Mountain Scholar

Mountain Scholar is an open access repository service that collects, preserves, and provides access to digitized library collections and other scholarly and creative works from Colorado State University and the University Press of Colorado. It also serves as a dark archive for the Open Textbook Library.

Communities in Mountain Scholar

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Colorado State University, Fort Collins 6553
Explore the Colorado State University community’s scholarly output as well as items from the University at large and the CSU Libraries.
Open Textbook Library Archive 382
A limited number of titles are available here. To see all OTL titles, please visit the Open Textbook Library at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. Only Open Textbook Library staff have access to all OTL Archive titles held in Mountain Scholar.
University Press of Colorado 244
Access is limited to University Press of Colorado members. Non-members: to purchase books, please visit https://upcolorado.com/.

Recent Submissions

Access status: Open Access ,
Cruel and unusual punishment: an analysis of the U.S. government's post-9/11 torture policies and recommendations for the closure of Guantanamo Bay
(2026-05-11) Barclay, Daniel T., author; Todd, Meagan, advisor
For many years, the United States, as a beacon of liberty and champion of hope, had upheld guidelines for the humane treatment of prisoners held in custody by the government. Laws against cruel and unusual punishment were eventually codified on the international level by the Geneva Conventions of 1949, protecting those individuals that did not participate in the fighting. Then came the attacks of September 11, 2001, the most devastating and vulnerable attack on the American mainland since the Civil War. The terrorist group al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C., and in the coming days, the War on Terror officially began, and the traditional rules and conventions of war changed. A makeshift detainee camp was erected at the U.S. Navy's Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) base in Cuba to detain and interrogate individuals believed to have ties to al-Qaeda or the Taliban. This is where the CIA brought in two U.S. Air Force psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen to teach CIA and military interrogators how to use what the CIA termed "enhanced interrogation techniques" or EITs. These tactics were developed by Mitchell and Jessen, who had no prior intelligence gathering or interrogation experience based on the U.S. Army's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) tactics. SERE tactics were taught to special forces operatives who might be captured by an enemy that might use harsh measures to get them to break under extreme interrogation. The same mindset was applied to these EIT's by Mitchell and Jessen, who thought that the terrorists they capture would be tough to break, and that EITs were the only way to get detained terrorists to talk about their involvement in the 9/11 attacks, as well as when and where the next one will be. The EIT's used by the CIA on detainees at Gitmo, and then later at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq amount to torture, and that did not produce any actionable intelligence from any of the detainees. While the U.S. government has acknowledged its wrongdoings, and those administration officials, and interrogators are no longer in public service, no one has ever been prosecuted for these crimes. Both Presidents Bush and Obama have stated that they want to close Guantanamo Bay, but neither one was able to do it. While it seems unlikely that President Trump will close it completely, organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for its closure. In addition many former military, national security experts, and former prisoners have also been becoming more vocal about its closure, as it had already served its purpose many years ago.
Access status: Open Access ,
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE COMBUSTION PROCESS OF LIQUIFIED PETROLEUM GAS AND DIMETHYL ETHER BLENDS FOR USE IN SPARK IGNITED INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
(2026) Churchill, Reece, author; Windom, Bret, advisor; Olsen, Daniel, committee member; Wise, Dan, committee member; Marchese, Anthony, committee member; Daily, Jeremy, committee member
