Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

On The Influence Of Trust In Predicting Rural Land Owner Cooperation With Natural Resource Management Institutions, Joseph A. Hamm, Lesa R. Hoffman, Alan Tomkins, Brian H. Bornstein

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

Contemporary natural resource management (NRM) emphasizes the role of the public in general and land owners in particular as voluntary participants in the process. Understanding the role of trust in voluntary cooperation is therefore critical, but the current state of the relevant literature is such that it fails to systematically address a few important issues. This inquiry sought to address these issues by presenting and testing a model of land owners’ trust in and cooperation with a NRM institution. The model hypothesizes that the six major drivers of trust in this context (dispositional trust, care, competence, confidence, procedural fairness and …

The Unusual Substrate Specificity Of A Virulence Associated Serine Hydrolase From The Highly Toxic Bacterium, Francisella Tularensis, Alexander M. Farberg, Whitney K. Hart, R. Jeremy Johnson

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Francisella tularensis is the causative agent of the highly, infectious disease, tularemia. Amongst the genes identified as essential to the virulence of F. tularensis was the proposed serine hydrolase FTT0941c. Herein, we purified FTT0941c to homogeneity and then characterized the folded stability, enzymatic activity, and substrate specificity of FTT0941c. Based on phylogenetic analysis, FTT0941c was classified within a divergent Francisella subbranch of the bacterial hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) superfamily, but with the conserved sequence motifs of a bacterial serine hydrolase. FTT0941c showed broad hydrolase activity against diverse libraries of ester substrates, including significant hydrolytic activity across alkyl ester substrates from …

Determination Of Additives In Cigarettes Utilizing Evolved Gas Analysis (Ega), Karissa Ferguson, Michael J. Samide, Cierra Schmicker, Tyler Schenk, Anne Wilson

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

While additives to consumer products must be listed in order by amount, it is not required to report the actual amounts of these additives. Given that impacts on human health are dose dependent, knowledge of additive amounts would aid discussions of the safety of these compounds for inhalation. Additives for cigarettes include flavors, such as menthol, and propylene glycol, a humectant. Rapid determination of the amounts of menthol and propylene glycol additives in cigarettes was accomplished utilizing evolved gas analysis (EGA) – gas chromatography (GC) – flame ionization detection (FID). Careful preparation of samples and appropriate sample storage are critical …

A Special Tribute To Martin Gardner, Jeremiah Farrell

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

There are exactly 12 different letters in the phrase GATHERING FOR MARTIN GARDNER. We use each of the 12 letters three times each in 18 different two-letter words that are to be placed on the nodes of the graph so adjoining nodes have a letter in common.

You Like Japan, Jeremiah Farrell, Kate Jones

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Jeremiah's puzzle "You Like Japan", which was exchanged at the 2016 International Puzzle Party in Kyoto, Japan, alongside Kate Jone's "You Like Japan" 12x12 Challenge. 100 puzzle designers create 100 copies of their puzzle and pass it out at the party and exchange them. This puzzle is manufacured by Kadon Enterprises, Inc. as "You Like Japan".

Charge-Induced Fluctuation Forces In Graphitic Nanostructures, D. Drosdoff, Igor V. Bondarev, Allan Wisdom, Rudolf Podogrnik, Lilia M. Woods

Physics Faculty Publications

Charge fluctuations in nanocircuits with capacitor components are shown to give rise to a novel type of long-ranged interaction, which coexist with the regular Casimir–van der Waals force. The developed theory distinguishes between thermal and quantum mechanical effects, and it is applied to capacitors involving graphene nanostructures. The charge fluctuations mechanism is captured via the capacitance of the system with geometrical and quantum mechanical components. The dependence on the distance separation, temperature, size, and response properties of the system shows that this type of force can have a comparable and even dominant effect to the Casimir interaction. Our results strongly …

