Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Statistical Analysis Of The Role Of Critical-Thinking Games In College Students' Quantitative Reasoning, Melissa Radevicz

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Improving college students' quantitative reasoning is crucial to increase STEM-field retention rates. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), results indicate that "college students don't always get exposure to activities that develop [quantitative reasoning]" (Berrett & Sander, 2013). This study aimed to engage college students in quantitative reasoning through critical-thinking games. Phase 1, conducted in summer 2014 with a university research grant, involved a correlation analysis of the work of 133 college students enrolled in Elementary Statistics I, Chemical Principles II, Elements of Calculus, Pre-Calculus with Trigonometry, Multivariable Calculus, and Differential Equations. Participants held a variety of 39 different majors, …

Distribution, Growth, And Impact Of The Coral-Excavating Sponge, Cliona Delitrix, On The Stony Coral Communities Offshore Southeast Florida, Ari Halperin

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Bioerosion is a major process that affects the carbonate balance on coral reefs, and excavating sponges from the genus Cliona are some of the most important bioeroders on Caribbean reefs. The orange boring sponge, Cliona delitrix, is an abundant excavating sponge offshore southeast Florida that frequently colonizes dead portions of live stony corals, killing live coral tissue as it grows. With the recent decline in coral cover attributed to combined environmental and anthropogenic stressors, the increasing abundance of excavating sponges poses yet another threat to the persistence of Caribbean coral reefs.

In the first part of this study, I …

The Non-Lethal Effects Of Climate Change On The Territoriality Of Lottia Gigantea, Tracey Gunanto, Christina Chavez, Jessica Martinez, William G. Wright

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The intertidal zone has been described as ground zero for global warming. Here, the owl limpet, Lottia gigantea, adapted to the cool ocean temperatures, must withstand a few hours of baking sun during day-time low tides. This hardship is predicted to increase in frequency and severity in the future as the globe warms. Our research hypothesized that heat events compromise territorial behavior of L. gigantea. All observations and experiments were performed at Inspiration Point near Newport Beach, California. We measured the natural radiant temperature of tagged limpets during day-time low tides using a field-calibrated infrared “thermogun”. We also …

Human Action Classification Based On Sequential Bag-Of-Words Model, Hong Liu, Qiaoduo Zhang, Qianru Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recently, approaches utilizing spatial-temporal features have achieved great success in human action classification. However, they typically rely on bag-of-words (BoWs) model, and ignore the spatial and temporal structure information of visual words, bringing ambiguities among similar actions. In this paper, we present a novel approach called sequential BoWs for efficient human action classification. It captures temporal sequential structure by segmenting the entire action into sub-actions. Each sub-action has a tiny movement within a narrow range of action. Then the sequential BoWs are created, in which each sub-action is assigned with a certain weight and salience to highlight the distinguishing sections. …

Online Learning On Incremental Distance Metric For Person Re-Identification, Yuke Sun, Hong Liu, Qianru Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Person re-identification is to match persons appearing across non-overlapping cameras. The matching is challenging due to visual ambiguities and disparities of human bodies. Most previous distance metrics are learned by off-line and supervised approaches. However, they are not practical in real-world applications in which online data comes in without any label. In this paper, a novel online learning approach on incremental distance metric, OL-IDM, is proposed. The approach firstly modifies Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network (SOINN) using Mahalanobis distance metric to cluster incoming data into neural nodes. Such metric maximizes the likelihood of a true image pair matches with a smaller …

The Petrology Of The Coconino Sandstone (Permian), Arizona, Usa, John Whitmore, Raymond Strom, Stephen Cheung, Paul A. Garner

Science and Mathematics Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to give a description of the overall petrology of the Permian Coconino Sandstone that outcrops prominently in Arizona, including the Grand Canyon. The Coconino is often regarded as something like a “type” of the many similar Permian cross-bedded sandstones that occur around the world. It is generally accepted that the Coconino is an eolian sandstone and that its sand grains are well-sorted and well-rounded. However, until now, no detailed petrographic work has ever been published to substantiate these assumptions. We widely sampled the thickness and lateral extent of the formation and then studied hundreds …

