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Surface Energy Balance And Melt Thresholds Over 11 Years At Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, Matthew James Hoffman, Andrew G. Fountain, Glen E. Liston

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Victoria Land, Antarctica, melting of glacial ice is the primary source of water to streams, lakes, and associated ecosystems. To understand geochemical fluxes and ecological responses to past and future climates requires a physically based energy balance model. We applied a one-dimensional model to one site on Taylor Glacier using 11 years of daily meteorological data and seasonal ablation measurements. Inclusion of transmission of solar radiation into the ice was necessary to accurately model summer ablation and ice temperatures. Results showed good correspondence between calculated and measured ablation and ice temperatures over the 11 years. …

Selectivity In Imaging The First Emperor, K. E. Brashier

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The story of Qin may vaunt grandiose armies and new empires that encompass all under heaven, but it also extends to more humble images:

Li Si, [the chief minister of Qin], was a man of Shangcai in Chu. In his youth, when he was a minor clerk in the province, he noticed rats eating filth in the latrines of the clerks’ hostel; and if they approached a man or dog, they were generally scared of them. But when Si entered a granary, he observed that the rats in the granary were eating the stored-up grain, living underneath the main chamber …

Semantic Sensor Web, Amit P. Sheth, Cory Henson, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Determination Of Minimum Miscibility Pressure Using Vanishing Interfacial Tension In Support Of Alaska North Slope Heavy Oil Development, Vinit Santosh Tathed

Engineering

"Developing Alaskan heavy oils resources has become necessary as, the production from light oil fields in Alaska's North Slope (ANS) is on the decline. Due to the extremely viscous nature of these heavy oils, they are hard to produce by natural pressure. Miscible gas injection Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) can be one of the methods for production of these heavy oils. Minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is an important optimization parameter for EOR processes involving CO₂ or hydrocarbon gas injection. The MMP for a gas-oil system is directly related to the interfacial tension between the injected gas and the reservoir crude …

Community, Population, And Growth Dynamics Of Alnus Tenuifolia: Implications For Nutrient Cycling On An Interior Alaskan Floodplain, Dana Rachel Nossov

Biological Sciences

This study describes the community, population, and growth dynamics of Alnus tenuifolia (thinleaf alder) and implications for nutrient cycling on the Tanana River floodplains. Through symbiotic N-fixation inputs, alder contributed to soil N accumulation with time. N-fixation itself was likely limited by soil P. Soil N was positively related to alder stem density in early successional stands. Community structure varied along a temporal gradient of changing environmental characteristics, but variations in successional patterns were found. Landscape scale alder recruitment varied temporally and was apparently linked to interactions between geofluvial processes, seed production and dispersal, and herbivory. A widespread stem canker …

King Eider Migration And Seasonal Interactions At The Individual Level, Steffen Oppel

Biological Sciences

Seasonal interactions describe how events during one season of the annual cycle of a migratory bird affect its fitness in subsequent seasons. Understanding the strength and mechanism of seasonal interactions is important to predict how migratory birds will respond to future challenges caused by habitat loss and climate change. This dissertation explores seasonal interactions between different stages of the annual cycle in an arctic-breeding sea duck, the King Eider (Somateria spectabilis). Concerns over recent population declines and potential effects of climate change on marine habitats used by the species highlight the need for a better understanding of its life history. …

The Distribution Of Nitric Oxide At 150 Km, Timothy E. Stern

Physics

"The objectives of this thesis are to determine the morphology of nitric oxide at the altitude of 150 km and to determine what drives the observed variability. Those objectives are accomplished by characterizing satellite observations of nitric oxide at that altitude and comparing them with those at 106 km, the altitude of peak density. The global distribution of nitric oxide and its response to geomagnetic activity vary between the two altitudes. At 150 km, nitric oxide is most abundant at high latitudes in the sunlit summer hemisphere, in contrast to nitric oxide at 106 km, which is most abundant at …

Classroom Culture And Indigenous Classrooms, Hishinlai' Kathy Sikorski

Education

"Indigenous languages have been traditionally learned by doing activities on the land, with the family or around a village. Sometimes, because this is not feasible, Indigenous languages can be learned in a classroom. This is a qualitative research on the author's own Indigenous language classroom with the theoretical foundations of second language acquisition and group formation processes. Data collected were videotapes, audiotapes, student journals, and an exit interview, which were triangulated and verified by an interrater. Results were that the instructor had to possess a philosophy of second language teaching and learning; set high expectations, and create a positive classroom …

