Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Asian Carp In The Missouri River: Analysis From Multiple Missouri River Habitat And Fisheries Programs, Greg A. Wanner, Robert A. Klumb

National Invasive Species Council

Bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis, silver carp H. molitrix, black carp Mylopharyngodon piceus, and grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella, collectively referred to as Asian carps, are invasive species that were either accidentally or intentionally introduced into the Mississippi River basin. The expansion of Asian carp into the Missouri River is not well understood and knowledge of population characteristics within this river were lacking. The objectives of this study were to describe the relative abundance, size structure, and spatial and temporal trends of Asian carp using multiple gears from three long-term fish community monitoring programs in the Missouri River …

Biofuels: Cultivating Energy, Not Invasive Species

National Invasive Species Council

To provide alternatives to petroleum-based energy, the United States (U.S.) government has mandated a greater proportion of plant-based biofuels be integrated into its energy portfolio. However, certain plant species being proposed for biofuel production in the U.S. are invasive species or are likely to escape cultivation and become invasive.

U.S. Executive Order (E.O.) 13112¹ defines invasive species as “alien [non-native] species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health” and states:

“Each Federal agency whose actions may affect the status of invasive species shall, to the extent practicable and permitted …

Length-Weight Relationships For Three Asian Carp Species In The Missouri River, Greg A. Wanner, Robert A. Klumb

National Invasive Species Council

Bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), and grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), collectively referred to as Asian carp, are invasive species that have been introduced into the Mississippi River basin. The expansion of Asian carp into the Missouri River is not well understood and knowledge of population characteristics within this river are lacking. The objectives of this study were to describe the length-weight relationships (condition) of Asian carp from 2003 to 2007 in the Missouri River downstream of Gavins Point Dam, South Dakota and Nebraska to St. Louis, Missouri. All total, 388 bighead, …

An Aza-Cyclophane Stacked In Racemic Columnar Assemblies: Whole-Molecule Disorder In A Two-Dimensional Solid Solution, M Zeller

Chemistry: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The oxime derivative of [1.1.1]cyclophane cyclotriveratrylene (CTV) was ring expanded utilizing a Beckmann rearrangement to provide a ten-membered N-acetyl macrocyclic amide that crystallizes as a chloroform monosolvate in columnar assemblies manifesting an unusual disorder within the crystal. Columns made up of this structure consist of infinite columnar assemblies of alternating D and L enantiomers and therefore necessarily are made up of a racemate, yet the chiralities of individual molecules in adjacent columns are independent of one another, leading to the overall formation of a two-dimensional solid solution. The random arrangement of the columns within the structure leads to the …

Detecting Malicious Software By Dynamicexecution, Jianyong Dai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traditional way to detect malicious software is based on signature matching. However, signature matching only detects known malicious software. In order to detect unknown malicious software, it is necessary to analyze the software for its impact on the system when the software is executed. In one approach, the software code can be statically analyzed for any malicious patterns. Another approach is to execute the program and determine the nature of the program dynamically. Since the execution of malicious code may have negative impact on the system, the code must be executed in a controlled environment. For that purpose, we have …

Alliances In Graphs: Parameterized Algorithms And On Partitioning Series-Parallel Graphs, Rosa Enciso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alliances are used to denote agreements between members of a group with similar interests. Alliances can occur between nations, biological sequences, business cartels, and other entities. The notion of alliances in graphs was first introduced by Kristiansen, Hedetniemi, and Hedetniemi in . A defensive alliance in a graph G = (V, E) is a non empty set S ⊆ V where, for all x ∈ S, |N[x] ∩ S| ≥ |N[x] − S|. Consequently, every vertex that is a member of a defensive alliance has at least as many vertices defending it as there are vertices attacking it. Alliances can …

Connectionless Approach: A Localized Scheme To Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Yao Ho

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to a Gartner Group (www.gartner.com) report in September 2008, the worldwide telecommunications market is on pace to reach $2 trillion in 2008. Gartner predicts that by 2012, the ratio of mobile to fixed connections will exceed 4-to-1. The North American mobile data market grew to 141.1 million connections in 2007, with a compound annual growth rate of 41.7 percent. It is believed that a large portion will be ad hoc and multi-hop connections, which will open many opportunities for Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) applications and Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) applications. A MANET is a self-organizing multi-hop wireless network …

Modeling Scenes And Human Activities In Videos, Arslan Basharat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we address the problem of understanding human activities in videos by developing a two-pronged approach: coarse level modeling of scene activities and fine level modeling of individual activities. At the coarse level, where the resolution of the video is low, we rely on person tracks. At the fine level, richer features are available to identify different parts of the human body, therefore we rely on the body joint tracks. There are three main goals of this dissertation: (1) identify unusual activities at the coarse level, (2) recognize different activities at the fine level, and (3) predict the …

