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Balanced Libraries: Thoughts On Continuity And Change, Walt Crawford

Sci-Tech News

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Division Officers And Boards

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Beyond The Chemistry Web, Bob Buchanan

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Studies Towards Bioactive Imidazoles, Karuna Koda

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses

The work presented in this thesis focuses on the development of an enantioselective and practical route form the total synthesis of villagorgin via haplosleridamine imidazole alkaloid containing β- carboline moiety by employing the well-known Pictet-Spengler and Fischer indole reactions. We approached two different ways inorder to synthesize these molecules Our first approach focused on using a Dieckmann condensation, requiring the preparation of the corresponding diester. Initial attempts to prepare this substrate directly from histidine were unsuccessful, however after conversion to the N-benzzylamine and reductive amination with ester provided the key diester compound. Unfortunately, attempts to effect the Dieckmann reaction were …

Multiply Charged Cationic Pairing Agents For Trace Analysis Of Anionic Species By Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry, Jeffrey William Remsburg

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses

Electrospray ionization is one of the most broadly useful and successful approaches for coupling high performance liquid chromatography to mass spectrometry. Most of the research in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) has been limited to the positive ion mode, where lower detection limits are generally achieved, due several advantages over the more problematic negative ion mode. However, if one wishes to study anionic species, the negative ion mode traditionally had to be employed, and the problems associated with the negative ion mode had to be tolerated or ameliorated as much as possible Recently, novel work has been done to take …

Supramolecular Chemistry On Carbon Dioxide, Hexiang Zhang

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses

This dissertation describes approaches towards designs, syntheses, characterizations, and applications of supramolecular chemistry on carbon dioxide. Chapter 1 briefly overviews the field of supramolecular chemistry and highlights its horizons, also introduces the progress of sensing devices on chemical warfare agents. Chapter 2 introduces a modular approach to detect chemical warfare agent: phosgene by Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET). It combines the chemical reactivity between amines and phosgene with fluorescence properties of coumarin fluorophores, forms a fast, selective and reliable sensing system. Chapter 3 overviews the chemistry between amines and carbon dioxide and introduces the applications of this reaction in molecular …

An Examination Of Colliding Galaxy Clusters: Recreating 1e 0657-56 With Gadget-2, Joseph Johnson

All Theses

In this thesis I use the publicly available smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code GADGET-2 to investigate and recreate the phenomenon of two merging galaxy clusters, as currently seen in the hot X-ray cluster 1E 0657-56 (the 'bullet cluster'). In this scenario, the stellar and dark matter components of the galaxies pass through the collision without experiencing strong stopping forces, but the intra-cluster gas is significantly slowed by ram pressure. This leads to a spatial separation between the galaxies and the intra-cluster gas, which provides a testing ground for gravitational theories. Weak gravitational lensing in the cluster has been used to …

Statistics In The Jury Box: How Jurors Respond To Mitochondrial Dna Match Probabilities, David H. Kaye, Valerie P. Hans, B. Michael Dann, Erin J. Farley, Stephanie Albertson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article describes parts of an unusually realistic experiment on the comprehension of expert testimony on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing in a criminal trial for robbery. Specifically, we examine how jurors who responded to summonses for jury duty evaluated portions of videotaped testimony involving probabilities and statistics. Although some jurors showed susceptibility to classic fallacies in interpreting conditional probabilities, the jurors as a whole were not overwhelmed by a 99.98% exclusion probability that the prosecution presented. Cognitive errors favoring the defense were more prevalent than ones favoring the prosecution. These findings lend scant support to the legal argument that mtDNA …

Learning Video Preferences Using Visual Features And Closed Captions, Darin Brezeale

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

Viewers of video now have more choices than ever. As the number of choices increases, the task of searching through these choices to locate video of interest is becoming more difficult. Current methods for learning a viewer's preferences in order to automate the search process rely either on video having content descriptions or on having been rated by other viewers identified as being similar. However, much video exists that does not meet these requirements. To address this need, we use hidden Markov models to learn the preferences of a viewer by combining visual features and closed captions. We validate our …

A Discrete Event Based Stochastic Simulation Approach For Studying The Dynamics Of Biological Networks, Samik Ghosh

