Geologic mapping, facies analysis, sedimentary petrography, and detrital zircon analyses of undivided eastern Uinta Mountain Group stratigraphy are presented to better understand the depositional environments and tectonic setting of the Uinta Mountain Group basin. Subdivided units have been modified and correlated from previous work and include the Red Pine Shale, Hades Pass, Crouse Canyon, Outlaw Trail, and Diamond Breaks formations. Three lower-order maximum flooding surfaces associated with the lower Outlaw Trail formation, lower Hades Pass formation, and Red Pine Shale are interpreted. The relative magnitude of each lower-order transgression increases up section along with increasing diversity of palynomorph assemblages found in organic shale intervals. Six facies associations exist within the section and are interpreted as braided fluvial conglomerate, braided fluvial sandstone and conglomerate, braided fluvial sandstone, low-energy braided fluvial sandstone, mudflat, and offshore depositional environments. Both marine and non-marine interpretations are plausible for mudflat and offshore environments; however, previous interpretations of correlative Red Pine Shale exposures suggest a marine environment. The coarsest fluvial environments are restricted to the northern half of the study area and likely coincide with proximity to a tectonically-active northern basin margin. Paleocurrent analysis and the restriction of some subaqueous deposits to the north show northward-dipping depositional slopes, which suggest a tectonic control. Provenance work suggests three general sediment sources existed: an eastern source where ~1.1 Ga and lesser ~1.4 Ga detritus dominate, an east-northeastern source where ~1.8 Ga detritus dominate, and a north-northeastern arkosic source where ~2.7 Ga detritus dominate. Results suggest that during lower-order lowstands, sediments derived from eastern sources dominate. Higher concentrations of ~1.8 Ga and ~2.7 Ga detritus is likely coincident with proximity to the northern basin margin. During lower-order highstands, eastern or northern sources may dominate; northern sources appear more prominently within the Outlaw Trail formation, while eastern sources appear more prominently within the Red Pine Shale. Reasons for this may be linked to the magnitude of the transgressive interval sampled. These relationships, in conjunction with observations of previous studies, suggest the eastern Uinta Mountain Group was deposited in a half-graben style rift, a strike-slip basin, or some combination of the two.

Community colleges serve the most diverse student populations in higher education. They consist of non-traditional, part-time, older, intermittent, and mobile students of different races, ethnic backgrounds, language preferences, physical and mental abilities, and learning style preferences. Students who are academically challenged may have diverse learning characteristics that are not compatible with the more traditional approaches to the delivery of instruction. With this need come new ways of solving the dilemma, such as Computer-aided Instruction (CAI). This case study investigated the use of CAI as a laboratory component of college-level biology in a small, rural community college setting. The intent was to begin to fill a void that seems to exist in the literature regarding the role of the faculty in the development and use of CAI. In particular, the investigator was seeking to understand the practice and its effectiveness, especially in helping the under prepared student. The case study approach was chosen to examine a specific phenomenon within a single institution. Ethnographic techniques, such as interviewing, documentary analysis, life's experiences, and participant observations were used to collect data about the phenomena being studied. Results showed that the faculty was primarily self-motivated and self-taught in their use of CAI as a teaching and learning tool. The importance of faculty leadership and collegiality was evident. Findings showed the faculty confident that expectations of helping students who have difficulties with mathematical concepts have been met and that CAI is becoming the most valuable of learning tools. In a traditional college classroom, or practice, time is the constant (semesters) and competence is the variable. In the CAI laboratory time became the variable and competence the constant. The use of CAI also eliminated hazardous chemicals that were routinely used in the more traditional lab. Outcomes showed that annual savings from operations were realized after the initial capital investment for computer hardware and software were made. / Graduation date: 1998

