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RECONCILING THE SHORTCOMINGS OF THE NATIONAL PRESERVATION ACT TRIBAL CONSULTATION MANDATE: CULTIVATING SPACE IN CONSULTATION PROTOCOL ORIENTED TOWARDS TRIBAL SELF-DETERMINATION AT KATMAI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE
No full textThis research treats recent cases at Katmai National Park and Preserve to review the effectiveness of tribal consultation. As mandated by Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the federal government must consult with Indian tribes pursuant to fulfilling obligations directed in Executive Order 13175. Drawing upon experiences coordinating consultation and leading interviews, I demonstrate how federal agencies can develop a consultation model to reconcile the shortcomings of the NHPA. This research counters persistent failures to honor tribal self-determination by prioritizing the duty to consult in a meaningful way.masters, M.S., Anthropology -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
The effect of biological and chemical pretreatments during storage on corn stover physiochemical properties and reactivity
No full textCorn stover is one of the primary agricultural residues available for bioenergy production, but its cellular and tissue level complexity make it challenging to reduce to monomers that can then be converted to fuel and chemical precursors. The goal of this research is to improve the performance of corn stover for biochemical conversion to fuels and chemicals by reducing recalcitrance to deconstruction. The overarching aim of this research is to overcome the physiochemical barriers in corn stover that necessitate increased severity in conversion in terms of chemical loading, temperature, and time, during the residence time of long- and short-term storage operations. The hypothesis of this research is that low severity chemical and microbial treatment during long-term storage will reduce the degree of polymerization through saponification of ester-linked side chains or glycosidic bonds in hemicellulose or through oxidation of phenolic or non-phenolic components of lignin. These treatments will increase extractable components of corn stover, facilitate increased chemical impregnation, porosity, and solubilization of structural components, and lead to increased reactivity during downstream pretreatment. This novel approach focuses on moving recalcitrance reduction upstream in the feedstock supply chain, thus this passive operation that only preserves biomass will become an active environment that can positively impact conversion performance. Biological and chemical treatments applied during storage, one of the key unit operations in the feedstock logistics supply chain, were explored in this study with the goal of integrating these treatments into bioenergy logistics and conversion systems. Meanwhile, the mechanistic understanding of the biological and chemical reactions that can reduce biomass recalcitrance was obtained. The fundamental understanding on how these reactions change the biomass structure provided the scientific community with insight that can lead to new areas of exploration in bioenergy conversion.doctoral, Ph.D., Environmental Science -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
The Relevance of Contact Terms Versus Pion-Exchange Contributions in the Chiral Effective Field Theory description of Nucleon-Nucleon Scattering
No full textThe standard way to demonstrate the relevance of chiral symmetry for the NN interaction is to consider higher partial waves of NN scattering which are ruled entirely by chiral symmetry alone (since contacts vanish). However, in applications of NN-potentials to nuclear structure and reactions, the lower partial waves are the important ones, generating the largest contributions. These lower partial waves are ruled by the dynamics at short range, and so, when the short-range contacts were to dominate over the chiral pion contributions in lower partial waves, then the predictions from ''chiral potentials" would have little to do with chiral symmetry. In this thesis, we address this issue and investigate systematically the role of the (chiral) one- and two-pion exchanges, on the one hand, and the effect of the contacts, on the other hand, in the lower partial waves of NN scattering. Our study has also a pedagogical spin-off as it demonstrates in detail how the reproduction of the lower partial-wave phase shifts comes about from the various ingredients of the theory.doctoral, Ph.D., Physics -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
Computational Approaches to Guide Pathogen Control Within Wildlife Reservoirs
No full textZoonotic spillover is an ever-growing threat to human health, emphasizing the need for effective virus control measures within wildlife reservoirs. This dissertation explores the possibility for novel virus control measures and develops an open source Lassa virus database. In the first Chapter, we develop a mathematical model to evaluate the effectiveness of a transmissible vaccine within a heterogeneous wildlife population. Generally, we find that transmissible vaccines do not benefit from heterogeneity in vaccine transmission. Next, we model the spread of a transmissible vaccine constructed from a betaherpesvirus vector, a leading vector candidate for vaccine development. We find that a transmissible vaccine constructed from such a vector can reduce certain zoonotic pathogens within a year of vaccine introduction. Finally, we construct a database characterizing Lassa virus infection and sequence data as well as interactive tools for data visualization and management to facilitate research on Lassa virus in West Africa.doctoral, Ph.D., Bioinformatics & Computational Biology -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
