Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Study Of Organic Reactions In Pyridinium-Based Ionic Liquids, Ying Xiao

Dissertations

Recently, ionic liquids have attracted a lot of attention as novel materials for organic transformations. This is due to their unique properties, which make them suitable substitutes for organic solvents. Most of the available literature is focused on the application of imidazolium-based ionic liquids for organic reactions, while very limited information is available on the application of pyridinium-based ionic liquids.

In this study, two different ionic liquids, 1 -ethyl-pyridinium tetrafluoroborate ([EtPy]⁺[BF₄]^-) and 1 -ethyl-pyridinium trifluoroacetate ([EtPy]⁺[CF₃COO]^-) have been investigated. Compared to previous reports, the synthetic technique for preparation …

Quantifying Software Architecture Attributes, Bo Yu

Dissertations

Software architecture holds the promise of advancing the state of the art in software engineering. The architecture is emerging as the focal point of many modem reuse/evolutionary paradigms, such as Product Line Engineering, Component Based Software Engineering, and COTS-based software development.

The author focuses his research work on characterizing some properties of a software architecture. He tries to use software metrics to represent the error propagation probabilities, change propagation probabilities, and requirements change propagation probabilities of a software architecture. Error propagation probability reflects the probability that an error that arises in one component of the architecture will propagate to other …

Development Of Environmentally Benign Microencapsulation With Polymer Microspheres And Liposomes, Baohua Yue

Dissertations

Microencapsulation means applying a shell-like coating to encapsulate the contents of interest in a particle form with a size range of few micrometers or below. In this work, aqueous liposome systems and polymer based encapsulation of fine particles in supercritical CO₂ were studied. Compared to many other microencapsulation methods, these two methodologies feature reduction/prevention of using organic solvents, making them particularly attractive as green technology.

For polymer microencapsulation, a novel in situ polymerization based process to encapsulate various types of fine particles, include drugs, fire retardant, inorganic nanoparticles, and carbon nanotubes, was developed. In the process, host particles, monomers …

Bioinformatics Framework For Genotyping Microarray Data Analysis, Kai Zhang

Dissertations

Functional genomics is a flourishing science enabled by recent technological breakthroughs in high-throughput instrumentation and microarray data analysis. Genotyping microarrays establish the genotypes of DNA sequences containing single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and can help biologists probe the functions of different genes and/or construct complex gene interaction networks. The enormous amount of data from these experiments makes it infeasible to perform manual processing to obtain accurate and reliable results in daily routines. Advanced algorithms as well as an integrated software toolkit are needed to help perform reliable and fast data analysis.

The author developed a Matlab_TM based software package, called …

Environmental Justice Education And Atmospheric Particulate Analysis In Urban Environmental Health Policy Development : Indoor Airborne Particulate Concentrations In Preschools Of Asthmatic Children In Newark, Rita L. Thornton

Dissertations

Analysis suggests that several residential areas in Newark, New Jersey (USA) have Black/African-American and Hispanic populations, which may be "at high risk" with respect to the adverse health effects of particulate air pollution. This study analyzes the community locations and evaluates literature and other available air pollution data for the target communities in the city of Newark. The study focuses on asthma or reactive airway diseases as a target health risk. It also performs data collection on particulate pollutants and levels of trace metals in particulate matter in target communities and schools of preschool children in two of the five …

Using Content And Process Scaffolds For Collaborative Discourse In Asynchronous Learning Networks, Irene Wong-Bushby

Dissertations

Discourse, a form of collaborative learning, is one of the most widely used methods of teaching and learning in the online environment. Particularly, in large courses, discourse needs to be 'structured' to be effective. Historically, technology-mediated learning (TML) research has been inconclusive with often conflicting results. To address this issue, TML research needs greater breadth and depth in pedagogical grounding. The purpose of this research is to build and test an original, technology-mediated, discourse-centered model called the Asynchronous Learning Network Cognitive Discourse Model (ALNCDM) grounded in pedagogy. Cognitive discourse is defined as discourse on conceptual subject matter. The model is …

Image Segmentation And Pattern Classification Using Support Vector Machines, Shouxian Cheng

Dissertations

Image segmentation and pattern classification have long been important topics in computer science research. Image segmentation is one of the basic and challenging lower-level image processing tasks. Feature extraction, feature reduction, and classifier design based on selected features are the three essential issues for the pattern classification problem.

