Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Molecular Geometries And Other Properties Of H2o⋯Agi And H3n⋯Agi As Characterised By Rotational Spectroscopy And Ab Initio Calculations, Chris Medcraft, Eva Gougoula, Dror M. Bittner, John C. Mullaney, Susana Blanco, David P. Tew, Nicholas R. Walker, Anthony C. Legon

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The rotational spectra of H₃N⋯AgI and H₂O⋯AgI have been recorded between 6.5 and 18.5 GHz by chirped-pulse Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy. The complexes were generated through laser vaporisation of a solid target of silver or silver iodide in the presence of an argon gas pulse containing a low concentration of the Lewis base. The gaseous sample subsequently undergoes supersonic expansion which results in cooling of rotational and vibrational motions such that weakly bound complexes can form within the expanding gas jet. Spectroscopic parameters have been determined for eight isotopologues of H₃N⋯AgI and six isotopologues of …

Multiple Methods Of Public Engagement: Disaggregating Socio-Spatial Data For Environmental Planning In Western Washington, Usa, Rebecca J. Mclain, David Banis, Alexa Todd, Lee Cerveny

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• The effectiveness of participatory GIS approaches at engaging different publics was explored.

• Online surveys engaged urbanites; community workshops engaged rural residents.

• Urban and rural residents went to similar places but engaged in different activities.

• Use of multiple data collection methods will broaden public engagement.

• Mapping behavior studies are needed to improve understandings of PPGIS data quality.

Predicting The Author Of Twitter Posts With Markov Chain Analysis, Daniel Freeman

Honors Theses

Given a set of text with known authors, is it possible to take new text, not knowing who wrote it, and correctly identify the author? One way to do this is to analyze the text using Markov chains. This research project will first attempt to answer this question using books available in the public domain. Using what is learned from trying to identify authors of books, the primary goal of this project is to identify the best way to guess the author of a post on the social media network Twitter using Markov chains.

Land Capability Assessment For Expanding Irrigated Horticulture Around Myalup, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Western Australia, Dafwa

Resource management technical reports

The Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development (DPIRD, formerly Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia), assessed the suitability of land for expanding irrigated horticulture around Myalup, Western Australia. The assessment builds upon existing soil-landscape mapping produced by van Gool and Kipling (1992), and Barnesby and Proulx-Nixon (2000). This report provides guidance to decision-makers and investors about areas with potential for irrigated horticulture.

The survey area for this assessment is east of Myalup, covering 37 800 hectares (ha). Johnston Road forms the northern boundary and the Brunswick River forms the southern boundary (Figure 1.1). The sandy soils of the …

Integration Of Scale-Themed Instruction Across The General Chemistry Curriculum And Selected In-Depth Studies, Jaclyn Trate

Theses and Dissertations

In 1982, in response to a growing demand for a scientifically literate population, two organizations, the AAAS and NCISE published reports that proposed using themes to bridge scientific disciplines1,2. The NCISE report identified “9 explanatory concepts” which included organization, cause and effect, systems, scale, models, change, structure or function, discontinuous and continuous properties, and diversity. The AAAS report, as part of Project 2061, identified 4 themes that define science literacy which included systems, models, constancy and change, and scale. In 1993, the AAAS released the Benchmarks for Science Literacy3 which outlined what all students should know or be able to …

Investigation Of Tribochemical Reactions Using The Model System Of Methyl Thiolate On Copper Foil In Ultrahigh Vacuum And Ab-Initio Calculations, Heather Loren Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Advancement in the understanding of tribochemical systems suffers from several obstacles that hinder the progress in advancing an understanding of the fundamental processes involved in the evolution of friction and wear. Characterizing ephemeral chemical states within a buried interface is an experimental challenge and work in this dissertation uses a model system, methyl thiolate on copper foil, that undergoes tribo-activated decomposition to investigate the rate of change of the chemical components in the interface. The elementary steps in the tribochemical reaction were identified and consist of a shear-induced decomposition of methyl thiolate species to produce gas-phase hydrocarbons and form surface …

