Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Measurement Of Theta-13 Neutrino Mixing Angle From The Disappearance Of Electron Antineutrinos At The Double Chooz Experiment, Brandon Reed White

Doctoral Dissertations

The measurement of the remaining neutrino-mixing angle, theta-130, is a critical step toward further understanding of neutrino properties and to guide future neutrino oscillation experiments. Double Chooz has a unique opportunity to perform this measurement building on the original CHOOZ reactor anti-neutrino experiment, the experience that set the previous limits on theta-13. In the first phase of Double Chooz, 101 days of data was analyzed with only the far detector operating of a two-detector plan. In this thesis I will describe the design of the low background neutrino detector and the oscillation analysis performed. From the deficiency between the expected …

Charge-Lattice-Spin Interactions In Molecule-Based Magnets, Tatiana Vladimir Brinzari

Doctoral Dissertations

Many of the most attractive properties of multifunctional materials can be traced to the competition between charge, structure, and magnetism. The discovery that these interactions can be tuned with various physical stimuli has accelerated interest in their behavior under extreme conditions. In this dissertation I present a spectroscopic investigation of several model molecule-based magnets under external stimuli of magnetic field and temperature. The compounds of interest include M^II[N(CN)₂]₂ (M=Mn, Co) and [Ru₂(O₂CMe)₄]₃[Cr(CN)₆]. These materials are attractive for their subtle interplay between electronic, magnetic and structural …

Exploring Computational Chemistry On Emerging Architectures, David Dewayne Jenkins

Doctoral Dissertations

Emerging architectures, such as next generation microprocessors, graphics processing units, and Intel MIC cards, are being used with increased popularity in high performance computing. Each of these architectures has advantages over previous generations of architectures including performance, programmability, and power efficiency. With the ever-increasing performance of these architectures, scientific computing applications are able to attack larger, more complicated problems. However, since applications perform differently on each of the architectures, it is difficult to determine the best tool for the job. This dissertation makes the following contributions to computer engineering and computational science. First, this work implements the computational chemistry variational …

Confinement Effects Of Solvation On A Molecule Physisorbed On A Metal Particle, Jacob Fosso Tande

Doctoral Dissertations

We describe and present results of the implementation of the surface and volume polarization for electrostatics~(SVPE) and the iso-density surface solvation models. Unlike most other implementation of the solvation models where the solute and the solvent are described with multiple numerical representation, our implementation uses a multiresolution, adaptive multiwavelet basis to describe both solute and the solvent. This requires reformulation to use integral equations throughout as well as a conscious management of numerical properties of the basis.

Likewise, we investigate the effects of solvation on the static properties of a molecule physisorbed on a spherical particle, modeled as a polarizable …

Parallel For Loops On Heterogeneous Resources, Frederick Edward Weber

Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years, Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have piqued the interest of researchers in scientific computing. Their immense floating point throughput and massive parallelism make them ideal for not just graphical applications, but many general algorithms as well. Load balancing applications and taking advantage of all computational resources in a machine is a difficult challenge, especially when the resources are heterogeneous. This dissertation presents the clUtil library, which vastly simplifies developing OpenCL applications for heterogeneous systems. The core focus of this dissertation lies in clUtil's ParallelFor construct and our novel PINA scheduler which can efficiently load balance work onto multiple …

Growth And Characterization Of Hexagonal Lu-Fe-O Multiferroic Thin Films, Wenbin Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

In the quest for new types of information processing and storage, complex oxides stand out as one of the most promising material classes. The multiple functionalities of complex oxides naturally arise from the delicate energy balance between the various forms of order (structural, electronic, magnetic). In particular, multiferroic and magnetoelectric oxides which simultaneously exhibit more than one type of ferroic orders have many advantages over existing materials. Widespread practical applications will require a single-phase multiferroic material with a transition temperature that lies considerably above room temperature, large electric and magnetic polarizations, and strong coupling between ferroic orders.

Recently, multiferroic LuFe …

Dynamic Task Execution On Shared And Distributed Memory Architectures, Asim Yarkhan

Doctoral Dissertations

Multicore architectures with high core counts have come to dominate the world of high performance computing, from shared memory machines to the largest distributed memory clusters. The multicore route to increased performance has a simpler design and better power efficiency than the traditional approach of increasing processor frequencies. But, standard programming techniques are not well adapted to this change in computer architecture design.

