The Puyallup Indians and the Reservation Disestablishment Test

This comment considers whether the Puyallup Indian Reservation was disestablished when it was opened near the turn of the century for settlement by non-Indians. Although the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the Puyallup Indian Reservation continues to exist, subsequent dictum of the United States Supreme Court casts doubt upon the continuing validity of this holding. The question of the reservation\u27s continued existence has also been raised in recent litigation. After reviewing the Puyallup Indian Reservation\u27s history and analyzing it in the context of Supreme Court decisions concerning disestablishment, this comment concludes that the Puyallup Indian Reservation was not disestablished when it was opened for settlement by non-Indians

Integrative Acoustic Mapping Reveals Hudson River Sediment Processes and Habitats

Rivers and estuaries around the world are the focus of human settlements and activities. Needs for clean water, ecosystem preservation, commercial navigation, industrial development, and recreational access compete for the use of estuaries, and management of these resources requires a detailed understanding of estuarine morphology and sediment dynamics. This article presents an overview of the first estuary-wide study of a heavily used estuary, the Hudson River, based on high-resolution acoustic mapping of the river bottom. The integration of three high-resolution acoustic methods with extensive sampling reveals an unexpected complexity of bottom features and allows detailed classification of the benthic environment in terms of riverbed morphology, sediment type, and sedimentary processes

From Boolean Equalities to Constraints

Although functional as well as logic languages use equality to discriminate between logically different cases, the operational meaning of equality is different in such languages. Functional languages reduce equational expressions to their Boolean values, True or False, logic languages use unification to check the validity only and fail otherwise. Consequently, the language Curry, which amalgamates functional and logic programming features, offers two kinds of equational expressions so that the programmer has to distinguish between these uses. We show that this distinction can be avoided by providing an analysis and transformation method that automatically selects the appropriate operation. Without this distinction in source programs, the language design can be simplified and the execution of programs can be optimized. As a consequence, we show that one kind of equational expressions is sufficient and unification is nothing else than an optimization of Boolean equality

Artificial Intelligence

Contains research objectives and reports on five research projects.Computation Center, M.I.T

Artificial Intelligence

Contains research objectives and reports on eight research projects.Computation Center, M.I.T

The abrupt onset of the modern South Asian Monsoon winds

The South Asian Monson (SAM) is one of the most intense climatic elements yet its initiation and variations are not well established. Dating the deposits of SAM wind-driven currents in IODP cores from the Maldives yields an age of 12. 9 Ma indicating an abrupt SAM onset, over a short period of 300 kyrs. This coincided with the Indian Ocean Oxygen Minimum Zone expansion as revealed by geochemical tracers and the onset of upwelling reflected by the sediment's content of particulate organic matter. A weaker 'proto-monsoon' existed between 12.9 and 25 Ma, as mirrored by the sedimentary signature of dust influx. Abrupt SAM initiation favors a strong influence of climate in addition to the tectonic control, and we propose that the post Miocene Climate Optimum cooling, together with increased continentalization and establishment of the bipolar ocean circulation, i.e. the beginning of the modern world, shifted the monsoon over a threshold towards the modern system

Improving the Efficiency of Reasoning Through Structure-Based Reformulation

Abstract. We investigate the possibility of improving the efficiency of reasoning through structure-based partitioning of logical theories, combined with partitionbased logical reasoning strategies. To this end, we provide algorithms for reasoning with partitions of axioms in first-order and propositional logic. We analyze the computational benefit of our algorithms and detect those parameters of a partitioning that influence the efficiency of computation. These parameters are the number of symbols shared by a pair of partitions, the size of each partition, and the topology of the partitioning. Finally, we provide a greedy algorithm that automatically reformulates a given theory into partitions, exploiting the parameters that influence the efficiency of computation.

