University of Idaho Library Digital Initiatives
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Validation of a 1/20th scaled VHTR Far-Field Air/Helium Mixing Apparatus
No full textThe Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) is a promising Gen-IV reactor design. It is a helium cooled reactor capable of heating its coolant to 1000◦ C before it exits the reactor core. Such exit temperatures make it feasible to achieve a power output of 800 MWth. Its design is currently being researched by the United States Department of Energy (DOE).One element of its design currently under investigation is the possibility of a failure at a fuel rod drive housing, or any other instrumental housing located on the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). A structural failure of the RPV would lead to a rapid depressurization of the reactor’s pressurized loop and a loss of cooling accident (LOCA). If oxygen enters the reactor core following the LOCA, it could chemically react with the high temperature graphite in the reactor core, jeopardizing the reactor core’s structural integrity, and risking a release of radioactive contamination to the surrounding environment. One way of preventing air ingress into the reactor core is by understanding the mixing phenomena of helium and air in the containment structure surrounding the RPV. This thesis discusses the experimental and computational efforts performed at the University of Idaho to understand the helium/air mixing patterns inside the VHTR’s containment structure following a LOCA.masters, M.S., Nuclear Engineering -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
A Secure Lightweight Voice Authentication System for IoT Smart Device Users
No full textThe Internet of Things (IoT) provides everyday devices ways of identification and communication with other devices and with their users. The users can be human beings or other devices. The spectrum of IoT applications is very large and includes wearables such as body-area-network-devices and smartwatches. Other IoT application domains include smart homes, smart cities, e-health, etc. IoT devices have the capabilities for collecting information about surroundings, analyzing, and making decisions without user intervention. Security in IoT environments is an optimal requirement. Particularly, authentication is of high interest given the damage that can be caused by unauthorized adversarial access to such devices. This dissertation proposes a biometric based authentication model that can be used in IoT devices. In the first part of the dissertation, the background study, different biometrics used for authentication are compared for their suitability in IoT devices. Subsequently, considering the resource-constrained nature of IoT devices, a voice biometrics was selected as compared to other biometrics, such as fingerprint, iris scan, keystrokes, etc., which need dedicated hardware devices to be used in IoT ecosystems. In the second part of the dissertation, deep learning approaches that extract and classify features to detect voice spoofing attacks were studied. These approaches are based on a convolutional neural network and a deep neural network. The convolutional neural network approach was used as a feature extractor, while the deep neural network approach was used as a classifier. In addition, hybrid features that consist of Mel frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Constant Q Cepstral Coefficients (CQCC) features were used to train both approaches. Compared to state-of-the-art approaches, both approaches improved the state of detecting spoof replay attacks in speaker verification. Finally, enticed by the results of the two approaches, a voice-based authentication system that can be used in IoT devices was developed. Subsequently, the system was employed in an experiment that used virtualized IoT devices. The authentication system has shown increased accuracy.doctoral, Ph.D., Computer Science -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
Welcome to The Meeting, Please Find Your Seat
No full textUsing familiar utilitarian objects and household materials, I construct semi-autobiographical works from my fractured urban experiences. Acting as both barriers, portals and containers, I use materials such as tarps, fencing, fabric, concrete, and clay to create open narratives about struggles and triumphs found within ordinary life. These works explore reaching rock bottom, a period of shame and regret, when isolation and fear became my constant companions. Constrained in emotional turmoil, I chose to live in the margins—a lifestyle that left me craving the material and psychological comforts of home.In reflection, I carve out a relationship with my past through my works and discover new grounds to build a sense of security— no matter how precarious—from. I use the tactility of fabrics and the precision of building materials as a metaphor for comfort, maintenance, and structure abundant in domestic life. The malleability of clay informs the viewer of the resilience and adaptability of the human psyche. Through these material interactions, authentic vulnerability and tension form, allowing the viewer to deposit their allegory into the work and alleviating mine.masters, M.F.A., Art & Design -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
Protecting the Footprints of Rivers in the United States during the Anthropocene: A Personhood Proposal for the Columbia River Watershed and a Recognition of Genius Loci in Water Resources Management
No full textThere are gaps in water resources law, policy and management due to being outdated but also due to rising issues of concern surrounding climate change, water scarcity, and environmental racism. There is potential for these issues to be addressed in an interdisciplinary way that acknowledges and utilizes both Western and Traditional ways of knowing. A personhood policy for rivers can set the groundwork for integrating Traditional ways of knowing, specifically dealing with managing the physical landscape, into Western land and water management; there is an urgent need to accept and utilize Traditional ways of knowing instead of trying to assimilate ‘minoritized’ cultures and societies into a Western framework. Additionally, a personhood policy for rivers would set the groundwork for the social value of rivers, intangible values such as emotional attachment and cultural memory, to be widely acknowledged alongside their economic value, and recognize legal standing for the environment to be seen as a baselevel protection to be built upon.masters, M.S., Water Resources -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0
Using static web technologies and git-based workflows to re-design and maintain a library website (quickly) with non-technical staff
No full textIn 2018, a university-wide brand update prompted the University of Idaho Library to re-examine their website development practices and move towards a static web approach that leverages librarian skillsets and provides the library greater control over its systems and data. This case study describes the methodological reasons behind the decision to use the static site generator Jekyll over a Content Management System (CMS) and the practical steps taken to create a sustainable and agile development model. The article details the ways this static web approach (nicknamed “Lib-STATIC”) facilitates cross-departmental communication, collaboration, and innovative feature development for library staff members of varying technical abilities. (Post print version of published article)This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in College & Undergraduate Libraries on 19 Feb 2021, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10691316.2021.1887036 Published version citation: Evan Peter Williamson, Olivia M. Wikle, Devin Becker, Marco Seiferle-Valencia, Jylisa Doney & Jessica Martinez (2021) Using static web technologies and git-based workflows to re-design and maintain a library website (quickly) with non-technical staff, College & Undergraduate Libraries, DOI: 10.1080/10691316.2021.188703
