Other Physics Commons^™

Rental Property Energy Efficiency In San Luis Obispo, Zachary Earl Shockley

Physics

In the modern era, many people choose to rent homes instead of purchasing a home. College towns have an even more disproportionate number of renters when compared to other cities. The majority of rental properties are much less energy efficient than their owner-occupied counterparts. This project analyzes the energy efficiency issues of rental properties in San Luis Obispo and examines potential ways to remedy these issues. In order to analyze these issues, the guiding principles of building science are first discussed, followed by case studies of rental properties in San Luis Obispo. These case studies examine multiple rental properties and ...

Physical Models Of The Toroidal Dipole, Armian Hanelli, Amanuel Eshete, Jorge Del Carpio, Walerian Majewski

Exigence

We have investigated two models of the third elementary electromagnetic dipole, known as the toroidal dipole. Its magnetic realization is a circumferentially magnetized ring constructed of neodymium. The electric model of the dipole is a toroidal coil connected to a DC voltage. The electric and magnetic toroids produce only an inner magnetic field, inside the torus, and interact only on contact with the electric current density or when immersed in a time-dependent electric field. We studied the characteristics of a permanent-magnet toroid, and observed the influence of electric and magnetic fields on it. A static toroidal dipole moment of this ...

Optimization Of Design Procedures For Delta Relaxation Enhanced Magnetic Resonance, Daniel J. Martire

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Delta relaxation enhanced magnetic resonance (dreMR) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method that produces contrast based on longitudinal relaxation dispersion. Through modulation of the magnetic field using an actively-shielded, field-cycling insert coil, this technique increases probe specificity and suppresses remaining signal. However, significant improvements are needed. This thesis addresses two advancements in dreMR with a focus on optimizing design procedures. A general procedure was developed to design split power solenoid magnets. The procedure was then applied to the design of a switched-field exposure system. A coil was constructed and the method was validated. This procedure can be used for ...

Benefit Of Intensity Modulated Bolus Electron Conformal Therapy For Post Mastectomy Chest Wall Irradiation, John Doiron

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: The delivery of post-mastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) with bolus electron conformal therapy (BECT) for patients with left-sided breast cancer can reduce second cancer complication probability (SCCP) compared to modern rotational intensity modulated x-ray (IMXT) techniques such as volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) or Tomotherapy. However, rotational IMXT yields superior levels of dose homogeneity compared to BECT. This study investigates the use of intensity modulated (IM) BECT (IM-BECT) to improve dose homogeneity in the chest wall (CW) region of the PMRT planning target volume (PTV) abutted to parallel opposed IMXT tangents for the remaining PTV for a clinically-representative set of patients ...

Call For Abstracts - Resrb 2018, June 18-20, Brussels, Belgium, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

No abstract provided.

Underwater Acoustic Signal Analysis Toolkit, Kirk Bienvenu Jr

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This project started early in the summer of 2016 when it became evident there was a need for an effective and efficient signal analysis toolkit for the Littoral Acoustic Demonstration Center Gulf Ecological Monitoring and Modeling (LADC-GEMM) Research Consortium. LADC-GEMM collected underwater acoustic data in the northern Gulf of Mexico during the summer of 2015 using Environmental Acoustic Recording Systems (EARS) buoys. Much of the visualization of data was handled through short scripts and executed through terminal commands, each time requiring the data to be loaded into memory and parameters to be fed through arguments. The vision was to develop ...

System Optimization And Iterative Image Reconstruction In Photoacoustic Computed Tomography For Breast Imaging, Yang Lou

Engineering and Applied Science Theses & Dissertations

Photoacoustic computed tomography(PACT), also known as optoacoustic tomography (OAT), is an emerging imaging technique that has developed rapidly in recent years. The combination of the high optical contrast and the high acoustic resolution of this hybrid imaging technique makes it a promising candidate for human breast imaging, where conventional imaging techniques including X-ray mammography, B-mode ultrasound, and MRI suffer from low contrast, low specificity for certain breast types, and additional risks related to ionizing radiation. Though significant works have been done to push the frontier of PACT breast imaging, it is still challenging to successfully build a PACT breast ...

System Characterizations And Optimized Reconstruction Methods For Novel X-Ray Imaging, Huifeng Guan

Engineering and Applied Science Theses & Dissertations

In the past decade there have been many new emerging X-ray based imaging technologies developed for different diagnostic purposes or imaging tasks. However, there exist one or more specific problems that prevent them from being effectively or efficiently employed. In this dissertation, four different novel X-ray based imaging technologies are discussed, including propagation-based phase-contrast (PB-XPC) tomosynthesis, differential X-ray phase-contrast tomography (D-XPCT), projection-based dual-energy computed radiography (DECR), and tetrahedron beam computed tomography (TBCT). System characteristics are analyzed or optimized reconstruction methods are proposed for these imaging modalities. In the first part, we investigated the unique properties of propagation-based phase-contrast imaging technique ...

