Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Visualizing The Standard Deviation Via Revolution Using R/Rstudio, Hieu Nguyen '25, Trung Pham '25, Mamunur Rashid, Jyotirmoy Sarkar

Student Research

The standard deviation is a commonly used statistical measure to quantify the level of variation present in a set of numbers or in a random variable. Sarkar and Rashid (2016) introduced an interpretation of the population standard deviation as the radius of a cylinder with a volume equivalent to that of the solid of revolution when the 2-D graph of the empirical cumulative distribution function is revolved about the vertical line through the mean. This article demonstrates step-by-step how to use the RevSD package in R/RStudio to visualize the standard deviation of data using this innovative technique. The RevSD package …

Aroutcrop: An Augmented Reality Mobile Application For Enhancing Geoscience Learning And Comprehension In The Field And Classroom, Benjamin S. Wilkerson, Zachary Wilkerson, M. Scott Wilkerson

Student Research

Most geologists have long recognized the educational value of immersive opportunities and hands-on experiences that teaching geology in the field and using natural rock samples in the classroom offer students. However, these instructional approaches also give rise to distinct logistical and pedagogical challenges. For example, in the field, students sometimes struggle to fully connect concepts, models, and interpretations from classroom lectures with seemingly amorphous masses of rock that they encounter. Or, in the classroom, students may only have limited time for analysis when passing individual hand specimens person-to-person, and may not have access to valuable or fragile samples outside of …

Restoration And Balancing Of A Cross Section Of The Mt. Crandell Duplex, Waterton National Park, Canada, Danielle Sommerman, M. Scott Wilkerson

Student Research

Cross-section balancing provides a useful tool for checking the potential viability of structural interpretations through complexly deformed terranes. Balanced cross sections contain structures that are similar to those observed in outcrop or on seismic profiles in the area, that can be restored to a realistic pre-deformational configuration of faults and undeformed strata where areas are preserved between the deformed and restored states, and whose development from the undeformed state can be described in a kinematically reasonable sequence. Quick-look inspection of cross sections greatly facilitates the balancing process by comparing corresponding hanging wall and footwall features (particularly focusing on ramps and …

Investigating The Effects Of The Sugar Alcohol Osmolytes Glycerol And Erythritol In Aot Reverse Micelles, Animesh Dali '24, Bridget Gourley

Student Research

Water is a polar molecule that participates in hydrogen bonding and proton transfer. Geometric confinement and water’s interactions with osmolytes (small water soluble compounds) affect the ability of water molecules to hydrogen bond and transfer charges. Study of this behaviour of water with different osmolytes in controlled environments will help us develop predictive models. In our study, we have prepared Sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) reverse micelles (RM) in 2,2,4-Trimethylpentane (Isooctane). Our principle osmolytes were the straight chain sugar alcohols glycerol and erythritol. Study of water-osmolyte behaviour in the small and confined pool of a reverse micelle allows us examine the difference …

Analysis Of An Seir Model With Non-Constant Population, Kylar Byrd, Tess Tracy, Sunil Giri, Swarup Ghosh

Student Research

Analysis of an SEIR model with Non-Constant Population
by Kylar Byrd and Tess Tracy, with Dr. Sunil Giri and Dr. Swarup Ghosh.

Mathematical modeling can be useful in helping us to understand disease dynamics. Epidemiological models consist of differential equations with variables and parameters defined to portray these dynamics. We will be presenting the mathematics involved in formulating and analyzing a model for a disease such as influenza. We will first explain a simple SIR model, and then we will introduce our model. We will be looking at an SEIR model that incorporates the use of an exposed class as …

Medical Racism: Comparing Prenatal Care Across Races In The United States, Rubina Cheema

Student Research

Prenatal care describes any care a woman receives during her pregnancy. It is intended to keep both the mother and the child healthy and also to reduce the risk of complications during and after birth. This care is especially important for women with high-risk factors so that doctors and nurses are able to monitor their health and the health of their baby during the duration of their pregnancy. For prenatal care to be most effective, it is imperative to begin prenatal care within the first trimester of a woman's pregnancy. However, in the United States, medical racism creates a major …

