Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Ontology-Based Formal Approach For Safety And Security Verification Of Industrial Control Systems, Ramesh Neupane

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Control logics, as part of the Industrial Control Systems (ICS), are used to control the physical processes of the critical infrastructures such as power plants, water, and gas distribution, etc. Most commonly, the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) manages these processes through actuators based on information received from sensor readings. Any safety issues or cyberattacks on these systems may have catastrophic consequences on human lives and the environment. In an effort to improve the resilience and security of control logics, this thesis provides algorithms and tools to formally define the safety and security requirements w.r.t. the physical processes, and the industrial …

Long-Term Trends In Extreme Environmental Events With Changepoint Detection, Mintaek Lee

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines long-term trends in extreme environmental events with considerations for changepoints and autocorrelation. Due to changes in measurement location, observer, instrument, sampling protocol, local ecosystem, etc., many environmental time series often contain inhomogeneous changes in their distributions. If ignored in the modeling process, these inhomogeneities could produce misleading estimation of the long-term trends in these environmental extremes. Because documentations for these changepoint-inducing events could be incomplete or missing in many cases, those changepoints need to be estimated from the data. Here, we use a genetic algorithm to estimate the number and times of changepoints in the environmental extremes …

Disturbance, Vegetation Co-Occurrence, And Human Intervention As Drivers Of Plant Species Distributions In The Sagebrush Steppe, Fiona Claire Schaus Noonan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Changes in fire regimes, invasive species dynamics, human land use, and drought conditions have shifted important plant species in the Northern Great Basin (NGB)—including big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp.), conifers (e.g., Juniperus spp.) and invasive annual grasses (e.g., Bromus tectorum). Characterizing how these overlapping disturbances influence species distributions is critical for land management decision-making. Previous research has explored the individual effects of drought, wildfire, restoration, and invasive species on sagebrush steppe communities, but the specific effects of these disturbances in context with one another remain poorly understood at a landscape scale. To address this …

Robust Inference In Wireless Sensor Networks, Santosh Paudel

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a systematic approach to obtain robust statistical inference schemes in unreliable networks. Statistical inference offers mechanisms for deducing the statistical properties of unknown parameters from the data. In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), sensor outputs are transmitted across a wireless communication network to the fusion center (FC) for final decision-making. The sensor data are not always reliable. Some factors may cause anomaly in network operations, such as malfunction, corruption, or compromised due to some unknown source of contamination or adversarial attacks.

Two standard component failure models are adopted in this study to describe the system vulnerability: the probabilistic …

Ranchers' And Federal Land Managers' Perceptions Of Rangeland Management Across An Environmental Gradient, Calandria Puntenney

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Managing semi-arid rangelands to meet social-ecological goals requires monitoring of key ecological indicators that will inform management responses. These goals and monitoring objectives are in turn grounded in land managers’ understandings, or “mental models,” of how the rangeland system operates. Rangeland managers’ mental models are often highly place-specific, which can enable management actions to be matched to local conditions. In the western United States, ranchers and federal agency resource specialists, like those in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), are two of the primary groups involved in rangeland management. We compared ranchers’ and BLM agency specialists’ rangeland mental models in …

Advancements In Measuring And Modeling The Mechanical And Hydrological Properties Of Snow And Firn: Multi-Sensor Analysis, Integration, And Algorithm Development, Tate G. Meehan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Estimating snow mechanical properties – such as elastic modulus, stiffness, and strength – is important for understanding how effectively a vehicle can travel over snow-covered terrain. Vehicle instrumentation data and observations of the snowpack are valuable for improving the estimates of winter vehicle performance. Combining in-situ and remotely-sensed snow observations, driver input, and vehicle performance sensors requires several techniques of data integration. I explored correlations between measurements spanning from millimeter to meter scales, beginning with the SnowMicroPenetrometer (SMP) and instruments applied to snow that were designed for measuring the load bearing capacity and the compressive and shear strengths of roads …

