Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

An Ethnography Of Permaculture In Southwest Michigan, Lily Burke

Honors Theses

Permaculture is a holistic design system for meeting human and environmental needs in a sustainable way, using local conditions and circumstances to shape land use and food production practices. My project questions what it means to practice permaculture in southwest Michigan, and how environmental ideological commitments can translate into action and practice. Ethnographically investigating these questions through semi-structured interviews and participant observation with individuals in the permaculture community, along with extensive reading of permaculture materials, my study adds to research on applications and adoptions of permaculture in suburban contexts, and sheds light on how ecological ideological commitments can translate into …

Plasma Diagnostics For Anode Cathode Plasmas And High Energy Density Physics On A Linear Transformer Driver, Robert Beattie-Rossberg

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

A twelve-brick air insulated linear transformer driver (LTD) was characterized by charging to voltages ranging from 30 to 70 kV and delivering energy to two separate resistive loads. Various plasma diagnostics were built and fielded with an emphasis on the design, implementation and analysis of a Mach Zehnder interferometer, a moiré deflectometer and a spectroscopy system providing information on the temporal evolution of plasma electron density and atomic composition. Rogowski coils, XRD radiation detectors, framing camera images and time integrated DSLR images are used to further understand load conditions where current data, x ray radiation data, velocity data and instability …

Sign-A-Mander: A Mobile App That Enhances Asl Learning With Computer Vision, Sandrine Adap

Honors Theses

Several machine learning researchers have developed algorithms recognizing American Sign Language (ASL), but few have applied the algorithms to real-world situations, such as with portable ASL learning applications. This project develops a beta version of a mobile application designed to allow beginner ASL learners to practice basic ASL vocabulary and receive feedback about their signing accuracy. Building on Dongxu Li et al.’s I3D sign language recognition algorithm and 2000-word dataset, the app seeks to determine whether the I3D algorithm can sufficiently recognize a user’s motions when recorded from a mobile device and accurately classify whether or not the user signed …

Andrews University Pre-Professional Students Preparedness For A Future With Artificial Intelligence, Zachary Alignay

Honors Theses

Artificial Intelligence technology has advanced considerably over the past four years. With such rapid technological development, the question has to be asked if students are adequately educated on the implications and abilities of artificial intelligence. Are Andrews University pre-professional students prepared for future careers with artificial intelligence? To approach this question, a survey of students across multiple perspectives was conducted to sample if there was a consensus, or lack thereof, on the perception of ethics regarding artificial intelligence, to ask students how using artificial intelligence has changed their education, what purposes it can be used or cannot be used, personal …

Subject Analysis Ex Machina: Developing A Subject Heading Recommendation Service For Jmu Libraries, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

Results of a 2022 evaluation of ANNIF, open-source software designed to generate controlled vocabulary subject headings, using James Madison University Libraries resources.

A Design Science Approach To Investigating Decentralized Identity Technology, Janelle Krupicka

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

The internet needs secure forms of identity authentication to function properly, but identity authentication is not a core part of the internet’s architecture. Instead, approaches to identity verification vary, often using centralized stores of identity information that are targets of cyber attacks. Decentralized identity is a secure way to manage identity online that puts users’ identities in their own hands and that has the potential to become a core part of cybersecurity. However, decentralized identity technology is new and continually evolving, which makes implementing this technology in an organizational setting challenging. This paper suggests that, in the future, decentralized identity …

Trans-Disciplinary Communication In Collaborative Co-Design For Knowledge Sharing, James Lipuma, Cristo Leon

STEM for Success Resources

Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics.
© All rights reserved. Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics, 2024

https://www.iiisci.org/DOIJSCI/SA218XL23/

Adapt Laser Shaping, Quinlin Reynolds

ATU Research Symposium

Investigation into producing a machine learning algorithm that allows a He-Ne laser to classify whether a produced beam shape is uniformly gaussian or not, in order to adaptively move the laser to consistently target the encoded interference pattern area. This will then result in continuous uniform beam shapes of the desired output.

