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Geochemistry Of Volatiles Released By Incipient Continental Rifting And Subduction Processes, Hyunwoo Lee

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Volatiles (N2, CO2, and He) are released by volcanism and hydrothermal activity during continental rifting and subduction processes. Analyses of volatile components have been conducted to obtain gas contents (CO2, SO2, H2S, N2, Ar, He, and so on), stable isotope compositions (δ13C, δ15N, and so on), and noble gas isotopes (3He/4He, 40Ar/36Ar, and so on). This dissertation includes four chapters to report new nitrogen isotope fractionation factors of bubbling gases during gas-water transfer at various water temperatures (Chapter 1), first measurements of massive amounts of CO2 released by incipient continental rifting in the Magadi and Natron Basin, East African Rift …

Dynamics Of Community Composition And Ecological Processes In Mesic And Semiarid Grasslands, Sydney K. Jones

Biology ETDs

Grassland communities change in response to disturbance and chronic resource alterations. Temporal community dynamics were examined within mesic tallgrass prairie at Konza Prairie in northeastern Kansas, and semiarid desert grassland and shrubland in central New Mexico. In both grasslands, producer and consumer communities changed over time in response to fire frequency and shrub encroachment. Directional change was driven by changes in abundances of species already in the community, rather than turnover in species composition. Despite directional change, species richness was highly stable, making species abundance rather than richness a better indicator of future community change. Species reordering also occurred during …

Wagon Tracks. Volume 27, Issue 3 (May, 2013), Santa Fe Trail Association

Wagon Tracks

1 Symposium1 Board Election2 President’s Column3 Joanne’s Jottings4 News 8 Letters to Editor9 In Memoriam: Waggoner32 Chapter Reports. 35 Membership Renewal36 Events10 Bent’s Old Fort Ice House: Leonard25 Santa Fe’s Revenue Plan of 1836: Tórrez26 Merchandise List Created: Boyle27 Jesus Gil Abreu: Daves31 Becknell’s Gravesite Restored: Wheeler6 The Trail Today: Preservation13 Youth on the Trail: History Projects14 Cyber Ruts: Journal and Magazine Articles: Olsen 32 Books: A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling over the Memory of Sand Creek: Pelikan

The Impact Of Climate And Elevation On The Growth And Mortality Of Piñon Pine, Alice M. Fretz

Biology ETDs

The Southwestern United States is currently experiencing severe drought, resulting in the mortality of many tree species. Piñon-juniper woodlands are an extensive biome in the Southwest, and are highly vulnerable to extended periods of drought that lead to tree mortality. Specifically, Pinus edulis populations are decreasing due to increasingly arid conditions. I used dendrochronology to investigate how tree growth rings of Pinus edulis reflect severe drought in living and dead trees. I also investigated how severe drought affects Pinus edulis along an altitudinal gradient. Tree core samples were taken from currently living and dead trees, as well as from trees …

Nutrient Additions Alter Semi-Arid Grassland Response To Fire, Alec A. Carrigy

Biology ETDs

Knowledge of how multiple global change drivers interact to affect community structure is critical for predicting future community states, especially when community structure drives ecosystem function. Disturbances such as fire and nutrient additions often shift communities away from their mean composition, but less is known about how disturbances affect spatial variation among local patches of the community over time (spatiotemporal dispersion). Dispersion may increase (local communities diverge in composition), stay the same, or decrease (communities converge) in response to disturbance. We compared patterns of spatiotemporal dispersion and temporal trajectories in community composition across three sites in a northern Chihuahuan Desert …

Diet Specialization Does Not Explain Occupancy Or Abundance In A Test Of The Resource Breadth Hypothesis In A Small Mammal Community, Deborah R. Boro

Biology ETDs

The abundance-occupancy relationship (AOR) is a recurrent pattern in ecology and biogeography, in which species with expansive distributions are locally common while those with restricted distributions are locally rare. Despite occurring across a wide variety of taxa and spatial scales, the mechanisms underlying AORs are not well understood. I tested two such mechanisms regarding dietary generalism in a guild of 8 small, herbivorous African mammals: (1) the degree to which diet was explained by food availability, and (2) population-level diet breadth. I expected that food availability would better predict diet for abundant, widespread species than rare, restricted species. Additionally, I …

