Recent documents in Wyoming Scholars Repository
Updated: 18 hours 50 min ago

### The Hermitian Null-range of a Matrix over a Finite Field

Sun, 2018-05-20 11:42

Let $q$ be a prime power. For $u=(u_1,\dots ,u_n), v=(v_1,\dots ,v_n)\in \mathbb {F} _{q^2}^n$, let $\langle u,v\rangle := \sum _{i=1}^{n} u_i^qv_i$ be the Hermitian form of $\mathbb {F} _{q^2}^n$. Fix an $n\times n$ matrix $M$ over $\mathbb {F} _{q^2}$. In this paper, it is considered the case $k=0$ of the set $\mathrm{Num} _k(M):= \{\langle u,Mu\rangle \mid u\in \mathbb {F} _{q^2}^n, \langle u,u\rangle =k\}$. When $M$ has coefficients in $\mathbb {F} _q$ the paper studies the set $\mathrm{Num} _k(M)_q:= \{\langle u,Mu\rangle \mid u\in \mathbb {F} _q^n,\langle u,u\rangle =k\}\subseteq \mathbb {F} _q$. The set $\mathrm{Num} _1(M)$ is the numerical range of $M$, previously introduced in a paper by Coons, Jenkins, Knowles, Luke, and Rault (case $q$ a prime $p\equiv 3\pmod{4}$), and by the author (arbitrary $q$). In this paper, it is studied in details $\mathrm{Num} _0(M)$ and $\mathrm{Num} _k(M)_q$ when $n=2$. If $q$ is even, $\mathrm{Num} _0(M)_q$ is easily described for arbitrary $n$. If $q$ is odd, then either $\mathrm{Num} _0(M)_q =\{0\}$, or $\mathrm{Num} _0(M)_q=\mathbb {F} _q$, or $\sharp (\mathrm{Num} _0(M)_q)=(q+1)/2$.

### Using the Microsoft Hololens as a Robotic Controller

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:30

Using the Microsoft Hololens as a Robotic Controller

Marcus Rieker with Professor Suresh S. Muknahallipatna

Computer Engineering

University of Wyoming

Oral & Poster Presentation

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Laramie, WY

The Raspberry Pi 3 is a low cost, credit-card sized computer. Windows 10 IoT Core is an operating system built for such small devices. Windows 10 IoT Core embraces a rich UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app experience. The Microsoft HoloLens is the first self-contained, holographic computer, enabling users to engage and interact with holograms in the world around them.

The goal of this project is to use a Raspberry Pi 3 (running Windows 10 IoT Core) and a Microsoft Hololens to control a small robotic platform. This platform will have two DC motors (powering two separate wheels) controlled by an H-Bridge mounted on the robotic platform. The Raspberry Pi will take commands via WiFi (TCP / IP sockets) from the Microsoft Hololens. A user will control the robotic platform (turning it, moving it forward/backward, etc.) via model manipulation. I.e. the model will appear in the Hololens and will allow the user to interact with it. If the user pushes / turns the model the robotic platform will move accordingly. There will also be a live feed from a camera mounted on the platform that streams to the Hololens. This will assist the user in control and not limit them to being in the same vicinity as the platform. The fundamental concept of this project (communication between a Raspberry Pi and Microsoft Hololens) will have unlimited applications in the years to come, especially as the Hololens becomes more and more affordable to the general public.

