Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Spectral Observations Of The 2019 South American Total Solar Eclipse, Sarah Auriemma

Honors Program Theses and Projects

On July 2, 2019, a total solar eclipse was visible in parts of Chile and Ar-gentina. I joined the Solar Wind Sherpas, an international group of scientists,engineers, students, and eclipse enthusiasts, to South America to make obser-vations of the solar corona (the Sun’s upper atmosphere) during the eclipse.The Sherpas were split into three teams along the path of totality and my groupwas stationed at Mamalluca Observatory in Vicuna, Chile. One of the instru-ments we used at this side was a three-channel (red, green, and blue) spectrom-eter designed by A. Ding, of Hawai’i’s Institute for Astronomy. Spectra from thecorona can be …

Modeling The Global Plastic Pollution In Our Oceans, Anna Fateiger

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Plastic is everywhere—from our plastic bottles and straws to the inside of our phones and the clothes we wear every day. Its widespread use has left a legacy of trash, with large amounts of plastic spilling from landfills into oceans. The accumulation of plastic debris in our oceans has severely affected marine life and has even entered into the human food chain. In this project, we created a mathematical model to estimate global plastic waste-generation and ocean runoff using existing data from 1980 to 2015. Using a dynamic system, we calculated the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills …

Demonstrating And Testing The Deutsch-Jozsa Quantum Algorithm Towards The Realization Of Quantum Computing At Bsu, John J. Gilmore Jr.

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The world is changing, and fast. Quantum computing and photonic engineering are revolutionary new technologies that could change the way humans interact with information; though the eld hasn't always been that way. As with most new elds, proof of concept is needed to show that this new technology isn't just hear to stay, but it's hear to take the lead. In this, nothing is more important the the Deutsch-Jozsa Quantum algorithm; as it did just that . The majority of this research paper revolves around understanding the very essence of quantum computing. As the eld of quantum computing is in …

The Effect Of Chirality On Dna Threading: Exploring Binuclear Ruthenium Lntercalators Using Optical Tweezers, Adam A. Jabak

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Using optical tweezers, we have been able to study the interactions of small molecules and prospective cancer drugs with DNA. One type of these molecules, known as threading intercalators, has a flat planar intercalating moiety in between the molecule’s bulky ancillary supporting ligands. In order to bind with DNA, they have to thread their bulky ancillary ligands in between the DNA base pairs. Due to this requirement for binding, these molecules tend to have high binding affinities and slow kinetics. In this thesis, we explore the binding properties of a ruthenium-based threading intercalator -[μ-bidppz(phen)4Ru2]4+, or -P for short. The goal …

Examining The Effect Of El Nino Phenomena And Pacific Sea Surface Temperature On The Climate Of The Glacierized White Mountains In Peru, Emily Reardon

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a correlation between the El Ni~no Southern Oscillation, sea surface temperatures (SST) and the climate of the Rio Santa Basin. This study is an important step in understanding the dynamics of the glaciers as a critical control on hydrological features in alpine Andes Valleys. Temperature and precipitation measurements pulled from ground based weather stations in the Rio Santa drainage basin were aggregated, synchronized, and correlated with the changes in the Pacific ocean SST o the coast of Peru and into the central Pacific. The expectation is that we will …

Image Processing Of Narrow Band Solar Eclipse Data Using Python And Maxim Dl, Rydia Hayes-Huer

Honors Program Theses and Projects

On July 2, 2019, a total solar eclipse (TSE) was observable from Chile and Argentina. In Chile, I worked alongside the Solar Wind Sherpas, an international group led by Dr. Shadia Habbal from the University of Hawai'i Institute for Astronomy, to make observations of the solar corona and gather information about its elemental composition. Narrow band data were collected for Fe XI, Fe XIV, and Ar X. Data collected during TSE observations can be used to help solve two puzzles in solar physics: the coronal heating problem and the mechanisms responsible for the fast and slow solar winds. Narrow band …

Building A Light Current Voltage Characterization Setup For Pulsed Laser Diodes, Alec A. Milford

Honors Program Theses and Projects

III-V laser dies are the main integrated light sources used in photonic integrated chips (PIC). Before incorporating these lasers in PICs, it is important to measure their performance and efficiency. The efficiency of these devices can be calculated from their light-current-voltage (L-I-V) characteristics. In this thesis, I will assemble the components of the probe station for the pulsed LIV setup, which are the pulse generator to drive the laser with current, temperature controller device to vary the laser’s operating temperature, and optical spectrum analyzer in order to characterize the laser’s emission wavelength. Initially this thesis was meant to report how …

Theory Of Linear Models For Estimating Regression Parameters With Applications To Two-Factor Studies With Unequal Sample Sizes, Zenan Sun

Honors Program Theses and Projects

In this thesis we explored some topics in regression analysis. In particular, we studied what linear regression is from a matrix theory perspective, and applied analysis of variance in a setting with two factors and unbalanced sample sizes. In addition, we applied Box-Cox variable transformation as a solution when the regression model violated the normality and equal variance (also called homoscedasticity) assumption. Our main goal is to use these theories to construct models and investigate questions related to lifetime earnings of people living in America by using real data. In doing so, we used the statistical software R to perform …

Finite Field Dynamics: Exploring Isomorphic Graphs And Cycles Of Length P, Catlain Mccarthy

