Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Managing Inter-Organizational Trust And Risk Perceptions In Transboundary Fisheries Governance Networks, Evelyn Roozee, Dongkyu Kim, Antonia Sohns, Jasper R. De Vries, Owen Temby, Gordon M. Hickey

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Transboundary fishery management represents a significant governance challenge that requires ongoing inter-organizational communication, collaboration, and collective action to ensure sustainability. Previous research suggests that different dimensions of perceived risk, trust, and control interact in complex ways to affect inter-organizational collaborative performance, providing an administrative ‘architecture’ that enables partners to share resources, engage in teamwork, resolve conflict, and coordinate tasks and responsibilities while also allaying their concerns about the alliance. However, the extent to which different control mechanisms influence trust and mitigate the perceived risks of collaboration between the diverse organizations involved in transboundary fisheries management remains unclear. This paper presents …

Advancing Household Robotics: Deep Interactive Reinforcement Learning For Efficient Training And Enhanced Performance, Arpita Soni, Sujatha Alla, Suresh Dodda, Hemanth Volikatla

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The market for domestic robots—made to perform household chore, is growing as these robots relieve people of everyday responsibilities. Domestic robots are generally welcomed for their role in easing human labour, in contrast to industrial robots, which are frequently criticised for displacing human workers. But before these robots can carry out domestic chores, they need to become proficient in a number of minor activities, such as recognizing their surroundings, making decisions, and picking up on human behaviours. Reinforcement learning, or RL, has emerged as a key robotics technology that enables robots to interact with their environment and learn how to …

Joint Interpretation Of Ert And Self-Potential Data To Characterize The Subsurface Geology And Hydrodynamics Along The Sutherland Supply Canal And Paxton Siphon Inlet, Paxton, Nebraska., M. K. Aboushanab, D. R. Hallum, R. M. Joeckel

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2023, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Robert Matthew Joeckel, Nawaraj Shrestha, Jeffrey Westrop

Conservation and Survey Division

This report is a synthesis of groundwater-level monitoring programs in Nebraska. It is a continuation of the series of annual reports and maps produced by the Conservation and Survey Division (CSD) of the University of Nebraska in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since the 1950s. Groundwater-level monitoring began in Nebraska in 1930 to survey the state’s groundwater resources and observe changes in its availability on a regular basis. The CSD and USGS cooperatively developed, maintained, and operated an observation-well network throughout the state. These two agencies were responsible for collecting and archiving this information, and for making it …

Leveraging High Resolution Classifications And Random Forests For Hindcasting Decades Of Mesic Ecosystem Dynamics In The Landsat Time Series, N. E. Kolarik, Nawaraj Shrestha, T. Caughlin, J. S. Brandt

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Transient Electromagnetic (Tem) Survey For Targeted Drilling On The Kurtzhals Property, Cedar County, Nebraska, Jesse Korus, Katherine (Katie) Cameron, Michele Waszgis

Conservation and Survey Division

The Kurtzhals property is in Section 19, Township 30N, Range 3 in Cedar County, Nebraska. The present land use is agricultural row crop, but past use included hog production. Two active irrigation wells are located on adjacent properties to the west and southwest. An irrigation well was installed in the northwest corner of the property in 2022. Due to the low yield (300 gallons per minute) of this well, Mr. Kurtzhals seeks to install an additional irrigation well to supplement the first. Several unsuccessful test holes had been drilled prior to the present survey. The purpose of this survey was …

Multiscale Characterization Of Splays Produced By A Historic, Rain-On-Snow Flood On A Large Braided Stream (Platte River, Central Usa), J. T. Korus, R. M. Joeckel, A. R. Mittelstet, N. Shrestha

Conservation and Survey Division

No abstract provided.

