Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Towards Algorithmic Justice: Human Centered Approaches To Artificial Intelligence Design To Support Fairness And Mitigate Bias In The Financial Services Sector, Jihyun Kim

CMC Senior Theses

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has positively transformed the Financial services sector but also introduced AI biases against protected groups, amplifying existing prejudices against marginalized communities. The financial decisions made by biased algorithms could cause life-changing ramifications in applications such as lending and credit scoring. Human Centered AI (HCAI) is an emerging concept where AI systems seek to augment, not replace human abilities while preserving human control to ensure transparency, equity and privacy. The evolving field of HCAI shares a common ground with and can be enhanced by the Human Centered Design principles in that they both put humans, the user, at …

The Impact Of The Use Of Mercury In Mining In Colombia, Johan Martinez

CMC Senior Theses

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is a practice that is common all around the world, especially in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It is also one of the leading consumers of mercury and leading sources of emissions. Governments have banned the use of mercury completely, including Colombia, but it continues to be used and emitted into the environment. This issue is exacerbated because there is a lack of standards, a lack of research done regarding mercury use in mining, and a complex socio-political history in Colombia. For this reason, this paper seeks to provide a proposed pathway for research to …

Existence Of Well-Defined Pointer Observable Selects Tensor Product Factorizations Of Quantum Systems, Brian Lee

CMC Senior Theses

In the decoherence account of quantum mechanics, a choice of particular tensor product structure (a particular partition of system into subsystems) is assumed. We explore whether it is possible to relax this arbitrary choice by requiring that a valid tensor product structure admits a quasi-classical description. Such tensor product structures are said to be quasi-classical or decoherence-selected tensor product structures. This project generalizes a 2-qubit quasi-classical tensor product structure selection algorithm to an n-qubit selection algorithm, which allows us to, for the first time, consider the relationship between decoherence-selected tensor product structures and locality-selected tensor product structures. To generalize the …

C. Compactum Acts As A Comprehensive Climate Archive And Ecological Foundation In The Labrador Sea, Sadie Heckman

CMC Senior Theses

Clathromorphum compactum, a species of crustose coralline algae (CCA), is incredibly valuable for the future of high latitude ocean health, both as a comprehensive archive of changing ocean conditions, and ecologically as a foundational species for promoting biodiversity. Previous work establishes C. compactum as an effective climate proxy, and its life history provides several advantages for this use. C. compactum grow in nongeniculate, generally radial formations on hard substrates, over a wide distribution in mid-to-high latitude oceans and at subtidal depth ranges. Indeterminate growth leads to extreme longevity in C. compactum (Halfar et al., 2008), and growth rates are relatively …

Application Of Sentiment Analysis And Machine Learning Techniques To Predict Daily Cryptocurrency Price Returns, Edward Wu

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the effects of social media sentiment relating to Bitcoin on the daily price returns of Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies by utilizing sentiment analysis and machine learning techniques to predict daily price returns. Many investors think that social media sentiment affects cryptocurrency prices. However, the results of this paper find that social media sentiment relating to Bitcoin does not add significant predictive value to forecasting daily price returns for each of the six cryptocurrencies used for analysis and that machine learning models that do not assume linearity between the current day price return and previous daily price …

Utilizing Machine Learning In Healthcare In An Ethical Fashion, Nishka Ayyar

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis paper explores the ethical considerations surrounding the use of machine learning (ML) solutions in healthcare. The background section discusses the basics of machine learning techniques and algorithms, and the increasing interest in their utilization in the healthcare sector. The paper then reviews and critically analyzes four studies that highlight concerns related to using ML in healthcare, including issues of bias, privacy, accountability, and transparency. Based on the analysis of these studies, the paper presents several recommendations for addressing these concerns. The paper concludes with a discussion on the potential benefits of using machine learning technology in healthcare. Ultimately, …

Analysis Of Biologically Effective Dose For Retroactive Yttrium-90 Trans-Arterial Radioembolization Treatment Optimization, Mj Lindsey

CMC Senior Theses

Trans-arterial radioembolization (TARE) is a protracted modality of radiation therapy where radionuclides labeled with Yttrium-90 (⁹⁰Y) are inserted inside a patient's hepatic artery to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). While TARE has been shown to be a clinically effective and safe treatment, there is little understanding of the radiobiological relationship between absorbed dose and tissue response, and thus there is no dosimetric standard for treatment planning. The Biologically Effective Dose (BED) formalism, derived from the Linear-Quadratic model of radiobiology, is used to weigh the absorbed dose by the time pattern of delivery. BED is a virtual dose that can …

