Digital Commons Network^™

The Transformation Of Teacher Education Using Three-Dimensional Science Instruction, Patricia Ann Arnold

Theses and Dissertations

The impact of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) on K-12 science education has gained significant momentum over the last several years. Evidence of the NGSS can be seen in revised state science content standards and amended teacher preparation standards. Due to this growing impetus, a holistic redesign of teacher preparation to systemically implement three-dimensional science teaching and learning needs to be prioritized. Based on this premise, this study investigated the change in pre-service teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in teaching science using three-dimensional instruction upon completion of an NGSS-designed intervention incorporated into an introductory science methods course. Designed as a “working …

Understanding Decision-Making Styles Of Part 135 Pilots In Remote Settings And Their Impact On Aviation Safety: A Qualitative Enquiry Of Alaskan Operational Environments, Dana Atkins

Theses and Dissertations

Aviation is a vital component of the State of Alaska’s transportation system. Air transportation is frequently the only means to move goods, services, and people across the state. Historically, air taxi and non-scheduled/charter air operators (14 C.F.R. Part 135) form the bulk of service providers in Alaska and have poor operational safety records through high rates of accidents. The problem is still prevalent despite numerous initiatives by the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce adverse safety events. Accident investigation reports have nominally attributed causal factors of these accidents to pilot error and at-risk behaviors such as violations. Extant research in aviation …

Exploration Of Deep Learning Models For Maximum Throughput To Hybrid Beamforming And Compressive Channel Estimation, Youness Arjoune

Theses and Dissertations

The overall objective of this dissertation is to improve the capacity of 5G and Beyond systems by improving spectral efficiency, efficiently managing interference, and addressing the radio spectrum’s poor management while enhancing cost, energy, and computation efficiencies. The first contribution of this dissertation consists of designing effective hybrid beamforming solutions using the theory of deep reinforcement learning. The results demonstrate that deep reinforcement learning achieves near-optimal spectral efficiency and provides autonomous decision-making that can learn from interacting with the wireless environment. This method enhances hybrid beamforming computational efficiency, hardware efficiency, and energy efficiency. These methods are also desirable in scenarios …

Numerical Investigation Of Forces And Acceleration For Air-Sea Uav In Transition, Emmanuel Chibuike Chukwuemeka

Theses and Dissertations

The air-sea UAV is designed to fly, transition into water, and move through water submerged. It is however subjected to a huge impact force during its transition from air to sea. This high impact force poses the risk of causing damage to the UAV structure and components. Therefore, it is very important to carry out quantitative research on understanding the forces and accelerations involved in the transition process. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to develop a method capable of handling the water entry process. The Fluent software package under ANSYS Inc. was used for the simulation and computations.The study …

Methods For Evaluation Of The Alberta Hail Suppression Project Using Radar Observations, Sankha Subhra Maitra

Theses and Dissertations

The Alberta Hail Suppression Project is an operational weather modification program designed to reduce hailstone induced property damage that has been conducted in the area around Calgary and Red Deer since 1996. Evaluation of the project is done using the project’s C-band radar located at Olds and an Environment Canada operated C-band radar at Strathmore. An in-depth, manual review of radar data from the 2017 seeding operations has identified 21 seed cases and 15 non-seed cases. The effectiveness of seeding is determined using hail indicators of Maximum Vertically Integrated Liquid (MaxVIL) and storm area greater than or equal to 60 …

Large Scale Low Speed Wind Tunnel, Ty Nygaard

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents the design, construction, and functionality of a large-scale wind tunnel designed to test and investigate losses of full size and scaled UAV propellers and rotors. The wind tunnel has been developed as an open circuit wind tunnel but will later be converted to a closed-circuit wind tunnel. A computational model of the wind tunnel was developed to help assess issues related to the 180 degree turns at both the inlet and exit diffuser and the associated losses and flow distortion. Results from analytical solutions and the computational model have been compared against one another and indicate sufficient …

Computational Studies Of Metal-Substituted Systems And Development Of Machine Learning Within Gvvpt2, Minh Duong Popis