Mid-Pleistocene climate transition drives net mass loss from rapidly uplifting St. Elias Mountains, Alaska

Erosion, sediment production and routing on a tectonically active continental margin reflect both tectonic and climatic processes; partitioning the relative importance of these processes remains controversial. Gulf of Alaska contains a preserved sedimentary record of Yakutat Terrane collision with North America. Because tectonic convergence in the coastal St. Elias orogen has been roughly constant for 6 Myr, variations in its eroded sediments preserved in the offshore Surveyor Fan constrain a budget of tectonic material influx, erosion, and sediment output. Seismically imaged sediment volumes calibrated with chronologies derived from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program boreholes shows that erosion accelerated in response to Northern Hemisphere glacial intensification (~2.7 Ma) and that the 900-km long Surveyor Channel inception appears to correlate with this event. However, tectonic influx exceeded integrated sediment efflux over the interval 2.8-1.2 Ma. Volumetric erosion accelerated following the onset of quasi-periodic (~100-kyr) glacial cycles in the mid-Pleistocene climate transition (1.2-0.7 Ma). Since then erosion and transport of material out of the orogen has outpaced tectonic influx by 50-80%. Such a rapid net mass loss explains apparent increases in exhumation rates inferred onshore from exposure dates and mapped out-of-sequence fault patterns. The 1.2 Myr mass budget imbalance must relax back toward equilibrium in balance with tectonic influx over the time scale of orogenic wedge response (Myrs). The St. Elias Range provides a key example of how active orogenic systems respond to transient mass fluxes, and the possible influence of climate driven erosive processes that diverge from equilibrium on the million-year scale

Education is not a panacea for reducing human–black bear conflicts

The long-term survival of carnivores is greatly challenged by conflict with humans. Such conflicts can bolster risk perceptions,lower tolerance, and lead to support of lethal control of carnivores.To address this ubiquitous challenge and improve conservation outcomes specifically for American black bears (Ursus americanus),Marley et al. (2017) used an agent based model to explore how management strategies could alter the use of the urban environment by bears, and subsequently reduce the occurrence of human-bear conflicts. Management strategies entailed education only, where people were taught to remove food attractants, apply aversive conditioning, or both, and the authors considered different spatial configurations of implementation (border, clustered, and random). Education resulting in food removals led to a reduction in the food values of urban cells. Education resulting in aversive conditioning led to increased vigilance by humans and increased probability of a bear being deterred, which in turn, resulted in the bear moving a significant distance away from the urban cell as well as a reduced memory value for those cells. Food and memory cell values deter-mined the movement choices of the bears in the next time step, and cell visits along with the occurrence of deterrence events deter-mined the habituation and food conditioning status of bears. When bears reached thresholds determined by the authors, they changed their status from ‘graduated’ to ‘survival’ and eventually ‘conflict’ status, which was modeled as a function of independent variables including initialization conditions (e.g., percent urbanization; Table5 of Marley et al., 2017) and management strategies (e.g., clustered vigilance; Fig. 5 of Marley et al., 2017). The authors concluded that,compared to a ‘no teaching’ scenario, education works to reduce‘conflict’ bears in urban areas, and that teaching people to apply aversive conditioning was the most effective strategy

MICROGRID MODELING ASSESSMENT FOR CLIMATE TRENDS AND WEATHER EVENTS

This report performs a gap analysis on microgrid models with respect to climate change risks at Naval installations. Six climate change risks are identified for the model analysis including drought, flooding, heat, cold, wildfires, and weather extremes. Each climate change risk is decomposed into ordered effects that inform the impacts that the climate risks may have on microgrids. The climate change risks, ordered effects, and the impacts on microgrids are used to analyze three microgrid models to determine if they adequately incorporate the six climate risks. A model analysis framework is developed to identify gaps in the approach of the models, the input parameters of the models, and the assumptions made in the models. The analysis demonstrates that gaps exist in each model when considering the climate change risks, the ordered effects, and the impacts to the microgrid. These gaps exist in all three models analyzed using the model analysis framework. The identified gaps are used to develop recommendations for ways to improve the incorporation of the climate change risks into microgrid models and the necessary research required to inform that data used in microgrid models.Naval Facilities Engineering CommandCivilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the NavyCivilian, Department of the NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited