Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Measurements Of Photon Beam Intensity At The High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source (Higs) Facility For Astrophysically Relevant Photodisintegration Reaction Cross Section, Evan G. Meekins

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

How nuclear reactions in stars and stellar explosions such as supernovae have forged the elements out of hydrogen and helium leftover from the Big Bang is a longstanding, still timely research topic in nuclear astrophysics. Although there is a fairly complete understanding of the production of the chemical elements and their isotopes up to iron by nuclear fusion in stars, important details concerning the production of the elements from iron to uranium remain puzzling. Current knowledge is that the nucleosynthesis beyond iron proceeds mainly via neutron capture reactions and subsequent electron decays to stability. However, some 35 proton-rich stable isotopes, …

Using Residential Location To Assess The Environmental Value-Action Gap Of Students At James Madison University, Emma Rose Martin

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This study focuses on the environmental Value-Action Gap of students at James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, Virginia. This gap occurs when a person has pro-environmental beliefs but does not have congruent actions. Often, there are other factors apart from a person’s values that influence his/her willingness to participate in eco-friendly behavior (Howell 2013). For this study, the factor of influence being addressed is location. When students live on-campus at JMU they are surrounded by ‘green’ initiatives. Understanding the diffusion of environmental behavior from on-campus living to off-campus living is important because the majority of a JMU student’s residency is …

Historical Trends In Mean And Extreme Runoff And Streamflow Based On Observations And Climate Models, Behzad Asadieh, Nir Y. Krakauer, Balázs M. Fekete

Publications and Research

To understand changes in global mean and extreme streamflow volumes over recent decades, we statistically analyzed runoff and streamflow simulated by the WBM-plus hydrological model using either observational-based meteorological inputs from WATCH Forcing Data (WFD), or bias-corrected inputs from five global climate models (GCMs) provided by the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP). Results show that the bias-corrected GCM inputs yield very good agreement with the observation-based inputs in average magnitude of runoff and streamflow. On global average, the observation-based simulated mean runoff and streamflow both decreased about 1.3% from 1971 to 2001. However, GCM-based simulations yield increasing trends over …

The Equivalence Problem: Einstein­-Maxwell Solutions, Rebecca Whitney

Physics Capstone Projects

The “Equivalence Problem” is part of the Digital Einstein Project. The goal of this project is to create a digital and interactive library of all known solutions to the Einstein field equations in general relativity. The “Equivalence Problem” involves determining when two solutions are physically equivalent. This requires calculating physical and geometric features to characterize each solution independently of any coordinate system. One of the principal features used to characterize the solutions is the degree of symmetry or the isometry group of the space­-time metric. We have focused on the solutions to the Einstein­-Maxwell field equations and compared the isometry …

Giant Enhancement Of Magnetic Anisotropy In Ultrathin Manganite Films Via Nanoscale 1d Periodic Depth Modulation, Anil Rajapitamahuni, L. Zhang, Mark A. Koten, V. R. Singh, John D. Burton, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Jeffrey E. Shield, Xia Hong

Evgeny Tsymbal Publications

The relatively low magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) in strongly correlated manganites (La,Sr)MnO₃ has been a major hurdle for implementing them in spintronic applications. Here we report an unusual, giant enhancement of in-plane MCA in 6 nm La_0.67Sr_0.33MnO₃ (LSMO) films grown on (001) SrTiO₃ substrates when the top 2 nm is patterned into periodic stripes of 100 or 200 nm width. Planar Hall effect measurements reveal an emergent uniaxial anisotropy superimposed on one of the original biaxial easy axes for unpatterned LSMO along (110) directions, with a 50-fold enhanced anisotropy energy density of 5.6 × …

Atmospheric Modeling For Opal Mission, Preston Hooser

Physics Capstone Projects

Opal is a CubeSat mission which will measure the neutral temperature of the lower thermosphere (90-140km). It will do this by studying the O2 atmospheric band (A-band), a photoemission of excited molecular oxygen. One of the goals of OPAL is to detect and measure gravity waves traveling up through the region from storms below. In order to do this, it is important to understand the effects of gravity waves on the emission. This paper will describe efforts made to model the atmosphere for preflight mission simulation.