Honors Program Theses and Projects

For this project, we explore nite eld dynamics and the various patterns of cycles of elements that emerge from the manipulation of a function and eld. Given a function f : Fp 􀀀! Fp, we can create a directed graph with an edge from c to f(c) for all c 2 Fp. We especially consider polynomials of the form f(x) = xd + c and investigate how varying the values of d and c affect the cycles in a given nite eld, Fp. We analyze data to look for graphs that result in cycles of length p. We also identify …

Synthesis Of Novel Reiii And Rev Metallointercalator Complexes For Use As Dna Damage Probes, Eli Schwartz

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Cancer is a disease that affects millions around the globe. Treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy are often used to treat cancerous tumors, but are not 100% effective in curing the patient. Alternatively, some research groups have proposed the use of metallointercalators, metal complexes consisting of a rhodium, ruthenium, or iridium metal center with bidentate supporting ligands such as bipyridine and phenanthroline, or tridentate ligands such as terpyridine. The complexes also contain a bidentate intercalating group such as dipyridophenazine. These complexes possess the ability to directly bind to DNA through intercalation between the stacks of DNA base pairs, giving them …

Synthesis Of A Protein Based Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production System, Alexander M. Brown

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing humans today. It is scientifically established that the production of copious amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primarycause of global warming. Many of these greenhouse gases are produced from the combustion of carbon-based fuels and researchers are investigating promising alternative fuel sources such as hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas is a clean burning fuel that stores a significant amount of chemical potential energy. The goal of this project was to synthesize a protein based photocatalytic hydrogen production system and to characterize the effects of modifications …

A Survey Of Dark Matter Candidates And Relations To Particle Physics And General Relativity, Tyler Martell

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Cosmological observations of certain galaxies suggest that the amount of known, measured matter accounted for by the Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM) in those systems is insufficient to account for galactic mechanics (orbital paths and velocities). These observations have led physicists to believe that either General Relativity (GR) is incomplete, or that there exist new sources of yet-to-be detected matter, that may or may not be consistent with SM, called dark matter. Neither GR nor the SM can alone be considered complete theories of the universe for GR is not quantum

mechanical and the SM does not include GR. …

Bounding The Rates Of Convergence Towards The Extreme Value Distributions, James Palmer

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Extreme value theory is a branch of probability which examines the extreme outliers of probability distributions. Three extreme value distributions arise as the limits of the maxima of sequences of random variables with certain properties. In this paper, we will first give information about these three distributions and prove that they are the only limit distributions of maxima. After that, we switch to a discussion about Stein's method. Stein's method is commonly used to prove central limit theorems. Stein's method also develops bounds on the distance between probability distributions with regards to a probability metric. There are three essential steps …

Modified Ramsey Numbers, Meaghan Mahoney

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Ramsey theory is a eld of study named after the mathematician Frank P. Ramsey. In general, problems in Ramsey theory look for structure amid a collection of unstructured objects and are often solved using techniques of Graph Theory. For a typical question in Ramsey theory, we use two colors, say red and blue, to color the edges of a complete graph, and then look for either a complete subgraph of order n whose edges are all red or a complete subgraph of order m whose edges are all blue. The minimum number of vertices needed to guarantee one of these …

Implementation Of Computational Chemistry As Part Of The Physical Chemistry Curriculum, Erica Hess

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Physical chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that focuses on the study of matter at the molecular and atomic level. Since physical chemistry provides foundational knowledge necessary to explain concepts ranging from atomic to molecular structure, chemical reactions and dynamics, to spectroscopy properties of chemical and biochemical systems, it has deeper connections to all other sub-fields of chemistry. Therefore, it is imperative for undergraduate students within chemical science baccalaureate degree programs have a comprehensive understanding of physical chemistry concepts. However, many students taking physical chemistry at an undergraduate level often cannot see its inherent connections to other chemistry sub-disciplines. This …

Firefighter Problem Played On Infinite Graphs, Sarah Days-Merrill

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The Firefighter Problem was introduced over 30 years ago and continues to be studied by researchers today. The problem consists of a graph of interest where a fire breaks out at time t = 0 on any given vertex of thegraph G. The player, then, gets to place a firefighter to “protect” a vertex from the fire. Each consecutive turn,the fire spreads to adjacent vertices. These vertices are then referred to as “burned”. The firefighter also gets tomove to protect an additional, unburned vertex, completing the first round. Each vertex that the firefighter “defends” stays protected for the remainder …

The Education Of Digital Design For Children, Neha Kharidi

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Digital design is a set of rules stating how computer software and hardware are joined together and interact to make a computer work. This is an important area of study that should be made more accessible to children, particularly of the middle school age. Although middle schools do provide access to computer science software, access to the hardware aspect is nonexistent. In this project, I proposed to create a mock up for an android app that aims to teach children beginner concepts in digital design. It is my goal to one day create an app in order to bring these …

Analyzing And Estimating Cyberattack Trends By Performing Data Mining On A Cybersecurity Data Set, Chan Young Koh

Honors Program Theses and Projects

More than five billion personal information has been compromised over the past eight years through data breaches from notable companies, and the damage related to cybercrime is expected to reach six trillion USD annually by the year of 2021. Interestingly, recent cyberattacks were aimed specifically at credit agencies and companies that hold credit information of their customers and employees. The question is: “Why is it difficult to protect against or evade cyberattacks even for these prestigious companies?”. The purpose of this research is to bring the notion of notorious, rapidly-multiplying cyberthreats. Hence, the research focuses on analyzing cyberattack techniques and …