Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Coordinated Persistent Homology And An Application To Seismology, Nickolas Brenten Callor

Theses and Dissertations

The theory of persistent homology (PH), introduced by Edelsbrunner, Letscher, and Zomorodian in [1], provides a framework for extracting topological information from experimental data. This framework was then expanded by Carlsson and Zomorodian in [2] to allow for multiple parameters of analysis with the theory of multidimensional persistent homology (MPH). This particular generalization is considerably more difficult to compute and to apply than its predecessor. We introduce an intermediate theory, coordinated persistent homology (CPH), that allows for multiple parameters while still preserving the clarity and coherence of PH. In addition to introducing the basic theory, we provide a polynomial time …

Determination Of Optimal Mild Organic Solvents Of Pdnps For Carbon-Carbon Coupling Reactions, Trina Biswas

Honors College Theses

The synthesis of nanoparticles is an increasingly popular field of interest. The application of nanoparticles is especially popular in the field of nanocatalysts. Metal nanoparticles (NPs) are favorable for catalysis because of the large surface area to volume ratio, which allows them to catalyze a variety of reactions using lesser amounts of active material. As the field of nanoparticle research expands, efforts are being made to create more sustainable approaches to the synthesis of these particles. This research sought to translate the benefits of peptide-based synthesis to organic solvents and use less toxic organic solvents for carbon-carbon coupling reactions, like …

The American Astronomical Society, Find Out More The Institute Of Physics, Find Out More Where Do Quasar Hosts Lie With Respect To The Size–Mass Relation Of Galaxies?, John D. Silverman, Tommaso Treu, Xuheng Ding, Knud Jahnke, Vardha N. Bennert, Simon Birrer, Malte Schramm, Andreas Schulze, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, David B. Sanders, Renyue Cen

Physics

The evolution of the galaxy size–mass relation has been a puzzle for over a decade. High-redshift galaxies are significantly more compact than galaxies observed today at an equivalent mass, but how much of this apparent growth is driven by progenitor bias, minor mergers, secular processes, or feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is unclear. To help disentangle the physical mechanisms at work by addressing the latter, we study the size–Mstellar relation of 32 carefully selected broad-line AGN hosts at 1.2 < z < 1.7 (7.5 < log MBH < 8.5; Lbol/LEdd ≳ 0.1). Using the Hubble Space Telescope with multiband photometry and …

Model‐Based Properties Of The Dayside Open/Closed Boundary: Is There A Ut‐Dependent Variation?, David A. Smith, Jan Josef Sojka

All Physics Faculty Publications

The open‐closed boundary (OCB) defines a region of significant transformation in Earth's protective magnetic shield. Principle among these changes is the transition of magnetic field lines from having two foot points, one in each hemisphere, to one foot point at Earth, the other mapping to the solar wind. Charged particles in the solar wind are able to follow these open field lines into Earth's upper atmosphere. The OCB also defines the polar cap boundary. Being able to identify and track the OCB allows study of several components of the geomagnetic system. Among them are the electrodynamics of the geomagnetic field …

Individual Based Model To Simulate The Evolution Of Insecticide Resistance, William B. Jamieson

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Insecticides play a critical role in agricultural productivity. However, insecticides impose selective pressures on insect populations, so the Darwinian principles of natural selection predict that resistance to the insecticide is likely to form in the insect populations. Insecticide resistance, in turn, severely reduces the utility of the insecticides being used. Thus there is a strong economic incentive to reduce the rate of resistance evolution. Moreover, resistance evolution represents an example of evolution under novel selective pressures, so its study contributes to the fundamental understanding of evolutionary theory.

Insecticide resistance often represents a complex interplay of multiple fitness trade-offs for individual …

Determinism Of Stochastic Processes Through The Relationship Between The Heat Equation And Random Walks, Gurmehar Singh Makker

Publications and Research

We study the deterministic characteristics of stochastic processes through investigation of random walks and the heat equation. The relationship is confirmed by discretizing the heat equation in time and space and determining the probability distribution function for random walks in dimension d = 1, 2. The existence of the relationship is presented both through theoretical analysis and numerical computation.

