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Undergraduate Research Forum 2016, St. Norbert College

Undergraduate Research Forum Programs

The Undergraduate Research Forum highlights the valued tradition at St. Norbert College of collaboration taking place in laboratories, studios, and other scholarly or creative settings between our students and our faculty and staff, resulting in a rich array of scholarly research and creative work.

This celebration features collaborative projects that evolved out of independent studies, class assignments, and casual interactions as well as formal collaborations supported by internal grant funding.

Measuring Dependence In Uncertainty Should Start In The Introduction To Probability And Statistics, Boyan N. Dimitrov

Mathematics Presentations And Conference Materials

No abstract provided.

Factor Analysis And Yield Optimization Of A Billet Manufacturing Process: A Case Study, Fatemeh Davoudi Kakhki

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the College of Business and Technology Morehead State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science by Fatemeh Davoudi Kakhki on April 22, 2016.

Wmu Board Of Trustees Informal Session April, 22, 2016, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Minutes of the WMU Board of Trustees meeting include appendices:

• Approval of the Minutes of the March 25 Formal Session
• Property Purchase with Eaton Corporation
• Residency Policy - for Admissions and/or Tuition and Fee Purposes
• Student Room and Board Rates 2015-2016 (ROLL CALL)
• Personnel Report
• Gift Report
• Grant Report
• Program Recommendation

Understanding The Surface Induced Phosphorylation Of Prebiotic Molecules By Schreibersite, Danna Qasim

Master of Science in Chemical Sciences Theses

The study of the surface of a meteoritic mineral, schreibersite (Fe,Ni)₃P, was investigated to provide insight into the role of the mineral’s surface in aqueous-phase phosphorylation reactions. The optimization of a custom-designed ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) apparatus and Fe₂NiP (schreibersite) surface was performed to permit surface science analysis. The bare surface was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which showed some oxidation and segregation of phosphorous within the near-surface region. The interaction and/or reaction of water (H₂O), methanol (CH₃OH), formic acid …

Fearless Friday: Laila Mufty, Laila M. Mufty

SURGE

In today’s Fearless Friday, Surge would like to honor the work of Laila Mufty ‘18. Laila is a sophomore from the Bay Area in California and is majoring in Environmental Studies. Currently, she is one of the CPS Program Coordinators with Big Brothers Big Sisters and is the Immersion Project Leader for the New Orleans trip in May focused on the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. In addition to her work with CPS, Laila participates in multiple cultural organizations on campus and has volunteered with El Centro, Painted Turtle Farm and Casa de la Cultura. Laila has also written and …

Home Range And Habitat Use Of Foraging Gray Bats (Myotis Grisescens) From Five Maternity Sites In Northern Arkansas, Patrick Ryan Moore

Student Theses and Dissertations

Gray bats (Myotis grisescens) were listed as endangered in 1976 because of declining populations resulting from cave disturbance. The Gray Bat Recovery Plan recommends further study on foraging habits and home range. Yet, few data exist partly because gray bats have large home ranges, making ground-based tracking methods problematic. Accordingly, the objective was to assess gray bats’ foraging habits using aerial tracking. In 2014-2015, five maternity sites in Arkansas were harp-trapped, and 112 adult reproductive female gray bats were radio-tracked from a Cessna 182 Skylane, gathering 1,293 time-independent locations from June 15-July 15. Fixed-kernel density with least square cross validation …

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2016, 136th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program

Aeronautics and Space Science

Chemistry and Physics

Collegiate Academy: Biology

Earth Science

Biological and Medical Sciences

Anthropology

Collegiate Academy: Chemistry and Physics

Environmental Sciences

Aeronautics and Space Science, Poster Session

Maiben Memorial Lecture: Juliane Soukup, “Riboswitches Turn Students onto Research” Teaching of Science and Mathematics

Applied Science and Technology

History and Philosophy of Science

Acoustic Repertoire Of Sperm Whale (Physeter Macrocephalus) Bachelor Groups In The Waters Surrounding Ischia, Italy (Tyrrhenian Sea), Cristina M. Ledon

