Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Kepler Flares Ii: The Temporal Morphology Of White-Light Flares On Gj 1243, James R. A. Davenport, Suzanne L. Hawley, Leslie Hebb, John P. Wisniewski, Adam F. Kowalski, Emily C. Johnson, Michael Malatesta, Jesus Paraza, Marcus Keil, Steven M. Silverberg, Tiffany C. Jansen, Matthew S. Scheffler, Jodi R. Berdis, Daniel M. Larsen, Eric J. Hilton

Physics & Astronomy

We present the largest sample of flares ever compiled for a single M dwarf, the active M4 star GJ 1243. Over 6100 individual flare events, with energies ranging from 10²⁹ to 10³³ erg, are found in 11 months of 1 minute cadence data from Kepler. This sample is unique for its completeness and dynamic range. We have developed automated tools for finding flares in short-cadence Kepler light curves, and performed extensive validation and classification of the sample by eye. From this pristine sample of flares we generate a median flare template. This template shows that two exponential …

Comparing Dense Galaxy Cluster Redshift Surveys With Weak-Lensing Maps, Ho Seong Hwang, Margaret J. Geller, Antonaldo Diaferio, Kenneth J. Rines, J. Jabran Zahid

Physics & Astronomy

We use dense redshift surveys of nine galaxy clusters at z ~ 0.2 to compare the galaxy distribution in each system with the projected matter distribution from weak lensing. By combining 2087 new MMT/Hectospec redshifts and the data in the literature, we construct spectroscopic samples within the region of weak-lensing maps of high (70%-89%) and uniform completeness. With these dense redshift surveys, we construct galaxy number density maps using several galaxy subsamples. The shape of the main cluster concentration in the weak-lensing maps is similar to the global morphology of the number density maps based on cluster members alone, mainly …

Holocene Earthquakes And Right-Lateral Slip On The Left-Lateral Darrington-Devils Mountain Fault Zone, Northern Puget Sound, Washington, Stephen F. Personius, Richard W. Briggs, Alan R. Nelson, Elizabeth R. Schermer, J. Zebulon Maharrey, Brian L. Sherrod, Sarah A. Spaulding, Lee-Ann Bradley

Geology Faculty Publications

Sources of seismic hazard in the Puget Sound region of northwestern Washington include deep earthquakes associated with the Cascadia subduction zone, and shallow earthquakes associated with some of the numerous crustal (upper-plate) faults that crisscross the region. Our paleoseismic investigations on one of the more prominent crustal faults, the Darrington–Devils Mountain fault zone, included trenching of fault scarps developed on latest Pleistocene glacial sediments and analysis of cores from an adjacent wetland near Lake Creek, 14 km southeast of Mount Vernon, Washington. Trench excavations revealed evidence of a single earthquake, radiocarbon dated to ca. 2 ka, but extensive burrowing and …

Climate Response In Near-Treeline Bristlecone Pine, Matthew W. Salzer, Evan R. Larson, Andrew Godard Bunn, Malcolm Kenneth Hughes

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

In the White Mountains of California, eight bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) tree-ring width chronologies were developed from trees at upper treeline and just below upper treeline along North- and South-facing elevational transects from treeline to ~90 m below. There is evidence for a climate-response threshold between approximately 60–80 vertical m below treeline, above which trees have shown a positive growth-response to temperature and below which they do not. Chronologies from 80 m or more below treeline show a change in climate response and do not correlate strongly with temperature-sensitive chronologies developed from trees growing at upper treeline. Rather, they more …

The Planet, 2014, Fall, Christopher Zemp, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

Sediment And Vegetation Monitoring During A Levee Removal Project On The Stillaguamish River Delta At Port Susan Bay, Wa, Alec Barber

WWU Graduate School Collection

Sea levels around the world are on the rise in due to the effects of climate change. Coastal wetlands and estuaries are at risk of being submerged as water levels continue to increase, unless they can move inland or gain surface elevation. These wetland systems provide vital ecosystem services that would be difficult or impossible to provide by other means. In the Puget Sound, Washington, 80% of the original estuarine and coastal wetland habitat has been replaced by human infrastructure, making the monitoring, preservation, and restoration of the remaining stock important both ecologically and economically. The objective of this project …

