Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Banach Spaces On Infinitely Branching Trees, Annette B. Locke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An example of a Banach space, X_∞, with a nonseparable dual such that l₁ does not imbed in X_∞ is investigated. Not every weakly null sequence has a subsequence equivalent to the usual basis of c₀, but c₀ imbeds in many subspaces of X_∞. The space l₁ does imbed in X_∞^∗, the dual space of X_∞, yet weakly converging sequences in X_∞^∗ need not converge in norm.

Acid Rain: The Effects, Torrey Mortimer

Social Sciences

In a world experiencing increasing population, urbanization, and developing nations looking to compete on a global market with post-industrial nations, the effects of acid precipitation require greater consideration. As the world’s energy demand rises, and with the cheapest and most abundant source of energy being coal, the occurrence of acid precipitation is on the rise.

The goal of my project is to research and report on the effects of acid deposition on humans, animals and the environment that surrounds them. When I have completed my project, I hope to be able to explain the impacts that acid deposition has on …

Breaking From Tradition: India And The Path To Development, Angel M. Newsom

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

"How could a country with more than 300 million illiterate people also have the kind of scientific human resources that bring some of the world's largest corporations to base their R&D labs in India?" (Tripathi, 2007, p.68). This question acknowledges the coexistence of two vastly different worlds within one country. On one hand, India is making significant progress on the path to becoming a developed country;one that can provide the basic fundamentals of living for its citizens while sustaining progressive economic growth; on the other hand, it must overcome challenges to this goal that relate to a crumbling infrastructure, poverty, …

A Cisco-Based Proposal For Arne Core Routing Infrastructure, Ingrimar James

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Systems Engineering and Application Development (SEAD) Practicum provides opportunities for students to engage in proposing, designing, building and testing various projects related to information technology. There are several ongoing projects designed to upgrade, improve or revamp some aspect of the Academic Research Network, generally referred to as ARNe, and services or applications that are a part of its architecture. Regis University is in the process of replacing their current architecture and equipment that forms the core of ARNe in order to facilitate further upgrades and new projects within various aspects of ARNe. This paper examines and proposes a Cisco-based routing …

Database System Architecture For Fault Tolerance And Disaster Recovery, Anthony Nguyen

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Application systems being used today rely heavily on the availability of the database system. Disruption of database system can be damaging and catastrophic to the organization that depends on the availability of the database system for its business and service operations. To ensure business continuity under foreseeable and unforeseeable man-made or natural disasters, the database system has to be designed and built with fault tolerance and disaster recovery capabilities. This project explored existing technologies and solutions to design, build, and implement database system architecture for fault tolerance and disaster recovery using Oracle database software products. The project goal was to …

Optical And Terahertz Energy Concentration On The Nanoscale In Plasmonics, Anastasia Rusina

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

We introduce an approach to implement full coherent control on nanometer length scales. It is based on spatiotemporal modulation of the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) fields at the thick edge of a nanowedge. The SPP wavepackets propagating toward the sharp edge of this nanowedge are compressed and adiabatically concentrated at a nanofocus, forming an ultrashort pulse of local fields. The profile of the focused waveform as a function of time and one spatial dimension is completely coherently controlled. We establish the principal limits for the nanoconcentration of the terahertz (THz) radiation in metal/dielectric waveguides and determine their optimum shapes required …

Isotopic Evaluation Of Carbon Dioxide In Soil Gas In Utah For A More Accurate Input Variable In Groundwater Age Determining Models, Rachelle Hart

Theses and Dissertations

In order to achieve a more accurate input value for groundwater age determining models, δ13CVPDB values for soil gas were evaluated at 50 cm depths in locations throughout Utah in order to define correlations between δ13C and environmental parameters. 16 sites were chosen that exploited large changes in elevation and latitude which provided variations in climate, precipitation, plant community, etc. Gas samples were collected over 1-1½ years, and soil samples were collected at depth during installations. Field and laboratory studies were also used to evaluate CO2 and δ13C change with depth. It was discovered that in mountainous recharge areas, the …

Integration And Deployment Techniques In Combination With Development Methodologies, Brian E. Nesbitt

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Efficient and inefficient pairings of software development methodologies and software integration and deployment techniques exist. Often times the automation of code integration and deployment is chosen but the full benefit of these technologies are throttled by the incorporation of a development methodology. It can be hypothesized that the evolution of software development created this situation along with the latency of implementing development methodologies. This work examines four scenarios comprised of traditional and conventional development methodologies with manual and automated software integration and deployment techniques. Similar web-based software applications were selected from waterfall (traditional) and agile (conventional) run project development teams. …

