Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Artin Presentations And Closed 4-Manifolds, Jun Li

Honors Papers

In this paper we focus on the study of smooth closed simply-connected 4-manifolds. In particular, we study such manifolds arising from Artin presentations. Artin pre- sentations are intimately related to the pure braid group, and they characterize the fundamental groups of closed orientable 3-manifolds. Each Artin presentation r gives rise to a 4-manifold W4(r), whose boundary is a closed orientable 3-manifold M3(r) with fundamental group presented by r. In case the 4-manifold has bound- ary S3, we may close up W 4(r) by attaching a 4-handle to obtain W 4(r) ¿S3 D4. This closed 4-manifold has quadratic form represented by …

Interaction Graphs Derived From Activation Functions And Their Application To Gene Regulation, Simon Joyce

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Interaction graphs are graphic representations of complex networks of mutually interacting components. Their main application is in the field of gene regulatory networks, where they are used to visualize how the expression levels of genes activate or inhibit the expression levels of other genes.

First we develop a natural transformation of activation functions and their derived interaction graphs, called conjugation, that is related to a natural transformation of signed digraphs called switching isomorphism. This is a useful tool for the analysis of interaction graphs used throughout the rest of the dissertation.

We then discuss the question of what restrictions, if …

A Unique Petroglyph Carving On The Shawangunk Ridge, Lower Hudson Valley, New York, Howard R. Feldman

Lander College for Women - The Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School Publications and Research

A unique circular petroglyph from the Shawangunk Ridge in the lower Hudson Valley, New York was found carved into the resistant metaconglomerate/quartzitic rock not far from Mohonk Mountain House. The Shawangunk Formation crops out near Rosendale, New York and extends in a general southwestward direction accessible along Route 17 near Wurtsboro, again at the Delaware Water Gap and then can be traced in into Pennsylvania and Virginia. The ridge and surrounding area (e.g. Wallkill Valley) is lacking in chert, a vital raw material used in the carving of petroglyphs (Feldman, et al., 2016). However, there are numerous other examples of …

A Work-Stealing For Dynamic Workload Balancing On Cpu-Gpu Heterogeneous Computing Platforms, Esraa A. Gad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although many general purpose workloads have been accelerated on graphical processing units (gpus) over the last decade, other applications whose runtime behaviors are dynamic and irregular such as ones based on trees and graphs have suffered from serious workload imbalance problem caused by architectural differences between cpu and gpu processors. In this thesis, we propose a work-stealing framework to overcome such problems. Our proposed framework allows cpu and gpu threads to steal tasks from each other as well as within the same device by leveraging fine-grained data sharing and thread communication feature available on modern cpu-gpu heterogeneous systems. The implementation …

Accelerating The Discontinuous Galerkin Cell-Vertex Scheme (Dg-Cvs) Solver On Cpu-Gpu Heterogeneous Systems, Xiaoqi Hu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dg-Cvs (Discontinuous Galerkin Cell-Vertex Scheme) is an efficient, accurate and robust numerical solver for general hyperbolic conservation laws. It can solve a broad range of conservation laws such as the shallow water equation and Magnetohydrodynamics equations. Dg-Cvs is a Riemann-Solver-free high order space-time method for arbitrary space conservation laws. It fuses the discontinuous Galerkin (dg) method and the conservation element/solution element (ce/se) method to take advantage of the best features of both methods. Thanks to the ce/se method, the time derivative of the solution is treated as an independent unknown, which is amendable to gpu's parallel execution. In this thesis, …

Blockchains For Publicizing Available Scientific Datasets, Shirish Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the effectiveness of blockchain technology for advertisement of scientific data. Recently the advancement in hardware and software for data processing increases the supply and demand for huge data sets. Such data may be widely distributed, and not immediately available to the scientists who need it. We need a method of advertising available datasets to interested parties. Blockchains are a recent innovation developed by the cryptocurrency community, but are increasingly applied to other problem domains. Due to their currency heritage, however, the properties of blockchains do not always lend themselves to new applications. We have developed a prototype …

Co2 Adsorption On Volcanic Ash: Net Contribution Of Volcanic Eruptions To The Global Carbon Cycle, Lee New

