Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mapping Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In South Carolina Surface Waters: Are There Hotspots?, Thomas C. Geiger

Senior Theses

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals used in consumer products for their unique chemical properties. PFAS compounds are resistant to water, oil, heat, and grease, making them useful for a wide variety of everyday items such as non-stick cooking pans, food packaging, electronics, carpets, upholstery, paints, adhesives, and personal care products.¹ The resilient nature of PFAS has made these compounds immensely popular with consumers but has since been considered a potential environmental and public health hazard for their ability to bioaccumulate and for their stability in the environment. More than 6000 PFAS have been discovered in the …

Templates To Transition: Making Solar-Generated Electricity Accessible For Lagos Residents, Adeola O. Adebajo

Senior Theses

According to the EPA, direct energy production results in at least 25% of the world’s emissions. This refers to emissions produced by burning coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat. With the increasing effects of climate change, sustainable energy is becoming increasingly important as the world shifts away from fossil fuels. However, implementation of renewable energy sources is not as fast or as widespread as necessary. This paper aims to identify feasible solutions to the problem of renewable energy affordability in Nigeria especially in growing megacities like Lagos to ensure long lasting and climatefriendly energy sources. Two major …

Counting Elliptic Curves With A Cyclic M-Isogeny Over Q, Grant S. Molnar

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Using methods from analytic number theory, for m > 5 and for m = 4, we obtain asymptotics with power-saving error terms for counts of elliptic curves with a cyclic m-isogeny up to quadratic twist over the rational numbers. For m > 5, we then apply a Tauberian theorem to achieve asymptotics with power saving error for counts of elliptic curves with a cyclic m-isogeny up to isomorphism over the rational numbers.

The Extremes Of Galaxy Formation & Evolution, Kelly E. Whalen

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Galaxy populations are shaped by the physical processes that regulate their star formation and central black hole growth throughout cosmic time. The primary aim of this thesis is to understand how these processes occur and how they shape evolution in some of the most extreme galaxies in the Universe including quasars, compact starbursts, and ultra-diffuse dwarfs. Gas-rich major mergers funnel large amounts of gas towards the nucleus, triggering rapid AGN accretion and compact star formation. In this work, I study powerful quasars and extreme, massive, compact starburst galaxies within the context of merger-driven galaxy evolution scenarios. One aim of this …

A Gravity Model Integrating Land-Use And Transportation Policies For Sustainable Development: Case Study Of Fresno, California, Chih-Hao Wang, Na Chen

Mineta Transportation Institute

The idea of urban compaction has been long proposed and promoted to address the problem of urban sprawl in many American cities. However, there are still rare successful cases of such implementation in the United States. This study uses a classic gravity model, TELEM (Transpiration, Economic, and Land-Use Model) to examine to what extent a land-use or transportation policy must be regulated to make the urban compaction occur in a typical auto-dependent city—Fresno, California. Five scenarios are considered (BL, L1, L2, T1, and T2), in which the baseline (BL) is a natural growth scenario. Without any policy interventions, the city …

Extremal Absorbing Sets In Low-Density Parity-Check Codes, Emily Mcmillon, Allison Beemer, Christine A. Kelley

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Absorbing sets are combinatorial structures in the Tanner graphs of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that have been shown to inhibit the high signal-to-noise ratio performance of iterative decoders over many communication channels. Absorbing sets of minimum size are the most likely to cause errors, and thus have been the focus of much research. In this paper, we determine the sizes of absorbing sets that can occur in general and left-regular LDPC code graphs, with emphasis on the range of b for a given a for which an (a, b)-absorbing set may exist. We identify certain cases of extremal …

Sharprazor: Automatic Removal Of Hair And Ruler Marks From Dermoscopy Images, Reda Kasmi, Jason Hagerty, Reagan Harris Young, Norsang Lama, Januka Nepal, Jessica Miinch, William V. Stoecker, R. Joe Stanley

