Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mathematical Analysis Of An Sir Disease Model With Non-Constant Transmission Rate, Emma Bollinger, Tayler Valdez, Swarup Ghosh, Sunil Giri

Student Research

• Epidemiology: A branch of medicine that studies causes, transmission, and control methods of diseases at the population level.
• Mathematical epidemiology deals with creating a model for a disease through the study of incidence and distribution of the disease throughout a population.
• Here, we have examined the behavior of a measles-like disease[2] that is characterized by a non-constant transmission rate.

Optimizing The Alkylation Of Carboxylic Acid Derivatives For Use In The Synthesis Of The Oxidative Metabolites Of Dehp, Hannah Harris

Research and Creativity Symposium

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is a widely used chiral plasticizer whose primary metabolite (MEHP) and secondary oxidative metabolites have been shown to have peroxisome proliferating and endocrine disrupting effects in mice. The synthesis of these oxidative metabolites is necessary to study their binding affinity to nuclear receptor PPAR. Here, the first step in these syntheses, the construction of the alkyl side chains, was optimized by comparing GC-MS data showing percent composition of the desired alkylation product under varying reaction conditions. The most successful yield with the fewest byproducts was obtained when using LDA as the base, tert-butyl butanoate as the starting …

Elemental Characterization Between Single Origin Arabica And Peaberry Robusta From Vietnam, Docia Atanda, Takoda Chris, Carleigh Mcdonald, Emily Morris

Research and Creativity Symposium

Coffea arabica and coffea canephora (robusta) are the two most common species of coffee. With the rising price and rising global demand for coffee there is an increasing incentive for distributors to pass cheap coffee as more expensive coffee creating a need to verify the authenticity of coffee. This research was conducted to perform elemental characterization of Nguyen brand arabica and robusta coffee grown in Vietnam. The coffee beans were ground and digested by nitric acid digestion. The samples were run using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and compared with prepared standards containing calcium, iron, rubidium and manganese. …

Ground Water Iron Concentration, Caroline Sampson, Emma Jones, Katherine Lauderbaugh, Joey Pack

Research and Creativity Symposium

Groundwater samples from Louisa County contain high unknown quantities of iron, resulting in red rust-stained sediments in areas with constant water. This leads to concern over the amount of Fe that contaminates the water, as the WHO suggests levels below 0.3 mg/L, while levels in groundwater can be as high as 5 mg/L. The unknown concentrations of iron can be evaluated through the use of UV-Vis spectroscopy. A set of Fe standards was created using a known concentration (2.5-100 μM) which combined with phenathroline to create an orange ferroin complex, in addtion to hydroxylamine and acetate buffer. The ferroin complex …

Analysis Of Glyphosate In Pond Water By Hplc, Madison Minvielle, Abigail Seputro, Dorothy Haas, Zahia Clemmons

Research and Creativity Symposium

Glyphosate is the main ingredient in several herbicides such as Roundup, Agrisel, and Eraser. While glyphosate is typically not directly harmful to aquatic life, there is the potential for the compound to be indirectly harmful when it is present in runoff that enters aquatic ecosystems. A sample of water from a pond local to sod and agricultural farms was obtained to analyze the presence of glyphosate and make an assessment based on the concentration of glyphosate in the sample of the risk of toxicity to the aquatic life. A 1 mL glyphosate standard of concentration 1000 ug/mL was used to …

Deapsecure Computational Training For Cybersecurity: Third-Year Improvements And Impacts, Bahador Dodge, Jacob Strother, Rosby Asiamah, Karina Arcaute, Wirawan Purwanto, Masha Sosonkina, Hongyi Wu

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

The Data-Enabled Advanced Training Program for Cybersecurity Research and Education (DeapSECURE) was introduced in 2018 as a non-degree training consisting of six modules covering a broad range of cyberinfrastructure techniques, including high performance computing, big data, machine learning and advanced cryptography, aimed at reducing the gap between current cybersecurity curricula and requirements needed for advanced research and industrial projects. By its third year, DeapSECURE, like many other educational endeavors, experienced abrupt changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The training had to be retooled to adapt to fully online delivery. Hands-on activities were reformatted to accommodate self-paced learning. In this paper, …

Applications Of Parallel Discrete Event Simulation, Erik J. Jensen

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

This work presents three applications of parallel discrete event simulation (PDES), which describe the motivation for and the benefits of using PDES, the kinds of synchronization algorithms that are used, and scaling behavior with these different synchronization algorithms.

