Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Development Of A Real Time Human Face Recognition Software System, Askar Boranbayev, Seilkhan Boranbayev, Mukhamedzhan Amirtaev, Malik Baimukhamedov, Askar Nurbekov

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, a system for real-time face recognition was built using the Open Face tools of the Open CV library. The article describes the methodology for creating the system and the results of its testing. The Open CV library has various modules that perform many tasks. In this paper, Open CV modules were used for face recognition in images and face identification in real time. In addition, the HOG method was used to detect a person by the front of his face. After performing the HOG method, 128 face measurements were obtained using the image encoding method. A convolutional …

Grappling With Covid-19 By Imposing And Lifting Nonpharmaceutical Interventions In Sri Lanka: A Modeling Perspective, Mahesh Jayaweera, Chamath Dannongoda, Dilum Dilshan, Janith Dissanayake, Hasini Perera, Jagath Manatunge, Buddhika Gunawardana

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The imposition and lifting of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to avert the COVID19 pandemic have gained popularity worldwide and will continue to be enforced until herd immunity is achieved. We developed a linear regression model to ascertain the nexus between the time-varying reproduction number averaged over a time window of six days (Rts) and seven NPIs: contact tracing, quarantine efforts, social distancing and health checks, hand hygiene, wearing of facemasks, lockdown and isolation, and health-related supports. Our analysis suggests that the second wave that emerged in Sri Lanka in early October 2020 continued despite numerous NPIs. The model indicates that the …

Open Data From The First And Second Observing Runs Of Advanced Ligo And Advanced Virgo, Rich Abbott, Thomas D. Abbott, Amit Aich, Guldauren Bissenbayeva, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Malik Rakhmanov, Karla E. Ramirez, Palash K. Roy, Wenhui Wang, Adam Zadrozny

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo are monitoring the sky and collecting gravitational-wave strain data with sufficient sensitivity to detect signals routinely. In this paper we describe the data recorded by these instruments during their first and second observing runs. The main data products are gravitational-wave strain time series sampled at 16384 Hz. The datasets that include this strain measurement can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at http://gw-openscience.org, together with data-quality information essential for the analysis of LIGO and Virgo data, documentation, tutorials, and supporting software.

Search For Continuous Gravitational-Wave Signals In Pulsar Timing Residuals: A New Scalable Approach With Diffusive Nested Sampling, Yu-Yang Songsheng, Yi-Qian Qian, Yan-Rong Li, Pu Du, Jie-Wen Chen, Yan Wang, Soumya Mohanty, Jian-Min Wang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Detecting continuous nanohertz gravitational waves (GWs) generated by individual close binaries of supermassive black holes (CB-SMBHs) is one of the primary objectives of pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). The detection sensitivity is slated to increase significantly as the number of well-timed millisecond pulsars will increase by more than an order of magnitude with the advent of next-generation radio telescopes. Currently, the Bayesian analysis pipeline using parallel tempering Markov Chain Monte Carlo has been applied in multiple studies for CB-SMBH searches, but it may be challenged by the high dimensionality of the parameter space for future large-scale PTAs. One solution is to …

Enhancing The Seed Germination Process Of Montezuma Cypress (Taxodium Mucronatum Ten.), Alejandro Fierro-Cabo, August Plamann

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Montezuma cypress (Taxodium. mucronatum) is an ecological, cultural and economically valuable riparian tree species. Two experiments evaluating the effectiveness of various seed treatments were conducted to identify germination best practices and to evaluate the dynamics of the germination process. Seeds were collected on two occasions, one year apart, from the only remaining natural T. mucronatum tree stand in the United States. The seeds were subjected to various soaking and stratification conditions. Across all treatments, germinability ranged between approximately 30%-40%, with slightly higher values occurring among the second seed cohort. Overall, no significant differences in germinability were detected in either …

Importance Of Low-Relief Nursery Habitat For Reef Fishes, Michael A. Dance, Ray R. Rooker, Richard Kline, Antonietta Quigg, Gregory R. Stunz, R. J. David Wells, Kirsten Lara, Jessica Lee, Bobbie Suarez

