Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Silica Polypeptide-Based Colloids: Physical Properties And Novel Materials, Cornelia Rosu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The investigation of polypeptide composite particles, PCPs, is described. The production of mesoporous and polycolloid architectures is also addressed. PCPs were prepared by both growing form and grafting to method. They consist of a core made of silica, silica-coated magnetite or silica-coated cobalt. Some of the particles were covalently labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate. Several polypeptides were chosen for attachment on the core: poly(γ-stearyl-L-glutamate), PSLG, poly(Nε-carbobenzyloxy-L-lysine), PCBL and poly(o-benzyl-L-tyrosine), PBTY. Attachment of a well-characterized alkyne-end terminated PSLG and PCBL to an azide- functionalized particle yielded PCPs with a desired sparse coverage. A blend of techniques such as FTIR, XPS, TEM, HTEM, …

Lattice Boltzmann Simulations Of Thermal Convective Flows In Two Dimensions, Jia Wang, Donghai Wang, Pierre Lallemand, Li-Shi Luo

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

In this paper we study the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) with multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) collision model for incompressible thermo-hydrodynamics with the Boussinesq approximation. We use the MRT thermal LBE (TLBE) to simulate the following two flows in two dimensions: the square cavity with differentially heated vertical walls and the Rayleigh-Benard convection in a rectangle heated from below. For the square cavity, the flow parameters in this study are the Rayleigh number Ra = 10³-10⁶, and the Prandtl number Pr = 0.71; and for the Rayleigh-Benard convection in a rectangle, Ra = 2 ^. 10³, 10 …

Homological Algebra, Anthony Baraconi

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"This thesis gives some results in the topics of modules and categories as they directly relate with the functor Ext used in homological algebra."--Document.

Curds And Whey: Little Miss Muffit's Contribution To Multivariate Linear Regression, John Cameron Kidd

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

A common multivariate statistical problem is the prediction of two or more response variables using two or more predictor variables. The simplest model for this situation is the multivariate linear regression model. The standard least squares estimation for this model involves regressing each response variable separately on all the predictor variables. Breiman and Friedman [1] show how to take advantage of correlations among the response variables to increase the predictive accuracy for each of the response variable with an algorithm they call Curds and Whey. In this report, I describe an implementation of the Curds and Whey algorithm in …

Sensor Feature Selection And Combination For Stress Identification Using Combinatorial Fusion, Yong Deng, Zhonghai Wu, Chao-Hsien Chu, Qixun Zhang, D. Frank Hsu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The identification of stressfulness under certain driving condition is an important issue for safety, security and health. Sensors and systems have been placed or implemented as wearable devices for drivers. Features are extracted from the data collected and combined to predict symptoms. The challenge is to select the feature set most relevant for stress. In this paper, we propose a feature selection method based on the performance and the diversity between two features. The feature sets selected are then combined using a combinatorial fusion. We also compare our results with other combination methods such as naïve Bayes, support vector machine, …

Ice Sheet Record Of Recent Sea-Ice Behavior And Polynya Variability In The Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica, Alison S. Criscitiello, Sarah B. Das, Matthew J. Evans, Karen E. Frey, Howard Conway, Ian Joughin, Brooke Medley, Eric J. Steig

Geography

[1] Our understanding of past sea-ice variability is limited by the short length of satellite and instrumental records. Proxy records can extend these observations but require further development and validation. We compare methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and chloride (Cl-) concentrations from a new firn core from coastal West Antarctica with satellite-derived observations of regional sea-ice concentration (SIC) in the Amundsen Sea (AS) to evaluate spatial and temporal correlations from 2002-2010. The high accumulation rate (∼39 g·cm-2·yr-1) provides monthly resolved records of MSA and Cl-, allowing detailed investigation of how regional SIC is recorded in the ice-sheet stratigraphy. Over the period 2002-2010 …

Towards Secure And Usable Leakage-Resilient Password Entry, Qiang Yan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Password leakage is one of the most common security threats for pervasive password based user authentication. The design of a secure and usable password entry against password leakage remains a challenge since twenty year ago when the first academic proposal attempted to address it. This dissertation focuses on investigating the difficulty in designing leakage-resilient password entry (LRPE) schemes and exploring the feasibility of constructing secure and usable LRPE schemes with the assistance of state-of-the-art technology. The first work in this dissertation reveals the infeasibility of designing practical LRPE schemes in the absence of trusted devices by investigating the inherent tradeoff …

The Informavore Shopper: Analysis Of Information Foraging, System Design, And Purchasing Behavior In Online Retail Stores, Jeff Min Teck Hong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Global online retail sales are on the rise and are predicted to experience a double digit growth annually over the next three years. Given little marginal cost involved in adding new products and brands to their catalogues, online retailers tend to increase product and brand offerings to increase sales by selling products that could not have been sold due to space constraints in physical stores. Frank Urbanowski, Director of MIT Press, attributed the 12% increase in sales of backlist titles directly to increased accessibility to these titles through the Internet. For consumers, the ability to buy products that they would …

