RURAL GROWTH IN U.S. HEARTLAND

This study identifies factors that explain growth in rural areas using data from 618 counties in the U.S. rural heartland. We evaluate many of the growth hypotheses in the context of sectoral employment growth for counties in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Separate estimates for rural and urban counties provide insight into factors that are important in explaining employment growth. The results support the importance of human capital as a factor contributing to sectoral employment growth and show that increased concentration and specialization of employment within a county lead to slower growth in the rural heartland counties.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

An Investigation of Environmental Factors that Influence Knowledge Transfer in the Air Force

The Air Force presently spends more than $4.9 billion annually on information technology (IT). However, the IT infrastructure has been identified as inappropriate for supporting the Air Force mission. To improve this situation the Air Force has identified infrastructure flexibility as key to future success. To find the level of flexibility, this study measured the perception of Air Force communications, computer, and information career field members (33SX and 3COX2 career fields) on the level of IT infrastructure modularity (data modularity and application modularity) and integration (platform compatibility and network connectivity). This thesis looked at two constructs that indicate IT infrastructure flexibility-modularity and integration. A survey was sent to communication, computer, and information career field members to measure the degree of modularity and integration. Based on respondents’ views, the Air Force\u27s IT infrastructure does have some areas of flexibility, but other areas indicate very low flexibility. A primary concern is the flexibility of the Air Force\u27s data and applications. Responses to both data flexibility and application flexibility survey questions consistently indicated low flexibility. The responses suggest the Air Force could achieve greater flexibility by turning its attention to database issues such as variety and adaptability of database protocols. Communications and platform flexibility are partially supported. Results indicate that reducing communication bottlenecks and fewer steps for accessing data from external end user locations could enable greater flexibility. Senior and Junior IT leaders only diverged on one area of flexibility. Senior leaders had a higher rating on the number of entry points or interfaces available to external end users

Depositional environments and sequence stratigraphy of the Rockwell-Price Formation in western Maryland, south-central Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia

The Price Formation of northern West Virginia consists of Upper Devonian - Lower Mississippian siliciclastic rocks that are primarily marine. Members of the Price Formation include from oldest to youngest the Oswayo, Cussewago, Riddlesburg Shale, and Rockwell. Rocks of the Price Formation are considered to be of genetic and temporal equivalence to the Rockwell Formation in south-central Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and the eastern West Virginia panhandle.;The research attempts to (1) interpret sedimentary facies and their depositional environments and (2) identify stratigraphic relationships across six outcrops in the central Appalachian basin. Outcrops have been measured and described along a 150 km transect from (west) Rowlesburg, West Virginia, to (east) Crystal Spring, Pennsylvania. The six exposures, ranging from approximately 56 to 227 m thick, were visually divided into packages of similar rock (stratigraphic units) according to their physical appearance and carefully described. Corel DrawRTM software was used to digitally construct small-scale graphic logs from the unit descriptions. Field descriptions and graphic logs served as the basis for the identification of facies and interpretation of depositional environments. Correlation of outcrops and recognized trends led to statigraphic and paleogeographic relationships. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Measurement of the azimuthal angle distribution of leptons from\u3ci\u3eW\u3c/i\u3e boson decays as a function of the \u3ci\u3eW\u3c/i\u3e transverse momentum in \u3ci\u3epp̅\u3c/i\u3e collisions at √s = 1.8 TeV

We present the first measurement of the A2 and A3 angular coefficients of the W boson produced in proton-antiproton collisions. We study W → e νe and W → e νe candidate events produced in association with at least one jet at CDF, during Run Ia and Run Ib of the Tevatron at √s =1:8 TeV. The corresponding integrated luminosity was 110 pb-1. The jet balances the transverse momentum of the W and introduces QCD effects in W boson production. The extraction of the angular coefficients is achieved through the direct measurement of the azimuthal angle of the charged lepton in the Collins-Soper rest-frame of the W boson. The angular coefficients are measured as a function of the transverse momentum of the W boson. The electron, muon, and combined results are in good agreement with the standard model prediction, up to order αs2 in QCD