Energy From Active Galactic Nuclei And The Effects On Host Spiral Galaxies, Amanda Schilling

Theses and Dissertations

I have investigated the energy output of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in order to understand how these objects evolve and the impact they may have on host galaxies. First, I looked at a sample of 96 AGN at redshifts $z \sim 2, 3,$ and $4$ which have imaging and thus luminosity measurements in the $griz$ and $JHK$ observed wavebands. For these galaxies, I have co-epochal data across those bands which accounted for variability in AGN luminosity. I used the luminosity measurements in the five bands to construct spectral energy distributions (SED) in the emitted optical-UV bands for each AGN. I ...

Speckle Effects In Target-In-The-Loop Laser Beam Projection Systems, Mikhail Vorontsov

Electro-Optics and Photonics Faculty Publications

In target-in-the-loop laser beam projection scenarios typical of remote sensing, directed energy, and adaptive optics applications, a transmitted laser beam propagates through an optically inhomogeneous medium toward a target, scatters off the target’s rough surface, and returns back to the transceiver plane. Coherent beam scattering off the randomly rough surface results in strong speckle modulation in the transceiver plane. This speckle modulation has been a long-standing challenge that limits performance of remote sensing, active imaging, and adaptive optics techniques. Using physics-based models of laser beam scattering off a randomly rough surface, we show that received speckle-field spatial and temporal ...

Weak-Value Amplification And Optimal Parameter Estimation In The Presence Of Correlated Noise, Josiah Sinclair, Matin Hallaji, Aephraim M. Steinberg, Jeff Tollaksen, Andrew N. Jordan

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We analytically and numerically investigate the performance of weak-value amplification (WVA) and related parameter estimation methods in the presence of temporally correlated noise. WVA is a special instance of a general measurement strategy that involves sorting data into separate subsets based on the outcome of a second “partitioning” measurement. Using a simplified correlated noise model that can be analyzed exactly together with optimal statistical estimators, we compare WVA to a conventional measurement method. We find that WVA indeed yields a much lower variance of the parameter of interest than the conventional technique does, optimized in the absence of any partitioning ...

Analysis Of The Joint Impact Of Atmospheric Turbulence And Refractivity On Laser Beam Propagation, Victor A. Kulikov, Mikhail Vorontsov

Electro-Optics and Photonics Faculty Publications

A laser beam propagation model that accounts for the joint effect of atmospheric turbulence and refractivity is introduced and evaluated through numerical simulations. In the numerical analysis of laser beam propagation, refractive index inhomogeneities along the atmospheric propagation path were represented by a combination of the turbulence-induced random fluctuations described in the framework of classical Kolmogorov turbulence theory and large-scale refractive index variations caused by the presence of an inverse temperature layer. The results demonstrate that an inverse temperature layer located in the vicinity of a laser beam’s propagation path may strongly impact the laser beam statistical characteristics including ...

Proposed Method For Measuring The Let Of Radiotherapeutic Particle Beams, Stephen D. Bello

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

The Bragg peak geometry of the depth dose distributions for hadrons allows for precise and effective dose delivery to tumors while sparing neighboring healthy tissue. Further, compared against other forms of radiotherapeutic treatments, such as electron beam therapy (EBT) or photons (x and \(\gamma\)-rays), hadrons create denser ionization events along the particle track, which induces irreparable damage to DNA, and thus are more effective at inactivating cancerous cells. The measurement of radiation's ability to inactivate cellular reproduction is the relative biological effectiveness (RBE). A quality related to the RBE that is a measurable physical property is the linear ...

Geothermal Flux And Phreatic Speleogenesis In Gypsum, Halite, And Quartzite Rocks, Giovanni Badino

International Journal of Speleology

The first layers of rock underground are in thermal contact with the external atmosphere mainly through infiltrating meteoric water. This relatively cool zone absorbs rising geothermal energy, which heats the water. If the aquifer consists of gypsum, halite or quartzite, the water at those depths is usually salt-saturated, so the increase in temperature renders the water aggressive again. This in turn leads to rock dissolution and formation of phreatic conduits. This way, the geothermal flow creates caves that do not necessarily reach the surface. This paper analyzes the speed of the excavation, which, in different types of rocks, depends only ...