In this work, we study the use of dynamic runtime environments executing data driven applications as a solution to programming multicore architectures. The goals of our runtime environments are productivity, scalability and performance. We demonstrate productivity by …

Towards A Unification Of Supercomputing, Molecular Dynamics Simulation And Experimental Neutron And X-Ray Scattering Techniques, Benjamin Lindner

Doctoral Dissertations

Molecular dynamics simulation has become an essential tool for scientific discovery and investigation. The ability to evaluate every atomic coordinate for each time instant sets it apart from other methodologies, which can only access experimental observables as an outcome of the atomic coordinates. Here, the utility of molecular dynamics is illustrated by investigating the structure and dynamics of fundamental models of cellulose fibers. For that, a highly parallel code has been developed to compute static and dynamical scattering functions efficiently on modern supercomputing architectures. Using state of the art supercomputing facilities, molecular dynamics code and parallelization strategies, this work also …

Boron And Metal Catalyzed C-C And C-H Bond Formation, Adam Barret Pippin

Doctoral Dissertations

Research efforts focused on the use of boron and metals to form new carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bonds are summarized in this dissertation. Several novel reactions have been developed. These include: the deoxygenation of benzylic alcohols using chloroboranes; alkenylation of benzylic alcohols using boron trichloride; and dialkynlation of aryl aldehydes using dialkynylboron chloride. Numerous applications of these novel reactions have been developed. These include alternate routes to diphenylmethanes and 1,4-diynes from easily prepared dialkynylboron chlorides. In addition, E and Z alkenyl halides can now be prepared using boron trichloride without the use of butyllithium. The stereochemistry of the alkenyl halide can …

Synthesis, Evaluation And Applications Of Biologically Significant Molecules And Their Analogues, Sneha Ashesh Belapure

Doctoral Dissertations

Synthetic chemists are always looking for challenging problems to solve. Design and synthesis of novel molecules that can act as agents of chemical and biological modification are one of the foremost goals of a synthetic chemist. This dissertation describes advances and efforts made in this area.

Obesity is one of the critical problems of the modern age. Molecules that can remediate this condition are highly sought after. The first chapter of this dissertation describes synthetic strategies explored to prepare these valuable natural products along with their structural and stereochemical analogues to study structure and activity relationships (SAR). This method gives …

Structure And Dynamics Of High Temperature Superconductors, Jennifer Lynn Niedziela

Doctoral Dissertations

High temperature superconductivity in iron based compounds has presented a series of complex problems to condensed matter physics since being discovered in 2008. The stalwart basis of condensed matter physics is the “strength in numbers" aspect of crystalline periodicity. Perfect crystalline periodicity has made possible the reduction of the questions of structural and electronic properties to single dimensions, increasing the tractability of these problems. Nevertheless, modern complex materials stretch these assumptions to their limits, and it is at this point where our work starts. Using neutron and x-ray scattering, we have conducted a series of studies on the structural disorder …

Analysis Of Alcohol Use Among Pregnant Women In San Luis Obispo County, Samantha Law

Statistics

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is harmful to the fetus, and can lead to serious alcohol related developmental birth defects. Utilizing prenatal screening, such as the 4P’s Plus© screening tool, during a woman’s first prenatal doctors visit can help educate women and reduce continued alcohol use during pregnancy. Currently the CDC reports that 1 in 13 women in the US drink alcohol while pregnant compared to local reports that 1 in 3 women in San Luis Obispo County continue to drink alcohol during pregnancy. A primary concern for many local county health care experts and organizations is to raise awareness that …

An Analysis Of Risk Reduction Choices In Dcis Breast Cancer Patients, Lauren Soltesz

Statistics

The main focus of this paper was to evaluate possible demographic and clinical characteristics associated with a woman’s choice of breast conserving surgery (BCS), unilateral mastectomy (ULM), or bilateral risk reduction mastectomy (BRRM). The cohort consisted of patients presenting to the City of Hope National Medical Center with ductal carcinoma in situ breast cancer who elected to have cancer directed surgery (N=305). Analyses to examine associations of patient characteristics with type of surgery were conducted using a multinomial logistic regression. Results showed that older women were more likely to choose breast conserving surgery over bilateral risk reduction mastectomy than younger …

Function Approximation With Artmap Architectures, Lucian M. Sasu, Răzvan Andonie

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We analyze function approximation (regression) capability of Fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) architectures - well-known incremental learning neural networks. We focus especially on the universal approximation property. In our experiments, we compare the regression performance of FAM networks with other standard neural models. It is the first time that ARTMAP regression is overviewed, both from theoretical and practical points of view.