Symmetric Colorings Of The Hypercube And Hyperoctahedron, Bo Phillips

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

A self-complementary graph G is a subgraph of the complete graph K_n that is isomorphic to its complement. A self-complementary graph can be thought of as an edge 2-coloring of K_n that admits a color-switching automorphism. An automorphism of K_n that is color-switching for some edge 2-coloring is called a complementing automorphism. Complementing automorphisms for K_n have been characterized in the past by such authors as Sachs and Ringel. We are interested in extending this notion of self-complementary to other highly symmetric families of graphs; namely, the hypercube Q_n and its dual graph, the hyperoctahedron O_n. To that end, …

Gpu-Accelerated Feature Tracking, Alex Graves

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The motivation of this research is to prove that GPUs can provide significant speedup of long-executing image processing algorithms by way of parallelization and massive data throughput. This thesis accelerates the well-known KLT feature tracking algorithm using OpenCL and an NVidia GeForce GTX 780 GPU. KLT is a fast, efficient and accurate feature tracker but can easily suffer from low frame rates when tracking many features in an HD video sequence. This research explains how KLT could benefit from GPGPU programming and provides the corresponding OpenCL implementation. Additionally, various optimization techniques are emphasized to further boost GPU performance. The experiments …

Knowledge-Empowered Probabilistic Graphical Models For Physical-Cyber-Social Systems, Pramod Anantharam

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There is a rapid intertwining of sensors and mobile devices into the fabric of our lives. This has resulted in unprecedented growth in the number of observations from the physical and social worlds reported in the cyber world. Sensing and computational components embedded in the physical world constitute a Cyber-Physical System (CPS). Current science of CPS is yet to effectively integrate citizen observations in CPS analysis. We demonstrate the role of citizen observations in CPS and propose a novel approach to perform a holistic analysis of machine and citizen sensor observations. Specifically, we demonstrate the complementary, corroborative, and timely aspects …

Personalized And Adaptive Semantic Information Filtering For Social Media, Pavan Kapanipathi

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Social media has experienced immense growth in recent times. These platforms are becoming increasingly common for information seeking and consumption, and as part of its growing popularity, information overload pose a significant challenge to users. For instance, Twitter alone generates around 500 million tweets per day and it is impractical for users to have to parse through such an enormous stream to find information that are interesting to them. This situation necessitates efficient personalized filtering mechanisms for users to consume relevant, interesting information from social media. Building a personalized filtering system involves understanding users' interests and utilizing these interests to …

Poly(Arylene Ether Sulfone)S With Ammonium Groups Located On Pendent Phenyl Sulfonyl Moieties For Anionic Exchange Membranes, Trevor I. Schumacher

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A series of poly(aryl ether sulfone)s with varying percentages of ammonium groups, located on truly pendent positions, was prepared and characterized. The initial polymers were prepared by nucleophilic aromatic substitution (NAS) polycondensation reactions of varying ratios of 3,5-difluoro-4'-methyldiphenylsulfone and 4,4'-difluorodiphenylsulfone, with bisphenol-A as the nucleophilic reaction partner. The tolyl groups in the resulting polymers were subjected to radical bromination with N-bromosuccinimide, followed by amination with three different amines: trimethylamine, dimethylhexadecylamine, and N-methylimidazole. The polymers were characterized by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. With the exception of the 100% functionalized polymers, tough films were observed …

Theoretical Estimation Of PkA'S Of Pyrimidines And Related Heterocycles, Rachael Ann Wessner

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Pyrimidines and related heterocycles are an important class of compounds with a wide variety of applications. As a result, there is great interest in the chemical properties of these compounds, specifically their pKa's. Despite the importance of these compounds their reported pKa's are often only approximations or are completely absent from literature. Experimentally measuring pKa's can be challenging, especially if the pKa is below zero. Alternatively, pKa's can be estimated computationally using a Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR). However, most of the compounds included in this study exist as two or more forms that arise from tautomerism. Tautomerism complicates the estimation …

Millimeter – Wave/Terahertz Chirped Michelson Interferometer Techniques For Sub Surface Sensing, Dinesh Amal Mirando

