Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Ghostparty Video Game, Tyler Remlinger Hart

Computer Science and Software Engineering

GhostParty is a Unity game that uses a MongoDB database to store players' gameplay values. These values are used to create "Ghosts" that players can compete with in various mini-games. I found that this form of multiplayer using ghosts can create a good gameplay experience without live multiplayer interactions.

Private Pete Fights Illiteracy At Fort Ontario: The Men In Charge, Christian Wright, Adrian Mandzy

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

From June of 1943 to February of 1944, the 1210th Special Training Unit at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York taught pre-basic military training to thousands of illiterate, slow learning, and non-English-speaking soldiers in the United States Army. The training center at Fort Ontario conducted programs in disciplinary barracks, specialized military, technical, academic and vocational education.

Classification Of Road Objects Using Convolutional Neural Networks, Mann Patel, Heba Elgazzar

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Driving is the primary means of transportation for many people around the world. Whether the use is to assist human drivers or create autonomous driving, the use of machine learning can create safer road conditions. Drivers must consider other objects on the road, most commonly other vehicles and pedestrians. These three components, road signs, pedestrians, and vehicles, make up a large majority of objects that a driver will encounter when on the road. This research applies machine learning algorithms, specifically Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), to classify these road objects. The goal is to create a classification model that can reliably …

Critical Workforce Skills For Bachelor-Level Geoscientists: An Analysis Of Geoscience Job Advertisements, Gregory W. Shafer, K. Viskupic, Anne E. Egger

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Understanding the skills bachelor-level geoscientists need to enter the workforce is critical to their success. The goal of this study was to identify the workforce skills that are most requested from a broad range of geoscience employers. We collected 3668 job advertisements for bachelor-level geoscientists and used a case-insensitive, code-matching function in Matlab to determine the skills geoscience employers seek. Written communication (67%), field skills (63%), planning (53%), and driving (51%) were most frequently requested. Field skills and data collection were frequently found together in the ads. Written communication skills were common regardless of occupation. Quantitative skills were requested less …

Communicating About Extreme Heat: Results From Card Sorting And Think Aloud Interviews With Experts From Differing Domains, Jeannette Sutton, Nicholas Waugh, Savannah Olivas

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

Climate trends indicate that extreme heat events are becoming more common and more severe over time, requiring improved strategies to communicate heat risk and protective actions. However, there exists a disconnect in heat-related communication from experts, who commonly include heat related jargon (i.e., technical language), to decision makers and the general public. The use of jargon has been shown to reduce meaningful engagement with and understanding of messages written by experts. Translating technical language into comprehensible messages that encourage decision makers to take action has been identified as a priority to enable impact-based decision support. Knowing what concepts and terms …

Solving Fjssp With A Genetic Algorithm, Michael John Srouji

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem is an NP-Hard combinatorial problem. This paper aims to find a solution to this problem using genetic algorithms, and discuss the effectiveness of this. Initially, I did exploratory work on whether neural networks would be effective or not, and found a lot of trade offs between using neural networks and chromosome sequencing. In the end, I decided to use chromosome sequencing over neural networks, due to the scope of my problem being on a small scale rather than on a large scale.

Therefore, the genetic algorithm was implemented using chromosome sequencing. My chromosomes were …

Twitch Trivia Battle Royale: Interactive Entertainment Engineering Game, Noah Tyler Ravetch

Computer Science and Software Engineering

As the world of digital media evolves, so too does the way producers and consumers of entertainment content interact with each other. Live streaming is one such evolution. In this format, one person broadcasts their camera and/or their computer screen to a large audience of viewers in real time. People tuning in can communicate with other viewers and the streamer using the chat feature built-in to the streaming platform.

A new type of entertainment has recently entered the marketplace: interactive entertainment. Concerts are being held virtually in games like Fortnite (Epic Games 2021). TV Shows on Netflix are beginning to …

The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (Ioos): A Prototype User Valuation, Charles S. Colgan, Castelletto Anthony

Publications

The Integrated Ocean Observing System of the United States provides a large variety of oceanographic and related data at no charge through 11 Regional Associations. Since the data is distributed without price it is difficult to determine the economic value of the data. That value is useful in explaining and justifying the investment in ocean observing. This study applies discrete choice modeling to determine valuation of the data for users of data through the RA websites. The study found annual values of $190 to $220 million, and these estimates are considered highly conservative. A guide for replication of the valuation …

