Digital Commons Network^™

Aspects Of String Compactification, Guoqin Ren

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses some interesting problems in string compactification relevant to phenomenology, especially cosmological models derived from string theory Most attention is drawn to stabilizing the moduli and discussing the cosmology solutions given the effective potential obtained from string theory. We first discuss compactification of type IIB string theory in the presence of flux. With the moduli stabilized, we obtain the effective potential in the large volume limit. We then focus on getting the vacua of the potential and solving the cosmology equations. Finally we compare the solutions with observations in cosmology.

On Decompositions And Connes's Embedding Problem Of Finite Von Neumann Algebras, Jinsong Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

A longstanding open question of Connes asks whether every finite von Neumann algebra embeds into an ultraproduct of finite-dimensional matrix algebras. As of yet, algebras verified to satisfy Connes's embedding property belong to just a few special classes (e.g. amenable algebras and free group factors). In this dissertation we establish Connes's embedding property for von Neumann algebras satisfying Popa's co-amenability condition. Some decomposition properties of finite von Neumann algebras are also investigated.

Chapter 1 reviews von Neumann algebras, completely bounded mappings, conditional expectations, tensor products, crossed products, direct integrals, and Jones basic construction.

Chapter 2 introduces new decompositions of finite …

A Computational Fluid Dynamics Study Of Two-Phase Flows In The Presence Of Surfactants, Yuanyuan Cui

Doctoral Dissertations

Drop formation in co-flowing fluids and drops rising in a tube are important in applications such as microencapsulation and enhanced oil recovery. A hybrid volume-of-fluid method with a front-tracking scheme is developed to study two-phase flows in the presence of surfactants at finite Reynolds numbers. Both fluids can be Newtonian or shear-thinning, and surfactants are soluble in the adsorption-desorption limit. A drop in the co-flowing geometry typically breaks up at the primary neck. The drop breaks faster with smaller volumes as the outer flow rate increases or the drop viscosity decreases. When surfactants are present, they accumulate in the neck …

Artifact-Based Reflective Interviews For Identifying Pragmatic Epistemological Resources, Christopher Walden Shubert

Doctoral Dissertations

Physics Education Research studies the science of teaching and learning physics. The process of student learning is complex, and the factors that affect it are numerous. Describing students' understanding of physics knowledge and reasoning is the basis for much productive research; however, such research fails to account for certain types of student learning difficulties. In this dissertation, I explore one source of student difficulty: personal epistemology, students' ideas about knowledge and knowing.

Epistemology traditionally answers three questions: What is knowledge? How is knowledge created? And, how do we know what we know? An individual's responses to these questions can affect …

University Of New Hampshire Undergraduate Course Catalog, 2011-2012, University Of New Hampshire

Undergraduate Catalog

No abstract provided.

First And Second Majors In Baccalaureate Programs (Spring Semester Counts) Durham And Manchester Degree Candidates Ten Years, 2002-2011, University Of New Hampshire. Institutional Research And Assessment

UNH Factbooks

University of New Hampshire factbook data from the 2010-2011 academic year

Increased Nitric Oxide And Attenuated Diastolic Blood Pressure Variability In African Americans With Mildly Impaired Renal Function, Keith M. Diaz, Deborah L. Feairheller, Kathleen M. Sturgeon, Praveen Veerabhadrappa, Sheara T. Williamson, Deborah L. Crabbe, Michael D. Brown

Faculty Publications

We investigated the relationship between renal function, blood pressure variability (BPV), and nitric oxide (NO) in a group of African Americans with normal or mildly impaired renal function. 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was performed, NO measured, and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) calculated in 38 African Americans. Participants were categorized as having normal (GFR > 90 mL/min per 1.73 m2) or mildly impaired (GFR 60–89 mL/min per 1.73 m2) renal function. Diastolic BPV was significantly lower in the mildly impaired renal function group. Regression analyses revealed a significant positive association between GFR and diastolic BPV for the entire study group. Plasma …

Graduate Degree Completions, 2001-2010, University Of New Hampshire. Institutional Research And Assessment

