Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Two-Dimensional Transient Spectroscopy Measuring Heterogeneity In Electronic And Rotational Dynamics, Haorui Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple population-period transient spectroscopy (MUPPETS) is a picosecond, time resolved experiment that uses a sequence of six laser pulses. It was previously known that MUPPETS could measure heterogeneity in electronic-state decay. This dissertation presents two projects that extend MUPPETS to new processes. One process is the extension from 2-level system into 3-level system, another new process extends the kinetics from electronic decay to rotational decay. In addition, a third, ongoing project on rotational dynamics in ionic liquids will also be discussed briefly. The first project consisted of two main parts. The first part focused on the biexciton decay in semiconductor …

Nmr Studies Of Solvent-Free Ceramic Composite Polymer Electrolytes—A Brief Review, Marc B. Berman, Steven Greenbaum

Publications and Research

Polyether-based polymer electrolytes containing ceramic inorganic oxide fillers often exhibit improved mechanical and ion transport properties compared to their filler-free counterparts. The nature of local scale interactions that give rise to these enhanced properties is explored by nuclear magnetic resonance measurements.

Nd − Pdpa: N Dimensional Probability Density Profile Analysis, Arjang Fahim

Theses and Dissertations

Proteins are often referred as working molecule of a cell, performing many structural, functional and regulatory processes. Revealing the function of proteins still remains a challenging problem. Advancement in genomics sequence projects produces large protein sequence repository, but due to technical difficulty and cost related to structure determination, the number of identified protein structure is far behind. Novel structures identification are particularly important for a number of reasons: they generate models of similar proteins for comparison; identify evolutionary relationships; further contribute to our understanding of protein function and mechanism; and allow for the fold of other family members to be …

The Performance Of Random Prototypes In Hierarchical Models Of Vision, Kendall Lee Stewart

Dissertations and Theses

I investigate properties of HMAX, a computational model of hierarchical processing in the primate visual cortex. High-level cortical neurons have been shown to respond highly to particular natural shapes, such as faces. HMAX models this property with a dictionary of natural shapes, called prototypes, that respond to the presence of those shapes. The resulting set of similarity measurements is an effective descriptor for classifying images. Curiously, prior work has shown that replacing the dictionary of natural shapes with entirely random prototypes has little impact on classification performance. This work explores that phenomenon by studying the performance of random prototypes on …

Next-Generation Scientists Get A Taste Of Their Future Careers, Patrick M. Edwards, Linda A. George, Matthew Mctammany

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Article provides an overview of the middle and high school poster session that took place during the 2014 Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting (JASM) in Portland, Oregon. The poster session provided the students with opportunity to participate in the research process and prepare their posters.

Molecules And Metals In The Distant Universe: Sub-Mm And Optical Spectroscopy Of Quasar Absorbers, Sean Stephen Morrison

Theses and Dissertations

In order to gain a complete understanding of galaxy formation and evolution, knowledge of the atomic and molecular gas in the interstellar medium (ISM) is required. Absorption-line spectroscopy of quasars offers a powerful and luminosity independent probe of gas in distant galaxies. The Damped Lyman- systems (DLAs; 20.3 . log NHI ), are the highest neutral hydrogen column density quasar absorbers and contain a substantial fraction of the neutral gas available for star formation in the high-redshift Universe. This thesis presents a study of the metal content in some DLAs, based on optical spectroscopy, and a search for molecules based …

Optimization Of Shell Growth And Influence Of Surface Ligands For Colloidal Cdse/Cds Core/Shell Quantum Dots, Rui Tan

Theses and Dissertations

Progress in the colloidal synthesis of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) has triggered a burst of research toward applications in QD based light emitting diodes, biological imaging as fluorescent tags, and advanced solar cell designs. In order to adjust and optimize the photo physical properties of QDs, QD heterostructures have been introduced and widely explored. This dissertation is focused on studies of growth of semiconductor colloidal CdSe/CdS core/shell quantum dots and the influences of neutral surface ligands to their photo-physical properties. Chapter 1 provides an introduction of the concept of semiconductor colloidal nanoparticles, core/shell heterostructures and the synthesis methods as well …