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Background: The removal of hair and ruler marks is critical in handcrafted image analysis of dermoscopic skin lesions. No other dermoscopic artifacts cause more problems in segmentation and structure detection. Purpose: The aim of the work is to detect both white and black hair, artifacts and finally inpaint correctly the image. Method: We introduce a new algorithm: SharpRazor, to detect hair and ruler marks and remove them from the image. Our multiple-filter approach detects hairs of varying widths within varying backgrounds, while avoiding detection of vessels and bubbles. The proposed algorithm utilizes grayscale plane modification, hair enhancement, segmentation using tri-directional …

Using Capillary Electrophoresis To Quantify Competitive Binding Of Adsorbates To Silver Nanoparticles, Christopher D. Chung , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are increasingly used commercially and medically due to their antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. With increased use comes increased release of AgNPs into the environment, and once released, AgNPs can form coronas with molecules ranging from biomolecules to proteins to natural organic matter (NOM). The molecules in the corona adsorb to the surface of the AgNPs, drastically altering their innate properties such as cytotoxicity and binding behavior. In this study, we characterize and quantify model AgNP-adsorbate systems by obtaining their relevant reaction parameters through three different affordable analytical techniques, including dynamic light scattering (DLS), UV-vis spectroscopy, and capillary …

Biophysical And Structural Characterization Of Non-Canonical Dna Structures, Paul C. Seth , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

G-quadruplex (GQ) and i-motif (iM) non-canonical DNA structures can be formed by G- and C-rich sequences within the genome, respectively. GQ and iM DNA play important roles in different biological processes and are promising therapeutic targets. Recently, the first left-handed GQ (LHGQ) was discovered and much remains to be learned about the structure and function of LHGQ DNA.

In this thesis, we investigate the biophysical and structural behavior of two LHGQ-forming sequences from the human genome, from the Human Solute Carrier 1 (SLC) and nuclear receptor binding SET domain (NSD) genes. We found that flanking bases play an important role …

Raise The Sun: A Qtbipoc Zine Workshop, Chris O. Stone , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Method Design For Separation Of Non-Canonical Dna Structures Via Capillary Electrophoresis, Erin V. Chen , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

G-quadruplex DNA structures are highly relevant subjects of biochemical study, implicated in human diseases and cancer. Conventional methods for G-quadruplex DNA structure separation are time-consuming, environmentally unfriendly, and low throughput. Thus, there is a pressing need for alternative methods of separation to be developed for G-quadruplex DNAs. Here we present work in designing a separation method using the capillary electrophoresis instrument. Capillary electrophoresis is a highly automated, reusable, and quantitative technique that separates analytes based on their size and charge. A capillary method for G-quadruplex separation would be a valuable analytical tool to supplement the biophysical methods available by addressing …

Factors Affecting Groundwater Nitrate Concentration In Madinah Area, Saudi Arabia, Majed M. Almutairi

Masters Theses

High levels of nitrate in groundwater are a serious problem in Madinah Area, Saudi Arabia. Identifying factors affecting groundwater nitrate contamination is important for managing groundwater quality. This study examined factors that have significant impacts on the high level of groundwater nitrate in Madinah Area. Factors examined included well-depth and land cover. Relationships between variables were explored using three statistical approaches: the Kruskal-Wallis test and two types of regression (ordinary least squares [OLS] and geographically weighted regression [GWR]).

Nitrate concentration data show that 73% of obtained groundwater samples exceeded the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maximum contaminant level (MCL) …

Concept Validation: Collecting Composite Samples To Understand The Presence Of Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In Michigan Forested Areas, Nicole Renee Sanabria

Masters Theses

This research discusses the results of a state-wide study conducted by The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to assess the presence of PFAS in shallow soils of state-owned forested areas in Michigan utilizing a composite sampling method. One sample collected from each of Michigan’s 83 counties reveals the presence of PFAS in all but one sample, with total PFAS concentrations ranging from non-detect to 2.016 μg/kg (dry weight). PFOS is generally detected at the highest concentrations, ranging from non-detect to 0.88 μg/kg, followed by PFBA, with concentrations ranging from non-detect to 0.69 μg/kg, and PFOA, with concentrations …

