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DePaul University

2014

Articles 1 - 27 of 27

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Fall 2014 Sep 2014

Fall 2014

Scientia

CSH progress notes; Alumna entrepreneur finds success at the intersection of chemistry and law; Lions, lycopods and laboratories: CSH students thrive in summer internships; Fielding a team for a mission to Mars; Professor Craig Klugman on the medical humanities; Lab Notes

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Fall 2014 Sep 2014

Fall 2014

In The Loop

Building on success; Creating community: Meet the dynamic women of HerCDM; CIM and Theatre School collaboration connects top talent; Alumna finds success at nexus of technology and business; School of Computing colloquiums showcase leading research; Around the college; Accolades

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What Components Influence Hypothetical Willingness To Pay For The Environmental Benefits Of Shade-Grown Coffee?, Ellen V. Webb Jun 2014

What Components Influence Hypothetical Willingness To Pay For The Environmental Benefits Of Shade-Grown Coffee?, Ellen V. Webb

DePaul Discoveries

Coffee is one example of a good whose consumption can lead to environmental degradation that the consumer is unaware of. During the 19th century, new high-yield varieties of coffee were developed that could be grown under the direct sunlight of recently deforested areas. An ecologically friendly alternative to mass-produced sun-grown systems is shade-grown coffee. This coffee is grown under traditional forest cover, providing ecological benefits such as species habitat, but at lower yields. In the global market, a price premium is the practice of placing a higher price than the market price on a specific good. If consumers value …

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How Do Management Treatments Affect Invasive Cattail (Typha X Glauca) And Pore Water Nutrient Concentrations?, Yarency Rodriguez Jun 2014

How Do Management Treatments Affect Invasive Cattail (Typha X Glauca) And Pore Water Nutrient Concentrations?, Yarency Rodriguez

DePaul Discoveries

Invasive species are problematic for wetland managers, but little is known about how common management treatments influence nutrient cycling or plant responses. This study tested three experimental treatments (mowing, herbiciding, and harvesting (i.e., removal of aboveground biomass)) on several response variables: wetland soil porewater nutrient content (NO3-, NH4+, PO4-), native plant and invasive-Typha density, and light attenuation through the plant canopy. Seventeen days post-treatment, herbiciding resulted in higher porewater phosphate concentrations (55.63 µg-P/L) than harvesting (8.95 µg-P/L). After 24 days, herbicide had higher porewater phosphate concentration (72.03 µg-P/L) than all …

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Generation Of Chimeric Antibody Light Chain Plasmid, Lily Arendt Jun 2014

Generation Of Chimeric Antibody Light Chain Plasmid, Lily Arendt

DePaul Discoveries

In order to determine the distance between the antigen-binding site and the fragment crystallizable (Fc) region of an antibody using single-molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer, dyes must be attached to these locations. To accomplish this, the variable regions of the light and heavy chains of an antibody can be modified and a dye-reactive amino acid introduced into the Fc region. Initial attempts to alter the variable light chain (VL) gene included trying to ligate a 350bp variable gene into an 11,000bp plasmid. When these attempts were unsuccessful, the variable light chain gene was ligated into a commercially available …

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The Atomic Structure Of Amorphous Oxide Semiconductors, Joe Boesso Jun 2014

The Atomic Structure Of Amorphous Oxide Semiconductors, Joe Boesso

DePaul Discoveries

Amorphous oxide semiconductors have important industrial applications in opto-electronic devices due to their transparency and high electrical conductivity. It is important to understand the arrangements of the atoms in these semiconductors since they determine the electrical properties of the materials. To investigate the atomic structure of indium oxide semiconductors, a series of nine thin films were deposited at different temperatures. Wide-angle x-ray scattering data were collected at Argonne National Laboratory. The images for the partially amorphous and fully crystalline films were calibrated, integrated, and analyzed. Structural results include the lattice parameters and positions of the atoms in the bixbyite phase. …

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Quantifying The Effects Of Vegetation On The Carbon Storage Of Northern Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands, Nia Hurst Jun 2014

Quantifying The Effects Of Vegetation On The Carbon Storage Of Northern Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands, Nia Hurst

DePaul Discoveries

Given the rising concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere, it is important to assess the natural reservoirs in which carbon can be stored. Great Lakes coastal wetlands are a potentially significant pool of carbon that have yet to be thoroughly investigated. Our study measured soil C (carbon) and depth of organic matter in swamp, transitional, and wet meadow vegetation zones of three wetlands located in the Eastern half of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, in the Les Chenaux Islands. It was hypothesized that soil C would decrease moving lakeward (swamp>transitional>wet meadow); however, this hypothesis was …