A Study On Global Reef Deterioration: Exploring Coral Bleaching, Emily Fernandez

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis is a study on coral bleaching and coral mortality, studying the relationship between variables such as depth, exposure, distance to shore, and temperature for percent bleaching. All of the analyses were made using two different data sets, that contain information about bleaching events in specific regions, and dates, and provide information factors such as depth, temperature, and exposure. Models were created for different relationships of variables for eco-regions, recent data, and countries. I attempted to find relationships between variables such as depth, temperature, exposure, and distance to shore, and how they affect coral bleaching. Unfortunately, I did not …

Counting Spanning Trees On Triangular Lattices, Angie Wang

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis focuses on finding spanning tree counts for triangular lattices and other planar graphs comprised of triangular faces. This topic has applications in redistricting: many proposed algorithmic methods for detecting gerrymandering involve spanning trees, and graphs representing states/regions are often triangulated. First, we present and prove Kirchhoff’s Matrix Tree Theorem, a well known formula for computing the number of spanning trees of a multigraph. Then, we use combinatorial methods to find spanning tree counts for chains of triangles and 3 × n triangular lattices (some limiting formulas exist, but they rely on higher level mathematics). For a chain of …

Measuring Racial Segregation In Los Angeles County Using Random Walks, Zarina Kismet Dhillon

CMC Senior Theses

As of now there is no universal quantitative measure used to evaluate racial segregation in different regions. This paper begins by providing a history of segregation, with an emphasis on the impact of redlining in the early 20th century. We move to its effect on the current population distribution in Los Angeles, California, and then provide an overview of the mathematical concepts that have been used in previous measurements of segregation. We then introduce a method that we believe encompasses the most representative aspects of preceding work, proposed by Sousa and Nicosia in their work on quantifying ethnic segregation in …

Stem Education And Retention For Black Women Using High-Impact Practices: Historically Black Colleges And Universities Vs. Predominantly White Liberal Arts Colleges, Annette Njei

CMC Senior Theses

Black women are significantly underrepresented within the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To address this, the Association of American Colleges & Universities crafted ten high-impact practices to increase student engagement and promote retention. This research paper examines how three specific high-impact practices (learning communities, mentoring, and undergraduate research experience) are utilized in STEM education.This research paper explores and compares the best high impact approaches that successfully teach and retain Black women within the various fields of STEM within the differing academic environments of historically Black colleges & universities ( HBCUs) and predominantly white liberal art colleges (PWLACs). …

Defining The "Quadruple-A" Player: What Makes A Baseball Player Succeed In The Minor Leagues And Fail In The Major Leagues?, Sam Bogen

CMC Senior Theses

The "Quadruple-A" player is defined as one who is too good to play in Triple-A (the league one step down from Major League Baseball) but not good enough to play consistently in Major League Baseball. This thesis paper attempts to explain the phenomenon of the "Quadruple-A" player. Using Triple-A data from 2013-2022 and Major League data from the "Statcast Era" (2015-2022), I build logistic and linear regression models to predict Major League success based on Triple-A performance data as well as Major League Statcast data, discovering that statistics related to how a player hits the ball such as the speed …

Pakistan's Contribution To The Global Rise In Conventional Pollution, Emily Warner

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impact of conventional pollutants on the environment, communities, and individuals in Pakistan. It begins by investigating the causes of conventional pollutants and exploring Pakistan’s agricultural industry, domestic practices, non-renewable energy sources, and industrial practices (the brick industry, leather tanning industry, and textile industry). It then analyzes factors that continue to contribute to conventional pollution in Pakistan such as economic incentives, politics, and traditional practices within industries. Exploring the measures that have been taken by Pakistan and other organizations to decrease conventional pollutants, it then suggests potential opportunities for improvement.

Maximizing Productivity And Quality In Senior Thesis Writing With Artificial Intelligence And Natural Language Processing Driven Tools, Lauren Leadbetter

CMC Senior Theses

This project is a Python program designed to generate a senior thesis on a user-
inputted topic using natural language processing techniques. The program takes in a
topic from the user and then uses OpenAI API to deploy text models for text genera-
tion and evaluation, such as GPT-3 and Davinci-003. The resulting output is in .tex
format and includes a first-draft outline and paper, followed by self-generated assessment, with scoring, revisions, and feedback comments instructing manual revisions.

This submission is a sample using one available model of the project, meant to
demonstrate it’s functionality and limitations. Further model versions …

Examining Bias Against Women In Professional Settings Through Bifurcation Theory, Lauren Cashdan

CMC Senior Theses

When it comes to women in professional hierarchies, it is important to recognize the lack of representation at the higher levels. By modeling these situations we hope to draw attention to the issues currently plaguing professional atmospheres. In a paper by Clifton et. al. (2019), they model the fraction of women at any level in a professional hierarchy using the parameters of hiring gender bias and internal homophily on behalf of the applicant. This thesis will focus on a key theory in Clifton et. al.’s analysis and explain its role in the model, specifically bifrucation analysis. In order to analyze …

Advanced Full-Text Search Based On Synonyms In Postgres, Joey Bodoia

CMC Senior Theses

This paper discusses the advanced full-text search queries based on synonyms that are supported in Chajda, which is a postgres extension and corresponding python library for highly multi-lingual full-text search in postgres. This discussion will include the motivations for using advanced queries based on synonyms, examples of how to use these advanced queries in Chajda, current limitiations of the advanced queries, and performance testing of the advanced queries.

