Digital Commons Network^™

Common Raven Nesting And Spatial Distancing On Power Lines In Southeast Idaho, Usa, Quinn R. Shurtliff, Jericho C. Whiting

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Common raven (Corvus corax; raven) abundance and distribution have increased in western North America in recent decades, facilitated by anthropogenic subsidies and other environmental changes. Electrical power transmission line structures provide nesting substrates for ravens. When these structures transect landscapes where natural nest substrates are limited, they may facilitate raven predation on eggs and juveniles of sensitive avian and reptile species. Little information is available regarding raven nest density trends on adjacent power lines or how raven territorial behavior influences spatial partitioning of nests, and hence, nest density. This knowledge would be valuable for managers of sensitive prey …

Sharing Science Through Shared Values, Goals, And Stories: An Evidence-Based Approach To Making Science Matter, Bethann Garramon Merkle, Evelyn Valdez-Ward, Priya Shukla, Skylar R. Bayer

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Scientists in and beyond academia face considerable challenges to effectively sharing science, including lack of time and training, systemic disincentives, and the complexity of the modern media/attention landscape. Considering these constraints, 3 achievable shifts in mindset and practice can substantively enhance science communication efforts. Here, we provide evidence-based and experientially informed advice on how to center shared values, articulate science communication goals, and leverage the power of stories to advance our communication goals in connection with the values we share with our stakeholders. In addition to a discussion of relevant, foundational principles in science communication, we provide actionable recommendations and …

Files Cryptography Based On One-Time Pad Algorithm, Ahmad Mohamad Al-Smadi, Ahmad Al-Smadi, Roba Mahmoud Ali Aloglah, Nisrein Abu-Darwish, Ahed Abugabah

All Works

The Vernam-cipher is known as a one-time pad of algorithm that is an unbreakable algorithm because it uses a typically random key equal to the length of data to be coded, and a component of the text is encrypted with an element of the encryption key. In this paper, we propose a novel technique to overcome the obstacles that hinder the use of the Vernam algorithm. First, the Vernam and advance encryption standard AES algorithms are used to encrypt the data as well as to hide the encryption key; Second, a password is placed on the file because of the …

Use Of Factors In Development Estimates: Improving The Cost Analysis Toolkit, Matthew R. Markman, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Edward D. White

Faculty Publications

Factor Estimating is a technique commonly used by defense acquisition analysts to develop cost estimations. However, previous studies developing factors for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the life cycle are limited. This research expands the current toolkit for cost analysts by developing cost factors in previously unexplored areas. More specifically, over 400 cost reports are utilized to create new standard cost factors that are delineated by five categories: commodity type, contract type, contractor type, development type, and Service. The factors are developed for those elements that are common in a wide array of projects such as program …

Quantifying The Effects Of Aircraft Engine Upgrades On Operating And Support Costs, Bradford A. Myers, Edward D. White, Jonathan D. Ritschel, R. David Fass

Faculty Publications

For fixed wing aircraft within the U.S. Air Force, Operating and Support (O&S) costs encompass a large portion of total life cycle costs. O&S costs include fuel, maintenance, and engine upgrades. To the authors’ knowledge, no study to date has attempted to empirically quantify the realized effects of new aircraft engines on sustainment costs. Utilizing the Air Force Total Ownership Cost database, they focused on new engines appearing on the C-5s, C-130s, and C-135s. Although narrow in scope, results suggest newer engines have lower fuel costs. Maintenance costs for newer engines were not consistently higher or lower than the engines …

Role Of Gravin/Akap12 Variants In Regulating Endothelial Cell Behavior, Ashrifa Ali

Theses and Dissertations

A functional endothelium must maintain an equilibrium among processes such as endothelial cell (EC) migration, barrier function and angiogenesis. The endothelium is constantly exposed to external factors that that result in a complex network of signaling wired to several possible cellular outcomes. A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs) have a critical role in regulating cell signaling by providing spatial and temporal control of signaling proteins to increase downstream target specificity. Several studies have linked gravin (also called SSeCKS or AKAP12), an AKAP, to migration, barrier function, and angiogenesis. However, the functional significance of each gravin variant in ECs has not been investigated …

Hole Cleaning And Cuttings Transportation Modelling And Optimization, Foued Badrouchi

Theses and Dissertations

Efficient hole cleaning in drilling operation is essential to ensure optimum rate of penetration. This complex problem involves simultaneous analysis of multiple parameters, including cuttings characteristics, fluid rheology and the geometry of the annulus space. For instance, accurate calculations of the equivalent circulation density (ECD) requires the effect of the mud density increase due to the cuttings’ concentration to be considered, which itself is a function of the settling velocity and the rate of penetration (ROP). Analytical models, lab experiments and numerical simulations have been used to determine the optimum flow rate for efficient hole cleaning. Most of these models …

