Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Indoor Inhalation Intake Fractions Of Fine Particulate Matter: Review Of Influencing Factors, Natasha Hodas, Miranda Loh, Hyeong-Moo Shin, Dingsheng Li, Deborah Bennett, Thomas E. Mckone, Olivier Jolliet, Charles J. Weschler, Matti J. Jantunen, Paul Lioy, Peter Fantke

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Exposure to fine particulate matter ( PM2.5) is a major contributor to the global human disease burden. The indoor environment is of particular importance when considering the health effects associated with PM2.5 exposures because people spend the majority of their time indoors and PM2.5 exposures per unit mass emitted indoors are two to three orders of magnitude larger than exposures to outdoor emissions. Variability in indoor PM2.5 intake fraction ( iFin,total), which is defined as the integrated cumulative intake of PM2.5 per unit of emission, is driven by a combination of building-specific, human-specific, and pollutant-specific factors. Due to a limited …

Parameterizing A Water-Balance Model For Predicting Stormwater Runoff From Green Roofs, Olyssa Starry, John Lea-Cox, Andrew Ristvey, Steven Cohan

University Honors College Faculty Publication and Presentations

Crop coefficients (kc) were calculated for three different species of common green roof succulents from March to November in 2011, to parameterize the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Penman-Monteith equation for use in a mechanistic green roof water-balance model. Seasonally averaged kc values for each species for 2011 were used to predict plant evapotranspiration (ET) in 2012. The adjusted FAO Penman-Monteith equation predicted the total annual ET within 3–13 mm, a substantial improvement over model predictions with kc set to 1, which overpredicted ET by 100 mm or more, depending on the species. The adjusted equation …

A Scalable Preconditioner For A Primal Dpg Method, Andrew T. Barker, Veselin A. Dobrev, Jay Gopalakrishnan, Tzanio Kolev

Portland Institute for Computational Science Publications

We show how a scalable preconditioner for the primal discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin (DPG) method can be developed using existing algebraic multigrid (AMG) preconditioning techniques. The stability of the DPG method gives a norm equivalence which allows us to exploit existing AMG algorithms and software. We show how these algebraic preconditioners can be applied directly to a Schur complement system arising from the DPG method. One of our intermediate results shows that a generic stable decomposition implies a stable decomposition for the Schur complement. This justifies the application of algebraic solvers directly to the interface degrees of freedom. Combining such results, we …

Are There Environmental Benefits From Driving Electric Vehicles? The Importance Of Local Factors, Stephen P. Holland, Erin T. Mansur, Nicholas Z. Muller, Andrew J. Yates

Dartmouth Scholarship

We combine a theoretical discrete-choice model of vehicle purchases, an econometric analysis of electricity emissions, and the AP2 air pollution model to estimate the geographic variation in the environmental benefits from driving electric vehicles. The second-best electric vehicle purchase subsidy ranges from $2,785 in California to -$4,964 in North Dakota, with a mean of -$1,095. Ninety percent of local environmental externalities from driving electric vehicles in one state are exported to others, implying they may be subsidized locally, even when the environmental benefits are negative overall. Geographically differentiated subsidies can reduce deadweight loss, but only modestly.

Glutathione Species And Metabolomic Prints In Subjects With Liver Disease As Biological Markers For The Detection Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Juan R. Sanabria, Rajan S. Kombu, Guo Fang Zhang, Yana Sandlers, Jizhou Ai, Rafael A. Ibarra, Rime Abbas, Kush Goyal, Henri Brunengraber

Chemistry Faculty Publications

© 2016 The Authors Background The incidence of liver disease is increasing in USA. Animal models had shown glutathione species in plasma reflects liver glutathione state and it could be a surrogate for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods The present study aimed to translate methods to the human and to explore the role of glutathione/metabolic prints in the progression of liver dysfunction and in the detection of HCC. Treated plasma from healthy subjects (n = 20), patients with liver disease (ESLD, n = 99) and patients after transplantation (LTx, n = 7) were analyzed by GC- or LC/MS. …

