Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Utilizing Lipid Biomarkers To Understand The Microbial Community Structure Of Deep Subsurface Black Shale Formations, Rawlings Akondi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The deep subsurface environment has been known to host microbes as early as 1926 and has also been suggested to potentially account for as much as 50% of the Earth`s biomass. Researchers have shown that microbes alter their membrane lipid components in response to physiological stress, producing stress indicative lipid biomarkers. However, little effort has been made to understand the subsurface microbial community of the shale ecosystem which is increasingly being exploited and altered by addition of drilling and hydraulic fluids to meet our growing energy needs. Phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) are microbial lipid biomarkers and are found in all …

Application Of Lidar To 3d Structural Mapping, Bertrand Gaschot

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The rugged, densely forested terrain of the West Virginia Appalachian Valley and Ridge Province has made it difficult for field-based studies to agree on the structure of the highly deformed Silurian-Devonian cover strata. In this study, we demonstrate a 3D approach to geologic mapping utilizing the structural information revealed in a “bare-earth” 1-m Lidar DEM of the Smoke Hole Canyon. The completed 3D map was integrated with kinematic forward modeling carried out in MOVE^TM to provide information on the parameters required to form the major structures observed. Additionally, land surface attributes generated using geomorphometric analysis of the Lidar allowed …

Petrophysical And Geomechanical Characterization Of The Marcellus Shale In The Appalachian Basin, Yixuan Zhu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In recent years, more and more attention is paid to shale gas and hydrocarbon liquids exploration and exploitation in unconventional reservoirs. With the development of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, production from unconventional reservoirs has been greatly increased. However, not all wells, regions and basins harbor highly successful shale gas and liquids producers. In order to improve the production efficiency and reduce the cost of projects, detailed analysis needs to be undertaken to characterize the reservoir. As opposed to conventional reservoirs, extraction of gas in the unconventional reservoir is dependent not only on the reservoir quality, but also on completion …

Using Lidar To Approximate Keystone Structure And Evaluate Management Practices In Potential Habitats Of The Endangered Karner Blue Butterfly (Lycaeides Melissa Samuelis), Brandyn Balch

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Keystone structure is the spatial structure required by a given species, at a scale that is determined by that species’ needs and mobility. The endangered Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis, hereafter KBB) has a keystone structure that incorporates trees and bushes to provide the mixture of sun and shade required to fulfil its life functions. Airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) is a potentially invaluable tool for characterizing keystone structures. However, lidar has yet to be utilized to evaluate structural suitability of KBB habitats. Therefore, I investigated the use of lidar for characterizing critical attributes of KBB habitat structure, …

Population Health Of Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma Maculatum) In Created Vernal Pools: An Integrative Approach, Alice R. Millikin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Habitat creation is an important tool for conservation to counteract habitat loss and degradation. Vernal pools are susceptible to destruction due to limited detection, protection, and regulation. These wetlands provide fishless breeding habitat for many amphibian species including spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) in eastern North America. Determining whether created vernal pool habitat is successful is often determined by demographic data of colonizing populations. I suggest that hormone levels, population genetics, and disease prevalence can improve our understanding of population health in created habitat. The goal of this dissertation was to assess the health of spotted salamander larvae in …

Targeted Short-Term Nutrient Reduction To Manage Ventenata Dubia An Invasive Winter Annual Grass: Soil And Plant Responses, Jaren F. Lamm

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Invasive winter annual grasses, IWAGs, have degraded extensive ecosystems around the world and continue to invade new ones yearly. IWAGs readily form large monocultures or near monocultures, thus management and restoration goals largely focus on maintaining or increasing plant diversity in impacted ecosystems. Unfortunately, common management methods also reduce native plant diversity and harm the soil microbiome. These effects require additional measures to be taken, like reseeding, and plant diversity is still usually well below remnant targets. Early season short-term nutrient reduction to manage IWAGs is largely unexplored and would potentially decrease IWAG abundance, active earlier than most plants, but …

Design Of Experiment And Analysis Techniques For Fuel Consumption Data Using Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicles And On-Road Testing, Sarah Ann Mills

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Chassis dynamometer and on-road testing are usually employed to test vehicle operation. Testing on a chassis dynamometer reduces data variability compared to on-road testing due to the controlled environment but it does not account for other important variables that affects real-world vehicle operation. This study used on-road testing to investigate the differences between two test fuels under real-world conditions. Three heavy-duty diesel vehicles were driven on different routes for a period of three months. Each vehicle was instrumented with flow meters to gather fuel consumption data, which was then compared to the fuel rate broadcasted by the engine control unit …

Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis Of Amino Acids In Biological Tissues: Applications In Forensic Entomology, Food Authentication And Soft-Biometrics In Humans, Mayara Patricia Viana De Matos

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this work we demonstrate the power of compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) to analyze proteinaceous biological materials in three distinct forensic applications, including: 1) linking necrophagous blow flies in different life stages to their primary carrion diet; 2) identifying the harvesting area of oysters for food authentication purposes; and 3) the ability to predict biometric traits about humans from their hair.

