Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Short Solution Of The Kissing Number Problem In Dimension Three, Alexey Glazyrin

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We give a short solution of the kissing number problem in dimension three.

Carbon Sequestration Capacities Of Different Land Cover Types And Climate Change, Nicole L. Melnick, Annabel Gorman, Adam F. Warren

Student Publications

Human-caused climate change creates a positive feedback loop that emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere instead of being sequestered in the Earth or its oceans. A major contributor to this feedback loop is deforestation in order to use land for agriculture and livestock. This study aims to investigate differences in carbon sequestration capabilities of forests, pastures, and cropland through soil and tree sampling in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The main hypothesis of this study is that forested land will be the most effective at carbon sequestration. The loss on ignition method (LOI) was used to determine the percent organic material in …

Individual-Level Responses To Rapid Climate Change In Common Terns (Sterna Hirundo) And Arctic Terns (Sterna Paradisaea), Kaiulani A. Sund

Student Publications

This study examines fine-scale environmental changes and intraspecific variation in the diet and foraging behavior of two seabirds in the Gulf of Maine, one of the fastest-warming regions of the ocean. This variation on the individual level, or behavioral plasticity, may help long-lived species to persist in rapidly changing environments. As the water warms, seabirds’ preferred prey (hake and herring) follow cooler waters deeper and farther offshore. It is unlikely that all individuals respond to changing food availability in the same way. For common terns (Sterna hirundo) and Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) breeding on Petit Manan …

One Man’S Trash: Duke Riley’S Archive And The Social Construction Of Garbage, Deirdre M. Sullivan

Student Publications

In a post-industrial society, Americans have to grapple with the result of seemingly endless production: trash. The amount of trash produced every day is a rising threat to the planet and its inhabitants; every decision made for the future must also take into account waste, rubbish, and refuse that will never break down or be fully removed from our waterways. Some artists, such as contemporary artist Duke Riley, have embraced the use of trash in their art as a critique of capitalism and consumerism. One of his most notable works is the Poly S. Tyrene Memorial Maritime Museum series, a …

Rocky Intertidal Community Structure Along An Upwelling Gradient Between Playa Venao And Nueva Gorgona On Panama’S Pacific Coast, Claire Brady

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ecological research on rocky intertidal ecosystems has increasingly focused on the regional oceanographic processes that shape community structure over functional group interactions. Intertidal communities’ dependence on onshore and offshore transport of intertidal species larvae, dissolved inorganic nutrients, and phytoplankton signal that upwelling and nearshore currents can have an influential role in determining the growth and composition of intertidal systems. The community structure of rocky intertidal areas was compared between two locations along an upwelling gradient in the Gulf of Panama: Nueva Gorgona, with intermittent seasonal upwelling, and Playa Venao, with fringe seasonal upwelling. The surface cover of algae, barnacles, and …

Bridging The Education Gap: Series Of Infographic Guides To Sustainable Living For Low-Income Communities, Brianna Mateo

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Low-income communities in Australia face numerous negative impacts, such as health issues, social exclusion, educational disparities, and discrimination, which limit their opportunities to improve their quality of life (The Public Defenders,2022). As a result, students from these communities often have fewer resources and less funding, contributing to poor educational outcomes and underrepresentation in STEM fields, which includes environmental education (Australian Department of Education, 2022).

To address these challenges, I created an 8-page infographic series titled “Sustainable Living: On a Budget.” The series includes a cover page, an overview page, and four infographics covering : climate change, waste, preserving biodiversity, and …

Unleash The Heat: Exploring Geothermal Energy Perspectives And Energy Literacy In São Miguel, Azores, Lena Mcdonough

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The green energy transition is moving ahead in EU countries at very different paces, and there are some key challenges that all regions currently face in trying to phase fossil fuels out of their energy mixes. One of these challenges is that most regions simply cannot harness enough renewable energy sources and simultaneously have the storage technology for creating a baseload power source as reliable as oil, coal and natural gas. That is, unless you sit in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on the boundary of three tectonic plates, with a continuous and reliable renewable energy source beneath your …

People Power & Politics: Evaluating The Impact Of The Conselho De Cidadãos De Lisboa On Climate Policy And Political Efficacy In Lisbon, Marion Linde

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As the social and ecological effects of climate change intensify, governments across the globe must evaluate how best to deal with the climate crisis. Likewise, increasing citizen participation in decision-making processes has been a key strategy for dealing with such issues. Theories on the benefits of citizen participation inform real practices such as democratic mini-publics and citizens assemblies. In Lisbon, Portugal, the Câmara Municipal de Lisboa implemented the first edition of the Conselho de Cidadãos de Lisboa (CCL) in May 2022. The CCL is a citizens assembly designed to directly involve residents in city policy-making, with the first edition focusing …