Development Of A Dynamic Force Sensor, Olusola Andrew Bolaniran

Theses and Dissertations

Sensors are employed for various applications in different industries. Chief of these applications is in the process and equipment monitoring. Most sensors used in the equipment monitoring are mostly after-market devices. This research answered the question of how can we include the condition monitoring of equipment into the design phase of the equipment. This research developed a dynamic force sensor using a PolyVinyliDene Fluoride (PVDF) film. The piezoelectric film attached to a fixed-fixed substrate which serves to support film and the properties of which the sensor equations were based. The sensor was tested in the laboratory by subjecting it to …

Developing A Machine Learning Based Approach For Fractured Zone Detection By Using Petrophysical Logs, Haleh Azizi

Theses and Dissertations

Oil reservoirs are divided into three categories: carbonate (fractured), sandstone and unconventional reservoirs. Identification and modeling of fractures in fractured reservoirs are so important due to geomechanical issues, fluid flood simulation and enhanced oil recovery.Image and petrophysical logs are individual tools, run inside oil wells, to achieve physical characteristics of reservoirs, e.g. geological rock types, porosity, and permeability. Fractures could be distinguished using image logs because of their higher resolution. Image logs are an expensive and newly developed tool, so they have run in limited wells, whereas petrophysical logs are usually run inside the wells. Lack of image logs makes …

Landslide Remediation Methodology For Low-Volume Roads In North-Central Pennsylvania, Will Ned Brandenberger

Theses and Dissertations

The study of landslides in north-central Pennsylvania is not well developed, and remediation methodology for landslide-prone and low-volume forest roads in the region can benefit from targeted and innovative engineering design strategies. Rockery walls may be an underutilized remediation methodology for low-volume forest roads in north-central Pennsylvania. Two landslide remediation projects in north-central Pennsylvania within the Lycoming and Sullivan counties can provide valuable insight into the existing methodology associated with low-volume forest road remediation in north-central Pennsylvania and outline a potentially under-utilized methodology that may improve engineering design, construction efficiency, and result quality. A review of the two landslide remediation …

Career Aspirations Of Collegiate Aviation Students, Shayne A. Daku

Theses and Dissertations

Three studies in this dissertation examined the career aspirations of collegiate aviation students: student motivation with respect to career aspirations, military aviation career aspirations, and student perceptions of career pathway programs. Findings from each of these studies are valuable to students pursuing careers in aviation and industry partners seeking to fill pilot positions. Each of these reports highlights the desire of current collegiate aviation students to have a career that supports their values of remaining close and connected to their family and friends. In the first research, aviation graduates report crew base and hourly pay as the most important factors …

The Production Of Bio-Based Chemicals And Materials From Renewable Sources, Ian Foerster

Theses and Dissertations

Widespread concern with the impacts of global emissions and climate change plays an active role in driving global renewable markets, developing scientific research communities, and setting environmental pollution regulations. Efforts to confront this rise in global emissions are primarily focused on the reduction and replacement of non-renewable fuels and materials. It has become increasingly apparent that reducing global greenhouse gas emissions will require more than just the replacement of fossil fuels, but the development of technologies to convert a diverse set of renewable feedstocks into fuels, chemicals, and materials.The goal of the work documented herein, was to expand the breadth …

An Evaluation Of Ci Asteroid Regolith As A Plant Growth Medium For Space Crop Production, Steven Jon Russell

Theses and Dissertations

Asteroids are small, undifferentiated bodies that materialized during the formation epoch of the solar system. With a concerted effort to establish a long-term presence in space, crewed missions to asteroids should not be ignored. A critical aspect of human missions is self-sustainability, primarily growing crops via in-situ resource utilization. CI carbonaceous asteroids are a primitive type of asteroid that retain elements found during that early solar system formation. More importantly, the regolith on these asteroids contains soluble elemental nutrients, such as phosphorous and potassium, that crops can use for growth and development. This thesis focuses on the ability of CI …

Airframe And Power Plant Certificate Continued Education Requirements And Renewals, Robert Teal

Theses and Dissertations

The aviation industry is growing and estimated to continue to grow over the next ten years, to a point where passenger travel will almost double. With industry growth new aircraft will be introduced employing rapidly advancing technology, and larger commercial fleets will demand a growth in the aircraft maintenance workforce. As the baby boomer generation approaches retirement there is a greater need for aviation maintenance technicians. An intern approach to fewer mechanics and major changes in technology is to implement requirements for continued education and certification renewals for Airframe and power plant mechanics. This policy would mirror that of other …

