Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Overcoming Foreign Language Anxiety In An Emotionally Intelligent Tutoring System, Daneih Ismail

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

Learning a foreign language entails cognitive and emotional obstacles. It involves complicated mental processes that affect learning and emotions. Positive emotions such as motivation, encouragement, and satisfaction increase learning achievement, while negative emotions like anxiety, frustration, and confusion may reduce performance. Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) is a specific type of anxiety accompanying learning a foreign language. It is considered a main impediment that hinders learning, reduces achievements, and diminishes interest in learning.

Detecting FLA is the first step toward reducing and eventually overcoming it. Previously, researchers have been detecting FLA using physical measurements and self-reports. Using physical measures is direct …

Oregon State Rank Assessment For Bonneville Redside Shiner (Richardsonius Balteatus Hydrophlox), Misty Nelson

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state conservation status assessment for Bonnevile redside shiner (Richardsonius balteatus hydrophlox) using NatureServe methodology, 2023.

Development Of An App For The Kalamazoo Nature Center, Ernest Au

Honors Theses

Kalamazoo Nature Center (KNC), which has been recognized by its peers as one of the top nature centers in the country, is home to over 14 miles of hiking trails winding through woods, wetlands, and prairies. There are numerous places/plots in KNC that have an interesting and impressive history besides being home to a variety of animals and hundreds of wildflowers and other plant life. To improve the visitor’s experience at KNC, we will design a software app via the senior capstone project at the department of Computer Science at WMU. As the first step towards establishing a reference model …

Formulation Of Causality-Preserving Quantum Time Of Arrival Theory, Denny Lane B. Sombillo, Neris I. Sombillo

Physics Faculty Publications

We revisit the quantum correction to the classical time of arrival to address the unphysical instantaneous arrival in the limit of zero initial momentum. In this study, we show that the vanishing of arrival time is due to the contamination of the causality-violating component of the initial wave packet. Motivated by this observation, we propose to update the temporal collapse mechanism in Galapon (2009) [18] to incorporate the removal of causality-violating spectra of the arrival time operator. We found that the quantum correction to the classical arrival time is still observed. Thus, our analysis validates that the correction is an …

Exploring The Impact Of Signal Quality Enhancement On Heart Sound Classification Models, Davoud Shariat Panah, Andrew Hines, Susan Mckeever

Articles

Limited cardiology resources increase the urgency for automated heart disease screening for the general public. Heart sound diagnostic models have been recently employed as a cost-effective solution for the initial screening of heart disease. Noise in heart sound recordings, however, can reduce the performance of such data-driven models. Various quality enhancement approaches have been adopted to alleviate the destructive impact of noise on model performance. One approach is universal noise reduction which applies denoising techniques to recordings, irrespective of their noise level. The second approach is targeted noise reduction, which applies denoising solely to recordings deemed to need it, based …

Resonance Raman Spectra And Excited State Properties Of Methyl Viologen And Its Radical Cation From Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory, Umut Ozuguzel, Adelia J.A. Aquino, Reed Nieman, Shelley D. Minteer, Carol Korzeniewski

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) was applied to gain insights into the electronic and vibrational spectroscopic properties of an important electron transport mediator, methyl viologen (MV2+). an organic dication, MV2+ has numerous applications in electrochemistry that include energy conversion and storage, environmental remediation, and chemical sensing and electrosynthesis. MV2+ is easily reduced by a single electron transfer to form a radical cation species (MV•+), which has an intense UV–visible absorption near 600 nm. the redox properties of the MV2+/MV•+ couple and light-sensitivity of MV•+ have made the system appealing for photo-electrochemical energy conversion (e.g., solar hydrogen generation from water) and …

Association Between Viral Infections And Glioma Risk: A Two-Sample Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Sheng Zhong, Wenzhuo Yang, Zhiyun Zhang, Yangyiran Xie, Lin Pan, Jiaxin Ren, Fei Ren, Yifan Li, Haoqun Xie, Hongyu Chen, Davy Deng, Jie Lu, Hui Li, Bo Wu, Youqi Chen, Fei Peng, Vinay K Puduvalli, Ke Sai, Yunqian Li, Ye Cheng, Yonggao Mou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Glioma is one of the leading types of brain tumor, but few etiologic factors of primary glioma have been identified. Previous observational research has shown an association between viral infection and glioma risk. In this study, we used Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to explore the direction and magnitude of the causal relationship between viral infection and glioma.

