Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Investigation Of Unexpected Purple Substance Extracted From Newsprint Paper [Poster], Raquel Wilhelm, Shoshanna Coon, Kirk Manfredi

Research in the Capitol

In an attempt to extract a green dye from newsprint advertisements, it was serendipitously discovered that a purple substance can be extracted from newsprint paper using methanol or acetic acid. Further investigations involving blank newsprint paper showed that the purple substance was a part of the paper itself rather than a component of the ink in the advertisements. Soxhlet extraction was used on the blank newspaper print to obtain the compound. Using different analytical instruments, characteristics of the compound can be determined such as the elemental composition, molar mass, and structure. The ultimate goal is to determine the compound and …

The Synthesis And Characterization Studies Of Modified Nucleobase In Pna And Dna, Gyeongsu Park

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Nucleic acids have been extensively studied not only for their importance in biological systems as the medium of genetic information but also for their potential uses in therapeutic, diagnostic and other biological applications. As such, modified oligonucleotides and oligonucleotide analogues have drawn the attention of researchers from various disciplines. Modification of oligonucleotides can enhance their desired characteristics and engender unique properties, such as fluorescence, giving rise to a variety of applications. Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is an oligonucleotide mimic with a pseudo-peptide backbone based on N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine that is renowned for high target binding affinity and resistance to enzyme degradation. …

Nagase2: A Water-Loving Multifunctional Non-Van Der Waals Layered Selenogallate, Srikanth Balijapelly, Santhoshkumar Sundaramoorthy, Dibya Jyoti Mondal, Sanjit Konar, Nikolay Gerasimchuk, Aleksandr V. Chernatynskiy, Amitava Choudhury

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

A Missing Member of Well-Known Ternary Chalcometallates, a Sodium Selenogallate, NaGaSe₂, Has Been Synthesized by Employing a Polyselenide Flux and Stoichiometric Reaction. Crystal Structure Analysis using X-Ray Diffraction Techniques Reveals that It Contains Supertetrahedral Adamantane-Type Ga₄Se₁₀ Secondary Building Units. These Ga₄Se₁₀ Secondary Building Units Are Further Connected Via Corners to Form Two-Dimensional (2D) [GaSe₂]_∞- Layers Stacked Along the C-Axis of the Unit Cell, and the Na Ions Reside in the Interlayer Space. the Compound Has an Unusual Ability to Absorb Water Molecules from the Atmosphere or a Nonanhydrous …

Planning For The Lake Izabal Basin Research Endeavor (Libre) Continental Scientific Drilling Project In Eastern Guatemala, Jonathan Obrist-Farner, Andreas Eckert, Peter M. J. Douglas, Liseth Perez, Alex Correa-Metrio, Bronwen L. Konecky, Thorsten Bauersachs, Susan Zimmerman, Stephanie Scheidt, Mark Brenner, Steffen Kutterolf, Jeremy Maurer, Omar Flores, Caroline M. Burberry, Anders Noren, Amy Myrbo, Matthew Lachniet, Nigel Wattrus, Derek Gibson, The Libre Scientific Team

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

As Earth’s atmospheric temperatures and human populations increase, more people are becoming vulnerable to natural and human-induced disasters. This is particularly true in Central America, where the growing human population is experiencing climate extremes (droughts and floods), and the region is susceptible to geological hazards, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and environmental deterioration in many forms (soil erosion, lake eutrophication, heavy metal contamination, etc.). Instrumental and historical data from the region are insufficient to understand and document past hazards, a necessary first step for mitigating future risks. Long, continuous, well-resolved geological records can, however, provide a window into past …

Supporting The 21st Century Classroom: Fostering Relevance And Resilience With Project-Based Learning Curricula, Shari Childers, Kara Fulton

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Participants will learn about building and supporting project-based learning (PBL), a scalable, flexible approach to classes and programs that cultivates 21st century competencies in students, including collaboration and resilience. They will re-imagine a course or a program at their own institution from within a PBL context.

A Chairpersons Guide To Managing Time And Stress, Christian K. Hansen

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

In this interactive workshop we discuss time and stress management specifically from the perspective of a department chairperson responsible for leading an academic department through numerous internal and external challenges. The focus will be on practical strategies for effective use of time, not only at a personal level, but also at a department wide level.

Optimizing Course Offerings In A Science Department, Yu Kay Law

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

We will discuss how enrollment data and faculty/advisor input can be used to maximize schedule efficiency in course offerings and providing for student success. We will also discuss how best to monitor and rearrange course schedules in light of actual enrollment.