In the first application, we measured the amino-acid-level fractionation that occurs at each major life stage of Calliphora vicina (Robineau-Desvoidy) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) blow flies. Adult blow flies oviposited on raw pork muscle, beef muscle, or chicken liver. Larvae, pupae …

Environmental Forensic Characterization Of Former Rail Yard Soils Located Adjacent To The Statue Of Liberty In The New York/New Jersey Harbor, Diane Hagmann, Michael A. Kruge, Matthew Chi-Hymn Cheung, Maria Mastalerz, José Luis Gallego, Jay Prakash Singh, Jennifer Krumins, Xiaona N. Li, Nina M. Goodey

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Identifying inorganic and organic soil contaminants in urban brownfields can give insights into the adverse effects of industrial activities on soil function, ecological health, and environmental quality. Liberty State Park in Jersey City (N.J., USA) once supported a major rail yard that had dock facilities for both cargo and passenger service; a portion remains closed to the public, and a forest developed and spread in this area. The objectives of this study were to: 1) characterize the organic and inorganic compounds in Liberty State Park soils and compare the findings to an uncontaminated reference site (Hutcheson Memorial Forest); and 2) …

Managing Cyber Risks & Business Exposure In The Surface Transportation Ecosystem, Jacques R. Francoeur

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report focuses on Surface Transportation (ST), both fixed and route-based, and the growing threats to their information technology (IT) infrastructures. As an industry, ST seeks to optimize the movement of people and goods, while ensuring safety and resiliency and minimizing environmental impact. Cyber threats are a powerful medium for those with the political, social, and economic motivations and wherewithal to disrupt and destroy existing ST systems. The ultimate objective is to develop a new paradigm to define, describe, design, and deploy the most effective protection, at the lowest cost, in the shortest time within the limits of available resources. …

Water Security For Texas: A Post-Secondary Education Pathway For Water Workforce Readiness, Rudolph A. Rosen

Water Resources Science and Technology Conference Papers and Abstracts (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Border Areas Water Security: An Education Pathway For The Next Generation Water Workforce, Rudolph A. Rosen

Water Resources Science and Technology Conference Papers and Abstracts (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Foundation Of The Texas Aquatic Science Curriculum, Rudolph A. Rosen

Water Resources Science and Technology Conference Papers and Abstracts (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Sea Surface Temperature And Surface Air Temperature On Maximizing Typhoon Rainfall: Focusing On Typhoon Maemi In Korea, Jeonghyeon Choi, Jeonghoon Lee, Sangdan Kim

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

In this study, the effects of surface air temperature (SAT) and sea surface temperature (SST) changes on typhoon rainfall maximization are analysed. Based on the numerically reproduced Typhoon Maemi, this study tried to maximize the typhoon-induced rainfall by increasing the amount of saturated water vapour in the atmosphere and the amount of water vapour entering the typhoon. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, which is one of the regional climate models (RCMs), the rainfall simulated by WRF while increasing the SAT and SST to various sizes at initial conditions and boundary conditions of the model was analysed. As …

Evaluation Of Naturally Occurring And Anthropogenic Contamination In Missouri Streams, Christina Jane Sehrt

Masters Theses

"The goal of this study is to observe the values and variability of water quality parameters and benthic macroinvertebrates in watersheds with very little anthropogenic impact and to compare these values with those acquired in watersheds with more anthropogenic impact. The following five HUC 12-digit watersheds had very little anthropogenic impact and were considered "pristine": Rogers Creek, Mill Creek, Middle West Fork-Black River, Bee Fork, and Ottery Creek. Five largely urban sub-basins were also considered; these basins are: Grand Glaize Creek, Glaize Creek, Sugar Creek, Hominy Creek, and Grindstone Creek. For each watershed, both water quality parameters and benthic macroinvertebrates …

Reprocessing And Comparison Of The 2 Hz And 10 Hz Vertical Component Seismic Data Of The Blackfoot 3c-2d Survey, Mete Sarikaya

Masters Theses

"The Blackfoot seismic 3C-2D data were obtained from the Consortium for Research in Elastic Wave Exploration Seismology (CREWES) Project in 1995. The seismic data acquisition was performed in the Blackfoot Field, which is around 15 km southeast of Strathmore, Alberta. The 4 Hz and 10 Hz vertical component data are reprocessed to increase the quality and resolution of the seismic images. The Glauconitic sand reservoir at approximately 1.1 s, and a strong reflection about at 1.5 s are the focuses of the study.

