Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Dust-Driven Mechanism For Marine Particle Aggregation: Interactions Between Clay Minerals, Heterotrophic Bacteria And Organic Matter Influences Aggregation In Marine Systems, Vignesh Gokuladas Menon

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Atmospheric dust deposition plays a crucial role in marine biogeochemical cycles, yet mechanisms underlying its impact on particle dynamics remain unclear. This study investigates the synergistic interactions between marine heterotrophic bacteria and clay minerals in seawater, focusing on their effect on Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEP) production and organoclay aggregation. Field experiments in the Gulf of Maine and laboratory roller tank studies were conducted using natural microbial communities and model heterotrophic bacterial strains (Alteromonas sp. EZ55, Marinobacter adhaerens HP15, and Sulfitobacter sp. NAS-14.1). Results demonstrate that clay exposure significantly enhances TEP production by bloom-associated heterotrophic bacteria, with increases up to …

Trust: The Feature That Vending Machines And Atms Share, But Simplygo Lacks, Sun Sun Lim

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The article discussed the intricacies of trust in the SimplyGo debacle and highlighted how the design of physical interfaces like vending machines and ATMs and digital interfaces from apps like Grab, Parking.sg and ShopBack have critical features to instil trust. People need to be reassured that their transactions have proceeded as they should, and thay have not been short-changed.

Human Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter 1: Novel Biomarker And Prognostic Indicator For Patients With Gemcitabine-Treated Pancreatic Cancer, Jianchun Xiao, Fangyu Zhao, Wenhao Luo, Gang Yang, Yicheng Wang, Jiangdong Qiu, Yueze Liu, Lei You, Lianfang Zheng, Taiping Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

AIM: This article aimed to find appropriate pancreatic cancer (PC) patients to treat with Gemcitabine with better survival outcomes by detecting hENT1 levels.

METHODS: We collected surgical pathological tissues from PC patients who received radical surgery in our hospital from September 2004 to December 2014. A total of 375 PC tissues and paired adjacent nontumor tissues were employed for the construction of 4 tissue microarrays (TMAs). The quality of the 4 TMAs was examined by HE staining. We performed immunohistochemistry analysis to evaluate hENT1 expression in the TMAs. Moreover, we detected hENT1 expression level and proved the role of hENT1 …

Preparing Healthcare Education For An Ai-Augmented Future, Jiajie Zhang, Susan H Fenton

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) fundamentally transforms healthcare education as a knowledge enterprise, creating a distributed cognitive system composed of the human brain, which remains relatively unchanged, and AI-based knowledge and cognitive functions, which have accelerated exponentially in scale and power. Education must focus on developing skills to collaborate with AI and on achieving outcomes like problems solved and discoveries made. Curriculum and education policies also need to adapt to this transformation.

Statins Are Rarely Prescribed For Incidentally Discovered Covert Cerebrovascular Disease: A Retrospective Cohort In A Large Electronic Health Record (Ehr) Identified Using Natural Language Processing, Lester Y Leung, Eric Puttock, David F Kallmes, Patrick Luetmer, Sunyang Fu, Chengyi X Zheng, Hongfang Liu, Wansu Chen, David M Kent

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: While incidentally discovered covert cerebrovascular diseases (id-CCD) are associated with future stroke, it is not known if patients with id-CCD are prescribed statins.

Methods: Patients age ≥50 with id-CCD on neuroimaging from 2009 to 2019 with no prior ischaemic stroke, transient ischaemic attack or dementia were identified using natural language processing in a large real-world cohort. Robust Poisson multivariable regression was used to assess statin prescription among patients without prior statins.

