Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Laser-Induced Electron Diffraction For Probing Rare Gas Atoms, Junliang Xu, Cosmin I. Blaga, Anthony D. Dichiara, Emily Sistrunk, Kaikai Zhang, Zhangjin Chen, Anh-Thu Le, Toru Morishita, C. D. Lin, Pierre Agostini, Louis F. Dimauro

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Recently, using midinfrared laser-induced electron diffraction (LIED), snapshots of a vibrating diatomic molecule on a femtosecond time scale have been captured [C.I. Blaga et al., Nature (London) 483, 194 (2012)]. In this Letter, a comprehensive treatment for the atomic LIED response is reported, a critical step in generalizing this imaging method. Electron-ion differential cross sections (DCSs) of rare gas atoms are extracted from measured angular-resolved, high-energy electron momentum distributions generated by intense midinfrared lasers. Following strong-field ionization, the high-energy electrons result from elastic rescattering of a field-driven wave packet with the parent ion. For recollision energies [greater or equal] 100eV, …

Insights From Characterizing Extinct Human Gut Microbiomes, Raul Y. Tito, Dan Knights, Jessica Metcalf, Alexandra J. Obregon-Tito, Lauren Cleeland, Fares Najar, Bruce Roe, Karl Reinhard, Kristin Sobolik, Samuel Belknap, Morris Foster, Paul Spicer, Rob Knight, Cecil M. Lewis, Jr.

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

In an effort to better understand the ancestral state of the human distal gut microbiome, we examine feces retrieved from archaeological contexts (coprolites). To accomplish this, we pyrosequenced the 16S rDNA V3 region from duplicate coprolite samples recovered from three archaeological sites, each representing a different depositional environment: Hinds Cave (~8000 years B.P.) in the southern United States, Caserones (1600 years B.P.) in northern Chile, and Rio Zape in northern Mexico (1400 years B.P.). Clustering algorithms grouped samples from the same site. Phyletic representation was more similar within sites than between them. A Bayesian approach to source-tracking was used to …

Investigating The Impacts Of Conventional And Advanced Treatment Technologies On Energy Consumption At Satellite Water Reuse Plants, Jonathan Roy Bailey

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the ever increasing world population and the resulting increase in industrialization and agricultural practices, depletion of two of the world's most important natural resources, water and fossil fuels, is inevitable. Water reclamation and reuse is the key to protecting these natural resources. Water reclamation using smaller decentralized wastewater treatment plants, known as satellite water reuse plants (WRP), have become popular in the last decade. With stricter standards and regulations on effluent quality and requirements for a smaller land footprint (i.e. real estate area), additional treatment processes and advanced technologies are needed. This greatly increases the energy consumption of an …

Volcanic Evolution Of The Southern Quinn Canyon Range: Implications For Regional Correlation Of Volcanic Units, Christina Emery

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The southern Quinn Canyon Range lies in an area of the Great Basin subjected to large-volume Oligocene-Miocene silicic volcanism and smaller volume basaltic volcanism during the Pliocene. Three major ash-flow tuff units were correlated in the southern Quinn Canyon Range (the Pahranagat Tuff, Clifford Spring Tuff, and the Cow Canyon Tuff) with regional units by utilizing U/Pb and 40 Ar/ 39Ar geochronology, geochemical correlation, and field mapping. Isotopic analysis suggests that basalt in the southern Quinn Canyon Range is part of the Death Valley-Pancake Range Basalt Zone and is similar to Reveille Range Episode 1 and 2 basalts. Further comparison …

Comparison And Simulation Of Salt-Ceramic Composites For Use In High Temperature Concentrated Solar Power, Lauren Michelle Fossile

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Due to the inherently intermittent nature of solar energy caused by cloud cover among other sources, thermal storage systems are needed to make solar energy more consistent. This same technology could be used to prolong the daily number of useful hours of solar energy power plants. Salt-ceramic materials are a relatively new prospect for heat storage, but have been researched mostly with magnesium oxide and several different carbonate salts. Salt ceramics are a phase change material where the salt changes phase inside the ceramic structure allowing for the system to use the sensible heat of both materials and the latent …

