Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The John Muir Newsletter, Winter 2007/2008, The John Muir Center For Environmental Studies

Muir Center Newsletters (1981-2015)

Muir SLETTEB YfeRSnY OF THE PACIFIC, STOCKTON, CA Volume 18, Number 1 Winter 2007/20081 John Muir's World Tour (part VI) Introduction by W.R. Swagerty Director, John Muir Center In this, the sixth and final segment of John Muir's World Tour, 1903-1904, we complete his journey from March 2 to May 27, 1904 from open waters in the Tasman Sea to San Francisco. Muir continues writing in his Collin's Paragon Diary, 1904, purchased in Australia and reflecting the calendar for the Southern Hemisphere. This form of "journal" allowed the author to enter one page per day. If he needed more space, …

A New Family Of Pr Two Channel Filter Banks, Jian-Ao Lian

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

A new family of multidimensional dimensional (MD) perfect reconstruction (PR) two channel filter banks with finite impulse response (FIR) filters induced from systems of biorthogonal MD scaling functions and wavelets are introduced. One of the advantages of this construction is that the biorthogonal scaling functions and wavelets are easy to establish due to the interpolatory property of the scaling functions to start with. The other advantage is that all filters can be centrosymmetric or bi-linear phase. Examples of two dimensional (2D) bi-linear phase PR twochannel FIR filter banks will be demonstrated.

Recounting Determinants For A Class Of Hessenberg Matrices, Arthur T. Benjamin, Mark A. Shattuck

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We provide combinatorial interpretations for determinants which are Fibonacci numbers of several recently introduced Hessenberg matrices. Our arguments make use of the basic definition of the determinant as a signed sum over the symmetric group.

X-Rays From Magnetically Channeled Winds Of Ob Stars, In 'Magnetic Massive Stars', David H. Cohen

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

OB stars with strong radiation-driven stellar winds and large-scale magnetic fields generate strong and hard X-ray emission via the Magnetically Channeled Wind Shock (MCWS) mechanism. In this brief paper, I describe four separate X-ray diagnostics of the MCWS mechanism in OB stars, with applications to the prototype young O star, theta-1 Ori C.

X-Ray Emission From O Stars, David H. Cohen

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

Young O stars are strong, hard, and variable X-ray sources, properties which strongly affect their circumstellar and galactic environments. After ~1 Myr, these stars settle down to become steady sources of soft X-rays. I use high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy and MHD modeling to show that young O stars like theta-1 Ori C are well explained by the magnetically channeled wind shock scenario. After their magnetic fields dissipate, older O stars produce X-rays via shock heating in their unstable stellar winds. Here too I use X-ray spectroscopy and numerical modeling to confirm this scenario. In addition to elucidating the nature and cause …

Automatically Extract Information From Web Documents, Dipesh Sharma

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Internet could be considered to be a reservoir of useful information in textual form — product catalogs, airline schedules, stock market quotations, weather forecast etc. There has been much interest in building systems that gather such information on a user's behalf. But because these information resources are formatted differently, mechanically extracting their content is difficult. Systems using such resources typically use hand-coded wrappers, customized procedures for information extraction. Structured data objects are a very important type of information on the Web. Such data objects are often records from underlying databases and displayed in Web pages with some fixed templates. …

Commuting Analysis In A Small Metropolitan Area - A Case Study Of Bowling Green/Warren County, Kentucky, Caitlin Hagar

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In previous studies of urban commutes, little attention has been paid to commute patterns in smaller urban areas. In this study, the concept of "excess commute" (EC) is applied to the Bowling Green-Warren County Metropolitan Statistical Area (BGWCMSA) in Kentucky. EC quantifies the portion of commute distance explained by the overall spatial separation of jobs and households. Results in this thesis research show that approximately 65% of commute distance by persons driving alone in the study area can be explained by the physical locations of homes relative to job sites as well as the existing roadway network, leaving an EC …

Sustainability Of Western Kentucky University: An Examination Of Campus Environmental Policies, Performance And Potential For Change, Christian Ryan-Downing

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Institutions of higher learning are in a pivotal position to address the environmental problems that global society faces now, but response to this challenge requires transformation in priorities and practices. Recognizing the impacts that universities have on the environment and the social and economic costs associated with these impacts, institutions of higher learning are changing policies and management to become more sustainable. Sustainability is defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (1987). To evaluate the environmental impacts …

Fuzzy Efficiency Measure With Fuzzy Production Possibility Set, T. Allahviranloo, F. Hosseinzade Lotfi, M. Adabitabar Firozja

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

The existing data envelopment analysis (DEA) models for measuring the relative efficiencies of a set of decision making units (DMUs) using various inputs to produce various outputs are limited to crisp data. The notion of fuzziness has been introduced to deal with imprecise data. Fuzzy DEA models are made more powerful for applications. This paper develops the measure of efficiencies in input oriented of DMUs by envelopment form in fuzzy production possibility set (FPPS) with constant return to scale.