Physics-Guided Machine Learning In Ocean Acoustics Using Fisher Information, Michael Craig Mortenson

Theses and Dissertations

Waterborne acoustic signals carry information about the ocean environment. Ocean geoacoustic inversion is the task of estimating environmental parameters from received acoustic signals by matching the measured sound with the predictions of a physics-based model. A lower bound on the uncertainty associated with environmental parameter estimates, the Cramér-Rao bound, can be calculated from the Fisher information, which is dependent on derivatives of a physics-based model. Physics-based preconditioners circumvent the need for variable step sizes when computing numerical derivatives. This work explores the feasibility of using a neural network to perform geoacoustic inversion for environmental parameters and their associated uncertainties from …

Solving Electron Spin Drift-Diffusion Equations In Presence Of Hyperfine Interactions, Dana Coleman, Bryan Stevens, Truman Schulz

Undergraduate Research Competition

Next generation technologies have been proposed where electron spin is used in addition to electron charge in order to improve functionality and efficiency of electronic devices. In this work, we study how nuclear fields, magnetic fields from atomic nuclei, influence spin transport characteristics in semiconductors. Nuclear fields are added to the spin drift- diffusion equation and the resulting spin distributions are calculated. Due to the complicated nature of the nuclear field, the steady state spin drift-diffusion equations are non-linear and must be solved numerically. In this work, we examine solutions for the spin distribution and spin current in the presence …

Initial Investigation Of The Chemical Contribution Of Hemp To Beer Aroma, Caitlyn Hunt

Undergraduate Research Competition

As the availability and consumer interest in hemp materials increases, the production and consumption of products incorporating hemp and CBD oil has increased. The industrial hemp market has seen a steady increase in value of the market and is projected to reach 26.6 billion USD. South Carolina has seen an increase in the cultivation of hemp and the production of CBD oil. There has been some interest in the market for alternative uses for both raw hemp and the leftover material following the CBD oil extraction process. This interest is a result of hemp-flavored beers in the market. The use …

Sustainable Planning, Protecting Social, Economic, And Environmental Interests Of Coastal Communities, Daniel O'Hara

Undergraduate Research Competition

Understanding the connection between humans and wetland environments is imperative to coastal planning. This project looks to gather policy and scientific information from local, regional, federal, and international levels regarding wetland protection and preservation to improve policies and practices in coastal areas and create more sustainable and healthier environments. Sustainable planning in coastal communities includes connecting humans and nature through low-impact developments, using native plant species, non-impervious surfaces, and adequate buffers between developments and water sources. Successful coastal planning and development can help ensure that economic, social, and conservation interests are protected. Wetlands represent 5.5% of the total land area …

A Step In The Search For Arboviruses: Determining Blood Meals Eaten By Mosquitoes, Carson Mickey, Olivia Shirley, Elody Bensch

Undergraduate Research Competition

Mosquitos are known to spread diseases throughout communities, including viruses, referred to as arboviruses. In 2017, DHEC reported 158 incidents of arboviruses in South Carolina, including West Nile, Dengue Fever, and Zika virus. The infections rate was up from the year before when 124 incidents of arboviruses were reported. Monitoring these infected mosquitos can be an asset for proper health protection in our community. Understanding what the mosquitoes are feeding on can help us better monitor the zoonosis threats that our community faces. A series of primers have been developed that target unique sequences in the cytochrome b gene in …

Investigating Temporal Groundwater Interactions Between A Barrier Island And High Marsh Environment, Dean Wrobel

Undergraduate Research Competition

Saltmarsh hydrogeology can be characterized as exceptionally dynamic, with a diversity of pore water salinities, sediment porosities, and varied hydrologic inputs and outputs such as groundwater, precipitation, and tidal cycles. Of the studies done in these systems, much attention has been focused on the low marsh with regard to tidal pumping and the consequent horizontal pressure gradients which affect the subsurface hydraulic head. Perhaps, an equally dynamic boundary is expected at the groundwater interface of the barrier island and high marsh. Here, electrical resistivity tomograms were generated in a back-barrier, high-marsh site landward of Waties Island, South Carolina. Co-located transects …

Microplastic Concentration Analysis Of The Atlantic Sand Fiddler Crab (Leptuca Pugilator) In Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, Caroline Conner

Undergraduate Research Competition

Microplastics pose a great threat to the natural environment, a threat not aided by their increasing abundance in marine waters. To assess how this is affecting our local area, I examined the microplastic concentration in fiddler crabs, a keystone species in intertidal zones, from two marsh systems in Murrells Inlet. The quantity, color, and type of microplastic found were recorded from each of the 120 crabs sampled. This information is revelant not only in monitoring the health of a species that plays a major role in nutrient recycling and prevention of anoxic conditions, but also as a caution to us. …

