Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

"Church On My Couch": Predicting The Future Impact Of Online Ministry Based On The Impact During Covid-19, Samukeliso Mabarani, Sikhumbuzo Dube

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

With “everything from home” as the new norm, “how does the use of digital platforms impact Adventist education, community engagement, and spiritual outreach?” Using a quantitative approach, we draw insights from online ministry during Covid-19 and use the insights to predict the future impact of online ministry statistically.

Interdisciplinary Diffusion Lab, Sable Rosana Canales, Chloe Gaban

Andrews University Teaching and Learning Conference

Diffusion is a principle in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Students can model the rate of diffusion based on particle size by contrasting blue and yellow dyes. Two petri dishes containing agar-agar receive a drop of dye at the center. The radius of expansion is recorded over time and variance increases linearly with time. Diffusion constants vary by particle size, allowing for a size ratio comparison between blue and yellow dyes. Relating the data to cells, students predict that smaller molecules diffuse into living cells, whereas larger molecules need some assistance from protein channels as in facilitated diffusion.

P-36 The Delta-Crossing Number For Links, Zachary Duah

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

An m-component link is an embedding of m circles into 3-dimensional space; a 1-component link is called a knot. The diagram for a link may be drawn so that all crossings occur within delta tangles, collections of three crossings as appear in a delta move. The delta crossing number is defined to be the minimal number of delta tangles in such a diagram. The delta crossing number has been well-studied for knots but not for links with multiple components. Using bounds we determine the delta crossing number for several 2-component links with up to 8 crossings as well as for …

P-37 Self And Mixed Delta Moves On Algebraically Split Links, Justyce Goode, Davielle Smith, Yamil Kas-Danouche, Devin Garcia, Anthony Bosman

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

A link is an embedding of circles into 3-dimensional space. A Delta-move is a local move on a link diagram. The Delta-Gordian distance between links measures the minimum number of Delta-moves needed to move between link diagrams. We place restrictions on the Delta-move by either requiring the move to only involve a single component of the link, called a self Delta-move, or multiple components of the link, called a mixed Delta-move. We prove a number of results on how (mixed/self) Delta-moves relate to classical link invariants including the Arf invariant and crossing number. This allows us to produce a graph …

Optimizing Fluorescence Pmt Gain And Excitation Wavelength For Hplc Dl-Amino Acid Detection, Daranthea Amanda Atmadja, Aaron Jacobs

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Amino acids exist as enantiomers that can be separated and detected using HPLC-FLD. An optimal PMT gain and wavelength of excitation must be determined to lower the limit of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) as increasing the PMT gain amplifies the signal on the HPLC-Spectra. The HPLC-FLD spectra of OPA-IBLC derivatized histidine was measured at PMT gain 5 and 7 for the excitation wavelengths of 340-, 260-, and 240- nm. Hence, the optimal excitation wavelength and PMT gain can be determined by comparing the fluorescence spectra.

Past, Present, And Future– A Review Of Berrien County Water And Great Lakes Water Resources And Quality, Jongwan Bae

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

The decrease in water quality for environmental and drinking water has been prevalent in the Great Lakes region, where industrialization, agricultural development, and population increase have contributed substantially. Looking through historical reports and the present, the degradation in water quality will likely continue. Our research intends to use inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy to create a methodology to quantitatively detect various heavy metals and other elements from any water source. Current research has been on the determination of a niche in water testing and the creation of an infographic, as well as data of simple water samples.

Copper (Ii) Sequestration By Pamam Dendrimers In Tap Water, Hannah Castillo

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Dendrimers are nanomaterials that are widely studied for a variety of applications because of their distinctive properties. One such property of, specifically, the generation 2-PAMAM Dendrimer is its particular affinity for copper (II) ions. This could be influential in selective heavy metal extraction, particularly in contaminated water. Our research aims to test the sequestration and selectivity of PAMAM dendrimers with amine surface groups for copper (II) ions in a chemical environment with interfering species, such as tap water, using Inductively Coupled Plasma spectroscopy. Ongoing research has involved developing methods for dendrimer extractions and creating calibration curves for standards to ensure …

Determining The Origins Of Helix Glitches In Ligo’S H1 Detector, Kara Shepard

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

The LIGO detectors are ultra-sensitive, making them susceptible to glitches from the noise that can block gravitational wave signals. In order to reduce the number of glitches that occur in the detector, the cause of the glitches must be found. I am researching the Helix glitch to try and determine its origin. This is accomplished by studying the times at which the glitch occurred in the detector and then looking for factors that may have caused a glitch to happen around the same time, to see if there are any correlations.