Results: Among 2 41 050 patients, 74 975 patients (31.1%; 4.7% with covert brain infarcts (CBI); 29.0% with white matter disease (WMD)) had id-CCD. 53.5% (95% CI 53.2 …

Advancements In Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, Multipole Moments, And Lie Group Proprieties, Zhichen Liu

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

To accurately solve the general nuclear spin state function in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), a rotation wave approach was employed, allowing the reference frame to rotate in sync with the oscillating magnetic field. The spin state system was analogously treated as a Rubik's Cube, ensuring the diagonalization of only the time-dependent part of the state function. Although Gottfried's equation (1966) aligns with transitions between specific spin states m and m′, his second rotation contradicts the conservation of angular momentum, resulting in inaccuracies for spin states with initial phase shifts or entangled states. Contrarily, Schwinger (1937) efficiently computed the coefficients for …

Re-Evaluation Of Lethal Radiation Dose In Drosophila Melanogaster Using 350 Kev Electrons, Dariia Hozhenko

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Radiation dosimetry from a 350 KeV electron beam and its impact on Drosophila melanogaster response serve as the focal points of this study. While previous research has established an LD50 (lethal radiation dose for 50 % of the population) exceeding 452 Gy across mainly all developmental stages, this investigation extends the understanding by examining dose-dependent differences throughout development, from the pupae stage into adulthood. Fruit flies, irradiated at their most sensitive stage, the egg phase, displayed a notable reduction in effective LD50, especially when accounting for long-term effects. Specifically, the LD50 values decreased to approximately 59 Gy for the maximum …

Intelligent Traffic Management Systems, Mohammad Mazhar

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With the increase in population and in particular urban population. The traffic and travel times in between cities and inside cities has increased due to more and more people using private means of transportation. Due to this need arose for tackling the increase in traffic by managing it using various means. For this we look towards The Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS). ITMS is an AI-powered solution designed to optimize traffic flow, reduce congestion, and improve overall road safety. The system will monitor real-time traffic data using a combination of cameras and sensors, identify traffic jams, and send alerts to …

Developing A Snow Detection Algorithm Using Spatial Attention For Pedestrian Safety, Ricardo De Deijn

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

SNOW-COVERED SIDEWALKS POSE SIGNIFICANT SAFETY HAZARDS, ESPECIALLY FOR VULNERABLE POPULATIONS SUCH AS THE ELDERLY AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE SNOW DETECTION SYSTEMS IS CRUCIAL FOR ENHANCING PEDESTRIAN SAFETY. THIS RESEARCH AIMS TO ADDRESS THESE CHALLENGES BY DEVELOPING A SNOW DETECTION ALGORITHM SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR SIDEWALKS. THE PROPOSED ALGORITHM USES A CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORK (CNN) ARCHITECTURE INCORPORATING A 2-DIMENSIONAL SPATIAL ATTENTION MECHANISM TO FOCUS ON RELEVANT FEATURES IN IMAGES, IMPROVING SNOW DETECTION ACCURACY. DUE TO THE SEASONAL AND GEOGRAPHIC LIMITATIONS OF SNOW DATA COLLECTION, SYNTHETIC DATA GENERATION USING INVERSE DIFFUSION MODELS WAS EMPLOYED TO AUGMENT THE REAL-WORLD DATASET. ALTHOUGH …

Metaheuristics For White-Box Path Attraction Attacks In Hidden Markov Models, Brandon Koch

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) play a pivotal role in fields such as speech recognition, spam detection, and autonomous vehicles, where reliable predictive capabilities are essential. However, the rapid adoption of HMMs has heightened their susceptibility to adversarial attacks. This research investigates inherent weaknesses in traditional HMMs by examining how adversarial manipulation of observable data impacts model performance. We address three core questions: How does varying HMM parameters influence a path attraction problem? Which metaheuristic methods most effectively optimize these attacks in a white-box scenario? What key vulnerabilities emerge in HMMs under adversarial manipulation? To explore these questions, we design HMMs …

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 29. Extraterrestrial Entertainment: Are We Being Monitored By Alien Beings?, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) was an early advocate for the rational assessment of likelihood of extraterrestrial life. Current efforts to evaluate the situation have ranged from the heavily self-indulgent to the more objective, and it is still often difficult to decide just how much of the information we are receiving on the subject is dependable. An attempt is made here to cut through the haze and reduce the matter to elementals.