A Trend Analysis Of Aerosol Related Parameters And Their Relation To Precipitation Variability In Arizona, Krista Rasmussen, Hesham El-Askary

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The Objective of our research was to investigate if there is a correlation between haboob outbreaks, resulting in large dust storms over Arizona, and the precipitation patterns over the region. We examined the extent of this correlation over the last ten years using satellite daily observations to highlight the possibility of better forecasts for precipitation events, such as monsoon thunderstorms. Our research indicates that haboobs increase precipitation in the Sonoran desert of Arizona because the dust particles are large enough to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Data was collected from five locations spread out over the state of Arizona …

Long Term Ground Based Precipitation Data Analysis: Spatial And Temporal Variability, Luciano Rodriguez, Cyril S. Rakovski, Hesham El-Askary, Mohamed Allali

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

California is an area of diverse topography and has what many scientists call a Mediterranean climate. Various precipitation patterns exist due to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) which can cause abnormal precipitation or droughts. As temperature increases mainly due to the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, it is rapidly changing the climate of not only California but the world. An increase in temperature is leading to droughts in certain areas as other areas are experiencing heavy rainfall/flooding. Droughts in return are providing a foundation for fires harming the ecosystem and nearby population. Various natural hazards can be induced due …

Aerosols, Hurricanes, And Their Interactions : A Case Study Of Hurricane Sandy, Andrew Fontenot, Hesham El-Askary, W. Lau

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

While the effects of aerosols on precipitation have been studied, their effects on more extreme precipitation events like Tropical Cyclones have only been questioned relatively recently. Because of the rarity of the intersection of significant quantities of aerosols and forming/formed tropical cyclones, as well as the possible destruction caused, most experiments about their effects take place in computer models that may not fully simulate the effects of the aerosols. Limitations in satellite sensing make it difficult to track processes and material distributions in hurricanes from afar as well. Hurricane Sandy, a devastating hurricane that formed in October of 2012, may …

How The Presence Of Plastic In The North Pacific Gyre Affects The Growth Of Thalassiosira Through Remote Sensing And Laboratory Replication, Jordynn Brennan, Hesham El-Askary

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Through the use of remote sensing, we are able to determine the approximate location of the garbage patch in the North Pacific Gyre. Though remote sensing does not penetrate the surface of the ocean, monthly satellite images can be analyzed to determine the rate of growth or rate of decrease of certain parameters, such as atmospheric gases, phytoplankton, and dissolved organic matter. Over the past decade, data from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (Giovanni program) has shown a significant increase in dissolved organic matter and chlorophyll a content in the area of the North Pacific Garbage …

Iranian Nuclear Proliferation And Sanctions, Bailey Nicole Burlingame

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project will involve the current problem of nuclear development in the nation of Iran. The question involved in the election studies was, “Should we try to stop Iranian Nuclear Development by increasing sanctions, yes or no?” According to the US Department of State website, they are attempting to increase these sanctions against individuals or cooperations who can be proven to have provided aid, information, or mechanical aspects to assist the goal of Iranian nuclear proliferation. The website provides identifying information for the individuals involved. The answer to this question I believe will be determined the amount of news information …

Land Use Interactions Drive Southwestern Ontario Stream Nutrient Concentrations, Renee L. Lazor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Human activities have transformed the landscape and altered natural habitats through intensive land uses including agriculture and urbanization. Identifying land use drivers of tributary nutrient concentrations and describing the magnitude and direction of their relationship are critical activities to improvement management of water quality in basins draining into the Great Lakes. The overarching goal of my thesis was to quantify the cumulative influence of spatial patterns in land use and land cover on variation of nutrient concentrations in tributaries of the Great Lakes. Biweekly water chemistry samples were collected in 29 streams located in southern Ontario between May and November, …

