Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Elucidating The Effects Of Oxygen- And Nitrogen-Containing Functional Groups In Graphene Nanomaterials For Applied Electrochemistry By Density Functional Theory, Sanju Gupta, N. Dimakis

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Graphene nanomaterials functionalized with oxygen groups [graphene oxide (GO) and reduced GO (rGO)] are either doped with element nitrogen or nitrogen-containing aromatic moieties followed by the investigation of electrochemical properties that generally show enhanced electroanalytical performance. We studied structural, morphological, and physical–chemical properties using correlative techniques. While we attribute their improved properties promoted simultaneously by topologically interconnected mesoporous network morphology, the presence of heteroatom species, and lattice vibrational structure, the complex interpretation requires the need to supplement the experimental observations with theoretical calculations for further insights. The complex interplay of pore size and redox properties revealing distinctive supercapacitive (ion-adsorption controlled) …

Software For The Frontiers Of Quantum Chemistry: An Overview Of Developments In The Q-Chem 5 Package, Evgeny Epifanovsky, Andrew T. B. Gilbert, Xintian Feng, Joonho Lee, Yuezhi Mao, Shervin Fatehi

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article summarizes technical advances contained in the fifth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program package, covering developments since 2015. A comprehensive library of exchange–correlation functionals, along with a suite of correlated many-body methods, continues to be a hallmark of the Q-Chem software. The many-body methods include novel variants of both coupled-cluster and configuration-interaction approaches along with methods based on the algebraic diagrammatic construction and variational reduced density-matrix methods. Methods highlighted in Q-Chem 5 include a suite of tools for modeling core-level spectroscopy, methods for describing metastable resonances, methods for computing vibronic spectra, the nuclear–electronic orbital method, and …

Globally Conservative Solutions For The Modified Camassa–Holm (Moch) Equation, Zhaonan Luo, Zhijun Qiao, Zhaoyang Yin

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we present the globally conservative solutions to the Cauchy problem for the modified Camassa–Holm (MOCH) equation. First, we transform the equation into an equivalent semi-linear system under new variables. Second, according to the standard ordinary differential equation theory with the aid of the conservation law, we give the global solutions of the semi-linear system. Finally, returning to the original variables, we obtain the globally conservative solutions to the MOCH equation.

Wallaby Pre-Pilot Survey: Two Dark Clouds In The Vicinity Of Ngc 1395, O. I. Wong, A. R. H. Stevens, B. Q. For, Tobias Westmeier, M. Dixon, S. -H. Oh, G. I. G. Jozsa, T. N. Reynolds, K. Lee-Waddell, Juan P. Madrid

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) WALLABY pre-pilot observations of two ‘dark’ HI sources (with HI masses of a few times 108 M⊙ and no known stellar counterpart) that reside within 363 kpc of NGC 1395, the most massive early-type galaxy in the Eridanus group of galaxies. We investigate whether these ‘dark’ HI sources have resulted from past tidal interactions or whether they are an extreme class of low surface brightness galaxies. Our results suggest that both scenarios are possible, and not mutually exclusive. The two ‘dark’ HI sources are compact, reside in relative isolation and are …

Molecular Characterization And Expression Of Cytochrome P450 Aromatase In Atlantic Croaker Brain: Regulation By Antioxidant Status And Nitric Oxide Synthase During Hypoxia Stress, Md Saydur Rahman, Peter Thomas

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We have previously shown that nitric oxide synthase (NOS, an enzyme) is significantly increased during hypoxic stress in Atlantic croaker brains and modulated by an antioxidant (AOX). However, the influence of NOS and AOX on cytochrome P450 aromatase (AROM, CYP19a1, an enzyme) activity on vertebrate brains during hypoxic stress is largely unknown. In this study, we characterized brain AROM (bAROM, CYP19a1b) cDNA in croaker and examined the interactive effects of hypoxia and a NOS-inhibitor or AOX on AROM activity. The amino acid sequence of croaker bAROM cDNA is highly homologous (76–80%) to other marine teleost bAROM cDNAs. Both real-time PCR …

