Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Chapter 3.1: Visualization Of The Nernst Equation Via 3-D Topo Surfaces: E⁰ Plateaus, Left-Hand Bluffs, Front Cliffs And Reaction Paths, Garon C. Smith, Md Mainul Hossain

Water Topos: A 3-D Trend Surface Approach to Viewing and Teaching Aqueous Equilibrium Chemistry

A new 3-D graphical representation of oxidation–reduction (redox) processes in aqueous solutions has been developed utilizing a composition grid for which the x-axis carries the activity of the reduced form of the redox couple and the y-axis carries the activity of the oxidized form. The Nernst equation potential corresponding to the redox couple’s activities at each grid point is plotted above it as a z-coordinate. This creates a 3-D trend surface (a topo) over the grid. The topos typically have a steep left-hand bluff and a precipitous front cliff that are encountered when one or the other …

Chapter 2.2: 3-D Topo Surface Visualization Of Metal Ion Anti-Buffering: An Unexpected Behavior In Metal–Ligand Complexation Systems, Garon C. Smith, Md Mainul Hossain, Daniel D. Barry

Water Topos: A 3-D Trend Surface Approach to Viewing and Teaching Aqueous Equilibrium Chemistry

Diluting a system that contains metal complexes can sometimes cause surprises. This chapter describes “metal ion anti-buffering”, a situation in which free metal ion concentrations rapidly increase as system dilution drives dissociation. It only occurs under excess free ligand conditions when a solution is dominated by higher stoichiometry complexes. The Law of Mass Action is used to provide a mathematical justification for the phenomenon. A Cu²⁺-ethylenediamine mixture exhibits this phenomenon when excess free ethylenediamine (en) is present. For example, it occurs when diluting a solution containing a four-fold excess of en over Cu²⁺. As this mixture …

Chapter 2.1: Visualization Of Metal Ion Buffering Via 3-D Topo Surfaces Of Complexometric Titrations, Garon C. Smith, Md Mainul Hossain

Water Topos: A 3-D Trend Surface Approach to Viewing and Teaching Aqueous Equilibrium Chemistry

This chapter examines 1:1 metal-ligand complexometric titrations in aqueous media. It presents surfaces that plot computed equilibrium parameters above a composition grid with titration progress (mL of ligand) as the x-axis and overall system dilution (log C ) as the y-axis. The sample systems in this chapter are restricted to EDTA as a ligand. Other chelating ligands that form exclusively 1:1 complexes could also be modeled with this software. The surfaces show the quality of the equivalence point break under various conditions. More importantly, they develop the phenomenon of metal ion buffering. They clearly distinguish the difference between …

Examining Natural Resource Conservation: In The Classroom, Through Collaborative Conservation, And Across Public Communication Platforms, Shauni Seccombe

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Exploring Approaches To Equity In Environmental Education Access For Teens, Norah Cook

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Chapter 1.3: 3-D Topo Surface Visualization Of Acid-Base Species Distributions: Corner Buttes, Corner Pits, Curving Ridge Crests And Dilution Plains, Garon C. Smith, Md Mainul Hossain

Water Topos: A 3-D Trend Surface Approach to Viewing and Teaching Aqueous Equilibrium Chemistry

This chapter adds 3-D species distribution topos to earlier surfaces that showed pH (Chapter 1.1) and buffer capacity behavior (Chapter 1.2) during titration and dilution procedures. It constructs trend surfaces by plotting computed alpha distribution coefficients above a composition grid with “mL of NaOH” as the x-axis and overall system dilution (log C) as the y-axis. The systematic shift from protonated to deprotonated forms is clearly visualized on a linear z-axis. Because pH and buffer capacity surfaces accompany the species topos, it is easy to see their interrelationships. On the basis of their graphical appearance, features …

Optimal Construction Of A Layer-Ordered Heap And Its Applications, Jake Pennington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The layer-ordered heap (LOH) is a simple data structure used in algorithms that perform optimal top-$k$ on $X+Y$, algorithms with the best known runtime for top-$k$ on $X_1+X_2+\cdots+X_m$, and the fastest method in practice for computing the most abundant isotopologue peaks in a chemical compound. In the analysis of these algorithms, the rank, $\alpha$, has been treated as a constant and $n$, the size of the array, has been treated as the sole parameter. Here, we explore the algorithmic complexity of LOH construction with $\alpha$ as a parameter, introduce a few algorithms for constructing LOHs, analyze their complexity in both …