Going from having bought the most essential at the small shops close to home, better communications and an increasingly consumption oriented lifestyle has created a change in shopping behavior and has led to phenomenon such as shopping centres and more. These are constantly being built in Sweden: in the cities, outside the cities and more recently even in small cities -small cities as for one reason or another have access to a larger customer base which can have businesses to flourish economically. During the first decade of the 21st century, shopping centres have been established along the Swedish/Norwegian border. Since the Norwegian Krone is much stronger than the Swedish Krona Norwegians save a great deal of money on going to Sweden to shop. During the shopping trips to Sweden, it is mostly alcohol, meat, tobacco and candy that are being bought. However, other products such as clothing, technology, household appliances and more are also being purchased, all to save money on the trip. Together these cross border shoppers spent 11, 6 billion in Sweden during the year of 2010. This gives an average spending of approximately 10 900 SEK per cross border shopper on annual basis. Nordby, Töcksfors and Charlottenberg (small cities located in southwestern Sweden) are places characterized by Norwegian cross border shopping. Together, they generate billions every year and this only seems to increase. These places are relatively small in size but have prominent attributes such as proximity to the Norwegian border. Apart from these resorts and shopping centres, there are few or none similar places near the Norwegian border in the rest of Sweden. However, a place which is geographically well located and has a relatively large Norwegian and Swedish customer base is the ski resort of Sälen in west central of Sweden. Sälen is a village located near the Norwegian border, although fairly sparsely populated. The destination has annually about one million official guest nights, based on the 414 000 visitors who stay an average of about 4, 5 days.  Per visit, these tourists individually spend an average of 862 SEK on shopping at the destination. The expenditure of the mountain tourists together with the Norwegian border shoppers makes it very interesting to explore the opportunities for shopping development in terms of a shopping centre in the region of Sälen.

Beginning in the late 1930s, fire exclusion has drastically altered the vegetation dynamics of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Extremely low fire frequency has allowed for more shade-tolerant species to invade once predominantly open forests and has made it almost impossible for fire-dependent species to establish on a site. One such species is the endangered Peters Mountain mallow (Iliamna corei Sherff.) located on Peters Mountain in The Nature Conservancy s Narrows Preserve in Giles County, Virginia. This paper focuses on the fire history and stand dynamics of Peters Mountain and how fire exclusion has altered the forest composition. The historic fire frequency and successional changes discovered here may provide an insight into management strategies for the mallow. Seventy-nine fire scarred cross-sections were taken and aged to determine fire history dates and frequencies. Three 50x20 meter plots were set up on opposing aspects: northwest and southeast. The aspects were chosen at the direction of The Nature Conservancy personnel. All trees within were identified, cored and aged to determine species composition and the establishment dates of all trees. Fire history analysis revealed a mean fire interval of 2.48 years, a Weibull median fire interval of 2.18 years and a 25 percent scarred class mean fire interval of 12.5 years. Stand dynamic results show that Quercus montana has established on Peters Mountain prior to fire exclusion and remains the dominate species on the landscape. An increased number of fire intolerant species (including Acer rubrum, Sassfras albidum, Nyssa sylvatica) have been establishing on Peters Mountain during the decades of decreased fire frequency, suggesting a shift in forest composition. Frequent fires are suggested for mallow management and oak forest maintenance.

Thesis (PhD)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brian L. McGlynn. Includes bibliographical references.

Yucca Mountain was designated as the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository by the U.S. Government in 1987. The proposed repository design requires high safety for a long maintenance period of 10,000 years. To satisfy this requirement, evaluation of the influence of earthquakes on the repository is necessary. Prediction of earthquake-induced ground motions around the repository requires knowledge of the dynamic properties of the geologic materials around the repository. The main geologic materials in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain are tuffs (ignimbrites) which are formed by the deposition of volcanic ash mixed with erupted volcanic gas, water vapor and pyroclastic material. Two types of dynamic tests, (1) the free-free, unconfined, resonant column and direct arrival test (freefree URC test) and (2) the fixed-free resonant column and torsional shear test (fixed-free RCTS test), were used to measure the dynamic properties of tuffs. The emphasis in this dynamic testing was evaluation of shear modulus (G) and material damping ratio (D) of the tuffs in the small-strain (linear) and mildly nonlinear (to strains of about 0.02 %) ranges. To evaluate the influence of various parameters on G and D of tuffs, correlations with other features such as total unit weight, porosity and stratigraphic unit were performed and general relationships between them are proposed. In addition, an unconfined, slow-cyclic torsional shear (CTS) device was developed and used to measure the cyclic shear properties of the tuffs from Yucca Mountain at larger strain amplitudes than possible in the fixed-free RCTS tests. Additionally, the CTS device was also used to determine the shear failure strength of the tuffs. By combining the cyclic shear properties of the tuffs from the CTS tests and the dynamic properties of the tuffs from the fixed-free RCTS tests, complete dynamic property curves from small-strain to failure strain were evaluated. / text

