Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
![Digital Commons Network](http://assets.bepress.com/20200205/img/dcn/DCsunburst.png)
Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Environmental Sciences (13)
- Chemistry (6)
- Life Sciences (5)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (5)
- Arts and Humanities (3)
-
- Environmental Studies (3)
- Art Practice (2)
- Biology (2)
- Cell and Developmental Biology (2)
- Education (2)
- Environmental Health and Protection (2)
- Mathematics (2)
- Natural Resources Management and Policy (2)
- Applied Mathematics (1)
- Applied Statistics (1)
- Architecture (1)
- Art and Design (1)
- Astrophysics and Astronomy (1)
- Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology (1)
- Computer Sciences (1)
- Elementary Education (1)
- Environmental Monitoring (1)
- Environmental Policy (1)
- Geometry and Topology (1)
- Information Security (1)
- Marine Biology (1)
- Natural Resources and Conservation (1)
- Oil, Gas, and Energy (1)
- Organic Chemistry (1)
- Keyword
-
- Accessibility (1)
- Air pollution (1)
- Antibody binding (1)
- Antibody inhibitors (1)
- Art (1)
-
- Biological art (1)
- Bivalve (1)
- Blood coagulation (1)
- Braid theory (1)
- Canada (1)
- Canada lynx (1)
- Catalysis (1)
- Circulation (1)
- Competition (1)
- Contamination (1)
- Coyote (1)
- Cybersecurity (1)
- Dam (1)
- Denitrification (1)
- Diet analysis (1)
- Disability (1)
- Disposal (1)
- Dissolved Oxygen (1)
- Duwamish Valley (1)
- EPA (1)
- Ecology (1)
- Education (1)
- Emotional (1)
- Energy Efficient Design (1)
- Environmental Education (1)
Articles 1 - 24 of 24
Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Trade Bait: Season 3, Ben Bagley
Trade Bait: Season 3, Ben Bagley
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
A 5-episode podcast series dissecting the use of statistics in the NFL and NFL Media
What's In That Scat: An Analysis Of Canada Lynx Diet And Distribution In The North Cascades Ecosystem, Antonia Parrish
What's In That Scat: An Analysis Of Canada Lynx Diet And Distribution In The North Cascades Ecosystem, Antonia Parrish
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
This research provides critical information on the diet and distribution of the elusive North Cascades lynx population. Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) are considered threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and are the focus of protection efforts by the state of Washington as a result of climate change, heightened competition, and human interference. I analyzed the diet and distribution of both lynx and coyote (Canis latrans) in the North Cascades to determine whether there was an overlap of prey and habitat that could constrain lynx restoration. During the summer of 2020, the hiking trails in the North Cascades National Park …
Bellingham's Housing Ecosystem, Malene Garcia
Bellingham's Housing Ecosystem, Malene Garcia
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
The goal of my project was to understand what puts people at risk of becoming unhoused and what solutions are the most effective in combating and preventing houselessness.
To figure this out, I used Bellingham as a case study. I did research on homelessness in general, and then used that to guide my research specific to Bellingham. I focused on the causes of houselessness, the demographics of those experiencing houselessness, and the challenges that they face. Then, I researched solutions. To supplement this research, and get different perspectives specific to Bellingham, I interviewed people working in three different organizations: The …
Bivalve Monitoring At Weaverling Spit, Nathalie Wagler
Bivalve Monitoring At Weaverling Spit, Nathalie Wagler
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
A service learning project with the Samish Indian Nation to provide materials for increased volunteer training protocol for their bivalve monitoring research. This project is an extrapolation on my College of the Environment capstone project, where I analyzed data collected by Anacortes High School students on the quantity, species, and size of bivalves on Weaverling Spit, land owned by the Samish Indian Nation in Anacortes, WA. Students annually visit Weaverling Spit and follow a protocol to collect this data on bivalves, which hold cultural, economical, and ecological significance to the Samish Indian Nation. While the students are trained on bivalve …
More Than Meets The Eye; Accessibility Of Scientific Information Through Art, Rachael Barrows
More Than Meets The Eye; Accessibility Of Scientific Information Through Art, Rachael Barrows
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Science is inaccessible to learn in a myriad of ways. Financially it can be difficult to get information. It can also be hard to look up information on your own without knowing what to look for. Teaching science also involves a lot of reading that can be difficult for some disabilities. Through art, however, science can become more accessible, both to share and to learn. Visual learning benefits understanding and retention of information as well as creates clearer holistic concepts. Through paintings, this project shares some scientific information, exploring a way to share and teach science that is more accessible.
