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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

First Principles Study Of Ga-Stabilized Δ-Pu Bulk And Surfaces, Sarah Christine Hernandez Jan 2015

First Principles Study Of Ga-Stabilized Δ-Pu Bulk And Surfaces, Sarah Christine Hernandez

Physics Dissertations

Plutonium (Pu) metal is highly reactive toward environmental gases and corrodes at a high rate. Due to this inevitable process, containers used to store Pu-based materials may experience catastrophic failure, subsequently releasing Pu particulates into the environment. Such interactions can be probed at the atomic scale using ab initio methods such as density functional theory (DFT). However, previous theoretical studies only examined these reactions with a pure δ-Pu surface. This is not realistic since δ-Pu exists at a high temperature (600K), therefore most technological applications of δ-Pu employ the alloyed form. The alloyed form is achieved with the addition of …


Investigation Of Kev Beta Particle Transportation In Matter, Bright Chukwudi Izudike Jan 2015

Investigation Of Kev Beta Particle Transportation In Matter, Bright Chukwudi Izudike

Physics Theses

Nuclear imaging is widely used in medicine for more accurate diagnoses and more effective treatment for cancer. Current emission tomography techniques used in clinics may not efficiently detect cancer at a very early stage partly because of the weak signals from small tumors. Portable nuclear imaging devices can more effectively reveal these small tumors in a close proximity for complete malignant tissue destruction. With the advance of detector technology in high energy physics, the detection of beta particles (positron and electron) from clinical/pre-clinical radiotracers, such as those labeled with Cu-64, may open a new avenue for imageguided treatment of cancer. …


Analysis Of Equatorial F-Region Vertical Neutral Winds From Brazil Fpi Observations, Jose De La Garza Jan 2015

Analysis Of Equatorial F-Region Vertical Neutral Winds From Brazil Fpi Observations, Jose De La Garza

Physics Theses

Understanding the neutral dynamics of our upper atmosphere is an essential component of space weather prediction. In order to come up with better climatological models that describe upper atmospheric variations, an accurate description of vertical neutral winds is needed. Hence, observations of thermospheric winds must be continually made in order to fulfill this need. Vertical winds are generally smaller than horizontal winds, but even small vertical winds can have a significant effect on the ionosphere and thermosphere because of the large vertical density gradients that exist throughout the atmosphere. Recent observation deployments of Fabry-Perot Interferometers (FPIs) in Brazil have allowed …


Searching For Dark Matter In Neutrino Beams, Crystal Nicole Chumani Red Eagle Jan 2015

Searching For Dark Matter In Neutrino Beams, Crystal Nicole Chumani Red Eagle

Physics Theses

Dark Matter detection is currently a major area of interest for research. For the past 45 years many ideas and experiments have been investigated to explain the existence of and to detect Dark Matter. Since these experiments have yet to yield any wholly affirmative results it may be time to look for other ways to detect Dark Matter. This particular study looks at the possibilities for Dark Matter detection in neutrino beams at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Simulations for specific parameters were run using MadGraph5 and the results for those data runs are presented and discussed. Areas of …


Laser-Assisted Transfection, Optogenetic Stimulation And Its Detection In Mammalian Cells, Kamal Raj Dhakal Jan 2015

Laser-Assisted Transfection, Optogenetic Stimulation And Its Detection In Mammalian Cells, Kamal Raj Dhakal

Physics Dissertations

Stimulation of cells, especially neurons is of significant interest both for basic understanding of neuronal circuitry as well as clinical intervention. Existing electrode-based methods of stimulation is invasive and non-specific to single cells or cell type. Recently, optical stimulation of targeted neurons expressing light-sensitive proteins (opsins) has surfaced as an emerging and a powerful technique (Optogenetics) in neuroscience. Various transfection methods such as viral-based, lipofection, electroporation have been developed to express the opsin. However, these methods are not suitable for transfection of a single cell. In order to achieve single cell transfection, we have used femtosecond pulsed laser microbeam to …


