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Modeling the Particle-On-A-Ring Theory in an Undergraduate Laboratory
Get PDFIn early chemistry education, students are often taught to think about electrons as small, negatively charged particles existing in planetary orbits around the nucleus of an atom, rather than creating an electron cloud. In reality, electrons exhibit wave-particle duality, and are best described as wave functions. This idea that the electrons travel as waves and are moving around the nucleus so quickly that it is not possible to know the speed or location of an electron at any given moment is extremely abstract and difficult to visualize. This concept is essential to the theory of quantum mechanics, and therefore is fundamental to undergraduate physical chemistry courses. To assist students in gaining a better understanding of these concepts, this thesis project proposes an undergraduate laboratory experiment, focusing on applying the particle-on-a-ring theory to porphyrins. Several porphyrin molecules with different meso-substitutions were synthesized and analyzed using UV/Vis spectroscopy and the particle-on-a-ring model to calculate experimental carbon-carbon bond lengths. All the calculated bond lengths differed from the literature value by varying degrees. It appears that the difference in values is due primarily to the presence of additional orbitals of appropriate orientation allowing the porphyrin π system to delocalize into them and thus expand the ring. These additional orbitals are likely affected by the presence of an additional π system, the electronegativity of the atoms in the substituent groups, and/or the possibility of hyperconjugation of the substituent molecular orbitals. Synthesizing their own porphyrin molecules for analysis gives students a sense of ownership over their experiment and writing a report on that analysis gives students the opportunity to explore the particle-on-a-ring model on a deeper level. By asking students to explain how the model works and at what point it breaks allows them to gain a better understanding of the particle-on-a-ring system, and therefore, basic quantum mechanics
2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog
No full textContains course descriptions, academic calendar, directory, and related information.https://digitalcommons.assumption.edu/undergraduate-catalogs/1011/thumbnail.jp
2023 Heights Yearbook
No full textContains images and information about Assumption College students, faculty, athletic teams, and other student clubs or activities
Defensio Reipublicae
Get PDFIn my thesis idea of Defensio Reipublicae I intend to analyze the founding of the American republic, while also briefly touching upon the history of republicanism in the Roman republic, in order to formulate a defense in support of republicanism. By looking at sources of the foundation of the United States, as well as political philosophy, I plan to lay out why republicanism—as a form of governance—is a prime choice for the self-governance of human societies. Sources such as the Federalist Papers, scholarly articles, political philosophers like Montesquieu, Locke, and Machiavelli, in addition to the expertise of my advisor, President Weiner, will be very useful in the application and presentation of my thesis. Defensio Reipublicae is intended to show that—although imperfect, as all manmade creations are—republicanism is a great form of government for humanity in the past as well as the modern world, allowing the body politic to effectively and peacefully govern itself without the overbearing control of an autocrat, despot, majoritarian faction, monarch, or an otherwise tyrannical regime
Relating Quantitative Ultrasound Measurements of Two Cancer Cell Lines, HeLa and MDA-MB-231, to Biological Markers
Get PDFQuantitative ultrasound is a promising alternative method for cancer diagnosis that is non-invasive and cost-effective. This experiment investigated the potential of quantitative ultrasound in diagnosing and differentiating breast and cervical cancer. Using HeLa cells and MDA cells, the speed of sound and attenuation was measured using 5, 10, and 15 MHz transducers. It was found that the speed of sound of the MDA and HeLa cells did not deviate much, with values of 1527.6±3.1 m/s and 1527.5±3.9 m/s, respectively, but the attenuation of the MDA and HeLa did vary, though error in the experiment leaves this conclusion up for debate. Lack of variation in the speed of sound could have been due to the similar densities of the cell pellets as well as similar cancerous morphologies of the cells. The difference in attenuation was likely due to increased interference from the MDA cells due to unique mutations. Overall, additional experiments need to be done to finalize the attenuation conclusions. In addition, it must be explored if other ultrasonic characteristics can be used to differentiate between the cells and other cell lines or cancer types must be used to further investigate the potential of quantitative ultrasound
Anxious Reality: The Expression of Anxiety through Mixed Media Art
Get PDFI myself have struggled with anxiety for the majority of my life and find misrepresentation to be frequent and very misleading to the public. The reality is misconstrued by under exaggeration and stigmas. Many artists have exposed their trauma through art, utilizing color and image to better represent their own struggle. I have decided the best way to display the reality of anxiety is to present it through mixed media. Through this project, a combination of artistic materials, I am showing you my reality as well as that of so many others who struggle from this not so easy illness in hopes of expressing what it is to me