Applications Of Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy For Forensic Analysis, Zhenyu Lu

Theses and Dissertations

Blood stains, which are among the traces encountered most frequently at crime scenes, are important for potential extraction and amplification of DNA for suspect identification, as well for spatter pattern analysis to reveal a sequence of events. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) was used in detection of blood stains and age estimation because of signature absorbances in the mid-infrared region at 3300 cm-1 (Amide A), 2800-3000 cm-1 (Amide B), ~1650 cm-1 (Amide I), ~1540 cm-1 (Amide II) ,and 1200-1350 cm-1 (Amide III). Position and intensity shifts for amide peaks were observed due to aging changes occurring as …

Approaching Aromatic Interactions With Small Molecule Model Systems: Assessing N-Heteroarene In ∏ -Stacking And Ch-∏ Interactions, Crystal Engineering Of Atropisomeric Rotors, And Developing Responsive Organic Charge-Transfer Complex, Ping Li

Theses and Dissertations

Non-covalent interactions involving aromatic species are important in many areas in chemistry, biochemistry, and materials sciences. During the past two decades, small molecule model systems have emerged as a powerful tool to advance our knowledge of the stability trends for aromatic interactions in the condensed phase. Among these, the Cshape N-arylimide molecular balances developed by our laboratory have proven to be one most successful and versatile model systems that can be readily adapted to investigate various types of aromatic interactions. These molecular balances are particularly apt at isolating and accurately measuring the targeted weak aromatic interaction energies for different geometries. …

Sustainable Polymeric Materials Derived From Novel Soybean Based Monomers And Polymers: From Synthesis To Applications, Nathan Trenor

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, monomers and polymers derived from high oleic soybean oil are investigated. The properties of these monomers and polymeric materials are characterized and discussed. Chapter 1 describes an overall background of bio-based resources, monomers, polymers, and their potential impact on society. Polymerization techniques are introduced, and the overall objective of my research is described. Chapter 2 outlines the large scale preparation of a soybean based monomer and the use of this monomer in thermoset elastomers. The synthetic procedures and characterizations of the monomers and polymers are discussed. A model study using oleic acid is described and proved to …

Hydroxy Polybenzimidazoles For High Temperature Fuel Cells And The Solution Polymerization Of Polybenzimidazole, Kayley Fishel

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, two different hompolymers of polybenzimidazole (PBI) containing hydroxyl functional units were synthesized via the PPA Process to produce gel membranes. These polymers and their phosphoric acid doped membranes were characterized to further explore structure-property relationships in functionalized PBI's. Fuel cell performance of the doped membranes was evaluated and compared to previously reported PBI membrane chemistries. Copolymers of p-OH PBI and para-PBI were prepared at five different copolymer compositions to examine the effects of hydroxy content on membrane properties and compared to the respective homopolymers. The reactivity of the hydroxy groups and the formation of phosphate bridges were …

Novel Block Copolymer Architectures For Lithography-Relevant Self-Assembly, Jeffery Hakim Hayat

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is focused on the synthesis, characterization, self-assembly, and materials processing of various functionalized block copolymer systems. A variety of monomers were prepared and polymerized through various polymerization techniques including atom transfer radical polymerization, reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, and ring-opening metathesis polymerization. Self-assembly of the functionalized block copolymers led to well-defined nanostructures in bulk and thin films. These materials have the capability to be utilized in various applications including ordered catalysts and templates for nanolithography. In Chapter 1, the overall background of diblock and triblock copolymers and their preparation methods is in this dissertation. Major research objectives of …

Defining The Effects Of Gdf-2 On TgfB Signaling In Tumorigenic Epithelial Cells, Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay

Theses and Dissertations

Cancer cells can be viewed as such cells, which have disrupted/aberrant signaling pathways for maintaining cellular homoeostasis. Identifying such altered signaling mechanisms can help us target these pathways in a better way. GDF-2 (Growth and differentiation factor – 2) or BMP9 (Bone morphogenetic protein – 9), a multifunctional cytokine, is a member of the Bone Morphogenetic Protein subfamily, under TGFβ superfamily, with roles distinct from BMP2/4/7. While GDF-2 is known to be one of the most potent ectopic inducers of bone and cartilage formation, it rose to significance with the identification of its receptor ALK1 in endothelial cells. TGFβ’s role …