Shallow Surface Thermogenic Hydrocarbon Migration Over Western Prudhoe Bay Region, Alaska, Sudipta Sarkar

Geosciences

"Hydrocarbons leak from petroleum reservoirs to the surface. In continuous permafrost regions like the Alaska North Slope, surface migration of thermogenic hydrocarbons may be hindered by the presence of ground ice. However, suitable permeable migration pathways in the permafrost can exist. Unfrozen sediments at the bottom of the lakes, or open faults can facilitate thermogenic hydrocarbon migration. I studied the nature and distribution of gaseous alkanes (C1 to C6) and helium in the shallow permafrost cores (2 m depth); depth profiles of alkanes (C1 to C7) in the two wells (1500 m deep); and stable isotopes of CH₄ trapped in …

Sensitivity Of Boreal Forest Carbon Dynamics To Long-Term (1989-2005) Throughfall Exclusion In Interior Alaska), Sarah A. Runck

Forest Sciences

"The objective of this study was to assess the effect of throughfall exclusion (1989-2005) on forest vegetation and soil in upland and floodplain landscape positions. In uplands, imposed drought reduced soil moisture at 5, 10, and 20 cm depths and increased soil C storage by slowing decomposer activity at the surface. In the drought plots, aboveground tree growth was reduced and root biomass in mineral soil was increased. In floodplains, imposed drought did not reduce soil moisture as strongly as it did in uplands, though near-surface soil C storage was still increased as a result of reduced decomposer activity. Floodplain …

“Fate Must Find Someone To Speak Through”: Christianity, Ragnarök, And The Loss Of Icelandic Independence In The Eyes Of The Icelanders As Illustrated By Gísla Saga Súrssonar, Grete E. Mjolsnes

English

Iceland surrendered political control to the Norwegian monarchy in 1262, but immediately resented their choice. The sagas about reliance on the Norwegians, clearly illustrating that the Icelanders knew where this path was leading them. Gísla Saga is a particularly interesting text to examine in light of the contemporaneous political climate, as it takes place in the years leading up to the conversion but was written between the conversion and the submission to Norwegian rule. Though Gísla does not explicitly comment on either the conversion or the increase in Norwegian influence, close examination illuminates ambiguity in the portrayal of Christian and …

Aesthetic Journeys, Johanna Brewer, Scott Mainwaring, Paul Dourish

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

Researchers and designers are increasingly creating technologies intended to support urban mobility. However, the question of what mobility is remains largely under-examined. In this paper we will use the notion of aesthetic journeys to reconsider the relationship between urban spaces, people and technologies. Fieldwork on the Orange County bus system and in the London Underground leads to a discussion of how we might begin to design for multiple mobilities.

The Antelope, University Of Nebraska At Kearney

The Antelope

No abstract provided.

Suffering, Pity, And Pride: Complexities Of The Russian-American Adoption Relationship From The Early 1990'S To 2007, Andrea K. Neighbors

Anthropology

This thesis describes and analyzes the Russian-American adoption relationship between the early 1990s and 2007. In the early 1990s, an Non-Governmental Organization report depicting Russian orphanages provided Americans with pitiful images of Russian orphaned children. The report became iconic and shaped the way Americans perceived Russian orphans and orphanages. For the rest of the 1990s, Russian children became one of the most popular adoption choices for American parents; these children had the “right” race and could be “saved”. In 2005, news started to surface that adopted Russian children had been murdered in the U.S. by American adoptive parents. The Russian …

Chancellor's Report 2008-12, John Pugh

Chancellor's Report

No abstract provided.

Volume 46, Number 18: December 17, 2008, University Of North Dakota

University Letter Archive

No abstract provided.

