Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Multithreaded Collision Detection With Akka's Actor Library In Scala, Bryan Schrock

Computer Science Honors Theses

This project strives to determine the efficiency of pure actor computing to more conventional methods of parallelizing code. The research involved three algorithms, all of which perform two dimensional collision detection: a one thread, control method that is well documented in previous work, a multithreaded method using a novel technique to avoid race conditions, and an actor model, written using the Akka Actor library. The three algorithms were run at varying input size to get an accurate idea of efficiency.

Development Of Sulfur And Selenium Halogen Bonded Synthons And Mechanosynthesis Of Halogen Bonded Cocrystals, Adam Michael Siegfried

All Dissertations

The halogen bond, XB, has been known since the nineteenth century. A XB involves the donation of electron density from a donor such as N, O, S, or Se to an electropositive region on another atom typically iodine or bromine. XB acceptors are Lewis bases and XB donors are Lewis acids keeping terminology hydrogen bonding. The highly directional characteristic of the halogen bond paired with phenyl embrace interactions provide very useful supramolecular synthons allowing for the engineering of cocrystals with specific directional bonding motifs.

Nitrogen electron acceptors such as quinoxaline, phenazine, 4,4’-bipyridine, and 4,4’-dimethyl-2,2’-bipyridine are cocrystallized with 1,4-diiodotetrafluorobenzene (1,4-F4DIB), 1,4-difluorotetraiodobenzine …

Algal Growth Response To Nutrient Loading On The Lower Boise River, Idaho, Ian Penn

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Nitrate and phosphate concentrations in the Lower Boise River become increasingly elevated with distance downstream. While there is correlative evidence that there is algal growth from elevated nutrients, no one has formally evaluated the algal growth response from nutrient loading. We quantified algal biomass in response to increased nutrient concentrations by sampling benthic algal biomass from natural substrata (rocks) and artificial substrata that also assessed nutrient limitation along a 64 mile reach from near Diversion Dam to the city of Parma that exhibited an increase of nitrate (0.01 mg/L to 3.40 mg/L) and phosphate (below detection to 0.56 mg/L). Samples …

Using Stable Isotope Hydrology To Partition Evapotranspiration In The Sagebrush Steppe, Kellie Jo Rey

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a major part of ecosystem water loss. This thesis aims to develop methods that partition soil water loss into evaporation (E) and transpiration (T). Water balance methods may improve with relative contributions of evaporation (E) and transpiration (T). Isotopic fractionation distinguishes soil water loss due to evaporation from that of plant uptake. This provides a means to assess E and T in retrospect rather than only measuring ET fluxes. To measure the isotopic composition of soil water, we used a liquid-vapor equilibration method following Wassenaar (2008). Experimental trials of different soil amounts and equilibration times were performed …

Statistical Modeling To Predict N2O Production Within The Hyporheic Zone By Coupling Denitrifying Microbial Community Abundance To Geochemical And Hydrological Parameters, Tiffany Brooke Farrell

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The hyporheic zone (HZ) of streams can be a significant source of nitrous oxide (N₂O). However, the biogeochemical processes controlling N₂O emissions remain poorly constrained due to difficulties in obtaining high-resolution chemical, physical, and biological data from streams. We performed a large-scale flume experiment to unravel the complexities of a natural system by constraining streambed morphology, flow rate, organic carbon loading, grain size distribution, and exogenous nitrate loading while enabling regular monitoring of dissolved oxygen, pH, alkalinity, and concentrations of NO₃^-, NO₂^-, NH₄⁺, and N₂O …

Riparian Zone Evapotranspiration Using Streamflow Diel Signals, Ethan Thomas Geisler

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Riparian zones are crucial regions of semi-arid and arid watersheds. In the summer, riparian zones provide an important habitat for the watershed since they have sufficient water supply throughout the year. However, little is known about the impact of riparian zone evapotranspiration (ET) at a watershed scale. The use of streamflow diel signals can provide a more thorough understanding of riparian zone processes, particularly evapotranspiration. The streamflow diel signals were analyzed for Dry Creek Experimental Watershed (DCEW), for the summer of 2014, to determine riparian evapotranspiration. The riparian zone evapotranspiration was compared to a spatially distributed evapotranspiration model to determine …