Error Analysis Of A Fully Discrete Projection Method For Magnetohydrodynamic System, Qianqian Ding, Xiaoming He, Xiaonian Long, Shipeng Mao

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we develop and analyze a finite element projection method for magnetohydrodynamics equations in Lipschitz domain. A fully discrete scheme based on Euler semi-implicit method is proposed, in which continuous elements are used to approximate the Navier–Stokes equations and H(curl) conforming Nédélec edge elements are used to approximate the magnetic equation. One key point of the projection method is to be compatible with two different spaces for calculating velocity, which leads one to obtain the pressure by solving a Poisson equation. The results show that the proposed projection scheme meets a discrete energy stability. In addition, with the …

Error Analysis Of A Fully Discrete Projection Method For Magnetohydrodynamic System, Qianqian Ding, Xiaoming He, Xiaonian Long, Shipeng Mao

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we develop and analyze a finite element projection method for magnetohydrodynamics equations in Lipschitz domain. A fully discrete scheme based on Euler semi-implicit method is proposed, in which continuous elements are used to approximate the Navier–Stokes equations and H(curl) conforming Nédélec edge elements are used to approximate the magnetic equation. One key point of the projection method is to be compatible with two different spaces for calculating velocity, which leads one to obtain the pressure by solving a Poisson equation. The results show that the proposed projection scheme meets a discrete energy stability. In addition, with the …

Linking Mathematical Models And Trap Data To Infer The Proliferation, Abundance, And Control Of Aedes Aegypti, Jing Chen, Xi Huo, Andre B. B. Wilke, John C. Beier, Chalmers Vasquez, William Petrie, Robert Stephen Cantrell, Chris Cosner, Shigui Ruan

Mathematics Faculty Articles

Aedes aegypti is one of the most dominant mosquito species in the urban areas of Miami-Dade County, Florida, and is responsible for the local arbovirus transmissions. Since August 2016, mosquito traps have been placed throughout the county to improve surveillance and guide mosquito control and arbovirus outbreak response. In this paper, we develop a deterministic mosquito population model, estimate model parameters by using local entomological and temperature data, and use the model to calibrate the mosquito trap data from 2017 to 2019. We further use the model to compare the Ae. aegypti population and evaluate the impact of rainfall intensity …

Pan-Arctic Soil Moisture Control On Tundra Carbon Sequestration And Plant Productivity, Donatella Zona, Peter M. Lafleur, Koen Hufkens, Beniamino Gioli, Barbara Bailey, George Burba, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Jennifer D. Watts, Kyle A. Arndt, Mary Farina, John S. Kimball, Martin Heimann, Mathias Göckede, Martijn Pallandt, Torben R. Christensen, Mikhail Mastepanov, Efrén López-Blanco, Albertus J. Dolman, Roisin Commane, Charles E. Miller, Josh Hashemi, Lars Kutzbach, David Holl, Julia Boike, Christian Wille, Torsten Sachs, Aram Kalhori, Elyn R. Humphreys, Oliver Sonnentag, Gesa Meyer, Gabriel H. Gosselin, Philip Marsh, Walter C. Oechel

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Long-term atmospheric CO₂ concentration records have suggested a reduction in the positive effect of warming on high-latitude carbon uptake since the 1990s. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the reduced net carbon sink of northern ecosystems with increased air temperature, including water stress on vegetation and increased respiration over recent decades. However, the lack of consistent long-term carbon flux and in situ soil moisture data has severely limited our ability to identify the mechanisms responsible for the recent reduced carbon sink strength. In this study, we used a record of nearly 100 site-years of eddy covariance …

Why Gliding Symmetry Used To Be Prevalent In Biology But Practically Disappeared, Julio C. Urenda, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

At present, many living creatures have symmetries; in particular, the left-right symmetry is ubiquitous. Interestingly, 600 million years ago, very fee living creatures had the left-right symmetry: most of them had a gliding symmetry, symmetry with respect to shift along a line followed by reflection in this line. This symmetry is really seen in living creatures today. In this paper, we provide a physical-based geometric explanation for this symmetry change: we explain both why gliding symmetry was ubiquitous, and why at present, it is rarely observed, while the left-right symmetry is prevalent.

