Now showing items 1-20 of 544

• The linear algebra of interpolation with finite applications giving computational methods for multivariate polynomials

Linear representation and the duality of the biorthonormality relationship express the linear algebra of interpolation by way of the evaluation mapping. In the finite case the standard bases relate the maps to Gramian matrices. Five equivalent conditions on these objects are found which characterize the solution of the interpolation problem. This algebra succinctly describes the solution space of ordinary linear initial value problems. Multivariate polynomial spaces and multidimensional node sets are described by multi-index sets. Geometric considerations of normalization and dimensionality lead to cardinal bases for Lagrange interpolation on regular node sets. More general Hermite functional sets can also be solved by generalized Newton methods using geometry and multi-indices. Extended to countably infinite spaces, the method calls upon theorems of modern analysis.
• A Descriptive Analysis Of Yakutat Tlingit Musical Style.

Ninety-nine songs from Yakutat, Alaska were analyzed in an effort to determine a musical style of the Gulf Coast Tlingit. Songs were grouped into seven categories from which general trends of style were deduced. Analysis, which was based on the transcriptions of David P. McAllester, included interval distribution, range, tone systems, weighted scales, melodic contour, tempo, duration and rest values, drumming patterns, formal structure, and song length. The transcriptions and data for drumming patterns, formal structure and song length were provided by McAllester in "Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit," by Frederica de Laguna, 1972, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, Volume 7, Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press. Stylistic differences in the areas of interval distribution, range, tone systems, weighted scales, melodic contour, and tempo were discovered between the two largest categories, the traditional Sib Potlatch songs and the songs of more recent composition called Haida Mouth songs. <p>
• Mute Llama

The novella Mute Llama and the short story "The Keeper of Dogs" "both deal with the role that the imagination plays in the articulation of reality through symbols. At its core, this is an issue which involves the very essence of the creation of fictive worlds. In both pieces, the protagonist is engaged in a second-person, internal soliloquy as he is confronted with the startling fluidity of the "real" world of objects. When the objective world is encountered by an active imagination, as it is by each of us every day, the result is a reality that is created, rather than simply observed. The protagonist of each of these pieces comes to this realization and discovers that it produces both existential despair and self-empowerment. In the end, this paradox is central to the understanding of postmodernist art.
• A fully two-dimensional flux-corrected transport algorithm for hyperbolic partial differential equations

Numerical solutions of the hyperbolic partial differential equation, $\partial p\over\partial t$ + $\vec\nabla \cdot (p\vec u)$ = 0, will generally encounter the difficulties of large diffusion and oscillations near steep gradients or discontinuities. The method of Flux-Corrected Transport (FCT) developed by Boris and Book has conquered these difficulties for the one-dimensional case. Motivated by this one-dimensional FCT algorithm, a fully two-dimensional FCT algorithm is developed in this present work. This fully two-dimensional FCT algorithm is a two-step procedure: (1) the transport scheme, and (2) the antidiffusion scheme. The second step of the procedure could also be replaced by an application of the one-dimensional antidiffusion algorithm in the x direction and the y direction separately. The stability, phase shift errors and positivity for the fully two-dimensional transport scheme are analyzed. Test results are presented. The possibility of the extension of the FCT method to three dimensions are discussed.
• The Akulmiut: Territorial dimensions of a Yup'ik Eskimo society

This monograph is an ethnohistoric and ethnographic study of 19th and 20th century land and resource use of the Akulmiut, a Yup'ik-speaking Eskimo society that occupied the inland tundra region between the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers of western Alaska. The study examines the relationship between the patterns of spatial organization and wild resource utilization and resource distribution. Ethnographic studies have shown there is considerable variability in socioterritorial organization, which according to one recent theory, applied to this study, can be accounted for by examining the distribution of critical food resources in terms of density and predictability. The Akulmiut were selected for this study because of their unique situation among Alaskan Eskimos in terms of their subsistence economy and geographic location. With an economy based on fishing, utilizing non-salmon species of the low, marshy moist and wet tundra ecosystems, the adaptation of the Akulmiut is distinct among Alaskan Eskimos. Using data for the Akulmiut, this study tests the hypothesis that a territorial system occurs under conditions of high density and predictability (in time and space) of critical resources. Between groups or societies, the Akulmiut exhibited a territorial system of land use and occupancy as predicted when critical resources are dense and predictable. The study found that the key resource species of whitefish (Coregonus sp.) and northern pike (Esox lucius) exhibited resource distribution parameters characterized as predictable in time and location and were abundant or dense. Spatial organization showed that all primary villages and storage and processing facilities were situated where pike and whitefish could be readily intercepted during their annual migrations. The Akulmiut maintained exclusive use through overt defense, but also by means of cultural principles of land and resource use, ceremonial activities, and naming conventions. Dispersion of the population at other times ensured maintenance of a broader area for use in harvesting another key resource, blackfish (Dallia pectoralis). Dispersion was an efficient means of signaling areas used by the group, but also served to monitor incursions throughout the territory. This type of analysis was found to hold promise for explaining the diversity of socioterritorial organization among Alaskan Eskimos.
• Aleut Settlement Patterns In The Western Aleutian Islands, Alaska.