Wave And Tidal Energy In New York: Sustainable Hydroelectricity For The Grid, Lucas Basil Romanowsky

Student Theses 2015-Present

As humanity continues to exceed the ecological carrying capacity of the earth in its use of nonrenewable energy sources, it is imperative to find and shift to alternative renewable energy sources that can sustain human civilization. The ocean based phenomenon of tides, current, and waves are a way in which that source of energy can be obtained and broadened for human consumption. Oceanic energy can serve not only as a means to provide cleaner energy, but also improve the economy and the land based environment. The natural sciences and social sciences are examined within the quantitative data present. The natural …

Monitoring Southwest Greenland’S Ice Sheet Melt With Ambient Seismic Noise, Aurélien Mordret, T. Dylan Mikesell, Christopher Harig, Bradley P. Lipovsky, Germán A. Prieto

CGISS Publications and Presentations

The Greenland ice sheet presently accounts for ~70% of global ice sheet mass loss. Because this mass loss is associated with sea-level rise at a rate of 0.7 mm/year, the development of improved monitoring techniques to observe ongoing changes in ice sheet mass balance is of paramount concern. Spaceborne mass balance techniques are commonly used; however, they are inadequate for many purposes because of their low spatial and/or temporal resolution. We demonstrate that small variations in seismic wave speed in Earth’s crust, as measured with the correlation of seismic noise, may be used to infer seasonal ice sheet mass balance. …

The Effect Of Soil Ph On The Integument Of Western Tiger Salamanders, Aaron Devine, Dennis M. Ferraro

UCARE: Research Products

This study was done in an effort to better understand the multifaceted issues in amphibian decline, specifically within the eastern regions of Nebraska, to determine whether or not human-induced acid rain contributed to the decline. This is a heavily important topic of research as amphibians worldwide are declining related to many issues that stem from climate change and several other environmental issues of that nature. This study looked to use acidic pH within soil from western Nebraska to determine the reactionary impacts (primarily lesions) the western tiger salamander had after being subjected to it. It was found that pH did …

The Development Of Notation In Mathematical Analysis, Alyssa Venezia

Honors Thesis

The field of analysis is a newer subject in mathematics, as it only came into existence in the last 400 years. With a new field comes new notation, and in the era of universalism, analysis becomes key to understanding how centuries of mathematics were unified into a finite set of symbols, precise definitions, and rigorous proofs that would allow for the rapid development of modern mathematics. This paper traces the introduction of subjects and the development of new notations in mathematics from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century that allowed analysis to flourish. In following the development of analysis, we …

Role Of Multiple High-Capacity Irrigation Wells On A Surficial Sand And Gravel Aquifer, Logan C. Seipel, Eric W. Peterson, David H. Malone, Jason F. Thomason

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Within McHenry County, IL, the fastest growing county in Illinois, groundwater is used for 100% of the water needs. Concerns over water resources have prompted the investigation of the surficial sand and gravel aquifers of the county. While the eastern portion of the county is urbanizing, the western portion remains devoted to agriculture. High-capacity irrigation wells screened within the surficial sand and gravel aquifer are used for crop production. To assess the impacts of the irrigation wells on the aquifer, a groundwater flow model was developed to examine five different scenarios reflecting drought conditions and increased pumping. Results show that …

Graph Mining For Next Generation Sequencing: Leveraging The Assembly Graph For Biological Insights, Julia Warnke-Sommer, Hesham Ali

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Background: The assembly of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) reads remains a challenging task. This is especially true for the assembly of metagenomics data that originate from environmental samples potentially containing hundreds to thousands of unique species. The principle objective of current assembly tools is to assemble NGS reads into contiguous stretches of sequence called contigs while maximizing for both accuracy and contig length. The end goal of this process is to produce longer contigs with the major focus being on assembly only. Sequence read assembly is an aggregative process, during which read overlap relationship information is lost as reads are …

Agenda, Hr Adaptation Forum

May 6, 2016: Planning for Resilience in Hampton Roads

No abstract provided.

A Cylindrically Symmetric “Micro-Mott” Electron Polarimeter, Nathan B. Clayburn, Evan M. Brunkow, S. J. Burtwistle, George H. Rutherford, Timothy J. Gay

Timothy J. Gay Publications

A small, novel, cylindrically symmetric Mott electron polarimeter is described. The effective Sherman function, S_eff , or analyzing power, for 20 kV Au target bias with a 1.3 keV energy loss window is 0.16 ± 0.01, where uncertainty in the measurement is due primarily to uncertainty in the incident electron polarization. For an energy loss window of 0.5 keV, S_eff reaches its maximum value of 0.24 ± 0.02. The device’s maximum efficiency, I/I_o, defined as the detected count rate divided by the incident particle rate, is 3.7 ± 0.2 × 10^{− …}

El Alisal (Bernal) - Diseños, Glo No. 265, Monterey County, And Associated Historical Documents.

Individual Ranchos in Monterey and SLO Counties

Diseños - Hand-drawn Spanish-Mexican map demonstrating the physical boundaries of land granted to Mexican citizens by the Spanish or Mexican.