The processing procedure includes different parameters and methods to obtain the best seismic sections of 2 Hz …

Quasi-Likelihood Ratio Tests For Homoscedasticity Of Variance In Linear Regression, Lili Yu, Varadan Sevilimedu, Robert Vogel, Hani Samawi

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Two quasi-likelihood ratio tests are proposed for the homoscedasticity assumption in the linear regression models. They require few assumptions than the existing tests. The properties of the tests are investigated through simulation studies. An example is provided to illustrate the usefulness of the new proposed tests.

The Structural Information Filtered Features Potential For Machine Learning Calculations Of Energies And Forces Of Atomic Systems., Jorge Arturo Hernandez Zeledon

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the last ten years, machine learning potentials have been successfully applied to the study of crystals, and molecules. However, more complex materials like clusters, macro-molecules, and glasses are out reach of current methods. The input of any machine learning system is a tensor of features (the most universal type are rank 1 tensors or vectors of features), the quality of any machine learning system is directly related to how well the feature space describes the original physical system. So far, the feature engineering process for machine learning potentials can not describe complex material. The current methods are highly inefficient …

Deep Learning For Image Restoration And Robotic Vision, Yixin Du

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Traditional model-based approach requires the formulation of mathematical model, and the model often has limited performance. The quality of an image may degrade due to a variety of reasons: It could be the context of scene is affected by weather conditions such as haze, rain, and snow; It's also possible that there is some noise generated during image processing/transmission (e.g., artifacts generated during compression.). The goal of image restoration is to restore the image back to desirable quality both subjectively and objectively. Agricultural robotics is gaining interest these days since most agricultural works are lengthy and repetitive. Computer vision is …

The Global Disinformation Order: 2019 Global Inventory Of Organised Social Media Manipulation, Samantha Bradshaw, Philip N. Howard

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Executive Summary

Over the past three years, we have monitored the global organization of social media manipulation by governments and political parties. Our 2019 report analyses the trends of computational propaganda and the evolving tools, capacities, strategies, and resources.

1. Evidence of organized social media manipulation campaigns which have taken place in 70 countries, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in 2017. In each country, there is at least one political party or government agency using social media to shape public attitudes domestically.

2.Social media has become co-opted by many authoritarian regimes. In 26 countries, computational propaganda …

Viewing The Eclipse From 109,000 Feet And The Road To Get There, Kendra Sibbernsen, Michael Sibbernsen

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

The NASA Nebraska High Altitude Ballooning Program was one of 55 teams across the nation to fly weather balloons within the August 21st Total Solar Eclipse and stream live video to the internet. On this day, the Nebraska team launched three high altitude balloons to take scientific measurements and take photos and video ofthe Moon's shadow falling on the Earth. These balloons included the NASA common video streaming payload as well as experiments from students at Metropolitan Community College and from faculty and students at Omaha Public Schools. The launches took place at the "Gem Over the Prairie" event at …

Enhanced Flexoelectricity At Reduced Dimensions Revealed By Mechanically Tunable Quantum Tunnelling, Saikat Das, Bo Wang, Tula R. Paudel, Sung Min Park, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Long-Qing Chen, Daesu Lee, Tae Won Noh

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Flexoelectricity is a universal electromechanical coupling effect whereby all dielectric materials polarise in response to strain gradients. In particular, nanoscale flexoelectricity promises exotic phenomena and functions, but reliable characterisation methods are required to unlock its potential. Here, we report anomalous mechanical control of quantum tunnelling that allows for characterising nanoscale flexoelectricity. By applying strain gradients with an atomic force microscope tip, we systematically polarise an ultrathin film of otherwise nonpolar SrTiO₃, and simultaneously measure tunnel current across it. The measured tunnel current exhibits critical behaviour as a function of strain gradients, which manifests large modification of tunnel barrier …

Duality And Free Energy Analyticity Bounds For Few-Body Ising Models With Extensive Homology Rank, Yi Jiang, Ilya Dumer, Alexey Kovalev, Leonid Pryadko

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We consider pairs of few-body Ising models where each spin enters a bounded number of interaction terms (bonds) such that each model can be obtained from the dual of the other after freezing k spins on large-degree sites. Such a pair of Ising models can be interpreted as a two-chain complex with k being the rank of the first homology group. Our focus is on the case where k is extensive, that is, scales linearly with the number of bonds n. Flipping any of these additional spins introduces a homologically nontrivial defect (generalized domain wall). In the presence of …