Judging A Book By Its Cover: Using Lectin Microarrays To Identify How Glycosylation Is Regulated, John F. Rakus

Chemistry Faculty Research

Glycosylation involves the post-translational addition of carbohydrates to protein molecules and is an intricate and indispensable biochemical process. Study of this complicated network of interactions is hindered by the lack of a coding template analogous to the genetic code, and by the vast structural complexity inherent to carbohydrate polymers. We use lectins (non-enzymatic carbohydrate-binding proteins of non-immunological origin) as microarray probes to identify carbohydrate features expressed on cellular surfaces. Specifically, we utilized lectin microarray technology to investigate the differences in carbohydrates expressed by the cell lines of the Nation Cancer Institute’s NCI-60 panel. Our investigation identified tissue-specific expression differences in …

Sustainable Municipal Operations: Albany, Oregon, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Ed Gallagher, Dave Rouse, Dennis Kurtz, Tanya Johnston

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Portland State University, Hatfield School of Government (PSU), and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), has formed a partnership to develop Sustainable Municipal Operations Plans that documents sustainability and energy management best practices. The goal of this partnership is to determine how a City/municipality can actively manage energy as a controllable expense by following a predetermined operation protocol. The PSU team developed a framework of best practices for sustainable municipal operations in different categories including facilities, fleet, purchasing, operations and the work environment. After identifying pilot jurisdictions, the team applied these best practices to the current operations of local governments in …

Sustainable County Operations: Yamhill County, Oregon, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Ed Gallagher, Dave Rouse, Dennis Kurtz, Tanya Johnston

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

Portland State University, Hatfield School of Government (PSU), and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), has formed a partnership to develop Sustainable Municipal Operations Plans that documents sustainability and energy management best practices. The goal of this partnership is to determine how a county/municipality can actively manage energy as a controllable expense by following a predetermined operation protocol. The PSU team developed a framework of best practices for sustainable municipal operations in different categories including facilities, fleet, purchasing, operations and the work environment. After identifying pilot jurisdictions, the team applied these best practices to the current operations of local governments in …

G-Ruption: The Third International Meeting On G-Quadruplex And G-Assembly, Liliya A. Yatsunyk, T. M. Bryan, F. B. Johnson

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Works

A three and a half day conference focusing on nucleic acid structures called G-quadruplexes (G4s) and other guanine-based assemblies was held in Sorrento. Italy (June 28-July 1, 2011) and featured 35 invited talks and over 89 posters. The G-quadruplex field continues to expand at an explosive rate with the emergence of new connections to biology, chemistry, physics, and nanotechnology. Following the trend established by the previous two international G4 meetings, the conference touched upon all these areas and facilitated productive exchanges of ideas between researchers from all over the world.

Testing The Predictive Performance Of Distribution Models, Volker Bahn, Brian Mcgill

Publications

Distribution models are used to predict the likelihood of occurrence or abundance of a species at locations where census data are not available. An integral part of modelling is the testing of model performance. We compared different schemes and measures for testing model performance using 79 species from the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The four testing schemes we compared featured increasing independence between test and training data: resubstitution, random data hold-out and two spatially segregated data hold-out designs. The different testing measures also addressed different levels of information content in the dependent variable: regression R2 for absolute abundance, squared …

Minerva 2012, The Honors College

Minerva

This issue of Minerva includes a celebration of the life and impact of former Honors Dean, Charlie Slavin; a discussion of the Honors College's role in the University of Maine Blue Sky Strategic Plan; and profiles of student Kyle Franklin and alumni Heidi Crosby and Richard Becker.

Sources To Seafood: Mercury Pollution In The Marine Environment, Celia Y. Chen, Charles T. Driscoll, Kathleen F. Lambert, Robert P. Mason, Laurie R. Rardin, Catherine V. Schmitt, N. S. Serrell, Elsie M. Sunderland

Maine Sea Grant Publications

In 2010, the Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program at Dartmouth College brought together a group of 50 scientists and policy stakeholders to form C-MERC, the Coastal and Marine Mercury Ecosystem Research Collaborative. The goal was to review current knowledge—and knowledge gaps—relating to a global environmental health problem, mercury contamination of the world’s marine fish. C-MERC participants attended two workshops over a two-year period, and in 2012 C-MERC authors published a series of peer-reviewed papers in the journals Environmental Health Perspectives and Environmental Research that elucidated key processes related to the inputs, cycling, and uptake of mercury in marine ecosystems, effects …

On The Development Of Residential Property Price Indices For Nigeria, Olowofeso E. Olorunsola, Abiodun S. Bada, Mohammed A. Bamanga