Structural And Hydrological Controls On The Development Of A River Cave In Marble (Tapagem Cave - Se Brazil), William Sallun Filho, Bruna Medeiros Cordeiro, Ivo Karmann

International Journal of Speleology

Tapagem Cave (or Devil’s Cave) is a river cave developed in the dolomite marble karst of the Serra do André Lopes (State of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil). Although this region is a plateau with significant variation in elevation and a humid subtropical climate, the cave is an anomalous feature in the André Lopes karst because there are few other caves. The marble, which is in a synclinal structure with subjacent phyllites, is a karst aquifer perched above the regional base level (Ribeira River) and has little allogenic recharge. The cave developed on a secondary anticline on the northwest flank of …

Speleoclimate Dynamics In Santana Cave (Petar, São Paulo State, Brazil): General Characterization And Implications For Tourist Management, Heros Augusto Santos Lobo, Paulo Cesar Boggiani, José Alexandre De Jesus Perinotto

International Journal of Speleology

Show caves provide tourists with the opportunity to have close contact with natural underground spaces. However, visitation to these places also creates a need for management measures, mainly the definition of tourist carrying capacity. The present work describes the results of climate monitoring and atmospheric profiling performed in Santana Cave (Alto Ribeira State and Tourist Park – PETAR, Brazil) between 2008 and 2011. Based on the results, distinct preliminary zones with different levels of thermal variation were identified, which classify Santana Cave as a warm trap. Two critical points along the tourist route (Cristo and Encontro Halls) were identified where …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 9, 2014, Anthony Artusa

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 9, 2014 (12/9/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Assessment Of Macroinvertebrate Communities And Heavy Metal Contamination Along The Intracoastal Waterway In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Robert Bernhard

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Sediments from four areas adjacent to marinas and a background site in the Intracoastal Waterway were assessed for macroinvertebrate composition and heavy metal contamination. Sediment core samples were collected in 2004 and 2005 for analyses of macroinvertebrate composition and sediment grain size. Additional sediment samples were collected in 2005 for chemical analyses of metals (Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb, Hg, Ni and Zn). MANOVA and dendograms using Bray-Curtis similarity matrices grouped the sites into two clusters: the 3 sites closest to the New River formed one group, and the two end sites formed the other. The sites nearest …

Collective Edge Modes Near The Onset Of A Graphene Quantum Spin Hall State, Gunpathy Murthy, Efrat Shimshoni, H. A. Fertig

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Graphene subject to a strong, tilted magnetic field exhibits an insulator-metal transition tunable by tilt angle, attributed to the transition from a canted antiferromagnetic (CAF) to a ferromagnetic (FM) bulk state at filling factor ν=0. We develop a theoretical description for the spin and valley edge textures in the two phases, and the implied evolution in the nature of edge modes through the transition. In particular, we show that the CAF has gapless neutral modes in the bulk, but supports gapped charged edge modes. At the transition to the FM state the charged edge modes become gapless and are …

Water-Level Changes And Change In Water In Storage In The High Plains Aquifer, Predevelopment To 2013 And 2011-13, Virginia L. Mcguire

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

The High Plains aquifer underlies 111.8 million acres (about 175,000 square miles) in parts of eight States—Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Water-level declines began in parts of the High Plains aquifer soon after the beginning of substantial irrigation with groundwater in the aquifer area (about 1950). This report presents water-level changes in the High Plains aquifer from predevelopment (generally before 1950) to 2013 and from 2011 to 2013. The report also presents change in water in storage in the High Plains aquifer from predevelopment to 2013 and from 2011 to 2013.

