Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Dispersal And Population Structure Of Euchlanis Chihuahuaensis Via Anemochory In The Chihuahuan Desert, Tristan Chavez-Poeschel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Desert ecosystems present challenges for aquatic organisms as habitats are fragmented, both in space and time; however, diapausing stages of rotifers can travel hundreds of kilometers during wind events. I used the rotifer Euchlanis chihuahuaensis as a model species to investigate the influence of wind dispersal on gene flow and population genetics in Chihuahuan Desert populations. I hypothesized that anemochory facilitates gene flow from source populations in the Northern Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico and the western United States to habitats in the Trans-Pecos region via delineated wind corridors. To test this hypothesis, the genetic diversity of populations from both inside …

Investigating Changes In Surface Water Chemistry Across The Llano Uplift And The Balcones Fault Zone In Central Texas Using Strontium And Uranium Isotopes, Hao Tuan Pham

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The landscape of central Texas is shaped by over one billion years of Earth's history. An array of lithology lies within central Texas along with two large geological structures. The Llano Uplift, characterized by Proterozoic metamorphic and igneous rocks dating back to 1.37 billion years ago, is encircled by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. To the southeast of the Llano Uplift lies the Balcones Fault Zone (BFZ), an extensional structural system of mostly normal faults that delineates the transition between Paleozoic-Mesozoic sedimentary rocks and Cenozoic sedimentary cover, which are influential to the regional hydrogeology. This study investigates the hydrogeological dynamics …

Using 3-Dimensional Mapping To Determine The Possibility Of Structural Control On Development Of The Upper Ordovician Lexington Limestone, Central Kentucky, U.S.A., Sean Davis

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The upper Lexington Limestone of Late Ordovician age has been interpreted to represent a structurally controlled, complex, facies mosaic. This facies mosaic has historically been interpreted to be a carbonate buildup of shoal complexes with interbedded shale units with intertonguing facies. Due to relatively recent advances in geographic-information-systems (GIS) mapping technologies, it is possible to generate three-dimensional (3-D) compatible maps to offer insight to the complexities of the upper Lexington Limestone and to determine if structural control affected the distribution of members. The resulting two-dimensional (2-D) and 3-D maps show that basement faults likely exerted a significant influence on facies …

Selectivity And Structure Of Chimeric Loop Swaps In Sh2 Domains, Sarah N. Smith

WWU Graduate School Collection

SH2 (Src Homology 2) domains are protein domains that bind to phosphorylated tyrosine residues within cell signaling cascades. They have been found to play a role in certain cancers and immunological disorders. Despite their importance in cell signaling and medical relevance, the structural basis of the various selectivity classes of SH2 domains is only partially understood. Previous research found that the EF and BG loops of the domains contribute to forming the peptide binding pocket, and thus impact their selectivity. To further understand the role of these loops in selectivity, we engineered chimeric SH2 domains by swapping the EF and …

Class A Sortases: Structures And Alternative Substrate Binding And Cleavage, Brandon Vogel

WWU Graduate School Collection

Sortases, consisting of classes A-F, are cysteine transpeptidases found in the cell wall of Gram-positive bacteria. They play a crucial role in ligating proteins to the cell wall that are responsible for cell adhesion, immune evasion, host cell invasion, and nutrient acquisition through a transpeptidation reaction. Consequently, they are an attractive therapeutic target. Class A sortases are also utilized in protein engineering applications such as sortase-mediated ligations and sortagging. Despite extensive research in the past two decades, gaps persist in understanding how class A sortases recognize their substrates, primarily due to a lack of structural information on sortases non-covalently bound …

Structural Reasoning With Rational Expressions, Dana Steinhorst

Theses and Dissertations

Many students struggle to make sense of algebraic expressions in math. This lack of understanding results in students making symbolic manipulation errors, hindering their procedural fluency. Researchers believe these errors are linked to students' lack of structural reasoning. While research has shown that students rarely engage in expert structural reasoning, little is known about how students actually reason structurally. In this study, I interviewed six high school calculus students to study the way they identified, matched, and evaluated structures as they solved problems involving rational expressions and equations. I analyzed the participant interviews and outlined the matching process they used …

