Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Telling Stories: Designing Effective Data Visualization And Climate Change Communication Tools, Ilon E. Logan, Carol Macilroy

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

As a scientific community, our understanding of the potential effects of a changing climate has increased dramatically over the past decade. We are integrating multiple models with increasing sophistication and projecting impacts at the local scale. But the results of our scientific data and analysis are only as good as their presentation to the public and other decision-makers. Telling the stories of our work using technology and thoughtful, accurate, and visually compelling graphics is paramount in today’s information-rich environment. MacIlroy Consulting, Inc. and Environmental Science Associates (ESA) collaborated to develop data visualization and communication tools for the Skagit Climate Science …

Developing Locally-Driven (Shoreline) Monitoring Programs In The Salish Sea (And Beyond), David Sale

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

During the development of the Bainbridge Island Shoreline Monitoring Program (SMP), a volunteer group of scientists and engineers (Bainbridge Island Environmental Technical Advisory (ETAC)), provided the City of Bainbridge Island (COBI) City Council and staff with advice and recommendations on relevant shoreline science and the SMP. One of the recommendations was for COBI to adopt and initiate a locally–driven and -managed monitoring program to address both the effectiveness of the SMP over time, and uncertainties in knowledge of specific Bainbridge Island shoreline drivers and processes. The program would be designed to integrate past and current studies by COBI and other …

Volunteer-Assisted Monitoring Of A Significant Private Bulkhead Removal, Jeffrey Adams, Brenda Padgham, Jason David Toft, Kyra O'Neil, Kate Litle

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Monitoring efforts to restore physical and biological functions along developed shorelines can take many forms and be influenced by monitoring goals, the scope and scale of the project, and available resources. The Powel project in Port Madison on Bainbridge Island, Washington, had regional significance because of its scale (removing 1544 lineal feet of armor), the diversity of types of armor and shoreline, and its private ownership, but it lacked the funding to support a broad, long-term monitoring program. Not willing to let the opportunity pass without some effort to gather as much appropriate information as possible about the impact and …

Pacific Region Contaminants Atlas, Rob Knight, Chris Garrett, Peter Ross, Brad Mason

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Pacific Region Contaminants Atlas (PRCA) is an online resource created to explore environmental contaminants topics in British Columbia, Canada. The industrialized and urbanized Georgia Basin, situated in the southwestern corner of British Columbia, is one of the key areas of concern and is the current focus of this Atlas.

Information sharing is crucial to effective decision-making by stakeholders. This web atlas provides access to scientific and technical information to support such decision-making and presents information on successes, future needs, and continuing concerns with respect to contaminants in the Georgia Basin.

In addition, the Atlas includes a Kids’ Page, an …

A Long-Term Phytoplankton Monitoring Program For Central Puget Sound Using Particle Imaging, Gabriela Hannach, Lyndsey M. Swanson

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Puget Sound is a large and highly productive estuarine system that is vulnerable to climate change and anthropogenic impacts from a growing population. King County operates an exceptionally comprehensive, long-running monitoring program designed to assess water quality in the Puget Sound Central Basin. Data are collected year-round for a suite of physical, chemical, and biological parameters. Phyoplankton monitoring using traditional methods was added to the program in 2008 to address a significant biological data gap at the lower trophic level. Since acquisition of a FlowCAM particle imaging system in 2014 the program is generating a more extensive and robust dataset …

Protecting Puget Sound From Csos By Retrofitting Urban Neighborhoods With Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Kathryn Gwilym Pe, John Phillips, Steve Burke Pe, Peg Staeheli Fasla

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

In 2009 King County Wastewater Treatment Division (KCWTD) selected green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) as the preferred alternative for controlling combined sewer overflows (CSO) for the 1100-acre Barton combined sewer system (CSS) basin in Seattle. In 2008 KCWTD reported that the basin had an average of four overflows per year that discharge a total of four million gallons into Puget Sound. In order to reduce the overflows to no more than one CSO event per year for Washington State’s Department of Ecology compliance, KCWTD retrofitted 15 residential streets with bioretention cells in order to intercept, treat and reduce the amount of …

