Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Investigating Soluble Organic Compounds In Aqueously Altered Carbonaceous Chondrites By Ultrahigh Resolution Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry, Patrick Kyle Schwartz

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Most meteorites are fragments from main-belt asteroids and contain extremely primitive materials that have preserved a compositional record of the early Solar System. After the formation of their parent bodies, carbonaceous chondrites experienced secondary modification from thermal metamorphism and/or aqueous alteration. Secondary processing likely influenced the synthesis and/or final composition of organic compounds in parent bodies; thus, these effects may be elucidated from the study of different meteorites. Although the role of aqueous alteration has been investigated for a few specific classes of compounds (such as amino acids), the effect of aqueous alteration on the full inventory of organic compounds …

Does The Urbanization Of Agricultural Land Lead To More Or Less Evapotranspiration?, Curtis Ryan Crandall

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Agricultural areas within the western U.S. are undergoing rapid urbanization due to population growth. Urban expansion often forces the conversion of adjacent agricultural areas altering the landscape vegetation and associated water consumption through evapotranspiration (ET). The associated difference in ET may alter the landscape water demand complicating water resource management. To investigate these differences, we calculated the agricultural and urban seasonal ET rates in a semiarid watershed currently undergoing large population growth and rapid urbanization. We used high resolution satellite imagery with a GIS computer model to generate basin-wide ET estimates over a 204-day irrigation season. Six land type samples …

Synthesizing Field And Experimental Techniques To Investigate The Enigmatic Processes Occurring At The Base Of Pyroclastic Currents, Nicholas M. Pollock

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Pyroclastic currents are the deadliest hazard associated with explosive volcanic eruptions. These gravity-driven currents consist of volcanic gases and solid particles that range in size from fine ash to boulders. The dangers associated with pyroclastic currents stem from their unpredictability and ability to travel extremely long distances, sometimes in excess of 100 km. To mitigate the risk to populations and infrastructure, we must understand the processes that control the runout distance of pyroclastic currents. The runout distance depends on the complex interplay of processes related to sediment transport, erosion, and deposition. Historically, studies focused on understanding sediment transport and deposition, …

Bringing Forecasting Into The Future: Using Google To Predict Visitation In U.S. National Parks, Matt Clark, Emily J. Wilkins, Dani T. Dagan, Robert Powell, Ryan L. Sharp, Vicken Hillis

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, visitation to U.S. National Parks has been increasing, with the majority of this increase occurring in a subset of parks. As a result, managers in these parks must respond quickly to increasing visitor-related challenges. Improved visitation forecasting would allow managers to more proactively plan for such increases. In this study, we leverage internet search data that is freely available through Google Trends to create a forecasting model. We compare this Google Trends model to a traditional autoregressive forecasting model. Overall, our Google Trends model accurately predicted 97% of the total visitation variation to all parks one year …

Radiolysis Of Solid-State Nitrogen Heterocycles Provides Clues To Their Abundance In The Early Solar System, Phillip G. Hammer, Ruiqin Yi, Isao Yoda, H. James Cleaves, Michael P. Callahan

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

We studied the radiolysis of a wide variety of N-heterocycles, including many of biological importance, and find that the majority are remarkably stable in the solid-state when subjected to large doses of ionizing gamma radiation from a ⁶⁰Co source. Degradation of N-heterocycles as a function of dose rate and total dose was measured using high performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. Many N-heterocycles show little degradation when γ-irradiated up to a total dose of ~1 MGy, which approximates hundreds of millions of years’ worth of radiation emitted in meteorite parent bodies due to slow radionuclide decay. Extrapolation of …

High-Precision Radioisotopic Ages For The Lower Midian (Upper Wordian) Stage Of The Tethyan Time Scale, Shigeyasu Quarry, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, V. I. Davydov, M. D. Schmitz

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Global correlation of strata to the Guadalupian Series (Permian Period) of the International Geologic Time Scale remains provisional due to a lack of the sufficient biostratigraphically constrained radioisotopic ages. Five new high-precision U–Pb radioisotopic ages were obtained from tuffs in the lower Midian (upper Wordian) volcano-siliciclastic succession of the Akiyoshi Plateau, southwestern Japan. Two undisturbed and continuous tuffs occur within fusulinid-bearing laminated limestone turbidites, with precise biostratigraphic control. The Colania douvillei and Lepidolina shiraiwensis fusulinid Zones in the Akiyoshi succession provide an early Midian age in the Tethyan provincial time scale. The range of ages (267.46 ± 0.04 Ma to …

Investigating The Effects Of Social And Temporal Dynamics In Fitness Games On Children's Physical Activity, Ankita Samariya