In this dissertation, an automatic Seeded Region Growing (SRG) algorithm for color image segmentation is developed. In the SRG algorithm, the initial seeds are automatically determined. An adaptive morphological edge-linking algorithm to fill in the gaps between edge segments is designed. Broken edges are extended along their slope directions by using the …

Automatic Solar Feature Detection Using Image Processing And Pattern Recognition Techniques, Ming Qu

Dissertations

The objective of the research in this dissertation is to develop a software system to automatically detect and characterize solar flares, filaments and Corona Mass Ejections (CMEs), the core of so-called solar activity. These tools will assist us to predict space weather caused by violent solar activity. Image processing and pattern recognition techniques are applied to this system.

For automatic flare detection, the advanced pattern recognition techniques such as Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function (RBF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are used. By tracking the entire process of flares, the motion properties of two-ribbon flares are derived automatically. In …

A Study Of How Precursor Key Concepts For Organic Chemistry Success Are Understood By General Chemistry Students, Patrick Gerard Meyer

Dissertations

This study examines college student understanding of key concepts that will support future organic chemistry success as determined by university instructors. During four one-hour individual interviews the sixteen subjects attempted to solve general chemistry problems. A think-aloud protocol was used along with a whiteboard where the students could draw and illustrate their ideas. The protocols for the interviews were adapted from the Covalent Structure and Bonding two-tiered multiple choice diagnostic instrument (Peterson, Treagust, & Garnett, 1989) and augmented by the Geometry and Polarity of Moleculessingle-tiered multiple choice instrument (Furió & Calatayud, 1996). The interviews were videotaped, transcribed, and coded …

Photoexcitation And Photoionization Of The Argon Atom And The Hydrogen Bromide Molecule, Ximao Feng

Dissertations

Interaction between synchrotron radiation with inner-shell electrons is a fundamental method to study the structure and dynamics of atoms and molecules. This thesis, under the guidance of Dr. Nora Berrah, concentrates on the study of the interaction between soft x-ray photons with Ar atoms and HBr moleculeswith time-of-flight (TOF) electron spectrometers and two-dimensional photoelectron spectroscopy (2DPES). Both of the experiments were performed on theAtomic, Molecular and Optical Physics undulator beamline at the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The argon study focused on photoelectron recapture when the 2p electrons are ionized just above the thresholds of the two …

Online Support For Multivariate Integration, Shujun Li

Dissertations

In this dissertation, we present an online problem solving environment for multivariate numerical integration. To build an environment for users with various backgrounds, we address issues of Web interface support for end-users, remote application programming interfaces for distributed system programmers, visualization of multivariate integrand functions for problem analysis, and highly efficient integration methods. Compared to previous implementations, our new load balancing schemes increase the scalability of parallel integration and hence are suitable for large scale computations. A parallel integration service, called PI service, was implemented based on Web services technologies to support both remote integration and remote visualization. The multivariate …

An Automata-Based Automatic Verification Environment, Yi Meng

Dissertations

With the continuing growth of computer systems including safety-critical computer control systems, the need for reliable tools to help construct, analyze, and verify such systems also continues to grow. The basic motivation of this work is to build such a formal verification environment for computer-based systems.

