Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Addressing Lead Exposure Disparities In Milwaukee: A Geographical Analysis Of Interventions And Equitable Strategies, Miracle Mark

Theses and Dissertations

Lead exposure is still a major public health issue, especially for children who are the most vulnerable due to the negative effects on their development. Inner-city neighborhoods are often disproportionately impacted because they tend to have older housing stock, which includes sources of lead such as lead paint and lead service lines. While many studies have examined different types of lead interventions in the U.S., including both primary and secondary interventions, little is known about the lead intervention landscape in the city of Milwaukee. Specifically, it is unclear whether the geography of intervention matches up with the geography of exposure. …

Astrophysics, Cosmology, And Fundamental Interactions With Gravitational Waves, Anarya Ray

Theses and Dissertations

Several unresolved mysteries remain in our understanding of the universe that can be elucidated with a growing catalog of gravitational wave~(GW) and multi-messenger observations of compact binary coalescences~(CBCs). Current and future catalogs, assisted by robust modeling and scalable inference frameworks, will lead to new insights into the poorly understood physics of compact binary formation, independent measurements of the cosmological expansion, and unprecedented empirical probes into the very nature of fundamental interactions. The scientific potential of GW observations from CBCs is significantly enhanced through the detection of their multi-messenger counterparts. Similarly, multi-probe explorations of compact object universal properties that combine GW …

Solving Large Job Shop Scheduling Problems: Using Graph Classification Via Graph Neural Networks To Pre-Seed A Genetic Algorithm For Machine Dispatching Rule Optimization, Isaac Schwab

Theses and Dissertations

The job shop scheduling problem is a difficult problem to solve, and it is also difficult to implement solutions found in research into real shops. In this research, a methodology is proposed to develop schedules for real shops. The methodology utilizes a genetic algorithm to select dispatching rules for each machine cell and accesses these schedules through a simulation optimization framework. The simulation framework allows for the study of random elements including variable job processing times and random machine breakdowns. This creates a robust schedule that is easy to understand, and therefore implement, while scaling to large, real-world job shops. …

Using Polonium-210 To Estimate Particulate Organic Carbon Consumption By Dreissenid Mussels In Lake Michigan, Rachel Ann Smith

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine the potential of using the naturally occurring radionuclide Polonium-210 (half-life = 138.376 days) to estimate the in situ consumption of particulate organic carbon (POC) by dreissenid mussels in Lake Michigan. To estimate POC uptake, I measured the ratio of POC to particle-bound 210Po in the water column above the lakebed, as well as the inventory of 210Po being stored in mussel tissue on the lakebed at three sites with depths of 40, 50 and 80 meters. Additionally, I conducted lab incubation experiments to determine the biological half-life of 210Po in mussel tissue. These measurements were …

Using Lead-210, Bismuth-210, And Polonium-210 To Estimate Particulate Organic Carbon Flux To The Benthos Of Lake Michigan, Gage Justman Hunter

Theses and Dissertations

210Bi is a short-lived (t1/2: 5.01 days) naturally occurring radionuclide and a potential tracer of particle dynamics in high flux aquatic environments such as lakes, coastal oceans, and continental shelves. While its parent, 210Pb, and daughter, 210Po, have been used to estimate particle removal rates from the ocean, few studies have investigated the behavior of 210Bi in aquatic systems or its use as a tracer of particle export fluxes. In this study, a time series experiment was conducted where 210Pb, 210Bi, and 210Po activities were measured in rainwater and in the water column on the slope of southwestern Lake Michigan. …

Use Of Geomagnetic Paleointensity As A Correlation Tool In The Eastern Snake River Plain Lava Flows, Melissa Marie Sikes

Theses and Dissertations

The Snake River Plain volcanic province stretches 600 km from eastern Oregon across southern Idaho and into northwest Wyoming. Over the past ~14 million years, olivine tholeiitic lava flows have accumulated. To assess ongoing volcanic hazards, it is important to quantify the number, timing, and size of eruptive events. This assessment requires correlating lava flows across coreholes within the Eastern Snake River Plain. Previous paleomagnetic research applied paleomagnetic inclinations to correlate flows between coreholes. This study tests whether using geomagnetic paleointensity – in addition to inclination – can increase confidence in the correlation of these flows. Pilot samples were retrieved …

