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A New Approach To The Synthesis Of Pvc Graft Copolymers, Guangde Chen
A New Approach To The Synthesis Of Pvc Graft Copolymers, Guangde Chen
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Meiofauna Abundance And Distribution In Chesapeake Bay: Relationships With Environmental Stressors, Sediment Toxicity And Macrofauna, William J. Metcalfe
Meiofauna Abundance And Distribution In Chesapeake Bay: Relationships With Environmental Stressors, Sediment Toxicity And Macrofauna, William J. Metcalfe
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Macrofauna-based biocriteria to assess impairment in aquatic communities are well-developed and have been widely accepted as useful for coastal monitoring programs worldwide. Meiofauna-based methods are not as well developed, but meiofauna are intimately associated with sediments through their life cycles and are functionally important. Thus, an understanding of meiofauna relationships with environmental quality is also important. Relationships between the abundance and composition of major meiofauna taxa for two shallow water habitat types (protected, with muddy sediment; exposed, with sandy sediment) were investigated along gradients associated with changing land use, sediment contamination and environmental stressors in Chesapeake Bay. Principal component analysis …
Distinguishing Sediment Transport Modes To The Outer-Shelf Off The Waiapu River, New Zealand, Lisa D. Addington
Distinguishing Sediment Transport Modes To The Outer-Shelf Off The Waiapu River, New Zealand, Lisa D. Addington
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Application Of Survival Analysis Methods To Pulsed Exposures: Exposure Duration, Latent Mortality, Recovery Time, And The Underlying Theory Of Survival Distribution Models, Yuan Zhao
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Ecotoxicologists adopted median lethal concentration (LC50) methods from mammalian toxicology. This conventional LC50 approach has shortcomings. Fixing the exposure duration and selecting the 50% mortality level result in loss of ecologically relevant information generated at all other times. It also ignores latent mortality that can manifest after exposure ends. as a result, it cannot adequately predict pulsed exposure effects in which concentration, duration, and frequency of pulses change through time. The underlying theory of the dose-response models used to calculate LC50 values, stochastic versus individual effective dose (IED) theory, has not been tested rigorously either. In this study, the effects …
Transfer Of Essential Fatty Acids By Marine Plankton, Adriana J. Veloza
Transfer Of Essential Fatty Acids By Marine Plankton, Adriana J. Veloza
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCn-3 PUFAs) such as EPA and DHA are important biomolecules regulating production in marine ecosystems. This study examined how the interaction at the phytoplankton-zooplankton interface affected the transfer of LCn-3 PUFAs to higher trophic levels. Heterotrophic dinoflagellates contained higher levels of EPA and DHA than their algal prey, suggesting heterotrophic dinoflagellates enhanced the nutritional value of poor quality algae and subsequent transfer to the next trophic level. Formation of EPA and DHA in the dinoflagellates appears to be achieved by the elongation and desaturation of shorter fatty acid chains rather than through de novo …
Site Fidelity, Home Range, And Daily Movements Of White Perch, Morone Americana, And Striped Bass, Morone Saxatilis, In Two Small Tributaries Of The York River, Virginia, Patrick E. Mcgrath
Site Fidelity, Home Range, And Daily Movements Of White Perch, Morone Americana, And Striped Bass, Morone Saxatilis, In Two Small Tributaries Of The York River, Virginia, Patrick E. Mcgrath
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and white perch (M. americana) are two common species residing within Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. These congeners are both commercially and recreationally important species. White perch are permanent residents in the Bay, while striped bass are only residents during the first few years of their life. During these initial years, striped bass co-occur with white perch. There is very little known about white perch and resident striped bass site fidelity and home range. This acoustic tagging study aims to examine site fidelity and home range of both species and determine if there is any spatial …
A Molecular Phylogeny Of The Echeneoidea (Perciformes: Carangoidei) And An Investigation Of Population Structuring Within The Echeneidae, Kurtis N. Gray
A Molecular Phylogeny Of The Echeneoidea (Perciformes: Carangoidei) And An Investigation Of Population Structuring Within The Echeneidae, Kurtis N. Gray
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Planar Oxides As A Novel Approach To Metal Ion Sorption Studies: From The Lab To The Field, Christine F. Conrad
Planar Oxides As A Novel Approach To Metal Ion Sorption Studies: From The Lab To The Field, Christine F. Conrad
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The purpose of this work is to investigate the use of planar oxides as tools for metal ion sorption studies that can be used in both laboratory and field settings. to do this, a three-step approach was used. In the first step, the reactivities of the planar gamma-Al2O3 surfaces relative to pure phase gamma alumina was investigated through Pb(II) sorption studies. The relative quantitative uptake of Pb(II) on the planar gamma alumina was found to be comparable to that on the bulk. XAS analysis showed that the coordination geometry and local binding environment of the Pb(II) complexes were similar on …