Justice in the American Legal System: Challenges to the Confrontation Clause in Criminal Child Sexual Abuse Cases
Get PDFThe following thesis will look at the original intent of the Founders when the Sixth Amendment was written. It will then examine the challenges presented to justice both substantively and procedurally in cases of criminal child sexual abuse specifically, including the challenges faced by victims forced to testify during trial long after the trial is over. After establishing these challenges, this thesis will then examine legal precedent set by the courts that illustrates how exceptions have been made to traditional courtroom procedures over time, such as exceptions to the hearsay rule and in-person testimony on the witness stand, to allow for the particularities of a given case while also still upholding defendants’ Sixth Amendment rights more broadly. Finally, bringing this research together, a Congressional bill will be drafted, providing a national standard for exceptions to the Confrontation Clause specifically, thereby providing a more streamlined and consistent way for courts to accommodate the special needs of child sexual abuse victims
Development of Drug-Drug Interaction Research Techniques Involving the CYP3A4 Human Liver Enzyme
Get PDFUnderstanding the metabolic pathway of a drug is an integral part of pharmaceutical development. Microsomal metabolism is the industry standard to model the metabolism of the drug by the liver in vitro. Our studies employ carbamazepine (CBZ) as a CYP3A4 substrate to develop a method to investigate potential drug-drug interactions involving this enzyme. Toward this end, the metabolite of CBZ, carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide (CBZ-E), was synthesized for use as a standard. The purity of the synthesized CBZ-E was 95.2%, and the percent yield was 76.16%. The use of human liver microsomes is a common incubation method used to model drug metabolism in an in vitro setting. At this time, we have begun to develop techniques for analyzing the human metabolism of CBZ with a view toward using this pathway to probe drug-drug interactions. However, we have yet to perform a completely successful metabolism of CBZ. Potential problems with our method may be in the HPLC analysis or in the low concentration of microsomal protein. Efforts on this project continue
Quality of School-Based Mental Health Services and Student Well-Being
Get PDFSchools are essential in providing both students who struggle with mental health problems as well as the overall student population with services that improve well-being. Previous research has shown that, among other factors, the involvement of caregivers is important for the effectiveness of such programs, thus improving their quality. However, there is little evidence about the relationship between the quality of these mental health services and student well-being. This study aimed to fill this gap in literature. It was predicted that high quality mental health services and high caregiver involvement would be associated with increased student well-being, as indicated by low symptoms of psychopathology and negative emotions and high levels of life satisfaction, positive affect, and mindfulness. Participants included 19 caregivers, 5 middle school students, and 5 mental health professionals from two school districts in Massachusetts, who completed questionnaires that assessed the study variables. The correlations between quality of mental health services and student outcomes were not statistically significant, however, were all in the expected direction. The correlation between caregiver involvement and psychopathology was also in the right direction, but parental involvement seemed to increase negative affect and decrease life satisfaction. However, none were statistically significant. The trends in the current findings point to the need to evaluate the quality of school services, encourage caregiver involvement, educate caregivers and students about common problems and mental health illnesses, and provide ongoing training to school mental health professionals
Remedying Unfair Fair Use Judgments in the Music Industry: A Call for Greater Consistency in the Application of the Four Factors and Transformation Determinations in Copyright Legislation
Get PDFIn this thesis, I have identified weaknesses to the fair use concept in Section 107 in the Copyright Act of 1976. In particular, it is difficult to identify what fair use is in copyright cases because of the ambiguity of the four factors and how they are applied. As a result, inconsistent rulings by judges occur. Therefore, the solution that I propose is to revise the statute to put an appropriate emphasis on the application of all four factors in a cohesive way, specifically the second factor, because the way in which it is viewed now gives it too narrow of a focus, leading to inconsistency in rulings. In other words, there is a lack of understanding on how to apply this factor to each case and how to identify a threshold for transformativeness in fair use. To assist in better understanding what it means for a more consistent ruling on fair use in various cases, the statute should include a mechanism similar to location models to identify where the fair use threshold is and what consequences this threshold will have on the market