Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Influence Of Aspen Chemistry And The Nutritional Context On Aspen Herbivory, Kristen Y. Heroy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Consumption of aspen by herbivores is one major force causing aspen decline in North America. In this Dissertation, I aimed to determine why herbivores prefer browsing on certain aspen stands over others, and why they prefer consuming aspen that contains chemical defenses over understory forages like grasses, forbs, and shrubs. I explored the influence of nutrients and chemical defenses within aspen on aspen intake and preference by lambs in pen experiments. I also explored drivers of aspen preference on the landscape by looking at relationships between aspen herbivory, indicators of aspen health, amount of nutrients available in the understory, and …

First-Row Transition Metal Sulfides And Phosphides As Competent Electrocatalysts For Water Splitting, Nan Jiang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Solar energy is a carbon-neutral and renewable energy resource. Its nature of intermittence and unequal distribution requires efficient solar energy capture, conversion, and storage. Solar-driven water splitting to produce hydrogen and oxygen is widely considered as an appealing approach to meet this goal, in which hydrogen acts as a green energy carrier. Water splitting consists of two redox half reactions: hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Both reactions involve the transfer of multiple electrons and protons and possess high energy barriers to proceed at appreciable rates, hence catalysts are needed.

A large number of HER and OER …

A Pattern Language For Designing Application-Level Communication Protocols And The Improvement Of Computer Science Education Through Cloud Computing, Jorge Edison Lascano

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Enterprises that develop software use current technology because of its proven advantages and to accelerate and improve the software development process. Nevertheless, it is difficult to be up-to-date for most professionals in the area. Although students from higher academic institutions need to learn these new tools, and their main purpose is to learn how learn; colleges still need to prepare students for modern enterprise requirements, so they teach new technologies to improve students’ skills. Ubiquitous computing is software and services available everywhere, for example in mobile devices, in different locations, in different networks. This computing requires good communication protocols so …

A Tournament Approach To Price Discovery In The Us Cattle Market, Jeffrey Wright

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cattle price discovery is a process of determining the price in the market through the interactions of cattle buyers (packers) and sellers (ranchers). Locating the price discovery center or market, and estimating price interactions among the regional fed cattle markets and also among feeder cattle markets can help define a relevant fed cattle procurement market. This research identifies that the U.S. cattle markets is discovered in the futures markets, feeder cattle futures and fed futures.

Spatial And Behavioral Patterns Of Captive Coyotes, Jeffrey T. Schultz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Environmental enrichment is a technique used at many captive animal facilities that can improve the well-being of their animals. It seeks to enhance habitat features and promote natural behavior by providing a variety of practical ways for captive animals to control their environmental settings, especially during stressful circumstances. Enclosure features, such as shelter structures, are one tool that promotes wild behavior by adding complexity to an enclosure’s physical environment. Enrichment efforts for captive wildlife are most effective when they are specialized to the biological needs of the animals. Human activity may alter captive animal behavior and utility of enclosure features, …

Power Analysis Of Continuous Data Capture In Beepi, A Solar- Powered Multi-Sensor Electronic Beehive Monitoring System For Langstroth Beehives, Keval Shah

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Honey bee (Apis mellifera) is one of the most important pollinating species in agriculture. The decline in the bee population worldwide is a sign of something going amiss in the environment. This decrease in the population is attributed to the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). In this thesis, a power analysis is presented of a solar-powered, multi-sensor electronic beehive monitoring (EBM) system. EBM may contribute to our understanding of the major factors affecting the health of honeybee colonies without disturbing the colonies' daily behavioral patterns or putting extra burdens on beekeepers. The EBM system analyzed in this thesis runs …

Conservative Tryptophan Mutations In Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Ptp1b And Its Effect On Catalytic Rate And Chemical Reaction, Teisha Richan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) catalyze the hydrolysis of phosphorylated tyrosines by a 2-step mechanism involving nucleophilic attack by cysteine and general acid catalysis by aspartic acid. In most PTPs the aspartic acid resides on a flexible protein loop, consisting of about a dozen residues, called the WPD loop. PTP catalysis rates span several orders of magnitude, and differences in WPD loop dynamics have recently been show to correlate with the rate of enzymatic catalysis. The rate of WPD loop motion could possibly be related to a widely conserved tryptophan residue on the WPD loop. Therefore, point mutants were made in PTP1B …

Sclerocactus Wetlandicus: Habitat Characterization, Seed Germination And Mycorrhizal Analysis, Kourtney T. Harding

