Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Hidden History: A Mobile Application For Discovering Surrounding Landscapes, Sri Ram Ramineni

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis work describes the design, development and evaluation of a mobile application called Hidden History. This application lets users discover and explore three types of landscapes (Historic, Scenic and Cultural) using three different modes of discovery (Route, Explore and Tour).

Before designing Hidden History, the feature set of other applications that help users explore surrounding landscapes were identified and analyzed. Hidden History was then designed to implement the best features of these applications and offer several functionality improvements. Design began with iterative paper prototyping, following which a high fidelity, digital prototype was created. The high fidelity prototype was tested …

Thermal Property Measurement Of Thin Fibers By Complementary Methods, Troy Robert Munro

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Thin fibers are prevalent in many engineering materials. Measuring how well heat transfers in such small fibers can be difficult to determine, and previous methods have led to erroneous results. This dissertation details three proposed methods to improve the measurement of the thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and volumetric heat capacity of thin fibers. Of particular interest is natural and synthetic spider silks because previously published values of the natural silk thermal conductivity was similar to copper, an excellent thermal conductor.

The three methods developed are the improved transient electrothermal technique (which was redeveloped to include radiation and convection heat losses …

A Spatiotemporal Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak Model Predicting Severity, Cycle Period, And Invasion Speed, Jacob P. Duncan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae), a tree-killing bark beetle, has historically been part of the normal disturbance regime in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests. In recent years, warm winters and summers have allowed MPB populations to achieve synchronous emergence and successful attacks, resulting in widespread population outbreaks and resultant tree mortality across western North America. We develop an age-structured forest demographic model that incorporates temperature-dependent MPB infestations: the Susceptible-Infested-Juvenile (SIJ) model. Stability of equilibria is analyzed as a function of population growth rates, and indicates the existence of periodic outbreaks that intensify as growth rates …

Motionscan: Towards Brain Concussion Detection With A Mobile Tablet Device, Shantanu Saxena

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis reports on a study to determine the viability of using a mobile tablet device as a brain concussion detection tool. The research builds upon the results of a prior method of collecting data for measuring motion sensitivity, where a user presses and releases a force sensor to balance a rising and falling line on a computer display. The motion sensitivity data collected using this force sensor device was shown to have less irregularity in persons with concussion. The MotionScan application, developed for this research, uses the accelerometer of a tablet device to record motor movement of a user …

Atp Usage In The Dark-Operative Protochlorophyllide Oxidoreductase, Mark S. Soffe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Chlorophylls are essential pigment molecules that function in photosynthesis, and serve to aid in utilizing energy from sunlight to power cellular processes in plants, and other organisms. To make chlorophyll, photosynthetic organisms devote an abundance of resources and energy to ensure their appropriate construction. This process of making chlorophylls is highlighted by the penultimate step in the pathway—the conversion of protochlorophyllide (Pchlide) to chlorophyllide a (Chlide).

This conversion can be mediated in two different ways, depending on the type of organism. The first method incorporates the use of a light-activated system called the light-dependent protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase (LPOR). This system, as …

Cryostat System For Spacecraft Materials Testing, Justin Dekany

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An existing space environment simulation test chamber used in the study of electron emission, sample charging and discharge, electrostatic discharge and arcing, electron transport, and luminescence of spacecraft materials now has extended temperature control capabilities. By incorporating a two-stage, closed-cycle helium cryostat, it is now possible to simulate the temperature typical spacecraft will experience when in orbit, ranging from < 40 K to > 450 K. The system was designed to maintain compatibility with an existing ultrahigh vacuum chamber that can simulate diverse space environments. This vacuum chamber can simulate space environment conditions by producing the same pressure, amount of electrons, electromagnetic radiation and temperature …

To Dot Product Graphs And Beyond, Sean Bailey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We will introduce three new vector representations of graphs. These representations are based on relationships between the vectors that are used. Specifically, we will examine scenarios where we ignore specific relationships, where we consider if information is missing, and where we look for when the information in common is not of a specified amount.