Improved Computational Prediction Of Function And Structural Representation Of Self-Cleaving Ribozymes With Enhanced Parameter Selection And Library Design, James D. Beck

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Biomolecules could be engineered to solve many societal challenges, including disease diagnosis and treatment, environmental sustainability, and food security. However, our limited understanding of how mutational variants alter molecular structures and functional performance has constrained the potential of important technological advances, such as high-throughput sequencing and gene editing. Ribonuleic Acid (RNA) sequences are thought to play a central role within many of these challenges. Their continual discovery throughout all domains of life is evidence of their significant biological importance (Weinreb et al., 2016). The self-cleaving ribozyme is a class of noncoding Ribonuleic Acid (ncRNA) that has been useful for …

Image-Based Crack Detection By Extracting Depth Of The Crack Using Machine Learning, Nishat Tabassum

Theses and Dissertations

Concrete structures have been a major aspect of social infrastructure since the ancient Roman times, so they have been used for many centuries. Concrete is used for the durability and support it provides to buildings and bridges. Assessing the state of these structures is important in preserving the longevity of structures and the safety of the public. Detecting cracks in their early stage allows repairs to be made without the need to replace the whole structure, so it reduces the cost. Traditional methods are slowly falling behind as technology advances and an increase in demand for a practical method of …

Enigma - Ongoing Development Towards Novel Beta-Decay Spectroscopy Station At Isolde, Philipp Wagenknecht

Masters Theses

Beta decay and collinear laser spectroscopy are proven efficient tools to study nuclear structure far from stability. Two areas of significance are investigations into nuclear deformation and shape coexistence, as well as delayed neutron emissions used in nuclear energy applications. This contribution presents the ongoing development towards a novel beta-decay spectroscopy station for the VITO experiment at CERN’s radioactive ion beam facility ISOLDE. The setup will utilize both collinear laser spectroscopy and beta-decay spectroscopy to measure the energy and spin-parities of the ground and excited states of radioactive beams. Initial designs of the support structure, magnetic field, and detector array …

Structural History Of The Bald Mountain Mining District, Nevada, Usa, David Paul Ryan

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Bald Mountain Mining district, like much of central Nevada, has experienced a complex deformation history. The mining district is considered here as a southern extension of the well-studied Carlin trend of gold deposits to the north. In order to gain a better understanding of how the Bald Mountain Mining District structural style relates to other structural models developed to the north in the Carlin trend, I completed a mapping and structural domain analysis in the district, with a focus on the North Mooney basin area where a high spatial concentration of Carlin-type gold deposits occur. The identification of structural …

Structural History Of The Formidable-Le Conte Mountain Area, North Cascades, Wa, Nyle Weldon

WWU Graduate School Collection

A record of Permian to Tertiary polyphase deformation, metamorphism and magmatism is preserved in the Cascades River region of the North Cascades Crystalline Core, Washington. The tectonic history recorded here can be used to understand the deep crustal processes occurring within active convergent plate margins around the world. New structural and geochronologic data from this study are used to advance our understanding of terrane origin, accretion, and processes that altered and thickened the crust of the North Cascades.

The study focuses on several rock units within an accreted Permian-Jurassic island arc, the Chelan Mountains terrane, that was tectonized in Cretaceous …

Local Dynamics And Atomic-Level Structures In Metallic Liquids And Glasses, Zengquan Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

Structure and dynamics at the atomic level in metallic glasses and liquids are poorly understood when compared to the crystalline solids. For instance, even though viscosity is the basic property of liquids, its atomistic origin is not well elucidated. Also, the physics of the fragility of liquids and the crossover phenomenon is far from full understanding. Earlier, through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations a direct connection was found between the timescale describing the macroscopic viscous behavior, the Maxwell relaxation time (t_M = h/G_∞, h is the shear viscosity and G_∞ is the high-frequency shear modulus) and …

Crustal And Upper Mantle Structure Beneath The Southeastern United States From Joint Inversion Of Rayleigh Wave Dispersion And Receiver Functions, Qiuyue Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

