Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Critically Observing The Challenges And Changes: An Analysis On Covid-19’S Impact With An Emphasis On Students In Higher Education, Landon Perkins

Honors Theses

This project involves comparing different visualizations related to COVID-19 and higher education in order to determine key impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on students in higher education, as well as higher education as a whole. The main metrics used to determine the impact were mental health indicators for anxiety or depressive disorders, enrollment numbers by control type (public, private non-profit, or private for-profit) and state for 2020 and 2021, and state mandate lift dates for a variety of mandates implemented across the United States. These metrics were analyzed both individually and against each other to determine if they had any …

Improving Adjacency List Storage Methods For Polypeptide Similarity Analysis, Arianna Swensen

Honors Theses

Protein design is a complex biomolecular and computational problem. Working on increasingly large protein folding problems requires an improvement in current analysis methods available. This work first discusses various methods of protein design, including de novo protein design, which is the primary focus of this thesis. Then, a new approach utilizing a B+ tree to effectively store and query a graph of keys and vertices is proposed in order to store the number of times two polypeptides are considered to be similar. This approach is found to have a reduction in time complexity from current mapping methods and thus provides …

A Study Of Cannabigerolic Acid And Its Derivatives Via Raman Spectroscopy And Density Functional Theory, Trevor Wolfe

Honors Theses

The cannabinoids are a class of molecules endogenous to the cannabis plant. Their scientific relevance has increased in recent years due to the mercurial legal status of marijuana across the United States. Some of the most known are cannabidiol (CBD), δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (δ9-THC), and δ8-THC due in large part to their widespread use, especially in states where marijuana and related products are legal. However, cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) is arguably the most important cannabinoid; it is enzymatically converted into other acidic cannabinoids, which subsequently undergo non-enzymatic processes (isomerization, thermal decarboxylation, oxidation, etc.) to synthesize further cannabinoids. Although there is a wealth of …

A Performance Analysis Of The Belle Ii Detector, John Stacy

Honors Theses

The Belle II experiment has recently (2018) started data taking at the SuperKEKB electron-positron collider in Tsukuba, Japan. Detector performance studies are necessary to understand early data and prepare for more complex analyses. This study of the proton detection efficiency of the Belle II detector compares real and simulated data to find discrepancies with the intention to provide useful information for detector and calibration experts to better gauge detector performance. It also attempts to improve the characterization of proton identification efficiency at low momenta, which performs poorly under the current fitting model. This helps analysts exploring final states that include …

Ab Initio Study Of The Rotation Of The C≡C Group In Benzvalyne, Advait Praveen

Honors Theses

For benzvalyne, we have characterized the minima and transition states of the molecule using the B3LYP, MP2, and M06-2X methods and aug-cc-pVTZ basis set. This was done by calculating the energy of the molecule while rotating the alkyne bond contained within it. After the initial rotation, optimized parameters for the molecule are found. Following this, imaginary frequencies were attempted to be found at the local maximum produced by the graph of the Energy v. rotation angle. Should the negative frequencies be found, the energy of the molecule will be characterized by the CCSD (T) method and aug-cc-pVQZ basis sets. This …

Lifetime Measurement Of The Xi_C^+ Using Belle Ii Monte Carlo, Paul Gebeline

Honors Theses

This analysis uses simulated data from the Belle II experiment to measure the lifetime of the Xi_c^+ baryon. Three different decay modes are investigated to explore the feasibility and accuracy of such measurements at Belle II. The Xi_c^+ lifetime is measured using one of these modes after reducing backgrounds from sources other than the decay of interest. The final result is 464 +/- 15 fs, which is consistent with the expected result of 442 fs within uncertainty. This result shows that Belle II can make competitive measurements of particle properties and decays.

Synthetic Investigations In Chemical Probe Development Part 1: Design And Synthesis Of Novel Triton X-405 Adenosine Conjugates; Part 2: Synthesis Of 2,8-Dihydroxychrysene, Rachel Irene Hammond

Honors Theses

Although not drugs themselves, chemical probes are a necessary tool in biomedical research for the interrogation of biological systems. In the present synthetic investigation, two chemical probes were developed – a Triton X-405 adenosine conjugate (TX-405A) and 2,8-dihydroxychrysene. The designed TX-405A conjugate was generated in four steps through tosylation and amination of TX-405 such that EDC-coupling of TX-amine with 2’,3’-Isopropylidene adenosine-5’-carboxylic acid afforded TX-405A following acetonide deprotection. The development of TX-405A represents the first report of the synthesis and utilization of a detergent-linked dosimeter. The synthesis of 2,8-dihydroxychrysene provided an in-depth exploration on the unique reactivity of chrysene. The desired …

The Sustainability Rhetoric Among The Spanish Fashion Companies Involved In The Rana Plaza Collapse Of 2013, Keegan Lyle

Honors Theses

Over the last century, fashion has evolved to become a commodity that is rapidly changing and easily available. The processes that have led to this accessibility of fashion, however, have proven to be harmful to the environment and, most recently, proven to be potentially fatal for the people making the clothing. In 2013, a garment factory in Bangladesh, housing production for major global fashion brands, like Zara and The Children’s Place, collapsed following a series of negligence. The event has sparked years of awareness-raising in the public dialogue of fast fashion. As a part of the newly-developing research in sustainable …

Increasing Perceived Realism Of Objects In A Mixed Reality Environment Using 'Diminished Virtual Reality', Logan Scott Parker