The Effects Of Hydrogen Bonding On The Reactivity Of Synthetic Ada Repair Protein Analogues, Josiah G. Elsberg

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The study of bioinorganic chemistry is an important field, as it can provide insight as to why Nature has chosen certain active sites and structures within different kinds of metalloproteins. Ada repair protein, a zinc-containing metalloprotein, is one such topic of interest. Although it is known that Ada RP is able to repair methyl-phosphotriester backbone damage by self-methylation of one of its cysteine groups, the mechanism is not fully understood. Two pathways have been proposed: a dissociative pathway where the Zn-S bond becomes a zinc/sulfur ion pair, and an associative pathway where a four ringed σ-metathesis occurs. Previous research has …

Empirical Study Of Concurrent Programming Paradigms, Patrick M. Daleiden

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Various concurrent programming paradigms have been proposed by language designers in an effort to simplify some of the unique constructs required to handle concurrent programming tasks. Despite these different approaches, however, there has been no general clear winner accepted by software developers and different paradigms are regarded to have strengths and weaknesses in certain areas. This thesis was motivated by the desire to investigate the question of whether or not there are measurable differences between two widely differing paradigms for concurrent programming: Threads vs. Communicating Sequential Processes. The mechanism for observing and comparing these paradigms was a randomized controlled trial …

Ab Initio Structure Determination And Property Characterization Of High-Pressure Ca-O Compounds And Li2(Oh)Br Crystals, Christopher Higgins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Theoretical modeling and computational simulations play an important role in materials research. In this thesis, we report on the study of two material systems using various computational methods. The first material system studied here are Cax-Oy compounds under high pressure. Calcium and oxygen are amongst the most abundant elements on Earth, and they form the compound calcium oxide (CaO) that is widely used and very stable at ambient pressures. Although the crystal structure and chemical composition of CaO seems to be simple and well understood, metastable or stable Ca-O compounds with unconventional stoichiometry may exist at high pressures. In this …

Impedance Spectroscopy Studies Of Yttria Stabilized Zirconia Under Extreme Conditions, Quinlan Blaine Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) is of interest for many industries. Varying amounts of Yttria (Y2O3) can be doped into Zirconia (ZrO2) to create materials with specific characteristics. For instance, 3mol% YSZ (3YSZ) is known to be a super hard material and is used as a coating on drill tips and as an abrasive. Eight mol% YSZ (8YSZ) is commonly used as a solid electrolyte in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells because of its good ionic conducting abilities and stability at high temperatures. In this thesis project, a novel experimental setup was created and used to study the ionic conductivity of (3 …

Is Being Green, White? A Critical Ethnographic Study Of Social Norms In Conservation, Heather Whitesides

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Attempts to measure and implement conservation norms have consistently upheld and promoted the dominant culture’s practices and beliefs. This has led to oppression of non-dominant populations, thereby hindering these populations’ access to various opportunities to participate in conservation based activities. This has historically, and still today, led to the segregation of non-dominant populations from environmental participation and has misrepresented their beliefs and actions relative to definitions of conservation citizenship and in the broader literature on conservation, conservation measurements, outdoor recreation, and pro-environmental behavior.

This research sought to extend the existing literature on conservation, specifically on the measurements of recreation practices …

Evaluation Of Topic Models For Content-Based Popularity Prediction On Social Microblogs, Axel Magnuson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Online social networks are an increasingly central medium of communication in the 21st century. We have seen a proliferation of competing social networks which differentiate themselves by serving different niches of communication. Among these, Twitter has risen to prominence as a leader among microblogging communities, characterized by publicly visible 140-character messages called tweets. The wide visibility of Twitter messages has enabled some users to curate large followings, and has facilitated content creators who wish to reach as many viewers as possible. Researchers have since investigated many methods for predicting which messages will become popular or even go viral on Twitter. …

On The Conjugacy Problem For Automorphisms Of Trees, Kyle Douglas Beserra

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we identify the complexity of the conjugacy problem of automorphisms of regular trees. We expand on the results of Kechris, Louveau, and Friedman on the complexities of the isomorphism problem of classes of countable trees. We see in nearly all cases that the complexity of isomorphism of subtrees of a given regular countable tree is the same as the complexity of conjugacy of automorphisms of the same tree, though we present an example for which this does not hold.