Constructing A Shariah Document Screening Prototype Based On Serverless Architecture, Marhanum Che Mohd Salleh, Rizal Mohd Nor, Faizal Yusof, Md Amiruzzaman

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The aim of this research is to discuss the groundwork of building an Islamic Banking Document Screening Prototype based on a serverless architecture framework. This research first forms an algorithm for document matching based Vector Space Model (VCM) and adopts Levenshtein Distance for similarity setting. Product proposals will become a query, and policy documents by the central bank will be a corpus or database for document matching. Both the query and corpus went through preprocessing stage prior to similarity analysis. One set of queries with two sets of corpora is tested in this research to compare similarity values. Finally, a …

The Jwst Early-Release Science Program For Direct Observations Of Exoplanetary Systems Ii: A 1 To 20 Μm Spectrum Of The Planetary-Mass Companion Vhs 1256-1257 B, Brittany E. Miles, Beth A. Biller, Polychronis Patapis, Kadin Worthen, Emily Rickman, Kielan K.W. Hoch, Andrew Skemer, Marshall D. Perrin, Niall Whiteford, Christine H. Chen, B. Sargent, Sagnick Mukherjee, Caroline V. Morley, Sarah E. Moran, Mickael Bonnefoy, Simon Petrus, Aarynn L. Carter, Elodie Choquet, Sasha Hinkley, Kimberly Ward-Duong, Jarron M. Leisenring, Maxwell A. Millar-Blanchaer, Laurent Pueyo, Shrishmoy Ray, Steph Sallum, Karl R. Stapelfeldt, Jordan M. Stone, Jason J. Wang, Olivier Absil, William O. Balmer, Anthony Boccaletti, Mariangela Bonavita

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We present the highest fidelity spectrum to date of a planetary-mass object. VHS 1256 b is a (∼8″, a = 150 au), young, planetary-mass companion that shares photometric colors and spectroscopic features with the directly imaged exoplanets HR 8799c, d, and e. As an L-to-T transition object, VHS 1256 b exists along the region of the color-magnitude diagram where substellar atmospheres transition from cloudy to clear. We observed VHS 1256 b with JWST's NIRSpec IFU and MIRI MRS modes for coverage from 1 to 20 μm at resolutions of ∼1000-3700. Water, methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sodium, and potassium are …

Design And Synthesis Of New Acyl Urea Analogs As Potential Σ1r Selective Ligands, R. Thapa, R. Flores, Kwan H. Cheng, Bereket Mochona, Donald Sikazwe

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research

In search of synthetically accessible open-chain analogs of PD144418 or 5-(1-propyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridin-3-yl)-3-(p-tolyl)isoxazole, a highly potent sigma-1 receptor (σ1R) ligand, we herein report the design and synthesis of sixteen arylated acyl urea derivatives. Design aspects included modeling the target compounds for drug-likeness, docking at σ1R crystal structure 5HK1, and contrasting the lower energy molecular conformers with that of the receptor-embedded PD144418—a molecule we opined that our compounds could mimic pharmacologically. Synthesis of our acyl urea target compounds was achieved in two facile steps which involved first generating the N-(phenoxycarbonyl) benzamide intermediate and then coupling it with the appropriate amines—weakly to strongly …

Kentucky Geological Survey Landslide Inventory [2023-03], Matthew M. Crawford

Research Data--KGS

The KGS landslide inventory provides the locations of known landslides and areas susceptible to debris flows. Various types of landslides are represented including slides, flows, rockfalls, and creep. The data are available as ArcGIS geodatabase feature classes. Landslide locations and associated attributes are compiled from Kentucky Geological Survey research, published maps, state and local government agencies, the public, and media reports. A confidence ranking system assigns a value to each feature. A description of the feature classes is here: https://kgs.uky.edu/kgsmap/helpfiles/landslide_help.shtm

The inventory viewed in a GIS with geology, soils, slope or other terrain-based data can serve as a basis for …

On Maps With Continuous Path Lifting, Jeremy Brazas, Atish Mitra

Mathematics Faculty Publications

We study a natural generalization of covering projections defined in terms of unique lifting properties. A map p : E -+ X has the continuous path-covering property if all paths in X lift uniquely and continuously (rel. basepoint) with respect to the compactopen topology. We show that maps with this property are closely related to fibrations with totally path-disconnected fibers and to the natural quotient topology on the homotopy groups. In particular, the class of maps with the continuous path-covering property lies properly between Hurewicz fibrations and Serre fibrations with totally path-disconnected fibers. We extend the usual classification of covering …