Exploiting Human Factors In User Authentication, Payas Gupta

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Our overarching issue in security is the human factor – and dealing with it is perhaps one of the biggest challenges we face today. Human factor is often described as the weakest part of a security system and users are often described as the weakest link in the security chain. In this thesis, we focus on two problems which are caused by human factors in user authentication and propose respective solutions. a) Secrecy information inference attack – publicly available information can be used to infer some secrecy information about the user. b) Coercion attack – where an attacker forces a …

Observations And Modeling Forcing Mechanisms For The Coastal Dynamics Of The Upper Gulf Of Thailand, Suriyan Saramul

OES Theses and Dissertations

A numerical model based on the Princeton Ocean Model (130M) with ∼1 km horizontal grid and 21 vertical layers has been used to study the influence of wind stresses, river discharges, surface heat fluxes and tides on the three-dimensional circulation of the upper Gulf of Thailand (UGOT). Analysis of observations, including sea level data, provided additional information to support the model simulations. The UGOT is a shallow coastal system, ∼1°×1° in size with the average depth of only 15 m. Sensitivity studies evaluate how the dynamics is affected by surface wind stresses, river discharges, and surface heat fluxes. The impact …

Seismic Anisotropy Of The Upper Crust In The Mountain Ranges Of Taiwan From The Taiger Explosion Experiment, Kuo-Chen Hao, Piotr Sroda, Francis T. Wu, Chien-Ying Wang, Yao-Wen Kuo

Earth Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Taiwan is known as a strongly anisotropic region observed from SKS 1 - 2 s delay time and other teleseismic phases. An estimate of the crustal contribution to the total anisotropy from the foliated Central Range is essential to understanding the overall teleseismic results. We used P wave arrivals from the dense seismic arrays deployed during the TAIGER active source experiments and the permanent broadband seismic stations to determine the crustal anisotropy. From the arrival time analysis as a function of azimuth, we detected a clear cos(2 theta) pattern. The strength of the crustal anisotropy (0 - 15 km depth) …

Fecundity Of The Chinese Mystery Snail In A Nebraska Reservoir, Bruce J. Stephen, Craig R. Allen, Noelle M. Chaine, Kent A. Fricke, Danielle M. Haak, Michelle L. Hellman, Robert A. Kill, Kristine T. Nemec, Kevin L. Pope, Nicholas A. Smeenk, Daniel R. Uden, Kody M. Unstad, Ashley E. Vanderham, Alec Wong

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

The Chinese mystery snail (Bellamya chinensis) is a non-indigenous, invasive species in freshwater ecosystems of North America. We provide fecundity estimates for a population of these snails in a Nebraska reservoir. We dissected 70 snails, of which 29 were females. Nearly all female snails contained developing young, with an average of 25 young per female. Annual fecundity was estimated at between 27.2 and 33.3 young per female per year. Based on an estimated adult population and the calculated fecundity, the annual production for this reservoir was between 2.2 and 3.7 million young.

Predictors Of Regional Establishment Success And Spread Of Introduced Non-Indigenous Vertebrates, Criag R. Allen, Kristine T. Nemec, Donald A. Wardwell, Justin D. Hoffman, Mathew L. Brust, Karie L. Decker, Daniel Fogell, Jennifer Hogue, Aaron Lotz, Thaddeus Miller, Marcy Pummill, Luis E. Ramirez-Yañez, Daniel R. Uden

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Aim To provide the first analysis of predictors of both establishment and spread, both within and across taxa, for all vertebrate taxa within a region.We used Florida, USA, as our study system because it has a well-documented history of introduction and invasion, and is a hotspot for biological invasions.

Location Florida, USA.

Methods We analysed non-indigenous species (NIS) data from peninsular Florida – which included both successful and unsuccessful introductions from all vertebrate classes – to determine the best predictors of both establishment and spread for fish (65 species), herpetofauna (63 species), birds (71 species) and mammals (25 species). We …

The Influence Of Poultry Litter Biochar On Early Season Cotton Growth, Taylor D. Coomer, David E. Longer, Derrick M. Oosterhuis, Dimitra A. Loka

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Cotton is known for being sensitive to cool, wet soils, especially in the early stages of growth. Amendments to soil can aid cotton seedlings in development and nutrient uptake. However, soil amendments can be costly and detrimental to the environment, and alternatives such as the addition of biochar have been considered. Biochar is produced from biomass that has gone through pyrolysis and has been shown to improve plant yield, microbial response, soil structure, soil cation–exchange capacity, and water use efficiency. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of biochar on early season cotton growth. The aim of this study …

Watershed-Scale Hybrid Stochastic-Deterministic Modeling Framework And Diffused Sources Superpositioning, Ruby Juvah Damalie

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Predicting hydrologic system behavior is imperative to planning and management of water resources. The study developed an integrated hybrid stochastic and deterministic framework to improve prediction accuracy for overland flow and diffused sources in a watershed. The methodology includes sampling input parameters at system level and contribution of nonpoint source from hydrologically disconnected areas (heretofore referred to as system-level approach and superpositioning respectively). System-level approach includes the integration of a topography-based sampling grid generalized linear model developed by the study and Monte Carlo methods. The superpositioning method adopts in-stream water quality equation for overland flow pollution estimation.

