Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Spatiotemporal Responses To A Rural Highway By Four Mammal Species, Caitlin K. Brett, Anna Rose Mehner, John H. Young Jr., Sarah E. Lehnen, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Roads can negatively impact the wildlife communities they transect. Road mortalities from wildlife-vehicle collisions are one direct effect, but roads may also indirectly affect wildlife behavior, movement, or local distribution. Quantifying the spatial extent of these road-effects is important for understanding how roads indirectly affect species of concern, identifying potential sources of disturbance, and for estimating the effectiveness of road mitigation structures. Farm-to-Market Road (FM)106, which transects part of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in Cameron County, Texas, has been identified as a potential source of wildlife road mortalities, particularly for one of the two remaining breeding populations of …

The Response Of Mitochondrial Position To Glucose Stimulation In The Min6 Model System, Luis Perez

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The compartmentalization of eukaryotic cells into membrane-bound organelles with specific subcellular positioning enables precise spatial and temporal control of cellular functions. While functionally significant mitochondrial localization has been demonstrated in cells such as neurons, it remains unclear how general these cell principles are. Here, we examine the spatial organization of mitochondria within MIN6 pancreatic beta cells under variable glucose conditions. We observe glucose-dependent redistributions of mitochondria, favoring peripheral localization at elevated glucose levels when insulin secretion is also elevated. Our results suggest that active mitochondrial transport along microtubules and calcium activity, but not ATP synthesis, are critical regulators of this …

Synthesis Of Cancrinite Zeolite From Toraja Natural Bentonite For Heavy Metal Removal From Wastewater, Yuli Astuti, Paulina Taba, Siti Fauziah, Syarifuddin Liong, Yusafir Hala, Nur Umriani Permatasari, Satria Putra Jaya Negara, Fadliah Fadliah

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

This study explores the production of cancrinite (CAN) zeolite from bentonite found in Toraja (a place in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia) and its effectiveness in removing Pb²⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions from wastewater. The synthesis was carried out using a hydrothermal method with varying NaOH concentrations, where a single phase of zeolite was formed at 5 M, as confirmed through XRD analysis. FTIR results showed the characteristics of CAN zeolite with typical absorption peaks at 676, 622, and 565 cm^-1, as well as the presence of carbonate groups (CO₃^2-) at 1300-1400 cm^-1. SEM …

Machine Learning Crime Prediction Models And The Gap Between Research And Implementation: A Systematic Review, Ricardo Huamantingo, Miguel Cano-Lengua, Ciro Rodriguez

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

A crime is an illegal or violent act committed by one individual against another. The increasing crime rate has become a major concern as it negatively affects people's quality of life and generates significant social and economic costs. This study aims to identify the most widely used machine learning (ML) models for crime prediction, determine evaluation metrics for assessing model performance, and analyze key data characteristics to enhance real-world implementation. The study follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. A search string was formulated using the population, intervention, comparison, and outcomes (PICO) framework and applied …

Psilostachyin B As Potential Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Targeting Ctla-4 And Pd-L1 In The Development Of Cancer Immunotherapy: A Computational Investigation, Moh Dliyauddin, Nabila Shafa Yumna Salsabila, Noviana Dwi Lestari, Sapti Puspitarini, Mansur Ibrahim, Sri Rahayu, Muhammad Sasmito Djati, Muhaimin Rifa’I

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Immunotherapy is a promising treatment approach by targeting immune checkpoints such as CTLA-4 and PD-L1 to overcome cancer progression. The utilization of Curcuma longa and Phyllanthus niruri as potential immune checkpoint inhibitors offers an alternative cancer therapy. Computational analyses including molecular docking and molecular dynamics with validation using Molecular Mechanics/Poisson-Boltzmann Surface Area (MM-PBSA), Dynamic Cross-Correlation Matrix (DCCM), and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), were performed in this study. Results show that Psilostachyin B is the most promising inhibitor candidate against CTLA-4 and PD-L1, with binding affinity values of -6.9 and -6.8 kcal/mol, respectively. Molecular dynamics simulation results indicated that Psilostachyin B …

Survey Of Possible Magnetic Field Sources Around The Intragroup Medium Of Ngc 2563, Edward A. Wallace, Anna Williams

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

The origin and evolution of magnetic fields in space is an ongoing mystery in astronomy. Previous work has concluded the existence of magnetic fields in galaxy clusters, and to build an evolutionary model, the motivation behind this project is to determine how these magnetic fields form. In order to answer this question, we want to search for magnetic fields in galaxy group NGC 2563. To do this, our project determines the contribution to observed rotation measures of the galaxy group that come from the Milky Way and from the sources themselves.