Efficient Techniques For Relevance Feedback Processing In Content-Based Image Retrieval, Danzhou Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems, there are two general types of search: target search and category search. Unlike queries in traditional database systems, users in most cases cannot specify an ideal query to retrieve the desired results for either target search or category search in multimedia database systems, and have to rely on iterative feedback to refine their query. Efficient evaluation of such iterative queries can be a challenge, especially when the multimedia database contains a large number of entries, and the search needs many iterations, and when the underlying distance measure is computationally expensive. The overall processing costs, …

Scheduling And Resource Management For Complex Systems: From Large-Scale Distributed Systems To Very Large Sensor Networks, Chen Yu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we focus on multiple levels of optimized resource management techniques. We first consider a classic resource management problem, namely the scheduling of data-intensive applications. We define the Divisible Load Scheduling (DLS) problem, outline the system model based on the assumption that data staging and all communication with the sites can be done in parallel, and introduce a set of optimal divisible load scheduling algorithms and the related fault-tolerant coordination algorithm. The DLS algorithms introduced in this dissertation exploit parallel communication, consider realistic scenarios regarding the time when heterogeneous computing systems are available, and generate optimal schedules. Performance …

The Forensic Analysis Of Triacetone Triperoxide (Tatp) Precursors And Synthetic By-Products, Kimberly Painter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) is a primary high explosive that can be synthesized using commercially available starting materials and has grown in use among terrorists over the past several years. Additives present in the precursors were investigated to see if they carry through the TATP synthesis and can be detected in the final product potentially aiding in the identification of the source. Additives identified in the acetones were also identified in pre-blast and in some post-blast samples. However, these additives are present in trace quantities relative to the TATP, which coupled with the volatility and short lifetimes of some of the …

Room Temperature Synthesis And Systematic Characterization Of Ultra-Small Ceria Nanoparticles, Chetak Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cerium oxide (ceria, CeOâ‚‚) is a rare earth oxide that has attracted wide-spread research interest because of its unique properties such as high mechanical strength, oxygen ion conductivity, oxygen storage capacity and autocatalytic property. In recent years, researchers have discovered that ceria nanoparticles (NPs) are capable of protecting cells from free radical induced damage. Interestingly, it was found that nanometer size (~ 5 nm) ceria can scavenge free radicals quite efficiently, thus acting as an anti-oxidant. This phenomenon has been explained based on the autocatalytic property of ceria NPs. Several methods have been developed for the synthesis of ceria NPs …

A Preliminary Study Of A Non-Invasive Glucose Sensor Based On A Mercury Sensor, Erin Wood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Diabetes mellitus is a potentially lethal disease that affects 7.6 percent of American people. In the US, it is recognized as the 6th leading cause of death. Failure to control blood glucose levels (BGL) in patients with either type of diabetes can lead to other serious complications as well, such as loss of limb, blindness and other health problems. Controlling and monitoring the BGL in post-op and intensive care patients in the hospital is also vital to their health. Currently the most reliable method of monitoring BGL is through an invasive procedure which monitors the amount of glucose in blood …

Imaging And Spectroscopy Of Conducting Polymer-Fullerene Composite Materials, Daeri Tenery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the development and optical study of conjugated (conducting) polymers it has become apparent that chain conformation and aggregation at the molecular scale result in complex heterogeneous nanostructured bulk materials for which a detailed insight into morphological, spectroscopic as well as optoelectronic properties and mechanisms is overwhelmingly difficult to obtain. Nanoparticles composed of the conjugated polymer poly (MEH-PPV) and nanocomposite nanoparticles consisting of MEH-PPV doped with 1-(3-methoxycarbonylpropyl)-1-phenyl-C61 (PCBM) were prepared as model systems to study these materials at the length scale of one to a few domains. The MEH-PPV and PCBM doped nanoparticles were analyzed by single imaging/particle spectroscopy (SPS) …

Efficient Cone Beam Reconstruction For The Distorted Circle And Line Trajectory, Souleymane Konate

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We propose an exact filtered backprojection algorithm for inversion of the cone beam data in the case when the trajectory is composed of a distorted circle and a line segment. The length of the scan is determined by the region of interest , and it is independent of the size of the object. With few geometric restrictions on the curve, we show that we have an exact reconstruction. Numerical experiments demonstrate good image quality.