Design and Calibration of a Flowfield Survey Rake for Inlet Flight Research

The Propulsion Flight Test Fixture at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center is a unique test platform available for use on NASA's F-15B aircraft, tail number 836, as a modular host for a variety of aerodynamics and propulsion research. For future flight data from this platform to be valid, more information must be gathered concerning the quality of the airflow underneath the body of the F-15B at various flight conditions, especially supersonic conditions. The flow angularity and Mach number must be known at multiple locations on any test article interface plane for measurement data at these locations to be valid. To determine this prerequisite information, flight data will be gathered in the Rake Airflow Gauge Experiment using a custom-designed flowfield rake to probe the airflow underneath the F-15B at the desired flight conditions. This paper addresses the design considerations of the rake and probe assembly, including the loads and stress analysis using analytical methods, computational fluid dynamics, and finite element analysis. It also details the flow calibration procedure, including the completed wind-tunnel test and posttest data reduction, calibration verification, and preparation for flight-testing

Monitoring Greater Sage Grouse Populations and Habitat Use in the Southeast Montana Sage-Grouse Core Area

Sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) core areas support Montana’s highest densities of sage grouse, and are deemed vitally important to sage grouse conservation long term. The Southeast Montana Sage Grouse Core Area (SEMT SGCA) consists of large expanses of intact sagebrush-steppe habitat and is important for connectivity among populations in Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming. Relatively little development has occurred in the area, but there is potential for energy development to have large-scale impacts on the area in the near future. Little was known about sage-grouse use of the area during critical periods outside of the breeding season or factors underlying local sage-grouse population dynamics. Therefore, we radio collared 94 sage grouse hens between 2009-2011 to quantify movements, habitat use, and population vital rates. Overall, hen locations tended to be within the SEMT SGCA during spring-summer and expanded to adjacent areas of Wyoming and South Dakota during winter. Wide annual fluctuations in weather conditions drove annual variation in population demographic rates, habitat conditions, and habitat use. Apparent nest success (34-68%) and average chick production per hen that began the breeding season (0.72-1.12 chicks/hen) varied among years with extreme to mild weather. Annual hen survival varied from a low of 46 percent under extreme winter conditions to > 60 percent under milder weather. Vegetation characteristics at nest, brood-rearing, and winter locations will be presented. Results from this project will aid in land use planning, prioritization of conservation efforts, and provide information to assess the effects of future land use change. The project is conducted by MFWP and funded by the BLM

An Environmental Analysis of Illinois Coal Entry into the Transportation Market

Using Illinois coal in transportation has varied environmental consequences. This study calculated the total CO2 emissions from gasoline and eight other vehicle propulsion methods (VPMs) involving Illinois coal. VPMs of Ultra Super Critical electrical cycle (USC), Integrated Gasification Combined electrical Cycle (IGCC), Pulverized coal in a Sub-Critical electrical cycle (PSC), and electricity from a hydrogen fuel cell emitted the lowest CO2. VPMs using Illinois coal to produce ethanol, butanol, and IGCC/ethanol emitted CO2 comparable to gasoline. The VPM of Fischer-Tropsch (FT) diesel emitted the most CO2. It was concluded that energy efficiency and CO2 offset from agricultural growth and by-products were the most influential factors of CO2 emissions

Measuring Muon Reconstruction Efficiency from Data

We suggest a method of measuring the global muon reconstruction efficiency epsilon directly from data, which largely alleviates uncertainties associated with our ability to monitor and reproduce in Monte Carlo simulation all details of the underlying detector performance. With the data corresponding to an integrated luminosity L = 10 fb^-1, the precision of measuring epsilon for muons in the P_T range of 10-100~GeV will be better than 1%