Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

"Who Wrote The Epistle, God Only Knows": A Statistical Authorial Analysis Of Hebrews In Comparison With Pauline And Lukan Literature, Benjamin J. Erickson

Senior Honors Theses

The authorship of Hebrews has been a point of contention for scholars for the past two millennia. While the epistle is traditionally attributed to Paul, many scholars assert that it carries thematic, structural, and stylistic differences from the remainder of his extant epistles; therefore, many other possible authors have been proposed. Of these, only Luke has other New Testament writings. Therefore, this project conducts a statistical comparison of Hebrews to the Pauline and Lukan corpora using stylometric authorial analysis methods. This analysis demonstrates that Hebrews is stylistically closer to Lukan literature than Pauline (but not to a significant degree), and …

Defining Characteristics That Lead To Cost-Efficient Veteran Nba Free Agent Signings, David Mccain

Honors Projects in Mathematics

Throughout the history of the NBA, decisions regarding the signing of free agents have been riddled with complexity. Franchises are tasked with finding out what players will serve as optimal free agent signings prior to seeing them perform within the framework of their team. This study hypothesizes that the adequacy of an NBA free agent signing can be modeled and predicted through the implementation of a machine learning model. The model will learn the necessary information using training and testing data sets that include various player biometrics, game statistics, and financial information. The application of this machine learning model will …

Electric Vehicle Uptake: What Factors Are Motivating The Shift For College-Aged And Older Groups?, Jake Cardines

Honors Projects in Mathematics

Electric vehicles (EVs) arguably are the most quickly expanding form of transportation as the world races toward a greener future with advanced technology and reduced reliance on fossil fuels. This study analyzes various expected inputs to motivating consumers of particular age groups to purchase EVs, including examination of how the idea of EV ownership is currently perceived and testing which factors influence it positively and negatively. Data collected from 113 survey respondents serves as the basis for determining the responsiveness of potential future EV owners to variables such as vehicle brand and charging availability, electric range, costs associated with purchase …

El Final Report: Undergraduate Summer Research Internships, Sophie Wu

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

In her final report, Sophie Wu discusses her two Undergraduate Summer Research Internships at Western University: the first in the Statistics and Actuarial Science department, concerning microinsurance, and the second, in the Mathematics department, concerning computational neuroscience.

Changing Nfl Playoff Overtime Rules To Create Equal Opportunities To Win A Game, Matthew Silvia

Honors Projects in Mathematics

The NFL has attempted to create fair overtime rules over the course of the past decade; however, this study is interested in determining what playoff overtime rule (or rules) could the NFL implement to result in outcomes where both teams have a relatively equal chance of winning a game. This study aims to find which overtime rules work best at minimizing the differences between teams who possess the ball first versus teams that kick the ball off to start an overtime period. By collecting various NFL statistics from ESPN.com and FantasyOutsiders.com, this study hopes to run multiple simulations of different …

Utilizing Markov Chains To Estimate Allele Progression Through Generations, Ronit Gandhi

Honors Theses

All populations display patterns in allele frequencies over time. Some alleles cease to exist, while some grow to become the norm. These frequencies can shift or stay constant based on the conditions the population lives in. If in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the allele frequencies stay constant. Most populations, however, have bias from environmental factors, sexual preferences, other organisms, etc. We propose a stochastic Markov chain model to study allele progression across generations. In such a model, the allele frequencies in the next generation depend only on the frequencies in the current one.

We use this model to track a recessive allele …

The Biggest Loser: How Tanking In Professional Sports Impacts Fan Perception, Julia Ayres

Honors Projects in Mathematics

Professional sports teams are adored nationwide for their talents and the pride they bring to their city for their efforts. However, not all teams take this responsibility seriously and will lose on purpose, or tank, to gain a higher draft pick in the future. Although the long-term goals of tanking are to help the organization, many people take issue with athletes not putting in their best efforts in every game. Teams in both the NBA and NFL are guilty of tanking to gain better draft picks but not all have found success in this process. This leads to important questions …

Vampires And Other Diseases: Stochastic Infection Dynamics Of Small Populations, Marijn Jaarsma