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The subpopulation of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the Mediterranean Sea is presently list as “Endangered”. This study is an attempt to provide detailed data on sperm whale Bachelor Groups surrounding Ischia, Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Mediterranean Sea). 24 hours, 38 minutes, and 38 seconds of sperm whale Bachelor Group acoustic data was analyzed in order to describe acoustic repertoire, classify behavioral associations to acoustic types, and identify habitat-use. The data showed that the acoustic repertoire of sperm whale Bachelor Groups is dominated by Usual Clicks. Additionally, a click type that maintains an inter-click interval (ICI) in …

Tev Gamma-Ray Observations Of The Galactic Center Ridge By Veritas, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al

Physical Sciences Publications

The Galactic Center ridge has been observed extensively in the past by both GeV and TeV gamma-ray instruments revealing a wealth of structure, including a diffuse component and the point sources G0.9+0.1 (a composite supernova remnant) and Sgr A* (believed to be associated with the supermassive black hole located at the center of our Galaxy). Previous very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray observations with the H.E.S.S. experiment have also detected an extended TeV gamma-ray component along the Galactic plane in the >300 GeV gamma-ray regime. Here we report on observations of the Galactic Center ridge from 2010 to 2014 by the …

Daily Eastern News: April 22, 2016, Eastern Illinois University

April

No abstract provided.

Dango (Doings And Goings On) - Vol. 22 | Issue 1, Matthew Kimball, Haley Stien, Cecily Towell, Rusty Towell, Aric Tate, Caleb Hicks, Zhaojia Xi, Joshua Daniel Martinez, Shon Watson, Paul Carstens, Mike Daugherity, Donald Isenhower

DANGO: Doings and Goings On: Summer Research Newsletter, Department of Engineering and Physics

Summer Research Newsletter for ACU's Engineering and Physics Department

Geogenic Cadmium Pollution And Potential Health Risks, With Emphasis On Black Shale, Yizhang Liu, Tangfu Xiao, Robert Perkins, Jianming Zhu, Zhengjie Zhu, Yan Xiong, Zengping Ning

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential trace element that is toxic to humans. Previous studies of Cd in the environment have primarily focused on pollution resulted from anthropogenic sources, but little is known on naturally occurring sources of Cd. This paper aims to review the geochemical distribution of geogenic Cd and associated environmental risk. The source, accumulation, mobility, transportation, and health risk of Cd are discussed in a geo-environmental perspective, with an emphasis on black shale soils. Cadmium generally occurs in sulfides in black shale, and is easily released when exposed to oxygen and water. Leaching of these rocks tends to …

Geographic And Depth Distributions Of Decapod Shrimps (Caridea: Oplophoridae) From The Northeastern Gulf Of Mexico With Notes On Ontogeny And Reproductive Seasonality, Eric A. Burdett

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the first description of the geographic and depth distributions of pelagic decapod shrimps in the area located around the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, based on the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) NRDA (National Resource Damage Assessment) trawl samples collected from April – June, 2011. This information is important in ecosystem models investigating trophic effects of the spill because pelagic decapod shrimp are consumed by a variety of organisms occupying higher trophic levels. One of the most abundant and diverse groups of decapods is the Family Oplophoridae. Their roles in pelagic food webs in the Gulf of …

Dueling-Hmm Analysis On Masquerade Detection, Peter Chou

Master's Projects

Masquerade detection is the ability to detect attackers known as masqueraders that intrude on another user’s system and pose as legitimate users. Once a masquerader obtains access to a user’s system, the masquerader has free reign over whatever data is on that system. In this research, we focus on masquerade detection and user classi cation using the following two di erent approaches: the heavy hitter approach and 2 di erent approaches based on hidden Markov models (HMMs), the dueling-HMM and threshold-HMM strategies.

