Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Technology Agnostic Analysis And Design For Improved Performance, Variability, And Reliability In Thin Film Photovoltaics, Sourabh Dongaonkar

Open Access Dissertations

Thin film photovoltaics (TFPV) offer low cost alternatives to conventional crystalline Silicon (c-Si) PV, and can enable novel applications of PV technology. Their large scale adoption however, requires significant improvements in process yield, and operational reliability. In order to address these challenges, comprehensive understanding of factors affecting panel yield, and predictive models of performance reliability are needed. This has proved to be especially challenging for TFPV for two reasons in particular. First, TFPV technologies encompass a wide variety of materials, processes, and structures, which fragments the research effort. Moreover, the monolithic manufacturing of TFPV modules differs significantly from that of …

Novel Modulation Of Adenylyl Cyclase Type 2, Jason Michael Conley

Open Access Dissertations

Adenylyl cyclase isoforms are distinctly modulated by G protein subunits and are therefore hypothesized to be uniquely regulated by proteins that influence G protein signaling. Activator of G protein signaling 3 (AGS3) is a G protein modulator that binds Gαi subunits in the GDP-bound state, implicating AGS3 as an important regulatorof Gi-coupled receptor signaling. We studied the ability of AGS3 to modulate recombinant adenylyl cyclase(AC) type 1 and 2 signaling in HEK293 cells following both acute and persistent activation of the D _2Ldopamine receptor (D_2L DR). AGS3 expression modestly enhanced the potency of acute quinpirole-induced D _2LDR …

Agriculture In A Water Scarce World, Allison Roberts, Amjad Assi, Bassel Daher, Men Li

Student Papers in Public Policy

According to the McKinsey report (2009), the world is facing a water scarcity challenge where agriculture is its predominant consumer. It accounts for approximately 3100 billion m³, or 71 percent of global water withdrawals today, and is expected to increase to 4500 billion m³ by 2030. This increase is due to a number of factors: growing population and the ever growing necessity to cater for its food needs, economic growth, the variability of precipitation trends and increase in global temperatures. In addition to the increase in water scarcity, the agricultural sector faces an enormous challenge of producing …

Ocean Sustainability, Logan Levan, Joshua Millea, Woo Choi, Mark Powell, David Flint

Student Papers in Public Policy

Oceans cover over 70% of the Earth’s surface area. They provide more than 90% of the world’s oxygen production, account for 200 billion pounds of food each year, regulate the global climate, and are the primary mode of global shipping traffic (“www.marinebio.org”). With such social, economic, and environmental value, there is a clear need to enact sustainable policies and practices concerning marine zones.

Overview: The Role Of Information Policy In Resolving Global Challenges, Sharon A. Weiner

Purdue Policy Research Institute (PPRI) Policy Briefs

Governments in many countries recognize the importance of knowledge-based societies whose citizens are adaptable and have the means to engage in continuous learning. Information societies can address global challenges far more readily than those that do not adopt its characteristics of ICTs (information and communication technologies) and connectivity; usable content; infrastructure and deliverability; and human intellectual capability.

Role Of Natural Gas In America's Energy Future: Focus On Transportation, Dharik Mallapragada, Rakesh Agrawal

Purdue Policy Research Institute (PPRI) Policy Briefs

The energy landscape of the United States for the past century has been dominated by the use of fossil fuels namely coal, petroleum, and natural gas (NG). While coal usage was dominant during the early 1900’s, petroleum has been dominant ever since the second half of the 20^th century owing to increasing use of liquid fuels, gasoline and diesel, for transportation. In contrast, NG consumption in the U.S., currently at ~25% of total primary energy use, has only been steadily increasing since the early 1990’s (BP, 2012). However, the last decade has seen rapid growth in U.S. NG consumption …

An Examination Of Presentation Strategies For Textual Data In Augmented Reality, Kanrawi Kitkhachonkunlaphat

