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Search Space Reduction Techniques For Solution Of Combinatorial Optimization Problems In Power System., Ranadhir Sarkar Jan 2022

Search Space Reduction Techniques For Solution Of Combinatorial Optimization Problems In Power System., Ranadhir Sarkar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Power system is vulnerable to disastrous climate events due to sequential or successive equipment failure. In this dissertation, the problem of identifying the critical k-transmission lines that fail one after another in quick succession, and the distribution system restoration problem using tie-lines/sectionalizing switches formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear programming problem (MINLP) that determines load shed under various k-line removal scenarios are solved. These problems are combinatorial that have huge search space, and solution through enumeration is intractable for large power systems. For reduction of search space, the following mathematical tools are derived, (i) two power flow methods due to k-transmission …

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Optimization-Based Approaches To Low-Coherence Optical Diffraction Tomography, Seth Smith-Dryden Jan 2022

Optimization-Based Approaches To Low-Coherence Optical Diffraction Tomography, Seth Smith-Dryden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Quantitative optical phase imaging techniques, such as optical diffraction tomography (ODT), are useful tools for refractive-index profiling. Many of them, however, rely on the weak-scattering assumptions, thus cannot be applied to multiple-scattering objects, or turbid media. In this thesis, I report several approaches for expanding the efficacy of ODT techniques and adapting them to new applications by use of low-coherence broadband illumination. First, I developed a method for ODT reconstruction using regularized convex optimization with a new phase-based fidelity criterion. The new criterion is necessary because objects with very different refractive-index distributions may produce similar diffracted fields (magnitude and principal-phase) …

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Genomic Analysis Of Pollen Grains For Forensic Applications, Luz Kelley Jan 2022

Genomic Analysis Of Pollen Grains For Forensic Applications, Luz Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

With over 300,000 plant species on the planet and more than 90% of them relying on pollen for reproduction, palynology, the study of pollen grains plays a vital role in many research fields. One of them is forensic palynology, which uses pollen as a proxy to link individuals or objects to a location or instance. It relies on the fact that (1) pollen is an ever-present feature of the environment; (2) different locations have different pollen signatures, allowing for inference related to spatial tracking; (3) plants bloom at different times, allowing for temporal inference; and (4) pollen is exceptionally durable …

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Function Approximation Guarantees For A Shallow Neural Network Trained By Gradient Flow, Russell Gentile Jan 2022

Function Approximation Guarantees For A Shallow Neural Network Trained By Gradient Flow, Russell Gentile

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This work features an original result linking approximation and optimization theory for deep learning. Several examples from recent literature show that, given the same number of learnable parameters, deep neural networks can approximate richer classes of functions, with better accuracy than classical methods. The bulk of approximation theory results though, are only concerned with the infimum error for all possible parameterizations of a given network size. Their proofs often rely on hand-crafted networks, where the weights and biases are carefully selected. Optimization theory indicates that such models would be difficult or impossible to realize with standard gradient-based training methods. The …

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An Examination Of Street-Level Drug Enforcement Tactics And Court Outcomes, Nicholas Paul Jan 2022

An Examination Of Street-Level Drug Enforcement Tactics And Court Outcomes, Nicholas Paul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

While there is a substantial body of placed-based evaluations of drug enforcement strategies, little is known about the nature and effectiveness of the routine tactics used by local police to target individual drug offenders. This study used a mixed-method approach to build on existing research on the efficacy of drug enforcement by documenting the nature and consequences of street-level drug enforcement at the local level. First, a focus group of drug enforcement experts was conducted to identify the tactics used to generate arrests and various types of evidence believed to strengthen drug cases. Next, official data in the form of …

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Union Academy: A Freedmen's Bureau School In Gainesville, Florida, Murray D. Laurie Dec 2021

Union Academy: A Freedmen's Bureau School In Gainesville, Florida, Murray D. Laurie

Florida Historical Quarterly

The Union Academy was one of the most important institutions in Gainesville’s black community for over fifty years. It was the town’s first public high school and from its graduating classes came most of Alachua County’s black teachers and black leaders. The facility which housed the Academy was built during Reconstruction by black carpenters who had learned their skill as slaves. Land for the building had been purchased by the school’s board of trustees. A symbol of self-sufficiency and pride for Gainesville’s black citizens for many decades, the Union Academy also represented the value they placed on education.