A Numerical Investigation Of The Implications Of Altered Channel-Floodplain Connectivity On Hydrodynamic Flood Wave Processes, Colin F. Byrne

Civil Engineering ETDs

With severely altered rivers throughout the developed world, hydrodynamic processes and floodplain connectivity have changed drastically. The research presented here focuses on quantification of two hydrodynamic processes: flood wave attenuation and channel-floodplain fluxes. Objectives of the three research chapters were to (1) evaluate how the ecosystem service of flood wave attenuation has changed with the implementation of river engineering practices as well as contemporary river restoration efforts, (2) describe the sensitivities of flood wave attenuation to contemporary and altered conditions, and (3) characterize channel-floodplain connectivity through lateral flux metrics. All chapter objectives were met using high-resolution, two-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling techniques …

Mexico Enacts Permanent Ban On Gillnets In Habitat Of Endangered Porpoise, Carlos Navarro

SourceMex

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Utility Of Phenylene Ethynylenes Against Candida Species Pathogens, Rina Sylejmani

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Candida species are the cause of many bloodstream infections through contamination of indwelling medical devices. These infections account for a 40% mortality rate, posing a significant risk to immunocompromised patients. Traditional treatments against Candida infections include amphotericin B and various azole treatments. Unfortunately, these treatments are associated with high toxicity, and resistant strains have become more prevalent. As a new frontier, light-activated phenylene ethynylenes have shown promising biocidal activity against Gram-positive and -negative bacterial pathogens, as well as the environmental yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this thesis, we monitored the viability of Candida species after treatment with a cationic conjugated …

Afro-Peruvian Creoles: A Social And Political History Of Afro-Descended Peruvians In An Era Of Nationalism And Scientific Racism, Daniel S. Cozart

History ETDs

This dissertation analyzes the history of Afro-descended Peruvians after the abolition of slavery in 1854 until the census of 1940, which asserted that Afro-Peruvians comprised less than two percent of the national population. It combines analyses of primary and secondary sources to examine Afro-Peruvian historical agency, demographic erasure and the politics of censuses, contested definitions of race and citizenship, self-representation in politics, culture, and the arts, as well as the labor history of Afro-Peruvians. The dissertation builds on the framing of Atlantic History to revise prior assumptions that Afro-Peruvians nearly disappeared from census records in the twentieth century because they …

Reactions To Market Failure And Approaches To Reduce Market Failure, Yingzhe Cheng

Economics ETDs

Market failure can have serious negative consequences on human welfare, including various health risks to people. How to best correct market failure becomes an important question. Different approaches may reduce market failure, such as direct government regulation, or market based approaches. This research explores consumers’ or societies’ reactions to market failure and approaches to reduce market failure.

The first study uses a random utility model and a choice experiment method to estimate Chinese parents’ marginal willingness-to-pay for potential policy changes that target overall food safety. Results suggest that a policy that provides both direct government regulation and information to create …

Genetic Approaches To Population Ecology And Conservation Of The Sacramento Mountain Salamander, Samantha Jo Nicole Cordova

Biology ETDs

Aneides hardii (Sacramento Mountain salamander) is restricted to high-elevation habitat that is fragmented by low-elevation piñon-juniper woodland. Aneides hardii is a species of conservation concern in New Mexico, in part, because disease and climate change endanger its long-term persistence. In this study, we use sequence data from the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and a microsatellite locus of A. hardii to addresses the timing and scale of population subdivision. We also calculated genetic diversity measures and compared them among mountain ranges to explore demographic history of A. hardii. Twenty-six haplotypes and three genetically distinct lineages were identified, and each haplotype …