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

Mathematical models are powerful tools often applied in the field of epidemiology. The type and shape of the model will differ between different types of diseases. In this study, stochastic dynamical models are applied to the entertaining example of vampires, and the results of this analysis are compared to real-life diseases with small populations of infected. The data used comes from pop-culture depictions of vampires in literature, television shows, movies, and fan pages associated with these depictions. The aim of this study is to serve as an educational tool for modeling diseases with small populations to predict and control the …

Contributions To The Teaching And Learning Of Fluid Mechanics, Ashwin Vaidya

Department of Mathematics Facuty Scholarship and Creative Works

This issue showcases a compilation of papers on fluid mechanics (FM) education, covering different sub topics of the subject. The success of the first volume [1] prompted us to consider another follow-up special issue on the topic, which has also been very successful in garnering an impressive variety of submissions. As a classical branch of science, the beauty and complexity of fluid dynamics cannot be overemphasized. This is an extremely well-studied subject which has now become a significant component of several major scientific disciplines ranging from aerospace engineering, astrophysics, atmospheric science (including climate modeling), biological and biomedical science …

We’Re Here To Get You There: A Statistical Analysis Of Bridgewater State University’S Transit System, Abigail Adams

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Bridgewater State University first established its on-campus transportation service in January of 1984. While it began only running as an on-campus service for students throughout the day, the service grew to expand by offering an off-campus connection to the neighboring city of Brockton and absorbed the night service system from the campus safety team. As BSU Transit continues to grow, the organization is seeking ways to improve their overall service and better prepare their fleet and driver pool to accommodate this growth. The purpose of this research is to analyze trends among the data collected by BSU Transit and assist …

Mathematical Modeling: Instructor And Student Resources, Marnie Phipps, Patty Wagner

Mathematics Ancillary Materials

This collection of student and instructor materials for Mathematical Modeling contains lesson plans, lecture slides, homework, learning goals, and student notes for the following major topics:

• Linear Functions
• Quadratic Functions
• Exponential Functions
• Logarithmic Functions

This is a materials update for a collection of materials created for a Round Nine ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Under The Influence, Leonardo Cavicchio

Honors Projects in Mathematics

The purpose of this Honors Capstone entitled Under the Influence is to assess the validity of claims concerning the possible influence of roommates on one another, concerning alcohol on college campuses. This will be done by examining data collected in a prior study conducted over a two-year period. This analysis will focus on how alcohol consumption changes in correlation with the personality factors of roommates over an extended period of time. This secondary analysis of de-identified data will focus on primary and secondary subquestions. The primary question that will be addressed with the data set collected from the University of …

Rock Paper Scissors And Evolutionary Game Theory, Christian Cordova, Rudolf Jovero, Evan Thomas

Math 365 Class Projects

In Rock Paper Scissors (RPS), three different "species" compete, but no single species has a dominating strategy. In evolutionary game theory, replicator equations model population densities over time. When a mutation is introduced, they are called "replicator-mutator" equations. Using the replicator-mutator equation in [1] we have shown how population density of three species change.

Gilmore Girls And Instagram: A Statistical Look At The Popularity Of The Television Show Through The Lens Of An Instagram Page, Brittany Simmons

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

After going on the Warner Brothers Tour in December of 2015, I created a Gilmore Girls Instagram account. This account, which started off as a way for me to create edits of the show and post my photos from the tour turned into something bigger than I ever could have imagined. In just over a year I have over 55,000 followers. I post content including revival news, merchandise, and edits of the show that have been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, E! News, People Magazine, Yahoo News, & GilmoreNews.

