Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Reflectance Spectroscopy Datasets For The Validation Of Tanager, Kristiana Lapo, Kathleen Hoza, Sammy Theuer, Melissa S. Rice

Geology Faculty Publications

The Three-Axis N-sample Automated Goniometer for Evaluating Reflectance (TANAGER) is a custom goniometer designed to rapidly acquire spectra of natural rock surfaces across the full scattering hemisphere. TANAGER interfaces with a Malvern Panalytical ASD Fieldspec 4 Hi-Res reflectance spectrometer to collect data from 350-2500 nm at a range of incidence, emission and azimuth angles. To validate the accuracy and repeatability of data collected with TANAGER - and to characterize any instrument noise, artifacts or sample heating effects - we collected spectra from three categories of targets: (1) powdered calcium sulfate (anhydrite), (2) naturally weathered basalt surfaces, and (3) color calibration …

Lake Whatcom Monitoring Project 2022/2023 Report, Angela Strecker, Joan Pickens, Carmen Archambault, Emily Flarry, Kathryn Queen, Robert Mitchell, Robin Matthews, Geoffrey B. Matthews

Lake Whatcom Annual Reports

This report describes the results from the 2022/2023 Lake Whatcom monitoring program conducted by the Institute for Watershed Studies at Western Washington University (https://diatom.cenv.wwu.edu/).

The major objectives of the 2022/2023 Lake Whatcom monitoring program were to continue long-term baseline water quality monitoring in Lake Whatcom and its major tributaries; collect storm runoff water quality data from representative streams in the watershed; and continue collection of hydrologic data from Austin and Smith Creeks.

Deglacial And Holocene Environmental Change Recorded In Lake Sediments From The Snowy Mountains, Kosciuszko National Park, Southeastern Australia, Emma J. Mickelson

WWU Graduate School Collection

The sediment record from Lake Albina, the Snowy Mountains, southeastern Australia suggests significant environmental change mostly reflecting shifts in climate from the LGM through the Holocene. Immediately following deglaciation, approximately 19.4 thousand cal ky BP, Lake Albina experienced cold and/or dry conditions with minimal vegetation in the catchment. Cooler conditions persisted with a slight increase in moisture throughout the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR; 14.7-13 cal ky BP) aligning closest with a strengthening of the Atlantic Meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and a northward shift of the South Westerly Winds (SWW). Between 12.9-9.7 cal ky BP, Lake Albina recorded a climate reversal …

Implementing Impact: A Lesson On Mysql Databases And Accessibility, Abigayle Peterson, Yasmine Elglaly

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

15% of the world’s people have a disability that could potentially hinder their access to digital information such as bank portals and medical insurance. Digital accessibility, the practice of creating user-friendly technology, helps mitigate these challenges. Despite this fact, college Computer Science (CS) programs fail to recognize the importance of including digital accessibility courses as a degree requirement. Consequently, these CS graduates lack sufficient knowledge to build accessible software when they enter the technology industry, leading to potential company lawsuits for the unethical design of technology. Our research aims to bridge the gap between accessibility knowledge and the CS college …

Birds Of Costa Rica: Journal & Sketchbook, Clara Magsarili

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project exhibits the birds of Costa Rica which are extremely beautiful and diverse. I had the opportunity to see 148 species of bird while studying abroad in Costa Rica in the fall of 2023. This project is a collection of personal observations of each species accompanied by a watercolor painting or colored pencil drawing. Inspired by a Tropical Birds class that I took at Veritas University in San Jose, Costa Rica, 'Birds of Costa Rica: Journal & Stetchbook' grew into a piece that encapsulates a lifetime of a love of birds, art, and sharing my passion with others.

