Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Silent Sabotage: Identifying And Preventing Cyber Attacks From Inside Actors, Autumn Groen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly common and damaging as technology advances each year. Many businesses cannot afford the latest security technologies, and even with the highest security measures, there can still be room for employee error or insider threats that are not taken into account. It is crucial to keep these factors in mind when securing a business network of any size or financial standing.This project will aim to simulate a business environment by first building a small network with three routers and a switch, and implementing some of the common best practices for network hardening from credible organizations like NIST …

Analyzing Car Theft Trends In Central Texas: A Comparative Study Of Waco, College Station, And Killeen, Daniel Njogu

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study examines motor vehicle theft (MVT) trends from 2019 to 2023 in three Central Texas cities—Waco, College Station, and Killeen—using temporal analysis, geospatial hotspot mapping, and make/model data. In Killeen, thefts generally rose over the period, with notable peaks in October and on Mondays. College Station saw an overall decline in thefts but experienced a seasonal spike each March, and Waco’s thefts increased until around 2021 before beginning to fall. Local festivals—such as the Spirit of Texas in College Station and the Heart O’ Texas Fair in Waco—appear to coincide with these seasonal upticks. Hyundais and Kias were most …

Synthesis Of Noval Hydroxy Chalcone And Study Of Fluorescent Properties, Margaret Hilliker

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Chalcones are a class of naturally occurring compounds found in plants, which have a general structure of Ar–CO–CH=CH–Ar’. They have shown significant potential as tunable organic fluorophores due to their extended π-conjugation and structural simplicity. In this study, a 2-hydroxy-substituted chalcone featuring a terminal dimethylamino group was synthesized via a pyrrolidine-catalyzed aldol condensation and characterized for its photophysical properties. The electron-donating and -accepting ends of the molecule establish an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) pathway, while the hydroxyl group enables excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), leading to complex emission behavior. Room temperature fluorescence analysis revealed broad, featureless emission, while low-temperature …

Structural Analysis And Design Methodologies Of Roller Coasters, Benjamin Komar

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project explores the structural analysis behind the design of roller coaster tracks and supports as practiced by modern engineers. It also examines various roller coaster design methods currently in use. This research will be used to craft a detailed explanation of the roller coaster design process. Additionally, a 3D model of a roller coaster was developed based on the researched design procedures, featuring three track sections with different loading conditions to create a supporting structure for 2D truss analysis. The results of the truss analysis were then compared to those obtained using RISA-3D, a finite element structural design software.

User Interface For Custom Car Infotainment Systems, Dylan Miller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The infotainment system is often considered one of the most functional and luxurious aspects of modern cars, containing functions that are useful to drivers in ways that range from convenient to safety-enhancing. However, modern infotainment systems can have some drawbacks such as making it more difficult to repair the vehicles they are in, helping to artificially limit the lifespan of the vehicles they are in, and not being present in most vehicles more than 15 years old. The software described in this paper, OpenQarUI, seeks to be a part of a solution to these problems. It is a piece of …

Light-Driven Chemistry: Photoswitch In Rna Activity Control And Development Of Photoredox Catalysis, Juncheng Li

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation is structured into two principal segments. The initial segment elucidates a series of synthetic works involving artificial molecules, specifically featuring the photosensitive azobenzene. These molecules facilitate remote control over the structure and functionality of biomolecules, with subsequent applications in regulating biological processes. The latter segment concentrates on the design and enhancement of organic photocatalysts, utilizing traditional acridine ions as a foundation. This section details the development of diverse organic photocatalyst-promoted processes, including photo Lewis acid catalysis, photo Brønsted acid catalysis, and photoredox reactions.

Understanding The Dynamical Mechanisms Governing Northern Hemisphere Wintertime Persistent Flow Regimes And Their Associated Extreme Weather Events, Tyler Christopher Leicht

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Weather regimes are characterized as patterns of low-frequency variability in the middle to upper troposphere of the extratropics. Weather regimes can also be linked to variations in surface weather, making the study of weather regimes a bridge between traditional synoptic-dynamic meteorology and subseasonal-to-seasonal variability. This dissertation identifies and categorizes persistent flow regimes (PFRs), analyzes the dynamics underpinning PFR formation, identifies the linkages to atmospheric teleconnections, and examines the occurrence of surface weather extremes before and during PFRs.

