Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Developing Confidence And Interest In Teaching Relevant Mathematical Modeling Lessons, Jacy Beck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

What is mathematical modeling and how can inservice and pre-service teachers develop the skills and competencies necessary to increase confidence and interest in teaching relevant mathematical modeling lessons? Mathematical modeling is “the process of choosing and using appropriate mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, to understand them better, and to improve decisions” (CSSM, 2010, p. 72). By providing students with an opportunity to engage in relevant mathematical modeling prompts, we provide them with transferable skills and knowledge. The aim of this paper will be to provide insight into the relevance of teaching mathematical modeling, provide resources for integrating modeling …

A Phenological Model For A Southern Population Of Mountain Pine Beetle, Catherine E. Wangen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) attacks living Pinus trees across a widespread area of western North America, causing significant ecological and economic damage. The ability to make accurate predictions of how MPB populations across this range will respond to temperatures, which affect MPB progress through life stages, is essential. Northern and southern populations of MPB are genetically different in response to temperature, requiring geographic-specific model parameters. There is not currently a predictive model for the southern MPB life cycle, despite concerns that those populations may be more susceptible to increased numbers of generations per year, which would …

Foliar Photodegradation In Pesticide Environmental Modeling, Sean M. Lyons

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The work described here was conducted to better understand how pesticides will behave following their application to crops or soil. This understanding will allow for better use of pesticides which will protect the environment and non-target organisms while remaining effective against pests. The Pesticide Dissipation form Agricultural Land (PeDAL) model was developed to simulate pesticide behavior following application and laboratory experiments focused on the photodegradation of select pesticides on alfalfa leaves were conducted to support this model.

Stream Temperature Monitoring And Modeling To Inform Restoration: A Study Of Thermal Variability In The Western Us, Jessica R. Wood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water temperature is an important variable for aquatic ecosystems. Salmonid population numbers and distribution are heavily influenced by stream temperature, and there is growing concern about the health of salmonid populations with anticipated climate change. Managers are looking to efficiently evaluate options to maintain stream temperatures needed by salmonids. This study evaluated and compared stream temperature restoration alternatives in two streams with warm temperatures using stream temperature monitoring and modeling.

The first study identified pockets of cold water that are important to native fish species in Nevada’s Walker River. Comparison of monitoring results with existing basin-scale model outputs identified two …

Modeling De Novo Granulation Of Anaerobic Sludge, Honey Varghese

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The global market for biological waste water treatment is large and growing. Bioengineered reactor setups employ microorganisms to degrade waste and produce useful/less harmful components. Scientists are interested in studies that reveal the biological mechanisms involved in the process of these microbial actions in order to improve the reactor performance. The process of granulation in aerobic sludge is one such interesting process which is less explained.

The primary goal of the thesis is to design a computational model that simulates the process of granulation in anaerobic sludge and that addresses the role physiochemical and biological processes play in granule formation. …

Lifetime Modeling Of Deficient Bridges In New York, Levi Phippen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Given the importance of bridges to a state's economy and strength, and the costs involved in building and maintaining bridges, maximizing their service life is essential. In order to safely extend a bridge's utility as long as possible, an understanding of its lifetime processes is needed. This paper attempts to model the lifetime of a bridge in New York once it has become deficient. Lifetime is defined to be the length of time between deficiency classification and failure. A bridge is considered deficient when certain structural components receive a poor rating in the National Bridge Inventory, which is compiled annually …

Beetles, Fungi And Trees: A Story For The Ages? Modeling And Projecting The Multipartite Symbiosis Between The Mountain Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus Ponderosae, And Its Fungal Symbionts, Grosmannia Clavigera And Ophiostoma Montium, Audrey L. Addison

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As data collection and modeling improve, ecologists increasingly discover that interspecies dynamics greatly affect the success of individual species. Models accounting for the dynamics of multiple species are becoming more important. In this work, we explore the relationship between mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) and two mutualistic fungi, Grosmannia clavigera and Ophiostoma montium. These species are involved in a multipartite symbiosis, critical to the survival of MPB, in which each species benefits.

