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Women In Science 2016, Clark Science Center's Summer Research Fellows Program

SURF Abstracts (Women in Science)

Women in Science 2016 summarizes research done by Smith College’s Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) Program participants. Ever since its 1967 start, SURF has been a cornerstone of Smith’s science education. In 2016, 150 students participated in SURF (144 hosted on campus and nearby eld sites), supervised by 56 faculty mentor-advisors drawn from the Clark Science Center and connected to its eighteen science, mathematics, and engineering departments and programs and associated centers and units. At summer’s end, SURF participants were asked to summarize their research experiences for this publication.

An Alignment-Free "Metapeptide" Strategy For Metaproteomic Characterization Of Microbiome Samples Using Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing, Damon H. May, Emma Timmins-Schiffman, Molly P. Mikan, H. Rodger Harvey, Elhanan Borenstein, Brook L. Nunn, William S. Noble

OES Faculty Publications

In principle, tandem mass spectrometry can be used to detect and quantify the peptides present in a microbiome sample, enabling functional and taxonomic insight into microbiome metabolic activity. However, the phylogenetic diversity constituting a particular microbiome is often unknown, and many of the organisms present may not have assembled genomes. In ocean microbiome samples, with particularly diverse and uncultured bacterial communities, it is difficult to construct protein databases that contain the bulk of the peptides in the sample without losing detection sensitivity due to the overwhelming number of candidate peptides for each tandem mass spectrum. We describe a method for …

The Contribution Of Marine Aggregate-Associated Bacteria To The Accumulation Of Pathogenic Bacteria In Oysters: An Agent-Based Model, Andrew M. Kramer, J. Evan Ward, Fred C. Dobbs, Melissa L. Pierce

OES Faculty Publications

Bivalves process large volumes of water, leading to their accumulation of bacteria, including potential human pathogens (e.g., vibrios). These bacteria are captured at low efficiencies when freely suspended in the water column, but they also attach to marine aggregates, which are captured with near 100% efficiency. For this reason, and because they are often enriched with heterotrophic bacteria, marine aggregates have been hypothesized to function as important transporters of bacteria into bivalves. The relative contribution of aggregates and unattached bacteria to the accumulation of these cells, however, is unknown. We developed an agent-based model to simulate accumulation of vibrio-type bacteria …

A Highly Sensitive Underwater Video System For Use In Turbid Aquaculture Ponds, Chin-Chang Hung, Shih-Chieh Tsao, Kuo-Hao Huang, Hsu-Kunag Chang, Fred C. Dobbs

OES Faculty Publications

The turbid, low-light waters characteristic of aquaculture ponds have made it difficult or impossible for previous video cameras to provide clear imagery of the ponds' benthic habitat. We developed a highly sensitive, underwater video system (UVS) for this particular application and tested it in shrimp ponds having turbidities typical of those in southern Taiwan. The system's high-quality video stream and images, together with its camera capacity (up to nine cameras), permit in situ observations of shrimp feeding behavior, shrimp size and internal anatomy, and organic matter residues on pond sediments. The UVS can operate continuously and be focused remotely, a …

Dragon Kings Of The Deep Sea: Marine Particles Deviate Markedly From The Common Number-Size Spectrum, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Melissa A. Clouse, Gerhard J. Herndl

OES Faculty Publications

Particles are the major vector for the transfer of carbon from the upper ocean to the deep sea. However, little is known about their abundance, composition and role at depths greater than 2000 m. We present the first number-size spectrum of bathy-and abyssopelagic particles to a depth of 5500 m based on surveys performed with a custom-made holographic microscope. The particle spectrum was unusual in that particles of several millimetres in length were almost 100 times more abundant than expected from the number spectrum of smaller particles, thereby meeting the definition of "dragon kings." Marine snow particles overwhelmingly contributed to …

Dynamics Of Plume-Triple Junction Interaction: Results From A Series Of Three-Dimensional Numerical Models And Implications For The Formation Of Oceanic Plateaus, Mladen Dordevic, Jennifer Georgen

OES Faculty Publications

Mantle plumes rising in the vicinity of mid-ocean ridges often generate anomalies in melt production and seafloor depth. This study investigates the dynamical interactions between a mantle plume and a ridge-ridge-ridge triple junction, using a parameter space approach and a suite of steady state, three-dimensional finite element numerical models. The top domain boundary is composed of three diverging plates, with each assigned half-spreading rates with respect to a fixed triple junction point. The bottom boundary is kept at a constant temperature of 1350°C except where a two-dimensional, Gaussian-shaped thermal anomaly simulating a plume is imposed. Models vary plume diameter, plume …

