Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Evolutionary Computation For Digital Artefact Design, Prasad Gade

Masters

This thesis presents novel systems for the automatic and semi-automatic design of digital artefacts. Currently, users wanting to create digital models, such as three-dimensional (3D) digital landscapes and website colour schemes, need to possess significant expertise, as the tools involved demand a high level of knowledge and skill. By developing an intuitive algorithmic process, founded on evolutionary computation (EC), this research enables non-specialist human designers to create digital assets more efficiently. This is achieved by replacing design activities that require significant manual input with algorithmic functions, thereby greatly improving the efficiency and accessibility of the practices involved.

This research places …

Koi-3158: The Oldest Known System Of Terrestrial-Size Planets, Tiago L. Campante, Darin A. Ragozzine

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

The first discoveries of exoplanets around Sun-like stars have fueled efforts to find ever smaller worlds evocative of Earth and other terrestrial planets in the Solar System. While gas-giant planets appear to form preferentially around metal-rich stars, small planets (with radii less than four Earth radii) can form under a wide range of metallicities. This implies that small, including Earth-size, planets may have readily formed at earlier epochs in the Universe's history when metals were far less abundant. We report Kepler spacecraft observations of KOI-3158, a metal-poor Sun-like star from the old population of the Galactic thick disk, which hosts …

Koi-3158: The Oldest Known System Of Terrestrial-Size Planets, Tiago L. Campante, Darin A. Ragozzine

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

The first discoveries of exoplanets around Sun-like stars have fueled efforts to find ever smaller worlds evocative of Earth and other terrestrial planets in the Solar System. While gas-giant planets appear to form preferentially around metal-rich stars, small planets (with radii less than four Earth radii) can form under a wide range of metallicities. This implies that small, including Earth-size, planets may have readily formed at earlier epochs in the Universe's history when metals were far less abundant. We report Kepler spacecraft observations of KOI-3158, a metal-poor Sun-like star from the old population of the Galactic thick disk, which hosts …

First Images Of Thunder: Acoustic Imaging Of Triggered Lightning, M. A. Dayeh, R. Lucia, Hamid K. Rassoul

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

An acoustic camera comprising a linear microphone array is used to image the thunder signature of triggered lightning. Measurements were taken at the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing in Camp Blanding, FL, during the summer of 2014. The array was positioned in an end-fire orientation thus enabling the peak acoustic reception pattern to be steered vertically with a frequency-dependent spatial resolution. On 14 July 2014, a lightning event with nine return strokes was successfully triggered. We present the first acoustic images of individual return strokes at high frequencies (>1kHz) and compare the acoustically inferred profile with optical …

The Effect Of Direct Electron-Positron Pair Production On Relativistic Feedback Rates, Igor B. Vodopiyanov, Joseph R. Dwyer, Eric S. Cramer, R. J. Lucia, Hamid K. Rassoul

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Runaway electron avalanches developing in thunderclouds in high electric field become self-sustaining due to relativistic feedback via the production of backward propagating positrons and backscattered X-rays. To date, only positrons created from pair production by gamma rays interacting with the air have been considered. In contrast, direct electron-positron pair production, also known as "trident process," occurs from the interaction of energetic runaway electrons with atomic nuclei, and so it does not require the generation of a gamma ray mediator. The positrons produced in this process contribute to relativistic feedback and become especially important when the feedback factor value approaches unity. …

Search For Third-Generation Scalar Leptoquarks In The Tτ Channel In Proton-Proton Collisions At √S = 8 Tev, Vardan Khachatryan, Vallary Bhopatkar, Marcus Hohlmann, Himali Kalakhety, Darren Mareskas-Palcek, Tuhin S. Roy, Francisco Yumiceva, The Cms Collaboration