"In spite of numerous geophysical investigations have been conducted in southeastern United States, the structure and evolution of the crust and lithospheric mantle remain controversial due the thick sedimentary covers atop the crust of the coastal plains there. In this study, we use data from 186 broadband seismic stations belonging to the USArray Transportable Array to construct a 3-D shear wave velocity model for the southeastern United States for the top 180 km by a joint inversion of Rayleigh wave phase velocity dispersion and receiver functions. Our results show a clear spatial correspondence with major surficial geological features. A prominent …

Delineating Of The Utica Shale/Point Pleasant Formation Play System To Determine Influence Of The Precambrian Basement In Northeastern Ohio, Jarrod R. Bridges

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Utica Shale/Point Pleasant Formation system has recently become a highly developed unconventional target for oil and natural gas production, leading to an increased desire for knowledge of the controls on deposition of this system. Precambrian basement features have long been known to affect deposition of older strata near these features across Ohio, but the effects of far field tectonics is not fully agreed upon. Precambrian faults and lineaments are known to exist and have been mapped, but are thought to have ceased their influence on deposition by the time of the Knox unconformity during the Cambrian. In the case …

Extracting Information From Subroutines Using Static Analysis Semantics, Luke A. Burnett

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how a system component can interact with other services can take an immeasurable amount of time. Reverse engineering embedded and large systems can rely on understanding how components interact with one another. This process is time consuming and can sometimes be generalized through certain behavior.We will be explaining two such complicated systems and highlighting similarities between them. We will show that through static analysis you can capture compiler behavior and apply it to the understanding of a function, reducing the total time required to understand a component of whichever system you are learning.

Structure And Mechanisms Of Metalloenzymes For Incorporation Of Water Across Cn And C-Cl Bonds, Xinhang Yang

Dissertations (1934 -)

Metalloenzymes are widely involved in water incorporation across CN and C-Cl bonds.1 In this research, the structure and mechanisms of two novel metalloenzymes that incorporate water across CN and C-Cl bonds were examined by biophysical approaches, computational modeling, and crystallographic methods.In the research of water incorporation across CN bonds, a novel eukaryotic nitrile hydratase (NHase, EC 4.2.1.84) from Monosiga brevicollis (MbNHase) was characterized, and the functional role of a (His)17 section and an insert region in the MbNHase, were examined by gene modifications. Each of these MbNHase enzymes provided an 22 heterotetramer, identical to that observed for prokaryotic NHases …

Micro- To Macro-Scale Structural And Lithological Architecture Of Basal Nonconformities: Implications For Fluid Flow And Injection Induced Seismicity, Garth Hesseltine

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rising incidents of earthquakes caused by human activity in the United States, known as induced earthquakes, is a growing concern. Induced earthquakes may occur when fluid and/or wastewater is injected several kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface into sedimentary rocks. Fluids and pressures can migrate from the sedimentary rocks, which are typically friendlier to fluid flow, into underlying less friendlier crystalline rocks along fluid pathways weakening and possibly reactivating preexisting faults. Understanding potential fluid pathways and/or barriers from the sedimentary rocks to crystalline rocks is crucial. I investigate the structure, composition, and heterogeneity of rocks near the contact between the sedimentary …

Characterizing The Deformation History Of The Southern Mina Deflection: Field And Structural Studies In The Huntoon Mountains, California-Nevada, Joseph Bodie Mccosby

All Master's Theses

New geologic mapping and structural studies in the Huntoon Mountain area (HMA), California-Nevada document the volcanic and deformation histories across the south-central Mina Deflection (MD). Our work allows us to (a) test whether present-day GPS predicted sinistral slip rates are the same as geologic slip rates in the southern MD, and (b) determine the kinematics of fault slip is transfer through the MD. The HMA exposes primarily Miocene andesitic-dacitic volcanic rocks overlain by the 12.114 ± 0.006 Ma (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar sanidine, Petronis et al., 2019) Tuff of Jack Spring and the 11.399 ± 0.041 Ma (^{40 …}

