoria Loess collected throughout the study area contain K-feldspar derived from two isotopically and genetically distinct sources: (1) glaciogenic material from Early and Middle Proterozoic crystalline rocks of the Colorado province, and (2) volcaniclastic material from the Tertiary White River Group exposed on the northern Great Plains. Pb isotopic compositions of K-feldspar in loess from two dated vertical sections (at Beecher Island and Last …

Predation Of Artificial Ground Nests On White-Tailed Prairie Dog Colonies, Bruce W. Baker, Thomas R. Stanley, James A. Sedgwick

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) colonies are unique to prairie and shrub-steppe landscapes. However, widespread eradication, habitat loss, and sylvatic plague (Yersinia pestis) have reduced their numbers by 98% since historical times. Birds associated with prairie dogs also are declining. Potential nest predators, such as coyotes (Canis latrans), swift foxes (Vulpes velox), and badgers (Taxidea taxus), may be attracted to colonies where a high concentration of prairie dogs serve as available prey. Increased abundance of small mammals, including prairie dogs, also may increase the risk of predation for birds nesting on colonies. …