PFRs are identified from 1979–2022 and grouped into five clusters using k-means clustering, which then allows for time-lag composite analysis to determine the …

Leveraging Large-Language Models As Collaborative Reasoning Partners To Enhance Scientific Workflow, Douglas B. Craig

Wayne State University Dissertations

The rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) has transformed artificial intelligence, offering advanced capabilities in text generation, natural language understanding, and multi-modal interactions. However, their use as standalone tools or as perceived repositories of static knowledge has limited their potential in real-world applications, especially in critical domains like healthcare and scientific research, where transparency, explainability, and accountability are paramount. This research addresses these limitations by conceptualizing LLMs as reasoning engines within a hybrid framework that integrates retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and case-based reasoning (CBR) within a note-taking application.

The study introduces a novel system, LmRaC, designed to enhance the reliability, explainability, …

Advancing Road Safety Through Software-Defined Vehicles, Raef Abdallah

Wayne State University Dissertations

Road traffic accidents are a significant global concern, claiming approximately 1.3 million lives annually and causing non-fatal injuries to 20–50 million people, many of which result in long-term disabilities. They are the leading cause of death for individuals aged 5–29 and impose a substantial economic burden, costing most countries 3% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In addition to car accidents, other types of road incidents, such as collisions involving tall vehicles and overpasses, also pose significant risks. These accidents result in numerous fatalities and cause millions of dollars in damages annually. Environmental conditions like wet or icy roads and …

Advancing Generative Ai In 3d And 4d Spaces, Hasan Iqbal

Wayne State University Dissertations

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed how we synthesize, edit, and manipulate complex data, opening new possibilities for immersive digital content. This dissertation, titled “Advancing Generative AI in 3D and 4D Spaces,” investigates the capabilities and limitations of state-of-the-art generative models in static 3D scenes and time-aware 4D environments. In the 3D setting, scene editing is hindered by multi-view inconsistency and the high computational cost of per-scene retraining. To address these issues, the work introduces Free-Editor, a training free approach that utilizes an Edit Transformer to propagate a single edited view across all camera perspectives without additional optimisation, delivering prompt …

Phytochemistry Of Dalea Candida Var. Oligophylla, Ryan E. Galperin

All Master's Theses

The focus of this project was the plant Dalea candida and its phytochemistry. The plant compounds were isolated and purified by an array of chromatographic techniques. The structures of the pure compounds were determined by one-dimensional and two-dimensional ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, supported by infrared and ultraviolet spectroscopy, experimental and calculated circular dichroism spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. Plant parts were worked on separately since they typically differ in content. Purified compounds will be tested for biological activities. Based on our results, eight new or known compound were isolated, specifically four new compounds and four known compounds. Compound …

Safeguard Cyberspace In Ransomware Era: Risk Analysis & Cyber Insurance, Li Huang

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The increasing frequency and severity of ransomware attacks pose significant challenges for organizational cybersecurity. Fragmentation across disciplines in cyber defense has created practical gaps in the development of the necessary capabilities needed to address rapidly evolving cyber threats. This study explores the impact of ransomware attacks and the evolving role of cyber insurance as a proactive cybersecurity partner. Bridging the gap between actuarial science and cyber risk management, it proposes an interdisciplinary framework that quantifies the impact of ransomware and integrates cyber insurance into cybersecurity strategies.