Ios Application For Inventory In Small Retail Stores, Andrea Savage

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Currently, small retail stores with low technology budgets such as those right here in San Luis Obispo are struggling to integrate new technologies into their companies. This mobile application built for iOS with a Firebase backend is seeking to remove their barriers to entry. I built this application to give small retail stores a customizable application that allows them to display products electronically to customers and maintain accurate inventory both in one place. The construction of this application hinged around three major design decisions: UI design of the color management views, organization of the database, and accessing the database with …

Fast Method Of Particular Solutions For Solving Partial Differential Equations, Anup Raja Lamichhane

Dissertations

Method of particular solutions (MPS) has been implemented in many science and engineering problems but obtaining the closed-form particular solutions, the selection of the good shape parameter for various radial basis functions (RBFs) and simulation of the large-scale problems are some of the challenges which need to overcome. In this dissertation, we have used several techniques to overcome such challenges.

The closed-form particular solutions for the Matérn and Gaussian RBFs were not known yet. With the help of the symbolic computational tools, we have derived the closed-form particular solutions of the Matérn and Gaussian RBFs for the Laplace and biharmonic …

Design And Synthesis Of Dynamic Covalent Polymer Scaffolds With Controlled Architectures, Emily Annette Hoff

Dissertations

The design and synthesis of functional, controlled polymer architectures is essential to the development of new materials with precise and tailorable properties or applications. The work described in this dissertation focuses on the development of controlled polymer architectures with dynamic linkages for the design of multifunctional materials and surfaces via robust, efficient, and stimuli-responsive strategies.

In Chapter III, a post-polymerization modification strategy based on ambient temperature nucleophilic chemical deblocking of polymer scaffolds bearing N-heterocycle blocked isocyanate moieties is reported. Room temperature RAFT polymerization of three azole-N-carboxamide methacrylates, including 3,5-dimethyl pyrazole, imidazole, and 1,2,4-triazole derivatives, afforded reactive polymer scaffolds …

Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence Study Of Semiconductor Nanoparticles Towards Sensitive Detection Of Biomolecules, Yiliyasi Wusimanjiang

Dissertations

The main focus of this dissertation is to unfold the fundamental aspects of electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) generation from semiconductor nanoparticles (also known as quantum dots or QDs) within different ECL systems. The ECL and photo-physical interactions between the CdTe QDs (λ_emission= ~760 nm) and the CdSe QDs (λ_emission= ~550 nm), as well as the effects of carbon nanotubes on ECL of QDs were separately investigated. Optimum experimental conditions for peptide bond formation on an electrode surface through EDC (1-ethyl-3-(-3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride)/NHS (N-Hydroxysulfosuccinimide) coupling were also revealed using cyclic voltammetry technique. Based on the information …

A Mixed Methods Study: Evaluating The Relationship Of Project Manager Competencies And It Project Management Methodologies, Keith A. Mcdermott

Open Access Theses

Determining skillsets that are particularly important to the development of an effective project manager can be useful for a variety of applications. These applications range from the hiring of a new project manager for an organization to continued training for current employees. Past research has called upon current project managers to rate what skillsets they see as important to the cultivation of an optimal or effective project manager. Additional research has expanded this idea to determine how skillsets vary between project managers and functional managers (El-Sabaa, 2001). While this research is certainly important, skillset grouping can be further explored. This …

Deep Collective Inference, John A. Moore

Open Access Theses

Collective inference is widely used to improve classification in network datasets. However, despite recent advances in deep learning and the successes of recurrent neural networks (RNNs), researchers have only just recently begun to study how to apply RNNs to heterogeneous graph and network datasets. There has been recent work on using RNNs for unsupervised learning in networks (e.g., graph clustering, node embedding) and for prediction (e.g., link prediction, graph classification), but there has been little work on using RNNs for node-based relational classification tasks. In this paper, we provide an end-to-end learning framework using RNNs for collective inference. Our main …

