Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Predictive Models Of Post-Wildfire Debris Flow Volume And Grain Size Distribution In The Intermountain West, Sara Wall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Post-fire debris flows represent the most erosive and potentially hazardous consequence associated with increasing wildfire severity. While an abundance of research has explored where they are likely to occur and their potential magnitude, investigations into understanding how they impact downstream resources are limited. Recent advancements are seeking to link predictive models together to be able to predict how erosion after wildfire may impact reservoirs and aquatic habitat downstream. However, there are two key missing pieces into our ability to examine watershed-scale impacts of post-fire erosion. These include having accurate predictions of how much sediment is likely to be deposited by …

Lithological And Geochemical Characterization Of Ramp Sediments And A Depositional Model Of The Ordovicain Garden City Formation, Northeastern Utah, Kenneth W. Kehoe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Ordovician Garden City Formation is a mostly marine limestone rock formation deposited in what is known today as the Northern Utah Basin in North America ~485.5 million years ago. Previous research on the Pogonip Group, a time equivalent rock formation located in the Ibex Basin south of the Northern Utah Basin, has identified nine cycles of sea-level fall and rise. However, these nine sea-level cycles have proven difficult to identify within the Garden City Formation due to the limited contrast between rock types within the rock formation. Previous research on the Garden City has approximated these sea-level cycles through …

Investigation And Discovery Of Novel Transition Metal Cysteamine Systems With Halogens From The First Principles Calculations, Noura Dawas Alkhaldi

Physics Dissertations

Cu-cysteamine (Cu-Cy) is a material that has the cysteamine bonded with Cu. It is a molecular photosensitizer which can be activated by visible, ultraviolet light, and X-rays to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cu-Cy has been used in various applications such as solid-state lighting, radiation detection, and as treatment of both shallow and deep cancers. Hence, it is important to study the stability, electronic and optical properties of Cu-Cy as well as finding other possible cysteamine systems. The first principle theoretical investigations of novel transition metal cysteamine systems with halogens are performed by density functional theory. In the first part …

Petrophysical Studies Of Well Cuttings From A Continues Geological Profile In Hockley County, Texas, Tristan N. Tom

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

The Permian Basin currently leads the oil production in the United States; however, with increasing concerns for the global climate, it is crucial for oil and gas companies to operate as economically and efficiently as possible. This is where the use of well cuttings comes in, as they allow for more geological formations in the subsurface to be analyzed in depth and are cheaper to achieve than core samples. Well cuttings can be obtained from most drilling operations, and they can save on analysis time and even be analyzed on site. Before using well cuttings, it is important to ensure …

Headspace-Solid Phase Micro Extraction – Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (Hs-Spme-Gc-Ms) Analysis For Oak Barrel Flavor Compounds In Whiskey, Hailey F. Jarzynka

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses

This study presents a method to simultaneously detect both fault compounds and oak barrel flavor compounds in whiskey using headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). A major contaminant in whiskey is geosmin and an array of oak barrel compounds includes 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, 5-methylfurfural, guaiacol, trans-whiskey lactone, 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, 4-ethylguaiacol, eugenol, vanillin, and 4-ethylphenol. Geosmin is a fault compound that produces a musty or moldy taste to the whiskey and the other compounds originate from the barrels in which the whiskey is aged in and transfer to the whiskey in the aging process. Each compound was quantitated and 15 different whiskies were compared …

Electronic And Magnetic Properties Of Metal Doped Silicon-Carbide Fullerene-Type Nanostructures, Hussain Jabreel Alathlawi

Physics Dissertations

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a technologically significant material. A recent report on the abundance of C60 fullerenes in interstellar space, along with the presence of SiC precursors, sparked interest in potentially similar SiC nanostructures. C60 and C70 fullerenes were found experimentally and are an exceptionally stable form of carbon. As Si and C have similar valence electron configurations, it has been long envisioned that Si and SiC could also form similar fullerene-type structures. In this dissertation, Si30C30 fullerene-derived clusters were studied from the first principles theory, starting from an ideal Si60 fullerene template with various arrangements of silicon and carbon …

Volatiles Characterization During Whiskey Production Using Headspace - Solid Phase Microextraction - Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry, Robert H. Magnuson

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses

Whiskey is the second most consumed distilled alcoholic beverage type, by brand, on the planet behind Chinese Baijiu. A prominent component in many varieties of whiskey, maize, contributes a wide profile of compounds that undergo modification in the production pathway, ultimately influencing the final flavor profile. In this study, headspace/solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (HS/SPME-GC/MS) was used to characterize the volatile profile of 5 different maize varieties, mashes produced from each, and 4 post-fermentation mixtures. Headspace sampling was performed using a high capacity SPME Arrow device, in an effort maximize the species detected. Compound identification was supplied by matches within …

