Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Experimental And Statistical Techniques To Probe Extraordinary Electronic Properties Of Molecules, Byron Hager Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

The existence of an additional electron or hole in the presence of an electric monopole is a well understood physical system, but this ideality is far from the true physical properties of many molecules. Examples of such irregular electronic states include the attachment of an excess charge to a molecule's dipole moment, electronic correlation spanning a molecule, or attachment of multiple excess charges. Current theoretical and experimental interpretations widely vary for these states and further elucidation of the nature of irregular electronic structure may provide solutions to unexplained observations and the impetus for industrial application. For example, in the case …

Geographic And Temporal Epidemiology Of Campylobacteriosis, Jennifer Weisent

Doctoral Dissertations

Campylobacteriosis is a leading cause of gastroenteritis in the United States. The focus of this research was to (i) analyze and predict spatial and temporal patterns and associations for campylobacteriosis risk and (ii) compare the utility of advanced modeling methods. Laboratory-confirmed Campylobacter case data, obtained from the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network were used in all investigations.

We compared the accuracy of forecasting techniques for campylobacteriosis risk in Minnesota, Oregon and Georgia and found that time series regression, decomposition, and Box-Jenkins Autoregressive Integrated Moving Averages reliably predict monthly risk of infection for campylobacteriosis. Decomposition provided the fastest, most accurate, user-friendly …

Automating Large-Scale Simulation Calibration To Real-World Sensor Data, Richard Everett Edwards

Doctoral Dissertations

Many key decisions and design policies are made using sophisticated computer simulations. However, these sophisticated computer simulations have several major problems. The two main issues are 1) gaps between the simulation model and the actual structure, and 2) limitations of the modeling engine's capabilities. This dissertation's goal is to address these simulation deficiencies by presenting a general automated process for tuning simulation inputs such that simulation output matches real world measured data. The automated process involves the following key components -- 1) Identify a model that accurately estimates the real world simulation calibration target from measured sensor data; 2) Identify …