Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group Restoration Internship, Meridith Mccannon

College of the Environment Internship Reports

The importance of both the restoration and preservation of riparian habitats was already something I was very interested in, but this internship helped me so much in understanding what it takes to actually restore these precious ecosystems. Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group, or SFEG, is a nonprofit organization which aims to protect and improve the Skagit River watershed in order to aid in the revitalization of salmon and trout species which depend on it. There are so many different ways in which SFEG has contributed to the restoration of essential habitat along the Skagit River, all of which have shown to …

Machine-Learning And Meta-Analysis Techniques To Quantify And Predict Soil Organic Carbon, N2O-N And Co2-C Emissions In Cover Crop Systems, Deepak Raj Joshi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

People worldwide are challenged by multiple threats including climate change, growing populations, and soil degradation. Addressing these challenges requires understanding of the local environment, farming systems and modern technologies. These technologies include new ways to process information that include artificial intelligence, machine learning and meta-analysis. Models produced using these technologies may be useful for predicting the consequences of implementing conservation practices that reduce GHG emissions as well as for determining the carbon footprint of cropping systems that include environmentally friendly conservation technologies such as growing cover crop. Therefore, our objectives of this study were to: 1) provide an overview of …

Study On Performance Of Pruned Cnn-Based Classification Models, Mengling Deng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is a neural network developed for processing image data. CNNs have been studied extensively and have been used in numerous computer vision tasks such as image classification and segmentation, object detection and recognition, etc. [1] Although, the CNNs-based approaches showed humanlevel performances in these tasks [2], they require heavy computation in both training and inference stages, and the models consist of millions of parameters. This hinders the development and deployment of CNN-based models for real world applications. Neural Network Pruning and Compression techniques have been proposed [3, 4] to reduce the computation complexity of trained CNNs …

Diversity And Inclusion In Science Teaching Learning (Distl): Focusing On The Perspectives Of Undergraduate Students And Graduate Teaching Assistants In The Chemistry Classroom, Albert Aidoo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) come with a wide range of experiences and educational backgrounds. There is high attrition rate and low academic achievement among students in STEM areas, specifically in college chemistry courses that are prerequisites for many STEM majors. Hence it is important to look at diversity and inclusion specifically in first- and second-year college chemistry courses to address the challenge of student attrition in STEM. Diversity can be understood as the differences each student brings along the dimensions of prior knowledge, skills, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, socio-economic status, age, ability, religious or political …

Disentangling The Complex Evolutionary History Of Invasive Russian Thistle: Phylogenetic Relationships, The Role Of Hybridization, And Public Engagement, Deva Raj Khanal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Pathogen Prevalence In Domestic Sheep In Western Nebraska: Implications For Bighorn Sheep Conservation And Coexistence On A Multi-Use Landscape, Kaytlin Bohr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) and domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are members of the same genus and thus share multiple pathogens that can be spread between them. One specific respiratory pathogen of concern is Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovipneumoniae), which has been linked to pneumonia epizootics in bighorn sheep that are often characterized by all age die offs upon initial exposure followed by years of low lamb recruitment. Domestic sheep have been identified as one carrier of M. ovipneumoniae with transmission between sheep species occurring when there is close contact on the landscape. To prevent this cross-species transmission, importance has been placed …

Studying Spread Patterns Of Covid-19 Based On Spatiotemporal Data, Beiyu Lin, Xiaowei Jia, Zhiqian Chen

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The current COVID-19 epidemic have transformed every aspect of our lives, especially our behavior and routines. These changes have been drastically impacting the economy in each region, such as local restaurants and transportation systems. With massive amounts of ambient data being collected everywhere, we now can develop innovative algorithms to have a much greater understanding of epidemic spread patterns of COVID-19 based on spatiotemporal data. The findings will open up the possibility to design adaptive planning or scheduling systems that will help preventing the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

In this tutorial, we will review the trending state-of-theart …

Unique Assembly Verification In Two-Handed Self-Assembly, David Caballero, Timothy Gomez, Robert Schweller, Tim Wylie

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

One of the most fundamental and well-studied problems in Tile Self-Assembly is the Unique Assembly Verification (UAV) problem. This algorithmic problem asks whether a given tile system uniquely assembles a specific assembly. The complexity of this problem in the 2-Handed Assembly Model (2HAM) at a constant temperature is a long-standing open problem since the model was introduced. Previously, only membership in the class coNP was known and that the problem is in P if the temperature is one (τ=1). The problem is known to be hard for many generalizations of the model, such as allowing one step into the third …

Ms Environmental Biology Capstone Project, Samantha Ortega

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This project is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Science in Environmental Biology at Regis University. Chapter 1 is a literature review that discusses the management implications of designing bird habitat on anthropogenic structures. Chapter 2 is a grant proposal to explore niche dominance by anthropophilic bird species in Denver, CO. Chapter 3 is a journal manuscript discussing how musth impacts captive bull Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) behavior at Denver Zoo. Finally, Chapter 4 is a stakeholder analysis for Northern Bobwhite recovery at Bridgestone-Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area, White County, Tennessee.

