Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

This research endeavor explores the 1964 reasoning of Irish physicist John Bell and how it pertains to the provoking Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox. It is necessary to establish the machinations of formalisms ranging from conservation laws to quantum mechanical principles. The notion that locality is unable to be reconciled with the quantum paradigm is upheld through analysis and the subsequent Aspect experiments in the years 1980-1982. No matter the complexity, any local hidden variable theory is incompatible with the formulation of standard quantum mechanics. A number of strikingly ambiguous and abstract concepts are addressed in this pursuit to deduce quantum's validity, including separability and reality. `Elements of reality' characteristic of unique spaces are defined using basis terminology and logic from EPR. The discussion draws directly from Bell's succinct 1964 Physics 1 paper as well as numerous other useful sources. The fundamental principle and insight gleaned is that quantum physics is indeed nonlocal; the door into its metaphysical and philosophical implications has long since been opened. Yet the nexus of information pertaining to Bell's inequality and EPR logic does nothing but assert the impeccable success of quantum physics' ability to describe nature.

Optometry is an important field in medicine as it allows people a chance to have their vision corrected and it serves as a health screening opportunity for those who receive a dilated eye examination. One of the largest barriers to receiving a dilated eye exam is insurance coverage. Most health insurance policies have limited optometric coverage. By expanding health insurance plans to be more inclusive of optometric care, people who use these health insurance plans will have a better access of care.

The Micro-g NExT 2019 challenge set out to find a new device to replace the Apollo mission lunar contingency sampler in preparation for the 2024 Artemis mission. The 2019 challenge set a series of requirements that would enable compatibility with the new xEMU suit and enable astronauts to effectively collect and secure an initial sample upon landing. The final prototype developed by the team features a sliding plate design with each plate slightly shorter than the previous. The device utilizes the majority of the xEMU suit’s front pocket volume while still allowing space for the astronaut’s hand and the bag for the sample. Considering safety concerns, the device satisfies NASA’s requirements for manual handheld devices and poses no threat to the astronaut under standard operation. In operation, the final design experiences an acceptable level stress in the primary use direction, and an even less in the lateral direction. Using assumptions such as the depth and density of lunar soil to be sampled, the working factor of safety is about 2 for elastic deformation, but the tool can still be operated and even collapsed at roughly double that stress. Unfortunately, the scope of this thesis only covers the effectiveness of resin prototypes and simulations of aluminum models, but properly manufactured aluminum prototypes are the next step for validating this design as a successor to the design used on the Apollo missions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in preventative measures and has led to extensive changes in lifestyle for the vast majority of the American population. As the pandemic progresses, a growing amount of evidence shows that minority groups, such as the Deaf community, are often disproportionately and uniquely affected. Deaf people are directly affected in their ability to personally socialize and continue with daily routines. More specifically, this can constitute their ability to meet new people, connect with friends/family, and to perform in their work or learning environment. It also may result in further mental health changes and an increased reliance on technology. The impact of COVID-19 on the Deaf community in clinical settings must also be considered. This includes changes in policies for in-person interpreters and a rise in telehealth. Often, these effects can be representative of the pre-existing low health literacy, frequency of miscommunication, poor treatment, and the inconvenience felt by Deaf people when trying to access healthcare. Ultimately, these effects on the Deaf community must be taken into account when attempting to create a full picture of the societal shift caused by COVID-19.

