Digital Commons Network^™

The Luminous Power Of Accretion Disks In Active Galactic Nuclei, Imogen Jade Courtney

Honors Theses

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are the most luminous long-lived objects in the universe. The phenomenon of the immense luminosities we observe for AGN has interested physicists and astronomers for over a century and continues to fascinate scientists today. The work in this thesis aims to provide an introductory exploration of this phenomenon. This thesis uses a simple model of AGN accretion disks that was developed under the standard disk model proposed by Shakura & Sunyev in 1973 under the simplest assumptions. The model accurately demonstrates how physical parameters, such as the temperature, radiative flux, luminosity, and spectra, scale through an …

Race, Gender And Rawls' "A Theory Of Justice.", Robert Carico

Honors Theses

Should we use the concepts developed by John Rawls in his A Theory of Justice to guide research questions relevant to issues concerning race and gender? This paper argues not only that the concepts from A Theory of Justice should not be used as the primary tool in any debate concerning race and gender, but it also challenges the abstract thinking of 21st Century Western Philosophers to develop a theory of justice that acknowledges the fact that people have their own interests and depending on what race and/or gender they identify with, might not have equal rights protected under the …

Characterization Of Shinella 6-Hydroxy-(L)-Nicotine Oxidase (6hlno-Se), Kaitrin Funckes

Honors Theses

6-hydroxy-(L)-nicotine oxidase, isolated from the organism Shinella sp. HZN7 (6HLNO-SE), is an enzyme that during the catabolism of nicotine catalyzes the oxidation of (S)-6-hydroxynicotine to 6-hydroxypseudeooxynicotine. This enzyme is a member of the monoamine oxidase (MAO) structural family of flavoproteins, which contain a highly conserved FAD-binding domain. Within the binding domain is a conserved lysine residue that can be traced throughout evolutionary history in this family. 6HLNO isolated from Arthrobacter nicotinovorans serves as a model enzyme for the one isolated from Shinella as both catalyze the same reaction in this biochemical pathway and much has been studied about the Arthrobacter …

The Public Trust Doctrine: Roman Law Roots And Future In Environmental Litigation, Phoebe Liccardo

Honors Theses

The public trust is an ancient and enduring legal doctrine. With roots in Roman law, the public trust persists through English law, and into the United States. Scholars and jurists in the field of Roman and environmental law do not all agree on the history and continuity of the public trust doctrine (PTD). There are those who argue the Roman law introducing a public trust did not assert the same protections present in the doctrine today. Conversely, there are those who believe the Roman law did enshrine similar protections, and further, that it calls for an expansion of PTD in …

Computer Organization And Assembly Language Embedded Firmware Overhaul, Elaine Yun Ru Chan

Honors Theses

The WMU Computer Organization and Assembly Language class has encountered some difficulties in the past several years regarding the procurement of required hardware and software for the curriculum. This has led to a number of challenges for students, including:

• Difficulty in obtaining the necessary hardware and software

• Inability to complete assignments and projects due to hardware or software failures

• Frustration and anxiety caused by the challenges of the course

To address these challenges, a new choice of embedded firmware was researched and developed. This firmware allows for more reliable flashing of the MSP430 Microcontroller and remains reliable on modern operating …

Thermal Control For A Miniaturized Fabry-Perot Interferometer In A Cubesat, Callie Pilkington

Honors Theses

The evaluation of neutral winds is critical in understanding the ever-changing weather and climate of the thermosphere, which can develop into a hostile environment for satellites. To measure these neutral winds, Michigan Aerospace Corporation is developing a 6U CubeSat that utilizes a miniaturized Fabry-Perot interferometer. For ideal operation, the Fabry-Perot interferometer requires a closely maintained thermal environment. These requirements are crucial in obtaining accurate measurements and for sustaining instrument and mission life due to the vast temperature range experienced in the thermosphere. With the solutions outlined in this proposal, the goal is to provide Michigan Aerospace with an optimized configuration …

Analysis And Mitigation Of Pneumatic Regulator Resonance, Luke Fouch

Honors Theses

Internal resonance in pneumatic regulators can result in heavy leakage, which can lead to less efficient processes. To address this issue, two simulations were developed to simulate pneumatic regulation systems. The first simulation involved deriving a mathematical model of the equations of motion for a regulator and applying it using MATLAB. The second simulation involved developing a Simulink model that incorporated physical regulator properties. To verify the accuracy of both models, physical testing data was used. After verification, the models were modified in various ways to determine the main drivers of resonance in pneumatic systems. Additionally, Finite Element Analysis was …

