Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Neutron Production Analysis On Inertial Electrostatic Deuterium-Deuterium Fusion, Louis Franzel

Theses & Honors Papers

The basic principle of fusion is combining two light nuclei to form one nucleus that is lighter than the combination of the original two. This loss of mass is converted into energy (E=mc² ) which can be harnessed for various applications. Fusion can take many different and varied forms including: aneutronic fusion, magnetic confinement (MFE), and inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) to name a few. Fusion is highly adaptable because it can use several different types of fuel such as Deuterium-Tritium, Tritium-Helium-3, Proton-Boron₁₁, and Deuterium-Deuterium mixtures. On top of this, each of the fusion techniques mentioned uses different …

Analyzing The Binding Of Co(Ii)-Specific Inhibitors To The Methionyl Aminopeptidases From Escherichia Coli And Pyrococcus Furiosus, Sanghamitra Mitra, George Sheppard, Jieyi Wang, Brian Bennett, Richard C. Holz

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

Methionine aminopeptidases (MetAPs) represent a unique class of protease that is capable of the hydrolytic removal of an N-terminal methionine residue from nascent polypeptide chains. MetAPs are physiologically important enzymes; hence, there is considerable interest in developing inhibitors that can be used as antiangiogenic and antimicrobial agents. A detailed kinetic and spectroscopic study has been performed to probe the binding of a triazole-based inhibitor and a bestatin-based inhibitor to both Mn(II)- and Co(II)-loaded type-I (Escherichia coli) and type-II (Pyrococcus furiosus) MetAPs. Both inhibitors were found to be moderate competitive inhibitors. The triazole-type inhibitor was found to …

Investigations Of Variable Importance Measures Within Random Forests, Andrew C. Merrill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Random Forests (RF) (Breiman 2001; Breiman and Cutler 2004) is a completely nonparametric statistical learning procedure that may be used for regression analysis and. A feature of RF that is drawing a lot of attention is the novel algorithm that is used to evaluate the relative importance of the predictor/explanatory variables. Other machine learning algorithms for regression and classification, such as support vector machines and artificial neural networks (Hastie et al. 2009), exhibit high predictive accuracy but provide little insight into predictive power of individual variables. In contrast, the permutation algorithm of RF has already established a track record for …

The Design And Implementation Of A Safe, Lightweight Haskell Compiler, Timothy Jan Chevalier

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Typed programming languages offer safety guarantees that help programmers write correct code, but typical language implementations offer no proof that source-level guarantees extend to executable code. Moreover, typical implementations link programs with unsafe runtime system (RTS) code. I present a compiler for the functional language Haskell that preserves some of the properties of Haskell’s type system. The soundness proof for the combination of the compiler and a verified RTS requires a proof that the compiler emits code that cooperates correctly with the RTS. In particular, the latter proof must address the boundary between the user program and the garbage collector. …

Mathews County, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report Methods And Guidelines, Marcia Berman, Harry Berquist, Sharon Killeen, Carl Hershner, Tamia Rudnicky, Daniel E. Schatt, Karinna Nunez, Karen Reay, David Weiss

Reports

The data inventory developed for the Shoreline Situation Reports are based on a three-tiered shoreline assessment approach. This assessment characterizes conditions in the shorezone observed from a small boat moving along the shoreline. Handheld GPS units record data observations in the field. The three tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shorezone into three regions:

1. the immediate riparian zone, evaluated for land use

2. the bank, evaluated for height, stability and natural protection

3. the shoreline, describing the presence of shoreline structures for shore protection and recreational purposes.

