The Social Consciousness of Mark Twain

A thesis presented to the faculty of the School of Social Sciences at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History by Rose W. Caudill on December 4, 1975

Simulating gravitational motion, gas dynamics, and structure in the cosmos

We provide introductory explanations and illustrations of the $N$-body hydrodynamics code Charm N-body GrAvity solver (ChaNGa). ChaNGa simulates the gravitational motion and gas dynamics of matter in space, with the goal of modeling galactic and/or cosmological structure and evolution. We discuss the algorithm for leapfrog integration and smoothed particle hydrodynamics and computer science concepts used by the program, including the binary data structure for the particle positions. Our presentation borrows from the doctoral dissertation of J.\ G.\ Stadel. Problems are provided in order to use ChaNGa to learn or solidify some cosmological concepts.Comment: Accepted by the American Journal of Physics. Two important supplementary documents are include

Isospectral Sets for Fourth-Order Ordinary Differential Operators

Let L(p)u = D4u - (p1u’)’ + p2u be a fourth-order differential operator acting on L2[0; 1] with p ≡ (p1; p2) belonging to L2ℝ[0, 1] x L2ℝ[0, 1] and boundary conditions u(0) = u\u27\u27(0) = u(1) = u\u27\u27(1) = 0. We study the isospectral set of L(p) when L(p) has simple spectrum. In particular we show that for such p, the isospectral manifold is a real-analytic submanifold of L2ℝ[0, 1] x L2ℝ[0, 1] which has infinite dimension and codimension. A crucial step in the proof is to show that the gradients of the eigenvalues of L(p) with respect to p are linearly independent: we study them as solutions of a non-self-ajdoint fifth-order system, the Borg system, among whose eigenvectors are the gradients

Temporal Trends in Florida Panther Food Habits

Once on the brink of extinction, the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) has reoccupied parts of its extirpated range in southern Florida, USA over the past 20 years, which has largely been attributed to genetic restoration efforts initiated in 1995 to combat inbreeding depression and subsequent deleterious traits. Concurrent to the resurgence, an increase in documented livestock depredation events has heightened concern over human– panther conflicts. We examined 312 stomach content, scat, and feces (large intestine contents) samples collected 1989 to 2014 across the endemic range in southern Florida. We compared frequency of occurrence of prey items in samples by temporal (pre- and post-genetic restoration), geographic (north and south of 26° 10.017′ latitude), and demographic (age and sex) categories. We observed an apparent temporal shift in prey item occurrence in scats, where raccoon (Procyon lotor) occurrence increased while wild hog (Sus scrofa) occurrence decreased, whereas white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) occurrence appeared constant. Post-genetic restoration, we observed a geographic difference in panther prey, where white-tailed deer and raccoons were consumed more commonly in the southern part of the study area (characterized by lower soil quality and higher hydrological fluctuations), while wild hogs were consumed more frequently in the northern part of the study area. Neither sex nor age appeared to affect frequency of prey occurrence. Pets and livestock were not frequently found in the samples we examined. Overall, our results show shifts in panther diets both temporally and geographically; however, no notable changes in frequency of livestock found in panther diets were observed

Satellite laser ranging work at the Goddard Space Flight Center

Laser ranging systems, their range and accuracy capabilities, and planned improvements for future systems are discussed, the systems include one fixed and two mobile lasers ranging systems. They have demonstrated better than 10 cm accuracy both on a carefully surveyed ground range and in regular satellite ranging operations. They are capable of ranging to all currently launched retroreflector equipped satellites with the exception of Timation III. A third mobile system is discussed which will be accurate to better than 5 cm and will be capable of ranging to distant satellites such as Timation III and LAGEOS