Amphibious City: Sustainable Adaptations to Sea Level Rise in Seattle’s Interbay Area

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

MARS (Media Asset Retrieval System): Puget Sound’s Digital Archive

The MARS (Media Asset Retrieval System) Project is the collaborative effort of public broadcasters,libraries and schools in the Puget Sound region to create a digital online resource that provides access to content produced by public broadcasters via the public libraries. Convergence ConsortiumThe Convergence Consortium is a model for community collaboration, including organizations such as public broadcasters, libraries, museums, and schools in the Puget Sound region to assess the needs of their constituents and pool resources to develop solutions to meet those needs. Specifically, the archives of public broadcasters have been identified as significant resources for the local communities and nationally. These resources can be accessed on the broadcasters websites, and through libraries and used by schools, and integrated with text and photographic archives from other partners.MARS’ goalCreate an online resource that provides effective access to the content produced locally by KCTS (Seattle PBS affiliate) and KUOW (Seattle NPR affiliate). The broadcasts will be made searchable using the CPB Metadata Element Set (under development) and controlled vocabularies (to be developed). This will ensure a user friendly search and navigation mechanism and user satisfaction.Furthermore, the resource can search the local public library’s catalog concurrently and provide the user with relevant TV material, radio material, and books on a given subject.The ultimate goal is to produce a model that can be used in cities around the country.The current phase of the project assesses the community’s need, analyzes the current operational systems, and makes recommendations for the design of the resource.Deliverables• Literature review of the issues surrounding the organization, description and representation of media assets• Needs assessment report of internal and external stakeholders• Profile of the systems in the area of managing and organizing media assetsfor public broadcasting nationwideActivities• Analysis of information seeking behavior• Analysis of collaboration within the respective organizations• Analysis of the scope and context of the proposed system• Examining the availability of information resources and exchangeof resources among users

Puget Sound’s MARS (Media Asset Retrieval System) Digital Library

The MARS (Media Asset Retrieval System) Project is a collaboration between public broadcasters, libraries and schools in the Puget Sound region to assess the needs of their constituents and pool resources to develop solutions to meet those needs. The Project’s ultimate goal is to create a digital online resource that will provide access to content produced by public broadcasters and libraries. The MARS Project is funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Television Future Fund. Convergence ConsortiumThe Convergence Consortium is a model for community collaboration, including representatives from public broadcasting, libraries and schools in the Puget Sound region. They meet regularly to consider collaborative efforts that will be mutually beneficial to their institutions and constituents. Specifically, the archives of public broadcasters have been identified as significant resources that can be accessed through libraries and used by schools, and integrated with text and photographic archives from other partners.Using the work-centered framework, we collected data through interviews with nine engineers and observation of their searching while they performed their regular, job-related searches on the Web. The framework was used to analyze the data on two levels: 1) the activities and organizational relationships and constrains of work domains, and 2) users’ cognitive and social activities and their subjective preferences during searching.

The role of social capital in reducing negative health outcomes among police officers

This paper investigates the role of social capital on the reduction of short and long run negative health effects associated with stress, as well as indicators of burnout among police officers. Despite the large volume of research on either social capital or the health effects of stress, the interaction of these factors remains an underexplored topic. In this empirical analysis we aim to reduce such a shortcoming focusing on a highly stressful and emotionally draining work environment, namely law enforcement agents who perform as an essential part of maintaining modern society. Using a multivariate regression analysis focusing on three different proxies of health and three proxies for social capital conducting also several robustness checks, we find strong evidence that increased levels of social capital is highly correlated with better health outcomes. Additionally we observe that while social capital at work is very important, social capital in the home environment and work-life balance are even more important. From a policy perspective, our findings suggest that work and stress programs should actively encourage employees to build stronger social networks as well as incorporate better working/home life arrangements.

Building Indigenous research capacity : a personal perspective

The International Network of Indigenous Health Knowledge and Development (INIHKD) Conference was held from Monday 24 May to Friday 28 May 2010 at Kiana Lodge, Port Madison Indian Reservation, Suquamish Nation, Washington State, United States of America. The overall theme for the 4th Biennial Conference was ‘Knowing Our Roots: Indigenous Medicines, Health Knowledges and Best Practices’.

The 4th International Network of Indigenous Health Knowledge and Development Conference

The International Network of Indigenous Health Knowledge and Development (INIHKD) Conference was held from Monday 24 May to Friday 28 May 2010 at Kiana Lodge, Port Madison Indian Reservation, Suquamish Nation, Washington State, United States of America. The overall theme for the 4th Biennial Conference was ‘Knowing Our Roots: Indigenous Medicines, Health Knowledges and Best Practices’. This article details the experience of participants who were at the INIHKD Conference. It concludes with an encouragement to people to attend the 5th INIHKD Conference in Australia in 2012.

