Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Change Descriptors For Determining Nodule Malignancy In Lung Ct Screening Images, Benjamin Geiger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Computed tomography (CT) imagery is an important weapon in the fight against lung cancer; various forms of lung cancer are routinely diagnosed from CT imagery. The growth of the suspect nodule is known to be a prognostic factor in the diagnosis of pulmonary cancer, but the change in other aspects of the nodule, such as its aspect ratio, density, spiculation, or other features usable for machine learning, may also provide prognostic information.

We hypothesized that adding combined feature information from multiple CT image sets separated in time could provide a more accurate determination of nodule malignancy. To this end, we …

Interactions Between Disciplinary Practices And Joint Work In Undergraduate Physics Research Experiences, Gina M. Quan, Chandra Turpen, Andrew Elby

Gina Quan

Chemical Analysis Of Aerosol Particle Surfaces, Hillary Woolf

Fall Student Research Symposium 2018

Aerosol particles are thought to impact climate properties. The ability to probe aerosols to understand their chemical properties has been difficult due to a lack of appropriate analytical techniques. Here we present interface-specific SHS techniques to allow for in situ analysis of aerosol particles. Transportation of aerosols from their collection site to the laboratory disturbs their chemical and physical properties thus making it difficult to take accurate measurements of aerosol particles. We show that using a CCD detector is a more effective option for producing more sensitive results and can greatly reduce sampling time and could possibly detect measurements from …

Mirach’S Goblin: Discovery Of A Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Behind The Andromeda Galaxy, David Martínez-Delgado, Eva Grebel, Behnam Javanmardi, Walter Boschin, Nicolas Longeard, Julio Carballo-Bello, Dmitry Makarov, Michael Beasley, Giuseppe Donatiello, Martha Haynes, Duncan Forbes, Aaron Romanowsky

Faculty Publications

Context. It is of broad interest for galaxy formation theory to carry out a full inventory of the numbers and properties of dwarf galaxies, both satellite and isolated, in the Local Volume.Aims. Ultra-deep imaging in wide areas of the sky with small amateur telescopes can help to complete the census of these hitherto unknown low-surface-brightness galaxies, which cannot be detected by the current resolved stellar population and HI surveys. We report the discovery of Donatiello I, a dwarf spheroidal galaxy located one degree from the star Mirach (β And) in a deep image taken with an amateur telescope.Methods. The color-magnitude …

The Hst Pancet Program: Hints Of Na I And Evidence Of A Cloudy Atmosphere For The Inflated Hot Jupiter Wasp-52b, Munazza K. Alam, Nikolay Nikolov, Mercedes López-Morales, David K. Sing, Jayesh M. Goyal, Gregory W. Henry, Jorge Sanz-Forcada, Michael H. Williamson, Thomas M. Evans, Hannah R. Wakeford, Giovanni Bruno, Gilda E. Ballester, Kevin B. Stevenson, Nikole K. Lewis, Joanna K. Barstow, Vincent Bourrier, Lars A. Buchhave, David Ehrenreich, Antonio García Muñoz

Information Systems and Engineering Management Research Publications

We present an optical to near-infrared transmission spectrum of the inflated hot Jupiter WASP-52b using three transit observations from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph mounted on the Hubble Space Telescope, combined with Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera photometry at 3.6 and 4.5 μm. Since WASP-52 is a moderately active (log(Lx/Lbol) = −4.7) star, we correct the transit light curves for the effect of stellar activity using ground-based photometric monitoring data from the All-sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) and Tennessee State University's Automatic Imaging Telescope. We bin the data in 38 spectrophotometric light curves from 0.29 to 4.5 μm and measure the …

Ecophysiology Of Lionfish Metabolic And Visual Systems: Are There Physiological Limits To Inshore Invasion?, Aaron Hasenei