Thiol Dioxygenases: An Investigation Into The Mechanisms Of Cysteine Dioxygenase And 3-Mercaptopropionic Acid Dioxygenase, Joshua Crowell Jan 2015

Thiol Dioxygenases: An Investigation Into The Mechanisms Of Cysteine Dioxygenase And 3-Mercaptopropionic Acid Dioxygenase, Joshua Crowell

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations

Thiol dioxygenase (TDO) enzymes catalyze the molecular oxygen-dependent oxidation of sulfur containing amino acid derivatives. The loss of the ability to regulate thiols has been linked to a number of neurological diseases. Two TDO enzymes, a mammalian cysteine dioxygenase (CDO) and a bacterial 3-mercaptopropionic acid dioxygenase, are examined by probing the various effects on the steady-state kinetic parameters kcat and kcat/KM. Both of these enzymes show a similar deviation from the iconic 2-His-1-carboxylate facial triad active site motif that dominates the mononuclear non-heme iron oxidase/oxygenase class of enzymes. However, CDO shows an unusual covalently crosslinked Cys-Tyr pair within 3.3 Å …


Solution Combustion Synthesis Of Oxide Semiconductors, Abegayl Lorenda Shara-Lynn Thomas Jan 2015

Solution Combustion Synthesis Of Oxide Semiconductors, Abegayl Lorenda Shara-Lynn Thomas

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations

The quest for stable and efficient photocatalytic materials beyond TiO2 and WO3 has over the years led to the development of new materials that possess varied interfacial energetics. This dissertation study focused on using for the first time a novel method, solution combustion synthesis (SCS), to prepare two distinct families of binary metal-based oxide semiconductor materials. Detailed studies on material characteristics and applications were carried out on tungsten- and niobium-based oxide semiconductors with varying principal metals. Initial emphasis was placed on the SCS of tungsten-based oxide semiconductors (ZnWO4, CuWO4, and Ag2WO4). The influence of different tungsten precursor’s on the resultant …


Biochemical, Kinetic And Spectroscopic Characterizations Of Non-Heme Iron Oxygenase Enzymes, Bishnu P. Subedi Jan 2015

Biochemical, Kinetic And Spectroscopic Characterizations Of Non-Heme Iron Oxygenase Enzymes, Bishnu P. Subedi

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations

MiaE is a non-heme diiron enzyme which catalyzes the O2-dependent hydroxylation of selected tRNA-nucleotides as part of a multienzyme posttranscriptional hypermodification pathway. This tRNA-modifying enzyme is postulated to signal O2-availability within the pathogenic bacteria, Salmonella typhimurium. Recombinant MiaE was cloned from Salmonella typhimurium genomic DNA, purified to homogeneity, and characterized by steady-state kinetics and spectroscopic techniques (UV-visible, Circular Dichroism, dual mode electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and Mössbauer) for comparison to other non-heme diiron enzymes. Remarkably, regardless of the substrate used in peroxide-shunt assays, hydroxylation of the terminal isopentenyl-C4-position was observed with > 97% E-stereoselectivity. The role of tRNA-protein macromolecular interactions on …


Sparse Representation Based Classification: Towards Efficiency And Accuracy, Soheil Shafiee Jan 2015

Sparse Representation Based Classification: Towards Efficiency And Accuracy, Soheil Shafiee

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

With the fast growing deployment of machine intelligence in several real-life applications, there are always increasing needs for faster and more precise machine learning algorithms, especially classification and object recognition. One of the most recent methods proposed for this purpose is Sparse Representation-based Classification (SRC) which works based on the emerging theory of Compressive Sensing. SRC shows excellent classification results in comparison to many well-known classification approaches. However, despite its high recognition power, SRC suffers from high computational and memory costs as it directly uses all original ground truth data as representatives to build its training model. Given high recognition …


The Impact Of Different Cues On The Memorability Of System-Assigned Recognition-Based Textual Passwords, Kanis Fatema Jan 2015