To meet the increasing demand for carbon intensity reduction in the heavy-duty transportation sector, this dissertation investigates the development of high-efficiency combustion strategies utilizing both liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and renewable dimethyl ether (rDME). LPG serves as a viable alternative fuel primarily due to its ability to reduce emissions and its favorable physical and chemical properties, which allow for efficient transport and storage in a liquid state at moderate pressures. The research begins by establishing a numerical foundation for baseline LPG combustion, utilizing an extreme flash KH-RT spray model coupled with the ALPINE 153 chemical kinetic mechanism. This framework was validated against experimental High Pressure Spray Chamber (HPSC) data using Schlieren and Mie-scattering imaging techniques to ensure the phase change and flash-boiling plume expansion of LPG were resolved before moving to engine scale simulations. With the spray physics validated, a numerical investigation into mixture formation for pure LPG was conducted to characterize the fluid dynamic drivers of stable Direct Injection (DI) operation compared to Port Fuel Injection (PFI) benchmarks. These 3D CFD studies identified that Direct Injection LPG operation is exclusively sensitive to Start of Injection (SOI) timing due to in-cylinder charge cooling and turbulent decay. Specifically, the work identified that a late-cycle recovery of Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE) at SOI 120° bTDC provides the necessary aerodynamic shear to overcome reduced residence times, identifying the piston-top velocity profile as a potential universal design parameter for stable DI operation across varying compression ratios. To further reduce the carbon intensity of LPG operation, this work explores the potential of blending LPG with more reactive, renewably produced fuels such as DME. The inherently high MON and RON of LPG allow it to be utilized in higher compression ratio engines due to its strong resistance to autoignition compared to traditional petroleum fuels. This characteristic places LPG in a unique position where it can be blended with highly reactive fuels while maintaining favorable and controllable combustion. Utilizing rDME blends leverages LPG’s favorable combustion properties to reduce carbon intensity on two fronts, through tailpipe emissions and cleaner fuel production. To understand the properties of these novel LPG/DME blends, octane characterization was experimentally determined using a modified Cooperative Fuels Research (CFR) engine. This testing identified a non-linear promoting effect of rDME on autoignition and established a 30% DME blend as a viable 89-octane gasoline surrogate. Additionally, high-speed Schlieren spray imaging confirmed that rDME addition up to 30% does not fundamentally alter macroscopic spray morphology, ensuring compatibility with existing LPG hardware. The final phase of the work involved experimental testing on a heavy-duty single-cylinder Cummins X15 engine and the development of the ALPINE-DME 158 chemical kinetic mechanism. The mechanism was rigorously validated across 0D ignition delay times and 1D laminar flame speeds before being implemented in a 3D CONVERGE environment to predict engine performance of LPG/DME blends. Experimental results demonstrated a significant departure from natural gas performance limits, achieving a peak brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of 41.1% at low loads and 42.9% BTE at high load conditions by leveraging an increase of end gas autoignition (EGAI). The ALPINE-DME 158 mechanism successfully captured the experimental heat release rates and autoignition events by resolving radical bottlenecks specifically premature HO2 and H2O2 accumulation observed in legacy chemical kinetic models. Collectively, this work provides a validated, predictive roadmap for leveraging high-reactivity oxygenated fuels to narrow the efficiency gap between spark-ignited and diesel heavy-duty architectures.
Access status: Open Access ,
Hypergraphs and their associated Lie algebras
(2026) Minino, Amaury Virgilio, author; Wilson, James B., advisor; King, Emily, committee member; Kokoszka, Piotr, committee member; Shonkwiler, Clayton, committee member
When studying features in networks, communities, and general relations between objects, hypergraphs permit a more complex and accurate description of the underlying data. As hypergraphs admit higher valent relations between vertices, the set of all hypergraphs and their underlying features is infinite, as the number of vertices and the maximum valence of relations present in a hypergraph are both unbounded. In this dissertation, we present a new result which shows that there exists a finite characterization, utilizing the generators of simple Lie algebras, of global features present in a hypergraph. Furthermore, this characterization is implemented as an algorithm to identify specific configurations of relational structures which are present in a given hypergraph.
Access status: Open Access ,
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION IN AFRICA: IS THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF TRADITIONAL LEADERS KEY?
(2026) Munsaka, Julia Choolwe Esther Slaighter, author; Lee, Julia Y., advisor; Harris, Peter, committee member; Mumme, Steve, committee member; Van Den Heever, Sue, committee member