Characterization Of Unknown Bridge Foundations, Saman Rashidyan

Civil Engineering ETDs

The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) recognized 86,133 bridges in the United States have no foundation data on record in 2003. It is evident that an unknown percentage of the 86,133 bridges identified by NBI with missing foundation data could also be highly vulnerable to scouring induced by water flow coupled with erodible soils. Conventional excavation, coring and boring excavations to identify unknown bridge foundation depths and types are deemed to be expensive, destructive, and limited in their application to the unknown foundation problem. Many surface and borehole nondestructive testing (NDT) technologies have been developed for this purpose. Three economical proven …

Ion Size Effects On The Properties Of Charge Regulating Electric Double Layers, Divya Jyoti Prakash

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

The behavior of charged interfaces formed in various systems like colloidal solution, fuel cells, battery, electro-deposition, catalysis is governed by the properties of electrical double layer(EDL). Civilized model with charge regulation boundary condition determined by thermodynamic equilibrium at the interface has been used to model electrical double layer and shows that size of the solvent plays a critical role in characterizing the properties of EDL using classical density functional theory.This thesis investigates the impact of ion size in electrolyte solutions on the electrical double layer formed at the interface using a similar model. It is found that ion size greatly …

Designing Nanocomposite Materials For Catalyzing Electrochemical Reactions In Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, Sadia Afrin Kabir

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

Fuel cells are considered to be one the most promising sustainable energy technologies for energy conversion and electric power generation. With the development of stable, conductive and high performance anion exchange membranes and ionomers, there has been an increased interest towards studying various electrochemical reactions in Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (AEMFC). This increased attention has been attributed to the comparatively facile reaction kinetics, minimized corrosion effects and reduced fuel crossover in alkaline media. However, the oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) taking place in the cathode compartment of fuel cells plays a crucial role in optimizing the electrochemical energy conversion efficiency, …

The Ivory Tower, Urban Growth, And State Subjugation: An Historical Analysis On The Construction Of Student Identities And The Public Good During University Generated Redevelopment Projects, Jacob R. Wolff

Geography ETDs

Having become almost cliché in academic discourses, the term gentrification offers a conceptualization of sociospatial transformation too narrow for contemporary understandings of inequality within the post-industrial city. Generalizations of a wealthy populous displacing working-class and marginalized populations fail to address the diversity, complexity, and scope of economic hollowing-out and fail to fully account for other incoming subpopulations such as the emergent “creative class,” comprised of university-educated individuals who are not necessarily considered affluent by traditional economic measures. To this end, scholars in the United Kingdom have identified university neighborhood formation as a significant yet distinct process of place production that …

Intensifiers And The Construction Of Identity In New Mexican English, Frances Jones

Linguistics ETDs

In traditional sociolinguistic analyses, one or more linguistic variables are examined in terms of their correlation with broad social categories, such as gender or ethnicity. If a correlation is found, it can be argued that the variable is indexical of the speaker’s membership within the relevant social category (Labov 1972, 2001; Mesthrie et al 2000; Tagliamonte 2005, 2008). The use of intensifiers in English is one linguistic variable which has been extensively analyzed in terms of its variation in multiple populations, with noted differences in intensifier use between male and female speakers, older and younger speakers, and speakers in different …

Copper Electrodeposition In Mesoscale Through-Silicon-Vias, Lyle Alexander Menk

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Copper (Cu) electrodeposition (ECD) in through-silicon-vias (TSVs) is an essential technique required for high-density 3-D integration of complex semiconductor devices. The importance of Cu ECD in damascene interconnects has led to a natural development towards copper electrodeposition in TSVs. Cu ECD is preferred over alternative approaches like the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of tungsten (W) or aluminum (Al) because Cu ECD films have lower film stress, lower processing temperatures, and more optimal thermal and electrical properties as compared with CVD W or Al.