The reionization of the Universe is thought to have completed by redshift z~5.5. To probe this era, galaxy observations in the Subaru Deep Field (SDF) have identified more than 100 galaxies at z~6, many spectroscopically confirmed through follow-up observations. Using available optical/IR data, we model with CIGALE the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 43 SDF galaxies, including newly acquired data from the UKIRT WFCAM K-band for seven previously studied objects. In particular, modeling deep IR photometry is sensitive to the galaxy's Lyman continuum (LyC) escape fraction (fesc). We find the median implied fesc value as ~0.4+/-0.1 (mean error). Significant uncertainties in data and fitting result in a large range of fesc for individual objects, but analysis suggests that fesc is likely high enough for galaxies to finish reionization by z~6. More importantly, we find trends between the CIGALE UV slope b, fesc, and dust extinction E(B-V): for a given E(B-V), b appear steeper by ~0.4 than at z=0. Lower fesc values appear to be associated with bluer b and lower E(B-V), but only weakly. This suggests that LyC could have escaped through holes with sufficiently wide opening angles surrounding the ISM from outflows of supernovae and/or weak AGN to escape, but resulting in a large range of implied fesc values depending on the orientation of each galaxy. The current HST, Spitzer and ground-based photometric and model errors for the 43 galaxies are large, so IR spectroscopic observations with the James Webb Space Telescope are needed to better constrain this possibility.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of entanglement and the particular problems it poses for some physicists. In addition to looking at the history of entanglement and non-locality, this paper will use the Bell Test as a means for demonstrating how entanglement works, which measures the behavior of electrons whose combined internal angular momentum is zero. This paper will go over Dr. Bell's famous inequality, which shows why the process of entanglement cannot be explained by traditional means of local processes. Entanglement will be viewed initially through the Copenhagen Interpretation, but this paper will also look at two particular models of quantum mechanics, de-Broglie Bohm theory and Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, and observe how they explain the behavior of spin and entangled particles compared to the Copenhagen Interpretation.

This thesis project focuses on algorithms that generate good sampling points for function approximation. In one dimension, polynomial interpolation using equispaced points is unstable, with high Oscillations near the endpoints of the interpolated interval. On the other hand, Chebyshev nodes provide both stable and highly accurate points for polynomial interpolation. In higher dimensions, optimal sampling points are unknown. This project addresses this problem by finding algorithms that are robust in various domains for polynomial interpolation and least-squares. To measure the quality of the nodes produced by said algorithms, the Lebesgue constant will be used. In the algorithms, a number of numerical techniques will be used, such as the Gram-Schmidt process and the pivoted-QR process. In addition, concepts such as node density and greedy algorithms will be explored.

Lyme disease is a common tick-borne illness caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. An outer membrane protein of Borrelia burgdorferi, P66, has been suggested as a possible target for Lyme disease treatments. However, a lack of structural information available for P66 has hindered attempts to design medications to target the protein. Therefore, this study attempted to find methods for expressing and purifying P66 in quantities that can be used for structural studies. It was found that by using the PelB signal sequence, His-tagged P66 could be directed to the outer membrane of Escherichia coli, as confirmed by an anti-His Western blot. Further attempts to optimize P66 expression in the outer membrane were made, pending verification via Western blotting. The ability to direct P66 to the outer membrane using the PelB signal sequence is a promising first step in determining the overall structure of P66, but further work is needed before P66 is ready for large-scale purification for structural studies.

The colossal global counterfeit market and advances in cryptography including quantum computing supremacy have led the drive for a class of anti-counterfeit tags that are physically unclonable. Dendrites, previously considered an undesirable side effect of battery operation, have promise as an extremely versatile version of such tags, with their fundamental nature ensuring that no two dendrites are alike and that they can be read at multiple magnification scales. In this work, we first pursue a simulation for electrochemical dendrites that elucidates fundamental information about their growth mechanism. We then translate these results into physical dendrites and demonstrate methods of producing a hash from these dendrites that is damage-tolerant for real-world verification. Finally, we explore theoretical curiosities that arise from the fractal nature of dendrites. We find that uniquely ramified dendrites, which rely on lower ion mobility and conductive deposition, are particularly amenable to wavelet hashing, and demonstrate that these dendrites have strong commercial potential for securing supply chains at the highest level while maintaining a low price point.

Treatment log files for spot scanning proton therapy provide a record of delivery accuracy, but they also contain diagnostic information for machine performance. A collection of patient log files can identify machine performance trends over time. This facilitates the identification of machine issues before they cause downtime or degrade treatment quality. At Mayo Clinic Arizona, all patient treatment logs are stored in a database. These log files contain information including the gantry, beam position, monitor units (MUs), and gantry angle. This data was analyzed to identify trends, which were then correlated with quality assurance measurements and maintenance records.