Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Occurrence Of Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In New Hampshire Biosolids, Katherine A. Wieck

Honors Theses and Capstones

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of over 4,000 compounds used in the manufacturing of products including aqueous film forming foams for firefighting, stain repellents, waterproofing agents, and nonstick cookware since their initial development in the 1940s. The long fluorinated carbon chain structure of PFAS causes chemical and thermal stability, and thus resistance to biodegradation. Biosolids produced at wastewater facilities for uses such as agricultural land-applied compost and fertilizer for lawns and athletic fields, as well as sludge disposed in landfills can cause contamination of groundwater and surface water. This poses a significant threat to human and environmental …

Integrating The Spatial Pyramid Pooling Into 3d Convolutional Neural Networks For Cerebral Microbleeds Detection, Andre Accioly Veira

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Cerebral microbleeds (CMB) are small foci of chronic blood products in brain tissues that are critical markers for cerebral amyloid angiopathy. CMB increases the risk of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage and ischemic stroke. CMB can also cause structural damage to brain tissues resulting in neurologic dysfunction, cognitive impairment, and dementia. Due to the paramagnetic properties of blood degradation products, CMB can be better visualized via susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).CMB identification and classification have been based mainly on human visual identification of SWI features via shape, size, and intensity information. However, manual interpretation can be biased. Visual screening …

A Study Of The Effect Of Types Of Organizational Culture On Information Security Procedural Countermeasures, Sheri James

CCE Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the impact of specific organizational cultures on information security procedural countermeasures (ISPC). With increasing security incidents and data breaches, organizations acknowledge that people are their greatest asset as well as a vulnerability. Previous research into information security procedural controls has centered on behavioral, cognitive, and social theories; some literature incorporates general notions of organization culture yet there is still an absence in socio-organizational studies dedicated to elucidating how information security policy (ISP) compliance can be augmented by implementing comprehensive security education, training, and awareness (SETA) programs focusing on education, training, and awareness initiatives.

A theoretical model was …

Adversarial Training Of Deep Neural Networks, Anabetsy Termini

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Deep neural networks used for image classification are highly susceptible to adversarial attacks. The de facto method to increase adversarial robustness is to train neural networks with a mixture of adversarial images and unperturbed images. However, this method leads to robust overfitting, where the network primarily learns to recognize one specific type of attack used to generate the images while remaining vulnerable to others after training. In this dissertation, we performed a rigorous study to understand whether combinations of state of the art data augmentation methods with Stochastic Weight Averaging improve adversarial robustness and diminish adversarial overfitting across a wide …

An Investigation Of Methods For Improving Spatial Invariance Of Convolutional Neural Networks For Image Classification, David Noel

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have achieved impressive results on complex visual tasks such as image recognition. They are commonly assumed to be spatially invariant to small transformations of their input images. Spatial invariance is a fundamental property that characterizes how a model reacts to input transformations, i.e., its generalizability - and deep networks that can robustly classify objects placed in different orientations or lighting conditions have the property of invariance. However, several authors have recently shown that this is not the case, and that slight rotations, translations, or rescaling of their input images significantly reduce the network’s predictive accuracy. Furthermore, …

Using Drone Imagery To Map Intertidal Oyster Reefs Along Florida’S Gulf Of Mexico Coast, Michael Espriella, Vincent Lecours

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs offer vital ecosystem services and support economically and culturally important fisheries. However, environmental and anthropogenic stressors have led to significant decline in oyster reef coverage globally and locally in places like the Suwannee Sound in Florida, USA. Current monitoring methods are insufficient for timely and accurate assessment of oyster resources in the region. Here we demonstrate how drone imagery can be used to delineate intertidal oyster reef coverage rapidly and reliably. The high spatial resolution offered by drone imagery enables accurate delineations. We use a segmentation algorithm to delineate reefs, which produces consistently …

