Clinopyroxene, olivine, plagioclase and hydrous fluid lithium partition coefficients have been measured between 800-1100oC at 1 GPa. Clinopyroxene-fluid partitioning is a function of temperature (ln DLicpx/fluid = -7.3 (+0.5) + 7.0 (+0.7) * 1000/T) and appears to increase with increasing pyroxene Al2O3 content. Olivine-fluid partitioning of lithium is a function of temperature (ln DLiol/fluid = -6.0 (+2.0) + 6.5 (+2.0) * 1000/T) and appears to be sensitive to olivine Mg/Fe content. Anorthite-fluid lithium partitioning is a function of feldspar composition, similar to the partitioning of other cations in the feldspar-fluid system. Isotopic fractionation between clinopyroxene and fluid, Licpx-fluid, has been measured between 900-1100oC and ranges from -0.3 to -3.4 ‰ (±1.4 ‰). Lithium diffusion has been measured in clinopyroxene at 800-1000oC and in olivine at 1000oC. The lithium diffusion coefficient is independent of the diffusion gradient as values are the same if the flux of lithium is into or out of the crystal and ranges from -15.19 ± 2.86 m2/s at 800oC to -11.97 ± 0.86 m2/s at 1000oC. Lithium diffusion in olivine was found to be two orders of magnitude slower than for clinopyroxene at similar conditions. Closure temperatures calculated for lithium diffusion in clinopyroxene range from ~400 to ~600oC. These results demonstrate that lithium equilibration between fluids and minerals is instantaneous, on a geological timescales. The confirmation of instantaneous equilibration, combined with min-fluid partition coefficients and values for Licpx-fluid, permits quantitative modeling of the evolution of lithium concentration and isotopic composition in slab-derived fluids during transport to the arc melt source. Our results indicate that fluids migrating by porous flow will rapidly exchange lithium with the mantle, effectively buffering the fluid composition close to ambient mantle values, and rapidly attenuating the slab lithium signature. Fluid transport mechanisms involving fracture flow are required to maintain a slab-like lithium signature (both elemental and isotopic) from the slab to the melt source of island arc basalts. This study demonstrates that mineral-fluid equilibration is rapid, and as a result the lithium content of minerals can only reliably represent chemical exchange in the very latest stages of the sample’s history.

Clinopyroxene, olivine, plagioclase and hydrous fluid lithium partition coefficients have been measured between 800-1100oC at 1 GPa. Clinopyroxene-fluid partitioning is a function of temperature (ln DLicpx/fluid = -7.3 (+0.5) + 7.0 (+0.7) * 1000/T) and appears to increase with increasing pyroxene Al2O3 content. Olivine-fluid partitioning of lithium is a function of temperature (ln DLiol/fluid = -6.0 (+2.0) + 6.5 (+2.0) * 1000/T) and appears to be sensitive to olivine Mg/Fe content. Anorthite-fluid lithium partitioning is a function of feldspar composition, similar to the partitioning of other cations in the feldspar-fluid system. Isotopic fractionation between clinopyroxene and fluid, Licpx-fluid, has been measured between 900-1100oC and ranges from -0.3 to -3.4 ‰ (±1.4 ‰). Lithium diffusion has been measured in clinopyroxene at 800-1000oC and in olivine at 1000oC. The lithium diffusion coefficient is independent of the diffusion gradient as values are the same if the flux of lithium is into or out of the crystal and ranges from -15.19 ± 2.86 m2/s at 800oC to -11.97 ± 0.86 m2/s at 1000oC. Lithium diffusion in olivine was found to be two orders of magnitude slower than for clinopyroxene at similar conditions. Closure temperatures calculated for lithium diffusion in clinopyroxene range from ~400 to ~600oC. These results demonstrate that lithium equilibration between fluids and minerals is instantaneous, on a geological timescales. The confirmation of instantaneous equilibration, combined with min-fluid partition coefficients and values for Licpx-fluid, permits quantitative modeling of the evolution of lithium concentration and isotopic composition in slab-derived fluids during transport to the arc melt source. Our results indicate that fluids migrating by porous flow will rapidly exchange lithium with the mantle, effectively buffering the fluid composition close to ambient mantle values, and rapidly attenuating the slab lithium signature. Fluid transport mechanisms involving fracture flow are required to maintain a slab-like lithium signature (both elemental and isotopic) from the slab to the melt source of island arc basalts. This study demonstrates that mineral-fluid equilibration is rapid, and as a result the lithium content of minerals can only reliably represent chemical exchange in the very latest stages of the sample’s history.