Advanced Security Analysis For Emergent Software Platforms, Mohannad Alhanahnah

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Emergent software ecosystems, boomed by the advent of smartphones and the Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, are perpetually sophisticated, deployed into highly dynamic environments, and facilitating interactions across heterogeneous domains. Accordingly, assessing the security thereof is a pressing need, yet requires high levels of scalability and reliability to handle the dynamism involved in such volatile ecosystems.

This dissertation seeks to enhance conventional security detection methods to cope with the emergent features of contemporary software ecosystems. In particular, it analyzes the security of Android and IoT ecosystems by developing rigorous vulnerability detection methods. A critical aspect of this work is the …

Image Restoration Using Automatic Damaged Regions Detection And Machine Learning-Based Inpainting Technique, Chloe Martin-King

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

In this dissertation we propose two novel image restoration schemes. The first pertains to automatic detection of damaged regions in old photographs and digital images of cracked paintings. In cases when inpainting mask generation cannot be completely automatic, our detection algorithm facilitates precise mask creation, particularly useful for images containing damage that is tedious to annotate or difficult to geometrically define. The main contribution of this dissertation is the development and utilization of a new inpainting technique, region hiding, to repair a single image by training a convolutional neural network on various transformations of that image. Region hiding is also …

Sensor Emulation With Physiolocal Data In Immersive Virtual Reality Driving Simulator, Jungsu Pak, Oliver Mathias, Ariane Guirguis, Uri Maoz

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Can we enhance the safety and comfort of AVs by training AVs with physiological data of human drivers? We will train and compare AV algorithm with/without physiological data.

The Trolley Problem In Virtual Reality, Jungsu Pak, Ariane Guirguis, Nicholas Mirchandani, Scott Cummings, Uri Maoz

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Would people react to the Trolley problem differently based on the medium? Immersive Virtual Reality Driving Simulator was used to examine participants respond to the trolley problem in a realistic and controlled simulated environment.

Food Scan: A Yelp For Dietary Restrictions, Andrew M. Bauer, Charlie Story, Curren Taber

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Food restrictions pose a serious issue for Chapman students, with consequences as extreme as anaphylactic shock and death. Our team started the Food Scan project with a simple goal of streamlining how individuals with dietary restrictions find safe places to eat or buy food. The project name highlights our intention to clarify restaurant menu items for users by displaying important allergen and dietary information. Using Human-Computer Interaction methods, our team chose to develop a technology that is usable, effective, enjoyable, and inclusive by involving users during the entire design process. By integrating multimodal interfaces (including speech to text inputs), we …

Evaluation Of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha In Sleep-Deprived Menopausal- Induced Rats And The Impact On Bone Health, Nicole Ellsworth, Dwight Curry Iii, Cj Deleon, Frank Frisch

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Post-menopausal osteoporosis as a consequence of estrogen depletion is a growing concern for women in the United States. As more women take on executive positions and experience sleep deprivation, there is the potential for up regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha. It follows that the homeostatic imbalance of osteoclastic and osteoblastic activity leads to a greater risk of disease. Bisphosphonates generally, and Zolendronate specifically works by decreasing the number of osteoclasts. This current study investigated the impact of Zolendronate on the concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha-type (TNFɑ) in 32 ovariectomized Wistar rats. Throughout a five …

A Numerical Investigation On The Variation Of Sodium Ion And Observed Thermospheric Sodium Layer At Cerro Pachón, Chile During Equinox, Xuguang Cai, Tao Yuan, J. Vincent Eccles, N. M. Pedatella, Xiaoqi Xi, Chao Ban, Alan Z. Liu

Publications

The extension of the neutral sodium (Na) layer into the thermosphere (up to 170 km) has recently been observed at low and high latitudes using a Na lidar. However, the geophysical mechanisms and implications of its formation are currently unknown. In this study, we conduct an advanced two‐dimensional numerical simulation of the Na and Na+ variations in the E and F regions at low latitudes. The numerical simulations are used to investigate the contributions of the electromagnetic force, neutral wind, diffusion, and gravity. The simulations lead to three major findings. First, Na+ in the subtropical region of the geomagnetic equator …

