DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A SYSTEM DYNAMICS MODEL FOR INVESTIGATING AGRICULTURALLY DRIVEN LAND TRANSFORMATION IN THE NORTH CENTRAL UNITED STATES

Land transformation from grassland to cropland in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) has become a growing concern among many stakeholders. A growing body of work has sought to determine the amount and rate of land use change with less emphasis on the systemic structures or feedback processes of land use decisions. This paper presents the development of a system dynamics simulation model to integrate ecological, economic, and social components influencing land use decisions, including cattle ranching, cropland production, rural communities, land quality, and public policies. Evaluation indicated that the model satisfactorily predicted historical land, agricultural commodity, and rural community data from the model structure. Reference modes for key variables, including the farmland area, were characterized by a bias correction of 0.999, root mean squared error of prediction of 0.053, R² of 0.921, and concordance correlation coefficient of 0.0959. The model was robust under extreme and varying sensitivity tests, as well as adequately predicting land use under changing system context. The model's major contributions were the inclusion of decision‐making feedbacks from economic and social signals with connectivity to land quality and elasticity values that drive land transformation. Limitations include lack of spatial input and output capabilities useful for visual interfacing.     

SIMULTANEOUS SATURATION OF VARIABLE FLUORESCENCE YIELD AND PHOTOACOUSTICALLY MONITORED THERMAL EMISSION IN THYLAKOID MEMBRANES

Thermal and fluorescence emission from thylakoid membranes were monitored simultaneously in a photoacoustic cell. A close relationship existing between variable fluorescence and variable thermal emissions is demonstrated. The modulated measuring beam of the photoacoustic spectrophotometer was used to study the effect of light intensity on the energy storage yield and on the variable fluorescence yield. The half-saturation light intensities obtained for both parameters were 8.5 and 9.1 W m^?2, respectively. The similar sensitivity of energy storage and variable fluorescence yield to light intensity indicates that electron transfer with plastoquinone as last acceptor is probably responsible for the photoacoustically monitored energy storage.     

A finite-difference algorithm for an inverse Sturm-Liouville problem

We study a method for approximating a potential q(x) in y(0)=y()=0 from finite spectral data. When the potential is symmetric,the data are the first M Dirichlet eigenvalues. In the generalcase, the first M terminal velocities are also specified. Acentred finite-difference scheme reduces the inverse Sturm-Liouvilleproblem to a matrix inverse eigenvalue problem. Our approachis motivated by the work of Paine, de Hoog and Anderssen, whoinvestigated the discrepancy between continuous and matrix eigenvaluesunder finite differences. Our modified Newton scheme is basedon choosing the number of interior mesh points in the discretizationto be 2M. The modified Newton scheme is shown to be convergentfor both the case of a symmetric and general potential. Somenumerical experiments are given. Supported in part by Institute for Scientific Computation,Texas A&M University.     

Computing Derivatives of Eigensystems by the Vector {varepsilon}-Algorithm

Rudisill & Chu proposed a (slowly converging) iterativemethod for computing partial derivatives of eigenvalues andeigenvectors of parameter-dependent matrices. It is shown that,with exact computation, application of the vector -algorithmto this method produces the exact solution in a small numberof steps. Numerical results demonstrate the viability of thismethod. A refinement process is suggested which makes the methodespecially effective for subdominant eigenvalues.     

INTRAVENOUS vs INTRAPERITONEAL SENSITIZER: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTRAPERITONEAL PHOTODYNAMIC THERAPY

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a potential treatment for peritoneal carcinomatosis. However, little data is available regarding the relative distribution of sensitizer to tumor and intra-abdominal organs, optimal route of sensitizer administration, and maximal tolerated light dose. Tumor and normal tissue sensitizer levels were measured by tissue extraction 3, 24, 48 and 72 h after 10 mg/kg of Photofrin II was given intraperitoneally (IP) or intravenously (IV) in a mouse peritoneal tumor model, and the maximal tolerated PDT light dose determined. Equivalent tumor sensitizer levels were obtained regardless of the route of sensitizer administration. Route of administration, however, did affect the kinetics of tumor sensitizer elimination, with the half-time for elimination (T1/2) 113.6 h for IP drug and 60.6 h for IV drug. Route of administration also affected sensitizer levels in several intra-abdominal organs, resulting in somewhat higher tumor to liver and kidney levels at 24 and 72 h after IP sensitizer administration. Despite these tissue distribution differences, route of sensitizer administration did not significantly affect PDT toxicity or mortality when mice were treated with 630 nm light. The maximum tolerated light dose was 1.04 J/cm2. These parameters will prove helpful in designing large scale animal trials assessing the efficacy and safety of intra-abdominal PDT.     

The structure and energetics of carbon-nitrogen clusters

The structures and energies of clusters of carbon and nitrogen with up to 12 atoms have been investigated by density functional theory using the hybrid B3LYP functional and the cc-pVTZ basis set. This is the first systematic study of these clusters. Geometries are reported for the lowest energy states at this level of theory. Linear structures tend to be the global minima for clusters containing one or two nitrogen atoms, and patterns in the electronic structure of these clusters are reported. More complex branched structures lie close in energy to the linear conformations and, for clusters greater than six atoms and containing three or more nitrogen atoms, these branched structures are the minimum energy conformers. Comparisons are made with pure carbon and silicon-carbon clusters.