A General Boosting Method And Its Application To Learning Ranking Functions For Web Search, Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha, Tong Zhang, Olivier Chapelle, Keke Chen, Gordon Sun

Kno.e.sis Publications

We present a general boosting method extending functional gradient boosting to optimize complex loss functions that are encountered in many machine learning problems. Our approach is based on optimization of quadratic upper bounds of the loss functions which allows us to present a rigorous convergence analysis of the algorithm. More importantly, this general framework enables us to use a standard regression base learner such as decision trees for fitting any loss function. We illustrate an application of the proposed method in learning ranking functions for Web search by combining both preference data and labeled data for training. We present experimental …

Systematic Reviews Of Animal Experiments Demonstrate Poor Human Clinical And Toxicological Utility, Andrew Knight

Experimentation Collection

The assumption that animal models are reasonably predictive of human outcomes provides the basis for their widespread use in toxicity testing and in biomedical research aimed at developing cures for human diseases. To investigate the validity of this assumption, the comprehensive Scopus biomedical bibliographic databases were searched for published systematic reviews of the human clinical or toxicological utility of animal experiments. In 20 reviews in which clinical utility was examined, the authors concluded that animal models were either significantly useful in contributing to the development of clinical interventions, or were substantially consistent with clinical outcomes, in only two cases, one …

Markov-Based Lane Positioning Using Intervehicle Communication, Thanh-Son Dao, Keith Yu Kit Leung, Christopher M. Clark, Jan Paul Huissoon

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The majority of today's navigation techniques for intelligent transportation systems use global positioning systems (GPS) that can provide position information with bounded errors. However, due to the low accuracy that is experienced with standard GPS, it is difficult to determine a vehicle's position at lane level. Using a Markov-based approach based on sharing information among a group of vehicles that are traveling within communication range, the lane positions of vehicles can be found. The algorithm's effectiveness is shown in both simulations and experiments with real data.

Biological Assessment On The Operation Of Glen Canyon Dam And Proposed Experimental Flows For The Colorado River Below Glen Canyon Dam During The Years 2008-2012, U.S. Department Of The Interior, Bureau Of Reclamation, Upper Colorado Region, Salt Lake City, Utah

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

This document serves as the biological assessment for the Bureau of Reclamation's (Reclamation) re-initiation of consultation on the operation of Glen Canyon Dam and proposed experimental flows for the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam during the years 2008-2012. It is prepared by Reclamation as part of its compliance with the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), 87 Stat. 884, as amended, 16 U.S.C. section 1531 et seq. This document is designed to facilitate compliance with Sections 7 and 9 of the ESA with respect to potential effects to listed species within the United States (US).

Gravity-Driven Thin Liquid Films With Insoluble Surfactant: Smooth Traveling Waves, Rachel Levy, Michael Shearer, Thomas P. Witelski

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

The flow of a thin layer of fluid down an inclined plane is modified by the presence of insoluble surfactant. For any finite surfactant mass, traveling waves are constructed for a system of lubrication equations describing the evolution of the free-surface fluid height and the surfactant concentration. The one-parameter family of solutions is investigated using perturbation theory with three small parameters: the coefficient of surface tension, the surfactant diffusivity, and the coefficient of the gravity-driven diffusive spreading of the fluid. When all three parameters are zero, the nonlinear PDE system is hyperbolic/degenerateparabolic, and admits traveling wave solutions in which the …

An Integrated Social Actor And Service Oriented Architecture (Soa) Approach For Improved Electronic Health Record (Ehr) Privacy And Confidentiality In The Us National Healthcare Information Network (Nhin), Gondy Leroy, Elliot Sloane, Steven Sheetz

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The emerging US National Healthcare Information Network (NHIN) will improve healthcare’s efficacy, efficiency, and safety. The first-generation NHIN being developed has numerous advantages and limitations. One of the most difficult aspects of today’s NHIN is ensuring privacy and confidentiality for personal health data, because family and caregivers have multiple complex legal relationships to a patient. A Social Actor framework is suggested to organize and manage these legal roles, but the Social Actor framework would be very difficult to implement in today’s NHIN. Social Actor Security Management could, however, be effectively implemented using Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs), which are rapidly becoming …

Effective Structure Theorems For Quadratic Spaces Via Height, Lenny Fukshansky

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

Lecture given at the Second International Conference on The Algebraic and Arithmetic Theory of Quadratic Forms, December 2007.