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

With increasing availability of data resources on the molecular parts of a living cell, biologists are focusing on holistic understanding of cellular mechanisms and the emergent dynamics arising out of their complex interactions. Comprehending the fine-grained signal specificity, gene regulation and feedback mechanisms of molecular interactions at a network level forms a central theme of systems biology. With the speed and sophistication of computational methods, in silico modeling and simulation techniques have become a powerful tool for biologists challenged with understanding the system complexity of biological networks. Numerical simulation of classical chemical kinetics (CCK), agent-based simulations of biological processes, and …

Privacy In Location Aware Computing Environments, Denise Anthony, Tristan Henderson, David Kotz

Dartmouth Scholarship

As location-aware and pervasive computing technologies become more prevalent, privacy concerns are becoming increasingly more important. User preferences about location privacy may depend on place, not only in terms of their physical location but also in terms of their social context: how they define where they are, what they are doing, and whom they are with at the time. Using the experience sampling method, the authors explored the privacy preferences of 25 users during one week. They found that participants were more willing to share location information when at home or alone than when at other locations or with friends. …

Ralbp1 In Stress Resistance, Kenneth Drake

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations

Ralbp1 is a multi-specific transporter of glutathione conjugates as well as unconjugated amphiphilic toxins. Because glutathione conjugates are major metabolites of toxic lipid peroxidation products generated as a consequence of oxidant and radiant stress, the hypothesis is put forth that the function of Ralbp1 in-vivo and in vitro should be to protect organisms from chemical stress by removing toxic chemicals. Studies described in this dissertation were designed to prove this hypothesis. We tested the hypothesis by examining whether the inhibition or augmentation of Ralbp1 would sensitize or protect cells and whole animals from the toxic effects of chemicals and radiation. …

Ring Closing Enyne Metathesis Of Imidazole Derivatives And Subsequent Diels-Alder Reaction, E. Vindana Ekanayake

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses

The work presented in this thesis describes the development of new synthetic routes to elaborate simple imidazole derivatives into complex imidazole molecules by the application of different sequential transformations. The first transformation considered is the ring closing enyne metathesis (RCEYM) of imidazoles. To carry out this reaction various allyl and propargyl derivatives of imidazole have been synthesized. These enyne substrates have been varied by changing the positions on the imidazole, as well as changing the protecting groups. All substrates contain trimethysilyl-protected propargyl derivative as the "yne" moiety. After the successful preparation of different enyne substrates, they were subjected to the …

A Search For The Higgs Boson In Its Associated Production With A W Vector Boson In P¯P Collisions At √S = 1.96 Tev, Venkatesh S. Kaushik

Physics Dissertations

We present the results of a search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in its associated production with a W vector boson in p¯p collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV using the complete Run IIA dataset with an integrated luminosity of 1.04 fb−1 collected by the DØ experiment. The salient features of this analysis are the extended geometric acceptance by including the pseudorapidity covered by the end cap calorimeter, optimization in b-tagging and event selection criteria. We observe very good agreement in the data compared to the expectation form the modeling of Standard Model background for the WH signal. No …

Study Of The Minimum Spanning Hyper-Tree Routing Algorithm In Wireless Sensor Networks, Ting Yang, Yugeng Sun, Zhaoxia Wang, Juwei Zhang, Yingqiang Ding

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Designing energy-efficient routing protocols to effectively increase the networks' lifetime and provide the robust network service is one of the important problems in the research of wireless sensor networks. Using the hyper-graph theory, the paper represents large-scale wireless sensor networks into a hyper-graph model, which can effectively decrease the control messages in routing process. Based on this mathematic model, the paper presents the minimum spanning hyper-tree routing algorithm in synchronous wireless sensor networks (MSHT-SN), which builds a minimum energy consumption tree for data collection from multi-nodes to Sink node. The validity of the algorithm is proved by the theatrical analysis. …

Multi-Order Neurons For Evolutionary Higher Order Clustering And Growth, Kiruthika Ramanathan, Sheng Uei Guan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This letter proposes to use multiorder neurons for clustering irregularly shaped data arrangements. Multiorder neurons are an evolutionary extension of the use of higher-order neurons in clustering. Higher-order neurons parametrically model complex neuron shapes by replacing the classic synaptic weight by higher-order tensors. The multiorder neuron goes one step further and eliminates two problems associated with higher-order neurons. First, it uses evolutionary algorithms to select the best neuron order for a given problem. Second, it obtains more information about the underlying data distribution by identifying the correct order for a given cluster of patterns. Empirically we observed that when the …

I’M A Virus Harming The Earth, M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We humans plunder the raw material from our host planet with such an abandon that is only seen in viruses.