Iterative CT reconstruction algorithms are superior to the standard convolution backpropagation (CBP) methods when reconstructing from a small number of views (hence less radiation), but are computationally costly. To reduce the execution time, this work implements and tests a parallel approach to iterative algorithms using a cluster of workstations, which is a low cost system found in many offices and non-academic sites. A previous implementation showed little speedup because of the significant cost of inter-processor communication. In this thesis, several data partitioning methods are examined, including some image tiling methods that exploit the spatial locality demonstrated by local CT. Using these methods, computation can proceed locally, without the need for inter-processor communication during every iteration. A relative speedup of up to 17 times is obtained using 25 processors, demonstrating that good performance can be obtained running computationally intensive CT reconstruction algorithms on distributed memory hardware. / October 2007

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When solving partial differential equations using finite difference methods on structured meshes, adaptive refinement can be used to increase the accuracy of the solution in an efficient manner. When implementing solvers using structured adaptive mesh refinement for modern parallel computer systems, an important task is the partitioning of the grid hierarchy over the available processors. The Meta-partitioner is an autonomic framework which can dynamically select between a large number of grid-partitioning algorithms at run time. In this thesis we investigate which modifications that are necessary in order to connect the Meta-partitioner to the existing SAMR-framework Chombo, and begin the process of performing this connection. We conclude that although significant changes to both Chombo and the Meta-partitioner are necessary, a connection definitely seams feasible. We estimate that that the major work of the connection has been done, and that with the experience gained from this project, the continuation is straightforward. We also connect a patch-based partitioning algorithm to Chombo and evaluate it for the first time as part of a real SAMR-based simulation. The results are promising and we conclude that it is a viable candidate for inclusion in the Meta-partitioner.

<p>Advances in mobile hardware and operating systems have made mobile a first-class development platform. Activities such as web browsing, casual game play, media playback, and document reading are now as common on mobile devices as on full-sized desktop systems. However, developers are still constrained by the inherent resource limitations of mobile devices. Unlike desktop systems, mobile devices must sacrifice performance to accomodate smaller form factors and battery-backed operation. Opportunistic offloading of computation from a mobile device to remote server infrastructure (i.e., "code offload") offers a promising way to overcome these constraints and to expand the set of applications</p><p>(i.e., "apps") that can run on devices.</p><p>Deciding to offload requires a careful consideration of the costs and benefits of a range of possible program partitions. This cost-benefit analysis depends on external factors, such as network conditions and the resources availability, as well as internal app properties, such as component dependencies, data representations, and code complexity. Thus, benefiting from offload requires some assistance from developers, but requiring developers to adopt arcane or unnatural programming models will hinder adoption of regardless of the potential benefits.</p><p>In this dissertation we characterize two frameworks that reduce the amount of developer effort required to improve the performance of mobile apps through code offload. The first, MAUI, is designed for computationally intensive general-purpose apps such as speech</p><p>and facial recognition. The second, Kahawai, is designed for graphics-intensive apps like fast-action video games.</p><p>MAUI continuously monitors the device, network, and app, and uses its measurements to compute an energy-efficient program partition. MAUI reduces the burden on developers by taking advantage of core features of the managed code environments common to mobile</p><p>platforms: code portability, serialization, reflection, and type safety. These features allows MAUI to automatically instrument and potentially offload methods that the developer has tagged as suitable for offload. MAUI is particularly effective on applications composed by operations whose computational cost is large compared to the transfer cost of their input parameters and their output results.</p><p>Kahawai is designed for graphics-intensive apps such as console-style games and takes advantage of two features of today's mobile gaming platforms: capable mobile GPUs and reusable game engines. Even though today's mobile devices cannot duplicate the sophisticated graphical detail provided by gaming consoles and high-end desktop GPUs, devices have seen rapid improvements in their GPU processing capabilities. Kahawai leverages a device's GPU to provide collaborative rendering. Collaborative rendering relies on a mobile GPU to generate low-fidelity output, which when combined with server-side GPU output allows a mobile device to display a high-fidelity result. The benefits of collaborative rendering are substantial: mobile clients can experience high-quality graphical output using relatively little bandwidth. Fortunately, because most modern games are built on top of reusable game engines, developers only have to identify the sources of non-determinism</p><p>in the game logic to take advantage collaborative rendering.</p><p>Together, MAUI and Kahawai demonstrate that code offload can provide substantial benefits for mobile apps without overburdening app developers.</p> / Dissertation