Hydrological Patterns Of The Chimborazo Reserve: Streamflow, Climate, And Glacier Recession Data Show A Loss Of Glacial Influence On The Southwestern Aspect Of The Chimborazo Volcano, Ecuador., William F. M. Patrick

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Chimborazo volcano of the central Ecuadorian Andean Cordillera (6310 m) has been shown to currently be undergoing extreme glacial recession due to climate change. For this reason, this study sought to analyze climate and glacier recession data in conjunction with streamflow from kryal (glacial-fed), rhithral (non-glacial-fed), and intermediate streams to not only evaluate the current health of Chimborazo’s glaciers, but also determine how hydrology in the region will respond to future climate change. The rate of glacial recession on the volcano was determined using satellite imagery between 1965 and 2019. Measurements of stream elevation, pH, water temperature, width, depth, …

“Mira Cómo Tejemos”: La Construcción De Una Red Comunitaria Y La Educación Ambiental En La Organización Frente Insular De La Reserva Marina De Galápagos, Katie Draeger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El Frente Insular de la Reserva Marina de Galápagos (FIRMAG o Frente Insular) es una organización para la conservación comunitaria, ubicada en la isla de Santa Cruz. Para explorar el significado del trabajo comunitario de esta organización, este estudio examina dos elementos de la estructura organizativa: los valores y las fortalezas. Al analizar tanto las perspectivas de los líderes y miembros de FIRMAG como las observaciones sobre el trabajo mismo, los valores que buscan construir y servir la comunidad se revelan como 1) un rechazo a la institucionalidad/burocracia y 2) a los fondos extranjeros, 3) la educación ambiental comunitaria sin …

Investigating Collaborative Problem Solving Temporal Dynamics Using Interactions Within A Digital Whiteboard, Hua Leong Fwa

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Collaborative Problem Solving, the resolution of complex problems with the collaboration of multiple peoplepooling their knowledge, skills and effort is postulated as an essential 21st century skills for the futureworkforce. Collaborative Problem Solving has been embraced in schools where both online and face-to-face collaboration are afforded through the proliferation of educational technology tools. Assessing the amount of collaboration that has taken place among the students has however been challenging. In this research, we seek to identify the collaboration patterns of our students by mining the temporal sequence of their actions logs captured within a digital whiteboard tool. With the use …

Subgraph Centralization: A Necessary Step For Graph Anomaly Detection, Zhong Zhuang, Kai Ming Ting, Guansong Pang, Shuaibin Song

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Abstract Graph anomaly detection has attracted a lot of interest recently. Despite their successes, existing detectors have at least two of the three weaknesses: (a) high computational cost which limits them to small-scale networks only; (b) existing treatment of subgraphs produces suboptimal detection accuracy; and (c) unable to provide an explanation as to why a node is anomalous, once it is identified. We identify that the root cause of these weaknesses is a lack of a proper treatment for subgraphs. A treatment called Subgraph Centralization for graph anomaly detection is proposed to address all the above weaknesses. Its importance is …

Supporting Novices Author Audio Descriptions Via Automatic Feedback, Rosiana Natalie, Joshua Shi-Hao Tseng, Hernisa Kacorri, Kotaro Hara

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Audio descriptions (AD) make videos accessible to those who cannot see them. But many videos lack AD and remain inaccessible as traditional approaches involve expensive professional production. We aim to lower production costs by involving novices in this process. We present an AD authoring system that supports novices to write scene descriptions (SD)—textual descriptions of video scenes—and convert them into AD via text-to-speech. The system combines video scene recognition and natural language processing to review novice-written SD and feeds back what to mention automatically. To assess the effectiveness of this automatic feedback in supporting novices, we recruited 60 participants to …

Parsing-Conditioned Anime Translation: A New Dataset And Method, Zhansheng Li, Yangyang Xu, Nanxuan Zhao, Yang Zhou, Yongtuo Liu, Dahua Lin, Shengfeng He

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Anime is an abstract art form that is substantially different from the human portrait, leading to a challenging misaligned image translation problem that is beyond the capability of existing methods. This can be boiled down to a highly ambiguous unconstrained translation between two domains. To this end, we design a new anime translation framework by deriving the prior knowledge of a pre-Trained StyleGAN model. We introduce disentangled encoders to separately embed structure and appearance information into the same latent code, governed by four tailored losses. Moreover, we develop a FaceBank aggregation method that leverages the generated data of the StyleGAN, …

