Evidence of substantial malnutrition caused Gregg and Zimmerman (1986) and Zimmerman and Bradley (1 986) to suggest that the fourteenth century, Initial Coalescent tradition Crow Creek massacre ...resulted from internecine warfare over decreased food supplies, population increase, and access to horticultural lands along the Missouri River. A computer simulation suggests that such a scenario is feasible but related to population thresholds and arable land types rather than a simple function of population growth. Jnforences drawn from this simulation lead to speculation that dispersed settlement patterns of Extended Coalescent were a reaction to Initial Coalescent warfare.
The field of digital forensics is concerned with finding and presenting evidence sourced from digital devices, such as computers and mobile phones. The complexity of such digital evidence is ...constantly increasing, as is the volume of data which might contain evidence. Current approaches to interpreting and assuring digital evidence rely implicitly on the use of tools and representations made by experts in addressing the concerns of juries and courts. Current forensics tools are best characterised as not easily verifiable, lacking in ease of interoperability, and burdensome on human process. The tool-centric focus of current digital forensics practise impedes access to and transparency of the information represented within digital evidence as much as it assists, by nature of the tight binding between a particular tool and the information that it conveys. We hypothesise that a general and formal representational approach will benefit digital forensics by enabling higher degrees of machine interpretation, facilitating improvements in tool interoperability and validation. Additionally, such an approach will increase human readability. This dissertation summarises research which examines at a fundamental level the nature of digital evidence and digital investigation, in order that improved techniques which address investigation efficiency and assurance of evidence might be identified. The work follows three themes related to this: representation, analysis techniques, and information assurance. The first set of results describes the application of a general purpose representational formalism towards representing diverse information implicit in event based evidence, as well as domain knowledge, and investigator hypotheses. This representational approach is used as the foundation of a novel analysis technique which uses a knowledge based approach to correlate related events into higher level events, which correspond to situations of forensic interest. The second set of results explores how digital forensic acquisition tools scale and interoperate, while assuring evidence quality. An improved architecture is proposed for storing digital evidence, analysis results and investigation documentation in a manner that supports arbitrary composition into a larger corpus of evidence. The final set of results focus on assuring the reliability of evidence. In particular, these results focus on assuring that timestamps, which are pervasive in digital evidence, can be reliably interpreted to a real world time. Empirical results are presented which demonstrate how simple assumptions cannot be made about computer clock behaviour. A novel analysis technique for inferring the temporal behaviour of a computer clock is proposed and evaluated.
With a focus on off-the-shelf components, Twinkle is the first in a series of cost competitive small satellites managed and financed by Blue Skies Space Ltd. The satellite is based on a high-heritage ...Airbus platform that will carry a 0.45 m telescope and a spectrometer which will provide simultaneous wavelength coverage from 0.5-4.5 \(\rm{\mu m}\). The spacecraft prime is Airbus Stevenage while the telescope is being developed by Airbus Toulouse and the spectrometer by ABB Canada. Scheduled to begin scientific operations in 2025, Twinkle will sit in a thermally-stable, sun-synchronous, low-Earth orbit. The mission has a designed operation lifetime of at least seven years and, during the first three years of operation, will conduct two large-scale survey programmes: one focused on Solar System objects and the other dedicated to extrasolar targets. Here we present an overview of the architecture of the mission, refinements in the design approach, and some of the key science themes of the extrasolar survey.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2010.