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Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society Dec 2021

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

ANGLO-SPANISH CONFRONTATION ON THE GULF COAST DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, edited by William S. Coker and Robert R. Rea, reviewed by J. Barton Starr; HENRY S. SANFORD: DIPLOMACY AND BUSINESS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA, by Joseph A. Fry, reviewed by Edward C. Williamson; ABACO, THE HISTORY OF AN OUT ISLAND AND ITS CAYS, by Steve Dodge, reviewed by Earl R. Hendry; THE POLITICS OF INDIAN REMOVAL, CREEK GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY IN CRISIS, by Michael D. Green, reviewed by Theda Perdue; THE GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH, edited by James X. Corgan, reviewed by Charlotte M. Porter; GREGARIOUS SAINTS, SELF AND …

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Florida History In Periodicals, 1982, Florida Historical Society Dec 2021

Florida History In Periodicals, 1982, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

This selected bibliography includes scholarly articles in the fields of Florida history, archeology, geography, and anthropology published in the state, regional, and national periodicals in 1982. Articles, notes, and documents which have appeared in the Florida Historical Quarterly are not included in this listing since they appear in the annual index of each volume. The present listing also includes articles appearing in journals not published on schedule and which were not included in the list published in the July 1982 issue of the Quarterly.

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Potter Committee Investigation Of The Disputed Election Of 1876, Karen Guenther Dec 2021

Potter Committee Investigation Of The Disputed Election Of 1876, Karen Guenther

Florida Historical Quarterly

On Saturday, March 3, 1877, Chief Justice Morrison B. Waite, in a private ceremony at the White House, swore into office Rutherford Birchard Hayes of Ohio as the nineteenth president of the United States. This event, culminating four months of controversy, resulted from the decision of a special electoral commission and a subsequent agreement known historically as the Compromise of 1877. Nevertheless, many Democrats still refused to concede the legitimacy of the Republican victory. When Congress reconvened shortly after the inauguration, several prominent House Democrats demanded a thorough investigation of the election. Consequently, in May 1878, the House established the …

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Educational Opportunities In Spanish West Florida, 1781-1821, Jack D. L. Holmes Dec 2021

Educational Opportunities In Spanish West Florida, 1781-1821, Jack D. L. Holmes

Florida Historical Quarterly

Governor Vicente Folch y Juan opened his son Stephen’s 1797 letter with eager hands. Due to the Anglo-Spanish war, communications to Pensacola had been delayed, and he was relieved to learn that both his sons were well. To his superior, Captain-General Conde de Santa Clara, at Havana, Governor Folch wrote, “The lack of opportunity which is generally true of these (frontier) places for providing the youth with an adequate education, has induced me to send my sons to London where they may learn English to perfection, such skill being of inestimable value in these provinces.“

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Liberal Arts On The Florida Frontier: The Founding Of Rollins College, 1885-1890, Jack C. Lane Dec 2021

Liberal Arts On The Florida Frontier: The Founding Of Rollins College, 1885-1890, Jack C. Lane

Florida Historical Quarterly

Although unique in its particulars, the founding of Rollins College in 1885 strongly resembled the formation and establishment of liberal arts colleges throughout the nineteenth century. Three forces-educational denominationalism, community boosterism, and real estate entrepreneurism-converged during the century to create a mania of indiscriminate college-building that produced as many as 700 institutions by the beginning of the Civil War. Founded in the waning years of the “ages of colleges,” Rollins fits this nineteenth-century pattern. It was the Congregational Church that established Rollins in the small frontier town of Winter Park, Florida. The local citizens provided most of the funds, and …

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Teachers Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students And Effective Professional Development: A Critical Review Of Research, Irish Farley Dec 2021

Teachers Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students And Effective Professional Development: A Critical Review Of Research, Irish Farley

Journal of English Learner Education

Effective Professional Development (PD) is essential for teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) students. Despite the continuing increase of diversity of students, teachers are underinformed with best practices for teaching and support. Many good teachers may not know how to best support CLD students. In 2018, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that only 44% of surveyed teachers who had at least one CLD student in their classroom received professional development specifically for working with these students. This review of the literature covers two distinct but related topics: why teachers of CLD students need more PD and what …

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Planning For Instruction Using A Language-Based Approach To Content Instruction For Multilingual Learners, Luciana C. De Oliveira, Destini Braxton, Jia Gui Dec 2021

Planning For Instruction Using A Language-Based Approach To Content Instruction For Multilingual Learners, Luciana C. De Oliveira, Destini Braxton, Jia Gui

Journal of English Learner Education

This article briefly describes a language-based approach to content instruction (LACI), an approach to content instruction for multilingual learners in general education classrooms that incorporates six Cs of support for scaffolding. The authors provide examples of classroom instruction by a fifth-grade teacher who used several elements of LACI in her instruction. A planning guide to assist implementation of these elements is proposed and concrete examples of how to plan for classroom instruction for multilingual learners are included.