Wallaby Pre-Pilot Survey: H I Content Of The Eridanus Supergroup, B. Q. For, J. Wang, Tobias Westmeier, O. I. Wong, C. Murugeshan, L. Staveley-Smith, H. M. Courtois, D. Pomarede, Juan P. Madrid

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present observations of the Eridanus supergroup obtained with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) as part of the pre-pilot survey for the Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind Survey (WALLABY). The total number of detected H I sources is 55, of which 12 are background galaxies not associated with the Eridanus supergroup. Two massive H I clouds are identified and large H I debris fields are seen in the NGC 1359 interacting galaxy pair, and the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 1385. We describe the data products from the source finding algorithm and present the basic parameters. The …

Endophytic Beauveria Bassiana Increases Galling Of ‘Rutgers’ Tomato Roots With Meloidogyne Incognita, Shalini Yerukala, Ernest C. Bernard, Kimberly D. Gwinn, David M. Butler, Parwinder Grewal, Bonnie H. Ownley

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Beauveria bassiana is endophytic in many plant species and has been shown to protect host plants against insect pests and plant pathogens. However, less is known about its activity against plant-parasitic nematodes. In vitro and plant assays were conducted to determine the effect of B. bassiana 11-98 (Bb) on Meloidogyne incognita (root-knot nematode; RKN). Beauveria bassiana was confirmed as an endophyte in ‘Rutgers’ tomato and colonization patterns of Bb in ‘Rutgers’ (highly susceptible to RKN) were compared with those in ‘Mountain Spring’ (less susceptible to RKN). In greenhouse tests with ‘Rutgers’ at 30 and 60 days after treatment (DAT) with …

Molten-Salt-Assisted Annealing For Making Colloidal Znga2o4:Cr Nanocrystals With High Persistent Luminescence, Bhupendra B. Srivastava, Santosh K. Gupta, Swati Mohan, Yuanbing Mao

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Persistent luminescent nanocrystals (PLNCs) in the sub-10 nm domain are considered to be the most fascinating inventions in lighting technology owing to their excellent performance in anti-counterfeiting, luminous paints, bioimaging, security applications, etc. Further improvement of persistent luminescence (PersL) intensity and lifetime is needed to achieve the desired success of PLNCs while keeping the uniform sub-10 nm size. In this work, the concept of molten salt confinement to thermally anneal as-synthesized ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ (ZGOC) colloidal NCs (CNCs) in a molten salt medium at 650 °C is introduced. This method led to significantly monodispersed and few agglomerated NCs with a much improved …

Global Famine After Nuclear War, Lilia Xia, Alan Robock, Kim J. N. Scherrer, Cheryl S. Harrison, Jonas Jaegermeyr, Charles G. Bardeen, Owen B. Toon, Ryan F. Heneghan

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Nd Doped Zinc Oxide Based Flexible Pvdf Polymer Composite For Energy Harvesting And Sensory Application, Muhtasim Ul Karim Sadaf

Theses and Dissertations

Flexible Piezoelectric devices have garnered a lot of attention for their potential as energy harvesters and transducers. Zinc Oxide particularly has been doped with different metals and has been incorporated in functional polymers in order to produce flexible piezoelectric devices. In this work, a Neodymium doped Zinc Oxide based flexible piezoelectric energy harvester and sensory device has been developed. For that, neodymium doped zinc oxide has been synthesized using wet chemical co-precipitation method and then has been incorporated in Polyvinylidene Difluoride (PVDF) polymer matrix along with Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) to produce flexible piezoelectric films. Silver paste was applied on …

Significant Gene Array Analysis And Cluster-Based Machine Learning For Disease Class Prediction, Myrine A. Barreiro-Arevalo

Theses and Dissertations

Gene expression analysis has been of major interest to biostatisticians for many decades. Such studies are necessary for the understanding of disease risk assessment and prediction, so that medical professionals and scientists alike may learn how to better create treatment plans to lessen symptoms and perhaps even find cures. In this study, we will investigate various gene expression analyses and machine learning techniques for disease class prediction, as well as assess predictive validity of these models and uncover differentially expressed (DE) genes for their relevant pathology datasets. Multiple gene expression datasets will be used to test model accuracies and will …