The Impact Of Different Cues On The Memorability Of System-Assigned Recognition-Based Textual Passwords, Kanis Fatema

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

To ensure memorability, users employ predictable patterns when creating new passwords. These patterns make passwords easy to guess, which not only increases risks to users but also for the entire system. In contrast, system-assigned textual passwords offer security but suffer from poor memorability. Previous research investigated the idea of textual recognition, in which the user would be assigned a word from a list and asked to recall the word later. The recall rate for this scheme was shown to be no better than memorizing a sequence of randomly assigned letters, but the researchers suggested that memorability may be improved if …


Biomedical Parameter Measurements Using Video Processing, Negar Ziaee Nasrabadi Jan 2015

Biomedical Parameter Measurements Using Video Processing, Negar Ziaee Nasrabadi

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

For quite some time, patients’ cardiovascular parameters have been measured by sensors connected to their body. One way of measuring these parameters is pulse oximetry by using an optical technique. It uses a photodetector to detect light absorption changes of red and infrared light. These two types of light serve as two sources of illumination. These current types of methods for monitoring parameters are often viewed as uncomfortable by the patient, and therefore are not desirable for frequent and long periods of monitoring. Furthermore, these methods can potentially produce a psychologically influenced bias from the patient because the patient is …


Advanced Sparsity Techniques In Medical Imaging And Image Processing, Chen Chen Jan 2015

Advanced Sparsity Techniques In Medical Imaging And Image Processing, Chen Chen

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

In the past decades, sparsity techniques has been widely applied in the fields of medical imaging, computer vision, image processing, compressive sensing, machine learning etc., and gained great success. In this work, we propose new models of sparsity techniques, which is an extension to the standard sparsity used in the existing works and in the vein of structure sparsity families. First, we introduce the wavelet tree sparsity in natural images. It shows that the tree sparsity regularization often outperforms the existing standard sparsity based techniques in magnetic resonance imaging. Second, we extend the tree sparsity to forest sparsity on multi-channel …


Gait Analysis On A Smart Floor For Health Monitoring, Oluwatosin Oluwadare Jan 2015

Gait Analysis On A Smart Floor For Health Monitoring, Oluwatosin Oluwadare

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

Gait analysis is the investigation of an individual pattern of walking. Based on studies in Psychophysics, it has been shown that the human gait contains unique information that is useful for the evaluation of foot and gait pathologies. The goal of this project is to use a floor mounted pressure sensor system capable of measuring a significant number of parameters relevant to gait to predict and detect anomalous behavior. The system consists of an array of pressure sensors mounted under floor tiles and computer hardware responsible for data collection. The method used in this project is unique since most systems …


Design And Implementation Of An Open Beaconing Architecture For Internet Of Things, Arjun Kumar Bhaskar Shetty Jan 2015

Design And Implementation Of An Open Beaconing Architecture For Internet Of Things, Arjun Kumar Bhaskar Shetty

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

The power of the Internet is penetrating into the physical world with ever increasing speed and expanding reach under the general concept of Internet of Things. Extensive sets of efforts have been devoted toward establishing an interconnected network of smart devices in a self-organized manner. Nowadays, using low power beacons to announce the presences of physical objects has gained tremendous momentum exemplified by iBeacon from Apple. Unfortunately, schemes like iBeacon use abstract codes to denote a physical entity, limiting it to be only understandable by those with knowledge of it beforehand. In this thesis, we develop an open architecture where …


Faster Sampling Over Theoritical And Online Social Networks, Ramakrishna Aduri Jan 2015

Faster Sampling Over Theoritical And Online Social Networks, Ramakrishna Aduri

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

Online social networks have become very popular recently and are used bymillions of users. Researchers increasingly want to leverage the rich variety ofinformation available. However, social networks often feature a web interface that onlyallows local-neighborhood queries - i.e., given a user of the online social network asinput, the system returns the immediate neighbors of the user. Additionally, they alsohave rate limits that restrict the number of queries issued over a given time period. Theserestrictions make third party analytics extremely challenging. The traditional approach ofusing random walks is not effective as they require significant burn-in period before theirstationary distribution converges to …