The heavy hitter approach computes the frequent elements seen in the training data sequence and test data sequence …

Observation Of The Decay B0s→K0¯K0, B. Pal Et Al

Faculty Articles

We measure the decay B0s→K0¯K0 using data collected at the Υ(5S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e− collider. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 121.4  fb−1. We measure a branching fraction B(B0s→K0¯K0)=[19.6+5.8−5.1(stat)±1.0(syst)±2.0(NB0s¯B0s)]×10−6 with a significance of 5.1 standard deviations. This measurement constitutes the first observation of this decay

Hallmarks Of The Mott-Metal Crossover In The Hole-Doped Pseudospin-1/2 Mott Insulator Sr2Iro4, Yue Cao, Qiang Wang, Justin A. Waugh, Theodore J. Reber, Haoxiang Li, Xiaoqing Zhou, Stephen Parham, S. -R. Park, Nicholas C. Plumb, Eli Rotenberg, Aaron Bostwick, Jonathan D. Denlinger, Tongfei Qi, Michael A. Hermele, Gang Cao, Daniel S. Dessau

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The physics of doped Mott insulators remains controversial after decades of active research, hindered by the interplay among competing orders and fluctuations. It is thus highly desired to distinguish the intrinsic characters of the Mott-metal crossover from those of other origins. Here we investigate the evolution of electronic structure and dynamics of the hole-doped pseudospin-1/2 Mott insulator Sr₂IrO₄. The effective hole doping is achieved by replacing Ir with Rh atoms, with the chemical potential immediately jumping to or near the top of the lower Hubbard band. The doped iridates exhibit multiple iconic low-energy features previously observed …

Upper Albian To Lower Cenomanian Calcareous Nannofossil Biostratigraphy Of The Proto-North Atlantic, Shamar Chin

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Lower Cenomanian calcareous nannofossil assemblages from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Sites 137 and 547 in the proto-North Atlantic Ocean were analyzed quantitatively to examine the fidelity of the widely used CC and UC calcareous nannofossil Zonal schemes. Datasets from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) holes 1050C and 1052E (Blake Nose) and Tanzania Drilling Project (TDP) Site 24 were integrated into this dataset. Four biozones spanning the upper Albian through middle Cenomanian were determined using the method of unitary associations (UA). Data were also used from these sequences to generate a ranking and scaling (RASC) optimum sequence. A new reliability index …

Effects Of Creatine, Leucine, And Ethanol On Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor In C2c12 Skeletal Muscle Cells, Daniel Waters

Honors Theses

Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF) is a protein expressed throughout the mammalian nervous system that serves several protective functions. Originally discovered in the brain, where it supports the survival of dopaminergic neurons, GDNF has since been shown to be expressed in skeletal muscle and is vital for the maintenance of motor neurons. The relationship between muscle hypertrophy, and GDNF is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between hypertrophy and GDNF by inducing hypertrophy in C2C12 skeletal muscle cells using leucine and creatine, inhibiting hypertrophy using ethanol and measuring GDNF content. As measured …

Preschool Predictors Of School-Age Academic Achievement In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Lauren Miller

Master's Theses

Objective: Characterization of academic functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), particularly predictors of achievement, may have important implications for intervention. The current study aimed to characterize achievement profiles, confirm associations between academic ability and concurrent intellectual and social skills, and explore preschool predictors of school-age academic achievement in a sample of children with ASD.

Method: Children with ASD (N = 26) were evaluated at the approximate ages of two, four, and ten years. Multiple regression was used to predict school-age academic achievement in reading and mathematics from both concurrent (i.e., school-age) and preschool variables.

Results: Children with …

Audio Software (Vst Plugin) Development With Practical Application, Zachary Hummel

Honors Theses

Audio engineers around the world routinely utilize small pieces of software, known as “plugins,” to help shape the sound of the media they are working with. These plugins are inserted into a digital audio workstation (DAW) and contain digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms that can affect audio in a number of ways limited only by the creativity of the software developer. Common implementations of plugins include equalizers, compressors and limiters, gain, phase rotation or polarity inversion algorithms, reverb and delay, and emulation of the non-linearities of analog audio equipment. The intent of this thesis project is to design and produce …

Estimation Of Surface Soil Moisture In Irrigated Lands By Assimilation Of Landsat Vegetation Indices, Surface Energy Balance Products, And Relevance Vector Machines, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Andres M. Ticlavilca, Roula Bachour, Mac Mckee

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Spatial surface soil moisture can be an important indicator of crop conditions on farmland, but its continuous estimation remains challenging due to coarse spatial and temporal resolution of existing remotely-sensed products. Furthermore, while preceding research on soil moisture using remote sensing (surface energy balance, weather parameters, and vegetation indices) has demonstrated a relationship between these factors and soil moisture, practical continuous spatial quantification of the latter is still unavailable for use in water and agricultural management. In this study, a methodology is presented to estimate volumetric surface soil moisture by statistical selection from potential predictors that include vegetation indices and …

Prime Of My Life, Roxanne Harmon

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

A creative reflection on mathematics and body image.