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

A search for pair production of third-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to top quark and τ lepton pairs is presented using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 8 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb−1. The search is performed using events that contain an electron or a muon, a hadronically decaying τ lepton, and two or more jets. The observations are found to be consistent with the standard model predictions. Assuming that all leptoquarks decay to a top quark and a τ lepton, the existence of …

Searches For Third-Generation Squark Production In Fully Hadronic Final States In Proton-Proton Collisions At √S = 8 Tev, Vardan Khachatryan, Vallary Bhopatkar, Marcus Hohlmann, H Kalakhety, D. Mareskas-Palcek, Tuhin S. Roy, Francisco X. Yumiceva, The Cms Collaboration

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

Searches for third-generation squarks in fully hadronic final states are presented using data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of 19.4 or 19.7 fb−1, collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. Three mutually exclusive searches are presented, each optimized for a different decay topology. They include a multijet search requiring one fully reconstructed top quark, a dijet search requiring one or two jets originating from b quarks, and a monojet search. No excesses above the standard model expectations are seen, and limits are set on top and bottom squark production in the context …

Search For Disappearing Tracks In Proton-Proton Collisions At S√=8 Tev, The Cms Collaboration, V. Khachatryan, A. M. Sirunyan, Marc M. Baarmand, Marcus Hohlmann, Himali Kalakhety, Francisco Yumiceva

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

A search is presented for long-lived charged particles that decay within the CMS detector and produce the signature of a disappearing track. Disappearing tracks are identified as those with little or no associated calorimeter energy deposits and with missing hits in the outer layers of the tracker. The search uses proton-proton collision data recorded at s√=8 TeV that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb−1. The results of the search are interpreted in the context of the anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking (AMSB) model. The number of observed events is in agreement with the background expectation, and limits are set on …

Search For A Light Charged Higgs Boson Decaying To Cs In Pp Collisions At P S = 8 Tev, The Cms Collaboration, V. Khachatryan, A. M. Sirunyan, Marc M. Baarmand, Vallary Bhopatkar, Marcus Hohlmann, Himali Kalakhety, Daniel Noonan, Tuhin Roy, Francisco Yumiceva

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

A measurement of the W boson helicity is presented, where the W boson originates from the decay of a top quark produced in pp collisions. The event selection, optimized for reconstructing a single top quark in the final state, requires exactly one isolated lepton (muon or electron) and exactly two jets, one of which is likely to originate from the hadronization of a bottom quark. The analysis is performed using data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2012. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb …

Search For Dark Photons From Neutral Meson Decays In P+P And D+ Au Collisions At √Snn =200 Gev, Andrew Marshall Adare, Gyöngyi Baksay, László A. Baksay, Marcus Hohlmann, S. Rembeczki, Phenix Collaboration

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

The standard model (SM) of particle physics is spectacularly successful, yet the measured value of the muon anomalous magnetic moment (g-2)μ deviates from SM calculations by 3.6σ. Several theoretical models attribute this to the existence of a "dark photon," an additional U(1) gauge boson, which is weakly coupled to ordinary photons. The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has searched for a dark photon, U, in π0,η→γe+e- decays and obtained upper limits of O(2×10‐⁶) U-γ mixing at 90% C.L. for the mass range 30< mᵤ < 90 MeV/c². Combined with other experimental limits, the remaining region in the U-γ mixing parameter space that can explain the (g-2)ᵤ deviation from its SM value is nearly completely excluded at the 90% confidence level, with only a small region of 29

Φ Meson Production In D + Au Collisions At √Snn =200 Gev, Andrew Marshall Adare, Gyöngyi Baksay, László A. Baksay, Marcus Hohlmann, S. Rembeczki, Phenix Collaboration

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

The PHENIX Collaboration has measured φ meson production in d+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV using the dimuon and dielectron decay channels. The φ meson is measured in the forward (backward) d-going (Au-going) direction, 1.2 < y < 2.2 (-2.2 < y < -1.2) in the transverse-momentum (pT) range from 1-7 GeV/c and at midrapidity │y│< 0.35 in the pT range below 7 GeV/c. The φ meson invariant yields and nuclear-modification factors as a function of pT, rapidity, and centrality are reported. An enhancement of φ meson production is observed in the Au-going direction, while suppression is seen in the d-going direction, and no modification is observed at midrapidity relative to the yield in p+p collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. Similar behavior was previously observed for inclusive charged hadrons and open heavy flavor, indicating similar cold-nuclear-matter effects.