UNH Factbooks

University of New Hampshire factbook data from the 2010-2011 academic year

Development Of A Structural Parameter Estimation Program For Finite Element Model Updating, John A. Welch

Master's Theses and Capstones

The condition of America's infrastructure is highlighted by major collapses and overcrowded roadways remind us that our infrastructure is aging and in need of effective maintenance. The American Society of Civil Engineers report card for 2009 graded the nation's bridges as a C. In this period of renovation, rebuilding and limited funding, it is important to use the latest technologies to help make America's roadways safe and establish efficient management protocols. This research develops a program for the purpose of pairing structural health monitoring systems with the power of structural modeling, for the use of model updating and parameter estimation, …

On The Downstream Evolution Of The Mean Momentum Field In Turbulent Shear Wake Flows, Marc R. Bamberger

Master's Theses and Capstones

The evolution of shear wake flow formed from the interaction of two turbulent boundary layers was investigated. Primary interest was given to the post-separation region, very close to the trailing edge of the splitter plate. Two velocity ratios and two trailing edge geometries were explored. Data were acquired using four-element hotwire traverses for multiple downstream locations. With these data sets, a comparison to DNS data, the mean streamwise velocity and its wall normal gradients, Reynolds stress and its gradient, velocity intensities, the mean momentum balance were analyzed. A primary finding is that, post-separation, the inertial terms in the mean momentum …

Investigation Of Variables For Wireless Capacitive Strain Sensing On A Cnc Mill, Justin Patrick Bray

Master's Theses and Capstones

As demand in the manufacturing sector increases, so does the need for greater process throughput and reduced component variability. These two objectives can be achieved by a process known as 'smart machining'. Smart machining utilizes sensors inside the machining environment to relay information to the machine controller. Most sensor systems adversely affect the machine dynamics, by reducing the machining envelope or reducing the machine's stiffness, or require physical connections to conditioning electronics. In this research, variables regarding a resonantly coupled wireless capacitive strain sensor were investigated. A parallel plate capacitive sensor prototype system yielded a strain sensitivity five times greater …

Digital Image Correlation As A Tool For Bridge Load Rating And Long-Term Evaluation, Jason Thomas Peddle

Master's Theses and Capstones

Over 600,000 bridges are currently in service in the United States; one in three is considered either functionally obsolete or structurally deficient. The Federal Highway Administration defines structurally deficient bridge as one with a condition rating less than four on a scale from zero to nine. If a bridge is considered structurally deficient a load rating is determined. A load rating factor indicates the quantity of design live load that can be safely applied to the bridge. Rating factors are often the result of visual inspections and an analytical protocol that accounts for the effects that dead and live loads …

Mathematical Analysis Of Blood Flow Model Through Channels With Flexible Walls, Lisa A. Bozzuto

Master's Theses and Capstones

A simplified mathematical model of blood flow through flexible arteries is developed and analyzed. The resulting system of non-linear, non-homogeneous PDE's is analyzed numerically using the Richtmyer Lax-Wendroff method. Numerical and theoretical results show excellent agreement suggesting that in physiologically relevant situations shocks only develop outside the domain of interest. These results suggest that when the model assumptions are satisfied the model provides sufficient regularity to yield a physically reasonable representation of flow through a flexible artery. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for this model.

Nonlinear Evaluation Of Stock Assessment And Marine Ecosystem Models, Laura Storch

Master's Theses and Capstones

In fisheries management, single-species stock assessment models use fisheries-dependent catch and landings data along with fishery-independent estimates of relative or absolute abundance to make estimates of species biomass for a given area. This output is used by the Atlantis marine ecosystem model as input. Atlantis uses an array of physical, biological, and anthropogenic factors to predict biomass for individual species or functional groups of species. Nonlinear analysis was used to assess the output for both the stock assessment, and Atlantis models for the marine ecosystem off the California coast. The number of time series displaying nonlinear characteristics decreases from raw …

Design And Development Of A Debris Flow Tracking "Smart Rock", Matthew J. Harding

Master's Theses and Capstones

This thesis covers the design and development of a Smart Rock sensor package to be used in U.S. Geological Survey research of debris flow phenomena. This instrumented Rock, containing inertial sensors and pressure sensors, provides information about the movement of the flow as well as the pressures seen within the flow. The goal of the sensor package is to use this information to track the position of a particle in the flow with an accuracy of 1 m over the course of 10 s..