Controlling chaos? The value and the challenges of applying complexity theory to project management

The literature abounds with descriptions of failures in high-profile projects and a range of initiatives has been generated to enhance project management practice (e.g., Morris, 2006). Estimating from our own research, there are scores of other project failures that are unrecorded. Many of these failures can be explained using existing project management theory; poor risk management, inaccurate estimating, cultures of optimism dominating decision making, stakeholder mismanagement, inadequate timeframes, and so on. Nevertheless, in spite of extensive discussion and analysis of failures and attention to the presumed causes of failure, projects continue to fail in unexpected ways. In the 1990s, three U.S. state departments of motor vehicles (DMV) cancelled major projects due to time and cost overruns and inability to meet project goals (IT-Cortex, 2010). The California DMV failed to revitalize their drivers’ license and registration application process after spending $45 million. The Oregon DMV cancelled their five year, $50 million project to automate their manual, paper-based operation after three years when the estimates grew to $123 million; its duration stretched to eight years or more and the prototype was a complete failure. In 1997, the Washington state DMV cancelled their license application mitigation project because it would have been too big and obsolete by the time it was estimated to be finished. There are countless similar examples of projects that have been abandoned or that have not delivered the requirements.

Parents’ experience of time distortion following diagnosis of a serious or lethal fetal anomaly

PURPOSE: To explore the experience of couples who continued pregnancy following a diagnosis of serious or lethal fetal anomaly. STUDY DESIGN: Thirty-one male and female participants were recruited from a high-risk maternal–fetal medicine clinic in Washington State. Data were collected using in-depth interviews during pregnancy and after the birth of their baby. Transcribed interviews were thematically analyzed through the phenomenological lens of Merleau-Ponty. FINDINGS: Participants described how time became reconfigured and reconstituted as they tried to compress a lifetime of love for their future child into a limited period. Participants’ concepts of time became distorted and were related to their perceptual lived experience rather than the schedule-filled,regimented, linear clock time that governed the health professionals. CONCLUSION: Living in distorted time may be a mechanism parents use to cope with overwhelming and disorienting feelings when their unborn baby is diagnosed with a fetal anomaly.

Non-linear model predictive control for UAVs with slung/swung load

Suspended loads on UAVs can provide significant benefits to several applications in agriculture, law enforcement and construction. The load impact on the underlying system dynamics should not be neglected as significant feedback forces may be induced on the vehicle during certain flight manoeuvres. Much research has focused on standard multi-rotor position and attitude control with and without a slung load. However, predictive control schemes, such as Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC), have not yet been fully explored. To this end, we present software and flight system architecture to test controller for safe and precise operation of multi-rotors with heavy slung load in three dimensions.

Automatic image scaling for place recognition in changing environments

Robustness to variations in environmental conditions and camera viewpoint is essential for long-term place recognition, navigation and SLAM. Existing systems typically solve either of these problems, but invariance to both remains a challenge. This paper presents a training-free approach to lateral viewpoint- and condition-invariant, vision-based place recognition. Our successive frame patch-tracking technique infers average scene depth along traverses and automatically rescales views of the same place at different depths to increase their similarity. We combine our system with the condition-invariant SMART algorithm and demonstrate place recognition between day and night, across entire 4-lane-plus-median-strip roads, where current algorithms fail.

Monitoring hydrilla using two RAPD procedures and the Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database

Hydrilla ( Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle), an invasive aquatic weed, continues to spread to new regions in the United States. Two biotypes, one a female dioecious and the other monoecious have been identified. Management of the spread of hydrilla requires understanding the mechanisms of introduction and transport, an ability to map and make available information on distribution, and tools to distinguish the known U.S. biotypes as well as potential new introductions. Review of the literature and discussions with aquatic scientists and resource managers point to the aquarium and water garden plant trades as the primary past mechanism for the regional dispersal of hydrilla while local dispersal is primarily carried out by other mechanisms such as boat traffic, intentional introductions, and waterfowl. The Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) database is presented as a tool for assembling, geo-referencing, and making available information on the distribution of hydrilla. A map of the current range of dioecious and monoecious hydrilla by drainage is presented. Four hydrilla samples, taken from three discrete, non-contiguous regions (Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Washington State) were examined using two RAPD assays. The first, generated using primer Operon G17, and capable of distinguishing the dioecious and monoecious U.S. biotypes, indicated all four samples were of the monoecious biotype. Results of the second assay using the Stoffel fragment and 5 primers, produced 111 markers, indicated that these samples do not represent new foreign introductions. The differences in the monoecious and dioecious growth habits and management are discussed.