### Cost Analysis for 2017 Wyoming Trichomonas Regulations

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:30

This Cost Benefit Analysis is in reference to the new 2017 Wyoming Trichomonas Regulations and addresses the effect these updates have had on samples received at the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory in Laramie, Wyoming. Before 2017 in Wyoming, either a culture or PCR could be performed to test a bull for the presence of Trichomonas. New regulations now require PCR diagnoses to take place. This project covers data collected at the WSVL from 2012 through 2017. Both culture and PCR data were analyzed for 2012 to 2016. Data was split into pre- and post-regulation changes, and then divided further into four yearly quarters. The 2017 data was compared to this line in order to determine if the new rules have had any effect on the number of samples received. The main criteria for determining the cost or benefit due to new regulations are substantial decrease or increase in sample submissions and change of seasonal trends. According to the data analyzed thus far, the Wyoming State Vet Lab is seeing a marked decrease in revenue stream after the implementation of the new Trichomonas feotus regulations. The overall PCR count has remained relatively similar, however, the inability to use culturing as a diagnostic tool is where the drop in sample numbers is taking place. There is a significant price difference in the consumer cost of culturing as compared to PCR, which may be a causative factor in the lack of customers switching test type. The proposed solution is to lower in-house costs to effectively decrease the lab fee for testing at the WSVL.

### Vague in Northern Ireland: Examining Perceptions of Victimhood and Lasting Animosities in Northern Ireland

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:30

In 1998, the violent Troubles in Northern Ireland came to an end with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Many in the world would believe that today, Northern Ireland exists in a state of peace. That idea, however, is far from true. Today, Northern Ireland exists in a state of negative peace with isolated incidents of violence occurring between Catholic Republicans and Protestant Loyalists. These groups continue to disagree on who is a true victim of the Troubles, creating a hierarchy of victimhood. With the collapse of the government in 2017, many wonder what will happen in the future between these two groups. This paper looks at the existing perceptions of victimhood between Catholic Nationalist Republicans and Protestant Unionist Loyalists, as well as the role of the media and international funding. Through examining these perceptions, it becomes clear that full peace in Northern Ireland may be far off if the two communities cannot come together to form one definition of victimhood.

### Growing Brave: A Feminist Short Story Inspired by Myth, Folklore, and Fairy Tales

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:29

Fairy tales are often deemed as nothing more than “children’s stories” or “old wives’ tales.” With this ideology, stories that are seen as “childlike” or “feminine” are somehow labeled as unimportant or silly. However, these tales, as well as their adaptations, are anything but frivolous and trivial. Fairy tales have the unique power to reflect or change the cultural values of a people and era through their morals and lessons. With this project, I will examine this genre of creative writing and rework classic stories from a feminist perspective to reflect the issues and values of the 21st century. I will be writing a short story inspired by myth and fairy tales that feature strong female characters figuring out their own solutions to their problems and becoming their own fairy godmothers. The story focuses on the themes of resilience and courage, individuality, and finding a voice.

### Refugee Resettlement in Wyoming: A How-to Guide

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:29

### Behavioral Inhibition and Posttrauma Symptomatology: Moderating Effects of Safety Behaviors and Biological Sex

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:29

Behavioral inhibition – a temperamental tendency characterized by general sensitivity to negative outcomes – is a trait-level factor thought to contribute to maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Anxiety-related safety behaviors – actions performed to prevent or mitigate feared outcomes and associated distress – may impact the nature of the relation between behavioral inhibition and trauma-focused symptoms by interfering with natural habituation of anxiety. The current research examined the unique and interactive effects of behavioral inhibition, safety behaviors, and biological sex on PTSD symptom clusters in undergraduates (N = 133; 74% female; 77% White/Non-Hispanic) reporting exposure to Criterion-A trauma. Regression models indicated direct effects of safety behaviors for cognition-mood (p = .001, pr = .323) and intrusion (p < .001, pr = .354) clusters. A main effect of behavioral inhibition was also noted for cognition-mood (p = .046, pr = .178). Participant sex moderated the relation between safety behaviors and arousal-reactivity symptoms (p = .035, pr = .187) with men demonstrating a stronger association as compared to women. Sex also moderated the relation between safety behaviors and avoidance-reactivity (p = .033, pr = -.190) with only women evidencing an association between safety behaviors and symptoms. Safety behaviors moderated the relation between behavioral inhibition and arousal-reactivity (p = .002, pr = .272) such that inhibition only predicted symptoms at high utilization of safety behaviors. Results suggest trauma-related safety behaviors are associated with more severe posttrauma symptoms though effects vary across sex and symptom cluster.

