Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Independence Polynomial Of A Graph At −1, Phoebe Rose Zielonka

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

No abstract provided.

Trace And Rare Earth Elements Analysis Of Oligocene And Miocene Diamictites In The Cape Roberts Project, Ross Sea, Antarctica, Celina Flores Garza

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is a major contributor to global sea level rise, yet its origin and dynamics are poorly known. The geochemistry of 35 diamictite samples from the CRP-1 and CPR-2A cores recovered by the Cape Roberts Drilling Project in the Ross Sea, Antarctica is evaluated to understand glacial sedimentation and flow paths during the Oligocene and Miocene, a period of warmer than present climate in the past. The major hypothesis to be tested is if the early Miocene ice sheet advance was the first major West Antarctic ice advance in the Ross Sea. The provenance of older …

Assessment Of Potential Impacts Of Climate Change On Hydrology And Water Resource Availability In The Passaic River Basin, New Jersey, Felix Oteng Mensah

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Streamflow dynamics in a basin is known to be a major driver of available water resources. In the context of climate change, it is expected that global warming will accelerate the global hydrologic cycle, which will drive more intense floods and droughts leading to changes in streamflow and water resource availability. Most researchers agree that the amount and intensity of precipitation have a direct impact on runoff. Yet, there is no consensus as to how warming can affect streamflow. Evapotranspiration (ET) plays a crucial role here. However, there is a shortage of real-world observations on it. And yet, ET is …

Studies Of The Reaction Of Rongalite With Epoxides, Anuj Aryal

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Reactions between Rongalite (Na⁺O^-SOCH₂OH) and epoxides were studied with the aim of developing new synthetic routes for the procurement of sulfone diols. This class of compounds contains essential building blocks in the construction of sulfur heterocycles, which have been implied in the development of several medicinal compounds. Thus far, the desired diols have not been isolated. During control experiments with bromo alcohols, an unknown product was isolated but remains to be identified.

Assessment Of Phytoplankton Assemblages And Harmful Algal Blooms In New Jersey, Yaritza Acosta Caraballo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Urbanization, industrialization, and climate change have played a major role in the pollution of waterways, leading to a global increasing trend of harmful algal blooms (HAB) while jeopardizing water quality. Phytoplankton and HAB were evaluated within the highly urbanized and historically polluted state of New Jersey to help provide statewide baseline data for HAB and water quality management. A total of three studies were included in this dissertation. In the first study, phytoplankton communities were characterized in freshwaters of New Jersey during the cyanobacterial HAB season and their relationships to water quality at both statewide and ecoregion levels were examined. …

Curriculum Connectivity In Montclair State University’S Undergraduate Mathematics Program, Ana G. Da Silva Jesus

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

According to Piaget’s cognitive development theory and the constructivism learning theory of education, real learning occurs when students establish long term connections between disciplines by either adapting or redefining previously acquired knowledge. These ideologies have important teaching and learning implications that directly influence curriculum development and the design of a course of study. This thesis explores the interconnectedness of the subjects required for the successful completion of an undergraduate math program at Montclair State University. More specifically, it models students’ unique connections through a learning network and investigates the correlation between the interconnectivity of subjects and students’ overall performance. Results …

Investigation Of Microplastics In River Bottom Sediment Along The Musconetcong River, Nicole Perkins

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The knowledge of microplastics remains limited since there are scientific challenges in understanding long-term effects and health risks associated with microplastics in all environments. Challenges associated with microplastics investigations include limited approaches to microplastics sampling and analyses, understanding long‐term behavior of microplastics, the organismal and ecosystem health risks, and finding alternatives to using plastic. The research on microplastics has focused mainly on microplastics abundance and distribution in the environment, while their transport and pathways have remained rather understudied. The goal of this study was to expand our knowledge of microplastics in river sediment.

This microplastics investigation consisted of sampling the …

The Identification Of Rogue Access Points Using Channel State Information, Irene Mcginniss

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Today's wireless networks (Wi-Fi) handle more significant numbers of connections, deploy efficiently, and provide increased reliability and high speeds at low cost. The ability of rogue access points (RAPs) to mimic legitimate APs makes them the most critical threat to wireless security. APs are found in coffee shops, supermarkets, stadiums, buses, trains, airports, hospitals, theaters, and shopping malls.

