Book Review: A Naturalist in Indian Territory: The Journals of S. W. Woodhouse

Samuel Washington Woodhouse, a Philadelphia physician and avid ornithologist, was appointed surgeon-naturalist of two expeditions to survey the Creek-Cherokee boundary in Indian Territory. The Creek boundary expedition that Woodhouse was asked to join was a Corps of Topographical Engineers survey party sent to survey and mark the northern and western boundaries of the Creek Indian lands in Indian Territory to comply with the requirements of the Creek Treaty of 1845. The usual purpose of these surveys was to map the land, describe its topography, and learn about its native inhabitants. Later objectives were to establish roads and to set boundaries as the westward movement of settlers began, in addition to observing and gathering specimens of the animals, plants, and minerals of the West. Woodhouse served on both expeditions of the survey, the first in 1849 under Capt. Lorenzo Sitgreaves and the second under Lt. Israel Carle Woodruff in 1850

A Relentless War: America, Israel, and the Fight Against Terrorism

For Israel, terrorism has plagued the nation since its beginning. Terrorism rears its ugly head in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons; however, in both the United States and Israel, Islamic extremism has presented itself as the largest threat. Since its birth as a nation, the United States has been involved in numerous conflicts, from the Revolutionary War to World War II and beyond. These wars were fought between nation-states and traditional powers, but since the attacks on 9/11, the United States finds itself in a new kind of conflict against a different kind of enemy. As a conflict between a nation-state and an ideological group, it is unlike anything the United States has participated in before. On the other hand, Israel has spent most of its history battling Islamic extremism, even beyond its time as an official state. Ultimately, this thesis explores the approaches of the United States and Israel take against radical Islamic terrorism and seeks lessons to be learned from Israel to further solidify the United States\u27 dominance against terrorist threats. Military might and diplomacy have been enough for the United States to be successful in the past but those techniques are not proven against an ideology like Islamic extremism, which is so radical that its followers strive to be martyred for it. Until now, the United States led the rest of the world in military and intelligence capabilities but under pressure from this immediate and continuous threat, understanding how to adapt to the everchanging fight against terrorism will be crucial

Multivariate sequential analysis with linear boundaries

Let $\{S_n=(X_n,W_n)\}_{n\ge0}$ be a random walk with $X_n\in \mathbb{R}$ and $W_n\in \mathbb{R}^m$. Let $\tau=\tau_a=\inf\{n:X_n>a\}$. The main results presented are two term asymptotic expansions for the joint distribution of $S_{\tau}$ and $\tau$ and the marginal distribution of $h(S_{\tau}/a,\tau/a)$ in the limit $a\to\infty$. These results are used to study the distribution of $t$-statistics in sequential experiments with sample size $\tau$, and to remove bias from confidence intervals based on Anscombe's theorem.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/074921706000000608 in the IMS Lecture Notes--Monograph Series (http://www.imstat.org/publications/lecnotes.htm) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Oil-flow separation patterns on an ogive forebody

Oil flow patterns on a symmetric tangent ogive forebody having a fineness ratio of 3.5 are presented for angles of attack up to 88 deg at a transitional Reynolds number of 8 million (based on base diameter) and a Mach number of 0.25. Results show typical surface flow separation patterns, the magnitude of surface flow angles, and the extent of laminar and turbulent flow for symmetric, asymmetric, and wakelike flow regimes

Experimental research of the aerodynamics of nozzles and plumes at hypersonic speeds

The purpose was to experimentally characterize the flow field created by the interaction of a single expansion ramp nozzle (SERN) flow with a hypersonic external stream. Data were obtained from a generic nozzle/afterbody model in the 3.5 Foot Hypersonic Wind Tunnel of the NASA Ames Research Center. The model design and test planning were performed in close cooperation with members of the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) computational fluid dynamics (SFD) team, so that the measurements could be used in CFD code validation studies. Presented here is a description of the experiment, the extent of the measurements obtained, and the experimental results

Oscillatory processes in the theory of particulate formation in supersaturated chemical solutions

We study a nonlinear problem which occurs in the theory of particulate formation in supersaturated chemical solutions. Mathematically, the problem involves the bifurcation of time-periodic solutions in an initial-boundary value problem involving a nonlinear integro-differential equation. The mechanism controlling the oscillatory states is revealed by combining the theory of characteristics for first order partial differential equations with the multi-time scale perturbation analysis of a certain third order system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations

A perturbation analysis of spontaneous action potential initiation by stochastic ion channels

A stochastic interpretation of spontaneous action potential initiation is developed for the Morris- Lecar equations. Initiation of a spontaneous action potential can be interpreted as the escape from one of the wells of a double well potential, and we develop an asymptotic approximation of the mean exit time using a recently-developed quasi-stationary perturbation method. Using the fact that the activating ionic channel’s random openings and closings are fast relative to other processes, we derive an accurate estimate for the mean time to fire an action potential (MFT), which is valid for a below-threshold applied current. Previous studies have found that for above-threshold applied current, where there is only a single stable fixed point, a diffusion approximation can be used. We also explore why different diffusion approximation techniques fail to estimate the MFT