Whose Water Is It Anyway?: The Adjudication Of Water Rights In The Nooksack Watershed, Emma Ledsham
Whose Water Is It Anyway?: The Adjudication Of Water Rights In The Nooksack Watershed, Emma Ledsham
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
This paper examines the current state of water rights in the Nooksack watershed, specifically looking at stakeholders such as the Lummi Nation, Nooksack Indian Tribe, and local farmers. I then go on to explore what an adjudication of water rights is, its process, and how it will be used in the Nooksack watershed to create an inventory of water users in the area. Finally, I explore the possible effects that adjudication might have on the different stakeholder groups and how they might respond to it.
Indium Oxide-Based Catalysts For Solar Fuel Generation, Ryan Hagmann
Indium Oxide-Based Catalysts For Solar Fuel Generation, Ryan Hagmann
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
The need to pursue renewable, carbon neutral forms of energy has led to a far reaching-research effort to generate and store solar energy. It has been shown that indium oxide-based catalysts have the potential to reduce carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide or even continue reduction to methanol. Recent advances and current challenges in further developing indium oxide catalysis as a means of producing a sustainable liquid fuel supply will be addressed. This project will give an overview of the research in indium oxide catalysts for solar fuels generation and the immediate relevance of recent work within the Bussell Research Group …
Radioactive Future, Avery Garritano
Radioactive Future, Avery Garritano
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Prior to being decommissioned in 1987, the Hanford Site— a nuclear production complex located in Benton County, Washington— was the local for reprocessing a large portion of the nation’s supply of plutonium and uranium. Now, over 30 years later, 430 million curies of radioactive waste are kept on-site in surface facilities or underground tanks which are beginning to deteriorate, and nearly two thousand capsules of highly radioactive cesium and strontium sit in an aging facility. This waste includes cesium-135, a by-product of plutonium production which has a half-life of nearly two million years. While the proposed disposal method of burial …
Redox-Active Coordination Complexes For Small Molecule Activation With Environmental Applications, Hanalei Lewine
Redox-Active Coordination Complexes For Small Molecule Activation With Environmental Applications, Hanalei Lewine
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Nitrate and nitrate are harmful pollutants resulting from the overuse of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture. The pyridinediimine ligand scaffold with a hemilabile pendant phosphine shows reactivity towards these species to selectively reduce them to NO on a mononitrosyl iron complex (MNIC). Experimental work is supported by DFT broken symmetry calculations.
Mentoring Through Moss: Measuring Air Pollution With High School Youth In The Duwamish Valley, Nichole Vargas
Mentoring Through Moss: Measuring Air Pollution With High School Youth In The Duwamish Valley, Nichole Vargas
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
This report is a reflection on my participation in the Duwamish Valley Moss and Air Quality Study. In this internship experience, I am mentoring South Seattle high schoolers participating in the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps to collect, prepare, and analyze moss samples from trees in the Duwamish Valley. This project is in collaboration with Seattle community organizations such as the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, Dirt Corps, El Centro de La Raza, the South Park Area Redevelopment Committee; and Just Health Action. This is the second year that this study has been done. Last year, the study found hotspots of heavy …
Design Portfolio For The Tri-Cities Homestead 2.0: A Second Look At A Doe Solar Decathlon Net Zero Home Design, Talia Dreicer
Design Portfolio For The Tri-Cities Homestead 2.0: A Second Look At A Doe Solar Decathlon Net Zero Home Design, Talia Dreicer
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
The redesign of a Solar Decathlon Design Challenge home attempts to correct inaccuracies and works to create a more energy efficient and cost-effective home design. Comparative analysis is conducted to identify design characteristics that created the greatest efficiency increases for the lowest cost. The comparative analysis results in three versions of a house design: a “worst” efficiency, “best” efficiency, and final home design. The final, reimagined design is significantly more efficient than the original design and the associated pricing and energy analysis are more accurate and robust than their counterparts in the original design.
