Digital Commons Network^™

Sagavanirktok River Spring Breakup Observations 2015, H. Toniolo, E.K. Youcha, R.E. Gieck, T. Tschetter, M. Engram, J. Keech

WERC Project Reports

Alaska’s economy is strongly tied to oil production, with most of the petroleum coming from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Deadhorse, the furthest north oil town on the Alaska North Slope, provides support to the oil industry. The Dalton Highway is the only road that connects Deadhorse with other cities in Interior Alaska. The road is heavily used to move supplies to and from the oil fields. In late March and early April 2015, the Dalton Highway near Deadhorse was affected by ice and winter overflow from the Sagavanirktok River, which caused the road’s closure two times, for a total …

Resource Competition, Space Use And Forage Ecology Of Sea Otters, Enhydra Lutris, In Southern Southeast Alaska, Zachary N. Hoyt

Fisheries

The growing sea otter population in southern Southeast Alaska is impacting commercial shellfish, through foraging and expanding in range and abundance except where hunted for subsistence. Sea otters and their prey have coexisted in the North Pacific Ocean for approximately 750,000 years, but due to exploitation of sea otters from the 1770s until 1911, the species became extinct over much of its range, including southern Southeast Alaska. Subsequently, invertebrate species flourished and were commercially targeted in the late 1900s. Sea otters were relocated (n = 106) to southern Southeast Alaska in 1968. In this dissertation, I evaluated this marine mammal-fisheries …

Developing An Algal Biofilm Filtration System For The Remediation Of Nutrient Pollution In Freshwater Ponds, Danielle Delp

Theses

Anthropogenic nutrient pollution is one of the most serious threats facing aquatic systems in modern times. Pollution with compounds containing nitrogen and phosphorous encourages rapid development of autotrophic biomass, or blooms, that severely degrade the quality of an aquatic system both as a habitat for organisms and as a water resource for human use. In freshwater ponds, the widespread need for treatment of nutrient pollution and resulting blooms has resulted in the growth of a large industry dedicated to pond management and maintenance. These companies utilize a variety of chemical and non-chemical treatments to prevent the growth of blooms or …

Improving Performance, Knowledge, And Methods To Provide Quality Service And Products, Billy Connor, Larry Bennett

INE Project Reports

The objectives of this study were to educate staff about the impact of research in Alaska, enhance communication and coordination amongst stakeholders, and formulate a long-term research and implementation research plan for pavement and materials. Education begins with an overview of pavement design, construction and maintenance in Alaska since the 1900’s through a series of webinars. Interviews with five state materials engineers were used to explore best practices. Finally, a workshop focused on developing a coordinated research program and improve implementation activities. The workshop provided a series of recommendations to The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities which will …

War Machine: Media And Technology During Operation Allied Force, N Bobic

School of Art, Design and Architecture

One significant aspect of military interventions is that violence in binary geographies, which have an implied colonial discourse (such as Serbia), often involve the dialectics of construction and erasure, meaning that absence and presence of destruction and violence run side by side. This paper investigates the ways that technology and media were instrumentalised in miniaturising evidence and reducing the visibility of destruction during NATO’s Operation Allied Force in Serbia and Kosovo. While the dominant NATO rhetoric behind the intervention was “humanitarian” with the Operation being deployed in the name of Western values and civilisation, this text puts forward an alternative …

Three Morris Faculty Members Receive Grant-In-Aid Awards, University Relations

Campus News Archive

The grants act as seed money for developing projects.

The Art Traveler: Building A User Experience System To Discover Art, Yue Liu

Theses

With the increasing popularity of mobile devices and their apps, mobile technologies have changed the nature of travel significantly. With numerous travel apps available today, many tourists can become confused with which one to select and use. Another important factor is that a majority of travel applications are designed for everyone traveling everywhere, not specifically for one kind of tourist and one subject matter. The goal of this thesis is to create an effective and efficient user experience system.