Glitch Veto Based On Unphysical Gravitational Wave Binary Inspiral Templates, Raghav Girgaonkar, Soumya D. Mohanty

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Transient signals arising from instrumental or environmental factors, commonly referred to as glitches, constitute the predominant background of false alarms in gravitational wave searches with ground-based detectors. Therefore, effective data analysis methods for vetoing glitch-induced false alarms are crucial to enhancing the sensitivity of a search. We present a veto method for glitches that impact matched filtering-based searches for binary inspiral signals. The veto uses unphysical sectors in the space of chirp time parameters as well as an unphysical extension including negative chirp times to efficiently segregate glitches from gravitational wave signals in data from a single detector. Inhabited predominantly …

Mhair: A Dataset Of Audio-Image Representations For Multimodal Human Actions, Muhammad Bilal Shaikh, Douglas Chai, Syed M. S. Islam, Naveed Akhtar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Audio-image representations for a multimodal human action (MHAiR) dataset contains six different image representations of the audio signals that capture the temporal dynamics of the actions in a very compact and informative way. The dataset was extracted from the audio recordings which were captured from an existing video dataset, i.e., UCF101. Each data sample captured a duration of approximately 10 s long, and the overall dataset was split into 4893 training samples and 1944 testing samples. The resulting feature sequences were then converted into images, which can be used for human action recognition and other related tasks. These images can …

Developing A Novel Ontology For Cybersecurity In Internet Of Medical Things-Enabled Remote Patient Monitoring, Kulsoom S. Bughio, David M. Cook, Syed A. A. Shah

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

IoT has seen remarkable growth, particularly in healthcare, leading to the rise of IoMT. IoMT integrates medical devices for real-time data analysis and transmission but faces challenges in data security and interoperability. This research identifies a significant gap in the existing literature regarding a comprehensive ontology for vulnerabilities in medical IoT devices. This paper proposes a fundamental domain ontology named MIoT (Medical Internet of Things) ontology, focusing on cybersecurity in IoMT (Internet of Medical Things), particularly in remote patient monitoring settings. This research will refer to similar-looking acronyms, IoMT and MIoT ontology. It is important to distinguish between the two. …

The Biophysical Resilience Capacity Of The Salish Sea’S Tidal Wetlands To Sea Level Rise, Kenna Kuhn

WWU Graduate School Collection

Tidal wetlands offer significant ecosystem services, cultural identity, and economic opportunities, but the impact that projected SLR will have on tidal wetlands in the Salish Sea is not known. In this thesis, I examine the exposure, watershed-scale biophysical resilience capacity, and jurisdictional variation in resilience capacity of the Salish Sea’s tidal wetlands to SLR. I quantify exposure, resilience, and jurisdictional variation using existing spatial data and analysis techniques. I employ a framework for biophysical resilience capacity developed by NOAA and NERRA. This study’s results indicate that there is substantial variation in wetlands area by watershed, from 0 km² to …

Enhancing The Federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment And Restoration Process Through Bayesian Networks: A Case-Study On The Little Mississinewa River, Indiana, April D. Reed

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) program gives Tribes and certain government agencies the authority to assess injury to natural resources and to pursue and implement compensatory action for any resources lost or injured due to unlawful releases of chemicals into the environment. This study was centered around the development of a Bayesian network (BN) decision support tool tailored to the needs of NRDAR practitioners. The goal was to design a probabilistic BN tool that could lend quantitative insight into natural resource injury. A case study was used to develop and demonstrate the tool’s functionality and propriety …

Life Cycle Assessment Of A Hemp-Based Thermal Insulation Panel, Kara Davis

WWU Graduate School Collection

Buildings have a monumental impact on the environment and the economy and account for about 40% of energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and materials entering the economy. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool for quantitatively evaluating the environmental impacts of a product throughout its life span commonly applied in the building and construction sector. While past efforts have focused on reducing operational energy and carbon, attention has shifted towards embodied energy and carbon as buildings become more energy efficient. This graduate thesis applies the LCA framework and investigates the life cycle environmental impacts of a hemp-based thermal insulation panel …