Evaluating Neutron Star Binding Energies Using Rotating Accreting Models, Nathan Moore

Honors Theses

Neutron star binding energy increases due to accreting matter from neighboring astronomical bodies, and decreases due to the star spinning up, increasing its angular velocity. We present a novel set of models that account for both increasing angular velocity and accreting matter to track a neutron star’s evolution. We arrive at these models through studying and reconfiguring computational investigations from the past, particularly a code which generates a model for a given fixed baryon mass and angular velocity and another that takes it from one baryon mass and angular velocity to the next one through accretion, to obtain a full …

Rage Inhibitors In Neurodegenerative Diseases, V. Prakash Reddy, Puspa Aryal, Pallavi Soni

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Nonenzymatic Reactions of Reducing Sugars with Primary Amino Groups of Amino Acids, Proteins, and Nucleic Acids, Followed by Oxidative Degradations Would Lead to the Formation of Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs). the AGEs Exert Multifactorial Effects on Cell Damage Leading to the Onset of Neurological Disorders. the Interaction of AGEs with the Receptors for Advanced Glycation Endproducts (RAGE) Contribute to the Activation of Intracellular Signaling and the Expression of the Pro-Inflammatory Transcription Factors and Various Inflammatory Cytokines. This Inflammatory Signaling Cascade is Associated with Various Neurological Diseases, Including Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Secondary Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis …

Fisheries Science Update - Gascoyne Demersal Scalefish Resource - April 2023, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries Science Updates

Key points: 2022 stock assessment outcomes:

• The Gascoyne Demersal Scalefish Resource (GDSR) comprises more than 60 species inhabiting Gascoyne oceanic waters (excluding inner Shark Bay), with pink snapper and goldband snapper recognised as the two indicator species.
• Oceanic pink snapper is five years into a 20-year recovery plan following a 2017 stock assessment that showed the stock was at severe risk.
• The GDSR oceanic pink snapper recovery plan is based on limiting the annual total fishing mortality of oceanic pink snapper to 100 tonnes (all sectors combined) and providing targeted protection for key spawning aggregations.
• The Department of Primary Industries …

The Beginning, Development And Impact Of Chatgpt In The Digital Age, Zhixiao Zhao, Dongbo Wang

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance]The emergence of ChatGPT has brought significant changes to the whole society, and to this day, its impact is still spreading, Experts, scholars and news media have broadly discussed it. As a major progress in the field of natural language processing, ChatGPT carries too much attention and expectations. As an important battlefield in the field of natural language processing, information resource management should give full play to the advantages of disciplines under this technological change and drive the development of disciplines with technology.[Method/process] Starting from the origin of ChatGPT, this paper introduces the development path of GPT model, and summarizes …

Investigating Collaborative Problem Solving Temporal Dynamics Using Interactions Within A Digital Whiteboard, Hua Leong Fwa

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Collaborative Problem Solving, the resolution of complex problems with the collaboration of multiple peoplepooling their knowledge, skills and effort is postulated as an essential 21st century skills for the futureworkforce. Collaborative Problem Solving has been embraced in schools where both online and face-to-face collaboration are afforded through the proliferation of educational technology tools. Assessing the amount of collaboration that has taken place among the students has however been challenging. In this research, we seek to identify the collaboration patterns of our students by mining the temporal sequence of their actions logs captured within a digital whiteboard tool. With the use …

Mimusa: Mimicking Human Language Understanding For Fine-Grained Multi-Class Sentiment Analysis, Zhaoxia Wang, Zhenda Hu, Seng-Beng Ho, Erik Cambria, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Sentiment analysis is an important natural language processing (NLP) task due to a wide range of applications. Most existing sentiment analysis techniques are limited to the analysis carried out at the aggregate level, merely providing negative, neutral and positive sentiments. The latest deep learning-based methods have been leveraged to provide more than three sentiment classes. However, such learning-based methods are still black-box-based methods rather than explainable language processing methods. To address this gap, this paper proposes a new explainable fine-grained multi-class sentiment analysis method, namely MiMuSA, which mimics the human language understanding processes. The proposed method involves a multi-level modular …

