Current understanding of aspen fire ecology in western North America includes the paradoxical characterization that aspen-dominated stands, although often regenerated following fire, are “fire-proof”. We tested this idea by predicting potential fire behavior across a gradient of aspen dominance in northern Utah using the Forest Vegetation Simulator and the Fire and Fuels Extension. The wind spe...

Understanding the responses of species and ecosystems to human-induced global environmental change has become a high research priority. The main aim of this thesis was to investigate how certain environmental factors that relate to global change affect European aspen (Populus tremula), a keystone species in boreal forests, and hybrid aspen (P. tremula × P. tremuloides), cultivated in commercial...

The electron optics of a 90 degree spherical deflecting analyzer (SDA-90) is investigated with an imaging matrix formalism. As a preanalyzer in the UTAneutrino experiment, high transmission and reasonable energy resolution are the choices of optimization. The magnification of the source through the analyzer plays the key role in determining the energy resolution. The imaging matrix approach pro...

This article discusses an electron energy analyzer with a cylindrically symmetrical electrostatic field, designed for rapid Auger analysis. The device was designed and built. The best parameters of the analyzer were estimated and then experimentally verified.

This research aims at developing anoperator training simulator (OTS) using AspenOTS Frameworkfor fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) production plant. All over the world, there is an increasing interest towards the use of vegetable oils in much desired ecofriendly biodiesel production. In view of environmental concerns due to high polluting nature of fossil fuels and also because of the limited avai...

Three model communities of trembling aspen (monoculture, and mixed with either paper birch or sugar maple) were grown for seven years in elevated atmospheric CO(2) and O(3) using Free Air CO(2) Enrichment (FACE) technology. We utilized trends in species' importance, calculated as an index of volume growth and survival, as indications of shifting community composition. For the pure aspen communi...