Engineering Commons^™

Calibration Of The Umass Advanced Multi-Frequency Radar, Matthew Mclinden

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The Advanced Multi-Frequency Radar is a three-frequency system designed and built by the University of Massachusetts Microwave Remote Sensing Lab (MIRSL). The radar has three frequencies, Ku-band (13.4 GHz), Ka-band (35.6 GHz), and W-band (94.92GHz). The additional information gained from additional frequencies allows the system to be sensitive to a wide range of atmospheric and precipitation particle sizes, while increasing the ability to derive particle microphysics from radar retrievals.

This thesis details the calibration of data from the Canadian CloudSat/CALIPSO Validation Project (C3VP) held during January 2007 in Ontario, Canada. The calibration used internal calibration path data and was confirmed …

Sorption Of Bovine Serum Albumin On Nano And Bulk Oxide Particles, Lei Song

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Manufactured oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have large production and widespread applications, which will inevitably enter the environment. NPs can interact with proteins in living beings due to the fact that NPs can transport into blood or across cell membranes into cells. Conformational change of protein molecules after sorption on oxide NPs has been reported. Therefore, it is important to understand the adsorption mechanism of protein onto oxide NPs surfaces. Although few works have reported protein adsorption behaviors, a general systematic comparison of the effects of particle size and surface groups on protein adsorption by widely studied NPs still needs to be …

Route Choice Behavior In Risky Networks With Real-Time Information, Michael D. Razo

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This research investigates route choice behavior in networks with risky travel times and real-time information. A stated preference survey is conducted in which subjects use a PC-based interactive maps to choose routes link-by-link in various scenarios. The scenarios include two types of maps: the first presenting a choice between one stochastic route and one deterministic route, and the second with real-time information and an available detour. The first type measures the basic risk attitude of the subject. The second type allows for strategic planning, and measures the effect of this opportunity on subjects' choice behavior.

Results from each subject are …

Efficient Modeling Techniques For Time-Dependent Quantum System With Applications To Carbon Nanotubes, Zuojing Chen

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The famous Moore's law states: Since the invention of the integrated circuit, the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling approximately every two years. As a result of the downscaling of the size of the transistor, quantum effects have become increasingly important while affecting significantly the device performances. Nowadays, at the nanometer scale, inter-atomic interactions and quantum mechanical properties need to be studied extensively. Device and material simulations are important to achieve these goals because they are flexible and less expensive than experiments. They are also important for designing and characterizing new …