Optimized Spectral Processing Of Infrared Diffuse Reflection Spectra For The Detection Of Blood On Fabric, Stephanie Ann Dejong

Theses and Dissertations

The detection of bodily fluids such as blood on interfering backgrounds is important to the forensic community. Luminol, which participates in a chemiluminescent reaction with the heme groups of blood, is one of the most commonly used presumptive tests. Luminol has a few drawbacks, including the requirement of use in a dark environment and potential to degrade the amount of recoverable DNA in blood stains. A potential complementary method is infrared (IR) spectroscopy. These two methods are compared in this work. Infrared diffuse reflection (DR) spectroscopy works well to measure the IR spectrum of samples that are highly absorbing or …

Supramolecular Coordination Networks Of S- And F-Block Metals Featuring The 1,8-Naphthalimide Tecton, Andrew Paul Leitner

Theses and Dissertations

The reactions of (S)-2-(1,8-naphthalimido)propanoic acid (HLala), and (S)-2-(1,8- naphthalimido)-3-hydroxypropanoic acid (HLser), protonated forms of ligands that contain a carboxylate donor group, an enantiopure chiral center and a 1,8-naphthalimide π...π stacking supramolecular tecton and in the case of HLser an alcohol functional group, with the appropriate alkali metal hydroxide followed by a variety of crystallization methods leads to the formation of crystalline K(Lala)(MeOH) (1), K(Lala)(H2O) (2), Na(Lala)(H2O) (3), KLser (4), CsLser (5) and CsLala (6). Each of these new complexes has a solid state structure based on six-coordinate metals linked into homochiral helical rod SBU central cores. In addition to the …

Fast Methods For Variable-Coefficient Peridynamic And Non-Local Diffusion Models, Che Wang

Theses and Dissertations

In previous studies, scientists developed the classical solid mechanic theory. The model has been widely used in scientific research and practical production. The main assumption of the classical theory of solid mechanics is that all internal forces act through zero distance. Because of this assumption, the mathematical model always leads to partial differential equations, which meet with problems when describing the spontaneous formation of discontinuities and other singularities. A peridynamic model was proposed as a reformation of solid mechanics [40, 41, 43, 44, 45], which leads to a non-local framework that does not explicitly involve the notion of deformation gradients, …

A Survey Of The Kinetic Monte Carlo Algorithm As Applied To A Multicellular System, Michael Richard Laughlin

Theses and Dissertations

We explore the origins and implementation of the Kinetic Monte Carlo method on a system of cells suspended in a liquid media. The situation presented herein has applications in the emerging field of biofabrication, which may have lasting impacts in medical science. The theory behind the method is explained in detail, starting with its emergence in the 1960s, and two major improvements to the scaling of the method are presented, along with a restriction to a special case. Finally, we give the results of several simulations.

Comparing The Geography Of Environmental Justice Guidelines, Fish Consumption Waterbodies, And Land Use/Land Cover In South Carolina, Matthew James Neet

Theses and Dissertations

Environmental justice (EJ) grew out of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, as well as grass roots organizations during the 1980s and early 1990s. However, it was not until President William J. Clinton signed Executive Order (EO) 12898 in 1994 that EJ became an official governmental policy. With this directive, federal agencies made EJ part of their daily operations. EO 12898 had two overriding goals, the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all populations. As part of these goals, minority, low-income, and native populations would be analyzed for any disproportionate and adverse impacts on human or environmental health. Despite …

Modeling, Simulation, And Applications Of Fractional Partial Differential Equations, Wilson Cheung

Theses and Dissertations

The Black-Scholes model is commonly used to track the price of European options with respect to maturity in many financial markets. This model degenerates into a partial differential equation that relates the European-style option price to the underlying price and time of expiry. Black-Scholes assumes that underlying prices satisfy a geometric Brownian motion.