Dam Dimensions And Surface Porosity Affect The Water Storage Capacity Of Beaver Dam Analogs Compared To Natural Beaver Dams, Sawyer Nagle

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Widespread stream incision in the Western United States, exacerbated by climate change and anthropogenic activities, necessitates effective restoration strategies. My study compares water retention by Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) to natural beaver dams and undammed control reaches. I compared how dam dimensions affect the hydraulic performance of both BDAs and beaver dams, revealing gaps in research on their comparative effectiveness. My study was conducted across eight watersheds in Washington state and two in Idaho. Hydraulic retention time (HRT), water travel time, and pool volume were response variables used to determine dam effectiveness. Dam height, thickness, length and porosity were the …

River Response To Removal Of A Small Dam And Replacement With A Roughened Channel, Chandler Sabin

All Master's Theses

Relatively few studies have analyzed how the removal of small dams and re-engineering of the channel affect river channel processes. The low-head Nelson Dam was built in 1920 on the Naches River in central Washington, causing two miles of aggraded sediments. This resulted in upstream flooding and excessive downstream incision that led to ineffective irrigation diversions, and hindered fish spawning. Nelson Dam was removed in 2021 and replaced with a graded, roughened, nature-like channel and a newly engineered diversion that was completed in 2023. The research presented here quantifies the effects of the Nelson Dam removal and channel redesign on …

From Creek To Ditch And Back Again: The History And Future Of Pattee Creek, Missoula, Montana, Carver Edward Butterfield

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pattee Creek was once a free-flowing stream that meandered across the Missoula Valley, but has been channelized, piped, and degraded by logging, mining, agriculture, and urbanization. This thesis used a mixed-method approach to examine the impact of human activities on the Pattee Creek watershed. Beginning with a historical overview, the story of how the creek has been utilized and why it was buried was told. An analysis of historical photos from 1937 to 2019 revealed drastic changes in the land cover of the watershed and the channel of lower Pattee Creek. Developed land increased dramatically, while open land decreased and …

Respiratory Disease In Bighorn Sheep: A Varied Investigation Of Immunization, Transmission, And Detection, Katelin Frerichs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Respiratory disease has historically been recognized as a limiting factor to wild bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) herds throughout North America with epizootics resulting in large-scale die offs and reductions in recruitment. The primary etiologic agent associated with pneumonia outbreaks in bighorn sheep is Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae. This bacterial pathogen is frequently carried asymptomatically by domestic sheep (Ovis aries) and goats (Capra hircus); however, when these domestic hosts come in contact with and spread this pathogen to bighorns, the disease can cause epizootics and large-scale mortality. Domestic sheep strains are more commonly detected in bighorn sheep than domestic goat strains, and previous …

Nitrogen Fertilizer Placement And Rate Impacts Sunflower Seed Yield, Oil And Protein Content, Rojina Kafle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

South Dakota accounts for about 36% of the total US commercial sunflower production and nitrogen is a major input. Costs related to N fertilizer demand economically optimum N rates. This study investigated the impact of the N fertilizer placement method (broadcast vs band) and rate (0, 28, 56, 84, 112, 140 kg N ha-1) on leaf chlorophyll content, head diameter, seed yield, seed oil, and protein concentration of three sunflower hybrids in 2022 and 2023. The experiment was conducted at Brookings (eastern SD- conventional till, 66 cm rainfall) using an oil-type hybrid and at central SD sites (no-till, 57 cm …

Reimagining Hunting Through Women's Decision Space, H. Nash Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 14.4 million people hunt in the United States, yet only 3.1 million (22%) of these hunters are women. To enhance women’s participation, many state natural resource agencies aim to reduce barriers and create pathways for women to hunt. Previously, researchers surveyed women to understand and describe barriers to their full participation in hunting. However, this methodology often just quantifies the different barriers without describing the interconnectedness and how the complexity of barriers can impact women’s participation in hunting. This thesis instead took an inductive research approach with the goal of better understanding women’s perspectives when faced with complex barriers. …