Rogue access points (RAP) are unauthorized devices that connect to legitimate access points and networks and bypass authorized security procedures. RAP detection has been attempted using hardware and software-based solutions requiring the developing of dedicated tools or beacon frame modification. (Arisandi, 2021). …

The Construction Of A Static Source Code Scanner Focused On Sql Injection Vulnerabilties In Java, Carla Zurita Rubin De Celis

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

SQL injection attacks are a significant threat to web application security, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands and gain unauthorized access to sensitive data. Static source code analysis is a widely used technique to identify security vulnerabilities in software, including SQL injection attacks. However, existing static source code scanners often produce false positives and require a high level of expertise to use effectively. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a static source code scanner for SQL injection vulnerabilities in Java queries. The scanner uses a combination of pattern matching and data flow analysis to detect SQL injection …

Parameter Optimization For Excitable Cell Models, Amrit Parmar

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The electrophysiology of nodose ganglia neurons is of great interest in the analysis of cell membrane currents and action potential behavior. This behavior was initially outlined in the Hodgkin-Huxley conductance model [1] using a system of nonlinear differential equations. Later, Schild et al. [2] developed an extension of the Hodgkin-Huxley model to provide a more exhaustive description of ion channels involved in nodose neuronal action potential activity. We consider a variety of methods to fit the parameters of both the Hodgkin-Huxley and Schild et al. models to an empirical stimulus response dataset. Our methods were validated using synthetic datasets, as …

Dynamics Of Inertial And Non-Inertial Particles In Geophysical Flows, Nishanta Baral

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

We consider the dynamics of inertial and non-inertial particles in various flows. We investigate the underlying structures of the flow field by examining their Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS), which are found by computing finitetime Lyapunov exponents (FTLE). We compare the behavior of massless noninertial particles using the velocity fields from four models, the Duffing oscillator, the Bickley jet, the double-gyre flow, and a quasi-geostrophic geophysical flow model, with that of inertial particles. For inertial particles with finite size and mass, we use the Maxey-Riley equation to describe the particle’s motion. We explore the preferential aggregation of inertial particles and demonstrate …

The Full Degree Spanning Tree Problem, Sarah Acquaviva

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Given a graph G, we study the problem of finding a spanning tree T that maximizes the number of vertices of full degree; that is, the number of vertices whose degree in T equals its degree in G. We prove a few general bounds and then analyze this parameter on various classes of graphs including grid graphs, hypercubes, and random regular graphs. We also explore a related problem that focuses on maximizing the number of leaves in a spanning tree of a graph.

The Fate Of Fraxinus Spp. In New Jersey : A Physioeconomic Evaluation Of The Forest System And Infrastructure Implications, Erik W. Lyttek

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Though the impacts of pest infestation on forested ecosystems vary, the natural factors that facilitate outbreaks are of concern across multiple disciplines across the USA, affecting such diverse fields as economics, ecology, hydrology, atmospheric sciences, and pedology. Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is a typical example of an aggressive invasive forest pest; it has proven difficult to eliminate, resistant to natural predators, and damaging to local flora. EAB has recently proliferated through the northern and mid-western forests of the USA, devastating the native population of ash trees (Fraxinus spp.), and has invaded an estimated 28% of all susceptible trees. In New …

Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet Dynamics In The Pliocene From Sedimentological Interpretation Of Ocean Drilling Program Site 1097, Ridley Joseph

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Studying ice sheet behavior during the Pliocene Epoch is of great importance. The Early Pliocene was characterized by warm climatic conditions, similar carbon dioxide levels and high sea levels compared to the present. This time frame provides essential information on the foreseeable future of Earth’s cryosphere, particularly if climate change continues to persist. The sedimentary record of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS) is the focus of this study. At Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1097, cores were drilled into Pliocene strata at a shallow depth on the Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf. Sedimentary facies were interpreted, and twenty samples were …

Potential Of Increased Thermal Tolerance As A Response To Acute Heat Stress In A Disease-Transmitting Mosquito Species, Nicole Ashley Scanlon

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Each year hundreds of millions of people are infected with mosquito-borne illnesses. West Nile Virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne diseases in the United States (McDonald et al., 2021). The first case of West Nile Virus was detected in the United States in 1999 (Sejvar, 2003). Since that time the number of cases has dramatically risen. Mosquitoes are ectotherms which means their body temperature is dependent on the thermal conditions outside of their body. Because of this they are very sensitive to changes in their environment. The Earth’s average temperature has been slowly but steadily rising. This small but …

Seasonal Variations In Nutrient And Total Suspended Solids Sources And Fluxes In Rivers Of Northern New Jersey And Newark Bay, Usa, Jing Nie

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In recent decades, aquatic systems have experienced major problems with water quality due to high nutrient concentrations from both point and non-point sources resulting from industrialization, urbanization, and population growth. While nutrient pollution due to land use change cannot be ignored, point sources such as combined sewer overflows and discharging sites have also contributed to the problem. Integrated hydrodynamic, chemical, and biological models have been developed to simulate nutrient transportation from both sources. This paper reviews and analyzes water quality data from published literature to evaluate nutrient pollution in aquatic systems and emphasizes the need for a continuously developed integrated …