The primary contribution of this study is methodology. We present a framework that remains …

The Inverse Scattering Transform For The Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation, Ivan Casas-Rocha

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The Nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) Equation, iψ_t + 1/2 ψ_xx ± |ψ|²ψ = 0, is a nonlinear partial differential equation which is used to model several physical phenomena including nonlinear effects inside optical fibers and the formation of rogue waves in shallow water. It is particu- larly difficult to study solutions to this equation due to the nonlinearity, and the nonlinearity leads to incredibly interesting solutions not found in linear PDEs such as solitons. In this thesis, we highlight two methods of obtaining solutions to the (NLS) equation: the Inverse Scattering Transform and the Dressing Method. Furthermore, …

Solvability Of Stochastic Linear-Quadratic Optimal Control Problems Under Partial Stabilizability Conditions, Al-Sadh Rahman Imadh

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Optimal Control Theory, a branch of Control Theory, is applicable in fields such as engineering, operations research, and economics. Stochastic Optimal Control deals with noisy systems and data using Ito’s formulation. Given a noisy system and a cost functional, the goal is to find a control that will minimize the cost. This thesis focuses on linear quadratic stochastic optimal control, and we explore state equations that are not stabilizable. We first address measurability concerns arising from the semigroup property of the state trajectory. The notions of partial stability and partial stabilizability are introduced, and we formulate their corresponding Lyapunov and …

Quantifying The Transfer Effectiveness Of An Artificial Intelligence-Based Simulator Pre-Training Program For Student Pilots, Ryan Guthridge

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Since the airline pilot shortage was initially studied in 2016, the pilot hiring model has been significantly impacted, with airlines hiring qualified pilots at unprecedented rates. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed this hiring rate, however it is expected that airline hiring will soon increase to a rate higher than initially expected (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2022). With this dynamic, certified flight instructors are often the most qualified recruits for airlines, due to the number of hours and experience they have gained in the flight training organization. In turn, certified flight instructors are in short supply for flight training organizations worldwide. …

Role Of C4 Resources In Isotopic Variability In Diet Among Children From Kellis 2 Cemetery, Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, Faith R. Hendrix

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Using stable carbon isotope analysis, this study investigates dietary diversity in children buried at the Kellis 2 Cemetery (c. AD 50–450) in Egypt's Dakhleh Oasis. From the analysis of δ¹³C isotope values in hair keratin and bone collagen, the study reconstructs short-term and long-term dietary signals in juvenile and adult subjects. The aim is to clarify the role of C₄ plants—particularly millet—in weaning and childhood diets in a Romano-Christian Egyptian village context. A total of 631 segmented hair and 54 bone collagen samples were analyzed from 127 juveniles and 97 adults. Juvenile individuals (i.e., under 15 years biological age) showed …

Analysis Of Public Acceptance Of Urban Air Mobility (Uam) Based On Air Travel Frequency, Seuggyun Jin, Kim O. Chambers

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an innovative air transportation system designed for efficient travel in urban and suburban areas, offering significant time saving compared to traditional ground transportation. However, concerns about UAM services, such as safety and noise, remain prominent. Understanding public acceptance of UAM is crucial to identifying potential customers and ensuring the sustainability of commercial UAM operations. This study utilizes an online survey from a total of 254 consumer attitudes on the scales of reliability, usefulness, behavioral intention, safety, and concerns to examine public acceptance of UAM based on people's air travel frequencies. Using a one-way ANOVA, the …

Partisan Divides In Environmental Spending Attitudes: A Two-Level Hierarchical Analysis, 1973-2022, Jordan Lipner

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Public attitudes toward environmental spending have become increasingly divided along party lines, with sharp shifts over the past five decades. This thesis updates and expands on Johnson and Schwadel’s 2019 study by applying a two-level hierarchical linear model to General Social Survey data updated to include data from 2015-2022, capturing how political affiliation, education, race, and economic context interact with broader political and economic contexts to shape environmental attitudes over time.
The results show that political affiliation remains the strongest and most reactive predictor of environmental spending attitudes. Republican respondents are significantly more likely to oppose environmental spending, especially under …

Generation Z’S Perception Of Skin Cancer And How It Relates To Climate Change, Piercen Bogolea

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Skin cancer is the most common cancer worldwide, and climate change has been identified as a significant contributor. Preventative action early on can help reduce occurrence, but it is unknown if Generation Z is aware of this and is taking the necessary action now to protect themselves. This research aims to gauge the perception of Generation Z on the severity of skin cancer, the relationship between climate change and skin cancer, and the prevalence of preventative measures being taken. A survey was distributed to students aged 18 to 27 enrolled at the University of Central Florida through mixed sampling. The …

