Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Assessing Water Quality And Algae In Wetland Reserve Easements In The Alluvial Valleys Of Mississippi And Louisiana, Avery June Wissmueller

Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands in agricultural landscapes play a critical role in improving water quality by retaining and transforming nutrients and pollutants. In the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV), widespread conversion of bottomland hardwood forests to row-crop agriculture has diminished this natural function. The Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) program restores wetlands on marginal farmland to recover ecosystem services. In this study, I evaluated water quality and algal productivity in WREs compared to natural reference wetlands and crop sites. Restored wetlands showed improved water quality compared to crop sites and were often comparable to or intermediate between reference wetlands. Seasonal variation and hydrologic differences shaped …

Nuclear Transparency Of Photoproduced Rho-0 Mesons., Bhesha Raj Devkota

Theses and Dissertations

Photonuclear reactions using a real photon beam offer a unique opportunity to explore fundamental aspects of QCD within the nuclear medium. The experiment E12-19-003, conducted at Jefferson Lab’s Hall D in 2021, aimed to look for the transition from hadronic to partonic degrees of freedom and to explore the predicted QCD phenomenon known as color transparency in photons, mesons, and baryons. A key objective was to examine the transition of the photons from a resolved (hadronic fluctuation) configuration to a point-like electromagnetic probe. The experiment utilized liquid deuterium, helium, and carbon foils as target nuclei, which were probed by photon …

Using Quantum Annealing For Sampling And Pattern Generation In Generative Machine Learning And Catastrophic Forgetting Mitigation, Abdelmoula El Yazizi

Theses and Dissertations

The first goal of this dissertation was to understand the reasons for the absence in previous investigations of significant and consistent improvements in the trainability of Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBM) when the Quantum Annealer (QA) was used for sampling from the RBM probability distribution. The second goal was to address the shortcomings of those previous investigations, explore possibilities of improving RBM training, and identify other machine learning applications that could benefit from sampling or from generating patterns by the QA. The first part of this dissertation focused on a Local-Valley (LV) centered approach to assessing the quality of sampling. QA-based …

Inductively Heated Platinum Electrodes, Jayamini Madumali Mudugamuwa Hewage

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the fabrication and application of a 150 micrometer platinum microelectrode for induction heating, with a copper coil generating the electromagnetic field and the heating process controlled using pulse width modulation technique (PWM) to regulate the duty cycle of a high-frequency signal. Electrochemical characterization, including resonance frequency determination, peak-to-peak potential optimization, and scan rate variation, is conducted using a 5 mM [Ru(NH3)6]2+/3+ solution in 0.1 M KNO3 to calibrate current variations with changing duty cycles, while the temperature increase (delta T) is estimated using the Seebeck coefficient of [Ru(NH3)6]2+/3+. The study further explores the application of induction heating …

Free Probability Theory Over The Scaled Hyperbolic Numbers, Daniel Alpay, Ilwoo Choo

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we introduce a notion of free probability over the scaled hyperbolic numbers. Scaled hypercomplex numbers {D_t} _t∈R are constructed as sub-structures of scaled hypercomplex numbers {H_t} _t∈R under the scales (or, the moments) of the set R of real numbers.We show that if t < 0, then the classical free probability theory covers our free probability on {D_t} _{t< 0}; if t > 0, then our free probability on {D_t} _t>0 is represented by the free probability over the classical hyperbolic numbers D = D₁; and if t = 0, then the free probability on D₀ is actually over the …

2025 December 11 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

From Textbook To Classroom: Gaps In Mathematical Representation And Translation In Nepali Education, Deepak Basyal

Mathematics and Statistics

Translating real-world problem contexts into mathematical symbols is a key skill in curricula worldwide. This study examines Nepali students’ abilities to translate words into symbols and how Nepali textbooks from earlier grades support the development of these skills. To investigate this phenomenon, a sequential explanatory study was conducted with a test for 10th graders and an analysis of Grades 6—9 textbooks. Results show that students struggle to convert real-world contexts into mathematical symbols, while textbooks provide limited opportunities for practice. In particular, students have difficulty translating symbols back into real-world situations, suggesting a link between textbook opportunities and achievement. These …

Education In The Planetarium: A Practical Approach, Matthew Fyfe

Honors Projects

This project proposes live planetarium programming built within the 5E instructional model. It creates a practical application of this with lesson modules surrounding topics in observational astronomy. Specifically, there are investigations into instrumentation through CCD cameras and data collection and processing through spectroscopy and photometry with light curve folding with activities highlighting each. Each module is broken down into segments corresponding to the learning cycles of the 5E model, and as they are self contained in this way can be used piecemeal in different combinations.

