Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Adjusting The Alloying Degree Of Pt3Zn To Improve Acid Oxygen Reduction Activity And Stability, Tian-En Zhang, Ya-Ni Yan, Jun-Ming Zhang, Xi-Ming Qu, Yan-Rong Li, Yan-Xia Jiang

Journal of Electrochemistry

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a new type of energy device, a relatively excellent way to achieve carbon neutrality. However, due to the relatively slow reaction rate of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode, platinum (Pt) is the key material of the cathode catalyst. However, Pt is a kind of noble metal, and its high cost restricts the PEMFC commercialization process. At present, the main approach is to combine transition metals with Pt to prepare Pt-based alloys and to reduce the use of Pt. Pt-based alloys are excellent catalysts for ORR, improving both the activity and stability, …

Tcr-L: An Analysis Tool For Evaluating The Association Between The T-Cell Receptor Repertoire And Clinical Phenotypes, Meiling Liu, Juna Goo, Yang Liu, Wei Sun, Michael C. Wu, Li Hsu, Qianchuan He

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: T cell receptors (TCRs) play critical roles in adaptive immune responses, and recent advances in genome technology have made it possible to examine the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire at the individual sequence level. The analysis of the TCR repertoire with respect to clinical phenotypes can yield novel insights into the etiology and progression of immune-mediated diseases. However, methods for association analysis of the TCR repertoire have not been well developed.

Methods: We introduce an analysis tool, TCR-L, for evaluating the association between the TCR repertoire and disease outcomes. Our approach is developed under a mixed effect modeling, where …

Topological Data Analysis And Ant Interaction Networks, Adam Banatwala, Esther Rønn

Mathematics & Computer Science Student Scholarship

Adam Banatwala ’22, Majors: Mathematics and Finance
Esther Rønn ’23, Majors: Physics and Mathematics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Laura Murray, Mathematics and Computer Science

Our research group used topological data analysis (TDA) to quantify the movement and behavior of ants in a colony.

We extracted higher dimensional networks from point cloud data collected from Dr. James Waters’ lab. Varying the proximity parameter in this construction gives a sequence of networks. We analyzed the enduring topological features of these networks, and how these features evolve over time as the ants move in the colony. Both the experimental and null model simulation data …

Exploring Indicator Displacement Assays For Phosphate Detection In Seawater, Francis Radics

Chemistry & Biochemistry Student Scholarship

Francis Radics ’22
Major: Biochemistry
Faculty Mentor: Dr. John Breen, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Indicator displacement assays are based on the optical signal modulation of a noncovalently bound indicator upon dissociation by an analyte species. Our work has focused on exploring the lower detection limits for luminescent displacement assays for inorganic phosphate in seawater using complex ions containing two di(2-picolyl)amine ligands (also called DPA or bis(2-pyridylmethyl)amine), each coordinating a zinc cation. Following the work of B.D. Smith and coworkers, we have prepared three ligands by covalently attaching two DPA moieties, 2,6-bis(chloromethyl) benzene, and 2,6-bis(chloromethyl)-4-methylphenol, and 1,2-phenylenedimethylamine, for assays with 6,7-dihydroxy-4-methanesulfonic acid …

Unveiling The Nature Of A Miniature World: A Horizon Scan Of Fundamental Questions In Bryology, Jairo Patiño, Irene Bisang, Bernard Goffinet, Lars Hedenäs, Stuart Mcdaniel, Silvia Pressel, Michael Stech, Claudine Ah-Peng, Sarah Eppley, Multiple Additional Authors

Center for Life in Extreme Environments Publications

Introduction: Half a century since the creation of the International Association of Bryologists, we carried out a review to identify outstanding challenges and future perspectives in bryology. Specifically, we have identified 50 fundamental questions that are critical in advancing the discipline.