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adsorption of co2 on mineral surfaces accounts for a small percentage of the terrestrial co2 sink. Volcanic ash is virtually free of co2 when erupted and has a high surface area resulting in a high capacity for co2 adsorption. Volcanism is commonly assumed to be only a source of co2, but pyroclastic eruptions can also potentially serve as a sink. Adsorption was investigated for 6 volcanic ash samples of andesitic composition from four volcanoes: Okmok, Redoubt, Spurr, and Tungurahua. The eruption of volcano redoubt released 0.75 x 109 metric tons of co2 and 55 x 109 kg of ash throughout …

Investigation On Security Issues And Features In Social Media Sites (Face Book, Twitter, & Google+), Puneet Kumar Goud Kandikanti

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Social media sites allow users to communicate and share their information which are a matter of privacy for users, so users should be aware about its limitations and disad-vantages to use social media sites. Likewise, there are many social media sites with its dif-ferent features and it typically works with the latest technology that is provided by the ex-perts to get connected and go along with the flow. The online privacy issues have been a re-al time problem and these however is the main aim for the experts to reduce the problems while sharing the kind of content that is …

Strategies For Overcoming Math Anxiety In Developmental Math Students At Community Colleges, Nika Alex

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Math anxiety is a significant problem among both traditional and adult students attending community colleges. The purpose of this study is to examine effective strategies for overcoming math anxiety in community colleges. The research question for this study was: What tools are community colleges using to help developmental math students overcome math anxiety? A qualitative systematic review of literature was used to answer the research question. The research determined various factors contributed to the development of math anxiety, which is a condition capable of persisting throughout an individual’s life. Various instruments such as the Mathematical Anxiety Ratings Scale (MARS), the …

Colorings Of Hamming-Distance Graphs, Isaiah H. Harney

Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics

Hamming-distance graphs arise naturally in the study of error-correcting codes and have been utilized by several authors to provide new proofs for (and in some cases improve) known bounds on the size of block codes. We study various standard graph properties of the Hamming-distance graphs with special emphasis placed on the chromatic number. A notion of robustness is defined for colorings of these graphs based on the tolerance of swapping colors along an edge without destroying the properness of the coloring, and a complete characterization of the maximally robust colorings is given for certain parameters. Additionally, explorations are made into …

Soils Laboratory Manual, K-State Edition, Colby J. Moorberg, David A. Crouse

NPP eBooks

The Soils Laboratory Manual, K-State Edition is designed for students in undergraduate, introductory soil science courses, and highlights the many aspects of soil science, including: soil genesis and classification, soil physical properties, soil-water interaction, soil biology, soil chemistry, and soil fertility. The lab manual includes 15 different laboratories, each one starting with an introduction and pre-lab assignment, followed by in-lab activities, and complimented by post-lab assignment. In-lab activities involve field trips, experiments, observation stations, or problem sets. Post-lab assignments include online quizzes, problem sets, or laboratory summary reports.

The Soils Laboratory Manual, K-State Edition is used in Kansas State University’s …

Assessing And Modeling Community Resilience To Coastal Hazards Using A Bayesian Network, Heng Cai

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents the assessment and modeling of community resilience to coastal hazards in the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB) in southeastern Louisiana at the census block group scale. The first part is to provide a quantitative method to assess and validate the community resilience index to coastal hazards and identify the relationships between a set of socio-environmental indicators and community resilience. The Resilience Inference Measurement (RIM) model was applied to assess the resilience of the block groups. The resilience index derived was empirically validated through two statistical procedures: K-means cluster analysis of three variables (exposure, damage, and recovery) to …

Modelling And Observational Evidence For The Igneous Evolution Of The Elysium Volcanic Province On Mars, David Andrew Susko

LSU Master's Theses

A major knowledge gap exists on how eruptive compositions of a single martian volcanic province change over time. The Elysium Volcanic Province is a location of great geologic interest on Mars. Its predominantly Amazonian surface age (beginning 3.3 Ga), and its isolation in the northern hemisphere of Mars away from other volcano-tectonic regions, make it an ideal locale to investigate igneous compositions erupted during the most recent geologic period on Mars. Here, this work seeks to fill that gap by assessing the compositional evolution of Elysium as a major martian volcanic province in two related projects. The first project seeks …