Giant Plasmonic Energy And Momentum Transfer On The Nanoscale, Maxim Durach

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

We have developed a general theory of the plasmonic enhancement of many-body phenomena resulting in a closed expression for the surface plasmon-dressed Coulomb interaction. It is shown that this interaction has a resonant nature. We have also demonstrated that renormalized interaction is a long-ranged interaction whose intensity is considerably increased compared to bare Coulomb interaction over the entire region near the plasmonic nanostructure. We illustrate this theory by re-deriving the mirror charge potential near a metal sphere as well as the quasistatic potential behind the so-called perfect lens at the surface plasmon (SP) frequency. The dressed interaction for an important …

Model Reduction For Simulation, Optimization And Control, Oleg Edward Roderick

Dissertations and Theses

Many tasks of simulation, optimization and control can be performed more efficiently if the intermediate complexity of the numerical model is reduced. In our work, we investigate model reduction, as applied to reaction-transport systems of atmospheric chemistry. We use a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition-based approach to extract information from a set of model observations, and to project the model equations onto a reduced order space chosen in such a way that the essential model behavior is preserved in the solution of the reduced version. We examine and improve many features of the method. In particular, we show how to measure sensitivities …

Development And Comparison Of Methods For Measuring Directional Sound Arrivals In Rooms, Brian Trevor Thornock

Theses and Dissertations

In room acoustics, the directional information of sound arrivals at a listening location can be used to diagnose the origins of problematic reflections so offending surfaces or other features can be properly treated. It can also be used for other purposes, including the study of psychoacoustic indicators. Many methods have been developed in the past to derive directional information, but despite their benefits, each has had significant drawbacks that have necessitated further research into their properties and development of an improved method. This thesis presents a review of past methods, their benefits and shortcomings. It discusses many theoretical and practical …

Duty Cycle Maintenance In An Artificial Neuron, William Halbert Barnett

Physics and Astronomy Theses

Neuroprosthetics is at the intersection of neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and physics. A biocompatible neuroprosthesis contains artificial neurons exhibiting biophysically plausible dynamics. Hybrid systems analysis could be used to prototype such artificial neurons. Biohybrid systems are composed of artificial and living neurons coupled via real-time computing and dynamic clamp. Model neurons must be thoroughly tested before coupled with a living cell. We use bifurcation theory to identify hazardous regimes of activity that may compromise biocompatibility and to identify control strategies for regimes of activity desirable for functional behavior. We construct real-time artificial neurons for the analysis of hybrid systems and demonstrate …

Investigation Of Mlb Data With Multivariate Statistics, Vincent Milano

Statistics

A statistical study was performed in order to explore the relationships of the offensive player statistics for every player in the 2008 Major League Baseball season. The purpose of the study was to explore various multivariate statistical methods within the data set.

The offensive variables in the study are: games, at-bats, runs, hits, singles, doubles, triples, homeruns, extra base hits, runs batted in, total bases, walks, strikeouts, stolen bases, times caught stealing, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, on-base plus slugging percentage, and batting average. All variables are season totals except for onbase percentage, slugging percentage, on-base plus slugging, and batting average. …

Case Studies Of Imf Driven Auroral Emissions, Ryan James Soldin

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The topic of solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere coupling has become increasingly important in recent years, as it deals with the energy transfer from the Sun to the Earth. The solar wind plasma has direct entry into Earth's ionosphere at the polar cusp. At the cusp Earth's magnetic fields lines are open and connect .directly to the magnetic field lines of the solar wind. The energy from the solar wind particles precipitating into the ionosphere are dissipated as the aurora. The purpose of this thesis was to present case studies of the coupled relationship between the periodic fluctuations in …

Effects Of Tide Gate Replacement On Water Temperature In A Freshwater Slough In The Columbia River Estuary, Sara Ennis

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Dramatic declines in salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest have brought new attention to the importance of estuarine rearing habitats. Levees and tide gates used to convert estuarine wetlands into farmland have reduced available habitat by more than half of historical levels. Recent efforts to restore estuarine habitats include tide gate replacement, though this method has been poorly studied. As a key indicator of salmon habitat suitability, temperature was used to evaluate the effects of tide gate replacement in a tidally influenced freshwater slough in the Lower Columbia River estuary. Three tide gates in the largest slough on Tenasillahe Island …

Solvent Dependent Morphologies In Thiol-Ene Photopolymerization: A Facile Route To Synthesis Of Resorcinarene Nanocapsules, Zaharoula Marie Kalaitzis

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Synthesis of morphologically distinct polymeric nanostructures is vital for their wide ranging applications from nanomedicine to material science. Among various polymeric nanostructures, nanocapsules in particular have attracted a lot of attention as nanoreactors and drug delivery vehicles in nanomedicine. Often, synthesis of nanocapsules is achieved by template-based approaches. A direct, template-free method for the fabrication of nanocapsules and a variety of other morphologically distinct polymeric architectures was developed. The photopolymerization of a resorcinarene thiol-ene surfactant in various solvents lead to the formation of nanocapsules, nanoparticles, fibers, distorted honeycomb-like lattices, and sheets. The progress of the polymerization reaction and the morphology …

