Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Pxaa: A Root-Cause Decision-Support System For Airline Passenger Complaints Using Sentiment Analysis And Complaint Classification, Adélia Acacio Da Silva, Stefani Rabelo De Campos Nunes

ICT

PXAA (Passenger Experience Analytics Assistant) is a machine learning and decision-support prototype developed to analyse airline passenger complaints using sentiment analysis and complaint classification techniques. The project follows the CRISP-DM methodology and uses airline passenger reviews collected from AirlineQuality.com through Python web scraping. Natural language processing (NLP) techniques were applied to clean and preprocess the textual data, while logistic Regression was used to classify passenger sentiment into positive, negative and neutral categories.

The project also implemented rule-based complaint classification to identify common complaint themes such as delays, baggage issues, customer service problems, comfort issues, payments/refund complaints and communication failures. These …

Design And Evaluation Of A Supervised Machine Learning-Based Intrusion Detection System., Tarquin Qazi

ICT

This project involves designing and evaluating a supervised machine-learning-based intrusion detection system (IDS) using the CIC-IDS2017 dataset. The project is structured around the cross-industry standard process for data mining (CRISP-DM) framework. The dataset comprises over 2.8 million labelled instances and was cleaned and reduced from 78 to 63 features via redundancy analysis. These data were used to train and tune three supervised classifiers: Logistic Regression algorithm as a linear baseline, a Decision Tree algorithm and a Random Forest algorithm. Hyperparameter optimisation was conducted using RandomizedSearchCV with 3-fold cross-validation, optimising for the F1-macro scoring metric.

While the random forest performed similarly …

Comparative Economic Impact Modelling Of Floods Vs Drought On A Global Scale, Diogo Lemos Aguiar, Paulo Henrique Oliveira Machado

ICT

Climate change is generating unprecedented economic losses through extreme weather events, yet comparative predictive analysis between different hazard types remains limited. This report presents a Machine Learning–Based Comparative Economic Impact Modelling System designed to predict and compare the economic damages caused by floods and droughts on a global scale. The system integrates historical disaster records from the EM-DAT International Disaster Database with country-level socioeconomic indicators from the World Bank's World Development Indicators, applying supervised regression modelling to a unified dataset of 1,301 disaster events across 133 countries from 2000 to 2025. XGBoost and a Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Network were evaluated …

Predicting Co₂ Emissions From Cattle-Driven Deforestation In The Amazon Rainforest Using Machine Learning, Daniel Ambrosio, Suelen Rocha

ICT

Deforestation has become a major environmental issue worldwide, especially in the Amazon Rainforest, which is known as one of the world’s largest carbon sinks. This region has been significantly impacted by cattle farming, contributing to increased CO₂ emissions and land degradation. As Brazil is one of the world’s largest beef producers and exporters, the environmental impact of livestock production has attracted increasing attention from organisations, governments, and sustainability analysts.

This project aims to analyse the relationship between cattle farming, deforestation, and CO₂ emissions in the Amazon using Machine Learning. Using the CRISP-DM framework, the project explored each stage of the …

Green Modification Of A Coupling Reaction Between N-Acetylated Amino Acids And P-Nitrothiophenol, Kaitlyn S. Marley, Hannah M. Werle, John P. Morgan

SURF Posters 2026

Native Chemical Ligation (NCL) is a process by which smaller peptides can be linked together to form larger peptides and proteins, but the preparation of necessary thioester starting materials often relies on hazardous reagents. We report a greener synthesis of S-(4- nitrophenyl) N-acetylphenylalaninethioate, building upon the methodology reported by Raines et al.1 This literature synthesis uses N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent in the final thioester coupling step to accommodate the limited solubility of N-acetylphenylalanine in less polar solvents. However, DMF is a known reproductive toxin and environmental hazard. Our research demonstrates that acidic water serves as a highly effective, benign alternative …

Supporting Data – T-3 Stream Stage And Streambed Well Data, Mclean County, Il, April 12, 2025 To November 1, 2025, Eric Wade Peterson, Eric Brunner

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Between April 12, 2025, and November 1, 2025, observation wells at the T-3 site in central Illinois were monitored at an upstream and downstream site along the stream. A conductivity, depth, and pressure (CTD) sensor inside each well collected continuous in-situ measurements for the water column height (mm), the water temperature (°C), and the water conductance (mS/cm). The available dataset provides in-situ readings every 15-minutes from seven (7) locations: upstream stream, streambed, and shallow aquifer, downstream stream, streambed, and shallow aquifer, and Well 12, and provides the air temperature.