Quantum Mechanical Studies Of Charge Assisted Hydrogen And Halogen Bonds, Binod Nepal

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Like cement bridges one brick to another, noncovalent forces also bridge two or more molecules together to form a molecular crystal or molecular cluster. Although weaker than the covalent bond, the existence of noncovalent forces can be seen everywhere from liquid water to construction of complex biomolecules like DNA, RNA, proteins etc. An introduction of suitable charge; positive or negative, on the binding units can increase the strength of noncovalent interaction by several orders of magnitude. The primary aim of this dissertation is to explore some fundamental properties of such charge assisted noncovalent interactions which will be helpful for the …

Sagebrush Ecology Of Parker Mountain, Utah, Nathan E. Dulfon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

On Parker Mountain located in south central Utah, management actions such as controlling mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. subsp. vaseyana), with mechanical and chemical treatments can increase forage for livestock and benefit wildlife such as greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Tebuthiuron treatments were applied on Parker Mountain from 2000-2012 with assistance from the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, the Utah Department of Food and Agriculture, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Treatments applied to mountain big sagebrush on Parker Mountain provide an important opportunity to evaluate the value of mountain big sagebrush treatments in …

Definition And Construction Of Entropy Satisfying Multiresolution Analysis (Mra), Ju Y. Yi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This paper considers some numerical schemes for the approximate solution of conservation laws and various wavelet methods are reviewed. This is followed by the construction of wavelet spaces based on a polynomial framework for the approximate solution of conservation laws. Construction of a representation of the approximate solution in terms of an entropy satisfying Multiresolution Analysis (MRA) is defined. Finally, a proof of convergence of the approximate solution of conservation laws using the characterization provided by the basis functions in the MRA will be given.

Classification Of Spacetimes With Symmetry, Jesse W. Hicks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spacetimes with symmetry play a critical role in Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Missing from the literature is a correct, usable, and computer accessible classification of such spacetimes. This dissertation fills this gap; specifically, we

i) give a new and different approach to the classification of spacetimes with symmetry using modern methods and tools such as the Schmidt method and computer algebra systems, resulting in ninety-two spacetimes;

ii) create digital databases of the classification for easy access and use for researchers;

iii) create software to classify any spacetime metric with symmetry against the new database;

iv) compare results of our …

Crustal Architecture Of The Snake River Plain, Idaho, Through Geochemical Investigation Of Crustal Sill And Shallow Subvolcanic Xenoliths, Douglas James Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Snake River Plain (SRP) in southern Idaho is one of the most well-preserved examples of continent-hotspot interaction available today. Geophysical studies have imaged a feature ~10 km thick at the base of the upper crust. This feature, termed the “mid-crustal sill complex” is likely a layered mafic intrusion. The study of layered mafic intrusions is important because it provides a link between deep plutonic processes and shallow volcanic processes. Investigation of the mid crustal sill complex will provide better understanding of the evolutionary process of SRP basalts.

This thesis investigates three xenoliths sampled from the Kimama drill core collected …

Oxidative Carbon-Carbon Bond Cleavage Reactions Of Metal Flavonolato And Chlorodiketonate Complexes, Sushma L. Saraf

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The research presented in this dissertation focuses on the oxidative cleavage of chemical bonds between two carbon atoms. This type of reactivity is of significant interest due to its potential application toward the development of ways to convert chemical feed stock into useful products such as pharmaceuticals, polymers and fuels in an environmentally benign and cost-efficient manner. Reactions that cleave specific carbon-carbon bonds, are catalyzed by earth-abundant metals, and involve O₂ as the terminal oxidant, are of particular interest.

Our strategy has been to study the oxidative carbon-carbon bond cleavage reactivity of metal complexes containing components similar to structures …

Confirmation Of A New Geometric And Kinematic Model Of The San Andreas Fault At Its Southern Tip, Durmid Hill, Southern California, Daniel K. Markowski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study explains the origin of the deforming structures between the San Andreas fault and the Salton Sea within the Salton Trough in Southern California. ShakeOut simulations and other studies model shaking resulting from a large rupture on the San Andreas fault. These models simulate a start at the southern fault tip of the San Andreas fault that propagates to the northwest. A secondary strand of the San Andreas fault called the East Shoreline fault is located at the southern tip of the San Andreas fault near the shoreline of the Salton Sea. Between the East Shoreline fault zone and …

Interference Mitigation In Multi-Hop Wireless Networks With Advanced Physical-Layer Techniques, Yantian Hou

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the ever-growing number of wireless systems, the problem of spectrum scarcity is becoming more important than ever. Many devices coexist in the same frequency band, e.g., IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), 802.15.4 (ZigBee), 802.16 (WiMax), and Bluetooth in the ISM bands. Coexisting in the crowded spectrum bands inevitably leads to mutual interferences. For a wireless network, the interference could be from external sources such as microwave oven and cordless phone, or from internal nodes within multi-flow and multi-hop wireless networks. All these interferences can be detrimental to the performance of co-locating networks if they are not properly mitigated. In my dissertation, …

