Digital Commons Network^™

Technology And Economy Analysis Of Waste Truck Tires Management, Irina Tsiryapkina

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this work was to develop a waste truck tires recycling facility for the Siberian coal transportation company “SibTreid NK” in the Kemerovo region, Russia. For years, the company has been stockpiling old scrap tires at their warehouse or dumping them into open strip mines. Taking this into account as well as existing environmental concerns due to the continually growing coal industry in the Kemerovo region, it is highly necessary to make an operational facility to deal with the large number of accumulated waste truck tires.

To achieve this goal, this project reviewed different methods and technologies …

Evaluation Of Co2 Flooding In Tight Formation, Sai Wang

Theses and Dissertations

The low recovery of oil from the tight liquid-rich formations is still a main challenge for the tight reservoir. Thus, in order to break the chains and remove the obstacle such as the low recovery factor in the Bakken tight formation, even though the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies were already well applied in this field, the supercritical CO2 flooding was proposed as an immense potential recovery method for the production improvement.

In this research, we conducted a series of CO2 flooding experiments under various injection pressure (2500psi, 2800psi, 3000psi, 3500psi), to investigate the recovery potential of the core …

Development Of Dna-Based Biosensors And Antibacterial Additive, Yuqian Xing

Theses and Dissertations

In the first project, an ultrasensitive assay has been developed for the detection and determination of Hg2+(aq) based on single-particle inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (spICP-MS). In the presence of Hg2+(aq), AuNPs modified with a segment of single-stranded DNA can aggregate due to the formation of well-known thymine (T)-Hg2+-T complex. The spICP-MS can sensitively and quantitatively measure the degree of aggregation by the overall decrease in number of detected AuNPs or NP aggregates. Compared with most other Hg assays that use the same principle of aggregation-dispersion with DNA modified AuNPs, this spICP-MS-based method achieved a much lower detection limit of 0.031 …

Reservoir Characterization And Simulation Of Enhanced Oil Recovery For Bakken, Runxuan Sun

Theses and Dissertations

The Bakken formation is one of the largest unconventional resources in the world with approximately 92 billion barrels of recoverable oil. However, the primary oil recovery factor remains as low as less than 10% of the original oil in place (OOIP). Given the vast Bakken resources and low primary oil recovery, there is a need and enormous potential for the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in Bakken.

Two comprehensive numerical compositional models were built for the simulation CO2 Huff-n-Puff and cyclic surfactant injection in an actual Middle Bakken horizontal well. A good history match of primary production was obtained. Embedded Discrete …

Wetland Dynamics In A Terminal Lake Basin: Implications To Recent Hydroclimatic Evolution, Alexis Lucy Archambault

Theses and Dissertations

Spatiotemporal surface water extent dynamics are important factors to understand the evolution of land surface and hydrologic processes in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR). Surface water bodies such as lakes and wetlands are highly responsive to the variability in air temperature and precipitation, making them effective indicators of long-term hydrological conditions. Increased levels of precipitation influencing subsequent fill and spill processes have facilitated the wetland behavior in the Devils Lake Basin (DLB) as well as the rising lake levels that has caused $1 billon in flood damages. To date, the impacts of recent wetting (1993-present) on surface water area dynamics …

Multicultural Education And Cultural Competency Standards For Legal Professionals, Stephanie Bono

Theses and Dissertations

The development of multicultural education and cultural competency standards for legal professionals is an important topic within the legal field (Bryant, 2001; Weng, 2005; Curcio, Ward, & Dogra, 2013). The legal profession plays a major role in American society, with legal professionals working in prominent positions within the government, financial sector, and business, in addition to private law firms. These professionals create policy, write laws, and advocate on behalf of others. They are leaders and experts who possess enormous power, and we rely on them to make decisions that will allow our society to thrive. In recent decades, however, our …

Fracture Detection And Prediction In Unconventional Reservoirs For Finding Sweet Spot, Sofiane Djezzar