Performance And Motivation Of Pre- And Early-Career Professional Pilots, Nicholas David Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

The path from student pilot to professional aviator is lengthy, expensive and full of obstacles (Philips, 2016, Wilson & Daku, 2016). An individual pilot’s motivations to persevere and ultimately succeed within this field are yet to be clearly defined. Two motivation theories, Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan, 1985) may inform our understanding the connection between motivation and performance. Through three studies of a program of research, the researcher investigated relationships between distinct types of motivation and performance within the applied discipline of Aviation and Airline Pilot career performance. To begin the research, …

Closing The Loop In Life Support Systems For Spaceflight And Habitation: Reutilization Of Human Excrement Through Recovery Of Potable Water And Reclamation Of Waste Materials For In-Space Additive Manufacturing, Brittany Zimmerman

Theses and Dissertations

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) solicited a need for a simplified, low-temperature, and robust method for recovery of water from human solid metabolic waste. A solution is investigated, and benchtop testing is performed to prove developmental feasibility utilizing an ionomer-membrane based dehydration approach for potable water recovery. Testing is implemented with synthetic fecal matter, wet wipes, dry wipes, and nitrite gloves to inform system design. The benchtop, closed-system, dehydration testing pulls together a trade space of materials to compare efficacy of designs.

The system aims to recover upwards of 80% of the water content in the human excrement. …

Multi-Level Resource Sharing Framework Using Collaborative Fog Environment For Smart Cities, Tariq Qayyum, Zouheir Trabelsi, Asad Waqar Malik, Kadhim Hayawi

All Works

No abstract provided.

A Moral Influenza: An Historical Archaeological Investigation Of The Prohibition Era In The United States 1920-1933, Kelli Michele Casias

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The following exploration of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States employs an interdisciplinary approach to understand the impetus of the large-scale defiance of liquor laws and to identify the physical manifestations of the social process of mass resistance in the archaeological record. Historical documentation, newspaper publications, oral histories, landscape analysis of road development in Montana, and an archaeological survey of a mountain homestead site where manufacturer of illicit alcohol took place are used to contextualize the Prohibition Era from the perspective of the offender. The research goals of this work are varied and include documentation of the archaeological footprint …

Disabling Injustice In The Higher Education Classroom, Daniel W. Eadens, Danielle M. Eadens, Christopher Lanterman

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This chapter explores perspectives in higher education classrooms, specifically the need for social justice in education through inclusive and universal design/ universal design for learning (UD/UDL). The authors contacted colleagues regarding what worked to change paradigms and perspectives around issues of social justice and advocacy in classrooms. Three themes emerged, mirroring those of the literature reviewed: scholarly strategies, structured activities, and amplifying marginalized voices. The authors also discuss how accessible and inclusive approaches disable injustice and ableism in higher education classrooms by recognizing disability as an element of diversity and the need for inclusive approaches on college campuses and beyond. …

Complicity And Lesser Evils: A Tale Of Two Lawyers, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Government lawyers and other public officials sometimes face an excruciating moral dilemma: to stay on the job or to quit, when the government is one they find morally abhorrent. Staying may make them complicit in evil policies; it also runs the danger of inuring them to wrongdoing, just as their presence on the job helps inure others. At the same time, staying may be their only opportunity to mitigate those policies – to make evils into lesser evils – and to uphold the rule of law when it is under assault. This Article explores that dilemma in a stark form: …

Trade, Economy, And Work: A Shared Agenda For A Stronger Economic Future, Alvaro Santos, Christopher Wilson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The economies of the United States and Mexico have become inextricably linked. For both countries, the other is their top trading partner, with an annual value of $616.38 billion in 2019. Beyond cross-border trade, however, our global competitiveness is linked due to the depth of manufacturing integration. As a result, job creation and export growth are largely regional enterprises. Well over a billion dollars in commerce crosses the border each day, and the GDP of the six Mexican and four U.S. border states is larger than the GDP of all but the three largest countries in the world.

The new …

Hannah Arendt Meets Qanon: Conspiracy, Ideology, And The Collapse Of Common Sense, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A June 2020 survey found one in four Americans agreeing that “powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak.” In fall 2020, seven percent said they believe the elaborate and grotesque mythology of QAnon; another eleven percent were unsure whether they believe it. November and December 2020 found tens of millions of Americans believing in election-theft plots that would require superhuman levels of coordination and secrecy among dozens, perhaps hundreds, of otherwise-unconnected and unidentified miscreants.