Construction Of Finite Group, Michelle Soyeong Yeo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The main goal of this project is to present my investigation of finite images of the progenitor 2^(*n) : N for various N and several values of n. We construct each image by using the technique of double coset enumeration and give a proof of the isomorphism type of the image. We obtain the group 7^2: D_6 as a homomorphic image of the progenitor 2^(*14) : D_14, we obtain the group 2^4 : (5 : 4) as a homomorphic image of the progenitor 2^(*5) : (5 : 4), we obtain the group (10 x10) : ((3 x 4) : 2) …

Making Models With Bayes, Pilar Olid

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Bayesian statistics is an important approach to modern statistical analyses. It allows us to use our prior knowledge of the unknown parameters to construct a model for our data set. The foundation of Bayesian analysis is Bayes' Rule, which in its proportional form indicates that the posterior is proportional to the prior times the likelihood. We will demonstrate how we can apply Bayesian statistical techniques to fit a linear regression model and a hierarchical linear regression model to a data set. We will show how to apply different distributions to Bayesian analyses and how the use of a prior affects …

Shadow Patching: Exemplar-Based Shadow Removal, Ryan Sears Hintze

Theses and Dissertations

Shadow removal is an important problem for both artists and algorithms. Previous methods handle some shadows well but, because they rely on the shadowed data, perform poorly in cases with severe degradation. Image-completion algorithms can completely replace severely degraded shadowed regions, and perform well with smaller-scale textures, but often fail to reproduce larger-scale macrostructure that may still be visible in the shadowed region. This paper provides a general framework that leverages degraded (e.g., shadowed) data to guide the image completion process by extending the objective function commonly used in current state-of-the-art image completion energy-minimization methods. This approach achieves realistic shadow …

Geological Characterization Of Precambrian Nonconformities: Implications For Injection-Induced Seismicity In The Midcontinent United States, Laura Cuccio

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The midcontinent United States, a region which typically does not experience many earthquakes, has experienced a significant increase in the number of earthquakes over the last decade. This increase in earthquake activity has been linked to wastewater injection, a process in which large volumes of wastewater from oil and gas extraction are injected into deep (2-3 km), high-permeability sedimentary rocks, near low-permeability Precambrian (>540-million-year-old) crystalline ‘basement’ rocks. The contact between these two rock types is referred to as the Precambrian nonconformity. Injection-induced earthquakes occur on or near basement-hosted faults due to an increase in pore fluid pressures, which implies …

The Investigation Of Gravity Waves In The Mesosphere / Lower Thermosphere And Their Effect On Sporadic Sodium Layer, Xuguang Cai

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Gravity waves in the atmosphere are the waves with gravity and buoyancy force as the restoring forces. Gravity waves will significantly impact the Mesosphere Lower / Thermosphere (MLT), and the breaking of gravity waves is the key factor to cause the cool summer and warm winter in the Mesopause region. Therefore, it is important for us to investigate gravity waves. In this dissertation, we mainly use USU Na lidar data to explore gravity waves in the MLT. The exploration is made up of two projects. One is the investigation of gravity wave breaking and the associated dynamic instability by USU …

Exploring And Describing The Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Medusahead In The Channeled Scablands Of Eastern Washington Using Remote Sensing Techniques, Timothy M. Bateman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Medusahead is a harmful weed that is invading public lands in the West. The invasion is a serious concern to the public because it can reduce forage for livestock and wildlife, increase fire frequency, alter important ecosystem cycles (like water), reduce recreational activities, and produce landscapes that are aesthetically unpleasing. Invasions can drive up costs that generally require taxpayer’s dollars. Medusahead seedlings typically spread to new areas by attaching itself to passing objects (e.g. vehicles, animals, clothing) where it can quickly begin to affect plants communities. To be effective, management plans need to be sustainable, informed, and considerate to invasion …

Structure And Property Calculations Of Amorphous Ceramics And Glasses Using Density Functional Theory Calculations And Empirical Potential Molecular Dynamic Simulations, Atreyi Dasmahapatra