Department of Computer Graphics Technology Degree Theses

Videos with embedded text have been widely used in the past and the text in the videos usually contained valuable information. However, it was difficult for people to fully understand the text in videos displayed on smartphones due to obstructions such as color conflicts between letters and the moving background. Adjustments to texts that would support the human visual system, such as changes to brightness and color contrast, increased legibility of text, and taking into account the phantom illumination (PI) illusion (the optical illusion that increases the perception of brightness in a certain area), should be able to improve peoples’ …

Energy Independence In The Usa, Janice Ringler

Student Papers in Public Policy

During President Barack Obama’s first term and throughout the recent presidential campaign, there was much discussion about becoming energy-independent as a nation. Indeed, one of the most pressing issues facing the country today is our energy future. This is especially a concern in areas where mainstream energy sources (coal, gas, oil) do not exist, and thus must be imported. Many believe that this is a problem that communities and states are better suited to tackle than the federal government due to the flexibility and knowledge of state policy initiatives. In this brief I will propose a variety of measures that …

Astronomy / Galactic Structure - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Kathryn M. Dunn

Data Curation Profiles Directory

The researcher participates in large-scale astronomical survey projects, which are collaborative efforts of many institutions and individuals. Management of the raw and processed/calibrated data is handled by those projects, but data for specific research questions is handled by the researcher. The researcher would like to have a better way to share the data behind the figures in their published papers with other researchers. The effort involved in retrieving and documenting the data so it’s usable by others is a barrier to sharing the data. It would be easier to share data from publications if it could be deposited to a …

Universal Scaling And Intrinsic Classification Of Electro-Mechanical Actuators, Sambit Palit, Ankit Jain, Muhammad A. Alam

Birck and NCN Publications

Actuation characteristics of electromechanical (EM) actuators have traditionally been studied for a few specific regular electrode geometries and support (anchor) configurations. The ability to predict actuation characteristics of electrodes of arbitrary geometries and complex support configurations relevant for broad range of applications in switching, displays, and varactors, however, remains an open problem. In this article, we provide four universal scaling relationships for EM actuation characteristics that depend only on the mechanical support configuration and the corresponding electrode geometries, but are independent of the specific geometrical dimensions and material properties of these actuators. These scaling relationships offer an intrinsic classification for …

Using High-Resolution Weather Data To Improve Winter Weather Maintenance Operations, Michael Baldwin

Purdue Road School

Substantial resources are required for winter maintenance operations. This presentation focuses on more accurate and precise weather information that can help reduce the uncertainty related to winter weather, resulting in improved decision-making and significant cost savings for winter operations.

Using Existing Programs As Vehicles To Disseminate Knowledge, Provide Opportunities For Scientists To Assist Educators, And To Engage Students In Using Real Data., Steven Smith, Kristin Wegner, Benjamin D. Branch, Bridget Miller, Darrell G. Schulze, Ann M. Bessenbacher

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Many national and statewide programs throughout the K-12 science education environment teach students about science in a hands-on format, including programs such as Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), Project Learning Tree (PLT), Project Wild, Project Wet, and Hoosier River Watch. Partnering with one or more of these well-known programs can provide many benefits to both the scientists involved in disseminating research and the K-12 educators. Scientists potentially benefit by broader dissemination of their research by providing content enrichment for educators. Educators benefit by gaining understanding in content, becoming more confident in teaching the concept, and increasing …

A Justification For Semantic Training In Data Curation Frameworks Development, Xiaogang Ma, Benjamin D. Branch, Kristin Wegner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

In the complex data curation activities involving proper data access, data use optimization and data rescue, opportunities exist where underlying skills in semantics may play a crucial role in data curation professionals ranging from data scientists, to informaticists, to librarians. Here, We provide a conceptualization of semantics use in the education data curation framework (EDCF) (Fig. 1) [1] under development by Purdue University and endorsed by the GLOBE program [2] for further development and application. Our work shows that a comprehensive data science training includes both spatial and non-spatial data, where both categories are promoted by standard efforts of organizations …