Via filling with electroplated Cu on substrates that have undergone atomic layer deposition of a conformal platinum …

Graphite And Graphene-Oxide Based Pgm-Free Model Catalysts For The Oxygen Reduction Reaction, Joseph Henry Dumont

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

The world currently relies heavily on fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas for its energy. Fossil fuels are non-renewable, that is, they draw on finite resources that will eventually dwindle, becoming too expensive or too environmentally damaging to retrieve. One alternative source of energy are fuel cells, electrochemical devices that convert chemical energy to cleanly and efficiently produce electricity. They can be used in a wide range of applications, including transportation, stationary, portable and emergency power sources. Their development has been slowed by the high cost of PGM electrocatalysts needed at both electrodes as well as sluggish …

Dengue Vaccination Modulates The Dengue-Zika Viral System Via Immunogenic Cross-Talk, Noah Joseph Bernard Silva

Biology ETDs

A vaccine for dengue, a viral disease which is a major driver of morbidity and mortality in tropical and subtropical regions, has recently been approved by eleven countries. While vaccination has the potential to reduce disease burden, the approved vaccine faces challenges due to the interactions between the four serotypes of dengue virus (DENV1-4) and the potential interactions with Zika virus (ZIKV), a related flavivirus. In this study, we propose a mathematical model incorporating both DENV and ZIKV in order to investigate the effects of viral competition on dengue vaccine performance, the potential for change in incidence of Zika due …

Incorporating Census Data Into A Geospatial Student Database, Edwin Agbenyega

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The University of New Mexico(UNM) stores data on students, faculty, and staff at the University. The data is used to generate reports and fill surveys for several local, statewide and nationwide reporting entities. The reports convey statistical and analytical information such as the graduation rates, retention, performance, ethnicity, age, and gender of students. Furthermore, the Institute of Design and Innovation (IDI), and the Office of Institutional Analytics (OIA) at UNM use the data provided for various predictive studies aimed at improving student outcomes.

This thesis proposes geospatial data as an additional layer of information for the data repository. The paper …

Evaluating The Relationship Of Temperature And Growth Of A Larval Colorado River Catostomid, C. Latipinnis, Through Otolith Aging And Stable Isotopes (Δ18o), Adam Lawrence Barkalow

Biology ETDs

Knowledge of early life history strategies and ecological dynamics of larval fish growth and development is invaluable for effectively managing and conserving common and endangered fish species. Isotopic analysis of otoliths (bony structures of the inner ear) from larval Flannelmouth Suckers Catostomus latipinnis obtained from the Colorado River in Grand Canyon could greatly facilitate understanding of thermally-regulated growth rates, thermal preferences, and ontogenetic habitat use by these fishes. Colorado River water temperatures in the Grand Canyon are highly modified from projected historic water temperatures present before closure Glen Canyon Dam. Cold water as result of Glen Canyon dam and hypolimnetic …

"Not Your Mother's Pta": Women's Political Activism In Twentieth-Century America, Jennifer Lynn Mcpherson

History ETDs

Not Your Mother’s PTA: Women’s Political Activism in Twentieth-Century America provides the first in-depth study of women’s political activism in the National PTA and its local PTA units. It closely examines how women integrated themselves and their ideas on women’s and children’s welfare reform into government from the 1890s through the 1970s. This project explores the resources, strategies, and methods used by PTA women working for women and children’s interests at the local and national level, primarily in public schools and government agencies. Not Your Mother’s PTA challenges the subtext of the PTA mother/housewife and shows how women used the …

An Integrated Bioinformatic/Experimental Approach For Discovering Novel Type Ii Polyketides Encoded In Actinobacterial Genomes, Wubin Gao

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Discovery of new natural products (NPs) is critical both for diseases treatment and crops protection. Numerous NP biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in sequenced microbial genomes allow identification of new NPs through genome mining. Developing an integrated bioinformatic/experimental approach for discovering novel type II polyketides (PK-IIs) facilitates investigation of this family of NPs in an efficient, systematic way. Here, we developed an approach to analyze ketosynthase α/β (KSα/β) gene sequences to predict PK-II core structures, allowing us to target novel PK-II BGCs either from isolated genomic DNA or genomes from the NCBI databank, and to isolate novel PK-IIs produced by these …

