A Numerical Minimization Scheme for the Complex Helmholtz Equation

We use the work of Milton, Seppecher, and Bouchitt\'{e} on variational principles for waves in lossy media to formulate a finite element method for solving the complex Helmholtz equation that is based entirely on minimization. In particular, this method results in a finite element matrix that is symmetric positive-definite and therefore simple iterative descent methods and preconditioning can be used to solve the resulting system of equations. We also derive an error bound for the method and illustrate the method with numerical experiments.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Setting an International Precedent: Ecotourism in Australia

Ecotourism within Australia has become an important focus at the regional, state and national level. With ten listed world heritage sites, Australia is well placed in providing ecotourism experiences to visitors, both domestically and internationally. There are, however great challenges in balancing development pressures and conservation needs. Australia has been focusing on the natural environment and has a growing commitment to preserving a quality lifestyle for future generations as well as maintaining as much as possible of its biodiversity. It is now at the forefront of major progress in embracing Ecotourism as a sustainable future focus. Australia is one of few Federal governments with National Ecotourism policies and funding grants specifically oriented toward the development of ecotourism and maintenance of its principles. This paper addresses a number of these developments

Building Community Commitment for a Region\u27s Future: The Case of Port Stephens, Australia

With tremendous growth in coastal communities of Australia within the last two decades, intense pressures have been placed on local communities, especially in the areas where tourism is a growing phenomenon. People living in these sensitive regions have been searching for long term solutions. There are many challenges, however, in meeting the needs and dealing with the complex relationships between tourists, residents, investors, providers of tourist and lifestyle experiences, non-government and government organisations. To meet these difficulties, community groups have attempted to gain local awareness of the costs and benefits of more responsible, community based approaches to tourism and other types of developments. This paper looks at how a community that has been embracing tourism while allowing increased residential development in a sensitive region, is also attempting to facilitate interaction and influence decision making within the community

Development, Evaluation, and Efficacy of a Heart Healthy Curriculum in Two Different Education Settings; Emphasizing Food Portioning and Cooking Skills, Increased Fruits, Vegetables, Whole Grains, Low-Fat Dairy, and Exercise

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States. The prevalence of CVD will increase in conjunction with the rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes and decrease in physical activity, due to the adverse effects of adiposity and atherosclerosis associated with these syndromes. Excellent inpatient, outpatient, and community-based program s are available to educate and direct healthy behavioral changes, yet the number of programs available is not sufficient for the volume of patients, nor widely distributed in all areas (particularly rural areas). There is a lack of comprehensive education programs for adults directed toward decreasing CVD with an emphasis on food portioning skills; cooking skills; low-fat cooking techniques; increasing fruits , vegetables, and dairy products in the diet; and increasing exercise. The Cooperative Extension Healthy Beat education program and curriculum was developed and evaluated to improve the cardiovascular health of Utah residents. This curriculum focused on improving nutrition knowledge, food portioning skill, food preparation/cooking skills, regular exercise, lipid panel, anthropometric indices, and blood pressure. The program was distributed in CD format to 59 extension agents; identical CDs were used by instructors of live sessions for 43 participants in Sanpete, Washington, and Beaver counties. The CDs were also used by the instructor of a third group, consisting of 16 nutrition education assistants from the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, who were also taught in a live session setting. The evaluation was done through measurement of nutrition knowledge, cooking skills, lipid panel biochemical indices, weight loss, blood pressure, and waist and hip circumferences. This study demonstrated that on completion of the heart healthy curriculum, those with CVD or those at risk for CVD appropriately altered their risk factors for a myocardial infarction (decrease in one or more of the following: serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, body mass index, and waist and hip circumferences)

Prospects for Prosperity in the Caribbean: A vision and tool for planning and policymaking

This Major Research paper asks the questions: What would an ecologically sustainable, system-thinking based vision for planning and development in the Caribbean look like? And how can systems dynamics modelling help to make this vision a reality? Through the critical presentation of the current “crisis of development” that has left the Caribbean vulnerable and economically disadvantaged; the Caribbean’s historical, socio-economic, environmental and planning context with respect to this crisis, and a planning framework rooted in systems theory, I conclude with a description of such a vision in Part 1. Part 2 involves the system dynamics modelling exercise in which I examine land use changes on a Caribbean island state, while also evaluating the method as a valuable tool for planning and policy-making

The Marriage Viability Requirement: Is It Viable?