Methods: We have adapted a deep-rooted methodology of horizon scanning to identify key research foci. An initial pool of 258 questions was prepared by a multidisciplinary and international working group of 32 bryologists. A series of online surveys completed by a broader community of researchers in bryology, followed by quality-control steps implemented by the working group, were …

Efficient Handover Mechanisms For Heterogeneous Networks., Shankar Kumar Ghosh Dr.

Doctoral Theses

In this thesis, some analytical frameworks have been developed to analyze the effect of different system parameters on handover performances in heterogeneous network (HetNet) and based on such frameworks, some efficient handover algorithms have been proposed. The study starts with an analytical framework to investigate the effect of resource allocation mechanisms, upper layer mobility management protocols (MMPs) and handover decision metrics on user perceived throughput. This analysis reveals that among other factors, handover decision metric plays a crucial role in determining user perceived throughput in HetNet. Subsequently, we develop two handover decision metrics for ultra dense networks (UDN) and unlicensed …

Search Of The Early O3 Ligo Data For Continuous Gravitational Waves From The Cassiopeia A And Vela Jr. Supernova Remnants, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, K. Ackley, F. Acernese, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Francisco Llamas, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from the neutron stars in the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and Vela Jr. supernova remnants. We carry out the searches in the LIGO detector data from the first six months of the third Advanced LIGO and Virgo observing run using the weave semicoherent method, which sums matched-filter detection-statistic values over many time segments spanning the observation period. No gravitational wave signal is detected in the search band of 20–976 Hz for assumed source ages greater than 300 years for Cas A and greater than 700 years for Vela Jr. Estimates from simulated …

An Overview Of Approaches To Nuclear Security In Ghana, Raymond Agalga, Paul Atta Amoah, Daniel Nii Adjei, Daniel Frederick Charles, Emmanuel Ofori Darko

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Ghana has significantly improved its nuclear security infrastructure over the years. However, as threats increase by the day and new applications of nuclear and radiological technology are designed and implemented, Ghana must develop a rigid and comprehensive approach to mitigating the negative impacts on its nuclear security while improving prevention, detection, and deterrence of nuclear and radiological terrorism within its geographical space. This paper overviews the approaches adopted by Ghana to build a strong nuclear security regime within the past decade. These include improving legal frameworks for nuclear security by establishing an independent Nuclear Regulatory Authority; assessing nuclear security culture …

A Computationally Efficient Clustering Linear Combination Approach To Jointly Analyze Multiple Phenotypes For Gwas, Meida Wang, Shuanglin Zhang, Qiuying Sha

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

There has been an increasing interest in joint analysis of multiple phenotypes in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) because jointly analyzing multiple phenotypes may increase statistical power to detect genetic variants associated with complex diseases or traits. Recently, many statistical methods have been developed for joint analysis of multiple phenotypes in genetic association studies, including the Clustering Linear Combination (CLC) method. The CLC method works particularly well with phenotypes that have natural groupings, but due to the unknown number of clusters for a given data, the final test statistic of CLC method is the minimum p-value among all p-values of the …

Electrochemical Degradation Of Oxytetracycline Catalyzed By Fe3O4 Magnetic Nanoparticles, Fang Ying, Shan-Shan Xu, Yan-Bing Xu, Miao-Miao Liang, Jian-Feng Li

Journal of Electrochemistry

The purpose of this study is to optimize the electrochemical degradation of oxytetracycline (OTC) in water using a low cost and simple preparation method. In this paper, the Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles were used as catalysts to activate the electrochemical oxidation system of peroxydisulfates (PDS) which acted as electrolytes to provide active free radicals in order to improve the degradation of OTC under the condition of applying current. As one of the tetracycline antibiotics (TCs), OTC is one of the most used antibiotics in the world, therefore, it is necessary to study the effective degradation of OTC. By …

Preparation Of Pt@Basrtio3 Nanostructure And Its Properties Towards Photoelectrochemical Ammonia Synthesis, Jing Zhang, Rui-Xia Guo, Jian-Jun Fu, Shi-Bin Yin, Pei-Kang Shen, Xin-Yi Zhang