Molecular Symmetry-Mixed Dichroism In Double Photoionization Of H2, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Alexei V. Meremianin, N. L. Manakov, L. B. Madsen, S. X. Hu, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Dichroism in double photoionization of H₂ molecules by elliptically polarized extreme ultraviolet pulses is formulated analytically as a sum of atomiclike dichroism (AD) and molecular symmetry-mixed dichroism (MSMD) terms. The MSMD originates from an interplay of ¹Σ⁺_u and ¹Π⁺_u continuum molecular ionization amplitudes. For detection geometries in which the AD vanishes, numerical results for the sixfold differential probabilities for opposite pulse helicities show that the MSMD is significant in the electron momentum and angular distributions and is controllable by the ellipticity.

Unusual Perpendicular Anisotropy In Co2Tisi Films, Yunlong Jin, Shah R. Valloppilly, Parashu R. Kharel, Rohit Pathak, Arti Kashyap, Ralph Skomski, David J. Sellmyer

David Sellmyer Publications

Thin films of Co₂TiSi on MgO are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The films were produced by magnetron sputtering on MgO(001) and have a thickness of about 100 nm. As bulk Co₂TiSi, they crystallize in the normal cubic Heusler (L2₁) structure, but the films are slightly distorted (c/a = 1.0014) and contain some antisite disorder. The films exhibit a robust perpendicular anisotropy of 0.5 MJ m⁻³. This result is surprising for several reasons. First, surface and interface anisotropies are too small to explain perpendicular anisotropy in such rather thick …

Aba Rpte Conservation Easement Task Force Report: Recommendations Regarding Conservation Easements And Federal Tax Law, W. William Weeks

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Authors' Synopsis: In October 2015, the American Bar Association's Real Property, Trust and Estate Law (RPTE) section convened a Conservation Easement Task Force. The objective of the Task Force was to provide recommendations regarding federal tax law as it relates to conservation easements. This Report is the culmination of the Task Force's work. Part I of the Report is an Executive Summary of the Task Force's recommendations. Part II provides the background necessary to understand the Task Force's recommendations. Part III briefly sets forth the Task Force's comments on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 as it relates …

Longitudinal Phonon Plasmon Mode Coupling In Β-Ga2O3, Mathias Schubert, Alyssa Mock, Rafal Korlacki, Sean Knight, Zbigniew Galazka, Günther Wagner, Virginia Wheeler, Marko Tadjer, Ken Goto, Vanya Darakchieva

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this letter, we investigate a set of n-type single crystals of monoclinic symmetry β-Ga₂O₃ with different free electron concentration values by generalized far infrared and infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry. In excellent agreement with our previous model prediction, we find here by experiment that longitudinal-phonon-plasmon coupled modes are polarized either within the monoclinic plane or perpendicular to the monoclinic plane. As predicted, all modes change the amplitude and frequency with the free electron concentration. The most important observation is that all longitudinal-phonon-plasmon coupled modes polarized within the monoclinic plane continuously change their direction as a function of …

Signature Sustainability Earth Day Dish, Nancy Garmer

Evans Library Publications

Evans Library celebrates Earth Day each year in partnership with the Student Organization for Sustainability Action (SOSA) and the Student Government Association (SGA) as part of a week‑long schedule of campus events. The Library shares equal billing on Earth Week promotional materials and caps off the week with a Library After Hours event on Friday evening. Earth Day offers an important opportunity to collaborate with campus organizations and highlight sustainability initiatives taking place across the university. As a central academic and community space, the Library plays a vital role in supporting and promoting sustainability efforts, making Earth Day a prescribed …

The Inductive Effect In Organic Chemistry, Charles A. Kingsbury

Department of Chemistry: Faculty Publications

The subtle difference between the successive polarization model and the flow of electrons through sigma bonds is explored, as well as the alternating charge model of Pople and the pervasive field model. The present paper is concerned with the ability of alkyl groups to serve as sigma inductive electron donors.

Molecular Insights Into Organic Particulate Formation, Manoj Kumar, Emily Burrell, Jason C. Hansen, Joseph S. Francisco

Department of Chemistry: Faculty Publications

Carboxylic acids have been detected in particles collected in various regions of the world. Here, we use experiments and Born–Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations to better understand the mechanism of particle formation from gas phase mixtures of formic acid (HCOOH), (CH₃)₃N, and water vapor. A flow reaction cell coupled to two scanning mobility particle sizers has been used to measure particle size, absolute number of particles and kinetics of particle formation. Experimental results show that the addition of (CH₃)₃N to a mixture of HCOOH and water vapor results in a dramatic increase in …