This thesis presents a settlement pattern analysis of prehistoric midden sites in the Near Islands, Alaska. It represents the only such study to date, which focuses on an entire island group inhabited by a distinct social/political entity. This is also one of the few settlement pattern studies to address maritime hunting-fishing people. Aerial photography was an important part of the analysis. Coupled with other site inventories, photographs were used to "survey" the Near Islands. A total of 106 sites, including 91 middens were located, with the middens forming the basis of the analysis. Site sizes and locations were correlated with a range of environmental and social factors, and functions and seasons of use proposed for about half the sites analyzed. Further elaboration of resource distributions could extend these predictions to more sites. <p>
• Walk Softly With Me: Adventures Of A Woman Big-Game Guide In Alaska

Walk Softly With Me: Adventures of a Woman Big-Game Guide in Alaska is a memoir blending adventure, description, dialogue, and humor. The animals and landscapes in Interior Alaska are revealed through the eyes of a woman tackling the male-dominated arena of big-game guiding. The thesis describes the author's evolution from hunting rabbits and tender moose for subsistence to leading clients in search of trophies. In an attempt to provide an objective view of the ethics of hunting and game management, the author explores the question of why we hunt and our relationship with the animals we pursue.<p> The thesis is written in informal first person point of view, beginning with early homesteading life and moving through scenes with hunters and other guides. The natural history of animals is woven into the narrative, as are the changes that the author experiences. The thesis culminates with the author's introspective look at why she guides and whether she will continue. <p>
• Transfer and Steenrod squares

Commutators between the transfer and Steenrod squares have been investigated by several authors. Let X be a finite simplicial complex and $\tau$ be a regular involution on X. If $\tau$ has no fixed point, then the commutator is trivial by certain results in generalized cohomology theory. For involutions with possible fixed points, the commutator was first expressed by Bott as $\Delta\sp*$Sq$\sp{\rm i}$ + Sq$\sp{\rm i}\Delta\sp* = \mu$Sq$\sp{\rm i-1}\Delta\sp*.$ Here $\Delta\sp*$ is the transfer map and $\mu$ denotes the connecting morphism of the Smith sequence. Another formula, closely related to the one above, was given by Kubelka and gives the commutator in terms of the cohomology class restricted to the fixed point set and certain characteristic classes arising from the double cover of the complement to the fixed point set. In this thesis, I prove the generalization of the formulas above for sheaf cohomology. As one of the consequences, due to the powerful nature of sheaf theory we gain the results without serious restrictions on the space: X is required to be paracompact, Hausdorff. In Chapter 1, I review the standard sheaf-theoretical constructions for both the transfer and the Steenrod powers based on Bredon's results. I state and prove a few technical lemmas on Smith sequences that are necessary in my setting. In Chapter 2, I state and prove the analogue of Bott's formula for paracompact Hausdorff spaces. In Chapter 3, we derive a generalization of Kubelka's formula for spaces as above.
• Alutiiq ethnicity