Our Grandmothers' Stories: The Role Of Mestiza, Mexican, Spanish, Nuevamexicana Women In The Settlement And Community Development Of The Wagon Mound Area, Bianca Manuelita Encinias

Architecture and Planning ETDs

The study addresses and deconstructs inaccurate historical images, perspectives, and interpretations of Mestiza, Mexican, Spanish, and Nuevamexicana women from northeastern New Mexico in the field of planning. Concerns for the way that Mestiza, Mexican, Spanish, Nuevamexicana women are portrayed, in the history of the United States, and my observations of the way that this population of women were treated and continue to be ignored as serious topics of research for study in higher education in mainstream U.S. planning efforts led me to reconstruct the position of the Mestiza, Mexican, Spanish, Nuevamexicana women in community and economic development, as community planners …

An Investigation Of The Neural Components And Saccade Sequences That Enable Direct Navigation Through Virtual Space, Daniel R. Barto

Psychology ETDs

Spatial navigation is a critical behavior for nearly all life forms. The ability to navigate to a destination and to remember how to return to that destination involves numerous brain processes such as perception, attention, memory, learning, proprioception, and distance estimation. The study of spatial navigation, in various organisms and on different sorts of maze-apparatuses, has revealed what is required of the brain and what is required of the environment to enable successful navigation. This dissertation adds to this vast literature by examining the physiological and behavioral components involved in human navigation in a virtual environment.

The primary aim of …

A Multiscale Modeling Study Of The Mammary Gland, Joseph D. Butner

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Multiscale, hybrid computer modeling has emerged as a valuable tool in the fields of computational systems biology and mathematical oncology. In this work, we present an overview of the motivations for, and development and implementation of, three hybrid multiscale models of the mammary gland system and early stage ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in the gland. Pubertal mammary gland development was described first using a two-dimensional, lattice-based hybrid agent-based model description of the mammary terminal end bud (TEB), and then with a three-dimensional lattice-free TEB model. Both models implement a discrete, agent-based description of the cell scale, and a continuum, …

Study Of Polysulfide Speciation In Lithium Sulfur Batteries Using In Situ Confocal Raman Microscopy, Josefine Mcbrayer

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Secondary lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries have been heavily studied in the battery community since the start of the 21^st century due to their high theoretical capacity and specific energy density. The ground-breaking lithium ion battery has revolutionized society and its ability to store energy, however the lithium ion battery is reaching its limit with a theoretical capacity almost five times lower than that of lithium sulfur. With the improvement and commercialization of Li-S batteries, electric vehicles and personal electronics will have extended performance on a single charge. The viability of this promising chemistry relies on overcoming several key difficulties, …

A Novel Application Of Machine Learning Methods To Model Microcontroller Upset Due To Intentional Electromagnetic Interference, Rusmir Bilalic

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

A novel application of support vector machines (SVMs), artificial neural networks (ANNs), and Gaussian processes (GPs) for machine learning (GPML) to model microcontroller unit (MCU) upset due to intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) is presented. In this approach, an MCU performs a counting operation (0-7) while electromagnetic interference in the form of a radio frequency (RF) pulse is direct-injected into the MCU clock line. Injection times with respect to the clock signal are the clock low, clock rising edge, clock high, and the clock falling edge periods in the clock window during which the MCU is performing initialization and executing the …

Phylogeography And Population Dynamics Of North American Wolverines (Gulo Gulo Luscus) In Alaska And Western Canada, Dianna M. Krejsa

Biology ETDs

The circumboreal wolverine (Gulo gulo sp.) is ideal for studying responses to environmental perturbation in the North due to a history of persistence in glacial refugia and subsequent glacial recolonization. Wolverines are also excellent indicators of human influence on the environment due to their close association with remote areas and cold, snowy climes. Through the use of genetic tools (i.e., nuclear microsatellite loci and mitochondrial sequences), I examined population structure of wolverines in Alaska and western Canada to identify signatures of glacial refugia, bottlenecks, and distinctive populations, sex-biased dispersal, gene flow, and source and sink population dynamics. I identified genetic …