The Privacy Preserving Framework With Virtual Ring And Identity-Based Cryptography For Smart Grid, Leonard Sutanto

Publications and Research

One of the main challenges in the smart grid is how to efficiently manage the high-volume data from smart meters and sensors and preserve the privacy from the consumption data to avoid potential attacks (e.g., identity theft) for the involved prosumers, retail electricity providers and other clusters of distributed energy resources. This poster proposes a two-layer framework with the cloud computing infrastructure. The virtual ring and identity-based cryptography are utilized in each layer to preserve privacy efficiently. The methods of the virtual ring and identity-based cryptography are introduced. The purposes and needs are discussed at the end of this poster.

Analysis Of E-Cigarette Liquids And Aerosols By Nmr Spectroscopy: Compositions, Boiling Points, And Degradation Profiles, Anna Katherine Duell

Dissertations and Theses

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are an increasingly popular tobacco product used by ~3% of adults and 21% of 12th grade students (as reported for the prior 30-days in surveys) in the United States in 2018. As of 2019, this number went up to ~25% for 12th grade students. Due to how quickly e-cigarettes gained popularity and the rapid design changes that have ensued, there has not been enough time to accurately assess the effects of e-cigarettes, particularly for long-term use. The liquids used in e-cigarettes (e-liquids) can degrade when vaped in an e-cigarette, so understanding the variables that can modulate degradation …

Turning Disaster Data Into Knowledge: Field Reconnaissance, Damage Assessment, And Lessons Learned From Hurricane Sandy, Harvey, And Michael, Jie Gong

Sustainability Seminar Series

The recent hurricanes in 2012, 2017, and 2018, and efforts of researchers to capture vast quantities of perishable data through support of the National Science Foundation and other agencies, have created enormous databases of hurricane impacts to coastal structures that can be used to extract fundamental knowledge as to why these structures perform as they do during hurricanes. But exploration of these large data sets, untangling the complex factors contributing to various hurricane damages, and forming a holistic understanding of damage mechanisms are challenging tasks, requiring convergent approaches in system modeling, data science, and cyberinfrastructure design. In this presentation, Dr. …

Numerical Simulations Of Complex Crater Formation In Layered And Mixed Targets, Ryan Hopkins

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Numerical simulations of hypervelocity impact events provide a unique method of analyzing the mechanics that govern impact crater formation. This thesis describes modifications that were made to the impact Simplified Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (iSALE) shock-physics code in order to more accurately simulate meteorite impacts into layered target sequences and details several applications that were investigated using this improved strength model.

Meteorite impacts occur frequently in layered targets but resolving thin layers in the target sequence is computationally expensive and therefore not often considered in numerical simulations. To address this limitation iSALE was modified to include an anisotropic yield criterion and …

A Data Analysis Of The World Happiness Index And Its Relation To The North-South Divide, Charles Alba

Undergraduate Economic Review

In this document, we perform a detailed data analysis on the World Happiness Report with its relation to the socio-economic North-South Divide. In order to do so, we perform some extensive data cleaning and analysis before querying on the World Happiness Report. Our results based on Hypothesis Testing determines the happiness of the Global North is greater than that of the Global South. Furthermore, our queries show that the mean happiness score for the Global North significantly outweighing that of the South. Likewise, the 10 'Happiest' nations all belong to the Global North whereas the 10 'least happy' nations belong …

Raman-Scatter Lidar Measurements Of Water Vapor Determined Using An Integrated Microwave Radiometer-Lidar Retrieval, Jeffrey Vankerkhove