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Over the last couple of decades, the field of millimeter-wave (mmW) and terahertz (THz) radiation has seen an accelerated growth thanks to developments in high quality mmW/THz sensors. These developments have contributed to many useful applications in the fields of medicine, security, construction, etc. Non-destructive evaluations such as the detection of defects in materials is currently one of the major applications of mmW/THz radiation. These evaluations are performed using mmW/THz continuous-wave radar systems. In this study, we discuss how Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) techniques can enhance sensing applications through the use of a Michelson interferometer. This allows multiple objects …

Spatial Variation In Tooth Shape Of Miocene Populations Of Carcharocles Megalodon Across Ocean Basins, Maxwell John Bertsos

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The extinct Lamniform species, Carcharocles megalodon, were some of the most geographically widespread apex predators in the fossil record. However, whether this cosmopolitan distribution was related to population level differences is unknown. The objective of this study is to assess whether variation in tooth morphology coincided with geographic dispersal. The underlying hypothesis is that variation in an aspect of functional morphology, such as tooth shape, suggests some level of population structuring. Detecting this relationship could potentially provide a mechanism that links population to functional relationships inherent in tooth morphology that may reflect period differences in ocean basins. This would offer …

Miniatured Inertial Motion And Position Tracking And Visualization Systems Using Android Wear Platform, Dhruvkumar Navinchandra Patel

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In this thesis, we have designed and developed a motion tracking and visualization system using the latest motion tracking sensory technologies. It is one of the enabling technologies for our novel visual-inertial odometer and human anatomy based 3D Locating, Mapping and Navigation system for endoscopy and drug delivery capsules used inside GI tract. In particular, we have: i) designed and completed a cloud-based sensory data collecting, processing and storage system to provide the reliable computing and storage platform; ii) explored different data processing methods to obtain improved-quality motion results from extremely noisy raw data, e.g., by using a low pass …

Thermoelectric Transport And Energy Conversion Using Novel 2d Materials, Luke J. Wirth

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Nanomaterials hold great promise for applications in thermal management and thermoelectric power generation. Defects in these are important as they are generally inevitably introduced during fabrication or intentionally engineered to control the properties of the nanomaterials. Here, we investigate how phonon-contributed thermal conductance in narrow graphene, boron nitride (BN), and silicene nanoribbons (NRs), responds to the presence of a vacancy defect and the corresponding geometric distortion, from first principles using the non-equilibrium Green's function method. Analyses are made of the geometries, phonon conductance coefficients, and local densities of states (LDOS) of pristine and defected nanoribbons. It is found that hydrogen …

De-Anonymization Attack Anatomy And Analysis Of Ohio Nursing Workforce Data Anonymization, Jacob M. Miracle

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Data generalization (anonymization) is a widely misunderstood technique for preserving individual privacy in non-interactive data publishing. Easily avoidable anonymization failures are still occurring 14 years after the discovery of basic techniques to protect against them. Identities of individuals in anonymized datasets are at risk of being disclosed by cyber attackers who exploit these failures. To demonstrate the importance of proper data anonymization we present three perspectives on data anonymization. First, we examine several de-anonymization attacks to formalize the anatomy used to conduct attacks on anonymous data. Second, we examine the vulnerabilities of an anonymous nursing workforce survey to convey how …

Computer Modeling Of A Solar Thermal System For Space Heating, Dhananjay D. Deshpande

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Most applications of flat plate, low-temperature solar thermal panels are for water heating, such as producing domestic hot water or raising the temperature of swimming pools. This is reasonable given that the large masses of water present in these systems inherently provide built-in thermal energy storage so that a separate energy storage tank does not have to be purchased. For a space heating system, extra thermal energy storage generally has to be purchased and is a detriment to the economics of these systems. Despite the economic drawbacks of solar thermal space heating, this thesis focuses on the size of thermal …

Crystal Engineering Of A Family Of Hybrid Ultramicroporous Materials Based Upon Interpenetration And Dichromate Linkers, Hayley S. Scott, Naoki Ogiwara, Kai-Jie Chen, David G. Madden, Tony Pham, Katherine Forrest, Brian Space, Satoshi Horike, John J. Perry Iv, Susumu Kitagawa, Michael J. Zaworotko