The Sdss–2mass–Wise 10 Dimensional Stellar Color Locus, James R. A. Davenport, Željko Ivezić, Andrew C. Becker, John J. Ruan, Nicholas M. Hunt-Walker, Kevin R. Covey, Alexia R. Lewis, Yusra Alsayyad, Lauren M. Anderson

Physics & Astronomy

We present the fiducial main-sequence stellar locus traced by 10 photometric colours observed by Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE). Median colours are determined using 1052 793 stars with r-band extinction less than 0.125. We use this locus to measure the dust extinction curve relative to the r band, which is consistent with previous measurements in the SDSS and 2MASS bands. The WISE band extinction coefficients are larger than predicted by standard extinction models. Using 13 lines of sight, we find variations in the extinction curve …

Assessing Water Treatment Residuals As A Filtration Media For Phosphorus Removal At Wapato Lake - Tacoma, Wa, Brian Hite, Megan Hintz

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Wapato Lake in Tacoma, WA is a 23-acre urban lake that has had problems of eutrophication and toxic algae blooms for over a hundred years. Inputs of phosphorus from both environmental and anthropogenic sources contribute to this problem. Much of the 900-acre watershed consists of residential or commercial development, increasing the amount of stormwater containing increased levels of phosphorus. Past management efforts designed to control eutrophication at Wapato included constructing a diversion structure to route phosphorus rich stormwater around the lake. This plan increased the retention time of Wapato to ≈ 8.5 years. We have been tasked by the City …

From Boat To Beach: Using Drift Cards To Improve Our Knowledge Of Ocean Currents, Areas At Risk And Oil Spill Trajectories., Andrew Rosenberger, Alexandra Woodsworth, Ross Dixon

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

In October 2013, Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Georgia Strait Alliance launched 1644 drift cards from 9 locations along the shipping route through the Salish Sea to Vancouver, British Columbia. Drift cards are 4x6” pieces of marine plywood painted bright yellow and numbered. Drift cards have historically been used to assess the way in which floating objects move in various contexts, including potential oil spills from underwater pipelines, marine park planning, sewage outflows and more. In this case, these drift cards were released in the context of Kinder Morgan’s plans to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline, which if approved would see …

Quantification Of Pharmaceuticals, Personal Care Products, And Perfluoroalkyl Substances In Elliott Bay Sediments (Seattle, Washington), Margaret Dutch, Sandra Weakland, Valerie Partridge

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) are identified as Chemicals of Emerging Concern (CECs) in Puget Sound due to their potential to cause adverse toxicological, biological, and ecological effects when introduced into the environment. Characterization of sources, transport patterns, and the fate of CECs in the environment has been prioritized as part of the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program toxics monitoring strategy. These chemicals have been detected in ground water, rivers, and streams in the Pacific Northwest and in influent, effluent, and biosolids from Puget Sound municipal wastewater treatment plants over the past decade. They were …

A Molecular Framework To Identify Novel Modes Of Action Of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds In Shellfish, Mackenzie Gavery, Steven (Steven Beyer) Roberts

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Concern over human and wildlife health has brought increased attention to a group of emerging environmental contaminants referred to as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). While progress has been made in describing the effects of these compounds, there are still gaps in our understanding of alternative modes of action and physiological effects outside of the reproductive axis, particularly in invertebrates. One way that EDCs may elicit these changes is through disruptions to normal epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetics refers to heritable processes that alter gene activity without manipulating the underlying DNA sequence. Epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation, are important regulators of gene …

Salmonid Early Response To Restored Freshwater Floodplain, Erin Morgan, Jeffery R. Cordell, Lauren Rich

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Shortly after the construction of the Hansen Creek floodplain restoration project in 2010-2011, we conducted a pilot study of the initial use of the site by juvenile salmonids and the early development of invertebrate communities. We found that juvenile Coho salmon collected from the restored floodplain during periodic inundation events had higher instantaneous rations (a measure of feeding intensity) than Coho collected during regular monthly sampling in the creek channels. The floodplain site also had consistently higher insect abundances. Applying the data and lessons learned from the pilot study, we undertook a more comprehensive 13-month study of Hansen creek and …

What Factors Impact On Primary Students Using The Internet And Media For Learning And Entertainment At Home?, Jiangyan Lu, Qiang Hao