Code Will Tell: Visual Identification Of Ponzi Schemes On Ethereum, Xiaolin Wen, Kim Siang Yeo, Yong Wang, Ling Cheng, Feida Zhu, Min Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Ethereum has become a popular blockchain with smart contracts for investors nowadays. Due to the decentralization and anonymity of Ethereum, Ponzi schemes have been easily deployed and caused significant losses to investors. However, there are still no explainable and effective methods to help investors easily identify Ponzi schemes and validate whether a smart contract is actually a Ponzi scheme. To fill the research gap, we propose PonziLens, a novel visualization approach to help investors achieve early identification of Ponzi schemes by investigating the operation codes of smart contracts. Specifically, we conduct symbolic execution of opcode and extract the control flow …

Does Deep Learning Improve The Performance Of Duplicate Bug Report Detection? An Empirical Study, Yuan Jiang, Xiaohong Su, Christoph Treude, Chao Shang, Tiantian Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Do Deep Learning (DL) techniques actually help to improve the performance of duplicate bug report detection? Prior studies suggest that they do, if the duplicate bug report detection task is treated as a binary classification problem. However, in realistic scenarios, the task is often viewed as a ranking problem, which predicts potential duplicate bug reports by ranking based on similarities with existing historical bug reports. There is little empirical evidence to support that DL can be effectively applied to detect duplicate bug reports in the ranking scenario. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate whether well-known DL-based methods outperform classic information …

Performance Of The Mineral Recovery Enhanced Desalination Pilot Water Treatment Plant, Samantha Valentine

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

There is a growing interest in treating brackish groundwater to supplement freshwater resources for inland communities in arid climates. Water recovery by desalination of brackish groundwater is challenging due to mineral scaling from ions which form carbonate and sulfate minerals, dissolved silica which forms silicates, iron, manganese, and other constituents along with the difficulties and cost of disposing of large volumes of brine from the desalination process. The MRED process consists of a pretreatment process to increase water recovery and decrease waste production from brackish groundwater. The MRED process uses a unique sequence of unit processes consisting of: (1) Air …

Rural Water Manager Challenges In New Mexico, Amy "Aj" Jones

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

New Mexico poses a valuable set of circumstances to study the challenges faced by drinking water systems. A general lack of resources for small systems, be it personnel and funding issues, lack of community engagement, lack or loss of institutional knowledge, ability to meet regulations, and aging managers were found to be very common and widespread. Rural water manager positions that are unsupported financially do not assist in alleviating rural poverty or draw the workforce. Therefore, the negative state demographic statistics are reinforced, further complicating rural water management rather than helping the issues. To look at drinking water management comprehensively, …

Evaluation Of Fluvial Package Amalgamation In Medial Dfs Deposits, Angel Peak Area, Nacimineto Formation, Sarah R. Rysanek

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Fluvial packages are the hypothetical groupings of facies that make up the fluvial succession consisting of channel belt sandstones and associated levee, floodplain, and avulsion deposits. This study attempted to describe a single fluvial package laterally using the new technologies of UAV imaging and 3D photogrammetry; however, amalgamation of channel belts and erosion from this amalgamation made long-distance lateral correlation difficult. This analysis of medial deposits in the Nacimiento Formation in the Angel Peak Area, Northwestern New Mexico evaluates the degree of amalgamation of fluvial packages across the study area while identifying facies associated with the hypothetical fluvial package. This …