Quantum Electrodynamics Of Dicke States: Resonant One-Photon Exchange Energy And Entangled Decay Rate, Ulrich D. Jentschura, Chandra M. Adhikari

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We calculate the fully retarded one-photon exchange interaction potential between electrically neutral, identical atoms, one of which is assumed to be in an excited state, by matching the scattering matrix (S matrix) element with the effective Hamiltonian. Based on the Feynman prescription, we obtain the imaginary part of the interaction energy. Our results lead to precise formulas for the distance-dependent enhancement and suppression of the decay rates of entangled superradiant and subradiant Dicke states (Bell states), as a function of the interatomic distance. The formulas include a long-range tail due to entanglement. We apply the result to an example calculation …

Maple: Multi-Modal Prompt Learning, Muhammad Uzair Khattak, Hanoona Rasheed, Muhammad Maaz, Salman Khan, Fahad Shahbaz Khan

Computer Vision Faculty Publications

Pre-trained vision-language (V-L) models such as CLIP have shown excellent generalization ability to downstream tasks. However, they are sensitive to the choice of input text prompts and require careful selection of prompt templates to perform well. Inspired by the Natural Language Processing (NLP) literature, recent CLIP adaptation approaches learn prompts as the textual inputs to fine-tune CLIP for downstream tasks. We note that using prompting to adapt representations in a single branch of CLIP (language or vision) is sub-optimal since it does not allow the flexibility to dynamically adjust both representation spaces on a downstream task. In this work, we …

Stability And Dynamics Across Magnetic Phases Of Vortex-Bright Type Excitations In Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensates, Garyfallia C. Katsimiga, Simeon I. Mistakidis, K. Mukherjee, P. G. Kevrekidis, P. Schmelcher

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Static Properties, I.e., Existence And Stability, As Well As The Quench-Induced Dynamics Of Vortex-Bright Type Excitations In Two-Dimensional Harmonically Confined Spin-1 Bose-Einstein Condensates Are Investigated. Linearly Stable Vortex-Bright-Vortex And Bright-Vortex-Bright Solutions Arise In Both Antiferromagnetic And Ferromagnetic Spinor Gases Upon Quadratic Zeeman Energy Shift Variations. Their Deformations Across The Relevant Transitions Are Exposed And Discussed In Detail, Evincing Also That Emergent Instabilities Can Lead To Pattern Formation. Spatial Elongations, Precessional Motion, And Spiraling Of The Nonlinear Excitations When Exposed To Finite Temperatures And Upon Crossing The Distinct Phase Boundaries, Via Quenching Of The Quadratic Zeeman Coefficient, Are Unveiled. Spin-Mixing …

State Energy Research Center, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Information on the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) and its role as the State Research Center (SERC) for North Dakota. Showcases the EERC’s technological capabilities, outreach efforts, funding sources, and workforce development.

Demonstration Co2 Storage In The Pcor Partnership Region, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about the Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership region and the importance of CO₂ storage.

Communiqué: College Of Humanities, Arts & Sciences Alumni Magazine, Volume 11, Winter 2023-2024, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Humanities, Arts, And Sciences.

Communiqué: College of Humanities, Arts & Sciences Alumni Magazine

In this issue:

EVERY ISSUE
Message from the Dean --- 4
Donor Feature --- 5
CHAS Briefs --- 38
Class Notes --- 44

FEATURES
Cave Research --- 6
From Student to CEO --- 10
Alum Opens Math Museum --- 14
New Class ExploresVideo Game Music --- 18
Wise Broadway Tour --- 24
Public Art Incubator --- 28
Alum Finds Success as Celebrity Videographer --- 34

STORIES
Science Trip to Iceland --- 22
Clinical Ethicist Alumnus --- 32
Computer Education Grant --- 33
ESL Program Grant --- 40
Floral Macrophotography --- 42

Neutral And Charged Bis(Triarylamines) For Use In Grid Scale Battery Technologies, Taylor Matthews