The system-level approach …

Measurement Of Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering At The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (Rhic), Ivan Koralt

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Elastic proton-proton (pp) scattering is one of the most fundamental processes in nature and yet, it is one of the most difficult to describe. There are two interactions involved in this process: electromagnetic (Coulomb) and hadronic (strong) interactions. Underlying exchange mechanisms of these two interactions are the virtual photon and the Pomeron exchange, respectively. The difficulty of elastic pp scattering arises from the fact that the nature of the Pomeron and its exchange are not well understood and need a theoretical approach, which is still under development.

At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Lab …

Method Development Using Laser Ablation And Solution Icpms And Their Application In Environmental Science And Forensic Provenance Studies, Kaixuan Bu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) is an analytical technique that can be used to determine multiple elements and isotope ratios in a wide variety of samples. In this work, four projects are described that involve the method development using laser ablation (LA) and solution-based ICPMS and their application in environmental science and forensic (provenance) investigations. In the first project, plutonium (Pu) concentrations and 240Pu/ 239Pu atom ratios were measured in kelp, lichen, aquatic moss, and horse mussel collected on or near Amchitka Island, a former nuclear test in Alaska, and at a background site. The Pu in terrestrial and …

Interaction Of The Cyclonic Winds With The Infrasonic Signal Generated By A Large Maritime Storm, Philip Stephen Blom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The collision of counter propagating ocean surface waves of like periods is known to produce an infrasonic signal termed a microbarom. It has been suggested that microbaroms associated with large maritime storms are generated far from the storm center at a location in which the storm swell and background swell have equal period and are counter-propagating. It is shown in this work that the interaction of the atmospheric microbarom signal generated by a large maritime storm with the cyclonic winds of the storm results in a characteristic acoustic signal far from the storm which could potentially be used to estimate …

Analysis And Simulation Of Kinetic Model For Active Suspensions, Panon Phuworawong

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

In this research, we study the recently proposed kinetic model for active suspensions, where the active particles are assumed to be rigid rod and are driven in the suspension either by their own biological/chemical forces or external electric/magnetic fields. We first study the stability of the isotropic suspension in quiescent flow. Then we investigate the weak shear perturbation of the isotropic state and study some rheological properties of the suspension by explicit analytic formulas derived directly from the model. For imposed shear, we give some bifurcation diagrams of the stable states in some parametric spaces through numerical simulations. Some rheological …

Summary Tables: City Of Poquoson, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report, Marcia Berman, Karinna Nunez, Tamia Rudnicky, Carl Hershner, David Stanhope, David Weiss, Julie Bradshaw, Christine Tombleson

Reports

The Shoreline Inventory Summary Tables quantify observed conditions based on river systems, such as the combined length of linear features (e.g. shoreline miles surveyed, miles of bulkhead and revetment), the total number of point features (e.g. docks, boathouses, boat ramps) & total acres of polygon features (tidal marshes).

Getches Wilkinson Center Newsletter, Winter/Spring 2013, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment Newsletter (2013-)

No abstract provided.

Adsorption-Controlled Growth Of Bivo4 By Molecular-Beam Epitaxy, S. Stoughton, M. Showak, Q. ,, P. Koirala, D. A. Hillsberry, Shawn Sallis, L. F. Kourkoutis, K. Nguyen, Louis Piper, D. A. Tenne, N. J. Podraza, D. A. Muller, C. Adamo, D. G. Schlom

Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship

Single-phase epitaxial films of the monoclinic polymorph of BiVO4 were synthesized by reactive molecular-beam epitaxy under adsorption-controlled conditions. The BiVO4 films were grown on (001) yttria-stabilized cubic zirconia (YSZ) substrates. Four-circle x-ray diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), and Raman spectroscopy confirm the epitaxial growth of monoclinic BiVO4 with an atomically abrupt interface and orientation relationship (001)BiVO4 parallel to (001)(YSZ) with [100]BiVO4 parallel to [100](YSZ). Spectroscopic ellipsometry, STEM electron energy loss spectroscopy (STEM-EELS), and x-ray absorption spectroscopy indicate that the films have a direct band gap of 2.5 +/- 0.1 eV.

