Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Economics And Game Theory, Jeremiah Patrick Prenn

Mathematics Senior Showcase 2020

Game theory is one of the major fields of mathematics. Game theory is the study of how games, their players, and players’ strategies are defined, and how the games might play out. The outcomes of games are ultimately based on decisions, much like in the science of economics. Economics analyzes how scarce resources are to be allocated to suit unlimited needs. Every decision has an economic cost, and every decision has a utility value (utility being a quantitative measure of usefulness). Economics and game theory go hand in hand: Both analyze the effects of decisions and the rules imposed on …

The History And Application Of Benford's Law, Hunter Clark

Mathematics Senior Showcase 2020

My Poster is on the history and application of Benford’s law. This is a law that states that the leading digit of a set of numbers will be the number 1 approximately 30% of the time. This is a natural phenomenon and what I mean by that is that in order for this law to hold the numbers cannot be assigned. They must be random as in financial statements or logs. This law does not work on sets that are assigned such as time sheets and addresses. You will see in my poster that the original person to discover this …

Using The Chi-Square Test To Analyze Voter Behavior, Bailey Fadden

Mathematics Senior Showcase 2020

We explain the Chi-Square Test and how to use it to analyze voter behavior. Specifically we look at the behavior of U.S citizens and whether or not they voted in the 2016 U.S presidential election, and how this relates to income.

Morse-Code Encoded Eye Blinking As A Source Of Biometric Authentication Via Eeg, Ben Adams, Meghan Edgerton, Gabe Miles, Callum Young

Mathematics Senior Showcase 2020

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have historically provided many uses in the medical field, including mobility for individuals with differing levels of paralysis. Present day research is focused around testing the efficacy of such devices on mental diseases such as Alzheimer's, Dementia, and Parkinson's. Leading companies that are spearheading the research of such devices, are looking at BCI's as a tool for solving many of the problems that these diseases produce, with the end goal of generalizing BCIs to appeal to the healthy layperson by providing an additional interface between them and the technological world. If such devices were present in society …

Internal Sorting Methods, Rebekah Marie Bitikofer

Mathematics Senior Showcase 2020

Internal sorting methods are possible when all of the items to be accessed fit in a computer's high-speed internal memory. There are quite a few (Knuth's third volume of The Art of Computer Programming covers 14 in total) but I will go over the four I found to be most versatile and useful. Each algorithm that I cover has a specific benefit that merits its' use in computer science. Some have faster run times (Heapsort), simpler code (Straight Insertion), run with a smaller memory space (Quicksort), or work well with large sets (Radix Sorting). Different sorting tasks lead users to …

Cybersecurity Of The Artificial Pancreas, D. J. Cooke, Andres Guzman, Robert Kinney, Christine Patterson, Josh Stone

Mathematics Senior Showcase 2020

We live in a world of cyber-enabled devices that enhance many aspects of life, including the treatment of diabetes. Type I Diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disorder characterized by destruction of pancreatic cells and subsequent deficiency of insulin - a crucial hormone in regulating blood glucose levels. The development of an Artificial Pancreas System is automating the maintenance of this disease by integrating wireless devices to continuously balance blood glucose levels without patient interaction. An integral part of this system is the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) which wirelessly transmits blood glucose measurements every 5 minutes. CGMs and other Implantable Medical …

Construction Of A First Order Logic Theorem Prover, Luke Philip Tyler

Mathematics Senior Showcase 2020

There are many systems that have been researched in the past on automating the process of theorem proving in first-order logic. This research explores one of these systems, the tableau method. A point of interest within the tableau method is whether or not the method is sound and complete. This research was done in tandem with a computer implementation of the tableau method written in Haskell. The basic design of the implementation was to construct a fair rule for tableau expansion and expand the tableau until it was found to be closed, open, or infinite, thereby proving or disproving of …

Socio-Hydrology: An Interplay Of Design And Self-Organization In A Multilevel World, Vicken Hillis