From River Channel To Cloud Tops: Evaluation And Applications Of Regional Climate Models In Mountain Watersheds, William J. Rudisill

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Mountain ranges are vital ”water towers” of the world and are uniquely threatened by anthropogenic climate change. At the same time, the paucity of observing networks limits our understanding of hydrometeorological processes in water-resource critical regions, including the Western United States. In the past decade, non-hydrostatic, convection permitting ( 1-4km horizontal resolution) regional climate models (RCMs) have emerged as a promising tool for both reconstructing regional scale mountain hydroclimates, and for forecasting the impacts of climate perturbations on watersheds and water-resources. Still, challenges remain. To-date, computational and data storage limitations have generally precluded many RCM studies to a handful of …

Improving Children's Authentication Practices With Respect To Graphical Authentication Mechanism, Dhanush Kumar Ratakonda

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

A variety of authentication mechanisms are used for online applications to protect user’s data. Prior literature identifies that adults and children often utilize weak authentication practices and our own initial research corroborates that children often create weak usernames and passwords. One reason children adopt weak authentication practices is due to difficulties in remembering their usernames and passwords. Existing literature suggests that people are better at remembering graphical information than text and words. In this dissertation, my research goal is to improve the usability and security of children’s authentication mechanisms. My research includes designing, developing, and evaluating a new graphical …

Automated Detection Of Sockpuppet Accounts In Wikipedia, Mostofa Najmus Sakib

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Wikipedia is a free Internet-based encyclopedia that is built and maintained via the open-source collaboration of a community of volunteers. Wikipedia’s purpose is to benefit readers by acting as a widely accessible and free encyclopedia, a comprehensive written synopsis that contains information on all discovered branches of knowledge. The website has millions of pages that are maintained by thousands of volunteer editors. Unfortunately, given its open-editing format, Wikipedia is highly vulnerable to malicious activity, including vandalism, spam, undisclosed paid editing, etc.

Malicious users often use sockpuppet accounts to circumvent a block or a ban imposed by Wikipedia administrators on the …

Toxicological Investigation, Identification, And Bioactivity Evaluation Of Steroidal Alkaloids Derived From Veratrum Parviflorum, Jared Taylor Seale

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Plants of the Veratrum genus have been used throughout history for their emetic properties, rheumatism, and for the treatment of high blood pressure. However, inadvertent consumption of these plants, which resemble wild ramps, induces life threatening side effects attributable to an abundance of steroidal alkaloids. Several of the steroidal alkaloids from Veratrum spp. have been investigated for their ability to antagonize the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, a key pathway for embryonic development and cell proliferation. Uncontrolled activation of this pathway is linked to the development of various cancers, most notably basal cell carcinoma and acute myeloid leukemia. Additional investigation of …

Time-Lapse Active Source Seismic Characterization Of A Leaky Co2 Reservoir: Little Grand Wash Fault, Utah, Stephen Slivicki

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

A carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) approach requires economical methods to monitor reservoir CO₂ flow paths through time. I explore the use of an inexpensive surface seismic approach to monitor the time-varying response of a leaky CO₂ reservoir. My site is located in east central Utah, where the Little Grand Wash fault provides a natural analogue for a failed sequestration site. This fault and related anticlinal trap provides a conduit to collect and deliver CO₂ from shallow reservoir depths to the atmosphere. Elevated soil CO₂ flux measurements, outgassing at the Crystal Geyser, and travertine deposits provide …

Machine-Learning Reveals Aftershock Locations For Three Idaho Earthquake Sequences, Spencer F. Wilbur

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

I explore spatial and temporal aftershock patterns related to three instrumentally recorded earthquakes in Idaho -- the Sulphur Peak, the Challis, and the Stanley earthquakes. These three M > 5 earthquakes border the eastern Snake River Plain and lie within the Intermountain Seismic Belt and Centennial Tectonic Belt. Using machine learning for event detection and phase picking from local and regional seismic networks, I generate new aftershock catalogs. I locate more aftershocks than in the USGS catalog due to lower signal-to-noise detections. Using my phase picks, I locate aftershocks using a range of velocity models and select a catalog that represents …

