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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™

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Eastern Michigan University

Theses/Dissertations

2018

Articles 1 - 17 of 17

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Examining The Response Of The Martian Atmosphere To Increases In Different Portions Of The Electromagnetic Spectrum During Solar Flares, Bradley R. Kumm Jan 2018

Examining The Response Of The Martian Atmosphere To Increases In Different Portions Of The Electromagnetic Spectrum During Solar Flares, Bradley R. Kumm

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This report describes the methods used to examine how the Martian atmosphere responds to increases in different portions of the electromagnetic spectrum during solar flares. On March 24, 2015 the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission satellite made measurements of the atmosphere and solar irradiance during a solar flare. These measurements were used by the Flare Irradiance Spectral Model (FISM) to generate solar flux values for 59 wavelength bins describing flare event. The solar flux values at different wavelength bins were scaled by different amounts and input into the Mars Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model (M-GITM) to create 16 distinct …

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Exploring How Integrating Art & Animation In Teaching Text-Based Programming Affects High School Students' Interest In Computer Science, Hadeel Mohammed Jawad Jan 2018

Exploring How Integrating Art & Animation In Teaching Text-Based Programming Affects High School Students' Interest In Computer Science, Hadeel Mohammed Jawad

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

As oil is the fuel of the industrial society, software is the fuel of our current information society. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be more demand for computing jobs in the future. By 2024, more than one million computing jobs will be available. Statistics show that there is more demand for computing jobs than there is a supply of qualified graduates from universities. In this experimental study, three groups of high school students were targeted to explore how integrating art, animation, and code sharing into programming affects their interest in pursuing a degree in computer science …

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Synthesis And Catalytic Testing Of A Proline Functionalized Amphiphilic Block Copolymer, Eric Firestone Jan 2018

Synthesis And Catalytic Testing Of A Proline Functionalized Amphiphilic Block Copolymer, Eric Firestone

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Catalysts are reagents used to reduce the amount of energy that a reaction needs to execute, allowing it to proceed at a higher rate while not being consumed. The use of catalyst functionalized amphiphilic copolymer allows easier recovery of the catalyst at the end of the synthesis and allows for the reaction. In water, under appropriate conditions, the amphiphilic block copolymers will form micelles and allow the reaction to occur on the interior of the micelle. The synthesis of amphiphilic copolymer with a hydrophobic O-methacryloyl-trans-4- hydroxy-L-proline and methyl methacrylate end and a hydrophilic acrylic acid end was characterized. The polymer …

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Expectations And Experiences In A Modern Physics Laboratory Course, Helen Mae Cothrel Jan 2018

Expectations And Experiences In A Modern Physics Laboratory Course, Helen Mae Cothrel

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines students’ expectations for and experiences within a modern physics laboratory course. The course instructor and several students were interviewed using a semi-structured protocol at the beginning (pre) and end (post) of the semester. Interviews were video-recorded, then transcribed to text. This thesis presents the results of three students’ interviews as case studies; their interview transcripts were adapted to a more narrative style for inclusion in this report. An interpretation of each student’s responses from pre- to post-interview is given, followed by conclusions which incorporate all three students’ interviews. Particular attention is paid to students’ ideas about experimenting …

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Effects Of Yoga On The Motor Skills Of A Ten-Year-Old Male With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Amber Schmitt Jan 2018

Effects Of Yoga On The Motor Skills Of A Ten-Year-Old Male With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Amber Schmitt

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD} is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is typically diagnosed in childhood due to the presence of atypical development, social interactions, and repetitive stereotypical patterns of behavior. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a yoga intervention on a ten-year-old male diagnosed with ASD. It was hypothesized that the yoga intervention on select instructed poses would increase both pose duration and pose performance and that the results would generalize to longer pose duration and better pose performance on non-instructed poses. Pre-intervention assessments of motor functioning were administered, including the Movement ABC, BOT-2, TGMD, …

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Analysis Of Oxidation Of Carbon Monoxide On Rh (110), Razan Tanbour Jan 2018