I created a dataset of qualitative and quantitative outcomes from my …

The Value Of A Win: Analysis Of Playoff Structures, Matthew Orsi

Honors Projects in Mathematics

The purpose of this Senior Capstone project is to analyze the distinctions between existing playoff systems. In particular, we are looking to analyze the differences between the standard single-elimination tournament (which the NCAA has used since the inception of the tournament) and other potential options: double-elimination and multiple game series. Popular sports such as Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association all use multiple game series for their playoffs. This project will use probability theory and simulation to determine the likelihood of different seeds winning a championship as well as the expected number of victories by seed in each …

Statistics In Practice Sta 490, Amanda Izenstark

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Application Of Inverse Problems In Imaging, Xiaoyue Luo

Post-Grant Reports

In this project, we studied how to enhance image quality by denoising and deblurring a given image mathematically. We compared some existing state-of-the-art methods for image denoising and deblurring. We implemented the algorithms numerically using Matlab.

We studied the possibility of combining statistical analysis with the traditional image restoration methods including using wavelets and framelets and we derived some encouraging preliminary results.

My research student Alleta Maier gave a sequence of talks on the project including the Pacific Northwest Mathematical Association of America conference at Oregon State University in April, 2016; Linfield College Taylor Series in March, 2016, and Linfield …

Does Academic Performance Predict Workplace Productivity?, Jodie-Gaye Hunter

Honors Projects in Economics

This research examines if college GPA affects productivity and compensation in the workplace. It uses data collected from a survey of approximately 23,000 Bryant University graduates in different stages of their career. About 10 percent of the alumni surveyed completed the survey. The econometric model used in this study allows estimating the effect of GPA on income after controlling for various demographic and socioeconomic variables, including education, major, occupation, gender, among others. The empirical work provides evidence that GPA has a positive and statistically significant impact on workplace productivity for females, but GPA seems to be a weaker predictor of …

Bootstrapping Vs. Asymptotic Theory In Property And Casualty Loss Reserving, Andrew J. Difronzo Jr.

Honors Projects in Mathematics

One of the key functions of a property and casualty (P&C) insurance company is loss reserving, which calculates how much money the company should retain in order to pay out future claims. Most P&C insurance companies use non-stochastic (non-random) methods to estimate these future liabilities. However, future loss data can also be projected using generalized linear models (GLMs) and stochastic simulation. Two simulation methods that will be the focus of this project are: bootstrapping methodology, which resamples the original loss data (creating pseudo-data in the process) and fits the GLM parameters based on the new data to estimate the sampling …

Mathematical Modeling Of Trending Topics On Twitter, Jonathan S. Skaza

Honors Projects in Mathematics

Created in 2006, Twitter is an online social networking service in which users share and read 140-character messages called Tweets. The site has approximately 288 million monthly active users who produce about 500 million Tweets per day. This study applies dynamical and statistical modeling strategies to quantify the spread of information on Twitter. Parameter estimates for the rates of infection and recovery are obtained using Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. The methodological strategy employed is an extension of techniques traditionally used in an epidemiological and biomedical context (particularly in the spread of infectious disease). This study, which addresses …

Statistical Inference For Everyone (Sie), Brian S. Blais

Science and Technology Department Faculty Book Publications

In the field of statistical inference, there are two primary schools of thought. Each has its proponents, but it is generally accepted that on all problems covered in an introductory course, that both approaches are valid and lead to the same numerical values when applied to actual problems. Only one of these approaches is covered in a traditional course, which denies the students access to an entire field of statistical inference. The traditional approach, also called the frequentist or orthodox perspective, leads almost directly to problem above. The other approach, also called Probability Theory as Logic, derives all statistical inference …

Undergraduate And Graduate Teaching Assistants' Perceptions Of Their Responsibilities - Factors That Help Or Hinder, Alena Moon, Hyunyi Jung, Farshid Marbouti, Kelsey Joy Rodgers, Heidi A. Diefes-Dux

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Effective teaching assistants (TAs) are crucial for effective student learning. This is especially true in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs, where TAs are enabling large programs to transition to more student-centered learning environments. To ensure that TAs are able to support these types of learning environments, their perspectives of training, their abilities, and other work related aspects must be understood. In this paper a survey that was created based on interviews conducted with eight TAs is discussed. The survey has four primary categories of content that are critical for understanding TAs' perspectives: (1) background, (2) motivation, (3) training, …