Rapid Inference Of Atmospheric Feature Parameters From Light Curves Using Bayesian Neural Networks, Eugenio A. Diaz

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Mapping atmospheres using rotationally modulated light curves offers insights into cloud structures and dynamics. Current retrieval methods, primarily based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques like Aeolus, can infer atmospheric features but are computationally prohibitive for large datasets. This project proposes a neural network (NN) framework for the rapid, variational inference of atmospheric structure from light curves, particularly those of brown dwarfs. The primary approach focuses on training a Bayesian NN (BNN) to perform regression, predicting the spot parameters that describe the object's surface brightness map. Given the scarcity of suitable observational training data, the BNN is trained on …

0th Order Solutions Of The Wavefunctions For The Quantum Elliptical Box And Microstrip Antenna, Nishtha Tikalal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

For a quantum particle confined to a two-dimensional elliptical box or electromagnetic wave in a microstrip antenna, geometrical and boundary condition interplay result in a spectrum of spatial patterns. Due to the asymmetrical nature of the ellipse, we are faced with continuous symmetry reductions, leaving both degenerate and nondegenerate solutions. Here, we present a complete derivation of an analytical solution and visualizations of the fundamental wavefunctions for both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions respectively corresponding to the quantum elliptical box and the elliptical microstrip antenna.

We demonstrate that the eigenmodes, governed by eccentricity, directly correspond to the modal field distributions …

Crises, Coloniality, And Energy Transformations In Puerto Rico, Laura Kuhl, Marla Perez-Lugo, Carlos Arriaga Serrano, Cecilio Ortiz Garcia, Ryan Ellis, Jennie C. Stephens

Sociology Faculty Publications

Increased attention to inclusive processes is essential to ensure injustices are not perpetuated during energy transitions. Crises, such as the collapse of the electric grid in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, present the promise of opening windows of opportunity for new ideas and voices to inform the future, but they also create opportunities for powerful interests to reinforce existing power dynamics. While coloniality has been recognized as a barrier to sustainable energy transformations, greater integration of the literature on climate coloniality and sustainability transitions is needed. This chapter analyzes visions of the future of the energy system among diverse constituents …

Hymate: A Hybrid Mamba And Transformer Model For Ehr Representation Learning, Md Mozaharul Mottalib, Thao-Ly Phan, Rahmatollah Beheshti

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

Electronic health Records (EHRs) have become a cornerstone in modern-day healthcare. They are a crucial part for analyzing the progression of patient health; however, their complexity, characterized by long, multivariate sequences, sparsity, and missing values-poses significant challenges in traditional deep learning modeling. While Transformer-based models have demonstrated success in modeling EHR data and predicting clinical outcomes, their quadratic computational complexity and limited context length hinder their efficiency and practical applications. On the other hand, State Space Models (SSMs) like Mamba present a promising alternative offering linear-time sequence modeling and improved efficiency for handling long sequences, but focus mostly on mixing …

Controls On Longitudinal Stream Profile Evolution In Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Samuel Schoenmann, Lisa Tranel, Eric W. Peterson, Jonathan Boyd Thayn

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Canyons in Guadalupe Mountains National Park are excellent locations to study the discrete boundary conditions that influence longitudinal channel profile evolution including climate, tectonics, hydrology, and lithology. The Guadalupe Mountain landscape records deep earth mantle processes in combination with surficial channel erosion and incision. Knickpoints and convex segments in longitudinal river profiles document impacts of climate change, tectonics, or surface processes. This study combines field observations with an analysis of longitudinal profile slopes and residual errors to evaluate how bedrock strength can be distinguished from features created by climate change, faulting, or subsidence in Pine Springs and McKittrick Canyons within …

Spectrum Of The Lakes: Using Satellite Remote Sensing To Unveil Water Color In Minnesota's Sentinel Lakes For Water Quality Monitoring, Andrew J. Dooley, Wondwosen M. Seyoum, Catherine M. O'Reilly