Analysis Of Oxidation Of Carbon Monoxide On Rh (110), Razan Tanbour

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

81% of all rhodium (Rh) is used in automobile catalytic converters. Consequently, researchers have dedicated a lot of effort into understanding the behavior of nonmetal oxides on a Rh surface. Using a computer simulation program, we have studied the absorption and oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) on a terraced Rh surface (lattice) with a width of three and a height of 10000 using a mechanism that describes the behavior at low temperatures. Varying the reaction activation energies (rate constants), and the mobility of the CO, led to changes in the surface coverages of oxygen and CO. Specifically, increasing the activation …

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Construction Of A Custom Network Security Appliance, Jacob Rickerd Jan 2018

Construction Of A Custom Network Security Appliance, Jacob Rickerd

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Over the last three semesters, I worked toward my final goal to develop a custom network security appliance. I first began by completing a comparison analysis of network intrusion detection systems which are devices that read traffic from the network and determine if network packets should go through or be dropped. Second, I conducted a feasibility study of a custom framework to profile attackers in a network; this yielded positive results. Finally, I worked on creating a custom network security appliance; it uses the profiles I created in my framework to more efficiently block malicious attackers in comparison to other …

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Divine Vulpine: 3d Simulation Of Colorations Of The Wild And Domesticated Red Fox, Alyssa Newsome Jan 2018

Divine Vulpine: 3d Simulation Of Colorations Of The Wild And Domesticated Red Fox, Alyssa Newsome

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Vulpes vulpes, the red fox, has been domesticated for hundreds of years. Through the continued breeding of the red fox in captivity, there has been an explosion of variations in color, size, and temperament. With the rise of interest in domesticated foxes as pets and educational animals, there is a dire need for education of the public on these animals and their history. Fur farming also remains a lucrative industry, an industry engaged in continuous and broad academic research. Aimed at these audiences, this academic presentation allows users to view a 30 animated fox, and select its coloration, animation, view, …

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The Software Development Life Cycle And Its Application, Gillian Lemke Jan 2018

The Software Development Life Cycle And Its Application, Gillian Lemke

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The Software Development Life Cycle (SLDC) is a concept that is incredibly important to have a deep understanding of as a software engineer. With this project, my goal was to learn the complexities of each step conceptually and apply my skills to an actual application. The SDLC includes the following phases: planning and requirement analysis, design and development, implementation, testing, integration, and maintenance. In order to apply these concepts, I created a web application for users to schedule messages to be sent at a future time and date. The API is written in Ruby on Rails and the front end …

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Access Granted: A Study Of The Factors Affecting The Development Of Technology Literacy In Black Males, Carlton Bernard Bell Jan 2018

Access Granted: A Study Of The Factors Affecting The Development Of Technology Literacy In Black Males, Carlton Bernard Bell

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

One of the most urgent challenges of the digital divide is the need to expand technology literacy. Access to technology was believed to be one of the causes for the discrepancy that exists, but there is a deeper divide: the divide that exists between technology literacy, and career readiness. Although access to technology has improved over time, the educational outcomes for Black males in related fields have not. A critical area of concern is the lack of a Black male professional presence in technology fields, which has serious implications for the future of our society. These implications include a less …

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Students’ Interpretations Of Categorical Data Using Dynamic Graphical Representations, Adam Eide Jan 2018

Students’ Interpretations Of Categorical Data Using Dynamic Graphical Representations, Adam Eide

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Statistical association is an important concept in statistics. An exploratory study examined how students reason about statistical association utilizing graphical representations constructed with CODAP, a dynamic statistical graphing software. Task-based interviews were conducted with three 6th grade students prior to formal instruction. Students’ conceptions of a statistical relationship, proportional reasoning skill level, ability to interpret bivariate categorical graphs (particularly segmented bar graphs and two-way binned plots), and ability to identify association of two categorical variables were all investigated through interview tasks and responses to inquiry. Students were found to have developing proportional reasoning skills and struggled to correctly define and …

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Impact Of Highway Work Zones On Traffic Crashes: A Case Study In Michigan, Qadri Hafez Shaheen Jan 2018

Impact Of Highway Work Zones On Traffic Crashes: A Case Study In Michigan, Qadri Hafez Shaheen

