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Enhancing Vehicle Sensing for Traffic Safety and Mobility Performance Improvements Using Roadside LiDAR Sensor Data
Full text linkRecent technological advancements in computer vision algorithms and data acquisition devices have greatly facilitated research activities towards enhancing traffic sensing for traffic safety performance improvements. Significant research efforts have been devoted to developing and deploying more effective technologies to detect, sense, and monitor traffic dynamics and rapidly identify crashes in in Rural, Isolated, Tribal, or Indigenous (RITI) communities. As a new modality for 3D scene perception, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data have gained increasing popularity for traffic perception, due to its advantages over conventional RGB data, such as being insensitive to varying lighting conditions. In the past decade, researchers and professionals have extensively adopted LiDAR data to promote traffic perception for transportation research and applications. Nevertheless, a series of challenges and research gaps are yet to be fully addressed in LiDAR-based transportation research, such as the disturbance of adverse weather conditions, lack of roadside LiDAR data for deep learning analysis, and roadside LiDAR-based vehicle trajectory prediction. In this technical report, we focus on addressing these research gaps and proposing a series of methodologies to optimize deep learning-based feature recognition for roadside LiDAR-based traffic object recognition tasks. The proposed methodologies will help transportation agencies monitor traffic flow, identify crashes, and develop timely countermeasures with improved accuracy, efficiency, and robustness, and thus enhance traffic safety in RITI communities in the States of Alaska, Washington, Idaho, and Hawaii
Nurturing teacher agency to influence teacher professionalism through teacher action research
Full text linkDissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2024The research described in this study sought to understand how teacher agency was influenced by engaging teachers in action research-based professional development. Teacher agency is a critical component of teacher professionalism and nurturing teachers to recognize and enact greater agency has the potential to elevate the profession of teaching. A mixed methods methodology was employed to study the lived experience of six teachers who engaged in teacher research in a rural Alaskan school district. The research addressed this overarching question: How does engaging teachers in action research-based professional development about their professional practices influence teacher agency? In addition, data was collected to understand these supporting research questions: 1) How does participating in the action research-based professional development influence teachers' professional practices? 2) How does participating in the action research-based professional development influence collaborative practices? Findings and results suggest that the teachers' agency was influenced in the following ways: teacher engagement, knowing impact, empowerment by trust, and critical consciousness. Findings and results suggest that the teachers' professional practices were influenced in the following ways: intention and design, research capacity, determining impact, and dispositions. Findings and results suggest that the teachers' collaborative practices were influenced in the following ways: shared experience and a culture of willingness to learn. Convergence was observed between qualitative results and quantitative findings. Implications for influencing teacher agency through specific contextual conditions of professional learning and development are discussed and recommendations for the direction of future research
Analyzing vegetation effects on snow depth variability in the Caribou Poker Creeks Research Watershed, Alaska
No full textThesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2024Seasonal snowpack plays a critical role in hydrologic and ecologic processes. In boreal forest regions snow depth is known to be markedly different across land cover types. Identifying the vegetation metrics responsible for possible snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE) spatial variability continues to be a challenge. Airborne lidar has advanced our understanding of links between forest snow distribution and vegetation impacts. This study analyzes high resolution (0.5 meter) lidar data sets acquired during NASA's SnowEx field campaign in Alaska and compares them statistically across the vegetation metrics of land cover class and lidar-derived canopy height. Airborne lidar data was collected for a boreal forest site, the Caribou Poker Creeks Research Watershed (CPCRW), during snow-off and peak snow-on accumulation in March of 2022 and May of 2023. Lidar snow depth (98 ± 15 cm) and canopy height maps, both at 0.5 m resolution, were created from lidar data sets. Lidar snow depth and canopy height maps were resampled to 1.5 m resolution to account for spatial autocorrelation. A total of 85.9 million lidar snow depth and canopy height values were available for this study. Three subsets totaling 6.1 million snow depths and canopy heights were processed to run the analysis. A USGS National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2016 map of Alaska was used to determine land cover classes. Extensive in situ field snow depth measurements were collected concurrently with the peak snow-on lidar survey and were used to validate lidar accuracy. Analysis results from the three subsets showed statistically significant differences in median snow depths for all land cover classes and canopy height (p < 2.2e-16). Statistical comparison within land cover classes showed the largest significant difference in snow depths between shrub and deciduous forest (6-15 cm) and shrub and wetlands (7-14 cm). For canopy height classes, forest and treeless (12-14 cm) and forest and shrub/short stature trees (SSS) (8-14 cm) had snow depths that were significantly different. This thesis will further summarize results on quantifying snow depth variability between land cover and canopy height classes within boreal forests using NASA SnowEx Alaska data.NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program, SnowEx Alaska, award numbers 80NSSC21K1913 and 80NSSC23K141