Examining The Impact Of Covid-19 On The Education And Development Of American Students, Riley Fortin '25

Student Research

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of American children have fallen behind on core subjects due to the ultimate ineffectiveness of remote learning. This study attempts to discover the degree to which children have fallen behind through the trends in the National Association of Educational Procurement’s two most recent testing years. A database accessed from Google has been analyzed, filtered by state and visualized in tables in order to indicate any possible trends as a result of remote learning brought on by the pandemic. By looking at data in seven different states across the country, there is a notable …

Sexual And Reproductive Health Disparities For Lgbtq+ Patients, Lauren Del Rosario

Student Research

As of 2022, 7.1% of Americans identify as LGBTQ. Members of the LGBTQ+ community in the United States experience greater health disparities than their heterosexual counterparts due to structural inequity: in addition to having minority status within the United States, there is a lack of education and research about LGBTQ+ health-related issues as well as restrictive policies that limit access to health care and other health benefits. As a result, the LGBTQ+ community is more prone to developing certain conditions, have less access to health care, and have worse health outcomes. However, LGBTQ+ visibility has increased dramatically within the last …

Polarization, Media Bias, And General Opinion, Knole Ihle '25

Student Research

This article researches the relationship between three different spheres of influence: party identification, issue selection process in media, and the following changes in public opinion. This relationship was examined through a random sample of news organizations based on a specific issue. The number of articles was then documented for each newspaper and measured against the articles produced apropos to that issue in the previous year. The discrepancy in articles produced is then compared to the succeeding policy shift to determine whether or not there is a correlation between these two relationships. Regarding the relationship between Ukraine-Russia War media and proceeding …

Evidence-Based Study: The Effect Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Post-Secondary Enrollment And Chosen Fields Of Study, Hannah Fields '25

Student Research

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in March of 2020 derailed educational systems at all levels. Specifically, at the post-secondary level, the pandemic sent many students online or forced them to take a fifth year to complete their degrees. As a result, post-secondary enrollment rates are likely to have dropped to reflect these changing post-COVID views surrounding education. Additionally, changing viewpoints about the essentiality of certain jobs and roles changed the chosen fields of study of these same students. Data for this study was collected by way of a short-scale meta-analysis, and enrollment rates were split …

Sd Prism: Visualizing The Standard Deviation As The Size Of A Prism Using R/Rstudio, Hieu Nguyen, Tom Nguyen, Mamunur Rashid, Jyotirmoy Sarkar

Student Research

SD Prism is a graphical R package used for visualizing the standard deviation of a data set. Given a raw data set, the standard deviation (SD) is defined as the square-root of twice the mean square of all pairwise half deviations between any two sample observations. This interpretation leads to a geometric visualization of the sample SD, and a more elementary explanation as to why the denominator in the sample variance is one less than the sample size. In this article we will explain step by step how to understand it mathematically and how the package implements the methodology to …

Nessie Notation: A New Tool In Sequential Substitution Systems And Graph Theory For Summarizing Concatenations, Colton Davis

Student Research

While doing research looking for ways to categorize causal networks generated by Sequential Substitution Systems, I created a new notation to compactly summarize concatenations of integers or strings of integers, including infinite sequences of these, in the same way that sums, products, and unions of sets can be summarized. Using my method, any sequence of integers or strings of integers with a closed-form iterative pattern can be compactly summarized in just one line of mathematical notation, including graphs generated by Sequential Substitution Systems, many Primitive Pythagorean Triplets, and various Lucas sequences including the Fibonacci sequence and the sequence of square …

Mathematical Analysis Of An Sir Disease Model With Non-Constant Transmission Rate, Emma Bollinger, Tayler Valdez, Swarup Ghosh, Sunil Giri

Student Research

• Epidemiology: A branch of medicine that studies causes, transmission, and control methods of diseases at the population level.
• Mathematical epidemiology deals with creating a model for a disease through the study of incidence and distribution of the disease throughout a population.
• Here, we have examined the behavior of a measles-like disease[2] that is characterized by a non-constant transmission rate.