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Coastal restoration projects to mitigate environmental impacts have increased global demand for sand resources. Unfortunately, these resources are often extracted from sand/shell banks on the inner continental shelf, resulting in significant alteration or loss of low-relief reefs in coastal oceans. Experimental reefs (oyster shell, limestone rubble, composite) were deployed in the western Gulf of Mexico to assess their potential value as nurseries for newly settled reef fishes. Occurrence, abundance, and species richness of juvenile fishes were significantly higher on all three types of low-relief reefs compared with unconsolidated sediment. Moreover, reefs served as nursery habitat for a range of reef …

Open Data From The First And Second Observing Runs Of Advanced Ligo And Advanced Virgo, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, Fausto Acernese, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov, Karla E. Ramirez, Palash K. Roy, Wenhui Wang, Adam Zadrozny

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo are monitoring the sky and collecting gravitational-wave strain data with sufficient sensitivity to detect signals routinely. In this paper we describe the data recorded by these instruments during their first and second observing runs. The main data products are gravitational-wave strain time series sampled at 16384 Hz. The datasets that include this strain measurement can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at http://gw-openscience.org, together with data-quality information essential for the analysis of LIGO and Virgo data, documentation, tutorials, and supporting software.

Ligo Detector Characterization In The Second And Third Observing Runs, D. Davis, J. S. Areeda, B. K. Berger, R. Bruntz, A. Effler, R. C. Essick, R. P. Fisher, B. Martinez, Karla E. Ramirez, P. Godwin

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The characterization of the Advanced LIGO detectors in the second and third observing runs has increased the sensitivity of the instruments, allowing for a higher number of detectable gravitational-wave signals, and provided confirmation of all observed gravitational-wave events. In this work, we present the methods used to characterize the LIGO detectors and curate the publicly available datasets, including the LIGO strain data and data quality products. We describe the essential role of these datasets in LIGO–Virgo Collaboration analyses of gravitational-waves from both transient and persistent sources and include details on the provenance of these datasets in order to support analyses …

Internet-Based Cognitive–Behavioural Therapy For Tinnitus: Secondary Analysis To Examine Predictors Of Outcomes, Hansapani Rodrigo, Eldré W. Beukes, Gerhard Andersson, Vinaya Manchaiah

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objectives The current study examined predictors of outcomes of internet-based cognitive–behavioural therapy (ICBT) for individuals with tinnitus.

Design Secondary analysis of intervention studies.

Setting Internet-based guided tinnitus intervention provided in the UK.

Participants 228 individuals who underwent ICBT.

Interventions ICBT.

Primary and secondary outcome measures The key predictor variables included demographic, tinnitus, hearing-related and treatment-related variables as well as clinical factors (eg, anxiety, depression, insomnia), which can have an impact on the treatment outcome. A 13-point reduction in Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) scores has been defined as a successful outcome.

Results Of the 228 subjects who were included in the …

An Algorithm To Compute Cvts For Finitely Generated Cantor Distributions, Carl P. Dettmann, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Centroidal Voronoi tessellations (CVTs) are Voronoi tessellations of a region such that the generating points of the tessellations are also the centroids of the corresponding Voronoi regions with respect to a given probability measure. CVT is a fundamental notion that has a wide spectrum of applications in computational science and engineering. In this paper, an algorithm is given to obtain the CVTs with n-generators to level m, for any positive integers m and n, of any Cantor set generated by a pair of self-similar mappings given by S1(x)=r1x and S2(x)=r2x+(1−r2) for x∈R, where r1,r2>0 and r1+r20 and p1+p2=1.

Analysis Of Intervention Effectiveness Using Early Outbreak Transmission Dynamics To Guide Future Pandemic Management And Decision-Making In Kuwait, Michael G. Tyshenko, Tamer Oraby, Joseph C. Longenecker, Harri Vainio, Janvier Gasana, Walid Q. Alali, Mohammad Alseaidan, Susie Elsaadany, Mustafa Al-Zoughool

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a World Health Organization designated pandemic that can result in severe symptoms and death that disproportionately affects older patients or those with comorbidities. Kuwait reported its first imported cases of COVID-19 on February 24, 2020. Analysis of data from the first three months of community transmission of the COVID-19 outbreak in Kuwait can provide important guidance for decision-making when dealing with future SARS-CoV-2 epidemic wave management. The analysis of intervention scenarios can help to evaluate the possible impacts of various outbreak control measures going forward which aim to reduce the effective reproduction …