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William Edwards And The Historic University Of Florida Campus: A Photographic Essay, Stephen Kerber Dec 2021

William Edwards And The Historic University Of Florida Campus: A Photographic Essay, Stephen Kerber

Florida Historical Quarterly

The University of Florida officially dates its birth to the founding of the East Florida Seminary in 1853, but the university has really existed in its present form only since 1905. In that year the Florida legislature passed the Buckman Act (named for state Representative Henry H. Buckman, its main author), which consolidated the colleges, seminaries, and institutes receiving state support.

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Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society Dec 2021

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, by Jerrell H. Shofner, reviewed by Herbert J. Doherty, Jr.; PELTS, PLUMES, AND HIDES: WHITE TRADERS AMONG THE SEMINOLE INDIANS, 1870-1930, by Harry A. Kersey, Jr., reviewed by James O. Buswell; ALVAR NUNEZ CABEZA DE VACA: THE FORGOTTEN CHRONICLER, by José B. Fernández, reviewed by Jack D. L. Holmes; FLORIDA’S CRISIS IN PUBLIC EDUCATION: CHANGING PATTERNS OF LEADERSHIP, by Arthur O. White, reviewed by Wayne J. Urban; THE MATERIAL CULTURE OF KEY MARCO, FLORIDA, by Marion Spjut Gilliland, reviewed by Jerald T. Milanich; THE INVASION OF AMERICA: INDIANS, COLONIALISM, AND THE CANT OF CONQUEST, by Francis …

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Distributed And Optimal State Estimation For Heterogeneous Dynamic Systems Operating Within A Strongly Connected Network, Matthew Howard Dec 2021

Distributed And Optimal State Estimation For Heterogeneous Dynamic Systems Operating Within A Strongly Connected Network, Matthew Howard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This dissertation is aimed at developing optimal and distributed state estimation algorithms for a team of cooperating nodes with the goal of improving accuracy through local sharing of relevant information. The nodes are assumed to be individually equipped with heterogeneous sensors for measuring a common target which can be dynamic and time-varying. Additionally, the nodes are assumed to be connected through a dynamically changing communication network modeled as a sequence of strongly connected digraphs allowing for local communication and distributed interactions. Using the data sharing afforded by the communication network, a weighted average state estimate consensus can be found across …

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Quantifiability: Concurrent Correctness From First Principles, Victor Cook Dec 2021

Quantifiability: Concurrent Correctness From First Principles, Victor Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Architectural imperatives due to the slowing of Moore's Law, the broad acceptance of relaxed semantics and the O(n!) worst case verification complexity of sequential histories motivate a new approach to concurrent correctness. Desiderata for a new correctness condition are that it be independent of sequential histories, compositional over objects, flexible as to timing, modular as to semantics and free of inherent locking or waiting. This dissertation proposes Quantifiability, a novel correctness condition based on intuitive first principles. Quantifiablity is formally defined with its system model. Useful properties of quantifiability such as compositionality, measurablility and observational refinement are demonstrated. Quantifiability models …

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Human Behavior In Domestic Environments: Prediction And Applications, Sharare Zehtabian Dec 2021

Human Behavior In Domestic Environments: Prediction And Applications, Sharare Zehtabian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

A longstanding goal of human behavior science is to model and predict how humans interact with each other or with other systems. Such models are beneficial and have many applications, including designing and implementing assistive technologies, improving users' experiences and quality of life and making better decisions to create public policies. Behavior is highly complex due to uncertainties and a lack of scientific tools to measure it. Hence prediction of human behavior cannot be 100% accurate. However, prediction is also not hopeless because the biological needs, as well as cultural conventions (for instance, regarding meal times) set the general patterns …

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Efficient Data Structures For Text Processing Applications, Paniz Abedin Dec 2021