Initiated Chemical Vapor Deposition (Icvd) Polymer Thin Films : Structure-Property Effects On Thermal Degradation And Adhesion, Vijay Jain Bharamaiah Jeevendrakumar

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Opportunities and challenges for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of polymer thin films stems from their applications in electronics, sensors, and adhesives with demands for control over film composition, conformity and stability. Initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) is a subset of the CVD technique that conjoins bulk free-radical polymerization chemistry with gas-phase processing. The novelty of iCVD technique stems from the use of an initiator that can be activated at low energies (150 – 300 °C) to react with surface adsorbed monomer to form a polymer film. This reduces risk for potential unwarranted side-reactions.

Luminescence Of Lanthanide Ions In Octahedral Coordinations With Comparison To The Centroid Shift And Host Lattice Exciton Energy, Sam J. Camardello

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation, we have studied the luminescence of the lanthanide ions (Ce3+, Eu2+, Eu3+, Tb3+, and Pr3+), specifically in the highly symmetric octahedral coordination. This high symmetry coordination readily permits the optical properties of the luminescent ions to be determined spectroscopically. Relevant optical parameters such as the Stokes Shift (∆S), red shift (D(2+, 3+, A), crystal field splitting (Ɛcfs), and centroid sift (Ɛc), along with the excitation and emission spectra, are presented. Three different crystal structures were studied, namely, M2+Al2B2O7 (M2+ = Ca, Sr, Ba) doped with Eu2+ and Ce3+, KBaLn3+(BO3)2 (M3+ = all lanthanides, Y, Sc) doped with …

Using Storm-Watersheds And A Multi-Criteria Decision Model For Biodiversity Conservation In An Urban Environment, Christina M. Chiappetta

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Many planning and land use decisions in New York State are controlled at the local (town or municipal) level, not an optimal scale for planning and implementing resource conservation management. Watershed boundaries provide a more ecologically meaningful scale for conservation, because they capture a full range of natural ecosystem processes that span political boundaries. However, defining an urban watershed is complicated by stormwater infrastructure, so standard topographic watershed boundaries may be inadequate for urban resource conservation even when applied at the watershed scale. Storm-watersheds distort both municipal and watershed boundaries, because the flows are redirected in ways that are often …

Extraction Of Carrier Mobility And Interface Trap Density In Ingaas Metal Oxide Semiconductor Structures Using Gated Hall Method, Thenappan Chidambaram

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

III-V semiconductors are potential candidates to replace Si as a channel material in next generation CMOS integrated circuits owing to their superior carrier mobilities. Low density of states (DOS) and typically high interface and border trap densities (Dit) in high mobility group III-V semiconductors provide difficulties in quantification of Dit near the conduction band edge. The trap response above the threshold voltage of a MOSFET can be very fast, and conventional Dit extraction methods, based on capacitance/conductance response (CV methods) of MOS capacitors at frequencies <1MHz, cannot distinguish conducting and trapped carriers. In addition, the CV methods have to deal with high dispersion in the accumulation region that makes it a difficult task to measure the true oxide capacitance, Cox value. Another implication of these properties of III-V interfaces is an ambiguity of determination of electron density in the MOSFET channel. Traditional evaluation of carrier density by integration of the C-V curve, gives incorrect values for Dit and mobility. Here we employ gated Hall method to quantify the Dit spectrum at the high-κ oxide/III-V semiconductor interface for buried and surface channel devices using Hall measurement and capacitance-voltage data. Determination of electron density directly from Hall measurements allows for obtaining true mobility values