Three GIS coverages are generated from the collection technique. The Mathews_lubc coverage are features related …

Shore Status, Evolution, And Storm Vulnerability Assessments For George Washington Birthplace National Monument, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Donna A. Milligan, Kevin P. O'Brien, Christine A. Wilcox

Reports

The shoreline at the George Washington Birthplace National Monument (GEWA) is eroding and vulnerable to storms. Recent storms, such as Hurricane Isabel and Tropical Storm Ernesto impacted the region in 2003 and 2006, respectively. Large losses of the bank prompted the National Park Service to determine the vulnerability of the shore and its associated cultural, natural and archeological resources. This project maps the existing shoreline along the Potomac River and at the Memorial House on Popes Creek, provides an assessment of shore and bank dynamics, determines the rate of shoreline change between 1937 and 2007, and presents an analysis of …

Distributed Constraint Optimization With Structured Resource Constraints, Akshat Kumar, Boi Faltings, Adrian Petcu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Distributed constraint optimization (DCOP) provides a framework for coordinated decision making by a team of agents. Often, during the decision making, capacity constraints on agents' resource consumption must be taken into account. To address such scenarios, an extension of DCOP-Resource Constrained DCOP - has been proposed. However, certain type of resources have an additional structure associated with them and exploiting it can result in more efficient algorithms than possible with a general framework. An example of these are distribution networks, where the flow of a commodity from sources to sinks is limited by the flow capacity of edges. We present …

A Self-Organizing Neural Network Architecture For Intentional Planning Agents, Budhitama Subagdja, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper presents a model of neural network embodiment of intentions and planning mechanisms for autonomous agents. The model bridges the dichotomy of symbolic and non-symbolic representation in developing agents. Some novel techniques are introduced that enables the neural network to process and manipulate sequential and hierarchical structures of information. It is suggested that by incorporating intentional agent model which relies on explicit symbolic description with self-organizing neural networks that are good at learning and recognizing patterns, the best from both sides can be exploited. This paper demonstrates that plans can be represented as weighted connections and reasoning processes can …

Sharing Hierarchical Mobile Multimedia Content Using The Mobitop System, Quang Minh Nguyen, Thi Nhu Quynh Kim, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, Ee-Peng Lim, Yin-Leng Theng, Kalyani Chatterjea, Chew-Hung Chang, Aixin Sun, Khasfariyati Razikin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We introduce MobiTOP (Mobile Tagging of Objects and People), a map-based application which allows users to contribute and share geo-referenced multimedia annotations via mobile devices. An important feature of MobiTOP is that annotations are hierarchical, allowing annotations to be annotated to an arbitrary depth. MobiTOP's interface was designed using a participatory design methodology to ensure that the user interface meets the needs of potential users. In an evaluation, a group of student-teachers involved in a geographical field study were tasked to collaboratively identify rock formations using the MobiTOP system. The students who were in the field were guided by their …

Automatic Mining Of Functionally Equivalent Code Fragments Via Random Testing, Lingxiao Jiang, Zhendong Su

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Similar code may exist in large software projects due to some common software engineering practices, such as copying and pasting code and n-version programming. Although previous work has studied syntactic equivalence and small-scale, coarse-grained program-level and function-level semantic equivalence, it is not known whether significant fine-grained, code-level semantic duplications exist. Detecting such semantic equivalence is also desirable because it can enable many applications such as code understanding, maintenance, and optimization. In this paper, we introduce the first algorithm to automatically mine functionally equivalent code fragments of arbitrary size - down to an executable statement. Our notion of functional equivalence is …

Analytical Upstream Collocation Solution Of A Quadratic Forced Steady-State Convection-Diffusion Equation, Eric Paul Smith

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we present the exact solution to the Hermite collocation discretization of a quadratically forced steady-state convection-diffusion equation in one spatial dimension with constant coeffcients, defined on a uniform mesh, with Dirichlet boundary conditions. To improve the accuracy of the method we use \upstream weighting" of the convective term in an optimal way. We also provide a method to determine where the forcing function should be optimally sampled. Computational examples are given, which support and illustrate the theory of the optimal sampling of the convective and forcing term.