Optimal Dual Frames For Erasures And Discrete Gabor Frames, Jerry Lopez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since their discovery in the early 1950's, frames have emerged as an important tool in areas such as signal processing, image processing, data compression and sampling theory, just to name a few. Our purpose of this dissertation is to investigate dual frames and the ability to find dual frames which are optimal when coping with the problem of erasures in data transmission. In addition, we study a special class of frames which exhibit algebraic structure, discrete Gabor frames. Much work has been done in the study of discrete Gabor frames in Rn, but very little is known about the l2(Z) …

The Sheffer B-Type 1 Orthogonal Polynomial Sequences, Daniel Galiffa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1939, I.M. Sheffer proved that every polynomial sequence belongs to one and only one type. Sheffer extensively developed properties of the B-Type 0 polynomial sequences and determined which sets are also orthogonal. He subsequently generalized his classification method to the case of arbitrary B-Type k by constructing the generalized generating function A(t)exp[xH1(t) + · · · + xk+1Hk(t)] = ∑∞n=0 Pn(x)tn, with Hi(t) = hi,iti + hi,i+1t i+1 + · · · , h1,1 ≠ 0. Although extensive research has been done on characterizing polynomial sequences, no analysis has yet been completed on sets of type one or higher …

Almost Regular Graphs And Edge Face Colorings Of Plane Graphs, Lisa Macon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Regular graphs are graphs in which all vertices have the same degree. Many properties of these graphs are known. Such graphs play an important role in modeling network configurations where equipment limitations impose a restriction on the maximum number of links emanating from a node. These limitations do not enforce strict regularity, and it becomes interesting to investigate nonregular graphs that are in some sense close to regular. This dissertation explores a particular class of almost regular graphs in detail and defines generalizations on this class. A linear-time algorithm for the creation of arbitrarily large graphs of the discussed class …

Weighted Lp-Stability For Localized Infinite Matrices, Qiling Shi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation originates from a classical result that the lp-stability of the convolution operator associated with a summable sequence are equivalent to each other for different p . This dissertation is motivated by the recent result by C. E. Shin and Q. Sun (Journal ofFunctional Analysis, 256(2009), 2417-2439), where the lp-stability of infinite matrices in the Gohberg-Baskakov-Sjostrand class are proved to be equivalent to each other for different p. In the dissertation, for an infinite matrix having certain off-diagonal decay, its weighted lp-stability for different p are proved to be equivalent to each other and hence a result by Shin …

Analytical And Numerical Solutions Of Differentialequations Arising In Fluid Flow And Heat Transfer Problems, Erik Sweet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The solutions of nonlinear ordinary or partial differential equations are important in the study of fluid flow and heat transfer. In this thesis we apply the Homotopy Analysis Method (HAM) and obtain solutions for several fluid flow and heat transfer problems. In chapter 1, a brief introduction to the history of homotopies and embeddings, along with some examples, are given. The application of homotopies and an introduction to the solutions procedure of differential equations (used in the thesis) are provided. In the chapters that follow, we apply HAM to a variety of problems to highlight its use and versatility in …

Development Of Theoretical And Computational Methods For Three-Body Processes, Juan Blandon Zapata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the development and application of theoretical and computational methods to study three-body processes. The main focus is on the calculation of three-body resonances and bound states. This broadly includes the study of Efimov states and resonances, three-body shape resonances, three-body Feshbach resonances, three-body pre-dissociated states in systems with a conical intersection, and the calculation of three-body recombination rate coefficients. The method was applied to a number of systems. A chapter of the thesis is dedicated to the related study of deriving correlation diagrams for three-body states before and after a three-body collision. More specifically, the thesis discusses …

Search, Characterization, And Properties Of Brown Dwarfs, Ramarao Tata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A trend in polarization as predicted by theoretical models was validated, and atmospheric dust grain sizes and projected rotational velocities for these objects were estimated. Comprehensive studies of UDs are proving to be crucial not only in our understanding of UDs but also for star and planet formation as brown dwarfs represent their lower and upper mass boundaries, respectively. Brown dwarfs (BD) were mere theoretical astrophysical objects for more than three decades (Kumar (1962)) till their first observational detection in 1995 (Rebolo et al. (1995), Nakajima et al. (1995)). These objects are intermediate in mass between stars and planets. Since …

Decoherence In Semiconductor Solid-State Quantum Computers, Diego Valente

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation we discuss decoherence in charge qubits formed by multiple lateral quantum dots in the framework of the spin-boson model and the Born-Markov approximation. We consider the intrinsic decoherence caused by the coupling to bulk phonon modes and electromagnetic environmental fluctuations. In the case of decoherence caused by phonon coupling, two distinct quantum dot configurations are studied and proposed as setups that mitigate its nocive effects : (i) Three quantum dots in a ring geometry with one excess electron in total and (ii) arrays of quantum dots where the computational basis states form multipole charge configurations. For the …