The methods to …

Getting Down To The Fundamentals Of Hydrogen Bonding: Anharmonic Vibrational Frequencies Of (Hf)2 And (H2o)2 From Ab Initio Electronic Structure Computations, J. Coleman Howard, Jessica L. Gray, Amanda J. Hardwick, Linh T. Nguyen, Gregory S. Tschumper

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

This work presents a systematic investigation into the basis set convergence of harmonic vibrational frequencies of (H₂O)₂ and (HF)₂ computed with second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) and the coupled-cluster singles and doubles method with perturbative connected triples, CCSD(T), while employing correlation-consistent basis sets as large as aug-cc-pV6Z. The harmonic vibrational frequencies presented here are expected to lie within a few cm^-1 of the complete basis set (CBS) limit. For these important hydrogen-bonding prototype systems, a basis set of at least quadruple-ζ quality augmented with diffuse functions is required to obtain harmonic vibrational frequencies within 10 …

Bidentate Ferrocenyl-Dithiol Reagents For Nanocluster Surface Functionalization, Yiyi Liu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Previous work using monodentate ferrocenyl-chalcogen reagents for nanocluster surface functionalization has indicated an effective way to involve ferrocene moieties onto the surface of these frameworks. However, the abilities of the large polynuclear nanocluster with ferrocene rich surface to form crystalline materials suitable for single crystal X-ray analysis proved to be limited. New bidentate ferrocenyl-chalcogen reagents have been synthesized and characterized in order to probe their ability in this case.

The preparation of new bidentate ferrocenyl chalcogen reagents 1,1’-fc(C{O}OCH₂CH₂SH)₂ (fc = ferrocenyl) and 1,1’-fc(C{O}NHCH₂CH₂SH)₂ are presented. Furthermore, the preparation of silylated …

Poly(Ester Amide) And Poly(Ethyl Glyoxylate) Nanoparticles For Controlled Drug Release, Amira Mohamed Moustafa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The objective of this research was to develop polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) having improved drug release properties for drug delivery. Poly(ester amide)s (PEAs) are promising biodegradable polymers. PEA NPs were prepared via emulsification-evaporation and salting-out methods and optimized through by varying different processing parameters. Polymer-model drug conjugates based on PEAs containing L-aspartic acid and rhodamine B were synthesized and used for NP preparation. Release behavior was studied and compared to a control system with physically encapsulated rhodamine B. It was shown that the release of rhodamine B from the covalent system did not show the burst effect and exhibited a slower …

Why Is Sea Level Rising In Hampton Roads?, Larry Atkinson, Science Team, Intergovernmental Planning Pilot Project

December 2, 2014: Hampton Roads Climate Preparedness and Resilience Exercise Series

No abstract provided.

C-Metrics In Gauged Stu Supergravity And Beyond, H. Lu, Justin F. Vázquez-Poritz

Publications and Research

We construct charged generalizations of the dilaton C-metric in various fourdimensional theories, including STU gauged supergravity as well as a one-parameter family of Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theories whose scalar potential can be expressed in terms of a superpotential. In addition, we present time-dependent generalizations of the dilaton C-metric and dilaton Ernst solutions, for which the time evolution is driven by the dilaton. These C-metric solutions provide holographic descriptions of a strongly-coupled three-dimensional field theory on the background of a black hole, a gravitational soliton, and a black hole undergoing time evolution.

Elastic Differential Cross Sections For Space Radiation Applications, Charles M. Werneth, Khin M. Maung, William P. Ford, John W. Norbury, Michael D. Vera

Faculty Publications

The eikonal, partial wave (PW) Lippmann-Schwinger, and three-dimensional Lippmann-Schwinger (LS3D) methods are compared for nuclear reactions that are relevant for space radiation applications. Numerical convergence of the eikonal method is readily achieved when exact formulas of the optical potential are used for light nuclei (>A≤>16), and the momentum-space representation of the optical potential is used for heavier nuclei. The PW solution method is known to be numerically unstable for systems that require a large number of partial waves, and, as a result, the LS3D method is employed. The effect of relativistic kinematics is studied with the PW and …

Fragmentation And Wake Formation In Faint Meteors: Implications For The Structure And Ablation Of Small Meteoroids, Edward Stokan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Meteors with peak magnitudes fainter than +2 are typically called faint meteors, resulting from the atmospheric entry and ablation of meteoroids less massive than 10^-4 kg. The processes of luminous wake formation and fragmentation, which occur during ablation, are poorly understood for faint meteors, and are important constraints for models of meteoroid structure. The goal of this work is to improve understanding of these processes through analysis of high-resolution intensified video observations, and creation of a detailed meteoroid ablation model.