Conspiracy theories are nothing new, and they raise a question that preoccupied Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism: whatever happened to common sense? Arendt …

Race And Property Law, K-Sue Park

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter offers an outline for understanding the key role of race in producing property values in the history of the American property law system. It identifies major developments in the mutually formative relationship between race and property in America that made and remade property interests in America through the processes of 1) dispossessing nonwhites, 2) degrading their homelands, communities, and selves, and 3) limiting their efforts to enter public space and occupy or acquire property within the regime thereby established. First, it describes the use of law to create the two most important forms of property in the colonies …

Restoring The Balance Of Copyright: Antitrust, Misuse, And Other Possible Paths To Challenge Inequitable Licensing Practices, Michelle M. Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Libraries’ purposes of ensuring access to and preservation of information have been compromised as licensing increasingly replaces ownership. This article outlines various novel legal strategies that libraries could use to restore copyright’s intended balance, including antitrust, preemption, misuse, and unconscionability.

Trademarks As Surveillance Transparency, Amanda Levendowski

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

We know very little about the technologies that watch us. From cell site simulators to predictive policing algorithms, the lack of transparency around surveillance technologies makes it difficult for the public to engage in meaningful oversight. Legal scholars have critiqued various corporate and law enforcement justifications for surveillance opacity, including contract and intellectual property law. But the public needs a free, public, and easily accessible source of information about corporate technologies that might be used to watch us. To date, the literature has overlooked a free, extensive, and easily accessible source of information about surveillance technologies hidden in plain sight: …

Foundations Of Business, Manika Avasthi

Open Textbooks and Course Materials

Foundations of Business was created for use in Virginia Commonwealth University BUSN 201. In this course, students will study the concepts, principles and operations of private enterprise. They will compare and contrast sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations – and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Students will explore the functions of modern business management, marketing, and ethics and social responsibility that can improve or tarnish a brand. They will also look at the human resource management side of running a business and learn how employers can motivate their employees. Finally, students will address the numbers side of running a business …

Review On Resistive Switching Mechanisms Of Bio-Organic Thin Film For Non-Volatile Memory Application, Kuan Yew Cheong, Ilias Ait Tayeb, Feng Zhao, Jafri Malin Abdullah

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Bio-organic, as one of the sustainable and bioresorbable materials, has been used as an active thin film in producing resistive switching random access memory (RRAM) due to its specialized properties. This type of nonvolatile memory consists of a simple unit structure with the processed and solidified bio-organic-based thin film sandwiched between two electrodes. Its memory characteristics are significantly affected by the resistive-switching mechanism. However, to date, the reported mechanisms are very diverse and scattered, and to our best knowledge, there is no literature that reviewed comprehensively the mechanisms of resistive switching in bio-organic-based thin films. Therefore, the objective of this …

High-Frequency Modeling Of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Considering Internal Imbalances, Yuandong Guo, Muqi Ouyang, Zhifei Xu, Minho Kim, Junesang Lee, Jungrae Ha, Hyewon Lee, Sangwon Yun, Jun Fan, Hongseok Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, an accurate high-frequency modeling methodology for a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) in a vehicular electrical braking system is presented, which is suitable for analyzing various electromagnetic interference problems caused by a motor drive system. The proposed modeling approach is established according to the vector fitting technique and based on the S-parameter measurements of the PMSM. The equivalent circuit model of the PMSM converted from a measured S-parameter matrix can better describe the impedance characteristics of the three-phase PMSM under study compared to the existing equivalent circuit models because the imbalances inside the motor are taken into …

Dissing Ability, Tory L. Lucas

Lewis & Clark Law Review

People with disabilities have historically endured the horrors of exclusion and elimination because America has incessantly fixated on disability without seeing ability. To correct a disabling view of people with disabilities, this Article prescribes a paradigm shift that permanently redirects the focus from disability to ability. If America achieves this hopeful vision to no longer diss—or disrespect—ability, then people with disabilities will enjoy equal access to equal opportunity.

Vaccination And The Child’S Right To An Open Future, Elias Feldman

Lewis & Clark Law Review

States commonly require the vaccination of children through their parens pa- triae and police powers. But many states also allow parents to opt for non- medical exemptions from these vaccination requirements, contributing to the emergence of a national vaccine hesitancy crisis. By permitting parents not to vaccinate their children, do states that grant these exemptions violate children’s rights? This Article posits that children may indeed have a right to be vac- cinated and thus protected against contracting a disease for which there is a scientifically proven vaccine. This Article examines this question through the lens of Joel Feinberg’s theory of …