P-13 Astronomy From Ripples In Spacetime, Tiffany Summerscales

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

The LIGO and Virgo detectors have made a total of 11 confirmed measurements of gravitational waves, the faint ripples in the fabric of spacetime predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Ten of these gravitational wave events were caused by the inspiral, collision, and merging of a pair of black holes and the remaining event by a pair of neutron stars. These measurements have helped us learn about the objects that produced the gravitational waves. Regular candidate detections are now shared in real time with both astronomers and the public.

P-43 Doing Astronomy With Gravitational Waves, Tiffany Summerscales

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

With the first detection of gravitational waves on September 14, 2015, the new era of gravitational wave astronomy began. Gravitational wave detections, along with observations made by optical telescopes, have given us new information about the universe. This includes new estimates of the numbers of black holes in the universe and their properties, as well as confirming theories about the sources of some gamma ray bursts and how those sources produce heavy elements.

P-46 A Periodic Matrix Model Of Seabird Behavior And Population Dynamics, Mykhaylo M. Malakhov, Benjamin Macdonald, Shandelle M. Henson, J. M. Cushing

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Rising sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Pacific Northwest lead to food resource reductions for surface-feeding seabirds, and have been correlated with several marked behavioral changes. Namely, higher SSTs are associated with increased egg cannibalism and egg-laying synchrony in the colony. We study the long-term effects of climate change on population dynamics and survival by considering a simplified, cross-season model that incorporates both of these behaviors in addition to density-dependent and environmental effects. We show that cannibalism can lead to backward bifurcations and strong Allee effects, allowing the population to survive at lower resource levels than would be possible otherwise.

A Generalized Linear Model For Marital Disruption In Namibia, Lillian Pazvakawambwa

Andrews Research Conference

Marital disruption has attracted wide attention among researchers. In recent years, the world has experienced reductions in marriage rates, along with significant increases in cohabiting unions, divorce and separation, leading to rising conjugal and family instability. While some have seen this as a sign of social and moral disruption with a potential to shatter the family institution and the foundations of society itself, others have embraced these trends as signaling increased individual liberty and the loosening of suffocating social mores. There is limited research on the factors influencing marital disruption in Namibia. This paper used the Namibia Demographic and Health …

P-31 Sufficient Conditions For The Existence Of Positive Solutions To An Elliptic Model, Timothy Robertson

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

We study the existence of solutions to a general elliptic model. Specifically, we give conditions for the existence and non-existence of steady-state solutions to a general, nonlinear population model of two cooperating species.

P-26 Detection Of Counterfeit Antimalarial Drugs By Sers, Getahun Merga, P. Shepard, M. Trujillo, J. Camden

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

Substandard antimalarial drugs are a major problem to the health of citizens in developing countries, and it is likely that the problem persists due to the lack of means to detect substandard drugs. Various colorimetric techniques have been implemented to determine if a drug contains the stated active ingredient or not, but vibrational spectroscopies such as NIR and Raman can be used to more reliably quantify the amount of active ingredient. The use of Raman, however, has been limited by the presence of significant sample fluorescence that interferes with detection of the SERS signals of the active ingredients. Thus, we …

P-38 On The Riemannian Submersion Invariant, Yun Myung Oh

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

For a Riemannian submersion pi:Mⁿ->B^bwith totally geodesic fibers, the submersion invariant (see attached abstract for equation) was introduced using the integrability tensor of the submersion. B. Y. Chen has provided the inequality on this invariant if the manifold M admits an isometric immersion into a Riemannian manifold M^m. Some of the recent results on this invariant are included with examples. This is a continuation of the work published in 2013.

See attached abstract for full equations.

P-24 Synthesis Of Arginine-Based Heterocyclic Amines, Andrew Stewart

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs) are a group of mutagenic and carcinogenic chemicals found in muscle meat after grilling, frying, or broiling. Research studies show that very low amounts of HCAs are created from creatinine reacting with another amino acid at temperatures greater than 200 °C. Other studies show that plant-based arginine can substitute for creatine forming a new class of mutagenic HCAs, but also in low yields. We sought to develop a direct, higher yielding method of producing these arginine-HCAs based on a procedure previously used to synthesize creatine-HCAs. Greater amounts of arginine-HCA speeds analysis, chemical characterization, and toxicity assessment.

P-22 Hydroxyl Functional Group Number Determination Of Pamam Dendrimers With Nir-Spectroscopy, Seth Stacey

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

The goal of this project is to investigate the use of NIR-spectroscopy to quantify the number of OH functional groups attached to poly (amido amine) or PAMAM dendrimers in a manner that is quick, cost effective and easily reproducible. Obtaining the approximate number of hydroxyl functional groups (OH#) in a dendrimer is crucial in determining what role it can play in bonding and reactivity to other molecules. NIR-spectroscopy has the potential to allow for the recovery of the sample or at least to minimize the amount needed for analysis while providing an accurate determination of the OH# of a dendrimer.