Spatial And Temporal Analysis Of Pharmaceutical Concentrations And Chitobiase Activity In The Upper Tennessee River, Justin M. Conley

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Tennessee currently has the 3rd highest per capita prescription drug usage rate in the United States, yet no published studies have analyzed Tennessee surface waters for the presence of pharmaceuticals. Composite surface samples were collected upstream and downstream of sewage treatment plants and at the inflow of major tributaries to the Tennessee River to determine the presence and potential sources of pharmaceuticals. Subsurface samples were collected at 7 meters depth to determine differences in occurrence and potential natural degradation. All samples were collected once during each of the four seasons (winter, spring, summer, and fall) to determine yearly variations. Aliquots …

Design Of Multi-Electron Transfer Catalysts For The Reduction Of Trichloroethylene, Christopher Gerard Eman Ciptadjaya

Masters Theses

For decades, organohalide (RX) compounds have been heavily used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and in agriculture as pesticides. Improper disposal of organohalides has resulted in their presence in the environment as pollutants, and they have therefore presented serious environmental and toxicological concerns. These organohalides have been associated with various health and environmental problems. Therefore, effective methods for their remediation are required. We have developed a multi-electron transfer (MET) catalyst consisting of flavin mononucleotide anchored to nanocrystalline mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO₂) thin films, and examined its reactivity toward the organohalide pollutant trichloroethylene (TCE). Various environmental factors were …

Effects Of Environmental Stress On Growth, Yield, And Flavonolignan Content In Milk Thistle Silybum Marianum L. Gaertn, Amy Renae Belitz

Masters Theses

Four experiments were performed in a greenhouse or growth chamber to study the quantity and quality of flavonolignans in response to environmental stress in milk thistle (Silybum marianum L., Gaertn.). A preliminary experiment was conducted in spring 2004 to study effects of leaf harvests on growth, development, and flavonolignan content in milk thistle seeds. Taxifolin, a component of silymarin and precursor to flavonolignans, was significantly reduced due to leaf harvest treatments.

The weedy nature (sporadic germination) of Silybum made germinating enough plants for experimentation problematic. Initial germination studies to determine imbibition and pre-chilling requirements were inconclusive due to heavy …

Investigation Of Radio Frequency Discharges And Langmuir Probe Diagnostic Methods In A Fast Flowing Electronegative Background Gas, Nathaniel P. Lockwood

Theses and Dissertations

Discharges in a flowing background gas are used to produce charged and excited species for numerous applications including etching semiconductors and pumping gas discharge lasers (Pinhero and others, 1998). The effect of a flowing background gas on the charged and excited neutral species generation by an RF discharge in a flow tube and the diagnostics of the resulting plasma with a Langmuir probe have been investigated for pressures between 0.001 to 1 Torr and flow velocities up to 1000 m/s. This investigation was performed using a fluid method coupled to a chemical kinetic model and a hybrid Particle-In-Cell/Monte Carlo Collision …

Enlightened Computing: An Architecture For Co-Allocating Network, Compute, And Other Grid Resources For High-End Applications, Lina Battestilli, Andrei Hutanut, Gigi Karmous-Edwards, Daniel S. Katz, Jon Maclarent, Joe Mambretti, John H. Moore, Seung Jong Park, Harry G. Perros, Syam Sundar, Savera Tanwir, Steven R. Thorpe, Yufeng Xin

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Many emerging high-performance applications require distributed infrastructure that is significantly more powerful and flexible than traditional Grids. Such applications require the optimization, close integration, and control of all Grid resources, including networks. The EnLIGHTened (ENL) Computing Project has designed an architectural framework that allows Grid applications to dynamically request (in-advance or on-demand) any type of Grid resource: computers, storage, instruments, and deterministic, high-bandwidth network paths, including lightpaths. Based on application requirements, the ENL middleware communicates with Grid resource managers and, when availability is verified, co-allocates all the necessary resources. ENL's Domain Network Manager controls all network resource allocations to dynamically …