Life Cycle Progression Of Chlainomonas Sp.: A Field Study, Honu Pata, Robin Kodner, Ag Camara, Clare Hanneman, Maya Matsumoto, Dan Van Hees

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Every year, there are blooms of algae in snowy alpine environments during the summer snow melts. One environment in particular, the snow-on-lake habitat on Bagley Lake in Mt Baker, has been the subject of study by the Kodner lab for many years. In this habitat, we find the genus Chlainomonas which has bloomed in late spring and early summer annually. Our lab has proposed a life cycle for the genus (Matsumoto et al 2024), and there are many morphologically distinct cell stages found in field collected samples. This study has expanded our understanding the life cycle dynamics by examining the …

Toying With Adapted Toys, Joshua King

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

My project is a design for an adapted toy that occupational therapists (OT) can use when working with kids. OTs are people who help others to be able to do daily tasks that they need to do to live their lives. This can look like helping a person who has been injured or has a disability to accomplish tasks like getting dressed or feeding themselves. It can also involve helping school children to improve their writing or to use assistive technology. My project started out as an idea from my mom who is an OT and was using a coffee …

Developing Two-Dimensional Ammonium Sensors For Use In Marine Sediments, Zoe Kass

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Nitrogen spatial distribution and denitrification rates are not currently well understood in marine sediments. Both nitrogen distribution and denitrification rates vary widely. Better understanding these processes and the factors that impact them could have a variety of applications, from providing us with a foundation for determining any potential impacts of anthropogenic nitrogen to restoring eel grass beds. This project focused on the development of a two-dimensional ammonium sensor using diffusive equilibrium thin films. We successfully created and calibrated our sensor before deploying it at Padilla Bay to produce a two-dimensional image of the spatial distribution and concentrations of ammonium in …

Dataset For The Incorporation Of Climate Change Into A Multiple Stressor Risk Assessment For The Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha) Population In The Yakima River, Washington Usa, Wayne Landis, Chelsea J. Mitchell, John D. Hader, Rory Nathan, Emma E. Sharpe

Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Data files available below

This data set is in support of Landis et al (in press 2024). A key question in understanding the implications of climate change is how to integrate ecological risk assessments that focus on contaminants with the environmental alterations from climate projections. This article summarizes the results of integrating selected direct and indirect effects of climate change into an existing Bayesian network previously used for ecological risk assessment. The existing Bayesian network Relative Risk Model (BN-RRM) integrated the effects of organophosphate pesticides concentrations, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen levels on the Chinook salmon population in the Yakima …

Using Trace Element Concentrations In Volcanic Ash To Elucidate Magma Sources To Koma Kulshan’S (Mount Baker) Most Recent Explosive Eruption – The 6.7 Ka Ba (Black Ash) Tephra, Stone Machel

Geology Graduate and Undergraduate Student Scholarship

Koma Kulshan (Mount Baker) is an active stratovolcano in the northern Washington Cascades. Kulshan’s most recent magmatic eruption at 6.7 ka was explosive, producing the ~0.2 km³ BA tephra (black ash) from the edifice (Scott et al. 2019). Comprehensive geochemical data for the BA tephra were previously limited to major elements from one whole rock lapillus (silicic andesite) and several in situ glass analyses (dacite), despite being Kulshan’s most voluminous Holocene tephra. Here, I present the first extensive major and trace element study of the pyroxene- and plagioclase-bearing BA tephra glass to determine magma source and eruption processes. My …

Shared Roots: A Geochemical Investigation Of Basaltic Andesites To Understand Magmatic Cogenesis At The Middle Sister And South Sister Volcanoes, Central Oregon, Sean Francis Halstead

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The Middle Sister and South Sister volcanoes, near Bend, Oregon, are overlapping, active Cascade Arc stratovolcanoes which share a complex, contemporaneous eruptive history. This history is characterized by an extreme compositional diversity of lavas erupted in alternating phases of high activity from one neighboring volcano to the other, with both vents producing material ranging from basaltic andesite to rhyolite. This system is understood to be predominantly fed by basaltic andesites fractionated from partial mantle melts within the lower crust, but magma compositions are additionally impacted by mixing, assimilation, and crustal contamination while in transit to the surface. Thus, the subterranean …