Online Theses and Dissertations

Energy storage systems allow flexibility in control and maintenance of the electric grid while integrating renewable energy resources to mitigate carbon emissions. Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are stationary energy storage systems that convert chemical energy to electrical energy by charge-transfer reactions. Designing molecules that are capable of stable multi-electron redox reactions per active-species molecule can increase the efficiency of future systems. Spectroelectrochemistry, the combination of spectroscopy and electrochemistry, allows for quantitative and qualitative analyses of electron-transfer processes. The focus of this research is to use optical and electrochemical properties obtained from spectroelectrochemistry to determine the stability of neutral and charge …

Progress In 7sk Ribonucleoprotein Structural Biology, Momodou B. Camara, Amr M. Sobeh, Catherine D. Eichhorn

Chemistry Department: Faculty Publications

The 7SK ribonucleoprotein (RNP) is a dynamic and multifunctional regulator of RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII) transcription in metazoa. Comprised of the noncoding 7SK RNA, core proteins, and numerous accessory proteins, the most wellknown 7SK RNP function is the sequestration and inactivation of the positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb). More recently, 7SK RNP has been shown to regulate RNAPII transcription through P-TEFb-independent pathways. Due to its fundamental role in cellular function, dysregulation has been linked with human diseases including cancers, heart disease, developmental disorders, and viral infection. Significant advances in 7SK RNP structural biology have improved our understanding of 7SK …

A Lak Of Direction Misalignment Between The Goals Of Learning Analytics And Its Research Scholarship, Benjamin A. Motz, Yoav Bergner, Christopher A. Brooks, Anna Gladden, Geraldine Gray, Charles Lang, Warren Li, Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos, Joshua D. Quick

Articles

Learning analytics defines itself with a focus on data from learners and learning environments, with corresponding goals of understanding and optimizing student learning. In this regard, learning analytics research, ideally, should be characterized by studies that make use of data from learners engaged in education systems, should measure student learning, and should make efforts to intervene and improve these learning environments.

Assessment Of The Imerg Early-Run Precipitation Estimates Over South American Country Of Chile, Luciana Das Dores De Jesus Da Silva, Mohammed Mahoud, Lisdelys González-Rodríguez, Safa Mohammed, Lien Rodríguez-López, Mauricio Ivan Aguayo Arias

Articles

Accurate rainfall measurement is a challenge, especially in regions with diverse climates and complex topography. Thus, knowledge of precipitation patterns requires observational networks with a very high spatial and temporal resolution, which is very difficult to construct in remote areas with complex geological features such as desert areas and mountains, particularly in countries with high topographical variability such as Chile. This study evaluated the performance of the near-real-time Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) Early product throughout Chile, a country located in South America between 16°S–66°S latitude. The accuracy of the IMERG Early was assessed at different special and temporal …

The Proof Is In The Pudding – Using Perceived Stress To Measure Short-Term Impact In Initiatives To Enhance Gender Balance In Computing Education, Alina Berry, Sarah Jane Delany

Academic Posters Collection

The problem of gender imbalance in computing higher education has forced academics and professionals to implement a wide range of initiatives. Many initiatives use recruitment or retention numbers as their most obvious evidence of impact. This type of evidence of impact is, however, more resource heavy to obtain, as well as often requires a longitudinal approach. There are many shorter term initiatives that use other ways to measure their success.

First, this poster presents with a review of existing evaluation measures in interventions to recruit and retain women in computing education across the board. Three main groups of evaluation come …

Classifying Recaptured Identity Documents Using The Biomedical Meijering And Sato Algorithms, John Magee, Stephen Sheridan, Christina Thorpe

Academic Posters Collection

Recaptured identity documents are a low-cost, high-risk threat to modern eKYC systems. Bad actors can easily manipulate images and print them. Existing solutions typically demand manual review of remotely captured identity documents, this is expensive and does not scale. In 2022, the UK National Crime Agency estimated fraud cost business hundreds of billion pounds per year and document forgery is an area of investigation by Europol.