Hexagon Tilings Of The Plane That Are Not Edge-To-Edge, D. Frettlöh, Alexey Glazyrin, Z. Lángi

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

An irregular vertex in a tiling by polygons is a vertex of one tile and belongs to the interior of an edge of another tile. In this paper we show that for any integer k≥3, there exists a normal tiling of the Euclidean plane by convex hexagons of unit area with exactly k irregular vertices. Using the same approach we show that there are normal edge-to-edge tilings of the plane by hexagons of unit area and exactly k many n-gons (n>6) of unit area. A result of Akopyan yields an upper bound for k depending on the maximal diameter …

Combining Assumptions And Graphical Network Into Gene Expression Data Analysis, Demba Fofana, E. O. George, Dale Brown

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Analyzing gene expression data rigorously requires taking assumptions into consideration but also relies on using information about network relations that exist among genes. Combining these different elements cannot only improve statistical power, but also provide a better framework through which gene expression can be properly analyzed.

Material and methods

We propose a novel statistical model that combines assumptions and gene network information into the analysis. Assumptions are important since every test statistic is valid only when required assumptions hold. So, we propose hybrid p-values and show that, under the null hypothesis of primary interest, these p-values are …

Characterizations Of Student, Instructor, And Textbook Discourse Related To Basis And Change Of Basis In Quantum Mechanics, Kaitlyn Stephens Serbin, Megan Wawro, Rebecah Storms

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Communities develop social languages in which utterances take on culturally specific situated meanings. As physics students interact in their classroom, they can learn the broader physics community’s social language by co-constructing meanings with their instructors. We provide an exposition of a systematic and productive use of idiosyncratic, socially acquired language in two classroom communities that we consider to be subcultures of the broader community of physicists. We perform a discourse analysis on twelve quantum mechanics students, two instructors, and the course text related to statements about basis and change of basis within a spin-½ probability problem. We classify the utterances’ …

Estimation Of The Healthcare Waste Generation During Covid-19 Pandemic In Bangladesh, Tamal Chowdhury, Hemal Chowdhury, Md Salman Rahman, Nazia Hossain, Ashfaq Ahmed, Sadiq M. Sait

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

COVID-19 pandemic-borne wastes imposed a severe threat to human lives as well as the total environment. Improper handling of these wastes increases the possibility of future transmission. Therefore, immediate actions are required from both local and international authorities to mitigate the amount of waste generation and ensure proper disposal of these wastes, especially for low-income and developing countries where solid waste management is challenging. In this study, an attempt is made to estimate healthcare waste generated during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. This study includes infected, ICU, deceased, isolated and quarantined patients as the primary sources of medical waste. Results …

Quantization For Uniform Distributions On Hexagonal, Semicircular, And Elliptical Curves, Gabriela Pena, Hansapani Rodrigo, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury, Josef A. Sifuentes, Erwin Suazo

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, first we have defined a uniform distribution on the boundary of a regular hexagon, and then investigated the optimal sets of n-means and the nth quantization errors for all positive integers n. We give an exact formula to determine them, if n is of the form n = 6k for some positive integer k. We further calculate the quantization dimension, the quantization coefficient, and show that the quantization dimension is equal to the dimension of the object, and the quantization coefficient exists as a finite positive number. Then, we define a mixture of two uniform distributions on …

Schrödinger-Poisson Systems With Singular Potential And Critical Exponent, Senli Liu, Haibo Chen, Zhaosheng Feng

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article we study the Schrödinger-Poisson system−∆ u+ V (| x|) u+ λφu= f (u), x∈ R3,−∆ φ= u2, x∈ R3, where V is a singular potential with the parameter α and the nonlinearity f satisfies critical growth. By applying a generalized version of Lions-type theorem and the Nehari manifold theory, we establish the existence of the nonnegative ground state solution when λ= 0. By the perturbation method, we obtain a nontrivial solution to above system when λ= 0.