Description And Evaluation Of The United States Coastal Pelagic Longline Fishery Interactions With Target And Non-Target Species In The Western North Atlantic, David. Kerstetter
Description And Evaluation Of The United States Coastal Pelagic Longline Fishery Interactions With Target And Non-Target Species In The Western North Atlantic, David. Kerstetter
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Eighty-five monitored sets were used to investigate the interactions of pelagic fishes with commercial pelagic longline gear in the western North Atlantic during the fall mixed species fishery north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and the spring swordfish fishery in the southern Gulf of Mexico and northern Caribbean Sea. This dissertation incorporates four components: (1) direct analyses of longline gear behavior using small time-depth recorders, (2) comparisons of catch rates and mortality of all species caught on size 16/0 non-offset circle and size 9/0 straight-shank J-style hooks, including analyses of time-of-capture utilizing electronic hook time recorders, (3) an evaluation of …
Tidal Wetland Contributions To Fecal Coliform Loads In Shellfish Growing Waters By Analysis Of Model Prediction Discrepancy, Jie. Huang
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Fecal contamination in estuaries has become an increasing concern worldwide. The use of wetlands for wastewater treatment has expanded due to their natural ability to improve water quality by removing suspended sediments, nutrients, and fecal bacteria. In general, most of the removal occurs through deposition and accumulation in the wetland substrate. This would suggest that wetlands are effective filters for fecal coliform transported from terrestrial environments to surface waters. It has also been hypothesized, however, that wetlands may be an intermittent source of fecal coliform in tidal systems as a result of wildlife deposition and /or accumulation from terrestrial sources. …
Influence Of Environmental Factors On The Seed Ecology Of Vallisneria Americana, Jessie J. Campbell
Influence Of Environmental Factors On The Seed Ecology Of Vallisneria Americana, Jessie J. Campbell
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Environmental conditions may positively or negatively influence production, reproduction, and restoration of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). As SAV populations decline, it is important to understand the potential impacts of the environment on the natural processes of reproduction. The objectives of this study are to provide fundamental information on sexual reproduction in a dominant species of freshwater SAV, Vallisneria americana, in the Chesapeake Bay observe the changes in environmental conditions in an established V. americana bed over an entire growing season (April-October), quantify the effects of similar environmental conditions on V. americana seed germination under controlled laboratory conditions, and finally to …
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies Of Relaxor Ferroelectrics, William J. Brouwer
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies Of Relaxor Ferroelectrics, William J. Brouwer
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This work is devoted to the study of local order in the ferroelectric PbSc1/2Ta1/2O3 (PST) and relaxor ferroelectric solid solutions (1-x)PbSC2/3W1/3O3-(x)PbTiO 3 (PSW-PT), (1x)PbSC2/3W1/3O3-(x)PbZrO 3 (PSW-PZ). Novel Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (SS-NMR) experiments, including Multiple Quantum MAS (MQMAS) and Double Quantum Filtered Satellite Transition (DQF-STMAS), have been performed on these materials. A gamma function model is proposed for the distribution of quadrupole coupling constants, based on the Poissonian nature of atomic displacements. Moments for distributions may be subsequently extracted through agreement between experimental spectra and simulations implemented in novel programs. Simple crystal compound scandium oxide …
An Investigation Of Programmer-Identified Concerns, Meghan Kathleen Revelle
An Investigation Of Programmer-Identified Concerns, Meghan Kathleen Revelle
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Iron And Carbon Limitation Of Prokaryotic Growth In The Ocean, Jacques L. Oliver
Iron And Carbon Limitation Of Prokaryotic Growth In The Ocean, Jacques L. Oliver
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Studies were undertaken to examine the roles of iron and carbon in modulating prokaryotic growth in the ocean. The context of the first study was an open-open iron fertilization experiment in the high nutrient, low chlorophyll (HNLC) regime in the Southern Ocean. The context of the second study was the oligotrophic, iron-replete, and organic carbon-limited northwest Sargasso Sea. Experimental sea water cultures were amended with an iron chelator, desferrioxamine B (DFOB), and other nutrients to examine the effects of iron and carbon limitation on growth. In the first study prokaryotic abundance, carbon production, and growth rate increased in response to …
Sources Of Sedimentary Organic Matter In The Mississippi River And Adjacent Gulf Of Mexico, Elizabeth J. Waterson
Sources Of Sedimentary Organic Matter In The Mississippi River And Adjacent Gulf Of Mexico, Elizabeth J. Waterson