Theses and Dissertations

The Cambro-Ordovician in the Algerian Saharan platform is characterized by tight sandstone formations with very low petrophysical characteristics where the natural fractures play an important role in their productivity. The Mouydir basin is the less explored basin in Algeria where no 3D seismic data exist and only low quality of seismic 2D surveys are available. In addition, few wells were drilled in the fifties exist in this basin. They were drilled based on the field observations, gravity data, geological maps, and seismic refraction data. Unfortunately, these wells were all negative. The Mouydir basin is limited in the west by the …

Method Development And Optimization For The Recovery Of Carbohydrates From A Microalga Species Of Chlorella Vulgaris By Combined Physical And Chemical Pre-Treatments, William Richard Hammann

Theses and Dissertations

A key focus of microalgae-based fuels/chemicals research and development has been on the lipids that many strains generate, but recent studies show that solely recovering these lipids may not be cost competitive with fossil-derived processes. However, if the carbohydrates can also be recovered and ultimately converted into useful chemical intermediates, this may improve the economics for microalgae-based sustainable product technologies.

In the present work, physical and chemical pre-treatments were performed on the Chlorella vulgaris microalgae strain to recover the carbohydrates from the biomass. A central composite design approach was used to optimize hydrolysis conditions including temperature, acid concentration, microalgae solid-to-liquid …

Determination Of Sorption Characteristics Of Wood Using A New Non-Fickian Empirical Model, Joshua Troy Hatton

Theses and Dissertations

Wood is a versatile and cost-effective building material found in everyday life. However, it has a disadvantage of readily absorbing both water vapor from the surrounding air and liquid water when in direct contact. The absorption of water increases the rate of the wood decaying and can also affect the physical properties, such as warping and swelling. Previous research has looked into defining the rate of absorption by modeling it based on Fick’s second law. Fick’s second law bases the rate of absorption on a diffusion coefficient; a constant that changes with time. Herein, a new empirical model is proposed …

Fine Scale Characterization Of Organic Matter Using Analytical Methods: Raman And Nmr Spectroscopies, Seyedalireza Khatibi

Theses and Dissertations

In order to assess a source rock for economical exploitation purposes, many parameters should be considered. Regarding the geochemical aspects, the most important ones are amount of organic matter (OM) and its quality. Quality refers to thermal maturity level and the nature of the OM from which it was formed that affect the ability of oil and gas generation. Vitrinite reflectance and programed pyrolysis such as Rock-Eval (RE) are common methods for such analysis.

However, vitrinite is not always present in sediments and RE is providing bulk properties. Moreover, the increase in exploration and production of unconventional reservoirs and their …

Innovation Of Petrophysical And Geomechanical Experiment Methodologies: The Application Of 3d Printing Technology, Lingyun Kong

Theses and Dissertations

The petrophysical and geomechanical properties of rocks link the geology origin with engineering practice, which serves as the fundamental of various disciplinaries associated with subsurface porous media, including civil engineering, underground water, geological exploration, and petroleum engineering. The research methodologies can be mainly divided into three aspects: theoretical modelling, numerical simulation, and experiments, in which the last approach plays a critical role that can support, validate, calibrate, or even refute a hypothesis. Only replying on repeatable trials and consolidate analysis of precise results can the experiments be successful and convincing, though uncertainties, due to multiple factors, need to be scrutinized …

Evaluation Of Rutting And Cracking Resistance Of Fiber Reinforced Hma Mixes In North Dakota, Zeenat Nahar

Theses and Dissertations

Asphalt pavements deteriorate over time due to traffic loads and weather conditions. The primary failure modes of asphalt pavements in North Dakota are rutting, fatigue cracking, and low temperature cracking. This study investigated whether the addi- tion of Aramid Fiber to SuperPave HMA mixes improves their resistance to rutting, low temperature cracking, and fatigue cracking. The experiments were conducted on conventional and fiber mixes provided by the North Dakota Department of Trans- portation. The Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA), Disk Shaped Compact Tension (DCT), and the Semi-Circular Disk Shape equipment (SCB) were used to test for rut- ting, low temperature cracking, …

Career Change Theory: An Analysis Of Second Career Pilots Pursuing The Aviation Profession, Alex Nikle