Ms Environmental Biology Capstone Project, Dylan Brown

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Chapter 1- Revisiting Tamarisk Invasion in Riparian Ecosystems: An Argument Against Single Species Management of the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus)

Chapter 2- Temporal Trends of Tamarisk Remediation to Native Vegetation Establishment

Chapter 3- Assessing Effectiveness of Tamarisk Removal Treatments Through a Meta Regression Analysis

Chapter 4- Legal Challenges of Tamarisk Removal in the Southwestern United States

The Efficacy Of The South Dakota State University Summer Jacks Leap Program, Tessa M. Sundermann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Today, several studies detail the continuing struggle many students have with college mathematics courses at universities across the United States. The South Dakota State University Summer Jacks LeaP program is a summer bridge mathematics program aimed at improving incoming students’ mathematics success. This analysis used a mixed methods research design to examine the efficacy of the Summer Jacks LeaP program. First, we analyzed the LeaP students’ homework averages, exam 1 scores, final exam scores, and overall grade scores to determine if they were finding success in their fall semester mathematics courses. We also used hypothesis testing to compare LeaP participants …

Statistical Theory For Specialized Linear Regression Adjustment Methods Compared To Multiple Linear Regression In The Presence And Absence Of Interaction Effects, Leon Su

Theses and Dissertations--Statistics

When building models to investigate outcomes and variables of interest, researchers often want to adjust for other variables. There is a variety of ways that these adjustments are performed. In this work, we will consider four approaches to adjustment utilized by researchers in various fields. We will compare the efficacy of these methods to what we call the ”true model method”, fitting a multiple linear regression model in which adjustment variables are model covariates. Our goal is to show that these adjustment methods have inferior performance to the true model method by comparing model parameter estimates, power, type I error, …

Deriving The Distributions And Developing Methods Of Inference For R2-Type Measures, With Applications To Big Data Analysis, Gregory S. Hawk

Theses and Dissertations--Statistics

As computing capabilities and cloud-enhanced data sharing has accelerated exponentially in the 21st century, our access to Big Data has revolutionized the way we see data around the world, from healthcare to investments to manufacturing to retail and supply-chain. In many areas of research, however, the cost of obtaining each data point makes more than just a few observations impossible. While machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are improving our ability to make predictions from datasets, we need better statistical methods to improve our ability to understand and translate models into meaningful and actionable insights.

A central goal in the …

Beta Mixture And Contaminated Model With Constraints And Application With Micro-Array Data, Ya Qi

Theses and Dissertations--Statistics

This dissertation research is concentrated on the Contaminated Beta(CB) model and its application in micro-array data analysis. Modified Likelihood Ratio Test (MLRT) introduced by [Chen et al., 2001] is used for testing the omnibus null hypothesis of no contamination of Beta(1,1)([Dai and Charnigo, 2008]). We design constraints for two-component CB model, which put the mode toward the left end of the distribution to reflect the abundance of small p-values of micro-array data, to increase the test power. A three-component CB model might be useful when distinguishing high differentially expressed genes and moderate differentially expressed genes. If the null hypothesis above …

Classifying Blood Glucose Levels Through Noninvasive Features, Rishi Reddy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Blood glucose monitoring is a key process in the prevention and management of certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes. Currently, glucose monitoring for those interested in their blood glucose levels are confronted with options that are primarily invasive and relatively costly. A growing topic of note is the development of non-invasive monitoring methods for blood glucose. This development holds a significant promise for improvement to the quality of life of a significant portion of the population and is overall met with great enthusiasm from the scientific community as well as commercial interest. This work aims to develop a potential pipeline …

Periodic Points Of Polynomials Over Finite Fields, Derek Garton

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fix an odd prime p. If r is a positive integer and f is a polynomial with coefficients in Fpr, let Pp,r⁡(f) be the proportion of P1⁢(Fpr) that is periodic with respect to f. We show that as r increases, the expected value of Pp,r⁡(f), as f ranges over quadratic polynomials, is less than 22/(log⁡log⁡pr). This result follows from a uniformity theorem on specializations of dynamical systems of rational functions over residually finite Dedekind domains. The specialization theorem generalizes previous work by Juul et al. that holds for rings of integers of number fields. Moreover, under stronger hypotheses, we effectivize …

Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus Virginiana L.) Encroachment On South-Central South Dakota Rangelands: Impact On Plant Communities, Austin K. Domeier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Grasslands historically covered 46 million km2 of Earth’s surface representing nearly 42% of the living vegetation. Encroachment of woody species onto grasslands and savannas is a widely researched global phenomenon, with eastern redcedar (ERC) (Juniperus virginiana L.) trees being the most prominent woody encroacher in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) due to the lack of prescribed fire and planted ERC escaping from shelterbelts. This encroachment poses a threat to native plant communities in terms of their reproduction, regeneration, and diversity. ERC are fierce competitors and can establish in most soil types, are drought tolerant, and prolific seed reproducers. These qualities …

Post-Fledging Habitat Selection And Movements Of Juvenile Mallards In The Prairie Pothole Region, Cynthia E. Anchor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America provides critical habitat for waterfowl across life stages, but anthropogenic changes to the landscape have negatively impacted habitat quality for waterfowl. The mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is abundant and socioeconomically valuable in the PPR, as it is a preferred target species of waterfowl hunters. Extensive research has evaluated breeding ecology of mallards in the PPR, but the period between juvenile mallards fledging and migrating has rarely been studied. The post-fledging ecology of juvenile mallards is a vital consideration for comprehensive waterfowl management. Further, juvenile mallards are a significant portion of hunter harvest at …

Targeted Browsing With Goats For Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus Virginiana L.) Control, Alanna M. Hartsfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As eastern redcedar (ERC) (Juniperus virginiana L.) grassland encroachment progresses, all potential control methods should be explored in the interest of Great Plains grassland health and longevity. Targeted browsing with goats has been proven as an effective control method on some juniper species; however, little is known about its ability to control ERC. These studies intend to mend knowledge gaps of how targeted browsing with goats control ERC by causing tree death without chemicals or machinery. The first study is two 3x3 Latin squares comparing protein-supplemented diets. The second study is a randomized complete block design of five 0.224 ha …

Femtosecond Pulse Compression Via Self-Phase Modulation In 1-Decanol, Jacob A. Stephen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ultrafast science is a branch of photonics with far reaching applications in and outside the realm of physics. Ultrashort laser pulses on the order of femtoseconds (1 fs = 1 × 10−15 s) are widely used for ultrafast science. Many lasers can produce pulses on the order of 100 fs, with state of the art, high end lasers being capable of producing pulses around 30 fs. However, many experiments require pulses around 10 fs or shorter. Femtosecond pulses are typically generated using spectral broadening via self-phase modulation, followed by dispersion compensation. The most common spectral broadening technique exploits the nonlinear …

Convolutional Neural Networks For Breast Ultrasound Image Segmentation, Yahya Abdullah Alzahrani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Medical Image Segmentation is the process of segmenting and detecting boundaries of anatomical structures in various types of 2D and 3D medical images. The latter come from different modalities, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), X-Rays, Positron Emission Tomography (PET)/Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography, Computed Tomography (CT), and Ultrasound (US). It is a key supporting technology for medical applications including diagnostics, planning, monitoring, and guidance. Hence, a large number of segmentation methods have been published in past decades. This dissertation presents four contributions to the field d of medical images and for segmentation in general and to Breast Ultrasound (BUS) image …

A Blockchain-Based Privacy-Preserving Physical Delivery System, Shahin Zanbaghi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The internet has transformed the way we shop. Previously, most of our purchases came in the form of shopping trips to a nearby store. Now, it’s as easy as clicking a mouse. But with great convenience comes great responsibility. We have to be constantly vigilant about our personal information. This work presents a novel approach for online buyers to have a trusted, decentralized, privacy-preserved physical assets delivery solution. The proposed solution focuses on privacy-preserving personal information in delivering physical assets between sellers and buyers. Our primary approach is to prevent sellers and agents (responsible for ensuring the asset delivery is …

Understanding Freshwater Ecosystems And Human Health Implications In Recreational Water Through Microbial Characterization, Source Tracking, And Sediment-Microbe Dynamics, Danielle Gleason

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contamination of natural aquatic ecosystems is a serious global concern as populations increase and the environment is impacted by climate change. Nonpoint source (NPS) contamination of allochthonous materials, such as sediments, nutrients, and microorganisms, is commonly introduced to a body of water through runoff and wash-off which cumulates over a large area, and is subsequently transported to surface waters (e.g., rivers, streams, lakes) and shorelines. The principal form of microbial contamination of water resources is often from fecal pollution derived from humans, domesticated animals, or wildlife, and contains a variety of human pathogens. There are also numerous factors (with limited …