Siglec15, Negatively Correlated With Pd-L1 In Hcc, Could Induce Cd8+ T Cell Apoptosis To Promote Immune Evasion, Zheng Chen, Mincheng Yu, Bo Zhang, Lei Jin, Qiang Yu, Shuang Liu, Binghai Zhou, Jiuliang Yan, Wentao Zhang, Xiaoqiang Li, Yongfeng Xu, Yongsheng Xiao, Jian Zhou, Jia Fan, Mien-Chie Hung, Qinghai Ye, Hui Li, Lei Guo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Functional roles of SIGLEC15 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were not clear, which was recently found to be an immune inhibitor with similar structure of inhibitory B7 family members. SIGLEC15 expression in HCC was explored in public databases and further examined by PCR analysis. SIGLEC15 and PD-L1 expression patterns were examined in HCC samples through immunohistochemistry. SIGLEC15 expression was knocked-down or over-expressed in HCC cell lines, and CCK8 tests were used to examine cell proliferative ability in vitro. Influences of SIGLEC15 expression on tumor growth were examined in immune deficient and immunocompetent mice respectively. Co-culture system of HCC cell lines and …

Improving Stream Connectivity In South Dakota, Colton Rainier Curtis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stream connectivity is crucial for fish movement and genetic diversity in fragmented landscapes. Road-crossings often act as barriers, disrupting hydrology and isolating fish populations. The Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) has developed rapid road-crossing assessment protocols and tools to prioritize restoration projects. However, managers lack tools for planning, directing, and initiating roadcrossing assessments. Managers also require modeling approaches to effectively identify and monitor road-crossings across dynamic stream networks. Presented here is a case study offering a roadmap for effective implementation of collaborative road-crossing assessments and prioritization of remediation projects, alongside an exploration of predictive modeling approaches to identify problematic crossings …

Refining The Inverse Lipschitz Constant For Injective Relu Networks, Cole Rausch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we study the Inverse Lipschitz Constant (ILC) of injective ReLU layers. We study the tightness of the ILC lower bound established in Puthawala et al. Our approach has three components. First, we find that the conditions for injectivity on lines yield a weaker condition than the general condition given in Puthawala et al. Second, we perform numerical experiments to judge the tightness of the existing ILC lower bound and find that bound is overly conservative. Third, we identify the source of the potential slack in the proof of the existing ILC bound, and perform further numerical experiments …

Structural Biology Of Diaphanous-1 And Its Role In Human Pathology, Gregory G. Theophall

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

DIAPH1 is diaphanous related formin which polymerizes actin into filaments and is important to cytoskeleton dynamics.[1, 2] The dysregulation and aberrant activation of DIAPH1 is known to cause deafness[3, 4] and clotting disorders,[5] and is recently implicated in the inflammatory responses associated with cardiovascular and diabetic pathology.[6-9] Despite this, activation of the full length structure and its regulation are poorly understood.[10-12] Therefore, the main objective of this dissertation is to explore the structural, autoinhibitory, and regulatory properties of DIAPH1 in the context of disease pathology. Herein, I show that DIAPH1 has a dynamic structure which is regulated through negative cooperativity, …

Passperfect: A Secure One Time Password Authentication System, Charlene H. Crawshaw

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most organizations have established strong password policies and standards to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their data, applications, and critical systems. Even with rigorous implementations and layered approaches such as utilizing multifactor authentications, there are still flaws and vulnerabilities as they have a high dependency on the user adhering to them. In conjunction with these policies, a strong security awareness program should be implemented to educate the end user about strong password hygiene. In this work, we design and implement a secure one-time password (OTP) system, “PassPerfect”, to provide a method of enforcing a strong set of password …

Linear Topological Space, Vi Nguyen

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis begins with an introduction to linear and topological spaces and then defines linear topological spaces. It studies key properties such as neighborhoods, convexity, reflexivity, and weak and weak* topologies. Finally, it concludes with solving non-linear partial differential equations.