Fate Of 17Α-Estradiol, 17Β-Estradiol, And Estrone In Agricultural Soils And Sediments, Michael L. Mashtare Jr

Open Access Dissertations

The shift to concentrated animal production facilities and increasing rural-urban migration has increased the localized land application of nearly 1 billion tons of manure and biosolids annually. Although these applications provide nutrients and contribute to soil tilth, they also serve as a source for an estimated 49 tons of the natural manure-borne estrogens, 17α-estradiol (17α-E2), 17β-estradiol (17β-E2), and estrone (E1). While these estrogens are critical to endocrine systems, the low concentrations observed in the environment can disrupt endocrine function in non-target organisms, e.g., altering secondary sex characteristics which can lead to changes in wildlife communities.

Research presented here focuses on …

Simulating Land Use Land Cover Change Using Data Mining And Machine Learning Algorithms, Amin Tayyebi

Open Access Dissertations

The objectives of this dissertation are to: (1) review the breadth and depth of land use land cover (LUCC) issues that are being addressed by the land change science community by discussing how an existing model, Purdue's Land Transformation Model (LTM), has been used to better understand these very important issues; (2) summarize the current state-of-the-art in LUCC modeling in an attempt to provide a context for the advances in LUCC modeling presented here; (3) use a variety of statistical, data mining and machine learning algorithms to model single LUCC transitions in diverse regions of the world (e.g. United States …

Information Measures For Statistical Orbit Determination, Alinda Kenyana Mashiku

Open Access Dissertations

The current Situational Space Awareness (SSA) is faced with a huge task of tracking the increasing number of space objects. The tracking of space objects requires frequent and accurate monitoring for orbit maintenance and collision avoidance using methods for statistical orbit determination. Statistical orbit determination enables us to obtain estimates of the state and the statistical information of its region of uncertainty given by the probability density function (PDF). As even collision events with very low probability are important, accurate prediction of collisions require the representation of the full PDF of the random orbit state. Through representing the full PDF …

The Palm-Tree Index: Indexing With The Crowd, Aamer Mahmood, Walid G. Aref, Eduard Dragut, Saleh Basalamah

Cyber Center Publications

Crowdsourcing services allow employing human intelligence in tasks that are difficult to accomplish with computers such as image tagging and data collection. At a relatively low monetary cost and through web interfaces such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (AMT), humans can act as a computational operator in large systems. Recent work has been conducted to build database management systems that can harness the crowd power in database operators, such as sort, join, count, etc. The fundamental problem of indexing within crowdsourced databases has not been studied. In this paper, we study the problem of tree-based indexing within crowd-nabled databases. We investigate …

Developing White Ash With Resistance To The Emerald Ash Borer, Kaitlin Joy Palla

Open Access Theses

Hypocotyls isolated from mature embryos germinated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 22.2 µM 6-benzyladenine (BA) and 0.5 µM thidiazuron (TDZ) were transformed using Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA105 harboring the pBI121-8D2 vector containing the neomycin phosphotransferase (nptII) gene and a full length, codon-optimized Bacillus thuringiensis Cry8Da protoxin gene (cry8D2). Explants were transformed in a bacterial suspension with 100 µM acetosyringone using 90 s sonication and 10 min vacuum-infiltration. Four independent lines of transformed shoots were selectively regenerated on MS medium with 22.2 µM BA, 0.5 µM TDZ, 50 mg L^-1 adenine sulfate, 10% …

An Evaluation Of Spatial Variability Of Water Stress Index Across The United States: Implications Of Supply And Demand In The East Vs The West, Jennifer Ann Roath

Open Access Theses

In order to support both human and environmental needs, high quality fresh water must be available when and where it is required. As a metric for indicating unsustainable water usage, WSI is only useful when the values reflect accurate interactions between supply and demand; however, the complexity of temporal and spatial variability of available fresh water complicates the analysis of water stress.