Clusters Merging and Forwarding Schemes in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks on Highway and Urban Scenarios
No full textOne of the objectives of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is providing safety to its users. This can be accomplished by the exchange of information among vehicles, forming a network called Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET). However, such information exchange is a challenge in itself. Safety messages must be timely disseminated throughout vehicles in the vicinity of a detected hazard. The easiest way to do so is by broadcasting and re-broadcasting a safety message until it reaches the whole network. Nonetheless, two problems arise from this approach: (i) the flood of transmitted messages causes massive packet collisions, incurring delays instead of quickly reaching all network nodes — an effect known as broadcast storm — and (ii) communication and processing resources are wasted because a hazard event is not necessarily required to be informed immediately to far away vehicles — they would discard the message because it does not have value for taking an action yet. Several proposals appeared in the literature to tackle the aforementioned problems. Some techniques are based on limiting the number of re-broadcasts of a message by using counters, or by allowing retransmissions only by the vehicles farthest from the original transmitter, or even by making all vehicles share their location in order for the best forwarders to be identified. Even though these methods have performed well on highways, their use did not yield good results on urban scenarios. The higher presence of obstacles blocks the highly directive signals used for inter-vehicle communication. Therefore, another class of proposals emerged, making use of forwarder vehicles to avoid such obstacles. Still, some proposals tried to take the opportunity presented by the wide coverage provided by cellular networks, however up to LTE, communication delays were higher than the limit allowed by safety messages dissemination. Nonetheless, the development of 5G shows evidence that the technology will be able to comply with such tight delay requirements. Thus, the use of both forwarders and 5G technology for the dissemination of safety warning messages seems promising. In this work, clustering is considered as a means to keep broadcast storms under control by limiting communication from cluster members only to the cluster master. However, creating and maintaining clusters might become a challenge because differences in the vehicles speeds and routes constantly change clusters topologies. Therefore, a mechanism must be in place to not only form clusters that will last longer, but also to merge small clusters together, since having many clusters approaches the network efficiency to the scenario without clusters. Hence, a cluster merging algorithm is proposed and, then, this work proceeds to analyze the use of different combinations of forwarders and the 5G infrastructure to achieve the best warning message dissemination performance in terms of delay and percentage of informed vehicles. In that regard, this work will follow a simulation approach to assess the mentioned performance metrics of the original proposals and of other proposals selected from the literature as benchmarks.doctoral, Ph.D., Computer Science -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-1
An Approximation of Studded Tire Vehicle Volumes Utilizing Sound Data
No full textThe purpose of this study was to determine if sound could be used as a defining parameter to distinguish vehicles using studded tires from all other vehicle types. Vehicle sound data were collected using a sound meter device during the winter and summer seasons along a two-lane rural highway (State Highway 8) and a divided multi-lane highway (US-95) near Moscow, Idaho. The study examined variables including vehicle type, season, travel lane, and highway type. Based on the results, the study concluded that while vehicles with studded tires generated a higher decibel range that most passenger vehicles without studded tires, the range could not be differentiated from many pick-up trucks and semi-trucks with louder engine noises. While the results suggest that data collection methods using sound would require a secondary source such as video or a field observer in order to definitively identify vehicles with studded tires, an approximation method based on estimating the number of vehicles and the percentage of vehicles with studded tires produced results that were comparable to previously established methods.masters, M.S., Civil Engineering -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-1
Interactions of Seed Bacteria with Fungal Endophytes and Plants
No full textAbstractEndophytes are microbes living symbiotically within plant tissues. They have been shown to have profound effects on plant growth and defense, yet the ecological and managerial implications of these interactions have only recently been discovered. Scientific observation and discovery in this field is sometimes difficult because interactions between the same two species can have radically different outcomes depending on any number of factors, both biotic and abiotic. Soil, light, temperature, genetics, and the presence or absence of other plants and microbes can all dramatically change the outcome of an interaction from mutually beneficial to neutral or even pathogenic. It’s important to study these interactions further and determine how these interactions can affect plant and human health. This thesis examines the effects of microbes on the growth of a common crop plant and the potential applications for human health, as well as the exclusionary interactions between endophytic bacteria and fungi present in a commercially valuable tree species with a declining population. The first chapter reports the results of a study comparting the antagonism of bacteria from different plant tissues. Pinus monticola, commonly known as Western White Pine, was chosen the model system due to its high commercial value and its declining population due to susceptibility to white pine blister rust. White pine blister rust is a devastating plant disease caused by a biotrophic stem rust, Cronartium ribicola. It was found that bacteria isolated from seed were more antagonistic towards endophytic fungi than those isolated from needles. These findings may be useful for furthering efforts to manage plant pathogens such as Cronartium ribicola with further testing and development. The second chapter of this thesis describes the results of interactions between strains of Bacillus subtilis and Raphanus sativus as a model domesticated crop plant. The goal of the study was to determine if a probiotic train of human origin could have the same effects on plant growth and health as strains isolated from plant sources. The results indicate that the strains have similar affects, regardless of origin. This could have applications in agriculture as not only potential plant growth promoters, but as a novel way to deliver health promoting bacteria to human consumers.masters, M.S., Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0