Methods: We conducted a two-sample bidirectional MR analysis using genome-wide association study (GWAS) data. Summary statistics data of glioma were collected from the largest meta-analysis GWAS, involving 12,488 cases and 18,169 controls. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with exposures were used as instrumental …

Dwarf Galaxies Show Little Ism Evolution From Z ∼ 1 To Z ∼ 0: A Spectroscopic Study Of Metallicity, Star Formation, And Electron Density, John Pharo, Yicheng Guo, Guillermo Barro Calvo, Teja Teppala, Fuyan Bian, Timothy Carleton, Sandra Faber, Puragra Guhathakurta, David C. Koo

Pacific Faculty Work

We present gas-phase metallicity measurements for 583 emission line galaxies at 0.3 < z < 0.85, including 388 dwarf galaxies with log ( M ⋆ / M ⊙ ) < 9.5 , and explore the dependence of the metallicity on the stellar mass and star formation (SF) properties of the galaxies. Metallicities are determined through the measurement of emission lines in very deep (∼7 hr exposure) Keck/DEIMOS spectra taken primarily from the HALO7D survey. We measure metallicity with three strong-line calibrations (O3Hβ, R23, and O3O2) for the overall sample, as well as with the faint [Ne iii]λ3869 and [O iii]λ4363 emission lines for 112 and 17 galaxies where robust detections were possible. We construct mass-metallicity relations (MZR) for each calibration method, finding MZRs consistent with other strong-line results at comparable redshift, as well as with z ∼ 0 galaxies. We quantify the intrinsic scatter in the MZR as a function of mass, finding it increases with lower stellar mass. We also measure a weak but significant correlation between increased MZR scatter and higher specific star formation rate (SFR). We find a weak influence of SFR in the fundamental metallicity relation as well, with an SFR coefficient of α = 0.21. Finally, we use the flux ratios of the [O ii]λ λ 3727,3729 doublet to calculate gas electron density in ∼1000 galaxies with log ( M ⋆ / M ⊙ ) < 10.5 as a function of redshift. We measure low electron densities (n e ∼ 25 cm⁻³) for z < 1 galaxies, again consistent with z ≈ 0 conditions, but measure higher densities (n e ∼ 100 cm⁻³) at z > 1. These results all suggest that there is little evolution in star-forming interstellar medium conditions from z ∼ 1 to z = 0, confirmed with a more complete sample of low-mass galaxies than has previously been available in this redshift range.

Uniquely Tailored Ionic Materials For Implementation In Energy, Imagining, And Antibacterial Applications, Amanda Jalihal

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, the novel class of ionic materials is explored. Ionic materials are easily tuned and tailored to fit a wide variety of applications. The synthesis of ionic materials is extremely simple and prompt. Briefly, two ionic moieties are joined electrostatically through a double displacement resulting in a new compound without complicated synthesis. This process leads to a close proximity of the ions which allows for enhancement of the FRET mechanism between a fluorophore and chromophore. A potential application of a FRET active ionic material is explored as a photosensitizer using IR820 and Nile Blue A. The ionic material, …

Tiny Drifters Amidst Global Change: Examining Environmental Drivers, Trophic Impacts, And Management Strategies Of Estuarine Plankton Communities In The Anthropocene, Taylor Nicole Dodrill

Dissertations and Theses

Plankton productivity supports estuarine food webs, and has been tied to the success of fisheries, macroinvertebrates, and cultured shellfish yields. Climate change and alterations to nutrient loads are thought to be influencing plankton assemblages, with toxin-producing harmful algal blooms (HABs) on the rise and nutritional quality of plankton declining globally. These shifts in plankton communities may contribute to low biomass yields and toxin-based closures of important fisheries. The objectives of this dissertation are to identify environmental drivers, trophic impacts, and management strategies to understand and respond to changing estuarine plankton communities. To address these objectives, I used a combination of …

Climate Change Adaptations Across The Global South, Arnaud Kurze, Tanzin Naher

Sustainability Seminar Series

This research talk provides a preliminary project overview drawing from archival work on Guinea at the Library of Congress and fieldwork carried out in Summer 2023 in Bangladesh. Drawing on the 2023 International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation objectives, the project focuses on coastal and rural populations in Bangladesh and Guinea, who are not only physically exposed to the heightened risks for climate change, including floods, but also socioeconomically vulnerable, due to limited resources to respond to increased rainfall and the impact on agricultural production. The project design is based on an integral collaboration between …