Þingmúli Revisited: New Zircon-Based Perspectives On Rhyolite Petrogenesis In Iceland, Tenley J. Banik, Tamara L. Carley, Cameron D. Essex, Gabriella M. Montano

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Þingmúli (Thingmuli), an extinct volcano in eastern Iceland, has long been an archetype for fractional crystallization of tholeiitic basalt to produce rhyolite. However, a recent re-examination of Þingmúli suggests that some silicic magmas were produced under more oxidizing conditions from a combination of magma mixing and assimilation, thereby indicating two petrogenetic pathways. We present the first zircon-based analyses from Þingmúli to evaluate the extent to which the zircon record corroborates these recent findings. Zircon U-Pb age dates of ~ 8.5–10 Ma agree with published whole-rock and regional values. Zircon ε_Hf ranges from ~ + 13.6 to 16.3; zircon δ …

Integer-Valued Time Series Model Via Copula-Based Bivariate Skellam Distribution, Mohammed Alqawba, Norou Diawara, Mame Mor Sene

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Time series analysis is crucial for modeling and forecasting diverse real-world phenomena. Traditional models typically assume continuous-valued data; however, many applications involve integer-valued series, often including negative integers. This paper introduces an approach that combines copula theory with the bivariate Skellam distribution to handle such integer-valued data effectively. Copulas are widely recognized for capturing complex dependencies among variables. By integrating copulas, our proposed method respects integer constraints while modeling positive, negative, and temporal dependencies accurately. Through simulation and an empirical study on a real-life example, we demonstrate that our class of models performs well. This approach has broad applicability in …

The Sub-Lethal Effects Of Trematode Parasites On The Migratory Behavior Of Lesser Scaup (Aythya Affinis), Scott Alan Herman

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The introduction of the invasive freshwater faucet snail (Bithynia tentaculata) and its associated parasites in the Upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes Region provides the opportunity to investigate how anthropogenic stressors impact the life history of lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) using the Mississippi Flyway. To understand the life histories and interactions between lesser scaup and faucet snails we examined historical records, research, and ecology textbooks. Our literature review identified critical knowledge gaps in lesser scaup literature surrounding population dynamics, reproduction, and migration. Specifically, the sub-lethal effects of invasive trematodes on the migratory behavior of lesser scaup in the Upper Mississippi …

Analyzing A Benchtop Model Of Combined Heat Power To An Industrial Scale, Chase Steven Carlton, Ashley Leach, Andrew Martin-Biggs, Tessa Wilker

UNH URC Open (2026 and after)

Analyzing a Benchtop Model of Combined Heat Power to an Industrial Scale

Spectral Phase Pulse Shaping Alters Photoionization Time, James Aygun, Dany Yaacoub, Allison L. Harris

Faculty publications – Physics

Photoionization is a key step in many attosecond processes. Accurately determining the photoionization time delay is critical to understanding electron dynamics during and after ionization and can guide future efforts to manipulate electron motion. Prior studies have shown that the photoionization time delay is non-zero and that pulse shaping through alteration of the spectral phase may change the number and timing of ionization events. In order to assess whether and how the spectral phase modifies the photoionization time delay, we use attosecond streaking simulations to extract the streaking time delay for ionizing pulses with identical power spectra, but different spectral …

Climate Change Effects On Biomass And Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Ameliorated By Nontoxic Endophytes In Southeastern Usa Transition Zone Tall Fescue Pastures, Rebecca Kay Mcgrail, Jonathan D. Moore, A. Elizabeth Carlisle, Jim A. Nelson, Rebecca L. Mcculley

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: The plant–microbe interaction between tall fescue and its endophyte Epichloë coenophiala can affect ecosystem responses to changing rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures. Endophyte-infected (E+) stands often exhibit improved stress tolerance and differing soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to endophyte-free (E−) stands. However, it is unknown if mammalian nontoxic endophyte (NTE) strains introduced into some tall fescue cultivars confer differing stress tolerances or reduce soil GHG emissions.