Inter-Color Npr Lines: A Comparison Of Rendering Techniques, Donald G. Herring

Open Access Theses

Renders of 3D scenes can feature lines drawn automatically along sharp edges between colored areas on object textures, in order to imitate certain conventional styles of hand-drawn line art. However, such "inter-color lines" have been studied very little. Two algorithms for rendering these lines were compared in this study - a faster one utilizing lines baked into the textures themselves and a more complex one that dynamically generated the lines in image space on each frame - for the purpose of determining which of the two better imitated traditional, hand-drawn art styles and which was more visually appealing. Test subjects …

Designing A Datawarehousing And Business Analytics Course Using Experiential Learning Pedagogy, Gottipati Swapna, Venky Shankararaman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Experiential learning refers to learning from experience or learning by doing. Universities have explored various forms for implementing experiential learning such as apprenticeships, internships, cooperative education, practicums, service learning, job shadowing, fellowships and community activities. However, very little has been done in systematically trying to integrate experiential learning to the main stream academic curriculum. Over the last two years, at the authors’ university, a new program titled UNI-X was launched to achieve this. Combining academic curriculum with experiential learning pedagogy, provides a challenging environment for students to use their disciplinary knowledge and skills to tackle real world problems and issues …

Mixed-Criticality Scheduling To Minimize Makespan, Sanjoy K. Baruah, Arvind Easwaran, Zhishan Guo

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the mixed-criticality job model, each job is characterized by two execution time parameters, representing a smaller (less conservative) estimate and a larger (more conservative) estimate on its actual, unknown, execution time. Each job is further classified as being either less critical or more critical. The desired execution semantics are that all jobs should execute correctly provided all jobs complete upon being allowed to execute for up to the smaller of their execution time estimates, whereas if some jobs need to execute beyond their smaller execution time estimates (but not beyond their larger execution time estimates), then only the jobs …

Security Testing With Misuse Case Modeling, Samer Yousef Khamaiseh

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Having a comprehensive model of security requirements is a crucial step towards developing a reliable software system. An effective model of security requirements which describes the possible scenarios that may affect the security aspects of the system under development can be an effective approach for subsequent use in generating security test cases.

Misuse case was first proposed by Sinder and Opdahl as an approach to extract the security requirements of the system under development [1]. A misuse case is a use case representing scenarios that might be followed by a system adversary in order to compromise the system; that is …

When The System Becomes Your Personal Docent: Curated Book Recommendations, Nevena Dragovic

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Curation is the act of selecting, organizing, and presenting content most often guided by professional or expert knowledge. While many popular applications have attempted to emulate this process by turning users into curators, we put an accent on a recommendation system which can leverage multiple data sources to accomplish the curation task. We introduce QBook, a recommender that acts as a personal docent by identifying and suggesting books tailored to the various preferences of each individual user. The goal of the designed system is to address several limitations often associated with recommenders in order to provide diverse and personalized …

Developing An Abac-Based Grant Proposal Workflow Management System, Milson Munakami

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In the advent of the digital transformation, online business processes need to be automated and modeled as workflows. A workflow typically involves a sequence of coordinated tasks and shared data that need to be secured and protected from unauthorized access. In other words, a workflow can be described simply as the movement of documents and activities through a business process among different users. Such connected flow of information among various users with different permission level offers many benefits along with new challenges. Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated as skilled and motivated attackers both insiders and outsiders are equipped with …

Massively Parallel Algorithm For Solving The Eikonal Equation On Multiple Accelerator Platforms, Anup Shrestha

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The research presented in this thesis investigates parallel implementations of the Fast Sweeping Method (FSM) for Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-based computational plat forms and proposes a new parallel algorithm for distributed computing platforms with accelerators. Hardware accelerators such as GPUs and co-processors have emerged as general- purpose processors in today’s high performance computing (HPC) platforms, thereby increasing platforms’ performance capabilities. This trend has allowed greater parallelism and substantial acceleration of scientific simulation software. In order to leverage the power of new HPC platforms, scientific applications must be written in specific lower-level programming languages, which used to be platform specific. Newer …