The overall goal of this project was to investigate the spatial variability of water stress across the United States and the appropriate spatial scale for management decisions. To accomplish this, a national dataset describing spatial distribution and breakdown …

Sanitation Infrastructure, Medicinal Plant Use And Diarrhea In Rural Costa Rican Communities, Travis Clifford Sondgerath

Open Access Theses

Diarrhea is estimated to be responsible for 3.3 million deaths a year and is particularly problematic in the developing world among children. The Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations has set a goal of reducing mortality among children by two thirds during the new millennium. However due to the nature of diarrhea it is often difficult to study its patterns, distribution, and determinants.

This study presents an analysis of the relationship between diarrhea and sanitation infrastructure and medicinal plant use in 4 rural Costa Rican communities. Over the past few decades' access to clean drinking water and municipal …

The Influence Of The Tibetan Plateau Elevation On The Global And Asian Monsoons, Rene Paul Acosta

Open Access Theses

It has been long hypothesized that large-scale topographic changes, such as the surface uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, impacts the development of the South Asian and East Asian monsoons and influences other monsoon regions. However, recent modeling has shown that spatial distribution of the global monsoon, which includes the South Asian and East Asian monsoons is largely unaffected by the elevation of the plateau. In this study, we present results from a series of modern day simulations using CESM1.0 in a mixed-layer (slab ocean) configuration. The Tibetan Plateau height is varied from double that of the modern maximum plateau elevation …

Integrating The Sap Software Into The Manufacturing Engineering Curriculum, Lin Qian

Open Access Theses

The concept of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was developed to integrate data efficiently and eliminate redundancy within organizations. Worldwide industries rely on ERP systems to keep a competitive advantage in world market place. Besides, cross-functional knowledge is required in industry. It is critical that schools integrate ERP concepts and methods in to academic curricula for Technology and Engineering School.

This thesis examined the effectiveness of a simulation game as a method for teaching for ERP systems in Technology and Engineering. The quasi-experimental design was used in this study to determine if the SAP simulation game had an impact on students' …

A Qualitative Perspective Of Sustainability Across A Supply Chain, Colton Michael Schliep

Open Access Theses

Schliep, Colton M. M.S., Purdue University, May 2013. A Qualitative Perspective of Sustainability Across a Supply Chain. Major Professors: Dr. Edie K. Schmidt and Dr. Edward Sweeney.

Using a qualitative approach, this investigation examines perspectives of sustainability concepts and industry experiences from people in various supply chain roles, attempting to answer the question, "How does sustainability, as a practice and definition, differ across a supply chain; and what are its benchmarks?" Participants in the study included 5 working professionals across different industries. Using systems analysis, in depth interviews elicited 12 common themes of the research. Outcomes of the research discuss …

Specific Salt Effects On The Formation And Thermal Transitions Among Β-Lactoglobulin And Pectin Electrostatic Complexes, Stacey Ann Hirt

Open Access Theses

Factors of ion specificity and ionic strength (I~0-100) were studied in the electrostatic complex formation and protein particle formation by thermal treatment for a β-lactoglobulin and pectin system. ζ-potential showed β-lactoglobulin and pectin began to interact near pH 5.50 and interactions were strengthened with decrease in pH. Visible light turbidimetry and light scattering at 90° revealed a trend in critical pH transitions for electrostatic complex formation based on both the ionic strength and the anion of the salt species, while effects of the monovalent cation was insignificant. Critical pH values for complex formation and separation (pHc and pHΦ) decreased with …

Analysis Of Android Update Packages As A Method To Load Forensic Utilities And Malicious Applications To An Android Device, Mark Lohrum