Application Of Lidar To 3d Structural Mapping, Bertrand Gaschot

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The rugged, densely forested terrain of the West Virginia Appalachian Valley and Ridge Province has made it difficult for field-based studies to agree on the structure of the highly deformed Silurian-Devonian cover strata. In this study, we demonstrate a 3D approach to geologic mapping utilizing the structural information revealed in a “bare-earth” 1-m Lidar DEM of the Smoke Hole Canyon. The completed 3D map was integrated with kinematic forward modeling carried out in MOVE^TM to provide information on the parameters required to form the major structures observed. Additionally, land surface attributes generated using geomorphometric analysis of the Lidar allowed …

A Structural And Stratigraphic Study Of The A-2 Carbonate In Southwest Michigan And Reservoir Characterization Of An A-2 Carbonate Gas Storage Field, Clayton Joupperi

Masters Theses

The Overisel and Salem gas storage fields of southwest Michigan annually store 34 Bcf of natural working gas in the upper dolomitized portion of the Silurian A-2 Carbonate. Porosity and permeability in these fields is thought to be enhanced by fracturing and dolomitization associated with the dissolution and collapse of underlying salt units. This study utilizes wire-line logs from 383 wells to explore the structural and stratigraphic controls on the deposition and diagenesis of the A-2 Carbonate in southwest Michigan. Core and thin sections from 4 wells serve as the primary data for investigating the depositional and diagenetic history of …

Exploring The Impact Of Pretrained Bidirectional Language Models On Protein Secondary Structure Prediction, Dillon G. Daudert

Masters Theses

Protein secondary structure prediction (PSSP) involves determining the local conformations of the peptide backbone in a folded protein, and is often the first step in resolving a protein's global folded structure. Accurate structure prediction has important implications for understanding protein function and de novo protein design, with progress in recent years being driven by the application of deep learning methods such as convolutional and recurrent neural networks. Language models pretrained on large text corpora have been shown to learn useful representations for feature extraction and transfer learning across problem domains in natural language processing, most notably in instances where the …

Investigation Of Structure And Dynamics Of Deep Eutectic Solvent Using Infrared Spectroscopy, Yaowen Cui

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) are liquid mixtures prepared from solids. As a new class of green solvents, DES not only share many properties with ionic liquids, such as low volatility, conductivity, tailorable constituents, but also have some advantages over ionic liquids, like easier preparation, safe and inexpensive materials, biodegradability, low toxicity, and excellent solubility. Because of those attractive properties, DES has been studied in many scientific and engineering fields. However, compared with the great number of studies of the application, many questions about structure and dynamics of DES are unanswered. To shed light on the mystery of solvent or solvation …

Structural Geology Of The Caddo Gap Area, Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas, Martin Messmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Caddo Gap quadrangle is located on the southern margin of the Benton Uplift, the orogenic core of the Ouachita Mountains. Recent field mapping focused on delineating stratigraphic and structural relationships in the southern part of the quadrangle to improve existing reconnaissance-scale maps of the area. New structures were discovered that provide further information about the structural evolution of the Ouachita fold and thrust belt.

Field work included mapping the three informal members (Lower, Middle and Upper) of the Arkansas Novaculite. Major folds within the study area include the Nelson Mountain Anticline and two synclinal folds (“South Caddo Mountain” and …

Evaluation Of 'Structure-From-Motion' From A Pole-Mounted Camera For Monitoring Geomorphic Change, Rebecca K. Rossi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Emerging "Structure-from-Motion" (SfM) photogrammetry techniques encourage faster, cheaper, and more accessible field methods for accurately reconstructing 3D topography. The SfM method consists of collecting sets of overlapping images of the ground surface with a point and shoot camera, and reconstructing surface topography from the images with developed software programs. This research develops and implements a SfM image acquisition method and post-processing workflow as a supplemental technique to the traditional total-station method to aid in monitoring sandbar change in Marble and Grand Canyons along the Colorado River in Arizona. Due to permitting in Grand Canyon National Park, a 4.9 m pole-mounted …

Spatial And Temporal Characterization Of The Petrified Springs Fault, Central Walker Lane, Nevada: Documenting Middle Miocene Dextral Slip, Andrew Hoxey