Free Quasitopological Groups, Jeremy Brazas, Sarah Emery

Mathematics Faculty Publications

In this paper, we study the topological structure of a universal construction related to quasitopological groups: the free quasitopological group F-q(X) on a space X. We show that free quasitopological groups may be constructed directly as quotient spaces of free semitopological monoids, which are themselves constructed by iterating product spaces equipped with the "cross topology." Using this explicit description of F-q(X), we show that for any T-1 space X, F-q(X) is the direct limit of closed subspaces F-q(X)(n) of words of length at most n. We also prove that the natural map i(n): (sic)(n)(i=0)(X boolean OR X-1)(circle times i) - …

Socioeconomic Factors In The Diagnosis And Treatment Of Malignant Melanoma In Hispanic Vs. Non-Hispanic Patients: A National Cancer Database (Ncdb) Study, Julia Griffin, Sarah J. Aurit, Timothy Malouff, Peter Silberstein

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

Background: The incidence of melanoma is rapidly increasing in the United States. There is a paucity of research of how melanoma affects the Hispanic population, the quickest growing population.

Objective: To identify and understand how socioeconomic factors affect a Hispanic patients health outcome and treatment of malignant melanoma with comparisons to white, non-Hispanic (WNH) patients.

Methods: A retrospective study utilizing the National Cancer Database (NCDB) was completed investigating Hispanic patients (n=2282) and WNH patients (n=190,469) with Stage I-IV malignant melanoma. Outcome and socioeconomic variables were identified and compared across groups. Data was analyzed with SPSS and SAS …

Estimating The Prevalence Of Two Or More Diseases Using Outcomes From Multiplex Group Testing, Md S. Warasi, Joshua M. Tebbs, Christopher S. Mcmahan, Christopher R. Bilder

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

When screening a population for infectious diseases, pooling individual specimens (e.g., blood, swabs, urine, etc.) can provide enormous cost savings when compared to testing specimens individually. In the biostatistics literature, testing pools of specimens is commonly known as group testing or pooled testing. Although estimating a population-level prevalence with group testing data has received a large amount of attention, most of this work has focused on applications involving a single disease, such as human immunodeficiency virus. Modern methods of screening now involve testing pools and individuals for multiple diseases simultaneously through the use of multiplex assays. Hou et al. (2017, …

Penguins Go Parallel: A Grammar Of Graphics Framework For Generalized Parallel Coordinate Plots, Susan Vanderplas, Yawei Ge, Antony Unwin, Heike Hofmann

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

Parallel Coordinate Plots (PCP) are a valuable tool for exploratory data analysis of high-dimensional numerical data. The use of PCPs is limited when working with categorical variables or a mix of categorical and continuous variables. In this article, we propose Generalized Parallel Coordinate Plots (GPCP) to extend the ability of PCPs from just numeric variables to dealing seamlessly with a mix of categorical and numeric variables in a single plot. In this process we find that existing solutions for categorical values only, such as hammock plots or parsets become edge cases in the new framework. By focusing on individual observations …

The Role Of Year And Animal Origin On Key Determinants Of Ewe Longevity, Audrey Burton, Annika Weaver, Rebekah Mills, Flint Herrelson, Patricia Harrelson

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The MSU sheep flock is an Innovation Flock in the Sheep GEMS project through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The Sheep GEMS project is a national, multi-breed project that is focused on evaluating different sheep breeds and their longevity in different climates. As a participant, we collect/send raw data that is compiled. Our preliminary data from the 2022 (Year 1) and 2023 (Year 2) lambing season has been included. We collected measurements from Katahdin ewes (n = 38; 1-4.5 years old). We measured fecal egg counts (FEC), FAMACHA scores, body condition scores (BCS), teat and udder scores. Using the MIXED procedures …

Fast And Accurate 3d Object Reconstruction For Cargo Load Planning, Adam R. Nasi

Theses and Dissertations

Cargo load planning involves efficiently packing objects into aircraft subject to constraints such as space and weight distribution. Currently, this is performed manually by loadmasters. The United States Air Force is investigating ways to automate this process in order to improve airlift operational readiness while saving money. The first step in such a process would be generating 3D reconstructions of cargo objects to be used by a load planning algorithm. To that end, this thesis presents a novel method for fast, scaled, and accurate 3D reconstruction of cargo objects. This method can scan a 2.5m×3m×2m object in less than 10 …

Transition Town Media - What Do Transition Towns Bring To The Table?, Sari Steuber, Skip Shuda

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

Sari Steuber and Skip Shuda, Transition Town Media - What do Transition Towns Bring to the Table?