What Drives The Alaska Economy?, Oliver Scott Goldsmith

ISER Reports

What drives Alaska’s economy is new money: money coming in from outside the state. How big the economy is, and how much it grows, depends on how much new money comes in. New money comes from “basic” sectors— the sectors that are the basis for all jobs and income across Alaska. They are, in effect, the gears driving the economy. Alaska has eight main basic sectors, but the number of Alaskans they employ directly is small, compared with the number of jobs they support indirectly. Figure 1 shows numbers and shares of jobs for Alaskans that the federal government, the …

The Status Of Pacific Walrus (Odebenus Rosmarus Divergens) Foraging Habitat And Diet Around St. Lawrence Island, Tracie E. Merrill

Marine Biology

With ongoing climate change, food resources may be reduced for Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens). Significant differences in walrus foraging habitat (benthic communities) or diet might indicate changes in prey quality or quantity. In this study, benthic infaunal biomass, abundance, and composition were compared between 1970-1974 and 2006 at stations southwest of St. Lawrence Island. Sediment grain size was compared because it strongly determines benthic community structure. Wet weights, counts, and species composition of prey items found in stomachs of walruses collected near the island were compared between the 1980s and 2007. Benthic invertebrate biomass and abundance increased mainly due …

Quikscat Measurements Of The Wind Field Over The Bering And Chukchi Seas, Jeremy M. Mull

Marine Biology

The purpose of this study is to investigate the dynamic wind field and resulting ocean circulation patterns in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. This region forms an important link in global ocean circulation as Bering Strait is a major conduit for water flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic has been identified as an area sensitive to climate change; thus it is vital to understand how water and energy flow through this region. We first quantify the differences between the winds measured in this region by the Quik Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) and those modeled by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction …

Measurement Of Rheological And Thermal Properties And The Freeze-Thaw Characteristics Of Nanofluids, Bhaskar C. Sahoo

Engineering

"This research investigates the rheological and thermal properties and the freeze-thaw characteristics of nanofluids. Nanofluids are dispersions of nano-scale particles (<100 nm) in a base fluid such as water, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol or a mixture of more than one fluid. In cold regions, a mixture of 60% ethylene glycol in water by mass (60:40 EG/W) is normally used as the heat transfer fluid due to its low freezing point. Rheological properties of aluminum oxide nanofluid in the 60:40 EG/W base fluid were investigated and new correlations, expressing viscosity as a function of temperature and particle concentration, were developed. Results from the specific heat experiments on zinc oxide nanofluid in the 60:40 EG/W were compared with available correlations and a new model was developed. The thermal conductivity of silicon dioxide nanofluid in a 60:40 EG/W was measured and compared with existing models, considering the Brownian motion of nanoparticles. A new correlation, expressing thermal conductivity as a function of particle concentration, size, base fluid properties and temperature, was proposed by improving an existing model. Freeze-thaw characteristics of copper oxide nanoparticle dispersions in water were studied for a single freeze-thaw cycle. The freezing rate, agglomeration of nanoparticles and the effect on the freezing point of nanofluid were examined"--Leaf iii

Comparative And Sensitivity Study Of The Effects Of Flow Parameters On Pressure Drop In Vertical Tubing, George Kaetochi Elekwachi

Engineering

"Two-phase gas-liquid flow occurs in vertical pipes during the production of reservoir fluids. The two most common flow patterns that are observed during oil production are the Bubble and Slug flows. Determination of pressure drop in two-phase flow is more complicated than single-phase flow because two fluids with different densities flow in the tubing at different velocities. Using two multiphase correlations (Hagedorn and Brown, and Duns and Ros), the effect of fluid properties variation at different flow conditions on pressure drop were studied. Fluid data developed with correlations and West Sak fluid data were used for the analysis. Plots showing …

An Engineering Study To Investigate The Methane Hydrate Resource Potential Associated With The Barrow Gas Fields In Alaska, Praveen Kumar Singh

Engineering

"Previous studies on the Barrow Gas Fields (BGF) in Alaska have suggested that accumulations of natural gas hydrates could exist within these reservoirs. In consideration of future energy challenges, and the potential of gas hydrates in meeting them, a comprehensive engineering study was undertaken to investigate the BGF for hydrates, and to recommend an optimal plan for future field development. The methane hydrate resource potential of the BGF, viz. the East Barrow (EB), South Barrow (SB), and Walakpa (WAL) gas pools, was analyzed by developing gas hydrate stability models. Material balance studies were performed on the EB gas field to …

Ontology Generation, Information Harvesting And Semantic Annotation For Machine-Generated Web Pages, Cui Tao

Theses and Dissertations

The current World Wide Web is a web of pages. Users have to guess possible keywords that might lead through search engines to the pages that contain information of interest and browse hundreds or even thousands of the returned pages in order to obtain what they want. This frustrating problem motivates an approach to turn the web of pages into a web of knowledge, so that web users can query the information of interest directly. This dissertation provides a step in this direction and a way to partially overcome the challenges. Specifically, this dissertation shows how to turn machine-generated web …