Modelling Of The Overcontact Eclipsing Binary V826 Aur, Kalev T. Murray-Rouse, John M. Cannon, Anna Williams, Wes Tobin

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

We present a model of the eclipsing binary system V826 Aur using differential photometric data from the Robert L. Mutel Telescope (RLMT) at the Winer Observatory in Sonoita, Arizona. The calculated time of superconjunction was found to be 60648.7658534 and the period was 0.361701 d. These values were used to generate a best-fit model of the eclipsing binary with the PHOEBE program. The best-fit modelled parameters were found to be: mass ratio (𝑞) is equal to 2.769, the inclination (𝑖) is equal to 80.45◦, the fillout factor (𝑓) equals 0.0961, and the temperature ratio (𝑇2∕𝑇1) is 0.9740. Although not statistically …

Finding High Mass X-Ray Binaries In Ngc 3109, Caeden Miller, John (Jay) Gallagher Iii

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

High Mass X-Ray Binary systems can be difficult to find in the Milky Way due to high metallicity contributing to mass loss due to stellar wind, so we turn our attention to the galaxy NGC 3109 in order to find these systems. Using archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope using the Wide Field Camera 3, we do photometry in both the F475W and F814W filters for the two fields of view that cover the galaxy. We then plot these magnitudes on a color-magnitude diagram and use isochrones of 5 and 10 million years to gather minimum mass estimates of …

Electro-Optic Detection Of Plasma Generated Thz Pulses, Rohan Lichtenberg, James Heyman

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

We implement a technique of generating ultrafast THz-pulses for use in a time-resolved THz-spectroscopy system. We focus light emitted by an amplified Ti:Sapphire Laser in order to ionize a small filament of air, causing the formation of plasma. When laser pulses cross the plasma the Kerr effect produces measurable, ultrafast THz pulses. More specifically, we characterized pulse length and spectral bandwidth of the generated THz-pulses by examining the response by different electro-optical crystals of different thicknesses. This THz spectroscopy system is currently being used to measure the mobilities of photoelectrons in Methylammonium Lead Iodide perovskite materials, which are potential substitutes …

Making And Breaking Chaos: Analog Computer Implementation Of The Lorenz Model, Reed Lefevre, James Doyle

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

Hybrid analogue-digital computers have been shown to have certain advantages over traditional digital computers when solving nonlinear partial differential equations. Motivated by this fact, we implement the Lorenz equations on an analogue electronic computer and vary the parameters to analyze the bifurcations. With the working circuit, we compared experimental results to various digital simulations to assess the effectiveness of our circuit. We find clear qualitative agreement between the physical circuit and digital simulations; however, we observe a noticeable quantitative difference in behavior. The circuit depicts a picturesque Lorenz Butterfly plot and bifurcates into fixed points and chaos; however, these bifurcations …

Non-Destructive Compositional Analysis Of Lead Halide Perovskite Films Using Thz Spectroscopy And A Three-Oscillator Dielectric Model, Isaac J.C Kisker

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

Terahertz (THz) Spectroscopy offers a novel approach to probing low-energy phonon excitation in complex crystalline materials like methylammonium lead iodide (MAPI) perovskite films. In this research, we use time-resolved Terahertz Spectroscopy in tandem with a three-oscillator model to non-destructively ascertain the relative volumetric composition of MAPI and residual lead iodide (PbI₂) in spin-coated films. The dielectric function is modeled as a product over longitudinal and transverse optical phonon modes. This model is then fitted to the measured THz spectra, allowing us to extract the contributions from both MAPI and PbI₂.