Methods: We quantified the impact of fescue-NTE symbioses in Jesup and Texoma on biomass and GHG emissions in response to increased temperature (+3°C) and altered precipitation (50% lengthened interval between events) using …

A Global Synthesis Of Fragipan Silicon Concentrations And Relationships With Soil Physicochemical Properties As A Function Of Soil Parent Materials, Christopher Shepard

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Fragipans are dense, brittle subsurface horizons that restrict root growth and limit water-holding capacity. A common factor in these soils is a binding agent, potentially either phyllosilicate clay bridging, amorphous aluminosilicate/silica, or silica sorbed to Fe oxides. Others have suggested that no binding agent is present within these soil horizons and that the arrangement of individual particles is solely responsible for these horizons. In this article, a secondary data synthesis was utilized to demonstrate that silicon (Si) accumulation is a key pedogenic process in loess-derived fragipan horizons, but not in all fragipans. The average dithionite-extractable Si (Si_d) content …

Monitoring Long-Term Water Quality Benefits Of Urban Stream Restoration, Kira Burnett

2026 Research Poster Competition

Urbanization without conscious environmental planning can result in the degradation of stream ecosystems. This tends to result in urban stream syndrome, which is often characterized by increased sediment and nutrient concentrations, decreased biodiversity, more frequent flash flooding, and overall water quality degradation. As such, stream restoration practices are often implemented to address urban stream syndrome. Commonly used restoration practices include applying natural channel design to stabilize eroding stream banks and establishing diverse streamside vegetation to filter pollutant inputs. However, the benefits of restoration are not often quantified due to a lack of post-restoration monitoring, making it challenging to determine what …

Developing Bioassays For Detection Of Residual Herbicides In Compost, Esther Moore

2026 Research Poster Competition

Developing Bioassays for Detection of Residual Herbicides in Compost, the use of synthetic herbicides has dominated the field of agricultural production for over a century. While synthetic herbicide use has resulted in an undeniable boost in agricultural productivity, risks such as environmental degradation and reduced yield of non-target plant species must be considered. Key among these risks is compost contamination, especially from persistent herbicides. After these herbicides are applied, they are absorbed by growing vegetation, consumed by herbivores, passed through the digestive tract, and reintroduced into soil manure based compost. Even after this process, chemicals in such herbicides can remain …

Modeling The Development Of Keyhole Passage Morphology, Charlotte Boehme

2026 Research Poster Competition

Cave passage morphology is an important indicator of the hydrological conditions under which a cave passage was formed. Keyhole passages are a commonly occurring type of passage morphology that consists of a round, wide top with a smaller canyon incised in the bottom of the passage. These passages typically indicate a shift from fully water-filled to partially water-filled conditions. There are multiple mechanisms by which such a transition can occur, and little is understood about which of these mechanisms is most common, or whether aspects of keyhole passage morphology may indicate the primary formation mechanism. CaveCHAMP is a physically based …

Optimizing Microscale Tesla Valve Design For Enhanced Efficiency For Filtering And Sorting Bacteria, Brian Ewalt

2026 Research Poster Competition

Invented by Nikola Tesla in 1920, a Tesla valve is a passive check valve with no moving parts but showing diodicity for fluids (i.e., allowing fluids to flow easily in one direction but not in the other). Tesla valves have demonstrated remarkable versatility across a range of scientific fields. Recently, a study conducted at the University of Arkansas showed that these conduits exhibited diodicity for bacteria in the absence of fluid flows (Rogers et al. 2023), serving as proof of concept for applying microscale Tesla valves for filtering and sorting bacteria and microorganisms in biomedical settings. However, the design of …

Chronostratigraphy Using Stable Carbon Isotopes Of The Elliot Formation, South Africa, Aidan Del Pino

2026 Research Poster Competition

The Elliot Formation in South Africa preserves a fossil-bearing record spanning the Late Triassic–Early Jurassic, a time marked by significant environmental changes related to the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) and the end-Triassic extinction event. Despite its importance, the Elliot Formation remains poorly constrained due to limited chronostratigraphic markers. Chronostratigraphy is the branch of geology that correlates and dates rock units in time, allowing researchers to arrange these rock units into a chronological sequence. Globally, the Triassic–Jurassic boundary is characterized by a pronounced negative carbon isotope excursion linked to CAMP volcanism and the end Triassic extinction event. This C-isotope excursion …