Effects Of Temperature, Irradiance And Pco2 On The Growth And Nitrogen Utilization Of Prorocentrum Donghaiense, Zhangxi Hu, Margaret R. Mulholland, Ning Xu, Shunshan Duan

OES Faculty Publications

Environmental factors such as temp erature, irradiance, and nitrogen (N) supply affect the growth of Prorocentrum donghaiense, but the interactive effects of these physical factors and the effects of atmospheric CO₂ (pCO₂) on growth and N uptake have not been examined. We compared growth kinetics of P. donghaiense grown on 4 different N substrates (nitrate [NO₃ -], ammonium [NH₄ +], urea, and glutamic acid [glu]) with respect to temperature, irradiance, and pCO₂. Temperature (15 to 30°C) had a positive effect on growth (max. growth rates: 0.17 to 0.65 d …

Gorenstein Projective (Pre)Covers, Michael J. Fox

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The existence of the Gorenstein projective precovers is one of the main open problems in Gorenstein Homological algebra. We give sufficient conditions in order for the class of Gorenstein projective complexes to be special precovering in the category of complexes of R-modules Ch(R). More precisely, we prove that if every complex in Ch(R) has a special Gorenstein flat cover, every Gorenstein projective complex is Gorenstein flat, and every Gorenstein flat complex has finite Goenstein projective dimension, then the class of Gorenstein projective complexes, GP(C), is special precovering in Ch(R).

Remedial Education Programs And Student Success: Perceptions Of Faculty And Administrators At Hbcus, Tenora J. Simonez

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that contributed to student success in remedial education as perceived by faculty members and administrators at one public HBCU in the University System of Georgia. The five specific areas that contributed to student success and were identified for review were administrative factors, curricula and instructional models, academic support services, importance of placement tests, and the impact of financial issues. Each of these areas was represented in literature regarding the histories of remedial education programs and HBCUs, recent federal and state admissions and fiscal changes, and instructional best practices of remedial …

Horyzonty Współczesnego Zarządzania, Marcin Żemigała

Monografie/Monographs

Książka, opracowana z okazji jubileuszu 70-lecia Pana Prof. Jerzego Bogdanienki. Zgodnie

z jego szerokimi zainteresowaniami badawczymi zatytułowano ją „Horyzonty

współczesnego zarządzania”. Trzydziestu jeden Autorów zechciało podarować

nam swe teksty, które próbują zarysować właśnie owe horyzonty.

Semi-Automatic Identification Of Synonyms In Structured Knowledge Representations, Thomas C. Taylor

Theses

Synonym support is an important aspect of querying knowledge bases, but current approaches to generating such support is difficult and error-prone. Automating the process of identifying synonyms in structured knowledge representations is therefore an important pursuit. This thesis presents an ensemble approach that incorporates several methods and knowledge sources heretofore used individually. A case study shows that the approach performs better than individual methods, and that it may be used to reduce efforts to identify synonyms.

The Study Of Cybersecurity Algorithms From Traditional Computing To The Internet Of Things, Daniel Davis

Theses

A progressive approach to teach students how to develop and deploy cybersecurity algorithms across a wide range of heterogeneous computing devices is proposed. Data confidentiality and data integrity can be ensured when sensitive information is transferred between various types of devices over insecure communication channels by using cybersecurity algorithms. A step-by-step procedure to teach students cybersecurity algorithms on devices ranging from personal computers to devices deployed in the Internet of Things ecosystem is needed. We develop four learning modules that offer students the opportunity to explore commonly utilized cybersecurity algorithms across several heterogeneous devices. Students are able to utilize our …

Second Order Sliding Mode Control Using Nonlinear Dynamic Sliding Manifold : A Lyapunov Approach, Bhargav Chava

Theses

Second order Sliding Mode Control (2-SMC) algorithms require knowledge of derivative of sliding variable, which is to be implemented using 2-SM differentiators. The use of 2-Sliding Mode differentiators causes loss of accuracy. Hence, the approach known as nonlinear dynamic sliding manifold (NDSM) approach is used to design a 2-SM control algorithm without the knowledge of derivative of sliding variable. The main contribution of the thesis is proof of finite time convergence of 2-SMC using NDSM approach by Lyapunov function technique. Also an adaptive 2-SM control law is proposed for perturbed systems with unknown boundaries using NDSM approach to avoid overestimation …

Philosophizing About God And Nature : Connections And Divisions In The Writings Of Isaac Newton, Joshua Riddle