Promoting Equity For Women In Medical Journal Editing, Allison Chamberlain Miller, Diane Powers Dirette

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Exit Survey Development, Melinda Koelling, Cynthia Klekar, Todd Kuchta, Heather Petcovic, Linda Borish

Assessment Grants

In a department like Geography, an exit interview is used to assess programs. In a department like Mathematics, there is no existing exit interview or survey. Even for those interview and survey questions that exist, the questions could be shared and improved. A core group of chairs from Mathematics, Geography, and Philosophy would like to develop exit assessments. A larger group of units proposes to work together to develop a bank of exit interview assessment questions that can be used to assess undergraduate and graduate programs.

Zonality In Graphs, Andrew Bowling

Dissertations

Graph labeling and coloring are among the most popular areas of graph theory due to both the mathematical beauty of these subjects as well as their fascinating applications. While the topic of labeling vertices and edges of graphs has existed for over a century, it was not until 1966 when Alexander Rosa introduced a labeling, later called a graceful labeling, that brought the area of graph labeling to the forefront in graph theory. The subject of graph colorings, on the other hand, goes back to 1852 when the young British mathematician Francis Guthrie observed that the countries in a map …

High-Dimensional Variable Selection Via Knockoffs Using Gradient Boosting, Amr Essam Mohamed

Dissertations

As data continue to grow rapidly in size and complexity, efficient and effective statistical methods are needed to detect the important variables/features. Variable selection is one of the most crucial problems in statistical applications. This problem arises when one wants to model the relationship between the response and the predictors. The goal is to reduce the number of variables to a minimal set of explanatory variables that are truly associated with the response of interest to improve the model accuracy. Effectively choosing the true influential variables and controlling the False Discovery Rate (FDR) without sacrificing power has been a challenge …

Research Training And Certification Protocol For Medical Students, Michelle Arisleida Padley

Dissertations

Early and frequent exposure to research is imperative to initiating and sustaining long term for medical student research interest. The attitude and approach of physician mentors has been demonstrated to have a substantial effect on student perceptions of research involvement. The purpose of this study is to determine best practices for assessing student perceptions for a research certification program. An additional long-term objective is to utilize these findings to help maintain interest in research throughout their medical careers. Research is an essential aspect of the prestige of medical schools, and the benefits of academic research institutions have numerous facets, including …

Factors Affecting Groundwater Nitrate Concentration In Madinah Area, Saudi Arabia, Majed M. Almutairi

Masters Theses

High levels of nitrate in groundwater are a serious problem in Madinah Area, Saudi Arabia. Identifying factors affecting groundwater nitrate contamination is important for managing groundwater quality. This study examined factors that have significant impacts on the high level of groundwater nitrate in Madinah Area. Factors examined included well-depth and land cover. Relationships between variables were explored using three statistical approaches: the Kruskal-Wallis test and two types of regression (ordinary least squares [OLS] and geographically weighted regression [GWR]).

Nitrate concentration data show that 73% of obtained groundwater samples exceeded the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maximum contaminant level (MCL) …

Analysis Of Small Lake Water Level Fluctuations By Remote Sensing In Twin Lake, Michigan., Eric Carballido

Masters Theses

Accurate analysis of lake level fluctuations is critical for water resources management. However, it remains a challenge to estimate lake level fluctuations in ungauged small lakes such as East Twin Lake. Located in Twin Lake, Michigan, East Twin Lake has experienced a drastic reduction in water surface area since 2020. To understand the nature of water level fluctuations in East Twin Lake, this study utilized a combination of Landsat and National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) data to make surface water area estimations of East Twin Lake for the period of 1993-2022. In total, 27 years of water surface area estimations …

Emeriti News Spring 2023, Emeriti Council

Emeriti News

• Message from the Chair:
• Medallion Scholars
• Campus Updates from WMU News
• Wednesday II events, Spring Semester 2023
• Fall 2023: Provisional Unconfirmed Topics
• News from WMU Emeriti
• In Memory of
• New Faculty Senate Representative
• Council Scholarships
• From Your Emeriti Council

Statistical Clustering Of Networks With Additional Information, Paul Atandoh

Dissertations

As the online market grows rapidly, many companies and researchers are interested in analyzing product review dataset which includes ratings and text review data. In the first project, we mainly focus on analyzing the text review data. In the current literature, it is common to use only text analysis tools to analyze review dataset. But in our work, we propose a method that utilizes both a text analysis method such as topic modeling and a statistical network model to build network among individuals and find interesting communities. We introduce a promising framework that incorporates topic modeling technique to define the …