In the first part of this work, thirty faint meteors observed with the Canadian Automated Meteor Observatory (CAMO) are …

Electrochemical Synthesis Of Nanostructured Noble Metal Films For Biosensing, Jay Kishan Bhattarai

Dissertations

Nanostructures of noble metals (Au and Ag) are of interest because of their important intrinsic properties. Noble metals by themselves are conductive, physically robust, chemically inert, and strongly bind to thiols. However, when the nanostructures are formed, they in addition possess high surface area and unique optical properties tunable by adjusting the shape and size. All of these properties make nanostructures of noble metals suitable candidates to be used as a transducer for biosensing. Individual nanostructures might be easier to prepare but difficult to handle to be used as a transducer. Therefore, we prepared and analyzed nanostructured films/coating of noble …

Strontium, Lead, And Oxygen Isotopic Signatures Of Mid-Miocene Silicic Volcanism In Eastern Oregon, Emily Nancy Hess

Dissertations and Theses

Widespread, mid-Miocene rhyolite volcanism of eastern Oregon that are coeval or slightly postdate flood basalts of the Columbia River Basalt Province allows for mapping crustal domains using radiogenic and stable isotopes. Rhyolites are thought to be derived in large part by partial melting of the crust and thus yield direct information on the composition of the crust. Silicic volcanism is expressed in the form of numerous domes and tuffs exposed over a wide area (~300 km in N-S dimension and ~200 km in E-W dimension) west of the presumed craton boundary, which runs parallel but mostly east of the Oregon-Idaho …

Topographic Controls On N2o And N2 Efflux In A Temperate Forest, Eric M. Enanga

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is becoming an increasingly important problem due to the overwhelming evidence of the relationship between rising greenhouse gas concentrations and increased global temperatures. It is important that we gain a better understanding of the processes controlling the release of N₂O, a powerful greenhouse gas. Topographic influences on soil temperature, moisture, reduction-oxidation (redox) potential, dissolved organic carbon, and nitrate conditions, which in turn influence N₂O release, were investigated in a natural temperate forest ecosystem in Ontario, Canada. Wetland positions were observed to have the conditions most suited for N …

Ropelength Criticality, Jason Cantarella, Joseph H.G. Fu, Robert B. Kusner, John M. Sullivan

Robert Kusner

The ropelength problem asks for the minimum-length configuration of a knotted diameter-one tube embedded in Euclidean three-space. The core curve of such a tube is called a tight knot, and its length is a knot invariant measuring complexity. In terms of the core curve, the thickness constraint has two parts: an upper bound on curvature and a self-contact condition.

We give a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for criticality with respect to this constraint, based on a version of the Kuhn–Tucker theorem that we established in previous work. The key technical difficulty is to compute the derivative of thickness …

Kepler Flares Ii: The Temporal Morphology Of White-Light Flares On Gj 1243, James R. A. Davenport, Suzanne L. Hawley, Leslie Hebb, John P. Wisniewski, Adam F. Kowalski, Emily C. Johnson, Michael Malatesta, Jesus Paraza, Marcus Keil, Steven M. Silverberg, Tiffany C. Jansen, Matthew S. Scheffler, Jodi R. Berdis, Daniel M. Larsen, Eric J. Hilton

Physics & Astronomy

We present the largest sample of flares ever compiled for a single M dwarf, the active M4 star GJ 1243. Over 6100 individual flare events, with energies ranging from 10²⁹ to 10³³ erg, are found in 11 months of 1 minute cadence data from Kepler. This sample is unique for its completeness and dynamic range. We have developed automated tools for finding flares in short-cadence Kepler light curves, and performed extensive validation and classification of the sample by eye. From this pristine sample of flares we generate a median flare template. This template shows that two exponential …