Asymptotic Formulae For Restricted Unimodal Sequences, Richard Alexander Frnka

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Additive enumeration problems, such as counting the number of integer partitions, lie at the intersection of various branches of mathematics including combinatorics, number theory, and analysis. Extending partitions to integer unimodal sequences has also yielded interesting combinatorial results and asymptotic formulae, which form the subject of this thesis. Much like the important work of Hardy and Ramanujan proving the asymptotic formula for the partition function, Auluck and Wright gave similar formulas for unimodal sequences. Following the circle method of Wright, we provide the asymptotic expansion for unimodal sequences with odd parts. This is then generalized to a two-parameter family of …

Ex-Companions Of Supernovae Progenitors, Zhichao Xue

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Supernovae (SNe) are titanic explosions that end the life of stars. Fast expanding ejecta can create brightness that is comparable to the entire luminosity of the host galaxy for weeks. Eventually, the ejecta run into the ambient medium, creating the so-called supernova remnant (SNR) that fades away in ~ 10,000 years. SNe come from two completely different mechanisms. The Type Ia SNe (SNIa) are powered by thermonuclear runaway when a white dwarf (WD) in a binary system accretes enough mass from a companion star. The Core Collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are massive stars that run out of fuel at the end …

Universal Shape Replicators Via Self-Assembly With Attractive And Repulsive Forces, Cameron Chalk, Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Eric Martinez, Robert Schweller, Luis Vega, Tim Wylie

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We show how to design a universal shape replicator in a self- assembly system with both attractive and repulsive forces. More precisely, we show that there is a universal set of constant-size objects that, when added to any unknown holefree polyomino shape, produces an unbounded number of copies of that shape (plus constant-size garbage objects). The constant-size objects can be easily constructed from a constant number of individual tile types using a constant number of preprocessing self-assembly steps. Our construction uses the well-studied 2-Handed Assembly Model (2HAM) of tile self-assembly, in the simple model where glues interact only with identical …

Development Of Disaster Management In Turkey: From 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake To 2011 Van Earthquake, Mert Tolon, Kağan Cenk Mızrak

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The natural disasters that have occurred in Turkey are categorized as % 61 earthquakes, followed by landslides, floods, rock falls, fires and storms. Between the years of 1903 and 2000, there have been nearly 150 earthquakes in Turkey which led to damage and this is a challenge for Turkey. The management and plans of these natural disasters in Turkey were first developed in 1959. In 1999, with the magnitude of 7.4, The Kocaeli and Duzce earthquakes affected a region of Turkey that constitutes % 23 of the country’s population. After that, in 2000 necessary laws have been prepared and enacted. …

Using Consumer Accessible Mobile Devices To Collect Vehicle Emissions Compliance Data, Joshua N. Jensen

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The emissions inspection procedure has been largely stagnate for the last 20 years. Vehicle owners in the United States spend approximately 1.7 billion dollars annually for a technician to perform the simple task of plugging an emissions inspection computer into their car’s computer. Smart Emissions was developed as an Android application to provide a new procedure for emissions inspection utilizing consumer-accessible mobile devices and an ELM327 Bluetooth adapter. With Smart Emissions, vehicle owners utilize the Android devices they already own to connect to a Bluetooth adapter inserted into the diagnostic link connector port of their vehicle. The adapter communicates with …

Hubble Parameter Measurement Constraints On The Redshift Of The Deceleration-Acceleration Transition, Dynamical Dark Energy, And Space Curvature, Omer Farooq, Foram Ranjeet Madiyar, Sara Crandall, Bharat Ratra

Publications

We compile an updated list of 38 measurements of the Hubble parameter H(z) between redshifts 0.07 ≤ z ≤ 2.36 and use them to place constraints on model parameters of constant and time-varying dark energy cosmological models, both spatially flat and curved. We use five models to measure the redshift of the cosmological deceleration-acceleration transition, zda, from these H(z) data. Within the error bars, the measured zda are insensitive to the model used, depending only on the value assumed for the Hubble constant H0. The weighted mean of our measurements is zda = 0.72±0.05 (0.84±0.03) for H0 = 68 ± …