Fluorescent Probes To Investigate Homologous Recombination Dynamics, Eric Parker Davenport

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As the average cell’s DNA undergoes roughly 1 million molecular lesions per day, learning about one of the repair mechanisms which fixes damaged DNA is a worthwhile endeavor. Such work may provide insights into how to treat or prevent diseases such as cancers and associated genetic disorders. Homologous recombination (HR) is one pathway which is used by cells to repair a specific type of DNA damage, double-strand breaks. While HR is a complex process involving over 25 different proteins, exactly how HR works, including its regulation, is largely unknown. One protein in particular, Rad51, forms a filament on the damaged …

The Influence Of Small Displacement Faults On Seal Integrity And Lateral Movement Of Fluids, Eric A. Rasmusson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As groundwater, liquid and gas hydrocarbons, or CO₂ fluids move through the subsurface, faults can act as pathways or barriers to flow. Recent studies also show that when a fault juxtaposes high permeability sandstone against a low permeability shale, the corner at the sandstone-shale interface and the fault can become a site of high pressure that may fracture the seal and allow fluids to escape. This can have negative implications for industries dependent on the quality of that seal, for example, petroleum, CO₂ sequestration, waste fluid injection, and nuclear waste storage industries.

We examined five small-scale faults in …

The Mh-2 Core From Project Hotspot: Description, Geologic Interpretation, And Significance To Geothermal Exploration In The Western Snake River Plain, Idaho, Jerome A. Varriale

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Harnessing the earth’s natural heat generation as an energy resource has seen increased interest in recent history. While geothermal energy is a sustainable, low-carbon emitting, and viable source of energy in certain regions, large upfront risks, including costs of exploration and deep well drilling, have kept private sector investment at bay. Lowering the risks to capital investment that are inherent to subsurface exploration can help to assuage investors and bring this well-known energy-generating technology to the masses.

A blind potential geothermal system was encountered while drilling the MH2 science drill hole, on Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The MH-2 …

Separation Of Points And Interval Estimation In Mixed Dose-Response Curves With Selective Component Labeling, Darl D. Flake Ii

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dose-response experiments are those that involve giving subjects different amounts of a treatment and observing the outcome. For example, plants may be given fertilizer and their growth could be measured or cancer patients could be given different doses of chemotherapy and their response could be monitored. These experiments are used to understand the relationship between the amount of, and response to, the treatment. Logistic regression models are often used to summarize data from these types of experiments. The dose-response experiment that motivated this dissertation involved treating a grain-pest with a pesticide. Some of the beetles had genes that made them …

Importance Of Grad-Shafranov Re-Solves Towards Accurately Modeling An Iter Equilibrium In Nimrod, Joseph Jepson

Physics Capstone Projects

In the year 2013, the United States produced a total of around 4 billion kWh of electricity for its energy consumption needs [1]. Around 67% of this was from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum). To produce energy of this scope requires vast amounts of fuel, at great expense (the EPA estimates that around $29 billion was spent on fossil fuel electric energy production during 2013) [1]. Fusion energy may provide a viable alternative energy source to fossil fuels. As a comparison, producing the US fossil fuel electric energy for 2013 solely from coal would require about 468 billion kg …

Mineral Physics Modeling Of The Effect Of Water On Crustal Seismic Velocity Ratios, Eric Lyman

Physics Capstone Projects

This research explores the relationship between the presence of water (H2O) in the make up of rocks and minerals (specifically quartz) at different levels in the crust. The relationships were calculated using Perple_x software to adjust the level of the different chemical and mineral make up of the rock. The densities were calculated using the velocity of primary waves and shear waves as collected by Tony Lowry. There seems to be at least a casual link between water content and quartz content.

Sexual Assault And The Doctrine Of Chances, Ryan Wallentine

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Sexual assault is a crime whose offenders often commit multiple acts and its victims experience devastating effects. The doctrine of chances is a rule of evidence that may allow evidences of these past events or circumstances to be presented in a court case given they meet certain criteria. This research argues the probability of being innocently prosecuted for rape multiple times is sufficiently low to meet at least one of the criteria for the doctrine of chances to be used in a sexual assault case. Additional implications and related areas of research are included as well.

