Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Continuum Model Of Faceted Ice Crystal Growth In Cirrus Clouds In 1 Dimension, Ella Slattery

Summer Research

Ice crystals in cirrus clouds exhibit stable faceted growth and roughening which affects reflectivity. A numerically stable modelling system of partial differential equations representing the thickness of ice surfaces over time may assist in describing these features. A sinusoidal relationship between total thickness and water vapor deposition on the surface of ice crystals was observed experimentally; the modelling equation for this relationship was applied to the system in order to develop a one variable model. The developed one variable models continue to exhibit numerical instabilities prior to a Fourier Transform. Stable limit cycles of ice growth were observed in the …

Does Faceted Ice Growth Follow A Characteristic Pattern, Spencer Racca-Gwozdzik

Summer Research

Under certain heat conditions, ice crystals can form differently from the snowflakes that generally grow. Instead of attaching on the boundaries of a plane of ice, under these conditions, new water molecules will permeate a quasi-liquid layer above the ice that causes them to attach closer to the center of the plane and build up from there. These ice formations are close to cylindrical with patterns of roughness on the sides and top at the micrometer scale. The growth can be modeled with a system of partial differential equations that is similar to a reaction diffusion system. This project tries …

Balancing Populations Of Electoral Districts, Ethan Stern-Ellis

The Commons: Puget Sound Journal of Politics

No abstract provided.

The Commons: Volume 3, Issue 1, Kris Bohnenstiehl, Leona Derango, Ethan Stern-Ellis

The Commons: Puget Sound Journal of Politics

Table of Contents

• Letter From the Editors
  LILA BERNARDIN AND HANNAH WILLIAMS
• Who Sent the Devil Down to Georgia?
  KRIS BOHNENSTIEHL
• The Dehumanizing Gaze: Race in the Context of Academic Tourism
  LEONA DERANGO
• Balancing Populations of Electoral Districts
  ETHAN STERN-ELLIS

Identifying The Effects Of Alum Treatment On Water And Sediment Chemistry Of Two Lakes In Pierce County, Washington, Colin Glaze

Summer Research

Many freshwater and marine ecosystems are affected by hazardous algal blooms (HABs) each year, and the number is rising. In most cases, the main cause of HABs is nutrient loading from anthropogenic sources, and often, the overloaded nutrient is phosphorus. To combat these HABs, alum treatment is commonly used. Alum treatment is the use of aluminum sulfate, which binds to phosphorus, effectively lowering the levels of free phosphorus and thus reducing algal growth. However, alum can also have adverse effects on water and sediment chemistry. Within Pierce County, Wapato and Waughop lakes present a unique opportunity to study the effects …

Testing Mitigation Strategies For Habs At Spanaway Lake, Nancy Hollis

Summer Research

Spanaway Lake has experienced seasonal algal blooms for a number of years, and research has found that the cause is phosphorus in the lake’s groundwater inflow (Lindaur, 2018). This research focuses on sampling and analyzing that groundwater in preparation for treating it as a way of mitigating these algal blooms. The data collected documents the parameters and chemical makeup of the lake’s water column and groundwater inflow.

Physarum Polycephalum Network Construction, Rei Ishii

Summer Research

The slime mold Physarum polycephalum creates a tubular plasmodial network between food sources when foraging. We expect through the lens of optimal foraging theory for these tubes to connect food sources in the most efficient, cost effective, and also redundant manner to optimize use of energy and reproduction. We constructed an apparatus for taking data from many plasmodia concurrently and algorithms for tracking plasmodial growth.

Polarization Of Majorana Fermions In A Background Current, Lukas Karoly, David C. Latimer

Summer Research

A Majorana fermion is a particle which is its own antiparticle. As a consequence, their electromagnetic interactions are minimal. Because of this, they are a good candidate for dark matter with their sole static electromagnetic property being their anapole moment. The annihilation rate of Majorana fermions depends on whether their anapole moments are aligned (polarized) or anti-aligned (unpolarized). It is therefore important to understand how Majorana fermions polarize to better understand their annihilation rates. This can help us further understand and detect dark matter. Using Feynman diagrams, we calculate the cross section for the interaction between a Majorana fermion and …

Some Papal Bull: 16th Century Alum Trade And English Royal Autonomy, Kyra Zapf

Summer Research

The early 16^th century saw the rise of a wealthy middle class fueled by a new and expanding global textile industry. With this expansion came opportunities for exploitation fueling the rise of a new economic nationalism at odds with the ideals of a unified Christian church. In this essay, I shall be looking at the popular alum trade in Italy, Spain, and England from the 14^th to the 17^th centuries and explore how the lucrative trade profoundly shaped early modern economies, social hierarchies, governance, and law.