Expediente – Hand-written Spanish-Mexican land grant document issued to Mexican citizens in Alta California for land in Alta-California.

Work Progress Administration Abstract (WPA Abstract) – A summary document prepared in 1938 under the Work Progress Administration program detailing the history of a rancho beginning with the Spanish-American land through the U.S. patenting process.

Hornbeck Rancho Detail Sheet (AKA Detail Sheet) – A summary sheet generated from a land patent database that details the history of a rancho, along with the …

Spontaneous Calcium Release In Cardiac Myocytes: Store Overload And Electrical Dynamics, Amanda M. Alexander, Erin K. Denardo, Eric Frazier Iii, Michael Mccauley, Nicholas Rojina, Zana Coulibaly, Bradford E. Peercy, Leighton T. Izu

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

Heart disease is the leading cause of mortality in the United States. One cause of heart arrhythmia is calcium (Ca²⁺) mishandling in cardiac muscle cells. We adapt Izu's et al. mathematical reaction-diffusion model of calcium in cardiac muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes implemented by Gobbert, and analyzed in Coulibaly et al. to include calcium being released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), the effects of buffers in the SR, particularly calsequestrin, and the effects of Ca²⁺ influx due to voltage across the cell membrane. Based on simulations of the model implemented in parallel using MPI, our findings aligned with …

How Infectious Was #Deflategate?, Megan Eberle, Eric A. Eager, James Peirce

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

In mid-January 2015 the National Football League (NFL) started an investigation into whether the New England Patriots deliberately deflated the footballs used during their AFC Championship win. Like an infectious disease, the initial discussion regarding Deflategate grew rapidly on social media sites in the days after the release of the story, only to slowly dissipate as interest in the NFL waned following the completion of its season. We apply a simple epidemic model for the infectiousness of the Deflategate news story. We find that the infectiousness of Deflategate rivals that of many of the infectious diseases that we have seen …

The Firece Green Fire: Vol. 6 Issue 25, Wofford College Environmental Studies Program

The Fierce Green Fire

No abstract provided.

Nonlinear Integral Equations And Their Solutions, Caleb Richards

Mathematics Undergraduate Theses

We shall investigate nonlinear integral equations and their properties and solutions. Proofs and examples for the existence of unique solutions to nonlinear integral equations are provided. Some other areas explored are properties of solutions to systems of integral equations, integral inequalities, and multiple solutions to such equations.

The Urban Heat Island Effect In Malta And The Adequacy Of Green Roofs In Its Mitigation, Jonathan Scicluna

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Urbanisation is a reality of every major western society. The growth of cities, however, often results in major environmental impacts that not only effect the natural world but also humanity as well. One of these impacts is the Urban Heat Island (UHI) a phenomenon that influences the temperature inside built-up areas, often resulting in uncomfortably hot air temperature, especially in summer. However, as global climate change predictions keep forecasting warmer periods for regions such as Malta, UHI has the potential to transform from a nuisance to a deadly reality more often than in the present.

This work strives to get …

Boron Difluoride Formazanate Copolymers With 9,9-Di-N-Hexylfluorene Prepared By Copper-Catalyzed Alkyne-Azide Cycloaddition Chemistry, Stephanie M. Barbon, Joe Gilroy

Chemistry Publications

The synthesis and characterization of copolymers based on boron difluoride formazanate (BF₂L) and 9,9-di-n-hexylfluorene (hex₂Fl) units are described. A series of model compounds [(BF₂L)-(hex₂Fl), (hex₂Fl)-(BF₂L)-(hex₂Fl), and (BF₂L)-(hex₂Fl)-(BF₂L)] were also studied in order to fully understand the spectroscopic properties of the title copolymer [(BF₂L)-(hex₂Fl)]_n. The model compounds and copolymers, which were synthesized by copper catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition chemistry, exhibited high molar absorptivities (25,700-54,900 …

Encinal Y Buena Esperanza - Diseños, Glo No. 269, Monterey County, And Associated Historical Documents.

Individual Ranchos in Monterey and SLO Counties

Diseños - Hand-drawn Spanish-Mexican map demonstrating the physical boundaries of land granted to Mexican citizens by the Spanish or Mexican.

Expediente – Hand-written Spanish-Mexican land grant document issued to Mexican citizens in Alta California for land in Alta-California.

Work Progress Administration Abstract (WPA Abstract) – A summary document prepared in 1938 under the Work Progress Administration program detailing the history of a rancho beginning with the Spanish-American land through the U.S. patenting process.