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This work focuses on the development of house price indices for Nigeria, and the estimates of the Nigerian Residential Property Price Indices on housing characteristics are presented. Four main methods of index construction were considered, these are hedonic regression, repeat-sales, stratification and central price tendency methods. It was discovered that econometric methods like hedonic and repeat sales were constraints in constructing residential property price indices for Nigeria by the nature of the data available. Hence, the central price tendency and the sale-based stratification methods which are internationally used measures were applied to the available zonal-level dataset from a survey of …

Analysis Of Crime Data Using Principal Component Analysis: A Case Study Of Katsina State, Shehu U. Gulumbe, Dikko H. .G., Bello Yusuf

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper analyses Katsina State crime data which consists of the averages of eight major crimes reported to the police for the period 2006 – 2008. The crimes consist of robbery, auto theft, house and store breakings, theft/stealing, grievous hurt and wounding, murder, rape, and assault. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were employed to explain the correlation between the crimes and to determine the distribution of the crimes over the local government areas of the state. The result has shown a significant correlation between robbery, theft and vehicle theft. While MSW local government area has the lowest crime …

Inflation And Economic Growth In Nigeria: Detecting The Threshold Level, Sani I. Doguwa

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper re-examines the issue of the existence and the level of inflation threshold in the relationship between inflation and growth in Nigeria, using three different approaches that provide appropriate procedures for estimating the threshold level and inference. While Sarel’s (1996) approach provides a threshold point estimate of 9.9 per cent that was not well identified by the data, the technique of Khan and Senhadji (2001) identifies a 10.5 per cent inflation threshold as statistically significant to explain the inflation-growth nexus in Nigeria. Also, the approach of Drukker et al (2005) suggests a two threshold point model with 11.2 and …

Understanding The Dynamics Of Inflation Volatility In Nigeria: A Garch Perspective, Babatunde S. Omotosho, Sani I. Doguwa

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The estimation of inflation volatility is important to Central Banks as it guides their policy initiatives for achieving and maintaining price stability. This paper employs three models from the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) family with a view to providing a parsimonious approximation to the dynamics of Nigeria’s inflation volatility between 1996 and 2011. Of the competing models, the asymmetric TGARCH (1,1) provides an appropriate paradigm for explaining the dynamics of headline and core CPI volatilities in Nigeria, while the symmetric GARCH (1,1) was found to be adequate for food CPI. The results are quite revealing. Firstly, model outcomes indicate …

On The Behavior Of The Gamma Function On The Negative Side, Tri Minh Ngo

Senior Honors Theses

In this paper we analyze the behavior of the Gamma function at its critical points and points of discontinuity on the negative side of the x-axis. We will also explain the bluntness of the gamma function on this negative side.

Swift Follow-Up Observations Of Candidate Gravitational-Wave Transient Events, P. A. Evans, J. K. Fridriksson, N. Gehrels, J. Homan, J. P. Osborne, M. Siegel, A. Beardmore, P. Handbauer, J. Gelbord, J. A. Kennea, M. Smith, Q. Zhu, J. Aasi, J. Abadie, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. Abernathy, T. Accadia, F. Acernese, C. Adams, T. Adams, P. Addesso, R. Adhikari, C. Affeldt, M. Agathos, K. Agatsuma, P. Ajith, B. Allen, A. Allocca, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We present the first multi-wavelength follow-up observations of two candidate gravitational-wave (GW) transient events recorded by LIGO and Virgo in their 2009-2010 science run. The events were selected with low latency by the network of GW detectors (within less than 10 minutes) and their candidate sky locations were observed by the Swift observatory (within 12 hr). Image transient detection was used to analyze the collected electromagnetic data, which were found to be consistent with background. Off-line analysis of the GW data alone has also established that the selected GW events show no evidence of an astrophysical origin; one of them …

A Constructive Proof Of Fundamental Theory For Fuzzy Variable Linear Programming Problems, A. Ebrahimnejad

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

Two existing methods for solving fuzzy variable linear programming problems based on ranking functions are the fuzzy primal simplex method proposed by Mahdavi-Amiri et al. (2009) and the fuzzy dual simplex method proposed by Mahdavi-Amiri and Nasseri (2007). In this paper, we prove that in the absence of degeneracy these fuzzy methods stop in a finite number of iterations. Moreover, we generalize the fundamental theorem of linear programming in a crisp environment to a fuzzy one. Finally, we illustrate our proof using a numerical example.

Preface

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Lattice Modules Over Rings Of Bounded Random Variables, Karl-Theodor Eisele, Sonia Taieb

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.