Asdf: A Differential Testing Framework For Automatic Speech Recognition Systems, Daniel Hao Xian Yuen, Andrew Yong Chen Pang, Zhou Yang, Chun Yong Chong, Mei Kuan Lim, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent years have witnessed wider adoption of Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) techniques in various domains. Consequently, evaluating and enhancing the quality of ASR systems is of great importance. This paper proposes Asdf, an Automated Speech Recognition Differential Testing Framework to test ASR systems. Asdf extends an existing ASR testing tool, the CrossASR++, which synthesizes test cases from a text corpus. However, CrossASR++ fails to make use of the text corpus efficiently and provides limited information on how the failed test cases can improve ASR systems. To address these limitations, our tool incorporates two novel features: (1) a text transformation module …

The Effects Of Cloth & Surgical Masks On The Environment, Dana Jurgielewicz

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

The objective of this study is to assess the environmental effects of different types of face masks (surgical and cloth). A comparison between different mask components is analyzed and an environmental impact is produced through the OpenLCA Software. The research question for this study is: What are the effects of different types of face masks on the environment? The expected result was that surgical masks would be worse for the environment because of the high consumption usage. The results of this study suggest that cloth masks have a worse environmental impact because of their level of usage.

Match Results And The Equity Value Of Publicly Traded Soccer Teams, Ryan Bebyn

Honors Projects in Mathematics

This study aims to examine the relationship between the match performance of publicly traded European soccer clubs and their stock price returns. It is important for investors, owners, and fans to understand how competitive factors both on and off the field affect the equity value of European club soccer teams. Competitive factors such as basic match results (Win, Loss, or Draw), rivalry matches, and international matches will be evaluated against the daily stock prices of publicly traded soccer clubs. A sample of teams traded on public exchanges will be used to analyze the effects of their matches on the daily …

Changing Nfl Playoff Overtime Rules To Create Equal Opportunities To Win A Game, Matthew Silvia

Honors Projects in Mathematics

The NFL has attempted to create fair overtime rules over the course of the past decade; however, this study is interested in determining what playoff overtime rule (or rules) could the NFL implement to result in outcomes where both teams have a relatively equal chance of winning a game. This study aims to find which overtime rules work best at minimizing the differences between teams who possess the ball first versus teams that kick the ball off to start an overtime period. By collecting various NFL statistics from ESPN.com and FantasyOutsiders.com, this study hopes to run multiple simulations of different …

Number Theoretic Arithmetic Functions And Dirichlet Series, Ivan V. Morozov

Publications and Research

In this study, we will study number theoretic functions and their associated Dirichlet series. This study lay the foundation for deep research that has applications in cryptography and theoretical studies. Our work will expand known results and venture into the complex plane.

Thermal Stability Of Platinum-Silicon Alloy Films Grown On Langasite Substrates For Use In Microwave Acoustic Sensor Technology, Kell Fremouw

Honors College

Wireless sensors that can operate in temperatures up to 1000°C are widely needed for real time monitoring of large-scale industrial processes. Such sensors will improve efficiency and prevent component failure. Under previous work at UMaine, Surface Acoustic Wave Resonator (SAWR) sensors fabricated on piezoelectric langasite (La₃Ga₅SiO₁₄) wafers have shown promise for wireless strain measurements at high temperatures. However, there is a major technical challenge in attaching SAWR langasite based sensors to metal parts because the large differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between langasite and metals leads to large thermal stresses and …

Directional Tensile Strength Of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polylactic Acid In Extrusion Based Additive Manufacturing For Custom Failure Parts, Lucinda Slattery

Honors College

Inherently, additive manufacturing printed parts have faults between layers perpendicular to the direction of printing, both in the plane parallel to the build plate and in the z direction (out of the build plate). For most parts, these “built-in” faults from the manufacturing process act as limiting conditions for the part's mechanical strength. While perpendicular to printing is typically the weakest due to layer adhesion faults, parallel to printing is typically the strongest due to cohesive material and fiber orientation. Fiber orientation can be measured through various methods, with the two explored being X-Ray Microscopy (XRM) for 3D analysis, and …

Everyone's A Waiter: A Data-Driven Queuing Simulation Model Of Mike's Clam Shack, Natalie Robinson

Honors College

This thesis seeks to understand the mathematical foundation of several prominent concepts in queuing theory and apply them to gain a better understanding of nightly business levels and dining room queue behavior during the summer tourist season at Mike’s Clam Shack, which is a restaurant located in Wells, Maine. To do so, a variety of queue and server section data has been collected from Mike’s and analyzed to determine probability distributions for interarrival and service times. In addition, a queuing simulation model has been constructed in the R Programming Language, which uses this data to generate dining room and queue …

Incel Bonding: Masculinity And Storytelling In Online Misogynist Spaces, Gunnar Eastman

Honors College

The incel subculture, short for “involuntary celibate,” is one that exists mostly online, but boasts a relatively large number of dedicated members. The goal of this research is to determine how the incel subculture shares their ideology and develops a sense of group identity. The study reviewed 76 threads of posts across two incel forum websites, and was able to conduct three interviews of members from one of those sites. That content was analyzed iteratively for cohesive themes. Several themes emerged, chief among them was the activity of storytelling, which appeared to be done in three different major ways, with …

