Pesticide Application Management Toolset for Worker Protection Standards

The application of Pesticides has become a widely adopted practice within modern agriculture, however this practice poses a significant health risk to farm workers and crop advisors when pesticide exposures occur. Current safety standards require documentation of each application to help mitigate human exposure, yet these standards rely heavily on antiquated data collection formats and complex communication systems putting little emphasis on notification timeliness. Our objective was to reduce the risk of pesticide exposure for all farm workers and crop advisors by utilizing technological automation processes to reduce the number of links within the communication system. This proved successful though the collection of pesticide application information within a cloud-based data storage system, updating it in a near real-time fashion, and providing accessibility to the information from any location with cellular or internet connectivity. Today\u27s technological advances allow applicators to quickly upload their pesticide application information to the cloud-based system, which permits prompt information accessibility for field workers and crop scouts. Individuals can then login to their account and locate application specifics such as the products applied, locations they were applied, the rates at which they were applied, and when each location is safe for re-entry. The Spray-Safely application was developed for agricultural producers, crop scouts, and custom pesticide applicators who are interested in the ease of seamlessly sharing pesticide application information across multiple platforms. We have found that by utilizing wireless data transfer technology and available industry leader’s software application programming interfaces (API’s), we can achieve the development and implementation of third-party applications to meet industry needs. Advisor: Joe D. Luc

A Downstream Perspective on South Dakota’s Purported Sale of Water to ETSI

29 pages (includes 2 maps). Contains 13 attachments

Enabling Change: Transformative and Transgressive Learning in Feminist Ethics and Epistemology

Through examples of embodied and learning-centered pedagogy, we discuss transformative learning of transgressive topics. We begin with a taxonomy of types of learning our students undergo as they resolve inconsistencies among their pre-existing beliefs and the material they confront in our course on feminist ethics and epistemology. We then discuss ways to help students maximize their learning while confronting internal inconsistencies. While we focus on feminist topics, our approach is broad enough to be relevant to anyone teaching a transgressive or controversial topic

Solutions of the Two-State Potential-Curve-Crossing Problem

A general theory of the two-state curve-crossing problem has been developed, with a complete solution of an accurate model for close crossings (including numerical computations for strong coupling). Results clarify the position of the Landau-Zener approximation and its improvements by Nikitin and others, provide a general way of extending these approximations into regions often treated incorrectly (including the high-energy limit), and can be readily adapted to simple, rapid calculations

Diabatic and Adiabatic Representations for Atomic Collision Processes

ABSTRACT A consistent general definition of diabatic representations has not previously been given, even though many practical examples of such representations have been constructed for specific problems. Such a definition is provided in this paper. Beginning with a classical trajectory formulation, we describe the form and behavior of velocity‐dependent couplings in slow collisions, including the effects of electron‐translation factors (ETF’s). We compare the couplings arising from atomic representations and atomic ETF’s with those arising from molecular representations and ’’switching function’’ ETF’s. We show that a unique set of switching functions makes the two descriptions identical in their effects. We then show that an acceptable general definition of a diabatic representation is provided by the condition P+A=0, where P is the usual nonadiabatic coupling matrix and A represents corrections to it arising from electron translation factors (ETF’s). Two distinct types of diabatic representation result, depending on the definition taken for A. States that undergo no deformation are called F diabatic; those that have no velocity‐dependent couplings are called M diabatic. Finally, we discuss the properties of representations that are partially diabatic and partially adiabatic, and we give some rules for the construction of representations that should be nearly optimal for describing many types of collision processes

Studies of the Potential Curve Crossing Problem II. General Theory and a Model for Close Crossings

A unified formal treatment of the two-state potential-curve-crossing problem in atomic collision theory is presented, and the case of close crossings analyzed in detail. A complete solution for this case, including necessary computations, is given using a suitable generalization of the linear model originally suggested by Landau, Zener, and Stueckelberg. Our solution is based upon a hierarchy of approximations concerned with (i) choice of a discrete basis set for electronic coordinates, (ii) semiclassical treatment of the nuclear motion, (iii) an appropriate model for the two-state electronic Hamiltonian, and (iv) a complete solution to that model

Theory of Near-Adiabatic Collisions. II. Scattering Coordinate Method

A rigorously correct and fully quantum-mechanical theory of slow atomic collisions is presented, which removes the formal defects and spurious nonadiabatic couplings of perturbed-stationary-states theory, and arrives at coupled equations for the heavy-particle motion which are the same as those obtained in the preceding paper by the electron translation factor formulation. Here, however, the theory is formulated in terms of suitably defined scattering coordinates, and electron translation factors do not appear. A unified physical interpretation of both approaches can thereby be made, and smaller terms in the coupled equations, describing corrections of order mμ to electronic binding energies and to the collision kinetic energy, are placed on a firmer footing. Particular attention is paid to the critical test case of isotopic systems such as HD+ and it is shown how a correct theory of isotopic charge exchange can be formulated

Theory of Near-Adiabatic Collisions. I. Electron-Translation-Factor Method

The theory of near-adiabatic collisions is formulated in a fully quantum-mechanical form, correctly taking into account the role of electron translation factors (ETF\u27s). A general form for the ETF, using switching functions, is given for systems which are electrically either asymmetric or symmetric (with or without mass asymmetry). The main result is that the close-coupled scattering equations obtained in the perturbed-stationary-states theory must be replaced by equations of identical form, but having modified nonadiabatic coupling matrices. In general, the corrections involved are substantial; their nature, and effect on coupling matrices, is discussed, and conditions when they are likely to be important are described. The remaining problem of determining the switching function is discussed briefly. The correct form for ETF\u27s, their quantum-mechanical formulation, and the resulting correct form for the coupled equations, have not been given previously

Semiclassical Theory of Inelastic Collisions I. Classical Picture and Semiclassical

This series of papers is concerned with the derivation of the equations of the classical picture of atomic collisions, iℏddtdi(t)=Σjhij(t)dj(t), which describe the time dependence of electronic-quantum-state amplitudes as the nuclei move along a classical trajectory. These equations are derived in two ways. In the first formulation, which coincides with the intuitive classical picture of the collision, the nuclear part of the wave function is treated as a superposition of narrow wave packets, each traveling along a classical trajectory. In the second formulation, a semiclassical approach is used. The validity and meaning of the two formulations are discussed and compared

Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy using Squid Detection

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), with its unique capability to image soft tissues, has become one of the most powerful nondestructive diagnostic tools in medicine. MRI is still a developing methodology in non-medical nondestructive evaluation (NDE); this is because solids with their broader nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) linewidths are more difficult to image than biological tissue. However, recently MRI has been attracting increasing interest in a number of areas where the NMR linewidth is not as serious a problem. These include fluid flow determination in materials including porous media [1], detecting defects in ceramics still in the green (unfired) state [2], and the evaluation of polymers such as rubber and other elastomers [3]. Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices, or SQUIDs, with their great sensitivity and broad bandwidth have the potential to enhance MRI in both medical and non-medical applications