Effects Of Dibutyltin Exposures On Translation Regulatory Factor S6 In Human Immune Cells, Meaghan Lewis, Amanda Ruff, Margaret Whalen

Student Research

Dibutyltin is an organotin contaminating the environment through its use as a stabilizer in polyvinylchloride, PVC plastics. DBT has been found in drinking water and beverages, such as beer and wine, due to leaching from the PVC plastics used during the distribution of these drinks. Along with PVC plastics, DBT has been used as a deworming agent in poultry, infiltrating additional food products and increasing the exposure of the toxin to humans. Due to its multiple uses, it has entered the food chain and has been detected in human blood at levels as high as 0.3μM. Inflammatory cytokines are important …

Influence Of Soil And Foliar Application Of Fulvic Acid On Yield Parameters Of Organically Grown Bell Peppers (Capsicum Annuum L.) Under Open-Field Conditions In Tennessee, Pinkky Kanabar, Dilip Nandwani

Student Research

Due to increased demand for healthier fresh produce by consumers, growers are seeking for environmental friendlier techniques to improve sustainability and profitability in organic vegetable production. The use of fulvic acid biostimulant coupled with different mode of application can contribute to enhanced plant growth and high-quality yield. A field experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications at the organic farm of Tennessee State University in summer 2021. The influence of foliar and soil application of fulvic acid biostimulant on yield of organically grown bell peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) was investigated. Transplants were raised from organic …

Giplot: An R Package For Visualizing The Summary Statistics Of A Quantitative Variable, Siddhanta Phuyal, Mamunur Rashid, Jyotirmoy Sarkar

Student Research

A GI plot is a graphical tool that pictorially represents the five-number summary, the mean, the standard deviation, the sample size, and flags potential outliers that are c standard deviations away from the mean together with their frequencies. The GI plot was developed by Sarkar and Rashid (2021) as a companion to the boxplot. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the GIplot package and introduce the main functionality of the package using several examples.

A Comparison Study Among The High School Students In The Us: Obesity And Overweight Rates Among Racial Minorities—Stress, Dietary Behavior, Sports And Physical Activity Participation, Animesh Dali '24, Naima Shifa

Student Research

Background: The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) collects data on American youth primarily for assessing various health risk factors. This study aims to examine the relationship between demographic, and behavioral variables that we have considered as risk factors and obesity in American youth in 2015 and 2019.

Methods: Data pertaining to obesity risk factors and BMI measurements were obtained from the YRBSS. Cross Tables and linear regression models were constructed and subsequent analyses were used to examine the correlation between risk factors and BMI. Two-sample t-tests were used to explore the difference between the 2015 and 2019 datasets.

Results: …

Shutterplot: An R Package To Display All Summary Statistics Of A Simple Linear Regression Model, Siddhanta Phuyal, Mamunur Rashid, Jyotirmoy Sarkar

Student Research

A shutterplot depicts all summary statistics in a simple linear regression model. Instead of reporting their numerical values, a shutterplot gives their visual representations. In this paper, we provide a step-by-step description of how the shutterplot package constructs a shutterplot and the options the user has in customizing it.

Ivy Plot: Enhancing A Dot Plot By Representing Observations As Leaflets, Tri Ha Minh Nguyen '23, Mamunur Rashid, Jyotirmoy Sarkar

Student Research

For a large data set, a dot plot poses a challenge—albeit unintended—in counting the dots. To overcome this shortcoming Sarkar and Rashid (2021) proposed an IVY plot, which represents tied data in batches of five by depicting an IVY leaf with five leaflets. These leaves are bottom-justified and stacked vertically, with the topmost leaf possibly having fewer than five leaflets, until the number of leaflets equals the frequency at each value

My Sustainability Journey, Katelyn Adams

Student Research

During my first year seminar, the class discussed some of the greatest issues humanity faces today and how we may have a part in a movement towards change. Much of what we discussed made connections between the treatment of the earth and current ethical dilemmas. Divisions among groups, shortcoming awareness of the importance of systematic change, destructive use of human and natural resources have allowed for the continued deprivation of the resources that the earth intends all living things to have access to. Issues arise when individuals and businesses diverge from their moral principles, or simply lack them, and view …

Mpi4py Implementation Of Greedy Algorithm For The Shortest Path Problem, Arianna Martin, Jeremy Evert, Charles Sleeper

Student Research

No abstract provided.