Revealing Binding And Unbinding Pathways Of Small Molecules And Peptides To Enzymes With Enhanced Sampling Methods, Kayla Ariana Croney

WWU Graduate School Collection

In vitro experiments are critical to understanding the biochemistry of molecular systems but it can be a challenge to obtain atomistic resolution. Computational chemistry gives insight to these results with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using Newton’s equations of motion to analyze the motion of atoms and molecules. However, due to insufficient sampling and long-lived metastable states separated by high energy intermediates, enhanced sampling methods must be applied. Metadynamics (MetaD) enhances the exploration of MD by adding time-dependent bias. Here, we applied MetaD to two enzymes to study their substrate binding/unbinding pathways with their respective substrates. Yeast cytosine deaminase (yCD) deaminates …

Transition State Kinetics Through Kramers’ Rate For Variationally Enhanced Sampling., David Cummins

WWU Graduate School Collection

Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations use Newtonian mechanics applied at finite time steps to numerically propagate the time-trajectory of a dynamical system. However, many biochemical processes such as catalysis, ion channel gating, substrate binding, and protein folding evolve over time scales which are orders of magnitudes greater than those afforded by MD and the computational power available today. The development of methods that reduce the computational cost of sampling such rare events help to provide a dynamic insight into these processes. This thesis explores the application of a recently developed enhanced sampling method, Variationally Enhanced Sampling (VES), for calculating kinetic rate …

An Assessment Of Historical And Future Bluff Recession In Puget Sound, Wa, Callie Little

WWU Graduate School Collection

Sea level rise in the coming century is projected to cause substantial changes along the world’s coastlines and adverse effects to communities and environments. Among these changes, questions about the extent, rate, and uncertainty of coastal bluff retreat relative to historical observations and in response to sea level rise are critical to evaluate. Coastal bluffs comprise ~43% of the shoreline across Puget Sound in the Salish Sea and their recession is a growing concern to human safety, property, infrastructure, and diverse ecosystem services for culturally and commercially important fisheries. This project assesses bluff erosion using field observations, structure from motion …

Using Olivine-Hosted Melt Inclusions To Better Understand The Transcrustal Architecture Beneath Mount Baker (Koma Kulshan), North Cascades, Washington, Amanda Florea

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Schriebers Meadow cinder cone is located on the southern flank of Mount Baker and produced the Sulphur Creek lava flows and SC tephra deposits ~9.8 ka. Mount Baker, a Cascade volcano, is located ~50 km east of Bellingham, Washington. Previous work on the Sulphur Creek lava flows show that the eruption comprised two primary bulk rock compositions, ranging from basalt at the toe to basaltic andesite closer to the vent. However, little is known about the relative composition and eruption timing of the SC tephra from the same vent. In this thesis, I quantify compositional variations through the explosive …

The Origin Of Float Rocks On The Western Fan Front In Jezero Crater, Mars, Bavani S. Kathir

WWU Graduate School Collection

Examining loose pieces of rock separated from outcrops, or “float” rocks, at Jezero crater, Mars, and comparing them to in-place outcrops can provide key insights into the crater’s erosional history, the units in the Jezero watershed that the Perseverance rover cannot visit in-situ, and the geologic context for any future returned samples. Here, we used multispectral observations from the Mastcam-Z instrument on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover to investigate the lithology and origin of float rocks found on the western Jezero fan front (sols 415-707). We identified four textural classes of float rocks (conglomerates, layered, massive, and light-toned). We …

Synthesis And Dft Investigations Of Silver Nanocubes Coated With Gold Layers For Enhanced Stability, Ayomide Daniel Oluwafemi