Identification And Characterization Of Small Regulatory Rna In Streptococcus, Klea Hoxha, William C. Oakes Iii, Nicole M. Ward, L. Brooke Busby

Undergraduate Research Competition

Background: The human gut is a rich habitat for a diverse population of bacteria. These bacteria play a vital role in a multitude of functions. They affect immune responses, metabolism, and even neurological activities. Some inhabitants of the gut biome include the lactic acid bacteria: Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. These bacteria are essential members of the flora and are non-pathogenic, however, some of their relatives like Streptococcus pyogenes cause severe diseases such as flesh-eating disease. The metabolic functions of these bacteria are mediated by small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs), which are noncoding RNA sequences that fold into complex …

Georgetown County: The Issue Of Land Litter And Pollution, Nicole Rainwater

Undergraduate Research Competition

Land litter and pollution are a large issue in current society. Georgetown County in South Carolina is no exception to this with excess amounts of litter lining the streets due to a lack of municipal solid waste management, and possibly a lack of education in sustainability. Litter not only harms the environment but also affects the community and its people while driving businesses and tourists away from the location. This paper aims to explore the litter issue of Georgetown County and its lack of sustainability through a litter index. To achieve this study a heat map of the land pollution …

Empirical Analysis Of Sustainable Land Use And Development And Potential Solutions For Remediation In Georgetown County, Brittany Whitehead

Undergraduate Research Competition

The county of Georgetown, SC envelops lush natural landscapes and complex water systems that host a diverse network of plant and animal species. This region is continuously threatened by natural disasters like flooding and stormwater issues,which inhibit the local economy and jeopardize the well-being of its inhabitants. Within the last decade, Georgetown County has been experiencing a consistent growth in population and development, specifically in vulnerable coastal areas. This growth must be addressed in order to provide a safe and resilient place for the community and nature to live in harmony. Through a case study of my experience in a …

Plasmonically-Active Nanomaterials For Enhanced Second-Harmonic Generation And Chemical Reactions, Denis Ab Therien

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Upon excitation by an electromagnetic field, metallic nanomaterials will produce highly localized areas of electromagnetic enhancement, a phenomenon known as localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), which can be applied to a variety of techniques including second-harmonic generation (SHG) and surface chemistry. These tunable LSPRs can be modelled prior to fabrication by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations and observed experimentally by SHG microscopy (SHGM). In this thesis, two types of nanomaterials were characterized using SHGM: plasmon-active dendritic fractals (dendrimers) and transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Dendrimers with specific geometries and LSPRs were used to demonstrate how nanomaterial symmetry affects SHG as well as how …

Rethinking The Design Of Online Professor Reputation Systems, Haley Tatum

LSU Master's Theses

Online Professor Reputation (OPR) systems, such as RateMyProfessors.com (RMP), are frequently used by college students to post and access peer evaluations of their pro- fessors. However, recent evidence has shown that these platforms suffer from major bias problems. Failing to address bias in online professor ratings not only leads to negative expectations and experiences in class, but also poor performance on exams. To address these concerns, in this thesis, we study bias in OPR systems from a software design point of view. At the first phase of our analysis, we conduct a systematic literature review of 23 interdisciplinary studies on …

Biochemical Characterization Of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes As A Model Of Barth Syndrome, Alisha J. House

ETD Archive

Barth Syndrome (BTHS) is an X-linked inborn error of metabolism (IEM) which manifests as a multi-systemic disease. One of the primary symptoms is dilated cardiomyopathy, and alongside the cardiovascular disease that arises, patients often experience metabolic abnormalities such as 3-methylglutaconic aciduria, growth retardation, and neutropenia. There has been a need for the development of a suitable in vitro modeling system which will accurately recapitulate the biochemical and physical nature of BTHS. The purpose of this project has been to develop a model for studying the biochemical pathogenesis of Barth Syndrome using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). To achieve …

Reliability Of Quantum Simulation On Nisq-Era Devices, Karthik R. Chinni

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

We study the reliability of quantum simulation on Noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ)-era devices in the presence of errors and imperfections, with a focus on exploring the relationship between the properties of the system being simulated and the errors in the output of the simulator. We first consider simulation of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model, which becomes chaotic in the presence of a background time-dependent perturbation. Here we show that the quantities that depend on the global structure of the phase space are robust, while other quantities that depend on the local trajectories are fragile and cannot be reliably extracted from the …