Numerical Modeling Of Time-Lapse Seismic Experiments To Monitor Co2 Sequestration In A Layered Basalt Reservoir, Murari Khatiwada

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Instead of allowing carbon dioxide (CO₂) generated from the burning of hydrocarbons to escape into the atmosphere, CO₂ can be captured and stored. For the long term mitigation of the increasing amount of CO₂ emissions, its sequestration in geological formations is promising. As a measure, its short and long term monitoring is equally important for environmental and health safety issues. The seismic method is proposed as a non-invasive monitoring technique for geological sequestration of CO₂. Based on the positive results obtained from reservoir monitoring during enhanced oil recovery with CO₂ floods, geoscientists plan …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Two Metal-Organic Frameworks, Roxanna Schaffino Moore

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Herein, the design and synthesis of two metal-organic frameworks, Zn 4O(FMA)3 (FMA = fumaric acid) and Zn2(CNC) 2(DPT) (CNC = 4-carboxycinnamic acid; DPT = 3,6-Di-4-pyridy1-1,2,4,5-tetrazine) via solvothermal methods are reported. Zn4O(FMA)3 was isolated as light yellow cubic crystals and Zn2(CNC)2(DPT) as light pink-block shaped crystals. The structures of both MOFs were characterized by single X-ray diffraction. Integrity of both MOFs were determined via powder X-ray diffraction and thermal gravimetric analysis. Zn4O(FMA) 3 is an isoreticular MOF exhibiting 6.8 Å pores taking up 5.2 wt % of hydrogen gas at 40 bar and 77K. Zn2(CNC)2(DPT) is a 3D primative cubic net …

Completing Chemistry Taks Objective 4(9d): The Effect Of Flash Animation, Judith B. Dano

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study examines the effect of flash animation on learning effectiveness. The main goal of the study was to verify if using flash animation on learning chemistry concepts particularly Chemistry TAKS Objective 4 (9D) will have an impact on students learning achievement. The subjects in this study were 10th grade students from PSJA Memorial High School. Two class sections were randomly assigned as the treatment group each with 20 subjects (n=40) and another two class sections were assigned as the control group (n=40). The treatment group was exposed to flash animation while the control group had the traditional lecture type …

Electrospinning Polystyrene Reinforced With Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes: Parameters For Obtaining Nanofibers With Enhanced Thermal Properties, Ana Veronica Rodriguez Ybarra

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Various concentrations of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were dispersed in a polystyrene matrix in order to determine the optimal MWCNT concentration that would enhance the thermal properties of the composite. The MWCNTs were dispersed in the polystyrene matrix by high energy sonication and then electrospun. The microstructural characterization such as fiber diameter, fiber orientation, fiber morphology, porosity, cross-section shape, and surface roughness of the nanofibers electrospun from these composites were made by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Spectroscopic characterization for these nanofibers was conducted using Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy was utilized to establish a nanotube/matrix …

A Comparative Study Of Risk Factors Involved In Diabetes Between Texas And Other States, Andres Padilla Oviedo

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Diabetes is a serious concern in the United States and Texas is a state with high percentage of diabetes. The risk factors contributing to diabetes are current smoking, high blood cholesterol, hypertension, physical inactivity etc. In this thesis, we would like to identify the crucial risk factors for Texas. This motivates us to use the online data resources for a comparative study between Texas and other states. Looking at the data, we decide to use independent sample t-tests and independent sample non parametric tests [Wilcoxon Mann Whitney] for such comparative studies. This analysis has two parts – in the first …

Monitoring Protocol For Two New Jersey Ponds With Littoral Zone Vegetative Restoration, Michael Wilson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Restoration projects are becoming more frequent and commonplace because of increased regulations on development to replace lost ecosystems. Many of these projects have marginal success and rarely achieve the desired results. The mistakes and oversights are sometimes in the planning stages, but more often are made during the installation, primarily due to improper horticultural technique, poor monitoring, education, or lack of follow-up maintenance. Wetland restoration is even more difficult, due to the variable hydrologic patterns and reliance on environmental conditions. The most difficult type of wetland plant to establish is the emergent aquatic that typically grows in water up to …

Paleoenvironment And Paleoclimate Of Coastal East Antarctica During The Middle Miocene : Particle Size Results Of The Andrill Southern Mcmurdo Sound Project, Candice Joy Falk