Theses and Dissertations

Computational electronic structure theory has become an inexorable engine for understanding and even predicting the properties of novel molecules and materials. In this dissertation, two types of novel metal-containing systems, one a material and one a molecule, were examined using ab initio methods. In addition, progress on using machine learning (ML) to systematize the selection of qualitatively correct descriptions of molecular systems were examined.The ever-increasing demand for smaller, faster, and cheaper electronics has fueled the ongoing search for new materials. Silicene, a two-dimensional (2D) monolayer of silicon (Si) atoms arranging in a honeycomb lattice, has attracted much attention because of …

An Exploratory Factor Analysis Of The Collectivist Coping Styles Inventory Using An Adult American Indian Sample, Micah Louis Prairie Chicken

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the factors that emerged from the Collectivist Coping Styles (CCS) inventory using an exploratory factor analysis with an adult American Indian sample. The CCS inventory was originally developed using a sample of Taiwanese college students by an American-led research team and published in 2006. The CCS consists of 30 collectivist culture-specific coping items, among other indices (e.g., trauma resolution index). Coping has largely been theorized, and subsequently measured, from a White American individualist perspective. In response, a number of researchers with interests in non-White ways of being have begun broadening this area by examining coping from …

Developing Computer Aided Algorithms For Automatic Assessment Of Psoriasis Disease Severity Using Digital Images, Intisar Rizwan I Haque

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the research work was to develop image processing algorithms for automatic and objective assessment of psoriasis to aid in more effective management and treatment of patient symptoms. For this purpose, multiple classical machine learning-based unsupervised approaches are proposed which achieve a maximum average accuracy of ~94% on a dataset of 45 images of various resolutions. This accuracy improves performance by 14% in comparison to existing approaches reported in the literature on the same dataset of images. An alternative deep learning neural network-based approach was proposed that achieves an average accuracy of ~87% for the same set of …

Mapping Of Debris Covered Ice Masses; Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, Miranda Noel Shanks

Theses and Dissertations

Global climate change threatens glacial ice, which contains vital information on paleoclimate, paleo-atmosphere, and ancient organisms due to rising temperatures and CO2 levels (IPCC, 2014). Throughout the Transantarctic Mountain Range, a minimal number of buried ice masses have been previously discovered which have the potential to contain ice that exceed the ages of most glaciers on Earth. These ice masses are buried under < 1 meter of till, which thermally shields them and limits sublimation, thus preserving the ice. An example of such buried ice mass is found in Ong Valley, Antarctica where a sublimation till completely covers the ice and is dated at > 1.1 Ma years old, consequently making it one of the oldest known ice masses on Earth.In addition to two published locations, no systematic effort has been made to map such ice masses in Antarctica. This research is …

Evaluation Of The Performance Of A Rosemount Icing Detector During Impacts 2020, Greg Lee Sova

Theses and Dissertations

The Rosemount Icing Detector (RICE Probe) is a vibrating cylinder icing probe that measures the supercooled liquid water in the atmosphere that contributes to aircraft icing conditions. The frequency of the RICE Probe vibration decreases with increasing ice accretion. The RICE Probe was mounted on the fuselage of the NASA P-3 Orion aircraft for the IMPACTS 2020 field campaign. During the project, flight scientists had real-time frequency data for qualitative assessment of the presence of supercooled liquid water. For quantitative measurements of the liquid water, flight scientists used the King Liquid Water Sensor (King Probe) and the Cloud Droplet Probe …

Cybercrime Vs. Cyberwar: Paradigms For Addressing Malicious Cyber Activity, Mieke Eoyang, Chimene Keitner

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lettuce (Lactuca Sativa) Productivity Influenced By Microbial Inocula Under Nitrogen-Limited Conditions In Aquaponics., Jessica A Day, Christian Diener, Anne E Otwell, Kourtney E Tams, Brad Bebout, Angela M Detweiler, Michael D Lee, Madeline T Scott, Wilson Ta, Monica Ha, Shienna A Carreon, Kenny Tong, Abdirizak A Ali, Sean M Gibbons, Nitin S Baliga

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

The demand for food will outpace productivity of conventional agriculture due to projected growth of the human population, concomitant with shrinkage of arable land, increasing scarcity of freshwater, and a rapidly changing climate. While aquaponics has potential to sustainably supplement food production with minimal environmental impact, there is a need to better characterize the complex interplay between the various components (fish, plant, microbiome) of these systems to optimize scale up and productivity. Here, we investigated how the commonly-implemented practice of continued microbial community transfer from pre-existing systems might promote or impede productivity of aquaponics. Specifically, we monitored plant growth phenotypes, …