Anti-Germinants As A New Strategy To Prevent Clostridium Difficile Infections, Amber Janece Howerton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Clostridium difficileinfections (CDI) have emerged as a leading cause of hospital-associated complications. CDI is the major cause of antibiotic-related cases of diarrhea and nearly all cases of pseudomembranous colitis. The infective form of C. difficileis the spore, a dormant and hardy structure that forms under stress. Germination of C. difficile spores into toxin producing bacteria in the GI tract of susceptible patients is the first step in CDI establishment. Patient susceptibility occurs with a disruption of the natural gut microbiota by broad-spectrum antibiotics. Antibiotic treatments usually resolve CDI but refractory cases are on the rise. Of great concern is the …

Molecular Forensic Science Analysis Of Nuclear Materials, Dallas Reilly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Concerns over the proliferation and instances of nuclear material in the environment have increased interest in the expansion of nuclear forensics analysis and attribution programs. A new related field, molecular forensic science (MFS) has helped meet this expansion by applying common scientific analyses to nuclear forensics scenarios. In this work, MFS was applied to three scenarios related to nuclear forensics analysis. In the first, uranium dioxide was synthesized and aged at four sets of static environmental conditions and studied for changes in chemical speciation. The second highlighted the importance of bulk versus particle characterizations by analyzing a heterogeneous industrially prepared …

Species Richness And Nest Dispersion Of Some Tropical Meliponine Bees (Apidae: Meliponinae) In Six Habitat Types In The Kakamega Forest, Western Kenya, Kiatoko Nkoba, Suresh Kumar Raina, Elluid Muli, Klaus Mithofer, Jones Mueke

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

A study to determine the species richness and spatial distribution of five meliponine bee species in three different habitats in the Kakamega forest was undertaken for the first time. Two forest (indigenous and mixed indigenous) and two grassland (with Eucalyptus spp. trees and indigenous trees) types, along with homesteads (in the vicinity of mixed indigenous forest and indigenous forest, respectively), were surveyed. Line transect methods were used in the nest survey in each habitat. The highest number of species was recorded in the indigenous forest, while no nest was discovered in the grassland with Eucalyptus spp. trees. The mean number …

Effects Of Flooding And Tamarisk Removal On Habitat For Sensitive Fish Species In The San Rafael River, Utah: Implications For Furture Restoration Efforts, Daniel Louis Keller

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Part I of this report is focused on assessment of habitat changes on the San Rafael River after the abnormally high water year in 2011. Having habitat data and aerial imagery collected in 2010 (pre-flood) provided an opportunity to assess how a flood of this magnitude changed river habitat. In 2011 we commissioned a second aerial flight of the San Rafael River to serve as post flood imagery, then used Geographic Information Systems (GIS, ArcMap 10) to analyze river changes due to tamarisk removal and flooding. Our tamarisk removal project appears to have increased the potential for spring floods to …

A Flexible Consent Management System For Master Person Indices, Aditya Pakalapati

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In healthcare, a Master Person Index (MPI) is a system that integrates information of individual from multiple data sources. To ensure confidentiality, such systems, particularly in healthcare, need to respect individual and organizational constraints on the sharing of data. This report describes a reusable consent management system that enforces such constraints and how it has been tested in the context of the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) MPI for public health.

A Study Of The Bioherms Of The Early Ordovician Garden City Formation And A Literature Review Of Early Ordovician Organic Buildups, Heidi Pearce

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

During the Early Ordovician organic buildups formed in shallow seas across the world. This project contains a literature review on these organic buildups with a focus on those occurring in the warm, shallow seas of North America, but also includes a study on organic buildups formed in the cold water region of Russia. The goal of the study was to characterize these Early Ordovician organic buildups in order to identify similarities and differences in their occurrence. The second part of this project is a preliminary study on organic buildups occurring in the Early Ordovician Garden City Formation in Boss Canyon, …