Journal of Electrochemistry

Ammonia is an important industrial raw material and a potential green energy. Using renewable energy to convert nitrogen into ammonia under ambient condition is an attractive method. However, the development of efficient photoelectrochemical ammonia synthesis catalysts remains a challenge. Perovskite such as BaSrTiO₃ (BST) is a good photocatalytic material. However, BST is active under ultraviolet light and has a high recombination rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. By dispersing precious metals, it can effectively regulate the absorption of sunlight by BST. In this work, we used a two-step method to prepare BST. The H₂PtCl₆·6H₂O …

Multi-Scale Simulation Revealing The Decomposition Mechanism Of Electrolyte On Lithium Metal Electrode, Yan-Yan Zhang, Yue Liu, Yi-Ming Lu, Pei-Ping Yu, Wen-Xuan Du, Bing-Yun Ma, Miao Xie, Hao Yang, Tao Cheng

Journal of Electrochemistry

Lithium metal is considered as an ideal anode material for next-generation high energy density batteries with its high specific capacity and low electrode potential. However, the high activity of lithium metal can lead to a series of safety issues. For example, lithium metal will continuously react chemically with the electrolyte, forming unstable the solid electrolyte (SEI) films. In addition, lithium dendrites can be formed during cycling, which can puncture the SEI film and cause short circuits in the battery. These drawbacks greatly hinder the commercial application of lithium metal. To solve the above problems, it is important to understand the …

Effects Of Electrode Shape On Lithiation Process Of Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes, Shi-Wei Sun, Jian-Jun Nie, Yi-Cheng Song

Journal of Electrochemistry

This paper studies the influence of electrode shape on the lithiation process of lithium ion batteries. Both experimental observation and numerical simulation are employed to investigate the competitive interaction between the diffusion of lithium ions in both solid and liquid phases and the lithium intercalation reaction at the electrode surface. Experimental cells were prepared with the anode and cathode being placed parallel, leaving the latter embracing the former. An experimental device based on CCD camera was set up for in situ observation of electrode lithiation. The lithiation levels of the graphite anodes were estimated according to the observed color profile. …

Experimental Demonstration Of Continuous Quantum Error Correction, William P. Livingston, Machiel S. Blok, Emmanuel Flurin, Justin Dressel, Andrew N. Jordan, Irfan Siddiqi

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The storage and processing of quantum information are susceptible to external noise, resulting in computational errors. A powerful method to suppress these effects is quantum error correction. Typically, quantum error correction is executed in discrete rounds, using entangling gates and projective measurement on ancillary qubits to complete each round of error correction. Here we use direct parity measurements to implement a continuous quantum bit-flip correction code in a resource-efficient manner, eliminating entangling gates, ancillary qubits, and their associated errors. An FPGA controller actively corrects errors as they are detected, achieving an average bit-flip detection efficiency of up to 91%. Furthermore, …

Beyond Hcahps: Analysis Of Patients’ Comments Provides An Expanded View Of Their Hospital Experiences, Andrew S. Gallan, Rakesh Niraj, Awanindra Singh

Patient Experience Journal

An important concern for health care professionals is that standardized patient surveys may not fully capture all the topics that are important to patients. As a result, health care professionals may not have a complete picture of what their patients experience. The purpose of this research is to utilize a state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing technique to make sense of patients’ solicited, unstructured comments to gain a deeper and broader understanding of their experiences in the hospital. We analyzed a large dataset of inpatient survey responses (48,592 patients generating 65,998 comments) by a patient experience survey vendor for an eleven-hospital health …

Establishing Trust In Vehicle-To-Vehicle Coordination: A Sensor Fusion Approach, Jakob Veselsky

Computer Science Research Seminars and Symposia

As we add more autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles (AVs) to our roads, their effects on passenger and pedestrian safety are becoming more important. Despite extensive testing, AVs do not always identify roadway hazards. Failures in object recognition components have already led to several fatal collisions, e.g. as a result of faults in sensors, software, or vantage point. Although a particular AV may fail, there is an untapped pool of information held by other AVs in the vicinity that could be used to identify roadway hazards before they present a safety threat.

