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Determining the Interpretive Yield of Heap Leaching Technologies
No full textThis paper was presented at the Heap Leach Solutions Conference, October 19-21, 2025, Sparks, Nevada.Operational, geotechnical, and economic uncertainties plague the safe and efficient productivity of heap leach pads and rock dumps around the world. Root causes for these uncertainties stem from a myriad of origins, including market volatility, comminution and stacking methods, subsurface heterogeneity, traceability of mine and operational data, solution management and limitations in traditional modeling approaches. This paper identifies the origins of these uncertainties, overviews heap leach failures, and proposes a novel systems integration framework - Interpretive Yield Theory (IYT) - to address them. Based on industry 4.0 concepts, IYT evaluates the yield of interpretable output, not merely the data volume, produced by different methods having equivalent inputs. After defining IYT, this paper presents the Interpretive Yield Determinacy Model (IYDM), a novel model that incorporates IYT with numerical and computational models for heap leaching that were originally developed in the 1970s. The IYDM is then used to compare three heap leaching strategies: traditional irrigation leaching, gravity or deep raffinate leaching and injection/extraction leaching aka Hydro-Jex(R). Results demonstrate distinct differences in interpretive yield between the three methods, offering a basis for selectivity. Future work will focus on site-specific model calibration and validation
AIEI Newsletter, July 2025
No full textUnited States Department of TransportationFederal Highway Administratio
Measurements of Magnetic Compression and Melt of Electrically Thick Metals Driven by Lineal Current Densities Characteristic of Pulsed-Power-Driven Fusion Devices
No full textPhotonic Doppler velocimetry (PDV) has enabled high-resolution measurements of surface motion on z-pinches, revealing previously unobserved phenomena such as pre-melt radial magnetic compression followed by changes in acceleration corresponding to the solid-liquid phase transition of the surface of current-driven conductors. Experimental campaigns at the Sandia National Laboratories Mykonos linear transformer driver studied the conditions seeding electrothermal instabilities in electrically thick conductors. These instabilities, driven by localized non-uniform current density and Ohmic heating, play a critical role in the stability and performance of fusion concepts such as magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF). A host of diagnostics, such as high-speed imaging, PDV, and laser shadowgraphy, tracked the surface motion and instability growth on mm-diameter aluminum rods driven to megampere currents in less than 200 ns. The experimental measurements are being used to benchmark magnetohydrodynamic calculations and thereby inform the choice of equation-of-state and conductivity tables for modeling. Complementary work on the Zap Energy FuZE-Q Z-pinch has focused on plasma impurity radiation studies of concern for electrode degradation and radiative loss mechanisms. FuZE-Q employs sheared-flow to suppress disruptive instabilities and sustain quiescent plasma conditions. A recently developed extreme ultraviolet spectrometer diagnostic on FuZE-Q identified plasma impurities, providing data for radiative loss calculations. Together, these experiments advance the understanding of impurity generation and radiative losses, contributing to fundamental plasma physics and the development of pulsed-power-driven fusion generators
Linking Hydrological Processes With Water Resource Insights Through Synthesis of Big Data and Physics-Based Modeling
No full textMountain hydrologists provide guidance on questions of water resource use and protection that affect global environments, billions of dollars in economic activity, and the entire way of life of societies dependent on upland water sources. However, the tools for making these assessments are uncertain, limited by sparse data, and may provide conflicting interpretations. The two broad philosophies of scientific inquiry, inductive and deductive reasoning, appear in hydrology as empirical observation-centric approaches or theoretical simulation-based approaches. Both of these approaches have particular strengths: direct observations can reveal the uniqueness of place that is essential to many hydrological processes, while generalized simulations can reveal emergent behaviors and provide clear cause-and-effect attribution. In the research presented here, I show how advancements in computational power and “big data” can help unite inductive and deductive hydrological philosophies by using large datasets to make more generalizable inferences and using more comprehensive simulations to make more incisive predictions. These chapters provide a tour of current focus areas in mountain hydrology, including water supply forecasting, forest disturbance and management, climate change resilience, surface-groundwater interactions, and meadow restoration. Through these diverse study topics spanning the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, I demonstrate the synthesis of deductive and inductive approaches to condense massive datasets and complex model results into actionable insights that can inform best practices for the protection and utilization of valuable mountain water resources
Optimizing Heap Leach Performance through an Integrated Characterization Approach