Sustainable Municipal Operations: Albany, Oregon, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Ed Gallagher, Dave Rouse, Dennis Kurtz, Tanya Johnston

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Portland State University, Hatfield School of Government (PSU), and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), has formed a partnership to develop Sustainable Municipal Operations Plans that documents sustainability and energy management best practices. The goal of this partnership is to determine how a City/municipality can actively manage energy as a controllable expense by following a predetermined operation protocol. The PSU team developed a framework of best practices for sustainable municipal operations in different categories including facilities, fleet, purchasing, operations and the work environment. After identifying pilot jurisdictions, the team applied these best practices to the current operations of local governments in …

Effective Use Of Interactive Learning Modules In Classroom Study For Computer Science Education, Goldee Jamwal

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is spending substantial resources to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States. The ultimate goal of these programs is to produce students with a better knowledge of math and science and who are more likely to pursue careers in STEM fields. Interactive learning modules can be used in the classroom environment for effective learning.

This study examines the learning preferences of Logan High School (located in Logan, Utah) students and evaluates the impacts of using interactive learning modules with classroom lectures compared to other traditional methods of teaching.

Influence.Me: Tools For Detecting Influential Data In Mixed Effects Models, Rense Nieuwenhuis, Manfred Te Grotenhuis, Ben Pelzer

The R Journal

influence.ME provides tools for detecting influential data in mixed effects models. The application of these models has become common practice, but the development of diagnostic tools has lagged behind. influence.ME calculates standardized measures of influential data for the point estimates of generalized mixed effects models, such as DFBETAS, Cook’s distance, as well as percentile change and a test for changing levels of significance. influence.ME calculates these measures of influence while ac counting for the nesting structure of the data. The package and measures of influential data are introduced, a practical example is given, and strategies for dealing with influential data …

Frailtyhl: A Package For Fitting Frailty Models With H-Likelihood, Il Do Ha, Maengseok Noh, Youngjo Lee

The R Journal

We present the frailtyHL package for fitting semi-parametric frailty models using h likelihood. This package allows lognormal or gamma frailties for random-effect distribution, and it fits shared or multilevel frailty models for correlated survival data. Functions are provided to format and summarize the frailtyHL results. The estimates of fixed effects and frailty parameters and their standard errors are calculated. We illustrate the use of our package with three well known data sets and compare our results with various alternative R-procedures.

Debugging Grid Graphics, Paul Murrell, Velvet Ly

The R Journal

A graphical scene that has been produced using the grid graphics package consists of grobs (graphical objects) and viewports. This article describes functions that allow the exploration and inspection of the grobs and viewports in a grid scene, including several functions that are available in a new package called gridDe bug. The ability to explore the grobs and view ports in a grid scene is useful for adding more drawing to a scene that was produced using grid and for understanding and debugging the grid code that produced a scene.

The Incentive And Benefits To Publish Research, Christopher N. Jacques

The Prairie Naturalist

In the northern Great Plains, December is a month marked by the end of the year and a period of much-needed rest and relaxation during the start of the winter season. Landscapes will soon be blanketed with snow and local floral and faunal species have adapted to the ensuing winter months ahead. Winter is a season that reminds you who you live in the Plains states, and as such, should expect bitter cold temperatures, strong winds, and blowing and drifting snow. However, December is a great time to enjoy the outdoors across the Great Plains, a time to reflect on …

Updated Manuscript Submission Guidelines For The Prairie Naturalist, Christopher N. Jacques, Troy W. Grovenburg, Jonathan A. Jenks

The Prairie Naturalist

These guidelines present updated policies and procedures for submitting scientific manuscripts for consideration for publication in The Prairie Naturalist (PNAT). These guidelines incorporate substantial changes that have occurred following a change in Editorial staff during January 2009, and update the online “Suggestions for Contributors” guidelines provided on the PNAT website (http://www.sdstate.edu/nrm/organizations/gpnss/tpn/index.cfm); these instructions supersede all previous guidelines.

