Marine systems undergo changes in community composition over time as a result of a variety of environmental and anthropogenic factors. Understanding these community changes and the factors that drive them is critical for ecosystem management of marine resources. The Gulf of Alaska (GOA) is a large marine ecosystem that includes...
Recruitment of larvae from the plankton is an important determinant of
community structure in marine systems. In populations of many marine species,
recruitment determines the basic demographic parameters of immigration, emigration,
and reproduction. Moreover, the effect of recruitment as an "ecological subsidy" can
determine the strength of interactions among species...
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology has grown out of traditional research and military applications and has captivated the commercial and consumer markets, showing the ability to perform a spectrum of autonomous functions. This technology has the capability of saving lives in search and rescue, fighting wildfires in environmental monitoring, and...
Accurate measurement of forest productivity is fundamental to understand the carbon balance of forested ecosystems. Recent changes in climate highlight the importance of developing methods to measure forest productivity so that sound economic and environmental decision can be made. Efforts to measure forest productivity across the landscape using remote sensing...
The United States (US) Department of Energy (DOE) has identified the pebble-bed reactor as a high priority for US research with the end goal of licensing a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) for operation in the United States. Before this can be accomplished significant research must be done regarding the safety of...
Current trends in integrated circuit technology are continuing towards physically smaller components and related structures. Interconnects between circuit components have reached sub-micron dimensions which can not be modeled accurately by the current ideal microstrip analysis based techniques. These techniques often assume that the structure being modeled is perfectly conducting, smooth,...
Contract harvest operations have become the preferred approach to reducing the largest cost component of timber production through free market competition amongst logging contractors bidding or negotiating for work. The goal of this research was to investigate economic components of harvesting operations not previously studied for steep slope thinning harvests...
With energy prices rising and increasing concern about the influence of fossil fuels on climate change, wave energy systems are on the verge of commercial implementation. These first generation wave energy converters utilize either pneumatics or hydraulics to convert the mechanical energy of waves into electricity. For the last several...
Collegiate student's conceptual distinctions of what define a mathematical and a physical model seems to be affected by the epistemological beliefs they hold about this knowledge. These beliefs seem to influence student's thinking and reasoning as they embark on problem solving activities in collegiate mathematics. Student's epistemological beliefs of mathematical...