Visual Saliency Estimation : A Pre-Attentive Cognitive And Context-Aware Approach, Amanda Shannon Danko

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

At each glance, biological vision systems organize a tremendous amount of input and

Optical Metrology For Directed Self-Assembly Patterning Using Mueller Matrix Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Based Scatterometry, Dhairya J. Dixit

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The semiconductor industry continues to drive patterning solutions that enable devices with higher memory storage capacity, faster computing performance, lower cost per transistors, and higher transistor density. These developments in the field of semiconductor manufacturing along with the overall minimization of the size of transistors require cutting-edge metrology tools for characterization.

Deciding Static Inclusion For Delta-Strong And Omega [Upside Down Triangle]-Strong Intruder Theories : Applications To Cryptographic Protocol Analysis, Kimberly Ann Gero

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation we will be studying problems relating to indistinguishability. This topic

A Study Of The Emergence Of Student Tacit Knowledge In Response To Environmental Images And Science Instruction, Rory J. Glass

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this study was to identify the presence of students’ tacit understandings as they apply to environmental science content, and to discover how these understandings emerge and are viewed and interpreted by teachers. Towards that end over ten hours of classroom video was recorded and analyzed, from both large urban and smaller urban classrooms. Additionally, interviews were conducted with 15 students and two teachers to gain insight into their thinking on an array of topics related to the environment and environmental reasoning. It was hypothesized that students’ understandings and teachers’ interpretations of them may be influenced by their …

Swan Modules Of Elementary Abelian 2-Groups Over Quadratic Imaginary Fields, Maxine Guzman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

We show that every quadratic imaginary extension of the field of rationals has a biquadratic extension without a normal integral basis.

Coherent Scattering Imaging Monte Carlo Simulation, Laila Hassan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Conventional mammography has poor contrast between healthy and cancerous tissues due to the small difference in attenuation properties. Coherent scatter potentially provides more information because interference of coherently scattered radiation depends on the average intermolecular spacing, and can be used to characterize tissue types. However, typical coherent scatter analysis techniques are not compatible with rapid low dose screening techniques. Coherent scatter slot scan imaging is a novel imaging technique which provides new information with higher contrast. In this work a simulation of coherent scatter was performed for slot scan imaging to assess its performance and provide system optimization. In coherent …

Mixed Ligand Approach To Design Heterometallic Single-Source Precursors For Low-Temperature Preparation Of Oxide Materials, Craig Matthew Lieberman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

There is a considerable interest in the use of metal oxides for development of novel high-technological materials such as gas sensors, multiferroics, and electrocatalysts. In particular, the design of complex oxides, which incorporate more than one type of metal atom, is focused on enriching chemical and physical properties of the target materials and allowing for increased functionality. In order to replace the harsh conditions associated with traditional synthetic routes that often require high temperatures and/or pressures, new soft chemistry methods for the preparation of mixed-metal oxide materials have been developed. One of the most promising directions is the emergence of …

Novel Nmr Based Technologies To Study Macromolecular Structures, Subhabrata Majumder

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) is one of the principle tools in structural biology to probe macromolecular structures and interactions. The atomic resolution afforded by this technique has been widely used to probe protein-protein, and protein-ligand interactions in-vitro. However, the natural milieu of the proteins is the living cell and the cellular cytoplasm is extremely heterogeneous. The NMR studies of folded protein in-cell, till now, have been limited by non-specific interactions of the cytosol. This thesis outlays a general methodology to study protein structure/interactions inside the living cells using NMR. In a closely related objective, it also describes the use …