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Lionfish (Pterois spp.), an invasive species native to the Indo-Pacific, have permanently established themselves throughout the greater Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and regions of the Western Atlantic ranging from as far north as North Carolina to central Brazil. As their fundamental range expands, lionfish threaten to migrate into estuarine environments as they have been found to tolerate low salinities and an eclectic range of temperatures. The physiological capacity of invasion was assessed by quantifying the visual ecology of lionfish utilizing corneal electroretinography (ERG) as well as their metabolic scope and hypoxia tolerances under various temperature-oxygen-regimes utilizing intermittent-flow respirometry. Seasonal …

Factors Perceived By Multifamily Property Owners And Managers As Beneficial In Improving Energy Efficiency, Alex David Arneson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Maintaining the existence of affordable housing stock is an important goal for most cities and

communities, as well as at the state and national level. Compared to single-family housing, the multifamily housing sector poses a unique set of challenges and barriers related to investments in energy efficiency. With more than 50 million Americans, many of whom are low income, living in multifamily housing, this sector presents vast opportunities to reduce energy consumption. Reducing our carbon footprint has become an important issue in today’s society. More than ever, there is increased demand to incorporate ‘green’ sustainable design elements and technologies into …

Potential Impacts Of The Purple Salt Marsh Crab, Sesarma Reticulatum, On Long Island Sound Salt Marshes, Jaymie Frederick

Master's Theses

Salt marshes are important, highly productive ecosystems that provide many ecological benefits, including shoreline protection. Salt marshes were long believed to be driven by bottom up forces, however, recent research has suggested that top down influences may impact the foundation species Spartina alterniflora, and consequently marsh structure. This study looked at patterns of Spartina alterniflora dieback along creek bank areas and assessed Sesarma reticulatum abundance spatially throughout the marsh to improve understanding as to whether Sesarma may be influencing the dieback phenomenon. Dieback was occurring in all three salt marshes studied, at two of those marsh sites the rate of …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2018, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

User Attitudes About Duo Two-Factor Authentication At Byu, Jonathan Dutson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Simple password-based authentication provides insufficient protection against increasingly common incidents of online identity theft and data loss. Although two-factor authentication (2FA) provides users with increased protection against attackers, users have mixed feelings about the usability of 2FA. We surveyed the students, faculty, and staff of Brigham Young University (BYU) to measure user sentiment about DUO Security, the 2FA system adopted by BYU in 2017. We find that most users consider DUO to be annoying, and about half of those surveyed expressed a preference for authentication without using a second-factor. About half of all participants reported at least one instance of …

Modeling The Spread Of Disease, James Hollister

Essential Studies UNDergraduate Showcase

Mathematically modeling the spread of disease in a population is a focus among epidemiologists. Using an SIR model (susceptible, infected, and recovered), we can create a system of differential equations to help better understand how a disease spreads in a simple environment. However, if we are to create a more realistic environment, computer simulations may be necessary. We can use the results from these simulations to try and find ways to eradicate the disease as efficiently as possible. In this poster, we will present the SIR model, present a system of differential equations that describe the movement of disease in …

Four Derivations Of Schrödinger’S Time Dependent Equation, Sydney Swanson

Essential Studies UNDergraduate Showcase

Physics and the natural world have been studied by humans since the first person wondered ‘Why?’ The Schrödinger equation is important because it attempts to describe a relatively new (to us) and unfamiliar part of our universe, behavior of subatomic particles, and helps modern scientists uncover secrets that have proven useful in technology and explaining our origins. The time dependent Schrödinger equation can be derived from various starting points in Classical such as the equation of a wave, the time independent Schrödinger equation, and Hamilton-Jacobi equations. Why Quantum mechanics exists, useful applications, and cases when it fails or is inaccurate …

Equations Of Motion In A Rotating Noninertial Reference Frame, Nicholas L. Sponsel

