Description of a computer simulation of an orbital SAR system

In order to predict the performance of a synthetic aperture radar for a wide variety of system and environmental parameters a computer simulation of the SAR system was developed. This model is a detailed description of the SAR imaging process on a pulse-by-pulse basis. The simulation is implemented as seven computer programs for a CDC Cyber 171 digital computer

Strengths of sulfur-basalt concretes

Sulfur used in bonding high strength basalt aggregates to form sulfur-basalt concrete

Temperature dependence of the phonon entropy of vanadium

The phonon density-of-states (DOS) of elemental vanadium was measured at elevated temperatures by inelastic neutron scattering. The phonon softening predicted by thermal expansion against the bulk modulus is much larger than the measured shifts in phonon energies. We conclude that the phonon anharmonicities associated with thermal expansion are largely canceled by effects from phonon-phonon scattering. Prior measurements of the heat capacity and calculations of the electronic entropy of vanadium are assessed, and consistency requires an explicit temperature dependence of the phonon DOS. Using data from the literature, similar results are found for chromium, niobium, titanium, and zirconium

Persistence in Mathematics by Underrepresented Students: Experiences of a Math Excel Program

Success in mathematics by underrepresented and nontraditional college students is measured not only by academic performance (grades), but also by the continued participation and persistence of these students in mathematics coursework. The Math Excel program at Oregon State University attempts to build learning communities with a sharp academic focus in support of students concurrently taking introductory level mathematics courses. The Math Excel program is based heavily on Uri Treisman\u27s Emerging Scholars Workshop model of collaborative problem solving. In this article, we examine the experience of minority students in the Educational Opportunities Program participating in the Math Excel program. While the program had appeared successful in terms of improving academic performance in the concurrent mathematics course, the continued participation and persistence of these students in mathematics was disappointing. On a trial basis, structural changes were made to build a much stronger identification of the Math Excel learning community with a section of College Algebra. In the next term, there was a much higher incidence of participation in the subsequent Precalculus using the same Math Excel structure. While the collaborative problem solving activity provided in Math Excel was crucial to students\u27 successful academic performance, these results suggest that subtle issues related to students\u27 recognition of and identification with a learning community may be critically important to underrepresented and nontraditional students\u27 continued persistence in mathematics

Improving QC Relaxations of OPF Problems via Voltage Magnitude Difference Constraints and Envelopes for Trilinear Monomials

AC optimal power flow (AC~OPF) is a challenging non-convex optimization problem that plays a crucial role in power system operation and control. Recently developed convex relaxation techniques provide new insights regarding the global optimality of AC~OPF solutions. The quadratic convex (QC) relaxation is one promising approach that constructs convex envelopes around the trigonometric and product terms in the polar representation of the power flow equations. This paper proposes two methods for tightening the QC relaxation. The first method introduces new variables that represent the voltage magnitude differences between connected buses. Using "bound tightening" techniques, the bounds on the voltage magnitude difference variables can be significantly smaller than the bounds on the voltage magnitudes themselves, so constraints based on voltage magnitude differences can tighten the relaxation. Second, rather than a potentially weaker "nested McCormick" formulation, this paper applies "Meyer and Floudas" envelopes that yield the convex hull of the trilinear monomials formed by the product of the voltage magnitudes and trignometric terms in the polar form of the power flow equations. Comparison to a state-of-the-art QC implementation demonstrates the advantages of these improvements via smaller optimality gaps.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

East Florida Seminary - Micanopy

For some eight years there existed in Florida, less than thirty miles apart, two schools founded at approximately the same time and bearing similar names: the one, “East Florida State Seminary, located in Ocala and controlled by the State; the other, “East Florida Seminary”, established in Micanopy and, at least nominally, under the care of the Florida Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This Conference, it may be said in passing, extended at the time from Key West to Albany and from the Atlantic to Apalachicola, thus covering all Middle and East Florida and that part of Georgia lying south of Fort Gaines, Albany and the Altamaha River. In spite of the vast area over which it had jurisdiction, it had, however, in February, 1845, only thirty-one ministers