After the U.S. stock market crash of 1987, this assumption becomes inaccurate as it fails to represent the behavior of S&P 500 European vanilla option prices. Specifically, under the measure of moneyness, the volatility smirk does not flatten out and the resulting conditional return distribution does not …

Needs Assessment: A Report On Seven Focus Groups In Ohio, Kevin O'Brien, Daniel Baracskay, Wendy Kellogg, Michael Mcgoun, Claudette Robey, Michael Tevesz, Kirstin Toth

Michael J. Tevesz

A series of seven focus groups were conducted in various locations throughout northern Ohio to identify and assess coastal resources management training needs across the Ohio Great Lakes basin. The focus groups were comprised of a cross-section of professionals who make decisions affecting watershed areas or Lake Erie coastal areas. Six of the focus groups included decision-makers considered previous and potential users of coastal resources management training (non-providers). A seventh focus group included decision-makers who provide training in coastal resources management (providers).

Spectroscopic And Functional Characterization Of The Nitric Oxide Adducts Of The Fe(Iii) And Fe(Ii) States Of The Co-Sensing Transcription Factor, Cooa, From Carboxydothermus Hydrogenoformans, Robert Clark, Edra Jani, Arathi Francis, Elise Laroche, Isabel Malone

Robert Clark

CooA is a carbon monoxide (CO) sensing transcription factor that is found in several bacteria and regulates CO metabolism. CO binding to CooA’s heme groups initiates a conformation change that activates protein DNA binding. This study investigates the reaction of Fe(III) Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformansCooA (Ch CooA) with nitric oxide (NO). Previously, Clark and coworkers reported Fe(II) Ch CooA bound NO to form a 6-coordinate (6-C) Fe(II)-NO adduct that was active for DNA binding in vivo and in vitro. This is in contrast to the best studied CooA homolog from R. rubrum (Rr) that was exquisitely specific for CO and formed an …

The Effect Of Latency On User Performance In Warcraft Iii, Nathan Sledon, Eric Girard, Seth Borg, Mark Claypool, Emmanuel Agu

Emmanuel O. Agu

Variable latency on the Internet is a well-known problem for interactive applications. With the increase in interactive network games comes the increased importance of understanding the effects of latency on user performance. Classes of network games such as First Person Shooters (FPS) and Read Time Strategy (RTS) differ in their user interaction model and hence susceptibility to variable latency. While previous work has measured the effects of latency on FPS games, there has been no systematic investigation of the effects of latency on RTS games. In this work, we design and conduct user studies that measure the impact of latency …

Low Delay Marking For Tcp In Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, Choong-Soo Lee, Mingzhe Li, Emmanuel Agu, Mark Claypool, Robert Kinicki

Emmanuel O. Agu

End-hosts on wireless ad hoc networks typically use TCP as their transport layer protocol. Being designed for wired networks, TCP can perform poorly over wireless networks. Work that has proposed ways to improve TCP performance over wireless networks has concentrated primarily on improving TCP throughput only. Emerging applications, such as interactive multimedia and network games, require reduced delay at least as much as increased throughput. In this paper, we propose LDM1, an IP layer queue marking mechanism that estimates the number of hops and flows at each wireless node to computes the optimal marking probability. We present simulation results and …

Full Isolation Number Of Matrices: Some Extremal Results, David Tate, David Brown

David C. Brown

A set of nonzero entries of a (0,1)-matrix is an isolated set if no two entries belong to the same row, no two entries belong to the same column, and no two entries belong to a submatrix of the form [1 1; 1 1]. The isolation number of a matrix is the maximum size over all isolated sets. The isolation number of a matrix is a well-known and well-used lower bound for the matrix's Boolean rank. We will discuss the isolation number of the adjacency matrix of various graphs and develop some extremal results for n x n matrices with …

Use Of Cryoelectronics To Reduce Power Losses, Christopher Hawley, Steve Gower, Dominic Cuiuri