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The development of accurate carbon budgets, as well as global climate models with predictive capabilities, requires an understanding of the delivery and fate of terrigenous carbon in the environment. Understanding the extent to which estuarine and continental shelf processes alter carbon transfer between marine and terrestrial systems, including estimates of organic matter accumulation in coastal sediments, is poorly known. Organic carbon and nutrients exported to the adjacent Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi River are influenced by biological and physical processes including remineralization, hydrodynamic sorting, seabed mixing and bioturbation, and burial. These complex processes make it difficult to know the …
Hypoxia In Shallow Coastal Waters: A Case Study In Onancock Creek, Virginia, Taiping Wang
Hypoxia In Shallow Coastal Waters: A Case Study In Onancock Creek, Virginia, Taiping Wang
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Characteristics Of Vesicomyid Clams And Their Environment At The Blake Ridge Cold Seep, Taylor Perrine Heyl
Characteristics Of Vesicomyid Clams And Their Environment At The Blake Ridge Cold Seep, Taylor Perrine Heyl
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Reproductive Attributes Of Polynoid Polychaetes From Hydrothermal Vents On The East Pacific Rise, Jessica Lynn Wallace
Reproductive Attributes Of Polynoid Polychaetes From Hydrothermal Vents On The East Pacific Rise, Jessica Lynn Wallace
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Techniques Of Data Prefetching, Replication, And Consistency In The Internet, Xin Chen
Techniques Of Data Prefetching, Replication, And Consistency In The Internet, Xin Chen
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Internet has become a major infrastructure for information sharing in our daily life, and indispensable to critical and large applications in industry, government, business, and education. Internet bandwidth (or the network speed to transfer data) has been dramatically increased, however, the latency time (or the delay to physically access data) has been reduced in a much slower pace. The rich bandwidth and lagging latency can be effectively coped with in Internet systems by three data management techniques: caching, replication, and prefetching. The focus of this dissertation is to address the latency problem in Internet by utilizing the rich bandwidth and …
Data Broadcast Scheduling: Models, Algorithms, And Analysis, Aaron Thomas Hawkins
Data Broadcast Scheduling: Models, Algorithms, And Analysis, Aaron Thomas Hawkins
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Inherent in the field of data broadcasting is a communication problem in which a server is to transmit a subset of data items in response to requests received from clients. The intent of the server is to optimize metrics quantifying the quality of service the system provides. This method of data dissemination has proved to be an efficient means of delivering information in asymmetric environments demanding massive scalability. of critical importance in such a system is the algorithm used by the server to construct a schedule of item broadcasts.;Due to the real-time nature of this problem, performances of heuristics designed …
Photochemical Modification Of Polyethylene Terephthalate Surface, Zhengmao Zhu
Photochemical Modification Of Polyethylene Terephthalate Surface, Zhengmao Zhu
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The prospect of obtaining desired surface-mediated characteristics while retaining bulk-mediated physical properties and avoiding potential environmental issues with wet chemical technology lends considerable appeal to photochemical approaches to surface modification.;We undertook a combined experimental and computational approach to investigate the effect of deep UV irradiation on the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) surface. its response to 172 nm UV from a xenon examiner lamp in the absence of oxygen was characterized with X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Time of Flight/Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF/SIMS), transmission infrared spectroscopy (IR), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The surface chemistry details suggested that the primary photochemical reactions …
Quantum Monte Carlo Method For Boson Ground States: Application To Trapped Bosons With Attractive And Repulsive Interactions, Wirawan Purwanto
Quantum Monte Carlo Method For Boson Ground States: Application To Trapped Bosons With Attractive And Repulsive Interactions, Wirawan Purwanto
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
We formulate a quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method for calculating the ground state of many-boson systems. The method is based on a field-theoretical approach, and is closely related to existing fermion auxiliary-field QMC methods which are applied in several fields of physics. The ground-state projection is implemented as a branching random walk in the space of permanents consisting of identical single-particle orbitals. Any single-particle basis can be used, and the method is in principle exact. We apply this method to an atomic Bose gas, where the atoms interact via an attractive or repulsive contact two-body potential parametrized by the s-wave …
Modifications Of Spacetime And Particle Physics Beyond The Standard Model, Justin M. Conroy
Modifications Of Spacetime And Particle Physics Beyond The Standard Model, Justin M. Conroy
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
