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Solving the Alhazen-Ptolemy Problem, Compiling Cassini-VIMS Titan Data, and Modernizing Orbital Integration
No full textI present the first complete analytical solution to finding the specular point on a spherical surface, known as the Alhazen-Ptolemy problem, for the cases where either the observer of the light source may be approximated as infinitely distant, and where they must both be treated as finitely distant. I also present Vulcan, a new orbital integration code which offers the benefits of modernization to existing orbital integration algorithms: efficient parallelization, advanced memory management, and concurrent output. Lastly, I present my work compiling the Titan data from Cassini’s Visible Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument to create a set of composite maps which summarize the dataset for future work.masters, M.S., Physics -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2022-1
The Effect of Weighted-vest Sprints on Run Performance.
No full textWarm-ups are thought to acutely increase athletic performance by increasing blood flow, motor unit recruitment, and accelerating metabolism. Post activation potentiation (PAP) may be an underlying mechanism lending to an increase in athletic performance following a warm-up. PAP has been defined as the phenomenon by which muscular performance characteristics are enhanced because of muscle’s contractile history. An underlying physiological mechanism of PAP may be myosin regulatory light chain phosphorylation. There may be an acute effect of PAP on athletic performance, which is short in duration involving rapid, powerful movements. Although, PAP’s contribution to acute performance enhancement remains speculative, as other mechanisms (e.g., higher-order motor unit recruitment, increased leg stiffness, increased VO2 kinetics) may be at play. Thus, ‘pre-conditioning’ is used to encompass a multitude of physiological mechanisms contributing to improved sports performance. Several studies have provided evidence of pre-conditioning enhancing cycling and rowing performance; however, there is a paucity of data describing pre-conditioning’s efficacy on distance-running performance. Due to the elastic nature of running (i.e., reutilization of absorbed mechanical energy by leg muscles when contacting the ground) and possible acute increase in leg stiffness following pre-conditioning, incorporating resistance exercises into a distance running warm-up may benefit a distance running population. Thus, the primary purpose of the proposed study was to determine the effect of a pre-conditioning resistance exercise (i.e., PAP induction) on running performance in recreationally trained distance runners. A secondary purpose was to assess physiological parameters during a graded exercise test (GXT) on a motorized treadmill following a pre-conditioning resistance exercise. Seventeen recreational male distance runners (VO2peak ≥ 50ml∙kg-1∙min-1) were recruited for this study. The study was a counterbalanced crossover design requiring each participant to visit the laboratory on 5 separate occasions: Visit 1 – Familiarization and baseline testing; Visit 2 – Pre-conditioning with weighted vest or pre-conditioning with no additional weight followed by GXT; Visit 3 – Pre-conditioning with weighted vest or pre-conditioning with no additional weight followed by GXT; Visit 4 – Pre-conditioning weighted vest or pre-conditioning with no additional weight followed by 1600-m time trial (TT); Visit 5 – Pre-conditioning weighted vest or pre-conditioning with no additional weight followed by 1600-m TT. Visits measured the effect of a pre-conditioning loaded exercise, weighted-vest sprints (20% body mass), on 2 endurance running assessments (GXT treadmill run and a 1600-m max effort TT). Additionally, a control trial (pre-conditioning with no additional weight) was completed for each running assessment to identify the effect of pre-conditioning weighted-vest sprints. GXTs assessed VO2 kinetics (time constant and amplitude), submaximal VO2 (3.13, 3.58, 4.02, and 4.47 m·s-1), ventilatory thresholds 1 (VT1) & 2 (VT2), and peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) via indirect calorimetry; resting lactate, lactate threshold (LT), onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA), and peak lactate via finger capillary blood samples; and leg stiffness (Kleg) via accelerometry on a motorized treadmill. The 1600-m TT assessed Kleg via accelerometry and running performance using time-to-completion and 400-m split times. All variables were analyzed with a repeated measures two-way ANOVA. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS v.28. Data are reported as mean ± SD. Significance was accepted at p 0.05). Weighted-vest sprints acutely improved submaximal running economy in recreationally trained distance runners but had no effect on middle-distance running performance during a 1600-m TT. Therefore, weighted-vest sprints may not be useful in improving middle-distance running performance, but may be utilized to improve running economy during submaximal run training.doctoral, Ph.D., Education -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2022-0