Regression Analysis Of Resilience And Covid-19 In Idaho Counties, Ishrat Zaman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Global pandemic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has serious harmful effects on our day-to-day lives. To overcome challenges such as this, critical preparedness, readiness, and response actions are required. This thesis uses estimates of community resilience available through the CRE Tool, published by the US Census Bureau, and COVID19 cases published by John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center for Idaho counties. Simple linear regression analysis was performed to identify a correlation between COVID-19 cases and deaths in Idaho counties and measures of their resilience. Understanding this correlation could lead to better estimation and prediction of the effect of disasters in Idaho’s counties. …

Structure Aware Smart Encoding And Decoding Of Information In Dna, Shoshanna Llewellyn

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Our increasingly information driven world is growing the demand for new storage technologies. Current estimates place the total storage demands exceeding the supply of usable silicon by 2040 [1]. DNA is an attractive technology due to its incredible density, almost negligible energy requirements, and data retention measured in centuries [1]. DNA does, however, come with new challenges. It is an organic compound with complex internal interactions which complicate the design and synthesis of DNA sequences for the purpose of data storage. In this work we demonstrate a new encoding-decoding process that accounts for some of the challenges in encoding and …

Comparative Geochemical Analysis Of Recent Volcanic Flows On Barva Volcano, Costa Rica, Julie Coulombe

Masters Theses

ABSTRACT

Barva Volcano is a dormant stratovolcano in the Cordillera Central region of Costa Rica, rising above the capital city of San Jose with a population of 347,000. Barva’s recent inactivity and extensive forestation have resulted in fewer investigations of its composition, petrogenesis, and eruptive history. The objective of this research is to analyze the geochemical data from several of the most recent lava flows, evaluate variability between eruptive units, and ascertain physical conditions within the Barva magma storage region. The data collected in this study helps constrain the geochemistry of units seen in the quarry and provides information regarding …

Source And Parental Melts Of Poikilitic Shergottites: Implications For Martian Magmatism, Evan W. O'Neal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Martian poikilitic shergottite meteorites are cumulate rocks that can be used to understand melt evolution on Mars from the bottom of the crust (~10 kbar) all the way up to near-surface shallow depths (~1 kbar). There is a general lack of knowledge regarding shergottites including, parental magma compositions, crystallization ages, and the location of the enriched geochemical source of the shergottites in the martian mantle. Through a comprehensive petrographic and geochemical study, we have attempted to better understand poikilitic shergottite formation and the evolution of the martian interior during the Amazonian period (~3 Ga – present day). We studied a …

Diederich-Fornæss Index And Global Regularity In The ∂-Neumann Problem: Domains With Comparable Levi Eigenvalues, Bingyuan Liu, Emil J. Straube

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Let Ω be a smooth bounded pseudoconvex domain in Cn. Let 1≤q0≤(n−1). We show that if q0--sums of eigenvalues of the Levi form are comparable, then if the Diederich--Fornæss index of Ω is 1, the ∂¯¯¯--Neumann operators Nq and the Bergman projections Pq−1 are regular in Sobolev norms for q0≤q≤n. In particular, for domains in C2, Diederich--Fornæss index 1 implies global regularity in the ∂¯¯¯--Neumann problem.

Investigation Of Dead Ocean Quahogs (Arctica Islandica) Shells On The Mid-Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf, Alyssa Leclaire

Master's Theses

Ocean quahogs, Arctica islandica, are a long-lived, widely dispersed, biomass dominate in the Mid-Atlantic; therefore, quahog shells are valuable resources for studying climate change over time. Recently, dead ocean quahog shells were discovered south and inshore of the present biogeographic range of this animal. The presence of ocean quahog shells outside the current range is presumably a consequence of past regressions and transgressions of the Cold Pool, the bottom-trapped, cool body of water that allows boreal animals to live at lower latitudes. Dead ocean quahog shells were collected offshore of the DelMarVa Peninsula then radiocarbon-dated, evaluated for taphonomic condition, …