Theses

For several decades, scholars have argued about the relationship between Isaac Newton’s works in science (or natural philosophy), “chymistry,” religion, and theology. Of particular interest has been how his natural philosophy and religion/theology related to each other. Some scholars claim a significant connection between them, even claiming they are part of a “seamless unity” in Newton’s thinking. Other, more skeptical, scholars call for a localized approach to his writings. By entering into this debate and analyzing many of Newton’s manuscripts, I argue that Newton held onto significant disciplinary distinctions in his writings, but also was willing to make small connections …

Heat Deposition During Turbulence Distorted Laser Irradiation, William Vaden Dent Iii

Theses

Realistically modeled heat deposition by a laser source under a variety of turbulent conditions generated from the classic Kolmogorov model is presented. Predicted heat deposition data is created from solutions to the differential heat flow equation and for representative example turbulence distorted waveforms.

Towards A Science Of Security Games, Thanh Hong Nguyen, Debarun Kar, Matthew Brown, Arunesh Sinha, Albert Xin Jiang, Milind Tambe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Security is a critical concern around the world. In many domains from counter-terrorism to sustainability, limited security resources prevent full security coverage at all times; instead, these limited resources must be scheduled, while simultaneously taking into account different target priorities, the responses of the adversaries to the security posture and potential uncertainty over adversary types.Computational game theory can help design such security schedules. Indeed, casting the problem as a Bayesian Stackelberg game, we have developed new algorithms that are now deployed over multiple years in multiple applications for security scheduling. These applications are leading to real-world use-inspired research in the …

Demo: Profiling Power Utilization Behaviours Of Smartwatch Applications, Joseph Joo Keng Chan, Lingxiao Jiang, Rajesh Krishna Balan, Youngki Lee, Archan Misra

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Smartwatches complement the main mobile phone and are able to profile user-activity as well as provide links, updates and notifications with work or personal utilities (e.g. Email, Social Media, Messaging etc.). Although very promising, smartwatches are still limited by low battery life. This is due to the small size of the battery as well as the need to continuously perform sensing. Battery drain issues by apps as well as the system are a common complaint by users. Improved tools for power analysis and profiling of smartwatch apps can help both developers (by providing a platform for pre-release analysis) and users …

Demo: Sensing Gamers' Emotions Using Physiological Sensors, Sinh Huynh, Rajesh Krishna Balan, Youngki Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Understanding emotions of gamers can benefit game designers in various ways. How gamers feel while they playing a game can be treated as valuable user feedback to improve the development process of that game. Sensing player emotions also enables game designers to create adaptive game that can adjust itself to provide best gaming experience based on player emotions. However, how to effectively evaluate emotions of gamers is still an open research challenge. Two common techniques to evaluate emotional state are using self-assessments such as questionnaires or interviews, and to recognize expressed emotions by analyzing videos or images of facial expression, …

Powerforecaster: Predicting Power Impact Of Mobile Sensing Applications At Pre-Installation Time, Chulhong Min, Youngki Lee, Chungkuk Yoo, Seungwoo Kang, Inseok Hwang, Junehwa Song

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Today's smartphone application (hereinafter 'app') markets miss a key piece of information, power consumption of apps. This causes a severe problem for continuous sensing apps as they consume significant power without users' awareness. Users have no choice but to repeatedly install one app after another and experience their power use. To break such an exhaustive cycle, we propose PowerForecaster, a system that provides users with power use of sensing apps at pre-installation time. Such advanced power estimation is extremely challenging since the power cost of a sensing app largely varies with users' physical activities and phone use patterns. We observe …

On Analyzing Geotagged Tweets For Location-Based Patterns, Philips Kokoh Prasetyo, Palakorn Achananuparp, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Geotagged social media is becoming highly popular as social media access is now made very easy through a wide range of mobile apps which automatically detect and augment social media posts with geo-locations. In this paper, we analyze two kinds of location-based patterns. The first is the association between location attributes and the locations of user tweets. The second is location association pattern which comprises a pair of locations that are co-visited by users. We demonstrate that through tracking the Twitter data of Singapore-based users, we are able to reveal association between users tweeting from school locations and the school …

Data Analytics On Consumer Behavior In Omni-Channel Retail Banking, Card And Payment Services, Geng Dan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Innovations in financial services have created challenges for banks that Information Systems (IS) research can address. My interests involve transaction cost theory, substitution and complementarity theory, and consumer informedness theory to understand consumer behavior and firm performance in the omni-channel world of digital banking. At a high level, my research inquiry asks: How can financial institutions take advantage of the deep insights that data analytics and management science modeling create on consumer behavior and channel management decision-making? And how can changes in payments and services in retail banking be understood in spatial and temporal terms? I am working on three …