Total Synthesis Of Imidazole-Containing Β-Carboline Alkaloids And Pyrrole-Imidazole Alkaloids, Moumita Singha Roy

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations

The first part in this dissertation focuses on the development of an enantioselective total synthesis of villagorgin A, from another natural product haploscleridamine. Haploscleridamine was targeted first as it was thought that a successful approach to this family member would permit access to the other congeners through minor modifications, including conversion to villagorgin A. Moreover, villagorgin A has just one additional carbon atom compared to haploscleridamine, the introduction of which can be envisioned through a Pictet-Spengler reaction with formaldehyde. On completion of the haploscleridamine synthesis, attention was turned to the brominated congener, lissoclin C. Lissoclin C can be accessed from …

Construction Of Fluorescent Helicase Fusion Proteins For Use In Fret Studies On Helicase Function And Stoichiometry, Moneer Arabiyat

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis details the construction of N-terminal fusions of the E. coli helicase DnaB to fluorescent proteins mT-Sapphire and mVenus, and of C-terminal fusions of the hepatitis C virus NS3 helicase (NS3h) to mT-Sapphire and mVenus. These fluorescent fusion proteins were constructed to be used in FRET studies of helicase function and stoichiometry. One example is in assessing the potential oligomerization and cooperativity of NS3h protomers in unwinding RNA. Another potential use is in assessing the stoichiometry of the replisome of E. coli; older studies support a dimeric polymerase model of the replisome. Recent studies however suggest that an active …

Survivals Of Two Cooperating Species Of Animals, Joon Hyuk Kang

Faculty Publications

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Conceptual Insight Into The Application Of Innovative Educational Methods In Astronomy, Wahltyn A. Rattray

Theses and Dissertations

University students taking introductory astronomy courses were studied with a control group enrolled in a class with standard curriculum and an experimental group enrolled in a class with a curriculum using innovative instructional methods. Using multiple assessments, I analyzed the students’ astronomy knowledge and overall class experience to determine which curriculum was more instructionally effective. The innovative methods were developed with the ADDIE method and were based on the Karplus learning cycle which provided the framework for the astronomy curriculum. The end goal of the innovative curriculum is to produce graduates with better conceptual understanding of astronomy than with the …

Growth Kinetics Of Salmonella Spp. During Post-Harvest Storage Of Fresh And Fresh-Cut Papaya, Amandeep Singh

Theses and Dissertations

Fresh produce safety is major concern in United States. Fresh produce has been associated with numerous food-borne outbreaks each year. Salmonella has been a recurring issue in the papaya industry. Since 2010, imported papayas have been implicated in 8 multistate outbreaks associated with Salmonella spp. causing 480 illnesses, 113 hospitalization and 3 deaths. The main reason behind this problem is as fresh papaya is grown on fields where they are constantly exposed to preharvest microbial contamination through contaminated irrigation water, agricultural soil, raw manure and/or feces deposited by intruding domestic or wild animals. Moreover, majority fresh papaya is also consumed …

Dynamical Casimir Effect In A Superconducting Circuit Periodic Lattice, Andres Cuellar Vega

Theses and Dissertations

The dynamical Casimir effect (DCE) is the generation of real photons out of the quantum vacuum due to a rapid modulation of boundary conditions for the electromagnetic field, such as a mirror oscillating at speeds comparable to the speed of light. Previous work demonstrated experimentally that DCE radiation can be generated in electrical circuits based on superconducting microfabricated waveguides, where a rapid modulation of boundary conditions corresponding to semi-transparent mirrors is realized by tuning the applied magnetic flux through superconducting quantum-interference devices (SQUIDs) that are embedded in the waveguide circuits. We propose a novel SQUID periodic lattice architecture, in which …

Microwave Assisted Depolymerization Of Waste Pet Bottles Via Glycolysis, Kingsley Bassey

Theses and Dissertations

One of the most promising and sustainable chemical depolymerization methods for managing the complex environmental problem arising from waste poly(ethylene) terephthalate (PET) bottles is glycolysis. However key challenges such as longer reaction times, complex separation procedures for the depolymerized products, selectivity, thermally stable catalyst need to be addressed.