Essential Studies UNDergraduate Showcase

Measurement is an essential part of empirical research. As such, understanding whether the frame of reference in which a measurement occurs is inertial is essential for accurate data. As a rotating sphere, Earth is a non-inertial frame of reference and gives rise to fictitious forces. These forces are derived through vector algebra and further solved through matrix differential equations. The final solution for how velocity evolves over time results in sinusoidal functions with a period of 24 hours for Earth. To test the equations further, rational scenarios are proposed for different locations on the surface of Earth involving different initial …

A New Trend In Human Reproduction - Women In The Usa, Abby Rokke

Essential Studies UNDergraduate Showcase

The control a woman is allowed to have over her own reproductive system has been a recent popular topic of debate. Since the 1950's, women have made up over half of the total United States population. With women making up the majority of the country's citizens, it would be quite the contradiction for them to not have the right to make decisions about their own bodies. Over the last two decades many contraceptive and medical advances have assisted in a woman's ability to make her own choice. An interesting trend in childbearing has occurred from this new wave of technologies. …

Re-Describing Surface Roughness, Vincent Wagner

Essential Studies UNDergraduate Showcase

The purpose of this project is to explore a non-traditional method of identifying and describing variance in data. The original goal was to provide a more useful description of surface roughness for use in calculating pressure loss due to pipe friction in the oil and gas industry. This approach uses simple trigonometric calculations to capture more information about the point to point variance of a given data set, as well as information related to the ratio of measured length vs total contact length. This method utilizes steps similar to the bootstrap method in statistics, however, rather than sampling a data …

2018 Fall Engr333 Poster, Alexander Cooper, Katie Diekema, Grace Fasipe, Daniella Sugijanto, Alec Dejonge, Timothy Dykhuis, Breanna Kooiman, Samuel Olson, Brennan Boice, Tyler Gustman, Daniel Norton, Christopher Vanwhye, Robert Capozzoli, Jared Minderhoud, Clark Richeson, Nathan Schuyten, 2018 Fall Engr333 Section A

ENGR 333

• $158k initial investment in Geothermal systems for various Calvin-owned residential buildings
• $3.34M initial investment in solar panels for Calvin’s rooftops
• The overall savings would be $233,850 per year
• Emissions would be reduced by 864 tons of CO2 emissions per year
• The recommended investment would be fully paid back in 11-15 years

Gizmos Computer Simulations In The Mathematics Classroom, Bethany L. Inman

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the College of Education at Morehead State University by Bethany L. Inman on December 6, 2018

Coupling Between Land–Ocean–Atmosphere And Pronounced Changes In Atmospheric/Meteorological Parameters Associated With The Hudhud Cyclone Of October 2014, Akshansa Chauhan, Rajesh Kumar, Ramesh P. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

India is vulnerable to all kinds of natural hazards associated with land, ocean, biosphere, atmosphere, and snow/glaciers. These natural hazards impact large areas and the population living in the affected regions. India is surrounded by ocean on three sides and is vulnerable to cyclonic activities. Every year cyclones hit the east and west coasts of India, affecting the population living along the coasts and infrastructure and inland areas. The extent of the affected inland areas depends on the intensity of the cyclone. On 12 October 2014, a strong cyclone “Hudhud” hit the east coast of India that caused a high …

Land Use And Land Cover Changes, And Environment And Risk Evaluation Of Dujiangyan City (Sw China) Using Remote Sensing And Gis Techniques, Biswajit Nath, Zheng Niu, Ramesh P. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Understanding of the Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) change, its transitions and Landscape risk (LR) evaluation in earthquake-affected areas is important for planning and urban sustainability. In the present study, we have considered Dujiangyan City and its Environs (DCEN), a seismic-prone area close to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (8.0 Mw) during 2007–2018. Five different multi-temporal data sets for the years 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015, and 2018 were considered for LULC mapping, followed by the maximum likelihood supervised classification technique. The individual LULC maps were further used in four time periods, i.e., 2007–2018, 2008–2018, 2010–2018, and 2015–2018, to evaluate the …