Alum, a dye fixative was one of the first and most …

The Influence Of Reintroduced Beavers On Sediment Processes In Post-Wildfire Headwater Streams, Methow River, Wa, Amanda Foster

Summer Research

Washington State has experienced increasingly frequent, and intense wildfire activity. For example, the largest fires on record for Okanogan County have occurred in the past five years, and this region includes the Methow River (MR), a main tributary to the Columbia River from the North Cascades. The MR is also the site of an ongoing beaver reintroduction program, that has transplanted over 300 “problem beavers” to headwater streams over the past decade. Historically beavers were abundant in the area, but populations were decimated by fur trapping in the 1800’s. Previous work documented how dam building by reintroduced beavers can rapidly …

Petrology Of The Earliest Cascade Volcanic Units In Washington: The Northcraft, Tukwila, And Rattlesnake Mountain Formations And Implications For The Evolution Of The Cascade Arc, Louisa Cryan, Jeffrey H. Tepper

Summer Research

Cascade arc magmatism began ~45 million years ago, following the reconfiguration of the Farallon-North American subduction zone. This project seeks to classify the path of magmatism throughout the history of the Cascade arc, as well as categorize the earliest expressions of the Cascade arc. Three volcanic units, the Northcraft Formation (NF), Tukwila Formation (TF), and Rattlesnake Mountain Formation (RM) will serve as examples of the earliest Cascades-related lavas. Their categorization by field setting, geochemical characteristics, isotopic data, and age will create a better understanding of how Cascades magmatism began and developed over time.

Analysis has shown these units to contain …

Efficient Query Execution Over Large Databases Through Semantic Caching Of Bitmap Indices, Sarah Mcclain

Summer Research

As popular applications become increasingly data-intensive the need for novel techniques to query large-scale data stores becomes more prevalent. Because computers’ hard drives are slow, the more data is stored, the longer it takes to access useful information. This project investigates the use of semantic cache on bitmap indices. Semantic caching would allow us to split a query into two pieces, one referring to data contained already in the cache, and the other to data that needs to be fetched from main memory. This architecture should be able to produce the benefits of the regular caching policy, even when there …

Magnetic Exploration Of The Crescent Formation, Washington: The Search For A Hidden Fault Near Dusk Point, Samuel G. Furmanski

Summer Research

The mafic rocks of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, are part of an accreted terrane known as Siletzia which experienced transpressional stresses as far as 50 Ma ago in the early Eocene. The Peninsula has an accretion-thrust marine sedimentary interior and a mafic volcanic periphery juxtaposed along the Hurricane Ridge fault; a terrane-scale thrust fault. The mafic Crescent Formation (CF) can be subdivided into two units: The Lower Crescent member (LC) and the Upper Crescent member (UC) as defined by Tabor and Cady (1978). The LC consists of submarine basalt flows that have composition similar to mid-oceanic ridges with zircon fission-track …

Investigating Cascade Magmatism Through Dating And Chemical Analysis Of The Hatchet Mountain And Pe Ell Formations, Sw Wa, Robyn Organ, Jeffery Tepper, Wesely Von Dassow, Tabor Reedy

Summer Research

Modern Cascade arc magmatism began ~45 Ma, shortly after accretion of the Siletzia terrane culminated at ~50 Ma. The earliest expressions of this magmatism are several petrologically-diverse volcanic units in SW Washington including: (1) the Goble Volcanics (GV) / Hatchet Mountain Formation (HM), (2) the Pe Ell Formation (PE), and (3) scattered exposures of unnamed basalts (UB). These rocks, all dominantly subaerial lavas, occur west of the modern arc where they are interbedded with marine and deltaic sedimentary units, suggesting eruption in a forearc or volcanic front setting. Goals of this study are: (1) to characterize the elemental and Sr-Nd …

Petrology Of The Eocene Goble Volcanics, Southwest Washington: An Early Phase Of The Cascade Arc, Clara Phipps, Jeffrey H. Tepper