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Uinta Basin hookless cactus (Sclerocactus wetlandicus) is a threatened species native to Eastern Utah. The cactus is found in a landscape highly disturbed by non-renewable energy production. To understand the environmental conditions that support natural growth of this cactus, we asked what types of plants were present in the same areas as the cactus, and if the types of plants were different in environments that were disturbed. From our assessment, we determined that the types of plants present in disturbed areas were drastically different from those present in undisturbed locations. Areas previously used for energy production are …

Laboratory Experiences In Mathematical Biology For Post-Secondary Mathematics Students, Matthew Lewis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In addition to the memorization, algorithmic skills and vocabulary which is the default focus in many mathematics classrooms, professional mathematicians are expected to creatively apply known techniques, construct new mathematical approaches and communicate with and about mathematics. We propose that students can learn these professional, higher level skills through Laboratory Experiences in Mathematical Biology (LEMBs) which put students in the role of mathematics researcher creating mathematics to describe and understand biological data. LEMBs are constructed so they require no specialized equipment and can easily be run in the context of a college math class. Students collect data and develop mathematical …

Statistical Techniques To Model And Optimize Performance Of Scientific, Numerically Intensive Workloads, Steena Dominica Steven Monteiro

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Projecting performance of applications and hardware is important to several market segments—hardware designers, software developers, supercomputing centers, and end users. Hardware designers estimate performance of current applications on future systems when designing new hardware. Software developers make performance estimates to evaluate performance of their code on different architectures and input datasets. Supercomputing centers try to optimize the process of matching computing resources to computing needs. End users requesting time on supercomputers must provide estimates of their application’s run time, and incorrect estimates can lead to wasted supercomputing resources and time. However, application performance is challenging to predict because it is …

Simple Soil Quality Tests And Organic Management Practices For Orchards In The Intermountain West, Esther Oline Thomsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Soil health is often overlooked as a long-term management strategy as growers face an increasing number of short-term management challenges in the Intermountain West. The costs of inputs are rising and water resources are becoming more limited. Soil with poor health typically requires more amendments and fertlizers to meet crop needs. Soil health tests can help reveal management practices that reduce soil health, as well as those that improve soil health. Practices known to improve soil health are reduced to no tillage, cover crop use- especially legumes, and addition of mulch and other organic materials. Soil health testing is not …

A Spatiotemporal Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak Model Predicting Severity, Cycle Period, And Invasion Speed, Jacob P. Duncan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae), a tree-killing bark beetle, has historically been part of the normal disturbance regime in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests. In recent years, warm winters and summers have allowed MPB populations to achieve synchronous emergence and successful attacks, resulting in widespread population outbreaks and resultant tree mortality across western North America. We develop an age-structured forest demographic model that incorporates temperature-dependent MPB infestations: the Susceptible-Infested-Juvenile (SIJ) model. Stability of equilibria is analyzed as a function of population growth rates, and indicates the existence of periodic outbreaks that intensify as growth rates …

Aligning Conservation Goals And Management Objectives For Bonneville Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus Clarki Utah) In The Logan River, Utah, Harrison E. Mohn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rivers are often managed without informed knowledge of how sportfish use different areas of the river to reproduce, and rarely take into account the relationship between fish movement and how they are distributed within the river when making management decisions. The population of native Bonneville cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki utah) within the Logan River is the largest documented population remaining for this imperiled species, and still maintains extremely high numbers of fish in the upper river. Currently, fishing is not allowed in the upper 20 kilometers of the Logan River watershed during spawning, based on the assumption that …

Motionscan: Towards Brain Concussion Detection With A Mobile Tablet Device, Shantanu Saxena

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis reports on a study to determine the viability of using a mobile tablet device as a brain concussion detection tool. The research builds upon the results of a prior method of collecting data for measuring motion sensitivity, where a user presses and releases a force sensor to balance a rising and falling line on a computer display. The motion sensitivity data collected using this force sensor device was shown to have less irregularity in persons with concussion. The MotionScan application, developed for this research, uses the accelerometer of a tablet device to record motor movement of a user …

Intraspecific Variation In The Response Of Elymus Elymoides To Competition From Bromus Tectorum, Rebecca K. Mann

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the western United States, thousands of acres of degraded rangelands are dominated by aggressive invasive species such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), and are seeded by managers with native plants in an attempt to restore species diversity, wildlife habitat, and ecosystem services. There are many options for obtaining seeds of native plants; for instance, they can be collected from the region where restoration is to occur, or they may be purchased through commercial producers. For a given plant species, managers may also select seeds from unique subspecies, cultivars, and populations. Genetic differentiation among these within-species groups can not only affect …