Interactive Effects Of Warming And Nitrogen Fertilization On Soil Respiration And Microbial Community Function, Aviyan Pandey

Tennessee State University Alumni Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the effects of multiple global change drivers, e.g., warming (W) and nitrogen (N) fertilization, is critical for accurately predicting ecosystem responses to climate change. This study investigates the main and interactive effects of soil warming and N fertilization on soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), microbial biomass, extracellular enzyme activities (EEAs), and soil respiration (Rs) in a switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) cropland located in Middle Tennessee, U.S. The field experiment employed a split-plot design with two levels of warming (ambient and heated) and two levels of N fertilization (zero and 168 kg N ha-1yr-1). Hourly measurements of Rs, soil …

Investigating The Effect Of Kcl Stress In Raphanus Sativus, Mason P. Oelke

ATU Honors Projects

Potassium is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development, yet excessive potassium fertilization can induce salt stress with detrimental consequences for crop productivity and nutritional quality. Despite its agricultural relevance, potassium chloride induced stress remains significantly understudied compared to classical sodium-based salinity. This thesis investigates the physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses of Raphanus sativus to KCl stress using an integrated approach that combines germination assays, mineral profiling, and gene expression analysis.

Radish seeds were exposed to increasing KCl concentrations (0–400 mM) with or without melatonin, TEA, or EDTA. Germination percentage, fresh and dry biomass, and early seedling vigor were …

A Fault Tolerant Honeybee Behaviour Load Balancing Algorithm, Charmaine Adegbite

Tennessee State University Alumni Theses and Dissertations

Cloud computing enables flexible, scalable access to virtualised infrastructure but remains challenged by maintaining performance in fault-prone environments. Faults such as virtual machine failures can degrade task allocation and system reliability. However, traditional load balancing algorithms and bio-inspired strategies, including the Honeybee Behaviour Load Balancing algorithm, assume fault-free conditions. This thesis introduces a Fault-Tolerant Honeybee Behaviour Load Balancing algorithm that enhances the original Honeybee Behaviour Load Balancing algorithm by integrating fault detection. The proposed algorithm monitors the health of VMs and dynamically reallocates workloads when faults are detected which improves stability and reliability. The proposed fault tolerant algorithm was implemented …

Macroscopic And In-Situ Atr-Ftir Spectroscopic Studies Of Metformin Adsorption On Soil, Maheen Mehnaz

Tennessee State University Alumni Theses and Dissertations

Emerging contaminants might pose serious threats to the soil and water environment. Metformin, an emerging micropollutant, is one of the most widely used drugs for type-2 diabetes treatment. However, its waste disposal through human excretion is causing environmental concern to the soil and water environment. Yet, knowledge about the interaction mechanism of metformin with soil remains very limited. In this study, we evaluated metformin adsorption mechanisms on model oxide minerals (gibbsite, hematite) and two Tennessee soils (Milan Loring soil and Cheatham County soil) and in the presence of soil micronutrient (molybdenum) using in situ attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared …

Parameter Informed Reinforcement Learning For Vehicle System Identification, Nathan Schaff

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Accurate system identification is essential for modeling and controlling vehicle dynamics. This dissertation explores the application of Parameter Informed Reinforcement Learning (PIRL) as a novel approach to system identification (SYSID). PIRL integrates prior system knowledge, such as physical parameters, into reinforcement learning (RL) frameworks to improve estimation accuracy. The study begins with an overview of traditional SYSID methods and then introduces PIRL as a modification of standard RL. The research applies PIRL to short-period aircraft dynamics, demonstrating its effectiveness in both offline and online learning frameworks. The dissertation then further explores PIRL’s utility in an indirect model reference adaptive control …

Long-Term Calibration And Validation Of Stability Of The Auger Engineering Radio Array Using The Diffuse Galactic Radio Emission, A. Abdul Halim, P. Abreu, M. Aglietta, I. Allekotte, K. Almeida Cheminant, R. Aloisio, B. Fick, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) measures radio emission from high-energy extensive air showers. Consisting of 153 autonomous radio-detector stations spread over 17 km^2, it detects radio waves in the frequency range of 30 to 80 MHz. Accurate characterization of the detector response is crucial for proper interpretation of the collected data. Previously, this was achieved through laboratory measurements of the analog chain and simulations and measurements of the antenna's directional response. In this paper, we perform an absolute calibration using the continuously monitored sidereal modulation of the diffuse Galactic radio emission. Calibration is done by comparing the average frequency …

