Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Techniques And Trials In Pteridophyte Conservation And Cultivation, Jessica Bartel

Senior Theses and Projects

With the progressive nature of climate change conditions globally over the past century, there has been increasing focus on conservation of all species, but particularly those already endangered. Over 12,000 species of ferns live on Earth, and they do not produce seeds, so an investigation into their spores and how they reach maturity will allow us to preserve more genetic material in the future for these species. As a result, we investigated ex situ conservation and survivability of in vitro cultured gametophytes of within the genus Dryopteridaceae through herbarium sample germination rates across samples representing a wide age range ( …

Humanity Amid Innovation: Exploring Our Relationship To Technology, Sarah Durkee

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis examines the impacts of technology on fundamental aspects of human nature and experience. Drawing on the works from Kant, Turing, Arendt, Benjamin, and Freud, it explores how rapid technological change is redefining human reason, intelligence, and creativity in the digital age. The first chapter analyzes whether modern online communication platforms realize or undermine Kant's vision of an enlightened public sphere fostering free discourse and critique. It argues that prioritizing engagement over substantive debate, these digital realms corrode the depth of interaction essential for cultivating human reason. The second chapter explores the pursuit of artificial intelligence as a reproduction …

The Love Collection Of Chinese Wall Paintings, Donglin Chen

Senior Theses and Projects

The Chinese Fresco Painting (accession #1951.230) at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is a problematic work. The museum registration document showed that this wall painting is thought to have been painted during the Ming dynasty, ruling from 1368 to 1644. It may depict the Goddess of Sons and Grandsons, Zisun Niangniang. However, this is unprovenanced and unresearched. In this paper, connoisseurship analysis and scientific examination of the painting are carried out to elucidate the mystery of this Chinese mural. This study attempted to confirm the Ming Dynasty dating of this painting by demonstrating stylistic affinities between it and other …

Phosphorus And Metal Cycling In A Drinking Water Source, Amanda Modica

Senior Theses and Projects

This project sought to investigate the cycling of phosphorus and metals in Lake Auburn, a drinking water source, specifically to analyze the impacts of an alum treatment on the lake for the purpose of decreasing concentrations of eutrophication-promoting phosphorus. The alum addition was performed in the summer of 2019 in two phases. Water samples were collected from the surface to the deepest point at five sites around the lake from February 2019 to November 2021. Data showed that the added alum slowly sank to the bottom of the lake. Total and dissolved metals data showed increased metals concentrations at sampling …

Constructing The Eastern Coyote: A Temporal Analysis Of The Scientific And Social Production Of A Controversial Northeastern Canid, Kayleigh Moses

Senior Theses and Projects

Eastern coyotes (Canis latrans var) have confounded the scientific and social boundaries established by postcolonial United States. The first eastern coyote specimen on record comes from Otis, Massachusetts in 1957. At the time, this unknown and unnamed wolf-like creature sparked fear amongst human residents of the Northeastern United States. Threatened by the presence of this predator, Northeasterners launched coyote killing efforts similar to the eradication campaigns that had previously failed in the Western United States. Today, Massachusetts officials estimate that 11,500 eastern coyotes occupy the state, living amongst people and pets in every county. This abundance of eastern …

The Expansion Of A Native Generalist Species Following Competitive Release And Habitat Degradation, Ellie Tate

Senior Theses and Projects

The understanding of competitive release and a generalist species’ ability to exploit an available niche assists in explaining short- and long-term changes in ecological communities. I evaluated the expansion and establishment of a native generalist species, the red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), into a river community studied over a 50-year period (1969-2019). My objective was to analyze the T. s. elegans population upon expansion and how the population has been affected by the short- and long-term changes of the ecosystem. The turtle community in the North Fork of the White River, Ozark County, MO, USA faced habitat degradation, harvesting, a …

Using Ground Penetrating Radar To Map Subsurface Glacial Delta Deposits In River Highlands State Park, Cromwell, Connecticut, Chuck Sweeney

Senior Theses and Projects

It has been previously documented that there are glacial delta deposits within the Cromwell area of Connecticut. This study aimed to image these glacial delta deposits using ground penetrating radar (GPR) to determine flow direction of the meltwater transporting glacial outwash and show GPR to be an effective method for mapping glacial delta deposits. GPR is a device used to image subsurface features, whether they are geological or anthropogenic. A transmitting antenna on the GPR unit emits radar waves into the ground which reflect off contrasts (e.g.: soil composition change, large rocks, metal pipe, water saturation/water, etc.) and are received …

Total Mercury Accumulation And Spatial Distribution In Beachland Park Pond, West Hartford, Ct And Keney Park Pond, Hartford, Ct, Shane Mark Mclaughlin

Senior Theses and Projects

Ponds are ecologically important as centers for biodiversity, and those within urbanized watersheds typically have altered hydrology, morphology, and water chemistry. The accumulation of heavy metals, such as mercury (Hg), in subaqueous pond sediments has the potential to harm pond ecosystems, but the behavior of Hg in urban ponds is poorly understood. I investigated spatial variability of mercury accumulation within the sediments of two urban ponds: Beachland Park Pond in West Hartford, CT, USA, and Keney Park Pond, in Hartford, CT, USA. I collected 5 samples from 14 distinct sites around each pond’s perimeter. I analyzed the fine (<63 >μm) …

