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Presenters & Abstracts: 2018
LEEROY JENKINS: Identity Formation, Investment, and Social Structure of Guilds in World of Warcraft
- Rachael HellerAnthropologyUndergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
World of Warcraft is a story-based fantasy adventure massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which players customize characters and play through game content individually or in a group. Guilds in WoW are semi-permanent groups of players that come together with a common in-game agenda. Through participant observation and interviews, this project studies one guild within WoW, focusing on personal and group identity formation, and the relationship between perceived value and monetary/time investment. Examination of these topics builds reality within a fictional, virtual setting, and seeks to provide insight into the formation of structured subgroups within a larger society.
Lesson Study Across Waters
- Shelbie ChristensenChemistryUndergraduate Student
College of Professional Studies
Humboldt State University (HSU) students participated in the first part of an international lesson study by developing and implementing curriculum about climate change. Together with Swiss students from Haute Ecole Pédagogique du Canton de Vaud (HEP ), ideas of pedagogy were shared while developing, deploying, and revising an engaging lesson plan. With the goal to better understand lesson development and successful teaching strategies in the classroom, the students are to repeat this process at least three more times in Switzerland.
Load Forcasting in Humboldt County
- Nora Graham, Kabao Yang, Jack EicherMathmatics DepartmentUndergraduate Student
Other
The objective of our project is the prediction of the electric power usage in Humboldt County in 2017. Load is the amount of power that is being drawn from the electrical grid due to consumer, industrial, and governmental practices. Forecasting load is used to predict future electrical power that is required to meet the short term or long term demand. We have created a linear regression analysis with a moving window to predict energy use for the next hour. Our work is a mathematical model that uses past data to achieve an efficient strategy for forecasting electricity loads.
Map of wildfire severity of the Santa Rosa: CA 2017
- John CortenbachEnvironmental Science and ManagementUndergraduate Student
- Richard WilliamsEnvironmental Resources EngineeringUndergraduate Student
- Buddhika MadurapperumaForestry and Wildland Resources/ Environmental Science and ManagementFaculty
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
This study examines the Santa Rosa fire in 2017 using remote sensing techniques to estimate the acreage of burned areas. Landsat 8 imagery of the pre- and post- fires were used to extrapolate the burn severity using two methods: (i) Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and (ii) change detection analysis. The results of burn severity of both methods were on average 24% under-approximated comparison to values supplied by Cal Fire. While comparing acreage burn, provided by CAL FIRE indicates that our results were on average 76% ±8% accuracy in identifying burn severity. Of the two methods, the change detection using iso clustered unsupervised classification scheme was more accurate.
Mapping the Ancient Maya ‘Landscape’: A GIS approach to identify undocumented archaeological structures in Northwestern Belize
- Jeremy McFarlandAnthropologyUndergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
This project presents a unique approach to mapping the Maya landscape of Northwestern Belize. The basis of the research will explore various GIS and cartographic techniques to manipulate and visualize geospatial data to map and produce a model to assist with predictive site survey of archaeological structures. As a result of this research, various images of relief visualization will be produced to help with pre-field planning for the summer 2018 field season. This project is part of the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project (DH2GC) led by Dr. Marisol Cortes-Rincon at Humboldt State University.
Mapping the Northcoast Environmental Center Adopt-A-Beach Program "Clean Beaches, Clean Water"
- Emmaline TrockeyInternshipUndergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
For my internship I have been working with the Northcoast Environmental Center to use geospatial analysis and cartography to map their Adopt-A-Beach program. For my poster I would like to display the process and final outcome of the work I have been doing.
Measuring a Nations Fragility in Relation to Climate Change
- Jessica SolomonEnvironmental Science and ManagementUndergraduate Student
- Amanda DonaldsonGeologyUndergraduate Student
- Christina HerringMathematicsUndergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
Concluding the 21st century, changing atmospheric processes will alter regional resource availability increasing a nation’s fragility. To examine the interconnected nature among socioeconomic structures and ecosystem services, a model was developed that measures a nation’s fragility in six categories: political, economic, social, agriculture, water resources, and culture. The model was then applied to the 10th most fragile nation, The Republic of Iraq, and the 158th most fragile nation, The United States of America. The United States will too experience great changes in the environment, but accessibility to mitigate greatly reduces their progression to a fragile state in contrast to Iraq.
Method for Direct Catalytic Spectrophotometric Determination of Iron by Flow Injection Analysis
- Emilia J McCannChemistryUndergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
A sensitive flow injection (FI) system for determining dissolved iron concentrations involved a complex manifold: peristaltic pump, two electronically actuated 6-port, 2-postion injection valves, UV-Vis spectrophotometer and a desktop computer controlled by a software program for data acquisition. The FI method allows for direct preconcentration of iron in samples at trace metal nanomolar concentrations using the catalytic colorimetric indicator N, N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride. Toyopearl AF-Chelate-650M chelating resin is used to remove the need for sample treatments before preconcentrating and eliminate interferences from iron binding to organic ligands in the sample matrix
Methodology for in situ DRIFTS Measurements of Atmospheric Heterogeneous Processes
- Emilia J McCannChemistryUndergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) is a form of infrared spectroscopy specific to analyzing powder solids. The DRIFTS apparatus contains a controlled environment in vacuum or atmospheric pressure conditions. Heterogeneous interactions of gas-solid samples in the DRIFTS cell allow for in situ measurements under a variety of environmental conditions to characterize functional groups and structural evolution during the process of a chemical reaction. Experiments studied the effect of acetone adsorption on Titanium dioxide (TiO2) surface for oxidation reactions on the surface.
Modification of Turbulent Pipe Flow Equations to Estimate the Vertical Velocity Profiles Under Woody Debris Jams
- Ahron CervaniaEnvironmental Resources EngineeringUndergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
Large woody debris (LWD) in rivers can increase fish and macroinvertebrate habitat, but also increases the risk of flooding and reduces channel navigability. This research aims to better understand the river hydraulics associated with LWD in order to find a balance between the beneficial and detrimental effects. By modifying equations of turbulent pipe flow, we attempt to estimate the vertical velocity profile of flow under LWD jams and compare the estimated profile to measured profiles from flume-simulated LWD jams.