Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

First-Principles Investigation Of Sc-Iii/Iv Under High Pressure, Sheng-Cai Zhu, Xiao-Zhi Yan, Scott Fredericks, Yan-Ling Li, Qiang Zhu

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

Using an ab initio evolutionary structure prediction method in conjunction with density functional theory, we performed a systematic investigation of the structural transition of elemental scandium under pressure up to 250 GPa. Our prediction successfully reproduced several allotropes which have been reported in the literature, including the Sc-I, Sc-II, and Sc-V. Moreover, we observed a series of energetically degenerate and geometrically similar structures at 110–195 GPa, which can partly explain the experimental observations regarding the unsolved phases III and IV reported by Y. Akahama et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 195503 (2005)]. A detailed comparison of the powder x-ray diffraction …

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Project (Dsharp). I. Motivation, Sample, Calibration, And Overview, Sean M. Andrews, Jane Huang, Laura M. Pérez, Andrea Isella, Cornelis P. Dullemond, Nicolás T. Kurtovic, Viviana V. Guzmán, John M. Carpenter, David J. Wilner, Shangjia Zhang, Zhaohuan Zhu, Tilman Birstiel, Xue-Ning Bai, Myriam Benisty, A. Meredith Hughes, Karin I. Öberg, Luca Ricci

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We introduce the Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP), one of the initial Large Programs conducted with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The primary goal of DSHARP is to find and characterize substructures in the spatial distributions of solid particles for a sample of 20 nearby protoplanetary disks, using very high resolution (~0 035, or 5 au, FWHM) observations of their 240 GHz (1.25 mm) continuum emission. These data provide a first homogeneous look at the small-scale features in disks that are directly relevant to the planet formation process, quantifying their prevalence, morphologies, spatial scales, spacings, symmetry, …

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Project (Dsharp). Ix. A High-Definition Study Of The Hd 163296 Planet-Forming Disk, Andrea Isella, Jane Huang, Sean M. Andrews, Cornelis P. Dellemond, Tilman Birnstiel, Shangjia Zhang, Zhaohuan Zhu, Viviana V. Guzmán, Laura M. Pérez, Xue-Ning Bai, Myriam Benisty, John M. Carpenter, Luca Ricci, David J. Wilner

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of protoplanetary disks acquired by the Disk Substructure at High Angular Resolution Project resolve the dust and gas emission on angular scales as small as 3 astronomical units, offering an unprecedented detailed view of the environment where planets form. In this Letter, we present and discuss observations of the HD 163296 protoplanetary disk that imaged the 1.25 mm dust continuum and 12CO J = 2–1 rotational line emission at a spatial resolution of 4 and 10 au, respectively. The continuum observations resolve and allow us to characterize the previously discovered dust rings at radii …

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Project (Dsharp). Iii. Spiral Structures In The Millimeter Continuum Of The Elias 27, Im Lup, And Waoph 6 Disks, Jane Huang, Sean M. Andrews, Laura M. Pérez, Zhaohuan Zhu, Cornelis P. Dullemond, Andrea Isella, Myriam Benisty, Xue-Ning Bai, Tilman Birnstiel, John M. Carpenter, Viviana V. Guzmán, A. Meredith Hughes, Karin I. Öberg, Luca Ricci, David J. Wilner, Shangjia Zhang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We present an analysis of Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array 1.25 mm continuum observations of spiral structures in three protoplanetary disks from the Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project. See full text for full abstract.

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Project (Dsharp). Ii. Characteristics Of Annular Substructures, Jane Huang, Sean M. Andrews, Cornelis P. Dellemond, Andrea Isella, Laura M. Pérez, Viviana V. Guzmán, Karin I. Öberg, Zhaohuan Zhu, Shangjia Zhang, Xue-Ning Bai, Myriam Benisty, Tilman Birstiel, John M. Carpenter, A. Meredith Hughes, Luca Ricci, Erik Weaver, David J. Wilner

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP) used ALMA to map the 1.25 mm continuum of protoplanetary disks at a spatial resolution of ~5 au. We present a systematic analysis of annular substructures in the 18 single-disk systems targeted in this survey. No dominant architecture emerges from this sample; instead, remarkably diverse morphologies are observed. Annular substructures can occur at virtually any radius where millimeter continuum emission is detected and range in widths from a few astronomical units to tens of astronomical units. Intensity ratios between gaps and adjacent rings range from near-unity to just a few percent. …