Understanding New Trends On Gold Mineralization At The Yellowknife City Gold Project, Northwest Territories, Using Synchrotron X-Ray Spectroscopy, Ramjay Jude L. Botor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Yellowknife City Gold Project (YCGP) currently encompasses 780 sq. km of contiguous land north, south and east of the city of Yellowknife. The project lies in the prolific Archean north-south trending Yellowknife Greenstone Belt, a suite of mafic and felsic volcanics and greywacke turbidites overlying a gneissic basement. Exploration and drilling efforts have been focused along 70 km of strike length on the southern and northern extensions of the mineralized shear zones and quartz veins associated with the past-producing high-grade Con (6.1 Moz @ 16.1 g/t Au) and Giant (8.1 Moz @ 16.0 g/t Au) gold mines.

Synchrotron X-ray …

Subsets Of Vertices Of The Same Size And The Same Maximum Distance, Maria Axenovich, Dominik Duerrschnabel

Theory and Applications of Graphs

For a simple connected graph G=(V,E) and a subset X of its vertices, let

d*(X) = max {dist}_G(x,y): x,y ∈ X}

and let h*(G) be the largest k such that there are disjoint vertex subsets A and B of G, each of size k such that d*(A) = d*(B). Let h*(n) = min {h*(G): |V(G)|=n}. We prove that h*(n) =⌊(n+1)/3 ⌋, for n ≥ 6. This solves the homometric set problem restricted to the largest distance exactly. In addition we compare h*(G) with a respective function h_diam(G), where …

Electrical Resistivity Of Nickel, Iron And Iron-Silicon Alloy Melts At High Pressure With Implications For The Thermal Conductivity Of The Earth’S Core, Reynold E. Silber

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Earth’s liquid outer core (OC) is composed of Fe alloyed with up to 10% Ni and a small fraction of light elements. However, the effect of light elements such as Si on the transport properties of liquid Fe-alloy in Earth’s OC is not clear. Thermal conductivity (κ) and related electrical resistivity (ρ) are the least constrained parameters in OC. Therefore, the characterization of transport properties of Ni, Fe and Fe-Si at high pressure has important geophysical implications for the Earth’s core. The ρ of solid and liquid Ni, Fe and Fe 4%Si was measured at …

Simulating The Impacts Of Irrigation Levels On Soybean Production In Texas High Plains To Manage Diminishing Groundwater Levels, Vaishali Sharda, Prasanna H. Gowda, Gary Marek, Isaya Kisekka, Chittaranjan Ray, Pradip Adhikari

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

There is an increasing need to strategize and plan irrigation systems under varied climatic conditions to support efficient irrigation practices while maintaining and improving the sustainability of groundwater systems. This study was undertaken to simulate the growth and production of soybean [Glycine max (L.)] under different irrigation scenarios. The objectives of this study were to calibrate and validate the CROPGRO-Soybean model under Texas High Plains’ (THP) climatic conditions and to apply the calibrated model to simulate the impacts of different irrigation levels and triggers on soybean production. The methodology involved combining short-term experimental data with long-term historical weather data (1951–2012), …

Canvass: A Crowd-Sourced, Natural-Product Screening Library For Exploring Biological Space, Sara E. Kearney, Gergely ZahoráNszky-KőHalmi, Kyle R. Brimacombe, Mark J. Henderson, Caitlin Lynch, Tongan Zhao, Kanny K. Wan, Zina Itkin, Christopher Dillon, Min Shen, Dorian M. Cheff, Tobie D. Lee, Danielle Bougie, Ken Cheng, Nathan P. Coussens, Dorjbal Dorjsuren, Richard T. Eastman, Ruili Huang, Michael J. Iannotti, Surendra Karavadhi, Carleen Klumpp-Thomas, Jacob S. Roth, Srilatha Sakamuru, Wei Sun, Steven A. Titus, Adam Yasgar, Ya-Qin Zhang, Jinghua Zhao, Rodrigo B. Andrade, M. Kevin Brown, Robert B. Grossman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Natural products and their derivatives continue to be wellsprings of nascent therapeutic potential. However, many laboratories have limited resources for biological evaluation, leaving their previously isolated or synthesized compounds largely or completely untested. To address this issue, the Canvass library of natural products was assembled, in collaboration with academic and industry researchers, for quantitative high-throughput screening (qHTS) across a diverse set of cell-based and biochemical assays. Characterization of the library in terms of physicochemical properties, structural diversity, and similarity to compounds in publicly available libraries indicates that the Canvass library contains many structural elements in common with approved drugs. The …

