Digital Commons Network^™

Winter Commencement: December 17-18, 2015, University Of North Dakota

UND Commencement Programs

UND Winter Commencement program from December 17-18, 2015.

Monitoring Cloud-Prone Complex Landscapes At Multiple Spatial Scales Using Medium And High Resolution Optical Data: A Case Study In Central Africa, Bikash Basnet

Theses

Tracking land surface dynamics over cloud-prone areas with complex mountainous terrain and a landscape that is heterogeneous at a scale of approximately 10 m, is an important challenge in the remote sensing of tropical regions in developing nations, due to the small plot sizes. Persistent monitoring of natural resources in these regions at multiple spatial scales requires development of tools to identify emerging land cover transformation due to anthropogenic causes, such as agricultural expansion and climate change. Along with the cloud cover and obstructions by topographic distortions due to steep terrain, there are limitations to the accuracy of monitoring change …

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 …

Bridging Arctic Pathways: Integrating Hydrology, Geomorphology And Remote Sensing In The North, Erin Dawn Trochim

Geosciences

This work presents improved approaches for integrating patterns and processes within hydrology, geomorphology, ecology and permafrost on Arctic landscapes. Emphasis was placed on addressing fundamental interdisciplinary questions using robust, repeatable methods. Water tracks were examined in the foothills of the Brooks Range to ascertain their role within the range of features that transport water in Arctic regions. Classes of water tracks were developed using multiple factor analysis based on their geomorphic, soil and vegetation characteristics. These classes were validated to verify that they were repeatable. Water tracks represented a broad spectrum of patterns and processes primarily driven by surficial geology. …

Comparison Of Lower Body Segment Alignment Of Elite Level Hockey Players To Age-Matched Non-Hockey Players, Jim R. Kimbal

Biological Sciences

Lower body overuse and insidious onset injuries are thought to have an underlying biomechanical component which may be predisposing to injury. The purpose of this study was to compare lower body biomechanical characteristics for elite hockey players to matched controls. I hypothesize that elite hockey players have a greater degree of anterior pelvic tilt, greater varus knee angle, a higher foot arch and feet held in parallel more during gait than a matched non-skating population. Measures were taken of elite level, college aged, male hockey players and compared to cross country runners (ten subjects in each group) who served as …

The Murray Ledger And Times, December 17, 2015, The Murray Ledger And Times

The Murray Ledger & Times

No abstract provided.

Sound And Human Impacts On Beluga Whales In Cook Inlet, Alaska, Rachael E. Blevins

Fisheries

Cook Inlet beluga whales (CIBs) are a geographically and genetically isolated population residing in Cook Inlet, Alaska year round. The population declined by approximately 50% between 1994 and 1998 and was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2008. The original decline was attributed to overharvest; however, the population has failed to rebound despite the virtual absence of harvest since 1998. This suggests that other factors, such as declining prey availability, increased predation, contaminants, disease, climate change, catastrophic events, habitat loss, unauthorized take, and underwater noise pollution, may be limiting the population's recovery. The goal of this dissertation …

Immunogenic Compositions Comprising Slcified Virus And Methods Of Use, Kenneth M. Stedman, James R. Laidler, Keith Bahjat

Technology Transfer - Patents

No abstract provided.

Iol On The Move, Jennifer Saunders

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Upper-Level Performance From Below: Performance Measurement And Optimization In Lte Networks, Ruofan Jin

Doctoral Dissertations

The current 4G LTE cellular networks provide significantly higher data rate and lower network latency than earlier generation systems. The advances provided by LTE, however, may not be fully utilized by upper-level protocols and applications. In this dissertation, we first investigate the predictability of link bandwidth in cellular networks. We then design and implement a new transport protocol that utilizes the link bandwidth prediction framework. Last, we design and implement a control-theoretic approach for adaptive video streaming for cellular networks.

For cellular link bandwidth prediction, we conduct an extensive measurement study in major US commercial LTE networks and identify various …

An Examination Of The Factors And Characteristics That Contribute To The Success Of Putnam Fellows, Robert A. J. Stroud

Doctoral Dissertations

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is an intercollegiate mathematics competition for undergraduate college and university students in the United States and Canada and is regarded as the most prestigious and challenging mathematics competition in North America (Alexanderson, 2004; Grossman, 2002; Reznick, 1994; Schoenfeld, 1985). Students who earn the five highest scores on the examination are named Putnam Fellows and to date, despite the thousands of students who have taken the Putnam Examination, only 280 individuals have won the Putnam Competition. Clearly, based on their performance being named a Putnam Fellow is a remarkable achievement. In addition, Putnam Fellows go …

Evaluation Of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Interconnect Coatings: Mechanisms Behind Structure And Property Change During Reaction Layer Formation, Louis V. Gambino

Doctoral Dissertations

Modern solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) operate at sufficiently low temperatures to allow the use of alloy interconnects in the SOFC stacks. The alloys used are cheaper, more formable, and more conductive than the traditional ceramic materials used for interconnects. However, the long term SOFC performance is limited by oxidation of the alloy interconnect. To ameliorate the issues which result from oxidation, manganese cobaltite spinel coatings are typically applied.