Transformer-Enabled Deep Reinforcement Learning For Coverage Path Planning, Daniel B. Tiu

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coverage path planning (CPP) is the problem of covering all points in an environment and is a well-researched topic in robotics due to its sheer practical relevance. This paper investigates such an offline CPP problem where the primary objective is to minimize the path length to achieve complete coverage. Furthermore, the literature suggests that taking turns leads to a higher energy use than going straight. To this end, we design a novel objective function that aims to minimize the number of turns as well. We have proposed a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based framework that uses a Transformer model. Unlike state-of-the-art …

A Clustering-Based Approached To Analyze Impacts Of Digital Divide On Undercounting Issues In Census In Florida, Partha Protim Datta

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to the US Census Bureau 2020 data, Florida is one of the six states where the population was undercounted. The census in the US is conducted every ten years and plays a pivotal role in shaping government representation, resource allocation, policy making and federal assistance distribution. Consequently, undercounting of population impacts demographic equality, potentially leading to inequitable distribution of resources. The state of Florida will lose billions of dollars by the end of the decade due to this undercounting issue. So, it is an important task to find the proper reason and sources of undercounting in Florida. The US …

Can A Phycosphere Associated Bacterium Be Used As A Biological Control For Floating Algal Mats?, Aubrey C. Patterson Holsworth

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Freshwater harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a global water quality issue. Algae, especially cyanobacteria, are integrally associated with complex microbial assemblages, which cycle nutrients, provide microenvironments, breakdown potentially harmful molecules, etc. However, these same microbial consortia are competitors or even inhibitors to algae in these systems. One potential biological control is Rhodospirillum rubrum, a Gram- proteobacterium. To evaluate its capacity for HAB mitigation, experimental mesocosms were inoculated with a native assortment of algae and R. rubrum and grown for 2-months. Relative Fluorescence Units (RFU), Ash Free Dry Mass, and eukaryotic (23S rDNA) metabarcoding were conducted to estimate algal …

GröBner Bases With An Application To Tame Functions, Jessica D. Marconi

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Grobner bases are essential tools in algebraic geometry, used to simplify and solve systems of polynomial equations. These bases revolutionized computational methods in various branches of mathematics after being introduced in 1965 by Bruno Buchberger. This thesis explores the foundational concepts of Grobner bases, including their formation and properties. It also demonstrates their use in solving mathematical problems in algebraic geometry, including the ideal membership problem. As an application, we show how Grobner bases can be used to determine whether a polynomial mapping is tame. This concept is crucial for analyzing the topology near singular points and establishing whether a …

Identifying Patterns For Neurological Disabilities By Integrating Discrete Wavelet Transform And Visualization, Soo Yeon Ji, Sampath Jayarathna, Anne M. Perrotti, Katrina Kardiasmenos, Dong Hyun Jeong

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Neurological disabilities cause diverse health and mental challenges, impacting quality of life and imposing financial burdens on both the individuals diagnosed with these conditions and their caregivers. Abnormal brain activity, stemming from malfunctions in the human nervous system, characterizes neurological disorders. Therefore, the early identification of these abnormalities is crucial for devising suitable treatments and interventions aimed at promoting and sustaining quality of life. Electroencephalogram (EEG), a non-invasive method for monitoring brain activity, is frequently employed to detect abnormal brain activity in neurological and mental disorders. This study introduces an approach that extends the understanding and identification of neurological disabilities …

Moab Local Food Guide 2024, Roslynn Mccann, Shiree Duncan

All Current Publications

Thank you for picking up this Moab Utah Local Food Guide. Those growing and producing food within a 100 mile radius from Moab have been included in this guide to help YOU make locally sourced purchasing decisions!

Characterizing Mountainous Bedrock Groundwater Systems Across Gradients In Topography And Lithology In Western Montana, David L. Baude

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mountain aquifer groundwater systems remain one of the least understood hydrologic systems in upland hydrology. In this study, we aim to characterize bedrock groundwater system dynamics and bedrock-saprolite interactions across a variety of landscape positions and lithology. We investigate groundwater hydraulics, recharge temperature and elevation, residence times, and bedrock recharge rates across two mountainous headwater catchments in west central Montana. We used a suite of environmental tracers (³H, CFCs, SF₆, and ⁴He) and residence time distribution models to estimate groundwater mean residence times over a range of timescales from decades to millennia. Tracers were sampled …