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Cosmic Sound In The Lyman Alpha Forest, Spencer Everett, Matt Kwiecien, Cordell Newmiller Jun 2014

Cosmic Sound In The Lyman Alpha Forest, Spencer Everett, Matt Kwiecien, Cordell Newmiller

DePaul Discoveries

Using the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the authors attempt to detect the baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAOs) using the discrete wavelet transform. The wavelet transform is used to construct the power spectrum of intergalactic clouds of matter at large (Mpc) distance scales. It was found that the wavelet transform used here does not have high enough resolution to detect the BAOs. However, the techniques used in this study allow for future improvements in the transform that could potentially resolve the expected peak in the power spectrum and indicate the existence of BAOs.

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Characterization Of Electrical Performance Of Aluminum-Doped Zinc Oxide Pellets, Neel Patel Jun 2014

Characterization Of Electrical Performance Of Aluminum-Doped Zinc Oxide Pellets, Neel Patel

DePaul Discoveries

Recently, the electronic industry has been shifting towards devices that can be controlled by touching the screen with one or more fingers. This technology is made possible by using transparent conducting oxides (TCOs). Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a potential replacement for the most currently used TCO (indium-tin oxide) due to its comparable optical properties. However, the doping mechanisms of zinc oxide need to be understood and improved. The goal of this research was to prepare n-type, aluminum-doped ZnO. Several dopant percentages were studied to investigate the optimum concentration. The electrical properties for all doping levels improved compared to undoped ZnO.

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The Effect Of Short-Term Water Stress On Leaf Isoprene Emission, Othon Nunez-Montelongo Jun 2014

The Effect Of Short-Term Water Stress On Leaf Isoprene Emission, Othon Nunez-Montelongo

DePaul Discoveries

This study measured the photosynthetic rate and isoprene emission from red oaks (Quercus rubra) during drought stress conditions. Over a period of 30 days, the trees were grown outdoors on a rooftop. The experimental group was subject to drought stress while the control group was watered regularly. The measurements from each group were compared to determine differences. The results indicated that isoprene emissions do not increase directly from drought stress, and that whole plant increases are due to indirect increases in leaf temperature caused by drought conditions.

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A High-Altitude Balloon Platform For Exploring The Terrestrial Carbon Cycle, Monica Pocs Jun 2014

A High-Altitude Balloon Platform For Exploring The Terrestrial Carbon Cycle, Monica Pocs

DePaul Discoveries

Carbon dioxide uptake by plants is a major component of the global carbon cycle that can be affected by climate change. This experiment quantifies the rate of landscape exchange of CO2 in the time between a high altitude balloon’s ascent and descent. It was hypothesized that measured seasonal trends would match a predicted trend of spring and fall release and summer uptake showing that the high altitude balloon method was a valid method. This was supported by the collected data where three flights showed landscape uptake, seven flights showed release and four showed no net exchange.

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Games People Play: Exploring Depaul's Top-Rated Computer Game Development Program Jun 2014

Games People Play: Exploring Depaul's Top-Rated Computer Game Development Program

DePaul Magazine

In March 2014, the Princeton Review, in conjunction with PC Gamer magazine, named the top 25 schools to study game design in the United States and Canada. DePaul's undergraduate program ranked 20th, a considerable leap from 2013’s honorable mention. The graduate program came in at 12th. DePaul's strong ranking reflects the game development program's extension of its basic game development, software engineering and programming to include art, design and storytelling, as well as computer graphics technology, networking, artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction. Examples of the award-winning games developed by students and now marketed by such going concerns as Sony PlayStation …

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The Effects Of Messages On Environmental Behavior, Miki Yoshimura-Rank Mar 2014

The Effects Of Messages On Environmental Behavior, Miki Yoshimura-Rank

DePaul Discoveries

Over the past few decades environmental awareness and education have increased without a corresponding increase in pro-environmental behavior. Recent research on public service announcements and social marketing theory indicate that positive injunctive with positive descriptive norms are most effective in increasing proenvironmental behavior. The current study focused on the impact of different types of environmental messages on promoting recycling behavior in college students. Over 250 recycling actions were measured in the experiment. It was hypothesized that the positive injunctive with positive descriptive statement would be most effective in causing more university students to recycle. The findings, although not statistically significant, …

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Fossil Marine Vertebrates From The Middle Part Of The Upper Cretaceous Graneros Shale In Southeastern Nebraska, Alexander D. Meglei Mar 2014

Fossil Marine Vertebrates From The Middle Part Of The Upper Cretaceous Graneros Shale In Southeastern Nebraska, Alexander D. Meglei