Quantitative Analysis Of The Maximum Rate And Minimum Duration For A 200 Km Stepwise Retreat Of The Bindschadler Ice Stream At ~11.5 Cal Kyr Bp, Matthew E Kratochvil

LSU Master's Theses

Small-scale morainal ridges on the middle continental shelf of the Whales Deep Basin partly record the rapid opening of a 200-km grounding line embayment slightly after ~11.5 cal kyr BP. The overlapping pattern of backstepped moraines indicates that the grounding line oscillated back and forth during the retreat. Published sediment fluxes were combined with new sediment volume mapping of the moraines to infer the rates at which the grounding line retreated. The analyses indicate that the rates of grounding line retreat on the eastern flank of the embayment ranged from ~490 m a^-1 to 1,300 m a^-1. …

How To Guard An Art Gallery: A Simple Mathematical Problem, Natalie Petruzelli

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

The art gallery problem is a geometry question that seeks to find the minimum number of guards necessary to guard an art gallery based on the qualities of the museum’s shape, specifically the number of walls. Solved by Václav Chvátal in 1975, the resulting Art Gallery Theorem dictates that ⌊n/3⌋ guards are always sufficient and sometimes necessary to guard an art gallery with n walls. This theorem, along with the argument that proves it, are accessible and interesting results even to one with little to no mathematical knowledge, introducing readers to common concepts in both geometry and graph …

To Adopt Blockchain Technology Or Not: Is The Decision-Making Process Immune To Covid-19?, Rebecca Jauch

Thinking Matters Student Research Symposium

Blockchain technology has been shown to have advantages in improving the effectiveness of supply chain management. We use the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework with Threat-Rigidity Theory (TRT) to determine the factors that lead U.S. businesses to adopt blockchain technology, the factors that act as barriers to adoption, and the disruptive effect of COVID-19 on the rate of blockchain adoption

2021-2022 Program And Abstracts: Celebration Of Student Scholarship, Morehead State University. Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program.

2022 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The 2021-2022 Program and Abstracts for the Celebration of Student Scholarship at Morehead State University held on April 27, 2022. A Showcase of Student Research, Scholarship, Creative Work, and Performance Arts.

The Effect Of Crude Oil Prices On Personal Consumption Expenditure, Eileen Cooney

Economics Student Scholarship

Eileen Cooney ’23
Majors: Quantitative Economics and Political Science
Minor: Finance
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Fang Dong, Economics

The author used the time series models to analyze how growth of personal consumption expenditure is influenced by financial and economic determinants. Results show that both oil price and consumer sentiment play important roles in influencing consumption growth.

The Connections Between Innovation, Culture, And Expertise In Water Infrastructure Organizations, Alice Brawley-Chesworth

Dissertations and Theses

Infrastructure organizations are notoriously conservative and resistant to change, even when faced with wicked problems that cannot be solved with the same thinking used in the past. In the water sector, this resistance to change has been linked to an industry culture that is based in a single, engineering-oriented knowledge system. Scholars have suggested that diversification of knowledge systems is necessary for implementation of innovations that will move the sector forward to solve wicked problems.

This research used a qualitative case study approach comparing two water sector organizations in Portland, Oregon. One organization included members who shared an engineering knowledge …

Quantification Of Organic Carbon Sequestered By Biogenic Iron Sulfide Minerals In Long-Term Anoxic Laboratory Incubations, Nader Nabeh, Cheyenne Brokaw, Aude Picard

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Organic carbon sequestration in sedimentary environments controls oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. While minerals play an important role in the preservation of organic carbon, there is a lack of understanding about the formation and stability of organo-mineral interactions in anoxic environments, especially those involving authigenic iron sulfide minerals. In this study, we quantified organic carbon and nitrogen sequestered in biogenic iron sulfide minerals co-precipitated with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in freshwater and marine conditions in long-term laboratory experiments. The amounts of C and N associated with biogenic iron sulfide minerals increased with increasing cell biomass concentrations available in …

Identification Of Lipid Species: Potential Biomarkers For Early Detection Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Kit Yee Leung, Kaylee Freitas

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer. HCC is associated with cirrhosis. Poor survival rate of HCC is due to diagnosis of HCC at late stage.