Are Natural Fractures In Sandstone Reservoir: Water Wet – Mixed Wet – Or Oil Wet?, Salah Almudhhi, Laila Abdullah, Waleed Al-Bazzaz, Saleh Alsayegh, Hussien Alajaj, Ralph E. Flori

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study accurately measures the wettability contact angle of native Kuwaiti sandstone reservoir that hosts mixed pore size distributions in both the tight sandstone matrix as well as the natural fracture (NF) embedded in it. Also, this study, effectively, investigates the geometrical size and shape of natural available voids whether matrix voids or NF voids captured in the rock 2D image frame system. Correspondingly, this study is, successfully, measure tight matrix, NF Pore wall, and NF pore opening wettability performance and recovery efficiency contributions inside the sandstone reservoir. A model pore/ grain contact angle wettability is generated. Therefore, this study …

Evaluating The Feasibility And Potential Impacts Of A Recovery-Oriented Psychosocial Rehabilitation Toolkit In A Health Care Setting In Kenya: A Mixed-Methods Study, Regina Casey, Joshua C. Wiener, Terry Krupa, Rosemary Lysaght, Marlene Janzen Le Ber, Ruth Ruhara, Elizabeth Price, Romaisa Pervez, Sean Kidd, Victoria Mutiso, David M Ndetei, Arlene G Macdougall

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

OBJECTIVES: This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and potential impacts of delivering the Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) Toolkit for people with serious mental illness within a health care setting in Kenya.

METHOD: This study used a convergent mixed-methods design. Participants were people with serious mental illness (n = 23), each with an accompanying family member, who were outpatients of a hospital or satellite clinic in semirural Kenya. The intervention consisted of 14 weekly group sessions of PSR cofacilitated by health care professionals and peers with mental illness. Quantitative data were collected from patients and family members using validated outcome measures before …

Tess Discovery Of Twin Planets Near 2:1 Resonance Around Early M Dwarf Toi 4342, E. Tey, C. X. Huang, M. Kunimoto, A. Vanderburg, A. Shporer, S. N. Quinn, G. Zhou, K. A. Collins, K. I. Collins, Eric L.N. Jensen, R. P. Schwarz, R. Sefako, T. Gan, E. Furlan, C. L. Gnilka, S. B. Howell, K. V. Lester, C. Ziegler, C. Briceño, N. Law, A. W. Mann, G. R. Ricker, R. K. Vanderspek, D. W. Latham, S. Seager, J. M. Jenkins, J. N. Winn, D. A. Caldwell, D. Charbonneau, C. J. Burke, Z. Essack

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

With data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), we showcase improvements to the MIT Quick Look Pipeline (QLP) through the discovery and validation of a multiplanet system around M dwarf TOI 4342 (T_mag = 11.032, M⋆ = 0.63 M_{⊙, R⋆ = 0.60 R⊙, Teff = 3900 K, d = 61.54 pc). With updates to QLP, including a new multiplanet search, as well as faster cadence data from TESS's First Extended Mission, we discovered two sub-Neptunes (Rb = 2.266 (+0.038)/(-0.038) R⊕ and Rc = 2.415 (+0.043)/(-0.040) R …}

Dminer: Dashboard Design Mining And Recommendation, Yanna Lin, Haotian Li, Aoyu Wu, Yong Wang, Huamin Qu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Dashboards, which comprise multiple views on a single display, help analyze and communicate multiple perspectives of data simultaneously. However, creating effective and elegant dashboards is challenging since it requires careful and logical arrangement and coordination of multiple visualizations. To solve the problem, we propose a data-driven approach for mining design rules from dashboards and automating dashboard organization. Specifically, we focus on two prominent aspects of the organization: arrangement , which describes the position, size, and layout of each view in the display space; and coordination , which indicates the interaction between pairwise views. We build a new dataset containing 854 …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, February 2023, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 4, Issue 1

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Awards and Recognition
Page 3-4 Nobel Recipient Visits Campus
Page 4 Adopting the Pantry
Page 5 Growing a Recruitment Mindset
Page 6 February Outreach Events
Page 7 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 8 Open PRAIRIE Data
Page 9 54th Geography Convention, and Tom Loveland EROS Geography Scholarship
Page 10 Photos of Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi's Visit