Investigation in the Pyrolysis of Corrugated Cardboard and Waxed Cardboard into Fuels and Products
No full textWaste corrugated cardboard and waxed cardboard comprise a substantial portion of municipal solid waste. More than 17 million tons of paper products end up in landfills every year, and this number is expected to grow significantly with the increase in human population in the next few decades. Methods of product and energy recovery from waste can serve as means of not only reducing the environmental and economic impacts of landfilling, but also ensuring sufficient energy resources for future generations. Both waste cardboard and waxed cardboard are suitable resources for thermochemical conversion. Utilizing pyrolysis, a set of experiments was developed to establish waste-to-product and waste-to-energy pathways for cardboard and waxed cardboard. In the first step, waste cardboard was extensively characterized and then pyrolyzed in an auger reactor. The pyrolysis products were characterized. The liquid product (oil) could be used as bunker fuel or further refined to harvest valuable compounds such as levoglucosan. Cardboard solid product (char) was found to be suitable for use in composite materials and as soil amendment. In the second step, waxed cardboard was characterized and pyrolyzed and the pyrolysis products (wax-oil and char) were characterized and analyzed. The wax was effectively recovered. The main compounds found in wax-oil were alkanes, alkenes, and dienes (C9 to C36). Higher pyrolysis temperatures resulted in the breakdown of larger carbon chains into smaller chain alkanes. The wax-oil contained an abundance of long-chain hydrocarbons and small number of oxygenated compounds that made it suitable for further upgrading into fuels. In the final step, the wax-oil samples were thermally and catalytically pyrolyzed on a custom-made small tubular batch reactor, and the resultant liquid products were analyzed against gasoline to evaluate their performance as a transport fuel. The products of thermal pyrolysis of the samples were mainly comprised of dienes and short-chain olefins, oxygenated compounds, and minor amounts of aromatic compounds. Their functional groups resembled those found in paraffin. The catalytic pyrolysis liquid products were similar to gasoline in chemical composition and functional groups and could be used as a “drop in” fuel. The addition of zeolite Y as the catalyst facilitated the conversion of long-chain hydrocarbons to short-chain alkanes and aromatics. The catalyst was able to be recovered and reused, which is an important feature for industrial use in catalytic pyrolysis.doctoral, Ph.D., Natural Resources -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
Raman‐probes to monitor the metabolite detection and assessment of nutrient fate of the Yarrowia lipolytica cells grown in deuterated glucose
No full textYarrowia lipolytica has been identified as a highly productive organism for the biosynthesis of triacyl glycerides (lipids) which can be converted into biofuels. To monitor lipid droplet production in the cell Raman-based methods shows promise when using deuterated probes for detection in the Raman-silent region (1800–2600 cm−1). The study involves the use of deuterated labeled glucose as Raman tag-based assessment of the Y. lipolytica MTYL038 strain cells for the multifold monitoring of glucose uptake, consumption, and lipid biosynthesis. The cells were grown in yeast extract peptone dextrose followed by growth in three different synthetic media with no nitrogen (N) with either glucose in H2O, glucose-D7 in H2O and glucose D7 in D2O. The cells were grown under optimum conditions (96 h) in synthetic media to an optical density >2.5. The changes in biomass and lipid yields were observed. Fourier-transform infrared and Raman spectroscopies showed the incorporation of deuterium with the presence of a C-D bands in the Raman silent region (1800-2600 cm-1) for both the glucose-d7 and glucose-D7 in D2O grown cells. The fatty acid profiles for the extracted cells grown in the three media showed significant differences in lipid profiles. The cells grown on both glucose-D7 media showed deuterium incorporation in the fatty acids as determined by mass spectrometry. This approach of labeling fatty acids can be used to monitor lipogenesis by Raman microscopy.masters, M.S., Environmental Science -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
A Molecular - Level Interrogation of Ammonia Oxidizing Bioreactors: Comparing and Contrasting Nitritation and Nitrification