The project is a travel planner for people to pursue an art tour of their own interest. It focuses on designing …

Uap 1150: Staff Council, University Of New Mexico

Section 1000: Organization

Process Owner: President of Staff Council

Alternative Project Delivery In Rural Alaska: Experiences, Quality And Claims, Katrina L. Monta, Gerald S. Pehrson, Matthew N. Cryer

Engineering

The popularity of alternative project delivery systems has expanded beyond the private sector and into the public sector. Alaska embodies unique challenges that may present obstacles while using alternative project delivery systems. This analysis will provide an understanding of alternative project delivery systems in Alaska and how local experiences, quality and claims are affected. Alaska's unique characteristics present both challenges and opportunities for implementing alternative project delivery systems. This report begins with a discussion of experiences from several rural Alaska projects, and how alternative project delivery systems can be utilized. Some impacts that alternative project delivery systems have on quality …

Handheld Stand-Alone Microfluidics Compatible Field Use Fluorimeter For Analyzing The Concentration Of Analytes In A Sample, Matthew B. Anctil

Engineering

This thesis presents the work performed to produce a handheld fluorometric tool for the analysis of microfluidics lab chips. The first section of this thesis describes the methods used for the design and development of this fluorometric tool. Each of the major components was tested individually to determine how effectively it would perform under different circumstances and configurations. Compensations were made for the weaknesses identified in each of the major components. The second section describes the laboratory testing of the developed photofluorimeter. Initial testing was carried out using a photo fluorescent tracer dye known as fluorescein sodium salt. Additional testing …

Synergistic Effects Among Leading Indicators Of Construction Safety Management, Matthew E. Calhoun

Engineering

Safety performance in the construction industry has improved significantly since the Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted in 1970. Despite these improvements, annual accident statistics indicate the construction industry remains one of the most dangerous for workers. However, there are some construction companies that defy these statistics and have an exemplary safety record. Many of these companies have adopted a zero-accident vision and measure their safety performance using both leading and lagging indicators. Safety performance has traditionally been measured with only lagging indicators that have included recordable injury rates, experience modification rates, days-away-restricted-transferred, among many others. Unfortunately these indicators …

Understanding Reservoir Engineering Aspects Of Shale Gas Development On The Alaska North Slope, Anna Nyulund

Engineering

Horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing made it possible to develop US shale resources. Shublik shale is one of such US shale resources - it is one of the largest source rocks for hydrocarbon accumulations located on the Alaska North Slope. This study used the workflow introduced by Mirzaei and Cipolla in 2012 to investigate the effects of fracturing fluid flowback; shale porosity; matrix, fracture and unpropped zone permeability; hydraulic fracture spacing; permeability anisotropy; non-Darcy flow; gas adsorption/desorption using the complex-fracture-network model, referred to as an Unconventional Fracture Model (UFM), and Voronoi grid on well performance in the Shublik shale …

Brandishing The Cybered Bear: Information War And The Russia-Ukraine Conflict, Azhar Unwala, Shaheen Ghori

Military Cyber Affairs

Russia’s use of cyber power against Ukraine offered renewed insight to Russian cyber strategy and capabilities. This article dissects the Russia-Ukraine conflict by analyzing Russia’s strategic doctrine, tactical maneuvers, and capabilities in the information realm. Understanding the Russia-Ukraine conflict in this manner can inform and strengthen U.S. cyber policy and strategy. In particular, U.S. strategic planners and cyber professionals should consider internalizing Russian strategic thinking regarding cyber power and promote tactical improvements in resilience, intelligence, and information among itself and its allies.

Data To Decisions For Cyberspace Operations, Steve Stone

Military Cyber Affairs

In 2011, the United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DOD) named cyberspace a new operational domain. The U.S. Cyber Command and the Military Services are working to make the cyberspace environment a suitable place for achieving national objectives and enabling military command and control (C2). To effectively conduct cyberspace operations, DOD requires data and analysis of the Mission, Network, and Adversary. However, the DOD’s current data processing and analysis capabilities do not meet mission needs within critical operational timelines. This paper presents a summary of the data processing and analytics necessary to effectively conduct cyberspace operations.