Efficient Data Structures For Text Processing Applications, Paniz Abedin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This thesis is devoted to designing and analyzing efficient text indexing data structures and associated algorithms for processing text data. The general problem is to preprocess a given text or a collection of texts into a space-efficient index to quickly answer various queries on this data. Basic queries such as counting/reporting a given pattern's occurrences as substrings of the original text are useful in modeling critical bioinformatics applications. This line of research has witnessed many breakthroughs, such as the suffix trees, suffix arrays, FM-index, etc. In this work, we revisit the following problems: 1. The Heaviest Induced Ancestors problem 2. …

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Framework Of Big Data Analytics In Real Time For Healthcare Enterprise Performance Measurements, Ahmed Mohamed Dec 2021

Framework Of Big Data Analytics In Real Time For Healthcare Enterprise Performance Measurements, Ahmed Mohamed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Healthcare organizations (HCOs) currently have many information records about their patients. Yet, they cannot make proper, faster, and more thoughtful conclusions in many cases with their information. Much of the information is structured data such as medical records, historical data, and non-clinical information. This data is stored in a central repository called the Data Warehouse (DW). DW provides querying and reporting to different groups within the healthcare organization to support their future strategic initiatives. The generated reports create metrics to measure the organization's performance for post-action plans, not for real-time decisions. Additionally, healthcare organizations seek to benefit from the semi-structured …

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Understanding The Behavior Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Using Data Analytics, Mohammad Reza Davahli Dec 2021

Understanding The Behavior Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Using Data Analytics, Mohammad Reza Davahli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In December 2019, China announced the breakout of a new virus identified as coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), which soon grew exponentially and became a global pandemic. Despite strict actions to mitigate the spread of the virus in various countries, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant loss of human life in 2020 and 2021. To better understand the pandemic, this doctoral research incorporated data analytics to evaluate the behavior and impacts of the virus. The doctoral research contributed to the scientific body of the knowledge in different ways including (1) presenting a systematic literature review of current research and topics about …

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Structural Dynamics And Encapsulation Properties Of Polyelectrolyte Complex Micelles, Sachit Shah Dec 2021

Structural Dynamics And Encapsulation Properties Of Polyelectrolyte Complex Micelles, Sachit Shah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Charged therapeutics such as nucleic acids and proteins can treat a vast range of human diseases that are traditionally undruggable. Their broadness in treating disease is due to their ability to influence cellular function. However, their high charge density and physiological barriers such as enzymatic degradation, hinder the deliverability of these molecules to the sites of disease. Polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) micelles are core-corona nanostructures that can encapsulate charged molecules and offer a platform for delivery. PECs form the core, when two oppositely charged polyelectrolytes are mixed in an aqueous solution, and the micelle corona is a neutral hydrophilic polymer that …

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A Framework For The Design And Characterization Of Advanced Gaskets, Sannmit Shinde Dec 2021

A Framework For The Design And Characterization Of Advanced Gaskets, Sannmit Shinde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Most industrial manufacturing or processing plants use bolted connections between pipes that transfer media from one location to another. Gaskets are often used to seal these systems as they offer elevated levels of leak mitigation; however, despite their nearly universal usage, the current understanding of gasket mechanics at the meso-scale is still limited. Contemporary gaskets feature viscoelastic materials, fillers, textures, and are fabricated at various thicknesses. They are used in a wide range of thermal, mechanical, chemical, and temporal conditions. The current work characterizes polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) gaskets made with several different filler materials and having vastly different geometries. The chemically …

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On Mode Transition Phenomenon And Operating Conditions In Rotating Detonation Rocket Engines, Taha Rezzag-Lebza Dec 2021

On Mode Transition Phenomenon And Operating Conditions In Rotating Detonation Rocket Engines, Taha Rezzag-Lebza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The work presented herein consist of first studying the instantaneous properties of the detonation waves in a rotating detonation rocket engine by tracking each individual wave and recording its position, velocity, and peak intensity as it travels around the annulus. Results for a steady portion of a test performed on a rotating detonation rocket engine show that the wave properties exhibit oscillatory behavior. Results obtained from the rotating detonation rocket engine show that the properties are highly dependent on the azimuthal position. In an attempt to understanding the cause of such a behavior, similar investigations were performed on an air-breathing …

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Studying Users Interactions And Behavior In Social Media Using Natural Language Processing, Sultan Alshamrani Dec 2021