No full textNational Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits are becoming increasingly stringent for both ammonia and total nitrogen. While traditional nitrification processes are generally reliable, nitrification’s heavy oxygen demand contributes to large electricity budget expenditures. In addition to becoming a detriment to community “wallets,” adverse effects are measured in the environment; electricity production is the second leading source of CO2 emissions globally. Moreover, when total nitrogen removal is required, incomplete denitrification can result in N2O emissions, depending on carbon availability. Research is being conducted at the University of Idaho in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to investigate alternate biological nitrogen removal strategies that can potentially mitigate both concerns. Specifically, a shortcut nitrogen removal mechanism, known as nitritation has been identified as viable process options to offer aeration savings and potentially reduce N2O emissions. Applying aeration control strategies, nitrogen removal mechanisms were studied at a macro and molecular level, with the aim to provide critical insight for process implementation. Sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) aimed at achieving nitritation and nitrification were studied. Nutrients, pH, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), real time qPCR, and other metabolic tools were utilized to distinguish between processes and to verify nitrogen removal activity within each SBR. A detailed investigation of structural and functional molecular level differences between nitritation and nitrification was conducted. The aim of these investigations are to provide insight to further specify operational criteria to achieve and sustain nitritation.masters, M.S., Civil Engineering -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-1
Finding the Beginning to Discover the End: Power System Protection as a Means to Find the First Principles of Cybersecurity
No full textEngineers responsible for designing the protection, control, and operational technology systems used within the electric power system continue to adopt new technology even as some of this technology presents a clear and seemingly unfixable risk to the continued safe and reliable operation of the power system itself. This thesis focuses on the “seemingly unfixable” aspect of the technology and how that can impact the operation of the electric power grid. In this thesis I explore developing the first principles of cybersecurity. I use these first principles to take a look at simple power system protection architectures and describe why the cybersecurity problem is so deeply entrenched. From there, I explore how to use these notional first principles to derive a relative measure of system security. Finally, I conclude with recommendations for future research.masters, M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-1
APPLICATION OF EPSILON POLY L-LYSINE FOR WOOD PROTECTION
No full textWood is an environmentally friendly material that can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and is relatively low in acquisition cost compared to other building materials. However, one of the challenges of using wood materials is that it is susceptible to wood-degrading fungi, bacteria, and termites, under humid conditions. Epsilon-Poly-L-lysine (EPL) is a secondary metabolite biosynthesized by specific fungi through fermentation. It has been successfully utilized as a natural antimicrobial agent for food preservation. The objective of this study is to test the feasibility of EPL for wood protection. Four common wood-decaying fungi, two wood species, and different treatments were used to test antifungal resistance. Two experiments were conducted in this study: in vitro and in vivo antifungal activity of EPL against wood-decaying fungi. The results of the in vitro antifungal experiment showed that EPL treatment affected fungal hyphae from a smooth structure to a twisted structure and the minimal inhibition concentration of EPL for fungal species ranges from 3 to 5 mg/ml. The results of the wood protection experiment showed that applying 1% of EPL in wood cubes significantly reduced the mass losses in the decay test and also increased the thermal stability of the wood samples. These results indicate a novel approach to wood protection by EPL.masters, M.S., Natural Resources -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
Levina Teerlinc: A Social Analysis of a Tudor Court Artist from 1546 to 1576
No full textPatronage can be hard to come by for any artist. It was especially difficult for women artists during the Renaissance. One such artist that was able to establish a successful career for herself was Levina Teerlinc, a Flemish born miniature portrait painter. Teerlinc painted at the English court for four consecutive Tudor monarchs from 1546 to her death in 1576. But how did she maintain her highly honorable position? How did she ensure her continued patronage from these high ranking patrons? These are questions I will address by analyzing the relationships and connections she formed during her time at court and the artwork she produced from them. The Tudor line from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I was fraught with political, social and religious controversy. It was up to courtiers to preserve or improve their standing by remaining in favor, regardless of who was in charge. My thesis will explore how Teerlinc enabled herself to do so through her adaptability, social prowess and artistic skill.masters, M.A., History -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-1