Empirical Bayes Estimates For The Reproduction Number Of Epidemics, Elijah Lee Hight

Theses and Dissertations

Epidemic outbreaks can be modelled as a branching process in which the total progeny or outbreak size, follows a Borel-Tanner (BT) distribution. Following a procedure described by Liang (2009), we construct empirical Bayes estimates for when the initial number of infected is a specified value r. Following the construction, we then simulate data and perform a numerical study, assuming BT distribution for the parameter θ, the reproduction number, with an initial outbreak size of three. Simulation results indicate that the empirical estimator suffers from “jumpiness.” We then proceed to monotonize the empirical estimate via a method outlined by Houwelingen (1979). …

Investigation Of Techniques And Their Application For The Cryopreservation Of Algal Species, Jazmine Leija

Theses and Dissertations

An alternative source for petroleum-based crude oils are algae derived biofuels. Fossil fuels are harmful for the environment, expensive and becoming scarce. There has been an increase in research on environmentally sustainable energy, using lipids derived from microalgae, which can be converted into biofuel. The use of microalgae as a source for biofuels has a lot of benefits including decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, rapid fuel production, absorption of carbon dioxide, and production of a renewable source of energy.

Algae cryopreservation aids in the maintenance of the best algae strains selected for producing lipids for biofuels. Cryopreservation will help minimize genetic …

Particle Trajectories In Shallow Water Models, Diana Torres

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper we will study particle trajectories under shallow water waves. We will examine equations such as the Korteweg-de Vries and systems dealing with Boussinesq and Euler's Equations to find relationships between particles irrotational velocities. Their solutions and behavior when modeling interacting surface waves will be explored. An attempt to find approximate solutions with different parameters, such as small amplitude and long-crested waves, that will lead to new information and study will be discussed.

Applications Of Vanadium Phthalocyanine In Catalytic, Acid-Based Medium To Couple Sugar Molecules, Juan Ricardo Luna

Theses and Dissertations

The vanadium-substituted tetraazatetrabenzoporphyrin, vanadium phthalocyanine, was synthesized via reflux and characterized using FITR and XRD analysis. Subsequent to synthesis, the vanadium phthalocyanine was studied as a catalyst in redox reactions to convert fructose to different molecules, the products were predominately levulinic methyl ester and heptadionic acid. The ability to convert fructose to other compounds, such as alkyl levulinic derivative, is an important process to help eliminate reliance on traditional chemical feed stocks and promote alternative fuels. Levulinic acid has been commonly used as a starting material in the synthesis of biofuels and a precursor for pharmaceuticals, plasticizers, THF derivatives, γ-valerolatone. …

Knn Based Piezo-Triboelectric Lead-Free Hybrid Energy Films, Abu Masa Abdullah, Muhtasim Ul Karim Sadaf, Farzana Tasnim, Horacio Vasquez, Karen Lozano, M. Jasim Uddin

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent times, the triboelectric and piezoelectric effects have garnered significant attention towards developing advanced material composites for energy harvesting and sensory applications. In this work, potassium sodium niobate (KNN) based energy films (EF) have been developed to utilize mechanical energy while simultaneously taking advantage of triboelectric and piezoelectric mechanisms. The KNN particles were synthesized using a wet ball milling technique and then incorporated into a polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) matrix together with addition of multi wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). The film was used to develop a piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) fitted with copper electrodes. The piezoelectric output of the film was …

Chemical Investigation Of Camu Camu (Myrciaria Dubia) Leaves And Roots, Jorge L. Flores

Theses and Dissertations

Flores, Jorge L., Chemical Investigation of Camu Camu (Myrciaria dubia) Leaves and Roots. Master of Science (MS), December, 2020, 45 pp., 8 Tables, 28 Figures, 21 references, 12 titles.Being the largest on the planet, the Amazon rainforest also has the greatest biodiversity of plant life on earth. In the lowland regions of the Amazon grows the Peruvian camu camu (Myrciaria dubia) plant. A short and shaggy shrub, camu camu produces a tasty but sour fruit. Camu camu’s berry-like fruit is widely consumed by the native people of the Amazon. Its distinguished richness in vitamin C, as …