The Bay of Islands Ophiolitic Complex (BOIC) is one of most well preserved and well-exposed ophiolites in the world. The BOIC consist of four massifs; these are the Table Mountain (TBL), North Arm Mountain (NAM), Blow-Me-Down Mountain (BMD) and Lewis Hills massifs. Proposed geological environments of the BOIC in Newfoundland are diverse; ranging from oceanic spreading ridge to supra-subduction setting. The BOIC has a complete ophiolite sequence as defined at the Penrose Conference (Anonymous, 1972) including ultramafic mantle rocks, ultramafic to gabbroic cumulate rocks, sheeted dikes, pillowed basaltic rocks and capping sedimentary rocks in structurally ascending order. We studied harzburgite and overlying massive dunite in the BOIC. Harzburgite is generally medium-grained, and contains olivine, orthopyroxene, Cr-spinel, clinopyroxene and rare sulfide minerals. Harzburgite is massive to strongly deformed, with local development of mylonitic shear zones. A foliation and lineation are defined by elongated and fragmented grains of orthopyroxene and Cr-spinel. Dikes, sills, veins, and irregularly-shaped bodies of dunite and pyroxenite are present throughout the harzburgite unit. Dunite is the predominant lithology of the Blow-Me-Down Mountain. It is typically fine- to medium-grained, massive, and contains minor Cr-spinel and rare sulfide minerals. Dunite contains olivine, Cr-spinel and minor pyroxenes in some samples. Olivine crystals are commonly partly replaced by serpentine along fractures and in outer rims. Bulk rock and mineral composition data suggest that harzburgites are mild to highly refractory mantle residues after partial melting. In contrast all dunite samples show a cumulate geochemical signature from a mafic melt that originated from highly refractory mantle peridotites. Our study suggest that the harzburgite in the BOIC originally formed as oceanic lithosphere at a slow spreading ridge, possibly in the vicinity of active arc systems, whereas the parental melt for dunites formed in subduction setting. The second part of this study measured trace element compositions for olivine, Cr-spinel and bulk rock of dunite. The measured bulk rock compositions are compared to those of calculated based on mineral chemistry and their abundance. This comparison suggests that the trapped melt fraction was negligible during the crystallization of the dunites. The calculated melt compositions for the dunites confirm that the melt formed in subduction setting.

Yucca Mountain was designated as the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository by the U.S. Government in 1987. The proposed repository design requires high safety for a long maintenance period of 10,000 years. To satisfy this requirement, evaluation of the influence of earthquakes on the repository is necessary. Prediction of earthquake-induced ground motions around the repository requires knowledge of the dynamic properties of the geologic materials around the repository. The main geologic materials in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain are tuffs (ignimbrites) which are formed by the deposition of volcanic ash mixed with erupted volcanic gas, water vapor and pyroclastic material. Two types of dynamic tests, (1) the free-free, unconfined, resonant column and direct arrival test (freefree URC test) and (2) the fixed-free resonant column and torsional shear test (fixed-free RCTS test), were used to measure the dynamic properties of tuffs. The emphasis in this dynamic testing was evaluation of shear modulus (G) and material damping ratio (D) of the tuffs in the small-strain (linear) and mildly nonlinear (to strains of about 0.02 %) ranges. To evaluate the influence of various parameters on G and D of tuffs, correlations with other features such as total unit weight, porosity and stratigraphic unit were performed and general relationships between them are proposed. In addition, an unconfined, slow-cyclic torsional shear (CTS) device was developed and used to measure the cyclic shear properties of the tuffs from Yucca Mountain at larger strain amplitudes than possible in the fixed-free RCTS tests. Additionally, the CTS device was also used to determine the shear failure strength of the tuffs. By combining the cyclic shear properties of the tuffs from the CTS tests and the dynamic properties of the tuffs from the fixed-free RCTS tests, complete dynamic property curves from small-strain to failure strain were evaluated.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-196). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2004. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Clayton B. Marlow. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-53).