Object Detection And Image Categorization By Transferring Commonsense Knowledge With Premises And Quantifiers, Irina Chernyavsky

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Domestic, or household robots, are autonomous robots designed to make our home-life easier by performing chores and mundane tasks such as cleaning, or cooking. Currently domestic robots are specialized to complete a specific task and, therefore, are confined by factors such as mobility, size, and complexity. With the fast development of computer vision and robotics, the need for more compact, advanced and multi-task robots has emerged. Therefore, the robot needs to be multi-functional, able to discern the environment and the tasks. The aim of this paper is to categorize images in domestic robots as relevant to the culinary, laundry, vacuum …

Destruction Of Pfoa On Ion-Exchange Resin With Advanced Reduction Processes To Regenerate Resins For Addressing Pfoa Pollution In Drinking Water, Junkui Cui

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been globally incorporated into various industrial and consumer products since the 1940s. However, concerns about PFAS have gradually grown because of their prevalence, mobility, persistence, bioaccumulation, and adverse impacts on human and environmental health. Unfortunately, traditional water treatment processes inefficiently remove PFAS. Therefore, there is an urgent research need to develop innovative, technically viable, and low cost-treatment processes for the removal of PFAS in water.

Among the established PFAS treatment technologies, ion-exchange (IX) has been extensively applied to drinking water treatment practices due to its adsorption capability and technology maturity. However, IX is highly …

A Functioning Code May Not Be A Secure Code : A Preliminary Study On The Students' Complacency With Secure Coding, Jeremiah Niiquaye Kotey

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Eleanor Roosevelt once said: "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself". Mistakes are almost inevitable while coding or designing a system. Therefore, patches are created to fix the issues in the code either by a manual review, or through a static analysis tool. Oftentimes, mistakes in programming emanate from lack of skills thus, competence with a particular programming language but negligence also plays a role in other instances. A functioning code that solves a particular problem does not guarantee that the code is secure, hence the code should be structured to …

Privacy-Enhanced And Outsourced Power Usage Control In Smart Grids, Hemadri Patel

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Due to the numerous advantages of smart grids like reliability, availability, and efficiency, it has been emerging as an extraordinary contribution to the economic and environmental health. This project mainly focuses on the power outage issue in a smart grid environment. Power outages occur when electricity demand exceeds the supply, more specifically, consider a utility company which sets a threshold on the total power usage of households from a neighborhood. Whenever the total power usage from a neighborhood exceeds the threshold, some of the households needs to reduce their energy consumption; to avoid the power outage. This problem is referred …

Design Of Block Copolymer With Tunable Hydrophobic/Hydrophilic/Fluorophilic Interactions, Tatiane De Fatima Dutra

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Block copolymers (BCP) with balanced interactions and their resultant bulk-phase self-assembly have become increasingly important in advancing nanotechnology, separation, and energy applications. However, a few reports have addressed the synthesis challenge and bulk-phase self-assembly of such triblock copolymers. This thesis presents a facile route for preparing triblock copolymer via controlled radical and organocatalytic ring-opening polymerization that allows precise control over the incorporation of individual moieties in resultant polymer, responsible for balanced hydrophilic, hydrophobic/lipophilic, and fluorophilic interactions. Synthesized polymer with suggested self-assembled 2D lamellar nanostructure exhibits high-temperature stability. The long-term goal of this work is to selectively use this polymer class …

A Computational Study Of The Copper-Catalyzed Trifluoromethylation Of Boronic Acids, Kevin Nyhuis

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This work is a computational study of a reaction mechanism for the trifluoromethylation of boronic acids. Three steps of the proposed reaction mechanism are studied, •CF₃ addition to a copper catalyst center, base promoted transmetalation between copper and aryl boronic acid, and bond forming reductive elimination in which the CF₃ and aryl substituent form a bond. Limited information is known about this mechanism. This study uses computational methods to attempt to elucidate the mechanism and provide the groundwork for potential improvement. Quantum chemical methods in conjunction with tight-binding based conformational sampling methods are used to investigate the possible …

Road Salt-Induced Salinization Of The Upper Paulins Kill River In Newton, New Jersey, Kristine Emily Rogers