Assessing The Anthropogenic Footprint On The Channel Sinuosity Of The Rio Grande The Delta, Edoardo Davila

Theses and Dissertations

The Rio Grande has been an emblematic feature and a source of life for the Rio Grande Valley. Since Pre-Historic times, it has provided the resources that allowed communities to thrive in a land where water is scarce. Large scale anthropogenic activities including, primarily in the form of river diversions and dam construction, have negatively impacted the river. Twenty-three major dams, and many small ones built on the main channel and many of its tributaries in the last century, have drastically reduced water discharge and virtually eliminated sediment delivery to the delta. This study explores how the channel sinuosity …

Assessing Long-Term Coral Coverage At East And West Flower Garden Banks, Rebekah Alicia Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Coral reefs provide critical habitat for diverse benthic communities; however, more than 10% of existing reefs have been lost as a result of natural and anthropogenic stressors. While there has been a decline in reefs around the world, East and West Flower Garden Banks (FGBs), part of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS), have maintained > 50% live coral cover for over 27 years as revealed by the FGBNMS long-term monitoring (LTM) program. In the 1980’s, the LTM program at East and West FGBs was developed in response to the expansion of oil and gas exploration, anchoring, and fishing impacts …

Biochar Applications To The Remediation Of Lead And Polychlorinated Biphenyl Contaminated Water, Victory Itua Igberase

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the performance of biochar materials as adsorbents to remove Pb and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) in aqueous solutions. Batch adsorption and column experiment packed with biochar and geomaterials (pumice) in 1:1 volume ratio was evaluated to address the efficacy of biochar in removing Pb while only batch adsorption was employed for PCB removal with biochar materials. Overall, PT biochars performed the best (42–53 mg g−1) followed by BE biochars (10–32 mg g−1) and AB biochars (17–27 mg g−1) while high temperature biochars were favored in terms of maximum Pb adsorption capacity. Column Pb breakthrough showed similar results, with …

Effects Of Saltatory Rewards And Generalized Advantage Estimation On Reference-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning Of Humanlike Motions, Md Rysul Kabir

Theses and Dissertations

In the application of learning physics-based character skills, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) can lead to slow convergence and local optimum solutions during the training process of a reinforcement learning (RL) agent. With the presence of an environment with reward saltation, we can easily plan to magnify those saltatory rewards with the perspective of sample usage to increase the experience pool of an agent during this training process. In our work, we have proposed two modified algorithms. The first one is the addition of a parameter based reward optimization process to magnify the saltatory rewards and thus increasing an agent’s utilization …

Integrable Equation With No Solitary Traveling Waves, Miguel Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

We consider the negative order KdV (NKdV) hierarchy which generates nonlinear integrable equations. Selecting different seed functions produces different evolution equations. We apply the traveling wave setting to study one of these equations. Assuming a particular type of solution leads us to solve a cubic equation. New solutions are found, but none of these are classical solitary traveling wave solutions.

Soil Chemistry Modification By Guinea Grass In Semi-Arid Soils: A Litter Mediated Positive Feedback, Vanessa Elizabeth Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Nutrients are a key component of healthy soils. Their composition plays an important role in plant growth through nutrient cycling and directly influences the functioning of plant communities in both agricultural and natural ecosystems. Shifts in macronutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen may be initiated by invasive growth as a driver for competition with native plants. The goal of this study is to explore the plant soil feedback in an exotic invasive plant, Guinea grass (Pancium maximum), an invasive bunch grass originally from Africa, across different habitat types in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV). To determine a positive plant …

Uptake Analysis Of As(Iii) And As(V) By Cassia Fistula Seedlings, Valeria Velazquez

