Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Brevards Microplastics: A Literature Review And Proposed Methods To Study Florida Beaches, Kenna Peters

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Student Publications

With populations along coastlines rapidly increasing so does the risk of microplastics entering the environment. Previous studies have found that 68% of microplastics found in the environment come from man-made cellulosic materials like rayon. Little information is known about the distribution, transportation, and final location of microplastics once they are introduced. Brevard County contains multiple types of beaches that differ substantially in human activity levels, urban density, and land-use patterns. Having a full picture of microplastic distribution and intensity is vital to understanding and reversing the impact these pollutants have on the environment.

Does Information Loss Bias Our Estimates Of Predation In The Fossil Record?, Ashcon Davachi

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Student Publications

• Predation in fossil marine-ecosystems is generally estimated through analysis of time-averaged prey assemblages.
• Do time-averaged assemblages reflect predation on smaller ecological time scales?
• In this project I compared estimates of predation-related damage to snail shells derived on two ecological time scales to determine whether information loss biases our estimates of predation in the fossil record

Reefstarter Deployment System, Dylan Alvarez, Jacob Elston, Alex Ketchen, Jaidyn Lodens

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Student Publications

• Threats from coastal erosion drive the need for effective and sustainable protection methods. 
• Interlocking concrete reef blocks dissipate wave energy while also supporting habitat restoration.
• Current deployment methods are inefficient and require significant human interaction.
• A compact hydraulic lifting system should enable increased safety, control, and efficiency

The September 17th, 2025, Gigantic Jet Off The Puerto Rican Coast: A Case Study, Jaedon Benbow

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Student Publications

Gigantic jets (GJs) are an electrical discharge that propagates upward from the top of a thunderstorm, reaching altitudes between 70 and 90 km, terminating in the lower ionosphere (Lazarus et al., 2021). This GJ event occurred on 5:33:53 UTC on September 17th, 2025. Despite the rarity of gigantic jets, tropical regions like Puerto Rico have a higher likelihood of occurrence due to more available convection. This GJ event was caught on radar. This provides additional data helpful for analyzing this case.

Current Capture, Maggie Palmer, Colin Stefan, Ricky Gay, Sofia Scarpa, Hayden Linkel

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Student Publications

Current Capture aimed to design, develop, and test a prototype of a hydropower turbine that is scalable and deployable. The design considers the harsh ocean environment, corrosion in the material selection, efficiency in the blade choice, and structural positioning in the housing extremities. Two NACA foil composite blades were designed and manufactured to perform an experiment and analyze the velocities and RPMs.

The Forecasting Challenge Of Snow Cover Induced Temperature Depressions, Lucas Silva

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Student Publications

• Snow cover can keep the surface layer cool in the day and amplify cooling at night
• Unexpected SCITDs can cause sudden freezes, deteriorating travel conditions
• To what extent is the forecast accuracy of the NWS affected during SCITDs?

Midwest Extremes: Quantifying 26 Years Of Excessive Heat Events And Demographic Risk, Nasir Grant

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Student Publications

• According to Vose et al. (2017), the Midwest experienced the largest increase in average minimum temperature among all regions of the United States which is a noticeable risk to the Midwest population.
• The climatology of the Midwest is majority hot summer humid continental and includes warm summer humid continental and cold semi-arid.
• This study investigated cities that have experienced high counts of (EHEs) and positive population growths in between 2000 and 2020 while plotting the cities into a risk map.

Plant Growth Promoting Phenotypes Of Fungal Isolates From The International Space Station, Shane Doyle, Frances A. Edmonson

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Student Publications

• In situ (on site) space crop production is vital for sustainability and dietary health of astronauts. 
• We hypothesize that International Space Station (ISS) derived fungal isolates will stimulate plant growth and express PGP phenotypes.
• Eleven space-viable fungi were screened via phenotypic testing to identify plant growthpromoting (PGP) activity.
• Prior research has been conducted solely with ISS derived bacteria, while ISS fungi are unexplored, which could reveal new or improved symbiotic relationships and growth factors.