WWU Graduate School Collection

Silver nanocubes (Ag nanocubes) are one of the most important nanostructures, due to their plasmonic capabilities. However, their susceptibility to oxidation upon exposure leads to rounding of their edges or sharp corners, compromising quality and stability. A feasible option to address this issue is to deposit a second metal, such as gold (Au), which is resistant to oxidation, onto the Ag nanocubes. Regrettably, manipulating the synthetic parameters that shape Au coated Ag nanocubes is difficult. The galvanic replacement reaction between Au and Ag can erode, hollow, and disintegrate the Ag nanocubes. We explore several synthetic pathways to achieve well-controlled shaped …

Legacy And Emerging Contaminants Of Concern In Edible Seaweeds Of The Salish Sea, Holly L. Suther

WWU Graduate School Collection

Seaweed are cultivated and harvested around the world for many uses including food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and fuel. Seaweed aquaculture has been on the rise globally, and interest has been expressed in the United States in furthering the development of the industry. Because seaweed can absorb contaminants into their tissues, an understanding of the risks to consumers is important for informing those consumers and maintaining public support for the industry. Seven species of seaweed that are either wild-harvested or of interest to aquaculture were collected from the Washington State Salish Sea and analyzed for differences in contaminants by season, site, algal …

Elucidating The Binding Characteristics Of Lrp1 In Factor Viii Blood Coagulation, Nicole Topor-Madry

WWU Graduate School Collection

Abstract

Factor VIII and von Willebrand factor (vWF) are essential for blood coagulation. FVIII, a large glycoprotein with 2332 amino acids, is crucial in the intrinsic pathway of coagulation. After secretion, FVIII circulates in the bloodstream at approximately one nanomolar concentration, bound to vWF, which protects it from rapid clearance. In response to vascular injury, FVIII is proteolytically activated, dissociates from vWF, and binds to activated platelet surfaces and activated Factor IX, dramatically accelerating the rate of blood clot formation. Hemophilia A, affecting 1 in 5000 males, results from functional FVIII deficiency. Standard treatment involves prophylactic FVIII injections but has …

Biodiversity Of Snow Algae In The North Cascades: Comparing Distinct Microhabitats At Mount Watson., Chloe Beck

WWU Graduate School Collection

Snow algae, commonly known as pink snow, bloom in high alpine environments globally. Snow algae blooms are on every continent, but the biodiversity within them is under studied. The snow habitat is suitable for algae growth in the spring and summer months when liquid water is available in snowpacks. Diverse terrain in alpine systems can create unique and variable snow habitats as snow melts through the growing season. This study describes the biodiversity of blooms from a site, Mt. Watson, in the North Cascade Mountain Range. The measures of biodiversity assessed include species richness, alpha diversity, beta diversity, and genetic …

Examining The Nexus Between Scientific Literacy And Identity In General Chemistry, Tiffany Chamberlain

WWU Graduate School Collection

Scientific literacy is a crucial goal of science education. All citizens need scientific understanding to make rational and informed decisions, and to feel confident in making such decisions. Many students harbor doubts about belonging in science and their identities as science persons. As such, science educators are tasked with helping students develop these skills as they engage in various courses. College instructors incorporate scientific literacy skills as part of their courses in which students are encouraged to develop a science person identity (i.e. science identity) through science identity work. Therefore, learning can be seen as a process of identity …

Estuarine Wetland Restoration Impacts On Carbon Sequestration In The Oldest Projects Along The West Coast, Jenna Schroeder

WWU Graduate School Collection

Mitigating carbon dioxide’s impact on our climate has become an important area of study. One such mitigation technique includes enhancing and protecting the earth’s natural carbon sinks. Estuarine wetlands, though occupying a small fraction of the Earth’s surface, are recognized for their significant carbon storage capacity. This thesis investigates the long-term impacts of estuarine wetland restoration on carbon sequestration by comparing mature restoration sites (20+ years post-restoration) with natural reference sites along California, Oregon, and Washington coasts. This study included 12 estuarine wetlands that each contained at least one reference site and one restoration site. Carbon sequestration rates were determined …

