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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Up-to-date and accurate information on soil properties is important for precision farming and environmental management. The spatial information of soil properties allows adjustments of fertilizer applications to be made based on knowledge of local field conditions, thereby maximizing agricultural productivity and minimizing the risk of environmental pollution. While conventional soil sampling procedures are labor-intensive, time-consuming and expensive, remote sensing techniques provide a rapid and efficient tool for mapping soil properties. This study aimed at examining the capacity of hyperspectral reflectance data for mapping soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P). Soil samples collected from Eagle Creek Watershed, Cicero Creek Watershed, and Fall Creek Watershed were analyzed for organic matter content, total N and total P; their corresponding spectral reflectance was measured in the laboratory before and after oven drying and in the field using Analytical Spectral Devices spectrometer. Hyperion images for each of the watersheds were acquired, calibrated and corrected and Hyperion image spectra for individual sampled sites were extracted. These hyperspectral reflectance data were related to SOM, total N and total P concentration through partial least squares (PLS) regressions. The samples were split into two datasets: one for calibration, and the other for validation. High PLS performance was observed during the calibration for SOM and total N regardless of the type of the reflectance spectra, and for total P with Hyperion image spectra. The validation of PLS models was carried out with each type of reflectance to assess their predictive power. For laboratory reflectance spectra, PLS models of SOM and total N resulted in higher R2 values and lower RMSEP with oven-dried than those with field-moist soils. The results demonstrate that soil moisture degrades the performance of PLS in estimating soil constituents with spectral reflectance. For in-situ field spectra, PLS estimated SOM with an R2 of 0.74, N with an R2 of 0.79, and P with an R2 of 0.60. For Hyperion image spectra, PLS predictive models yielded an R2 of 0.74 between measured and predicted SOM, an R2 of 0.72 between measured and predicted total N, and an R2 of 0.67 between measured and predicted total P. These results reveal slightly decreased model performance when shifting from laboratory-measured spectra to satellite image spectra. Regardless of the spectral data, the models for estimating SOM and total N consistently outperformed those for estimating total P. These results also indicate that PLS is an effective tool for remotely estimating SOM, total N and P in agricultural soils, but more research is needed to improve the predictive power of the model when applied to satellite hyperspectral imagery.

Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Biophysics and Physical Chemistry Candidate: Iveta Voborníková Thesis supervisor: doc. Dipl.-Math. Erik Jurjen Duintjer Tebbens, Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: Matrix computations for mixtures and solutions In this work, we determined drug concentrations from mixtures using multicompo- nent analysis without separating them. The condition was the knowledge of the molar absorption coefficients of individual drugs for certain wavelenghts. To do this, we used tools from matrix calculations, especially the Moore-Penrose inverse, and we were in- terested in whether we would achieve more accurate results using standard, square systems or overdetermined systems of linear equations. Based on the results, we came to the conclusion that there is no dependence between the accuracy of the results and the number of wavelengths used. Only in some cases did the results appear to be more accurate when using overdetermined systems with a higher number of wavelengths. Keywords: mixtures, solutions, linear systems, least squares problems, Moore-Penrose pseudoinverses 1

The author has found, during her experience teaching students on the fourth grade level, that some concepts of number theory haven't even been introduced to the students. Some of these concepts include prime and composite numbers and their applications. Through personal research, the author has found that prime numbers are vital to the understanding of the grade level curriculum. Prime numbers are used to aide in determining divisibility, finding greatest common factors, least common multiples, and common denominators. Through experimentation, classroom examples, and homework, the author has introduced students to prime numbers and their applications.

Students with disabilities often face difficulty throughout their lives. One of these common challenges for students with severe disabilities is they often struggle with routine skills — for example, significant time spent helping students transition to activities throughout the day. The student's performance to complete required daily school routines increased when the researcher applied the picture activity schedules. Also, one strategy to enable students with disabilities to increase independence is through assistive technology. Therefore, many studies support the use of technology-based visual supports to teach daily school routines. Teachers increasingly have started to adopt an electronic visual activity schedule (eVAS) as a means to provide clear and consistent support for students with disabilities. Although the above studies are positive, there is still a need to more fully examine the various outcomes of eVAS. Therefore, this study is to investigate the effects of using eVAS (i.e., FIRST THEN application) on the latency period that the student spends for checking the schedule independently and prompts needed to transition throughout the day. Also, the value that the teacher and student place on the use of an eVAS to teach daily life and school routines instead of using typical instruction (e.g., traditional visual schedule), and the student’s ability to generalize the use of the eVAS across instructors and materials (display). The participant was a 10-year-old male in the fifth grade with intellectual disability and autism. This study was conducted in an intermediate school in the southeastern United States. An ABAB single case design was used to investigate the effects of the app. The dependent variables (DV) included: 1) The percent of independent correct responding to the natural cue “timer went off, or the teacher said: “Time to Switch”; 2) The amount of time the participant took to respond to the natural cue and check a schedule. The independent variable (IV) was applying the system of least prompts (SLP) along with the First Then application on iPad. Both DV and IV were collected five sessions in five days, during the transition period between activities in each baseline, intervention, maintenance, and generalization phases. The second observer recorded 25% of the data collection of the inter-observer agreement and procedural fidelity. By the end of the study, the social validity survey was provided one for the teacher and another one for the participant. The result indicated a functional relation between DV and the IV. Also, the limitation and the suggestion for future research were discussed. In conclusion, this study extended the result of prior studies by emphasizing the effectiveness of using the eVAS with students to independently complete the routine skills and applying SLP to give the student the opportunity to do the task with less prompts. The study will guide teachers use of such support tool and apply the intervention in the classroom with students with disabilities.