An Investigation Into The Efficacy Of Url Content Filtering Systems, Brett Ronald Turner

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Content filters are used to restrict to restrict minors from accessing to online content deemed inappropriate. While much research and evaluation has been done on the efficiency of content filters, there is little in the way of empirical research as to their efficacy. The accessing of inappropriate material by minors, and the role content filtering systems can play in preventing the accessing of inappropriate material, is largely assumed with little or no evidence. This thesis investigates if a content filter implemented with the stated aim of restricting specific Internet content from high school students achieved the goal of stopping students …

Energy And Throughput Efficient Strategies For Heterogeneous Future Communication Networks, Haitham El-Mohamdy Khaled

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

As a result of the proliferation of wireless-enabled user equipment and data-hungry applications, mobile data traffic has exponentially increased in recent years.This in-crease has not only forced mobile networks to compete on the scarce wireless spectrum but also to intensify their power consumption to serve an ever-increasing number of user devices. The Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) concept, where mixed types of low-power base stations coexist with large macro base stations, has emerged as a potential solution to address power consumption and spectrum scarcity challenges. However, as a consequence of their inflexible, constrained, and hardware-based configurations, HetNets have major limitations in adapting …

Towards An Evidence-Informed Differentiated Learning Consolidation Process To Support Classroom Instruction, Nicola Carr-White

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Despite many years of teaching experience, the differentiation and consolidation of classroom learning presented challenges for the researcher. In response, a Differentiated Learning Consolidation Process (DLCP) was developed through informal classroom-based action research over several years. Using low cost and accessible resources, it developed into a manageable supplementary intervention to support individual student needs and the retention of classroom instruction. Increasing interest from colleagues led the researcher to provide professional development on the instructional design and implementation of the DLCP. Through this experience, it became apparent that the DLCP theoretical assumptions were largely unknown. The current study was pursued to …

Experimental And Cfd–Pbm Investigation Of An Agitated Bioreactor Using A Dual Helical Ribbon Impeller, Maryamsadat Amiraftabi

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Throughout past decades, the management of solid waste by producing methane gas, as a renewable source of energy, has featured as an important research objective. Anaerobic digesters are widely used in countries with environmental initiatives and green approaches, where biogas produced from a bioreactor is a carbon neutral source of energy. Biogas contains 70% methane, 30% CO2 and some other gases. The by-product of an anaerobic digester is solid sludge that can be used as either fertilizer or compost.

Anaerobic digestion biogas plants can benefit industries by adding value to solid organic waste, reducing fossil fuel usage, eliminating solid waste …

Application Of The Vortex Fluid Device (Vfd) In Polysulfone Synthesis And Ultra-Filtration Membrane Fabrication For Water Treatment Purposes, Aghil Igder

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Extensive studies have been performed to improve key properties of filtration membranes via controlling the fabrication process conditions as well as physical and/or chemical modification of the polymers used in membrane fabrication. The Vortex Fluid Device (VFD) is a newly invented platform which has found many applications in materials science and clean technology. The unique features of the VFD originate from a combination of different effects (e.g., micro-mixing, viscous drag, microfluidic flow, enhanced mass transfer) all resulting in faster, greener, and more efficient and better controlled chemical reactions. The main aims of this project are: (i) to investigate the utility …

An Assessment Of Health Hazards Associated With The Use Of Water Mist Systems As A Cooling Intervention In Australia, Edmore Masaka

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Water mist systems (WMS) installed and used for cooling ambient temperatures in public places fall within the category of premise plumbing. Premise plumbing refers to the water distribution networks that lie downstream of the water meter, and within buildings. The colonization of premise plumbing by opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens (OPPPs) such as Legionella pneumophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Mycobacterium avium, Acanthamoeba and Naegleria fowleri is emerging as a challenge for public health and water quality management. Contrary to other premise plumbing features like showers and domestic taps that have been implicated in various waterborne infections, the health risks associated with WMS are …

Does Accurate Data, Identifying Obese Patients Impact Nurse Safety And Hospital Finances?, Kim Mcclean