Using Visual Imagery To Develop Multiplication Fact Strategies, Gina Kling

Dissertations

The learning of basic facts, or the sums and products of numbers 0–10 and their related differences and quotients, has always been a high priority for elementary school teachers. While memorization of basic facts has been a hallmark of elementary school, current recommendations focus on a more nuanced development of fluency with these facts. Fluency is characterized by the ability to demonstrate flexibility, accuracy, efficiency, and appropriate strategy use. Despite recommendations to focus on strategy use, there is insufficient information on instructional approaches that are effective for developing strategies, particularly for multiplication facts. Using visual imagery with dot patterns has …

Irregular Domination In Graphs, Caryn Mays

Dissertations

Domination in graphs has been a popular area of study due in large degree to its applications to modern society as well as the mathematical beauty of the topic. While this area evidently began with the work of Claude Berge in 1958 and Oystein Ore in 1962, domination did not become an active area of research until 1977 with the appearance of a survey paper by Ernest Cockayne and Stephen Hedetniemi. Since then, a large number of variations of domination have surfaced and provided numerous applications to different areas of science and real-life problems. Among these variations are domination parameters …

Development Of Modeling Tools To Determine The Effects Of Customer Diversification On Customer Lifetime Value Volatility In Higher Education, Oscar Neal

Dissertations

As societies become increasingly global the competition for customers continues to increase. In competitive markets, it is important to identify a process to acquire and retain the most profitable customers. To discriminate customers, it is important to understand the value different customers bring to an organization. Much research has been done modeling customer value using customer lifetime value, however, there is limited research on the effect current customer diversity has on future customer lifetime value of future customer portfolios.

In this dissertation, a Lifetime Value Model considering the interaction between customer diversity, revenue management, and customer lifetime value in an …

Design And Implementation Of An Efficient Priority Queue Data Structure, James A. Rhodes

Dissertations

Priority queues are one of the most useful data structures. Research to improve the efficiency of priority queues is on-going in the field of Computer Science. We have designed and implemented a priority queue based on buckets that improves the performance of applications that utilize min/max heaps. The data structure improves an application’s insertion time and deletion time, and thus its overall execution time. We demonstrate the performance improvements in a wide variety of applications. Every one of the applications that we implemented is well-known, and important in the Computer Science field. We also demonstrate that the performance gains over …

Socially Aware Natural Language Processing With Commonsense Reasoning And Fairness In Intelligent Systems, Sirwe Saeedi

Dissertations

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to deliver ever more user-friendly consumer applications, recent mishaps involving fake information and biased treatment serve as vivid reminders of the pitfalls of AI. AI can harbor latent biases and flaws that can cause harm in diverse and unexpected ways. It is crucial to understand the reasons for, mechanisms behind, and circumstances under which AI can fail. For instance, a lack of commonsense reasoning can lead to biased or unfair decisions made by Machine Learning (ML) systems. For example, if an ML system is trained on data that is biased or unrepresentative of the real …

Design, Simulation, Modeling, And Implementation Of Triboelectric Nanogenerator (Teng) Sensors For Automotive Applications, Sam Ali

Dissertations

Triboelectricity is a promising technique for energy harvesting in which mechanical energy converts to electricity for powering small electronic devices. This method of energy harvesting serves as an alternative to traditional battery power sources and can significantly benefit low-power sensing applications by generating unlimited electrical energy. This study focuses on the development of flexible triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) and energy harvesting devices for various applications in the automotive industry.

The study is organized into four projects. In the first project, various polymeric materials were used to investigate the performance of different TENGs. Four designs (D1, D2, D3, and D4) of flexible …

Experiences Of Female Muslim International Graduate Students With Children In The U.S.: Strategies To Cope With Academics And Family Life, Nizoramo M. Haitova

Dissertations

The literature on adult students, and in particular, graduate students with children, reveals that female students often struggle to balance their studies and home life due to juggling multiple roles. To date, research on student mothers has primarily focused on domestic students, with few studies examining the experiences of international student mothers, and even fewer studying Muslim international student mothers. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of female Muslim international graduate students with children in the U.S., as well as to explore the coping strategies they employ in both academia and family life. Thus, the …

Analysis Of U.S. Housing Markets Using Advanced Econometric Models And Machine Learning Algorithms, Cody Kirby

Dissertations

The Great Recession is the most recent reminder in U.S. history of the important relationship that exists between monetary policy and housing market activity. Since World War II, eight U.S. recessions have followed downturns in housing. A decline in the housing market results in the balance sheet deterioration of homeowners, financial institutions, private organizations, central banks, governing bodies, and foreign countries. The ability to understand the relationship between monetary policy and housing market activity, and to better forecast housing prices, allows for better planning by all economic agents.