Title from title screen (site viewed June 24, 2010). PDF text: xiv, 276 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.) ; 33 Mb. UMI publication number: ...AAT 3397860. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between ex-spousal interactions following remarriage and the behavioral and emotional adjustment of stepchildren. The subjects for the study ...were volunteers and were recruited for the study either through The PACES Family Counseling Center at The College of William and Mary or through a networking sampling procedure. The study participants included stepchildren between the ages of 8 and 16, and their residential biological parents.;Thirty-one stepchild/biological-parent pairs participated in the study by completing a series of questionnaires relevant to ex-spousal interactions and children's adjustment. Ex-spousal interactions were assessed using The Content of Coparental Interactions scale, The Quality of Coparental Communications Scale, and The O'Leary-Porter Overt Hostility Scale. Stepchildren's adjustment was measured using The Revised Behavior Problem Checklist and The Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. Stepchildren's perceptions of the ex-spousal relationship were assessed using The Children's Perception Questionnaire.;Measures of the content and quality of ex-spousal interactions were statistically analyzed to determine if, and to what extent, they were associated with measures of stepchildren's adjustment. Partial correlation procedures were employed to control for the influence of selected demographic variables in the relationships under investigation. Statistically significant correlations were found between ex-spousal conflict and/or hostility and the self-concept and behavioral adjustment of stepchildren. The highest correlations obtained were between stepchildren's perceptions of ex-spousal discord and stepchildren's adjustment measures.;The results of the study suggest that ex-spousal interactions are a significant factor in children's adjustment even after parental remarriage and the establishment of a stepfamily system. Findings also suggest that stepchildren's perception of ex-spousal discord may be the key determinant in the effect ex-spousal interactions have on stepchildren's self-concept and behavior. The implications of the significant findings of this study are discussed within the context of Structural Family Therapy Theory.
Ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) are important beneficial polyphagous predators of insect pests in maize fields. This study evaluated the impact of Cry3Bb1 hybrid (corn rootworm-resistant ...maize) on adult abundance and life stages of coccinellids during preanthesis, anthesis, and postanthesis development of maize. Cry3Bb1 maize expresses a protein derived from a coleopteran-specific kumamotoensis subspecies of Bacillus thuringiensis (Berliner) that was bioengineered to induce corn rootworm larval mortality. Thus, this hybrid primarily targets, Diabrotica barberi Smith & Lawrence and Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), northern and western corn rootworms that are two of the most injurious insect pests of maize (Zea mays L.) in the Midwestern U.S. cornbelt. If non-target coccinellids were found to be susceptible to this Cry3Bb1 toxin, then they could potentially be negatively impacted by their omnivorous feeding or from preying on herbivorous maize insects. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Similar to the era of the first century Christian church, there are at least three traits of postmodernity that bear closer examination: the loss of the meta-narrative that formerly gave a ...cohesiveness to culture, the search for authentic community among younger generations, and a growing diversity arising out of deep spiritual searching. One result is pluralism not only in the broader cultural setting in which many Christian churches find themselves, but also within individual congregations. This project offers a model in which this plurality is addressed with the goal of triggering dialogue among differing perspectives that enables participants to move beyond mere tolerance of differing perspectives to an actual embrace of the otherness of those perspectives. Based also on the Biblical foundations of koinonia found in the early Christian church, Paul's experience with the diverse community of faith at Corinth, and the theological foundation of grace found in the Wesleyan tradition, it offers a positive response to postmodern pluralism. Lectio divina is the ancient monastic practice of praying the Scriptures that opens the participant to a deeper listening to voices beyond them, whether those voices are human or divine. Using texts from the Gospel according to Luke, a group of seven project participants from varying Christian perspectives and worldviews, but all members of the First United Methodist Church of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, came together each week for ten weeks to engage each other in dialogue born of lectio. This dialogue enabled participants to hear and glean slivers of truth from perspectives other than their own, which could be added to their particular understanding of the truth. Evaluation using James Hopewell's worldview survey noted a shift in half of the participants. This shift indicating openness to other worldviews could be attributable to the group's work. It is possible to bring differing perspectives and worldviews together to the benefit of all, moving past fear and mere tolerance of those other perspectives toward a realization that by listening to each other we can gain a larger understanding of the truth.
A skeleton of a female discovered in a grave located on the west bank of Short Creek, Platte County, Missouri provides some of the first evidence for mortuary practices and human morphology for the ...Western Missouri-Eastern Kansas Late Woodland. The burial is a bundle type, with most of the bones placed in a central heap. Analysis of the distribution of the bones indicates that some soh tissue was still adhering to the skeleton at the time of the secondary burial. Bones of the right hand and foot and the vertebral column from cervical 7 to the coccyx are the only remains preserved in anatomical order. Many of the long bones appear to have been broken and there is also some evidence for burning and fleshing of the skeleton before final interment. Measurements of the cranial and post-cranial skeleton are given for comparison with future Late Woodland discoveries.
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