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Road salt application is a primary factor leading to the salinization of freshwater rivers and streams throughout the Northeastern United States and globally. Rising salinization within fresh water bodies is problematic because it can modify community structure and detritus processing within freshwater ecosystems, induce mortality among macroinvertebrates and other aquatic life, and mobilize metals that can pose harm to human health. Road salts also threaten surface and underground drinking water supplies, kill riparian vegetation, and corrode infrastructure, such as bridges and roads. This research examines 4 1⁄2 years of continuous water quality monitoring data collected from two sensor stations along …

Investigating Elementary School Students’ Reasoning About Dynamic Angles, Erell Germia

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Angle measurement is a significant topic in almost all areas of mathematics learning and also in many disciplines outside mathematics education, such as engineering and architecture. According to the literature, there are three common conceptions of angles – as union of rays, rotations, and wedges. Researchers argued that students must consider these three angle concepts together to construct a meaningful understanding of angles. However, the curriculum standards for mathematics often present these angle conceptions separately to students, probably resulting in a fragmented understanding of the angle concept. In addition to this problem, the research literature documents multiple alternative conceptions that …

Using Teacher Noticing And Video-Mediated Professional Learning To Develop Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge For Teaching The Derivative, Alfred M. Limbere

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study investigated how problem-solving videos can be used in video-mediated professional learning to support secondary preservice mathematics teachers (PMTs) in developing teacher knowledge for noticing student thinking in the context of the derivative concept in calculus. A model of the trajectory of PMTs’ noticing was constructed as six PMTs viewed and analyzed videos of students’ problem solving. At the same time, the nature of video-mediated interactions that were found to be productive in supporting this knowledge development was examined. A design experiment was used as the research methodology. Data was collected from video recordings of eight semi-structured teaching episodes …

The Effects And Costs Of Changes In River Flooding In New Jersey, Yousef Alagrabawi

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this research is to quantify the flood risks of rivers in various locations in New Jersey and how they have changed over time. This is important because the change is likely to continue over time as climate change continues. ArcGIS, HEC-SSP, and online sources such as Trulia (www.trulia.com) were used to understand where flooding is most likely to occur, which streets, and how many homes will be affected and estimate the cost of damages from a potential 100-year flood. I compiled information such as annual peak river discharge from the USGS river gages on the Delaware River …

Secure Retrieval Of Encrypted Similar Documents Using Bloom Filters, German Guzman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The ability to search for similar documents is a well-known problem on the Web and Information Retrieval field. For example, identifying similar profiles across different government agencies is an important process during intelligence gathering. Nonetheless, when data belongs to multiple parties, internal security policies and government regulations cannot allow the participating parties to freely share their sensitive documents. In our project, we aim to address the following problem: Given a user’s query Q and an encrypted database of documents stored on a third-party cloud server, we want to retrieve top-k documents similar to Q without disclosing Q and the contents …

Secrep : A Framework For Automating The Extraction And Prioritization Of Security Requirements Using Machine Learning And Nlp Techniques, Shada Khanneh

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Gathering and extracting security requirements adequately requires extensive effort, experience, and time, as large amounts of data need to be analyzed. While many manual and academic approaches have been developed to tackle the discipline of Security Requirements Engineering (SRE), a need still exists for automating the SRE process. This need stems mainly from the difficult, error-prone, and time-consuming nature of traditional and manual frameworks. Machine learning techniques have been widely used to facilitate and automate the extraction of useful information from software requirements documents and artifacts. Such approaches can be utilized to yield beneficial results in automating the process of …

Gaging Downstream Transport Of Cyanobacteria In The Raritan River Basin, Kyle R. Clonan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Cyanobacteria dominated Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) have the potential to release toxic compounds harmful to human health. Few studies have examined the potential for cyanobacteria travelling from lacustrine HAB sources through fluvial systems used for potable water supply. The Raritan Basin Water Supply Complex (RBWSC) sources potable water for several utilities serving more than 1.5 million people in central New Jersey. The RBWSC features three lentic waterbodies with persistent HABs; discharges from these waterbodies all reach the downstream drinking water intakes. The objectives of this study were to 1) review the persistence of cyanobacteria during fluvial transport from upstream, cyanobacteria-dominated …

Independent Dominating Sets In Unicyclic Graphs, Rachel Lopez

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Wilf found the maximum number of independent dominating sets of a tree using algebraic methods, while Sagan gave an elementary proof. In this thesis, we maximize the number of independent dominating sets of unicyclic graphs, giving a new proof of a result of Jou and Chang. In our proof, we are able to reduce the problem to finding independent dominating sets of single-legged caterpillar graphs. We also study the number of single-legged caterpillar graphs, both oriented and unoriented, which are related to the Fibonacci Sequence. Finally, this thesis also examines the domination ratio in unicyclic graphs. The domination ratio is …