Sustainable Management Of Facemask Waste Generated From Covid-19 Pandemic In Bhutan, Tshering Yangdon, Twisuk Punpeng, Sirima Mongkolosomit, Kampol Nanthapong, Kinzang Yangden

Journal of Health Research

Background: The rise in facemask waste with the uncertainty of deposition data and all its concomitant pressure on management has resulted in new risks and challenges for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). The purpose of this mixed methods study was to estimate facemask waste generation and examine management in Bhutan since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: One thousand five hundred and twenty-seventh (1,527) consenting members of the public from Class A Thromdes (self-governing municipalities) were surveyed online from February to April 2022, to estimate mask waste using descriptive statistics. This was supported by the waste characterization conducted in Memelhakha, the biggest …

Mastery Based Grading For Secondary Mathematics, Anderson Trimm

Professional Learning Day

Dr. Trimm will discuss in detail his design and implementation of a mastery grading system in calculus at IMSA and how it offers many benefits over traditional grading. Dr. Trimm will also explain how it makes creating assessments and grading easier and less work for the teacher, while being more accurate.

An Undergraduate Consortium For Addressing The Leaky Pipeline To Computing Research, James C. Boerkoel Jr., Mehmet Ergezer

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Despite an increasing number of successful interventions designed to broaden participation in computing research, there is still significant attrition among historically marginalized groups in the computing research pipeline. This experience report describes a first-of-its-kind Undergraduate Consortium (UC; https://aaai-uc.github.io/about) that addresses this challenge by empowering students with a culmination of their undergraduate research in a conference setting. The UC, conducted at the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), aims to broaden participation in the AI research community by recruiting students, particularly those from historically marginalized groups, supporting them with mentorship, advising, and networking as an accelerator toward graduate school, AI research, …

A Result In The Theory Of Twin Primes, Nelson Carella

Publications and Research

This article determines a lower bound for the number of twin primes $p$ and $p+2$ up to a large number $x$.

Iron-Catalyzed Oxidative Α-Amination Of Ketones With Primary And Secondary Sulfonamides, Fubin Song, So Hyun Park, Christine Wu, Alexandra E. Strom

Chemistry: Faculty Publications

We report the iron-catalyzed α-amination of ketones with sulfonamides. Using an oxidative coupling approach, ketones can be directly coupled with free sulfonamides, without the need for prefunctionalization of either substrate. Primary and secondary sulfonamides are both competent coupling partners, with yields from 55% to 88% for deoxybenzoin-derived substrates.

Observing Human Mobility Internationally During Covid-19, Shane Allcroft, Mohammed Metwaly, Zachery Berg, Isha Ghodgaonkar, Fischer Bordwell, Xinxin Zhao, Xinglei Liu, Jiahao Xu, Subhankar Chakraborty, Vishnu Banna, Akhil Chinnakotla, Abhinav Goel, Caleb Tung, Gore Kao, Wei Zakharov, David A. Shoham, George K. Thiruvathukal, Yung-Hsiang Lu

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article analyzes visual data captured from five countries and three U.S. states to evaluate the effectiveness of lockdown policies for reducing the spread of COVID-19. The main challenge is the scale: nearly six million images are analyzed to observe how people respond to the policy changes.

Plagiarism Deterrence In Cs1 Through Keystroke Data, Kaden Hart, Chad Mano, John M. Edwards

Computer Science Student Research

Recent work in computing education has explored the idea of analyzing and grading using the process of writing a computer program rather than just the final submitted code. We build on this idea by investigating the effect on plagiarism when the process of coding, in the form of keystroke logs, is submitted for grading in addition to the final code. We report results from two terms of a university CS1 course in which students submitted keystroke logs. We find that when students are required to submit a log of keystrokes together with their written code they are less likely to …

Accurate Estimation Of Time-On-Task While Programming, Kaden Hart, Christopher M. Warren, John Edwards

Computer Science Student Research

In a recent study, students were periodically prompted to self-report engagement while working on computer programming assignments in a CS1 course. A regression model predicting time-on-task was proposed. While it was a significant improvement over ad-hoc estimation techniques, the study nevertheless suffered from lack of error analysis, lack of comparison with existing methods, subtle complications in prompting students, and small sample size. In this paper we report results from a study with an increased number of student participants and modified prompting scheme intended to better capture natural student behavior. Furthermore, we perform a cross-validation analysis on our refined regression model …

Isomerization Of Galactose To Tagatose: Recent Advances In Non-Enzymatic Isomerization, Jikai Zhao, Zhuo Wang, Qing Jin, Danyi Feng, Juhee Lee