Solution Techniques And Error Analysis Of General Classes Of Partial Differential Equations, Wijayasinghe Arachchige Waruni Nisansala Wijayasinghe

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

While constructive insight for a multitude of phenomena appearing in the physical and biological sciences, medicine, engineering and economics can be gained through the analysis of mathematical models posed in terms of systems of ordinary and partial differential equations, it has been observed that a better description of the behavior of the investigated phenomena can be achieved through the use of functional differential equations (FDEs) or partial functional differential equations (PFDEs). PFDEs or functional equations with ordinary derivatives are subclasses of FDEs. FDEs form a general class of differential equations applied in a variety of disciplines and are characterized by …

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 …

Thermal Property Measurement Of Thin Fibers By Complementary Methods, Troy Robert Munro

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Thin fibers are prevalent in many engineering materials. Measuring how well heat transfers in such small fibers can be difficult to determine, and previous methods have led to erroneous results. This dissertation details three proposed methods to improve the measurement of the thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and volumetric heat capacity of thin fibers. Of particular interest is natural and synthetic spider silks because previously published values of the natural silk thermal conductivity was similar to copper, an excellent thermal conductor.

The three methods developed are the improved transient electrothermal technique (which was redeveloped to include radiation and convection heat losses …

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 …

To Dot Product Graphs And Beyond, Sean Bailey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We will introduce three new vector representations of graphs. These representations are based on relationships between the vectors that are used. Specifically, we will examine scenarios where we ignore specific relationships, where we consider if information is missing, and where we look for when the information in common is not of a specified amount.

Investigation Into Regional Climate Variability Using Tree-Ring Reconstruction, Climate Diagnostics And Prediction, Daniel A. Barandiaran

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This document summarizes research conducted to develop and apply climate analysis tools toward a better understanding of the past and future of climate variability in the state of Utah. Two pilot studies developed analysis tools through the investigation of natural variability in precipitation systems in Africa, and research into long-term changes and trends in spring rainfall over the U.S. Great Plains. Our third study used tree-ring data to estimate snowpack in the state of Utah to 1850, doubling the length of record and offering a better understanding of the history of snowpack in the state. Our final study looked at …

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 …

Oxidative Carbon-Carbon Bond Cleavage Reactions Of Metal Flavonolato And Chlorodiketonate Complexes, Sushma L. Saraf

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The research presented in this dissertation focuses on the oxidative cleavage of chemical bonds between two carbon atoms. This type of reactivity is of significant interest due to its potential application toward the development of ways to convert chemical feed stock into useful products such as pharmaceuticals, polymers and fuels in an environmentally benign and cost-efficient manner. Reactions that cleave specific carbon-carbon bonds, are catalyzed by earth-abundant metals, and involve O₂ as the terminal oxidant, are of particular interest.

Our strategy has been to study the oxidative carbon-carbon bond cleavage reactivity of metal complexes containing components similar to structures …

Barriers To Initiation Of Open Source Software Projects In Research Libraries, Jason Curtis Thacker

Theses and Dissertations

Libraries share a number of core values with the Open Source Software (OSS) movement, suggesting there should be a natural tendency toward library participation in OSS projects. However, Dale Askey's 2008 Code4Lib column entitled We Love Open Source Software. No, You Can't Have Our Code, claims that while libraries are strong proponents of OSS, they are unlikely to actually contribute to OSS projects. He identifies, but does not empirically substantiate, six barriers that he believes contribute to this apparent inconsistency. The goal of this thesis is to empirically investigate not only Askey's central claim but also the six barriers he …

Intelligent Pen: A Least Cost Search Approach To Stroke Extraction In Historical Documents, Kevin L. Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