Contraction Rates For Mckean-Vlassov Stochastic Differential Equations, Dan Noelck

Theses and Dissertations

In response to the pressing need of modeling, analyzing and applying complex systems with inherent distribution- and memory-dependent dynamical behaviours, this dissertation investigates both distribution- and memory-dependent stochastic differential equations. Following the establishment of the well-posedness of these stochastic differential equations, this dissertation is focused on asymptotic properties of the underlying processes. Under suitable conditions on the coefficients of the stochastic differential equations, this dissertation derives explicit quantitative contraction rates for the convergence in Wasserstein distance for McKean-Vlasov stochastic differential equations (MVSDEs) and McKean-Vlasov functional stochastic differential equations (MVFSDEs). The obtained contraction results for MVSDEs are further utilized to demonstrate …

Evaluation Of Factors Impacting Predictor Importance Results In Multilevel Models, Soonhwa (Suna) Paek

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Dominance Analysis (DA) was originally proposed to determine the relative importance of predictor variables in OLS regression models by comparing the change in model fit (i.e., R2) resulting from adding each predictor to each possible subset model (Azen & Budescu, 2003; Azen, 2013; Budescu, 1993). Although various educational studies show that DA can provide useful information in research, the DA procedure has not been studied extensively with Multilevel Linear Models (MLMs), which are commonly used to analyze nested data structures.

Purpose: This study aimed to identify appropriate multilevel measures of fit for the DA procedure in various MLMs, and …

Cte Induced Premium Principles And Properties, Linjiao Wu

Theses and Dissertations

The traditional pricing approach in the insurance industry assumes independence among insureds, yet overlooks the complexities of interdependent risk profiles. This dissertation addresses this limitation by proposing a premium pricing model tailored for managing dependent risks, drawing inspiration from conditional tail expectation (CTE) theory. In our model, each individual insured's premium is contingent upon the collective loss surpassing a predefined threshold.

To validate the efficacy of our model, we introduce several key properties to ensure fairness and stability in premium determination among insured individuals, including diversification and monotonicity. Diversification ensures that adding one policyholder to the insured group does not …

Paleoenvironmental Constraints On Pleistocene Ice Sheets From Glacio-Volcanic Deposits In Northeast Iceland, Cameron Essex

Theses and Dissertations

There are indications that the melt-back of glaciers due to climate change can trigger new eruptions for volcanoes and magma reservoirs that rest under ice sheets. The ideal locality on Earth to study volcano-ice interactions is Iceland, an active volcanic island that has been totally covered in previous ice ages. Eruptions under glaciers produce distinctive landforms called tuyas, or table mountains, which can provide an estimate of ice thickness at the time of eruption. One research tool used to investigate ice thickness is volcanic glass, which is formed from rapid cooling of magma, and thus is abundant in the majority …

Urban Rail-Trails As Spaces Of Distributive, Procedural, And Recognitional (In)Justice, Katherine Kocisky

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation research draws attention to urban rail-trail projects as issues of social (in)justice. Like urban greenspace, rail-trails are not an unproblematic environmental good. Large, high-profile urban rail-trails like New York City’s High Line, Chicago’s 606 Bloomingdale Trail and Atlanta’s Beltline have all received criticism for accelerating gentrification in surrounding communities, most often displacing historically excluded communities adjacent to the trail. Less research has explored relationships between urban rail-trail development and cultural displacement. This research aims to fill that gap by understanding how contemporary urban rail-trail projects are incorporating equity into their planning processes and whether urban rail-trails can be …

Rapid Parameter Estimation Of Gravitational Wave Sources & Homologous Expansion In Common Envelope Events, Vinaya Valsan

Theses and Dissertations

Binary star systems are crucial for advancing our understanding of the universe. My doctoral research focuses on two related topics within the domain of binary star dynamics: gravitational waves from compact binary stars, and the evolution of the common envelope in stellar mass binaries.