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Obesity in children has more than doubled in the last four decades. A variety of fitness technologies such as activity trackers, exergames, and mobile applications are available to promote physical activity, but few are designed adequately to meet children's specific needs. In my initial research, I found that children prefer having social interaction, a narrative, and flexibility while interacting with such technologies. Other research has shown that persuasive displays encouraged adults towards physical activity. As a part of this work, a collection of mobile applications, collectively known as KidFit Suite were developed. These applications encourage children to be physically active …

Estimating Error And Bias Of Offline Recommender System Evaluation Results, Mucun Tian

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Recommender systems are software applications deployed on the Internet to help people find useful items (e.g. movies, books, music, products) by providing recommendation lists. Before deploying recommender systems online, researchers and practitioners generally conduct offline evaluations to compare the accuracy of top- recommendation lists among candidate algorithms using users’ history consumption data. These offline evaluations typically use metrics and methodologies borrowed from machine learning and information retrieval and have several well-known biases that affect the validity of their results, including popularity bias and other biases arising from the missing-not-at-random nature of the data used. The existence of these biases is …

Radial Basis Function Finite Difference Approximations Of The Laplace-Beltrami Operator, Sage Byron Shaw

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Partial differential equations (PDEs) are used throughout science and engineering for modeling various phenomena. Solutions to PDEs cannot generally be represented analytically, and therefore must be approximated using numerical techniques; this is especially true for geometrically complex domains. Radial basis function generated finite differences (RBF-FD) is a recently developed mesh-free method for numerically solving PDEs that is robust, accurate, computationally efficient, and geometrically flexible. In the past seven years, RBF-FD methods have been developed for solving PDEs on surfaces, which have applications in biology, chemistry, geophysics, and computer graphics. These methods are advantageous, as they are mesh-free, operate on arbitrary …

Development Of A Statistical Shape-Function Model Of The Implanted Knee For Real-Time Prediction Of Joint Mechanics, Kalin Gibbons

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Outcomes of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) are dependent on surgical technique, patient variability, and implant design. Non-optimal design or alignment choices may result in undesirable contact mechanics and joint kinematics, including poor joint alignment, instability, and reduced range of motion. Implant design and surgical alignment are modifiable factors with potential to improve patient outcomes, and there is a need for robust implant designs that can accommodate patient variability. Our objective was to develop a statistical shape-function model (SFM) of a posterior stabilized implant knee to instantaneously predict output mechanics in an efficient manner. Finite element methods were combined with Latin …

Deviant: A Mutation Testing Tool For Solidity Smart Contracts, Patrick Chapman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Blockchain in recent years has exploded in popularity with Ethereum being one of the leading blockchain platforms. Solidity is a widely used scripting language for creating smart contracts in Ethereum applications. Quality assurance in Solidity contracts is of critical importance because bugs or vulnerabilities can lead to a considerable loss of financial assets. However, it is unclear what level of quality assurance is provided in many of these applications.

Mutation testing is the process of intentionally injecting faults into a target program and then running the provided test suite against the various injected faults. Mutation testing is used to evaluate …

Suitability Of Finite State Automata To Model String Constraints In Probablistic Symbolic Execution, Andrew Harris

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Probabilistic Symbolic Execution (PSE) extends Symbolic Execution (SE), a path-sensitive static program analysis technique, by calculating the probabilities with which program paths are executed. PSE relies on the ability of the underlying symbolic models to accurately represent the execution paths of the program as the collection of input values following these paths. While researchers established PSE for numerical data types, PSE for complex data types such as strings is a novel area of research.

For string data types SE tools commonly utilize finite state automata to represent a symbolic string model. Thus, PSE inherits from SE automata-based symbolic string models …

Using Literature To Engage Students Mathematically, Ann Wheeler, Joe Champion, Holly Dybvig

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, the authors share two lessons that incorporate children’s literature with the Pythagorean theorem and area to engage preservice teachers (PSTs) mathematically. Sample responses, example texts, and future work are discussed.

Comparing Aerial Lidar Observations With Terrestrial Lidar And Snow-Probe Transects From Nasa's 2017 Snowex Campaign, Zach Uhlmann, Lucas Spaete, Nancy F. Glenn

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

NASA's 2017 SnowEx field campaign at Grand Mesa, CO, generated Airborne Laser Scans (ALS), Terrestrial Laser Scans (TLS), and snow‐probe transects, which allowed for a comparison between snow depth measurement techniques. At six locations, comparisons between gridded ALS and TLS observations, at 1‐m resolution, had a median snow depth difference of 5 cm, root‐mean‐square difference of 16 cm, mean‐absolute difference of 10 cm, and 3‐cm difference in standard deviation. ALS generally had greater but similar snow depth values to TLS, and results were not sensitive to the gridded cell size between 0.5 and 5 m. The greatest disagreements were where …