Using Short Bursts To Optimize Redistricting In Georgia, Vedika Vishweshwar

CMC Senior Theses

Identifying extreme outliers in large state spaces is a difficult prob-
lem. I consider this problem in the context of finding political district-
ing plans that maximize the number of districts in which the majority
of the population is from a minority group, such as African Americans.
Since the set of all possible districting plans is enormous and unfeasi-
ble to examine in practice, this paper proposes a sampling method to
find these outlying plans. Specifically, this paper experiments with short
bursts in the context of minority voting rights in Georgia. Short bursts
are a type of Markov Chain in …

Analyzing Marriage Statistics As Recorded In The Journal Of The American Statistical Association From 1889 To 2012, Annalee Soohoo

CMC Senior Theses

The United States has been tracking American marriage statistics since its founding. According to the United States Census Bureau, “marital status and marital history data help federal agencies understand marriage trends, forecast future needs of programs that have spousal benefits, and measure the effects of policies and programs that focus on the well-being of families, including tax policies and financial assistance programs.”[1] With such a wide scope of applications, it is understandable why marriage statistics are so highly studied and well-documented.

This thesis will analyze American marriage patterns over the past 100 years as documented in the Journal of …

Dynamic Nonlinear Gaussian Model For Inferring A Graph Structure On Time Series, Abhinuv Uppal

CMC Senior Theses

In many applications of graph analytics, the optimal graph construction is not always straightforward. I propose a novel algorithm to dynamically infer a graph structure on multiple time series by first imposing a state evolution equation on the graph and deriving the necessary equations to convert it into a maximum likelihood optimization problem. The state evolution equation guarantees that edge weights contain predictive power by construction. After running experiments on simulated data, it appears the required optimization is likely non-convex and does not generally produce results significantly better than randomly tweaking parameters, so it is not feasible to use in …

Drought Tolerant Landscaping Trends In Claremont, California, Serena Myjer

CMC Senior Theses

The environmental impacts of turf grass lawns are particularly important to consider in California, because of its unique Mediterranean climate and ongoing problems with chronic drought. While California is ideal for agriculture, recreation, and year-round living, the occurrence of drought is natural and not uncommon, evident in historical human and paleoclimate records. Drought impacts humans and wildlife including water scarcity, crop failure, water quality, reduced streamflow, and wetland availability. Diverting water from these critical sources for growing turf grass lawns is inappropriate and harmful. This project is the first analysis of landscaping patterns, trends, and changes in Claremont, California using …

Integrating Carbon Pricing Approaches, Amay Shah

CMC Senior Theses

Concerns about global climate change and its effects have been steadily growing around the world in recent years. The Paris Agreement has laid out ambitious targets for countries to cut their emissions in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Carbon pricing mechanisms are an inventive instrument that can help achieve these emissions reductions by placing a price on greenhouse gas emissions, creating incentives for organizations to reduce their emissions. These mechanisms can also help enable the transfers from wealthy nations to developing nations that will be essential for ensuring a …

Parallels Of Quantum Mechanics And Mahāyāna Buddhist Philosophy: An Argument For Relational Quantum Mechanics, Axel I. Palapa

CMC Senior Theses

Western orthodoxy philosophy is based on the principle of noncontradiction and thus, the philosophy of science is as well. The most prominent interpretations of quantum mechanics, since its inception, have followed this principle. In this paper, two quantum phenomena, the Observer Problem (measurement problem) and quantum entanglement will be analyzed from a Mahayana Buddhism ontological perspective. I will analyze the mathematical and philosophical arguments proposed by Graham Priest and Jay Garfield, based on dialethism, pertaining to Nagarjuna and the Net of Indra. Demonstrating the parallels and adaptability of the arguments to further the philosophical groundwork for Carlo Reveille’s Relational Quantum …

Containing Compounding Container Congestion, Curtis Salinger

CMC Senior Theses

The Covid-19 pandemic caused major disruptions throughout the container shipping supply chain. Professor Dongping Song of Liverpool University wrote a paper discussing the logistical vulnerabilities in the supply chain, including the issue of congestion in ports. This paper examines the Port of Los Angeles from 2018-2021 as it relates to Song’s paper to see how its operations were impacted during the Covid-19 timeframe. It is found that labor shortages, chassis shortages, and change in trade behavior each contributed to the congestion. Unfortunately, the implemented policies were insufficient to bolster the port against sustained challenges and congestion continues to worsen.