Temporal Variational Graph Autoencoder For Influenza Evolution, Soumya Chauhan

2026 Research Poster Competition

Frequent mutations in influenza virus surface proteins can increase infectivity while evading human and vaccine immunity, causing seasonal epidemics. The CDC annually evaluates thousands of virus strains to predict mutated sequences likely to be dominant in the next season, which creates a need for methods that better capture how viral mutations evolve over time. In this study, we represent influenza protein sequences as a network-like graph, creating connections if sequences are collected a week apart and only differ by one mutation. This method explicitly considers time information as part of the evolution, while other existing methods analyze mutated sequences without …

Uav-Based Sensor Integration For In-Situ Lake Water Quality Monitoring, Alec Campbell

2026 Research Poster Competition

Current water quality assessment methods rely heavily on manual sampling and laboratory analysis, which are time-consuming and difficult to perform in remote or hazardous environments. In surface water monitoring, spatial and temporal resolution is often constrained by labor, access, and logistical limitations of manual sampling programs. This research aims to develop a drone-based system for real-time, in situ lake water quality monitoring. To address these challenges, the project focuses on integrating multiple water quality sensors, including oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), turbidity, and a multispectral spectrometer, into a compact, UAV-compatible design capable of collecting spatially referenced data. Methods: …

Flair- Flow-Level Anomaly Intrustion Recognition, Joseph Dumond

2026 Research Poster Competition

Industrial control systems (ICS) and industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) networks support critical infrastructure such as power generation, water treatment, and manufacturing. As these systems become more connected, they are increasingly exposed to cyber threats. However, many existing intrusion detection approaches rely on detailed packet inspection or supervised machine learning techniques that require labeled attack data and extensive tuning, making them difficult to deploy in real industrial environments.ICS networks typically generate highly regular and predictable communication patterns due to periodic control logic and deterministic device behavior. Because of this structure, abnormal or malicious activity often appears as a disruption to …

When Relevant Isn’T Readable: Evaluating Cognitive Accessibility In Search, Kaija Frierson

2026 Research Poster Competition

According to the World Health Organization, more than one billion people worldwide experience some form of disability. Many of them may affect cognitive processing and reading comprehension rather than vision or mobility, which creates barriers when accessing written information online. Web search is a critical modern literacy skill used for learning, decision-making, and everyday problem solving, yet most search systems are designed with the assumption that all users can process complex written language equally. As a result, people with dyslexia, other cognitive disabilities, low literacy levels, or who are English language learners may struggle to access relevant information even when …

P4 Driven Data Plane Analytics For Industrial Control Network Security, Haden Fowler

2026 Research Poster Competition

Industrial control systems manage critical infrastructure such as power grids, water treatment plants, and manufacturing facilities. These systems rely on specialized network protocols to send measurements and commands between sensors, controllers, and operator workstations. Protecting these networks from cyberattacks is essential because a successful intrusion could disrupt services that millions of people depend on daily. Most current security monitoring approaches analyze copies of network traffic after it has already passed through the system. This delay means that malicious commands may reach their targets before any alarm is raised. More importantly, when alerts do occur, operators often lack the evidence needed …

Solidfit: A Decentralized Mobile Health-Tracking App Using Personal Online Data Stores (Pods), Evan Meyers

2026 Research Poster Competition

Personal fitness data is increasingly collected through mobile applications, yet most current systems store this information in centralized platforms that limit user control, long-term ownership, and data portability. This project addresses the question of whether a decentralized data model can be used to support everyday fitness tracking while preserving user autonomy and privacy. As individuals become more aware of how their health data is collected and shared, there is a growing need for systems that allow users to retain ownership of their personal information without sacrificing usability or functionality.This research presents SolidFit, an Android-based fitness tracking application designed around the …

A Bayesian Late-Fusion Supportability Framework For Rare-Disease Severity Prediction In Glut1 Deficiency Syndrome, Jordan M. Rodriguez

Mathematics Dissertations

Glucose transporter type 1 deficiency syndrome (GLUT1-DS) is a rare neurometabolic disorder with heterogeneous neurological and developmental severity. Because patient-level severity is not observed as a single validated outcome, this dissertation develops a Bayesian late-fusion supportability framework for constructing and predicting an ordered latent severity phenotype from clinical, genetic, and EEG-derived evidence. The primary target was constructed in a larger clinical cohort using age-5 symptom burden and learning cognition, then assigned to an aligned multimodal prediction cohort. Target-defining variables were excluded from supervised predictors, and models were evaluated using patient-exclusive cross-validation with training-fold preprocessing and fold-wise EEG PCA.