Nitrogen Heterocycles Form Peptide Nucleic Acid Precursors In Complex Prebiotic Mixtures, Laura E. Rodriguez, Christopher H. House, Karen E. Smith, Melissa R. Roberts, Michael P. Callahan

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The ability to store information is believed to have been crucial for the origin and evolution of life; however, little is known about the genetic polymers relevant to abiogenesis. Nitrogen heterocycles (N-heterocycles) are plausible components of such polymers as they may have been readily available on early Earth and are the means by which the extant genetic macromolecules RNA and DNA store information. Here, we report the reactivity of numerous N-heterocycles in highly complex mixtures, which were generated using a Miller-Urey spark discharge apparatus with either a reducing or neutral atmosphere, to investigate how N-heterocycles are modified under plausible prebiotic …

Organometallic Compounds As Carriers Of Extraterrestrial Cyanide In Primitive Meteorites, Karen E. Smith, Christopher H. House, Ricardo D. Arevalo Jr., Jason P. Dworkin, Michael P. Callahan

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Extraterrestrial delivery of cyanide may have been crucial for the origin of life on Earth since cyanide is involved in the abiotic synthesis of numerous organic compounds found in extant life; however, little is known about the abundance and species of cyanide present in meteorites. Here, we report cyanide abundance in a set of CM chondrites ranging from 50 ± 1 to 2472 ± 38 nmol·g⁻¹, which relates to the degree of aqueous alteration of the meteorite and indicates that parent body processing influenced cyanide abundance. Analysis of the Lewis Cliff 85311 meteorite shows that its releasable cyanide …

Single-Molecule Imaging Reveals The Interplay Between Transcription Factors, Nucleosomes, And Transcriptional Bursting, Matthew L. Ferguson

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Transcription factors show rapid and reversible binding to chromatin in living cells, and transcription occurs in sporadic bursts, but how these phenomena are related is unknown. Using a combination of in vitro and in vivo single-molecule imaging approaches, we directly correlated binding of the Gal4 transcription factor with the transcriptional bursting kinetics of the Gal4 target genes GAL3 and GAL10 in living yeast cells. We find that Gal4 dwell time sets the transcriptional burst size. Gal4 dwell time depends on the affinity of the binding site and is reduced by orders of magnitude by nucleosomes. Using a novel imaging platform …

The Computer Science Professional's Hatchery, Amit Jain, Noah Salzman, Donald Winiecki

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

As a recipient of a National Science Foundation Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (RED) grant, the Computer Science Department at the Boise State University is building a Computer Science (CS) Professionals Hatchery. This paper is a summary to accompany the poster to be presented.

Variability In The Atmosphere Of The Hot Jupiter Kepler-76b, Brian Jackson, Elisabeth Adams, Wesley Sandidge, Steven Kreyche, Jennifer Briggs

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

On A Hypothesis For ℵ0-Bounded Groups, Marion Scheepers

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We show that it is consistent, relative to the consistency of a strongly inaccessible cardinal, that an instance of the generalized Borel Conjecture introduced in [6] holds while the classical Borel Conjecture fails.

Conjugacy For Homogeneous Ordered Graphs, Samuel Coskey, Paul Ellis

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We show that for any countable homogeneous ordered graph G, the conjugacy problem for automorphisms of G is Borel complete. In fact we establish that each such G satisfies a strong extension property called ABAP, which implies that the isomorphism relation on substructures of G is Borel reducible to the conjugacy relation on automorphisms of G.

Leveraging Environmental Research And Observation Networks To Advance Soil Carbon Science, Alejandro N. Flores

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Soil organic matter (SOM) is a critical ecosystem variable regulated by interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes. Collaborative efforts to integrate perspectives, data, and models from interdisciplinary research and observation networks can significantly advance predictive understanding of SOM. We outline how integrating three networks—the Long‐Term Ecological Research with a focus on ecological dynamics, the Critical Zone Observatories with strengths in landscape/geologic context, and the National Ecological Observatory Network with standardized multiscale measurements—can advance SOM knowledge. This integration requires improved data dissemination and sharing, coordinated data collection activities, and enhanced collaboration between empiricists and modelers within and across networks.