Mary Eleanor Spear's Importance To The History Of Statistical Visualization, Melanie Williams

CMC Senior Theses

This paper will demonstrate why Mary Eleanor Spear (1897-1986) is an important figure in the history of statistical visualization. She lead an impressive career working in the federal government as a data analyst before "data analyst" became a thing. She wrote and illustrated two comprehensive textbooks which furthered the art of statistical visualization. Her textbooks cover extensive graphing knowledge still valuable to statisticians and viewers today. Most notable of her works is her development of the box plot. In addition to Spear's career and contributions, this paper will also address the lack of female representation in science, technology, engineering, and …

Spatial Geochemical Changes In Central And East Texas Soils Over Time Resulting From Human Decomposition, Isabela Marisol Overturf

CMC Senior Theses

Human decomposition is studied to aid forensic investigations and better understand the impact of cemeteries on urban resources like soil and groundwater. The purpose of this study was to identify changes in soil geochemistry at and around a human grave to search for lateral nutrient movement and possibly identify new patterns in elemental concentrations that could be used in estimating post-mortem intervals (PMIs). At the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility (FARF) at Texas State San Marcos, soil samples were collected from a shallow grave over the course of 54 days to conduct analysis for organic matter content, texture, pH, and bulk …

Predicting Outcomes Of El Clásico Using Random Forests And Extreme Gradient Boosting, Emanuel Jarquin

CMC Senior Theses

In the modern era, sports betting is becoming increasingly popular. This is especially true in the realm of soccer (or ‘football’ as it is known outside the United States). As a result, the concept of attempting to predict the outcomes of soccer matches using machine learning has garnered much attention in recent years. In this thesis, I utilize well-known machine learning techniques to predict the outcomes of El Clásico matchups and compare the predictive performance of these techniques. The predictive methods employed for this thesis are random forests using the party package in R and extreme gradient boosting using the …

Energy As A Limiting Factor In Neuronal Seizure Control: A Mathematical Model, Sophia E. Epstein

CMC Senior Theses

The majority of seizures are self-limiting. Within a few minutes, the observed neuronal synchrony and deviant dynamics of a tonic-clonic or generalized seizure often terminate. However, a small epilesia partialis continua can occur for years. The mechanisms that regulate subcortical activity of neuronal firing and seizure control are poorly understood. Published studies, however, through PET scans, ketogenic treatments, and in vivo mouse experiments, observe hypermetabolism followed by metabolic suppression. These observations indicate that energy can play a key role in mediating seizure dynamics. In this research, I seek to explore this hypothesis and propose a mathematical framework to model how …

Feature Investigation For Stock Returns Prediction Using Xgboost And Deep Learning Sentiment Classification, Seungho (Samuel) Lee

CMC Senior Theses

This paper attempts to quantify predictive power of social media sentiment and financial data in stock prediction by utilizing a comprehensive set of stock-related fundamental and technical variables and social media sentiments. For conducting sentiment analysis, this study employs a pretrained finBERT model that provides three different sentiment classifications and respective softmax scores. Hence, the significance of these variables is evaluated with XGBoost regression and Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) frameworks. Through investigating feature importance, this study finds that statistical properties of sentiment variables provide a stronger predictive power than a weighted sentiment score and that it is possible to quantify …

Carbon Policy Implementation: A Country-Level Analysis Of Carbon Tax Vs. Cap And Trade, Paris Mccaw

CMC Senior Theses

Climate change is arguably the greatest issue faced by this generation. Mitigation requires an informed and motivated global effort in order to be effective. This paper examines the relationship between emissions from 1980-2020 along with relevant covariates, and carbon policy status, specifically a carbon tax and a cap and trade. An analysis of how the implementation of carbon policies impacts emissions helps to determine the most effective and efficient way to combat climate change. I first run a regression of covariates with emissions and find statistically significant factors that influence emissions: meat production, population, intellectual property charges, and infant deaths. …

Factory To Table: A Philosophic Analysis Of The Justice Or Lack Thereof Of Agricultural Markets, Will Carter

CMC Senior Theses

How food is produced has dramatic consequences on how we live, our world’s justice, and the future of our planet. In a world increasingly driven by neoliberalism, agricultural markets have been incentivized to industrialize, globalize, and consolidate. This has resulted in the global dominance of a new type of agriculture, industrial agriculture, driven by the market logic of lowering costs and raising profits. Industrial agriculture has undoubtedly generated the profound benefit of cheaper, more plentiful food in much of the world. These favorable innovations lead many scholars to argue that free markets produce the most just and efficient arrangements for …