Determining the Vulnerability of Wolves to Harvest
No full textIndividual behaviors are influenced by environmental, genetic, and demographic factors. Some animals choose to live in groups and cooperatively breed, and their behaviors can change depending on dynamic factors such as group size and composition that affect group persistence. Extensive research on cooperative breeding species has shown that the lethal removal of breeders from a group has direct and indirect effects on the persistence of the group. In Idaho, USA, gray wolves (Canis lupus) are harvested annually, this has provided an opportunity to investigate the effects of harvest on a population of cooperative breeders. These annual hunting and trapping seasons overlap with the dispersal and breeding periods for wolves. Currently, we know little about how many breeders, dispersing aged adults (>22 months), yearlings, and pups are harvested each year via hunting and trapping or when they are harvested each season.In the first chapter, we applied 10 years of genetic and metadata collected from harvested wolves to investigate how behaviors and ecological drivers might influence the vulnerability of wolves throughout the harvest season. We created pedigrees from non-invasive genetic scat sampling to create expected proportions of three different age classes (pup, yearling, and sexually mature or >22 months old) of wolves and compared them to the observed number of those cohorts harvested during ecologically significant periods (i.e., dispersal and breeding). We found that pups are more vulnerable to harvest in December when wolf harvest transitions largely to trapping (66%). We compared the expected and observed proportions of wolves ≥2 years old during peak dispersal season (December) and breeding season (January – February) as well as yearlings from September to October when the group moves out of rendezvous sites and found no overall trend. However, there was considerable annual variation suggesting there is more to learn about how the vulnerability of different sex and age classes of cooperative breeders varies throughout the harvest season. In the second chapter, we estimated the frequency of breeders in harvest and whether breeders were more vulnerable to harvest during the breeding season. We demonstrate a novel approach for using genetic data collected opportunistically from harvested wolves to determine if/when breeders are more vulnerable to harvest and to estimate the minimum number of breeders harvested annually in Idaho, USA, using pedigree analyses. We genotyped and aged 229 adult wolves and 203 pups using tissue and tooth samples, respectively, from wolves harvested between 2014 and 2016. We identified a minimum count of 36 breeders (n = 18 in 2014 and 18 in 2015) and found that breeders were disproportionately harvested (P = 0.08) during the breeding season (January; 25% of all breeders harvested during 2014 and 2015 harvest seasons). We estimate that a minimum of 16% of adult wolves harvested annually are breeders, or roughly 1 in 6. Our estimate of the number of breeders harvested annually is conservative because the pedigree analysis is dependent on both a pup and breeder from the same group having been harvested in the same year, and samples were excluded from the analysis if they were missing age and harvest month data or had masters, M.S., Fish & Wildlife Sciences -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2022-0
Examination of Late 18th and Early 19th Century Identity Through Burial at the Silo of Charlemagne in Roncesvalles, Spain
No full textThe years around 1800 were a time of turmoil throughout Europe, as the newly created French Republic attempted to enforce republican ideals through warfare across the continent. This thesis examines articulated ossuary burials (n=17) contemporary to the War of the Pyrenees and the Peninsular War in Roncesvalles, Spain, to discuss how burial practice is affected by the confluence of identity and relationships. The themes of cultural expectations surrounding death, and the conflict between those expectations and necessity during times of instability are specifically examined. Previous scholarship suggests that many social hypotheses can be better understood through bioarchaeological analysis, but few sources have looked at sites from this era with the same patterns of use or historical significance. The ossuary is popularly thought to have been specifically constructed on Charlemagne’s behalf after his military loss, described in the Chanson de Roland, but continues to be used to this day, having been carefully maintained to house the skeletons of pilgrims travelling to Santiago de Compostela since at least the 12th century. To understand how historical context intertwines with an individual’s identity to influence their treatment in death, this research examines skeletons dating from this era [~1790-1820] in a region that hosted several military conflicts. Through the examination of the Silo of Roncesvalles, one can view how the conflict between personal relationships and efficiency affected burial practices. In turn, this examination helps to clarify the effects of political instability on cultural and social structures.masters, M.A., Culture, Society & Justice -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2022-0