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The valorization of galactose derived from acid whey to low-calorie tagatose has gained increasing attention. Enzymatic isomerization is of great interest but faces several challenges, such as poor thermal stability of enzymes and a long processing time. In this work, non-enzymatic (supercritical fluids, triethylamine, arginine, boronate affinity, hydrotalcite, Sn-β zeolite, and calcium hydroxide) pathways for galactose to tagatose isomerization were critically discussed. Unfortunately, most of these chemicals showed poor tagatose yields (70%). The latter is able to form a tagatose–calcium hydroxide–water complex, which stimulates the equilibrium toward tagatose and prevents sugar degradation. Nevertheless, the excessive use of calcium hydroxide may …

Fallacies In The Design Of Climate Change Policies: A Response To Richard Epstein, Richard L. Revesz

Texas A&M Law Review

This Essay criticizes Professor Richard Epstein’s approach to climate change regulation, which he characterizes as one involving taking modest steps at first, observing the results of these steps, and then using the lessons learned to inform the next steps. Epstein’s approach depends critically on a particular class of damage function determining how greenhouse gas emissions cause harm—specifically, damage functions that lack discontinuities. And it also depends on the ability to observe in real time how the function occurs. Neither of these conditions are met with respect to climate change. The Essay also shows that Epstein’s approach is further undermined by …

Stellar Atmosphere Models For Select Veritas Stellar Intensity Interferometry Targets, Jackson Ladd Sackrider, Jason P. Aufdenberg, Katelyn Sonnen

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Since 2020 the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) has observed 48 stellar targets using the technique of Stellar Intensity Interferometry (SII). Angular diameter measurements by VERITAS SII (VSII) in a waveband near 400 nm complement existing angular diameter measurements in the near-infrared. VSII observations will test fundamental predictions of stellar atmosphere models and should be more sensitive to limb darkening and gravity darkening effects than measurements in the near-IR, however, the magnitude of this difference has not been systematically explored in the literature. In order to investigate the synthetic interferometric (as well as spectroscopic) appearance of stars …

Optimal Monohedral Tilings Of Hyperbolic Surfaces, Leonardo Digiosia, Jahangir Habib, Jack Hirsch, Lea Kenigsberg, Kevin Li, Dylanger Pittman, Jackson Petty, Christopher Xue, Weitao Zhu

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

The hexagon is the least-perimeter tile in the Euclidean plane for any given area. On hyperbolic surfaces, this "isoperimetric" problem differs for every given area, as solutions do not scale. Cox conjectured that a regular k-gonal tile with 120-degree angles is isoperimetric. For area π/3, the regular heptagon has 120-degree angles and therefore tiles many hyperbolic surfaces. For other areas, we show the existence of many tiles but provide no conjectured optima. On closed hyperbolic surfaces, we verify via a reduction argument using cutting and pasting transformations and convex hulls that the regular 7-gon is the optimal n-gonal tile of …

Strong Recovery In Group Synchronization, Bradley Stich

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

The group synchronization problem is to estimate unknown group elements at the vertices of a graph when given a set of possibly noisy observations of group differences at the edges. We consider the group synchronization problem on finite graphs with size tending to infinity, and we focus on the question of whether the true edge differences can be exactly recovered from the observations (i.e., strong recovery). We prove two main results, one positive and one negative. In the positive direction, we prove that for a sequence of synchronization problems containing the complete digraph along with a relatively well behaved prior …

The Determining Number And Cost Of 2-Distinguishing Of Select Kneser Graphs, James E. Garrison

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

A graph $G$ is said to be \emph{d-distinguishable} if there exists a not-necessarily proper coloring with $d$ colors such that only the trivial automorphism preserves the color classes. For a 2-distinguishing labeling, the \emph{ cost of $2$-distinguishing}, denoted $\rho(G),$ is defined as the minimum size of a color class over all $2$-distinguishing colorings of $G$. Our work also utilizes \emph{determining sets} of $G, $ sets of vertices $S \subseteq G$ such that every automorphism of $G$ is uniquely determined by its action on $S.$ The \emph{determining number} of a graph is the size of a smallest determining set. We investigate …

Searching For Tev Dark Matter In Irregular Dwarf Galaxies With Hawc Observatory, R. Alfaro, C. Alvarez, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, D. Avila Rojas, H. A.Ayala Solares, R. Babu, D. Huang, R. Turner, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

We present the results of dark matter (DM) searches in a sample of 31 dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies within the field of view of the HAWC Observatory. dIrr galaxies are DM-dominated objects in which astrophysical gamma-ray emission is estimated to be negligible with respect to the secondary gamma-ray flux expected by annihilation or decay of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). While we do not see any statistically significant DM signal in dIrr galaxies, we present the exclusion limits (95% C.L.) for annihilation cross section and decay lifetime for WIMP candidates with masses between 1 and 100 TeV. Exclusion limits from …

2023 March 2 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

Text And Data Mining Applications For Teaching Music Bibliography, Taylor Greene, Laurie Sampsel

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

Text and data mining (TDM) is a process of increasing interdisciplinary potential and one with many practical applications for music graduate students. TDM, however, remains a topic rarely introduced in the music bibliography course. Understandably, talk of artificial intelligence, algorithms, and programming languages are intimidating to music students, but thanks to software applications, knowledge about these computer science topics are not required to participate in research using TDM. This presentation explores ways to introduce digital humanities to music students through TDM.