The Invisible Shield: Why Our Stomach Doesn’T Digest Itself, Kevon Findley

Mathematics and System Engineering Student Publications

The stomach contains highly acidic gastric fluid with a very low pH.  A thin mucus lining protects the stomach from self-digestion and keeps nearby epithelial cells near a pH 7.  A weakened mucus layer is associated with conditions such as Gastritis and Peptic Ulcer Disease.

How can the protective mucus barrier be maintained and be of stable thickness?

An Analysis Of Surface-Level Macro And Microplastics Along Western Central Leyte, Philippines, Graham B. Morrison-Plumley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

With the pervasive use of plastics worldwide, their environmental effects can reach even the most remote ecosystems. This study examines both macro and microplastic pollution in the Greater Baybay region in western Leyte, Philippines. Samples from 10 separate sites within Baybay and its adjacent communities represent the unique environmental and geologic diversity of the central Visayan region of the Philippines. At each of the 10 sampling sites, 3 excavations were conducted, yielding 30 samples. Macroplastics were collected in the field, immediately around microplastic digs. Microplastic samples were analyzed in Florida Atlantic University’s Environmental Change Lab. It was determined that spatial …

Reminders App Execution, Alexander Gardner

Harrisburg University Other Works

This poster highlights the creation of an Android mobile application for reminders. This app is titled It's Time, Remind! Developed with the Flutter SDK and SQLite for the local database. Firebase Authentication was utilized for user account registration, login/ logout, and profile management. Users can additionally choose to use the app without an account. Users are able to view, create, and delete reminders and notes. Reminders also notify at specified times.

Dynamic-Query Robustness Of Ann Indexes Under Time-Indexed Drift, Stellamaris Nakacwa, Majid Shaalan

Harrisburg University Other Works

Approximate nearest-neighbor search is a central retrieval primitive in dense question-answering and retrieval-augmented generation systems. Existing ANN evaluation protocols typically measure recall, latency, throughput, and search-effort sensitivity under a fixed-query assumption: a query vector is submitted to an index, approximate neighbors are retrieved, and the result is compared with exact nearest-neighbour ground truth. This assumption is appropriate for conventional vector-search benchmarking, but it is less complete for multi-step, distributed, and agent-controlled retrieval pipelines in which the retrieval-facing query may be refined, recomputed, or displaced across execution steps. This paper introduces a time-driven dynamic query evaluation framework for ANN search. The …

Crimson Skies And Another Pale Blue Dot: Can Life Begin Again?, Ingrid R. Carrasco, Joseph Mocerino

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Enceladus is one of the most promising moons in our Solar System for housing an environment necessary for prebiotic synthesis or life itself. This is due to the fact that aqueous plumes ejecting form the subsurface ocean penetrate the ice shell dispersing water and subsequent organics (if present). We hypothesize that as our Sun evolves into a red giant, the increase in stellar flux will result in higher average temperatures leading to increase the potential of habitability for Enceladus.

Exploration Of Thermal Management Using The Random Close Packing Of Binary Hard Spheres, Niru Shakya

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Thermal Interface Materials (TIMs), such as pastes, resins, and glues, are designed to transfer heat away from sensitive electronic components. Current TIMs in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) at the LHC use radiation-hard resins doped with single-diameter (20um) diamond spheres. These spheres act as thermal fillers and conduct heat away through contact. In order to maximize probability of this contact, the occupied volume fraction of these spheres must be maximized. It is theoretically accepted that mixing sphere sizes can increase the volume fraction.

The Three-Dimensional Spherical Quantum Harmonic Oscillator: A Theoretical Exploration, Aurora M. Bowman

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

The three-dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator is analyzed in spherical coordinates. The Schrödinger equation is solved using separation of variables. The system exhibits a quantized energy spectrum determined by quantum numbers.  Results describe the structure of radial and angular wavefunctions.

Analyzing Hst Observations Of Ngc 6251, Ean Deuschle

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

NGC 6251 is a giant elliptical radio galaxy (gEr) ~340 Mly away, hosting an AGN that produces one of the most noteworthy relativistic jets known. Using archival WFPC2 and NICMOS data, obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA), we will present an analysis of NGC6251’s structure, dust distribution, and stellar population, to better understand the relationship between the object’s primary morphologies.