Bidirectional Testing For Repairable Systems Reliability: Power Asymmetries, Panel Of Control Charts, And Reliability Graphics, Sung Keun Koo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To a practitioner who chooses to be on the safe side, we offer an option between a cocktail of tests and a solo one-size-fits-all test as a needed antidote to power asymmetries. Two bidirectional tests are first established to empower a basic pair of tests as asymmetrical performances. Unsurprisingly, we’ve seen either bidirectional device championing in one alternative setting, but also being turned against the very setting altered with just one of the composed elements. Progressing by filtering out the bad and enhancing the good, we assemble a hybrid from the empowered pair to restore power symmetries that are thought …

A Comparison Of Uniaxial Compressive Response And Inelastic Deformation Mechanisms In Freeze Cast Alumina-Epoxy Composites Without And With Rigid Confinement, Tareq Aljuhari

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Cellular ceramics have an array of improved mechanical properties that make them incredibly desired for different applications such as armor systems, aircraft structures, automobiles bumpers, and biomedical implants. It is also desirable that porous architecture could be shaped into bulk complicated shapes and easy to scale-up with low manufacturing cost. Despite several efficient techniques to fabricate cellular ceramics, some limitations are preventing us from meeting the high demand of the after mentioned applications. For that, freeze casting, also called ice-templating, is technique of solidifying an aqueous ceramic suspension under the effect of unidirectional temperature gradient. In this study, Ice-templated porous …

Cyber Deception For Critical Infrastructure Resiliency, Md Ali Reza Al Amin

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The high connectivity of modern cyber networks and devices has brought many improvements to the functionality and efficiency of networked systems. Unfortunately, these benefits have come with many new entry points for attackers, making systems much more vulnerable to intrusions. Thus, it is critically important to protect cyber infrastructure against cyber attacks. The static nature of cyber infrastructure leads to adversaries performing reconnaissance activities and identifying potential threats. Threats related to software vulnerabilities can be mitigated upon discovering a vulnerability and-, developing and releasing a patch to remove the vulnerability. Unfortunately, the period between discovering a vulnerability and applying a …

Clostridioides Difficile Biofilm And Spore Production In Response To Antibiotics And Immune Stress, Adenrele M. Oludiran

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

The development of new therapeutic options against Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection is a critical public health concern, as the causative bacterium is highly resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics. C. difficile, an anaerobic spore-forming Gram-positive pathogenic bacterium, is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections. C. difficile persists in the environment and spreads the infection to new hosts in the form of dormant spores and can persist within hosts as surface-attached biofilms. These studies investigate bacterial vegetative cell survival, biofilm formation, and sporulation in response to stress. Antimicrobial host-defense peptides (HDPs) are highly effective at simultaneously modulating …

Design, Synthesis And Characterization Of Triazole Based Glycoconjugates And 4,6-Acetal Protected D-Glucosamine Derivatives As Low Molecular Weight Gelators, Pooja Sharma

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Low molecular weight gelators (LMWGs) are small molecules that can form gels in either organic solvents or water in their pure form or as mixtures. LMWGs self-assemble through noncovalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, halogen bonding, van der Waals interactions and hydrophobic forces in solvents. They have shown great potential in biomedical industry, catalysis and environmental remediation to name a few. Moreover, the formation of metallogels can be used for detection of various ions as well as catalysis, which adds a new dimension to their applications. Among many classes of LMWGs based on the type of functional groups used, carbohydrate …

Inexact Fixed-Point Proximity Algorithms For Nonsmooth Convex Optimization, Jin Ren

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to develop efficient inexact fixed-point proximity algorithms with convergence guaranteed for nonsmooth convex optimization problems encountered in data science. Nonsmooth convex optimization is one of the core methodologies in data science to acquire knowledge from real-world data and has wide applications in various fields, including signal/image processing, machine learning and distributed computing. In particular, in the context of image reconstruction, compressed sensing and sparse machine learning, either the objective functions or the constraints of the modeling optimization problems are nondifferentiable. Hence, traditional methods such as the gradient descent method and the Newton method are …