Wireless communications systems are used today in a variety of milieux, with a recurring theme: users and applications regularly require higher throughput. Multiple antennas enable higher throughput and/or more robust performance than single-antenna communications, with no increase in power or frequency bandwidth. Systems are required which achieve the full potential of this "space-time" communication channel under the significant challenges of time-varying fading, multiple users, and the choice of appropriate coding schemes. This dissertation is focused on solutions to these problems. For the single-user case, there are many well-known coding techniques available; in the first part of this dissertation, the performance of two of these methods are analyzed. Trained and differential modulation are simple coding techniques for single-user time-varying channels. The performance of these coding methods is characterized for a channel having a constant specular component plus a time-varying diffuse component. A first- order auto-regressive model is used to characterize diffuse channel coefficients that vary from symbol to symbol, and is shown to lead to an effective SNR that decreases with time. A lower bound on the capacity of trained modulation is found for the specular/diffuse channel. This bound is maximized over the training length, training frequency, training signal, and training power. Trained modulation is shown to have higher capacity than differential coding, despite the effective SNR penalty of trained modulation versus differential methods. The second part of the dissertation considers the multi-user, multi-antenna channel, for which capacity-approaching codes were previously unavailable. Precoding with the channel inverse is shown to provide capacity that approaches a constant as the number of users and antennas simultaneously increase. To overcome this limitation, a simple encoding algorithm is introduced that operates close to capacity at sum-rates of tens of bits/channel-use. The algorithm is a variation on channel inversion that regularizes the inverse and uses a "sphere encoder" to perturb the data to reduce the energy of the transmitted signal. Simulation results are presented which support our analysis and algorithm development.

Niche separation may be the key to promoting the long-term coexistence of introduced and native species. Physical alterations to the environment (habitat manipulation) or re-introducing native species to former habitats can exploit the maladapted traits of introduced species to create a refuge for native species. No two species have identical niches because evolutionary constraints differ between species with different evolutionary histories. Our objectives were to determine if cold temperatures could promote coexistence between native least chub and introduced western mosquitofish. We used individual scale and population scale experiments to test four hypotheses: 1) colder temperatures would reduce the aggressive behavior and predatory effects of western mosquitofish on least chub, 2) colder temperatures would reduce the effect of western mosquitofish on the habitat use, activity, and feeding of least chub, 3) western mosquitofish would not be able to overwinter without warm refuges, and 4) western mosquitofish reproduction would be delayed or absent at colder temperatures, whereas colder temperatures would not inhibit least chub recruitment. At the individual scale cold temperatures reduced the aggression and predation of western mosquitofish on least chub. However at the population scale there was little recruitment in the cold treatment and juvenile least chub did not survive the winter in the cold treatment. Adult least chub successfully overwintered at freezing temperatures whereas western mosquitofish had no recruitment in the cold treatment during the summer and no western mosquitofish survived the winter. There is adequate niche separation among the adults to promote coexistence but the juveniles of both species require warm habitat in the spring and summer to survive freezing winter temperatures. Habitat manipulation may reduce the availability of warm winter refuges for western mosquitofish while leaving warm habitats during the spring for least chub spawning and recruitment. Transplanting least chub to former cold habitats could eliminate western mosquitofish because of niche separation between the species along a temperature gradient. We suggest that the niche separation hypothesis has general application for the restoration of a variety of threatened native species.

A dimensionally compatible system of equations for stand basal area, volume, and basal area and volume growth was derived using dimensional analysis. These equations are analytically and numerically consistent with dimensionally compatible individual tree volume and taper equations and share parameters with them. Parameters for the system can be estimated by fitting individual tree taper and volume equations or by fitting stand level basal area and volume equations. In either case the parameters are nearly identical. Therefore, parameters for the system can be estimated at the tree or stand level without changing the results. Data from a thinning study in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) plantations established on cutover site-prepared lands were used to estimate the parameters. However, the developed system of equations is general and can be applied to other tree species in other locales. / Ph. D.

This study compared two prompting procedures that are used to teach children with autism in discrete trial: graduated guidance and system of least prompts. A modified alternating treatment design (ABCBC) was used to compare four children's acquisition of object labels taught by a system of least prompts and taught by graduated guidance. Two children were taught with the system of least prompts procedure first and the graduated guidance training procedure second. The other two children were taught with the graduated guidance procedure first, and the system of least prompts training procedure second. Each treatment phase involved three consecutive daily training sessions with 100 training trials each session. Probes were done each session on object labels taught by the current method up to that point All four children performed better when taught by a system of least prompts rather than when taught by graduated guidance. More object labels were acquired and maintained in the system of least prompts condition. These results indicate that the system of least prompts may be superior to graduated guidance when used in a discrete trial format.

Computing the least common subsumer (lcs) is an inference task that can be used to support the \bottom-up' construction of knowledge bases for KR systems based on description logics. Previous work on how to compute the lcs has concentrated on description logics that allow for universal value restrictions, but not for existential restrictions. The main new contribution of this paper is the treatment of description logics with existential restrictions. More precisely, we show that, for the description logic ALE (which allows for conjunction, universal value restrictions, existential restrictions, negation of atomic concepts, as well as the top and the bottom concept), the lcs always exists and can efiectively be computed. Our approach for computing the lcs is based on an appropriate representation of concept descriptions by certain trees, and a characterization of subsumption by homomorphisms between these trees. The lcs operation then corresponds to the product operation on trees. / An abridged version of this technical report is published in the Proceedings of IJCAI'99.