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The ANDRILL Southern McMurdo Sound (SMS) Project was carried out in December of 2007 by an international interdisciplinary team. The AND-2A core recovered the most complete Neogene stratigraphic record from Antarctica, spanning the past 20.2 million years. Analyzing particle size distributions of samples throughout the core can determine environmental conditions of the past, such as the advance or retreat of glaciers and the rise and fall of sea level. Over 300 samples were taken at approximately 3 m intervals from the 1138.54 m AND-2A core. Samples were processed and analyzed using a Malvern Instruments Mastersizer 2000, laser diffractometer which has …

Geochemical And Petrographic Signatures From Marie Byrd Land And Larsen-B Ice Shelf Sediments : Implications For Provenance Tracing, Cathleen Lauren Dale

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The goal of this study is to trace ice rafted debris in the Southern Ocean back to its most probable terrestrial source from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), or the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Cap (APIC) in order to identify past ice sheet collapses in the geologic record. The bedrock in these areas have characteristic petrographic and geochemical signatures that are preserved in glacially transported and deposited sediment. These signatures may allow us to identify ice rafted debris and fine-grained sediment that originate from these three areas, which have undergone recent ice shelf retreat and …

Stratigraphy And Geochemistry Of Squantum Tillite, Boston Bay Group : Using Field Log And Icp Analysis, Efe Junior Erukanure

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The Squantum Tillite has been studied in order to ascertain its depositional history. The Squantum Tillite is part of the Neoproterozoic Boston Bay Group, located in the Boston Basin. Researchers have proposed contradicting hypotheses about the origin of the rocks in the area for over a century. While some believe that the rocks were deposited by glaciers along a prograding submarine margin, others believe the rocks are of volcanic or tectonic origin. Many scientists are inclined to believe the rocks are of tectonic origin because the Squantum Tillite is located in a tectonic Basin (the Boston Basin).

Field logging was …

A Sedimentary Investigation Of Lineation Patterns Found In The Pinelands Of New Jersey, Jennifer Lynn Lapoma

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Late Pleistocene (-15,000 years ago) geomorphic processes in the Pinelands of southern New Jersey were investigated after odd lineations were found on an Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) survey during the construction of a runway expansion at Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station. These lineations roughly matched up with alternating high and low albedo lineations identified on a 1931 aerial photomosaic approximately 17 kilometer (km) south of Lakehurst Navy Base in Davensport Branch, New Jersey. These lineations were initially hypothesized to be relicts from strong katabic winds flowing off the Laurentide Ice Sheet that would have been capable of winnowing magnetic sands from …

Nantucket & Madaket Harbors Action Plan, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

The Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plan presents the community’s goals, objectives and recommendations for guiding public and private use of the land and water of its harbor areas and establishes an implementation program to achieve the desired outcomes. The plan was prepared under the auspices of the Nantucket Board of Selectmen and guided by the Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Plan Review Committee.

The 2007 plan is an update of the first action plan, which was prepared in 1993, and as such is meant to complement the original plan. The 1993 plan contained extensive background material, much of which is …

Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes-Modified Polymer Organic Photovoltaics, Tzu-Fan Chen

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Since the carbon nanotubes were first discovered by Iijima in 1991, CNTs have been the focus of intense research by many groups. Nearly 7000 papers and 700 theses on carbon nanotubes can be found from the eminent journals such as Nature and Science in the last decade. Since carbon nanotubes show impressive mechanical, physical and electronic properties such as high stiffness, high strength, low density, and excellent thermal conductivity, suggesting its role in light-weight high strength material application. A great quantity of important research has evidently been done in this field. The purpose of this thesis research is to investigate …

A Framework For Consistency Based Feature Selection, Pengpeng Lin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Feature selection is an effective technique in reducing the dimensionality of features in many applications where datasets involve hundreds or thousands of features. The objective of feature selection is to find an optimal subset of relevant features such that the feature size is reduced and understandability of a learning process is improved without significantly decreasing the overall accuracy and applicability. This thesis focuses on the consistency measure where a feature subset is consistent if there exists a set of instances of length more than two with the same feature values and the same class labels. This thesis introduces a new …