In the era of multi-messenger astrophysics, swift identification and characterization of gravitational wave events is important for subsequent electromagnetic observations. The development of low-latency parameter estimation techniques is essential for providing astronomers with crucial information regarding the potential electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave signals. RapidPE is a highly parallelized parameter estimation scheme that achieves low-latency parameter …

Robust-Efficient Fitting Of Loss Models Via Quantile Least Squares, Mohammed Adjei Adjieteh

Theses and Dissertations

Actuaries and statisticians use statistical models to predict future losses for pricing and other purposes. However, a key challenge in modeling is estimating the unknown parameters that index these distributions. Ensuring both efficiency and robustness of the chosen method is crucial, especially given the prevalence of outliers or extreme losses in insurance claims data. The primary objective of this dissertation is to introduce a robust, efficient, and computationally easy parameter estimation method that can be applied to various loss modeling scenarios. The proposed method exploits the joint asymptotic normality of sample quantiles (of i.i.d. random variables) to construct both ordinary …

Novel Physics In Unconventional Superconductors, Adil Amin

Theses and Dissertations

In this work, we consider the interplay of different magnetic orders and superconductivity.We consider both phenomenological and microscopic models to capture these interactions. The models are built using group theoretic arguments to ensure the constraints provided by the crystal symmetry are satisfied. We first consider a phenomenological theory for two transitions in superfluid 3He which involves coupling superfluidity and spin fluctuations through an approach called spin fluctuation feedback effect. We then apply this phenomenological approach to UPt3, PrOs4Sb12 and U1−xThxBe13 to obtain a common underlying mechanism for two superconducting transitions. We then consider odd-parity multipolar antiferromagnetic order i.e. Kramers’ degenerate …

Enhancing Interactions Among Dipole Excitations Using Surface Plasmon Polaritons: Quantum Entanglement And Classical Interactions, Jay Berres

Theses and Dissertations

The interaction of light with matter at the nano-scale continues to be an important research area for the application of nano-optical devices in wide ranging areas such as biosensing, light harnessing, and optical communications, to name a few. An important aspect of this is the interaction among dipole excitations (which includes classical dipole emitters, and dipole approximations of atoms, molecules, and other quantum objects), mediated by the device medium where they are located. Since the dimensions of these devices, by design, are at the nano-scale, the size of the dipole-dipole interaction space is much less than the wavelength of light …

Mixdown Altitudes As A Method Of Forecasting Peak Wind Gusts Under High-Pressure Conditions, Danica Brezovar

Theses and Dissertations

Wind gusts are small-scale weather phenomena characterized by sudden, brief increases in wind speed (American Meteorological Society 2023), posing significant forecasting challenges due to their small spatial and temporal scales. These gusts are typically assumed to be caused by turbulent eddies circulating fast winds aloft down to the surface. Accurate forecasting of wind gusts is crucial across various sectors, including wind energy, structural engineering, and electric power distribution, where gusts can cause substantial economic impacts. Current forecasting methods either rely on the dynamical assumption that boundary layer turbulence mixes momentum down to the surface or predominantly statistical methods that typically …

High Temperature Alteration Conditions Within Lava Tubes: An Analogue For Venus Surface Geology, Dylan Alexander Childs

Theses and Dissertations

Scientific exploration of other planetary bodies comes with many limitations, and Venus is no exception. Average surface temperatures of ∼460°C and an atmospheric pressure of ∼96 bars has severely limited the longevity of any instruments sent to the surface of Venus. Furthermore, with an atmosphere composed of ∼96.5% CO2, there are only three wavelength windows in the near infrared region that can be used to measure the mineralogical composition of the surface. Due to these constraints, our understanding of Venus’ surface mineralogy is severely limited and to date direct measurements of its geologic composition are limited to a handful of …

Urban And Rural Bmi Trajectories In Southeastern Ghana: A Space-Time Modeling Perspective On Spatial Autocorrelation, Hsiao-Chien Shih, Xiaoxiao Wei, Li An, John Weeks, Douglas Stow