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

The emerging field of socio-hydrology is a special case of social-ecological systems research that focuses on coupled human-water systems, exploring how the hydrologic cycle and human cultural traits coevolve and how such coevolutions lead to phenomena of relevance to water security and sustainability. As such, most problems tackled by socio-hydrology involve some aspects of engineering design, such as large-scale water infrastructure, and self-organization in a broad context, such as cultural change at the population level and the hydrologic shift at the river basin or aquifer level. However, within the field of socio-hydrology, it has been difficult to find general theories …

Optimizing Raman Spectral Collection For Quartz And Zircon Crystals For Elastic Geothermobarometry, Mayara F. Cizina

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Raman microspectroscopy is widely used to identify and characterize organic and inorganic compounds. In the geosciences, Raman microspectroscopy has been used to identify mineral and fluid inclusions in host crystals, as well as to calculate pressure-temperature (P-T) conditions using mineral inclusions in host crystals, such as quartz-in-garnet barometry (QuiG). For thermobarometric applications, the reproducibility of Raman peak position measurements is crucial to obtain accurate P-T estimates. In this study, we explored how to optimize Raman spectral collection of quartz and zircon inclusions and reference crystals by monitoring machine stability and by varying spectral parameters. We also monitored a reference Hg …

The Signal Of Modern To Holocene Drivers Of Complex Channel Response Of A Small Alluvial Stream, Scott D. Ducar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Small alluvial streams (~100km² drainage area) are important for water resources and aquatic habitat. Small streams throughout the Western United States are impacted by anthropogenic land-use including urban development, mining, logging, beaver trapping, grazing, and farming. Land-use change can trigger a complex series of channel response (such as stream channel incision or channel migration) that vary spatially and temporally in the watershed. However, streams also respond to other external forcings, such as tectonically or climatically-driven changes in discharge or base-level, which make disentangling the drivers of channel response complicated. Therefore, it is important to place modern channel changes into …

Observed Defects Of Swiss Cheese Based On The Microbiome Contribution To The Production Of Organic Acids, Vannessa D. Campfield

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The United States Department of Agriculture downgrades on the order of 17% of all Swiss cheese produced in the United States due to defects. Many of these defects are related to improper eye formation, number, distribution, or size; leading to an industry loss of over $69 million per annum. The microbiome in Swiss-type cheeses plays a significant role in eye development due to production of organic acids and gaseous emissions contingent on bacterial abundance and phenotype. The relationship between bacteria and the organic acids they produce leading to Swiss cheese defects can be correlated using Next-generation sequencing and high-performance liquid …

Buried Soil Carbon Vulnerability To Decomposition With Landscape Disturbance, Abby Mcmurtry

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Buried layers of ancient soil organic carbon (SOC) can store significant amounts carbon (C). Persistence of this C is favored by burial, which disconnects the soil from atmospheric conditions and limits plant derived C inputs, thus reducing microbial activity. However, erosion exposes buried paleosols to modern surface conditions and results in influx of root-derived C through the processes of root exudation and root turnover. These C inputs stimulate microbial activity and leave paleosol C vulnerable to decomposition. Understanding turnover of ancient soil C is critical for predicting the response of this large C reservoir to environmental change and feedbacks to …

A Collection Of Fast Algorithms For Scalar And Vector-Valued Data On Irregular Domains: Spherical Harmonic Analysis, Divergence-Free/Curl-Free Radial Basis Functions, And Implicit Surface Reconstruction, Kathryn Primrose Drake

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses problems that arise in a diverse group of fields including cosmology, electromagnetism, and graphic design. While these topics may seem disparate, they share a commonality in their need for fast and accurate algorithms which can handle large datasets collected on irregular domains. An important issue in cosmology is the calculation of the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. CMB photons offer a direct insight into the early stages of the universe's development and give the strongest evidence for the Big Bang theory to date. The Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelation (HEALPix) grid is …