Theses and Dissertations

The natural and anthropogenic contamination of water by arsenic has become a major concern to the environment and public health. Phytoremediation is an attractive alternative to ecologically friendly remove contaminants at a potential high efficiency and low cost. Absorption of As(III) and As(V) was evaluated by the measuring the content of arsenic in the roots, leaves and stems Cassia fistula grown under controlled conditions in a hydroponics system. After seeds were germinated, the plants were grown in Hoagland nutrient solution individually supplemented with 1, 2, 5 ppm of As(III) and As(V). After two weeks of exposure, samples of leaves, roots, …

Detecting Optical Transients Using Artificial Neural Networks And Reference Images From Different Surveys, Katarzyna Wardęga, Adam Zadrozny, Martin Beroiz, Richard S. Camuccio, Mario C. Diaz

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present a technique to detect optical transients based on an artificial neural networks method. We describe the architecture of two networks capable of comparing images of the same part of the sky taken by different telescopes. One image corresponds to the epoch in which a potential transient could exist; the other is a reference image of an earlier epoch. We use data obtained by the Dr. Cristina V. Torres Memorial Astronomical Observatory and archival reference images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We trained a convolutional neural network and a dense layer network on simulated source samples and then …

Search For Anisotropic Gravitational-Wave Backgrounds Using Data From Advanced Ligo And Advanced Virgo's First Three Observing Runs, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Karla E. Ramirez, W. H. Wang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report results from searches for anisotropic stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds using data from the first three observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. For the first time, we include Virgo data in our analysis and run our search with a new efficient pipeline called PyStoch on data folded over one sidereal day. We use gravitational-wave radiometry (broadband and narrow band) to produce sky maps of stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds and to search for gravitational waves from point sources. A spherical harmonic decomposition method is employed to look for gravitationalwave emission from spatially-extended sources. Neither technique found evidence of …

An Introduction To Generalized Entropy And Some Quantum Applications, Paul Bracken

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The concept of generalized entropy is introduced and some of its properties are studied. Irreversible time evolution can be generated by a non-Hermitian superoperator on the states of the system. The case when irreversibility comes about from embedding the system in a thermal reservoir is looked at. The time evolution is found compatible both with equilibrium thermodynamics and entropy production near the final state. Some examples are presented as well as a longer introduction as to how this might play a role in the black hole information loss paradox.

Non-Archimedean Models Of Morphogenesis, Wilson A. Zuniga-Galindo

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We study a p-adic reaction-diffusion system and the associated Turing patterns. We establish an instability criteria and show that the Turing patterns are not classical patterns consisting of alternating domains. Instead of this, a Turing pattern consists of several domains (clusters), each of them supporting a different pattern but with the same parameter values. This type of patterns are typically produced by reaction-diffusion equations on large networks.

Upper Limits On The Isotropic Gravitational-Wave Background From Advanced Ligo And Advanced Virgo's Third Observing Run, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, F. Acernese, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Karla E. Ramirez, W. H. Wang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report results of a search for an isotropic gravitational-wave background (GWB) using data from Advanced LIGO’s and Advanced Virgo’s third observing run (O3) combined with upper limits from the earlier O1 and O2 runs. Unlike in previous observing runs in the advanced detector era, we include Virgo in the search for the GWB. The results of the search are consistent with uncorrelated noise, and therefore we place upper limits on the strength of the GWB. We find that the dimensionless energy density ΩGW≤5.8×10−9 at the 95% credible level for a flat (frequency-independent) GWB, using a prior which is uniform …

Positive Solutions For The Fractional Schrödinger Equations With Logarithmic And Critical Non-Linearities, Haining Fan, Zhaosheng Feng, Xingjie Yan

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we study a class of fractional Schrödinger equations involving logarithmic and critical non-linearities on an unbounded domain, and show that such an equation with positive or sign-changing weight potentials admits at least one positive ground state solution and the associated energy is positive (or negative). By applying the Nehari manifold method and Ljusternik–Schnirelmann category, we investigate how the weight potential affects the multiplicity of positive solutions, and obtain the relationship between the number of positive solutions and the category of some sets related to the weight potential.