Movements Of Sub-Adult Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha) In Puget Sound, Washington, As Indicated By Hydroacoustic Tracking, Anna Kagley, Joseph Smith, Kurt L. Fresh, Kinsey Frick, Thomas P. (Thomas Peter) Quinn

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Alternative forms of migratory behavior can have substantial consequences for the growth, survival, and fitness of the individuals involved. Salmonids vary in the tendency of individuals to migrate to marine waters (anadromy) or remain in freshwater habitats. In addition, substantial variation in migratory patterns can exist among anadromous and resident species. This talk summarizes our use of hydroacoustic telemetry to investigate the movement patterns of anadromous Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha remaining in the marine waters of Puget Sound after ocean entry rather than continuing out to the coastal waters of the North Pacific Ocean, as is typical of the species. …

A Nonparametric Statistical Approach To Analyzing Eelgrass Density Data, Traci L. Sanderson, Michelle Spani, Andrew Rippington

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

As part of continuing work in Port Gamble, WA a diver-based eelgrass survey was completed to support the application for a Hydraulic Project Approval (HPA), as required by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) for in-water work. The survey was completed following interim guidelines established by WDFW in 2008, although to fit the guidelines to the specific project some methods were modified and approved by WDFW. Collecting statistically robust data proved to be difficult, as shoot density in the eelgrass bed was highly variable. In some areas the variance was so high that power calculations estimated the …

Environmentally Sound Energy For The Future, Genevra E L Harker-Klimes

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

One of the growing industries in coastal and ocean waters is marine renewable energy. To date, there have been very few deployments in US waters, but the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Marine Sciences Laboratory is conducting research into the environmental impacts of such developments in order to enable the industry to grow. At one time, there were nine tidal projects being investigated within Puget Sound, and none of these has been taken forward. There were several reasons why these projects did not progress but one of the key factors was the cost of the environmental studies. Consequently, there is a …

From The Ivory Tower Through The Black Box: Engaging Effectively With Government To Turn Ideas Into Action, Gabriel Mastico

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

When researchers, communities, and/or environmental organizations propose new approaches to address ecological challenges, responsibility for implementing them often falls (in part) to practitioners working within government. Government employees face considerable challenges in synthesizing the available knowledge to support a recommendation for decision-makers to adopt a new approach. This presentation draws on an insider’s experience to help conservation researchers and practitioners understand the key challenges and opportunities that government employees face in navigating their organizations’ decision-making processes. It also suggests best practices to help proponents of new approaches frame conservation finance ideas in ways that resonate with local governments and their …

An Inventory Of Environmental Governance In The Salish Sea, Laurie D. Trautman

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

How is the natural environment of the Salish Sea governed? The fact that the Salish Sea is bifurcated by a national border has inhibited our ability to answer this question. Indeed, the Salish Sea involves not only two national governments, but also a multitude of both state and non-state actors, which exist across scales, and interact in different frameworks (i.e. First Nations/tribes often seek only to negotiate with federal, rather than state/provincial governments). Environmental governance in the Salish Sea also encompasses informal modes of interaction involving public and private interest groups, social movements and community stakeholders, in addition to traditional …

Mapping On The Edge: Shoreline Mapping For Regulation And Voluntary Stewardship, Kate E. Emmings

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Nothing generates conversations between landowners and local government like a map! Shoreline mapping is a crucial decision making tool for local governments and regulators. It provides information about appropriate location of shoreline infrastructure, such as docks, and informs landowners about the location of important natural transition areas between the land and the sea. Maps can also provide information that limits the activities of private landowners and as such can cause community conflict if they are inaccurate or unclear. Because mapping can be used to inform regulation, local governments often have different needs than scientists and NGOs, but there is no …