Analytic Solutions For Diffusion On Path Graphs And Its Application To The Modeling Of The Evolution Of Electrically Indiscernible Conformational States Of Lysenin, K. Summer Ware

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Memory is traditionally thought of as a biological function of the brain. In recent years, however, researchers have found that some stimuli-responsive molecules exhibit memory-like behavior manifested as history-dependent hysteresis in response to external excitations. One example is lysenin, a pore-forming toxin found naturally in the coelomic fluid of the common earthworm Eisenia fetida. When reconstituted into a bilayer lipid membrane, this unassuming toxin undergoes conformational changes in response to applied voltages. However, lysenin is able to "remember" past history by adjusting its conformational state based not only on the amplitude of the stimulus but also on its previous …

Unsupervised Structural Graph Node Representation Learning, Mikel Joaristi

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Unsupervised Graph Representation Learning methods learn a numerical representation of the nodes in a graph. The generated representations encode meaningful information about the nodes' properties, making them a powerful tool for tasks in many areas of study, such as social sciences, biology or communication networks. These methods are particularly interesting because they facilitate the direct use of standard Machine Learning models on graphs. Graph representation learning methods can be divided into two main categories depending on the information they encode, methods preserving the nodes connectivity information, and methods preserving nodes' structural information. Connectivity-based methods focus on encoding relationships between nodes, …

Useable Coarse-Grained Models For Semiconducting Polymers And Thermosets, Michael Montgomery Henry

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This work aims to inform the formulation and processing of polymer mixtures through the use of models that have minimally sufficient complexity. Models with minimal complexity are easier to develop, understand, explain, and extend, all of which underpin model validation, verification, and reproducibility.

We develop simplified models for two different material systems, semiconducting polymers and thermosets. With the relatively low cost of predicting morphologies enabled by these models, we investigate structure-property-processing relationships in record system sizes and combinatorial parameter spaces. The insight from these models lays the foundation for improving the efficiency of organic solar cells and air travel.

The …

Thermometry And Microstructural Analysis Imply Protracted Extensional Exhumation Of The Tso Morari Uhp Nappe, Northwestern Himalaya: Implications For Models Of Uhp Exhumation, Sean P. Long, Matthew J. Kohn, Buchanan C. Kerswell, Jesslyn K. Starnes, Kyle P. Larson, Nolan R. Blackford, Emmanuel Soignard

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Documenting the processes that facilitate exhumation of ultrahigh‐pressure (UHP) rocks at convergent margins is critical for understanding orogen dynamics. Here, we present structural and temperature data from the Himalayan UHP Tso Morari nappe (TMN) and overlying nappes, which we integrate with published pressure‐temperature‐time constraints to refine interpretations for their structural evolution and exhumation history. Our data indicate that the 5.5‐km‐thick TMN is the upper portion of a penetratively deformed ductile slab, which was extruded via distributed, pure shear‐dominated, top‐down‐to‐east shearing. Strain in the TMN is recorded by high‐strength quartz fabrics (density norms between 1.74 and 2.86) and finite strain data …

Enhancing Classroom Instruction With Online News, Michael D. Ekstrand, Katherine Landau Wright, Maria Soledad Pera

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose

Investigate how school teachers look for informational texts for their classrooms. Access to current, varied, and authentic informational texts improves learning outcomes for K-12 students, but many teachers lack resources to expand and update readings. The Web offers freely-available resources, but finding suitable ones is time-consuming. This research lays the groundwork for building tools to ease that burden.