All Master's Theses

The Central Walker Lane, NV is an active dextral shear zone superimposed on the western boundary of the Basin and Range extensional province. Approximately 25% of dextral shear along the Pacific-North American plate boundary accommodated in the Walker Lane, a NW-striking, intracontinental dextral fault system in eastern California- western Nevada. In the Central Walker Lane, shear is accommodated on five major NW- striking faults, one of which is the Petrified Springs fault, with poorly constrained slip magnitudes, slip rates, and initiation ages. We completed new detailed geologic mapping, combined with structural studies, and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology document offset …

Miocene-Pliocene(?) Folds, Normal Faults And The Left-Lateral Buckhorn Fault With Regional Implications, Pahranagat Shear Zone, Nevada, Thomas Godfrey Price

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Strike-slip faults play an important role in the development and evolution of extensional regimes including in the intraplate extension in the Basin and Range province. The Basin and Range province is divided into the Northwestern, Northern, Central and Southern Basin and

Range subprovinces. The boundary zone between the Northern and Central subprovinces is marked by several left-lateral fault zones, including the Pahranagat Shear Zone (PSZ), Caliente-Enterprise Zone and Rock Valley Fault Zone. The PSZ has a close spatial and kinematic relationship with the left-lateral Caliente-Enterprise Zone, which lies to the NE, and a slightly more distal relationship to the left-lateral …

Magnetic Nanostructure Application In Sers Detection Of Melatonin And Resonance Raman Characterization Of Binding Of Catechol Moieties With Antibiotic, Siqi Sun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Raman spectroscopy provides characteristic peaks of the target molecules that can be observed with appropriate laser, spectrometer and detector. These characteristic peaks can reveal ‘fingerprint’ information of a molecule even in a myriad of cases and combinations. It makes Raman spectroscopy a highly sensitive and selective analytical technique. Raman spectroscopy has a variety of chemical, environmental and biological applications. In this dissertation, modified Raman method are applied in life sciences and pharmaceutical studies.

The major challenge against development of Raman spectroscopy is how to improve the intensity of Raman signal. Surface Enhance Raman Scattering (SERS) and resonance Raman(RR) are utilized …

Investigate Genomic 3d Structure Using Deep Neural Network, Yan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

The 3D structures of the chromosomes play fundamental roles in essential cellular functions, e.g., gene regulation, gene expression, evolution and Hi-C technique provides the interaction density between loci on chromosomes. In this dissertation, we developed multiple algorithms, focusing the deep learning approach, to study the Hi-C datasets and the genomic 3D structures.

Building 3D structure of the genome one of the most critical purpose of the Hi-C technique. Recently, several approaches have been developed to reconstruct the 3D model of the chromosomes from HiC data. However, all of the methods are based on a particular mathematical model and lack of …

Reading Between The Lines: Verifying Mathematical Language, Tristan Johnson

Honors Theses

A great deal of work has been done on automatically generating automated proofs of formal statements. However, these systems tend to focus on logic-oriented statements and tactics as well as generating proofs in formal language. This project examines proofs written in natural language under a more general scope of mathematics. Furthermore, rather than attempting to generate natural language proofs for the purpose of solving problems, we automatically verify human-written proofs in natural language. To accomplish this, elements of discourse parsing, semantic interpretation, and application of an automated theorem prover are implemented.

Seismic Reflection Profiling Near Middletown, Ohio And Interpretation Of Precambrian Deformational Settings, David Joseph Peterman

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The reprocessing of four vibroseis seismic reflection lines at the AK Steel facility in Middletown, Ohio, provides new insight on the age, deposition, and structural deformation of the pre-Mount Simon sedimentary sequence below Butler and Warren Counties. Processing was focused on the pre-Mt. Simon reflections to reveal gently west-southwest dipping reflectors that make a slight angular unconformity with the overlying Paleozoic sedimentary strata. This pre-Mount Simon sedimentary sequence has been encountered in several wells from western Ohio, Indiana, and northern Kentucky and has been identified as the Middle Run Formation. Examination of the weak and discontinuous seismic character of the …