No full textThis paper was presented at the Heap Leach Solutions Conference, October 19-21, 2025, Sparks, Nevada.Heap leaching is a complex, multi-variable hydrometallurgical process whose success depends not only on chemical reactivity, but also on the ore's geological, physical, hydraulic, and mechanical properties. Traditional metallurgical testing-while useful-often fails to capture these critical factors, limiting its predictive power and increasing the risk of underperformance or failure. This paper presents a decision-oriented framework built on HydroGeoSense's Integrated Characterization Approach (ICA), which incorporates geotechnical, metallurgical, hydraulic, and chemical data into a cohesive design methodology. The ICA systematically selects optimal conditions for the five key design elements-particle size distribution, ore conditioning, stacking geometry, reagent delivery, and liquid saturation-ensuring that each design decision is supported by ore-specific data. Applications across copper, gold, nickel, rare earths, and bio-assisted leaching systems have demonstrated ICA's ability to improve metal recovery, reduce leach cycle duration, and optimize reagent utilization and solution inventory. By aligning characterization with operational realities, the ICA provides a robust pathway for technically sound and economically viable heap leach designs
Nevada State Climate Office Drought Report May 2025
No full textThis report was created by the Nevada State Climate Office to provide a statewide drought summary for May 2025
Survival Strategies of Syrian Refugees in Jordan
No full textI examined how Syrian refugees in Jordan use informal communication networks to cope with restrictive socio-economic and legal conditions. Based on 11 semi-structured interviews with Syrian refugees in Jordan, I uncovered how wasta (an informal practice rooted in family and communal bonds) and other informal networks enabled refugees to secure work, housing, and daily necessities when the formal economy remained inaccessible. I identified three themes: wasta and collective solidarity, belonging and uncertainty, and scarce aid and NGO (mis)trust. Participants demonstrated that wasta served as both a cultural practice and a survival strategy, allowing refugees to navigate precarious labor markets, uncertainty, and limited support from humanitarian agencies. Examining Syrian refugees’ informal communication networks in Jordan contributes a non-Western perspective to communication and refugee research on forced displacement and how refugees quietly cope together using informal networks
AKF: A modern synthesis framework for building datasets in digital forensics
No full textAs our world becomes increasingly dependent on technology, the advancement of digital forensics has become a key focus in the fight against cybercrime. The forensic community depends on the availability of disk images, network captures, and other forensic artifacts for education, tool validation, and research. However, real-world datasets often contain sensitive information that may be difficult to remove, making them challenging to distribute publicly. As a result, researchers and educators can encounter gaps in available datasets, typically leading to the manual development of new datasets. While viable, this approach is time-consuming and rarely produces datasets that accurately reflect real-world scenarios suitable for comprehensive training and education. In turn, there is ongoing research into forensic synthesizers, which automate the process of creating unique, synthetic datasets that can be publicly distributed without legal and other logistical concerns. This thesis introduces the automated kinetic framework, or AKF, a modular synthesizer for creating and interacting with virtualized environments to simulate human activity. AKF significantly improves upon the designs and implementations of prior synthesizers while largely maintaining feature parity and usability. Additionally, AKF leverages the CASE standard to provide human- and machine-readable reporting, exposing low-level dataset features in a searchable format. Finally, this thesis describes options for leveraging generative AI to develop high-level scenarios as well as individual artifacts. These contributions are intended to improve the speed at which synthetic datasets can be created and ensure the long-term usefulness of AKF-generated datasets and the framework as a whole
“Appropriate for School”: Childhood, Relationships, and Intimacy in a U.S. Middle School
No full textThis dissertation examines how the routines and structures of schooling interact with young people’s beliefs, ideas, and norms of relationships, sexuality, gender, childhood, and the path to adulthood. Based on ethnographic research at a middle school in urban Nevada with students, teachers, and staff members, I study how young people navigate school policies, practices, and regulations as they form relationships and come to understand themselves as sexual and gendered beings. I consider the way adults at the school, which I refer to as Sunrise Academy, interpret official policies and construct informal regulations related to youth sexuality and gender. I have structured this dissertation into three standalone articles, each analyzing the nexus of schooling, childhood, relationships, and intimacy. In the first article, I build on feminist anthropological theories to show how adults cultivate an informal practice of care—one that simultaneously privileges heterosexual norms while also creating space for queer-identifying students to explore and express their identities. The second article focuses specifically on the revision and implementation of the sex education curriculum at Sunrise Academy; I analyze how adults frame revisions to sex education content as “what’s best for children,” often oversimplifying complex topics such as intimacy, sexuality, and gender, and presenting sex education as objective, neutral, and universally applicable. Finally, in the third article, I outline how adults and students differently construct the skills and capacities deemed necessary to attain full adult personhood, situating my ethnographic research within anthropological literature at the intersection of education and personhood. Drawing on my ethnographic research and responding to calls for anthropologists of education to advocate for change and apply critical theory to real-world issues, I propose incorporating greater nuance into school-based conversations about sexuality and gender, centering youth and their voices within educational settings, and reimagining schools in alignment with their democratic foundations