The Big Data Lifecycle in Open Ecoinformatics: Curation, Analysis, and Sharing
No full textResearch data go through a cyclical process from the point of their conception during project planning, through experimental design and sample design, data collection, organization, analysis, storage, curation, and, ideally, re-use. Historically, not all steps in the lifecycle have been given the same level of attention.Much of the data researchers have collected have become “dark data,” often recorded on paper and, once the project has concluded, consigned to a file cabinet, never to be seen again. There is a reproducibility crisis in the sciences that is being slowly revealed to have quietly spread across many disciplines, casting doubt on the veracity of some published results. Even when methods are transparent and data published, we face challenges agreeing exactly what the rules are for sharing research data with each other. Chapter 1 provides an introduction and background information about Big Data, the data lifecycle, the FAIR Data Principles, and concepts surrounding open science. Together, these topics provide a foundation and motivation for the material in the remaining chapters. Chapter 2 applies the concept of service-oriented architecture from computer sciences to the task of designing an OAIS (Open Archival Information System) data repository. Such repositories are used to store, curate, and manage research data, and to provide visibility and access to research data that help to enable re-use. Chapter 3 provides an example of using the concepts of open science to produce research products using transparent methods that are clearly reproducible. While generating a model predicting levels of organic carbon found in soil in the Northwestern United States, the key to ensuring that results are reproducible is to publish all research data and computer code used in analysis and preparation of those results. Chapter 4 addresses the issue of how we express and agree upon common rules for data sharing. As data sharing becomes less personal, more distributed, and potentially more automated, we need formal ways of expressing sharing agreements. Furthermore, these agreements must be easily readable by both humans and machines to be effective. Chapter 5 provides some concluding remarks and considers the material of the earlier chapters in the context of contemporary challenges accompanying the era of Big Data.doctoral, Ph.D., Natural Resources -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2022-0
Analysis of Software-Defined Networks as a Mechanism for Enforcing Corporate Security Policies in OT Networks
No full textCyber Security has been given a high priority for operational technology systems in recent years after specific cyber-incidents targeting them. Previously, these systems were primarily concerned with reliability; however, cyber security is now viewed as a critical aspect in avoiding production damage and financial losses. According to certain studies, replacing traditional networks in OT systems with software-defined networks (SDN) minimizes cyber-attacks due to the features provided by these networks. SDN networks have various advantages over traditional networks, due to the separation of the data plane and control plane. The concern is whether SDN networks are more dependable than existing traditional networks, and whether we can take advantage of all of SDN's characteristics when connecting with OT systems. Furthermore, deploying cyber security on a network infrastructure necessitates the creation and implementation of security policies that define the authorized communication between network devices. There is, however, a distinction to be made between security policies and the technologies that implement them. There is also often a distinction between intended policy and deployed or configured policy. Therefore there is a need to confirm compliance between policy and reality in a network. This is especially true in operational technology systems where there is a lot of network infrastructure and special purpose devices which can not be scanned or analyzed using traditional cyber security tools. To address the cyber security issues in operational technology systems, this dissertation reviews cyber-incidents reported on them and summarizes possible attacks on each of their sub-systems to gain broader insight into vulnerabilities present in them and uses the common vulnerability exposure database to enumerate trends. Then, a process is formally developed and evaluated through a proof of concept tool to detect the security policy implemented in the control rules of an SDN switch deployed in an industrial control system network. These rules were analyzed to determine if this security policy is compliant with the organization's high-level policies.doctoral, Ph.D., Computer Science -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2022-0