Monitoring The Degradation Of Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Thin Films By Uv Exposure, Addison Dau, Ethan Dale, James Heyman

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

This project involved lead-halide perovskite thin films, a promising novel solar cell material. The goal was to monitor the composition of the samples during degradation from blue light exposure using vibrational spectroscopy. IR and THz spectroscopy measured the composition of the samples in-situ between periods of blue light exposure, probing the N-H and Pb-I vibrational modes. Plotting MA and MAPI concentrations versus blue light exposure showed that the MA and MAPI concentrations initially decreased in a gradual linear fashion until a threshold photon flux where both vibrational absorption bands simultaneously collapsed. This suggests that there is a discontinuous change in …

Electropolymerization Of Nile Blue And Toluidine Blue Dyes For Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalysts, Camellia N. Schwartzman

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

This work investigated electropolymerized (EPD) organic conductive polymers poly-Nile Blue (PNB) and poly-Toluidine Blue (PTB) on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates as electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). We investigated the effect of changing the heteroatoms in the pi-conjugated structure of poly-Neutral Red (PNR). UV-vis spectroscopy was used to estimate film thickness. Catalytic activity was quantified by Tafel slope and formal redox potential. PNB and PTB exhibited low current densities and small standard rate constants. Although neither showed highly active catalysts for HER, future directions should continue to pursue structures similar to PNR for HER electrocatalysts.

Examining Mulit-Wavelength Variability And Magnetic Interactions In The Polar St Lmi, Cain Rinkoski

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

Cataclysmic variable (CV) stars are interacting binary systems that exhibit exotic, multi-wavelength behavior driven by mass transfer from a donor star onto a white dwarf. As rich laboratories for accretion physics, binary dynamics, and the origins of Type Ia supernovae, CVs have been well studied in the X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, and infrared—but remain comparatively underexplored in the radio regime. This paper presents simultaneous, time-resolved optical and radio observations of the magnetic CV ST LMi, aimed at constraining its emission mechanisms and orbital modulation.
The optical light curves display brightness variations of approximately 1.31 ± 0.02 magnitudes on a period of …

A Thermal Control System For The Atlas Hgtd Module Construction Process, Keelin B. Murphy

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

In the aim of simplifying the production process of 2000 HGTD (High Granularity Timing Detector) modules at IJClab for the high luminosity phase of the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, I designed, coded, and constructed an automatic temperature control system for module assembly and testing. To this end, I examined the module’s thermal response to changes in air temperature using a climate chamber and to various currents fed through a Peltier device situated under the module. I adapted the Peltier setup into a fully independent control system driven by an Arduino microcontroller running a PID feedback loop.

Leveraging Weekly Snow Cover Time Series For Improved Glacier Monitoring And Modeling, Rainey Aberle, Ellyn M. Enderlin, David R. Rounce, Shad O'Neel, Brandon Tober, Alexandra Friel

Boise State University Publications and Presentations

Seasonal snow and ice melt strongly influence glacier mass balance, yet sparse sub-annual observations limit our understanding of seasonal dynamics. Here we construct and analyze weekly snow cover time series for 200 glaciers across western North America from 2013 to 2023 using an automated image processing pipeline. Snow cover varied widely across the region: snow minima timing varied with latitude — from August from 62 to 64N to October from 48 to 50N—and accumulation area ratios ranged from near-zero to 0.92 (median of 0.52). A comparison of snowlines from observations and the PyGEM glacier mass balance model revealed seasonally evolving …

"...Anything My Friend Shares, I Would Want To Support Them By Clicking On It": Co-Designing Story-Based Interventions Against Clickbait For Teenagers, Ankit Shrestha, Audrey Flood, Bryson Hackler, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen

Computer Science Student Research

Teenagers' lack of digital sophistication and cyber hygiene makes them vulnerable to social engineering attacks, especially as they start using social media. Clickbait, one of such attacks, is primarily performed through social media to trick users into clicking on malicious links. With teenagers' increasing use of social media, clickbait poses a substantial threat to their online safety. The existing online safety measures for teens mainly focus on parental mediation, which can be perceived as restrictive and privacy-invasive. To this end, researchers recommended empowering teens to deal with online risks. In order to design such interventions for clickbait, we conducted co-design …

A Generalization Of Franklin’S Partition Identity And A Beck-Type Companion Identity, Gabriel Gray, David Hovey, Brandt Kronholm, Emily Payne, Holly Swisher, Ren Watson

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Euler’s classic partition identity states that the number of partitions of n into odd parts equals the number of partitions of n into distinct parts. We develop a new generalization of this identity, which yields a previous generalization of Franklin as a special case, and prove an accompanying Beck-type companion identity.