By The Campfire: How Representation In Video Games Can Be Improved, Hunter Smith

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

By the Campfire is a video game designed with accurate and thorough representation in mind from the start of development. Its purpose is to showcase the ways in which the player character in a video game can accurately represent anyone who plays it, and that the non-player characters in a video game can be generated in a way that diverse groups can be represented without harmfully misrepresenting them. This project includes a document that explains the process by which this game was created and why certain choices were made when implementing the games systems. The document details a survey that …

Time As A Line: Helping Children Make Abstract Ideas Concrete, Rachel Mae Stenner

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This is a math education project that included research, a lesson plan, and actual in the classroom work with students. Under the advisement of Dr. Rebecca Borowski, I looked into how time, an abstract idea, is taught to young children who are just starting to learn what measurement is, and examined how teachers can better teach time as a more concrete topic. This focused on the idea of turning the abstract time concepts that are thrown at children into the more abstract ideas of both circular and then linear number lines, using physical materials to help guide the process.

Blood Coagulation Factor Ix: Purification, Activation, Crystallization, Juliet Mcgill

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper presents readers with an optimized procedure for the purification, activation, and crystallization of selected blood coagulation Factor IX double mutant (FIX_2). Through the completion of this work, we aim to enhance future biochemical and structural studies by providing an easier means for the FIX_2 production, in order to increase understanding of the protein’s function within the blood coagulation cascade. The initiation of the blood coagulation cascade is brought on by activation of inactive Factor VIII (FVIII) protein though contact with tissue factor, the FVIII protein then binds to an activated platelet surface where it must wait for its …

An Analysis Of Clinopyroxene Reaction Rims As Assimilation Chronometers At Cinder Cone Volcano, Lassen National Volcanic Park, California, Annabelle Carozza

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Cinder Cone is a monogenetic cinder cone volcano located in Lassen National Volcanic Park, California. It erupted in 1666 CE and had three eruptive phases, each producing tephra and lava flows that ranged in style from Hawaiian (low explosivity) to Strombolian (moderate to high explosivity). This eruptive style variability at Cinder Cone was not caused by viscosity or volatile differences, and ascent rate has been proposed as a causal factor in the observed explosivity difference between phases. Ubiquitous quartz crystals are entrained within tephra and lava and were likely sourced from the assimilation of a granitic basement rock underlying the …

Studying The South Lake Whatcom Fire, Lillian Buck

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This study investigates the ecological consequences of the South Lake Whatcom Fire, which occurred in August 2023, focusing on soil health and water quality. Lake Whatcom, historically shaped by indigenous settlements and 19th-century logging and mining activities, is a critical water source for Bellingham residents. The fire, sparked by lightning, was managed with hand-dug lines, and contained by September 2023. Soil analysis revealed a significant reduction in the organic matter/duff layer depth in burned areas compared to unburned sections, highlighting potential challenges for soil recovery and ecosystem health. Erosion concerns were raised, emphasizing the need for post-fire management strategies. This …

Using Two Coeval Andesites From Middle Sister And South Sister, Oregon, As Clues To Understanding Connectivity Between Adjacent, Coincident Stratovolcanoes, James Peale

Geology Graduate and Undergraduate Student Scholarship

The Three Sisters Volcanic Complex in central Oregon is a cluster of three primary stratovolcanoes and a mafic periphery which lies at the intersection of the Cascade volcanic arc and the Basin and Range extensional province. This project focuses on the two youngest stratovolcanoes, Middle Sister and South Sister. Middle Sister experienced a period of frequent eruptive activity from approximately 27 ka to 14 ka, during which it erupted dacites, andesites, and basaltic andesites. South Sister experienced an intense period of eruptive activity from approximately 36 ka to 22 ka, during which it erupted a diverse suite of magmas ranging …

Understanding Potential Reservoir Interconnectivity Between Two Contemporaneous Volcanoes During The Onset Of Cone-Building Activity, Middle Sister And South Sister, Central Oregon, Emma Calvert