Ensemble Protein Inference Evaluation, Kyle Lee Lucke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Protein inference problem is becoming an increasingly important tool that aids in the characterization of complex proteomes and analysis of complex protein samples. In bottom-up shotgun proteomics experiments the metrics for evaluation (like AUC and calibration error) are based on an often imperfect target-decoy database. These metrics make the inherent assumption that all of the proteins in the target set are present in the sample being analyzed. In general, this is not the case, they are typically a mix of present and absent proteins. To objectively evaluate inference methods, protein standard datasets are used. These datasets are special in …

Analyzing The Multipath Of Gps Time Series To Study Snow Properties, Ashlesha Khatiwada

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Thousands of Global Positioning System (GNSS) receivers worldwide record signals sent by satellites to infer how each receiver (and the ground they are attached to) moves over time. The motion of GNSS receivers is used for many purposes, including studying tectonic deformation and changes in Earth's shape caused by surface loading. In this project, reflected wave arrivals contained within the multipath signal of GNSS time series are extracted and analyzed to advance understanding of snow properties in mountainous regions of Montana/Idaho, USA. Analyzing reflected signals in GNSS series has the potential to reveal properties of local snowpack, such as height, …

Monitoring Agns With H-Beta Asymmetry: Markarian 841, Samuel J. Schonsberg

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Quasars are among the most luminous objects in the Universe, and the mechanism behind their luminosity was shrouded in mystery decades after their discovery. Since then, we have found that these objects are active galactic nuclei (AGN), which are powered by actively-feeding super massive black holes at the center of a galaxy. But we still know fairly little about the structure and motion of the material surrounding active super massive black holes, and most of these objects are not resolvable by conventional observations. We use a technique called reverberation mapping, which is traditionally used only as a mass determination …

Sula Study Revisited: 20-Year Post-Fire Regeneration In The Southern Bitterroot Valley, Montana., Luke Alan Rymniak

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the summer of 2000, a number of large fires burned in the southern Bitterroot Valley near Sula, Montana. Research was conducted in 2001 and 2003 in the fire-affected areas of the French Basin and Larid Creek areas in order to investigate the effects of environmental variables, fire severity, and post-fire management on vegetation regeneration. In 2020 these areas were remeasured to understand trends over time by evaluating the impact of these same factors 20 years post fire. The results showed that the effects of environmental variables, fire severity, and post-fire management on vegetation regeneration were varied. The most influential …

A Hand-Held Structure From Motion Photogrammetric Approach To Riparian And Stream Asseessment And Monitoring, Joseph M. Dehnert, Joseph Dehnert

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Two of the biggest weaknesses in stream restoration and monitoring are: 1) subjective estimation and subsequent comparison of changes in channel form, vegetative cover, and in-stream habitat; and 2) the high costs in terms of financing, human resources, and time necessary to make these estimates. Remote sensing can be used to remedy these weaknesses and save organizations focused on restoration both money and time. However, implementing traditional remote sensing approaches via autonomous aerial systems or light detection and ranging systems is either prohibitively expensive or impossible along small streams with dense vegetation. Hand-held Structure from Motion Multi-view Stereo (SfM-MVS) photogrammetric …

On Coloring Oriented Graphs Of Large Girth, Michael Morris

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Forecasting The Daily Percentage Of Delayed Flights Based On The National Weather Data, Parto Mahmoudi

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Flight delays cost airlines and affect passenger’s satisfaction. In this research work, we predicted the daily percentage of delayed flights based on the national weather data using the multiple linear regression and the random forest models. We extracted the passenger flight on-time performance data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the weather dataset from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information for the years from 2015 to 2019. We used the flight dataset for Seattle airport as the origin. We predicted the daily percentage of delayed flights for the Seattle-originated flights based on the features such as weather conditions of …

Stellarator Optimization With Poloidal Field Coils, Haley Wilson, Andrew Ware, Aaron Bader, Chris Hegna

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Stellarators are devices that use magnetic fields to optimize the conditions needed for plasmas to undergo fusion. Unlike tokamaks, stellarators do not rely on a plasma current but can produce a helical magnetic field using only external coils. In a stellarator, the coils surrounding the plasma are called modular coils and those that follow the plasma are called poloidal field coils. Modular coils can be difficult to build if they are too complex. An effort is underway to develop coil conditions that meet both physics and engineering constraints. The FOCUS code was developed to flexibly optimize stellarator coil configurations [C. …

Development Of A Novel In-Situ Chemical Sampler For Aquatic Systems, Alec W. Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There has been a long-standing need to study Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) within aquatic systems. DOC is an important water quality parameter that provides insights into ecological and carbon cycle processes in aquatic systems. DOC is not easily studied due to traditional, labor-intensive sampling methods. Often, optical (e.g. fluorescence) proxy estimations for DOC are used instead of directly sampling for DOC. Using either low frequency measurements or proxy estimations for DOC can lead to inadequate understanding of the natural processes that control DOC in aquatic systems.