Understanding Community Abundance And Anthropogenic Impact On Acadia National Park's Rocky Intertidal Ecosystem Through Photoplot Analysis, Kayla Mclagan

Honors College

Acadia National Park’s rocky intertidal ecosystem is one that supports a variety of different species and is highly susceptible to changes from human activity. This study aims to assess the pros and cons of using photo plots and community abundance analysis, compared to point-intersect transects, in rapid assessment protocols monitoring Acadia’s rocky intertidal ecosystem. I piloted the photoplot method, a photograph taken of the area contained within a foot-byfoot quadrat, to assess community abundance of the rocky intertidal ecosystem. Histograms and a nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination were used to analyze the community structure of various testing sites. This method of …

Assessing College Students' Understanding Of Geologic Timescales, Ethan Couture

Honors College

Geologic timescales are central to many concepts in the natural sciences, including evolution, climate change and plate tectonics. However, geologic time scales can be challenging to appreciate, especially for those who have not had exposure to such topics previously. During primary and secondary education (K-12) students are provided with foundational information about geology that is then further developed in specialized classes in college. Yet most students are not getting this foundation, which could arguably lead to deficits in their post-secondary education. Despite the importance of these concepts, especially for those interested in careers associated with geologic timescales, there have been …

Modeling Franconia Ridge, New Hampshire Using Structure From Motion And Developing New Techniques For Fracture Detection, Dane Johnson

Honors College

Bedrock fracture density is an important characteristic of bedrock that determines its structural formation, the potential for groundwater or fluid flow, and the capacity of erosion for exposed features. In the case of the Franconia Range, there are two primary bedrock lithologies that we wish to analyze. In this research, we conduct the first structural analysis and quantification of the bedrock fracture density of this region using Structure from Motion modeling and machine learning algorithms. Additionally, the algorithms were supplemented to be useful in determining fracture density in the subsurface geology of Ground-Penetrating-Radar (GPR) radargrams. The products of this work …

Practical Implementation Of The Immersed Interface Method With Triangular Meshes For 3d Rigid Solids In A Fluid Flow, Norah Hakami

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

When employing the immersed interface method (IIM) to simulate a fluid flow around a moving rigid object, the immersed object can be replaced by a virtual fluid enclosed by singular forces on the interface between the real and virtual fluids. These forces represent the impact of the rigid motion on the fluid flow and cause jump discontinuities across the interface in the whole flow field. Then, the IIM resolves the fluid flow on a fixed computational domain by directly incorporating the jump conditions across the interface into numerical schemes. Previous development of the method is limited to simple smooth boundaries. …

Quantifying Oil And Gas Industry Related Geohazard Using Radar Interferometry And Hydro-Geomechanical Modeling, Weiyu Zheng

Earth Sciences Theses and Dissertations

The Permian Basin, containing a large amount of oil and gas, has been intensively developed for hydrocarbon production. However, the hazards related to the oil and gas industry including surface deformation and the underlying mechanisms in this region have not been well known. My PhD study aims to monitor the geohazards in the Permian Basin and better comprehend the subsurface mechanisms with the aid of high-resolution and high-accuracy Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) images. Generally, as the pore pressure is influenced by wastewater injection/hydrocarbon production, the pressure changes can propagate to other surrounding underground and overlying rock/soil layers, resulting in …

Viscous Thin-Film Models Of Nanoscale Self-Organization Under Ion Bombardment, Tyler Evans

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

For decades, it has been observed that broad-beam irradiation of semiconductor surfaces can lead to spontaneous self-organization into highly regular patterns, sometimes at length scales of only a few nanometers. Initial theory was largely based on erosion and redistribution of material occurring on fast time scales, which are able to produce good agreement with certain aspects of surface evolution. However, further experimental and theoretical work eventually led to the realization that numerous effects are active in the irradiated target, including stresses associated with ion-implantation and the accumulation of damage leading to the development of a disordered, amorphous layer atop the …

A Node Elimination Algorithm For Cubatures Of High-Dimensional Polytopes, Arkadijs Slobodkins

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

Node elimination is a numerical approach for obtaining cubature rules for the approximation of multivariate integrals over domains in Rⁿ. Beginning with a known cubature, nodes are selected for elimination, and a new, more efficient rule is constructed by iteratively solving the moment equations. In this work, a new node elimination criterion is introduced that is based on linearization of the moment equations. In addition, a penalized iterative solver is introduced that ensures positivity of weights and interiority of nodes. We aim to construct a universal algorithm for convex polytopes that produces efficient cubature rules without any user …