On The Fundamental Group Of Plane Curve Complements, Mitchell Scofield

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Given a polynomial f(x,y) monic in y of degree d, we study the complement ℂ²-C, where C is the curve defined by the equation f(x,y)=0. The Zariski-Van Kampen theorem gives a presentation of the fundamental group of the complement ℂ²-C. Let NT be be the set of complex numbers x for which f(x,y) has multiple roots (as a polynomial in y). Let : ℂ − NT → ℂ^d − Δ be the map that …

Petrogenesis Of Off-Axis Lavas Erupted Along The 8˚20’ N Seamount Chain, East Pacific Rise, Molly Kassandra Anderson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Lavas erupted at off-axis seamounts provide a window into mantle heterogeneity and melting systematics that are not easily observed on-axis at fast spreading mid-ocean ridges (MORs). This is because axial melts are efficiently mixed and homogenized within shallow axial magma chambers prior to eruption. To understand the deeper magmatic processes contributing to oceanic crustal formation, we examine the compositions of lavas erupted along a chain of off-axis seamounts, adjacent to the East Pacific Rise (EPR). Essential questions include: (1) What is the range of compositional variability erupted off-axis and how does that compare to lavas erupted on-axis? (2) Is there …

Partitioned By Process: Measuring Post-Fire Debris Flow And Rill Erosion With Structure From Motion, Nicholas Ellett

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In mountainous regions burned by wildfires, profound changes in soil characteristics and combustion of vegetation increase hillslope and channel erosion during storm events. Reduced infiltration and abundant loose sediment produce large post-fire erosional events which endanger human lives and infrastructure and contribute significantly to long-term erosion rates. While the influence of fire in increasing erosion has long been recognized, quantifying volumes and sources of eroded material from burned landscapes is difficult. Pre-erosion high-resolution topographic data (e.g. lidar) are often not available in burned areas and determining specific contributions from post-fire hillslope and channel erosion is challenging. Multiple erosional processes mobilize …

Remote Sensing Time-Series Analysis, Machine Learning, And K-Means Clustering Improves Dryland Vegetation And Biological Soil Crust Classification, Joshua Enterkine

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Dryland and semi-arid vegetation communities, although appearing to the casual observer as relatively simplistic and homogeneous, are in fact the opposite. Upon further inspection, semi-arid vegetation is highly complex and heterogeneous at almost any scale. The same holds true for biological soil crust. Growing concern about global changes in climate, nutrient cycles, and land use have required increasing scrutiny of our understanding of these communities and all of their constituents, as we seek to improve forecasting models and inform land management decisions. This thesis aims to provide insight to the paradigm of how we create and interpret vegetation classifications in …

Computable Reducibility Of Equivalence Relations, Marcello Gianni Krakoff

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Computable reducibility of equivalence relations is a tool to compare the complexity of equivalence relations on natural numbers. Its use is important to those doing Borel equivalence relation theory, computability theory, and computable structure theory. In this thesis, we compare many naturally occurring equivalence relations with respect to computable reducibility. We will then define a jump operator on equivalence relations and study proprieties of this operation and its iteration. We will then apply this new jump operation by studying its effect on the isomorphism relations of well-founded computable trees.

A Hybrid Model To Detect Fake News, Indhumathi Gurunathan

Computer Science Graduate Projects and Theses

The wide availability of user-contributed content in the online social media facilitates aggregation of people around common interests, worldviews, and narratives. But over the years, internet being the source of information also becomes the source of misinformation. As people are generally awash in information, they can sometimes have difficulty discerning misinformation propagated on web platforms from truthful information. They may also lean heavily on information providers or social media platforms to curate information even though such providers do not commonly validate sources. In this project, we primarily focus was on political news and propose a hybrid model to detect misleading …

Approximating Input Data To A Snowmelt Model Using Weather Research And Forecasting Model Outputs In Lieu Of Meteorological Measurements, Scott Havens, Danny Marks, Katelyn Fitzgerald, Matt Masarik, Alejandro N. Flores, Patrick Kormos, Andrew Hedrick

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forecasting the timing and magnitude of snowmelt and runoff is critical to managing mountain water resources. Warming temperatures are increasing the rain–snow transition elevation and are limiting the forecasting skill of statistical models relating historical snow water equivalent to streamflow. While physically based methods are available, they require accurate estimations of the spatial and temporal distribution of meteorological variables in complex terrain. Across many mountainous areas, measurements of precipitation and other meteorological variables are limited to a few reference stations and are not adequate to resolve the complex interactions between topography and atmospheric flow. In this paper, we evaluate the …

Dynamic Sampling Versions Of Popular Spc Charts For Big Data Analysis, Samuel Anyaso-Samuel

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The statistical process control (SPC) chart is an effective tool for the analysis, interpretation, and visualization of data from sequential processes. Commonly used SPC charts such as the Shewhart, CUSUM and EWMA charts are widely implemented in detecting distributional shifts in various processes. With recent scientific and technological advancements, massive amounts of data continue to be generated by production, medical, agricultural and many other industrial processes. Conventional SPC charts have significant drawbacks in monitoring such processes, specifically when the velocity of the data flow is greater than the run time of the monitoring procedure. In the literature, dynamic sampling control …