Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

K-Long Identification Efficiency Of The Klm Detector In The Belle Ii Experiment Using Splot, Andrew J. Davis, Diptaparna Biswas, Swagato Banerjee

The Cardinal Edge

Long-lived neutral kaon mesons (neutral K-longs) are identified by energy deposits in the KLM detector of the Belle II experiment. However, various other particles can also deposit energy in the KLM detector. A statistical method known as sPlot can be utilized to distinguish between the energy deposit patterns of neutral K-longs vs. other backgrounds. This technique, currently developed with Monte-Carlo events, allows for a more robust determination of K-long identification efficiency in the KLM detector, which can eventually be applied on real data.

Exploring Students’ Epistemological Understanding Of Atomic Structure Models, Claire V. Ward, Morgan Balabanoff

The Cardinal Edge

Developing a robust understanding of atomic structure and the nature of matter is foundational across chemistry and STEM courses. The development of this concept is challenging because it relies on models to illustrate something not directly observable. Scientific models are important tools used to explain phenomena, particularly phenomena that are not directly observable. In general chemistry, students are typically asked to consider four different models: (1) the particle model, (2) the nuclear model, (3) the Bohr model, and (4) the Quantum model. Each depiction has its own advantages and limitations, where instructors introduce each model to explain specific parts of …

Characterization And Electrolysis Of Zn And Cu 2,6-Diacetylpyridine Bis(2-Hydrazinopyridine), Bailee G. Duff, Christine Phipps, Craig Grapperhaus

The Cardinal Edge

With increasing demands for fuel and concerns over climate change, the search for sustainable energy sources is ever growing. Hydrogen is a potential solution to these issues, as it is clean, recyclable, and efficient. However, hydrogen must be generated, unlike other fuel sources that are naturally ready for use. The most sustainable method for hydrogen production involves water electrolysis, as no pollution is generated. The water splitting process contains a cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and an anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). These reactions require a catalyst to overcome the kinetic barrier present and meet the high voltage requirements for …

Organizing Pmode Dopplergrams Of Jupiter With Matlab, Brady T. Smith, Deborah Gulledge, Cody Shaw, Gerard Williger

The Cardinal Edge

The interiors of the giant planets are poorly known. At the time of writing, such investigations have been limited to measuring gravitational effects from a handful of orbital probes. The most recent attempt to map the interior is via PMODE (the Planetary Multilevel Oscillations and Dynamics Experiment), designed to explore Jupiter’s core by collecting Dopplergrams. Small radial velocity shifts in Jupiter’s upper cloud decks enable us to map its atmospheric dynamics and consequently its interior via Dioseismology (techniques similar to Helioseismology, applied to Jupiter). This campaign produced a vast dataset with more than 50,000 exposures, every 30 seconds, over 24 …

A Citizen Science Experiment: How Well Do Park Visitors Identify Wetland Health?, Madison Cicha, Kassidy Haynes, Andrew Mehring, Mark Tierney, Andrea Gaughan Phd

The Cardinal Edge

Citizen science refers to a discipline of scientific projects that utilize public participation and collaboration to complete or supplement a collected data set. Our study as a whole aims to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) source-sink status of small, constructed wetlands in Kentucky through field and remotely sensed data. Additional facets of the project include evaluating the influence of the primary producer community on GHG uptake and emissions, and our ability to identify healthy small wetlands from science and community-based perspectives. Specifically, the citizen science aspect intends to assess both (1) gaps between knowledge of the general public regarding wetland …

All-Cause And Opioid-Related Mortality Compared Between Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury And The Us General Population, Jaden Whitehead, Beatrice Ugiliweneza

The Cardinal Edge

Individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) are susceptible to the misuse of opioids due to the introduction of these substances for pain management. There are very few studies examining the relationship between unintentional deaths caused by opioid usage following spinal cord injury. The objective of this study was to evaluate the trend of opioid-related mortality of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) over the years and compare these findings to the mortality rates due to opioid misuse in the general population. In this study, we used data provided by the National Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (NSCIMS) for SCI 1999-2016 …

Effects Of Weight Initialization Methods On Ffn's, Ida K. Karem

The Cardinal Edge

Weight initialization is the method of determining starting values of weights in a neural network. The way this method is done can have massive effects on the network[2, 3, 6, 9] and can halt training if not handled properly. On the other hand, if initialization is chosen tactfully it can improve training and accuracy greatly. The initialization method usually called Normalized Xavier will be referred to as Nox in this paper to avoid confusion with the Xavier initialization method. This study analyzes five methods of weight initialization(Nox, He, Xavier, Plutonian, and Self-Root), two of them …

Exploring Retrieval Difficulties And Self-Confidence In An Assessment Of General Chemistry Students, Karen Julian, Morgan Balabanoff

The Cardinal Edge

Developing self-assessment skills is an important aspect of learning. Framed by assessment developed for the year-long sequence of general chemistry, students were asked to rate their ability to answer conceptual questions. Using cognitive interviews, this study revealed that people rely on a range of characteristics other than content knowledge to assess their confidence, including doubt, retrieval difficulty, and test-taking methods. These findings imply that more explicit instruction may be required to encourage correct self-assessment. Students can develop their metacognitive skills and calibrate their perceived ability by completing examinations meant to emphasize content knowledge gaps.

