Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Food webs in aquatic ecosystems can be dramatically altered by invasive species. Quagga mussels are prevalent invaders that compete with existing species and disrupt nutrient cycling. In 2012, the Quagga Mussel (Dreissena rostriformus bugensis) was introduced into Lake Powell and is expected to move throughout the reservoir in the near future. Stable isotope analysis is a powerful tool for characterizing food webs and trophic interactions. To predict the long-term effects of Quagga Mussels, we used stable isotope analysis of primary producers, primary consumers, prey fish species, and predator fish species in Lake Powell to determine food web structure. Quagga Mussel are positioned to disrupt the pelagic arm of the food web by interfering with the link between phytoplankton and herbivorous zooplankton. This will likely have negative impacts on pelagic fish such as striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense). Quagga Mussel may also boost benthic productivity in the littoral zone by diverting nutrients from the water column to the benthos. This may have positive impacts on littoral fishes such as largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu), bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), and green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus).

First Progress Report, Period Covered June 14, 1971-November 15, 1971, for the "Lake Powell Project", Collaborative Research on Assessment of Man's Activities on the Lake Powell Region, to National Science Foundation, Research Applied to National Needs (RANN), Division of Environment Systems & Resources.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, November, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 23, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-115).

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on September 25, 2009). Thesis advisor: Dr. Betty Houchin Winfield. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis discusses the effects, primarily on a person’s identity, caused by rural to urban migration during the 1920s and 1930s through investigating the migrations of four literary characters—Quentin Compson, George Webber, Jefferson Abbott, and Prudence Bly—developed by three American Modernist—William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, and Dawn Powell. I first explore the population trends and movements of Americans out of rural areas to urban ones. In doing so, various sociological theories and historical events are referenced in order to better provide evidence for the reasons for this type of migration, and more importantly, in concern with this study, to illustrate common effects due to rural to urban migration that are explored in depth in subsequent chapters through the examination of the aforementioned characters. Even though the migration of people out of rural areas for more urban centers has occurred ever since the division of those two communities, the interwar years in American society is a key period to consider because of the great social and economic changes that occurred during those two decades. Additionally, it is in this era that we first see clear signs that the United States was transitioning to an urban dominated society. Each of the four characters focused on in this work undergo a rural to urban migration during their young adult years. Because each character experiences this migration in a different way, the severity of the effects of his or her migration changes too. Three of the four characters—Quentin, George, and Prudence—must cope with an identity crisis that is brought to the forefront by their rural to urban migration. Quentin experiences feelings of guilt over his opportunities versus that of his brothers. More importantly, he is unable to rectify the conflict between his perceived identity and the identity placed upon him by the urban community to which he migrates, thus influencing his suicide. George is unable to see the extreme influence that the nostalgic view of his hometown has on the way he perceives the rest of the world. Therefore, he is also unable to recognize the power of time and the inevitability of change. Each time he is forced to see the falseness of his nostalgia, a crucial portion of his identity is dismantled, throwing him into a deep depression. Prudence—due to the arrival of Jefferson, a hometown sweetheart—is forced to reconcile the rural identity she has tried for a decade to forget and the urban one she spent a decade creating. Only at the end of the novel, does she realize that her identity is actually a compilation of both her rural and urban parts. The fourth character—Jefferson Abbott—is relatively unaffected by his migration, in large part due to the stability and confidence he has in his own identity.

<p> A study of gradient optimization techniques, in particular as applied to system modelling problems, is made. Three efficient techniques are used to derive optimum second-order and third-order models for a seventh-order system. The optimization techniques are the Fletcher-Powell method, a more recent method proposed by Fletcher and a method based on a more general objective function proposed by Jacobson and Oksman.</p> <p> The approximation is carried out in the time domain. Least squares and least pth criteria are used, and almost minimax results are obtained for large values of p. Values of p up to 10^12 are successfully used. The results are compared with other minimax type algorithms.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

Orientalism in Bush administration and its influence over military intervention in Iraq Abstract Master's thesis focuses on the presence of orientalist elements in the Bush administration and their influence over the justification and execution of the military intervention in Iraq. These elements are orientalist construction of identities, civilizational mission, concept of oriental Muslim and concept of oriental woman. For this purpose, three research questions were formulated. 1) How the identity of Iraq was constructed to justify the intervention? 2) How the identity of USA was constructed to justify the intervention 3) Whether the Bush administration carried elements of orientalism, how did they present themselves and what amount of influence did they have over justification and execution of the military intervention in Iraq? The Fairclough three-dimensional model of critical discursive analysis was chosen in order to answer research questions. Analysis was focused on official speeches of three key representatives of Bush administration (G.W. Bush, D. Cheney, C. Powell) within the time period from the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001 until the actual military intervention to Iraq on March 20th 2003. Based on the analysis the presence of orientalist construction of identities and civilizational...

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