Domestic Violence Primary Prevention: Evidence from the Past Decade
Full text linkThis fact sheet summarizes findings from 16 meta-analyses synthesizing the results of evaluations of primary domestic violence prevention interventions between 2014 and 2024. Primary prevention includes policies or programs that stop the onset of crime perpetration and/or victimization. Domestic violence includes sexual violence, stalking, physical violence, psychological aggression, and/or control of reproductive or sexual health by spouses, boy or girlfriends, dating partners, or hook up partners. Findings show a preventative effect amongst youth and community-based adults, while no preventative effect was seen in college students
Plowmate: The Drillhole Saver
Full text linkPlowmate is a novel solution in mitigating the loss of a drill pattern under snow. When a storm is imminent, Plowmate is installed into each hole. After the storm passes, the drill pattern is quickly plowed. Plowmate is removed with the integrity of each drill hole remaining intact
The contribution of source materials to the dissolved organic matter of Smith Lake
Full text linkEvaluation of the sources of biodegradable dissolved organic matter in Smith Lake in the context of a changing climate and hydrologic cycle
Fire management in the face of rapid climate change: a case study of the Yukon Flats workshop
Full text linkThesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2024The management of wildfires in Alaska stands as a multifaceted social-ecological challenge without a singular, definitive solution. Due to the influence of climate change, wildfires have evolved in their behavioral patterns, prompting a reevaluation of the effectiveness of existing fire management strategies to accommodate the dynamic requirements of both ecosystems and stakeholders. During the COVID 19 pandemic in 2021, a virtual workshop entitled, "Improving Wildfire Management Decision-Making for the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge: A Workshop," brought together scientists and wildfire managers. This workshop facilitated collaborative discussions on some of the most pressing issues surrounding wildfire management plans for the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. This research assesses the efficacy and efficiency of using a virtual workshop as a platform to facilitate discussions, develop relationships, encourage knowledge transfer between a diverse group of participants, and bring together diverse stakeholders for the purpose of dissecting complex subjects for a more comprehensive understanding of the intricacies inherent to social-ecological concerns, such as wildfire management. This study analyzes one round of surveys and two rounds of interviews conducted with participants in the Yukon Flats Workshop. These surveys and interviews were instrumental in capturing insights regarding the workshop's strengths and limitations, the emergence of novel or improved interpersonal connections, the fundamental values underpinning management, and the impact of the workshop on participants' professional roles. The participants articulated numerous dimensions of the workshop that contributed to the success of communication, frequently underscoring the significance of open-minded participants, the involvement of a boundary-spanning organization, transparent articulation of workshop goals and objectives, as well as the well-organized nature of the workshop itself. However, certain challenges surfaced, with primary emphasis placed on the virtual format of the workshop, which limited informal dialogues and sidebar exchanges. Nonetheless, this research underscores that a virtual workshop, when thoughtfully executed, can serve as an effective platform for uniting fire management practitioners and scientists in discussing the intricate challenges posed by complex social-ecological issues grounded in management planning and other natural resource issues
Out lying in sight
Full text linkThesis (M.F.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2024To water words; the familiarity of sand in your toes, the constance of the tide, the danger of the undertow. Each poem should act as a wave; some should disappear, some reach your feet, some sweep you away. In finding my way with words, my interest lies in making them memorable. Each of these poems represent a stab at unforgettableness. I believe poetry should be accessible. I believe poetry is meant to be felt, that it's meant to happen to you. If I come across a word I'm not familiar with in a poem, that magic gets lost. I could simply say I don't wish to write esoteric poetry, except I don't believe enough people would understand what I just wrote without this added context. This doesn't mean I aim for my poetry to be abundantly clear. In fact, I hope to challenge the traditional understandings of language through my abstract use of everyday speech or colloquialisms. If you know all the words, what doesn't make sense to you? How come you find yourself having to read it again? With common language as my tool of choice, I'm able to focus on the many other elements of poetry. Sonics, cadence, enjambment, alliteration, repetition and rhyme. Find yourself getting lost in language -let the musical lyricality carry you into unknowing what you think you know. As sounds splay in all directions, witness form become a conduit for enlivening the liminality of linguistics, seeking to stretch its powers and explore the complexity of cognition as it relates to our condition. Dive into the deep end of difficult emotions that don't hesitate to tangle with contemporary cultural, social, and political issues. Are you dreaming? What do you remember? Life can't be short when it's all that you get
Understanding Introductory Geometry Through Music, Movement, and Listening
No full textTurley's project, mentored by Dr. Sean Dowgray, centers around the Alaskan public school standard geometry curriculum and integrates percussion instruments into the lesson plan to strengthen students' fundamental understanding of mathematical concept
