Digital Commons Network^™

The Invisible Shield: Why Our Stomach Doesn’T Digest Itself, Kevon Findley

Mathematics and System Engineering Student Publications

The stomach contains highly acidic gastric fluid with a very low pH.  A thin mucus lining protects the stomach from self-digestion and keeps nearby epithelial cells near a pH 7.  A weakened mucus layer is associated with conditions such as Gastritis and Peptic Ulcer Disease.

How can the protective mucus barrier be maintained and be of stable thickness?

Bptf-Dependent Regulation Of Vaccine-Induced B Cell Responses, Alexandria Sturtz

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Vaccination is a method of safely generating highly specific, long-lived immunological memory that can protect a host upon future exposures to a pathogen. Memory B cells (MBCs) and high-affinity plasma cells (PCs) are pivotal populations generated during vaccine-induced immune responses as they provide rapid secondary immune responses upon antigen re-exposure. MBCs and PCs can both be produced by germinal centers (GCs), which are microanatomical structures where B cells undergo iterative rounds of somatic hypermutation and affinity-based selection. Regulation of the GC is complex and the network of factors that controls the identity, function, and magnitude of the GC B cell …

Pepper Spray Exposure And The Effect On Dna Profiling Of Blood, Brandon Schmakel

Honors Projects

Pepper spray is a common self defense tool used in both law enforcement and civilian settings, with the goal of incapacitating the sprayed individual. In real casework where pepper spray was used, a red-brown stain which tested positive presumptively for blood provided no DNA profile after further testing six months later. A previous graduate student, Emma Crawn, attempted to emulate these casework conditions and instead achieved a DNA profile with slight indications of inhibition or degradation. Further analysis of active pepper spray ingredients such as Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) and Chloroacetophenone (CN) reveals that there are observed reactions, such as oxidation, …

Crimson Skies And Another Pale Blue Dot: Can Life Begin Again?, Ingrid R. Carrasco, Joseph Mocerino

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Enceladus is one of the most promising moons in our Solar System for housing an environment necessary for prebiotic synthesis or life itself. This is due to the fact that aqueous plumes ejecting form the subsurface ocean penetrate the ice shell dispersing water and subsequent organics (if present). We hypothesize that as our Sun evolves into a red giant, the increase in stellar flux will result in higher average temperatures leading to increase the potential of habitability for Enceladus.

Exploration Of Thermal Management Using The Random Close Packing Of Binary Hard Spheres, Niru Shakya

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Thermal Interface Materials (TIMs), such as pastes, resins, and glues, are designed to transfer heat away from sensitive electronic components. Current TIMs in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) at the LHC use radiation-hard resins doped with single-diameter (20um) diamond spheres. These spheres act as thermal fillers and conduct heat away through contact. In order to maximize probability of this contact, the occupied volume fraction of these spheres must be maximized. It is theoretically accepted that mixing sphere sizes can increase the volume fraction.

The Three-Dimensional Spherical Quantum Harmonic Oscillator: A Theoretical Exploration, Aurora M. Bowman

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

The three-dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator is analyzed in spherical coordinates. The Schrödinger equation is solved using separation of variables. The system exhibits a quantized energy spectrum determined by quantum numbers.  Results describe the structure of radial and angular wavefunctions.

Analyzing Hst Observations Of Ngc 6251, Ean Deuschle

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

NGC 6251 is a giant elliptical radio galaxy (gEr) ~340 Mly away, hosting an AGN that produces one of the most noteworthy relativistic jets known. Using archival WFPC2 and NICMOS data, obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA), we will present an analysis of NGC6251’s structure, dust distribution, and stellar population, to better understand the relationship between the object’s primary morphologies.

Silent Skies, N. Sawhney, J. Strank, A. Brownie, A. Bakhouch, T. Vogt, J. Lane, D. Kramer

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Aircraft noise remains a key challenge in aviation due to its environmental and regulatory impacts. • Project Silent Skies investigates noise reduction through passive serrated trailing edges and an active feedforward ANC system integrated into a modular RC aircraft. • The goal is to achieve ≥ 3 dBA noise reduction while maintaining aerodynamic performance.