Chemistry Faculty Publications

A new family of 2-fold interpenetrated primitive cubic (pcu) networks of formula [M(L)₂(Cr₂O₇)]_n (M = Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺ and Zn²⁺; L = 4,4′-azopyridine), DICRO-3-M-i, has been synthesised and their structures, permanent porosity and gas sorption properties were comprehensively characterised. Molecular simulations indicate that CO₂ molecules occupy both of the two distinct ultramicropores that run through this isostructural series. The orientation of the Cr₂O₇²⁻ pillars is thought to contribute to high isosteric enthalpy of adsorption (Q_st) …

Touch And Step Potential Analysis At 23.9kv To 4.16kv & 13.8kv To 4.16kv Distribution Substations With Pad-Mounted Transformers, Floating Grounds, And Other Exposed Ungrounded Metal Bodies Using Winigs, David Guillermo Guzman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An electrical substation is composed of various subsystems that allow for the effective and safe operation of the power grid. One of the subsystems integrating a conventional substation is defined as the ground grid system. This system allows for the effective operation of the power grid and all the electrical equipment connected to it by providing a ground potential reference, commonly known as the system ground. In addition, the ground grid system provides safety to the workers and the public transiting inside or living nearby a substation by reducing the step and touch potential (or voltage) levels present during a …

Regional Geochemical Mapping Of The Superior Upland Province; Ichnology Of The Cretaceous Mesilla Valley Formation, Cerro De Cristo Rey; A New Ichnospecies Of Cardioichnus From The Cretaceous (Albian) Of New Mexico; A Pedagogy For The Cerro De Cristo Rey Tracksite; Walking In The Footprints Of Dino, Eric J. Kappus

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This is a multi-disciplinary study that covers a variety of geoscience topics on both international borders of the continental United States. This Dissertation is the product of several separate investigations. First is a report on the landscape geochemistry of the Superior Upland Province of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, with regional maps of 37 chemical elements interpreted in terms of bedrock, glacial reworking, and anthropogenic influence. The next 2 sections are reports on the invertebrate ichnology of the Cretaceous Mesilla Valley Formation at Cerro de Cristo Rey, including the proposal of a new ichnospecies of echinoid resting trace, Cardioichnus biloba nov. …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Functional Evaluation Of Nanocomposites For Water Purification, Julio Eduardo Padilla

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The United Nations estimate that around 780 million people do not have access to clean and safe water and around 2.5 billion people do not have proper water sanitation. As a result, around 6-8 million people die each year due to water related diseases, such as cholera and dysentery, and disasters. As population increases the water problem will become more difficult to solve. Furthermore, climate change threatens to intensify water scarcity. The design of functional materials at the nanoscale offer unique solutions in molecular sorbents and catalytic systems that can develop into cost-effective solutions in water treatment by reducing the …

Insights Into Volcanic Processes Using Seismic Data Techniques, Ezer Patlan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

We present in this study numbers of technique to understand the volcanic processes using seismology. The types of techniques we used are earthquake location (double difference travel-time, cross-correlation tremor technique, and time reversal), stresses (b-values, focal mechanism), and tomography imagery (ambient noise tomography). The areas of study we focus on are in two different tectonic settings. The East Africa Rift System at Kenya, studying four volcanoes: Menengai Caldera, Silali, Paka, and Korosi volcanoes. The other area of study is located in a subduction zone in Central America, Salvador at San Miguel volcano.

In this study we aim to calculate accurate …

An Effective And Optimal Quality Control Approach For Green Energy Manufacturing Using Design Of Experiments Framework And Evolutionary Algorithm, Juan Alejandro Saavedra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) strategies vary significantly across industries in the manufacturing sector depending on the product being built. Such strategies range from simple statistical analysis and process controls, decision-making process of reworking, repairing, or scraping defective product. This study proposes an optimal QC methodology in order to include rework stations during the manufacturing process by identifying the amount and location of these workstations. The factors that are considered to optimize these stations are cost, cycle time, reworkability and rework benefit. The goal is to minimize the cost and cycle time of the process, but increase the …