Superconductivity At Т≈200 K In Bismuth Cuprates Synthesized Using Solar Energy, J. Chigvinadze, Juana Acrivos, S. Ashimov, D. Gulamova, G. Donadze

Faculty Publications, Chemistry

When investigating low-frequency (0.1 Hz) oscillations of multiphase high-temperature cuprate superconductors (HTCS) Bi1,7Pb0,3Sr2Ca(n-1)CunOy (n=2-30), a wide attenuation peak (ΔT~100 К) with a maximum at Т≈200 К was detected. This peak was particularly pronounced in field cooling (FC) experiments, i.e. after abrupt cooling of the sample in the external magnetic field at the temperature Т<Тс with subsequent slow warming up to room temperature with invariance of the applied field. The attenuation peak height depended on the preliminaryorientation (before cooling) of the samples θ in the measured permanent magnetic field Н. On the one hand, it is well known that, after the FC procedure and subsequent slow warming up, at the temperatures close to the critical temperature Тс, the attenuation peak associated with “melting” of the Abrikosov frozen vortex structure and its disappearance at Т >Тс is detected in monophase samples. At the same time, in most multiphase bismuth HTCS samples, synthesized using solar energy and superfast quenching of the melt, the attenuation peak with the maximum at Т≈200 К was ...

Superconductivity At Т≈200 K In Bismuth Cuprates Synthesized Using Solar Energy, J. G. Chigvinadze, Juana Vivó Acrivos, S. M. Ashimov, D. D. Gulamova, G. J. Donadze

Juana Vivó Acrivos

Calibration Of Temperature Sensors In Preparation For The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse, Erick Agrimson, Kaye Smith, Ana Taylor, Vina Onyango-Robshaw, Rachel Lang, Alynie Xiong, Peace Sinyigaya, Grace Maki, Rachel Dubose, Brittany Craig, James Flaten, Gordon Mcintosh

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

In preparation for the 2017 total solar eclipse, St. Catherine University developed a calibration protocol for the temperature sensors flown during thermal wake boom experiments. The calibration method used a standard two-point technique that corrected each individual sensor for both slope and offset errors using a high quality NIST certified thermocouple as the temperature standard. Our method is not absolute but corrects each sensor relative to the NIST standard so that we feel some confidence that individual sensor variations are mitigated. In preparation for the eclipse, calibration curves were generated for over 200 individual digital and thermistor temperature sensors.

Controlled Heading Automation Device, Robert Coulson

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

One of the most significant limitations of weather balloon-based data collection is that instruments and payloads cannot depend on particular orientations or predictable rotation. Several investigators have used payload heading control devices to overcome this limitation in order to collect directional data and record motion controlled video footage. The work described in this presentation builds on the Controlled Heading Automation Device (CHAD) developed by Kruger et al. (2016) and was carried out at DePaul University in summer 2017 as an undergraduate research project. Our goal was to record stable video of the shadow of the moon on Earth’s surface ...

Modification Of The G-Phonon Mode Of Graphene By Nitrogen Doping, Pavel V. Lukashev, Liuyan Zhao, Tula R. Paudel, Theanne Schiros, Noah Hurley, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Aron Pinczuk, Abhay Pasupathy, Rui He

Pavel Lukashev

The effect of nitrogen doping on the phonon spectra of graphene is analyzed. In particular, we employ first-principles calculations and scanning Raman analysis to investigate the dependence of phonon frequencies in graphene on the concentration of nitrogen dopants. We demonstrate that the G phonon frequency shows oscillatory behavior as a function of nitrogen concentration. We analyze different mechanisms which could potentially be responsible for this behavior, such as Friedel charge oscillations around the localized nitrogen impurity atom, the bond length change between nitrogen impurity and its nearest neighbor carbon atoms, and the long-range interactions of the nitrogen point defects. We ...

Modification Of The G-Phonon Mode Of Graphene By Nitrogen Doping, Pavel V. Lukashev, Liuyan Zhao, Tula R. Paudel, Theanne Schiros, Noah Hurley, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Aron Pinczuk, Abhay Pasupathy, Rui He

Rui He

The effect of nitrogen doping on the phonon spectra of graphene is analyzed. In particular, we employ first-principles calculations and scanning Raman analysis to investigate the dependence of phonon frequencies in graphene on the concentration of nitrogen dopants. We demonstrate that the G phonon frequency shows oscillatory behavior as a function of nitrogen concentration. We analyze different mechanisms which could potentially be responsible for this behavior, such as Friedel charge oscillations around the localized nitrogen impurity atom, the bond length change between nitrogen impurity and its nearest neighbor carbon atoms, and the long-range interactions of the nitrogen point defects. We ...