An example of such a tool is the Design Oriented Verification and Evaluation (DOVE) created by Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization. One of the advantages of DOVE is that it combines ease of use provided by a graphical user interface for describing specifications in the form of extended state machines with the rigor …

Development Of Micro-Scale And Automated Membrane Extraction Systems For Water Analysis, Xiaoyan Wang

Dissertations

Monitoring of trace level contaminants in water involves the extraction and enrichment of analytes. Over the years several techniques have been developed for this purpose. Currently there is an urgent need for the development of micro-scale extraction techniques that can lead to simple, fast trace analysis. Automated instruments that can be used for continuous, on-line analysis are also important. Membrane extraction can address both these needs, because it can be carried out in a continuous fashion and can also be miniaturized. This research addresses these two aspects of membrane extraction for the next generation of sample preparation.

Micro-Scale Membrane Extraction: …

Effect Of Heavy Metals On Salt March Biota, Kallaya Suntornvongsagul

Dissertations

Environmental restoration of disturbed, degraded and potentially contaminated wetland sites aims for the persistent and sustainable re-establishment of biological communities and important wetland functions. An ecologically informed restoration strategy presupposes some understanding of these system processes, but also of potential impacts on contaminants in the environment for risk assessment, long-term management, and potential cost-effective mitigative measures. In this study, potential effects of moderate heavy metal contamination in sediments of the urban salt marsh Harrier Meadow, NJ, were evaluated on growth performance of the common salt marsh plant S. patens and associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonizing its roots. Growth performance …

Functionalization, Growth And Applications Of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes, Yubing Wang

Dissertations

Because of their remarkable structural, mechanical and electrical properties, carbon nanotubes, and especially single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), represent one of the most widely investigated materials today in the emerging field of nanotechnology. The development of oriented growth of SWNTs critical for applications, novel approaches for the creation of functional SWNTs, and applications of both as-prepared and chemically functionalized SWNTs for electrochemically-induced hydrogen storage, in-situ formation of new polymer and ceramic nanocomposites with SWNTs, and the fabrication and study for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, of a SWNT-based biofuel cell and self-powered biosensor, are the thrusts …

A Bayesian Approach To Wireless Location Problems, Ivan Zorych

Dissertations

Several approaches for indoor location estimation in wireless networks are proposed. We explore non-hierarchical and hierarchical Bayesian graphical models that use prior knowledge about physics of signal propagation, as well as different modifications of Bayesian bivariate spline models. The hierarchical Bayesian model that incorporates information about locations of access points achieves accuracy that is similar to other published models and algorithms, but by using prior knowledge, this model drastically reduces the requirement for training data when compared to existing approaches. Proposed Bayesian bivariate spline models for location surpass predictive accuracy of existing methods. It has been shown that different versions …

Studies Of Solar White-Light Flares And Small-Scale Magnetic Structures Observed In The Near Infrared, Yan Xu

Dissertations

Using the most advanced infrared imaging technology as developed by NJIT, detailed study of solar white-light flares and small magnetic structures, such as faculae and pores, are presented in this dissertation. The investigations focus on near-infrared observations at 1.56 μm, which are good proxy of the deepest layer of the solar photosphere.

I made fundamental contributions in two areas of near infrared (NIR) solar physics: (1) the first detection and understanding of white-light flares in the NIR and (2) clearly demonstrated non-existence of "dark faculae". Several high-resolution observations have been carried out at BBSO and National Solar Observatory/Sacramento Peak. The …

Supporting Individual Time Management Through The Capture And Display Of Temporal Structures, Dezhi Wu

Dissertations

This thesis work examines the time management strategies of individuals in an academic institution and gathers information on the complex temporal structures they experience and manage. Its focus is on understanding the relationship between the quality of individual time management and an individual's understanding and use of temporal structures. This work consists of an exploratory field study to gather data on how people use temporal structures with electronic tools. It is followed by a survey that is given to a larger group of respondents in the same subject population examined with the field study. The survey examines the hypotheses developed …

Rna Structure Analysis : Algorithms And Applications, Jianghui Liu

Dissertations

In this doctoral thesis, efficient algorithms for aligning RNA secondary structures and mining unknown RNA motifs are presented. As the major contribution, a structure alignment algorithm, which combines both primary and secondary structure information, can find the optimal alignment between two given structures where one of them could be either a pattern structure of a known motif or a real query structure and the other be a subject structure.