Teaching Reproducibility To First Year College Students: Reflections From An Introductory Data Science Course, Brennan L. Bean

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

Modern technology threatens traditional modes of classroom assessment by providing students with automated ways to write essays and take exams. At the same time, modern technology continues to expand the accessibility of computational tools that promise to increase the potential scope and quality of class projects. This paper presents a case study where students are asked to complete a “reproducible” final project in an introductory data science course using the R programming language. A reproducible project is one where an instructor can easily regenerate the results and conclusions from the submitted …

On The Hardness Of The Balanced Connected Subgraph Problem For Families Of Regular Graphs, Harsharaj Pathak

Theory & Applications of Graphs

The Balanced Connected Subgraph problem (BCS) was introduced by Bhore et al. In the BCS problem we are given a vertex-colored graph G = (V, E) where each vertex is colored “red” or “blue”. The goal is to find a maximum cardinality induced connected subgraph H of G such that H contains an equal number of red and blue vertices. This problem is known to be NP-hard for general graphs as well as many special classes of graphs. In this work we explore the time complexity of the BCS problem in case of regular graphs. We prove that the BCS …

The Vulnerabilities To The Rsa Algorithm And Future Alternative Algorithms To Improve Security, James Johnson

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

The RSA encryption algorithm has secured many large systems, including bank systems, data encryption in emails, several online transactions, etc. Benefiting from the use of asymmetric cryptography and properties of number theory, RSA was widely regarded as one of most difficult algorithms to decrypt without a key, especially since by brute force, breaking the algorithm would take thousands of years. However, in recent times, research has shown that RSA is getting closer to being efficiently decrypted classically, using algebraic methods, (fully cracked through limited bits) in which elliptic-curve cryptography has been thought of as the alternative that is stronger than …

Relativistic Ultrafast Electron Diffraction At High Repetition Rates, K. M. Siddiqui, D. B. Durham, F. Cropp, F. Ji, S. Paiagua, C. Ophus, N. C. Andresen, L. Jin, J. Wu, S. Wang, X. Zhang, W. You, M. Murnane, Martin Centurion, X. Wang, D. S. Slaughter, R. A. Kaindl, P. Musumeci, A. M. Minor, D. Filippetto

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

The ability to resolve the dynamics of matter on its native temporal and spatial scales constitutes a key challenge and convergent theme across chemistry, biology, and materials science. The last couple of decades have witnessed ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) emerge as one of the forefront techniques with the sensitivity to resolve atomic motions. Increasingly sophisticated UED instruments are being developed that are aimed at increasing the beam brightness in order to observe structural signatures, but so far they have been limited to low average current beams. Here, we present the technical design and capabilities of the HiRES (High Repetition-rate Electron …

An Efficient Optimal Solution Method For Neutrosophic Transport Models: Analysis, Improvements, And Examples, Maissam Jdid, Florentin Smarandache

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Transport issues aim to determine the number of units that will be transferred from the production centers to consumption areas so that the cost of transportation is as low as possible, taking into account the conditions of supply and demand. Due to the great importance of these issues and to obtain more accurate results that take into account all circumstances, we conducted two research studies. In the first research, we presented a formulation of neutrosophic transport issues, and in the second research, we presented some ways to find a preliminary solution to these issues, but we do not know whether …

Analyzing The Efficacy Of Covid-19 Travel Bans: A Regression Analysis Approach, Mallory Kochanek

Honors Projects

Some might associate the term ‘public health’ with the pandemic that occurred in 2020. COVID-19 spread like most have never seen in their lifetime. It is useful to look at the effectiveness of the travel re- strictions in mitigating the spread of the global pandemic. Using linear regression and network regression, we obtain parameter estimates to determine the relation of predictors, such as network effect, percentage of urban population and GDP, on the COVID-19 incidence rate for the months January to April of 2020. Linear regression does not ac- count for the correlation structure of the data. Network regression, on …

Prevalence, Faunal Composition, And Vertical Distribution Of Bioluminescence In The Pelagic Gulf Of Mexico: Fishes, Crustaceans, Cephalopods And Gelatinous Megaplankton, Devynne M. Brown