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Project (Dsharp). Vii. The Planet–Disk Interactions Interpretation, Shangjia Zhang, Zhaohuan Zhu, Jane Huang, Viviana V. Guzmán, Sean M. Andrews, Tilman Birnstiel, Cornelis P. Dullemond, John M. Carpenter, Andrea Isella, Laura M. Pérez, Myriam Benisty, David J. Wilner, Clément Baruteau, Xue-Ning Bai, Luca Ricci

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP) provides a large sample of protoplanetary disks with substructures that could be induced by young forming planets. To explore the properties of planets that may be responsible for these substructures, we systematically carry out a grid of 2D hydrodynamical simulations, including both gas and dust components. We present the resulting gas structures, including the relationship between the planet mass, as well as (1) the gaseous gap depth/width and (2) the sub/super-Keplerian motion across the gap. We then compute dust continuum intensity maps at the frequency of the DSHARP observations. We provide …

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Project (Dsharp). Vi. Dust Trapping In Thin-Ringed Protoplanetary Disks, Cornelis P. Dullemond, Tilman Birnstiel, Jane Huang, Nicolás T. Kurtovic, Sean M. Andrews, Viviana V. Guzmán, Laura M. Pérez, Andrea Isella, Zhaohuan Zhu, Myriam Benisty, David J. Wilner, Xue-Ning Bai, John M. Carpenter, Shangjia Zhang, Luca Ricci

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

A large fraction of the protoplanetary disks observed with ALMA display multiple well-defined and nearly perfectly circular rings in the continuum, in many cases with substantial peak-to-valley contrast. The DSHARP campaign shows that several of these rings are very narrow in radial extent. In this Letter we test the hypothesis that these dust rings are caused by dust trapping in radial pressure bumps, and if confirmed, put constraints on the physics of the dust trapping mechanism. We model this process analytically in 1D, assuming axisymmetry. By comparing this model to the data, we find that all rings are consistent with …

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Program (Dsharp). Viii. The Rich Ringed Substructures In The As 209 Disk, Viviana V. Guzmán, Jane Huang, Sean M. Andrews, Andrea Isella, Laura M. Pérez, John M. Carpenter, Cornelis P. Dullemond, Luca Ricci, Tilman Birnstiel, Shangjia Zhang, Zhaohuan Zhu, Xue-Ning Bai, Myriam Benisty, Karin I. Öberg, David J. Wilner

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Program (DSHARP). VIII. The Rich Ringed Substructures in the AS 209 Disk

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Project (Dsharp). Iv. Characterizing Substructures And Interactions In Disks Around Multiple Star Systems, Nicolás T. Kurtovic, Laura M. Pérez, Myriam Benisty, Zhaohuan Zhu, Shangjia Zhang, Jane Huang, Sean M. Andrews, Cornelis P. Dullemond, Andrea Isella, Xue-Ning Bai, John M. Carpenter, Viviana V. Guzmán, Luca Ricci, David J. Wilner

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

To characterize the substructures induced in protoplanetary disks by the interaction between stars in multiple systems, we study the 1.25 mm continuum and the 12CO(J = 2–1) spectral line emission of the triple systems HT Lup and AS 205, at scales of ≈5 au, as part of the "Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project" (DSHARP). In the continuum emission, we find two symmetric spiral arms in the disk around AS 205 N, with a pitch angle of 14°, while the southern component AS 205 S, itself a spectroscopic binary, is surrounded by a compact inner disk and a bright …

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Project (Dsharp). X. Multiple Rings, A Misaligned Inner Disk, And A Bright Arc In The Disk Around The T Tauri Star Hd 143006, Laura M. Pérez, Myriam Benisty, Sean M. Andrews, Andrea Isella, Cornelis P. Dellemond, Jane Huang, Nicolás T. Kurtovic, Viviana V. Guzmán, Zhaohuan Zhu, Tilman Birnstiel, Shangjia Zhang, John M. Carpenter, David J. Wilner, Luca Ricci, Xue-Ning Bai, Erik Weaver, Karin I. Öberg

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We present a detailed analysis of new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the disk around the T-Tauri star HD 143006, which at 46 mas (7.6 au) resolution reveals new substructures in the 1.25 mm continuum emission. The disk resolves into a series of concentric rings and gaps, together with a bright arc exterior to the rings that resembles hydrodynamical simulations of a vortex and a bridge-like feature connecting the two innermost rings. Although our 12CO observations at similar spatial resolution do not show obvious substructure, they reveal an inner disk depleted of CO emission. From the continuum emission …

