Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Developing Methods To Measure Small Attenuation Coefficients Using Short Distance Radiation Detection, Erica F. Bloor

Honors Theses

Accurate radiation measurements are very important for a variety of health, security, and industrial applications. The work described in this thesis is based upon developing a correction for the response of a sodium iodide (NaI) gamma-ray detector that is accurate enough to be used for determination of small mass-attenuation coefficients, such as for air, with short distance measurements. The goal is to find and apply appropriate corrections for the raw data provided by the NaI detector to enable the measurement of the gamma-ray mass-attenuation coefficients of air for detection distances of less than 1 meter. If measurements of the mass-attenuation …

Finding The Limitations Of The Expanded Equivalent Fluid Approximation For Simulating Acoustic Interactions With The Ocean Bottom, Steven J. Kirkup

Honors Theses

Equivalent fluids use complex densities in place of realistic seafloor conditions to simplify simulations of acoustic interaction with the seafloor. This eliminates the computationally intensive attempts to simulate realistic seafloor interactions that include shear waves. A previous method used such equivalent fluids and was found to be accurate only for interaction with low grazing angles and low shear speeds. The current method expands by also parameterizing the speed of sound in the fluid, allowing higher grazing angles and shear speeds to be modeled with equivalent fluids. For a particular window of grazing angle, there are several approaches to determining the …

Water Simulation On Webgl And Three.Js, Kerim J. Pereira

Honors Theses

Technology is constantly moving forward. Computers are getting better and better every single day. Processors, memory, hard drives, and video cards are getting more powerful and more accessible to the users. With all of this hardware progressing, it is also logical that users want software to evolve as fast as the hardware.

Since this new hardware is available to the user, the easiest way to make graphics even more accessible to everyone is through the web browser. This move to the browser simplifies the life of the end user so that he does not have to install any additional software. …

"Integration Of Math And Music In The Secondary Classroom", Brian O'Neill

Honors Theses

The disciplines of mathematics and music seem worlds apart at first glance. Harmonious connections can inevitably be created if a deeper appreciation is lent to these stereotypically dissimilar subjects. "Integration of Mathematics and Music in the Secondary Classroom" is a quadratic function unit that utilizes music to aid in teaching mathematical concepts. The unit consists of a compilation of traditional rote mathematics and three main inquiry lessons: Problems Without Polyrhythm, Ma-Thematics, and The Undertones of Overtones. The unique approach of inquiry allows students to construct meaningful learning through a curriculum that is driven by their own mathematical questions. In addition, …

Co And Cr Adsorption On Maghemite, Quartz, And Maghemite-Quartz Mixtures, Amy Troy

Honors Theses

In aquifers and other natural systems, single mineral systems are rare. Solids are commonly heterogeneous, containing multiple minerals, and mineral interactions are expected. Mineral interactions such as formation of coatings and physical blocking of adsorption sites have the potential to significantly change the adsorption of ions onto solids. To investigate such interactions, batch experiments using Co(II) or Cr(VI) were conducted to compare adsorption edges of these sorbates on pure and mixed mineral systems. Specifically, sorption of 10^-5 or 10^-6 M Co(II) and Cr(VI) was measured as a function of pH, with a background electrolyte concentration of 0.01 M …

The Effects Of Eutrophication And Salinization On Methane Production In Urban And Rural Lakes, Rebecca Kiekhaefer

Honors Theses

Asylum lake is an urban lake in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The lake is located near the intersection of two major roadways which are heavily salted during the winter. Wintergreen lake is a rural lake that is on the property of the Kellogg Biological Station in Augusta, Michigan. The lake is surrounded by the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary and is relatively isolated from major roadways. Both lakes are eutrophic, Asylum lake because of high salinity and lack of turnover (Macleod, et aI., 2011) and Wintergreen lake because of high nutrient inputs (Threlkeld, 1979). Previous work suggests that road salt deicers can change the …

Audience Response Clicker Project, Joseph Meyer

Honors Theses

This report will address the feasibility of a software-based audience response system to be implemented, to be known as the Clicker Project. The project seeks to address the growing need for active learning environments at the University level. The primary goal of the project is to construct a web-based system that allows presenters to gather responses from a viewing audience. To this end, presenters can collect and store data dynamically form whomever is in attendance. The following sections will discuss the project in greater detail.