The Nanograv 12.5 Yr Data Set: Observations And Narrowband Timing Of 47 Millisecond Pulsars, Md F. Alam, Zaven Arzoumanian, Paul T. Baker, Harsha Blumer, Keith E. Bohler, Keeisi Caballero, Richard S. Camuccio, Yhamil Garcia

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present time-of-arrival (TOA) measurements and timing models of 47 millisecond pulsars observed from 2004 to 2017 at the Arecibo Observatory and the Green Bank Telescope by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). The observing cadence was three to four weeks for most pulsars over most of this time span, with weekly observations of six sources. These data were collected for use in low-frequency gravitational wave searches and for other astrophysical purposes. We detail our observational methods and present a set of TOA measurements, based on "narrowband" analysis, in which many TOAs are calculated within narrow radio-frequency …

Exponential And Hypoexponential Distributions: Some Characterizations, George Yanev

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The (general) hypoexponential distribution is the distribution of a sum of independent exponential random variables. We consider the particular case when the involved exponential variables have distinct rate parameters. We prove that the following converse result is true. If for some n ≥ 2, X1, X2, . . . , Xn are independent copies of a random variable X with unknown distribution F and a specific linear combination of Xj ’s has hypoexponential distribution, then F is exponential. Thus, we obtain new characterizations of the exponential distribution. As corollaries of the main results, we extend some previous characterizations established recently …

Bioconversion Of Industrial Hemp Biomass For Bioethanol Production: A Review, Jikai Zhao, Youjie Xu, Weiqun Wang, Jason Griffin, Kraig Roozeboom, Donghai Wang

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) with robust drought-resistant features has excellent agronomic and pharmaceutical characteristics. As the federal prohibition on hemp cultivation was lifted, its valorization in various aspects is highly required. This review aims to summarize the potential of hemp biomass for bioethanol production. Chemical compositions of hemp biomass were evaluated as compared with those of corn fiber, corn stover, and sorghum bagasse. Several representative pretreatment technologies used for hemp biomass were summarized in terms of sugar recoveries, lignin removal, and sugar and ethanol yields. This review presents numerous technical barriers attributed to insufficient fermentable sugar and ethanol …

Chemical Investigation Of Avocado (Persea Americana) Seed Husk (Testa): A Waste Of Waste, Orlando A. Castillo Scheren

Theses and Dissertations

Food chemistry is a new field in the world and is currently still expanding into the types of market in which it can be tapped into. There are about 1.3 billion tons of food waste produced in 2016 in the world, and food chemistry is going to help get rid of that waste by finding new and exciting applications to the things currently considered as waste. In these products, there might be new and undiscovered drugs that can be used in the market to help treat diseases for which might not have a cure at the current moment. The avocado …

Developing A Uhf/Vhf Phased-Array Satellite Ground Station, Brent K. Cole

Theses and Dissertations

Earth-satellite communications and tracking of spacecraft are accomplished using ground stations. Traditionally, this has been achieved by using a large parabolic antenna or pair of antennas that point at a source of interest and mechanically steer the antenna(s) as the source moves throughout the sky. Phased arrays, which have often been used in radio astronomy, can provide multiple benefits when used as a ground station including fast scanning speeds across the sky, tracking and communication of multiple sources simultaneously, and significant improvements to overall gain, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and data bandwidth. This thesis presents a preliminary analysis of a 20-element …

Neural Network Development In An Artificial Intelligence Gomoku Program, David Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

The game of Gomoku, also called Five in a Row, is an abstract strategy board game. The Gomoku program is constructed upon an algebraic monomial theory to aid values for each possible move and estimate chances for the artificial intelligence program to accomplish a winning path for each move and rounds. With the utilization of the monomial theory, winning configurations are successfully converted into monomials of variables which are represented on board positions. In the artificial intelligence program, an arduous task is how to perform the present configuration of the Gomoku game along with the past moves of the two …

Bivariate Markov Chain Model Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (Ibs) Subtypes And Abdominal Pain, Ricardo Reyna Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers use stochastic models like continuous-time Markov chains (CTMC) to model progression of morbidities of public health impact, like HIV and Hepatitis C. Most of the research in that area is done for a single disease. In this research, we use a bivariate continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) to model progression of co-morbidities. In particular, we use a bivariate CTMC to model the joint progression of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and abdominal pain. Symptoms of IBS are known to change throughout the duration of the disorder. Hence, patients are normally asked to make a journal of the stool type, symptoms, and …

Artificial Intelligence In A Main Warehouse In Panasonic: Los Indios, Texas, Edison Antonio Trejo Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

The Panasonic Company warehouse is located in Los Indios Texas. The warehouse presents the limitation of the great distances between its headquarters and the Main Warehouse for supplying the branches and main customers, which requires a considerable amount of time to maintain effective communication in the inventory area. In addition, during an online review, it can be confirmed that the website is disabled, contradicting its corporate policy.