Assessing The Efficiency Of Different Sustainable Farming Practices In Reducing The Environmental Impacts Caused By Aquaculture, Rajee Olaganathan, Alicia Tang Kar Mun

Publications

Sustainability of aquaculture is achieved when aquaculture farming systems are capable of preserving the natural resource base and involves an institutional change to the environment by the attainment and continued satisfaction for present and future generations. Sustainable farming practices produce sufficient aquaculture output to satisfy the seafood demand while not burdening the environment more. The potentiality and efficiency of different sustainable aqua farming practices in reducing anthropogenic impacts to the environment by aquaculture are assessed in this paper. Polyculture is mostly adopted by small-scale rural farmers as it requires low entry barrier and help in income diversification. The input of …

The Basic Physics Of The Binary Black Hole Merger Gw150914, B. P. Abbott, K. Gill, B. Hughey, J. Pratt, M. J. Szczepańczyk, M. Zanolin, Et Al.

Publications

The first direct gravitational-wave detection was made by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory on September 14, 2015. The GW150914 signal was strong enough to be apparent, without using any waveform model, in the filtered detector strain data. Here, features of the signal visible in the data are analyzed using concepts from Newtonian physics and general relativity, accessible to anyone with a general physics background. The simple analysis presented here is consistent with the fully general-relativistic analyses published elsewhere, in showing that the signal was produced by the inspiral and subsequent merger of two black holes. The black holes …

Using Journals To Assess Non-Stem Student Learning In Stem Courses: A Case Study In Cybersecurity Education, Gary Kessler, Glenn S. Dardick, Douglas L. Holton

Publications

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University offers a minor course of study in cybersecurity as an option in our undergraduate Homeland Security program. Since the students are, by and large, social scientists, the focus of the program is to build hyper-awareness of how cybersecurity integrates within their professional aspirations rather than to provide cybersecurity career-level proficiency. Assessing student learning of the technical aspects cannot be performed using traditional tests, as they would not properly measure what the students are learning in a practical sense. Instead, we employ journals and self-reflection to ask the students to express and demonstrate their learning. Although somewhat harder …

Utilizing The O-C Method To Determine Third-Body Existence In Eclipsing Binary Systems, Patrice Majewski, Tomomi Otani, Terry D. Oswalt

Publications

Previous studies on the subject of eclipsing binaries (EBs) within the Kepler field have been adequately determined the period, distance, and other stellar parameters of these systems (Borkovits, et al. 2015). Additionally, with the use of Observed-minus-Calculated (O-C) plots, variation in the timing of timing of eclipses can be easily detected. The eclipse timing shifts may be caused by dynamical effects or by light-travel time effects (LTTE) caused by the existence of a third body. The following research was conducted on ten binaries within the Kepler “K2” Campaign 5 field whose light curves (LCs) showed evidence of eclipses with periods …

Gyrochronology Of Wide Binaries In The Kepler K2 Fields, Alexander Stone-Martinez, Gustavo Villarroel, Patrice Majewski, Tomomi Otani, Terry Oswalt, Andrew Mcnaughton

Publications

Gyrochronology is the method of determining a stars age based on its rotation period and mass. A cool main sequence star loses it's angular momentum as it ages, so the rotation rate slows down. Gyrochronology has been tested on star clusters in previous studies and now we are applying the theory to binary stars. Components of a binary should be the same age, so Gyrochronology should return the same age for both stars in binary systems. We examined the rotation periods for 290 wide binary main sequence stars in the Kepler K2 fields. These observations are part of a continuing …

O-C Analysis Of The Pulsating Subdwarf B Star Pg 1219 + 534, Tomomi Otani, Terry Oswalt, Alexander Stone-Martinez, Dana Singh, Kenneth Sampson, Aliyah Khan, Austin Seepersad, Caila Deabreu, Adam Moss, Claudia Morello