Stomatal Differences In Western Aspen And Linkage To Drought Tolerance, Brianne Palmer

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Aspen (Populus tremuloides) is the most widely distributed broadleaf forest tree in North America. However, aspen are declining rapidly in areas of the Intermountain West. Aspen in this area are prone to experiencing limited moisture and high temperatures. An important aspect of plant physiology when dealing with these stressors is stomatal function. Stomata control the rate of photosynthesis, therefore, the size and frequency of the stomata is likely to influence the survival of the species in this environment.

An unusual feature of aspen is the high frequency of triploidy in the southern portion of its range. Stomata! size …

Biodiversity Prioritization: A Comparison Of Data Types, Kari Norman

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The identification of important areas for biodiversity is essential for effective allocation of limited conservation resources. Prioritizing regions for conservation based on biodiversity is typically done using global biodiversity maps created using range map data for one or more taxa. While the use of range maps makes pragmatic sense since large-scale survey data is rarely available, it is important to understand the sensitivity of the results to the use of range map data. We studied how prioritizations may change between data types using the North American Breeding Bird survey (BBS) and BirdLife International range maps as a comparison case study. …

Cluster-Based Salient Object Detection Using K-Means Merging And Keypoint Separation With Rectangular Centers, Robert Buck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The explosion of internet traffic, advent of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and increased availability of digital cameras has saturated life with images and videos. Never before has it been so important to sift quickly through large amounts of digital information. Salient Object Detection (SOD) is a computer vision topic that finds methods to locate important objects in pictures. SOD has proven to be helpful in numerous applications such as image forgery detection and traffic sign recognition. In this thesis, I outline a novel SOD technique to automatically isolate important objects from the background in images.

Intraspecific Variation In The Response Of Elymus Elymoides To Competition From Bromus Tectorum, Rebecca K. Mann

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the western United States, thousands of acres of degraded rangelands are dominated by aggressive invasive species such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), and are seeded by managers with native plants in an attempt to restore species diversity, wildlife habitat, and ecosystem services. There are many options for obtaining seeds of native plants; for instance, they can be collected from the region where restoration is to occur, or they may be purchased through commercial producers. For a given plant species, managers may also select seeds from unique subspecies, cultivars, and populations. Genetic differentiation among these within-species groups can not only affect …

Fake Likers Detection On Facebook, Prudhvi Ratna Badri Satya

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As billions of users have used online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, many online services have begun adapting signals of the popularity. For example, search engines rank popular users posts in the top results. A post of a popular user is automatically delivered to the followers or likers. Popular companies in online social networks also get good reputation from people. The popularity on Facebook is measured based on the number of likes in a page. Unfortunately, some crowdsourcing websites (e.g.Microworkers.com) or supply-driven marketplaces (e.g.Fiverr.com) began offering fake liking services in which these crowd workers sent fake likes …

Translating Temporal Sql To Nested Sql, Venkata Rani

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Sequenced and nonsequenced semantics are the two previously researched semantics for the evaluation of an operation in a temporal database such as a query or data modification. Sequenced semantics evaluates an operation in each time instant using only the data alive at that time. Nonsequenced semantics, in contrast, means that an operation explicitly references and manipulates the timestamps in the data.

In this thesis we propose a new framework that shows both semantics are variants of a general temporal semantics. We present the general semantics and show how additional semantics, such as preceding semantics can be realized. The semantics are …

Vision Based Extraction Of Nutrition Information From Skewed Nutrition Labels, Tanwir Zaman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Vision-based extraction of nutritional information from nutrition labels (NLs) available on most product packages is critical to proactive nutrition management, because it improves the user’s ability to engage in continuous nutritional data collection and analysis. However, even users who are health conscious find it difficult to keep track of their nutrition intake due to lack of time, motivation, or training. In order to make nutrition management more proactive we present a Proactive NUTrition Management System (PNUTS), which aims to make nutrition management more user friendly and proactive using computer vision techniques running on smartphones which are ubiquitous and powerful computers …

Structural Insights Into The Regulation Of Electron Transfer In Nitrogenase, And Modulating The Reactivity Of The Isolated Iron Molybdenum Cofactor, Andrew J. Rasmussen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

One of the most important scientific advances in the last century was the Haber-Bosch process, the industrial process of fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere to ammonia. This allowed for the commercial production and sale of nitrogen for important uses such as fertilizer for farming. The Haber-Bosch process is partially credited with the population boom that has been seen in the last century and has greatly increased the standard of living in the developed world today. While this was a great scientific breakthrough, the cost of producing the required ammonia is high, and roughly 2% of worldwide energy is used annually …