Reliable Presence Detection Through Passive Ieee 802.11 Management Frame Sniffing, Paul L. Jordan, Andrew J. Sellers

Military Cyber Affairs

Modern automated control systems leverage significantly different and disparate data sets for modeling and decision-making. Yet, dynamic human presence detection and identification is not widely used in these systems despite the enriching effect such information would have. We behave in unpredictable ways and are not easily identifiable by computers. This paper outlines a method for reliably and passively detecting presence of a person and identifying that person by exploiting existing ubiquitous infrastructure: Wi-Fi networks and that persons Wi-Fi enabled smartphone without installing any additional software. We further enumerate several applications ranging from home security to energy efficiencies. We explore the …

The Islamic State’S Use Of Online Social Media, Lisa Blaker

Military Cyber Affairs

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has made great use of the Internet and online social media to spread its message and encourage others, particularly young people, to support the organization, to travel to the Middle East to engage in combat or to join the group by playing a supporting role—a role often carved out for young women persuaded to join ISIS. Social media has proven to be an extremely valuable tool for the organization and is perfectly suited for ISIS’ target audience—the “Millennial generation,” and now more often, those from Western countries. What messages from jihadists convince …

Cyberspace Operations Planning: Operating A Technical Military Force Beyond The Kinetic Domains, Don E. Barber, T. Alan Bobo, Kevin P. Sturm

Military Cyber Affairs

Cyber operations can be very complex, and it is useful to conceptualize a deeper, fourth technical level of warfare in order to conduct effective planning. The technical details associated with cyberspace operations are not grasped as intuitively by planners and commanders as are the capabilities and limitations of tanks, ships, and aircraft. The complex and dynamic nature of cyberspace often drives technical analysis and planning to a level beyond those planning practices and procedures accommodated by traditional Joint doctrine.

An Examination Of Sport Fans’ Perceptions Of The Impact Of The Legalization Of Sport Wagering On Their Fan Experience, Daniel L. Wann Phd, Ryan K. Zapalac, Frederick G. Grieve, Julie A. Partridge, Jason R. Lanter

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Over the years, professional and collegiate organizations have fought attempts to increase the legalization of sport wagering. One argument presented by those in opposition is that increased legalization would negatively alter the manner in which fans and spectators follow, consume, and react to sporting events (Tuohy, 2013). The current research was designed to examine possible changes in fandom by investigating fans’ perceptions of the impact of increasing legalized sport wagering on their fan experience, interest in sport, and sport consumption. Participants (N = 580) completed a questionnaire packet assessing demographics, economic fan motivation, fandom, and perceptions of the impact …

Using A Scaffolded Multi-Component Intervention To Support The Reading And Writing Development Of English Learners, Susan King Fullerton, Heather Mccrea-Andrews, Kimberly Robson

i.e.: inquiry in education

Growing numbers of English learners (National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, 2010) suggest the critical need for effective research-based interventions to support them. Interventions that are designed to help English learners make reading-writing connections are more likely to capitalize on the reciprocal nature of both reading and writing (Tierney & Pearson, 1983) and accelerate literacy development (Clay, 1998). Our teacher research investigation suggests that instructional models that strengthen language and literacy processes through scaffolding and mediational approaches such as read-alouds, shared reading and writing, interactive writing, and individual guided writing show promise in supporting the literacy progress of young English …

Book Clubs: Conversations Inspiring Community, Nathaniel R. Petrich

i.e.: inquiry in education

There are many motivators for students in their learning experiences, yet few compare to the desire to build relationships. Through book clubs students had opportunities to strengthen their learning and strengthen their relationships. The purpose of this qualitative research project was to describe the impact of voluntary book clubs on 5^th grade voluntary participants. Data was triangulated from the teacher from informal conversations throughout each week, monthly conferences between the teacher and book club members, and the teacher’s journal. The findings included (a) informal conversations within the classroom aesthetically motivated students to join book clubs, (b) book clubs were …

Using A Disciplinary Literacy Framework To Teach High School Physics: An Action Research Study, Brian P. Hurley, Michael P. Henry

i.e.: inquiry in education

This action research study investigated the impact of teaching physics using a disciplinary literacy framework for instruction across all units in one academic year. Through a suite of vocabulary strategies and lessons that encourage students to write, speak, draw, mathematically translate, and design experiments, students learn to do physics by approximating problems and tasks like physicists. The data from this study suggests that students who exhibit these physicist-like disciplinary literacy behaviors may perform better on math-based assessments so long as they employ disciplinary literacy strategies while problem solving. By teaching via a disciplinary literacy framework, the classroom may become more …