The People's Rivers: Early Environmental Regulation And The Oregon State Sanitary Authority, Avery Morgan Fischer

Dissertations and Theses

The environmental movement in Oregon can trace its origins to the turn of the twentieth century, where citizen activism and initiative led to the creation of an early environmental regulatory agency, the Oregon State Sanitary Authority. This creation established that the State of Oregon had a duty to preserve, not just the navigability or usability of rivers and waterways, but the quality and purity of its water. The Oregon State Sanitary Authority played an active role in maintaining and protecting the environment as a mandate of the people, and throughout its thirty-year existence battling industrial polluters, reluctant municipalities, and disinterested …

An Example Where Taking An Additional Observation Doesn't Help, Stephen Portnoy, James Stein

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

It seems intuitively obvious that no part of a random sample should be discarded. However, for most students, the first formal justification of this idea is when sufficiency is introduced in an introductory statistical theory course. Students are often left with the idea that conditioning on the sufficient statistic always improves inference, even though the formal theory only says that for any statistical procedure there is one depending on the sufficient statistic that is no worse. Here we present an example on comparing two coins based on two consecutive tosses, where the optimal probability of guessing which coin has the …

Quasistatic Peridynamics, Existence Of Unique Solution In The Presence Of Damage, Nuwanthi N. Samarawickrama

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A mathematical model for damage propagation based on nonlocal potentials is developed within the framework of peridynamics. This model is applied to simulate damage evolution in cyclically loaded structures. By neglecting inertial effects, a well-posed quasistatic formulation for cyclic loading is obtained.\\ The resulting equation is expressed as a nonlocal and nonlinear integral operator that couples damage evolution to the deformation field.\\ This coupling occurs through the product of a damage factor and the derivative of a force potential. The damage factor ranges between zero and one, where one represents undamaged material and zero indicates complete damage.\\ It serves to …

Towards Leveraging Social Media Data For Fostering Collaborations Among Non-Profits, Monazil Chowdhury

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Nonprofit organizations serve a crucial role in tackling a wide range of significant social, environmental, and economic issues. But it is often hard to get a clear picture of their work because their information is spread out and it is difficult to see how they are collaborating. To address this issue we developed a web-based tool to collect scattered data—from a variety of sources, such as the IRS, social media, and the Census, into one easy-to-use resource. The tool begins by taking IRS records and geocoding each nonprofit’s physical address With its coordinates. It then retrieves census tract information from …

Dose Characterization Of Galactic Cosmic Rays In The Human Brain: A Phits-Based Study With A Segmented Anatomical Phantom, Shanice N. Manning

LSU Master's Theses

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are chronically exposed to a complex space radiation environment composed of galactic cosmic rays (GCR), solar particles, and Earth's trapped radiation. These high-energy particles interact with spacecraft shielding, producing secondary particles that can penetrate inside and deposit energy in sensitive tissues. Although animal studies have been useful in assessing space radiation risks, anatomical and physiological differences limit their applicability to human anatomy especially neuroanatomy. To address this gap, we developed a computational framework to model radiation dose distribution within the human brain using Monte Carlo simulations in Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code …

Hyperspectral Band Selection Via Heterogeneous Graph Convolutional Self-Representation Network, Junde Chen, Wenzhao Li, Surendra Maharjan, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Hyperspectral image (HSI) band selection (BS) plays a crucial role in HSI dimensionality reduction, aiming to identify a representative subset of bands with minimal redundancy. However, conventional BS approaches primarily operate in the Euclidean domain, often overlooking the structural characteristics of pixels and spectral bands, such as spatial continuity and spectral dependencies. In addition, they handle each HSI as an integrated unit to harness implicit spatial information, disregarding spatial distribution variations across different homogeneous regions. To fully leverage structural information, this study introduces a novel BS method, termed the dual heterogeneous graph convolutional network with enhanced self-representation (ESR-HGCN), for HSI …

