Groundwater flow through fractured karst conduit systems can be complex and difficult to diagnose. This project explores the role of geologic structures that influence the location of recharge points, flow paths, velocities, and discharge locations within Morrell Cave and at the resurgence of Morrell Spring, both of which are located near the city of Bluff City, TN. Understanding of the groundwater sources and flow paths in the Bluff City area will allow future researchers to more readily identify sources of pollution and better resolve local agricultural well drawdown conflicts among residents. The objectives of this project are to: 1) identify the active allogenic recharge sources of Morrell Spring, the largest known spring in the Bluff City area; 2) delineate a springshed for Morrell Spring and; 3) diagnose the structural controls for groundwater flow paths to Morrell Spring. It was found that surface streams flowing across the Sevier Shale on the northern slope of Holston Mountain enter the subsurface karst system through swallets along the Sevier shale and the Jonesboro Limestone contact. Once underground the water flows to the NW following 2 dominant joint sets until it reaches the NE/SW oriented fault line along which Morrell Cave has formed. Upon entering the cave the groundwater flows to the NE to Morrell Spring and into the South Fork Holston River.

3D immersive visualization systems, or CAVEs™, have found wide adoption for use in geosciences, planetary science, medical research, and computer science. However, much of the potential for such systems in practical civil and environmental engineering settings has been severely limited due to 1) extreme costs in both hardware and software; 2) immobility due to calibration and darkroom requirements; and 3) extensive and expensive manpower requirements for both operation and maintenance. This thesis presents the development and testing of a new mobile low-cost immersive stereo visualization system -- the "VuePod" -- that attempts to address these challenges through the use of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies, open source software, consumer grade passive 3-D television monitors, an active tracking system, and a modular construction approach. The VuePod capitalizes on recent functional advancements and cost decreases in both hardware and software and is demonstrated herein as a viable alternative to projector-based walk-in CAVEs and their limitations. Additionally, I have selected twelve representative 3D immersive systems and performed a side-by-side analysis of each in terms of cost, viewing capabilities, computing and user experience. The purpose of performing this analysis is to classify the variety of systems available and simplify the system procurement and configuration processes. The availability of this comparative system information should facilitate the increased utilization of immersive 3D interface technologies in science and engineering.

We present a virtual simulation of ships and ship-mounted cranes. The simulation is carried out in a Cave Automated Virtual Environment (CAVE). This simulation serves as a platform to study the dynamics of ships and ship-mounted cranes under dynamic sea environments and as a training platform for ship-mounted crane operators. A model of the (Auxiliary Crane Ship) T-ACS 4-6 was built, converted into an OpenGL C++ API, and then ported into the CAVE using DiverseGL (DGL). A six-degrees-of-freedom motion base was used to simulate the actual motion of the ship. The equations of motion of the ship are solved using the Large Amplitude Motion Program (LAMP), while the equations of motion of the crane payload are numerically integrated; the interaction between the payload and the ship is taken into consideration. A nonlinear delayed-position feedback-control system is applied to the crane and the resulting simulation is used to compare the controlled and uncontrolled pendulations of the cargo. Our simulator showed a great deal of realism and was used to simulate different ship-motion and cargo transfer scenarios. This work received support from the Office of Naval Research under Grant No. N00014-99-1-0562. / Master of Science

Hickory Tree Cave, also known as Big Spring Cave, is located in the southern Appalachians and is known for fossils that are considered to be Quaternary in age. Fossil mammals were identified and assigned to the lowest taxonomical level possible. Most remains are fragmented or digested and it seems likely that various taphonomic processes are responsible for the resulting assemblage. The site lacks the extreme boreal component of Pleistocene cave faunas in the region (e.g. Baker Bluff Cave), with most reported taxa inhabiting Appalachian deciduous forest environments in North America today. While the presence of tapir (Tapirus sp.) suggests a pre-Holocene component for the deposit, the lack of boreal taxa may indicate that deposition occurred during a relatively warm interval.

In many cases in the past fish bones recovered during archaeological excavations at Upper Palaeolithic sites were often assumed to result from human activity without any consideration for alternate accumulation processes. Many of these assemblages had not been analysed in a scientifically rigorous manner, with some receiving no consideration at all. A review of current evidence and results of new analyses indicate that salmonids (salmon and trout) are the most frequently recorded fish at the European Palaeolithic cave sites. Two potential accumulation agents for fish remains were explored: brown bears (Ursus arctos) and eagle owls (Bubo bubo). Controlled feeding experiments integrated with ecological studies indicate that salmonid remains survive the digestive systems of both species and result in distinctive patterning in assemblage characteristics. Post-depositional taphonomic processes, such as trampling, also produce distinct taphonomic signatures and are an agent of differential inter-species preservation. A thorough consideration of depositional and post-depositional processes of archaeological assemblages in central Italy (Grotta di Pozzo, Maritza, La Punta and Ortucchio) and Spain (El Juyo, Altamira, Salitre, Castillo and Rascaño) shows that the fish remains from these sites result from human activity. The overrepresentation of cranial elements at the Italian sites suggest that fish were processed by removing the head to perhaps smoke or dry before transportation to other locations for consumption. This research lead to improved methods of analysis, and thus enhanced understanding of the role of fishing and fish consumption in Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer societies.

Osteological evidence for violence has only in recent times been thoroughly investigated. Several kinds of traumas indicative of violence have been identified in human skeletal remains worldwide. Such traumas include scalping, embedded and/or associated projectile points, cranial fractures, parry fractures and defensive injuries, decapitation and dismemberment, and evidence of cannibalism. Analysis of traumas at Dust Cave (1LU496) and the O?Neal site (1LU61), two sites in northwestern Alabama with Middle and Late Archaic occupations, was undertaken. Violence-related traumas were observed at both sites. A highly significant difference exists in trauma patterns between the sites. Results were compared to research done on other populations in an attempt to gain a better understanding of violence in prehistory and to place these sites in a wider regional context.

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The effects of immersion with respect to information visualization have rarely been explored. In this thesis, we describe a methodology, two information visualization applications that were developed using the CAVE, and three user studies in order to explore, examine and attempt to quantify the effects of immersion. We focus on three major components of immersion: field of regard (FOR), head-based rendering (HBR), and stereoscopic viewing. We hypothesize that a high degree of FOR will result in increased task performance and user satisfaction when visualizing data represented by scatter and surface plots. We also hypothesize that HBR and stereoscopic viewing will result in increased task performance, but the effects of these components would be greater in the scatter plots than surface plots. We have conducted three user studies with the information visualization applications developed for this research. In the first study, an exploratory pilot study, we observed a trend in favor of using high FOR and HBR. In the second exploratory pilot study, we observed a slight trend in favor of high FOR. In the third study, thirty-two subjects performed tasks using both the scatter plots and surface plots with eight test conditions. We observed trends in favor of high levels of FOR, HBR and stereoscopic viewing in scatter plots, a slight trend in favor of HBR for surface plots, and a significant interaction effect between FOR and HBR in scatter plots for a particular task. / Master of Science