The structure of the thesis proposal is arranged in four chapters from the Introduction, Statement of the Problem and Purposes; Previous Studies and Definition of the literature; the Research Methodology and the resources …

A Predictive Analytics Approach To Building A Decision Support System For Improving Graduation Rates At A Four-Year College, Xuan Wang, Helmut Schneider, Kenneth R. Walsh

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although graduation rates have interested stakeholders, educational researchers, and policymakers for some time, little progress has been made on the overall graduation rate at four-year state colleges. Even though selective admission based on academic indicators such as high school GPA and ACT/ SAT have widely been used in the USA for years, and recent statistics show that less than 40% of students graduate from four-year state colleges in four years in the US. The authors propose using an ensemble of analytic models that considers cost as a better form of analysis that can be used as input to decision support …

Total Synthesis Of Cytotoxic Mansouramycins From Amino Acids, Beatriz Gamez

Theses and Dissertations

Natural products produced by plants, animals, and microorganisms are of significant importance in chemistry for being major sources of molecular scaffolds essential for new drug discovery. Mansouramycins are cytotoxic bioactive compounds containing isoquinoline skeletons with substituents on the quinone and pyridine rings that may be difficult to synthesize. Synthetic processes exist for compounds B and D, however, there exists an absence of simple synthetic approaches to all four alkaloids.

This project aims to provide a general total synthetic pathway to Mansouramycins A—D from amino acids for possible use in cancer treatment via these isoquinolinequinones. Preliminary experimentation suggests there may be …

The Dmap-Catalyzed Acylation Of Alcohol -- A Mechanistic Study, Tania Veronica Alvarez Castro

Theses and Dissertations

The mechanistic studies of Acylation of Alcohols catalyzed by 4-(N,N- Dimethyl-amino)-pyridine (DMAP) has been heavily studied in the literature. This reaction has attracted considerable interest from the synthetic and mechanistic points of view in recent years. In this research, the acylation of alcohols is prepared from cyclohexanol and acetic anhydride that is catalyzed by DMAP using triethyl amine (NEt3) as the auxiliary base and dichloromethane (DCM) as solvent. The reaction and final product will be analyzed by using gas chromatography (GC) and reaction progress kinetic analysis (RPKA). The mechanistic insights obtained in the present study should be useful for understanding …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Application Of Meso-Tetraphenyl Metalloporphyrin Photocatalysts Under Visible Light, Alexis Echavarria

Theses and Dissertations

The photocatalytic activity of meso-Tetraphenyl Metalloporphyrins with different metal centers was investigated. The synthesized metalloporphyrin photocatalysts was performed and analyzed using FT-IR spectroscopy, UV-VIS spectroscopy, and powder X-Ray Diffraction analysis. The synthesized TPP crystals were determined to be tetragonal crystal structure and the structure was observed in all synthesized metalloporphyrin catalysts. The Soret (B) bands, Q bands, FT-IR functional groups were identified. Reaction progress was investigated by sampling at intervals of one hour and analysis of the samples was performed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. GC-MS analysis was used to identify the products of the photochemical catalytic redox reactions performed under …

Reinforcement Learning Environment For Orbital Station-Keeping, Armando Herrera Iii

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a Reinforcement Learning Environment for orbital station-keeping is created and tested against one of the most used Reinforcement Learning algorithm called Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). This thesis also explores the foundations of Reinforcement Learning, from the taxonomy to a description of PPO, and shows a thorough explanation of the physics required to make the RL environment. Optuna optimizes PPO's hyper-parameters for the created environment via distributed computing. This thesis then shows and analysis the results from training a PPO agent six times.