Computer Science Faculty and Staff Publications

With the increasing affordability of Information Communication Technology (ICT), children can now access Internet from home via multiple devices. In developed countries, earlier concerns about a ‘digital divide’ among children due to inequalities in access to ICT have been replaced by concerns on ways they use ICT in schools and at homes (Kerawalla & Crook, 2002). However, little is known about how students use Internet to learn at home. It is generally viewed that some students engage too much time in online activities, such engaging in new media, playing games, or participating social networking, we do not know to what …

The Planet, 2014, Spring, Mikey Jane Moran, Sarah Mikkelborg, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Two Statistical Tests For Interaction In Genetic Data, Clair Smith

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper focuses on statistical methods that test for the effect of a single gene in a way that accounts for interaction with other genes. Such tests of association can be difficult since there may be many genetic and environmental factors that contribute to an effect. A gene is a hereditary DNA sequence that codes for a specific protein. A locus is a gene’s location in the DNA sequence of nucleotides (A, T, G, and C) and an allele is a specific version of a gene that has multiple forms. The existence of interactions between loci makes it difficult to …

Mechanical Testing Of Artificial Muscles, Maggie Walsh

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This document focuses on the design and fabrication of a low cost instrument to measure the strain of the artificial muscles being researched and developed by Dr. Amanda Murphy and her team at Western Washington University. The instrument utilizes a laser displacement meter to measure the movement of the artificial muscles during actuation. All project objectives and goals were successfully met, and all deliverables completed. Instrument quality and strain testing results are analyzed and recommendations for future work are suggested based on the results of the project.

Lake Whatcom Monitoring Project 2012/2013 Report, Robin A. Matthews, Michael Hilles, Joan Vandersypen, Robert J. Mitchell, Geoffrey B. Matthews, Katherine Beeler

Lake Whatcom Annual Reports

This report is part of an on-going series of annual reports and special project reports that document the Lake Whatcom monitoring program. This work is conducted by the Institute for Watershed Studies and other departments at Western Washington University.

The major objective of this program is to provide long-term baseline water quality monitoring in Lake Whatcom and selected tributaries. Each section contains brief explanations about the water quality data, along with discussions of patterns observed in Lake Whatcom.

A Redshift Survey Of The Strong-Lensing Cluster Abell 383, Margaret J. Geller, Ho Seong Hwang, Antonaldo Diaferio, Michael J. Kurtz, Dan Coe, Kenneth J. Rines

Physics & Astronomy

Abell 383 is a famous rich cluster (z = 0.1887) imaged extensively as a basis for intensive strong- and weak-lensing studies. Nonetheless, there are few spectroscopic observations. We enable dynamical analyses by measuring 2360 new redshifts for galaxies with r _Petro ≤ 20.5 and within 50' of the Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG; R.A.₂₀₀₀ = 42014125, decl.₂₀₀₀ = –03529228). We apply the caustic technique to identify 275 cluster members within 7 h ^–1 Mpc of the hierarchical cluster center. The BCG lies within –11 ± 110 km s^–1 and 21 ± 56 h ^–1 kpc of the …

Climate Risk Polycentricity And The Iad Framework, Troy D. Abel, Mark Christopher Stephan, Dorothy Daley

College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications

Climate change is commonly cast as a significant governance challenge demanding national and international actions. Subsequently, political science research tends to focus on the policy and politics of nation-states, their domestic institutions, and/or their interplay in international venues. However, thousands of industrial facilities and hundreds of subnational US governments are active in American climate risk governance. Therefore, we argue that more research should attend to climate governance’s subnational policy and politics, their promise, and their performance. In the vacuum of national policies to mitigate and adapt to climate-change, subnational arrangements offer an ideal opportunity to study not only the spontaneity …

Lake Whatcom Water Quality Summary Report September 30, 2014 (Rev. Oct 9, 2014), Institute For Watershed Studies

Lake Whatcom Other Reports

This report summarizes the preliminary water quality data collected for the Lake Whatcom monitoring project from July–September 2014. The report format has been modified to enable hyperlinks to the figures; the links are indicated using blue text.