Extracting strokes from handwriting in historical documents provides high-level features for the challenging problem of handwriting recognition. Such handwriting often contains noise, faint or incomplete strokes, strokes with gaps, overlapping ascenders and descenders and competing lines when embedded in a table or form, making it unsuitable for local line following algorithms or associated binarization schemes. We introduce Intelligent Pen for piece-wise optimal stroke extraction. Extracted strokes are stitched together to provide a complete trace of the handwriting. Intelligent Pen formulates stroke extraction as a set of piece-wise optimal paths, extracted and assembled in cost order. As such, Intelligent Pen is …

An Analyzer For Message Passing Programs, Yu Huang

Theses and Dissertations

Asynchronous message passing systems are fast becoming a common means for communication between devices. Two problems existing in message passing programs are difficult to solve. The first problem, intended or otherwise, is message-race where a receive may match with more than one send in the runtime system. This non-determinism often leads to intermittent and unexpected behavior depending on the resolution of the race. Another problem is deadlock, which is a situation in that each member process of the group is waiting for some member process to communicate with it, but no member is attempting to communicate with it. Detecting if …

Graphical Narrative Interfaces: Representing Spatiotemporal Information For A Human-Robot Team With A Highly Autonomous Robot, Hiroaki Nakano

Theses and Dissertations

Having a well-developed Graphical User Interface (GUI) is often necessary for a human-robot team, especially when the human and the robot are not in close proximity to each other or when the human does not interact with the robot in real time. Most current GUIs process and display information in real time, but the time to interact with these systems does not scale well when the complexity of the displayed information increases or when information must be fused to support decision-making. We propose a new interface concept, a Graphical Narrative Interface (GNI), which presents story-based summaries driven by accumulated data. …

Number Sense In High School Mathematics Students, Vi Le Nguyen

Mathematics Theses - Archive

Understanding the real number system plays a very important role in each student’s mathematical achievement. The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Mathematics Subchapter A. Elementary states, “For students to become fluent in mathematics, students must develop a robust sense of number” (TEKS Subchapter A Elementary, 2012). Knowledge of the real number system and number sense develops over several years. Once students get to high school, they are expected to have a large amount of knowledge about the real number system and number sense in order to effectively start and complete their high school math courses. However, many high …

Particle Image Velocimetry Design & Installation, Zach Ritchie

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This work will mainly focus on the design, construction, and installation of the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system in the Chemical Hazards Research Center wind tunnel. The PIV system utilizes a Class IV (double pulsed) laser, optics to produce a light sheet, timing circuitry, and a high-resolution camera (with buffered output) to measure a system’s velocity (two-dimensional) field by determining the displacement of particles over the time between laser pulses. For maximum mobility and functionality, the PIV system was installed in the center of the tunnel on a moveable cart with the laser and camera mounted to an adjustable support. …

A Model For Collective Dynamics In Ant Raids, Shawn D. Ryan

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Ant raiding, the process of identifying and returning food to the nest or bivouac, is a fascinating example of collective motion in nature. During such raids ants lay pheromones to form trails for others to find a food source. In this work a coupled PDE/ODE model is introduced to study ant dynamics and pheromone concentration. The key idea is the introduction of two forms of ant dynamics: foraging and returning, each governed by different environmental and social cues. The model accounts for all aspects of the raiding cycle including local collisional interactions, the laying of pheromone along a trail, and …

Global Worming: A Quantitative Study About Greenhouse Gas Flux In Surface Soils Facilitated By The Anecic Earthworm, Lumbricus Terrestris, Under Rising Global Temperature, Rachel Briden Frei, Jose A. Amador

Senior Honors Projects

Climate change is the long-term alteration in the Earth’s average weather conditions believed to be driven by greenhouse gases (GHG): carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O). These alterations are expected to cause more extreme weather events, gradually warmer global temperatures and greater amounts of precipitation. Roughly 20% of the Earth’s CO₂, one-third of CH₄ and two-thirds of N₂O emissions, originate from soils, and earthworms are known to accelerate GHG. As climate change proceeds, there is expected to be an increase in global temperature of 2-6ºC. Temperature …