This Comment analyzes the administration of immigration laws that allow aliens preferred status on the basis of marriage to a U.S. citizen or resident alien. The author explains that recent court decisions have rejected attempts by the INS to require that such marriages be viable. The author argues that because the purpose of preferential treatment based on marriage is to unite the married couple, such treatment should be limited to those whose marriages are viable. The author explores the INS\u27s current use of the viability requirement and examines various court decisions that have limited the use of marriage viability and the policies which justified such limitations. The author argues that Congress should give clear authority to the INS to act in this area, while providing safeguards against interference with privacy rights

Master of Science

thesisThe tourism and hospitably industry has focused on customer service and satisfaction as their standard for increasing market share and financial success. During the last decade, industry leaders have shifted from this traditional orientation to customer delightedness in an attempt to achieve greater market share in an increasingly competitive economic environment. Pine and Gilmore introduced a model for staging experiences as the fourth economic model which consists of themeing as a way to create staged experiences. There are numerous studies exploring service quality and satisfaction, but almost no research exists exploring the implications of staging experiences and delightedness in the tourism and hospitality industry. A fully staged tour, partially staged tour, and nonstaged tour, which incorporated varied elements in Pine and Gilmore's model, was created at a heritage park to investigate if staging experiences had an impact on customers' levels of delightedness and subsequently if delightedness was significantly correlated with intention to return and recommend. A total of 228 individuals participated in the study; 76 participated in the fully staged tour, 83 in the partially staged tour, and 69 in the nonstaged tour. A delightedness measure and questions measuring intention to return and intention to recommend were used to measure delightedness and behavioral intentions. The results indicated that staging experiences has a significant impact on delightedness. Delightedness was also shown to be correlated with intention to return and intention to recommend

Plant-pollinator associations in an eastern serpentine savannah and the effects of overbrowsing

Chapter 1: Native plant response to deer overbrowsing in a serpentine savannah Plants are particularly vulnerable to physical disturbance in low productivity areas, due to a high cost of replacing lost plant tissue. In the eastern United States, serpentine grasslands are fragmented ecosystems with high concentrations of rare endemic plant species, low concentrations of soil nutrients, and uncontrolled deer overpopulation. This study assessed functional responses of native angiosperms in a rare eastern serpentine savannah to selective deer browsing. Plant count, flower count, floral area, vegetative area, and plant height of 10 serpentine plant species were compared inside and outside of deer exclusion structures throughout the growing season of 2019 (April-October). Throughout the growing season and across the plant community, deer presence consistently reduced values for all plant response traits measured. Species most impacted by deer herbivory included Oenothera biennis, Solidago rugosa, Sabatia angularis, Liatris spicata, and serpentine endemic Symphyotrichum depauperatum. Eastern serpentine grasslands could lose biodiversity and be permanently degraded by continued intense browsing pressure. We recommend that management programs should be implemented to monitor rare serpentine flowering plant species, and that hunting be considered to limit the deer population in areas of high plant conservation priority. Chapter 2: Disturbance disrupts pollinator network stability in a low diversity grassland Plants are the foundation of terrestrial foodwebs, so disturbances that degrade mutualist networks may threaten ecosystem functionality and ecosystem services. While mutualist networks are generally robust the loss of weakly interacting species, disturbances that impact strongly interacting keystone generalist species can decrease pollinator network stability. This study assessed how metrics of mutualist network stability were impacted when keystone pollinator groups were negatively affected by deer browsing disturbance. Deer exclusion plots were used to compare plant and pollinator response between disturbed and undisturbed habitat throughout a growing season. Pollinators were sampled with pan traps and visual surveys were used to document plant-pollinator interactions. Highly abundant flower species Liatris spicata was found to be a keystone plant species, while the pollinator group of Dipteran flies were found to be keystone pollinators. Although flies were equally as abundant between control and exclusion plots, the diversity and intensity of their interactions (species strength) was significantly decreased in exclusion plots. It was found that while community stability metrics of interaction strength asymmetry (ISA) and connectance stayed constant between disturbed and undisturbed habitats, nestedness, which reflects network redundancy, decreased in disturbed habitats. As a result of decreased species strength of a keystone generalist pollinator group, community nestedness and overall network stability also decreased

Laboratory Measurements at the Impact Point of a Falling Jet

Dams and spillways play a vital role in managing water resources. Many of these hydraulic structures feature a falling jet when discharging downstream. Engineers design plunge pools to receive jets with enough water depth or a protective liner to protect the river bottom so that scour is avoided. Quantifying the pressures at the bottom of the falling jet is a key component to determining the potential for scour and the need for mitigation techniques. In the laboratory setting, significant discrepancies have been observed between different measurement methods to measure mean and fluctuating pressures of a falling jet intercepting a solid physical boundary. The focus of this research was to evaluate measurable discrepancies between different measurement methods at the impact point on a solid boundary of a falling jet. The laboratory measurements of this study were also compared to numerical modeling and theoretical calculation methods. A laboratory test fixture was constructed to monitor pressures induced by the falling jet using the following instruments: a flush mounted pressure transducer, a pressure transmitter, and a piezometer. Jet velocity and fall height were the variables associated with this testing. The test fixture conditions were also simulated numerically with computational fluid dynamics and calculated using fundamental equations of momentum. These numerical and theoretical calculation methods simply provided another measurement for comparison. It was the aim of this study to make conclusions about the appropriate use of different methods of measurement in this scenario. Trends were identified that give insight into the pressures resulting from the various measurement methods. The flush mounted transducer, pressure transmitter, and piezometer produced similar results at the 2-ft and 5-ft fall heights. At the 10-ft fall height, the resulting pressure from the flush mounted transducer was notably different from pressures recorded using the pressure transmitter and the piezometer. This paper discusses conclusions that have been made regarding the most acceptable methods for measuring pressure at the impact point of a falling jet in a laboratory setting