Climate Risk Polycentricity And The Iad Framework, Troy D. Abel, Mark Stephan, Dorothy Daley

Troy D. Abel

Climate change is commonly cast as a significant governance challenge demanding national and international actions. Subsequently, political science research tends to focus on the policy and politics of nation-states, their domestic institutions, and/or their interplay in international venues. However, thousands of industrial facilities and hundreds of subnational US governments are active in American climate risk governance. Therefore, we argue that more research should attend to climate governance’s subnational policy and politics, their promise, and their performance. In the vacuum of national policies to mitigate and adapt to climate-change, subnational arrangements offer an ideal opportunity to study not only the spontaneity …

Outer Median Triangles, Árpád Bényi, Branko Ćurgus

Árpád Bényi

We define the notions of outer medians and outer median triangles. We show that outer median triangles enjoy similar properties to that of the median triangle.

Archimedes' Cattle Problem, Austin Hill

Occam's Razor

Archimedes, born nearly 2,300 years ago, is a man of legacy within the mathematical and scientific world. Known for his work in the field of hydrostatics, mathematical calculus, and geometry, Archimedes’ mathematical advancements went unrivaled for 2,000 years until the time of Isaac Newton [5]. Archimedes’ Cattle Problem is equally a test of mathematical prowess in modern history as it was during its inception. Born in Syracuse, many scholars believe that Archimedes studied in Alexandria as a young man. It was there that he was taught by the followers of Euclid and grew to know many of his life-long contemporaries …

Occam's Razor Vol. 4 - Full (2014)

Occam's Razor

No abstract provided.

Smoothing Of Commutators For A Hörmander Class Of Bilinear Pseudodifferential Operators, Árpád Bényi, Tadahiro Oh

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Commutators of bilinear pseudodifferential operators with symbols in the Hörmander class BS¹_1,0 and multiplication by Lipschitz functions are shown to be bilinear Calderón-Zygmund operators. A connection with a notion of compactness in the bilinear setting for the iteration of the commutators is also made.

A Squeeze For Two Common Sequences That Converge To E, Branko Ćurgus

Mathematics Faculty Publications

In this note, we give a direct proof that {S_n} and {P_n} converge to the same limit. The main tool in our proof is the squeeze theorem, which is probably the easiest to prove among the limit theorems. However, to use it, we need to establish a relevant squeeze, which is the main result of this note.

A Proof Of The Main Theorem On Bezoutians, Branko Ćurgus, Aad Dijksma

Mathematics Faculty Publications

We give a self-contained proof that the nullity of the Bezoutian matrix associated with a pair of polynomials f and g equals the number of their common zeros counting multiplicities.

Assessing The Flexibility Of Research-Based Instructional Strategies: Implementing Tutorials In Introductory Physics In The Lecture Environment, Mila Kryjevskaia, Andrew Boudreaux, Dustin Heins

Physics & Astronomy

Materials from Tutorials in Introductory Physics, originally designed and implemented by the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington, were used in modified form as interactive lectures under conditions significantly different from those suggested by the curriculum developers. Student learning was assessed using tasks drawn from the physics education research literature. Use of tutorials in the interactive lecture format yielded gains in student understanding comparable to those obtained through the canonical tutorial implementation at the University of Washington, suggesting that student engagement with the intellectual steps laid out in the tutorials, rather than the specific strategies used in …

Promoting And Assessing Student Metacognition In Physics, Alistair Mcinerny, Andrew Boudreaux, Mila Kryjevskaia, Sara Julin

Physics & Astronomy

A scaffolded metacognition activity was incorporated into the laboratory component of the introductory physics course at Western Washington University (WWU) and Whatcom Community College (WCC). Each week, students wrote reflectively to contrast their initial and current understanding of a specific physics topic, and described the "trigger" events that led them to change their thinking. Goals were to enhance conceptual understanding as well as the depth and quality of student reflection. A coding scheme was developed to evaluate student reflections. We present the scaffolded activity and coding scheme, as well as preliminary findings about changes in student reflection over time and …

Five Millennia Of Paleotemperature From Tree-Rings In The Great Basin, Usa, Matthew W. Salzer, Andrew Godard Bunn, Nicholas E. (Nicholas Earl) Graham, Malcolm Kenneth Hughes

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The instrumental temperature record is of insufficient length to fully express the natural variability of past temperature. High elevation tree-ring widths from Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) are a particularly useful proxy to infer temperatures prior to the instrumental record in that the tree-rings are annually dated and extend for millennia. From ring-width measurements integrated with past treeline elevation data we infer decadal- to millennial-scale temperature variability over the past 4,500 years for the Great Basin, USA. We find that twentieth century treeline advances are greater than in at least 4,000 years. There is also evidence for …