An Application Of Lakota Ethics To The Contemporary American Waste Crisis, Erika Marchant

Student Research

In this paper, I discuss the unethical nature of modern American waste systems and individual practices, focusing on the benefits of adopting elements of indigenous land care ethics. Specifically, I discuss the opportunities for sustainable improvement found in the Lakota perspective of humans’ relationship with the land, such as the frugality epitomized in their hunting, harvesting, and material culture. Lakotan environmental consciousness is ultimately owing to the centrality of their spiritual convictions and traditions, which are, of course, not replicable in the non-indigenous Western context; although we will certainly never be able to understand nor internalize the heart of Lakota …

Synthesis Of A Novel Pyrrole Family As Potential Anti-Cancer Agents, Sang T. Truong, Jeffrey A. Hansen

Student Research

A one-step selective reaction was developed to synthesize a novel pyrrole family (20 different members) from a keto-epoxide and several aromatic amines at room temperature in 3h. When substituting aromatic amine with aliphatic amines or inorganic bases, furan derivatives were produced selectively. The kinetic behavior of the reactions and structure of the products were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The results showed that our reaction is selective with high yields (> 85%). To understand the selective formation of pyrrole and furan, we conducted computational experiences to study the mechanisms of the primary reaction and its competitor using Density Functional …

Can Statcast Variables Explain The Variation In Weighted Runs Created Plus?, Ryan Kupiec

Student Research

The release of Statcast data in 2015 was revolutionary for data analysis in the game of baseball. Many analysts have begun using this data regularly, but none have used it exclusively. Often older, less reliable statistics (on-base percentage) are still used in favor of the newer statistics (weighted runs created plus). In this paper, we attempt to explain the variation in weighted runs created plus (wRC+) using Statcast variables such as exit velocity and launch angle. We find that exit velocity along with other Statcast variables, can explain as much as 70% of the variation in wRC+. Launch angle can …

Connecting Swosu To The Open Science Grid, Arianna Martin, Jeremy Evert

Student Research

No abstract provided.

Chapter 4 Report: Strings And Hexadecimals: Explained And Explored, Reed Kessler, Jeremy Evert

Student Research

What I learned from doing all three of these problems is the use of string statements, along with a better understanding of hexadecimals and their uses.

Pattern Of Health Behavior And Its Association With Self-Rated Health: Evidence From The 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System In The United States, Linh Nguyen, Mamunur Rashid, M. Mazharul Islam

Student Research

Aim: To improve public health services, we need to keep policymakers updated with health-related issues. This study (1) examines the recent pattern of physical activities, smoking, alcohol consumption, and SRH, and (2) investigates the association between the behaviors and SRH status among US citizens.

Method: We extracted data from the latest state-based survey of the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which provides a nationally representative sample of 437,436 American adults. We analyzed the data, mainly employing chi-square tests and logistic regression models.

Results: Physical inactivity and smoking are more common among participants with lower education and household income. …

Simultaneous Localization And Mapping Analysis, Jacob Miller, Kurtis Clark, Jeremy Evert

Student Research

Objectives

• Simulate virtual robot for test and analysis
• Analyze SLAM solutions using ROS
• Assemble a functional Turtlebot
• Emphasize projects related to current research trajectories for NASA, and general robotics applications

Robot Simulation Analysis, Kurtis Clark, Jacob Miller, Jeremy Evert

Student Research

Objectives

• Build a tutorial targeted to Middle School and High School Students to get ROS running on a Virtual Machine
• Make ROS and it's simulations approachable to middle school and high school students.

Visualizing The Mean And The Standard Deviation Using R/Rstudio Shiny Package, Rachel Hufnagel, Ziyi Chen, Mamunur Rashid, Jyotirmoy Sarkar

Student Research

Many of us have experienced an unpleasant situation in which only the mean and the standard deviation of a data set are reported, but we are expected to know everything about the dataset as if those two values were all we needed to know. We would learn so much more if there were easy ways to create and share graphical representations and interpretations of the entire raw data. In this paper, we not only explain what the mean and the standard deviation tell us about a data set, but also describe how to include additional information on the data. We …