Leaders’ Well-Being: Exploring Implications for Leadership Theory and Organizational Practice
No full textLeadership is a challenging and complex practice. The study of leadership spans across organizational and functional boundaries, applies to institutions, academia, private and public industry, theoretical exploration and conceptual application. Well-being is also a broadly encompassing term, embracing elements across human complexities, organizational and team dynamics, as well as social and general implications. Marrying these two terms—leaders and well-being–this research seeks to understand well-being for leaders themselves. Accepting leaders as humans and their role to play in their followers’ well-being, provides a basis for exploration, yet recognizes how leaders are often exempted or excluded. The literature suggests support for a relationship between leadership and followers’ well-being. The missing aspect is understanding well-being for leaders themselves. Hearing leaders’ well-being stories through qualitative interviews provided rich and contributory data. The main research question for this study was, how do leaders describe their well-being experiences? The purpose of this study was to develop the concept of leaders’ well-being, identify leaders’ practices of well-being, and to capture the story of how leaders describe their well-being experiences. The study goal was understanding and elemental construction of the leaders’ well-being concept, and to capture the narrative in how leaders tell their stories. This complementary approach aimed to elicit insights into leaders’ well-being experiences, exemplifying needs to explore this topic more deeply. Leaders acknowledged opportunities to improve their own well-being management, while recognizing lack of support for this focus. Leadership development opportunities do not provide comprehensive, holistic approaches required to allow leaders to be successful with their own well-being. Thematic analysis developed themes contributing to leaders’ well-being and illustrating a balanced approach in assessing both “what” and “how” leaders describe their well-being experiences. Collecting data contributing to leaders’ intra- and inter-personal needs suggests complex requirements for developing leaders’ well-being as a concept. Embracing an intradisciplinary approach while inviting diverse perspectives and leaders’ experiences is necessary to ensure the leaders’ well-being concept finds useful application for individual leaders and broad generalization to the study and practice of leadership as a whole.doctoral, Ph.D., Leadership and Counseling -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2022-0
Populating Code Cities with NPCs Representing Bugs
No full textA code city is a visual representation of a code repository using aspects of the repository to build and arrange the city; code files can become buildings, and a directory of files can become a city block. Until now, most code cities have consisted of a static depiction of code repositories. This thesis lays the groundwork to populate a code city with dynamic entities that represent bugs reported in a code repository. These dynamic entities are controlled via an evolutionary algorithm that allows the bug to adapt to its environment as well as the existence of other entities. By measuring fitness as a metric of bug lifespan, the evolutionary algorithm optimizes time spent alive given a bug's surroundings.masters, M.S., Computer Science -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2022-0
Impedance Based Protection for Fuseless Shunt Capacitor Banks
No full textAs the grid continues to evolve into the future, shunt capacitor banks continue to be relevant to the power network. Shunt capacitor bank protection is critical to ensuring banks are removed from the grid during faults and ensuring the bank is not removed for conditions in which it is safe for it to operate. The balance between sensitivity and selectivity has always been a challenge for engineers tasked with protecting shunt capacitor banks or any other power apparatus. Fuseless bank designs are becoming increasingly popular for their many benefits; however, one tradeoff with this design is the lack of visible fault indication as is present on fused banks. The protective relays on these banks become the first line of protection and it is imperative they are able to correctly identify bank faults. This thesis will examine a fuseless shunt capacitor bank connected in a grounded wye configuration and applied to a 345 kV transmission network. Two methods to protect this type of bank are examined. One approach uses the commonly applied voltage differential capacitor bank protection method, and another less commonly used fairly new impedance measurement method. The two methods are analyzed and compared in a software model to prove that the impedance based method offers increased protection and selectivity for the capacitor bank.masters, M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2022-0