Tables and appendices are included for common word expressions with superfluous wording (Table 1), examples of correct format and style guidelines for tables accompanying manuscripts (Table 2, Appendix A), guidance in properly preparing Research notes (Appendix B) and citing literature (Appendix …

Interior Least Tern Powerline Collision On The Lower Platte River, Lauren R. Dinan, Joel G. Jorgensen, Mary Bomberger Brown

The Prairie Naturalist

Collisions with electrical powerlines are a well-known documented cause of avian mortality (Avian Power Line Interaction Committee [APLIC] 1994, Savereno et al. 1996). Mortality caused by collisions with powerlines can be an important concern for many bird species, but is a serious conservation problem for threatened and endangered species because any mortality can have biological and legal ramifications (Janss 2000). Loss of individuals, particularly breeding adults, from an already small population may impede a species’ recovery by reducing reproduction and recruitment into the breeding population. The death of an individual from a threatened or endangered species as a result of …

Walleye Trophic Position Before And After A Gizzard Shad Extirpation, Bethany J. Bethke, Justin A. Vandehey, Mark J. Fincel, Brian D.S. Graeb, Mark T. Porath

The Prairie Naturalist

Walleye (Sander vitreus) are an ecologically and recreationally important sport fish species. Reduced growth and condition in walleye can occur when prey availability is limited. In two Nebraska reservoirs, walleye consumed gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) as their primary prey until a winterkill extirpated the gizzard shad in 2001. Because of the winterkill, walleye in the two reservoirs had to change to alternative prey items. Our objective was to determine if stable isotope analysis on archived walleye scales can be used to detect a known food web shift in two reservoir food webs. We quantified the changes …

Avian Diversity And Habitat Use On Wetland Reserve Program Lands In The Lower Missouri River Valley, Eric C. Hopps

The Prairie Naturalist

A primary objective of the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) is to provide habitat for migratory birds throughout all seasons of the year. Comprehensive avian assessments are lacking and limit our ability to evaluate the benefits of the WRP to continental bird populations. I investigated avian species occurrence on WRP lands within the Lower Missouri River Valley (LMRV), Nebraska, USA, from March 2010 to February 2011. Ten WRP habitat types are described based on plant community assemblages and observed hydrological regimes. Estimates of avian species richness were greatest in lowland forest (n = 115), lowland woodland (n = 83) and upland …

Detrital Carbonates In A Sequence Stratigraphic Framework: An Example From The Furongian Slope Environment In The Hot Creek Range Of Central Nevada, Leon Taufani

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An integrated sedimentological study of detrital carbonates of the late Cambrian (Furongian) Hales Limestone in central Nevada was conducted in order to model facies distribution and controlling mechanisms of carbonate gravity-flow deposits. Seven closely-spaced sections and numerous traceable short sections were measured to investigate temporal and spatial changes of detrital carbonates within a high-resolution stratigraphic framework supported by biostratigraphic and carbon isotope chemostratigraphic constraints and by key physical surfaces. Polished slabs and thin section petrographic analysis were used to identify micro- and macro-scale textures and diagenesis.

Ten lithofacies are identified from the Hales Limestone. Lateral tracing of these facies reveals …

Investigations Of Inter- And Intramolecular C-O Bond Forming Reactions Of Peroxide Electrophiles, Benjamin W. Puffer

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A common reaction to yield ethers relies on an alkoxide nucleophile and a carbon electrophile (Williamson ether formation). Ethers can also be formed by reactions with carbon nucleophiles and oxygen electrophiles by way of the peroxide functional group. We screened a number of carbon nucleophiles suitable for attack on dialkyl peroxides to form new C-O bonds. Also a novel approach using a peroxyketal electrophile is shown to increase the efficiency of this intermolecular reaction. This method of C-O bond formation can also be implemented intramolecularly, not seen before in the literature, to yield cyclic ethers. This approach requires the generation …

Data Mining Of Pancreatic Cancer Protein Databases, Peter Revesz, Christopher Assi