Insulin: Roles And Functions In Biochemistry And U.S. Healthcare, Mia Brinkley
Insulin: Roles And Functions In Biochemistry And U.S. Healthcare, Mia Brinkley
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
I will be researching insulin through a variety of academic perspectives, utilizing both my biochemistry major and history minor, as well as my passion for healthcare and goals for my future career in medicine. I will begin by researching the history of the discovery of the hormone and the start of its use as a drug for diabetes. I will go into the biochemistry of the insulin protein and its interaction with the insulin receptor protein. I will then go into the problems it poses for those receiving it, regarding cost and access to low-income populations in the US. I …
Reflections On Setting Up The Cyber Range Intrusion Detection System, William Pearson
Reflections On Setting Up The Cyber Range Intrusion Detection System, William Pearson
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
A short reflection on the project to set up an Intrusion Detection System for the Cyber Range at Western Washington University Poulsbo.
Wandering Whatcom Falls, Hailey Schmidt
Wandering Whatcom Falls, Hailey Schmidt
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Wandering Whatcom Falls is an interactive walking loop focused on connection and ecosystems. It takes place at Whatcom Falls and runs as a scavenger hunt with 7 different activities throughout the loop.
Structure Of Blood Coagulation Factor Viii In Complex With Anti-C2 Domain Inhibitory Antibody, Estelle K. Ronayne, Shaun C. Peters, Joseph Gish, Celena Wilson, H. Trent Spencer, Christopher B. Doering, Pete Lollar, P. Clint Spiegel Jr., Kenneth C. Childers
Structure Of Blood Coagulation Factor Viii In Complex With Anti-C2 Domain Inhibitory Antibody, Estelle K. Ronayne, Shaun C. Peters, Joseph Gish, Celena Wilson, H. Trent Spencer, Christopher B. Doering, Pete Lollar, P. Clint Spiegel Jr., Kenneth C. Childers
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Factor VIII (fVIII) is a procoagulant protein that binds to activated factor IX (fIXa) on platelet surfaces to form the intrinsic tenase complex. Due to the high immunogenicity of fVIII, generation of antibody inhibitors is a common occurrence in patients during hemophilia A treatment and spontaneously occurs in acquired hemophilia A patients. Non-classical antibody inhibitors, which block fVIII activation by thrombin and formation of the tenase complex, are the most common anti-C2 domain pathogenic inhibitors in hemophilia A murine models and have been identified in patient plasmas. In this study, we report on the X-ray crystal structure of a B …
Spike Protein Antibody Interactions Elicited By The Sars-Cov-2 Vaccine, Meghan Quinlan
Spike Protein Antibody Interactions Elicited By The Sars-Cov-2 Vaccine, Meghan Quinlan
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) arose as a novel virus in Wuhan China in December 2019. Then, as it rapidly spread across the world, it was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization in March 2020. SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has dramatically disrupted both normal life and the economy. In the past year and a half, there have been over 175 million cases globally1 (as of June 15, 2021). High death rates, disruption to education, and widespread job loss has necessitated the desperate need for a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. A …
Multifunctional Polymer-Nanoparticle Composites For Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Applications, Aliandra E. Pierce, Samantha A. Patrick, Steven R. Emory
Multifunctional Polymer-Nanoparticle Composites For Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Applications, Aliandra E. Pierce, Samantha A. Patrick, Steven R. Emory
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
To create a multifunctional nanoparticle-based optical sensor, a pH-responsive microgel consisting of 20% polystyrene (PS) and 80% poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP) surface-coated with gold nanoparticle (NP) seeds was synthesized. The pH-responsive microgel serves as a size-tunable scaffold for the assembly of the surface-enhanced Raman scatter active (SERS-active) metal, gold. The random copolymer of PS and P2VP (PS20P2VP80) is sterically stabilized by poly(ethyleneglycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMA) and lightly crosslinked with divinylbenzene (DVB) to allow for reversible pH-swelling over multiple cycles of acid-base titration. The ability to swell and de-swell in response to changes in pH allows for the tuning of gold NP …
Quasipositive Braids And Ribbon Surfaces, Rachel Snyder
Quasipositive Braids And Ribbon Surfaces, Rachel Snyder