On The Breadth Of The Jones Polynomial For Certain Classes Of Knots And Links, Cody Lorton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The problem of finding the crossing number of an arbitrary knot or link is a hard problem in general. Only for very special classes of knots and links can we solve this problem. Often we can only hope to find a lower bound on the crossing number Cr(K) of a knot or a link K by computing the Jones polynomial of K, V(K). The crossing number Cr(K) is bounded from below by the difference between the greatest degree and the smallest degree of the polynomial V(K). However the computation of the Jones polynomial of an arbitrary knot or link is …

Incremental Validation Of Formal Specifications, Paul S. Corwin

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a tool for the mechanical validation of formal software specifications. The tool is based on a novel approach to incremental validation. In this approach, small-scale aspects of a specification are validated, as part of the stepwise refinement of a formal model.

The incremental validation technique can be considered a form of "lightweight" model checking. This is in contrast to a "heavyweight" approach, wherein an entire large-scale model is validated en masse.

The validation tool is part of a formal modeling and specification language (FMSL), used in software engineering instruction. A lightweight, incremental approach to validation is beneficial …

Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Situation And Outlook Report : Results Of The 2008 Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Crop Reporting Survey, Thomas J. Murray, Michael J. Oesterling

Reports

Recent growth of the shellfish aquaculture industry in Virginia has added significant value to the state’s seafood marketplace. Today, watermen continue to harvest both hard clams and oysters from the state’s public resources, albeit at diminished rates. At the same time, Virginia’s watermen-farmers are providing growing quantities of additional quality shellfish to consumers. Following the lead of the hard clam industry, there has been a significant transition to intensive aquaculture of native oysters in recent years. The once extensive oyster planting has disappeared primarily as a result of endemic oyster diseases and increasing wildlife predation of seed oysters. In its …

Functional Characterization And Assembly Studies Of Carboxysomes In Halothiobacillus Neapolitanus, Zhicheng Dou

Dissertations

Functional characterization and assembly studies of carboxysomes in Halothiobacillus neapolitanus were pursued in order to understand the roles of carboxysomes in the carbon metabolism in H. neapolitanus and the assembly of carboxysomes in vitro and in vivo. Previously, a low abundance H. neapolitanus carboxysomal protein, CsoSCA was identified as a novel carboxysomal shell-bound carbonic anhydrase. The enzyme is thought to dehydrate the cytosolic bicarbonate to CO2, the substrate of the RuBisCO packaged within the carboxysome [14, 21]. In this study, the carboxysomal shell was identified as a diffusion barrier for CO2 and O2 molecules. The shell-bound CsoSCA protein facilitates the …

African-American College Student Attitudes Toward Physics And Their Effect On Achievement, Carl Timothy Drake

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting the attitudes that African-American college students have towards introductory college physics. The population targeted for this study consisted of African-American males and females enrolled in introductory college physics classes at an urban public historical black college or university (HBCU) located in the southeastern United States. Nine of the Fennema- Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales, modified for physics, were used to analyze the attitudes of the 135 participants enrolled in an introductory college physics class. The nine scales used to measure the students' attitudes were Attitude Toward Success in Physics Scale (AS), …

Molecular Interactions Involved In The Biogenesis Of Bacterial Microcompartments, Balaraj Balaram Menon

Dissertations

This study was undertaken with the goal of gaining better insights into the assembly pathway of carboxysomes and related polyhedra. Aside from their similarity in size and shape, all known microcompartments package enzymes that mediate key reactions of metabolic pathways [1]. It remains unclear whether the sequestered enzymes participate in microcompartment assembly and/or contribute to the overall shape of the polyhedra. Genetic studies in Salmonella enterica have suggested that the shells of organelles involved in propanediol utilization assemble in the absence of encapsulated enzymes [2]. In this study, in vivo yeast two-hybrid screens, involving components of the ethanolamine utilization (Eut) …