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Water vapor plays a crucially important role in many atmospheric processes. However, it is poorly characterized in much of the atmosphere. Vibrational Raman-scattering Lidar has excellent spatial and temporal resolution, but requires an external calibration to correct for instrumental biases. Microwave Radiometers have poorer resolution, but can be calibrated absolutely and can be used to calibrate the Lidar system. I have implemented a new technique, incorporating both instruments to generate a calibrated water vapor mixing ratio profile. This integrated retrieval uses an inverse method which includes a combined forward model, integrating radiative transfer equations (Schroeder and Westwater 1991) and lidar …

A Review Of Ball Lightning Models, Hasitha Mahabaduge

Georgia Journal of Science

Ball lightning is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the atmosphere. However due to its brevity and rarity, its occurrence is not well understood. Three models based on electromagnetic properties are discussed in this paper to explain the rare phenomenon of ball lightning. The first model incorporates the idea of electron bunching, electrons moving with different velocities. This creates a plasma bubble by recombining electrons with ionized gas to form plasma that is stabilized by a standing microwave. The second model explains the idea of streamers being tangled and linked in a magnetic field while stabilized by the conservation of …

Vertical, Thermal, And Geographic Habitats Of Whale Sharks (Rhincodon Typus) Tagged Along Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, Rachel Steinberg

Theses

Though whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are the largest fish in the ocean there is little known about the species’ life history. Juvenile males are often observed at a number of locations world-wide but adult females, adult males, and neonates are rarely seen. Consequently, important issues like where whale sharks mate and give birth are unknown. Similarly, what geographic and vertical habitats whale sharks use to forage in are similarly poorly known. Seventeen juvenile whale sharks (10 female, 7 male) were outfitted with satellite tags off Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia between 2003 and 2009, and subsequently monitored for 1920 …

Chronic Muscle Weakness And Mitochondrial Dysfunction In The Absence Of Sustained Atrophy In A Preclinical Sepsis Model, Allison M. Owen, Samir P. Patel, Jeffrey D. Smith, Beverly K. Balasuriya, Stephanie F. Mori, Gregory S. Hawk, Arnold J. Stromberg, Naohide Kuriyama, Masao Kaneki, Alexander G. Rabchevsky, Timothy A. Butterfield, Karyn A. Esser, Charlotte A. Peterson, Marlene E. Starr, Hiroshi Saito

Physiology Faculty Publications

Chronic critical illness is a global clinical issue affecting millions of sepsis survivors annually. Survivors report chronic skeletal muscle weakness and development of new functional limitations that persist for years. To delineate mechanisms of sepsis-induced chronic weakness, we first surpassed a critical barrier by establishing a murine model of sepsis with ICU-like interventions that allows for the study of survivors. We show that sepsis survivors have profound weakness for at least 1 month, even after recovery of muscle mass. Abnormal mitochondrial ultrastructure, impaired respiration and electron transport chain activities, and persistent protein oxidative damage were evident in the muscle of …

The Disposition Of Nature: Environmental Crisis And World Literature [Table Of Contents], Jennifer Wenzel

Literature

How do literature and other cultural forms shape how we imagine the planet, for better or worse? In this rich, original, and long awaited book, Jennifer Wenzel tackles the formal innovations, rhetorical appeals, and sociological imbrications of world literature that might help us confront unevenly distributed environmental crises, including global warming.

The Disposition of Nature argues that assumptions about what nature is are at stake in conflicts over how it is inhabited or used. Both environmental discourse and world literature scholarship tend to confuse parts and wholes. Working with writing and film from Africa, South Asia, and beyond, Wenzel …

Sargassum Infauna Community Structure In The Florida Straits And Gulf Stream, Dayna S. Hunn

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Community structure of Sargassum-associated organisms was examined from 11 sampling locations in the Florida Straits and Gulf Stream from May—September 2018 using a combination of modified shrimp trawls and dip nets. A total of 5413 organisms were collected from Sargassumhabitat representing 14 species from 10 families. A core group of organisms (Platynereis dumerilii, Litiopa melanostoma, Portunus sayi, Portunus spinimanus, Leander tenuicornis, and Latreutes fucorum) were found throughout the entirety of the geographic range surveyed. This core community was not found to vary significantly with increasing distance to shore (P=0.217) and latitude …