A Study Of Women Working In The Actuarial Field, Jillian Emberg

Honors Projects in Mathematics

The goal of this project is to examine how women fit into the actuarial career path and how cultural expectations, biological factors, and personal aspirations affect their experiences in the field. Dramatic changes in the profession have occurred since its emergence in the nineteenth century to become more welcoming to women who choose to enter the profession. However, despite the equalizing demographic shifts of the field, it is still a male-dominated profession. This paper attempts to analyze why some of the changes in the demographics of the field have occurred as well as explain what factors contribute to women’s underrepresentation …

Mathematical Analysis Of The Problems Faced By The People With Disabilities (Pwds), Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, A. Praveen Prakash

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The authors in this book have analyzed the socio-economic and psychological problems faced by People with Disabilities (PWDs) and their families. The study was made by collecting data using both fuzzy linguistic questionnaire / by interviews in case they are not literates from 2,15,811 lakhs people. This data was collected using the five Non Government Organizations (NGOs) from northern Tamil Nadu. Now any reader would be interested to know whether the Tamils (natives of Tamil Nadu) had ever spoken about people with disability. Even before 2000 years tamils had heroic poetry Purananuru (28th poem) about the war fare methods. In …

A New Undergraduate Curriculum On Mathematical Biology At University Of Dayton, Muhammad Usman, Amit Singh

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The beginning of modern science is marked by efforts of pioneers to understand the natural world using a quantitative approach. As Galileo wrote, "the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics". The traditional undergraduate course curriculum is heavily focused on individual disciplines like biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics rather than interdisciplinary courses. This fragmented teaching of sciences in majority of universities leave biology outside the quantitative and mathematical approaches. The landscape of biomedical science has transformed dramatically with advances in high throughput experimental approaches, which led to the huge amount of data. The best possible approach to generate …

Teaching Statistics To Elementary Children: Using A Problem-Solving Approach To Enhance Learning, Kayla Lee Botelho

Honors Projects

When teaching statistics (or data analysis) to elementary children, it is beneficial to use a problem-solving approach that incorporates meaningful tasks to enhance the students' learning. This was determined through a careful review of literature, observations of elementary teachers, and the creation and instruction of data analysis unit. The unit required the students to collect data on heights, organize the data in charts, and display the data in line plots. In addition, the students analyzed the data to recalculate the average and other measures of central tendency and to answer questions that arose through the implementation of the lessons. In …

Determining The Success Of Ncaa Basketball Teams Through Team Characteristics, Raymond Witkos

Honors Projects in Mathematics

Every year much of the nation becomes engulfed in the NCAA basketball postseason tournament more affectionately known as “March Madness.” The tournament has received the name because of the ability for any team to win a single game and advance to the next round. The purpose of this study is to determine whether concrete statistical measures can be used to predict the final outcome of the tournament. The data collected in the study include 13 independent variables ranging from the 2003-2004 season up until the current 2009-2010 season. Different tests were run in an attempt to achieve the most accurate …

Predictive Modeling Of Alumni Donor Behavior, Lauren Prue

Honors Projects in Mathematics

In recent years, college and universities have relied increasingly upon the charitable contributions of its previous graduates; as the costs of tuition rise substantially, development offices are facing the challenge of creating annual fund campaigns that are minimally expensive while providing the maximum potential for return. This study addresses the available constituent database at one University in particular in an effort to identify what criteria are the strongest predictors of donor response at a small, private university located within New England. The analysis utilized predictive modeling and data-mining largely within the software program Rapid Insight to build several models in …

The Effects Of The Use Of Technology In Mathematics Instruction On Student Achievement, Ron Y. Myers

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the use of technology on students’ mathematics achievement, particularly the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) mathematics results. Eleven schools within the Miami-Dade County Public School System participated in a pilot program on the use of Geometers Sketchpad (GSP). Three of these schools were randomly selected for this study. Each school sent a teacher to a summer in-service training program on how to use GSP to teach geometry. In each school, the GSP class and a traditional geometry class taught by the same teacher were the study participants. Students’ mathematics …

Discovering Properties Of Complex Numbers By Starting With Known Properties Of Real Numbers, Esther D. Hatch

Honors College

No abstract provided.