Arkansas Soil Erosion And Conservation Methods In Ornamental Landscapes, Abby J. Cutsinger

ATU Research Symposium

This study will attempt to identify the best soil erosion mitigation methods for Arkansas ornamental landscape settings by comparing the strengths and weaknesses of known techniques. Since soil is not a renewable resource, we must apply conservation practices wherever possible, not just in agricultural settings. To determine the most effective erosion prevention techniques, this study will review soil studies conducted by the NRCS and NASA, as well as articles on best practices observed in ornamental landscape and agricultural industries. These are analyzed by comparing and contrasting techniques against known problems with Arkansas soil to determine which methods are most effective. …

Allylic Rearrangement In Nbs Bromination Reactions, Devann J. Harris, Bryanna L. Wichner

Research & Creative Achievement Day

The allylic bromination of alkenes using N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) is a useful and selective substitution reaction, in which bromine radicals abstract hydrogen from the alkene to form a resonance-stabilized radical intermediate. However, allylic rearrangement can be a consequence of the intermediate's two resonance structures. Some literature sources imply that NBS bromination gives only one major product from asymmetrical alkenes, e.g., 2-hexene and 2-heptene, even when they should form equally stable but non-equivalent resonance contributors. In this research, bromination of trans-2-hexene was performed using cyclohexane as the solvent, and the products were analyzed using GC-MS to determine if only one product, 4-bromo-2-hexene, …

Ruthenium Metal Complex Interaction With Dna Of Tumor Cells, Danielle N. Baca

Research & Creative Achievement Day

In this project, computational chemistry was used to dock variations of (p-Cymene)Ru(curcuminato)chloro (Ru-cur) in DNA strands to find the best affinity for potential anti-cancer drugs. The Ru-cur complex has been chosen as the metal anticancer complex because it is not very toxic, selective for cancer cells, and has ligand exchange kinetics similar to those of platinum. First the geometry of the Ru-cur complex was optimized via a quantum mechanical method. The GAMESS program was used for this portion. Once the geometry of the complex was optimized, docking programs were explored to find the best docking poses and binding energies for …

Use Of Deep Learning In Content-Based Image Retrieval (Cbir), Angelina Das

ATU Research Symposium

In the world of computer vision and data retrieval, a crucial task is finding images within a database based on their visual content. This is known as content-based image retrieval (CBIR). As the number of digital images explodes across fields like online shopping, healthcare, and social media, the need for powerful and precise CBIR systems becomes ever more critical. Early CBIR methods depended on features crafted by hand, like color distributions, texture descriptions, and shape characteristics. However, these techniques often have difficulty capturing the true meaning of an image and might not handle very large datasets effectively. With the rise …

Dashboard To Quickly Estimate The Cost And Duration Of An Nyc Green Taxi Trip, Isaac Braun

Campus Research Day

Before hailing a New York City (NYC) taxi, residents and tourists do not easily know how much the trip will cost them or how long it may take. Taxis are still heavily used, even with the increase of ride-hailing services like Uber, and a new system has yet to be built to provide customers with these two metrics before taking a trip. This project aims to give riders a quick way to estimate a ride’s cost and duration through an interactive dashboard that allows filtering by pickup and drop-off neighborhoods. This is accomplished by analyzing three years of public data …

Visualizing Nfl Player Metrics, Jayson Rhea

Campus Research Day

This project is dedicated to reshaping the exploration of NFL player data. Tailored for sports analysts and fantasy football managers, the goal is to deliver convenience through seamless data navigation and precise filtering through an interactive dashboard. In contrast to the static formats found on the NFL website and ESPN, this dynamic interface offers interactive visualizations, empowering users to effortlessly compare data. These comparisons can be used draw quick conclusions about player performance.

Optimizing Keyboard Layouts For English Text, David Sommerfield

Research & Creative Achievement Day

QWERTY has been the de facto layout for English text input since its invention in 1874. Its continued usage has led to concerns about its ergonomic shortcomings. Previous attempts at layout creation have usually relied on manual observations of typing data rather than a predictive model. To address this issue, we propose a methodology that incorporates both corpus data from 22 million English websites and 8,228 hours of real-world typing data from participants. The corpus data is processed into bigrams and their number of occurrences. The typing data is preprocessed to exclude user-made typos, and then each bigram is tabulated …

Experimental Impact Craters Into Sloped Targets, Ashley L. Miller, Mark Cintala, Christopher Cline