In our presentation, we will discuss two approaches to incorporating TDM into the music bibliography course, focusing on two …

Partnering To Advance Equity In Coastal Resilience: Lessons Learned For Research And Practice Collaborations For On-The-Ground Projects, Ren-Neasha Blake Gilmore, Marina Saitgalina, Jennifer Whytlaw, Nicole Hutton, Tom Allen, Joshua Behr, Wie Yusuf

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

No abstract provided.

Benthic Habitat Mapping Of Mountain Top Bank Within The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Through Integrated Geophysical And Visual Data Analysis, Bethany Pertain

Master's Theses

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) are among the seafloor ecosystems that have been poorly studied throughout the world’s oceans, but they are a vital and diverse ecosystem that should be prioritized for future mapping and ecological studies. Priority should be given to them because they possess natural, social, and economic values, and face a variety of threats, all of which, if not better understood will result in the loss of this unique ecosystem. Insights into these ecosystems, among other deep-sea environments, are lacking due to difficulty accessing them, inherent lag between data collection by an autonomous system and observation by a …

Reconversion Of Parahydrogen Gas In Surfactant-Coated Glass Nmr Tubes, Robert V. Chimenti, James Daley, James Sack, Jennifer Necsutu, Nicholas Whiting

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

The application of parahydrogen gas to enhance the magnetic resonance signals of a diversity of chemical species has increased substantially in the last decade. Parahydrogen is prepared by lowering the temperature of hydrogen gas in the presence of a catalyst; this enriches the para spin isomer beyond its normal abundance of 25% at thermal equilibrium. Indeed, parahydrogen fractions that approach unity can be attained at sufficiently low temperatures. Once enriched, the gas will revert to its normal isomeric ratio over the course of hours or days, depending on the surface chemistry of the storage container. Although parahydrogen enjoys long lifetimes …

Wallaby Pilot Survey: Hydra Cluster Galaxies Uv And H I Morphometrics, Benne W. Holwerda, Frank Bigiel, Albert Bosma, Helene M. Courtois, Nathan Deg, Helga Dénes, Ahmed Elagali, Bi-Qing For, Baerbel Koribalski, Denis A. Leahy, Karen Lee-Waddell, Ángel R. López-Sánchez, Se-Heon Oh, Tristan N. Reynolds, Jonghwan Rhee, Kristine Spekkens, Jing Wang, Tobias Westmeier, O Ivy Wong

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Galaxy morphology in atomic hydrogen (H I) and in the ultraviolet (UV) are closely linked. This has motivated their combined use to quantify morphology over the full H I disc for both H I and UV imaging. We apply galaxy morphometrics: concentration, asymmetry, gini, M₂₀ and multimode-intensity-deviation statistics to the first moment-0 maps of the WALLABY Survey of galaxies in the hydra cluster centre. Taking advantage of this new H I survey, we apply the same morphometrics over the full H I extent on archival GALEX FUV and NUV data to explore how well H I truncated, extended ultraviolet …

Use Of Electrochemical Techniques And Statistical Analysis To Investigate The Pitting Probability Of Copper, Sina Matin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The development of a safe permanent disposal plan is essential for the long-term disposal of used fuel bundles. Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has been investigating the deep geologic disposal of nuclear waste which offers the optimum passive safety system with a negligible probability of release of radionuclides into the environment.

The proposed used fuel containers (UFC) for the permanent disposal of high-level nuclear waste in Canada is comprised of a carbon steel vessel coated with a 3 mm corrosion-resistant copper layer deposited using a combination of electrodeposition and cold spray deposition. Although copper is often considered to be thermodynamically …

A Modified Hopfield Network For The K-Median Problem, Cody Rossiter

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The k-median problem is a clustering problem where given n locations one wants to select k locations such that the total distance between every non-selected location and its nearest selected location is minimized. The problem has applications in several fields, including network design, resource allocation, and data mining.

There is currently limited research on applying neural networks to combinatorial optimization problems and we contribute by presenting a modified Hopfield network for the k-median problem. Hopfield networks are a type of neural network that can be applied to combinatorial optimization problems but often run slowly and produce poor solutions.

Our modifications …