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Bioluminescence is the phenomenon of light emission by living organisms. It occurs through a chemical reaction within an organism and serves various purposes. The diversity of bioluminescent capabilities and occurrence in unrelated taxa suggest that bioluminescence has evolved independently numerous times amongst taxa thriving in certain environments. One such environment is the deep ocean, where little to no sunlight penetrates the water column, specifically in the mesopelagic (200-1000 m depth) and bathypelagic (> 1000 m) zones. The mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones have been extensively sampled and well documented in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), one of the few places globally …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of The Internal Transcribed Sequences (Its) As Dna Barcodes To Estimate Fungal Diversity, Jailisa Linares

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Universal phylogenetic markers such as the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed sequences (ITS), specifically ITS1 and ITS2, are routinely used to estimate fungal diversity in environmental samples. However, numerous studies report differences in the performance and efficacy of ITS1 and ITS2 in documenting fungal diversity. To better understand the implications of using ITS1 versus ITS2, a comprehensive representation of the diverse fungal taxa was necessary to conduct a meta-analysis of their use across multiple fungal taxa. In order to address this, a thorough literature review was conducted to compare and contrast the use of ITS1 and ITS2 as effective DNA barcodes. …

Renormalized Stress-Energy Tensor For Scalar Fields In Hartle-Hawking, Boulware, And Unruh States In The Reissner-Nordström Spacetime, Julio Arrechea, Cormac Breen, Adrian Ottewill, Peter Taylor

Articles

In this paper, we consider a quantum scalar field propagating on the Reissner-Nordström black hole spacetime. We compute the renormalized stress-energy tensor for the field in the Hartle-Hawking, Boulware and Unruh states. When the field is in the Hartle-Hawking state, we renormalize using the recently developed “extended coordinate” prescription. This method, which relies on Euclidean techniques, is very fast and accurate. Once, we have renormalized in the Hartle-Hawking state, we compute the stress-energy tensor in the Boulware and Unruh states by leveraging the fact that the difference between stress-energy tensors in different quantum states is already finite. We consider a …

Comparative Synthesis Of Mil-100 Fe From Iron (Iii) And Ground Iron Characterization And Porous Property Evaluation, Animesh Dali '24, Khanh Nguyen '24, Hilary J. Eppley

Annual Student Research Poster Session

MIL-100(Fe) is an iron-based metal-organic framework (MOF) known for its porous structure, crucial in various applications like gas storage, catalysis, drug delivery, and pollutant adsorption. In medical contexts, MIL-100(Fe) can encapsulate drugs, safeguarding them from unwanted interactions. These frameworks release drugs in specific conditions, ensuring targeted delivery. Our study investigated drug encapsulation using isoniazid (INH) and a structurally similar drug, Acetaminophen. We employed XRD, SEM imaging, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, and UV-Vis Spectroscopy for material characterization and to probe drug absorption and delivery mechanisms.

Gwtc-3: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed By Ligo And Virgo During The Second Part Of The Third Observing Run, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, F. Llamas, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The third Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-3) describes signals detected with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo up to the end of their third observing run. Updating the previous GWTC-2.1, we present candidate gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences during the second half of the third observing run (O3b) between 1 November 2019, 15∶00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and 27 March 2020, 17∶00 UTC. There are 35 compact binary coalescence candidates identified by at least one of our search algorithms with a probability of astrophysical origin ��astro>0.5. Of these, 18 were previously reported as low-latency public alerts, and 17 are reported …

An Efficient Optimal Solution Method For Neutrosophic Transport Models: Analysis, Improvements, And Examples, Maissam Jdid, Florentin Smarandache

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Transport issues aim to determine the number of units that will be transferred from the production centers to consumption areas so that the cost of transportation is as low as possible, taking into account the conditions of supply and demand. Due to the great importance of these issues and to obtain more accurate results that take into account all circumstances, we conducted two research studies. In the first research, we presented a formulation of neutrosophic transport issues, and in the second research, we presented some ways to find a preliminary solution to these issues, but we do not know whether …

Gwtc-3: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed By Ligo And Virgo During The Second Part Of The Third Observing Run, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Wenhui Wang, Francisco Llamas

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The third Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-3) describes signals detected with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo up to the end of their third observing run. Updating the previous GWTC-2.1, we present candidate gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences during the second half of the third observing run (O3b) between 1 November 2019, 15 ∶ 00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and 27 March 2020, 17 ∶ 00 UTC. There are 35 compact binary coalescence candidates identified by at least one of our search algorithms with a probability of astrophysical origin p astro > 0.5 . Of these, 18 were previously reported as low-latency …