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Data mining of protein databases poses special challenges because many protein databases are non- relational whereas most data mining and machine learning algorithms assume the input data to be a type of rela- tional database that is also representable as an ARFF file. We developed a method to restructure protein databases so that they become amenable for various data mining and machine learning tools. Our restructuring method en- abled us to apply both decision tree and support vector machine classifiers to a pancreatic protein database. The SVM classifier that used both GO term and PFAM families to characterize proteins gave …

Spatial And Temporal Variability Of Particulate And Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter Absorption In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Ashley Ann Lojek

Master's Theses

Coastal regions influenced by large freshwater inputs exhibit large variability in absorption and associated optical properties. Therefore, understanding coastal ecosystem processes requires intensive, ongoing sampling. Analysis of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya River plumes took place on board the RIV Pelican on two separate cruises. MagMix-1 occurred from May 1 to May 8, 2008 and corresponded to the highest discharge periods for both rivers for 2008; MagMix-11 took place October 31 to November 6, 2008 and corresponded to the lowest discharge periods for both rivers for 2008. Samples were collected along four transects in the northern Gulf of Mexico and were …

Exploration Of The Effectiveness Of Apple Ios Devices And Bluetooth Low-Energy Nodes In The Evaulation Of Stroke Patient Rehabilitation And Recovery, Robert Derveloy

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this study is to help establish a foundation for cost effective stroke patient telerehabilitation by examining the efficacy of off-the-shelf consumer motion sensors. This paper examines the practical implications of utilizing Apple iOS mobile devices and Variable Technology KORE NODE devices in the evaluation of stroke patient recovery. Several algorithms are proposed to handle the user positioning and cheating detection requirements of the Functional Reach Test (FRT), efficient scoring of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) motor arm exams, and real-time fall detection monitoring.

An Extensible Framework For Selecting Incremental Innovations, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

There are several innovation methodologies reported in the literature starting from simple concepts such as technology push and market pull all the way to Disruptive innovation. Almost all these methods do not provide for customizability and extensibility. The method described in this paper is called Quick and Dirty Innovation Method or QaDIM in short to represent the fact that the method can be used rather easily to identify incremental innovation opportunities. The paper will first describe the basic concept, and then proceed to give a sample framework before proceeding to describe the extensibility. The method allows firms and individuals to …

Ibinhunt: Binary Hunting With Inter-Procedural Control Flow, Jiang Ming, Meng Pan, Debin Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Techniques have been proposed to find the semantic differences between two binary programs when the source code is not available. Analyzing control flow, and in particular, intra-procedural control flow, has become an attractive technique in the latest binary diffing tools since it is more resistant to syntactic, but non-semantic, differences. However, this makes such techniques vulnerable to simple function obfuscation techniques (e.g., function inlining) attackers any malware writers could use. In this paper, we first show function obfuscation as an attack to such binary diffing techniques, and then propose iBinHunt which uses deep taint and automatic input generation to find …

Securing A Wireless Networked Control System Using Information Fusion, Brijesh Kashyap Chejerla, Sanjay Madria

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Security of a wireless sensor network practically governs its usability in several applications. Especially, in applications like Industrial control systems which use NCS and SCADA systems, the security affects the stability of the system. We propose to use an information fusion scheme which allows us to profile the different attacks in wireless sensor networks and study their effects on the control systems stability and feedback. We make use of the Bayesian Networks to obtain hypotheses as outputs which form the decisions. These decisions are made based on the feature extraction and estimation process of the entire information fusion scheme. This …

Three Point Encryption (3pe): Secure Communications In Delay Tolerant Networks, Roy Cabaniss, Vimal Kumar, Sanjay Madria

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) are a subset of Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) composed of several mobile devices. These dynamic environments make conventional security algorithms unreliable, nodes that are far apart may not have access to the other's public key, making secure message exchange difficult. Other security methods rely on requesting the key from a trusted third party, which can be unavailable in DTN. the purpose of this paper is to introduce two message security algorithms capable of delivering messages securely against either eavesdropping or manipulation. the first algorithm, Chaining, uses multiple midpoints to re-encrypt the message for the destination …