Application Of The No-Core Symplectic Shell Model To Beryllium And Carbon Isotopes, Mia Cherise Ferriss

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Reinterpreting The Stratigraphy Of The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument Through Correlation By Magnetic Susceptibility And Geochemical Comparison, Lindsay Prothro

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

A Density Functional Theory Study Of The Formation Of Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals On Zinc Oxide Clusters, Charles Halliburton

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Characterization Of A Deda Familytemperature Sensitive Mutant, Angelica R. Simmons

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Difference Sets In Non-Abelian Groups Of Order 256, Taylor Applebaum

Honors Theses

This paper considers the problem of determining which of the 56092 groups of order 256 contain (256; 120; 56; 64) difference sets. John Dillon at the National Security Agency communicated 724 groups which were still open as of August 2012. In this paper, we present a construction method for groups containing a normal subgroup isomorphic to Z4 Z4 Z2 . This construction method was able to produce difference sets in 643 of the 649 unsolved groups with the correct normal subgroup. These constructions elimated approximately 90% of the open cases, leaving 81 remaining unsolved groups.

Power Distribution In The European Union, Dayton Steele

Honors Theses

The Treaty of Lisbon, the latest treaty governing law-making in the European Union (EU), was ratified in 2009 and goes fully into effect in 2014. This treaty, with its change to voting procedures in the Council of Ministers, claims to make decision-making in the EU more democratic and more efficient. Since the EU serves as an economic and political entity, we will assess these claims by comparing each member state's GDP and population to its power as modeled using the concept of a power index from the game theory literature. We will utilize the normalized Banzhaf index, the Shapley-Shubik index, …

One-Pot Reactions Of Ethyl Propiolate, Ana Maria Neferu

Honors Theses

Through an efficient one-pot reaction sequence, ethyl propiolate can be transformed into a complex, usefully functionalized bicyclic product. Thioconjugate addition yielding Z-selective enoates has been developed for both aromatic thiols (trialkylamine-catalyzed) and aliphatic thiols (KOt-Bu-catalyzed). The oxidation of the thioenoates thus generated is followed by Li-catalyzed oxidation to sulfones using mCPBA, and Li-catalyzed Diels–Alder addition of cyclopentadiene. These subsequent steps are performed in situ, without any purification of intermediates. The yields obtained using the described synthesis are acceptable for a one-pot three-step sequence. Preliminary conjugate addition results with alcohols and amines as nucleophiles are also presented.

Interstellar Navigation By Pulsars, Andrew Dahir

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Pictures Versus Digits In The Irrelevant Sound Effect, Corey Mcgill

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

My Experience Exploring The Effects Of Lead (Pb +2) Toxicity In Drosophila Melanogaster Using Sociability Interaction Testing And Microarrays At The University Of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras In San Juan, Puerto Rico, Charlton Diaz

Honors Theses

Lead is an environmental contaminant widely dispersed throughout the world. Exposure to lead causes neurological damage in humans and may be linked to neurodevelopmental pathologies such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, antisocial behavior, and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) have been used to understand the behavioral, synaptic, and molecular changes that occur after developmental exposure to lead and to study ASD-associated pathology. Flies were exposed through the mother and until eclosion to either a lead-laced medium or a control corn-based medium and were isolated until the beginning for the behavioral studies. Sociability testing was done using a …

Effects Of Micro-Solvation On Room Temperature Ionic Liquids, Joseph Wellington Golden

Honors Theses

Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have received much attention lately. These compounds are made completely of ions and are liquid at or near room temperature. These liquid salts have a number of unique properties that make them an interesting system to study. These properties include almost zero vapor pressure, thermal stability, large liquidus range, etc. Due to these properties and others, ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted much attention in the emerging field of green chemistry as potentially new solvents for many of the hazardous and volatile solvents currently in use. Moreover, the complex interactions of the anion and cation systems …

Scattering Off Of An Unusual Boundary, Jerome Weston

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Eichler-Selberg Trace Formula For Level-One Hecke Operators, Alex Barron

Honors Theses

This paper explains the steps involved in the proof of the Eichler-Selberg Trace Formula for Hecke operators of level one. It is based on an appendix in Serge Lang's Introduction to Modular Forms written by Don Zagier, though I also draw heavily from sections of Toshitsune Miyake's Modular Forms and Xueli Wang's and Dingyi Pei's Modular Forms with Integral and Half-Integral Weights.

