Muskogee Internationalism in An Age of Revolution, 1763-1818

This dissertation reevaluates the consequences of the American Revolution by examining how indigenous peoples preserved their role as regional powers in the decades following the birth of the United States. Focusing on the Creek Indians of the present-day southeastern United States, I demonstrate that they maintained ties with Britons, Spaniards, and other Native peoples, employing these connections to their advantage. Creeks created borderlands that connected their societies with those of the British and Spanish Caribbean. The Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of Florida and their surrounding waters became zones of encounter and exchange between Native peoples, British wreckers from the Bahamas, and Spanish fishermen from Cuba. The networks created through these borderlands show that many elements of colonial-era diplomacy, where Native peoples held significant power in relationships with Europeans and Euroamericans, continued in force well after American independence. Creek diplomacy during this era engaged with European international law and concepts of nationhood in ways that compare to and were in dialogue with the efforts of the United States. Both Creeks and Americans sought to negotiate as unitary nations because the international order of their era demanded it. Each consisted of disparate peoples who had little sense of common interest or cohesion prior to the mid-eighteenth century. Creeks identified as members of towns and clans rather than as a singular nation. Any political unity between the Creek towns developed only in response to challenges presented by European colonization. Likewise, Americans identified more with their home states or local communities than the nation as a whole. Over the course of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, both Creeks and Americans struggled to find ways to balance local interests with the diplomatic needs created by the Atlantic community to which they belonged. In this sense, Creek diplomacy was decidedly modern and conversant with legal and political developments throughout the Atlantic world

Combination of geodetic observations and models for glacial isostatic adjustment fields in Fennoscandia

We demonstrate a new technique for using geodetic data to update a priori predictions for Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) in the Fennoscandia region. Global Positioning System (GPS), tide gauge, and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity rates are assimilated into our model. The technique allows us to investigate the individual contributions from these data sets to the output GIA model in a self-consistent manner. Another benefit of the technique is that we are able to estimate uncertainties for the output model. These are reduced with each data set assimilated. Any uncertainties in the GPS reference frame are absorbed by reference frame adjustments that are estimated as part of the assimilation. Our updated model shows a spatial pattern and magnitude of peak uplift that is consistent with previous models, but our location of peak uplift is slightly to the east of many of these. We also simultaneously estimate a spatially averaged rate of local sea level rise. This regional rate (similar to 1.5 mm/yr) is consistent for all solutions, regardless of which data sets are assimilated or the magnitude of a priori GPS reference frame constraints. However, this is only the case if a uniform regional gravity rate, probably representing errors in, or unmodeled contributions to, the low-degree harmonic terms from GRACE, is also estimated for the assimilated GRACE data. Our estimated sea level rate is consistent with estimates obtained using a more traditional approach of direct "correction" using collocated GPS and tide gauge site

Lewis icing research tunnel test of the aerodynamic effects of aircraft ground deicing/anti-icing fluids

A wind tunnel investigation of the effect of aircraft ground deicing/anti-icing fluids on the aerodynamic characteristics of a Boeing 737-200ADV airplane was conducted. The test was carried out in the NASA Lewis Icing Research Tunnel. Fluids tested include a Newtonian deicing fluid, three non-Newtonian anti-icing fluids commercially available during or before 1988, and eight new experimental non-Newtonian fluids developed by four fluid manufacturers. The results show that fluids remain on the wind after liftoff and cause a measurable lift loss and drag increase. These effects are dependent on the high-lift configuration and on the temperature. For a configuration with a high-lift leading-edge device, the fluid effect is largest at the maximum lift condition. The fluid aerodynamic effects are related to the magnitude of the fluid surface roughness, particularly in the first 30 percent chord. The experimental fluids show a significant reduction in aerodynamic effects

Characterization of site-specific GPS errors using a short-baseline network of braced monuments at Yucca Mountain, southern Nevada

We use a short-baseline network of braced monuments to investigate site-specific GPS effects. The network has baseline lengths of ∼10, 100, and 1000 m. Baseline time series have root mean square (RMS) residuals, about a model for the seasonal cycle, of 0.05–0.24 mm for the horizontal components and 0.20–0.72 mm for the radial. Seasonal cycles occur, with amplitudes of 0.04–0.60 mm, even for the horizontal components and even for the shortest baselines. For many time series these lag seasonal cycles in local temperature measurements by 23–43 days. This could suggest that they are related to bedrock thermal expansion. Both shorter-period signals and seasonal cycles for shorter baselines to REP2, the one short-braced monument in our network, are correlated with temperature, with no lag time. Differences between REP2 and the other stations, which are deep-braced, should reflect processes occurring in the upper few meters of the ground. These correlations may be related to thermal expansion of these upper ground layers, and/or thermal expansion of the monuments themselves. Even over these short distances we see a systematic increase in RMS values with increasing baseline length. This, and the low RMS levels, suggests that site-specific effects are unlikely to be the limiting factor in the use of similar GPS sites for geophysical investigations