### LokkaL - A Group Location-Sharing Mobile Application

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:29

As smart devices become more and more popular among the general population, their use as a tool of communication is no longer their primary functionality. These devices are being used and treated as miniature computers that provide access to entertainment, email, and many other services. We as a group decided to focus on the location-tracking aspect that many smart devices currently provide in hopes of addressing the problem of visiting a location with a group, splitting up, and being unable to know where other group members are. Our solution was to create a free and easy to use mobile application that allows users to share their current location in real-time and send/receive notifications to other members in their group, while not draining a device’s battery life.

The application is currently designed to run on smart devices running an Android operating system and was built using Android Studio. While other applications currently exist that have similar purposes, our application, LokkaL, was designed to include functionality that is not commonly found in free applications or has not been widely implemented. These features include knowing other members’ battery life, notifying members when another group member has left a marked area, and an easy-to-use interface that allows users to easily create groups with one another. No longer will one have to worry about being unable to locate a group member when traveling to a new city, a concert/music festival, or even just a night downtown.

### Snow Now - An Artificial Snow Product

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:29

When people think of winter the image of snow covering the ground is immediately thought of. In Wyoming this image is brought to life without fail every year, but what about people in other parts of the United States? In many parts of the southern United States it is common to not have any snow during the year. Because of the strong impression of what winter should look like, many people desire to fulfill this idea and would like to have snow covered lawns, but they are unable to. A solution to this problem is a synthetic product that looks like snow and is safe to the environment.

This project assesses the viability of an indoor product comprised of a superabsorbent polymer, sodium polyacrylate, to be used on a larger scale outdoors as well as a way to apply the product to the ground primarily for decoration purposes. Tests on the product’s resistance to heat, cold, wind, and sunlight were completed, and environmental concerns were researched. In addition, multiple applicators and application processes were considered to determine the best way to apply the product. What was found was that the product was not affected by any of the tests, which makes it suitable for outdoor use, and that premixing the product and applying by hand is the best method for application.

### edTPA: A Performance Based Assessment in the Classroom

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:29

Teacher candidates today are faced with the responsibility to meet the diverse needs of learners in the classroom. The University of Wyoming uses Educative Teacher Preparedness Assessment (edTPA) to provide evidence that the candidate understands the classroom as a whole as well as the student’s individual needs. One of the most important considerations includes preparedness to modify and differentiate lessons to fit the needs of all students. Through integration of a variety of teaching strategies (both teacher and student centered), teachers are able to reach all types of learners through scaffolding including direct instruction, gradual release, and project based learning.

The goal of this project was to create a unit of five lessons for fourth grade students in Wyoming, which aligned with both Common Core literacy standards as well as social studies curriculum, that helped future educators develop skills to be successful in a variety of school settings. This was accomplished through development of planning, instruction, and evaluation tasks that assessed the pre-service teacher’s preparedness to meet the academic needs of all students. Students were required to practice literacy strategies, including comprehension, analyzing of primary sources, knowledge of vocabulary words, and how to read informational texts.

### Dhal Bhat and My Dad’s Pizza: Comfort and Steep Learning Curves in Nepal

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:29

Food is central to our lives. We cannot live without it; our bodies need it to function. But food has more meaning than energy to move our muscles, to help us think, or give us vital vitamins and minerals. We relate food to experiences. Traveling to new places almost always involves trying local cuisine or local specialties. We find comfort in food; in greasy, cheesy, gooey, delicious foods. We eat to deal with stress, to celebrate joy, to mourn losses. Holidays are almost always associated with foods. Food is not just a physical need, but also an emotional and psychological need or desire. While traveling in Nepal, this became even more true. I spent more time thinking about food, salivating over food, and mourning over food, than I thought possible. Food gave me comfort; it helped me to communicate and bridged the gaps between me and the people of Nepal, while also causing me hardships. In this project I related my experiences with living in Nepal for four months to my obsession with food while I was there.