Toward A General Parametric Model For Assessing The Impact Of Video Transcoding On Objective Video Quality, Nawaf Omar N. Alsrehin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The ultimate goal of any video delivery system is to allow any user to watch any video of any kind on any display device over any type of network with a desired output, i.e., viewing codec with preferred quality of service. This could theoretically require 1032 video transcoding functions that convert any original video to any desired output. Guaranteeing a required format and preferred quality of service of the perceived video requires selecting or composing a set of transcoding functions that satisfy the requested format and preferred quality of service. An effective way to accomplish this is by allowing the …

Synthesis, Structure-Activity Relationship Study, And Mode Of Action Study Of 1,4-Naphthoquinone Based Anticancer And Antimicrobial Agents, Jaya P. Shrestha

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The first three projects involve the synthesis and the mode of action study of 1,4-naphthoquinone based anticancer agents. These anticancer agents are highly potent against a wide range of cancer cell lines. These compounds showed ~8-fold selectivity towards the lung cancer cell line than the normal cell line. We also studied the mode of action and observed that generation of reactive oxygen species is the primary mode of action.

The final project involves the synthesis of multi-cationic antimicrobial agents. These compounds are active against both bacteria and fungi. These compounds are very easy to synthesize and can be scaled up …

Computational Studies Of Microscopic Superfluidity In 4he Clusters, Angeline R. Wairegi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The onset of microscopic superfluidity has been reported in ultracold droplets of bosons (⁴He atoms or para-H₂ molecules) containing a variety of molecular dopants. The physics of these droplets involve both Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) and superfluidity. The two phenomena, while closely related, are not exactly the same. Superfluidity is fundamentally a microscopic effect and thermodynamic limit is necessary; it is still remarkable, though, that the signature of superfluidity has been reported in doped droplets consisting of as few as 4 ⁴He atoms. The studies presented here adopt a molecular vantage point to investigate the quantum mechanics …

Hidden History: A Mobile Application For Discovering Surrounding Landscapes, Sri Ram Ramineni

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis work describes the design, development and evaluation of a mobile application called Hidden History. This application lets users discover and explore three types of landscapes (Historic, Scenic and Cultural) using three different modes of discovery (Route, Explore and Tour).

Before designing Hidden History, the feature set of other applications that help users explore surrounding landscapes were identified and analyzed. Hidden History was then designed to implement the best features of these applications and offer several functionality improvements. Design began with iterative paper prototyping, following which a high fidelity, digital prototype was created. The high fidelity prototype was tested …

The Mh-2 Core From Project Hotspot: Description, Geologic Interpretation, And Significance To Geothermal Exploration In The Western Snake River Plain, Idaho, Jerome A. Varriale

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Harnessing the earth’s natural heat generation as an energy resource has seen increased interest in recent history. While geothermal energy is a sustainable, low-carbon emitting, and viable source of energy in certain regions, large upfront risks, including costs of exploration and deep well drilling, have kept private sector investment at bay. Lowering the risks to capital investment that are inherent to subsurface exploration can help to assuage investors and bring this well-known energy-generating technology to the masses.

A blind potential geothermal system was encountered while drilling the MH2 science drill hole, on Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The MH-2 …

Confirmation Of A New Geometric And Kinematic Model Of The San Andreas Fault At Its Southern Tip, Durmid Hill, Southern California, Daniel K. Markowski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study explains the origin of the deforming structures between the San Andreas fault and the Salton Sea within the Salton Trough in Southern California. ShakeOut simulations and other studies model shaking resulting from a large rupture on the San Andreas fault. These models simulate a start at the southern fault tip of the San Andreas fault that propagates to the northwest. A secondary strand of the San Andreas fault called the East Shoreline fault is located at the southern tip of the San Andreas fault near the shoreline of the Salton Sea. Between the East Shoreline fault zone and …

Interference Mitigation In Multi-Hop Wireless Networks With Advanced Physical-Layer Techniques, Yantian Hou

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the ever-growing number of wireless systems, the problem of spectrum scarcity is becoming more important than ever. Many devices coexist in the same frequency band, e.g., IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), 802.15.4 (ZigBee), 802.16 (WiMax), and Bluetooth in the ISM bands. Coexisting in the crowded spectrum bands inevitably leads to mutual interferences. For a wireless network, the interference could be from external sources such as microwave oven and cordless phone, or from internal nodes within multi-flow and multi-hop wireless networks. All these interferences can be detrimental to the performance of co-locating networks if they are not properly mitigated. In my dissertation, …

Fluorescent Probes To Investigate Homologous Recombination Dynamics, Eric Parker Davenport