It is found that using an ad hoc filtering method provides the required level of accuracy. …

Accelerometer Calibration For Nasa's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Spacecraft, Benjamin M. Jenkins

Master's Theses and Capstones

This thesis presents several methods for the on-board and/or ground-based calibration of accelerometers for the spacecraft (s/c) of the NASA Magnetospheric Multi-Scale (MMS) Mission during mission operation. A lumped bias is estimated to correct for the total effect of the MMS accelerometer sensor bias, orthogonal misalignment and the shift in the s/c's center of mass.

Various estimation techniques are evaluated and compared, including both dynamically driven real-time filters/observers and post processing batch algorithms. Both methods are shown to accurately determine lumped bias, so long as the s/c inertia tensor is well known. If, however, there is any uncertainty in the …

A Two-Dimensional Hexagonal Network Model Of Alveolar Mechanics, Danielle Nangle

Master's Theses and Capstones

Pulmonary micromechanics (at the scale of alveoli) involves a delicate balance among tissue material properties, geometry, surface tension, pressure and stress distribution. To date, there is not a consensus among alveolar mechanics researchers about how these factors interact, in part because alveoli are so difficult to image and study in vivo. Here, we propose a basic mathematical model of a two-dimensional hexagonal network of mechanically coupled alveoli. We investigate equilibrium configurations of both dry and wet, internally pressurized elastic networks. Specifically, we compute pressure-area curves to quantify the differences among networks with different spring constants, internal pressures, network size and …

On The Ability Of Indentation To Capture The Anisotropic Elastic Properties Of The Pyrolytic Carbon, Nikolay Timoshchuk

Master's Theses and Capstones

We used micro- and nanoindentation, macroscopic strain gage methods and FE studies to correlate the indentation modulus and the macroscopic in- and out-of-plane Young's moduli of transversely isotropic pyrolytic carbon. The out-of-plane indentation modulus of bulk PyroC was comparable with predicted values and more than a factor of two higher than the out-of-plane Young's modulus. The in-plane indentation modulus was significantly lower than predicted values which we attribute to nanobuckling of graphite-like planes. Polarized light microscopy studies on carbon-carbon composite samples infiltrated at 10, 20, 30 kPa demonstrated that the increase in pressure leads to lower texture of the PyroC …

Climate Change Impact Reliability Of Large Electric Power Transformers In The Northeast United States, Krithikha Chinnaswamy

Master's Theses and Capstones

Global climate model simulations, when scaled to the Northeast U.S. region, indicate that New England will by 2100 experience many more days each summer of daily maximum temperatures in excess of 90°F. Given the strong correlation between summer heat waves and electric power demand, the stresses placed on the components of the electric grid by prolonged, elevated power demand is of obvious concern.

In this thesis a standard thermal model for large transformers is coupled with a temperature-dependent electric power demand model to predict the frequency of transformer thermal overload events during the months of June, July, and August through …

A Methodology For Evaluating The Implications Of Climate Change On The Design And Performance Of Flexible Pavements, William C. Meagher Iii.

Master's Theses and Capstones

A methodology is presented by which the implications of climate change on pavement deterioration can be assessed. This work focuses on the preparation and use of climate model datasets as inputs into the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide model to simulate pavement performance and deterioration over time. The methodology is illustrated using climate model temperature data from three North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program scenarios at four sites across New England for alligator cracking and asphalt concrete rutting. The change in alligator cracking was shown to be negligible, while the difference in rutting was up to 31% between future and …