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Impact cratering is a process that shapes every planetary body in our solar system, including the Earth. On smaller planetary objects without atmospheres like the Moon and asteroids (e.g. Vesta and Ceres), impact cratering creates a rough surface with varying topography as opposed to a flat, horizontal surface. In general, impact cratering experiments are performed into flat targets to simplify the physics and model craters at larger planetary scales. However, the smallest craters that form on planetary surfaces are greatly affected by the local topography and cannot be understood by looking at experiments into flat targets. Dr. Anderson and her …

Evaluating Reclaimed Mines And Heavy Metal Soil Contamination, Torin A. Matthews

ATU Research Symposium

Arkansas has a rich history of lead and zinc mining. While there are still some active mines, many historical mines have been abandoned and/or reclaimed. Although most reclamation procedures result in the burial and containment of target minerals, accessory minerals and elements can be leached out of waste materials/tailings piles and include heavy metals (i.e., Pb, As, Cd). We aim to evaluate the soil and watershed of a few abandoned/reclaimed mines in Pope County, AR, for the presence of heavy metals/source minerals. Soil and stream sediment geochemistry will be conducted using a portable x-ray fluorescence analyzer. Field work and sampling …

Binder, Tyler A. Peaster, Lindsey M. Davenport, Madelyn Little, Alex Bales

ATU Research Symposium

Binder is a mobile application that aims to introduce readers to a book recommendation service that appeals to devoted and casual readers. The main goal of Binder is to enrich book selection and reading experience. This project was created in response to deficiencies in the mobile space for book suggestions, library management, and reading personalization. The tools we used to create the project include Visual Studio, .Net Maui Framework, C#, XAML, CSS, MongoDB, NoSQL, Git, GitHub, and Figma. The project’s selection of books were sourced from the Google Books repository. Binder aims to provide an intuitive interface that allows users …

Rsa Algorithm, Evalisbeth Garcia Diazbarriga

ATU Research Symposium

I will be presenting about the RSA method in cryptology which is the coding and decoding of messages. My research will focus on proving that the method works and how it is used to communicate secretly.

Jsper (Just Stablediffusion Plus Easy Retraining), Adam Rusterholz, Meghan Finn, Zach Zolliecoffer, Zach Judy

ATU Research Symposium

JSPER is an an AI art generation Web Application that is both flexible and accessible. Our goal is to enable anyone to create and use their own customized art models, regardless of technical skill level. These models can be trained on almost anything, from a person, to an animal, to a specific object, or even style. The user only has to upload a handful of images of their subject. Then, training settings get optimized at the push of a button to match the type of subject the user is training. After training, their customized model can be used to generate …

Analysis Of Rabies Neutralizing Antibody Titers In The Feline Population Of Winona County, Olivia M. Hendrickson, Jensen K. Christensen

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Canine rabies vaccination, vital for both animal and human health, is well studied and understood. In contrast, our understanding of feline rabies vaccinations, particularly with those that have a compromised immune status, is much less comprehensive. The purpose of this project is to enhance our current knowledge of feline vaccination states through a surveillance study on the feline rabies antibody titer in Winona County's cat population. Specifically, we seek to explore the relationship between an individual feline's immune status and their active anti-rabies antibody titer. To achieve this, we conducted a bicinchoninic acid (BCA) protein assay to determine the total …

Making Mutations In A Vrk1 Plasmid, Madeline M. Thoemke

Research & Creative Achievement Day

One of the most common types of mutations is point mutations, which change a single amino acid, sometimes by changing a single nucleotide. These mutations can cause the protein to fold incorrectly or change how it interacts with other molecules. This research used biochemistry methods to prepare mutated proteins to simulate their behavior in the body. Mutations in the protein VRK1 were chosen for this project. VRK1 is present in human tissues and influences cellular division and RNA processing.VRK1 mutations P79L, A66G, and R219Ihave been linked to neurological disorders and were chosen for this project. Our procedure used biochemistry techniques …

Using Data Visualizations To Analyze Employee Performance At Xcel Energy, Abby Venz

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Companies often are curious about their employee performance. But how, exactly, do they analyze this? As a Data Analytics Intern for Xcel Energy, I was in charge of doing just this. This poster will walk you through the methods used to analyze and model employee performance, as well as the results found and the different ways managers at Xcel Energy used them

Investigating Chemotherapeutic Resistance In Glioblastoma Multiforme A, Katrina M. Yaeger