Bolide Analysis Using Ground And Jpl Cneos Data, Adrianna Patton, Cassidy Mink

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Bolides (fireballs) are meteors that explode in the atmosphere upon impact, producing an extremely bright, high-energy event, and sometimes leave recoverable fragments The project aims to develop a new analysis pipeline using JPL CNEOS government sensor data.

Argos (Advanced Robotic Gimbal And Orbital Simulator), Sophia Cherry, Tyler Davis, Seth Busche, Dj Benefield, Priyansh Dholakia, Nathan Scott, Jonathan Feliz

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

System Overview ARGOS is a 6-actuator Stewart Platform with an added rotary component. Objectives: • The test stand shall provide at least three rotational DOF. • The satellite model shall be capable of a continuous 360° yaw rotation. • The platform shall rotate about the roll axis to at least 35°. • The platform shall rotate about the pitch axis to at least 35°. • The satellite model’s main body shall have at least one dimension of 460 mm or greater. • When operated inside a space simulation environment, the test stand shall not create bias within the computer vision

Frost (Free-Fall Responsive Operator For Simulating Thermofluid), Whitney Salpietro, Titus Janshon, Jackson Jones, Daniel Ofenbakh, Nathan Halmans, Gavin Devaney, Alessandro Leita, Isabella Valencia Zamora

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Fluid movement in spacecraft fuel tanks poses dangers such as overpressure and vapor ingestion into rocket engines and is difficult to simulate using CFD. By replicating microgravity conditions and recording simulant fluid slosh, areas for refining CFD analyses can be identified, ultimately improving how spacecraft fuel tanks are developed.

Color-Magnitude Diagrams As A Diagnostic Tool Of Nebular Gas Structure, Cameron Hasara, Koen Schenck

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

The interaction between young stellar populations and surrounding molecular gas governs the morphology and evolution of star-forming regions. In planetary nebulae, strong radiative feedback, stellar winds, and dynamical motions yield complex structures in nebular gas that are often sought and identified through traditional narrowband imaging and spectroscopy. Here, we repurpose Color–Magnitude Diagrams (CMD’s) as diagnostic tools for nebular structure rather than stellar classification.

Cryoslosh, K. Barrett, J. Dembinskischeif, C. Gonzalez, A. Hardesty, I. Johnson, R. Niebuhr, M. Page, B. Shaw, M. Tristan

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

A lack of experimental data on cryogenic fluid behavior in space limits the design of safe, efficient systems for space missions. The team is tasked with producing accurate data to validate current CFD simulations regarding the slosh of cryogenic fluids in reduced gravity effects.

The True Interstellar Anisotropy Of 13 Tev Cosmic Rays, Matthew Conde

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Cosmic rays (CRs) are high-energy particles; bare atomic nuclei, with varying origins and energy levels. Research in this field is focused on identifying potential origins, understanding transport mechanisms faced on their journey to Earth, and interpreting the angular structure of incident CRs. One obstacle of this research is the trajectory modulation induced by the heliosphere during the CRs’ journey. In this work we employ a method to reconstruct the properties of CRs as they were at the local interstellar medium (LISM) by means of a nonlinear model fit to the map at Earth. Another obstacle is the time-averaging used to …

Saber – Stability Analysis Through Bipropellant Engine Research, S. Conley, R. Gaulin, E. Lucas, A. Ramirez, N. Reese, W. Reinkoester, J. Sadler, W. Tinelli, B. Varozza

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Stability Analysis through Bipropellant Engine Research (SABER) is a small-scale, compressed air and propane bipropellant rocket engine designed as the test subject of a combustion instability analysis. Through various static fires at varying combustion chamber lengths, the project demonstrates that less combustion instabilities are experienced at smaller characteristic lengths.

Maximum Likelihood Light Curve Prediction Of Qpo In Mrk-421, Vanessa Cusumano

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Using RXTE (Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer) and SwiftBAT (Swift Burst Alert Telescope), I modeled the X-Ray light curve of MRK-421 to investigate the quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs). A maximum likelihood approach with a damped harmonic oscillator (DHO) model was applied to CARMAprocessed light curves. Both datasets reveal periodic behavior, with SwiftBBAT showing a smooth ~400-day signal, and RXTE producing a staggered ~700-800 day variation. Results support the presence of QPOs while highlighting instrument-dependent variability consistent with differences in sensitivity and energy range.

