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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Environmental Justice Issues And Sea Level Rise In Frontline Communties Along The Gulf Coast, Karla Michel Lopez Dec 2021

Environmental Justice Issues And Sea Level Rise In Frontline Communties Along The Gulf Coast, Karla Michel Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Sea level rise poses a great threat to coastal areas and our way of life. As flooding increases in frequency and intensity across the country, vulnerable populations become a target to its impacts. The U.S. dedicates much research to risk communication and climate change adaptation strategies; however, these coastal areas are home to a large percentage of underserved and underrepresented communities that can be challenging to meaningfully engage. The impacts of short-term sea level rise combined with long-term sea level rise will not only cause flooding, erosion, and intrusion of saltwater into freshwater resources but also increased financial consequences, such …


Synthesis, Characterization, And Direct-Ink-Writing Of Syntactic Foams, Andrea Irigoyen Dec 2021

Synthesis, Characterization, And Direct-Ink-Writing Of Syntactic Foams, Andrea Irigoyen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project encompasses three different methods to fabricate syntactic foams using a PDMS matrix i.e., hollow spheres inclusion, pore generator leaching by solvent, and emulsion. The foam formation by using polysiloxane hollow spheres is done in a 3-step process. The first step is to create a core of polystyrene following a dispersion polymerization process. The goal for the size of the pore is to monodisperse and have an average diameter of 5-10 μm, so the polystyrene core must be as well within that range. After that, the cores are coated with a polysiloxane shell by following a polymerization by condensation …


Articulating The Importance Of Broader Relevance In Cures: From Definition To Actualization, Nikki T. Donegan Aug 2021

Articulating The Importance Of Broader Relevance In Cures: From Definition To Actualization, Nikki T. Donegan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have emerged as a means to foster student' scientific reasoning, promote positive attitudes and motivations toward research, and increase persistence in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In contrast to prescriptive laboratories, students enrolled in CUREs employ techniques and skills to collaboratively and iteratively address novel questions of broad relevance to audiences beyond the scope of the course itself. While many of the core components of CUREs are perceived to be relatively straightforward, definitionally-speaking, this latter dimension of broader relevance has, in contrast, remained largely ill-defined. In the series of studies presented herein, …


Shall We Ignore All Intermediate Grades?, Christian Servin, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich May 2021

Shall We Ignore All Intermediate Grades?, Christian Servin, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In most European universities, the overall student's grade for a course is determined exclusively by this student's performance on the final exam. All intermediate grades -- on homework, quizzes, and previous texts -- are, in effect, ignored. This arrangement helps gauge the student's performance by the knowledge that the student shows at the end of the course. The main drawback of this approach is that some students do not start studying until later, thinking that they can catch up and even get an excellent grade -- and this hurts their performance. To motivate students to study hard throughout the semester, …


How To Teach Advanced Highly Motivated Students: Teaching Strategy Of Iosif Yakovlevich Verebeichik, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich May 2021

How To Teach Advanced Highly Motivated Students: Teaching Strategy Of Iosif Yakovlevich Verebeichik, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

The paper describes and explains the teaching strategy of Iosif Yakovlevich Verebeichik, a successful mathematics teacher at special mathematical high schools -- schools for students interested in and skilled in mathematics. The resulting strategy seems counterintuitive and contrary to all the pedagogical advice. Our explanation is not complete: it worked well for this teacher, but others who tried to follow seemingly the same strategy did not succeed. How he made it work, how can others make it work -- this is still not clear. In the words of Verebeichik himself, while mathematics itself is a science, teaching mathematics is an …


How To Best Write Research Papers: Basic English? Sophisticated English?, Martine Ceberio, Christian Servin, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich Mar 2021

How To Best Write Research Papers: Basic English? Sophisticated English?, Martine Ceberio, Christian Servin, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Instructors from English department praise our students when they use the most sophisticated grammatical constructions and the most appropriate (often rarely used) words -- as long as this helps better convey all the subtleties of the meaning. On the other hand, we usually teach the students to use the most primitive Basic English when writing our papers -- this way, the resulting paper will be most accessible to the international audience. Who is right? In this paper, we analyze this question by using a natural model -- inspired by Zipf's law -- and we conclude that to achieve the largest …