Evaluation Of Gender-Based Differences In Primary School Maths Education: The Potential Of Digital Games, Maíra Amaral

Academic Posters Collection

Digital Game-Based Learning is shown to be a more effective instructional method than traditional instruction, however less effective than other technology-supported instruction according to Byun and Joung (2018). Regarding gender aspects, according to findings by Mclaren and colleagues in 2022, girls may learn more mathematics from digital learning games than boys. In their study, even reporting greater behavioural and cognitive engagement, boys did not learn more with the game than girls.

A Mode Sum Regularization Prescription In Quantum Field Theory In Curved Spacetimes In Higher Dimensions And For Charged Scalar Fields, Eoin Scanlon

Academic Posters Collection

Semi-classical gravity combines classical treatment of the gravitational field with quantum mechanical treatment of matter fields. A significant challenge however is the divergence contained within the stress-energy tensor when solving the semi-classical Einstein equations. This work extends to higher dimensions an extremely efficient method for renormalizing the stress-energy tensor of a quantum scalar field in spherically-symmetric black hole spacetimes, thereby removing the divergences. The method applies to a scalar field with arbitrary field parameters. The utility of the method is demonstrated by computing the renormalized stress-energy tensor for a scalar field in the Schwarzschild black hole spacetime for odd dimensions.

Feedback, Learning Outcomes And Mathematics Anxiety In A Digital Game Based Learning Approach In Mathematics Education, André Almo

Academic Posters Collection

Feedback is a crucial part of learning, and an essential element in digital game-based learning approaches, in which digital games - known as 'serious games' - are used to deliver educational content. Feedback features respond to players' actions within the game, providing them with information and guidance, as well as potentially impacting their learning, motivation and engagement. However, these features may be designed differently, since they include various distinct characteristics and dimensions. This work proposes a new taxonomy for feedback features in serious games, with an emphasis in game design aspects, in order to provide clearer descriptions and distinctions of …

Identifying Gendered Language, Shweta Soundararajan, Sarah Jane Delany

Academic Posters Collection

Gendered language refers to the use of words that indicate the gender of an individual. It can be explicit, where the gender is directly implied by the specific words used (e.g., mother, she, man), or it can be implicit, where societal roles and behaviors convey a person's gender. For example, expectations that women display communal traits (e.g., affectionate, caring, gentle) and men display agentic traits (e.g., assertive, competitive, decisive). The presence of gendered language in natural language processing (NLP) systems can reinforce gender stereotypes and bias. Our work introduces an approach to creating gendered language datasets using ChatGPT. These datasets …

Detecting Road Intersections From Satellite Images Using Convolutinal Neural Networks, Fatmaelzahraa Eltaher, Luis Miralles-Pechuán, Jane Courtney, Susan Mckeever

Academic Posters Collection

The location of intersections is an important consideration for vulnerable road users such as People with Blindness or Visually Impairment (PBVI) or children. Route planning applications, however, do not give information about the location of intersections as this information is not available at scale. In this paper, we propose a deep learning framework to automatically detect the location of intersections from satellite images using convolutional neural networks. For this purpose, we labelled 7,342 Google maps images from Washington, DC, USA to create a dataset. This dataset covers a region of 58.98 km$^{2}$ and has 7,548 intersections. We then applied a …

Application Of The Two-Variable Model To Simulate A Multisensory Reaction-Time Task, Rebecca Brady, John Butler

Academic Posters Collection

To navigate the world in an efficient manner, the brain seamlessly integrates signals received across multiple sensory modalities. Behavioral studies have suggested that multisensory processing is a winner-take-all sensory response mechanism to some optimal combination of sensory signals. In addition, multiple sensory cues are not always beneficial with some studies showing maladaptive multisensory processing as an identifier of older adults prone to falls from age matched healthy controls.