On Estimation Methods In Tensor Regression Models, Mai Ghannam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we consider two estimation problems in some tensor regression models. The first estimation problem is about the tensor coefficient in a tensor regression model with multiple and unknown change-points. We generalize some recent findings in five ways. First, the problem studied is more general than the one in context of a matrix parameter with multiple change-points. Second, we develop asymptotic results of the tensor estimators in the context of a tensor regression with unknown change-points. Third, we construct a class of shrinkage tensor estimators that encompasses the unrestricted estimator (UE) and the restricted estimator (RE). Fourth, we …

Antiviral Effects Of Metalloshielding: Differential Antiviral Activity Of Polynuclear Platinum And Cobalt Compounds, Mary Zoepfl

Theses and Dissertations

The majority of antiviral drug development has focused on virus-specific discovery targeting discrete steps in the individual life cycles. Although great strides have been made for a number of clinically relevant diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus, influenza virus, and hepatitis B, broad spectrum antivirals do not exist. Broad spectrum antivirals would offer (1) treatment for viruses without specifically-targeted antivirals, (2) treatment for viruses which have developed resistance to their available treatments, and (3) a rapidly deployable treatment option in viral epidemics. Many viruses including human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), HIV, and SARS-CoV-2. rely on heparan sulfate (HS), a highly sulfated glycosaminoglycan …

Nature And Crystallization Stages Of Spherulites Within The Obsidian: Acıgöl (Cappadocia- Nevşehir, Turkey), Bahatti̇n Güllü, Kiymet Deni̇z

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The study area comprises a part of the Central Anatolian Cenozoic volcanism within the Cappadocia Volcanic Province (CVP). Obsidian, perlite rhyolite flows, and volcanic ashes are observed in the study area and the spherulites within the obsidian are the objects of this study. The spherulites occupied within the obsidian in the form of round nodules 0.5-10 cm in diameter. The confocal Raman spectra of feldspar minerals within the spherulites are characterized by T-O-T and M-O lattice modes in the range of 100-250 cm^-1, O-T-O deformation and T-O-T lattice modes in the range of 250-350 cm^-1, and …

Second Main Theorem For Meromorphic Mappings Intersecting Moving Targets On Parabolic Manifolds, Jiali Chen, Qingcai Zhang

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this paper, we establish a new second main theorem for meromorphic mappings from $M$ into $\mathbb{P}(V)$ intersecting moving targets $g_{j}:M\rightarrow\mathbb{P}(V^{\ast}),\ 1\leq j\leq q,$ where $M$ is a parabolic manifold and $V$ is a Hermitian vector space. As an application, we prove the algebraic dependence problem for meromorphic mappings with moving targets in general position.

Boundedness For Variable Fractional Integral Operators And Their Commutators On Herz-Hardy Spaces With Variable Exponent, Yinping Xin

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

Let $E\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ be a bounded open set. In this paper, we establish the boundedness of variable fractional integral operators and their commutators on variable Herz-Hardy spaces $H\dot{K}^{\alpha(\cdot),q(\cdot)}_{p(\cdot)}(E)$ with three variable exponents by using the atomic decomposition.

Global Differential Invariants Of Nondegenerate Hypersurfaces, Yasemi̇n Sağiroğlu, Uğur Gözütok

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

Let $\{g_{ij}(x)\}_{i, j=1}^n$ and $\{L_{ij}(x)\}_{i, j=1}^n$ be the sets of all coefficients of the first and second fundamental forms of a hypersurface $x$ in $R^{n+1}$. For a connected open subset $U\subset R^{n}$ and a $C^{\infty }$-mapping $x:U\rightarrow R^{n+1}$ the hypersurface $x$ is said to be $d$-\textit{nondegenerate}, where $d\in \left\{1, 2, \ldots n\right\}$, if $L_{dd}(x)\neq 0$ for all $u\in U$. Let $M(n)=\{F:R^{n}\longrightarrow R^{n}\mid Fx=gx+b, \; g\in O(n), \; b\in R^{n}\}$, where $O(n)$ is the group of all real orthogonal $n\times n$-matrices, and $SM(n)=\{F\in M(n)\mid g\in SO(n)\}$, where $SO(n)=\left\{g\in O(n)\mid \det(g)=1\right\}$. In the present paper, it is proved that the set $\left\{g_{ij}(x), …

Globally Unsolvability Of Integro-Differential Diffusion Equation And System With Exponential Nonlinearities, Meiirkhan Borikhanov

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this paper, the Cauchy problem for an integro-differential diffusion equation and a system with nonlocal nonlinear sources are considered. The results on the existence of local integral solutions and the nonexistence of global weak solutions to the nonlinear integro-differential diffusion equation and system are presented.