Summer Research

The Eocene Goble Volcanics (GV), comprised of >1000 km² of subaerial lavas and tuffs, are one of the most voluminous igneous formations in SW WA. Whole rock K-Ar ages of 45 to 32 Ma (Beck and Burr, 1979) suggest these rocks are an early expression of the Cascade arc, but their location is anomalous, lying between oceanic Crescent Fm basalts of the Siltezia terrane to the west and younger arc rocks to the east. The goals of this research are to determine the chemical and Sr-Nd isotopic traits of the GV and better establish the tectonic setting in which …

Timing Is Everything: Temporal Dynamics Of Brain Activity Using The Human Connectome Project, Francesca Lofaro

Summer Research

Most neuroimaging studies produce snapshots of brain activity. The goal of this project is to examine the temporal dynamics of how these areas interact through time, using fear as a case study to assess how regions involved in fear interact. Working with Matlab computer code, I sort through the large fMRI dataset known as the Human Connectome Project to extract neuroimaging data from patients with different NIH Toolbox Fear-Somatic survey scores to assess the temporal dynamics between brain regions. The results will allow an understanding beyond which areas are involved, and instead will provide a picture of how these areas …

Development Of Bifunctional Thiourea Catalysts For Effective Direct Amidation Reactions, Alex Guzman

Summer Research

This research synthesized and analyzed novel catalysts that can effectively form amides. An amide is a chemical group commonly found in many pharmaceuticals and biochemicals, such as proteins. In fact, about 30% of pharmaceuticals contain an amide, and the formation of amides leads to corrosive and toxic by-products which are especially problematic on the large industrial scale. Green Chemistry has proven to be a critical tool in providing innovative solutions by making the industrial production of chemicals more sustainable and safe. The pharmaceutical industry has some of the most inefficient reactions in the chemical industry mainly due to the complexity …

Polarizing Majorana Fermions, William Miyahira

Summer Research

Classically, a spin-1/2 fermion can interact electromagnetically via four methods: its charge, electric and magnetic dipole moments, and anapole moment. One can polarize a collection of these particles, such that their spins align, by applying an external field or current. The particle experiences a torque that aligns its spin with the direction of the applied field or current. A Majorana fermion is a particle that is its own antiparticle, which means that it can only interact with currents via its anapole moment. These particles are natural candidates for dark matter particles given their electromagnetic properties. One could indirectly observe dark …

Quantitative Three-Dimensional Basal Ice Roughness From Scanning Electron Microscopy (Sem), Katie Gray, Shreeti Patel

Summer Research

A method for analyzing the three-dimensional surface roughness on the basal facets of polar ice crystals is presented. A functional form of backscattered electron intensity as a function of ice facet orientation is adapted for the use of the basal facet. Using the Gauss-Newton inversion within a Bayesian framework a three dimensional representation of rough surfaces are retrieved at roughly micrometer resolution. Following the development of new statistical measures allow for higher statistical confidence and the connection to a scaling growth mechanism for crystal development. In a collection of results from temperatures ranging from -29 degrees celsius to -35 degrees …

The Role Of Logmat Biofilm In The Spirit Lake Ecosystem After The Eruption Of Mt. St. Helens, Emma Sevier

Summer Research

Spirit Lake, on the flanks of Mount St. Helens, was dramatically altered as a result of the eruption in 1980, and over the past 37 years the lake ecosystem has recovered in a rapidly evolving volcanic landscape. While Spirit Lake is similar in many ways to other alpine oligotrophic lakes, it is unique because approximately 20% of the lake’s surface remains covered with floating log mats from trees felled during the eruption. The undersides of the logs provide a substrate for biofilm (periphyton) that is primarily comprised of algae, diatoms, and cyanobacteria. Due to the sheer amount of log-based surface …

Progress Towards The Synthesis Of Iron-Based Hydrogenation Catalysts Using Hydroxypyridine Bidentate And Tetradentate Ligands, Sara Rockow

Summer Research

This project aimed to develop tools to increase the sustainability of the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest global markets; and one of the most wasteful. Catalysis has been identified as a key tool in sustainable chemistry. One of the most important catalytic reactions in the pharmaceutical industry is the hydrogenation of carbonyl groups, which traditionally relies on transition metal complexes. These metals are environmentally harmful; this project focuses on synthesizing iron-based hydrogenation catalysts as benign alternatives. In order to form the catalysts, organic ligands need to be attached to iron precursors. Simpler model ligands were …

Gravitational Radiation From A Toroidal Source, Aidan Schumann

Summer Research

This research uses a linearized form of Einstein's General Relativity to find the quadrupole moment from an oscillating toroidal mass and charge current. With the quadrupole terms, we found the gravitational radiation from the energy distribution. We make the assumptions that we are in the low-energy and far field limits.