Microbes Of Biotechnological Importance In Acidic Saline Lakes In The Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, Katelyn Boase, Talitha Santini, Elizabeth Watkin

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Acidic salt lakes are environments that harbor an array of biologically challenging conditions. Through 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, and ITS amplicon sequencing of eight such lakes across the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia, we aim to understand the microbial ecology of these lakes with a focus on iron- and sulfur-oxidizing and reducing microorganisms that have theoretical application in biomining industries. In spite of the biological challenges to life in these lakes, the microbial communities were highly diverse. Redundancy analysis of soil samples revealed sulfur, ammonium, organic carbon, and potassium were significant diversities of the microbial community composition. The most abundant …

Implementing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles To Collect Human Gait Data At Distance And Altitude For Identification And Re-Identification, Donn E. Bartram

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Gait patterns are a class of biometric information pertaining to the way a person moves and poses. Gait information is unique to each person and can be used to identify and reidentify people. Historically, this task has been achieved through the use of multiple ground-based imaging sensors. However, as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) advance, they present the opportunity to evolve the process of persons identification and re-identification. Collecting human gait data using UAVs at distances ranging from 20m to 500m and altitudes ranging from 0m to 120m is a challenging task. The current biometric data collection methods, primarily designed for …

Estimating Inorganic Carbon Flux From Coal Mining Discharge Portals In The Bituminous Coal Field Region Of Pennsylvania, Lauren J. Rockwell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

A fundamental driver of the adverse effects associated with coal mining is the interplay of water and oxygen within mined sites, leading to the creation of coal mine drainage (CMD). One often overlooked consequence of CMD is the release of geologically-bound carbon as carbon dioxide (CO₂). The interaction of CMD with carbonate rocks, specifically the presence of sulfuric acid driving the dissolution of these rocks, leads to the release of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC). This study examined 25 CMD locations in an approximately 2,370 km² area within the bituminous coal field region of Pennsylvania (PA), specifically in …

(Non-) Recovery Of An Agricultural Stream From Straightening And Dredging, Aras Anderson Mann

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In recent history, natural, meandering streams have been straightened and dredged to reduce flooding. While this practice can be effective in reducing flooding locally, it often results in the degradation of stream water quality and aquatic ecosystems. A straighter channel inherently increases the stream gradient, which could increase flow velocity, shear stress, and potentially downstream sediment yield. Studies have shown that straightened, channelized streams often begin to return to a meandering pattern 35-50 years post-channelization. Yet cross-sectional surveys and air photo analysis of the stream reach in this study, Deckers Creek, indicate little to no observable trend of the stream …

Modeling The Dynamics Of Radiation Belt Electrons And Ring Current Protons, Xingzhi Lyu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Earth’s inner magnetosphere is a highly dynamic region with various charged particle populations and current systems. The radiation belts, composed of relativistic electrons and protons, is an environment that can pose significant risks to both spacecraft and humans in space; while the fluctuations of ring current, an electric current flowing around the earth consisting of energetic electrons and ions, can lead to severe disruptions in ground-based electrical systems. In this dissertation, we first modeled the long-term evolution of ring current protons based on the measurements of Van Allen Probes. By implementing a 1D radial diffusion model with charge exchange loss, …

Exploring Crystal Polymorphism In Additive-Assisted Chemical Vapor-Deposited Transition Metal Chalcogenides And Oxides, Lawrence Kirimi Mubwika

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Crystal polymorphism is a phenomenon in which compounds with the same chemical formula can be crystallized into different crystal structures. This phenomenon can be observed in elemental materials, such as diamond and graphite, as well as in compounds, such as the trigonal (1H) or octahedral (1T) prismatic MoS₂. Crystals can also exhibit polytypism by stacking different polymorphs in a certain order, with the stacking sequence determining the variation between polytypes. Although all polymorphs and polytypes have the same chemical composition, each polymorph and polytype possesses unique electronic and physical properties.

This study explores the additive-assisted chemical vapor deposition …