Development Of Chemometric Models And Calibration Transfer For Rapid Diesel And Jet Fuel Analysis Using Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Christopher Matthew Larkin

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Fuel quality assurance and analysis, as it pertains to the United States armed forces, is crucial for maintaining operability and upholding safety regulations with respect to fuel class. Currently a great amount of effort, money and manpower are dedicated to this task as fuel analysis takes place in off-site laboratories where quality assessment and property determination is performed manually by highly qualified lab technicians. This presents the military with a logistics problem with respect to refueling, transport, and fuel storage as the typical tum-around time is 1-2 weeks. In this thesis it has been demonstrated that near-infrared spectroscopy, in conjunction …

The Multilevel Structures Of Nurbs And Nurblets On Intervals, Weiwei Zhu

Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with the problem of constructing biorthogonal wavelets based on non-uniform rational cubic B-Splines on intervals. We call non-uniform rational B-Splines ``NURBs", and such biorthogonal wavelets ``NURBlets". Constructing NURBlets is useful in designing and representing an arbitrary shape of an object in the industry, especially when exactness of the shape is critical such as the shape of an aircraft. As we know presently most popular wavelet models in the industry are approximated at boundaries. In this dissertation a new model is presented that is well suited for generating arbitrary shapes in the industry with mathematical exactness throughout …

Geometric Characterization Of Digital Objects: Algorithms And Applications To Image Analysis., Arindam Biswas Dr.

Doctoral Theses

Several problems of characterizing a digital object, and particularly, those related to boundary description, have been studied in this thesis. New algorithms and their applications to various aspects of image analysis and retrieval have been reported. A combinatorial technique for constructing the outer and inner isothetic covers of a digital object has been developed. The resolution of the background 2D grid can be changed by varying the grid spacing, and this procedure can be used to extract shape and topological information about the object. Next, an algorithm has been designed for constructing the orthogonal (convex) hull of a digital object …

Pore Size Characterization Of Monolithic Capillary Columns Using Capillary Flow Porometry, Yan Fang

Theses and Dissertations

A simple capillary flow porometer (CFP) was assembled for pore structure characterization of monolithic capillary liquid chromatography columns based on ASTM standard F316-86. Determination of differential pressures and flow rates through dry and wet samples provided the necessary information to determine the through-pore throat diameter, bubble point pore diameter, mean flow pore diameter, and pore distribution. Unlike measurements in bulk using traditional techniques to provide indirect information about the pore properties of monolithic columns, monoliths can be characterized in their original chromatographic forms with this system. The performance of the new CFP was first evaluated by characterizing the pore size …

Motion Analysis Of Fluid Flow In A Spinning Disk Reactor, Valentina N. Korzhova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The flow of a liquid film over a rapidly rotating horizontal disk has numerous industrial applications including pharmaceuticals, chemical engineering, bioengineering, etc. The analysis and control of complex fluid flows over a rapidly rotating horizontal disk is an important issue in the experimental fluid mechanics. The spinning disk reactor exploits the benefits of centrifugal force, which produces thin highly sheared films due to radial acceleration. The hydrodynamics of the film results in excellent fluid mixing and high heat or mass transfer rates.

This work focuses on developing a novel approach for fluid flow tracking and analysis. Specifically, the developed algorithm …

Gas Phase Chiral Recognition, Characterization Of Porous Polymer Monolith Nanospray Ionization, And The Negative Mode Crafti Method Using Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, Nannan Fang

Theses and Dissertations

Our group has been studying chiral recognition in gas phase using mass spectrometry for more than 10 years. We are interested in gas phase studies of fundamental interactions because the gas phase avoids complications and masking effects that may arise upon solvation. Therefore, the results of gas phase experiments can be directly compared with those of high-level computational studies. In chapter 2, I studied the roles of hydrogen bonding and pi stacking in gas phase chiral recognition between aromatic crown molecules and aromatic amines. High affinity between host and guest doesn't necessarily result in better recognition. If the affinity is …

Guided Testing For Automatic Error Discovery In Concurrent Software, Neha Shyam Rungta

Theses and Dissertations

The quality and reliability of software systems, in terms of their functional correctness, critically relies on the effectiveness of the testing tools and techniques to detect errors in the system before deployment. A lack of testing tools for concurrent programs that systematically control thread scheduling choices has not allowed concurrent software development to keep abreast with hardware trends of multi-core and multi-processor technologies. This motivates a need for the development of systematic testing techniques that detect errors in concurrent programs. The work in this dissertation presents a potentially scalable technique that can be used to detect concurrency errors in production …

