Design of Miniaturized Sweeping Langmuir Probe and Electric Field Probe for the Sport Mission

The Scintillation Prediction Observation Research Task (SPORT) is a joint United States of America and Brazil 6U CubeSat mission. The US is providing the science instruments and the spacecraft launch. Brazil is providing the spacecraft bus, integration, and operations. Utah State University will provide four instruments for the mission as part of the US contribution in a suite called the Space Weather Probes (SWP). These instruments are the Sweeping Langmuir Probe (SLP), the Electric Field Probe (EFP), and the Sweeping Impedance Probe (SIP). Higher frequency components of the SLP and EFP will be observed through a Wave Spectrometer (WS). These instruments will provide measurements of electric fields, temperature, and density of ionospheric plasma. This thesis will describe the design, implementation, testing and calibration of the SLP, EFPs, and WS for the SPORT mission. A summary of results is also presented to show fulfillment of mission and instrumentation requirements

Expression, Purification, Crystallization and Preliminary X-Ray Analysis of \u3cem\u3ePseudomonas aeuginosa\u3c/em\u3e AlgX

AlgX is a periplasmic protein required for the production of the exopolysaccharide alginate in Pseudomonas sp. and Azotobacter vinelandii. AlgX has been overexpressed and purified and diffraction-quality crystals have been grown using iterative seeding and the hanging-drop vapor-diffusion method. The crystals grew as flat plates with unit-cell parameters a=46.4, b=120.6, c=86.9Å, β=95.7°. The cyrstals exhibited the symmetry of space group P21 and diffracted to a minimimum d-spacing of 2.1Å. On the basis of the Matthews coefficient (VM=2.25Å3 Da-1), two molecules were estimated to be present in the asymmetric unit

Assessment of Hunter Access on Montana Private Lands

The Montana Hunter Access Funding Initiative, also known as I-161 (Appendix B), appeared as a citizeninitiated state statute (developed by an individual from Billings, MT) on the November 2, 2010 statewide ballot in Montana. It was approved by the voters 53.8 percent to 46.2 percent. I-161 was proposed to increase nonresident big game license fees and abolish outfitter-sponsored licenses. The initiative, which caused much controversy and debate, aims to reverse trends relating to the pay-to-play movement by nonresidents. It addresses concerns surrounding public hunting on private lands. The purpose of this project was three fold: 1.) to examine how landowners reacted to the passage of this bill, 2.) to see how ranchers use hunting as a management tool and source for supplemental income, and 3.) to look at the future of the outfitting industry in Montana

High Sensitivity Search for v_e’s from the Sun and Other Sources at KamLAND

Data corresponding to a KamLAND detector exposure of 0.28 kton yr has been used to search for ν̅ _e’s in the energy range 8.3 < E_(ν̅e) < 14.8  MeV. No candidates were found for an expected background of 1.1±0.4 events. This result can be used to obtain a limit on ν̅_e fluxes of any origin. Assuming that all ν̅_e flux has its origin in the Sun and has the characteristic ^8B solar ν_e energy spectrum, we obtain an upper limit of 3.7×10^2  cm^(-2) ^(s-1) (90% C.L.) on the ν̅_e flux. We interpret this limit, corresponding to 2.8×10^(-4) of the standard solar model ^8B ν_e flux, in the framework of spin-flavor precession and neutrino decay models

Assessing Character of Place to Guide Geotourism - A Case Study of Two Montana Communities

In 2007 the governor’s Montana Tourism Advisory Council adopted the Montana Tourism and Recreation Charter. Its guiding principle of geotourism pledges to sustain and enhance the character of the places that the people of Montana call home. How can the state’s efforts to keep this pledge be assessed when “character of place” has never been defined in detail? To keep this pledge, and chart the future of geotourism in the state, it was important to clarify what is meant by character of place and identify the full range of present and potential problems that threaten the integrity of a character. Only by assessing character of place can we understand whether and how geotourism sustains the local environment and its aesthetic appeal, enhances the local community and its culture, and enriches the local heritage and well-being of its people

Charge asymmetry in hadroproduction of heavy quarks

A sizeable difference in the differential production cross section of top and antitop quarks, respectively, is predicted for hadronically produced heavy quarks. It is of order $\alpha_s$ and arises from the interference between charge odd and even amplitudes respectively. For the TEVATRON it amounts to approximately 5-10% in the region where the cross section is large and could therefore be measured in the next round of experiments. At the LHC the asymmetry can be studied by selecting appropriately chosen kinematical regions.Comment: LaTeX, 5pp, 5 figures, uses revtex. The complete paper, including figures, is also available via anonymous ftp at ftp://ttpux2.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/ , or via www at http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/cgi-bin/preprints/ Final version as published in Phys.Rev.Let

Considerations for the measurement of core, skin and mean body temperatures

Despite previous reviews and commentaries, significant misconceptions remain concerning deep-body (core) and skin temperature measurement in humans. Therefore, the authors have assembled the pertinent Laws of Thermodynamics and other first principles that govern physical and physiological heat exchanges. The resulting review is aimed at providing theoretical and empirical justifications for collecting and interpreting these data. The primary emphasis is upon deep-body temperatures, with discussions of intramuscular, subcutaneous, transcutaneous and skin temperatures included. These are all turnover indices resulting from variations in local metabolism, tissue conduction and blood flow. Consequently, inter-site differences and similarities may have no mechanistic relationship unless those sites have similar metabolic rates, are in close proximity and are perfused by the same blood vessels. Therefore, it is proposed that a gold standard deep-body temperature does not exist. Instead, the validity of each measurement must be evaluated relative to one\u27s research objectives, whilst satisfying equilibration and positioning requirements. When using thermometric computations of heat storage, the establishment of steady-state conditions is essential, but for clinically relevant states, targeted temperature monitoring becomes paramount. However, when investigating temperature regulation, the response characteristics of each temperature measurement must match the forcing function applied during experimentation. Thus, during dynamic phases, deep-body temperatures must be measured from sites that track temperature changes in the central blood volume