Eeg Experiment Scripting Tool For Novice Programmers, Sarah Walling-Bell

Summer Research

Accessible, portable, and affordable technology has made computing one of the main methodologies in brain and behavioral research. This development presents university neuroscience and psychology departments with a major problem: most of their students have no computer programming experience, and the time intensity of learning a computer programming language is a barrier that prevents them from practicing the computational concepts and algorithmic thinking increasingly at the core of research in these fields. This is the case in the University of Puget Sound (UPS) Electroencephalography (EEG) lab, where students researching how electrical activity in the brain responds to stimuli (e.g. …

Gravitational Wave Behavior At A Vacuum-Matter Interface, Jake Litterer

Honors Program Theses

In classical electrodynamics, boundary conditions of the E and B fields are derived from Maxwell's equations, which are used to derive the Fresnel equations describing the behavior of a wave at an interface between media with given indices of refraction. Though electrodynamics and gravity are in some instances strikingly analogous, boundary conditions in general relativity are somewhat more opaque. We will see that while while continuity of the metric must be true in general, discontinuity of the extrinsic curvature of spacetime, while allowed by the Einstein field equations, results in a singularity in the energy-momentum tensor. This singularity is interpreted …

Evolvability: What Is It And How Do We Get It?, Matthew Moreno

Honors Program Theses

Biological organisms exhibit spectacular adaptation to their environments. However, another marvel of biology lurks behind the adaptive traits that organisms exhibit over the course of their lifespans: it is hypothesized that biological organisms also exhibit adaptation to the evolutionary process itself. That is, biological organisms are thought to possess traits that facilitate evolution. The term evolvability was coined to describe this type of adaptation. The question of evolvability has special practical relevance to computer science researchers engaged in longstanding efforts to harness evolution as an algorithm for automated design. It is hoped that a more nuanced understanding of biological evolution …

Radiation Reaction: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love E&M, Alexander R. Kaufman

Summer Research

Here we present some approaches to understanding the Abraham-Lotentz-Dirac equation and their features. And a behavior found in numerical solutions to the 1-dimensional ALD in a co-moving reference frame for a single charged particle in a Coulombic field.

Bowing Behavior Of Strings With Non-Uniform Mass Density, Andrew J. Brandt

Summer Research

An investigation into the behavior of non-uniform strings when bowed while varying bowing position and force applied to map the minimum force curve on the Schelleng diagram. Strings investigated include uniform, cosinusoidal variation, and impedance discontinuity strings.

Comparison Of The Chemical And Isotopic Composition Of Groundwater And Surface Water In The South Sound Region, Andrew H. Oberhelman

Summer Research

This project seeks to characterize the chemical and isotopic compositions of groundwater and surface water in portions of Pierce and King Counties, with the goal of using these results to determine the water sources of local lakes. Specifically of interest are lakes studied by Puget Sound students over the past ~10 years where water analyses appear to define a mixing line, likely between surface runoff and the shallow groundwater (Figures 1, 2, and 3). Existing data pertain only to surface water from the lakes while data pertaining to groundwater is patchy or nonexistent and includes only a few of the …

A Simplification Of Inclusion-Exclusion Via Minimal Complexes, Andrew J. Brandt

Summer Research

This poster discusses the discovery and use of previously unproved methods for solving counting problems using the fundamental ideas of the inclusion exclusion-principle and the Euler characteristic. While both methods use a weighted version of the Euler characteristic to determine the order of a union of finite sets, the first method can be used with contractible, planar graphs whereas the second method generalizes this idea to multi-dimensional complexes and their minimal complexes. These methods seem to be promising in their applications to subjects such as homology theory, Betti numbers, and abstract tubes.

Reintroduced Beavers Rapidly Influence Sediment Storage And Biogeochemistry In Headwater Streams Of The Methow River, Wa, Rita Mccreesh

Summer Research

To understand how rapidly beaver bioengineering impacts sediment organic material accumulation, we characterized the short-term, temporal dynamics of how reintroduced beavers have influenced sediment and organic material accumulation on 1st and 2nd order streams over the past decade. Sources of beaver related organics include coarse woody debris, fecal matter, and allochthonous material. We measured sediment physical properties, and analyzed samples for weight percent carbon and nitrogen. Our temporally constrained results provide insight into the rapidity at which beavers can influence biogeochemical systems in headwater streams.