Publications

PG 1219 + 534 (KY Uma) is a subdwarf B pulsating star with multiple periodicities between 120 – 175 s. PG 1219 + 534 was monitored for 90 hours during 2010-1 and 2016 using the 0.9 m SARA-KP telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in Arizona and the 0.8m Ortega telescope at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. So far, the most promising theory for the origin of subdwarf B (sdB) stars is that they result from binary mass transfer near the Helium Flash stage of evolution. The observations of PG 1219 + 534 reported here are part …

Gyrochronology Of Wide Binaries In The Kepler K2 Campaign 5 Field, Terry D. Oswalt, Derek Buzasi, Tomomi Otani

Publications

We are determining rotation periods for an ensemble of over 100 wide non-interacting binary stars in the K2 Campaign 5 field that contain two main sequence dwarfs, as well as a smaller sample containing at least one white dwarf component. Observations of such coeval pairs provide the basis for our new investigation of rotation-based age determinations. Such “gyrochronology” ages can achieve a precision that exceeds most other current method of stellar age determination. Here we present a status report on our analysis of the light curves extracted from the K2 Campaign 5 field.

Search For Binaries In The Kepler K2 Fields Using Pulsation Timing Method, Tomomi Otani, Terry Oswalt

Publications

Finding orbital solutions of binaries which have small mass ratios (50 days) is challenging using traditional techniques. The radial velocity method is a good way to detect such binary stars, however it requires large telescopes. Therefore, the search for binaries in those regions is still incomplete. For binaries in this regime with at least one component that pulsates, pulsation timing is a better approach. Orbital solutions for such systems can be obtained from the periodic change in pulse arrival times as the star’s reflex motion is manifested by the changing distance along the line of sight. We present a search …

First Performance Results Of A New Field-Widened Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer For Geocoronal Hα Research, D. D. Gardner, E. J. Mierkiewicz, F. L. Roesler, J. M. Harlander, K. P. Jaehnig, S. M. Nossal, L. M. Haffner

Publications

A new, high-resolution field-widened spatial heterodyne spectrometer (FW-SHS) designed to observe geocoronal Balmer α (Hα, 6563 Å) emission was installed at Pine Bluff Observatory (PBO) near Madison, Wisconsin. FW-SHS observations were compared with an already well-characterized dual-etalon Fabry-Perot Interferometer (PBO FPI) optimized for Hα, also at PBO. The FW-SHS is a robust Fourier transform instrument that combines a large throughput advantage with high spectral resolution and a relatively long spectral baseline (~10 times that of the PBO FPI) in a compact, versatile instrument with no moving parts.Coincident Hα observations by FW-SHS and PBO FPI were obtained over similar integration times, …

Success Stories In Knowledge Management Systems, Leila Halawi, Richard Mccarthy, Janine Aronson

Publications

Historically, information systems have focused on capturing, storing, managing, and reporting explicit knowledge. Organizations today recognize the need to integrate both explicit and tacit knowledge in formal information systems. Knowledge management continues to be a critical strategy for an organization to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, and consequently succeed in today's knowledge-based economy. Knowledge management systems (KMS) are a class of information systems that manage, store and distribute knowledge. Knowledge management systems have proliferated in practice. In turn, theoretical research on knowledge management and knowledge management systems has proliferated. Knowledge management systems have emerged as powerful sources of competitive advantage. …

Spatial And Temporal Variability In Mlt Turbulence Inferred From In Situ And Ground-Based Observations During The Wadis-1 Sounding Rocket Campaign, Boris Strelnikov, Arthur Szewczyk, Irina Strelnikova, Ralph Latteck, Gerd Baumgarten, Franz-Josef Lübken, Et. Al.

Publications

In summer 2013 the WADIS-1 sounding rocket campaign was conducted at the Andøya Space Center (ACS) in northern Norway (69° N, 16° E). Among other things, it addressed the question of the variability in mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) turbulence, both in time and space. A unique feature of the WADIS project was multi-point turbulence sounding applying different measurement techniques including rocket-borne ionization gauges, VHF MAARSY radar, and VHF EISCAT radar near Tromsø. This allowed for horizontal variability to be observed in the turbulence field in the MLT at scales from a few to 100 km. We found that the turbulence dissipation …