DePaul Discoveries

The Graneros Shale is a rock unit formed in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway of North America. In this study, I report an assemblage of fossil vertebrates from the middle portion of the Graneros Shale in southeastern Nebraska. The estimated age of this fauna is about 97 million years old, and it is dominated by carnivores that consist of at least 11 taxa, comprising of eight sharks, one bony fish, and two reptilians (turtle and plesiosaur). The fauna includes taxa indicative of a nearshore, but fully marine, environment that do not contradict with previous paleoenvironmental inferences made for the …

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Examining Evidence Of High-Energy Impact Sites Through Analysis Of Nanodiamond Content In Sedimentary Samples, Kevin Tague Mar 2014

Examining Evidence Of High-Energy Impact Sites Through Analysis Of Nanodiamond Content In Sedimentary Samples, Kevin Tague

DePaul Discoveries

Megafaunal extinctions at the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) 12,900 years ago were likely triggered by environmental changes resulting from a meteorite impact or explosion. When such impacts occur, high temperatures and pressures can create nanodiamonds (NDs) from carbon in the meteorite or target rock, which are then preserved in the sedimentary rock record. While several forms of NDs are found in nature, just two ND structures (hexagonal and n-diamond) have been shown to be shock-synthesized during high energy meteorite impacts. When these NDs are extracted, purified, identified, and quantified from sediments, they therefore help support the theory that an impact, …

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Magnetic Field Analysis For Star Forming Region W3 (Oh), Josh Modica Mar 2014

Magnetic Field Analysis For Star Forming Region W3 (Oh), Josh Modica

DePaul Discoveries

Direct measurement of magnetic field strengths is only possible through the so-called Zeeman effect that causes an observable splitting in spectral lines. The star-forming region W3 (OH) contains several water masers, which are used for measuring the Zeeman effect. Matlab routines were created to fit Gaussian profiles in order to determine center velocity, intensity, and line width of each maser. The magnetic field was then determined through another Matlab routine that calculated the Stokes V profile, which was equal to the derivative of the Gaussian profiles.

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Enumerating Alternating Permutations With One Alternating Descent, Stacey Wagner Mar 2014

Enumerating Alternating Permutations With One Alternating Descent, Stacey Wagner

DePaul Discoveries

This paper introduces a new statistic for alternating permutations, called an alternating descent. Specifically this paper focuses on alternating permutations with one alternating descent. We then enumerate these permutations by decomposing them into four sets.

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Max-Min Up-Down Permutations, Fiacha Heneghan, Ashley Sliva Mar 2014

Max-Min Up-Down Permutations, Fiacha Heneghan, Ashley Sliva

DePaul Discoveries

No abstract provided.

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Reversible Transformations Of P-N Coordination Networks Upon Interactions With Solvent, Jason Kositarut Mar 2014

Reversible Transformations Of P-N Coordination Networks Upon Interactions With Solvent, Jason Kositarut

DePaul Discoveries

No abstract provided.

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A Generalization Of Pascal’S Triangle, Eliya Gwetta, Adrian Pacurar, Elizabeth Mai Smith Mar 2014

A Generalization Of Pascal’S Triangle, Eliya Gwetta, Adrian Pacurar, Elizabeth Mai Smith

DePaul Discoveries

Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics interested in the study of finite, or countable, sets. In particular, Enumerative Combinatorics is an area interested in counting how many ways patterns are created, such as counting permutations and combinations. Brenti and Welker, authors of “The Veronese Construction for Formal Power Series and Graded Algebras,” seek an explanation for a combinatorial identity posed in their research. Using techniques practiced in this area of mathematics, we have discovered that certain numbers appearing in their identity hold properties similar to properties of the well-known binomial coefficients.

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Fractal Analysis Of The Universe, Jenna Bergevin Mar 2014

Fractal Analysis Of The Universe, Jenna Bergevin

DePaul Discoveries

Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data (SDSS) Release 8, we calculated the fractal dimension of galaxies as a function of co-moving distance. We determined the fractal dimension using the discrete wavelet transform. We found that between the comoving distances 100–1,000 Mpc, the fractal dimension evolves linearly. At comoving distances greater than 1,000 Mpc, the fractal behavior seems to diminish; however, because the number of galaxies is much less at these co-moving distances, and because the sky coverage per pixel greater, this result is obtained with less confidence. At co-moving distances less than 100 Mpc, the power law behavior is …

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Effects Of Co2 Enrichment On Biomass Yield And Response To Drought In Radish And Winter Wheat, Alex Hertel Mar 2014

Effects Of Co2 Enrichment On Biomass Yield And Response To Drought In Radish And Winter Wheat, Alex Hertel