Theses and Dissertations

The United States regional air carrier industry has recently undergone a substantial transformation in pilot salaries and hiring practices. Regional airlines are employing professional aviators at unprecedented rates in response to economic growth, regulatory reform, and legacy air carrier retirements. The resulting demand for professional pilots has drawn a new category of aviators into the airline industry, identified in this research as “second career” pilots. The following study used a mixed method design to examine the backgrounds of survey participants at two US flight training programs and determine their transition motivations. Through chi-square tests, t-tests, and correlation analysis, this study …

Classification Of Rotating Machinery Fault Using Vibration Signal, Santosh Paudyal

Theses and Dissertations

Rotating machinery are critical instruments in the manufacturing sectors that are continually operated to fulfill their productivity objective. To reduce the risk of catastrophic failure and unwanted breakdown, it is crucial to ensure that these machines operate within their quality standards. Waste is undesirable to such sectors that directly affect manufacturing price. Maintenance intervention must be efficient, else it is deemed as waste. It is estimated that businesses are losing billions of dollars worldwide due to inadequate maintenance and poor management. It is, therefore, crucial to carry out effective maintenance actions. Since condition-based monitoring method recommends maintenance only when necessary, …

Petrophysical Characterization Of Reservoir And Oil Properties As A Tool For Choosing Optimal Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods: Case Study Of Dawson Bay Formation, Divide County, North Dakota, United States, Kayode James Olatunji

Theses and Dissertations

In unconventional reservoirs, i.e., shaly or tight sand formations, with low porosity and very low permeability, the oil recovery factor is low hence enhanced oil recovery is important. In the conventional reservoirs, once the primary and secondary stages of recovery are exhausted, about two-thirds of the original oil in place is left behind. Enhanced Oil Recovery aims to recover the remaining oil (Green and Wilhite, 1998). These makes the enhanced oil recovery to be of great importance. Efforts are always in place to see how the system can be improved.

The study was carried out to describe the overview of …

Enhancement Of Retention Of Heavy Metals By Storm Water Structural Best Management Practices, Nicholas Reid Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Batch and column experiments were performed on wide range of adsorbent materials for the adsorption of copper (II) ion from aqueous solution. The objective of this research was to determine a suitable material to be applied in urban stormwater control measures such as low impact developments that will increase the pollutant reduction efficiency of the structure, specifically increase heavy metal retention. Materials analyzed in this research are wood chips, tree leaves, rice husk, biochar, modified iron-coated sand and flocculated alum particles. Batch experiments determine the maximum adsorption capacity of each material under a range of metal and adsorbent dosages. Column …

Predicting Flame Stability, Ash Deposition And Radiative Heat Transfer Characteristics During Oxy-Fuel Combustion Of Pulverized Coal Using Different Multiphase Modeling Frameworks, Trevor Lee Seidel

Theses and Dissertations

Oxy-fuel combustion processes are promising technologies for power generation that allow CO2 recovery and sequestration using essentially conventional equipment. Although oxy-fuel combustion has been well researched over the years, there are fundamental issues related to the associated ash deposition processes and their subsequent impact on radiative heat transfer that need to be understood before oxy-fuel combustion can be fully scaled up to a commercial scale. Ash formation and deposition is a complex physio-chemical process consisting of: vaporization, condensation, melting, fragmentation, nucleation and coagulation of the mineral matter and organically bound metals in the parent fuel that results in a distinct …

Melnet: A Deep Learning Based Model For Melanoma Detection, Shudipto Sekhar Roy

Theses and Dissertations

Melanoma is identified as the deadliest in the skin cancer category. However, early-stage detection may enhance the treatment result. In this research, a deep learning-based model, named “melNET”, has been developed to detect melanoma in both dermoscopic and digital images. melNET uses the Inception-v3 architecture to handle the deep learning part. To ensure quality optimization, the architectural aspects of Inception-v3 were designed using the Hebbian principle as well as taking the intuition of multi-scale processing. This architecture takes advantage of parallel computing across multiple GPUs to employ RMSprop as the optimizer. While going through the training phase, melNET uses the …

The Impact Of Support Areas On The Academic Success Of International Students In Community Colleges, Taiwo Olubusoye Soetan

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the various types of support areas for international students in community colleges that help them achieve academic success in their studies. The study considers the impact of these support areas on international students’ academic success in terms of their self-reported Grade Point Average (GPA) and perceived success using the Bronfenbrenner’s theory of human development at the micro-, meso-, and macro- levels.