Section 2 summarizes the necessary background in the theory of modular forms. The material covered here is standard, so I've left out most of the details and proofs. Most of the section is based on Chapter VII of …

Metallic Mineral Mining In Maine, Kaitlyn Bernard

Honors Theses

In 2012 the Maine State Legislature passed a bill directing the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to rewrite the regulations governing metallic mineral mining in Maine. The bill was introduced after pressure from Maine’s largest private land owner and timber company, J.D. Irving, Limited. The company has a lucrative mineral deposit on one of their landholdings in northern Maine and is interested in pursuing a mining development project. The bill aimed to streamline the regulatory framework around mining operations and make the permitting process more conducive to mineral development throughout the state. The 2012 Maine Metallic Mineral Mining Act …

Massive Quiescent Disk Galaxies In The Candels Survey, Aurora Y. Kesseli

Honors Theses

We used data from the GOODS-S field of the CANDELS survey in order to confirm previous studies that found that large fractions of high-redshift galaxies (z ∼ 2) are disk-dominated (McGrath et al. 2008; van der Wel et al. 2011). In the GOODS-S field we selected out all the massive quiescent disk galaxies by imposing a mass limit of M > 10¹⁰M_⊙ and a redshift range of 0.5 ≤ z ≤ 2.5, and then choosing the quiescent red galaxies from a color-color plot. Once we had our sample, we did a qualitative visual classification of each galaxy and …

Massive Gravity Theories, Greg Seyfarth

Honors Theses

We examine Fierz and Pauli's work in 1939 of adding a mass term to the Lagrangian for linearized gravity with the form ?? where h is a small perturbation away from flat spacetime and showing that the only value for ? which gives a ghost-free theory with the correct five degrees of freedom expected for a massive spin- 2 particle such as the graviton is ? [1]. We start by rederiving the Lagrangian formulation for classical electrodynamics and giving examples of a ghost. Then we solve the linearized massless gravity equations to show their two degrees of freedom. We perform …

A Raman Spectroscopic Study Of The Effects Of Hydrogen Bonding On 1,2,3-Triazole, Anna Craig

Honors Theses

The goal of this thesis is to analyze the effects of hydrogen bonding on liquid 1H- 1,2,3-triazole. Spectra of neat 1H-1,2,3-triazole are compared to simulated spectra and are found to differ greatly. The experimental spectrum, however, matches the simulated spectra of 1H-1,2,3-triazole dimers very well. This suggests that dimers play a large role in the liquid structure of 1H-1,2,3-triazole. Though tautomerism is thought to play a large role in the vibrational behavior of 1,2,3- triazole, the Raman spectra obtained here suggest that molecular dimers dominate the liquid state much more so than tautomerism. Even in aqueous solution, the simulated spectra …

Spectroscopic Study Of Charge Transfer Induced Blue Shifting Of Pyrimidine/Water Mixtures On Silver Substrate, Annie Katherine Mcclellan

Honors Theses

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a chemical method gaining much popularity in recent years. With the use of a roughened metal surface or metal nanoparticles, surface plasmon resonances enhance the electromagnetic field allowing for increased Raman signal. Pyrimidine, having two lone pairs of electrons, is capable of charge transfer interactions contributing to a SERS chemical enhancement factor as well. It has recently been reported that hydrogen bonding with water results in the blue-shifting of certain normal modes of pyrimidine. By comparing experimental polarized Raman spectra with the results of electronic structure calculations, the origin of this blue-shifting was found …

Ph Dependent Proteolysis Of Neural Cadherin, Candice Ashton Walters

Honors Theses

Cadherins are the primary calcium-dependent cell-cell adhesion molecule and are essential to vertebrates. They ensure the integrity of epithelial barriers that allow for maintenance of homeostasis in humans and protection against invading microorganisms. A common invader capable of forging past this line of defense is the fungus Candida albicans. The main virulence mechanism of C. alibans in acidic environments is its secreted aspartyl proteinases (SAPs), which are hydrolytic enzymes that degrade cadherin-mediated cell adhesion leading to infection of the underlying tissues. Cadherin is normally resistant to cleavage by proteases due to stabilization of the protein structure by bound calcium and …

Investigating The Interaction Of Zinc-Finger Peptides And Nicked Dna Using Phage Display, Rachel Maria Guerra

Honors Theses

Recognition of structural features of DNA such as gaps, nicks and abasic sites is critical for many DNA-binding proteins, such as those involved in DNA damage repair. This study explores a novel strategy to model these protein-DNA interactions using phage display. Phage display has been commonly used to identity zinc fingers that bind to DNA sequences, but selection of peptides that binding to specific DNA structures has not been reported in the literature. A phage library of 109 variants was created based on one of three zinc finger domains of the DNA repair protein poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase I. The library, …