DePaul Discoveries

Atmospheric CO2 levels have been increasing since the industrial revolution. There are many questions about the impacts of elevated CO2 levels and how the subsequent rise in average global temperature will ultimately impact the planet. One change that many climate scientists are confident about is a global redistribution of precipitation. This study specifically addressed the coupled effects of elevated CO2 and drought stress for two species, radish, Raphanus sativus, and winter wheat, Triticum hybernum. To understand how future climate changes might affect plants, radish and winter wheat were grown in simulated conditions of elevated CO2 at 400 and …

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Fossil Fish Fauna From The Uppermost Graneros Shale (Upper Cretaceous) In Southeastern Nebraska, Kevin R. Jansen Mar 2014

Fossil Fish Fauna From The Uppermost Graneros Shale (Upper Cretaceous) In Southeastern Nebraska, Kevin R. Jansen

DePaul Discoveries

The Graneros Shale is a rock deposited in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway of North America about 95 million years ago. Many fossil fish remains were collected from the uppermost portion of the Graneros Shale in southeastern Nebraska and were analyzed for their unique characteristics. These collected fish remains consist of at least 24 vertebrate taxa, including 14 cartilaginous fishes and 10 bony fishes. The locality is characterized by the abundance of benthic (bottom-dwelling) taxa, and indicative of a well-oxygenated, shallow marine environment. This is consistent with the paleoenvironmental inference previously made for the Graneros Shale based on lithological …

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Fossil Vertebrates From The Basal Lincoln Limestone Of The Greenhorn Limestone (Upper Cretaceous) In Southeastern Colorado, Christopher Gallardo Mar 2014

Fossil Vertebrates From The Basal Lincoln Limestone Of The Greenhorn Limestone (Upper Cretaceous) In Southeastern Colorado, Christopher Gallardo

DePaul Discoveries

The basal Lincoln Limestone is a 95-million-year-old fossiliferous rock layer deposited under the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway in North America. Over 4,500 identifiable vertebrate remains were collected from the stratigraphic horizon at a new fossil locality referred to as the Table Mesa locality in southeastern Colorado. Twenty-nine marine vertebrate taxa were identified comprising 13 chondrichthyans (cartilaginous fishes), 14 osteichthyans (bony fishes), and two squamate reptiles (lizards). These remains were then sorted according to their taxonomic similarities for faunal comparisons with other basal Lincoln Limestone localities. Proportions of common taxa at the Table Mesa locality are similar to another basal …

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Spring 2014 Mar 2014

Spring 2014

Scientia

Q&A with Dean Koocher; Proud graduate discovers love of learning at DePaul; Intrepid biologist inspires lifelong lessons; Student organization spotlight: Psi Chi; Smart phones and synthetic bone capture Associate Professor Gabriela Gonzalez Aviles' interest; All for DePaul; Lab notes

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Spring 2014 Mar 2014

Spring 2014

In The Loop

Hour of code inspires next generation of computer scientists; CDM students, faculty and alumni demystify mental health disorders; Study abroad intersession enhances global perspective; Double Demon brings Disney mobile games to life; Around the college; Accolades

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Electrocatalytic Co2 Reduction By M(Bpy-R)(Co)4 (M = Mo, W; R = H, Tbu) Complexes. Electrochemical, Spectroscopic, And Computational Studies And Comparison With Group 7 Catalysts, Melissa L. Clark, Kyle A. Grice, Curtis E. Moore, Arnold L. Rheingold, Clifford P. Kubiak Feb 2014

Electrocatalytic Co2 Reduction By M(Bpy-R)(Co)4 (M = Mo, W; R = H, Tbu) Complexes. Electrochemical, Spectroscopic, And Computational Studies And Comparison With Group 7 Catalysts, Melissa L. Clark, Kyle A. Grice, Curtis E. Moore, Arnold L. Rheingold, Clifford P. Kubiak

Faculty Publications – College of Science and Health

The tetracarbonyl molybdenum and tungsten complexes of 2,2′-bipyridine and 4,4′-di-tert-butyl-2,2′-bipyridine (M(bpy-R)(CO)4; R = H, M = Mo (1), W (2); R = tBu, M = Mo (3), W (4)) are found to be active electrocatalysts for the reduction of CO2. The crystal structures of M(bpy-tBu)(CO)4 (M = Mo (3), W (4)), the singly reduced complex [W(bpy)(CO)4][K(18-crown-6] (5) and the doubly reduced complex [W(bpy-tBu)(CO)3][K(18-crown-6)]2 (6) are reported. DFT calculations have been used to characterize the reduced species from the reduction of W(bpy-tBu)(CO)4 (4). These compounds represent rare examples of group 6 electrocatalysts …

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