A quantitative study was conducted to measure the impact of these support areas on international students’ academic success measured in terms of their self-reported GPA and perceived success. A target sample size of 399 international students …

Competing By Tweeting: A Content Analysis Of University Presidents' Tweets, Susan Balcom Walton

Theses and Dissertations

Some university presidents have engaged with stakeholders by using Twitter content to interact with them and strengthen institutional image. However, little research has been published concerning how university presidents use social media to connect with audiences in areas that directly impact institutional image, specifically, college rankings such as those provided by U.S. News & World Report.

This study addressed two questions: What is the content of the Twitter posts of top public university presidents who use Twitter, and how does that content relate to criteria that reinforce institutional image, such as the U.S. News & World Report rankings? These questions …

Evolution Of Object-Oriented Methods From The Reverse Engineering Of Programming Code, Pann Ajjimaporn

Theses and Dissertations

Many software development projects fail because of their inability to deliver the product in a timely and cost-effective manner, i.e. the software crisis. In a commercial airline company, a safety-critical system for preventing a “single-point of failure” needs to be developed and certified. To meet the project deadline an Agile approach was used in developing the first portion of the system. An appropriate software development methodology, i.e. reverse-engineering was then applied to the software system to develop method that would be used in system maintenance and evaluation.

The goals of this research study were to develop a segment of one …

Characteristics Of Convectively Induced Turbulence Determined From Tropical And Midlatitude Simulations, Katelyn Audrey Barber

Theses and Dissertations

Out-of-cloud convectively induced turbulence (CIT) poses both a serious threat to aviation operations and a challenge to forecasting applications. This challenge is particularly large in the tropics, as CIT prediction and avoidance are limited due to sparse observations and lack of tropical turbulence research. This study uses high resolution numerical simulations to investigate out-of-cloud CIT properties including intensity, areal coverage, and location using popular turbulence diagnostics in both the tropics and midlatitudes. Convective types are varied in both regions to determine the influence of convective strength and stage (developing versus mature) on CIT characteristics. The Ellrod index, Richardson number, subgrid-scale …

United States Coast Guard Aviation Safety: Relationship Between The Safety Survey And The Extent Of Hazard Reporting, James Cooley

Theses and Dissertations

Aviation safety outcomes, such as mishaps, are a product of an aviation organization’s safety culture (Reason, 2008; Reiman & Pietikäinen, 2012). Safety cultures should be assessed in order to improve an organization’s state of safety (Adjekum et al., 2015; Cooper, Collins, Bernard, Schwann, & Knox, 2019; Wiegmann, Zhang, von Thaden, Sharma, & Gibbons, 2004). Questionnaires are one of the best ways of obtaining information about an organization’s safety culture (Wiegmann et al., 2004; Wald, Gray, & Eatough, 2018). Additionally, the extent to which aviation hazards are reported (hazreps) serve as an indicator of the health of an aviation Safety Management …

Impacts Of Cold Region Hydroclimatic Variability On Phosphorus Exports: Insights From Concentrations - Discharge Relationships, Tyson Lee Jeannotte

Theses and Dissertations

In Devils Lake ND, a terminal lake in the Northern Great Plains, algae blooms are of great concern due to the recent increase of streamflow and subsequent elevated concentrations of nutrients, particularly phosphorus. To date, very few studies explore P concentration to streamflow relationship in cold region agricultural basins, specially the headwater catchments of the Devils Lake basin. This study gains a better understanding of the impacts of hydroclimatic variation on concentration to streamflow relationships between two headwater catchments (Mauvais Coulee: 1032 km2 and Tributary 3: 160 km2) draining to Devils Lake during the 2016-2018 period. This study presents high-resolution …