Microblog Analyzer Aggregate Estimation Over A Micro Blog Platform, Satishkumar Masilamani Jan 2015

Microblog Analyzer Aggregate Estimation Over A Micro Blog Platform, Satishkumar Masilamani

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

Microblogging is a new mode of communication in which users can share their current status in brief and agile way in the form of text, image, video etc over smart phones, email or web. Recently, Microblogs such as Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ have experience phenomenal growth and are regularly used by millions of users. The data from microblogs is very useful for researchers to analyze various facets such as user behaviors, user intentions (like daily chatter, conversations, sharing information and reporting news), microblog social network structure etc. For example, a sociologist might want to use the microblog postings to analyze the …


A Real-Time Embedded Data Acquisition System For Surface Measurements Using Multiple Line Lasers, A P Vikram Simha Jan 2015

A Real-Time Embedded Data Acquisition System For Surface Measurements Using Multiple Line Lasers, A P Vikram Simha

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

In the last few years there has been a significant increase in the number of hand held devices. These devices boast of delivering features such as high performance, low power consumption, high memory availability, serial and parallel interfacing capability, connectivity through the Ethernet, wireless, etc., at a very low cost. These embedded devices powered by open source software like Linux and Arduino have paved the way for the development of high efficiency, low cost portable products in a very short period of time.The objective of this thesis is to enhance the portability, efficiency, and other features of the existing Roline …


Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Ben In Localizing Different Types Of Software Fault, Jaganmohan Chandrasekaran Jan 2015

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Ben In Localizing Different Types Of Software Fault, Jaganmohan Chandrasekaran

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

Debugging refers to the activity of locating software faults in a program and is considered to be one of the most challenging tasks during software development. Automated fault localization tools have been developed to reduce the amount of effort and time software developers have to spend on debugging. In this thesis, we evaluate the effectiveness of a fault localization tool called BEN in locating different types of software faults. Assuming that combinatorial testing has been performed on the subject program, BEN leverages the result obtained from combinatorial testing to perform fault localization. Our evaluation focuses on how the following three …


Performance Comparison Of Spatial Indexing Structures For Different Query Types, Neelabh Pant Jan 2015

Performance Comparison Of Spatial Indexing Structures For Different Query Types, Neelabh Pant

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

R-Trees are among the most popular multidimensional access methods suitable for indexing two dimensional spatial data and point data. R-Trees are found in most of the spatial database systems for indexing the spatial data. The data include points, lines and polygons which are retrieved and stored efficiently. There are many Spatial Database Systems which have incorporated R-Trees, for example, IBM Informix, Oracle Spatial, PostgreSQL and many others.Another version of R-Tree is R*-Tree which is also used for the same purpose i.e. indexing spatial data. R*-Tree has also been incorporated in an open source software SQLite with an extension of Spatialite. …


Predicting Variability Of Basal Scour And Quantifying Vertical Connectivity For Channel-Belt Reservoirs Using Observations From The Holocene Mississippi River And Channel-Belt, Neal Alexandrowicz Jan 2015

Predicting Variability Of Basal Scour And Quantifying Vertical Connectivity For Channel-Belt Reservoirs Using Observations From The Holocene Mississippi River And Channel-Belt, Neal Alexandrowicz

Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertations

Assessment of potential for draining unpenetrated but closely stacked channel-belt reservoirs from an existing belt penetration depends upon an understanding of the methods of and the likelihood for connectivity between otherwise isolated reservoirs. Knowledge of both the variability in scour depth beneath a channel-belt and the distribution of channel-belt lithofacies is critical for making such assessments, yet is very poorly understood. In order to evaluate these two properties, a collection of 314 driller’s records, 245 cross section points, and over 300 hand-augered boreholes along a 75 mile stretch of an active Mississippi River meander belt were reviewed, along with a …


