Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Complexity Properties Of The Cellular Automaton Game Of Life, Andreas Rechtsteiner

Dissertations and Theses

The Game of Life is probably the most famous cellular automaton. Life shows all the characteristics of Wolfram's complex Class IV cellular automata: long-lived transients, static and propagating local structures, and the ability to support universal computation.

We examine in this thesis questions about the geometry and criticality of Life. We find that Life has two different regimes with different dimensionalities. In the small scale regime Life shows a fractal dimensionality with D_s = 0.658 and in the large scale regime D₁ = 2.0, suggesting that the objects of Life are randomly distributed. We find that Life …

Evaluable Functions In The GöDel Programming Language: Parsing And Representing Rewrite Rules, Janet Vorvick

Dissertations and Theses

The integration of a functional component into a logic language extends the expressive power of the language. One logic language which would benefit from such an extension is Gödel, a prototypical language at the leading edge of the research in logic programming. We present a modification of the Gödel parser which enables the parsing of evaluable functions in Gödel. As the first part of an extended Gödel, the parser produces output similar to the output from the original Gödel parser, ensuring that Gödel modules are properly handled by the extended-Gödel parser. Parser output is structured to simplify, as much as …

Geochemistry Of The Boring Lava Along The West Side Of The Tualatin Mountains And Of Sediments From Drill Holes In The Portland And Tualatin Basins, Portland, Oregon, Michelle Lynn Barnes

Dissertations and Theses

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) was used to identify geochemical groups in Boring Lava along the west side of the Tualatin Mountains, and in sediments of the Portland and Tualatin basins. Samples of Boring Lava were obtained from TriMet drill core collected during planning of the tunnel alignment for the Westside Light Rail line. Additional samples of Boring Lava were collected from outcrops along the west side of the Tualatin Mountains. Samples of sediment from the Tualatin and Portland basins were obtained from drill core collected during an Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) Earthquake Hazards Mapping project. …

Electrostatic Interactions At Membrane-Water Interfaces And Distribution Of 2, 4, 6-Trichlorophenol In A Membrane Model System, Isolde Sieder

Dissertations and Theses

It is generally accepted that biological membranes consist of a lipid bilayer matrix with proteins incorporated into the lipid bilayer. Typically, these membranes are negatively charged due to the presence of negatively charged lipids in the bilayer as well as negatively charged molecular groups on proteins. Biologically active molecules, such as environmental pollutants, enter the membrane from the aqueous phase by adsorption or partitioning into the lipid bilayer. The thesis consists of two parts. Part I is a computational study of spatial distribution of electric potential in the aqueous portion of the membrane-water interface using two models of charge distribution: …

Origins Of Effective Charge Of Multivalent Ions At A Membrane/Water Interface And Distribution Of 2,3,4,5-Tetrachlorophenol In A Membrane Model System, Piet O. Schmidt

Dissertations and Theses

Biological cells and subcellular organelles are surrounded by membranes to form compartments performing specialized functions. Adsorption or partitioning of biologically active compounds into the membrane is the first step in the process of modification of cell function. This work is concerned with the problem of distribution of charged molecules between water and electrically charged membrane surface and between water and octanol. Part I of this thesis is focused on the electrostatic interactions taking place between charges on the membrane and ions present in the aqueous region of the membrane/water interface. The objective was to explore theoretically the origin of anomalous …

The Interaction Between A Thiol Specific Probe (Opa) And The Single Channel Characteristics Of The Reconstituted Ca++ Release Protein From Skeletal Muscle Sarcoplasmic Reticulum, Alexander Braun

Dissertations and Theses

One advantage of higher life-forms over less developed organisms is their ability to respond to signals from their environment with motion. This requires highly specialized contractile cells and a whole locomotion apparatus. In vertebrates, the cells responsible for movement are the skeletal muscle cells. They receive signals from the autonomic nervous system in the form of an action potential, and they contract in an appropriate manner. Calcium is a vital intracellular passenger whose role in muscular function is to initiate contraction. It is released via specific channel proteins from an internal Ca++ store, the sarcoplasmic reticulum, and triggers muscular contraction, …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Novel Fluorine Containing Alkylsulfonyls And Sulfonates : Fluorinated Sulfonyl Methanes And Derivatives, Nelson R. Holcomb