Open Access Theses

Android devices are extremely popular and are projected to stay popular. Both forensic tools and malware exist designed specifically for Android devices. The purpose of this study is to explore a new method of loading forensic tools and malware to Android devices. This new method is the update module, which is used to install updates to the operating system. This thesis proposed and completed research to test four different custom update packages on three different Android devices. Two of the update packages contain forensic utilities and the other two contain malicious tools. An update package collecting web history using the …

The Role Of Test Administrator And Error, Michael Edward Brockly

Open Access Theses

This study created a framework to quantify and mitigate the amount of error that test administrators introduced to a biometric system during data collection. Prior research has focused only on the subject and the errors they make when interacting with biometric systems, while ignoring the test administrator. This study used a longitudinal data collection, focusing on demographics in government identification forms such as driver's licenses, fingerprint metadata such a moisture and skin temperature, and face image compliance to an ISO best practice standard. Error was quantified from the first visit and baseline test administrator error rates were measured. Additional training, …

Implementation And Model To Model Intercomparison Of 12 Heat Stress Metrics, Jonathan Robert Buzan

Open Access Theses

Earth system models simulate the dynamics of the most complex systems on our planet with some success. Despite the overwhelming sophistication of these models, which include dynamical interactions of ocean, atmosphere, vegetation, ice, and land-surface properties, they fail to include the most important element. People. Humans are also a complex physical-biological system and coupling of human physiology within an Earth Systems Modeling framework is challenging. This thesis presents results that tackle one particular component of human physiological climate interaction--a representation of heat stress on human physiology. Twelve different metrics were implemented and analyzed. These metrics represent a variety of philosophical …

Callovian (Upper Middle Jurassic) Magnetostratigraphy: A Composite Polarity Pattern From France, Britain And Germany, And Its Correlation To The Pacific Marine Magnetic Anomaly Model, Rachel Anne Gipe

Open Access Theses

Callovian strata from sixteen exposures across western Europe produced a nearly continuous composite geomagnetic polarity reference sequence spanning the latest Bathonian (Clydoniceras discus Zone) through the entire Callovian and into the earliest Oxfordian (Quenstedtoceras mariae zone). This sequence is compiled from multi-section sequences from France and England, a section in southern Germany, and a section on the Isle of Skye (Scotland). These sections are calibrated with ammonite biostratigraphy, brachiopod associations and sequence stratigraphy. Over 400 oriented core samples were subjected to progressive thermal demagnetization and filtered according to magnetic behavior; the highest quality suite produced mean paleopoles of 67.3°N, 174.8°E …

The Design And Synthesis Of Peptidomimetic Serine-Based Prodrugs As 14-3-3 Inhibitors, Eric Drake Jones

Open Access Theses

Jones, Eric D. Masters of Science, Purdue University, October 2013. THE DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF PEPTIDOMEMETIC SERINE-BASED PRODRUGS AS 14-3-3 INHIBITORS. Major Professor: Richard Borch

This work describes the design and synthesis of peptidomimetics for the inhibition of the protein-protein interactions (PPI) with 14-3-3. This protein is a promiscuous binder of other proteins with a variety of key functions such as the regulation of proapoptotic proteins (e.g. FOXO, BAD), suppression of tumor growth, and sensitizing cells to other drugs. The promiscuous binding is the result of PPIs being shallow binding sites which accept many proteins and modify their activity. Compounds …

Value Centric Approaches To The Design, Operations And Maintenance Of Wind Turbines, Madhur Aravind Khadabadi

Open Access Theses

Wind turbine maintenance is emerging as an unexpectedly high component of turbine operating cost, and there is an increasing interest in managing this cost. This thesis presents an alternative view of maintenance as a value-driver, and develops an optimization algorithm to evaluate the value delivered by different maintenance techniques. I view maintenance as an operation that moves the turbine to an improved state in which it can generate more power and, thus, earn more revenue. To implement this approach, I model the stochastic deterioration of the turbine in two dimensions: the deterioration rate, and the extent of deterioration, and then …