Cross-Domain Transfer Learning Of Tabular Data With Heterogeneous Feature Spaces, Kazi Fuad Bin Akhter

Tennessee State University Alumni Theses and Dissertations

Transfer learning is a cornerstone of artificial intelligence (AI), enabling the learning of new domains with limited labeled data by reusing knowledge from large-scale foundation models. Transfer learning has achieved remarkable success with vision and language models due to the homogeneity in image and text data. In contrast, a heterogeneous feature space, structured in rows and columns as tabular data, remains underexplored in the transfer-learning literature. The inductive bias of tabular data with heterogeneous feature spaces from disparate application domains is very different from image and text data, which complicates transfer learning. Several recent studies have attempted within-domain and limited …

Causal Structure Discovery For Explaining Important Features In Machine Learning, Yina Hou

Tennessee State University Alumni Theses and Dissertations

Understanding causal relationships between input variables and outcomes is critical for scientific advancement. The famous adage in medicine, "correlation does not imply causation," holds profound significance for understanding disease etiology. Although explainable machine learning (ML) has shown major advances in predictive modeling, it remains unclear how ML-derived important variables relate to causal variables. This thesis investigates the association between causal variables and those identified as correlated and important for ML-based prediction to bridge a critical knowledge gap in data science. Specifically, the thesis explores two research questions: when and to what extent (1) statistically correlated variables are also causal? and …

Measurements Of Water-Film Thickness On Cave Walls And Speleothems, Alexandre Honiat, Salaheddine Skali-Lami, François Bourges, Bruno Lartiges

International Journal of Speleology

The water-film that coats cave walls and speleothems is a key player for the regulation of cave microclimate and the control of speleothem growth. In this paper, we demonstrate the capability of a confocal optical sensor to quantitatively measure on-site the rapid variations of water-film thickness when dripping, active condensation, or dryness occur on walls of various caves. Results obtained from a sample of four prehistoric caves and one stalagmite cave from Southwest France, indicate that the measurable thickness of water-films is generally in the 25-70 µm range for cave walls and reaches 200-300 µm on the horizontal plane of …

The Chemistry Of Color: A Comparative Analysis Of Natural And Synthetic Dyes In Textile Application, Caitlyn Pinaga Cpht

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

The Chemistry of Color: A Comparative Analysis of Natural and Synthetic Dyes in Textile Application examines how color functions at the intersection of chemistry, culture, and environmental responsibility. This project traces the evolution of dyeing from ancient natural pigment traditions, rooted in ecological knowledge, agricultural practices, and cultural identity, to the industrial rise of synthetic dyes, whose laboratory precision enabled unprecedented consistency, brightness, and global textile expansion. Through experimental swatch analysis, the study compares the behavior of natural dyes derived from plants and food sources with modern fiber-reactive and synthetic dye classes on a range of fibers including cotton, bamboo …

Advancing Sustainable Co2 Mitigation: Experimental And Computational Analysis Of Thermal Carbon Chitosan Sorbent For Automotive Exhaust Capture, Dalia A. Ali Dr., Amir Ahmed Elgamal Eng., Rania Rushdy Moussa Dr.

Chemical Engineering

This study investigated the efficiency of thermal carbon chitosan (TCCS) sorbent for CO2 capture from vehicle exhaust emissions within a designed adsorption system. TCCS was synthesized and meticulously characterized using a series of analytical techniques, including Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Ther- mogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), and Differential Scanning Calo- rimetry (DSC). The TCCS adsorbent showed high thermal stability and a heating value (HHV) of 23.5 MJ/kg. Adsorption isotherm study demonstrated that the maximum capacity of CO2 adsorption is 0.084 kg.CO2/kg. TCCS, as well …

A Sedimentary Source Of Rare Earth Elements In The North Atlantic, Rylee D. Lindner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individually and as a series, the Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are powerful geochemical tracers of environmental processes. However, ambiguities in the oceanic budgets of the REEs hamper their application. Growing evidence suggests a sedimentary benthic flux via the pore water is the major source of REEs to the ocean, with extrapolated estimates of this flux being equivalent in magnitude to that “missing” from modern budgets. However, existing pore water REE data are available from only a few locations globally with no representative dataset from the open North Atlantic. This data scarcity limits our ability to constrain flux estimates and understand …

Oregon State Rank Assessment For Plumed Clover (Trifolium Plumosum Var. Plumosum), Nora Dunkirk

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state conservation status assessment for Plumed Clover (Trifolium plumosum var. plumosum) using NatureServe methodology, 2025.