Motivated by widely used algorithms for RNA folding, the proposed algorithm decomposes an RNA secondary structure into a set of atomic structural components that can be further organized in a tree …

Electronic Capture And Analysis Of Fraudulent Behavioral Patterns : An Application To Identity Fraud, Benjamin Ngugi

Dissertations

The objective of this research was to find a transparent and secure solution for mitigating identity fraud and to find the critical factors that determine the solution's acceptance. Identity fraud is identified as a key problem with total losses exceeding fifty two billion dollars (Javelin Strategy and Research 2005). A common denominator in most identity-fraud-prone transactions is the use of a keypad; hence this research focuses on keypad data entry and proposes a biometric solution. Three studies develop, evaluate and investigate the feasibility of this solution.

The first study was done in three stages. Stage one investigated the technical feasibility …

Influence Of Uncorrelated Defects On The Vortex Phase Diagram In Yba2Cu3O7-6 Superconducting System, Lucian M. Undreiu

Dissertations

The goal of our work is to gain more insight into the vortex dynamics in YBa₂Cu₃0_7-8 single crystals with point defects induced by 9MeV proton irradiation. The position of the critical points from the first order melting transition line can be shifted in a controlled manner with the induced disorder. In order to accomplish a comparative study, different crystals and irradiation doses were used. The results were correlated using both electrical transport and ac specific heat measurements. Special attention was given to investigating the nature of the vortex state below the lower critical point o …

Synthesis And Spectroscopic Characterization Of Manganese Doped Zinc Sulfide Quantum Dot Nanocrystals, Pedro A. Gonzalez Beerman

Dissertations

Zinc sulphide quantum dots were synthesized in aqueous media using sodium polyphosphate as the stabilizer. The nanoparticles were 2.5 ± 0.5 nm and 5.0 ± 0.5 nm diameter depending on the synthetic procedure employed and the amount of Mn doped varied from 0.003 to 0.32% (w/w). The nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis absorption, luminescence, EPR, near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and x-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These quantum dots show a strong emission at 590 nm due to the ⁴T₁ -⁶A₁ transition characteristic of Mn …

Acylpyrazolones: Synthesis, Self-Assembly And Lanthanide Metal Ion Separation, Jun Yang

Dissertations

The central hypothesis that nanoscale self-assemblies can provide excellent metal ion recognition has been substantiated by employing acylpyrazolones and trivalent lanthanide metal ions as model systems. Several novel acylpyrazolones and their amphiphilic analogs have been designed, synthesized, and characterized. Their lanthanide metal ion recognition efficacies have been demonstrated through baseline separations of a mixture of light, middle, and heavy lanthanide metal ions by employing them in the aqueous mobile phase of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with octadecylsilanized silica (ODS) as the stationary phase. The complex separation mechanism is influenced by the structures of acylpyrazolone and amphiphilic moieties, and spontaneous …

Rank-Based Methods For Repeated Measures Data Under Exchangeable Errors, John Kloke

Dissertations

Rank-based estimation methods provide alternatives to least squares. Estimators derived via least squares are generally not robust to aberrant observations.Rank-based methods for linear models generalize traditional Wilcoxon procedures in the simple location models and are robust.