Indirect Effects Of Ocean Warming And Acidification On The Realized Recruitment Of Agaricia Agaricites, Allan Anderson

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few decades, coral cover has declined worldwide due to overfishing, disease, and storms, and these effects have been exacerbated by ocean warming and acidification. Corals are extremely susceptible to these changes because they are already living close to their thermal and aragonite saturation thresholds. Ocean warming and acidification (OAW) may also impact coral survival and growth by impacting their settlement cues. Coral larvae use crustose coralline algae (CCA) and their associated biofilms as cues for settlement, i.e., habitat selection. Settlement cues can also be negatively affected by increased water temperature and acidity. It was hypothesized that the …

Turbulent And Electromagnetic Signature Of Small- And Fine-Scale Biological And Oceanographic Processes, Cayla Whitney Dean

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Small- and fine-scale biological and oceanographic processes may have a measurable electromagnetic signature. These types of processes inherently involve turbulence and three-dimensional dynamics. Traditional models of the electromagnetic signature of oceanographic processes are of an analytical nature, do not account for three-dimensional boundary layer dynamics or turbulence, self-inductance, and may not describe the variety of the environmental conditions occurring in the ocean. In order to address this problem, I have implemented magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools, which has allowed for the evaluation of the electromagnetic signature of a number of small- and fine-scale biological and oceanographic processes in …

Transition Pathways To Sustainable Agricultural Water Management: A Review Of Integrated Modeling Approaches, Erin M.K. Haacker, Vaishali Sharda, Amanda M. Cano, R. Aaron Hrozencik, Agustin Nunez, Zachary Zambreski, Soheil Nozari, Garvey Engulu B, Smith, Lacey Moore, Sumit Sharma, Prasanna Gowda, Chittaranjan Ray, Meagan Schipanski, Reagan Waskom

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Agricultural water management (AWM) is an interdisciplinary concern, cutting across traditional domains such as agronomy, climatology, geology, economics, and sociology. Each of these disciplines has developed numerous process-based and empirical models for AWM. However, models that simulate all major hydrologic, water quality, and crop growth processes in agricultural systems are still lacking. As computers become more powerful, more researchers are choosing to integrate existing models to account for these major processes rather than building new cross-disciplinary models. Model integration carries the hope that, as in a real system, the sum of the model will be greater than the parts. However, …

2018 Fall Engr333 Seminar Presentation, Rachel Evans, Alex Gross, Daniella Sugijanto, Jake Shaarda

ENGR 333

File for student presentation, given by students in the Fall 2018 class of ENGR333.

Chemistry Student Attitudes And Utilization Of Office Hours, Dieng Barbacar, Edgar Gomez, Andre Rodriguez

Publications and Research

While research has demonstrated that faculty-student interactions increase retention and graduation rates, faculty often report that their office hours are underutilized. To better understand students’ attitudes, usage and plans towards faculty hours a survey was administered in the second to third week of the fall 2018 semester to students in 5 sections of general chemistry courses. The goal was to better understand how students perceive the benefits and hindrances of office hours, along with current or planned attendance. Prior to survey administration, it was speculated that not attending office hours could be because they were not scheduled at a convenient …

Instances Of Influenza In The United States Visualized, Parth Patel

Publications and Research

The Tycho Project collects large data sets related to healthcare and in particular, instances and geographical information of diseases. We look at the instance counts and locations of Influenza from 1919-1951 across the United States. We hope to find seasonal and geographical insight to the spread of the disease.