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Glioblastoma (GBM) multiforme A is a highly variable, grade four cancer that affects the glial tissues of the brain and spinal cord. Cancer cells, including GBM, have purine metabolism markers that make them distinguishable for biochemical research, marked through the rate limiting step in the conversion of inosine monophosphate (IMP) to guanosine triphosphate (GTP), catalyzed by inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH). Cell cultures for both 3T3 cells, used to study normal cell cycles, and GBM cells were grown and replicated, until sufficient cells existed to extract the desired proteins. These proteins were then run through a gel electrophoresis apparatus, followed by …

My Experience As An It Data Intern, Annajo V. Vonseth

Research & Creative Achievement Day

This poster presentation is focused on my internship as an IT Data Intern with B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO). I was able to use the skills already learned through courses here at WSU to help project and produce high-end reports. Additionally, I was in-charge of the creation of the survey all the way to creating the PowerPoint presentation with the results. I will also discuss how Microsoft Suites played a huge role in my day-to-day work, from large, complex data sets to cleaning and refining old data, I will be discussing the skills I learned during my time as an …

Data Analytics Internship At Fastenal, Jacob J. Haines

Research & Creative Achievement Day

The poster will present the results from an analysis of Fastenal's customer base to find characteristics among them that serve as useful predictors of their spending habits. This will allow Fastenal to create more accurate control groups when assessing the effectiveness of various marketing initiatives. This poster acts as the communication of capstone experience outcomes which is required for Data Science majors in addition to the capstone experience.

Uncharted: Measuring Beyond The Inner Galaxy, Carly J. Fitzgerald, Sammy Schneider, Landyn Schroeder

Research & Creative Achievement Day

My goal in conducting my research was to measure the speed of matter in the Milky Way galaxy using CHART -- the Completely Hackable Amateur Radio Telescope is an inexpensive, constructable telescope used to detect radio frequency waves in the galaxy. Using these waves and the doppler shift equation, I was able to measure the velocity of hydrogen gas in the inner galaxy. In doing this successfully, I was able to graph the relationship between the velocity and radius which is the rotational curve of the inner galaxy. I then collected and used additional data to calculate the rotational curve …

Optimizing Campus Chat-Bot Experience Using Puaa: Integrating Large Language Model (Llm) Into University Ai Assistants, Sijan Panday, Zurab Sabakhtarishvili, Clayton Jensen

ATU Research Symposium

The advent of large language models (LLMs) such as Chat-GPT and Bard marks a significant milestone in knowledge acquisition, offering a streamlined alternative to the traditionally labor-intensive process of navigating through multiple checkpoints on the web. This emerging trend in LLMs renders the prevalent rule-based chatbots, commonly utilized by universities, increasingly outdated and subpar. This research project proposes integrating LLM technology into university websites, specifically targeting the needs of students seeking information about their institutions by introducing PUAA (Personal University AI Assistant). Our approach involves using the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework, leveraging the capabilities of the LlamaIndex in conjunction with …

Environmental Health Impacts Of Small-Scale Gold Mining In East Indonesia: Mercury Pollution And Nature Conservation, Tri Edhi Budhi Soesilo, Nada Ismita Hawa, Nuraeni Nuraeni

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The expansion of small-scale gold mining impacts environmental health and socioeconomic. Research in Bombana District, one of the gold mining centers in eastern Indonesia, was conducted to explore perceptions of the impact of small-scale gold mining on human health and attitudes towards environmental conservation activities related to small-scale gold mining activities. This research uses a quantitative approach with univariate tests to identify respondent characteristics, bivariate tests (Chi-square) to test relationships and frequency differences, and multivariate analysis (regression) to test the direction and magnitude of the relationship. The perception of the impact of small-scale gold mining on human health was not …

Developing An Enzymatic Assay For Wine Analysis, Taylor M. Pagel

Research & Creative Achievement Day

During malolactic fermentation (MLF), malic acid is fermented into lactic acid by the bacteria Oenococcus oeni. During this process, malic acid is then converted into lactic acid, converting sour flavors in the wine to buttery. Here we present an enzymatic method to determine the malate/lactate ratio of wines during MLF. Fresh juice samples had detectable amounts of malate, while wine samples had mixed results, as expected. MLF was initiated in a freshly fermented pre-MLF sample of St. Pepin wine and a decreasing trend of malate over time was detected, as predicted. This was compared to increasing levels of lactate in …