Resin and fatty acids (RFA) are predominantly components of coniferous trees having the natural function of protecting against microbial damage. These compounds are released from wood during the pulping process and a fraction reaches the wastewater treatment system. RFA are acutely toxic to aquatic organisms at concentrations on the order of parts per million, and their presence has been linked to toxicity outbreaks in receiving waters following process upsets. The chronic toxicity of resin and fatty acids in complex effluent matrices is poorly understood. Furthermore, the role of hydrophobic, pulp-derived solids as a removal pathway from wastewater streams has not been comprehensively studied. The objectives of this dissertation have been to quantify the relationship between resin and fatty acid concentration and chronic toxicity and to determine the role of partitioning in the removal of these compounds from pulp mill wastewater streams. Field and laboratory studies were conducted to measure toxicity using the Microtox™ whole effluent toxicity and Ceriodaphnia dubia 7-day, survival and reproduction bioassays. One resin acid in particular, dehydroabietic acid, was found to account for a significant fraction of final effluent chronic toxicity. Dissolved and sorbed RFA concentrations were quantified by solvent extraction, methyl ester derivatization, and GC-FID analysis. Partitioning to suspended solids was found to be a major removal pathway for the RFA from the effluent treatment system. A kinetic model for flotation was applied and compared to experimental data. Flotation was found to be effective at selectively removing RFA bound to pulp-derived solids from pulp mill and bleach plant sewers at moderate to high pH.

Climatic changes have induced striking altitudinal and latitudinal vegetation shifts throughout history. These shifts will almost certainly recur in the future; threatening other flora and fauna, and influencing climate feedback loops. Changes in the spatial distribution of vegetation are most conspicuous at physiognomically distinct ecotones, particularly between the subalpine forest and alpine tundra. Traditionally, ecological research has linked abiotic variables with the position of this ecotone (e.g., cold temperatures inhibit tree survival at high elevations). Thus, the prevailing assumption states that this ecotone is in equilibrium or quasi-equilibrium with the surrounding physical environment and that any dynamic shifts express direct linkages with the physical environment. This dissertation employs a landscape ecology approach to examine the abiotic and biotic ecological mechanisms most important in controlling tree establishment at this ecotone. The study site is on the western slopes of Mount Rainier, which was severely burned by a slash fire in 1930. Therefore, a crucial underlying assumption is that the ecological mechanisms controlling tree establishment are similar at disturbed and undisturbed sites. I exploited the use of 1970 CORONA satellite imagery and 2003 aerial photography to map 33 years of changes in arboreal vegetation. I created detailed maps of abiotic variables from a LIDAR-based DEM and biotic variables from classified remotely sensed data. I linked tree establishment patterns with abiotic and biotic variables in a GIS, and analyzed the correlations with standard logistic regression and logistic regression in the hierarchical partitioning framework at multiple spatial resolutions. A biotic factor (proximity to previously existing trees) was found to exert a strong influence on tree establishment patterns; equaling and in most cases exceeding the significance of the abiotic factors. The abiotic setting was more important at restricted spatial extents near the extreme upper limits of the ecotone and when analyzing coarse resolution data, but even in these cases proximity to existing trees remained significant. The strong overall influence of proximity to existing trees on patterns of tree establishment is unequivocal. If the underlying assumption of this dissertation is true, it challenges the long-held ecological assumption that vegetation in mountainous terrain is in equilibrium with and most strongly influenced by the surrounding physical environment.

The primary design goal of many embedded systems for multimedia applications is usually meeting the performance requirement at a minimum cost. In this thesis, we proposed two different ILP based approaches for hardware/software (HW/SW) partitioning and pipelined scheduling of embedded systems for multimedia applications. One ILP approach solves the HW/SW partitioning and pipelined scheduling problem simultaneously. Another ILP approach separates the HW/SW partitioning and pipelined scheduling problem into two phases. The first phase is focusing on the HW/SW partitioning and mapping problem. Second phase is used to solve the pipelined scheduling problem. The two ILP approaches not only partition and map each computation task of a particular multimedia application onto a component of the heterogeneous multiprocessor architecture, but also schedules and pipelines the execution of these computation tasks while considering communication time. For the first ILP model, the objective is to minimize the total component cost and the number of pipeline stages subject to the throughput constraint. In the second ILP approach, the objective of the first phase and second phase is to minimize the total component cost and the number of pipeline stages subject to the throughput constraint, respectively. Finally, experiments on three real multimedia applications (JPEG Encoder, MP3 Decoder, Wavelet Video Encoder) are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.