Toward The Yeast Surface Display Of Microviridin B, Jillian Leigh Stafford

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Humans have turned to natural products for medicinal therapeutics for millennia. In recent years, the ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide (RiPP) class of natural products have garnered a lot of attention due to their ability for heterologous expression, relative ease of mutation, and vast biological activates. Microviridins are a family of RiPPs that contain a tricyclic cage-like structure through the formation of two lactone rings and one lactam ring catalyzed by two ATP-grasp ligase family enzymes. Microviridins are potent inhibitors of serine proteases and mutational studies of a small number of residues indicates the potential of peptide engineering protease …

Developing Young Science And Technology Parks: Recent Findings From Industrial Nations Using The Data-Driven Approach, Charles Mondal, Mousa Al-Kfairy, Robert B. Mellor

All Works

Science and technology parks (STPs) are curated locations where new technology-based firms (NTBFs) and other SMEs and firms can conglomerate and promote a culture of innovation. Overall, the aim is to construct a sustainable high-value tech entrepreneurship ecosystem, and to this end we present here some recent and novel concepts derived from approaches using a data-driven statistical foundation. This paper considers studies on the organic growth of young start-up science and technology parks by authors who have used big data, econometric analyses, panel data and computer simulations. The results and concepts are derived from industrialized countries, notably Sweden and the …

Aloe Barbadensis Rinds Employ Physical And Chemical Defense Mechanisms Against Insect Herbivores With Varying Success, Zachary Johnson, Ishveen Kaur, Fernando Castillo, Rupesh R. Kariyat, Debasish Bandyopadhyay

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Plants deter herbivory through a suite of physical and chemical defenses. While most studies have focused on understanding one or the other, efficient plant defense against herbivory is often cumulative. To examine this, we used Aloe barbadensis (Asphodelaceae) as a model, since in natural settings, the species is found to be well-defended against insect herbivores. To start with, we hypothesized that the epicuticular wax potentially plays an important role in herbivore defense as the major physical defense. To test our hypothesis, we conducted bioactivity-guided extraction and polarity-based fractionation of A. barbadensis rinds. We then mixed them into an artificial diet, …

Isolated And Dynamical Black Hole Mergers With B-Pop: The Role Of Star Formation And Dynamics, Star Cluster Evolution, Natal Kicks, Mass And Spins, And Hierarchical Mergers, Manuel Arca Sedda, Michaela Mapelli, Matthew Benacquista, Mario Spera

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The current interpretation of LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA data suggests that the primary mass function of merging binary black holes (BBHs) at redshift z ≲ 1 contains multiple structures, while spins are relatively low. Theoretical models of BBH formation in different environments can provide a key to interpreting the population of observed mergers, but they require the simultaneous treatment of stellar evolution and dynamics, galaxy evolution, and general relativity. We present B-POP, a population synthesis tool to model BBH mergers formed in the field or via dynamical interactions in young, globular, and nuclear clusters. Using B-POP, we explore how black hole (BH) formation …

A Support Theorem For A Wave Equation, Aysha Khaled Alshamsi

Theses

It is well known that the fundamental solution to the classical wave equation Δ�� (��, ��) − ∂_������(��,��) = 0 is supported on the light cone {(��, ��) ∈ ℝ^��× ℝ : ||��|| = |��|} if and only if the dimension �� is odd and ≥ 3. Because we are living in a 3-dimensional world we can hear each other clearly; One has a pure propagator without residual waves. In this thesis we consider the wave equation

2||��||Δ_����_��(��, ��) − ∂_������(��,��) = 0, (��, ��) ∈ ℝ^�� × ℝ …

Artificial Intelligence In Higher Education: The State Of The Field, Helen Crompton, Diane Burke

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This systematic review provides unique findings with an up-to-date examination of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education (HE) from 2016 to 2022. Using PRISMA principles and protocol, 138 articles were identified for a full examination. Using a priori, and grounded coding, the data from the 138 articles were extracted, analyzed, and coded. The findings of this study show that in 2021 and 2022, publications rose nearly two to three times the number of previous years. With this rapid rise in the number of AIEd HE publications, new trends have emerged. The findings show that research was conducted in six of …