Smooth And Non-Smooth Traveling Wave Solutions Of Some Generalized Camassa-Holm Equations, Taslima Rehman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we employ two recent analytical approaches to investigate the possible classes of traveling wave solutions of some members of recently derived integrable family of generalized Camassa-Holm (GCH) equations. In the first part, a novel application of phase-plane analysis is employed to analyze the singular traveling wave equations of four GCH equations, i.e. the possible non-smooth peakon, cuspon and compacton solutions. Two of the GCH equations do no support singular traveling waves. We generalize an existing theorem to establish the existence of peakon solutions of the third GCH equation. This equation is found to also support four segmented, …

Novel Optical Properties Of Metal Nanostructures Based On Surface Plasmons, Haining Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Surface plasmons have been attracted extensive interests in recent decades due to the novel properties in nanometer sized dimensions. My work focused on the novel optical properties of metal nanostructures based on surface plasmons using theoretical simulation methods. In the first part, we investigated metal nanofilms and nanorods and demonstrated that extremely low scattering efficiency, high absorption efficiency and propagation with long distance could be obtained by different metal nanostructures. With a perforated silver film, we demonstrated that an extremely low scattering cross section with an efficiency of less than 1% can be achieved at tunable wavelengths with tunable widths. …

A Force Based Model Of Individual Cell Migration With Discrete Attachment Sites And Random Switching Terms, J. C. Dallon, Matthew Scott, William V. Smith

Faculty Publications

A force based model of cell migration is presented which gives new insight into the importance of the dynamics of cell binding to the substrate. The main features of the model are the focus on discrete attachment dynamics, the treatment of the cellular forces as springs, and an incorporation of the stochastic nature of the attachment sites. One goal of the model is to capture the effect of the random binding and unbinding of cell attachments on global cell motion. Simulations reveal one of the most important factor influencing cell speed is the duration of the attachment to the substrate. …

Bayesian Inference Of Polarized Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectra From Interferometric Data, Ata Karakci, P. M. Sutter, Le Zhang, Emory F. Bunn, Andrei Korotkov, Peter Timbie, Gregory S. Tucker, Benjamin D. Wandelt

Physics Faculty Publications

Detection of B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is one of the frontiers of observational cosmology. Because they are an order of magnitude fainter than E-modes, it is quite a challenge to detect B-modes. Having more manageable systematics, interferometers prove to have a substantial advantage over imagers in detecting such faint signals. Here, we present a method for Bayesian inference of power spectra and signal reconstruction from interferometric data of the CMB polarization signal by using the technique of Gibbs sampling. We demonstrate the validity of the method in the flat-sky approximation for a simulation of an …

Toric Varieties And Cobordism, Andrew Wilfong

Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics

A long-standing problem in cobordism theory has been to find convenient manifolds to represent cobordism classes. For example, in the late 1950's, Hirzebruch asked which complex cobordism classes can be represented by smooth connected algebraic varieties. This question is still open. Progress can be made on this and related problems by studying certain convenient connected algebraic varieties, namely smooth projective toric varieties. The primary focus of this dissertation is to determine which complex cobordism classes can be represented by smooth projective toric varieties. A complete answer is given up to dimension six, and a partial answer is described in dimension …

On A Paley-Wiener Theorem For The Zs-Akns Scattering Transform, Ryan D. Walker

Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics

In this thesis, we establish an analog of the Paley-Wiener Theorem for the ZS-AKNS scattering transform on a set of real potentials. We also demonstrate one application of our techniques to the study of an inverse spectral problem for a half-line Miura potential Schroedinger equation.

Opacity Of Discrete Event Systems: Analysis And Control, Majed Mohamed Ben Kalefa

Wayne State University Dissertations

The exchange of sensitive information in many systems over a network can be manipulated

by unauthorized access. Opacity is a property to investigate security and

privacy problems in such systems. Opacity characterizes whether a secret information

of a system can be inferred by an unauthorized user. One approach to verify security

and privacy properties using opacity problem is to model the system that may leak confidential

information as a discrete event system. The problem that has not investigated

intensively is the enforcement of opacity properties by supervisory control. In other

words, constructing a minimally restrictive supervisor to limit the system's …

Experiments To Measure The Effects Of Timber Harvesting Equipment On Surface Lithic Scatters, Douglas J. Baughman

All Master's Theses

The importance of cultural resource preservation cannot be overstated; however local economies are at least as important. Due to conservative archaeological site protection practices in Region 5 of the United States Forest Service, the economy of Northeastern California is being adversely affected. In an attempt to help the Forest Service make more informed management decisions and improve the Northeastern California economy, I undertook experiments on the effects of timber harvesting on lithic scatters on Modoc National Forest. The experiments involved placement of 225 glass tiles (proxy lithics) in each of three plots subject to vehicle traffic and log dragging by …