Variable Marsh Resilience To Stress Offers Clues To Climate Change Adaptive Management, Roger Nathan Fuller, Katrina L. Poppe, John M. Rybczyk, Eric Grossman, Chad Stellern

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

In Puget Sound’s Stillaguamish estuary, tidal marshes exhibit evidence of multiple stressors that affect their vulnerability and provide insight into adaptive management opportunities to enhance their resilience. Despite high accretion rates, some marsh areas have receded by 10m/yr since 1964. Sources of stress include overgrazing by snow geese, high soil salinities, insect attacks, and changes in flow and inundation patterns. These interact with winter vegetation structure, sediment composition, and wave exposure to result in spatially variable marsh resilience. Some marshes are receding quickly, some slowly, and others are minimally affected. In the context of climate change, with potentially substantial near-term …

Curvature: A Geometric Villain That Ruins Our Instinctive Perception Of Nature, Vehbi Emrah Paksoy

Mathematics Colloquium Series

Our perception of nature is based on evolutionary wiring of our brain and observations we make via our senses. But, in reality, many scientific and technological advancements are based on non-intuitive rules and principles that can only be explained by the ultimate abstraction that is embedded in mathematics. In this talk, I will discuss the concept of curvature and argue how it explains the “unexplainable”. We will see how the curvature proves that the earth is rotating, how good the soap bubbles are at proving profound mathematical results, and if the two dimensional residents can determine the shape of their …

A Student-Participation Approach To Attaining Sustainability On Campus, Dennis Wing Kin Wu

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Motion Analysis Using Wearable Wireless Sensors To Support Treatment Of Diseases In The Elderly, Calvin Hoi Kok Cheung, Timothy Kin Sang Lee

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Reusing Pre-Consumer Textile Waste, Yuk Lan Lau

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of A Smart School Bag System For Reminding Students Of Forgotten Items And Reducing The Weight Of Their Bags, Sau Ming Lau, Yammy Wai Yan Wong, Fiona Wing Yin Luk, Stella Sin Tung Kwok

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Inject And Sustain Sustainability (Is2) In Automatic Fare Collection Projects, Hillary Kin Hung Lau, Nicholas Chun Kit Wong

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Novel Photocatalyst For The Advanced Antibiotic Oxidation Of Wastewater, Dickson Yuk Shing Yan, Frank Leung Yuk Lam

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Match-Making For Stability: A Survey Of The Stable Marriage Problem, Adam J. Hammett

Mathematics Colloquium

No abstract provided.

Bayes Multiple Binary Classifier - How To Make Decisions Like A Bayesian, Wensong Wu

Mathematics Colloquium Series

This presentation will start by a general introduction of Bayesian statistics, which has become popular in the era of big data. Then we consider a two-class classification problem, where the goal is to predict the class membership of M units based on the values of high-dimensional categorical predictor variables as well as both the values of predictor variables and the class membership of other N independent units. We focus on applying generalized linear regression models with Boolean expressions of categorical predictors. We consider a Bayesian and decision-theoretic framework, and develop a general form of Bayes multiple binary classification functions with …

Morphological Parsing Of Albanian Language: A Different Approach To Albanian Verbs, Iir Çollaku, Eşref Adali

UBT International Conference

The very first step when processing a natural language is creating a morphological parser. Verbs in Albanian language are the most complex area of inflection. Besides irregular verbs, the ways in which the regular verbs change their form while being inflected are hardly definable, and the number of exceptions is huge. In this paper, a different approach to Albanian verbs is made. Unlike traditional classification, based on the inflection themes they take, verbs are classified into different verb groups. This way, the inflection process looks clearer and more regular, as the affix remains the only changeable part of the inflected …

Perfect Metamaterial Absorber Based Energy Harvesting Application In Ism Band, Furkan Dincer, Mehmet Bakir, Muharrem Karaaslan, Kemal Delihacioglu, Cumali Sabah

UBT International Conference

An electromagnetic (EM) energy harvesting application based on metamaterial absorber (MA) is introduced and discussed in this paper. This application is operating at ISM band (2.40 GHz) which is especially chosen due to its wide usage area. Square ring resonator (SRR) which has two gaps and resistors across the gaps on it is used. Chips resistors are used to deliver power to any active component. Transmission and reflection characteristics of metamaterial absorber (MA) for energy harvesting application are investigated. 83.6% efficient for energy harvesting application is realized in this study.