Hoffman Notes -- Summary of information concerning claims made for the Rancho lands from the Appendix listing Table of Land Claims in the Reports of Land Cases …

CañAda De La Carpenteria - Diseños, Glo No. 243, Monterey County, And Associated Historical Documents.

Individual Ranchos in Monterey and SLO Counties

Diseños - Hand-drawn Spanish-Mexican map demonstrating the physical boundaries of land granted to Mexican citizens by the Spanish or Mexican.

Expediente – Hand-written Spanish-Mexican land grant document issued to Mexican citizens in Alta California for land in Alta-California.

Work Progress Administration Abstract (WPA Abstract) – A summary document prepared in 1938 under the Work Progress Administration program detailing the history of a rancho beginning with the Spanish-American land through the U.S. patenting process.

Hornbeck Rancho Detail Sheet (AKA Detail Sheet) – A summary sheet generated from a land patent database that details the history of a rancho, along with the …

The Consensus Problem, Cellular Automata, And Self-Replicating Structures, David Griffin

Physics Capstone Projects

Over The course of the last four years I have researched the consensus problem. I have done so by studying how cellular automata following the 2DGKL rule are able to reach consensus in a verity of ways. There are only certain structures that can form within a network, and these structures can be described and examined directly from the rules that make them up. I have also explored a variety of methods to study the rule including, graph theory and liner algebra representations of the cellular automata. Additionally I collected an analyzed data on symmetry in the rule, dependency on …

The Chemistry Of Photography, Nichole Marie Witten

Senior Theses

People nowadays are used to instant gratification when it comes to taking photographs. They look at a digital display, click a button, and get a perfectly focused and lighted picture that they can see right away. New technologies enable people to have pocket-sized digital cameras, their smart phones, with them at all times, and they’re easy convenient, and fast. Behind a single lens reflex (SLR) film camera, the scenario is much different. More time is needed in framing the image and adjusting the aperture and shutter speed to get the correct exposure, and the film must be processed darkroom before …

El Pescadero (Jacks) - Diseños, Glo No. 280, Monterey County, And Associated Historical Documents.

Individual Ranchos in Monterey and SLO Counties

Diseños - Hand-drawn Spanish-Mexican map demonstrating the physical boundaries of land granted to Mexican citizens by the Spanish or Mexican.

Expediente – Hand-written Spanish-Mexican land grant document issued to Mexican citizens in Alta California for land in Alta-California.

Work Progress Administration Abstract (WPA Abstract) – A summary document prepared in 1938 under the Work Progress Administration program detailing the history of a rancho beginning with the Spanish-American land through the U.S. patenting process.

Hornbeck Rancho Detail Sheet (AKA Detail Sheet) – A summary sheet generated from a land patent database that details the history of a rancho, along with the …

Cienega Del Gabilan - Diseños, Glo No. 243, Monterey County, And Associated Historical Documents.

Individual Ranchos in Monterey and SLO Counties

Diseños - Hand-drawn Spanish-Mexican map demonstrating the physical boundaries of land granted to Mexican citizens by the Spanish or Mexican.

Expediente – Hand-written Spanish-Mexican land grant document issued to Mexican citizens in Alta California for land in Alta-California.

Work Progress Administration Abstract (WPA Abstract) – A summary document prepared in 1938 under the Work Progress Administration program detailing the history of a rancho beginning with the Spanish-American land through the U.S. patenting process.

Hornbeck Rancho Detail Sheet (AKA Detail Sheet) – A summary sheet generated from a land patent database that details the history of a rancho, along with the …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2016, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

"For Me, Film Is Face": Self And Identity In The Films Of Ingmar Bergman, James Bradley Mitchell

Senior Theses

This senior thesis is a study of the ways in which selected works from the filmography of Ingmar Bergman can be said to contribute to the philosophical discussion of personal identity. In this thesis, Bergman's films are studied in relation to ideas propounded by Hegel, Descartes, Locke, and Parfit, among other considerations.

Zn(Ii), Cu(Ii), Sn(Ii), And Ni(Ii) And Other Metal Cations Do Not Prevent The Aggregation Of Hiapp, Charles Hoying

Honors Thesis

The Zn(II) metal ion has been shown to interact with Islet Amyloid Polypeptide (IAPP), a protein implicated in the progression of Type II Diabetes Mellitus, in such a way as to prevent the protein from aggregating into toxic fibers. We set out to find whether other metal ions might similarly prevent IAPP aggregation. Using Thioflavin T (ThT) spectroscopic assays, which measure fluorescence of ThT upon binding to aggregated IAPP, we observed a decrease in aggregation when incubated with Zn(II), Cu(II), Ni(II), and Sn(II). Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), which can visualize fibril formation, revealed that the metals were not inhibiting IAPP …