Methodology

This paper reports qualitative findings from a study in two stages: (1) a set of semi-structured interviews, based on the Critical Incident Technique, eliciting teachers’ information-seeking practices and challenges; and (2) observations of teachers using a prototype teaching-oriented news search …

Lysenin Channels As Sensors For Ions And Molecules, Andrew Bogard, Gamid Abatchev, Zoe Hutchinson, Jason Ward, Pangaea W. Finn, Fulton Mckinney, Daniel Fologea

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Lysenin is a pore-forming protein extracted from the earthworm Eisenia fetida, which inserts large conductance pores in artificial and natural lipid membranes containing sphingomyelin. Its cytolytic and hemolytic activity is rather indicative of a pore-forming toxin; however, lysenin channels present intricate regulatory features manifested as a reduction in conductance upon exposure to multivalent ions. Lysenin pores also present a large unobstructed channel, which enables the translocation of analytes, such as short DNA and peptide molecules, driven by electrochemical gradients. These important features of lysenin channels provide opportunities for using them as sensors for a large variety of applications. In …

Sharp Contrasts In Observed And Modeled Crevasse Patterns At Greenland’S Marine Terminating Glaciers, Ellyn M. Enderlin, Timothy C. Bartholomaus

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Crevasses are affected by and affect both the stresses and the surface mass balance of glaciers. These effects are brought on through potentially important controls on meltwater routing, glacier viscosity, and iceberg calving, yet there are few direct observations of crevasse sizes and locations to inform our understanding of these interactions. Here we extract depth estimates for the visible portion of crevasses from high-resolution surface elevation observations for 52 644 crevasses from 19 Greenland glaciers. We then compare our observed depths with those calculated using two popular models that assume crevasse depths are functions of local stresses: the Nye and …

The Year The West Was Burning: How The 2020 Wildfire Season Got So Extreme, Mojtaba Sadegh, Ata Akbari Asanjan, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

More than 4 million acres of California went up in flames in 2020 – about 4% of the state’s land area and more than double its previous wildfire record. Five of the state’s six largest fires on record were burning this year.

In Colorado, the Pine Gulch fire broke the record for that state’s largest wildfire, only to be surpassed by two larger blazes, the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires.

Oregon saw one of the most destructive fire seasons in its recorded history, with more than 4,000 homes destroyed.

What caused the 2020 fire season to become so extreme?

Changes In Crater Geometry Revealed By Inversion Of Harmonic Infrasound Observations: 24 December 2018 Eruption Of Mount Etna, Italy, Leighton M. Watson, Jeffrey B. Johnson, Mariangela Sciotto, Andrea Cannata

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In December 2018, Mount Etna (Italy) experienced a period of increased eruptive activity that culminated in a fissure eruption on the southeast flank. After the onset of the flank eruption, the peak frequency of the summit infrasound signals decreased while resonance increased. We invert infrasound observations for crater geometry and show that crater depth and radius increased during the eruption, which suggests that the flank eruption drained magma from the summit and that eruptive activity led to erosion of the crater wall. By inverting the entire infrasound amplitude spectra rather than just the peak frequency, we are able to place …

Evaluating Stochastic Rankings With Expected Exposure, Fernando Diaz, Bhaskar Mitra, Michael D. Ekstrand, Asia J. Biega, Ben Carterette

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We introduce the concept of expected exposure as the average attention ranked items receive from users over repeated samples of the same query. Furthermore, we advocate for the adoption of the principle of equal expected exposure: given a fixed information need, no item should receive more or less expected exposure than any other item of the same relevance grade. We argue that this principle is desirable for many retrieval objectives and scenarios, including topical diversity and fair ranking. Leveraging user models from existing retrieval metrics, we propose a general evaluation methodology based on expected exposure and draw connections to related …

Lenskit For Python: Next-Generation Software For Recommender Systems Experiments, Michael D. Ekstrand

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

LensKit is an open-source toolkit for building, researching, and learning about recommender systems. First released in 2010 as a Java framework, it has supported diverse published research, small-scale production deployments, and education in both MOOC and traditional classroom settings. In this paper, I present the next generation of the LensKit project, re-envisioning the original tool's objectives as flexible Python package for supporting recommender systems research and development. LensKit for Python (LKPY) enables researchers and students to build robust, flexible, and reproducible experiments that make use of the large and growing PyData and Scientific Python ecosystem, including scikit-learn, and TensorFlow. To …