Dissertations and Theses

A series of salts of the strong fluorocarbon acid bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)methane were made: (CF3S02 ) 2CHK, (CF3S02 ) 2CHLi, [ (CF3S02 ) 2CH] 2Ca, [ (CF3S02 ) 2CH] 2Hg, (CF3S02 ) 2CHAg, [ (CF3S02 ) 2CH] 3La. Their reactivity and use as organic intermediates were investigated. The salts were made from their corresponding carbonates, oxides, or hydrides. The reaction times for the salts is generally short, however the purification process was laborious, involving recrystallization from organic solvents and drying under vacuum. The lithium salt is being evaluated as a solid state battery electrolyte. Derivatives of bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)methane were made by using the …

O-Phthalaldehyde Modification Of Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Calcium Release, Steffen Koehler

Dissertations and Theses

Muscle contraction is a phenomena which fascinated already the ancient Greeks. People have long sought to understand the mechanism of muscle contraction. Today we know that in order for muscle to contract, an action potential propagates from the nerve cell to the muscle cell. Upon arriving at the muscle cell, via a mechanism called Excitation- Contraction (E-C) coupling, Ca2 + is released from an intracellular membrane system, the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), into the intracellular fluid. The increase of intracellular Ca2 + initiates the interaction between the contractile units which results in force development and tension. The least well understood step …

Weakest Pre-Condition And Data Flow Testing, Griffin David Mcclellan

Dissertations and Theses

Current data flow testing criteria cannot be applied to test array elements for two reasons: 1. The criteria are defined in terms of graph theory which is insufficiently expressive to investigate array elements. 2. Identifying input data which test a specified array element is an unsolvable problem. We solve the first problem by redefining the criteria without graph theory. We address the second problem with the invention of the wp_du method, which is based on Dijkstra's weakest pre-condition formalism. This method accomplishes the following: Given a program, a def-use pair and a variable (which can be an array element), the …

Electrolysis Of Palladium In Heavy Water, Christoph Zaczek

Dissertations and Theses

Following several reports in the past few years about compositional changes on palladium used as a cathode in heavy water electrolysis, the purpose of this research project was to reproduce this results.

Two experiments were performed using two cells connected in series, an experimental cell and a control cell.

Both experiments used platinum anodes, the experimental cell had a palladium cathode and the control cell had a platinum cathode. The electrolyte was D₂O with H₂SO₄. Radiation was monitored during both experiments. Also temperature and voltage were recorded for both experiments, to allow statements about …

Electrolysis Of Titanium In Heavy Water, Radovan Kopecek

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of these studies was to determine if results similar to those of Fleischmann and Pons could be obtained using a titanium cathode instead of palladium in an electrolysis in a heavy water cell. The electrolyte consists of D₂O and H₂SO₄. Two experiments have been performed to examine the features of this electrolysis. As titanium shows the same properties to attract hydrogen, it seemed possible that excess heat could be produced. Radiation was monitored, and the surface of the titanium cathode was examined before and after electrolysis for any changes in the morphology …

The Distribution Of Naturally Occurring Soil Radionuclides And Radon Potential Of Northwest Oregon, Stuart Graham Ashbaugh

Dissertations and Theses

Radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas produced as one of the decay products of soil/rock uranium and thorium, is considered to be a leading cause of pulmonary disease. Gamma spectrometry of 146 samples of soil were used to quantify radon source potential relative to lithology by measuring Bi²¹⁴ activity of the U²³⁸ decay series. Additional soil radio nuclide data (Th²³², Ac²²⁸, K40 and C¹³⁷ ) were used to help identify regional source provenance geochemistry and soil development. Ac²²⁸, Bi²¹⁴ and Th²³² activities in northwest Oregon soils range from five …

Synthesis And Characterization Of A Porphyrin Dyad, Dale A. Braden

Dissertations and Theses

The sun is a bountiful source of energy for our planet. .With the advent of photovoltaic cells, man has begun harnessing the sun's radiant energy, turning it into a form more directly useful: electricity. Commercially available solar cells currently operate at about 13% efficiency, sufficiently high to make them a viable source of electrical energy. It is of great interest, however, to improve their conversion efficiency, and to lower the cost of production so as to make them more economical, and thereby reduce our dependence upon traditional "dirty" sources of energy such as coal and oil. It has been found …