Some Multivariate Process Capability Indices, Rachel Lee Goodwin Jan 2015

Some Multivariate Process Capability Indices, Rachel Lee Goodwin

Mathematics Dissertations

Process capability indices (PCIs) play an important role in the field of Statistical Process Control. Prior to the last 25 years, PCIs had been formulated to assess the quality of a single product characteristic. Product quality, however, is typically dependent on several related variables. Therefore, there is a great need for multivariate process capability indices (MPCIs). The quality of a product is almost always determined from sample data. Thus, it is imperative that an MPCI has a corresponding confidence interval. In that way, conclusions may be drawn regarding the capability of the process that makes that product. Of the MPCIs …


Property D Cyclic Neofields, Scott Lacy Jan 2015

Property D Cyclic Neofields, Scott Lacy

Mathematics Dissertations

In 1948 L. J. Paige introduced the notion of a neofield (N,\oplus,\cdot) as a set N with two binary operations, generally referred to as addition (\oplus) and multiplication (\cdot) such that (N,\oplus) is a loop with identity 0 and (N-\{0\},\cdot) is a group, with both left and right distribution of multiplication over addition. The neofield was considered a generalization of a field and its application was for the coordinatizing of projective planes and related geometry problems. In 1967 A.D. Keedwell introduced the notion of property D cyclic neofields in relation to his study of latin squares and their application to …


The Influence Of Dynamic Visualization On Undergraduate Calculus Learning, Julie Marie Skinner Sutton Jan 2015

The Influence Of Dynamic Visualization On Undergraduate Calculus Learning, Julie Marie Skinner Sutton

Mathematics Dissertations

The urgent need in the United States to produce an additional one million graduates in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and previous research into why students choose to abandon their quest to earn such degrees motivates exploration of the appropriate use of technology that engages students in the first-year calculus classroom. Technology enhances our capacity to incorporate visualization into the teaching of mathematics, yet research suggests that high school mathematics students who prefer to visualize when solving mathematics tasks are not the “super stars” of their classrooms. In this qualitative study, nine students, five of whom prefer …


Advancements And Applications Of Nonstandard Finite Difference Methods, Daniel Wood Jan 2015

Advancements And Applications Of Nonstandard Finite Difference Methods, Daniel Wood

Mathematics Dissertations

A class of dynamically consistent numerical methods are analyzed for general n-dimensional productive-destructive systems (PDS). Using this analysis, a methodology for constructing positive and elementary stable nonstandard numerical methods is established. The nonstandard approach results in qualitatively superior numerical methods when compared to the standard ones. PDS model a wide range of dynamical systems, including ones with biological, chemical and physical interactions. Building upon this, a nonstandard finite difference method for solving autonomous dynamical systems with positive solutions is constructed. The proposed numerical methods are computationally efficient and easy to implement. Several examples are given which show that the numerical …


On M-Inverse Loops And Quasigroups Of Order N With A Long Inverse Cycle., Carl Edward Looney Jan 2015

On M-Inverse Loops And Quasigroups Of Order N With A Long Inverse Cycle., Carl Edward Looney

Mathematics Dissertations

In 2002, A.D Keedwell and V.A Sherbacov introduced the concept of finite m-inverse quasigroups with long inverse cycles. Keedwell and Sherbacov observed that finite m-inverse loops and quasigroups with a long inverse cycle could be useful in the study of cryptology. Keedwell and Sherbacov studied the existence of these algebraic structures by determining if a Cayley table of the elements of such structures could be constructed. They showed that m-inverse loops of order 9 with a long inverse cycle do not exist for m = 2; 4 and 6; thus, there do not exist 2,4, or 6 inverse-quasigroups of order …


Numerical Methods For Spontaneous And Evoked Glutamate Release, Justin Shane Blackwell Jan 2015

Numerical Methods For Spontaneous And Evoked Glutamate Release, Justin Shane Blackwell