The Disk Substructures At High Angular Resolution Project (Dsharp). V. Interpreting Alma Maps Of Protoplanetary Disks In Terms Of A Dust Model, Tilman Birnstiel, Cornelis P. Dullemond, Zhaohuan Zhu, Sean M. Andrews, Xue-Ning Bai, David J. Wilner, John M. Carpenter, Jane Huang, Andrea Isella, Myriam Benisty, Laura M. Pérez, Shangjia Zhang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP) is the largest homogeneous high-resolution (~0 035, or ~5 au) disk continuum imaging survey with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) so far. In the coming years, many more disks will be mapped with ALMA at similar resolution. Interpreting the results in terms of the properties and quantities of the emitting dusty material is, however, a very non-trivial task. This is in part due to the uncertainty in the dust opacities, an uncertainty that is not likely to be resolved any time soon. It is also partly due to the fact …

Self-Stabilizing Token Distribution With Constant-Space For Trees, Yuichi Sudo, Ajoy K. Datta, Lawrence L. Larmore, Toshimitsu Masuzawa

Computer Science Faculty Research

Self-stabilizing and silent distributed algorithms for token distribution in rooted tree networks are given. Initially, each process of a graph holds at most l tokens. Our goal is to distribute the tokens in the whole network so that every process holds exactly k tokens. In the initial configuration, the total number of tokens in the network may not be equal to nk where n is the number of processes in the network. The root process is given the ability to create a new token or remove a token from the network. We aim to minimize the convergence time, the number …

Loosely-Stabilizing Leader Election With Polylogarithmic Convergence Time, Yuichi Sudo, Fukuhito Ooshita, Hirotsugu Kukugawa, Toshimitsu Masuzawa, Ajoy K. Datta, Lawrence L. Larmore

Computer Science Faculty Research

A loosely-stabilizing leader election protocol with polylogarithmic convergence time in the population protocol model is presented in this paper. In the population protocol model, which is a common abstract model of mobile sensor networks, it is known to be impossible to design a self-stabilizing leader election protocol. Thus, in our prior work, we introduced the concept of loose-stabilization, which is weaker than self-stabilization but has similar advantage as self-stabilization in practice. Following this work, several loosely-stabilizing leader election protocols are presented. The loosely-stabilizing leader election guarantees that, starting from an arbitrary configuration, the system reaches a safe configuration with a …

Design And Preliminary Evaluation Of A Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycle For Solar Dish Concentrator Clean Energy Production, Danielle Nobles-Lookingbill

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As we move toward energy independence and more ambitious clean energy goals, solar energy research must push the efficiency limits of traditional energy generation systems. Increases in efficiency can be achieved by increasing the hot temperature of the power cycle. Recent research demonstrates the potential for increased efficiency and a vastly smaller component size when supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton power cycles are used. Concentrated solar and nuclear heat sources are capable of achieving the high working fluid temperatures needed for significant efficiency gains. This NSF EPSCoR funded, experimental research system is designed to exploit the uniquely immense solar irradiance of …

Employee Perceptions Of Organizational Corporate Responsibility And Their Effect On Employee Organizational Commitment, Lisa R. Davis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The debate over whether organizations play a part in society beyond economic profit has been a major focus of research in corporate social responsibility (CSR). These debates have been mainly looked at from the macro (societal) or the meso (institutional) level. Very little research has been done on the role of the firm and looking at CSR from the micro (individual) level. Questions regarding the role of work for employees, securing economic benefits or making a difference in the world, would vary greatly depending on the individual and the importance they place on these areas in their own lives. Scholars …

Studies Of Inner-Shell Chemistry Of Mercury Based Compounds At Extreme Conditions, Sarah Schyck

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

It has been theoretically predicted that when mercury difluoride (HgF2) is pressurized to above 50 GPa in the presence of molecular fluorine, it will most likely transform into mercury tetrafluoride (HgF4), thus mercury will behave as a transition element at high pressure. However, there is no experimental evidence verifying this prediction yet. To begin with, the crystalline properties of pure HgF2 at high pressure were not experimentally established. In this thesis, the high pressure structural properties of HgF2 are investigated by means of synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. Our results reveal that the predicted, ambient cubic structure of HgF2 with the …