In this dissertation we consider spacetime modifications that result in new physics beyond the standard model. We investigate various collider implications of a particular Lorentz-conserving formulation of QED in which spacetime coordinates are noncommuting. We also consider collider implications of Universal Extra Dimensions. Specifically, we address the possible formation of bound states involving the first quark KK-modes, i.e. KK-quarkonium. In addition, we consider the use of boundary conditions in extra dimensions to break gauge symmetries in unified theories. These boundary conditions can be related to a boundary Higgs sector that decouples from the theory. This technique of "Higgsless" symmetry breaking …
Characterization Of Ionic, Dipolar And Molecular Mobility In Polymer Systems, Zhenrong Guo
Characterization Of Ionic, Dipolar And Molecular Mobility In Polymer Systems, Zhenrong Guo
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Changes in the ionic and dipolar molecular mobility in a polymer system are the basis for the changes in the dielectric mechanical properties of polymer materials. Frequency Dependent Dielectric Measurements (FDEMS) and Ion Time-of-Flight (ITOF) are two important techniques to investigate ionic and dipolar molecular mobility in polymer systems. The results can be related to the macro- and molecular dielectric, electrical and dynamic properties of polymeric materials. The combination of these two methods provides a full view of electric, dielectric and dynamic behavior for the systems as they undergo chemical and/or physical changes during polymerization crystallization, vitrification, and/or phase separation.;The …
Vibrational Lifetimes Of Hydrogen And Oxygen Defects In Semiconductors, Baozhou Sun
Vibrational Lifetimes Of Hydrogen And Oxygen Defects In Semiconductors, Baozhou Sun
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Characterization of defect and impurity reactions, dissociation, and migration in semiconductors requires a detailed understanding of the rates and pathways of vibrational energy flow and of the coupling mechanisms between local modes and the phonon bath of the host material. Information on the inelastic microscopic interaction can be obtained by measuring the lifetime of local vibrational modes. This dissertation presents lifetime measurements of hydrogen and oxygen defects in semiconductors by means of time-resolved infrared pump-probe spectroscopy.;First, we measured the vibrational lifetime of H- and D-related bending modes in Si and other semiconductors. Time-resolved pump-probe and linewidth measurements reveal that the …
Monte Carlo Simulations Of Ferroelectric Crystal Growth And Molecular Electronic Structure Of Atoms And Molecules, Malliga Suewattana
Monte Carlo Simulations Of Ferroelectric Crystal Growth And Molecular Electronic Structure Of Atoms And Molecules, Malliga Suewattana
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
In this thesis, we explore two stochastic techniques to study properties of materials in realistic systems. Specifically, the kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method is utilized to study the crystal growth process of ferroelectric materials and the quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) approach is used to investigate the ground state properties of atoms and molecules.;In the growth simulations, we study the growth rates and chemical ordering of ferroelectric alloys using an electrostatic model with long-range Coulomb interactions. Crystal growth is characterized by thermodynamic processes involving adsorption and evaporation, with solid-on-solid restrictions and excluding diffusion. A KMC algorithm is formulated to simulate this …
Impact Of Large Scale Substrate Roughness On Giant Magnetoresistive Thin Films, Shannon M. Watson
Impact Of Large Scale Substrate Roughness On Giant Magnetoresistive Thin Films, Shannon M. Watson
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This dissertation presents an investigation on the effects of large scale roughness on the properties of giant magnetoresistive multilayers. The large scale roughness (sigmarms > 5 nm) is introduced into giant magnetoresistive thin films through the substrate. Current-in-plane (CIP) and current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) thin films were deposited by dc magnetron and triode sputtering. All films were characterized for roughness, magnetic and electronic behavior.;Our research on both pseudo spin valves and exchange-biased spin valves shows that long length scale roughness does not have a significant detrimental effect on GMR thin films. For the CIP films, we find that a decrease in GMR correlates …
Eye Pathologies Found In Several Decapod Crustaceans, Andrea M. Maniscalco
Eye Pathologies Found In Several Decapod Crustaceans, Andrea M. Maniscalco
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Investigation Of The Life History Of The Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera Bonasus (Mitchill 1815), Donna S. Grusha
Investigation Of The Life History Of The Cownose Ray, Rhinoptera Bonasus (Mitchill 1815), Donna S. Grusha
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Linking Framework Geology And Nearshore Morphology: Correlation Of Paleo-Channels With Shore-Oblique Sandbars And Gravel Outcrops, A. Grace Browder
Linking Framework Geology And Nearshore Morphology: Correlation Of Paleo-Channels With Shore-Oblique Sandbars And Gravel Outcrops, A. Grace Browder
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.