Studying Users Interactions And Behavior In Social Media Using Natural Language Processing, Sultan Alshamrani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Social media platforms have been growing at a rapid pace, attracting users' engagement with the online content due to their convenience facilitated by many useful features. Such platforms provide users with interactive options such as likes, dislikes as well as a way of expressing their opinions in the form of text (i.e., comments). As more people engage in different social media platforms, such platforms will increase in both size and importance. This growth in social media data is becoming a vital new area for scholars and researchers to explore this new form of communication. The huge data from social media …

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Machine Learning Techniques For Topic Detection And Authorship Attribution In Textual Data, Fereshteh Jafariakinabad Dec 2021

Machine Learning Techniques For Topic Detection And Authorship Attribution In Textual Data, Fereshteh Jafariakinabad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The unprecedented expansion of user-generated content in recent years demands more attempts of information filtering in order to extract high-quality information from the huge amount of available data. In this dissertation, we begin with a focus on topic detection from microblog streams, which is the first step toward monitoring and summarizing social data. Then we shift our focus to the authorship attribution task, which is a sub-area of computational stylometry. It is worth mentioning that determining the style of a document is orthogonal to determining its topic, since the document features which capture the style are mainly independent of its …

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Effect Of Various Speed Management Strategies On Bicycle Crashes For Urban Roads In Central Florida, Jorge Ugan Dec 2021

Effect Of Various Speed Management Strategies On Bicycle Crashes For Urban Roads In Central Florida, Jorge Ugan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In recent years, cycling has become an increasingly popular transportation mode around the world. In contrast to other popular modes of transportation, cycling is more economic and energy efficient. While many studies have been conducted for the bicycle safety analysis, most of them were limited in terms of bicycle exposure data and on-street data. This study tries to improve the current safety performance functions for bicycle crashes at urban corridors by utilizing crowdsource data from STRAVA and on-street speed management strategies data. Speed management strategies are any roadway alterations that causes a change in motorists' driving behavior. In Florida, these …

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Spectral Dependence Of Deep Subwavelength Metallic Apertures In The Mid-Wave Infrared, Heath Gemar Dec 2021

Spectral Dependence Of Deep Subwavelength Metallic Apertures In The Mid-Wave Infrared, Heath Gemar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

For two decades, extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) has amplified exploration into subwavelength systems. Researchers have previously suggested exploiting the spectrally selective electromagnetic field confinement of subwavelength cavities for multispectral detectors. Utilizing the finite-difference frequency domain (FDFD) method, we examine electromagnetic field confinement in both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional scenarios from 2.5 to 6 microns (i.e., mid-wave infrared or MWIR). We explore the trade space of deep subwavelength cavities and its impact on resonant enhancement of the electromagnetic field. The studies provide fundamental understanding of the coupling mechanisms allowing for prediction of resonant spectral behavior based on cavity geometry and material properties. …

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Using Iphone Significant Location Data To Improve Air Pollution Exposure Estimation, Elizabeth Eastman Dec 2021

Using Iphone Significant Location Data To Improve Air Pollution Exposure Estimation, Elizabeth Eastman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

An accurate estimation of human exposure to ambient air pollution is crucial for air pollution health studies. Time-activity patterns may introduce substantial uncertainties in exposure estimation. As smartphones are becoming increasingly popular and their ownership is becoming ubiquitous in the US. Virtually all smartphones can collect location data, and such data is continuously somewhere. Therefore, it is clear that such stored location data has the potential to be used for characterizing an individual's time-activity patterns for air pollution health studies. However, studies on the accuracy and feasibility of using a smartphone's location data in air pollution exposure estimation are still …

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Utilizing High Throughput Computing Techniques For The Predictions Of Spectroscopic Properties Of Astrophysically Relevant Molecules, Brian Ferrari Dec 2021

Utilizing High Throughput Computing Techniques For The Predictions Of Spectroscopic Properties Of Astrophysically Relevant Molecules, Brian Ferrari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Here, we utilize Quantum Chemistry (QC) approaches to predict the structures, vibrational frequencies, infrared intensities and Raman activities of unusual molecular species using the General Atomic and Molecular Structure System (GAMESS(US)) package. A Python-based software, AutoGAMESS, was developed to automate the workflow and take advantage of High Throughput Computing (HTC) techniques enabling the automated generation of spectroscopic data from hundreds of calculations. This approach was utilized to determine these properties for a series of carbon oxides (C2On; n = 3 to 4), anticipated to be produced during the radiation of pure carbon dioxide ices, under conditions relevant to the interstellar …

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