This thesis outlines a in-situ sampler that will be capable of collecting, preserving, and …

Diagenesis Of The Lower Permian Wolfcamp Formation, West Texas: Implications For Reservoir Quality In The Midland Basin, Kory John Talcott

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study focuses on documenting the diagenesis and pore evolution within the lower Permian Wolfcamp B Formation in two producing wells from the Midland Basin of west Texas. Both wells are located near the northeastern margin of the Midland basin, with well A located proximal to the basin margin and well B located about 20km down depositional dip. The entire Wolfcamp B interval has been cored from both wells.

In both wells, the Wolfcamp B consists of calcareous and siliceous mudstone, skeletal wackestone, packstone, grainstone, rudstone, and floatstone facies that were deposited below wave base by a combination of suspension …

Investigation Of Emissions And Chemistry Of Formic Acid And Acetic Acid In Wildfire Smoke, Catherine Elizabeth Wielgasz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Formic acid (HCOOH) and acetic acid (CH₃COOH) are two of the most ubiquitous organic acids in the atmosphere. Chemical transport models consistently underestimate HCOOH and CH₃COOH concentrations in environments including fire smoke, implying our incomplete understanding of their global budget. Emissions and secondary production of HCOOH and CH₃COOH within complex mixtures in fire smoke is uncertain.

I used measurements from the NSF/NCAR C-130 aircraft during the Western Wildfire Experiment for Cloud Chemistry, Aerosol Absorption, and Nitrogen (WE-CAN) campaign to investigate emissions and photochemical production of HCOOH and CH₃COOH from smoke plumes. First, …

Soda: An Open-Source Library For Visualizing Biological Sequence Annotation, Jack W. Roddy, Travis J. Wheeler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Genome annotation is the process of identifying and labeling known genetic sequences or features within a genome. Across the various subfields within modern molecular biology, there is a common need for the visualization of such annotations. Genomic data is often visualized on web browser platforms, providing users with easy access to visualization tools without the need for installing any software or, in many cases, underlying datasets. While there exists a broad range of web-based visualization tools, there is, to my knowledge, no lightweight, modern library tailored towards the visualization of genomic data. Instead, developers charged with the task of producing …

Nitrogen Dynamics And Transport Along Flowpaths In A Rural Wetland-Stream Complex, Colton Kyro

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human activities have doubled the rate of nitrogen inputs onto the landscape resulting in elevated nitrogen concentrations in our streams. Anthropogenically applied nitrogen is largely transported to stream networks via groundwater movement. Groundwater discharge occurs in distinct points along a stream but whose influences can often persist far beyond that area due to insufficient biogeochemical removal of imported nitrogen potentially causing alterations in community structure and precipitating large algae blooms. To understand the factors governing nitrogen abundance in a historical polluted stream, I used a mass-balance approach to quantify groundwater-surface water interaction and the magnitude of groundwater nitrogen input and …

Transboundary Marine Management In The Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape, Lindsey G. Ellett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Transboundary conservation aims to facilitate environmental conservation and management at the ecosystem level by operating across political boundaries, through the cooperation of two or more countries. Though there is increased interest and advocation for transboundary conservation initiatives around the world, there remains a limited understanding of how they function on-the-ground. Within this study, I address these gaps in knowledge through two phases of research, both focusing on the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape as a case study site. Phase I involved a policy analysis of Indonesian, Malaysia, and Philippine policies related to fisheries, coastal zones and protected areas, and environmental quality. Through this …

Modeling Stromatolite Formation With Diffusion-Limited Aggregation, Laura E. Stevens

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Stromatolites, microbialites, and other microbially induced sedimentary structures exist in the rock record as far back as 3.6 billion years ago and continue to form in the present day. Better characterizing these structures and better understanding how they form is crucial in distinguishing these biosignatures from similar, abiotic structures, which can help us to understand the conditions of early Earth and early Mars. To that end, I have modified DLA 3D EXT, an open-source stromatolite modeling program, to more closely reflect the process of microbial trapping-and-binding by filamentous microbes in a calcite-precipitating hot spring system. This modified program includes a …

Wildlife-Friendly Fence Policy On Federal Public Lands Managed By The U.S. Forest Service And Bureau Of Land Management, Joshua D. Elliott

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Many wildlife species are negatively impacted by the presence of fences on the landscape. Climate change is only exacerbating the problem as home ranges shift and species face heightened levels of stress. In recent decades, wildlife biologists have studied these impacts and devised ways of constructing fences to increase habitat connectivity and significantly reduce fence-related injury and mortality rates. Conservationists attempting to address this issue on a landscape level face significant challenges resulting from complex land ownership patterns, specifically across the western United States.