Comparison Of Glucose, Fructose And Sucrose Amperometric And Thermal Sensors For Detection Of Carbohydrates In Living Plant Tissue, Scott Mcadoo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Ecologists currently cannot test concentrations of carbohydrates in sap in vivo. Testing carbohydrates with current technology would require destructive tissue sampling. The tissue sampling involves large amounts of time and money to collect and test. Aphids are an insect that can bypass a tree’s passive immune system and feed off a phloem region for weeks. A series of enzymatic biosensors could be used to detect the concentration changes of specific carbohydrates. A calcium chelant can be added to defeat a tree’s immune system like an aphid. The detection of three carbohydrates, fructose, glucose and sucrose are involved in this study. …

Diagnosis Of The Source Of Medium-Range Forecast Errors For An Extratropical Cyclone, William Lamberson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Medium-range forecasts of an extratropical cyclone set to impact Western Europe on 16 Dec 2011 consistently predicted that the cyclone would be intense, with a minimum pressure as low as 930-hPa and an expansive area of high winds. In actuality, the cyclone never deepened below 965-hPa and its impact on Western Europe was minimal.

Phase Imaging Using Focusing Polycapillary Optics, Sajid Bashir

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The interaction of X rays in diagnostic energy range with soft tissues can be described by Compton scattering and by the complex refractive index, which together characterize the attenuation properties of the tissue and the phase imparted to X rays passing through it. Many soft tissues exhibit extremely similar attenuation, so that their discrimination using conventional radiography, which generates contrast in an image through differential attenuation, is challenging. However, these tissues will impart phase differences significantly greater than attenuation differences to the X rays passing through them, so that phase-contrast imaging techniques can enable their discrimination.

Identical Particles In Quantum Mechanics : Operational And Topological Considerations, Klil H. Neori

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation reports our investigation into the existence of anyons, which interpolate between bosons and fermions, in light of the Symmetrization Postulate, which states that only the two extremes exist. The Symmetrization Postulate can be understood as asserting that there are only two consistent ways of combining the behavior of distinguishable particles to obtain the behavior of identical ones. We showed that anyonic behavior then arises because of the way in which the probability amplitudes of distinguishable particles in two dimensions are affected by the topology of the space. These can then be combined in one of the ways arising …

Developing A Weibull Model Extension To Estimate Cancer Latency Times, Diana L. Nadler

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

More than one-third of all Americans will be diagnosed with cancer sometime in their lives. Though their illness may be invisible now, it presents a great, and largely unexamined, opportunity to find and treat their cancers early. Early detection represents one of the most promising approaches to reduce the growing cancer burden by identifying cancer while it is localized and curable, preventing not only mortality, but also reducing morbidity and costs.

Mass Spectrometry-Based Rnomics : Global Surveys Of Ribonucleotide Modifications As Possible Indicators Of Cell Identity, Epigenetic, Metabolic And Pathological State, Rebecca Erin Rose

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Discovery of the regulatory roles of non-protein coding RNAs (ncRNAs), once considered “junk” or “transcriptional noise”, has prompted a reassessment of the significance of the multifaceted activities of RNA in cellular response, which can result in cell transformation and diseased states. This reassessment, however, can only be accomplished if techniques are developed to capture, characterize and quantify the more than 100 covalent post-transcriptional modifications (PTMs) that adorn natural RNAs. Undoubtedly, the creation of high-throughput platforms such as next-generation sequencing and RNA-seq have provided unparalleled accuracy and sensitivity, however, they rely on strand amplification procedures that are blind to the known …

The Intensification Of Sheared Tropical Cyclones, Leon Nguyen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Environmental vertical wind shear has been shown to have a generally detrimental impact on tropical cyclone (TC) intensity change. However, many cases of rapidly intensifying (RI) sheared TCs have been observed, and TCs in moderate (5-10 m s-1) shear often have the largest intensity forecast errors. Thus, advancing the understanding of TC-shear interactions is vital to improving TC intensity forecasts, which have not seen much improvement over the past few decades. This dissertation employs both observational and high-resolution numerical modeling approaches to investigate how some TCs are able to resist shear and intensify.