Fisheries Research Report No. 160 - Development Of Biodiversity And Habitat Monitoring Systems For Key Trawl Fisheries In Western Australia., Mervi Kangas, S. Morrison, P. Unsworth, Eva K M Lai, I. Wright, Adrian W. Thomson

Fisheries Research Reports

Final FRDC report - Project 2002/038

The need for this project was identified through the ESD Risk Assessment workshops held for the Shark Bay and Exmouth Gulf trawl fisheries in May and October 2001. Bycatch issues in the Shark Bay and Exmouth fisheries were identified as a moderate risk through an Ecological Risk Assessment workshop. A better understanding of the faunal composition and habitat preferences of bycatch species in both trawled and untrawled areas has assisted in determining the level of risk to bycatch species. The project provided baseline data on biodiversity and variability of trawl bycatch on and off …

Video On The Semantic Sensor Web, Cory Andrew Henson, Amit P. Sheth, Prateek Jain, Josh Pschorr, Terry Rapoch

Kno.e.sis Publications

Millions of sensors around the globe currently collect avalanches of data about our world. The rapid development and deployment of sensor technology is intensifying the existing problem of too much data and not enough knowledge. With a view to alleviating this glut, we propose that sensor data, especially video sensor data, can be annotated with semantic metadata to provide contextual information about videos on the Web. In particular, we present an approach to annotating video sensor data with spatial, temporal, and thematic semantic metadata. This technique builds on current standardization efforts within the W3C and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and …

Ground-Level Ozone Across Kentucky: Modeling And A Synoptic Analysis Of High Concentrations, John Walker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Rural areas are often more susceptible to high concentrations of ground-level ozone (O3) than urban areas. However, rural populations are, for the most part, unaware of this problem. Currently the rural areas of Kentucky have no daily forecast for O3. This research addresses the issue by using methodologies from previous Kentucky O3 modeling research to develop a daily forecast model within Geographic Information Systems. The rural O3 model developed by Kendrick (2005) will be used in this research, as a Standard model, along with an application of the model introduced by Cobourn and Hubbard (1999), as the Hi model, to …

A Modified Route To Cyclopenta[C]Thophenes Via Grignard Reagents, Amber Bell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The synthesis of cyclopenta[c]thiophenes is sparsely found in literature due to the several difficulties of their synthesis. Our research has shown that we could modify a previously known route to 1,3-disubstituted cyclopenta[c]thiophenes using traditional Grignard chemistry. Along the way we discovered the synthetic route we were using had several omissions. Therefore, we were required to completely fill in missing experimentals in order to obtain each cyclopenta[c]thiophene intermediate, in high purity and good yield. In addition, we were able to fully characterize via NMR, our intermediates which was found in the literature. Finally, we were able to show using 'H 13 …

A Fast Image Super-Resolution Algorithm Using An Adaptive Wiener Filter, Russell C. Hardie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A computationally simple super-resolution algorithm using a type of adaptive Wiener filter is proposed. The algorithm produces an improved resolution image from a sequence of low-resolution (LR) video frames with overlapping field of view. The algorithm uses subpixel registration to position each LR pixel value on a common spatial grid that is referenced to the average position of the input frames. The positions of the LR pixels are not quantized to a finite grid as with some previous techniques. The output high-resolution (HR) pixels are obtained using a weighted sum of LR pixels in a local moving window. Using a …

Ua35/1 Doers & Deeds Vol. 7, No. 3, Wku Provost

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by the WKU Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs to highlight the activities of faculty, staff and alumni.

Excited-State Equilibration Over 30 Å In A Platinum(Ii) Quinolinolate−Bridge−Platinum(Ii) Porphyrin Complex, Victor A. Montes, Michael A. J. Rodgers, Pavel Anzenbacher Jr.

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Long-range triplet excited-state equilibration occurs over a nanometric distance between platinum(II) 8-quinolinolate ((3)Ptq(2) = 1.87 eV) and platinum(II) tetraphenylporphyrin ((PtTPP)-Pt-3 = 1.89 eV). The equilibrium is mediated by a fluorene-thiophene-fluorene bridge ((FTF)-F-3 = 1.92 eV) and is characterized by a double-exponential decay (tau(1) = 39 +/- 4 ps; tau(2) = 351 +/- 15 ps) that suggests the participation of three separate excited states : (3)Ptq(2), (FTF)-F-3, and 3PtTPP, respectively. Numerical simulation of the dual equilibrium allowed for estimation of the individual rate constants for each of the reversible steps (k(ET) = 3.9 x 10(9)-4.1 x 10(10) s(-1)). As a result …

Tris(Dialkylamino)Aluminums: Syntheses, Characterization, Volatility Comparison, And Atomic Layer Deposition Of Alumina Thin Films, Casey R. Wade, Carter Silvernail, Chiranjib Banerjee, Axel Soulet, James Mcandrew, John A. Belot Jr.