Honors Theses

With the recent explosion of popularity of virtual and mixed reality, an important question has arisen: “Is there a way to create a better blend of real and virtual worlds in a mixed reality experience?” This research attempts to determine whether a visual filter can be created and applied to virtual objects to better convince the brain into interpreting a composite of virtual and real views as one seamless view. The method devised in this thesis is being called 'Diminished Virtual Reality'. The results found in this study show that when presented with a scene composed of a combination of …

Monte Carlo Study Of Lepton Flavor Universality Violation In B Decays With Belle Ii Simulation, Sakul Mahat

Honors Theses

Belle II, the first super B-Factory experiment, is designed to make precise measurements of weak interaction parameters and search for New Physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory that classifies all known elementary particles and describes three of the four known fundamental forces in the universe. Physics beyond the Standard Model that addresses the theoretical developments needed to explain the deficiencies in the Standard Model is often referred to as New Physics. One of the assumptions of the Standard Model is that the couplings of particles that mediate the weak …

Covalent Modification Of Recombinant Protein With Reactive Thiols, Sawyer Dulaney, Bailey Taylor

Honors Theses

Many diseases cause chronic and painful inflammation in different body systems. One of the front-line drug classes to treat such inflammation is Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). Despite the benefits of oral administration of NSAIDs, there are drawbacks to their long-term usage because they can cause detrimental effects on off-target systems in the body such as the liver, kidney, or the lining of the intestinal tract. An alternative to NSAIDs is the usage of hydrogels for targeted drug delivery. Hydrogels can provide drug delivery in a specific portion of the site of inflammation, thus allowing higher doses of medication to be …

The Design Of A Pcr-Based Assay To Detect And Isolate The Serine Palmitolytransferase Gene From Environmental Bacteria, Lana Taylor

Honors Theses

Sphingolipids are a natural class of lipids that function as structural elements of cell membranes and signaling molecules for important cellular activities such as cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis, recognition, and adhesion. These lipids can be found universally in eukaryotic cells as well as some species of bacteria, such as those found in the human gut microbiome and in the environment in soils. Though sphingolipid production is rare in bacteria, both eukaryotic and prokaryotic sphingolipid biosynthesis begin with the condensation of serine and palmitoyl CoA into 3-ketodihydrosphingosine catalyzed by the enzyme serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT). In recent years, several studies have shown …

The Efficacy Of The Covid-19 Vaccine In Mississippi, Ilyse Miriam Levy

Honors Theses

The Efficacy of The COVID-19 Vaccine in Mississippi

(Under the direction of Dr. Xin Dang)

By tracking and analyzing fifty-three weeks of COVID-19 data, this thesis analyzes the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine within the State of Mississippi. Over the course of these fifty-three weeks, I have also been able to calculate the confidence intervals for vaccination efficacy and the risk reduction due to vaccination by using data regarding the correlations between deaths and vaccination status, provided to me by the Mississippi Office of Epidemiology. My analysis demonstrates that the COVID-19 vaccine is effective not only in Mississippi but also …

Collision-Induced Dissociation And Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry Of Au30(S-Tbu)18 Nanoclusters, Christopher Hood

Honors Theses

Collision Induced Dissociation (CID) and Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry (IM-MS) are methods used to understand the structural arrangement and stability of large molecules. In this study, the gold nanocluster Au₃₀(S-tBu)₁₈ was dissociated at varying Trap collision energies, and drift time vs mass spectrometry data was plotted to determine the order of cluster fragmentation. Comparing Au₃₀(S-tBu)₁₈ data to that of Au₂₅(SCH₂CH₂Ph)₁₈, the only current nanocluster published with IM-MS data, two distinctly different dissociation patterns were seen. Unlike the linear CID fragmentation of Au …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Redox-Active Multidentate Ligands For Catalytic C-H Bond Oxidation And Carbon Dioxide Reduction, Caroline Hodge

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on two research projects. The first project reported in Chapter 1 involves the synthesis and application of a tetradentate ligand (2-(1,1-di(pyridin-2-yl)ethyl)-1,10-phenanthroline, PhenPY2Me) that is metalated with iron to give a catalyst capable of carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bond oxidation. C-H bond oxidation provides a method that may allow some transformations in organic syntheses to be streamlined. The mononuclear iron complex supported by PhenPY2Me was found to dimerize in the presence of O₂ in a non-coordinating solvent. These iron complexes and a previously reported system were assessed and compared in C-H bond oxidation with model substrates using the sacrificial …

Fast Photochemical Oxidation And Footprinting Of Proteins Via Trifluoromethyl Radical Chemistry, Elaine Morrow

Honors Theses

Fast photochemical oxidation of proteins (FPOP) is a useful tool in proteomics because of the ability for modifications to occur on the scale of microseconds which reduces the modifications to tertiary and quaternary structure allowing for more accurate labeling of the protein. Labels for FPOP are generated from various radicals in our experiments which include hydroxyl radicals and trifluoromethyl radicals. Hydroxyl radicals are easily generated by using an excimer laser (KrF laser, 248 nm) or a UV flash lamp (as a part of the Fox™ System) by the photolysis of hydrogen peroxide. Trifluoromethyl radicals, however, need hydroxyl radicals to be …

Sandworms And Computer Worms: An Assessment Of American Critical Infrastructure Cyber Vulnerabilities And The Russian Federation's Growing Offensive Capabilities, Spencer Johns

Honors Theses

Bottom Line Up Front: It is highly likely that the Russian GRU has the capability, resources, and intent to execute cyberweapon attacks against American critical infrastructure in times of heightened tensions, either as a warning or a first strike. I also assess that much of current American critical infrastructure is not secure enough to withstand a coordinated assault by the GRU, and very likely has numerous severe vulnerabilities known by the GRU.