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Healthcare staff who manage obese patients are at increased risk of sustaining patient handling injuries, and this risk is anticipated to intensify as projected Australian obesity rates increase to 42% by the year 2035 and obese patients admitted to hospitals also increase. High cost burdens to healthcare organisations will result due to increased funding requirements for bariatric risk management solutions and growing costs of workers’ compensation claims of injured staff. Five (5) studies explored if identification of obese patients impacts the safety of nurses and other healthcare staff who manage obese patients and investigated the accuracy of obesity data recorded …

Down The Rabbit Hole: An Exhibition – And – Alice In Wonderland Engaging With The Reflexive Project Of The Self: An Exegesis, Shana James

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a culturally significant text that is widely known across many cultures. In this Victorian story, a little girl follows the talking White Rabbit down a rabbit hole to uncover a fantastical parallel world. Alice in Wonderland has remained in print for over 150 years, highlighting its continued relevance to generations of readers. This exegesis investigates the making of visual artwork that responds to this significant story, exploring the symbology and metaphorical nature of the text and seeing the story as a “reflexive project of the self” (Giddens, 1991, p. 5).

I began this research having …

Making Immigration Law Respond To The Needs Of Building U.S. Leadership In Artificial Intelligence, Richad A. Boswell, Aditya Mohan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Law And Ecology Of Dam Removals, Dave Owen, Kim Sager-Fradkin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Prescription-Drug Policing: The Right To Health Information Privacy Pre-And Post-Carpenter, Jennifer D. Oliva

Faculty Scholarship

This Article operates at the intersection of privacy law, Fourth Amendment doctrine, and prescription-drug surveillance instigated by the U.S. drug-overdose crisis. Reputable reporting sources frequently frame that ongoing crisis as a prescription-drug-overdose “epidemic.” Current epidemiological data, however, indicate that the majority of American overdose deaths are now a result of illicit and polysubstance drug use and not prescription-opioid misuse. The prescription-opioid- centric frame has nonetheless sparked the rapid rise of surveillance of prescribers and patients in the form of state prescription-drug monitoring program (“PDMP”) databases. State PDMPs, which maintain and analyze significant data concerning every dispensed controlled substance, surreptitiously collect …

State Administrative Review Of Local Constraints On Housing Development: Improving The California Model, Christopher S. Elmendorf, Eric Biber, Paavo Monkkonen, Moira O’Neill

Faculty Scholarship

Starting in the 1970s, the West Coast states coalesced around roughly similar responses to the problem of excessive local restrictions on housing supply. Local governments were charged with making plans to accommodate projected population growth, subject to review and approval by a state agency. In California, a city’s housing plan must also analyze, mitigate, and remove “constraints” to the development of housing in general. This component of the plan has received little attention, and, according to a recent report of the State Auditor, it hasn’t accomplished much. We argue that it could accomplish much more—if the state housing agency develops …

Numerical Simulations Of Hydraulic Fracturing Through Perforated Wellbores, Omar Akash

Theses and Dissertations

Unconventional reservoirs such as tight formations and plays, are known by their ultra-low permeability. To economically produce hydrocarbon from these reservoirs, technology-based solutions need to be deployed. hydraulic fracturing is a widely accepted and applied technology for successful development of unconventional reservoirs.

The fractures initiated near wellbore can have different lengths, widths, and heights. As a result, a complex fracture network is expected to be formed near wellbore. The hydraulic fracturing design is related to several parameters. Some of these parameters cannot be altered such as the geological attributes and mechanical properties of the targeted formation and the field in-situ …

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 …

Development Of Image Processing Techniques For Core-Scale Characterization And Synthetic 3d-Printed Core Replicas, Ahmed Galal Alqassaby Almetwally

Theses and Dissertations

Fluid-flow physics in porous media has been continually simplified by assuming isotropic homogeneous media with minimal rock-fluid interactions. Such simplification did not reflect reality and retained the ability to understand the flow behavior essence in unconventional reservoirs. The developed physics should be reevaluated on ideal porous media, indeed, which has minimal geometrical and interaction uncertainties. Therefore, image processing techniques were utilized to processs the CT scans of core samples to construct ideal 3D-printed replicas for coreflooding experiments and simulation models. The results from both were then compared for vcalidation and cross check. Methods, Procedures, Process: Grayscale CT-scan of a Berea …

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 …

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 …