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Meant to serve as an accessible exploration of knot theory for undergraduates and those without much experience in topology, this paper will start by exploring the basics of knot theory and will work through investigating the relationships between knots and surfaces, ending with an analysis of the relationship between quasipositive braids and surfaces in 4-space. We will begin by defining a knot and introducing the ways in which we are able to manipulate them. Following that, we will explore the basics of surfaces, building up to a proof that all surfaces are homeomorphic to a series of disks and bands …
A Neural Network Approach To Identifying Ysos And Exploring Solar Neighborhood Star-Forming History, Aidan Mcbride, Ryan Lingg, Marina Kounkel, Kevin Covey, Brian Hutchinson
A Neural Network Approach To Identifying Ysos And Exploring Solar Neighborhood Star-Forming History, Aidan Mcbride, Ryan Lingg, Marina Kounkel, Kevin Covey, Brian Hutchinson
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Stellar ages can act as a marker of birth cluster membership for young stellar objects (YSOs), which allows for an improved understanding of the history of star formation in the solar neighborhood. However, the ages of YSOs have historically been difficult to predict on a large scale. Here, we develop a system of convolution neural network models to differentiate between YSOs and their more-evolved counterparts and predict YSO ages using Gaia and 2MASS photometry. The full model and resulting catalog recovers the properties of well-studied young stellar populations to a distance of five kiloparsecs, with significantly higher sensitivity within one …
Environmental Impact Assessment: Nuyakuk River Small Scale Hydroelectric Project, Reed Squire, Amy Owen, Jessica Ngo-Ly, Tyler Sanderson
Environmental Impact Assessment: Nuyakuk River Small Scale Hydroelectric Project, Reed Squire, Amy Owen, Jessica Ngo-Ly, Tyler Sanderson
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
An environmental impact assessment of a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Nuyakuk River, AK. The proposed project was determined to have an impact of non-significance on the current environmental conditions.
Estimating The Denitrification Rate In Hood Canal Using Water Circulation, Spencer Johnson
Estimating The Denitrification Rate In Hood Canal Using Water Circulation, Spencer Johnson
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
Hood Canal is a long, fjordal estuarine inlet. Because of a sill near its mouth, Hood Canal experiences regular low oxygen in its bottom water; recently, dissolved oxygen has been even lower than usual, leading to fish kills and other ecosystem damage. Anthropogenic nutrients, particularly nitrogen, may be the cause, so it is important to quantify the components of the nitrogen cycle, like denitrification. To my knowledge, there is only one estimate of denitrification from Hood Canal in the literature. This study sought to supplement that data with an independent estimate of denitrification using water circulation along with N2 concentrations …
Contamination In The Upper Columbia: Smelting And Its Impact To The Environment And Human Health, Brenden Murphy
Contamination In The Upper Columbia: Smelting And Its Impact To The Environment And Human Health, Brenden Murphy
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
The objectives of this project include discussing the historical context of the smelting that occurred in Washington and Canada over the past century and how political events shaped the geographies of the region(s). Another objective will be to assess the level of environmental impact to the Upper Columbia region and the potential health effects to organisms and humans from the pollution released from the smelters. We will also explore the interaction of different agencies and stakeholders and the political processes of environmental cleanup to which parties are held responsible. Explaining the different advocacy and conservation groups already involved in the …
The Graph Menagerie: An Exploration Of The Intersection Of Math, Biology, And Art, Maggie Barry
The Graph Menagerie: An Exploration Of The Intersection Of Math, Biology, And Art, Maggie Barry
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
This project explores interdisciplinarity with a focus on how math and biology can interact with art. My main objective was to create art by graphing the silhouettes of animals. I selected ten animals from a variety of classes and habitats and used a collection of equation types such as linear, quadratic, trigonometric, and circular to draw an outline of each animal. I performed stretches, compressions, and shifts to control the size and position of each equation and set domains and ranges to determine how much of each line was visible on the graph. In the first section of this paper, …
Running Whidbey: The Physiological And Psychological Impacts Of A 60 Mile Ultramarathon, Bree Daigneault
Running Whidbey: The Physiological And Psychological Impacts Of A 60 Mile Ultramarathon, Bree Daigneault
WWU Honors College Senior Projects
No abstract provided.