### Vision Therapy Rehabilitation of Post-Concussion Visual Impairments

Thu, 2018-05-17 03:29

Concussion is a common, mild form of traumatic brain injury that is caused by blunt force trauma to the head. Concussion can be caused by a wide variety of situation, commonly sports collisions, automobile accidents, and falls. Signs of concussion include a loss of consciousness, temporary amnesia, and disorientation. Severe concussion can result in visual impairments such as blurred vision, light sensitivity, attention deficits, impaired memory, and double vision. Vision therapy can significantly or completely improve many of these visual impairments. Vision therapy is a series of procedures monitored by an optometrist that are designed to improve visual movements and processing. Vision therapy can be used to benefit patients in many different situations from sports vision training and learning disability improvements to traumatic brain injury rehabilitation and specific visual condition correction. Many or all of the visual symptoms of concussion respond to vision therapy; vision therapy programs for concussion typically focus on correcting convergence insufficiency, eye movements, visual tracking, and gaze stabilization. The case study included at the end of this research presents the use of vision therapy for the management of post-concussion visual symptoms in a 20 year old male athlete.

### The properties of partial trace and block trace operators of partitioned matrices

Wed, 2018-05-16 23:19

The aim of this paper is to give the properties of two linear operators defined on non-square partitioned matrix: the partial trace operator and the block trace operator. The conditions for symmetry, nonnegativity, and positive-definiteness are given, as well as the relations between partial trace and block trace operators with standard trace, vectorizing and the Kronecker product operators. Both partial trace as well as block trace operators can be widely used in statistics, for example in the estimation of unknown parameters under the multi-level multivariate models or in the theory of experiments for the determination of an optimal designs under the linear models.

### Preface: International Conference on Matrix Analysis and Its Applications -- MatTriad 2017

Wed, 2018-05-16 23:18

### Universal Basic Income in the United States

Mon, 2018-05-14 19:34

Technological advances in digitalization and automation have begun to change the labor market in the United States. Automation is expected to replace a percentage of low and middle-income jobs in the United States. The changes in the labor market are predicted to result in job loss and displacement, increased inequality, and lower consumer demand. The social insurance programs currently employed in the United States are ill equipped to handle the changes in the labor market. This paper examines the effects of replacing unemployment benefits currently funded by states with a federally funded universal basic income. Existing and proposed basic income trials were examined to determine the effects on inequality. A universal basic income was also analyzed in both a labor market model and aggregate demand – aggregate supply model in order to determine the effect on wages and consumer demand. The research has indicated that the implementation of a basic income would raise wages as a result of increased bargaining power, lower inequality, and secure consumer purchasing power in the face of labor insecurity.

### Living with Malaria: Testing the relationships between plumage characteristics and associated carotenoid concentrations in a species of woodpecker

Mon, 2018-05-14 19:34

Avian malaria is a vector-borne disease whose effects on reproductive success and life history strategies are poorly understood. Avian malaria likely has consequences on carotenoid metabolism and color display in many species of birds.Carotenoid deposition in feathers and the associated yellow, orange, and red feather colorations are often used to evaluate individual quality. We analyzed feathers and tissues from specimens of a woodpecker species, Sphyrapicus ruber, collected from California and Oregon in 2012. This species is known to contract avian malaria and has several carotenoid-based plumage patches on its body. Infected individuals had a higher percentage of red, carotenoid-based plumage on the breast region but a lower concentration of carotenoids deposited in feathers, compared to indidivuals not infected with avian malaria. We suggest that avian malaria influences carotenoid metabolism and that the type of carotenoid being deposited in feathers is more important, biologically, than overall carotenoid concentrations. With the vectors of avian malaria experiencing range changes, our work helps shed light on how avian malaria may affect avian life strategies.