Department of Chemistry: Faculty Publications

The syntheses and characterization of both tris(diethylamino)aluminum and tris(diisopropylamino)aluminum are presented in this letter. Characterization includes vapor pressure measurements and comparison of the two non-pyrophoric precursors showing them to be viable alternatives to trimethylaluminum. Ultimately, tris(diisopropyl)aluminum was successful in the atomic layer deposition of alumina thin films.

Western Gray Whales Off Sakhalin Island, Russia: A Joint Russia-U.S. Scientific Investigation July-September 2007, David W. Weller, Amanda L. Bradford, Aimée R. Lang, Hyun Woo Kim, Maxim Sidorenko, Grigory A. Tsidulko, Alexander M. Burdin, Robert L. Brownell Jr.

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

A collaborative Russia-U.S. research program on western gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) summering off northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia, has been ongoing since 1995 and has produced important new information on the present day conservation status of this critically endangered population. This interim report reviews preliminary findings from 2007 research activities and combines such with data from previous years, in some cases ranging back to 1994. Photo-identification research conducted off Sakhalin Island in 2007 resulted in the identification of 83 whales, including nine calves and two previously unidentified non-calves. When combined with data from 1994-2006, a catalog of 169 photo-identified …

Constraints On An Optical Afterglow And On Supernova Light Following The Short Burst Grb 050813, P. Ferreo, S. F. Sanchez, D. A. Kann, S. Klose, J. Greiner, J. Gorosabel, Dieter H. Hartmann, A. A. Henden, P. Møller, E. Palazzi

Publications

We report early follow-up observations of the error box of the short burst GRB 050813 using the telescopes at Calar Alto and Observatorio Sierra Nevada, followed by deep VLT FORS2 I-band observations obtained under very good seeing conditions 5.7 and 11.7 days after the event. Neither a fading afterglow nor a rising SN component was found, so the potential GRB host galaxy has not been identified based on a comparison of the two VLT images taken at different epochs. We discuss whether any of the galaxies present in the original 1000 XRTerror circle could be the host.In anycase, the optical …

Bidimensional Pr Qmf With Fir Filters, Jian-Ao Lian

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

Multidimensional perfect reconstruction (PR) quadrature mirror filter (QMF) banks with finite impulse response (FIR) filters induced from systems of biorthogonal multivariate scaling functions and wavelets are investigated. In particular, bivariate scaling functions and wavelets with dilation as an expansive integer matrix whose determinant is two in absolute value are considered. Demonstrative quincunxial examples are explicitly given and new FIR filters are constructed.

Markov Processes In Single Molecule Fluorescence, David Talaga

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article examines the current status of Markov processes in single molecule fluorescence. For molecular dynamics to be described by a Markov process, the Markov process must include all states involved in the dynamics and the first-passage time (FPT) distributions out of those states must be describable by a simple exponential law. The observation of non-exponential FPT distributions or other evidence of non-Markovian dynamics is common in single molecule studies and offers an opportunity to expand the Markov model to include new dynamics or states that improve understanding of the system.

Formation Of Peptide Nanospheres And Nanofibrils By Metal Coordination, Mikhail V. Tsurkan, Michael Y. Ogawa

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Two amphipathic polypeptides were coordinated to the cis positions of a square planar Pt(II) complex in order to provide the metal center with two noncovalent oligomerization domains. This resulted in the formation of new metal-peptide nanoassemblies which are shown to exist as nanometer-sized spheres and fibrils. Construction of these assemblies was based on the 30-residue polypeptide AQ-Pal14 which was designed for its ability to self-assemble into the common protein oligomerization motif of a noncovalent coiled-coil, and modified to contain a metal-binding 4-pyridylalanine residue at its surface. When AQ-Pal14 was reacted with Pt(en)(NO3)(2), a new metal-peptide complex was formed in which …

Shake & Bake: Dual-Use Chemicals, Contexts, And The Illegality Of American White Phosphorus Attacks In Iraq, Joseph D. Tessier

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “On November 29, 2005, in a Department of Defense press conference with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Pace stated that white phosphorus “is a legitimate tool of the military,” and can be used for illumination, smoke, and incendiary purposes. Incredibly, the Department of Defense released an addendum to the press conference clarifying that white phosphorus was not used as an incendiary weapon. According to General Pace, “it was well within the law of war to use white phosphorus . . . for marking and screening.” This was …