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations

The work in this thesis involves modeling amorphous ceramics and glasses using the tools of DFT and classical MD. Systems investigated include: metal-silicate glasses (in particular HfO2- SiO2), composite coatings (comprising of Zr-Si-B-C-N), and the refractory materials amorphous silicon nitride (a-Si3N4) and amorphous silicon boron nitride (a-SiBN). Modeling techniques include traditional “melt-and-quench” simulations combined with simulated annealing. Structures are further investigated for their physical and chemical properties. A brief overview of each chapter is given below: Hafnia-silica glasses (HfO2-SiO2) find applications in microelectronics and optical waveguides. I did a computational study of the thermochemistry of these compounds exploring enthalpy of …

Mapping Structural Deformation Associated With The Formation Of The Blue Ridge Salt Dome, Mason Phillip Bonner

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

Geologic mapping and subsurface imaging around salt has remained difficult. Seismic imaging is difficult near salt due to the large velocity contrasts between salt and the surrounding rocks, the steeply dipping salt and sediment interface, and the presence of pinching beds on the flanks of the dome; but when combined with well control from previously drilled wells on top and on the flanks of a salt dome, a more complete profile of the subsurface structure becomes possible. Previous work has produced models of salt dome formation and the surrounding structural deformation, and when compared to seismic data, show a good …

Characterization Of Nanopetrophysical Properties Of The Mancos “B”/ Prairie Canyon Member Of The Mancos Shale, Rio Blanco, Colorado, Scott Brian Leaseburge

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

Over the past decade hydrocarbon production from unconventional reservoirs has grown to become a significant source of North American domestic energy and will likely continue so for decades to come. However, production from unconventional reservoirs is plagued with low overall recovery and sharp declines in production. Low matrix permeability and poor pore connectively are significant factors limiting recovery and production. Research into the fluid flow characteristics of low permeability reservoirs can lead to extended initial production and greater overall recovery. Technically recoverable unconventional oil and gas resources in the Mancos Shale of the Piceance Basin are estimated to be 66.3 …

Identification Of Proteolytic Cleavage And Arginine Modifications By Chemical Labeling And Mass Spectrometry, Maheshika S.K. Wanigasekara

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations

Post-translational modification of proteins plays a significant role in the regulation of cellular processes. During the translation, process proteins undergo different modifications, which are known as post-translational modifications (PTMs). Due to their low abundances, PTM analysis presents several challenges; therefore, efficient and sensitive PTM detection methods are required. Arginine is an essential amino acid in a cell, which undergoes several kinds of PTMs. Finding these functional arginine residues in a protein is a challenging task. The task was successfully addressed, and the findings are not only reported herein, but an assessment was recently reported covering the new chemical labeling methods …

Coupled Geochemical And Nano-Petrophysical Study Of The Utica Play, Appalachian Basin, Ohio, U.S.A., Dillon Worley

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

Being more extensive than the Marcellus Play, the Utica Play covers from New York state in the north to northeastern Kentucky and Tennessee in the south. The Utica Play is a stacked play consisting of organic-rich mudstones from upper Ordovician units of Utica Shale, Point Pleasant, and the Logana member of the Lexington/Trenton Limestone. This study will focus on the pore structure and rock-fluid interaction and with relation to the rocks geochemical properties to assess the Utica Play. To achieve this research purpose, 7 core samples and 16 cuttings, with different maturities were collected from various wells, to study rocks …

Nano-Scale Petrophysical Studies Of The Gothic Shale Interval In The Paradox Basin, Colorado, U.S.A., Marvin L. Dunbar

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

Hydrocarbon production from shale has become a main energy source for the United States. Consequently, an increased knowledge of the petrophysical properties of shale such as porosity, permeability, tortuosity, and fluid-rock interactions (e.g., contact angle, imbibition) will improve production efficiency. Because of their minute size (nanoscale), the knowledge of pore structure (i.e., pore geometry and connectivity) has proven difficult to understand. Analyzing the pore size distribution and pore connectivity of Gothic Shale from selected locations in the Montezuma County of Colorado will lead to recommendations for greater oil production efficiency, fostering innovation into a thriving, environmentally safe, oil and gas …

