Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Nato And The Ifrc: A Comparative Case Study, Abigail Kosiak

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This research analyzes the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Multinational Telemedicine System (MnTS) Project and works to answer five main questions:

1) What challenges did the NATO MnTS Project face that are directly related to the fact that the project included members from different countries and worked to create a system that operates across national borders?

2) How do these challenges compare to those faced by a non-governmental organization (NGO) like the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)?

3) What successes has the IFRC had with its current operational model?

4) In what ways could …

Simplicity As A New Environmental Virtue, Justin Wheeler

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper argues for the addition of a new environmentally focused virtue, simplicity, to the virtue ethical framework developed by Aristotle. First, relevant background from Aristotle’s virtue ethics are developed including the crucial, “doctrine of the mean”, a balance between excess and deficiency of a specified character trait. The tenets of the new virtue simplicity are developed with practical examples based on Aristotle’s method of developing a virtue of character. Simplicity is proposed as a desire to take the appropriate amount from the natural world and an acceptance of one’s circumstances. Those possessing simplicity will not fall victim to the …

High Dimensional Event Exploration Over Multiple Simulations, Steven Deron Scott

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

In this project, we introduce a visualization technique to analyze event simulation data. In particular, we allow the user to discover families of events based on the topological evolution of discrete events across simulations. Discovering how events behave across runs of a simulation has applications in financial market analysis, military simulations, physical mechanics, and other settings. Our approach is to use established methods to produce a linearized tour through parameter space of arbitrary dimension and visualize events of interest in two dimensions, where the first dimension is the tour ordering and the second dimension is usually time. This paper presents …

The Two Types Of Society: Computationally Revealing Recurrent Social Formations And Their Evolutionary Trajectories, Lux Miranda

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Comparative social science has a long history of attempts to classify societies and cultures in terms of shared characteristics. However, only recently has it become feasible to conduct quantitative analysis of large historical datasets to mathematically approach the study of social complexity and classify shared societal characteristics. Such methods have the potential to identify recurrent social formations in human societies and contribute to social evolutionary theory. However, in order to achieve this potential, repeated studies are needed to assess the robustness of results to changing methods and data sets. Using an improved derivative of the Seshat: Global History Databank, we …

Demystification Of Graph And Information Entropy, Bryce Frederickson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Shannon entropy is an information-theoretic measure of unpredictability in probabilistic models. Recently, it has been used to form a tool, called the von Neumann entropy, to study quantum mechanics and network flows by appealing to algebraic properties of graph matrices. But still, little is known about what the von Neumann entropy says about the combinatorial structure of the graphs themselves. This paper gives a new formulation of the von Neumann entropy that describes it as a rate at which random movement settles down in a graph. At the same time, this new perspective gives rise to a generalization of von …

Boolean Rank And Isolation Number Of N-Regular Tournaments, Matthew F. Deangelo

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

We examine Boolean rank and isolation number of a class of matrices, the adjacency matrices of regular tournaments. Boolean rank is defined as the minimum k such that a m x n matrix can be factored into m x k and k x n matrices, using Boolean arithmetic. Isolation number is defined as the maximum number of 1’s that do not share a row, column, or 2 x 2 submatrix of 1’s. Linear programming can be applied by using the underlying structure of the tournament matrices to develop a relationship between Boolean rank and isolation number. We show possible methods …

Understanding Personal Data In The World Of Social Media, Nicholas Scott Rodgers

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Personal data is behind many of the online interactions that people have through social media and other online sites and services. This data allows sites to understand their users, which in turn allows them to provide better content for their users. This data is also used to determine user interests, which these online services use to target more relevant advertising to their users, and share the information that they collect about their users with third parties. It is only recently that this personal data is being regulated by lawmakers, the businesses running these sites are held accountable for managing the …

Analysis Of Sat And Isat Scores For Madison School District In Rexburg, Idaho, Holly Dawn Palmer

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Testing is an integral part of measuring education. If used properly SAT scores can be compared across the nation, and statewide tests can compare different school districts to each other if done properly to avoid certain pitfalls (Fetler, 1991). However, if tests do not have a significant impact on a student, their motivation to take the test will be low and test quality cannot be assumed. When the state funds two separate tests for their students but only one has a significant impact on the student, how should the scores for each test be used, and is it okay to …