In the usual linear model it is assumed that the errors are independent. In the case of repeated measures data several observations are taken on each experimental unit. In the case of longitudinal data the measures are taken on the same subject over time. As such an independence assumption does not seem valid. A common solution to this is to make an assumption on …

Single-Electron Capture Processes In Slow Collisions Of He^2+ Ions With Molecular Targets, Osama Abu-Haija

Dissertations

Translational energy-gain spectroscopy (TES) has been used to investigate state-selective dissociative and non-dissociative single-electron capture processes in low-energy collisions of He²⁺ ions with O₂ , H₂ O, CO₂ , N₂ , and NH3 at impact energies between 100 eV and 1600 eV. The measured energy spectra for theHe²⁺ -O₂ and H₂ O collision systems show that the dominant exit channel is due to dissociative transfer ionization (DTI), single-electron captureaccompanied by ionization of the molecular target-ion, at the lowest collision energies. As the impact energy is increased non-dissociative single-electron capture (SEC) into the …

Modeling Of Flexible Drug-Like Molecules : Qsar Of Gbr 12909 Analog Dat/Sert Selectivity, Kathleen Mary Gilbert

Dissertations

The dopamine reuptake inhibitor GBR 12909 and related dialkyl piperazine and piperidine analogs have been studied as agonist substitution therapies acting on the dopamine transporter (DAT) to treat cocaine addiction. Undesirable binding to the serotonin transporter (SERT) can vary greatly depending on the specific substituents on the molecule. This study uses Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA) and Comparative Molecular Similarity Indices (CoMSIA) techniques to determine a stable and predictive model for DAT/SERT selectivity for a set of flexible GBR 12909 analogs.

Families of analogs were constructed from six pairs of naphthyl-substituted piperazine and piperidine templates identified by hierarchical clustering as …

Influences Of Surfactant On The Breakup Of A Fluid Jet In Viscous Surrounding, Muhammad Irfan Hameed

Dissertations

The effect of insoluble surfactant on the breakup of a fluid jet surrounded by another viscous fluid at low Reynolds number is studied both theoretically and experimentally. Equations governing the evolution of the interface and surfactant concentration are derived using a long wavelength approximation for the case of an inviscid jet and a slightly viscous jet surrounded by a more viscous fluid. These one dimensional partial differential equations governing the evolution of the slender jet are solved numerically for given initial interfacial perturbations and surfactant concentration. It is found that the presence of insoluble surfactant at the interface retards the …

Dynamics Of Filaments, Flares And Coronal Mass Ejections (Cmes), Ju Jing

Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the connection between the dynamics of solar surface phenomena such as filament eruptions, flares, the coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the core of so-called solar activity, and the properties of the associated magnetic field for the development of forecasts of solar activity and space weather. Both statistical and case studies have been carried out.

The topics covered in this dissertation are: the statistical relationship among phenomena of solar activity, in particular, filament eruptions, flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs); the correlation between magnetic reconnection rate and flux rope acceleration of two-ribbon flares; the …

The Effects Of Digital Audio On Social Presence, Motivation And Perceived Learning In Asynchronous Learning Networks, Eunhee Kim

Dissertations

This study explores the possibilities of applying digital audio to the ALN environment, so that students can speak and listen rather than type and read. Two sets of 1x2 field experiments (text vs. digital audio) were conducted with two formats of digital audio -recorded voice messages and narrated Microsoft PowerPoint presentation - used in several NJIT courses conducted via ALN. The perceptions of communication media were measured from two different user perspectives: active use when the subjects created their assignments using prescribed communication media (audio or text) and passive use when the subjects viewed/listened to other students' work.

The perceptions …

Some Topics On Deterministic Scheduling Problems, Yumei Huo

Dissertations

Sequencing and scheduling problems are motivated by allocation of limited resources over time. The goal is to find an optimal allocation where optimality is defined by some problem specific objectives.

This dissertation considers the scheduling of a set of ri tasks, with precedence constraints, on m >= 1 identical and parallel processors so as to minimize the makespan. Specifically, it considers the situation where tasks, along with their precedence constraints, are released at different times, and the scheduler has to make scheduling decisions without knowledge of future releases. Both preemptive and nonpreemptive schedules are considered. This dissertation shows that optimal …