Nanoenergetic Gas Generators Based On Metal Hydroxides, Srbuhi Yolchinyan

Theses and Dissertations

The metal oxide based nano thermites have been studied extensively, yet another closely related systems based on metal hydroxides were surprisingly overlooked. For the first time, the thermodynamic calculations using HSC Chemistry-7 and Thermo software, were performed for a collection of 22 novel nano-thermite systems based on aluminum and metal hydroxides, and four representative systems based on bismuth, copper, cerium and nickel hydroxides were characterized using differential scanning calorimeter, scanning electron microscope, and pressure discharge dynamic evaluation. The strongest performance was recorded in Al-Bi(OH)3 system with about 4.9 MPa peak pressure for 0.2 g charge mass. Bismuth oxide and hydroxide …

Oxidation Of Dibenzothiophene To Dibenzothiophene-Sufone Using A Molybdenum (Vi) Oxide Catalyst: A Kinetic Study Testing Solvent Dependency And Mole Ratio Efficiency, Tomas Trevino Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Oxidative desulfurization (ODS) is currently a solution to hydrodesulphurization. Currently, industrial usage of hydrodesulphurization (HDS) is the common source for petroleum purification. Unfortunately, HDS comes with environmental and economical ramifications. Due to the problems and potential hazards being presented with HDS, ODS has become a topic of interest in research development. A kinetic study using molybdenum (VI) oxide as a catalyst was used in oxidative desulfurization. Factors such as mole ratio and solvent dependency were tested for efficiency. As activation energy was calculated to show maximum efficiency with respect to temperature and concentration. Gas Chromatography, FT-IR, and Mass Spectroscopy were …

Phylogeography Of An Estuarian Calanoid Copepod; Acartia Tonsa In The Texas Gulf Of Mexico, Nicole J. Figueroa

Theses and Dissertations

The calanoid copepod, Acartia tonsa is one of the most abundant and well-studied estuarian species. However, the idea that this cosmopolitan species has unrestricted dispersal and high gene flow has been challenged. In this study, a more holistic picture of the phylogeography of A. tonsa was developed using the mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase one (mtCOI). Multiple new lineages were found in the Texas Gulf of Mexico that are basal to Northeastern Atlantic lineages. Connectivity was also observed between Brazil and the Texas Gulf of Mexico. The revised phylogeny shows a clear pattern of cryptic speciation as the species made a …

Development Of An Innovative Observational Astronomy Class For High School Students In Collaboration With The University Of Texas/Rio Grande Valley, Alan W. Hendrick

Theses and Dissertations

The vision presented by the National Academy of Science Standards is for all students to spend more time ‘doing’ science in order to develop science literacy and be better prepared not only for college but also in understanding and participation in global current events. A course in observational Astronomy is just that, an opportunity for student to “do ‘science by collaborating with actual scientists in real research. The course follows a path in which students learn foundational knowledge and apply this knowledge to complete a successful celestial observation, interpreting the results by making inferences and predictions. This paper begins with …

Mechanistic Studies Of The Iron And Molybdenum Nitrogenases, Derek Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As a basic building block in many biological molecules the element nitrogen (N) is essential for life. Dinitrogen (N2) is abundant in Earth’s atmosphere, but this form is biologically unavailable. To be biologically available N2 must undergo an energy demanding reduction reaction to the fixed form, ammonia (NH3). The industrial Haber-Bosch process, which accounts for approximately 50% of the worlds fixed nitrogen, uses energy from fossil fuels to achieve high pressures and temperatures to facilitate the reaction. The energy used by Haber-Bosch accounts for approximately 2% of the world’s annual supply. The remainder of fixed nitrogen is produced biologically by …

Optimizing Bioengineered Vascular Systems: A Genetic Algorithm Approach, Sima Mehri Kochaki