Adaptive Risk Network Dependency Analysis Of Complex Hierarchical Systems, Katherine L. Smith

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Recently the number, variety, and complexity of interconnected systems have been increasing while the resources available to increase resilience of those systems have been decreasing. Therefore, it has become increasingly important to quantify the effects of risks and the resulting disruptions over time as they ripple through networks of systems. This dissertation presents a novel modeling and simulation methodology which quantifies resilience, as impact on performance over time, and risk, as the impact of probabilistic disruptions. This work includes four major contributions over the state-of-the-art which are: (1) cyclic dependencies are captured by separation of performance variables into layers which …

Evaluation Of Generative Models For Predicting Microstructure Geometries In Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing, Andy Ramlatchan

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

In-situ process monitoring for metals additive manufacturing is paramount to the successful build of an object for application in extreme or high stress environments. In selective laser melting additive manufacturing, the process by which a laser melts metal powder during the build will dictate the internal microstructure of that object once the metal cools and solidifies. The difficulty lies in that obtaining enough variety of data to quantify the internal microstructures for the evaluation of its physical properties is problematic, as the laser passes at high speeds over powder grains at a micrometer scale. Imaging the process in-situ is complex …

Using Ensemble Learning Techniques To Solve The Blind Drift Calibration Problem, Devin Scott Drake

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Large sets of sensors deployed in nearly every practical environment are prone to drifting out of calibration. This drift can be sensor-based, with one or several sensors falling out of calibration, or system-wide, with changes to the physical system causing sensor-reading issues. Recalibrating sensors in either case can be both time and cost prohibitive. Ideally, some technique could be employed between the sensors and the final reading that recovers the drift-free sensor readings. This paper covers the employment of two ensemble learning techniques — stacking and bootstrap aggregation (or bagging) — to recover drift-free sensor readings from a suite of …

Gaging Downstream Transport Of Cyanobacteria In The Raritan River Basin, Kyle R. Clonan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Cyanobacteria dominated Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) have the potential to release toxic compounds harmful to human health. Few studies have examined the potential for cyanobacteria travelling from lacustrine HAB sources through fluvial systems used for potable water supply. The Raritan Basin Water Supply Complex (RBWSC) sources potable water for several utilities serving more than 1.5 million people in central New Jersey. The RBWSC features three lentic waterbodies with persistent HABs; discharges from these waterbodies all reach the downstream drinking water intakes. The objectives of this study were to 1) review the persistence of cyanobacteria during fluvial transport from upstream, cyanobacteria-dominated …

Secure Retrieval Of Encrypted Similar Documents Using Bloom Filters, German Guzman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The ability to search for similar documents is a well-known problem on the Web and Information Retrieval field. For example, identifying similar profiles across different government agencies is an important process during intelligence gathering. Nonetheless, when data belongs to multiple parties, internal security policies and government regulations cannot allow the participating parties to freely share their sensitive documents. In our project, we aim to address the following problem: Given a user’s query Q and an encrypted database of documents stored on a third-party cloud server, we want to retrieve top-k documents similar to Q without disclosing Q and the contents …

Using Teacher Noticing And Video-Mediated Professional Learning To Develop Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge For Teaching The Derivative, Alfred M. Limbere

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study investigated how problem-solving videos can be used in video-mediated professional learning to support secondary preservice mathematics teachers (PMTs) in developing teacher knowledge for noticing student thinking in the context of the derivative concept in calculus. A model of the trajectory of PMTs’ noticing was constructed as six PMTs viewed and analyzed videos of students’ problem solving. At the same time, the nature of video-mediated interactions that were found to be productive in supporting this knowledge development was examined. A design experiment was used as the research methodology. Data was collected from video recordings of eight semi-structured teaching episodes …