Surface mining for coal in the Appalachian region has removed over 0.6 million Ha of mixed mesophytic forest. Successful reforestation would be beneficial, but questions remain concerning application of reclamation and reforestation methods on operational scales. Four experiments were performed testing these methods on newly reclaimed and previously reclaimed, but unused, former mines. On newly reclaimed sites, loose grading during reclamation reduced erosion and increased plant community diversity compared to smooth grading. Seeding only annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) for erosion control, along with tree planting, increased plant community diversity and improved survival and growth of hybrid American chestnut (Castanea dentata x Castanea mollissima), compared to conventional seeding. Surface water infiltration was positively correlated with herbaceous ground cover. On older mines, subsoil ripping to alleviate compaction improved tree survival and growth, in some cases, after five growing seasons. Of the three species groups planted, including Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), mixed native hardwoods had the best survival and hybrid poplar (Populus deltoides x Populus trichocarpa) produced the most biomass. Hybrid American chestnuts survived and grew better when planted as bare-root seedlings than when planted as ungerminated nuts in tree tubes, demonstrating the potential for planting bare-root chestnut seedlings along with other species when reforesting reclaimed surface mines. This can aid in restoring American chestnut, functionally extinct since the blight (Cryphonectria parasitica), to its former range. These cultural practices can be employed to accelerate reforestation of mined lands, but many questions remain about their capability to fully restore ecosystem structure and processes. / Master of Science

Let $M_v$ denotes a complete mixed graph on $v$ vertices, and let $S_6^i$ denotes the partial orientation of the 6-star with twice as many arcs as edges. In this work, we state and prove the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of $\lambda$-fold decomposition of a complete mixed graph into $S_6^i$ for $i\in\{1,2,3,4\}$. We used the difference method for our proof in some cases. We also give some general sufficient conditions for the existence of $S_6^i$-decomposition of the complete bipartite mixed graph for $i\in\{1,2,3,4\}$. Finally, this work introduces the decomposition of a complete mixed graph with a hole into mixed stars.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2004. / Title from title page screen, viewed Jan. 10, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Christopher C. De Santis (chair), Ronald Strickland, Cynthia A. Huff, Alison Bailey. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-193) and abstract. Also available in print.

INTRODUCTION:Honey bees, Apis mellifera, have a diverse community of pathogens. Previous research has mostly focused on bacterial brood diseases of high virulence, but milder diseases caused by fungal pathogens have recently attracted more attention. This interest has been triggered by partial evidence that co-infection with multiple pathogens has the potential to accelerate honey bee mortality. In the present study we tested whether co-infection with closely related fungal brood-pathogen species that are either specialists or non-specialist results in higher host mortality than infections with a single specialist. We used a specially designed laboratory assay to expose honey bee larvae to controlled infections with spores of three Ascosphaera species: A. apis, the specialist pathogen that causes chalkbrood disease in honey bees, A. proliperda, a specialist pathogen that causes chalkbrood disease in solitary bees, and A. atra, a saprophytic fungus growing typically on pollen brood-provision masses of solitary bees.RESULTS:We show for the first time that single infection with a pollen fungus A. atra may induce some mortality and that co-infection with A. atra and A. apis resulted in higher mortality of honey bees compared to single infections with A. apis. However, similar single and mixed infections with A. proliperda did not increase brood mortality.CONCLUSION:Our results show that co-infection with a closely related fungal species can either increase or have no effect on host mortality, depending on the identity of the second species. Together with other studies suggesting that multiple interacting pathogens may be contributing to worldwide honey bee health declines, our results highlight the importance of studying effects of multiple infections, even when all interacting species are not known to be specialist pathogens.

The combination of graphical user interface (GUI) and usability evaluation presents an advantage to mastering every piece of software and ensuring perfect quality of work. The increasing demand for online learning is becoming more important, both individually and academically. This thesis introduces and describes an empirical study to investigate and compare how vocabulary can be learned by using different interactive approaches; specifically, a static learning website (with straightforward words and meanings), an adaptable learning website (allowing the user to choose a learning method), an adaptive learning website (a system-chosen way of learning), and a mixed-initiative (mixing approaches and techniques). The purpose of this study is to explore and determine the effects of these approaches in learning vocabu-lary achievement to enhance vocabulary learning for non-English speakers. The par-ticipants were Arabic speakers. The three levels of vocabulary learning activities were categorised as easy, medium, and hard. The independent variables (IVs) were controlled during the experiment to ensure consistency and were as follows: tasks, learning effects, and time. The dependent variables (DVs) were learning vocabulary achievements and scores. Two aims were explored in relation to the effects of these approaches to achievement. The first related to learning vocabularies for non-English speakers tackling the difficulties of the English language and the second related to studying system usability of learning English vocabulary in terms of usability measures (efficiency, frequency of error occurrence, effectiveness, and satisfaction). For this purpose, a vocabulary-learning language website was designed, implement-ed, and tested empirically. To fulfill these requirements, it was first necessary to measure two usability components (efficiency and effectiveness) with a within-subject design of n = 24 subjects recruited and, for users’ satisfaction, a between-subject design of n = 99 subjects recruited, while investigating satisfaction with a system usability scale (SUS) survey. The results and data analysis were described. Overall, the results shown were all satisfactory.