Geology Graduate and Undergraduate Student Scholarship

Klah Klanee (Three Points) is located in the central Cascades near Bend, Oregon. The Three Sisters Volcanic Complex (TSVC) lies at a tectonically complex intersection of the Cascade Subduction Zone, the Basin and Range Province, and the High Lava Plains. The TSVC is a compositionally diverse volcanic field consisting of four stratovolcanoes and numerous periphery cones and vents. Middle Sister and South Sister are the youngest of the stratovolcanoes and they share a largely contemporaneous and semi-alternating episodic eruptive history. These parallel histories could indicate a complex, interconnected magmatic root system within the crust below the TSVC and the surrounding …

Supporting Data For Impact Of The Macrophyte Nymphaea Odorata (Lily Pads) On Dissolved Organic Matter (Dom) In A Lake, Kyle Juetten, Warren J. De Bruyn, Zachary Landram, Aaron Harrison, Angela Strecker, Catherine D. Clark

Chemistry Faculty and Staff Publications

(Files are available for download below.)

This is supporting data for a publication on the role of lily pads in contributing to the dissolved organic matter pool in Lake Louise, a small lake in the Pacific Northwest region of the USA. Specifically, this data includes the absorbance and fluorescence spectra of the Lake Louise water samples (taken weekly over the course of 2018). These files include large spreadsheets with raw and corrected absorbance and fluorescence intensity data as a function of wavelength, as well as the raw and corrected absorbance and fluorescence 3D excitation-emission matrix spectra (EEMs). These files are …

Interactive Learning With Plankton: Constructing Kiosks For The Sea Discovery Center, Sierra Schuster

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project involved creating two interactive kiosks for the SEA Discovery Center to better engage visitors on their plankton exhibits. HTML, CSS, and ReactJS were used to construct web apps that could be launched in Chromium’s Kiosk Mode upon system boot time so that the application would automatically run, preventing visitors to the Center from gaining access to the computer beyond the main program. They are hosted externally on Western Washington University’s Cyber Range and are run on the kiosk machine by Raspberry Pi 4s that access it via a URL. The informational kiosk was designed to give visitors an …

How Much Noise Is Too Much For Southern Resident Killer Whales In The Salish Sea? The Case For A Carrying Capacity Study., Rob Williams, Cindy R. Elliser, Ginny Broadhurst

Institute Publications

Background and rationale for the need of a carrying capacity study that will provide the necessary data to understand what amount of vessel noise is acceptable, while at the same time allowing marine life to maintain healthy populations.

Strengthening Collaboration Between Washington State And British Columbia, Ginny Broadhurst, Laurie D. Trautman

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

There are a variety of benefits that arise from collaboration across the Canada-US border. In some sectors, the value of collaboration is measurable. For example, travel or trade volumes can be equated with specific economic benefits. This is the case with tourism and supply chain networks. There are traceable benefits associated with cross-border business integration and the development of a shared ‘innovation ecosystem’. However, how does one measure the value of having good relations with neighbors? Or the benefits that result from developing more resilient environmental and economic conditions that are created by joint responses to shared natural disasters? The …

Investigations On The Active Catalyst In Pd Catalyzed Organic Reactions, Riley Mcgraw

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Cross coupling and C-H functionalization reactions are valuable tools in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, natural products, fine chemicals, and electronics. Molecular precatalysts are frequently used in both reactions but because the reactions use conditions like those employed in intentional preparation of nanoparticles, the presence of nanoparticles is highly likely for both systems. In the case of the cross-coupling reaction, nanoparticles have been shown to have catalytic relevance, but C-H functionalization reactions are widely thought to occur by means of a homogenous catalyst. To better understand the state of the active catalyst, a method of homogeneity analysis by centrifuge is proposed. …

Using Mineral Magnetism To Characterize Compositions Of Fe-Ti Oxide Phases Of The Sulphur Creek Lava Flow (Kulshan), Elika Zilis