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Infrastructure in the US is severely aged and outdated. This presents a seemingly paradoxical problem in the field of construction management: In order to fix and make roads and highways more safe, construction zones must become inherently less safe in the process. There is a high cost to taxpayers and drivers, as work zones experience a significant amount of crashes and fatalities each year. To mitigate some of the factors that contribute to these crashes, this paper attempts to deliver guidelines on how to update relevant crash data, identify relevant factors, and create recommendations accordingly. The research focused particularly on …

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Salt Retention In Wetland Soils And Effects On Dissolved Organic Carbon Export, Kayla Marie Mcguire Jan 2018

Salt Retention In Wetland Soils And Effects On Dissolved Organic Carbon Export, Kayla Marie Mcguire

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Deicing salt runoff has negative effects on ecosystems. Wetland ecosystems can act as important filters for runoff pollution (e.g., nutrients), mitigating damage to plants and microbes. Wetlands are important sinks for nutrients and pollutants (e.g., road salt) and transformation spots for many nutrients including carbon. The interactions between deicing salt runoff and wetland soil carbon were explored by measuring chloride export and retention, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export, and carbon quality using mesocosm experiments. Net retention of Cl- was highest in soils receiving high salt treatments (5.0 g/L NaCl), although percent retention of Cl- was greater in soils receiving moderate …

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Mechanically Driven Pendula For Instructional Laboratories, R. M. Pacheco Jan 2018

Mechanically Driven Pendula For Instructional Laboratories, R. M. Pacheco

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

I present a new, low-cost approach to observing driven resonance with simple and physical pendula. I mount a pendulum on a dynamics cart that is made to oscillate along a horizontal line by a stepper motor and micro-controller. The pendulum pivot therefore has a position that varies sinusoidally with time with a constant, adjustable frequency. I designed and constructed the experiment to be easily implemented into any physics lab. I tested the apparatus and observed driven resonance for both types of pendula. All of the measured resonant frequencies I determined using the apparatus had percent uncertainties under 4% and all …

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Examining The Influence Of Technology Acceptance, Self-Efficacy, And Locus Of Control On Information Security Behavior Of Social Media Users, Abdullah Almuqrin Jan 2018

Examining The Influence Of Technology Acceptance, Self-Efficacy, And Locus Of Control On Information Security Behavior Of Social Media Users, Abdullah Almuqrin

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Due to recent advances in online communication technology, social networks have become a vital avenue for human interaction. At the same time, they have been exploited as a target for viruses, attacks, and security threats. The first line of defense against such attacks and threats— as well as their primary cause—are social media users themselves. This study investigated the relationship between certain personality factors among social media users—i.e., technology acceptance of security protection technologies, self-efficacy of information security, and locus of control—and their information security behavior. Quantitative methods were used to examine this relationship. The population consisted of all students …

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Determining Atg11'S Binding Interactions Using A Yeast Two Hybrid System And Directed Mutagenesis, Jesse Smith Jan 2018

Determining Atg11'S Binding Interactions Using A Yeast Two Hybrid System And Directed Mutagenesis, Jesse Smith

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Autophagy is a mechanism of intracellular degradation within eukaryotes. Because of its aid to a cells longevity, autophagy is believed to be important for the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. Autophagy related protein 11 (Atg11) is a coiled-coil scaffolding protein required for selective autophagy in yeast. Atg11 is known to interact with Atg1, Atg20, and Atg29, in addition to connecting cargo molecules prApel -Atg19 to the phagophore assembly site. In addition to its many functions within yeast autophagy, Atg11 has two human homologs: Huntingtin protein and FIP200. This homology encourages us to gain a further understanding of Atg11's binding sites. In …

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A Machine Learning Exploration Of Human Connectome Data, Katrina Prantzalos Jan 2018

A Machine Learning Exploration Of Human Connectome Data, Katrina Prantzalos

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The intent of this project is to statistically examine the relationships between psychological traits, demographics, and physiological information provided by various brain scans. The Human Connectome Project dataset includes brain imaging data, demographics, and psychological data, from 1,206 individuals. Using this data, we performed exploratory data analysis, including an investigation of the distinctions in connectome data across participants with anxiety and/or depression as opposed to those without. Our aim was to predict the two mental disorders from given data via machine learning techniques such as Random Forest and Boosted Trees methods. Unfortunately, we were unable to reasonably predict anxiety or …

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