In this work, we investigated the glycolysis of waste PET under microwave conditions using 1,5,7-Triazabicyclo [4.4.0] dec5-ene (TBD) and 1,8-Diazabicyclo [5.4.0] undec-7-ene (DBU) as catalyst. We evaluated the effect of reaction parameters such as temperature, catalyst concentration and time on PET depolymerization rate (%PET conversion) and product yield. The reaction was conducted …

Comparison Of Statistical Methods For Modeling Count Data With An Application To Length Of Hospital Stay, Gustavo A. Fernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Hospital length of stay (LOS) is a key indicator of hospital care management efficiency, cost of care, and hospital planning. Therefore, understanding hospital LOS variability is always an important healthcare focus. Hospital LOS data are count data, with discrete and nonnegative values, typically right-skewed, and often exhibiting excessive zeros. Numerous studies have been conducted to model hospital LOS to identify significant predictors contributing to its variability. Many researchers have used linear regression with or without logarithmic transformation of the outcome variable LOS, or logistic regression on a dichotomized LOS. These regression methods usually violate models’ assumptions and are subject …

Electrospun Polyetherimide And Polybenzimidazole Fibers And Composites, Fatema Ha-Mim Binta Hafiz

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, polymer micro- and nanocomposite fibers with PBI and PEI as polymer, and exfoliated graphite and nitroxide-functionalized graphene oxides have been prepared. Electrospinning has been chosen as a fiber processing technique. This work describes the electrospinning process of the mentioned polymer fibers and composite fibers followed by their characterization by XRD, ATR, SEM, TGA, DSC and Tensile testing.

Assessment And Monitoring Of Deltaic Wetlands And Fluvial Systems: Refining And Validating A Multimetric Index Of Resaca Ecosystem Health, David Lecusay Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Resacas are ancient distributary channels of the lower Rio Grande River historically serving as floodwater drainage pathways onto the Laguna Madre, Texas. Resacas provide numerous ecosystem services and critical habitat for many species. Mainly influenced by urbanization, integrating a multimetric index for assessing and monitoring resaca ecosystem health is required for adaptive management. The Resaca Health Index (RHI) integrates structural and functional components: (1) nonredundant metrics describing fish communities (Fish Community Index); (2) Trophic State Index derived from Secchi depth; (3) decay constant from riparian vegetation leaf litter decomposing in the water column; and (4) a riparian quality index based …

Factors Influencing Intent To Take A Covid-19 Test In The United States, Sheila Rutto

Theses and Dissertations

In 2020, COVID-19 became the first pandemic in the world’s history that brought the entire world to an abrupt and unexpected halt. Since the first reported case of the disease to date, the novel coronavirus has been able to wreak havoc in literary every corner of the globe and left an ever-growing number of unprecedented fatalities. The normal way of life has been disrupted, and the level of uncertainty about the end of this pandemic continues to manifest to many. Due to the urgency to bring this pandemic under control, medical officers have been able to recommend actions that people …

Effects Of Collaborative Group Activities On Students’ Interest, Course Participation, And Performance In An Online Physics Course, Airik R. Sanchez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the use of collaborative work activities in online physics courses as perceived by students. Nearly identical surveys were administered at the beginning and end of two semesters to ascertain student perception on the impact of the utilization on their level of interest, participation, performance as well as teamwork skills. The results show that the majority of the population tested strongly agree that collaborative work had significant effect on all core areas tested, and they support the notion that it should be further utilized in both lecture and lab portions …

The Impacts And In-Depth Study Of The Environmental Contaminant, Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid, And Its Interactions With Water, Karla Veronica Salazar

Theses and Dissertations

Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), similar to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), is a synthetic chemical that has been classified as a persistent organic pollutant (POP) by the Stockholm Convention since 2009. Due to the wide previous usage, high stability, high bio-accumulative, and low degradative properties is the reason that PFOS has been found in several compartments of the environment including ocean water, ground water, air, and sediments. Due to the strong interactions generated by the sulfonic acid end, this compound has a tendency to stay in the environment for long periods of time and has proved to be difficult in the removal from …

Contributions To The Heat Capacity Of Neutron Stars, Pedro Paulo Barboza Sanson

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we review the contribution to the heat capacity of different matter phases that can appear inside a Neutron Star's core, paying special attention to the magnetic dual chiral density wave (MDCDW) phase, which is characterized by an inhomogeneous chiral condensate in the presence of a magnetic field and that is expected to be favored at intermediate densities and low temperatures. Furthermore, we compare our results with the observational lower limit of the core heat capacity established from observations of transiently accreting neutron stars which give us crucial information whether certain phases are feasible to appear in the …

An Innovative Triboelectric Stent Sensor: Prospective Cardiovascular Health Monitor Device, Ulises Vidaurri Romero

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research that has focused on TENGs have lacked the proper application of this energy generator. Currently, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States. With increasing demand for self-sustainable medical devices, this nitinol health monitor sensor device (NHMS) integrates the TENG applications with medical applications. The NHMS features memory shape nitinol electrodes that preserves the device structure while using PDMS and PVDF triboelectric effect to measure heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing patterns. Three constant pressures were measured in this study. At a constant pressure of stage 1, the NHMS produces an average AC of …

Solar Generated Electricity: An Analysis Of What Sectors Are Most Affected By Renewable Portfolio Standards And Related Policies, Logan Knollenberg