An Investigation Into The Protein Dynamics And Proton Transfer Mechanism Of Class-A Β-Lactamase (Ctx-Ms) By Nmr Spectroscopy, Radwan Ebna Noor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) of different Enterobacteriaceae (e.g. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae) have developed significant resistance mechanisms against antibiotics. ESBLs, like class A CTX-Ms (cefotaximases) enzymes hydrolyze the β-lactam ring of different antibiotics such as penicillins and third-generation oxyimino-cephalosporins. Although CTX-Ms are repeatedly found in many clinical and community settings, molecular-level information on their function/activity is currently limited to structural studies performed by X-ray crystallography. In order to gain further insights into the structure and functions of this class of proteins, it is also essential to fully understand their dynamic and chemical properties in solution. In order to better understand the …

“If I Could Do This, I Feel Anyone Could:” The Design And Evaluation Of A Two-Factor Authentication Manager, Garrett D. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a strong defense against account compromise. However, usability studies reveal challenges with 2FA setup. The process to manually setup and remove 2FA methods differs across websites. We present a system design for a 2FA manager to automatically setup and remove 2FA methods. Potential benefits are reduced time, fewer mistakes, consistent terminology, a single workflow for users to learn, and the ability to rapidly transition to a new 2FA method—e.g., when replacing a lost 2FA method. We create two proof-of-concept implementations of our design, one as a browser extension and one integrated as a feature in an …

The Novel Protein Crystallization Chaperone Telsam Stabilizes Weak Crystal Contacts, Accelerates Crystallization Of Fused Target Proteins, And Solves The Crystallographic Phase Problem, Supeshala Dilrukshi Sarath Nawarathnage

Theses and Dissertations

We studied the usefulness of genetic fusion to TELSAM polymers as an effective protein crystallization strategy. We observed novel properties in crystals of two TELSAM-target protein fusions. TELSAM as a crystallization chaperone shows rapid crystallization when it's fused to target proteins and possibly with a greater propensity. Some TELSAM-target fusions crystallized more rapidly than the same target protein alone. TELSAM-target proteins can be crystallized at relatively low protein concentrations such as 0.1 mg/mL. TELSAM requires no TELSAM polymers touching one another in the crystal lattice in order to form well-diffracting crystals. This lack of crystal contacts has not been observed …

Urbanization Increases Isolation Of A Threatened Fish Species In East Texas Streams: A 20-Year Perspective, Zachary Hutchens

Undergraduate Research Conference

We conducted monthly surveys of fish and in-stream habitat conditions from August 2020 to August 2021 in reaches along Banita Creek and La Nana Creek to investigate ecology and population status of the Sabine shiner (Notropis sabinae) within these streams. On average, Banita Creek had shallow water with low flow, more diverse instream habitats, and lower values of salinity, conductivity, and turbidity compared La Nana Creek. The movements of Sabine shiners were tracked monthly using Visual Implant Elastomer tags. Over a year-long survey, we collected 267 Sabine shiners from Banita Creek and 10 individuals from La Nana Creek. Out of …

Aquatic Macroinvertebrates As Sentinels Of Changes In Local Stream Conditions In East Texas, Courtney Plummer, Erin Shepta

Undergraduate Research Conference

Study objective: To use aquatic macroinvertebrates to assess the habitat quality and biological conditions of a stream, La Nana Creek, impacted by different land use.

Organic Chemistry Through Dance, Holly Gibson

Undergraduate Research Conference

This research project explores representing organic chemistry mechanisms using dance. Dancers represent molecules, electrons, and atoms in demonstrating the movement of electrons and bonds created and broken by the movement. It was concluded that some organic mechanisms and ideas can be easily transferred to a dance concept, while others take more time and exploration. Additionally, dancers representing the atoms and electrons were able to have a better grasp of what was occurring, regardless of chemical education background. This leads to the conclusion of a new way to implement kinesthetic learning into the chemistry classroom. The purpose of the videos are …

Machine Learning In Support Of Student Success, Rachel Rucker

Undergraduate Research Conference

Our goal is to predict whether a student will finish the semester on academic probation by mid-term using university data.

Bomb Calorimetry: A New Method Of Cec Determination, Trace Washburn

Undergraduate Research Conference

A new method of determining the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of clay minerals was examined. This method involved exchanging the smectite clay with organic cations and using bomb calorimetry to measure the energy of combustion of the material. Because the clay is noncombustible, the energy is completely dependent on the amount of organic present, which is dependent on the CEC of the clay. Two organic cations, tetrapentylammonium and octadecyltrimethylammonium , with similar size but much different shape were used. For clays with lower CECs, using the more symmetric ion yielded better accuracy (4.24%), while for clays with higher CEC, using …

Forgotten Stories Of The New London School Tragedy, Clayton Jones

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.