The proliferation of products from the consumer electronics industry (especially the communications market) has led to increasing consumer demand for cheaper, smaller form factor, efficient and low power consumption products with high computation power. This growing demand for cheaper and more efficient products has made it more desirable for Integrated Circuit (IC) manufacturers to integrate both analogue and digital circuits on the same silicon substrate in order to realise high performance mixed-signal IC's at cost effective prices. The concomitant technology advancements in the IC manufacturing process, especially in the Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) process and improvements made in the capabilities of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools is making greater system integration possible. However, one aspect of the process that is the bottleneck of yet further system integration and lower design lead time is test. While the digital sections of mixed-signal IC's are taking microseconds to test using well established digital structural test techniques which exploit efficient Design for Test (DFT) structures, the analogue sections are still being tested using functional test methods and consequently consume several seconds of expensive test time. The work presented in this thesis addresses the test problems associated with the analogue sections of mixed-signal IC's. Specifically, the work was aimed at developing an efficient and unified embedded mixed-signal test system capable of being adopted for both analogue circuit characterisation and production testing of mixed-signal IC's in order to reduce overall test time and cost. In this context, an Analogue Test Response Compaction Technique (ATRCT) has been developed using Delta-Sigma Modulation (AIM). This compaction technique produces a signature for an analogue macro under test, which relates to both the amplitude and frequency of the analogue output response. Fault simulation results relating to a two-stage CMOS operational amplifier and continuous-time state variable filter have shown that fault-coverage of greater than 80% is attainable when the ATRCT is employed in a production testing of linear analogue macros. Based on the ATRCT, a hardware efficient Analogue Built-In Selt-Test (ABIST) scheme is proposed. This work has also developed two characterisation techniques suitable for embedded linear analogue macros: 1) An alternative hardware efficient method of measuring the impulse response of linear analogue macros using AIM, which could be conveniently incorporated in an ABIST scheme. Simulation results of the AIM-based impulse response measurement system have shown that the accuracy of the technique is within ±0.5% of the expected impulse responses. 2) An analogue fault detection routine that uses AIM and correlation techniques to detect analogue amplitude and frequency faults within linear analogue macros. Combining the proposed AIM-based impulse response measurement technique with the proposed ABIST scheme or analogue fault detection routine will enable an efficient and unified embedded mixed-signal test system to be designed.

This study examines how Augmented Reality (AR) visualizations can impact the collective interaction of users. This research will focus on a multiphase experience with a buildup of different levels of Virtual Reality through the use of panoramas and 3D models. The experience was created using a participatory method with multiple tests and iterations to better create an evaluable product. The result if this experiment shows that the impact AR has on users is extensive. A properly framed character can even change a pair of two users into a group of three.

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A mixed-signal reconfigurable platform gives the designer the choice of implementing systems using the benefits of both analog and digital circuits. The subject of this research is the implementation and application of mixed-signal reconfigurable systems utilizing floating-gate transistors and field programmable analog/digital arrays. Basic analog circuits using floating-gate CMOS devices have been developed for this research. Floating-gate based analog circuits reduce the effects of inherent property mismatch present in analog circuits. Various circuit blocks including current mirrors, gilbert multipliers, and $G_m-C$ filters were designed and experimentally demonstrated to show reduced mismatch effects. Such floating-gate transistors and circuits are the basis for the reconfigurable systems developed in this research. To enable high-performance reconfigurable systems, sub-micron and sub-$100 nm$ CMOS process nodes were used in this research. Scaling of Floating-gate devices is a key issue at small nodes. Test structures were created to verify the programming capability for floating-gate devices at various process nodes. Experimental results show scalability of floating-gate devices along with effective charge programming ability. A floating-gate based reconfigurable mixed-signal platform using Field-Programmable Array of Analog-Digital Devices (FPAADD) has been created and experimentally verified. Further FPAADD systems augmented with a CPU based digital back-end were developed to enable greater applications for such reconfigurable systems. Experimental functionality and circuits/systems created using FPAADD based systems were demonstrated for this research work.