The microstructural effects of the reduction step in the reactive consolidation of slurry processed Mn1.5Co1.5O4 (MCO) coated Crofer 22 APU were studied. The reduced coating contained particles of MnO with the …

Pathological Brain Detection By A Novel Image Feature—Fractional Fourier Entropy, Shuihua Wang, Yudong Zhang, Xiaojun Yang, Ping Sun, Zhengchao Dong, Aijun Lu, Ti-Fei Yuan

Publications and Research

Aim: To detect pathological brain conditions early is a core procedure for patients so as to have enough time for treatment. Traditional manual detection is either cumbersome, or expensive, or time-consuming. We aim to offer a system that can automatically identify pathological brain images in this paper.Method: We propose a novel image feature, viz., Fractional Fourier Entropy (FRFE), which is based on the combination of Fractional Fourier Transform(FRFT) and Shannon entropy. Afterwards, the Welch’s t-test (WTT) and Mahalanobis distance (MD) were harnessed to select distinguishing features. Finally, we introduced an advanced classifier: twin support vector machine (TSVM). Results: A 10 …

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 …

Identifying Industry Defined Best Practices Within Educational Youtube Content, An Exploratory Study, Martin Van Der Kroon

Communication

No abstract provided.

Space Use And Movements Of Moose Hunters And Wolves In The Yukon Flats, Alaska, Ian Johnson

Biological Sciences

Within the Yukon Flats, Alaska, subsistence communities utilize moose (Alces alces) as a primary resource (78% of households) and wolves (Canis lupus) hunt them as an obligatory prey item. Hence, understanding the potential of direct or indirect competition between wolves and humans is useful for managers. In Chapter 1, I used a novel approach utilizing spatially-linked interviews to quantify the distance subsistence users were traveling from communities and rivers to harvest moose in the Yukon Flats. My study was the first to quantify hunter access in the Arctic and may provide managers with a harvest estimation approach that may supplement …

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 …

Electrical & Computer Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Electrical & Computer Engineering: News & Publications (2014-2023)

• Intelligent Vehicles Research Presented at 2015 GURC Conference

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 …

From Boolean Equalities To Constraints, Sergio Antoy, Michael Hanus

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although functional as well as logic languages use equality to discriminate between logically different cases, the operational meaning of equality is different in such languages. Functional languages reduce equational expressions to their Boolean values, True or False, logic languages use unification to check the validity only and fail otherwise. Consequently, the language Curry, which amalgamates functional and logic programming features, offers two kinds of equational expressions so that the programmer has to distinguish between these uses. We show that this distinction can be avoided by providing an analysis and transformation method that automatically selects the appropriate operation. Without this distinction …

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 …

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.

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 …

Non-Traditional Shape Gfrp Rebars For Concrete Reinforcement, Guillermo G. Claure

Open Access Dissertations

The use of glass-fiber-reinforced-polymer (GFRP) composites as internal reinforcement (rebars) for concrete structures has proven to be an alternative to traditional steel reinforcement due to significant advantages such as magnetic transparency and, most importantly, corrosion resistance equating to durability and structural life extension. In recent years, the number of projects specifying GFRP reinforcement has increased dramatically leading the construction industry towards more sustainable practices. Typically, GFRP rebars are similar to their steel counterparts having external deformations or surface enhancements designed to develop bond to concrete, as well as having solid circular cross-sections; but lately, the worldwide composites industry has taken …

Utilizing The Agarophyte (Gracilaria Tikvahiae) As A Biofilter For The Bioremediation Of Cobia (Rachycentron Canadum) Nitrogenous Effluents In Flow-Through Aquaculture Systems, Neal Asthana

Open Access Theses

The biological and technological feasibility of using the agarophyte Gracilaria tikvahiae as a biofilter for the bioremediation of nitrogenous effluents resulting from juvenile cobia culture was examined. Using a thorough literature review of the most relevant published research, optimal parameters are identified and discussed within the context of juvenile cobia culture, while factors maximizing biofiltration and growth of Gracilaria within a biofilter system are outlined. The study attempts to match cobia nitrogen excretion rates with rates of algal nutrient uptake to size the initial biomass of algae needed in a filter for the culture of 10,000 juvenile (<30g) cobia. The culture of 10,000 juvenile cobia, 28-70 days post hatch (DPH), produces a maximum of roughly 300g of nitrogen daily which in turn can support roughly 12-27kg of algae (wet weight) per day, depending on uptake rate. The supportable algae biomass is then used to size the initial stocking density of the algae filter. Optimal system components are identified and management considerations are discussed with respect to optimizing growth as a means to maximize biofiltration and nutrient extraction capacity over time.

2015 December 16 -- Agenda And Attachments

Agendas and Minutes

No abstract provided.

2015 December 16 -- Minutes

Agendas and Minutes

No abstract provided.