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As the average cell’s DNA undergoes roughly 1 million molecular lesions per day, learning about one of the repair mechanisms which fixes damaged DNA is a worthwhile endeavor. Such work may provide insights into how to treat or prevent diseases such as cancers and associated genetic disorders. Homologous recombination (HR) is one pathway which is used by cells to repair a specific type of DNA damage, double-strand breaks. While HR is a complex process involving over 25 different proteins, exactly how HR works, including its regulation, is largely unknown. One protein in particular, Rad51, forms a filament on the damaged …

Classification Of Spacetimes With Symmetry, Jesse W. Hicks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spacetimes with symmetry play a critical role in Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Missing from the literature is a correct, usable, and computer accessible classification of such spacetimes. This dissertation fills this gap; specifically, we

i) give a new and different approach to the classification of spacetimes with symmetry using modern methods and tools such as the Schmidt method and computer algebra systems, resulting in ninety-two spacetimes;

ii) create digital databases of the classification for easy access and use for researchers;

iii) create software to classify any spacetime metric with symmetry against the new database;

iv) compare results of our …

Heterogeneous And Homogeneous Nickel-Based Electrocatalysts For Oxygen Evolution And Carbon Dioxide Reduction, Meili Sheng

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The growing global energy demand and the increasing concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere have encouraged the development of renewable energy to replace carbon-based fossil fuels. Electrocatalytic water splitting to form H₂ and O₂ and reduction of CO₂ to CO are appealing processes and we can be directly utilize H₂ and CO as fuels or commodity chemicals in mature industrial processes, which will not alter the current carbon cycle. However, the O₂ evolution reaction of water splitting is a reaction of four-proton and four-electron transfer process, whose kinetics is very sluggish under normal conditions. …

Crustal Architecture Of The Snake River Plain, Idaho, Through Geochemical Investigation Of Crustal Sill And Shallow Subvolcanic Xenoliths, Douglas James Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Snake River Plain (SRP) in southern Idaho is one of the most well-preserved examples of continent-hotspot interaction available today. Geophysical studies have imaged a feature ~10 km thick at the base of the upper crust. This feature, termed the “mid-crustal sill complex” is likely a layered mafic intrusion. The study of layered mafic intrusions is important because it provides a link between deep plutonic processes and shallow volcanic processes. Investigation of the mid crustal sill complex will provide better understanding of the evolutionary process of SRP basalts.

This thesis investigates three xenoliths sampled from the Kimama drill core collected …

Rayleigh-Scatter Lidar Measurements Of The Mesosphere And Thermosphere And Their Connections To Sudden Stratospheric Warmings, Leda Sox

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Earth’s middle atmosphere is comprised of the stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere, from approximately 10 to 110 km, or approximately 6 to 68 miles. An understanding of the dynamics and climatological conditions in this region is of vital importance to the aerospace industry and military, which both launch aircraft and spacecraft into this region, as well as researchers who study climate change and the interactions between the atmosphere and the Earth, oceans, and space.

Measurements of atmospheric properties (density, temperature, and pressure) in this region are relatively difficult to gather as the middle atmosphere’s altitudes are both too high for …

Structural Insights Into The Regulation Of Electron Transfer In Nitrogenase, And Modulating The Reactivity Of The Isolated Iron Molybdenum Cofactor, Andrew J. Rasmussen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

One of the most important scientific advances in the last century was the Haber-Bosch process, the industrial process of fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere to ammonia. This allowed for the commercial production and sale of nitrogen for important uses such as fertilizer for farming. The Haber-Bosch process is partially credited with the population boom that has been seen in the last century and has greatly increased the standard of living in the developed world today. While this was a great scientific breakthrough, the cost of producing the required ammonia is high, and roughly 2% of worldwide energy is used annually …

Fake Likers Detection On Facebook, Prudhvi Ratna Badri Satya

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As billions of users have used online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, many online services have begun adapting signals of the popularity. For example, search engines rank popular users posts in the top results. A post of a popular user is automatically delivered to the followers or likers. Popular companies in online social networks also get good reputation from people. The popularity on Facebook is measured based on the number of likes in a page. Unfortunately, some crowdsourcing websites (e.g.Microworkers.com) or supply-driven marketplaces (e.g.Fiverr.com) began offering fake liking services in which these crowd workers sent fake likes …

Translating Temporal Sql To Nested Sql, Venkata Rani

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Sequenced and nonsequenced semantics are the two previously researched semantics for the evaluation of an operation in a temporal database such as a query or data modification. Sequenced semantics evaluates an operation in each time instant using only the data alive at that time. Nonsequenced semantics, in contrast, means that an operation explicitly references and manipulates the timestamps in the data.

In this thesis we propose a new framework that shows both semantics are variants of a general temporal semantics. We present the general semantics and show how additional semantics, such as preceding semantics can be realized. The semantics are …