A Modified Route To Cyclopenta[C]Thophenes Via Grignard Reagents, Amber Bell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The synthesis of cyclopenta[c]thiophenes is sparsely found in literature due to the several difficulties of their synthesis. Our research has shown that we could modify a previously known route to 1,3-disubstituted cyclopenta[c]thiophenes using traditional Grignard chemistry. Along the way we discovered the synthetic route we were using had several omissions. Therefore, we were required to completely fill in missing experimentals in order to obtain each cyclopenta[c]thiophene intermediate, in high purity and good yield. In addition, we were able to fully characterize via NMR, our intermediates which was found in the literature. Finally, we were able to show using 'H 13 …

The Distribution And Reproductive Success Of The Western Snowy Plover Along The Oregon Coast - 2007, David J. Lauten, Kathleen J. Castelein, Raya Pruner, Marvin Friel, Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

From 3 April – 21 September 2007, we monitored the distribution, abundance and productivity of the federally Threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) along the Oregon coast. From north to south, we surveyed and monitored plover activity at Sutton Beach, Siltcoos River estuary, the Dunes Overlook, North Tahkenitch Creek, Tenmile Creek, Coos Bay North Spit, Bandon Beach, and New River. Our objectives for the Oregon coastal population in 2007 were to: 1) estimate the size of the adult Snowy Plover population, 2) locate plover nests, 3) continue selected use of mini-exclosures (MEs) to protect nests from predators …

Extensions Of Two-Part Tests To Compare K Independent Populations, Marwan Daoud

Dissertations

We consider two-part models that are mixtures of a point-mass variable with all mass at zero and a continuous random variable. The model may assume a particular distributionh(x) for the continuous part such as a log-normal or a gamma. The response variable is defined as y=(x, d), where d=1 if x > 0 and d=0 if x = 0. The probability distribution function has the following form: fx,d=p ^1-d×1-p ×hx ^d.

Lachenbruch (1976, 2001) proposed several tests to compare means of two populations for this type of data. We proposed a two-part Wald test and …

Synthesis, Study Of Self-Assembly, And Trivalent Lanthanide Metal Ion Recognition Characteristics Of Amphiphilic Acylpyrazolones And Amphiphilic Acylisoxazolones, Venkat Reddy Guduru

Dissertations

This research project focused on the separation of trivalent lanthanide metal ions by HPLC using amphiphilic acylpyrazolones and amphiphilic acylisoxazolones. The central hypothesis of our research project is that the nanoscale self-assembly nature of amphiphilic ligands (chelating lingads) can influence their metal ion recognition and separation. To test the central hypothesis, we have synthesized a family of novel amphiphilic ligands and employed them as model systems for the separation of trivalent lanthanide metal ions. Several novel intermediates such as 4-acylated. N -acylated, O -acylated pyrazolones and isoxazolones, have been efficiently synthesized and fully characterized.*

The trivalent lanthanide metal ion recognition …

Structure And Excitations In Metal Ammonia Compounds, Xue Wang

Dissertations

This work has two parts. In the first part, inelastic x-ray scattering was used to measure the plasmon excitations in liquid lithium ammonia systems. The measurements were carried out for different metal concentrations, 8 mole per metal (MPM), 10 MPM, 11 MPM, 16 MPM and 20 MPM of temperature 200K. The data were analyzed to determine the plasmon energy and the linewidth as a function of momentum for each metal concentration. Deviations from the random phase approximation (RPA) in the jellium model increase as the concentration is lowered.

In the second part of this work, elastic x-ray scattering was used …

A Study Of Avian Nest Predation At Audubon Acres In Chattanooga, Tn, Melea R. Langley

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Predation is believed to be the primary cause of nesting mortality among North American migratory land birds. High rates of nest predation can jeopardize avian reproductive biology by affecting life histories and habitat selection. Artificial nests are commonly used to study nest predation because they allow the researcher to investigate comparative treatments and their impact on predation. Relative nest predation was studied at Audubon Acres in Chattanooga, TN using artificial nests. The study investigated differences in habitat types,nest heights, egg types, and predator types.

Automatically Extract Information From Web Documents, Dipesh Sharma

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Internet could be considered to be a reservoir of useful information in textual form — product catalogs, airline schedules, stock market quotations, weather forecast etc. There has been much interest in building systems that gather such information on a user's behalf. But because these information resources are formatted differently, mechanically extracting their content is difficult. Systems using such resources typically use hand-coded wrappers, customized procedures for information extraction. Structured data objects are a very important type of information on the Web. Such data objects are often records from underlying databases and displayed in Web pages with some fixed templates. …