Challenges In Engineering Machine Learning (Software) Systems, Raffi T. Khatchadourian Ph.D.

Open Educational Resources

Lecture slides on the software engineering challenges unique to machine learning systems, for an undergraduate software engineering course. After contrasting traditional programming with machine learning, the deck examines why the usual tools for managing complexity—abstraction, reuse, and composition—are harder to apply to ML, given the lack of clear specifications and modularity. It covers concept drift, feedback loops (illustrated with crime-prediction and recommendation examples), and the accumulation of technical debt in ML systems, including the role and pitfalls of notebooks in moving from experimentation to production. Based on "Machine Learning in Production/AI Engineering" by Christian Kaestner and Eunsuk Kang (Carnegie Mellon …

Patent Searching With Uspto, Derwent Innovation And Lens.Org, Ibis Anette Moreno-Lozano

Day Family Research Lab Workshop Series

No abstract provided.

High-Resolution Lidar Observations Of Sedimentation-Induced Size Sorting Of Droplets Near A Laboratory Cloud Top, Fan Yang, Yong Meng Sua, Zipei Zheng, Jesse Anderson, Hamed F. Sadi, Jae Min Yeom, Suryadev Pratap Singh, Pei Hou, Will Cantrell, Ernie Lewis, Alex Kostinski, Raymond Shaw

Michigan Tech Publications

No abstract provided.

White Nose Syndrome In Bats And Infant Mortality In Georgia, Rhys Medcalfe, Sean Medcalfe, Simon Medcalfe

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: White nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease in bats caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans that can result in bat mortality rates of over 90%. WNS was discovered in Georgia in 2012 in 3 counties but has continued to spread to 14 counties as of 2023, with P. destructans detected in a further seven. Biodiversity loss has been linked to human health outcomes including infant mortality. Understanding the link between WNS, biodiversity loss, and infant mortality in Georgia is important because Georgia ranks 42^nd out of the 50 states for infant mortality rate.

Methods: Using panel data from …

Orbital Stability Of Solitary Wave Solutions Of The Generalized Benjamin Equation, Leijin Cao, Binhua Feng, Zhaosheng Feng, Yichun Mo

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we study the existence and stability of solitary wave solutions for the generalized Benjamin equation in both the L2-critical and L2-supercritical cases by applying the variational methods and the non-homogeneous Gagliardo–Nirenberg inequality. Our main results generalize and complement the existing results in the literature.

Hot Ground State Cooling Following Ultrafast Photoisomerization: Time-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy, James N. Bull, Mark H. Stockett, Pratip Chakraborty, Eleanor K. Ashworth, Anam Fatima, Vincent J. Esposito, Gregory M. Greetham, Partha Malakar, Stephen R. Meech

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The ultrafast photophysics of many isomerizing molecules involves subpicosecond formation of a twisted hot ground state, which transfers energy to the environment through vibrational relaxation (cooling) over several picoseconds. In time-resolved infrared (TR-IR) spectroscopy, hot ground state transients show frequency shifts and band reshapings, which cannot be described through kinetic models that assume static spectral functions. We report a simple anharmonic cascade framework, which uses a single adjustable parameter associated with scaling the probability of vibrational energy transfer to the environment, for describing hot ground state cooling (HGSC) in TR-IR spectroscopy. The model is demonstrated against measurements on the cyan …

Book Of Abstracts, Seton Hall University

2025 Augustine Undergraduate Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Bayesian Alignment Prior To Connectionist Temporal Classification Loss, Lawry Sorenson

Theses and Dissertations

We propose revisions of Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) loss and forced alignment to support longer input sequences. CTC loss is normally used for training in speech and handwriting recognition tasks when the labels are not fully aligned with the data, while forced alignment is a downstream task that finds the optimal path for segmentation purposes. The current implementations consider all possible alignments between the input and label, which grows exponentially with the size of the input. We show that in cases when silence is removed and speaking rate is consistent, the true alignment is a mostly straight line across time …

Commutative Schur Rings Over Characteristic 2 Special Orthogonal Groups, Andrew Haviland

Theses and Dissertations

We study commutative Schur rings over the special orthogonal groups $\mathrm{SO}^{\pm}(n,2)$ that contain the class $\mathcal{C}$ of transvections. We show that the partition of $\mathcal{C}$ determined by a commutative Schur ring has either one or two parts. We classify all remaining partitions of $\mathcal{C}$ that could be determined by a commutative Schur ring.