Bolide Analysis Using Ground And Jpl Cneos Data, Adrianna Patton, Cassidy Mink

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Bolides (fireballs) are meteors that explode in the atmosphere upon impact, producing an extremely bright, high-energy event, and sometimes leave recoverable fragments The project aims to develop a new analysis pipeline using JPL CNEOS government sensor data.

Color-Magnitude Diagrams As A Diagnostic Tool Of Nebular Gas Structure, Cameron Hasara, Koen Schenck

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

The interaction between young stellar populations and surrounding molecular gas governs the morphology and evolution of star-forming regions. In planetary nebulae, strong radiative feedback, stellar winds, and dynamical motions yield complex structures in nebular gas that are often sought and identified through traditional narrowband imaging and spectroscopy. Here, we repurpose Color–Magnitude Diagrams (CMD’s) as diagnostic tools for nebular structure rather than stellar classification.

The True Interstellar Anisotropy Of 13 Tev Cosmic Rays, Matthew Conde

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Cosmic rays (CRs) are high-energy particles; bare atomic nuclei, with varying origins and energy levels. Research in this field is focused on identifying potential origins, understanding transport mechanisms faced on their journey to Earth, and interpreting the angular structure of incident CRs. One obstacle of this research is the trajectory modulation induced by the heliosphere during the CRs’ journey. In this work we employ a method to reconstruct the properties of CRs as they were at the local interstellar medium (LISM) by means of a nonlinear model fit to the map at Earth. Another obstacle is the time-averaging used to …

Maximum Likelihood Light Curve Prediction Of Qpo In Mrk-421, Vanessa Cusumano

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Using RXTE (Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer) and SwiftBAT (Swift Burst Alert Telescope), I modeled the X-Ray light curve of MRK-421 to investigate the quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs). A maximum likelihood approach with a damped harmonic oscillator (DHO) model was applied to CARMAprocessed light curves. Both datasets reveal periodic behavior, with SwiftBBAT showing a smooth ~400-day signal, and RXTE producing a staggered ~700-800 day variation. Results support the presence of QPOs while highlighting instrument-dependent variability consistent with differences in sensitivity and energy range.

Porkchops And Lemmon-Ade: Trajectory And Δv Determination For Small Solar System Bodies, Michael Ferrigno, Elizabeth Hayes, Dominic Heffron

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Comets and asteroids have complex trajectories and are important for planetary defense and potential resources. Our team observed asteroid 6 Hebe (Hebe) with the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network and comets C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) and 3I/ATLAS (ATLAS) with the Ortega Observatory’s telescopes. We used a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation to determine their orbital elements, recreated their trajectories with our Orbit Visualizer, and generated porkchop plots to identify energy-efficient transfer windows. Our methods also produced simple, reusable tools that can help study small-body motion.

That’S No Moon: Understanding Technosignatures Via Simulating The Lightcurves Of Transiting Extraterrestrial Kilostructures, Emilio Lugo, Bridget Mcdermott

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Hypothesized extraterrestrial technological intelligences have been theorized to construct large structures orbiting their host star. They can be detected using their transit light curves. We trained a deep neural network on epoch photometries queried from GAIA DR3 and synthetic light curves simulated for these various theorized transiting geometries.

Modeling Of A Mitigation Strategy For Carrington Class Cmes, Jose Fuentes, Camilla Wright

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

On September 1, 1859, a powerful solar flare was observed by Richard Carrington [1]. This flare ejected highly energetic plasma, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), towards Earth. This CME impacted Earth, causing magnetic induction which seriously impacted technology. Lingam and Loeb (2017) [2] predicted that if the Carrington CME were to occur today, the economic damages to the US would be on the order of $2 trillion USD. In this work, we present an impact mitigation strategy as a sufficiently strong magnetic dipole field placed at a gravitational equilibrium point (L1) located at 1.5 Gm from Earth in the …

Exploring Possible Formation Mechanisms For Nh4sh Clouds On Jupiter, Morgan Rietmann

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Even after decades of research, much of Jupiter’s atmosphere is poorly understood. Recently, interest in a 2-3 bar cloud deck generated by a new ammonia mapping technique has exposed the very flimsy nature of the assumption that these clouds are made primarily of ammonium hydrosulfide (NH₄SH). While there is evidence to support the existence of NH₄SH at this level, its formation reaction and the interaction between this reaction and its environment has been lacking proper study. With closer inspection, the abundance of NH₃ in the atmosphere lends itself to the possible additional formation of ammonium …