### A Bear Named Jerry

Mon, 2018-05-14 19:34

This creative writing piece is based off of experiences within my own family. It describes a family that is in a car accident and the aftermath of that event. The aim of this work is to explore human nature, especially in the face of tragedy. Each member of the family deals with the crash in a different and often unexpected way. The narrator is a girl who’s father and two younger siblings are in a wreck in her first year of college. She examines not only the reactions of those around her, but also how she deals with changes brought on by the event. The father is injured and must learn to cope with his paralysis and become humbled by the disabilities he faces. The younger brother struggles with his guilt as he was the driver and yet walked away uninjured. The little sister portrays a great strength of character as she heals two broken femurs. The mother cannot deal with the stress of the situation, especially when her infidelity comes to light, and leaves the family for her new man. As the story moves from the event of the crash to the divorce following, the narrator becomes critical of the relationships she has with those around her. She questions the ties of family and comes to understand that even her parents are only human and every human is capable of great strength and incredible selfishness.

### Investigation into the Amino Acid Characteristic of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Mon, 2018-05-14 19:34

Caulobacter crescentus, which belongs to the class of Alphaproteobacteria, has a highly organized cytoplasm that includes complex macromolecular structures at the cell poles. These polar complexes are assembled through the activity of a scaffolding protein, known as the Polar Organizing Protein Z (PopZ). PopZ interacts with other proteins via an N-terminal domain that is mostly intrinsically disordered, and contains, an abundance of proline, glutamte, and aspartate (P,E, and D) residues. Surprisingly, scrambling the order of amino acids in the PED region does not affect PopZ function, suggesting that binding affinity and specificity are not dependent on interactions with individual amino acids within this low-complexity region. The biochemical qualities of P,E and D promote intrinsic disorder, but they are not the only types of amino acids that are found in unstructured protein domains. By making targeted changes in the PopZ sequence, we are asking if binding affinity and specificity are dependent on qualities associated specifically with P,E, and D (for example, negative charge), or if any form of intrinsic disorder is sufficient to support a functional PopZ binding domain. One change we are making is to substitute all of the prolines for serine. While this will certainly affect the hydrophobicity of the protein, our in silico analyses predict that the change will preserve intrinsic disorder. Another change will be to substitute the asparate and glutamate residue for lysine, thus reversing the electrostatic charge with an amino acid that promotes intrinsic disorder.

### On the distance and distance signless Laplacian eigenvalues of graphs and the smallest Gersgorin disc

Mon, 2018-05-14 10:43

The \emph{distance matrix} of a simple connected graph $G$ is $D(G)=(d_{ij})$, where $d_{ij}$ is the distance between the $i$th and $j$th vertices of $G$. The \emph{distance signless Laplacian matrix} of the graph $G$ is $D_Q(G)=D(G)+Tr(G)$, where $Tr(G)$ is a diagonal matrix whose $i$th diagonal entry is the transmission of the vertex $i$ in $G$. In this paper, first, upper and lower bounds for the spectral radius of a nonnegative matrix are constructed. Applying this result, upper and lower bounds for the distance and distance signless Laplacian spectral radius of graphs are given, and the extremal graphs for these bounds are obtained. Also, upper bounds for the modulus of all distance (respectively, distance signless Laplacian) eigenvalues other than the distance (respectively, distance signless Laplacian) spectral radius of graphs are given. These bounds are probably first of their kind as the authors do not find in the literature any bound for these eigenvalues. Finally, for some classes of graphs, it is shown that all distance (respectively, distance signless Laplacian) eigenvalues other than the distance (respectively, distance signless Laplacian) spectral radius lie in the smallest Ger\^sgorin disc of the distance (respectively, distance signless Laplacian) matrix.

### Block Representation and Spectral Properties of Constant Sum Matrices

Sun, 2018-05-13 13:37

An equivalent representation of constant sum matrices in terms of block-structured matrices is given in this paper. This provides an easy way of constructing all constant sum matrices, including those with further symmetry properties. The block representation gives a convenient description of the dihedral equivalence of such matrices. It is also shown how it can be used to study their spectral properties, giving explicit formulae for eigenvalues and eigenvectors in special situations, as well as for quasi-inverses when these exist.