In-Situ Gas Phase Catalytic Properties Of Metal Nanoparticles, Luis Ono

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent advances in surface science technology have opened new opportunities for atomic scale studies in the field of nanoparticle (NP) catalysis. The 2007 Nobel Prize of Chemistry awarded to Prof. G. Ertl, a pioneer in introducing surface science techniques to the field of heterogeneous catalysis, shows the importance of the field and revealed some of the fundamental processes of how chemical reactions take place at extended surfaces. However, after several decades of intense research, fundamental understanding on the factors that dominate the activity, selectivity, and stability (life-time) of nanoscale catalysts are still not well understood. This dissertation aims to explore …

Analysis And Design Of Wide-Angle Foveated Optical Systems, George Curatu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of compact imaging systems capable of transmitting high-resolution images in real-time while covering a wide field-of-view (FOV) is critical in a variety of military and civilian applications: surveillance, threat detection, target acquisition, tracking, remote operation of unmanned vehicles, etc. Recently, optical foveated imaging using liquid crystal (LC) spatial light modulators (SLM) has received considerable attention as a potential approach to reducing size and complexity in fast wide-angle lenses. The fundamental concept behind optical foveated imaging is reducing the number of elements in a fast wide-angle lens by placing a phase SLM at the pupil stop to dynamically compensate …

Optical Nonlinear Interactions In Dielectric Nano-Suspensions, Ramy El-Ganainy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work is divided into two main parts. In the first part (chapters 2-7) we consider the nonlinear response of nano-particle colloidal systems. Starting from the Nernst-Planck and Smoluchowski equations, we demonstrate that in these arrangements the underlying nonlinearities as well as the nonlinear Rayleigh losses depend exponentially on optical intensity. Two different nonlinear regimes are identified depending on the refractive index contrast of the nanoparticles involved and the interesting prospect of self-induced transparency is demonstrated. Soliton stability is systematically analyzed for both 1D and 2D configurations and their propagation dynamics in the presence of Rayleigh losses is examined. We …

Gabor Domain Optical Coherence Microscopy, Supraja Murali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Time domain Optical Coherence Tomography (TD-OCT), first reported in 1991, makes use of the low temporal coherence properties of a NIR broadband laser to create depth sectioning of up to 2mm under the surface using optical interferometry and point to point scanning. Prior and ongoing work in OCT in the research community has concentrated on improving axial resolution through the development of broadband sources and speed of image acquisition through new techniques such as Spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT). In SD-OCT, an entire depth scan is acquired at once with a low numerical aperture (NA) objective lens focused at a fixed …

Power Scaling Of Large Mode Area Thulium Fiber Lasers In Various Spectral And Temporal Regimes, Timothy Mccomb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High power thulium fiber lasers are interesting for a myriad of applications due to their potential for high average output power, excellent beam quality, compactness, portability, high operating efficiency and broad, eye-safe spectral range from 1.8-2.1 microns. Currently, the majority of thulium laser research effort is being invested into scaling average output powers; however, such output powers are being scaled with no degree of control on laser system output spectrum or temporal behavior. Thulium fiber laser technology is not useful for many of its most important applications without implementation of techniques enabling tunable, narrow spectral widths with appropriate pulse durations …

Silicon Carbide And Agile Optics Based Sensors For Power Plant Gas Turbines, Laser Beam Analysis And Biomedicine, Mumtaz Sheikh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Proposed are novel sensors for extreme environment power plants, laser beam analysis and biomedicine. A hybrid wireless-wired extreme environment temperature sensor using a thick single-crystal Silicon Carbide (SiC) chip embedded inside a sintered SiC probe design is investigated and experimentally demonstrated. The sensor probe employs the SiC chip as a Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometer to measure the change in refractive index and thickness of SiC with temperature. A novel temperature sensing method that combines wavelength-tuned signal processing for coarse measurements and classical FP etalon peak shift for fine measurements is proposed and demonstrated. This method gives direct unambiguous temperature measurements with …

Synthesis Of Biocompatible Antioixidant Polymer Coated Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles, Its Oxidase Like Behavior And Cellular Uptake, Atul Asati

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cerium oxide nanoparticles have been widely used for various applications such as catalytic converters for automobile exhaust, ultraviolet absorber, and electrolyte in fuel cells. Most recently, cerium oxide nanoparticles (nanoceria) have been employed as potent free-radical scavengers with neuroprotective, radioprotective, and anti-inflammatory properties. These properties of cerium oxide nanoparticles can open new vistas in medicine and biotechnology. The present study utilizes the water-based-wet-chemical method to synthesize biocompatible,stable and highly monodisperse polymer coated cerium oxide nanoparticles. Polymer coated cerium oxide nanoparticles possess all the characteristics of the uncoated cerium oxide nanoparticles. These nanoparticles were found to be effective as pH-dependent antioxidant …