Modeling Of Decay Rate For Molecules At An Island Surface, Ting Xiong

Dissertations and Theses

The decay rates for molecules at rough surfaces are studied via an island surface model, with particular emphasis on the effect due to the distribution of surface roughness. Two extreme cases are studied when the surface islands distribute themselves evenly and when they coalesce to form local clusters at the molecule-substrate interface. The optical properties of the interfacial layer in these two cases are described by the Maxwell-Garnett and the fractal-cluster models, respectively. Among other results, it is found that both enhancement and suppression of the surface-induced decay rates are possible due to the presence of roughness, with more dramatic …

A Hydrologic Analysis Of Government Island, Oregon, Scott Gregory Bittinger

Dissertations and Theses

Government Island, located in the Columbia River approximately 16 km (10 mi) upstream of the confluence with the Willamette River, is a wetland mitigation site prompted by expansion of the southwest quadrant of Portland International Airport. The purpose of the study is to predict water levels in two enclosed lowland areas, Jewit Lake and Southeast Pond, based on levels of the Columbia River, precipitation, and evapotranspiration. Mitigation is intended to convert 1.13 km2 (237 acres) of seasonally flooded wetland to 1.27 km2 (267 acres) of semi-permanently flooded wetland and seasonally flooded wetland. Flooding of the wetland is most likely to …

The Parser Converter Loader: An Implementation Of The Computational Chemistry Output Language (Ccol), Donald Randall Abel

Dissertations and Theses

A necessity of managing scientific data is the ability to maintain experimental legacy information without continually modifying the applications that create and use that information. By facilitating the management of scientific data we hope to give scientists the ability to effectively use additional modeling applications and experimental data. We have demonstrated that an extensible interpreter, using a series of stored directives, allows the loading of data from computational chemistry applications into a generic database. Extending the interpreter to support a new application involves supplying a list of directives for each piece of information to be loaded. This research confirms that …

Psusort: A Parallel External Sort For A Shared Memory Multiprocessor System, Sujata V. Ramamoorthy

Dissertations and Theses

A method to parallelize external sorts on a shared memory multiprocessing system is presented in this thesis. The main goal of the thesis is to develop a sorting package that is scale able and efficient. No prior knowledge of the nature, source or size of the data is assumed for this work. A dynamic load-balancing architecture is used with no static allocation of tasks to processes. The package consists of an interface and a kernel. The interface provides the sort with the following - the sort input, output and temporary work spaces as abstract data types (ADTs), memory available, number …

Monomeric And Polymeric Fluoroalkyl Sulfonyl Fluorides, Sulfonate Salts And Sulfonic Acids For Use As Electrolytes And Coatings, Nicolas Noel Hamel

Dissertations and Theses

Monomeric and polymeric fluoroalkyl sulfonyl fluorides, sulfonate salts and sulfonic acids have qualities desirable for use as electrolytes in alternative energy sources such as fuel cells and solid polymer electrolyte lithium batteries. Since the nature of the fluoroalkyl group affects the properties of these compounds, new monomeric and polymeric fluoroalkyl sulfonyl fluorides, sulfonate salts and sulfonic acids were prepared in this work. Simple compounds prepared in this work were: the fluoroalkyl sulfonyl fluorides, sulfonate salts and sulfonic acid CHF (OCF₂CF2SO₂ F)₂ CF₂(OCF₂CF₂SO₂F) ₂ CH₂(OCF₂CF₂SO3Na) ₂ CF₂(OCF₂CF₂SO3 ) ₂Ca , CF₂(OCF₂CF₂SO3H) ₂ prepared by means of electrochemical fluorination; FC (CF3 ) …

Some Relationships Between Sedimentary Trace Metal Concentrations And Freshwater Phytoplankton And Sedimentary Diatom Species Composition, Allan Hayes Vogel

Dissertations and Theses

Sediments from 21 Oregon lakes were analyzed for seven metals (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Co, Ni, V) in three forms (exchangeable, organic+sulfides, and oxyhydroxides+ oxides+ carbonates) using a sequential fractionation procedure. The summer epilimnetic filterable concentration of an eighth (Mo) was also determined. Sedimentary diatom remains and summer phytoplankton populations of the lakes were correlated with the 22 metal parameters and with conservative water chemistry parameters, estimators of lake productivity, and watershed geology. Both the sedimentary metals and the two populations of primary producers correlated best with the ecoregions of Omernik and Gallant (1986). A number of species possessed correlations …