Dominic Cuiuri

The operational characteristics of power electronics operating at ambient temperatures are well known. Less well known are the characteristics of these devices when operating at cryogenic temperatures. This emerging field is known as cryoelectronics. The primary driver for operation at reduced temperatures is the promise of a resultant reduction in device operation losses. The operating characteristics of Metal Oxide Silicon Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) and Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) at Liquid Nitrogen (LN) temperature have been experimentally analysed. The results have been used to evaluate the viability of using cryoelectronics in medium - high power applications, considering trade-offs between …

Time-Partitioned Index Design For Adaptive Multi-Route Data Stream Systems Utilizing Heavy Hitter Algorithms, Karen Works, Elke Rundensteiner, Emmanuel Agu

Emmanuel O. Agu

Adaptive multi-route query processing (AMR) is a recently emerging paradigm for processing stream queries in highly fluctuating environments. AMR dynamically routes batches of tuples to operators in the query network based on routing criteria and up-to-date system statistics. In the context of AMR systems, indexing, a core technology for efficient stream processing, has received little attention. Indexing in AMR systems is demanding as indices must adapt to serve continuously evolving query paths while maintaining index content under high volumes of data. Our proposed Adaptive Multi-Route Index (AMRI) employs a bitmap time-partitioned design that while being versatile in serving a diverse …

Harmonic Allocation Following Iec Guidelines Using The Voltage Droop Concept, V. Gosbell, Robert Barr

Robert Barr

Present IEC guidelines are difficult to apply to realistic cases because of the data load, the number of assumptions required and the computational complexity. A new approach is given based on the concept of voltage droop, to be detailed in a companion paper. The benefits of the approach are a simple calculation with minimal data and no required assumptions. It applies to radial or meshed distribution systems where feeders are sufficiently short that line capacitance can be ignored. The approach can be applied at the installation (MV or LV) and the equipment level and can be used to give reference …

New Exactly Solvable Hamiltonians - Shape Invariance And Self-Similarity, David Barclay, Ranabir Dutt, Asim Gangopadhyaya, Avinash Khare, A. Pagnamenta, Uday Sukhatne

Asim Gangopadhyaya

We discuss in some detail the self-similar potentials of Shabat and Spiridonov which are reflectionless and have an infinite number of bound states. We demonstrate that these self-similar potentials are in fact shape invariant potentials within the formalism of supersymmetric quantum mechanics. In particular, using a scaling ansatz for the change of parameters, we obtain a large class of new, reflectionless, shape invariant potentials of which the Shabat-Spiridonov ones are a special case. These new potentials can be viewed as q-deformations of the single soliton solution corresponding to the Rosen-Morse potential. Explicit expressions for the energy eigenvalues, eigenfunctions and transmission …

Performance Enhancement Of Tfrc In Wireless Networks, Mingzhe Li, Emmanuel Agu, Mark Claypool, Robert Kinicki

Emmanuel O. Agu

The TCP-Friendly Rate Control (TFRC) is used as a streaming media transport protocol. Using the TCP congestion response function and current network conditions, TFRC adjusts its transmission rate to yield the maximum TCP-Friendly throughput when sharing capacity with TCP flows. Since TFRC was designed for wired networks, it does not achieve the maximum TCP-Friendly throughput in multihop ad hoc wireless networks. The reduced wireless spatial channel reuse due to hidden terminals in multihop wireless networks induces TFRC throughput reductions. Specifically, TFRC is unaware of MAC layer transmission delays due to collisions, retransmissions and MAC layer congestion. This paper illustrates that …

Nilgai Antelope In Northern Mexico As A Possible Carrier For Cattle Fever Ticks And Babesia Bovis And Babesia Bigemina., E Cardenas-Canales, J. Alfonso Ortega-Santos, Tyler A. Campbell, Zeferino Garcia-Vaquez, Antonio Cantu-Covarrubias, Julio Figueroa-Millian, Randy W. Deyoung, David G. Hewitt, Fred Bryant

Fred B. Bryant

Of 20 blood samples from nilgais from Me´ xico, five were polymerase chain reaction-positive for Babesia bigemina and one for Babesia bovis. Positive samples had the expected 170 (B. bigemina) and 291 (B. bovis) base pairs and were identical to Gen-Bank B. bigemina accession S45366 and B. bovis M38218.