Sentiment Analysis Of Public Perception Towards Elon Musk On Reddit (2008-2022), Daniel Maya Bonilla, Samuel Iradukunda, Pamela Thomas

The Cardinal Edge

As Elon Musk’s influence in technology and business continues to expand, it becomes crucial to comprehend public sentiment surrounding him in order to gauge the impact of his actions and statements. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of comments from various subreddits discussing Elon Musk over a 14-year period, from 2008 to 2022. Utilizing advanced sentiment analysis models and natural language processing techniques, we examined patterns and shifts in public sentiment towards Musk, identifying correlations with key events in his life and career. Our findings reveal that public sentiment is shaped by a multitude of factors, including his …

Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook

Sustain Magazine

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic quickly spread from country to country and continent to continent in 2020, governments and scientists needed a way to track COVID-19 through populations in order to position public health interventions in the most impactful locations. Having a decision-based risk framework may help to guide policy creation that could minimize or prevent possible outbreaks and surges of infection within communities. The University of Louisville in partnership with Louisville’s Department of Public Health and Wellness tested this strategy in 2021 and 2022. This Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook describes the decisions and actions of that academic and public …

A Roller Coaster For The Mind: Virtual Reality Sickness Modes, Metrics, And Mitigation, Dalton C. Sparks

The Cardinal Edge

Understanding and preventing virtual reality sickness(VRS), or cybersickness, is vital in removing barriers for the technology's adoption. Thus, this article aims to synthesize a variety of academic sources to demonstrate the modes by which VRS occurs, the metrics by which it is judged, and the methods to mitigate it. The predominant theories on the biological origins of VRS are discussed, as well as the individual factors which increase the likelihood of a user developing VRS. Moreover, subjective and physiological measurements of VRS are discussed in addition to the development of a predictive model and conceptual framework. Finally, several methodologies of …

Revitalizing The Puerto Rican Economy After Hurricane Maria, Aditya Mehta

The Cardinal Edge

Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean that is an unincorporated territory of the U.S. It is naturally beautiful and caters heavily to tourists. However, it is currently in the midst of an economic crisis that has been building for years and is struggling to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Additionally, popular culture and statistics have demonstrated that many Puerto Ricans are emigrating from the island. Puerto Rico must address these issues to ensure that its citizens can continue to have a good quality of life on the island. To do this, the U.S. government must work …

An Interdisciplinary Discussion On Climate Change, Aamira Shah, Jaley F. Adkins, Kelsey Littrell, Priyadarshini Chandrashekhar

The Cardinal Edge

No abstract provided.

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks For Accurate Diagnosis Of Covid-19 Patients Using Chest X-Ray Image Databases From Italy, Canada, And The Usa, Amgad A. Salama, Samy H. Darwish, Samir M. Abdel-Mageed, Radwa A. Meshref, Ehab I. Mohamed

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Introduction: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), famously known as COVID-19, has quickly become a global pandemic. Chest X-ray (CXR) imaging has proven reliable, fast, and cost-effective for identifying COVID-19 infections, which proceeds to display atypical unilateral patchy infiltration in the lungs like typical pneumonia. We employed the deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) ResNet-34 to detect and classify CXR images from patients with COVID-19 and Viral Pneumonia and Normal Controls.

Methods: We created a single database containing 781 source CXR images from four different international sub-databases: the Società Italiana di Radiologia Medica e Interventistica (SIRM), the GitHub Database, the …

Novel Pilot Development Of A Closed-Loop Sustainable System Between Biogas Renewable Energy, Distilling, And Aquaculture By Vermiculture Of Stillage Wastes, Samuel C. Kessler

The Cardinal Edge

This study provides a mixed-methods approach in analyzing a potential closed-loop system between renewable biogas production from anaerobic digestion, vermiculture production, aquaculture production, and organic wastes with a particular focus on stillage wastes. Such system may hold significant promise for significantly reducing organic carbon and methane emissions from its components, and should be assessed for such. The 2021 IPCC report essentially identified methane reduction as the single fastest way to slow global warming (IPCC, 2021), making the study and implementation of methane-reducing systems and supportive policy for them critical. Knowledge gaps to implementing this system were qualitatively identified as disconnect …