Classifications Of Transformations Of Km#Tn And Pm#Tn Via Symmetry Groups, Adam Banatwala, Jensen Barry, Mackenzie Maude

Mathematics & Computer Science Student Scholarship

Adam Banatwala ’22, Majors: Mathematics and Finance
Jensen Barry ’22, Majors: Biology and Mathematics
Mackenzie Maude ’22, Majors: Mathematics and Art History
Faculty Mentor: Dr. C. Joanna Su, Mathematics and Computer Science

One of the main topics in topology is the classification and comparison of shapes and surfaces. Since Spring 2020, our research group has been using symmetry groups to classify the 1- and 2-dimensional orientable and non-orientable closed surfaces.

First, the group worked on the symmetry groups of the 1- and 2-dimensional orientable closed surfaces; namely, the classification on V?? 1 (the one-point adjoint of n circles) …

An Exploratory Data Analysis On Covid-19 And Its Effects On Crime In New York City, Lanlie Nguyen

Honors Projects

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected the crime rates present in New York City over the years of 2019 and 2020. There is limited criminal research that investigate the connection to pandemics, and how it can be used to reduce crime rates in similar situations. The goal of this study is to reduce crime rates and provide possible policy implications.

This project analyzes the crime rate trends present before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and compares it to the number of COVID-19 cases. Analysis of the statewide …

Topological Data Analysis With Mapper, Gretchen Langenbahn

Honors Projects

This project is an introduction and overview of Mapper. Mapper is a method of high dimensional data visualization. Data visualization is a very important part of data analysis as it allows for further interpretation and exploration of data. Visualization of high dimensional data sets can be challenging as each variable is a new dimension that must be represented on a 2D, or at most 3D, graph. Mapper allows for high dimensional visualization by using Topological methods to study the relationships between points. This project goes over two different data set: the Iris data set, and a high dimensional data set …

Exploring Music Genres: A Study Of Optimal Differentiation By Feature, Rebecca Stetler

Honors Projects

This study explores the presence of optimal differentiation in music at the feature level by genre. Popularity prediction models are constructed and used to identify influential features in predicting popularity in each genre. These influential features are then assessed for optimal differentiation of the most popular songs from all songs in the genre.

Sustainability In Web Development Through Energy Efficiency, Hannah Bebinger

Honors Projects

As global internet usage expands, websites are growing in both size and complexity. Contrary to the common belief that the internet is immaterial and “environmentally friendly”, web pages have significant negative environmental impacts (Frick, 2015). Websites contribute to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and electricity consumption. Considering the current climate crisis, it is crucial that web developers be aware of the impact that their work has on the environment and actively work to improve site energy efficiency. With a lack of regulation and awareness, the environmental impact of websites has remained unchecked despite growing concerns for sustainability. Further research and …

Meas: Exploring Links Between Implementation And Standards Mastery, Noah Silver

Honors Projects

In order to effectively enhance a student’s mathematical understanding and development in the field of mathematics, students need to engage in problem solving. Model eliciting activities, or MEAs, provide students with tasks that promote higher level thinking and the ability to utilize mathematics outside of the classroom; they also align and promote the utilization of the Common Core State Standards and Standards for Mathematical Practice. Research suggests that the language and motivation promoted by MEAs enriches engagement and increases student ability and performance of traditional and real-world mathematics. Use of technology further supports these goals. Through the analysis of checkpoint …