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Efficiency of current cell cultures producing biological products is limited due to accumulation of the product and waste on the cells. A previous work aims at assisting bioengineers in solving this problem by introducing a new set of cells which possess the ability to connect to one another and thus form a network. Once created, the network of cells can help the initial cellules by removing their waste and product as well as nourishing them. Our project explores a technique to be able to create the best network of such cells; hence maximizing the amount of metabolic product in the …

Extensions And Improvements To Random Forests For Classification, Anna Quach

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The motivation of my dissertation is to improve two weaknesses of Random Forests. One, the failure to detect genetic interactions between two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in higher dimensions when the interacting SNPs both have weak main effects and two, the difficulty of interpretation in comparison to parametric methods such as logistic regression, linear discriminant analysis, and linear regression.

We focus on detecting pairwise SNP interactions in genome case-control studies. We determine the best parameter settings to optimize the detection of SNP interactions and improve the efficiency of Random Forests and present an efficient filtering method. The filtering method is …

Novel Statistical Models For Quantitative Shape-Gene Association Selection, Xiaotian Dai

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Other research reported that genetic mechanism plays a major role in the development process of biological shapes. The primary goal of this dissertation is to develop novel statistical models to investigate the quantitative relationships between biological shapes and genetic variants. However, these problems can be extremely challenging to traditional statistical models for a number of reasons: 1) the biological phenotypes cannot be effectively represented by single-valued traits, while traditional regression only handles one dependent variable; 2) in real-life genetic data, the number of candidate genes to be investigated is extremely large, and the signal-to-noise ratio of candidate genes is expected …

Rancher Perceptions Of Ecosystem Services From Rangelands Of The Intermountain West, Elisabeth C. York

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rangelands within the Great Basin are responsible for the provision of multiple resources that humans depend on for a variety of reasons. Ranchers in this region are dependent on public lands to remain economically viable in their cattle operations. As a majority of land in this region is publically owned, there are varying interests at play in what should and could be the focus of management. Ranchers are charged with implementing strategies aimed at conserving these landscapes and their motivations for what to manage may significantly influence resource provision from Intermountain West ecosystem.

In this study, I sought to understand …

Non-Methane Hydrocarbon Source Apportionment And Btex Risk Assessment Of Winter 2015 In Roosevelt, Utah, Jerimiah Lamb

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Non-Methane Hydrocarbons (NMHC) monitored in Roosevelt Utah including Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene (collectively known as BTEX) are associated with deleterious effects including cancer. This study was designed to assess the origin and effect of the toxicants and addressed two points: 1) Source identification using the USEPA’s Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) and NOAA’s Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model and 2) A human health risk assessment based on ambient concentrations of BTEX collected at the Roosevelt site. Model fit indicated that the primary contributor to total NMHCs was local oil and gas operations and was supported by previous …

Extracting And Visualizing Data From Mobile And Static Eye Trackers In R And Matlab, Chunyang Li

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Eye tracking is the process of measuring where people are looking at with an eye tracker device. Eye tracking has been used in many scientific fields, such as education, usability research, sports, psychology, and marketing. Eye tracking data are often obtained from a static eye tracker or are manually extracted from a mobile eye tracker. Visualization usually plays an important role in the analysis of eye tracking data. So far, there existed no software package that contains a whole collection of eye tracking data processing and visualization tools. In this dissertation, we review the eye tracking technology, the eye tracking …

Optimizing Barrier Removal To Restore Connectivity In Utah’S Weber Basin, Maggi Kraft

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

River barriers, such as dams, culverts and diversions are important for water conveyance, but disrupt river ecosystems and hydrologic processes. River barrier removal is increasingly used to restore and improve river habitat and connectivity. Most past barrier removal projects prioritized individual barriers using score-and-rank techniques, neglecting the spatial structure and cumulative change from multiple barrier removals. Similarly, most water demand models satisfy human water uses or, only prioritize aquatic habitat, failing to include both human and environmental water use benefits. In this study, a dual objective optimization model identified in-stream barriers that impede quality-weighted aquatic habitat connectivity for Bonneville cutthroat …