A Framework For Pore‐Scale Simulation Of Effective Electrical Conductivity And Permittivity Of Porous Media In The Frequency Range From 1 Mhz To 1 Ghz, Qifei Niu, Chi Zhang, Manika Prasad

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Geoelectrical methods are broadly used in earth sciences for various purposes. To correctly interpret field geoelectrical data, it is essential to have a mechanistic understanding of the effective electrical conductivity and permittivity of geological materials over a broad frequency range. Recently, the pore‐scale numerical simulation, which utilizes the digital microstructural images of the material, has become a powerful tool in studying the effective electrical properties of geological media. However, it is still difficult to incorporate surface‐related electrochemical processes in a pore‐scale simulation. In this study, we develop a general framework to consider these electrochemical processes in pore‐scale simulations, which enable …

Shift In The Paradigm For Gssp Boundary Definition, V. I. Davydov

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

For over 200 years the use of biotic events as the basis for the establishment of chronostratigraphic boundaries has been the only approach successfully utilized for international and national chronostratigraphy. The traditional biostratigraphic method provides relatively high resolution, averaging 1 Ma or sometimes less. This biochronological evolutionary approach to the Global Boundary Stratotype section and Point (GSSP) utilizes biotic Primary Markers (PM), with a few exceptions, encompasses the integrated PM and other non-PM markers as the general principles for defining GSSP boundaries and is a reasonably reliable mechanism for global correlation and a relatively stable International Geologic Time Scale (IGTS). …

Constructing A Time Scale Of Biotic Recovery Across The Cretaceous–Paleogene Boundary, Corral Bluffs, Denver Basin, Colorado, U.S.A., Vincent Isakson, Mark D. Schmitz

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary interval represents one of the most significant mass extinctions and ensuing biotic recoveries in Earth history. Earliest Paleocene fossil mammal faunas corresponding to the Puercan North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA) are thought to be highly endemic and potentially diachronous, necessitating precise chronostratigraphic controls at key fossil localities to constrain recovery dynamics in continental biotas following the K–Pg mass extinction. The Laramide synorgenic sedimentary deposits within the Denver Basin in east-central Colorado preserve one of the most continuous and fossiliferous records of the K–Pg boundary interval in North America. Poor exposure in much of the Denver …

Within‐Stand Boundary Effects On Snow Water Equivalent Distribution In Forested Areas, H.P. Marshall

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forested areas exhibit high spatial variability in the distribution of snow water equivalent (SWE). Previous work has focused on forested areas with respect to snow accumulation in adjacent clearings. There is generally less snow in forested areas with greater variability relative to open areas due to the influence of tree canopies. However, the length scale of the transition from open areas to forested conditions is uncertain. Hence, the goal of this paper is to determine the length scales associated with forest boundary effects on SWE accumulation distribution patterns within forest stands. To accomplish this, we utilize a unique ground‐penetrating radar …

A Fast And Accurate Algorithm For Spherical Harmonic Analysis On Healpix Grids With Applications To The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Kathryn P. Drake, Grady B. Wright

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelation (HEALPix) scheme is used extensively in astrophysics for data collection and analysis on the sphere. The scheme was originally designed for studying the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, which represents the first light to travel during the early stages of the universe's development and gives the strongest evidence for the Big Bang theory to date. Refined analysis of the CMB angular power spectrum can lead to revolutionary developments in understanding the nature of dark matter and dark energy. In this paper, we present a new method for performing spherical harmonic analysis for HEALPix data, …

Meager Sets, Games And Singular Cardinals, Liljana Babinkostova, Marion Scheepers

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We show that a statement concerning the existence of winning strategies of limited memory in an infinite two-person topological game is equivalent to a weak version of the Singular Cardinals Hypothesis.