Evaluation Of Groundwater Quality In Paleozoic Aquifers Using Gis Techniques, Central Texas, Garrett R. Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lab analyses of groundwater chemistry from monitoring wells completed in the Paleozoic Aquifers surrounding the Llano Uplift of Central Texas has been recorded and made available to the public through the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). This study evaluated the results of these data dating back to the 1940s to determine changes over time, the dynamics of the hydrologic system, and the locations where hydraulic connectivity is most probable. The initial results established two distinct hydrologic systems that required the separation of the northern from the southern region. The northern sub-region (NSR) contains the largest expanse of continuity of both …

Graduating Seniors Ready To Tackle What’S Next, Kim Hill

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

Brainsens: Body-Worn Reconfigurable Architecture Of Integrated Network Sensors, Ruhi Mahajan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Body sensor network (BSN) is a promising technology to monitor neurophysiological data in naturalistic settings. Existing BSNs with wearable Electroencephalogram (EEG) to record neurological activities have limitations in terms of modularity, scalability, and flexibility in deployment. Also, EEG signals are often contaminated with ocular artifacts (OA) like eye-blinks that must be cleaned prior to the signal analysis. The current OA denoising techniques require human supervision that limits automation. The key objectives of this research were: (1) to design an unsupervised and fully-automatic algorithm for denoising eye-blinks in multi-channel EEG, (2) to investigate EEG modularization by eliminating the requirement of driven-right-leg …

Proceedings Of The 128th Annual Meeting Of The Iowa Academy Of Science [Abstracts & Program, 2016], Iowa Academy Of Science.

Annual Meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science [Programs & Abstracts]

Contains information about the schedule and presentations for the 2016 annual meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science, including abstracts.

Exploring The Nexus Of Students' Academic And Employment Experiences, Ryan M. Patterson

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis focuses on the experiences of college students who are balancing the multiple responsibilities of a full-time student while concurrently being employed 20 hours or more a week. Literature related to the experience of working students provided some insight regarding the impact of work on academics, however, previous research relied primarily on quantitative data. The research that exists largely fails to represent the voices of working students. The results of this study contribute to the literature by describing the positive and negative experiences that exist for students at the nexus of their academics and employment.

Using a qualitative, collective …

Reducing Nitrate Pollution By Redirecting Farm Runoff Into The Subsurface Of An Herbaceous Riparian Buffer Zone., Tamru Girma Taye

Theses and Dissertations

In areas dominated by agricultural land use, excess nitrate is one of the leading contributors to water pollution. Tile drains, installed to drain crop root zones for maximum yield, fast track the introduction of nitrate-laden water into a nearby stream. Due to the risks elevated levels of nitrate pose to an ecosystem and its inhabitants, the following project explores a method of reducing nitrate pollution. One that can do it as close to the source of the pollution as possible.

A tile draining a 60acre farm in central Illinois was redirected to discharge its contents through subsurface flow into an …

Spin Polarisation Oft ̄Tγγproduction At Nlo+Ps With Gosam Interfaced To Madgraph5_Amc@Nlo, Hans Van Deurzen, Rikkert Frederix, Valentin Hirschi, Gionata Luisoni, Pierpaolo Mastrolia, Giovanni Ossola

Publications and Research

We present an interface between the multipurpose Monte Carlo toolMadGraph5_aMC@NLOand the automated amplitude generator GoSam. As a first application of this novel framework, we compute the NLO corrections topp→t ̄tHandpp→t ̄tγγmatched to a parton shower. In the phenomenological analyses of these processes, we focus our attention on observables which are sensitive to the polarisation of the top quarks.