The primary …

Comparative Evaluation Of Hplc And Capillary Electrophoresis In Intestinal Permeability Of Oseltamivir Phosphate Via Single-Pass Intestinal Perfusion (Spip) Method, Senem Şanli, Gülpembe Halay, Mustafa Sinan Kaynak, Nurullah Şanlı

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Introduction: Oseltamivir phosphate (OP), a widely used antiviral prodrug for influenza, requires accurate Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) classification to inform formulation and bioequivalence decisions. Despite its high solubility, the permeability characteristics of OP remain inadequately defined. Methods: This study evaluated the intestinal permeability of OP using the in situ Single-Pass Intestinal Perfusion (SPIP) model in male Sprague Dawley rats. Two validated analytical methods - High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Capillary Zone Electrophoresis (CZE) were developed and compared. Metoprolol tartrate served as the high-permeability reference standard, and phenol red was used to monitor water flux. Permeability coefficients (Peff) were calculated after …

Propensity Score Matching Accounting For Longitudinal Trends Before Baseline With Group-Based Trajectory Modeling, Dustin R. Bastaich

Theses and Dissertations

Propensity score matching is used in observational studies to balance baseline attributes between a treatment of interest and a control group. Propensity score matching typically relies on baseline variables, but longitudinal trends in patient characteristics can also influence treatment decisions and subsequent health outcomes. This dissertation extends standard approaches by explicitly incorporating longitudinal trajectories of key variables into the propensity score estimation process.

Trends in a longitudinal variable prior to baseline were characterized using group-based trajectory modeling. A two-step modeling approach was implemented where trajectory groups of a key variable were first estimated and then included as covariates in the …

Identifying Mobility Hub Suitability In The Mid-Sized United States Urban Area Using Weighted Overlay And Percentile Based Local Peak Analysis, Eric Asplund

Theses and Dissertations

IDENTIFYING MOBILITY HUB SUITABILITY IN THE MID-SIZED UNITED STATES URBAN AREA USING WEIGHTED OVERLAY AND PERCENTILE‑BASED LOCAL PEAK ANALYSIS

By Eric Asplund

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Urban and Regional Planning at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2026.

Major Director: Dr. Ivan Suen, Ph. D., Associate Professor, Faculty of Urban and Regional Studies and Planning

Shared mobility hubs are increasingly posited in transportation planning as interventions supporting multimodality, sustainability, and equitable access, but guidance on evaluation of potential hub locations remains uneven, particularly in mid-sized United States cities where …

Environmental Monitoring In Shallow Lakes: Public Health Threats In Urban Waters, Kyleigh E. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Lakes are an integral part of urban and suburban communities, providing ecological, recreational, and public health benefits. Many of these lakes are located in densely populated areas and are subject to urban influences on water quality. Algal toxins and Escherichia coli are two common recreational concerns. Algal toxins come from harmful algal blooms that are influenced by nutrient availability and temperature, while bacteria are often introduced through run-off and animal waste. Sampling every 3-4 weeks from May-October 2025 allowed for the assessment of seasonal patterns and site-specific differences across nine lakes in the Richmond area. The highest bacterial concentrations appeared …

Evaluating Willow Establishment With Biochar For Remediation Of Mine Waste Soils: Amendment Ph Determines Plant Biomass And Metal Mobility, Madeline R. Webb

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Heavy metal contaminated mine tailings (“stamp sands”) from historic copper mining inhibit plant establishment and contribute to ongoing metal contamination. Biochar amendments may enhance plant growth and reduce metal mobility in highly permeable mine waste soils, but the efficacies of different application methods or biochar sources and composition are uncertain. We evaluated different biochar sources (neutral or alkaline pH) and application methods (either mixed or layered) for planted willow growth, moisture retention, and metal mobility. A 10-week growth chamber experiment assessed plant performance, heavy metal content and heavy metal mobility in soil leachates and plant tissues. Biochar pH was the …