Using Numerical Methods To Explore The Space Of Solutions Of A Nonlinear Partial Differential Equation, Subekshya Bidari

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Sea Change In Management Strategies: The Implications Of Global Climate Change On Policy Conceptions Of And Responses To Invasive Marine Species, Griffin J. Hunt

Senior Theses and Projects

The dispersal of the invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans) across the Caribbean–Atlantic reverberates throughout the region’s public policy, conservation efforts, and economic concerns. Invasions by non–native species generally exhibit a wide range of negative effects on recipient ecosystems, and the lionfish case is no exception. Of central concern, this invasion has occurred at a rate, scale, and magnitude that precludes traditional management efforts. This paper assesses the diverse anthropogenic factors that contributed to the establishment of lionfish within the Caribbean–Atlantic, as well as the reasons for the species’ subsequent rapid dispersal throughout the region. This work investigates how …

Loading Peptides Into Dictyostelium Discoideum Using Pinocytosis, Electroporation, Cell Penetrating Peptides, And Myristoylation, Lorena Lazo De La Vega

Senior Theses and Projects

The phospholipid bilayer of the cell is fluid and allows transport of small, hydrophobic compounds across the membrane. However, larger molecules such as peptides cannot cross the bilayer as easily. Therefore, my goal is to identify and optimize a method for loading exogenous peptides, such as reporters, hormones, or drugs, through the cell membrane. For these studies, we are using Dictyostelium discoideum as a model organism to test four peptide loading methods: pinocytosis, electroporation, cell-penetrating peptides and myristoylation. Pinocytosis uses changes in osmotic pressure to load the peptides through vesicles. The cells were exposed to a hypertonic solution for 10 …

Construction Algorithms For Expander Graphs, Vlad S. Burca

Senior Theses and Projects

Graphs are mathematical objects that are comprised of nodes and edges that connect them. In computer science they are used to model concepts that exhibit network behaviors, such as social networks, communication paths or computer networks. In practice, it is desired that these graphs retain two main properties: sparseness and high connectivity. This is equivalent to having relatively short distances between two nodes but with an overall small number of edges. These graphs are called expander graphs and the main motivation behind studying them is the efficient network structure that they can produce due to their properties. We are specifically …

Epidemic Modeling With Contact Heterogeneity And Multiple Routes Of Transmission, Sama Shrestha

Senior Theses and Projects

Senior thesis completed at Trinity College for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.

Fast Monte Carlo Algorithms For Computing A Low-Rank Approximation To A Matrix, Vlad S. Burca

Senior Theses and Projects

Many of today's applications deal with big quantities of data; from DNA analysis algorithms, to image processing and movie recommendation algorithms. Most of these systems store the data in very large matrices. In order to perform analysis on the collected data, these big matrices have to be stored in the RAM (random-access memory) of the computing system. But this is a very expensive process since RAM is a scarce computational resource. Ideally, one would like to be able to store most of the data matrices on the memory disk (hard disk drive) while loading only the necessary parts of the …

Development Of A Rapid Spme/Gc-Ms Method For The Detection And Quantification Of Synthetic Cathinones In Oral Fluid, David Correll

Senior Theses and Projects

The recent emergence and widespread abuse of new classes of compounds on the designer drug market as “legal” alternatives to scheduled drugs such as Ecstasy has prompted interest in the development of analytical methods for their detection and characterization. Synthetic cathinones, which are structurally similar to amphetamines, are commonly advertised as a “legal highs” or “herbal highs,” and are marketed under names such as “bath salts” and “plant food.” To avoid drug abuse legislation, a “not for human consumption” warning is typically printed on the label. Their ready availability on the Internet and in “head” shops, convenience stores, and even …

Commodity Tracker: A Mobile Tool To Collect Regional Food Prices Across Haiti, Christopher D. Nobile

Senior Theses and Projects

The Commodity Tracker is an Android Application developed on Trinity’s Portable Open Search and Identification Tool (POSIT). It is designed for users to collect pricing information primarily on food prices in field conditions in Haiti. The ACDI/VOCA organization sends field agents into the rural areas of Haiti regularly to collect data on the prices of local food items. This data is used to determine the distribution of food items through the USAID organization, using price to measure scarcity. Infrastructural issues make this a time consuming process, especially with regards to sending data from the field to the central servers in …

The Lamplighter Group, Scott Eckenthal

Senior Theses and Projects

The Lamplighter Group is an Algebraic Group whose behavior models the dynamics of a geometric system. In this thesis, a survey paper following a set of notes as written by Professor Jennifer Taback of Bowdoin College, we define this geometric system and the connection to the Lamplighter Group. Several subsequent results are then proven regarding word length of elements in the group and behavior within its Cayley Graph. A preliminary section is included to introduce the reader to several topics including Free Groups, Group Presentation, and the properties of the Cayley Graph.