This dissertation examines the role of traditional leaders in shaping governance of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Africa. It argues that although traditional leaders remain central to local governance, especially in rural communities, they are still largely absent from formal DRR frameworks despite their authority, proximity to communities, and role as custodians of traditional knowledge. The dissertation argues that the formal integration of traditional leaders into disaster risk governance enhances coordination, facilitates the integration of traditional knowledge, and strengthens the legitimacy and authority of traditional leaders within DRR systems. This formalization does not create new roles for traditional leaders but enhances how these roles are exercised within DRR governance frameworks. Using a mixed methods approach, the study combines a quantitative analysis of 34 African countries, with a qualitative case study of Zambia based on semi-structured elite interviews with three traditional leaders from North-Western, Southern, and Eastern provinces. The quantitative analysis examines trust in Members of Parliament and Traditional Leaders, contact with these institutions, and perceived responsiveness, and also assesses climate change awareness. The qualitative case study explores how traditional leaders understand and practice disaster risk reduction, including early warning, community mobilization, and the use of traditional knowledge. The findings suggest that traditional leaders are significantly more trusted, contacted more often, and viewed as more responsive than Members of Parliament. The analysis also shows that contact with traditional leaders is associated with climate change awareness. The Zambia case study further demonstrates that traditional leaders contribute to disaster preparedness and resilience through early warning practices, community mobilization, land and resource management, environmental stewardship, and culturally grounded adaptation practices. Overall, the study finds that traditional leaders can play an important role in shaping DRR governance and that formally recognizing and integrating them into DRR frameworks can strengthen preparedness, resilience, and locally grounded disaster governance in Africa.
Access status: Embargo ,
IDENTIFYING CROSS-SPECIES REGIMENS FOR THE TREATMENT OF RAPID-GROWING AND SLOW-GROWING NONTUBERCULOUS MYCOBACTERIUM PULMONARY INFECTIONS
(2026) Whittel, Nicholas James, author; Slayden, Richard A., advisor; Crick, Dean, committee member; Abdo, Zaid, committee member; Wilusz, Jeffrey, committee member; Geiss, Brian, committee member; Tjalkens, Ron, committee member
Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), especially Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium abscessus, are increasingly significant causes of chronic pulmonary disease. Current treatments are lengthy and often ineffective, with culture conversion often below 60% in refractory patient populations. Due to the close biological relationship between Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) and NTM species, TB standard-of-care (SoC) drugs were evaluated for repurposing to develop regimens with activity across diverse NTM pathogens. Comparative genomics using the Distilled Refined Annotation of Metabolism (DRAM) tool demonstrated that bioenergetic pathways, including oxidative phosphorylation and central carbon metabolism, are highly conserved across both slow- and rapid-growing NTM species. This conservation supports targeting mycobacterial bioenergetics as a strategy for cross-species therapeutic development. Drug activity was assessed using in vitro minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) testing, Raw264.7 macrophage infection assays, and preclinical NTM lung infection models (C57BL/6 for M. avium and NOD.CB17-Prkdcscid/NCrCr for M. abscessus). Efficacy was directly measured as the reduction in lung bacterial count (Δlog10 CFU) compared to untreated controls. Regimens were compared using a multi-metric framework incorporating absolute bacterial reduction, Hedges’ g effect size, and the MIC-adjusted clearance index (MACI). Bedaquiline (BDQ) demonstrated the most consistent single-drug activity across intracellular and in vivo models of M. avium and M. abscessus infection. Macrolides, fluoroquinolones, and rifabutin demonstrated comparable in vitro potency, but had variable performance across models. Azithromycin and ofloxacin were also effective and displayed synergy when combined with bedaquiline. Combinations of bedaquiline with azithromycin or ofloxacin produced greater reductions in bacterial burden than monotherapies. A three-drug regimen consisting of bedaquiline, azithromycin, and ofloxacin, consistently ranked among the most effective regimens across both species. The two-drug combinations of bedaquiline-azithromycin and bedaquiline-ofloxacin also functioned as modular backbones that could be pared with additional agents to improve species-specific activity. This study shows that TB SoC drugs can be effectively combined into regimens with activity across multiple NTM species. The identification of both a three-drug regimen with strong cross-species potency and adaptable two-drug backbones provides a framework for developing more effective treatment strategies for NTM pulmonary disease and supports further evaluation of BDQ-anchored regimens in advanced preclinical models.