Growing Pains: Reflections At The Intersection(S) Of Pedagogy And Self-Study In Whiteness Research In Education, Jane S. Joyner, Zachary A. Casey

i.e.: inquiry in education

In this paper we work to place personal reflections of ourselves as researchers in conversation with interview data generated from white practicing teachers. Our work seeks to engage what the praxis of pedagogical qualitative analysis, coupled with self-study, can offer other researchers. This paper thus has two primary aims: to investigate our research findings from the interview data and the teachers who participated in the professional development seminar, and to explore what such work makes available to us as white researcher/practitioners. We move back and forth between both in the pages that follow, as we hope to showcase what becomes …

Complete Issue 49(1)

Speaker & Gavel

Complete digitized issue (volume 49, issue 1) of Speaker & Gavel.

A Functional Analysis Of 2008 Presidential Primary Tv Spots, William L. Benoit, Leslie Rill

Speaker & Gavel

The 2008 presidential campaign was unusual for a number of reasons. For the first time since 1952, neither the President nor the Vice President contended for the Oval Office. This meant highly contested primaries in both major political parties. As the Democratic primary ground toward the end, the leading candidates were an African-American–Barack Obama–and a woman–Hillary Clinton. More money was raised and spent on the primary campaign than ever before. This means that the campaign messages in this election deserve scholarly attention. This study applies Benoit’s Functional Theory and Petrocik’s Issue Ownership Theory to primary campaign ads from both major …

How Attorneys Judge Collegiate Mock Trials, Ruth R. Wagoner, R. Adam Molnar

Speaker & Gavel

In collegiate mock trial competition, practicing attorneys who don’t coach or know the participating schools judge the students' persuasive skill. Fifty-six attorneys were interviewed after they judged collegiate mock trials. They were asked which student behaviors they rewarded, which behaviors they punished, and overall which team presented more effectively. The attorneys' responses were grouped into thematic categories and arranged by priorities. Attorneys were consistent in what they said they valued in student performances. Interviewees' answers to the question about overall team performance were compared with the numeric ballots. If global assessment were included, it would change the outcome of a …

When Water Works: A Case Study Of Campaign Tears And The 2008 Presidential Election, Ryan Neville-Shepard

Speaker & Gavel

Since the fall of Senator Ed Muskie in the 1972 Democratic primary there has been an unwritten rule that political candidates should avoid crying. However, four presidential candidates cried in ten separate incidents during the 2008 election cycle, with only three episodes receiving negative attention. Addressing this inconsistency in the “Muskie rule,” in this essay I argue the effect of crying on a political candidate’s image is not well understood. As such, this essay develops and applies a framework for comprehending when crying will likely trigger a public relations crisis, and when it might actually benefit a candidate.

A Functional Analysis Of 2008 General Election Presidential Tv Spots, William L. Benoit, Mark Glantz

Speaker & Gavel

This study performed content analysis on the general election TV spots from Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign. There was no significant difference in function by incumbency, which is not surprising given that neither major party candidates was the sitting president or vice president. Unlike ads from previous years, these ads contained more attacks (65%) than acclaims (34%; and like earlier campaigns few defenses: 1%). These ads stressed policy (58%) more than character (42%). The Democratic candidate, as in previous elections, discussed policy more, and character less, than the Republican candidate. Both …

Front Matter

Speaker & Gavel

Front matter and table of contents for Volume 49, Issue 1 of Speaker & Gavel.

Complete Issue 49(2)

Speaker & Gavel

Complete digitized issue (volume 49, issue 2) of Speaker & Gavel.

Help? Not If You Don’T Know What To Look For: Applying Social Cognitive Theory To Program Evaluation In Competitive Forensics, Audra R. Diers

Speaker & Gavel

Jessica Furgerson offered an important call to action by arguing Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives should be applied as a way to evaluate research skill acquisition in forensics participation. I have used her analysis as a way to show that more than just understanding what we do (and should do) in forensics, we should use theory to guide team goal-setting and program evaluation. In addition, I have argued forensics program administrators should establish theory-based program evaluation using Bandura’s social cognitive theory to demonstrate the value forensics offers to the overall university education mission.