Predicting Disease Outbreaks Using A Support Vector Machine Model, Nicolae Dragu

Senior Theses and Projects

The purpose of this research is to create an efficient way of detecting disease outbreaks from news articles using Support Vector Machines (SVM). An SVM is a supervised machine learning method used for classification and regression problems. The role of the SVM in this project is to “learn” to distinguish between news articles that may indicate a disease outbreak and those that do not.

A series of health-related articles from the World Health Organization is parsed using a Java program in order to create vectors for the SVM. Each such article thus results in a vector. A basic negation detection …

The Pkp Caustic At The Trinity College Seismograph Station (Tcct) From The Sumbawa-Indonesia Earthquake On November 8th, 2009, Daniel Echavarria

Senior Theses and Projects

On November 8^th, 2009 the Trinity College Seismograph Station (TCCT) recorded an earthquake of magnitude Mw = 6.7 with body wave amplitudes that were larger than expected. This earthquake, located in Sumbawa-Indonesia, generated similar body wave amplitudes as earthquakes of the same magnitude (Mw = 6.7) and comparable depth (shallow focus: 0th, 2010 and the Alaska earthquake on July 18^th, 2010. The large body wave amplitudes were caused by a set of consecutive PKP waves that constructively interfered. The distance from the Sumbawa-Indonesia earthquake to TCCT of 144.96° falls between the lower and higher estimates for …

What Do You Tweet? An Analysis Of Twitter Using Support Vector Machines, Richard Sung

Senior Theses and Projects

In the past few years, Twitter has become a major social networking service with over 200 million tweets made every day. With this newfound source of expanding information, can people stay up to date with what others are posting? Along with the increasing processing power of computers, is there a way computing can analyze tweets on a large scale? Moreover, can computers understand what people think based on what they post? This senior project explores this question by determining the positive or negative sentiment of twitter posts by using a machine learning algorithm called Support Vector Machines. Based on …

Principal Component Analysis In The Eigenface Technique For Facial Recognition, Kevin Huang

Senior Theses and Projects

Several facial recognition algorithms have been explored in the past few decades. Progress has been made towards recognition under varying lighting conditions, poses and facial expressions. In a general context, a facial recognition algorithm and its implementation can be considered as a system. The input to the facial recognition system is a two dimensional image, while the system distinguishes the input image as a user’s face from a pre-determined library of faces. Finally, the output is the discerned face image. In this project, we will examine one particular system: the Eigenface technique.

Geomorphological Approach To Toxic Trace Metal Distribution Across A Medial Bar Deposit In The Trout Brook Of The Park River Watershed, Hartford, Ct, Kelsey Semrod

Senior Theses and Projects

The Trout Brook, a major tributary of the Park River watershed, was sampled for heavy metals in sediment with a focus on Pb, Cu, Cd, and Zn. These metals are known to be contaminating the river due to a history of discharge from metal finishing industries. In a watershed-wide survey conducted in September 2011, high concentrations of metals were found in the Trout Brook, with some sites exceeding the probable effect concentration (PEC). The Trout Brook contains a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) and a vegetated medial bar that may be trapping sediment. Based on the results of the earlier studies, …

Ferrocene Constrained Helical Peptides Via On-Resin Cyclization, Thomas A. Mcteague

Senior Theses and Projects

Previous research within the Curran group has demonstrated that ferrocene may be used as an organometallic constraint to induce the formation of α-helices in short peptides which traditionally possess undefined conformations. Through strategic placement of lysine residues at the i and i+3 positions within the peptide, such a constraint was accomplished via the crosslinking of the lysine side chains to ferrocene dicarboxylic acid chloride in solution phase synthesis. The aim of this work was to develop a method for solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) for the synthesis of these ferrocene-constrained helices. In particular, we seek to develop a method in …

Sediment Magnetic Proxies Reflect Post-Glacial Climate Change For East-Central New Hampshire, Brittney M. Payton

Senior Theses and Projects

The magnetic properties of Pea Porridge Pond, NH were analyzed in an attempt to reconstruct Holocene climate change. Magnetic measurements include magnetic susceptibility (χ), anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM), isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM), saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM), coercivity distributions of IRM, and hysteresis loops. ARM/IRM and S-ratios were calculated, and a Day (Day et al., 1977) plot was created using data from the hysteresis loops. The sediment magnetic record is divided into six zones. High concentration-dependent parameters in Zone 1 (prior to 14 ka) suggest an initial unstable landscape in which erosion contributed to the input of magnetic minerals. Zone …

Magnetic Analysis Of Soils From The Wind River Range, Wyoming, Emily Quinton

Senior Theses and Projects

In order to constrain the rate of magnetic enhancement in glacial fluvial sediments, we investigated modern soils from five fluvial terraces in the eastern Wind River Range, Wyoming. Profiles up to 1.2 m deep were sampled in five cm intervals from hand-dug pits or natural riverbanks exposures. These profiles include soils from fluvial terraces correlated to Sacagawea Ridge, Bull Lake and Pinedale-age glacial advances and one Holocene profile. Soil ages range from approximately >500 ka to modern. To characterize changes in magnetic properties we performed a variety of rock magnetic analyses. Abundance and grain size of magnetic minerals were estimated …