Dissertations and Theses

The aim of this thesis is to analyze state-specific Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) to understand their design and spillover effect onto non-utility (commercial, residential, industrial) sectors. Past research has overlooked non-utility sectors, often focusing on overall renewable energy growth and electricity generation from a combined end-result perspective. Solar capacity and solar generated electricity data from 5 states are used to establish which non-utility sectors experienced the highest level of solar growth from RPSs and related policies between 2010 and 2019. An explanatory sequential design is utilized, where interrupted time series analyses and exploratory case studies are performed to analyze each …

Absolute Neutral Densities And Temperatures And Their Climatologies In The Middle Atmosphere Using An Optimal Estimation Method With Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar Observations Obtained At Utah State University, Jonathan L. Price

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Earth’s atmosphere is comprised of layers which can be defined by their temperature characteristics. These layers are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere. The region where life exists is in the troposphere, however the study of the layers above is important as changes in these regions can directly impact, or indicate significant changes in, weather in the troposphere. The mesosphere is the least well-known region because it is the most difficult to observe. One of the best tools for observing this region is the Rayleigh-scatter lidar. It is capable of remotely observing the entirety of the mesosphere with good …

Valley Bottom Inundation Patterns In Beaver-Modified Streams: A Potential Proxy For Hydrologic Inefficiency, Karen Bartelt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For centuries river management and land use actions in North America have caused widespread stream degradation where water now flows downstream with artificially high efficiency. When present, beaver dams slow the flow of water and decrease the efficiency of water conveyance through the landscape. These effects are often to the benefit of the function of natural physical processes and ecology of the stream. The benefits provided by beaver dams have been well studied at small scales, but the methods that these studies rely on are often expensive and time consuming and consequently not feasible to deploy at larger spatial scales …

Achieving A Sequenced, Relational Query Language With Log-Segmented Timestamps, M. A. Manazir Ahsan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In a relational temporal database, typically each row of each table has a period timestamp to indicate the lifetime of that row. In order to evaluate a query in a temporal database, sequenced semantics comes into play. The semantics stipulates that the query must be evaluated simultaneously in each time instant using the data rows available at that point of time. Existing researches have proposed changes in the query evaluation engine to achieve sequenced semantics. In this paper we show a way to support sequenced semantics without modifying the query engine. We propose a noble construction log-segmented label to represent …

The Internal Charge Evolution Of Multilayered Materials Undergoing Mono-Energetic Electron Bombardment, Gregory Wilson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The charging of multilayer materials as related to the charging of spacecraft is one of the primary concerns related to activities in the space environment. To understand how multilayer materials undergoing electron bombardment charge, an in-depth study of energy-dependent material properties must be undertaken. These properties include the electron penetration depth, secondary electron emission, charge transport and electrostatic discharge. By using energy dependent models of these properties, along with the geometry of the system, multilayer models can be developed to predict the time evolution of the internal charge distribution. Using these models, the net surface potential and the measurement of …

Essays Related To Water Transfer And Water Sharing: The Past And The Present, Arpita Nehra

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation explores the impacts of resource procurement on economic growth and urbanization in a county through a historical case study, moving on to discuss the welfare impacts of resource-sharing in two regions. The first two essays explore the impact of the Owens Valley water transfer in the 1900s on the urban sprawl and the economic growth of Los Angeles. The main contribution that the first two essays make is to present an empirical analysis on the impact of procurement of resources on the economy. The third essay examines the welfare impacts of a proposed water sharing and development project. …

Privacy-Aware And Hardware-Based Accleration Authentication Scheme For Internet Of Drones, Tom Henson

Master's Theses

Drones are becoming increasingly present into today’s society through many different means such as outdoor sports, surveillance, delivery of goods etc. With such a rapid increase, a means of control and monitoring is needed as the drones become more interconnected and readily available. Thus, the idea of Internet of drones (IoD) is formed, an infrastructure in place to do those types of things. However, without an authentication system in place anyone could gain access or control to real time data to multiple drones within an area. This is a problem that I choose to tackle using a Field Programmable Gate …

Liutex Analysis By Pod And Dmd In Turbulent Flow After/ In Micro Vortex Generator, Xuan My Trieu

Mathematics Dissertations

Although vortex has been studied more than one hundred year, we still have not had universally accepted definition. A few well-known vortex identification methods are introduced ��,∆, ��2,������ criteria to identify coherent vortex structures the last three decades. A new Omega vortex identification method, which is defined as a ratio of the vorticity tensor norm squared over the sum of the vorticity tensor norm squared and deformation norm squared, was proposed in 2016. Two year later, the new vortex vector named Liutex (previously called Rotex) was proposed by Liu et al. with direction of local rotation axis (an eigenvector of …