A Review On Possible Physical Meaning Of Elastic-Electromagnetic Mathematical Equivalences, Florentin Smarandache, Victor Christianto

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

It is known, despite special theory of relativity has been widely accepted, in our recent draft submitted to this journal it is shown that some experiments have been carried out suggesting superluminal wave propagation, which make Minkowski lightcone not valid anymore. Therefore, it seems worth to reconsider the connection between elastic wave and electromagnetic wave equations, as in their early development. In this paper we will start with Maxwell-Dirac isomorphism, then we will find its connection with elastic wave equations.

Μakka: Mutation Testing For Actor Concurrency In Akka Using Real-World Bugs, Mohsen Moradi Moghadam, Mehdi Bagherzadeh, Raffi Khatchadourian, Hamid Bagheri

Publications and Research

Actor concurrency is becoming increasingly important in the real-world and mission-critical software. This requires these applications to be free from actor bugs, that occur in the real world, and have tests that are effective in finding these bugs. Mutation testing is a well-established technique that transforms an application to induce its likely bugs and evaluate the effectiveness of its tests in finding these bugs. Mutation testing is available for a broad spectrum of applications and their bugs, ranging from web to mobile to machine learning, and is used at scale in companies like Google and Facebook. However, there still is …

Is The Declining Birthrate Really An Issue For The Economy?, Harsh Ramesh Pednekar, Theodore Lee, Darrion Chin

Introduction to Research Methods RSCH 202

This study aims to explore the complex implications of declining birth rates on the economy, focusing on GDP per capita as a crucial metric, and aims to uncover both potential opportunities and challenges stemming from this demographic transformation using regression analysis. Using a quantitative methodology and secondary data from OECD.stat, World Population Review, and World Bank, the study explores the relationship between declining birth rates and economic impacts. GDP per capita serves as an essential dependent variable, and it accounts for control variables such as labour force participation, literacy, and education levels, child dependence ratio, and physical capital. Past studies …

Bitcoin And South African Stock Market Returns During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Test Of The Safe-Haven Hypothesis, Akaninyene U. Udom, Sopuru W. Nnamani

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper tests the safe-haven property of Bitcoin for South African stocks using Full and Diagonal BEKK-GARCH models. The study uses the Johannesburg stock exchange Top40 index, and bitcoin returns data before COVID-19 (August 2018 to December 2019) and during COVID-19 (January 2020 to June 2021). The results show that bitcoin cannot be considered as safe-haven for stocks in South Africa since it is weakly correlated with stock and had a high volatility during the Pandemic. Therefore, the safe-haven hypothesis of bitcoin on South African stocks is not true for the period under study. The policy implication is that bitcoin …

Activity Patterns Of The Endangered Amargosa Vole (Microtus Californicus Scripensis), Austin N. Roy, Anna D. Rivera Roy, Deana L. Clifford, Janet E. Foley

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Examining the activity patterns of wildlife is an important aspect of understanding the ecology of a species and may be especially important for species of conservation concern. We used remotely triggered cameras to describe the daily and seasonal activity patterns and examine ecological factors that influence the activity of the Amargosa Vole (Microtus californicus scirpensis), a California endemic listed federally and by the state as Endangered, and is a marsh habitatspecialist in the Mojave Desert. We found that vole activity was greatest during crepuscular periods, followed by nocturnal and diurnal periods. We saw strong seasonal effects, with the highest activity …

Nitrogen Fertilization And Harvest Management Improve Forage And Crude Protein Content In Crabgrass, B. C. Pedreira, I. T. M. D. Barros, J. I. Yasuoka, D. Helwig, J. K. Farney, G. F. Sassenrath

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Crabgrass (Digitaria spp.) is an annual summer grass that can provide high-quality forage, but optimal management strategies are unclear. Our objective was to compare the yield and quality of crabgrass (Mojo and Quick-N-Big) under different nitrogen rates and harvest management. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with five treatments and three replications for each crabgrass variety, totaling fifteen experimental units for both Mojo and Quick-N-Big, in adjacent sites. Treatments were nitrogen rates (0, 100, and 200 lb N/acre) and harvest management (cut once or twice per year) for two growing seasons (2020 and 2021). Total forage accumulation …