Automation Of Data Analysis Of The Chandra M87 Data, Jack Becker, Kylee Fout

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Student Publications

Messier 87 (M87) is an elliptical galaxy known for its central black hole, and has been observed frequently over the last 20 years by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Sourcing of the reduced observational data was done through the Chandra Data Archive, a collection of data from the Chandra Telescope. The main goal of this project was to create a data analysis pipeline that identifies spectra to search for supernovae. In addition, we would like to publish the code on GitHub, which may aid future research on transient X-ray events.

Quantitative Microstructural Analysis With Applications To Planetary Lithosphere Deformation, Katherine Josephine Billings

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

On Earth, plate motion is accommodated by localized zones of weakness, comprised of brittle faults near the surface and ductile shear zones at depth. Interactions between microstructure and deformation mechanisms control bulk rock strength. The intermixing of mineral phases and a transition to grain size sensitive creep is thought to be an essential mechanism for creating long lasting weakness in the lithosphere. Chapter Two explores how microstructures evolve in experimentally deformed Maryland diabase. Microstructure evolves significantly with strain from an igneous texture characterized by large grains and large domains to a fine grained, narrowly banded microstructure. This reduction in grain …

High Performance Ae-Cnn Model Enhanced Via Gaussian Augmentation For Rssi-Dependent Indoor Positioning In Wireless Sensor Networks, Kahlaa K. Al-Nassrawy, Ghaidaa A Al-Sultany

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Precise indoor positioning system remains a significant challenge within Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) due to the instability and noise sensitivity of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) data. This paper proposes an advanced hybrid deep learning framework designed for 2D indoor localization, utilizing RSSI measurements to predict human or object position. Furthermore, to enhance the robustness of the model against signal variance and promote its generalization capability under this uncertainty, a data augmentation strategy is applied using three methods: Gaussian Noise Injection (GNI), Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), and Bayesian Gaussian Mixture Model (BGMM). The purpose of data augmentation is to simulate …

Investigating The Bioactivity Of Novel Β-Diketonate Complexes, Celeste Remolina, Dylan Wolfe

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Ruthenium β-diketonate complexes have emerged as promising chemotherapeutics due to their selective bioactivity against tumors. We assessed the bioactivity of novel synthesized ruthenium β-diketonate complexes on human cancer cells as well as wild-type cells. Using cell growth assays, we screened candidate ruthenium complexes and determined the IC50 value for effective candidates. Here we present a model for ruthenium-mediated growth inhibition

Using Fluorimetry And Spectroscopy For Quantitative Analysis Of Biomaterial-Derived Carbon Dots, Kahun N. Vue

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Carbon Dots (CDs) are renowned for having great quantum yield, absorption, electron transfer, and stability. Biomaterial-derived carbon dots are eco-friendly nanomaterials synthesized through the carbonization and condensation of organic surface groups. This study investigates the synthesis, characterization, and application of CDs derived from various biomaterial precursors, including chitosan, cellulose, β-keratin, α-keratin, and amylose derived from chitosan, corn husk, chicken feathers, human hair, and potato skin respectively. Hydrothermal and purification methods were used to develop a green, cost-effective synthesis while evaluating the eco-friendliness and sustainability of the resulting nanomaterials. The physicochemical properties of each CD were evaluated based on fluorescence intensity, …

Analyzing Accessibility Issue Detection Differences Between Wave And Google Lighthouse Using A Controlled Wcag Violation Webpage, Saabiriin M. Abdi

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Automated accessibility evaluation tools, such as WAVE and Google Lighthouse are widely used to assess compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). However, prior studies indicate that these tools often disagree, vary in the success criteria they support, and differ in the type of issues they detect. Because most evaluations were conducted on real websites, where the precise number of accessibility violations is unknown. Without a ground-truth baseline, it is impossible to measure false negatives, false positives, or the accuracy of detection.

This project addresses that gap by creating a controlled HTML webpage containing 40 intentional WCAG 2.1 Level …