Digital Forensics And Ai: Artifact Analysis And Using Ai In The Forensics Domain, Clinton Joel Walker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Digital Forensics (DF) is a field of forensic science focusing on the acquisition, authentication, and analysis of digital evidence while maintaining integrity of that data. DF analysts use forensic tools to parse large volumes of data for investigations and depend on them for identification of pertinent digital evidence in vast amounts of data. Keeping up with innovations and ever-expanding data volumes is a constant challenge for these investigators. The prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in everyday computing is rapidly expanding, with the use of Machine Learning (ML) and Large Language Models (LLM)s becoming increasingly commonplace. Innovations in technology bring new …

Research And Education In Robotics: A Comprehensive Review, Trends, Challenges, And Future Directions, Mutaz Ryalat, Natheer Almtireen, Ghaith Al-Refai, Hisham Elmoaqet, Nathir Rawashdeh

Michigan Tech Publications

Robotics has emerged as a transformative discipline at the intersection of the engineering, computer science, and cognitive sciences. This state-of-the-art review explores the current trends, methodologies, and challenges in both robotics research and education. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the evolution of robotics, tracing its development from early automation to intelligent, autonomous systems. Key enabling technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), soft robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and swarm intelligence, are examined along with real-world applications in healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, and sustainable smart cities. A central focus is placed on robotics education, where hands-on, interdisciplinary learning is …

Review Of Averting The Digital Dark Age: The Future Of Digital Literary Heritage, Rebecca L. Hastings

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In Averting the Digital Dark Age: How Archivists, Librarians, and Technologists Built the Web a Memory, Ian Milligan explores the efforts of technologists and information professionals to develop means of preserving information shared on the World Wide Web. The web lacks a built-in archiving function, raising fears of a “digital dark age,” an unprecedented gap in the historical record as information sharing via the web increases. Milligan tracks the development of web preservation debates and activities from the anxiety and turmoil of the early to mid-1990s to the coming of age of web preservation in the wake of the …

A Study Of Machine Learning Techniques In Solving Biochemical And Chemical Problems, Kenneth Micheal Plackowski

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Data-driven approaches to solving problems in biology and chemistry require utilization of reliable techniques and machine learning algorithms are the modern reliable approach. This work presents three problems that involve use of supervised learning techniques when classification is the goal and unsupervised learning techniques when global data representation is the goal.

In the first problem, we demonstrate the use of unsupervised clustering techniques, self-organizing maps and K-means, to ascertain analyte detection capabilities of carbon nitride dots. In the second problem, we add scalability features to a functional group classification model applied to infrared data and evaluate its ability to inform …

Nanoporous Gold Nanoparticles And Model Membrane Systems Applied To The Study Of Lipopolysaccharide (Lps), Dhanbir Lingden

Dissertations

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a key structural component of Gram-negative bacteria, is a major trigger of sepsis and septic shock, the systemic inflammatory conditions responsible for millions of deaths annually. Even at concentrations as low as 1 ng/mL, LPS can activate the immune system and initiate inflammatory cascades. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017, sepsis accounted for 48.9 million cases globally, with 11 million deaths, emphasizing the urgent need for improved diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Accurate and rapid detection of LPS is vital for early intervention and improved clinical outcomes. While traditional detection methods are still widely used, modern …

Using Linear Programming And Game Theory To Optimize The Relation Between Us And China, Junhao Su

Student Works

This paper develops an optimization model to analyze U.S.–China bilateral trade dynamics and competition in artificial intelligence (AI). First, grounded in WTO tariff limits, we formulate a linear programming model to maximize the combined trade volume and conduct a comprehensive sensitivity analysis on tariff parameters. Second, we integrate zero‑sum and non‑zero‑sum game‑theoretic frameworks to identify the Nash equilibria governing both trade negotiations and technological rivalry. The model is implemented in Python using PuLP and is empirically validated with real‑world tariff data to highlight the policy relevance of the optimal solutions. Our results reveal a high concordance between the zero‑sum game …