The Loneliest Galaxies In The Universe: A Gama And Galaxyzoo Study On Void Galaxy Morphology, Lori E. Porter, Benne W. Holwerda

The Cardinal Edge

The large-scale structure (LSS) of the universe is comprised of galaxy filaments, tendrils, and voids. The majority of the universe’s volume is taken up by these voids, which exist as underdense, but not empty, regions. The galaxies found inside voids are void galaxies and expected to be some of the most isolated objects in the universe. However, their standard morphology remains poorly studied. This study, using the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey and Galaxy Zoo’s SDSS survey, aims to remedy this. To do so, survey results from GAMA have been plotted using the Sérsic index (n) to analyze morphology, …

Medical Schools Ignore The Nature Of Consciousness At Great Cost, Anoop Kumar

Journal of Wellness

The essential question of the relationship between consciousness and matter is ignored in medical school curricula, leading to a machine-like view of the human being that contributes to physician burnout and intellectual dissatisfaction. The evidence suggesting that the brain may not be the seat of consciousness is generally ignored to preserve the worldview of the primacy of matter. By investigating new frameworks detailing the nature of consciousness at different levels of hierarchy, we can bring intellectual rigor to a once opaque subject that supports a fundamental reality about our experience: We are human beings, not only human bodies.

Review Of Chemoselective Reagent Based-Breath Analysis Techniques, Madeline F. Mccloud

Grawemeyer Colloquium Papers

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pose a threat due to the negative effects of many compounds on human health. VOCs of interest are specific carbonyl compounds produced exogenously and endogenously, resultant of industrial pollution and diseases such as cancer. High concentrations of these carbonyl compounds are found in exhaled breath are linked to cancer, therefore non-invasive breath tests would prove beneficial for cancer diagnosis. Usage of chemoselective cationic reagents allows for efficient testing of these concentrations. The development of these breath tests is detailed in the report.

How A Low-Cost Method For Cumulative Water-Sampling Shows Need For Improvement Of Legal Public-Contact Standards In The United States, Samuel C. Kessler

Grawemeyer Colloquium Papers

Across the world, it is estimated that 4.5 billion people live near water sources “impaired” for use or contact. Standards for human-interaction are established by international organizations such as the WHO, and legislative bodies from national to local levels with jurisdiction over the quality of our waterways to ensure public & environmental health. Standards are often assessed from “grab-samples” taken from a waterbody at a certain time, with a minimum number analyzed. Water-quality standards in the United States are enforced under the Clean Water Act (CWA) via the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), applying to “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). …

Factor Structure And Measurement Invariance Of The Maslach Burnout Inventory In Emergency Medicine Residents, Tim P. Moran, Nicole Battaglioli, Simiao Li-Sauerwine

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Emergency medicine residents suffer from high rates of occupational burnout. Recent research has focused on identifying risk and protective factors for burnout as well as targets for intervention. This research has primarily employed the Maslach Burnout Inventory to evaluate burnout in this population. Factor analytic work has identified three underlying factors measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment. However, this three-factor structure has not been evaluated in emergency medicine residents. Furthermore, its structural equivalence has not been demonstrated across commonly-studied risk factors, such as gender and year of post-graduate training. In the present study, …

Projecting The Covid-19 Weekly Deaths And Hospitalizations For Jefferson County, Kentucky, Seyed Karimi, Natalie Dupre, W. Paul Mckinney, Bert B. Little, Naiya Patel, Sarah Moyer

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Introduction: The trends in the numbers of active hospitalizations and fatalities caused by the COVID-19 in Jefferson County, Kentucky, were projected over the period May 7 to August 20, 2020.

Methods: The projections provided in this report are from a susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) model. The model was calibrated using the COVID-19 transmission dynamics parameters from relevant literature and clinical dynamics parameters from the county’s data. The model was used to measure the impact of public health policy interventions designed to contain the infection. The policy was modeled by its intervention day and impact on the transmission of the virus such that …

Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Environmentally Responsible Land Use, Spring/Summer 2010, Issue 22

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Communities, Fall/Winter 2010, Issue 21

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Building, Spring/Summer 2009, Issue 20

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Environmental History, Fall/Winter 2009, Issue 19

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Student Research, Spring/Summer 2008, Issue 18

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Evolving Pollution Prevention, Fall/Winter 2008, Issue 17

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Climate Change, Spring/Summer 2007, Issue 16

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Our Energy Future, Fall/Winter 2007, Issue 15

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.