Deriving Optimal Composite Scores: Relating Observational/Longitudinal Data With A Primary Endpoint, Rhonda Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

In numerous clinical/experimental studies, multiple endpoints are measured on each subject. It is often not clear which of these endpoints should be designated as of primary importance. The desirability function approach is a way of combining multiple responses into a single unitless composite score. The response variables may include multiple types of data: binary, ordinal, count, interval data. Each response variable is transformed to a 0 to1 unitless scale with zero representing a completely undesirable response and one representing the ideal value. In desirability function methodology, weights on individual components can be incorporated to allow different levels of importance to …

Improved Network Consistency And Connectivity In Mobile And Sensor Systems, Nilanjan Banerjee

Open Access Dissertations

Edge networks such as sensor, mobile, and disruption tolerant networks suffer from topological uncertainty and disconnections due to myriad of factors including limited battery capacity on client devices and mobility. Hence, providing reliable, always-on consistency for network applications in such mobile and sensor systems is non-trivial and challenging. However, the problem is of paramount importance given the proliferation of mobile phones, PDAs, laptops, and music players. This thesis identifies two fundamental deterrents to addressing the above problem. First, limited energy on client mobile and sensor devices makes high levels of consistency and availability impossible. Second, unreliable support from the network …

Climate And Environmental Change In Arctic Canada: Observations From Upper And Lower Murray Lakes, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Timothy Cook

Open Access Dissertations

This study was designed with the overriding goal of improving our understanding of the nature, causes, and impacts of past climatic conditions in the High Arctic and to evaluate the potential impacts of future climatic warming. Specifically, the focus of this project was centered on Upper and Lower Murray Lakes (81° 21’ N, 69° 32’ W) on northern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. Sediment cores were collected from each of the lakes in order to reconstruct past climate and environmental variability and space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data were used to evaluate recent variability in the ice cover of these lakes. …

The Development Of Hierarchical Knowledge In Robot Systems, Stephen W. Hart

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates two complementary ideas in the literature on machine learning and robotics--those of embodiment and intrinsic motivation--to address a unified framework for skill learning and knowledge acquisition. "Embodied" systems make use of structure derived directly from sensory and motor configurations for learning behavior. Intrinsically motivated systems learn by searching for native, hedonic value through interaction with the world. Psychological theories of intrinsic motivation suggest that there exist internal drives favoring open-ended cognitive development and exploration. I argue that intrinsically motivated, embodied systems can learn generalizable skills, acquire control knowledge, and form an epistemological understanding of the world …

Tailoring The Surface-Coating Of Gold Nanoparticles For Bio-Applications, Partha S. Ghosh

Open Access Dissertations

Functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) provide an excellent scaffold for numerous biological applications. In these systems, the gold core imparts stability to the assembly, while the monolayer allows tuning of surface characteristics such as charge and hydrophobicity. The nano-scale size and tunable surface properties have made them an ideal candidate for manipulating protein-protein/protein-nucleic acid interactions, and delivery of therapeutics. In this thesis work, it has been demonstrated how the surface coating plays an important role in achieving a desired goal. Using organic synthesis as a tool, the monolayer was tailored to afford useful particles with biocompatibility and the ability to respond …

Intermolecular Electron Transfer Reactivity And Dynamics Of Cytochrome C – Nanoparticle Adducts, Adrienne M. Carver

Open Access Dissertations

Interprotein electron transfer (ET) is crucial for natural energy conversion and a fundamental reaction in the pursuit of understanding the broader problem of proteinprotein interactions and reactivity. Simplifying the complicated nature of these natural systems has driven development of biomimetic approaches. Functionalized gold nanoparticles offer simplified, tunable surfaces that can serve as a proxy to study the reactivity and dynamics of proteins. Amino-acid functionalized gold nanoparticles (Au-TX) served as a complementary partner to cytochrome c (Cyt c) and catalyzed its ET reactivity without altering the native structure. Redox mediator and EPR experiments confirmed that the redox potential and coordination environment …

Sensor Control And Scheduling Strategies For Sensor Networks, Victoria U. Manfredi

Open Access Dissertations

We investigate sensor control and scheduling strategies to most effectively use the limited resources of an ad hoc network or closed-loop sensor network. In this context, we examine the following three problems. Where to focus sensing? Certain types of sensors, such as cameras or radars, are unable to simultaneously collect high fidelity data from all environmental locations, and thus require some sort of sensing strategy. Considering a meteorological radar network, we show that the main benefits of optimizing sensing over expected future states of the environment are when there are multiple small phenomena in the environment. Considering multiple users, we …