This study answers the following research questions. (1) How have monetary policy …

Student Experience And Learning In A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience, Allison Witucki

Dissertations

Scientific research is advocated as an important experience for undergraduate STEM majors. Involving undergraduates in research early on in their educational careers can potentially prevent attrition and encourages students to pursue post-graduate education and careers within the field. However, research opportunities for undergraduates can be difficult to obtain. Many students may not realize that research opportunities exist, or there is limited availability for undergraduates to work in a faculty member’s research laboratory. Luckily, an educational model for involving scientific research in a course, also known as a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), can provide more widespread opportunities for students to …

Equity Audits For Schools Within Restrictive Settings, Matthew Phillp Milanowski

Masters Theses

This project creates a framework and process for conducting facility wide equity audits for schools within juvenile justice and restrictive settings. To accomplish this, an extensive review of existing literature in both the field of education and the field of juvenile justice and existing frameworks and processes were reviewed to create the new framework, Milanowski’s (2023) Facility Wide – Equity Audit Framework, suitable for juvenile justice and restrictive settings. The new framework was then used to guide the development of a process, data collection tool, improvement planning tool, and fidelity instrument to evaluate the implementation of the overall process. This …

Concept Validation: Collecting Composite Samples To Understand The Presence Of Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In Michigan Forested Areas, Nicole Renee Sanabria

Masters Theses

This research discusses the results of a state-wide study conducted by The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to assess the presence of PFAS in shallow soils of state-owned forested areas in Michigan utilizing a composite sampling method. One sample collected from each of Michigan’s 83 counties reveals the presence of PFAS in all but one sample, with total PFAS concentrations ranging from non-detect to 2.016 μg/kg (dry weight). PFOS is generally detected at the highest concentrations, ranging from non-detect to 0.88 μg/kg, followed by PFBA, with concentrations ranging from non-detect to 0.69 μg/kg, and PFOA, with concentrations …

Community College Students’ Awareness Of Their Reading And Writing Proficiency, Martha Paulina Campusano Rojas

Dissertations

Student’s low reading and writing proficiency in higher education has been the subject of a large body of research (e.g., Bahr, 2011; Bailey, 2010; Carlino, 2005, 2010, 2012; Flink, 2017; Jaggars, 2014 Pacello, 2014; Perin, 2011; Perin et al., 2013).The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how students in a first-year developmental Spanish course at the Dominican community college think of the connection between their reading and writing abilities and their performance in both their current and future undergraduate courses. The study also explored how these students view the importance of the developmental course and how they understand …

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session March 23, 2023, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Acceptance of the Agenda

Approval of the Minutes (January 26, 2023 Meeting)

Remarks by the Chair

Remarks by the President

Updates by the Faculty Senate President

Updates by the Western Student Association President

Celebrating Regional Student Achievement

Public Comments Regarding Action Items

Action Items

• Resolution Celebrating Men's Basketball 25-Year Anniversary 1998 MAC Championship Team
• Purchase of Aircraft, College of Aviation with Investment from WMU Foundation

Consent Items

• Curriculum Proposals
• Personnel Report
• One-Day Liquor License Applications, International Congress on Medieval Studies
• WMU Valley Dining Center, May 11-12, 2023
• Annuity and Life Income Funds Performance Report
• Operating Cash Investment Performance Report

General …

Creating Communities Of Practice Focused On Writing Instruction, Katie Schrodt, Brandi Nunnery, Brian Kissel, Melissa Knapp

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article will share the literacy coaches' experiences of engaging in a literacy community of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991). It will share the writing cohort process, topics discussed, books read, professional developments enacted, and materials generated during their time of study. The writing cohort enacted meaning and identity to the community to create learning and growth. Effective communities of practice promote innovation, spread knowledge, develop social capital, and facilitate existing knowledge (Lave and Wenger, 1991). These communities learn and grow through requesting information, problem solving, and reusing available assets. After a thorough description of the writing community and its …