A Tool-Free Calibration Method For Turntable-Based 3d Scanning Systems, Xufang Pang, Rynson W.H. Lau, Zhan Song, Shengfeng He, Shengfeng He

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Turntable-based 3D scanners are popular but require calibration of the turntable axis. Existing methods for turntable calibration typically make use of specially designed tools, such as a chessboard or criterion sphere, which users must manually install and dismount. In this article, the authors propose an automatic method to calibrate the turntable axis without any calibration tools. Given a scan sequence of the input object, they first recover the initial rotation axis from an automatic registration step. Then they apply an iterative procedure to obtain the optimized turntable axis. This iterative procedure alternates between two steps: refining the initial pose of …

Current Challenges In Atrial Fibrillation Ablation, Edward John Davies

Peninsula Medical School Theses

The ablative management of atrial fibrillation, despite a number of landmark discoveries, remains one of the most challenging fields in interventional electrophysiology. It is generally accepted that successful isolation of the pulmonary veins is a highly effective way of managing paroxysmal forms of AF. However, despite almost a decade of research into alternative lesion patterns, the solution to persistent AF remains beyond our grasp. A variety of strategies have been proposed to target key areas in the atria; these use various complex mapping systems, usually based on tailored lesion sets to try and improve outcomes. None have proven to be …

Activity Recognition Using Wearable Computing, Neamah Al-Naffakh, Nathan Clarke, Paul Dowland, Fudong Li

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

A Floating Ocean Energy Conversion Device And Numerical Study On Buoy Shape And Performance, Ruiyin Song, Meiqin Zhang, Xiaohua Qian, Xiancheng Wang, Yong Ming Dai, Junhua Chen

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Marine Renewable Energy Seascape, Alistair G.L. Borthwick

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Social Justice And Human Rights In Education Policy Discourse: Assessing Nelson Mandela's Legacy, Abrehet Gebremedhin, Devin Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Twenty years after South Africa's democratisation, Nelson Mandela's passing has prompted scholars to examine his legacy in various domains. Here we take a look at his legacy in education discourse. Tracing Mandela's thoughts and pronouncements on education we find two major emphases: a view of education as a practical means to economic development, and education as a means to social justice, human rights, and democracy. Assessing the legacy of these twin emphases, we conducted qualitative and quantitative content analysis of turning point documents in education policy and annual reports from the respective South African ministries of education over the last …

Assessment Of Measured And Perceived Microclimates Within A Tropical Urban Forest, Winston T. L. Chow, Siti Nur ‘Assyakirin Binte Ali Akbar, Su Li Heng, Matthias Roth

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Urban greenery is a favoured approach applied towards reducing urban warmth and climate discomfort, but ascertaining its measured and perceived effectiveness in tropical climates is relatively understudied. To this end, we investigated microclimate differences within an urban park (the Singapore Botanic Gardens) to assess if variations in plot-scale land cover affect both objective (measured) and subjective (surveyed) microclimate data. Over two monsoonal seasons, we obtained data from four distinct sites—a tropical rainforest stand, a palm tree valley, a water-body feature, and the park visitors’ centre. Measured climate data (e.g. air temperature, vapour pressure, wind velocity and globe temperatures) were used …

One Swallow Does Not Make Spring: A Critical Juncture Perspective On The Eu Sanctions In Response To The Arab Spring, Andreas Boogaerts, Clara Portela, Edith Drieskens

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article examines to what extent the Arab Spring constitutes a critical juncture – a major turning point – for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. Based on a multidimensional critical juncture operationalization, we find that the Arab Spring only constitutes such a turning point for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Syria. Both the level and nature of measures differ substantially from previous years. By contrast, the EU’s sanctions practice towards Libya, Egypt and Tunisia shows more resilience. More generally, changes in the nature of the measures are prominent, whereas changes in the level of the …

The Effect Of Board Independence On Information Asymmetry, Beng Wee Goh, Jimmy Lee, Jeffrey Ng, Kevin Ow Yong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Boards have an important role in ensuring that investors’ interests are protected. Our paper first examines whether the independence of a firm's board affects information asymmetry among investors. We provide evidence that greater board independence leads to lower information asymmetry. Next, we provide evidence that more voluntary disclosure and greater analyst coverage are two underlying mechanisms via which greater board independence reduces information asymmetry. Of the two mechanisms, we find that analyst coverage is more significant in influencing how board independence affects information asymmetry. Overall, our paper contributes to a better understanding of the effect of board independence on information …