The two largest landowners in the U.S. are the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the …

Controls On No3-N Dynamics In The Upper Clark Fork River, Montana, Jacob Anthony Prater

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies relating ecosystem energetics to nutrient uptake in streams have generally found respiration to be a more dominant control on nutrient dynamics relative to primary production due to light limitation in most low-order systems. In this study, I measured biomass, hydrology, metabolism, and dissolved solutes in an open-canopy mid-order river located in western MT. Daily stream metabolism was modeled using a modified single-station, open-channel method, and measures of dissolved solutes were evaluated at both local and reach scales to examine how point-measures and those integrated through space represent biogeochemical behavior. Metabolic rates and standing stocks of benthic organic matter were …

Quantifying Bedrock Recharge In Two Paired Mountainous Watersheds, Kimberly Bolhuis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study focuses on 1) estimating the magnitude of bedrock recharge and 2) mean transit time as a function of bedrock permeability in two paired catchments underlain by different lithology. Networks of bedrock wells and stream gauges were installed in two adjacent catchments of approximately the same size in west central Montana. Fracture network properties for both lithologies were characterized from borehole core logging and scan lines on exposed outcrop. Recharge was evaluated using the Water Table Fluctuation (WTF) method on bedrock well hydrographs installed in both catchments. Stable water isotope samples, collected approximately monthly, from precipitation and stream water …

Migration Of The Frozen/Melted Basal Boundary Linked To ~100 Kilometers Of Ice Margin Retreat, Western Greenland Ice Sheet, Aidan Ripley Stansberry

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The geometry and thermal structure of western Greenland ice sheet have evolved over the last 11 kyr in response to Holocene climate. Evolution of the frozen and melted fractions of the bed associated with the ice sheet retreat over this time frame remains unclear. We address this question using a thermo-mechanically coupled flowline model to simulate a 11 kyr period of ice sheet retreat in west central Greenland. Our transient flow-line modeling includes high order stresses, thermally active bedrock, a well-informed climate that is constrained by an established record of ice margin retreat. We partition the transient heat balance into …

Community-Based Deer Management: A Case Study In Missoula, Mt, Taylor Ingle Mudford

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human development and expansion have led to urban sprawl and fewer, less developed areas suitable for wildlife habitat. Populations of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have adapted to urban communities; however, their prevalence can lead to myriad of ecological and social issues, necessitating communities to pursue comprehensive urban deer management strategies. These strategies have increasingly been pursued via community-based deer management (CBDM) and are an example of collaborative natural resource management (CBNRM). Despite the growth in urban white-tail deer populations and the interactions with humans, there are few studies that explore the CBDM and the acceptability of diverse deer …

Generation, Characterization, And C-H Bond Activation Reactivity By Mononuclear High-Valent Cobalt(Iv) And Nickel(Iv) Non-Oxo Complexes, Yubin Maria Kwon

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The study of terminal high-valent transition metal-oxo complexes has increased significantly over the years as it is believed that they are key reactive intermediates for a wide range of biological and industrial catalytic processes. These complexes are powerful oxidants for the activation of strong C-H bonds. The chemical and physical properties of these complexes remain elusive. It is therefore desirable to study the properties and function of these complexes through synthetic models. There have been many efforts and reports of synthetic high-valent metal-oxo complexes of early and middle transition metals (up to group 8 on the Periodic Table of Elements), …

Policy And Collaborative Governance: Case Studies Of Three Wildlife Crossings, Nicholas Maya

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Over the last several decades, the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions in North America has significantly increased, driving substantial loss of human life and wildlife and economic costs. The most effective wildlife-vehicle collision mitigation is wildlife crossing structures (undercrossings and overcrossings), with some studies suggesting they can reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by 97% when paired with wildlife exclusion fencing. However, cost, funding, jurisdiction, land ownership, and local support are limiting factors in constructing these crossing structures. This paper presents case studies of three crossing projects in Snoqualmie, Washington, Teton County, Wyoming, and Summit County, Colorado, to illustrate the similarities and differences in …

Species Selection And Plantation Management In Enrichment Planting With Native Timber Species In The Panama Canal Watershed, Abigail A. Marshall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Large areas of the Panama Canal Watershed have been converted to monocultures of teak (Tectonia grandis), a non-native timber species that is generally not providing hoped-for economic and ecological benefits of Forest Landscape Restoration. Enrichment planting offers a potential strategy for revitalizing these underperforming plantations through the addition of high-value, native species to the understory, but more information is needed to guide implementation and management in this region and other tropical areas. I assessed the performance of six promising native species (B. crassifolia, D. retusa, D. oleifera, H. alchorneoides, P. pinnatum, T. amazonia) as an enrichment …