Characterizing The Contribution Of Groudwater In The Water Budgets Of Wetlands Using Gis Groundwater Modeling And The Field Measurement Of Water Quality, Brianna Fuller Speldrich

Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands provide many benefits to society, including flood attenuation, groundwater recharge, water quality improvement, and habitat for wildlife. Because their structure and function are sensitive to changes in hydrology, characterizing the water budgets of wetlands is crucial to effective management and conservation. The groundwater component of a budget, which often controls resiliency and water quality, is particularly difficult to estimate and can be costly, time-consuming, and invasive. This study used a GIS approach using a digital elevation model (DEM) and the elevations of lakes, wetlands, streams, and hydric soils to produce a water-table surface raster for a portion of the …

Design Of A Controlled Descent Lifting Body Glider For High Altitude Payload Recovery, Nanette Valentour

Theses and Dissertations

A lifting body scaled glider to be used as a recovery method for high altitude ballooning payloads has been developed at the University of North Dakota. Current recovery techniques for balloon payloads consist of monitoring and chasing the payload signal until it can be recovered. It is expected that a lifting body glider can reduce the distance for payload recovery and in some cases effectively return the payload back to the Ground Station. A preliminary subsonic aerodynamic model has been developed using MATLAB and the Vortex Lattice Method (VLM). Traditional evaluation techniques typical for calculation of the aerodynamic coefficients are …

Implementing An Occupational Therapy Student-Run Clinic At The University Of North Dakota, Ryan Walter, Kennedy Bresnahan

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Introduction: The curriculum of the occupational therapy program at the University of North Dakota (UND) includes approximately 185 hours of level I fieldwork experience where students work to integrate and practice skills learned within the classroom in a clinical setting. Students report that these experiences are often observation-based. Additionally, academic fieldwork coordinators are having an increasingly difficult time finding placements to support the growing number of students nationwide. A contributing factor to placement shortages is the tradition of using the apprenticeship model of supervision, where one student is supervised by one fieldwork educator (FWE). In order to ensure a consistent …

Occupational Therapy At Stable Days: Supporting A Christian Worldview, Liz Nerhus, Jordan Mooney

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to provide a framework for use by an occupational therapist providing integrated services from a Christian worldview perspective within a faith-based setting.

Methodology: An extensive literature review was completed on the topics of occupational therapy in integrated faith-based settings, with an emphasis on spirituality, experience of practitioners, current tools of the profession, and the basic tenants of the Christian faith. The search databases used included: CINAHL, OTSEARCH, Pubmed, SocIndex, and PsycINFO. The literature review revealed that nearly 80% of Americans identify spirituality as an important part of their life (Williams-Reade, Lobo and Gutierrez, …

Addressing Role Transitions In Young And Middle-Aged Adults Post-Stroke In The Inpatient Rehabilitation Setting: An In-Service For Occupational Therapists, Ashley Ystaas, Kelsey Raymond

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Young and middle-aged adults experience disruptions to their daily life roles and responsibilities due to the variety of impairments they may face following a stroke. This population is in the time of their lives where they have a variety of roles and responsibilities that are important to them such as work, parenting, home management, education, driving, community re-integration, and social participation (Harris & Bettger, 2018; Lawrence, 2010, Maaijwee et al., 2015). An extensive literature review was conducted to determine if and when occupational therapists address roles during the rehabilitation process with young and middle-aged adults post-stroke. The thorough review of …

Secondary Tia Outpatient Prevention (Stop) Program: Addressing Individuals Of Lower Socioeconomic Status, Mackenzie Funke, Kasey Nieland

Occupational Therapy Capstones

The purpose of this scholarly project was to provide secondary prevention in an outpatient setting to individuals who have experienced a transient ischemic attack (TIA) and are of lower socioeconomic status (SES). Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States and the leading cause of long-term disability (National Stroke Association, 2018). An estimated 795,000 plus Americans experience a stroke each year (Benjamin et al., 2017). Of this estimation, about 185,000 Americans experience a recurrent stroke (Benjamin et al., 2017). Roughly, one half of patients fail to seek medical attention within 24 hours of a TIA (Sharry …