Application Of Machine Learning Techniques In Credit Card Fraud Detection, Ronish Shakya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Credit card fraud is an ever-growing problem in today’s financial market. There has been a rapid increase in the rate of fraudulent activities in recent years causing a substantial financial loss to many organizations, companies, and government agencies. The numbers are expected to increase in the future, because of which, many researchers in this field have focused on detecting fraudulent behaviors early using advanced machine learning techniques. However, the credit card fraud detection is not a straightforward task mainly because of two reasons: (i) the fraudulent behaviors usually differ for each attempt and (ii) the dataset is highly imbalanced, i.e., …

Bayesian Model Comparisons In Planetary Science, John Henry Boisvert

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Model comparison in the modern era allows us to use statistical methods that were previously difficult with older machines. I present a state-of-the-art model comparison code that uses modern Bayesian statistics to measure the Bayes factor between two competing models. The Bayes factor is the ratio of the probability of the data given one model to the probability of the data given another model. My code was used to compare models in five problems in planetary science. The first three pertain to radial velocity exoplanet data. There is a degeneracy in the radial velocity exoplanet signal between a single planet …

Combinatorial Ant Optimization And The Flowshop Problem, Tasmin Chowdhury

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Researchers have developed efficient techniques, meta-heuristics to solve many Combinatorial Optimization (CO) problems, e.g., Flow shop Scheduling Problem, Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) since the early 60s of the last century. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and its variants were introduced by Dorigo et al. [DBS06] in the early 1990s which is a technique to solve CO problems. In this thesis, we used the ACO technique to find solutions to the classic Flow shop Scheduling Problem and proposed a novel method for solution improvement. Our solution is composed of two phases; in the first phase, we solved TSP using ACO technique which …

Efficient And Practical Composition Of Lock-Free Data Structures, Neha Bajracharya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A concurrent data object is lock-free if it guarantees that at least one, among all concurrent operations, finishes after a finite number of steps. In other words, a lock free technique guarantees that some thread always makes progress. Lock-free data objects offer several advantages over their blocking counterparts, such as being immune to deadlocks and priority inversion, and typically provide high scalability and performance, especially in shared memory multiprocessor architectures.

Composition of data structures is a powerful approach to combine simple data structures to create more complex ones. It works as a building block for many advanced useful data structures. …

Influencing Hawai‘I Hotel Patrons To Use Reef-Safe Sunscreens, Rochelle Good

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The health of Hawaiian coral reefs is threatened by pollution from common sunscreen ingredients such as oxybenzone. Hawai‘i hotel patrons using sunscreens with harmful ingredients contaminate coral reefs when these products wash off while swimming or bathing. Reef-safe sunscreens are alternative sunscreens that provide effective sun protection while averting damage to coral reefs. The purpose of this research was to determine the dominant factors leading to the pro-environmental behavior of using reef-safe sunscreen and identify practices that Hawai‘i hotel operators could implement to influence patrons to engage in this behavior. This research applied an integrative conceptual framework to model pro-environmental …

Effects Of Ambient Air Pollution On Asthma-Related Emergency Department Visits Within The Las Vegas Metropolitan Area, Loiren E. Monardes

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The objective of this research was to evaluate the risk for asthma-related Emergency Department visits and their association with ambient air pollution within the Las Vegas metropolitan area. All data were aggregated by date and ZIP Code. The association was analyzed by applying the distributed lag non-linear model in an attempt to identify elevated concentrations of specific air pollutants

as triggers and their delayed effects (lag days). Relative Risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals were produced, while adjusting for socioeconomic status. This ecological population-based study analyzed daily asthma counts of Emergency Department visits from January 1st, 2009 to December 31st, …

Design, Layout, And Testing Of Sige Apds Fabricated In A Bicmos Process, Dane Laurence Gentry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This Thesis is concerned with the design, layout, and testing of avalanche photodiodes (APDs). APDs are a type of photodetector and, thus, convert light signals into electrical signals (current or voltage). APDs can be fabricated using silicon (Si). In this Thesis, however, three integrated circuit (IC) chips containing various silicon-germanium (SiGe) APDs with different sizes, structures, and geometries were designed, laid out, and fabricated using the Austriamicrosystems (AMS) 0.35μm SiGe BiCMOS (S35) process. This was done in order to compare SiGe APDs to Si only APDs and investigate the hypothesis that SiGe APDs are capable of detecting longer wavelengths than …