Characterization Of The Thermal Transport Through A Temporally-Varying Ash Layer, Darron Palmer Cundick

Theses and Dissertations

Ash deposits in commercial coal-fired boilers frequently pose serious maintenance challenges and decrease thermal efficiency. A better understanding of fundamental thermal transport properties in ash deposits can help mitigate their negative effects. In order to characterize the thermal properties of boiler-side deposits, this work presents a thermal transport model and in-situ measurements of effective thermal conductivity in coal ash deposits. A simple model of the thermal transport through an ash deposit, with and with out slagging, was developed. The model approximates the deposit by dividing it into four regimes: particulate, sintered, solidified slag, and molten slag. The development of this …

Benchmarking Regional Competitiveness: The Role Of A Region's Economic Legacy In Determining Competitiveness, Rebekka Dudensing

All Dissertations

Studies benchmarking or indexing regional competitiveness are increasingly common in the popular and professional press. Indices are popular because they condense a large amount of data into a single number or grade that facilitates the easy comparison of regional economies. However, researchers question both the benchmarking methodology and the appropriateness of applying one region's successful economic development practices to a dissimilar region. The goal of this study is to improve the benchmarking methodology by identifying possible variable weights for three competitiveness outcomes (growth in population, employment, and per capita income) and exploring whether policy inputs (innovation inputs, knowledge workers, labor …

Quantifying The Effects Of Land Use Change On Stream Ecosystems For Use In Ecological Risk Assessment, Katherine Sciera

All Dissertations

Land disturbance often results in a cascade of physical and chemical stressors to aquatic ecosystems which can impact their biotic integrity. This study examined three developing watersheds near Greenville, SC to evaluate the quantitative relationships between the physical stressors associated with land use alterations and biotic integrity. More specifically, the objectives of this study were to 1) quantify the mechanisms of aquatic ecosystem degradation in streams impacted by watershed urbanization, 2) demonstrate the use of quantitative relationships among the physical, chemical, and biological stressors associated with land use change in an established ecological risk assessment framework, and 3) identify the …

Synthesis, Structure And Magnetic Properties Of Oxy-Anion Based Magnetic Solids Containing Transition Metal Oxide Nanostructures, Kulugammana Gedera Ranmohotti

All Dissertations

Inline with the focus of our research, my goal for this dissertation study is to further explore new classes of magnetic insulators exhibiting novel properties. The scope of this work is twofold: 1) the exploratory synthesis of polyanion-based mixed-framework compounds containing transition metal oxide magnetic nanostructures, and 2) the investigation of the structure/property correlation with respect to the spin couplings in confined lattices. These studies are of fundamental and technological importance regarding the long-term development of low-dimensional magnetic solids for device applications in especially information storage and quantum computing. Several interesting and significant transition metal based silicate, phosphate arsenate and …

The Effects Of Scale And Spatial Heterogeneities On Diffusion In Volcanic Breccias And Basalts: Amchitka, Alaska, Jennifer Lyn Benning

Engineering

Aqueous phase diffusion of molecules in fractured crystalline rock can play a dominant role in the fate and transport of contaminants, particularly if advective flows are very slow. The importance of the role of diffusion, typically a very slow process, also becomes an important mechanism to consider if the contaminants are long-lived in the subsurface, and thus their fate and transport must be considered over very long time-scales. Owing to the inherently heterogeneous nature of the subsurface, quantification of diffusive transport in the subsurface is extremely complex. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the …

Habitat Analysis Of Major Fishing Grounds On The Continental Shelf Off Kodiak, Alaska, Sean Charles Rooney

Fisheries

"The continental shelf and upper slope of the Gulf of Alaska support diverse and commercially important communities of demersal fishes. Twenty-eight video-strip transects conducted from a research submersible, together with habitat maps based on interpreted multibeam sonar data, were used to classify distribution and abundance patterns of fishes relative to seafloor substrate type and water depth on Albatross and Portlock Banks on the Kodiak Shelf in the Gulf of Alaska. These associations were examined across spatial scales: ranging from tens of kilometer centimeters in size. A total of 5,778 fishes were recorded from 33 taxa. Fish community distribution patterns were …