Anomalous Stranski-Krastanov Growth Of (111)-Oriented Quantum Dots With Tunable Wetting Layer Thickness, Christopher F. Schuck, Simon K. Roy, Trent Garrett, Paul J. Simmonds

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Driven by tensile strain, GaAs quantum dots (QDs) self-assemble on In_0.52Al_0.48As(111)A surfaces lattice-matched to InP substrates. In this study, we show that the tensile-strained self-assembly process for these GaAs(111)A QDs unexpectedly deviates from the well-known Stranski-Krastanov (SK) growth mode. Traditionally, QDs formed via the SK growth mode form on top of a flat wetting layer (WL) whose thickness is fixed. The inability to tune WL thickness has inhibited researchers’ attempts to fully control QD-WL interactions in these hybrid 0D-2D quantum systems. In contrast, using microscopy, spectroscopy, and computational modeling, we demonstrate that for GaAs(111)A QDs, we …

Search For Low-Mass Quark-Antiquark Resonances Produced In Association With A Photon At √S =13 Tev, A. M. Sirunyan

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

A search for narrow low-mass resonances decaying to quark-antiquark pairs is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision events collected at 13 TeV by the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb⁻¹, recorded in 2016. The search considers the case where the resonance has high transverse momentum due to initial-state radiation of a hard photon. To study this process, the decay products of the resonance are reconstructed as a single large-radius jet with two-pronged substructure. The signal would be identified as a localized excess in the jet …

Multilayer Observations And Modeling Of Thunderstorm-Generated Gravity Waves Over The Midwestern United States, C. J. Heale, J. B. Snively, A. N. Bhatt, L. Hoffmann, C. C. Stephan

Publications

We present multilayer observations and numerical simulations of gravity waves (GWs) generated by a series of Mesoscale Convective Systems over the midwestern United States. Strong semiconcentric GWs were observed and modeled, which couple from their tropospheric sources to the thermosphere, displaying strong nonlinearity indicated by instability, breaking, and formation of turbulent vortices. GWs in the stratosphere display a large range of horizontal scales from 34–400 km; however, the smaller wavelength waves break rapidly in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Larger-scale (≥150 km) waves dominate in the thermosphere and display northwestward propagation at 200–300 km altitude, opposing the mean winds. Despite …

Local Radiance, Scott Peter Britell

Dissertations and Theses

Recent years have seen a proliferation of web applications based on content management systems (CMS). Using a CMS, non-technical content authors are able to define custom content types to support their needs. These content type names and the attribute names in each content type are typically domain-specific and meaningful to the content authors. The ability of a CMS to support a multitude of content types allows for endless creation and customization but also leads to a large amount of heterogeneity within a single application. While this meaningful heterogeneity is beneficial, it introduces the problem of how to write reusable functionality …

The Process Of Establishing Theoretically Grounded Measures Of Science And Chemistry Identity For Use In Undergraduate Chemistry Courses, Kathryn Nicole Hosbein

Dissertations and Theses

Identity has been theorized to aid in student persistence toward science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM) degrees. However, before we can explore the impacts of learning environments on identity, and subsequently persistence, robust measures that can aid in understanding how identity is fostered need to be available. This research study aims to create measures of identity by expanding an existing physics identity framework and contextualizing it to science and chemistry identities. Development of the measures was carried out through two distinct phases that provided evidence for reliability and multiple aspects of validity.

The first phase of the study used qualitative …

Characterization Of Bacterial Communities In Biscayne Bay Through Genomic Analysis, Eric Fortman

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Biscayne Bay is a shallow oligotrophic estuary in Southeast Florida. Channelization of rivers, and dredging of canals has greatly altered the historical flow of fresh water into the bay. This, coupled with the rise of a sprawling urban & suburban development, has greatly increased the nutrient load in the bay. This study examined the bacterial community at 14 stations throughout Biscayne Bay —6 stations were located at the mouths of canals; 1 upstream-canal station; 6 stations in the center of the bay; and one ocean influenced station, located near the entrance to the bay. One liter, surface water samples were …