Optimization Of Useful Hard X-Ray Photochemistry, David Lewis Goldberger

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

X-ray induced damage is generally considered a nuisance, but in the field of Useful Hard X-ray Photochemistry we harness the highly ionizing and penetrating properties of hard X-rays (> 7 keV) to initiate novel photochemical decomposition and synthesis at ambient and extreme conditions. Preliminary experiments suggest that the energy of irradiating photons and the sample pressure play roles in determining the nature of X-ray induced damage. Here, we present the X-ray energy dependence of damage induced in strontium oxalate, strontium nitrate, and barium nitrate, as well as the pressure dependence of X-ray induced damage of strontium oxalate. Our results indicate …

Scheduling Two Machines With Dissimilar Costs, Madhurupa Moitra

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

We consider two devices, which has states ON and OFF. In the ON state, the devices use their full power whereas in the OFF state the devices consume no energy but a constant cost is associated with switching back to ON. Such two devices are configured with different run and power-up costs on which a sequence of jobs must be processed. The object is to minimize the cost. Such systems are widely used to conserve energy, for example, to speed scale CPUs, to control data centers, or to manage renewable energy.

The problems are studied in the framework of online …

Petrogenesis Of Enriched And Intermediate Poikilitic Shergottites: From Magmatic Source To Emplacement, Rachel Rahib

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Poikilitic shergottites, making up >20% of martian meteorites, likely represent a significant composition of the martian crust, as intrusive gabbroic rocks. To further constrain petrogenetic relationships amongst enriched and intermediate poikilitic shergottites, we utilize bulk rock trace element compositions, mineral major element compositions, phosphorus maps of olivine grains, oxygen fugacity (ƒO2) values, subsolidus equilibration temperatures, and quantitative textural analyses, of the most comprehensive suite of poikilitic shergottites yet (11 samples), including three newly recovered samples (Northwest Africa [NWA] 11065, NWA 11043, NWA 10961). Although petrographically light rare earth element (LREE) enriched and intermediate poikilitic shergottites are similar, distinct LREE abundances …

Human Thermal Comfort In Transition Space, Asawari Anil Pawar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

ABSTRACT

HUMAN THERMAL COMFORT IN TRANSITION SPACES

Objective: To evaluate and identify the relationship between personal factors and the climatic conditions that influence the human thermal comfort in transition spaces and suggest solutions for adaptation of the built environment, that would encourage active and healthy living in the tourist as well as local community.

Background:

By 2050, there is a prediction that two-thirds of the world population will be living in urban areas, which would add more than 2.5 billion people living in cities (Melnikov et al., 2017). Since Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in Nevada, …

Mechanisms For The Incorporation And Distribution Of Radionuclides In Near-Surface Fallout, Marc Alan Fitzgerald

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Fallout is the radioactive glass formed from a mixture of vaporized anthropogenic materials with proximate environmental material. These glassy byproducts constitute a compositional record of environmental materials such as soil and vapor precursors that are responsible for chemical heterogeneity in the glasses. The work of this dissertation is to untangle these different sources of compositional heterogeneity, distinguishing low-abundance vaporized anthropogenic-rich material from natural compositions, in order examine soil behavior and chemical evolution during fallout formation. Unfortunately, mixing convolutes the multivariate elemental relationships in these melts due to overlapping element abundances that might distinguish different source materials and chemical behaviors, making …

Prokaryotic Diversity And Aqueous Geochemistry Of Subsurface Environments Of The Death Valley Regional Flow System, Joshua David Sackett

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation summarizes over four years of effort towards the completion of a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences. The work presented in this document covers a broad range of topics, but a central unifying theme is prokaryotic life in the continental subsurface. The work presented in each chapter relied heavily on cultivation-independent methods for assessing prokaryotic communities, including prokaryotic community structure reconstruction from high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene libraries and single-cell genome analysis of novel uncultivated bacteria.

Chapter 2 examines the aqueous geochemistry and prokaryotic diversity of Devils Hole, a cavernous limnocrene and sole natural habitat for the critically endangered …

The Use Of Chemical Element Fingerprints To Investigate The Transformation Of Lake Sediments To Land Soils In Drying Lakes: A Case Study At Lake Mead, Nevada, Ji Hye Park

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Drying lakes are a worldwide catastrophe. The goals of this dissertation research were (1) to investigate whether chemical fingerprints of lake sediments, and nearby land soils, could be established by the analysis of 44 chemical elements, moisture content, Eh, pH, and leachable anions and if so, (2) whether the fingerprints could help explain the process of physical and chemical changes in the lake sediments as they became soils when the lake's water level fell and the anoxic sediments were exposed to the air and weather.

Lake Mead was chosen to model drying lakes because its water level has fallen over …