Porkchops And Lemmon-Ade: Trajectory And Δv Determination For Small Solar System Bodies, Michael Ferrigno, Elizabeth Hayes, Dominic Heffron

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Comets and asteroids have complex trajectories and are important for planetary defense and potential resources. Our team observed asteroid 6 Hebe (Hebe) with the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network and comets C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) and 3I/ATLAS (ATLAS) with the Ortega Observatory’s telescopes. We used a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation to determine their orbital elements, recreated their trajectories with our Orbit Visualizer, and generated porkchop plots to identify energy-efficient transfer windows. Our methods also produced simple, reusable tools that can help study small-body motion.

That’S No Moon: Understanding Technosignatures Via Simulating The Lightcurves Of Transiting Extraterrestrial Kilostructures, Emilio Lugo, Bridget Mcdermott

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Hypothesized extraterrestrial technological intelligences have been theorized to construct large structures orbiting their host star. They can be detected using their transit light curves. We trained a deep neural network on epoch photometries queried from GAIA DR3 and synthetic light curves simulated for these various theorized transiting geometries.

Panther Lunabotics, N. Vidales, A. Pomerleau, M. Gerster, I. Weisbrod, S. Hemingway, H. Elattari, G. Maccoy, G. Nehma

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

The NASA Lunabotics Competition is a NASA sponsored challenged with the purpose of creating a rover to perform a task in a simulated lunar environment. This year the challenge involves traversing a course, collecting regolith, and using said regolith to build berms at specified locations.

Modeling Of A Mitigation Strategy For Carrington Class Cmes, Jose Fuentes, Camilla Wright

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

On September 1, 1859, a powerful solar flare was observed by Richard Carrington [1]. This flare ejected highly energetic plasma, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), towards Earth. This CME impacted Earth, causing magnetic induction which seriously impacted technology. Lingam and Loeb (2017) [2] predicted that if the Carrington CME were to occur today, the economic damages to the US would be on the order of $2 trillion USD. In this work, we present an impact mitigation strategy as a sufficiently strong magnetic dipole field placed at a gravitational equilibrium point (L1) located at 1.5 Gm from Earth in the …

Virtual Simulations For Training And Astronautics Research, River Riehle, Ven Smith, Mackenzie Manchester

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Florida Tech has very robust flight simulation facilities, but primarily in aviation due to the university’s focus on flight training and aeronautics research. This leaves a gap in the ability to adequately simulate space vehicles,which overlooks a key part of astronautics research and training. Spaceflight research is one of the founding goals of FIT, so this gap is educationally and academically hindering. A new-gen Orion spacecraft simulator would bolster the university’s ability to do aerospace and astronautics operations research and allow students to gain experience they would otherwise have very little or no access to.

Exploring Possible Formation Mechanisms For Nh4sh Clouds On Jupiter, Morgan Rietmann

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Even after decades of research, much of Jupiter’s atmosphere is poorly understood. Recently, interest in a 2-3 bar cloud deck generated by a new ammonia mapping technique has exposed the very flimsy nature of the assumption that these clouds are made primarily of ammonium hydrosulfide (NH₄SH). While there is evidence to support the existence of NH₄SH at this level, its formation reaction and the interaction between this reaction and its environment has been lacking proper study. With closer inspection, the abundance of NH₃ in the atmosphere lends itself to the possible additional formation of ammonium …

Automation Of Data Analysis Of The Chandra M87 Data, Jack Becker, Kylee Fout

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Messier 87 (M87) is an elliptical galaxy known for its central black hole, and has been observed frequently over the last 20 years by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Sourcing of the reduced observational data was done through the Chandra Data Archive, a collection of data from the Chandra Telescope. The main goal of this project was to create a data analysis pipeline that identifies spectra to search for supernovae. In addition, we would like to publish the code on GitHub, which may aid future research on transient X-ray events.