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The aim of this study is to examine variations in the composition of Fe-Ti oxide minerals in the Sulphur Creek lava flow (SE margin of Kulshan), using magnetic techniques and electron microscopy. Geochemical and petrological data from these rocks dated ~9.8 ka may be a product of two distinct magma pulses (Garvey, 2002) with two distinct compositions: andesitic basalt and basalt. The composition of cubic oxides (magnetite and ulvöspinel) is influenced by the geochemistry of the crystallizing magma and can be used to provide information about the chemical evolution of these magmas, but also to help frame future paleomagnetic studies …

Evaluating Domain Specific Llm Performance Within Economics Using The Novel Econqa Dataset, Tate Van Patten

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper describes a novel dataset, EconQA, constructed to assess the performance of large language models within multiple choice economics questions. I present results from 10 experiments, varying prompts and model choices. Results challenge previous findings that prompt choice makes a large impact on quality of response. Using the GPT 3.5 Turbo model, observed performance levels ranged from 70-77% for all prompt choices, with the no prompt baseline scoring 73%. When prompted to use Chain-of-Thought reasoning with examples, performance was highest at 76%. Contrary to previous research, performance on mathematical questions when prompted with Chain-of-Thought was high. This paper closes …

Databases And Deliberation, Britany Orozco, Quentin Jensen

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper describes the process taken to build a digital form-collection system in a business context. By starting with the motivation for the project, we can gather the requirements necessary to complete before we can consider the project complete. From there, we start discussing the client-server-database architecture principles that must be reviewed before we can design our database. Database design fundamentals are reviewed, such as what a schema or entity relationship diagram is, and those fundamentals are used to design the database. Next, we show how a development environment is chosen. With the environment set up, we then discuss how …

Double Trouble: Applying Deep Learning To Ebs Systems, Noah Reneau, Hidemi Mitani Shen, Nicholas Chandler, Ian Pourlotfali

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Eclipsing binaries (EB) are fundamental stellar laboratories that can be detected via long-term photometric monitoring. Analyzing the orbital motion of these EBs offers a unique ability to directly measure the parameters of both stars in the system, including masses, radii, and effective temperatures, without relying on theoretical models. Nonetheless, this process is non-trivial, and arriving to a correct solution for a given system can often take significant time. In the ongoing work, we are developing deep learning models capable of providing fast and accurate predictions of these fundamental parameters in these EBs, which will enable the characterization of an increasingly …

From Filth It Rises Presentation, Griffin Hartz

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project contains the design, development, and partial implementation of a survival horror game made in Unity engine. The highlight of the game's design is the machine learning agents used to create the game's enemy AI, developed with Unity's MLagents system. In the game, the player controls a construction worker who traveled into a sewer to pursue a missing coworker. They eventually find their way into a crumbling undercity where their coworker was trapped, and soon become hunted by the mutant monster that killed their coworker. Their goal is to escape the ruins without being preyed upon by the mutant …

Solving The Genius Square: Using Math And Computers To Analyze A Polyomino Tiling Game, Noah Jensen

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper investigates if the claim of the game Genius Square is true, that all 62,208 boards that its dice can roll are solvable. The gameboard is a 6 by 6 grid and the objective of the game is to tile a board that has 7 blockers, quasi-randomly placed by the dice, with 9 polyominoes consisting of 1, 2, 3, and 4 squares. In order to implement a model of linear systems created by John Burkardt and M.R. Garvie, code was developed using Python and Matlab. With this code, it was shown that all 62,208 boards are solvable. The number …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Hydroxy-Functionalized Copper Indium Disulfide Quantum Dots, Julia Schexnayder

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Quantum dots offer tunable electronic and optical properties due to the quantum confinement effect, making them desirable for various applications. However, their native hydrophobic form requires surface chemistry modification for certain applications. This research explores the method of ligand exchange using 11-mercapto-1-undecanol for improving the stability of copper indium disulfide (CIS) quantum dot (QD) nanoparticles in polar environments. The effects of this ligand exchange on QD chemical composition, optical properties, hydroxy-reactivity, and hydrodynamic radius are characterized. Analysis of characterization results indicates successful surface modification through hydroxyfunctionalization, as confirmed by 1H-NMR and IR spectroscopy. The desired optical properties of the QDs …