Results from the LSND Neutrino Oscillation Search

The Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility sets bounds on neutrino oscillations in the appearance channel nu_mu_bar --> nu_e_bar by searching for the signature of the reaction nu_e_bar p --> e^+ n: an e$^+$ followed by a 2.2MeV gamma ray from neutron capture. Five e^{+/-} -- gamma coincidences are observed in time with the LAMPF beam, with an estimated background of 6.2 events. The 90\% confidence limits obtained are: Delta (m^2) < 0.07eV^2 for sin^2 (2theta) = 1, and sin^2(2theta) < 6 10^{-3} for Delta (m^2) > 20 eV^2.Comment: 10 pages, uses REVTeX and epsf macro

The Feasibility of a Using a Smart Button Mobile Health System to Self-Track Medication Adherence and Deliver Tailored Short Message Service Text Message Feedback

BACKGROUND: As many as 50% of people experience medication nonadherence, yet studies for detecting nonadherence and delivering real-time interventions to improve adherence are lacking. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies show promise to track and support medication adherence. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of using an mHealth system for medication adherence tracking and intervention delivery. The mHealth system comprises a smart button device to self-track medication taking, a companion smartphone app, a computer algorithm used to determine adherence and then deliver a standard or tailored SMS (short message service) text message on the basis of timing of medication taking. Standard SMS text messages indicated that the smartphone app registered the button press, whereas tailored SMS text messages encouraged habit formation and systems thinking on the basis of the timing the medications were taken. METHODS: A convenience sample of 5 adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD), who were prescribed antihypertensive medication, participated in a 52-day longitudinal study. The study was conducted in 3 phases, with a standard SMS text message sent in phases 1 (study days 1-14) and 3 (study days 46-52) and tailored SMS text messages sent during phase 2 (study days 15-45) in response to participant medication self-tracking. Medication adherence was measured using: (1) the smart button and (2) electronic medication monitoring caps. Concordance between these 2 methods was evaluated using percentage of measurements made on the same day and occurring within ±5 min of one another. Acceptability was evaluated using qualitative feedback from participants. RESULTS: A total of 5 patients with CKD, stages 1-4, were enrolled in the study, with the majority being men (60%), white (80%), and Hispanic/Latino (40%) of middle age (52.6 years, SD 22.49; range 20-70). The mHealth system was successfully initiated in the clinic setting for all enrolled participants. Of the expected 260 data points, 36.5% (n=95) were recorded with the smart button and 76.2% (n=198) with electronic monitoring. Concordant events (n=94), in which events were recorded with both the smart button and electronic monitoring, occurred 47% of the time and 58% of these events occurred within ±5 min of one another. Participant comments suggested SMS text messages were encouraging. CONCLUSIONS: It was feasible to recruit participants in the clinic setting for an mHealth study, and our system was successfully initiated for all enrolled participants. The smart button is an innovative way to self-report adherence data, including date and timing of medication taking, which were not previously available from measures that rely on recall of adherence. Although the selected smart button had poor concordance with electronic monitoring caps, participants were willing to use it to self-track medication adherence, and they found the mHealth system acceptable to use in most cases

Back Propagation Neural Networks for Predicting Ultimate Strengths of Unidirectional Graphite/Epoxy Tensile Specimens

The research presented herein demonstrates the feasibility of predicting ultimate strengths in simple composite structures through a neural network analysis of their acoustic emission (AE) amplitude distribution data. A series of eleven ASTM D-3039 unidirectional graphite/epoxy tensile samples were loaded to failure to generate the amplitude distributions for this analysis. A back propagation neural network was trained to correlate the AE amplitude distribution signatures generated during the first 25% of loading with the ultimate strengths of the samples. The network was trained using two sets of inputs: (1) the statistical parameters obtained from a Weibull distribution fit of the amplitude distribution data, and (2) the event frequency (amplitude) distribution itself. The neural networks were able to predict ultimate strengths with a worst case error of -8.99% for the Weibull modeled amplitude distribution data and 3.74% when the amplitude distribution itself was used to train the network. The principal reason for the improved prediction capability of the latter technique lies in the ability of the neural network to extract subtle features from within the amplitude distribution

The Lennard-Jones-Devonshire cell model revisited

We reanalyse the cell theory of Lennard-Jones and Devonshire and find that in addition to the critical point originally reported for the 12-6 potential (and widely quoted in standard textbooks), the model exhibits a further critical point. We show that the latter is actually a more appropriate candidate for liquid-gas criticality than the original critical point.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Mol. Phy