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Spatial autocorrelation in model residuals can have a significant impact on the results of spatial or space-time models. This can result in misleading estimates of the influence of different factors, potentially exaggerating or even reversing the perceived effects of these factors. This study also considers the potential implications of the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) in the context of spatial-temporal models. In this case study for southeastern Ghana, we examined whether and how spatial autocorrelation in model residuals might generate bias in regression coefficients when explaining women’s body mass index (BMI) across urban and rural areas. Eigenvector spatial filtering, with …

Shoreland Development And Disturbances: A Hedonic Analysis Of Lakefront Properties In Northeastern Wisconsin, Usa, Susan Borchardt

Theses and Dissertations

Shoreland development, encompassing features like boat lifts, manicured lawns, artificial beaches, and erosion control measures, offers considerable benefits to property owners. Nevertheless, this development disrupts natural conditions and is associated with increased sediment and pollutant loading, which negatively impacts aesthetics, recreation, and habitat for fish and other aquatic species. This thesis conducts two analyses, which respectively quantify the benefits of shoreland development to homeowners and evaluate the relationship between shoreland development and lake water quality. In the first analysis, a hedonic property model is employed to value shoreland development along Wisconsin inland lakes. The model considers various shoreland development features, …

Predicting Energy Expenditure From Physical Activity Videos Using Optical Flows And Deep Learning, Gayatri Kasturi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a novel approach for predicting energy expenditure of physical activity from videos using optical flows and deep learning. Conventional approaches mainly rely on wearable sensors, which, despite being widely used, are constrained by practicality and accuracy concerns. This proposal introduces a new strategy that utilizes a three-dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (3D-CNN) to evaluate video data and accurately estimate energy costs in metabolic equivalents (METs). Our model utilizes optical flow extraction to analyze video, capturing complex motion patterns and their changes over time. The results are good indicating potential for this method to be deployed in various healthcare …

Conceptual Understanding Of Linear Relationships Across Various Mathematics Courses, Melissa Manley

Theses and Dissertations

This cross-sectional study investigated the conceptual understanding of linear relationships for 195 students enrolled in a single school in a large, urban district across five mathematics courses: Grade 7 Math (n = 24), Grade 8 Math (n = 52), Geometry (n = 43), Algebra 1 (n = 31), and Algebra 2 (n = 45). The following questions guided this study: (1) What differences exist in students’ conceptual understanding of linear relationships across mathematics courses? (2) What are common strengths and weaknesses in students’ conceptual understanding of linear relationships?

An assessment was created to assess three constructs of conceptual understanding of …

Comparison Of Multidecadal Variability In Climate Reanalyses And Global Models, Andrew A. Westgate

Theses and Dissertations

Superimposed on the linear upward trend of observed global surface air temperature anomalies since the late nineteenth century is, what appears to be, a multidecadal undulation. However, this undulation is either muted or virtually absent in both the previous and current generations of the state-of-the-art climate models used to not only simulate past climates but also predict future climates. One possibility is that this signal is due to a series of complex responses to the global climate forcing; an alternative is that this signal is contained within the internal variability and teleconnected via atmospheric channels. Either way, the existential threat …

Authigenic Minerals In Volcaniclastics From An Eastern African Paleolake: A Proxy For Paleoenvironment, Kaitlyn Truss

Theses and Dissertations

Olduvai Gorge exposes the stratigraphy of Paleolake Olduvai, an often saline-alkaline rift lake that records volcanism from the Ngorongoro Volcanic Highlands. In 2014, cores retrieved from the study area revealed new stratigraphy, including the lacustrine Naibor Soit Formation (Fm) and the volcaniclastic Ngorongoro Fm. In the Ngorongoro Fm part of the cores, mineralogy and geochemistry are the best paleoenvironmental proxies, since under saline-alkaline conditions, volcanic glass alters into specific authigenic minerals (e.g., zeolite, feldspar). This study employs X-Ray Diffraction, X-Ray Fluorescence, and Scanning Electron Microscopy to analyze authigenic mineralogy and geochemistry. The lower Ngorongoro Fm experienced the most alteration, with …