A Certificateless One-Way Group Key Agreement Protocol For Point-To-Point Email Encryption, Srisarguru Sridhar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Over the years, email has evolved and grown to one of the most widely used form of communication between individuals and organizations. Nonetheless, the current information technology standards do not value the significance of email security in today's technologically advanced world. Not until recently, email services such as Yahoo and Google started to encrypt emails for privacy protection. Despite that, the encrypted emails will be decrypted and stored in the email service provider's servers as backup. If the server is hacked or compromised, it can lead to leakage and modification of one's email. Therefore, there is a strong need for …

Structural Analysis Of Cell Signaling Complexes, Takuma Aoba

Theses and Dissertations

Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a rare genetic disease that causes retinal degradation, obesity, kidney dysfunction, polydactyly, and other cilium-related disorders. To date, more than 20 BBS genes, whose mutants cause BBS phenotypes, have been identified, and eight of those (BBS1-2, 4-5, 7-9, and 18) are known to form the BBSome complex. Recent studies have revealed that the BBSome is closely involved in the trafficking of signaling proteins in the primary cilium. Mutations in BBS genes are highly pathogenic because trafficking in the primary cilium is not fully functional when BBS mutations impair assembly of the BBSome. However, the functional links …

Crystallography And Magnetism Of Magnetocalorically Important Ni-Mn-X Based Heusler Alloys, Amila S. B. Madiligama

Dissertations

Ni-Mn-X Heusler alloys, demonstrating strong coupling between crystalline structure and magnetic state, were studied. They undergo field-induced, first-order transformations from a low symmetry martensite to a high-symmetry austenitic phase around room temperature. The substantial difference between the entropies of the two phases results in a large adiabatic temperature change, called “Giant Magnetocaloric Effect (GMCE)”. Consequently, these alloys are promising refrigerants for near-room temperature cooling systems. This magnetic cooling is an energy-efficient and eco-friendly technology.

Crystalline structures and magnetic states of these alloys, which determine their magnetocaloric performances, highly depend on their composition. To examine new paths to optimize their magnetocaloric …

Growth Of Methanogens In The Presence Of Perchlorate Salts: A Study For Possible Life On Mars, John Cale

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Phoenix Lander collected soil samples from Mars, and it detected perchlorate salts in its analysis [1]. As oxidizing agents, perchlorates pose a threat to the hypothesis that there may be microbial life on Mars. Since Mars is very dry, perchlorate may continue to accumulate in the soil. If anaerobic methanogens inhabit Mars, then they must be able to grow in the presence of perchlorate salts. There were four species of methanogens tested in this project. The methanogens were first exposed to small concentrations of calcium perchlorate, and then they were gradually tested at higher concentrations. Growth was measured by …

Gbann-V: Genetically Based Artificial Neural Network With Validation For Optimal Feature Selection And Data Mining, Eric W. Worden

Theses and Dissertations

In data mining and machine learning systems, highly predictive feature attributes help researchers and data analysts classify the problem space in the most optimal way. In this thesis paper, a feature subset selection classifier system for data mining and machine learning will be presented. This feature subset selection system will test data from the PIMA Indian Diabetes Data and the Breiman Waveform Data Set. The system collects the input features and then processes them through an evolutionary search process in order to reduce the feature space into an optimal feature set. Reducing irrelevant attributes can decrease the complexity and processing …

Robotic Arm Tracing Curves Recognized By Camera, Timothy Karl Findling

Theses and Dissertations

Applications such like soldering require robot arms to follow the soldering line as present on a surface. We assume here that the surface to be soldered is remote from the robotic arm, that the soldering is performed via a laser beam, and that the line to be followed can be a curve that may self-intersect (e.g. a crack in the material). We describe research conducted using a robotic arm pointing a laser for tracing a remote line on a smooth surface. The image of the line is converted to a one pixel width skeleton line generated from images using a …