Mathematics Dissertations

As synapses are responsible for the majority of neuron communications in the brain, the events of evoked and spontaneous synaptic vesicle release/fusion are key features of all synaptic current. These release events typically activate receptors within a single postsynaptic site and give rise to miniature postsynaptic currents through activations of $N$-methyl-$D$-asparate (NMDA) and $\alpha$-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors, and therefore, they have been extremely instrumental in neurotransmissions. In this paper we will use a mathematical model to simulate spontaneous and evoked neurotransmission resulted from glutamate release within a synapse. Among several issues that modeling can provide quantitative assessment, the issue of …


Nilpotent Lie Algebras And Nilmanifolds Constructed From Graphs, Allie Denise Ray Jan 2015

Nilpotent Lie Algebras And Nilmanifolds Constructed From Graphs, Allie Denise Ray

Mathematics Dissertations

The interaction between graph theory and differential geometry has been studied previously, but S. Dani and M. Mainkar brought a new approach to this study by associating a two-step nilpotent Lie algebra (and thereby a two-step nilmanifold) with a simple graph. We prsesent a new construction that associates a two-step nilpotent Lie algebra to an arbitrary (not necessarily simple) directed edge-labeled graph. We then use properties of a Schreier graph to determine necessary and sufficient conditions for this Lie algebra to extend to a three-step nilpotent Lie algebra.After considering the curvature of the two-step nilmanifolds associated with the graphs, we …


Gis Data: City Of Norfolk Shoreline Inventory Report, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Julie Bradshaw, Karen Duhring, Kory Angstadt, Alexandra Procopi, David Weiss, Carl Hershner Jan 2015

Gis Data: City Of Norfolk Shoreline Inventory Report, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Julie Bradshaw, Karen Duhring, Kory Angstadt, Alexandra Procopi, David Weiss, Carl Hershner

Data

The Shoreline Management Model is a GIS spatial model that determines appropriate shoreline best management practices using available spatial data and decision tree logic. Available shoreline conditions used in the model include the presence or absence of tidal marshes, beaches, and forested riparian buffers, bank vegetation cover, bank height, wave exposure (fetch), nearshore water depth, and proximity of coastal development to the shoreline. The model output for shoreline best management practices is displayed in the locality Comprehensive Map Viewer. One GIS shapefile is developed that describes two arcs or lines representing practices in the upland area and practices at the …


Gis Data: Stafford County, Virginia Tidal Marsh Inventory, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Julie G. Bradshaw, Karen Duhring, David Stanhope, David Weiss, Carl Hershner Jan 2015

Gis Data: Stafford County, Virginia Tidal Marsh Inventory, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Julie G. Bradshaw, Karen Duhring, David Stanhope, David Weiss, Carl Hershner

Data

The 2015 Tidal Marsh Inventory update for Stafford County, Virginia was generated using on-screen digitizing techniques in the most recent version of ArcGIS® - ArcMap while viewing conditions observed in the most recent imagery from the Virginia Base Mapping Program (VBMP). Dominant plant community types were primarily determined during field surveys from shallow-draft boats moving along the shoreline. Land-based surveys were performed in some locations. One shapefile is developed that portrays tidal marsh areas represented as polygons. A metadata file accompanies the shapefile to define attribute accuracy, data development, and any use restrictions that pertain to the data.


Gis Data: City Of Suffolk, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Kory Angstadt, David Weiss, Carl Hershner Jan 2015

Gis Data: City Of Suffolk, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Sharon Killeen, Tamia Rudnicky, Kory Angstadt, David Weiss, Carl Hershner

Data

The Shoreline Management Model is a GIS spatial model that determines appropriate shoreline best management practices using available spatial data and decision tree logic. Available shoreline conditions used in the model include the presence or absence of tidal marshes, beaches, and forested riparian buffers, bank vegetation cover, bank height, wave exposure (fetch), nearshore water depth, and proximity of coastal development to the shoreline. The model output for shoreline best management practices is displayed in the locality Comprehensive Map Viewer. One GIS shapefile is developed that describes two arcs or lines representing practices in the upland area and practices at the …