Factors to consider when using native biological control organisms to manage exotic plants

Biological control of exotic plant populations with native organisms appears to be increasing, even though its success to date has been limited. Although many researchers and managers feel that native organisms are easier to use and present less risk to the environment this may not be true. Developing a successful management program with a native insect is dependent on a number of critical factors that need to be considered. Information is needed on the feeding preference of the agent, agent effectiveness, environmental regulation of the agent, unique requirements of the agent, population maintenance of the agent, and time to desired impact. By understanding these factors, researchers and managers can develop a detailed protocol for using the native biological control agent for a specific target plant. . We found E. lecontei in 14 waterbodies, most of which were in eastern Washington. Only one lake with weevils was located in western Washington. Weevils were associated with both Eurasian ( Myriophyllum spicatum L.) and northern watermilfoil ( M. sibiricum K.). Waterbodies with E. lecontei had significantly higher ( P < 0.05) pH (8.7 ± 0.2) (mean ± 2SE), specific conductance (0.3 ± 0.08 mS cm -1 ) and total alkalinity (132.4 ± 30.8 mg CaCO 3 L -1 ). We also found that weevil presence was related to surface water temperature and waterbody location ( = 24.3, P ≤ 0.001) and of all the models tested, this model provided the best fit (Hosmer- Lemeshow goodness-of-fit = 4.0, P = 0.9). Our results suggest that in Washington State E. lecontei occurs primarily in eastern Washington in waterbodies with pH ≥ 8.2 and specific conductance ≥ 0.2 mS cm -1 . Furthermore, weevil distribution appears to be correlated with waterbody location (eastern versus western Washington) and surface water temperature.

Population structure of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) across the Pacific Rim, determined from microsatellite analysis

The Pacific Rim population structure of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) was examined with a survey of microsatellite variation to describe the distribution of genetic variation and to evaluate whether chum salmon may have originated from two or more glacial refuges following dispersal to newly available habitat after glacial retreat. Variation at 14 microsatellite loci was surveyed for over 53,000 chum salmon sampled from over 380 localities ranging from Korea through Washington State. An index of genetic differentiation, FST, over all populations and loci was 0.033, with individual locus values ranging from 0.009 to 0.104. The most genetically diverse chum salmon were observed from Asia, particularly Japan, whereas chum salmon from the Skeena River and Queen Charlotte Islands in northern British Columbia and those from Washington State displayed the fewest number of alleles compared with chum salmon in other regions. Differentiation in chum salmon allele frequencies among regions and populations within regions was approximately 18 times greater than that of annual variation within populations. A regional structuring of populations was the general pattern observed, with chum salmon spawning in different tributaries within a major river drainage or spawning in smaller rivers in a geographic area generally more similar to each other than to populations in different major river drainages or geographic areas. Population structure of chum salmon on a Pacific Rim basis supports the concept of a minimum of two refuges, northern and southern, during the last glaciation, but four possible refuges fit better the observed distribution of genetic variation. The distribution of microsatellite variation of chum salmon on a Pacific Rim basis likely reflects the origins of salmon radiating from refuges after the last glaciation period.

Tree-ring records as indicators of air-sea interaction in the northeast Pacific sector

Climate conditions in land areas of the Pacific Northwest are strongly influenced by atmosphere/ocean variability, including fluctuations in the Aleutian Low, Pacific-North American (PNA) atmospheric circulation modes, and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). It thus seems likely that climatically sensitive tree-ring data from these coastal land areas would likewise reflect such climatic parameters. In this paper, tree-ring width and maximum lakewood density chronologies from northwestern Washington State and near Vancouver Island, British Columbia, are compared to surface air temperature and precipitation from nearby coastal and near-coastal land stations and to monthly sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level pressure (SLP) data from the northeast Pacific sector. Results show much promise for eventual reconstruction of these parameters, potentially extending available instrumental records for the northeastern Pacific by several hundred years or more.

Changes in mass balance of South Cascade Glacier, North Cascades, 1959 to 1994

EXTRACT (SEE PDF FOR FULL ABSTRACT): Annual, winter, and summer mass balance measurements at South Cascade Glacier in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington State constitute a continuous time series 36 years long, from 1959 to 1994. ... The long-term trends at South Cascade Glacier are decreased winter accumulation and increased summer ablation, neither of which is conducive to glacier growth, so the trend in the Pacific Northwest is clearly away from an ice-age type of climate at the current time. The data also demonstrate that a glaciologically significant long-term change in snow precipitation can occur rapidly, in as short an interval as 1 year, much more rapidly than changes in temperature.