Markov Chain Model Of Three-Dimensional Daphnia Magna Movement, Helen L. Kafka

Theses and Dissertations

Daphnia magna make turns through an antennae-whipping action. This action occursevery few seconds, hence, during the intervening time, the animal either remains in place or continues movement roughly along its current course. We view their movement in three dimensions. We divide the movement in the three dimensions into the movement on a two-dimensional lattice and the movement between the different planes. For the movement on the lattice, we construct a second-order Markov chain model to make predictions about which region of the lattice the animal moves to based on where it was at the last two time points. The movement …

Analytic Approximations Of Higher Order Moments In Terms Of Lower Order Moments, Sven Detlef Bergmann

Theses and Dissertations

The Cloud Layers Unified By Binormals (CLUBB) model uses the sum of two normal probability density function (pdf) components to represent subgrid variability within a single grid layer of an atmospheric model. This binormal approach, while computationally efficient, restricts the model’s ability to capture the full spectrum of potential shapes encountered inreal-world atmospheric data.

This thesis proposes to introduce a third normal pdf component strategically positioned between the existing two, significantly enhancing the model’s representational flexibility. This trinormal representation allows for a wider range of grid-layer shapes while permitting analytic solutions for certain higher order moments.

The core of this …

Coarse Homotopy Extension Property And Its Applications, William Braubach

Theses and Dissertations

A pair (X, A) has the homotopy extension property if any homotopy of A the extends overX × {0} can be extended to a homotopy of X. The main goal of this dissertation is to define a coarse analog of the homotopy extension property for coarse homotopies and prove coarse versions of results from algebraic topology involving this property. First, we define a notion of a coarse adjunction metric for constructing coarse adjunction spaces. We use this to redefine coarse CW complexes and to construct a coarse version of the mapping cylinder. We then prove various pairs of spaces have …

Examination Of Chemical Variations In Fossil Resin With Two-Photon Excitation Fluorescence And Paleobotanical Inventory Reports On National Park Service Units, Katherine Mae Maxine Bober

Theses and Dissertations

Fossil resin can be difficult to chemically characterize due to its complex chemistry which can be complicated by a unique chemistry for each fossil resin sample. Using two-photon excitation fluorescence micro-spectroscopy, we measured the wavelengths at peak emission intensity: we compared these fluorescence results to FTIR spectra. There are variations in fluorescence which indicate differences in botanic origin. This method may be used in future research to better understand botanic origin when more traditional analyses fail.There has been a need for a comprehensive paleobotanical inventory report for NPS units. Four teams consisting of graduate students and mentors are completing the …

Utilizing Arma Models For Non-Independent Replications Of Point Processes, Lucas M. Fellmeth

Theses and Dissertations

The use of a functional principal component analysis (FPCA) approach for estimatingintensity functions from prior work allows us to obtain component scores of replicated point processes under the assumption of independent replications. We show these component scores can be modeled using classical autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models, thus allowing us to also apply the FPCA model to non-independent replications. The Divvy bike-sharing system in the city of Chicago is showcased as an application.

Bayesian Change Point Detection In Segmented Multi-Group Autoregressive Moving-Average Data For The Study Of Covid-19 In Wisconsin, Russell Latterman

Theses and Dissertations

Changepoint detection involves the discovery of abrupt fluctuations in population dynamics over time. We take a Bayesian approach to estimating points in time at which the parameters of an autoregressive moving average (ARMA) change, applying a Markov chain Monte Carlo method. We specifically assume that data may originate from one of two groups. We provide estimates of all multi-group parameters of a model of this form for both simulated and real-world data sets. We include a provision to resolve the problem of confounding ARMA parameter estimates and variance of segment data. We apply our model to identify points in time …

An Assessment Of The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh Model’S Ability To Resolve The Great Lakes Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer And Lake-Breeze Front, Collin Paul Deyoung

Theses and Dissertations

We determined the ability of the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) mesoscale model to predict the lake-breeze front’s structure and faithfully represent the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) behind it. First, two field missions were completed during the 2023 warm season over Lake Michigan to characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of the MABL and validate HRRR forecasts. We found the Lake Michigan MABL was characterized by minimal thermodynamic and kinematic variability on diurnal time scales, regardless of the stability or flow regime. Additionally, the HRRR was able to resolve MABL thermodynamic structures effectively but underestimated the vertical temperature distribution, leading to a …