Identifying Non-Classical Active Sites As A Tool For Enzyme Inhibition, Marisol Serrano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Chagas disease, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, is an endemic life-threatening disease that affects mainly the heart. It remains the leading cause of heart failure in Latin American countries. Since current treatments against this parasite are highly toxic and somewhat ineffective, novel and more efficacious types of interventions are desired. Cruzain, identified as the major cathepsin for T. cruzi, plays a major role in the parasite's life cycle; making this enzyme very attractive for potential trypanocidal drugs discovery. The recombinant cruzain is synthesized as a zymogenic pro-protein (PCZN) which possesses a pro domain and a catalytic domain. In this …

Study Of No2 Photolysis Rate Coefficients For The Paso Del Norte Region, Pema Wangchuk

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The photolysis of nitrogen dioxide is one of the most influential chemical processes in the formation of photochemical air pollution. In this study, we compared simulated and measured nitrogen dioxide photolysis rate coefficients (J_(NO_2 )) for the Paso Del Norte (PdN) region. The Tropospheric Ultraviolet-Visible (TUV) radiation transfer model was used to calculate J_(NO_2 ) values. The measurements of hemi-spherically integrated, spectrally resolved solar photon flux between the wavelengths 400 and 700 nm were used to obtain the photolysis rate coefficients for ã??NOã??_2. Results are presented for a selected episode on July, 2015. The work investigated the use of measured …

Studying Grazing Behavior Of Cafeteria Roenbergensis With Two-Photon Microscopy, Faisal Abedin Abedin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Major innovations in recent years have largely revolutionized the fluorescence imaging. Two-photon fluorescence microscopy is one of them. Two photon fluorescence microscopy has evolved as an alternative to conventional single-photon confocal microscopy and has been shown to provide several advantages. These include three-dimensionally resolved fluorescence imaging of living cells deep within thick, strongly scattering samples, and reduced phototoxicity, enabling long term imaging of photosensitive biological specimens. The inherent three-dimensional resolution of TPE microscopy has been exploited in a number of studies wherein spatial discrimination of fluorescence signals at the micrometer and submicrometer scale within thick biological specimens proved critical. In …

Gravimetrically Characterizable Common Alkali Reducing Agents And Ligand Design Of A New Electron Rich Guanidinate, Efrain Maximiliano Castillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

SynThesis, isolation and characterization of 12 new alkali arenides was performed by the addition of the chelating base 18-crown-6. Electrochemistry, UV-vis/NIR spectroscopy and XRD studies were performed.

The incoorporation of an imidazolin-2-iminato group to the background of a guanidinate showed that this kind of ligand is electronically flexible and metal dependent. It was found that is more electron donating than some previously reported guanidinates and ketimine guanidinates.

Salt Tectonic Controls On Facies And Sequence Stratigraphy Of The Triassic Chinle Formation, Gypsum Valley Salt Wall, Colorado, Elizabeth Heness

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study focuses on mapping the facies geometry and depositional sequences of the Chinle Formation adjacent to the Gypsum Valley Salt Wall (GVSW). Interactions between salt tectonics and fluvial systems can affect sediment distribution. The upper Triassic Chinle Formation was deposited across the western U.S. in an intra-cratonic, fluvial environment. Throughout the Paradox Basin in Utah and Colorado, deformation associated with rising salt anticlines and subsiding minibasins coincided with Chinle deposition. In most areas, only small and isolated remnant Chinle outcrops actually expose the contact between Chinle sediments and the salt diapir. In Gypsum Valley three study areas were mapped …

Sample Size Estimation For Genomics Experiments With Dependent End Points, Desmond Koomson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In typical genomics studies involving numerous association tests of gene mutations with a disease, error rate control via multiplicity adjustment is paramount because even if all genes were to be non-differentially associated, we would still make some false positives. Many methods exist that incorporate the control of multiplicity for normally distributed endpoints in sample size estimation, but none addresses the issue for non-normally correlated endpoints.

One common practice in the literature is to assume an equal correlation among all differentially associated or expressed genes, thereby using the generalized binomial or beta-binomial model to compute the comparison-wise power of detecting these …