Extensive phenological modeling has been done to determine how temperature affects the timing of life events and cold-weather mortality of MPB. The fungi have also …

Students Rise To The Challenge Of Modeling Yeast Growth Despite Sour Hiccups From Imperfect Data, Alicia Caldwell

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Students rarely receive the opportunity to experience a learning activity involving mathematical modeling. This paper describes a lab in which students in an Applied Mathematics in Biology course observe the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a yeast strain, in differing sugar concentrations for use in learning modeling. They parameterized the logistic equation and an alternate model, which they themselves constructed, based on the data they collected. I participated in this lab as a student in 2012 then observed and reviewed the work of other students involved. I found that students gained a deeper understanding of limiting factors and the role of …

Composite Feature-Based Face Detection Using Skin Color Modeling And Svm Classification, Swathi Rajashekar

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This report proposes a face detection algorithm based on skin color modeling and support vector machine (SVM) classification. Said classification is based on various face features used to detect specific faces in an input color image. A YCbCr color space is used to filter the skin color pixels from the input color image. Template matching is used on the result with various window sizes of the template created from an ORL face database. The candidates obtained above, are then classified by SVM classifiers using the histogram of oriented gradients, eigen features, edge ratio, and edge statistics features.

Evolving Models: A Density-Based Approach To Modeling Sexual Dimorphism And Adaptive Speciation, Audrey Smith

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In this paper, we begin by extending existing deterministic and individual-based ecological models for sexual dimorphism and adaptive speciation into density-based mathematical models describing the density or number of individuals with various trait values, or phenotypes. These density-based models describe the dynamics of a population of males and females using both clonal and sexual reproduction. Each generation, the populations are subject to mating, mutation, and ecological dynamics including infraspecific competition and carrying capacity of the environment. By avoiding individual-based models, we are able to avoid simulations and instead achieve repeatable results.

Implementing these models numerically, we are able to show …

Modeling The Electrodynamics Of The Low-Latitude Ionosphere, Christian Stephen Wohlwend

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The electrodynamics of the Earth's low-latitude ionosphere is dependent on the ionospheric conductivity and the thermospheric neutral density, temperature, and winds present. This two-part study focused on the gravity wave seeding mechanism of equatorial plasma depletions in the ionosphere and the associated equatorial spread F, as well as the differences between a two-dimensional flux tube integrated electrodynamics model and a three-dimensional model for the same time period. The gravity wave seeding study was based on a parameterization of a gravity wave perturbation using a background empirical thermosphere and a physics-based ionosphere for the case of 12 UT on 26 September …

Mathematically Modeling Pcr: An Asymptotic Approximation With Potential For Optimization, Martha J. Garlick

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

A mathematical model for PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) is developed using the law of mass action. Differential equations are written from the chemical equations, preserving the detail of the complementary DNA single strand being extended one bas e pair at a time. The equations for the annealing stage are solved analytically. The method of multiple scales is used to approximate solutions for the extension stage. A map is then developed from the solutions to simulate PCR. The advantage of this model is the ability to use the map to optimize the process. Our results suggest that dynamically optimizing the extension …

Statistical Properties And Problems In Modeling The Bolivian Foreign Exchange Market, Gover Barja

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bolivian foreign exchange market is explained in terms of the official and parallel exchange rates. The data covers the post hyper inflationary period from 1986 to 1992. The distribution of the rate of depreciation of the official and parallel exchange rates is long tailed and strongly departs from normality due to the existence of outliers. A market interactions model of the autoregressive kind is estimated using robust regression. This procedure produces M-parameter estimates using iteratively reweighted least squares. The robust method handles well the outlier problem and at the same time it reveals the true nature of the statistical …

Modeling Spring Wheat Production As Influenced By Climate And Irrigation, V. Philip Rasmussen Jr.

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A model has been developed that predicts spring wheat grain and dry matter yield. Preliminary tests show very favorable results when predicting grain yield in two different climatic regimes, one being a dryland and another being an irrigated area. The strengths of the model lie in its simplicity, relatively available input data, and low computer processing time cost. Weakness of the model stem from the assumptions that allow its simplicity. The basic assumption in the model is that grain and dry matter yield can be related to the ratio of actual to potential transpiration, computed for each of five phenological …