The Analytic Hierarchic Process: A Model To Evaluate The Risk Of Getting Cancer, Daniela (Halidini) Qendraj, Markela Muca

UBT International Conference

The aim of this study is to classify the risk factors of being with a type of cancer by applying the AHP (analytic hierarchy process) scale. The Saaty’s analytic hierarchy process is applied for computing weights for the factors, is a modeling for classification. A case study of QSUT Tirana hospital data base is presented to rank four cancer types. By the data collect from the hospital during the years 2011-2015, the results show that lung cancer is mostly spread in humans, and the prostate cancer is lower spread in humans.

Randomizing Ensemble-Based Approaches For Outlier, Lediona Nishani, Marenglen Biba

UBT International Conference

The data size is increasing dramatically every day, therefore, it has emerged the need of detecting abnormal behaviors, which can harm seriously our systems. Outlier detection refers to the process of identifying outlying activities, which diverge from the remaining group of data. This process, an integral part of data mining field, has experienced recently a substantial interest from the data mining community. An outlying activity or an outlier refers to a data point, which significantly deviates and appears to be inconsistent compared to other data members. Ensemble-based outlier detection is a line of research employed in order to reduce the …

Microsimulation Models For Simulating Pathways Of Patients With Mental Diseases, Andreas Bauer, Felix Breitenecker, Christoph Urach

UBT International Conference

Predicting demand for care is necessary to provide sufficient capacities in hospitals and enable better planning to cope with challenges like changes in the structure of the population. Emphasis in this work is put on the analysis of the data and on the parametrization of a simulation model for the paths of patients with mental diseases through the health care system. Survival analysis and model selection methods are used for this purpose. Data on patients and their treatments is analyzed with methods of survival analysis. Different methods for modelling the survival and hazard function are presented and compared. Hereby, the …

Exploring The Role Of Sentiments In Identification Of Active And Influential Bloggers, Mohammad Alghobiri, Umer Ishfaq, Hikmat Ullah Khan, Tahir Afzal Malik

UBT International Conference

The social Web provides opportunities for the public to have social interactions and online discussions. A large number of online users using the social web sites create a high volume of data. This leads to the emergence of Big Data, which focuses on computational analysis of data to reveal patterns, and associations relating to human interactions. Such analyses have vast applications in various fields such as understanding human behaviors, studying culture influence, and promoting online marketing. The blogs are one of the social web channels that offer a way to discuss various topics. Finding the top bloggers has been a …

Bounty Techniques For Web Vulnerability Scanning, Tanzer Abazi, Mentor Hoxhaj, Edmond Hajrizi, Gazmend Krasniqi

UBT International Conference

With the advancement of technology and the raising of massive amount of data, the used techniques for data security are continually a challenge. This paper contributes on identifying the gaps and evaluating security level on web portals hosted or managed by Republic of Kosovo institutions or businesses, whose data privacy and security could be a big business concern. The results have been obtained from real case scenario, where 25 security researchers have contributed in white hack activities. These activities, were part of a one day conference called. “The DAY when hacking is legal”, held in Pristine.

Implementation Of The Aodv Routing In An Energy-Constrained Mesh Network, Altin Zejnullahu, Zhilbert Tafa

UBT International Conference

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) compose the fundamental platform for a number of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, especially those related to the environmental, health, and military surveillance. While being autonomous in power supply, the main challenge in node’s processing and communication architecture design remains the energy efficiency. However, this goal should not limit the main functionality of the system which is often related to the network coverage and connectivity. This paper shows the implementation of the Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing algorithm in an XBee based platform. As shown, the network can achieve low power consumption per node primarily …