In this project I consider how Alaska Peninsula Alutiiqs (Pacific Eskimos) maintain and express a sense of continuity with their past and how in today's world they use their understanding of the past to renegotiate and reenact their ethnic identity. I do so through an ethnohistorical reconstruction of Alutiiq ethnic identity from precontact days to the present and through a consideration of the role oral tradition and community ritual play in the constant reformulation of Alutiiq identity. I discuss the symbols considered most diagnostically Alutiiq (i.e., those which make up the Alutiiq identity configuration) and explore their meanings as Alutiiqs utilize and manipulate them in a variety of settings. Originally based on a common language, the Alutiiq identity developed into a full-blown ethnicity over a period of 200 years of contact with non-indigenous peoples, first the Russians and then the Americans. As Alutiiq identity became more uniform and pervasive throughout the Alaska Peninsula, its uniformity was balanced by a cultural tendency toward emphasis on local society. Today's Alutiiq identity configuration is characterized by ties to the land, a belief in a shared history with other Alutiiqs, acknowledgement of Alutiiq as the ancestral language, adherence to some level of subsistence lifestyle, and a kinship link to Alutiiqs of the past. For this study I undertook both archival research and fieldwork, the latter focusing on folklore transmission and performance (particularly ethnohistorical narratives and ritual performances). I discuss how verbal and dramatic folklore performances, considered in historic, social, and cultural context, serve as a vehicle for defining, reconceptualizing, and reinforcing ethnicity. I employ a situational (in contrast to a group-with-boundaries) model of ethnicity in conjunction with ethnohistoric and folklore analysis to illuminate the processes which have led to today's Alutiiq identity configuration. I further consider the ramifications the Alutiiq case has for general ethnicity theory.
• Indigenous Television In The Canadian North: Evolution, Operation, And Impact On Cultural Preservation.

Indigenous television broadcasting in the Canadian North has evolved as a successful response to help mitigate the cultural domination imposed over the aboriginal people in the Canadian North via television which originates in the Canadian South and other dominant television producers such as the United States. I have concluded, based on my research and the results from a survey of indigenous people in the Canadian North, that the evolution of indigenous television in the Canadian North has enabled the indigenous people of the Canadian North to achieve greater cultural stability within the increased political empowerment and self-determination that their television programming has been able to afford them. A brief discussion of the evolution of indigenous television in Australia compares the evolution of a similar system in another context and emphasizes the success of the Canadian experience. <p>
• Alaska's First Wolf Controversy: Predator And Prey In Mount McKinley National Park, 1930-1953.

The decision in the 1930s by the National Park Service to quit eliminating predatory animals in parks arose from evolving attitudes among scientists toward predation, but had little public support. Of the various parks, only Mount McKinley National Park still held wolves, and the National Park Service received considerable opposition to wolf protection from the eastern Camp Fire Club of America and from Alaskans. The former desired permanent protection from wolves for the park's Dall sheep, while the latter could not understand protecting wolves when, throughout Alaska, efforts were made to minimize wolves. Using material from the National Archives and Alaskan sources, this historical study examines the role of public opinion as the Park Service attempted to respond to its critics and still adhere to its protective faunal management philosophy, in what was the nation's first argument over offering sanctuary to our most charismatic predator. <p>
• The Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Siberia

This dissertation presents results of recent research in Siberia directed at (1) developing an accurate archaeological chronology for the mid-Upper Pleistocene of Siberia (chiefly through accelerator radiocarbon methods), and (2) defining and characterizing the region's Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. Eleven Middle Paleolithic sites are now known from southwest Siberia. Relative age estimates of these cultural occupations range from the Last Interglacial (oxygen-isotope substage 5e, 128,000-118,000 years ago) to the mid-Middle Pleniglacial (oxygen-isotope stage 3,50,000-40,000 years ago). Associated lithic industries are Levallois and Mousterian. Middle Paleolithic interassemblage lithic variability is hinged on the differential production of Levallois points and Levallois flakes, and the intensity of side scraper reduction. Hominid remains from two sites, Denisova Peshchera and Peshchera Okladnikov, appear pre-modern and exhibit affinities to Neanderthals from southwest Asia. At least 15 sites have been assigned to the Siberian early Upper Paleolithic. Radiocarbon dates range from 42,000 to 30,000 years ago. Occupations at Kara-Bom (component IIa), Makarovo-4, and Varvarina Gora predate the effective range of radiocarbon dating (40,000 years ago), and may be considerably older than radiocarbon dates suggest. Initial Upper Paleolithic industries are characterized by the detachment of blades from "flat-faced" parallel blade cores, the absence of Levallois techniques, the presence of bifacial and burin secondary reduction technologies, and tool kits with end scrapers, angle burins, wedges, gravers, bifacial knives, and slender retouched points on blades. Also occurring for the first time are worked bone, ivory, and antler points, awls, and needles, pendants and other items of personal adornment, and rare examples of mobiliary art. Diagnostic hominid fossils are absent. The Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition involved dramatic and multi-faceted changes in tool technologies and tool forms. Patterns of change are discrete rather than discontinuous; no transitional industries have been identified. Stratigraphic evidence indicates rapid succession from one technocomplex to the other. This evidence supports population replacement rather than continuity for the origins of the Siberian Upper Paleolithic. Whether this event also signals the appearance of modern humans in this and surrounding areas of inner Asia must await additional hominid fossil discoveries.
• Understanding Loglan.

