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Iliamna remota Greene (Malvaceae), endemic only to Langham Island in the Kankakee River, Kankakee County, Illinois, is a state endangered species. During the present study, the size of the population was determined, the habitat structure in and around the individual colonies analyzed, and management recommendation made to potentially increase the size of the population. During the summer of 2005, the I. remota population consisted of 1,074 stems in 12 colonies, located along the northwest side of the island. In late June, flowering appeared to be prolific, where means and standard deviations of floral buds and open flowers were 1.6 ± 1.2 and 2.1 ± 1.7 per stem, respectively. By late July, however, flowering was sporadic, but many flowering stems had set seed with the mean number of fruits being 1.2 ± 0.9 per stem. Forty percent of sampled seeds germinated after being treated in hot water (80°C) for 10 seconds. Common species associated with I. remota colonies were the cool-season Eurasian grass, Poa pratensis, and the East Asian shrub Lonicera maackii, along with 22 native species and a few other exotics. Previous management included cutting and burning of the shrubby vegetation in and around the I. remota colonies. A return to these management practices is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An undergraduate engineering internetworking learning environment that presents both internetworking principles and laboratory experimentation is described. The learning environment uses the source code availability of the Linux operating system as a case study of the implementation issues and ramifications of internet networking infrastructures. Laboratory use of experimentation with internetworking equipment and software allows interaction with internetworking principles and fundamentals as well as implementation and performance issues. The objectives of this environment include providing a comprehensive mechanism whereby students are exposed to fundamentals and principles that may readily be applied to experimental-based internetwork research and internetwork product development. A follow-on capstone design environment is also briefly described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which proposed a framework dynamic resource scheduling to provide quality of service positioning for multimedia traffic in wideband code-division multiple access. Comparison between single and multiple-queue implementation; Delay performance analysis; Conclusion.

Describes a senior-level design laboratory course in which an optical fiber communication network is expanded or improved by successive generations of students. Enhancement of students' technical experience; Requirement of multidisciplinary teamwork; Provision of an incentive for the development of effective oral and written communication skills.

Features the development of a two-quarter undergraduate rapid prototyping capstone design course for computer engineering majors. Composition of the design group; Design, simulation, implementation and evaluation of a complete computing system; Examples of projects in the sequence; Use of an array of field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) in hardware emulator.

Focuses on the categories of the pointer processors in Synchronous Optical Networks (SONET)/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy Networks (SDH). Identification of these categories; Usage of these processors; Production of pointer processors.

Discusses what is the presence of range sidelobes which corrupt observations of weather phenomena in areas of extended meteorological scatterers or point target returns. Details on techniques for suppressing range sidelobes; Reference to investigations which have presented a `doppler tolerant' range sidelobe suppression technique; Provisions of the use of Barker coded pulses along with pulse compression and doppler tolerant range sidelobe suppression.

Wild hyacinth (Camassia angusta) is a perennial species native to mesic prairies of the midwestern and south-central United States. In Illinois, the only extant population of this state-endangered species is in a small section of degraded black-soil prairie along a railroad track right-of-way south of Elwin, Macon County. The objectives of this study were to determine the population status, seed production, and effects of scarification and stratification on germination of C. angusta. The population was surveyed from 1990 to 2007. A survey of other plant species present was conducted in 1999. The site consisted of approximately 75% native and 25% exotic species. The number of flowering stems of Camassia angusta fluctuated significantly (28 to 169 plants) during the course of this study. Prescribed spring burns and a construction equipment disturbance may be partially responsible for these fluctuations. A large percentage of undeveloped fruit, resulting in low seed production (<3,000), as well as low seed germination (8%), may be responsible for this population's inability to increase consistently in number of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physaria ludoviciana (Brassicaceae) is rare in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Environmental effects on floral development are unclear. Both self-compatibility and self-incompatibility occur within Physaria species. Objectives were to describe flowers, to determine how photoperiod affects flower development, and to predict whether flowers are self-compatible or self-incompatible. For photoperiods, greenhouse-grown plants were placed in either 16 or 8 hr photoperiods. Inflorescences and open flowers were counted weekly. For pollination, flowers were self-pollinated or cross-pollinated. Plants developed inflorescences after 20 and 28 d in long and short days, respectively. Inflorescences/plant increased for both photoperiods throughout the study. In short days, plants produced more inflorescenees (10.8/plant) than in long days (7.1/plant). Anthesis started at 48 and 56 d for long and short days, respectively. Blooming peaked at 83 d (4.9 flowers/plant/day) for long days, and at 98 d (3.5 flowers/plant/day) for short days. Cross-pollinated flowers produced fruits, while self-pollinated ones did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silene regia Sims is an endangered prairie forb in Illinois where small isolated colonies are scattered. In Lawrence County, two sites (Allison Prairie and Chauncey Marsh) have fewer plants (6–23) than two other sites (County Road and Cemetery) with 26–45 plants. Information on seed germination in these isolated colonies is needed. Our goal was to evaluate seed germination of S. regia from colonies in Lawrence County, Illinois. S. regia fruits were collected from these four sites on August 9 and 19, 1999. Seeds were scarified by cutting the seed coat, or they were stratified at 2 C for 12 or 15 weeks. Seeds from Chauncey Marsh weighed less than those from other sites. With the exception of seeds from Chauncey Marsh, scarification increased germination within each site. When significant germination differences occurred due to site, they were apparent on stratified seed, where frequently Allison Prairie was highest and Chauncey Marsh was lowest. Germination differences between stratified and control seeds were inconsistent, although stratified seeds had up to 67% higher germination than control seeds when significant differences occurred. These increases in seed germination were most evident in seeds collected on August 9th and stratified for 12 weeks. Seed that was neither scarified nor stratified germinated after storage, indicating that scarification and stratification are not absolute germination requirements with after-ripened seeds. Seed germination at different sites did not correspond directly with population sizes, and multiple mechanisms were present for breaking seed dormancy in S. regia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on an innovative reconfigurable antenna concept with significant practical relevance based on the dynamic definition of metal-like conductive plasma channels in high-resistivity silicon that are activated by the injection of dc current. The plasma channels are precisely formed and addressed using current high-resolution silicon fabrication technology. These dynamically defined plasma-reconfigurable antennas enable frequency hopping, beam shaping, and steering without the complexity of RF feed structures. This concept shows promise for delivering the performance and capabilities of a phased array, but at a reduced cost. However, challenges such as p-i-n biasing circuit complexity and their nonlinearities, as well as antenna efficiency, would still require further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the framework for designing network security visualization systems as well as results from the end-to-end design and implementation of two highly interactive systems. The first system is the intrusion detection system (IDS) Rainstorm. The seconds system is the Rumint, which provides detailed insights into packet-level network traffic. The two systems reflect two substantial tasks of security analysts: (1) detect and respond to network intrusions and perform rapid in-depth analysis of specific intrusion events. INSET: Honeynet Case Study..

An undergraduate internetwork, security-teaching laboratory, which includes both defensive and offensive security laboratory experimentation, is described. This laboratory is oriented toward an introductory internetworking security class and is intended to complement more theoretical network security classes while sparking student interest. The laboratory is unique in that it uses an isolated laboratory network that provides a simple model of the Internet, including an enterprise network component, a university component, a "good" Internet service provider, and a "bad" Internet service provider. This setup is in contrast to typical educational laboratories, which use only a few physical computers with virtual machines. All of the laboratory assignments are available on the Internet for general community use and modification (the Internetwork Security Class Home Page is available at http://users.ece.gatech.edu/∼owen/). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]