A stalwart of modelling sensory decision-making is the work by (Wong &Wang, 2006) but to date almost all of this research has been focused on unisensory tasks. We extend the reduced two-variable …

Enhancing Health Data Representation For Older Adults: Unlocking Opportunities, Peterson Jean

Academic Posters Collection

The prevalence of off-the-shelf wearable devices increases the monitoring and measurement of critical physiological parameters like activity, sleep, heart rate, and blood pressure. However, the accessibility of health data representations poses challenges for older adults, who often struggle to understand the criticality of their own health data without assistance. This poster highlights the challenges older adults face in accessing their health data from wearable technologies, specifically focusing on data representations.

To address these challenges, it proposes a methodology that involves a heuristic evaluation of existing data representations with experts and accessibility studies with older adults using a mixed methods approach …

Computer Science Outreach To Inform Secondary School Students’ Perceptions Of Computer Science: Preliminary Findings, Karen Nolan, Roisin Faherty, Keith Quille, Keith Nolan, Amanda O'Farrell, Brett A. Becker

Academic Posters Collection

This poster describes a longitudinal K-12 outreach programme to promote Computer Science in Ireland, which ran over a three-year period from 2017- 2020. A pilot phase was conducted in the first year from 2017-2018 with 2900 students participating. The implementation phase began in 2018, when 7320 students participated across the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years. The programme consisted of a free onsite school delivery of a two-hour camp that introduced students to a range of Computing topics: addressing computing perceptions, introduction to coding, and exploration of computational thinking. Schools self-selected, and the programme reached a large number of schools with …

Cslinc: A Nationwide Cs Mooc For Second-Level Students, Karen Nolan, Keith Quille, Brett A. Becker

Academic Posters Collection

This poster introduces CSLINC, a free scaffolded MOOC framework tailored to second-level students in Ireland that consists of: an online platform built for accessibility; a suite of modules developed upon international best practices with varying co-creators; and automated assessment and certificates of completion. Its aim is to provide content to promote national CS curricula to all second-level students in Ireland. In September 2021, CSLINC launched to 10,000 students across 100 schools. Future work will include collecting and collating research to validate CSLINC’s goals, scaffolding that will build foundations for national curriculum learning outcomes, and measure its impact on students, their …

Investigating The Use Of Conversational Agents As Accountable Buddies To Support Health And Lifestyle Change, Ekaterina Uetova, Dympna O'Sullivan, Lucy Hederman, Robert J. Ross

Academic Posters Collection

The poster focuses on the role of conversational agents in promoting health and well-being. Results of the literature review indicate that negative emotions can hinder individuals from taking necessary actions related to their health. The study concludes that understanding and addressing emotional barriers is essential to facilitating early access to health services and improving well-being. The poster outlines plans to investigate motivation strategies, develop a prototype conversational agent based on user study insights and chat log data, and incorporate emotion regulation to effectively manage users' emotional experiences.

Improve Engagement With Full Labs And Motivated Students: Interactive Labs Via Low Stakes Assessment, Susan Mckeever, Patricia O'Byrne, Amanda O'Farrell

Academic Posters Collection

Poor engagement and attendance is an endemic problem at third level, particularly post covid. Our approach shows how the use of regular in-lab assessment and challenges can dramatically increase student participation and learning. Using three case studies, we demonstrate how we have successfully used this low-stakes assessment approach to improve student outcomes, across a range of modules.

Attention-Based Gender-Stereotype Detection, Manuela Nayantara, Sarah Jane Delany

Academic Posters Collection

Gender stereotypes are perceptions about the typical physical, emotional, and social characteristics of individuals. Unlike gender bias which can result in the systematic and unfair treatment of individuals based on their gender, gender stereotypes do not always perpetuate a negative impact. Hence, there is no solid definition that frames what is considered a gender-stereotype in text. In addition, there is also a lack of labelled gender-stereotype datasets. This has led to most of the work in literature being about gender bias and not gender stereotypes. Therefore, in our research, we frame a clear definition of what constitutes a gender-stereotype in …