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Traditional water quality monitoring methods often face limitations of equipment costs and labor demands, requiring innovative approaches to effectively assess the ecological health of inland lakes across vast areas. This research explores the application of free, publicly available water color chromaticity analysis for midcontinent lakes in Minnesota, USA. We examined water color variations in Minnesota’s Sentinel Lakes using Landsat 8 OLI data to analyze surface reflectance samples collected from the deepest area within each lake during the late summer, corresponding to peak annual insolation and trophic activity. The median dominant visible wavelength was used to characterize water color. Results indicate …

Frobenius And Commutative Pseudomonoids In The Bicategory Of Spans, Ivan Contreras, Rajan Amit Mehta, Walker H. Stern

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

In previous work by the first two authors, Frobenius and commutative algebra objects in the category of spans of sets were characterized in terms of simplicial sets satisfying certain properties. In this paper, we find a similar characterization for the analogous coherent structures in the bicategory of spans of sets. We show that commutative and Frobenius pseudomonoids in Span correspond, respectively, to paracyclic sets and Γ-sets satisfying the 2-Segal conditions. These results connect closely with work of the third author on A∞ algebras in ∞-categories of spans, as well as the growing body of work on higher Segal objects. Because …

Cost-Effective Strategies For Feral Swine Control: Exploring Trapping Equipment Cooperatives, Phil Kenkel, Riza Radmehr, Rodney Holcomb, Mckenzie Boyce

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Feral swine (Sus scrofa) in the United States have become a growing concern, with a population of ≥6 million and causing annual damages of ≥$1.5 billion USD. Because of their high reproductive capacity, effective control methods are crucial to reducing or slowing their population growth. While remotely monitored and triggered traps have proven to be an effective control strategy, the cost of sophisticated trapping equipment, which can cost ≥$7,000 USD, is often cost prohibitive for many landowners. Despite the pressing need to address the challenge of making effective feral swine control methods more affordable, there are few studies …

A Question Of Transparency: Solutions For Fermi Questions, March 2025, John Adam

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Question 1: Why is it easier to see through rain than fog?

Start thinking about this by imagining a fixed volume (V) of water being dispersed into, say, N identical droplets of diameter d. Surface area and volume considerations should lead to the answer in terms of V and d.

Solution to Question 1: N = VI(πd³/6) = 6V/πd³ ≈ 2V/d³.

The cross-sectional area A of each drop is πd²/4 ≈ 3d²/4, so the total area blocked off (assuming no overlapping drops—so this is an upper bound) is NA ≈ 1.5V/d, so the area blocked off is inversely proportional to …

A Conversation On Fundamental Data Literacy Concepts For Undergraduate Education, Anna Bargagliotti, Wendy Pothier, David Homa, Arshia Mathus, Keith Mccormick, Paula Payton, Brian Wright

Mathematics, Statistics and Data Science Faculty Works

As the demand for data literacy grows, integrating foundational data literacy skills into undergraduate education becomes increasingly essential. This panel presents six core themes for cultivating data literacy among undergraduate students, addressing its interdisciplinary nature. Drawing upon the collective expertise of the group, literature research, case studies, and interviews, the panel explores the need for data literacy across various disciplines and the challenges of integrating it into higher education curricula. The proposed fundamental concepts include understanding data’s role in daily life, distinguishing between inference and prediction, recognizing the potential for misleading data, exploring ethical considerations, and honing communication and storytelling …

Bounded Compactness From G(E)Up, Jonas Mureika, Roberto Casadio, Ilim Irfan Çimdiker, Octavian Micu

Physics Faculty Works

We analyse how different Generalised Uncertainty Principles could place bounds on the compactness of self-gravitating systems. By considering existing experimental bounds on the relevant parameters, we conclude that the compactness of large astrophysical objects is bounded above by the inverse of the GUP parameter, which would naturally be of order one. Conversely, the existence of black holes imposes stronger bounds on those parameters.