Loglan is a language designed to help test Whorf's hypothesis that language shapes thought. Specifically, Loglan should encourage more creative and logical thought in its users. Such future users will need a readable textbook of the language; that is the purpose of the present work. <p>
• Homology and cohomology of diagrams of topological spaces

Homology and cohomology of objects other than ordinary topological spaces have been investigated by several authors. Let X be a G-space and ${\cal F}$ be a family of all closed subgroups of G. The equivariant cellular structures are obtained by attaching n-cells of the form G/H $\times$ B$\sp{\rm n}$, where B$\sp{\rm n}$ is the unit n-ball and H $\in\ {\cal F}$. A construction of the equivariant singular homology and cohomology for X and ${\cal F}$ was given by Soren Illman. In this thesis ${\cal F}$ is replaced by a small topological category and the G-space X is replaced by a functor taking values in k-spaces and called a diagram of topological spaces. The cellular structures for diagrams are obtained by attaching cells D$\sb{j}\times\rm B\sp{n}$ where D$\sb{j}$ is a representable functor. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate homology and cohomology for diagrams. We review the foundation of homotopy theory and cellular theory for diagrams. We propose axioms for homology and cohomology modeled on Eilenberg-Steenrod system of axioms and prove that they, as in the classical case, determine uniquely homology and cohomology for finite cellular diagrams. We give the generalization of Illman's equivariant singular homology and cohomology to diagrams of topological spaces and we prove that this generalization satisfies all introduced axioms. Also we prove the comparison theorem between the sheaf cohomology for diagrams developed by Robert J. Piacenza and the singular cohomology for diagrams developed in this thesis.
• The impact of the use of active imagery on labor and delivery

This clinical investigation assessed the impact of the use of active imagery during labor and delivery to: assist in pain control, facilitate the physiological processes of labor, reduce anxiety, and improve feelings of control and self worth in the parents. Multiple designs including descriptive, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and ANOVA using the General Linear Model were employed. After approval by monitoring authorities and informed consent, multipara couples responded to the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Pregnancy Attitude Index or Levenson's Locus of Control Scales, and the Adjective Checklist. Gender differences in the late third trimester were assessed. Experimental group couples were taught active imagery, given an audiotape for daily practice, and used imagery in labor and delivery. After delivery, tests were readministered, subjective comments recorded, and vividness of imagery assessed in the imagery group mothers. In the 15 couples studied, all were Internally controlled. Men felt more Internally controlled, women more manipulation by Powerful Others. There were no differences on the STAI or ACL. After delivery, no change was found on the STAI, or in Internal control. The eight couples in the Control group and women had greater control by Powerful Others. Control by Chance increased in the Control group, particularly the women. On the ACL, the Experimental group had significant change in Favorable scores with more feelings of internal control, confidence and less need for support and sympathy compared to the Control group. There was no significant difference in time in labor from 7-10 cm. However, Experimental group mothers had shorter labor periods in the hospital. They required less medication, and their babies had higher one minute Apgar scores and significantly higher arterial oxygen concentration in umbilical cord blood gas analysis. Subjectively, mothers voiced greater feelings of control after using imagery, adopting the procedure and generalizing it to other life situations. This study provided an initial look at men's feelings during their wives' pregnancies. The use of active imagery resulted in greater feelings of control and self worth, shorter total labor periods and improved neonatal outcome in this group. Imagery offers a potential for improvement in the birth process which merits further study.
• The Last Settlers

The American frontier closed in 1986 without fanfare. Earlier in that decade, the federal government offered up the last 40,000 acres for settlement in two parcels. The first was near Lake Minchumina, in the geographic center of Alaska, and the second was at Slana, near Alaska's eastern border with Canada. The following essays chronicle the daily doings of two communities and, in particular, two families: the Hannans of Deadfish Lake and the Craigs of South Slana. A work of literary journalism, The Last Settlers draws on interviews, historical documents and reminiscences to explore the changing meanings, on the cusp of the twenty-first century, of wilderness and civilization, stewardship and community. <p>