Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Aluminum-26: A Canonized Cosmochemical Conundrum, John Anton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study focuses on the challenges associated with the historical development of the interpretative role of ²⁶Al as both a thermodynamic contributor to planetesimal formation processes and an acutely precise chronometer of protoplanetary disk events. Conventional thought asserts that ²⁶Mg concentrations can occur as isotopic excesses in meteorites and represent the daughter product of ²⁶Al, a radioactive form of aluminum (t_½ = ~0.73 ka). The greatest ²⁶Mg concentrations generally occur in calcium aluminum inclusions (CAIs), meteoric constituents considered among the oldest known materials in the Solar System whose formation appear to predate the less refractory …

Effects Of Structural And Electronic Disorder In Topological Insulator Sb2te3 Thin Films, Inna Korzhovska

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Topological quantum matter is a unique and potentially transformative protectorate against disorder-induced backscattering. The ultimate disorder limits to the topological state, however, are still not known - understanding these limits is critical to potential applications in the fields of spintronics and information processing. In topological insulators spin-orbit interaction and time-reversal-symmetry invariance guarantees - at least up to a certain disorder strength - that charge transport through 2D gapless Dirac surface states is robust against backscattering by non-magnetic disorder. Strong disorder may destroy topological protection and gap out Dirac surface states, although recent theories predict that under severe electronic disorder a …

Development Of Nanomaterials: Complex Mesoporous Silicas And Highly Functional Multi-Responsive Hybrid Nanogels, Jinhui Yi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The research work in this dissertation describes the study of the applications of polymers in several important areas. Two synthesis methods for bicontinuous cubic KIT6 silicas with block copolymer Pluronic P123 as templates were developed, expanding the range of available pore size and enchancing mesopore volume. In addition, two types of drug delivery systems were developed based on polymer nanoparticles.

In Chapter 2, it was shown that the addition of a suitable swelling agent at temperatures somewhat lower than those typically used in the syntheses of silicas with cubic Ia3d structure (19−25 °C vs 30−35 °C) allows one to induce …

Multimodal Sensing And Data Processing For Speaker And Emotion Recognition Using Deep Learning Models With Audio, Video And Biomedical Sensors, Farnaz Abtahi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The focus of the thesis is on Deep Learning methods and their applications on multimodal data, with a potential to explore the associations between modalities and replace missing and corrupt ones if necessary. We have chosen two important real-world applications that need to deal with multimodal data: 1) Speaker recognition and identification; 2) Facial expression recognition and emotion detection.

The first part of our work assesses the effectiveness of speech-related sensory data modalities and their combinations in speaker recognition using deep learning models. First, the role of electromyography (EMG) is highlighted as a unique biometric sensor in improving audio-visual speaker …

The Therapeutic Potential Of Natural Products From Vaccinium Berries For Viral And Lung Diseases Through An Improved Lc-Ms-Based Chemometric Approach, Vanya I. Petrova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Smoking is a global epidemic that creates serious health and economic burden. It is the primary, preventative factor for the majority of causes of death worldwide. Analysis of publicly available data revealed that smoking prevalence rates among the youth in developing countries, especially in Bulgaria, are alarmingly high. The Bulgarian population has one of the highest percentages of smokers and the second highest rate among teenage girls. Consequently, chronic diseases affected by smoking, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), have been increasing there in the last five years. Poland, on the other hand, is an exemplary outlier for the …

Object Localization, Segmentation, And Classification In 3d Images, Allan Zelener

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We address the problem of identifying objects of interest in 3D images as a set of related tasks involving localization of objects within a scene, segmentation of observed object instances from other scene elements, classifying detected objects into semantic categories, and estimating the 3D pose of detected objects within the scene. The increasing availability of 3D sensors motivates us to leverage large amounts of 3D data to train machine learning models to address these tasks in 3D images. Leveraging recent advances in deep learning has allowed us to develop models capable of addressing these tasks and optimizing these tasks jointly …

Seasonal Characterization Of New York City Urban Thermal Environment, Spiridon Papanikolaou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study aims to characterize the seasonality of New York City thermal environment using Landsat satellite long wave IR data. The main objective is to describe the relationship between surface temperature, air temperature at 2 meters above the surface and urban morphology over the annual cycle. The secondary objective involves identification of the factors contributing to surface temperature variability. Landsat thermal scenes, ground-based air temperatures and linearly unmixed continuous endmember fractions from the optical bands are used to represent the urban environment in the analysis. Spatial resolution, solar and view geometry and land cover are important components influencing measurements of …

Organic Photochemistry: Remote Delivery Of Reactive Oxygen Intermediates Via A Heterogeneous Approach, Niluksha Walalawela Abeykoon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Photosensitized oxidation reactions produce a number of intermediates species, which are generated in varying amounts over time. This complexity presents major challenges in the study of oxidation processes. Mechanistic efforts to separate and deliver reactive oxygen intermediates enable their controlled use in processes such as bacterial inactivation. This thesis describes a heterogeneous reaction approach taken to control the generation and delivery of reactive oxygen intermediates. The mechanistic details of photosensitized reactions were elucidated via synthetic, materials, and physical organic techniques to optimize the delivery of reactive oxygen intermediates. This thesis contains six chapters as described below.

Chapter 1 gives a …

Evidence Of The 1762 Arakan And Prior Earthquakes In The Northern Sunda Subduction, Dhiman Ranjan Mondal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this dissertation is to understand the seismic hazard associated with Arakan segment of the northern Sunda subduction along SE Bangladesh. In order to do that, it is necessary to document geologic evidence for the 1762 Arakan earthquake and prior events, to help estimate the recurrence interval (repeat time) for that earthquake. Historical records described that the 1762 earthquake caused extensive damage along the Arakan segment of the Sunda subduction system. But the geologic evidence for the earthquake farther north is necessary to better understand its associated seismic hazard to the densely populated nation of Bangladesh. This dissertation …

Information Content, Charge Transport Properties, And Computational Capacities Of Proteins, Joseph Murphy Brisendine Jr.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis is the beginning of an attempt to build a coherent theory of the properties of proteins based in information theory and the duality of information theory and nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Throughout, we will adopt the viewpoint that information can act as a thermodynamic potential, which is necessary to understand how biological processes are both enabled and constrained by the laws of thermodynamics. Understanding information as a form of thermodynamic potential also clarifies the description of proteins and other biological macromolecules as “molecular machines”: meso-scale structures with emergent causal powers which perform work on their environments by irreversibly dissipating energy …