High Performance Ae-Cnn Model Enhanced Via Gaussian Augmentation For Rssi-Dependent Indoor Positioning In Wireless Sensor Networks, Kahlaa K. Al-Nassrawy, Ghaidaa A Al-Sultany

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Precise indoor positioning system remains a significant challenge within Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) due to the instability and noise sensitivity of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) data. This paper proposes an advanced hybrid deep learning framework designed for 2D indoor localization, utilizing RSSI measurements to predict human or object position. Furthermore, to enhance the robustness of the model against signal variance and promote its generalization capability under this uncertainty, a data augmentation strategy is applied using three methods: Gaussian Noise Injection (GNI), Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), and Bayesian Gaussian Mixture Model (BGMM). The purpose of data augmentation is to simulate …

Human Rights Education, Racism And Early Childhood Education In Brazil: A Systematic Review, Ana Tereza Ramos De Jesus Ferreira, Juliene Madureira Ferreira

International Journal of Human Rights Education

Brazil was the last country in South America to put an end to the 388-year slave trade. To justify the trade of people from Africa, a series of actions were taken to dehumanize the Black  population, namely racism. Thus, the culture, religion, clothes, and phenotypical characteristics of Black people were considered inferior to those of the White race, and this continues to impact the lives of the Black population, which suffers from social inequality, low-quality education, and low-paid jobs up to this day. Therefore, this review aims to investigate Brazilian literature on activities in early childhood education (ECE) to fight …

Making Fun Of The Leader Of The Free World: South Park And Its Critique Of Donald Trump, Kenneth H. Mcmillen

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

South Park is one of the cornerstones of American television. It also is a show that doesn’t shy away from controversy or social commentary. In its runtime it has taken aim at celebrities, world leaders, movements, and entire groups of people. The latest of its targets is President Donald Trump, who has been one of the central subjects of the shows two 2025 seasons. To examine how these episodes manage to critique trump so thoroughly without alienating his supporters, I ask the following research question: How does South Park use parody to make critiques about Donald Trump’s ego?  I …

Current Naming Conventions For Institutional Repositories At Us Colleges And Universities, Julia Doelling

Southern Miss Institutional Repository Conference

The first, and often the most daunting, task IR administrators take on when setting up their IR for the first time is answering the question of how it should be named. This is a question that may recur throughout the life of an institution's repository as it is updated and rebranded to remain consistent with the institution's marketing. In making decisions regarding branding and naming for an IR, knowledge of the practices of colleagues in the space is essential. In this poster, I showcase the current data on names and naming conventions used in Institutional Repositories at US colleges and …

‘But I’Ll Get Back On My Feet Some Day’: Hopeful Losers In Grateful Dead Lyrics, David L. Emerson, Janet Brennan Croft

Journal of Tolkien Research

Many songs in the Grateful Dead repertoire, particularly those written by Robert Hunter but also those by other lyricists, feature “loser” characters: characters who fail, in ways mundane or spectacular, usually while simultaneously deluding themselves about their chances of success. In this presentation we examine several of these characters and their stories, applying Tolkienian terminology and concepts like ofermod, “Northern courage,” trust in providence, and eucatastrophe. We’ll compare our hopeful losers with Tolkien’s characters, who hold on to hope in the bleakest of circumstances, yet temper all hopes by acknowledging that living in the physical world is “fighting the …

The Fischer-Tropsch Process For Diesel Synthesis: A Literature Review, Mayanne W. Beach

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

Currently, the global energy grid and economy is highly dependent on crude oil, coal, and other non-renewable "fossil fuels". This dependence poses a variety of problems. The consumption of fossil fuels contributes to global warming and environmental pollution, and access to these fuels is often mired in geopolitical conflict. These roadblocks have driven a growing interest in researching the production of renewable fuels. One such production method is the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process for renewable synthesis of diesel from syngas. This review explores the FT process in detail, describing the mechanism, selectivity factors, product composition, and byproducts. The various choices of …

Visitor Recreational And Purchasing Behavior At Perrot State Park, Madeline Palmer

Research & Creative Achievement Day

There is a need to widen the diversity of visitors and to enhance recreational experiences at state parks. This study evaluated visitor-reported metrics of recreational activities, purchasing behavior, and location preferences across a demographically diverse population at Perrot State Park in Trempealeau, Wisconsin. We compared park use across age classes and influence of visitor origin (zip code) and distance traveled on type of pass purchased (day versus annual). Data was collected via online surveys administered at Perrot State Park (n=77) through social media platforms (n=125). Findings indicated that the majority of visitors were traveling from within a 35-mile radius of …