Temporal Foraging Patterns Of Nonnative Frogs (Eleutherodactylus Coqui) In Hawaii, Arthur C. Wallis, Robyn L. Smith, Karen H. Beard

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The Puerto Rican Coqui Frog (Eleutherodactylus coqui) is a nocturnal, invasive species that was introduced into Hawaii in the 1980s. Because they reach extremely high densities (up to 90,000 frogs/ha), they have the potential to affect invertebrate prey communities. Previously, researchers used frogs collected only at night to characterize their prey. Because Coquis use retreat sites near the forest floor during the day and understory perch sites at night, frogs collected at night might show different amounts and types of prey than would frogs collected in the morning. We analyzed stomach contents of 435 frogs collected in the morning (0300–0600 …

The Influence Of Resin Rich Volumes On The Mechanical Properties Of Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites, Grant Lewin

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Glass fibre composite plates were manufactured using several methods to promote increasing levels of fibre volume fraction (Vf), inversely leading to a lower residual resin content and theoretically smaller resin rich volumes (RRV). The aim of this project is to determine the effect of resin rich volumes on the mechanical properties tested and whether they scale with the increase in Vf. Five test plates were manufactured, the first using hand-lamination (HL) with three further plates produced using resin infusion (RI), with infusion occurring under consolidation pressures of 300, 600 and 900mbar. The fifth plate was infused under full vacuum, ~1000mbar …

Optical Method For High Magnification Imaging And Video Recording Of Live Cells At Sub-Micron Resolution, Jaime E. Romo Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Optical microscopy, the most common technique for viewing living microorganisms, is limited in resolution by Abbe’s criterion. Recent microscopy techniques focus on circumnavigating the light diffraction limit by using different methods to obtain the topography of the sample. Systems like the AFM and SEM provide images with fields of view in the nanometer range with high resolvable detail, however these techniques are expensive, and limited in their ability to document live cells. The Dino-Lite digital microscope coupled with the Zeiss Axiovert 25 CFL microscope delivers a cost-effective method for recording live cells. Fields of view ranging from 8 microns to …

Using Machine Learning To Predict Student Achievement On The State Of Texas Assessment Of Academic Readiness Examination In Charter Schools, Christopher D. Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to research and develop a way to use machine learning algorithms (MLAs) to predict student achievement on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR), specifically in the charter school setting. Charter schools have the disadvantage of a constant influx in students, so providing historical student data in order to analyze trends proves difficult. This study expands on previous research done on students in secondary and post-secondary school and determining features that indicate success in these settings. The data used is from the district of IDEA Public Schools who focuses on providing education …

Toral And Spherical Aluthge Transforms Of 2-Variable Weighted Shifts, Raul E. Curto, Jasang Yoon

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We introduce two natural notions of Aluthge transforms (toral and spherical) for 2-variable weighted shifts and study their basic properties. Next, we study the class of spherically quasinormal 2-variable weighted shifts, which are the fixed points for the spherical Aluthge transform. Finally, we briefly discuss the relation between spherically quasinormal and spherically isometric 2-variable weighted shifts.

Control Of Matrix Metalloproteinases In A Periodontitis Model: Molecules That Trigger Or Inhibit Mmp Production, Catalina Matias Orozco

Theses and Dissertations

In periodontitis, there is a disruption in the homeostasis of the oral microbiome by peridontopathogenic bacteria. However, while bacteria is essential for periodontitis to occur, the severity, pattern and progression of the disease is not solely determined by the microbial burden, and in fact has a lot to do with the overwhelming host inflammatory response. The response can vary even in two individuals with similar periodontopathogenic profiles. The host response leads to extracellular matrix (ECM) destruction, loss of attachment, alveolar bone resorption and eventually, edentulism. The host's reaction is orchestrated by proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). MMPs …