Real-Time Sampling-Based Motion Planning With Dynamic Obstacles, Kevin Rose

Master's Theses and Capstones

Autonomous robots are increasingly becoming incorporated in everyday human activities, and this trend does not show any signs of slowing down. One task that autonomous robots will need to reliably perform among humans and other dynamic objects is motion planning. That is, to reliably navigate a robot to a desired pose as quickly as possible while minimizing the probability of colliding with other objects. This involves not only planning around the predicted future trajectories of dynamic obstacles, but doing so in a real-time manner so that the robot can remain reactive to its surroundings. Current methods do not directly address …

Unconstrained Noninvasive Vital Signs Monitoring For Detection Of Obstructive Sleep Apnea With Automated Prevention, Jonathan Waters

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Bioengineering Laboratory at UNH has demonstrated the usefulness of medical device interoperability through previous work that involved connecting an advanced hospital bed with blood pressure monitors over an electrical communication bus known as Controller Area Network (CAN). The medical devices utilize the software communication protocol known as CANopen for communicating relevant patient data to one another. This thesis explores the opportunity to detect a person's heartbeat and respiration while lying in a hospital bed noninvasively and unconstrained for accurately identifying an episode of obstructive sleep apnea. The design and development of this device is a CANopen compatible therapeutic automatic …

Net Resiliency: A Study Of Risk And Protective Factors In Single And Two-Parent Familes, Chad E. Depasquale

Master's Theses and Capstones

The main goal of this study was to discover how family makeup affects net resiliency scores of children. This quantitative study uses Two-Tailed t-tests, and Pearson correlation to uncover any relationships between net resiliency and living in a single or two-parent household. A sample of 91 children ranging from eleven to eighteen years old was utilized for the study's data collection. Their net resiliency scores, risk factors, protective factors, and family makeup were analyzed to discover any potential relationships between them. The analysis of these factors showed children living in single-parent families have: lower net resiliency scores, fewer protective factors, …

Individual Differences In Updating Information During Reading, Kristina L. Steiner

Master's Theses and Capstones

Causal information has been shown to help readers update outdated information (Rapp and Kendeou, 2007, 2009). Outdating occurs when integrating new information produces a conflict with encoded information that was encountered earlier in the text. There are also a number of individual differences among readers that influence how successful they will be at encoding, integrating, and outdating information including their reading skill, working memory capacity, and domain knowledge. This thesis examines how these individual differences impact how readers utilize causal information during updating. Across three experiments, participants were indexed as less-skilled or skilled readers using the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test. Experiments …

The Effect Of Cutting Force Model Coefficient Variability On Process Planning In Milling, Firat Eren

Master's Theses and Capstones

This thesis describes the effect of force model uncertainty on process planning. Specifically, the statistical variations in model predicted machining forces while cutting aluminum, carbon steel, stainless steel and titanium are determined. An accurate estimate of the variability is essential for use in process planning to determine appropriate factors of safety when setting cutting conditions that are both safe and efficient.

Force model coefficient calibration is described and the variability in the coefficients is determined through a least squares regression of a large number of experimental cuts. It is shown that the variability increases with changes in the calibration cutting …

The Granite, 2011, University Of New Hampshire

The Granite – Yearbook

The yearbook of the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, 1909-1922, the University of New Hampshire, 1923-

A Model Study Of Adlayer Pattern Formation Of A Linear Molecule On Square And Triangular Lattices, Gennadiy N. Berezutskiy

Master's Theses and Capstones

We have determined patterning and geometric properties of rigid-diatomic-molecular rotors, fixed on (square and triangular) the lattice site modeled by the Morse potential. Zero-K adlayer patterns were enhanced through the implementation of unconstrained multivariable function using derivative-free method (also known as simplex algorithm). Results have been obtained over wide geometry range for adlayer patterns composed of periodically repeated primary cell.

A primary focus of this work was the calculation of adlayer free energies and geometry at the ground state. Those were obtained from conformational search of the primary (2x2) cell to locate geometric configuration, which minimizes the total energy. The …

U.S. Law Of The Sea Cruise To Complete The Mapping Of Necker Ridge, Central Pacific Ocean, James V. Gardner, Brian R. Calder

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

U.S. Law of the Sea Cruise to Complete the Mapping of Necker Ridge, Central Pacific Ocean

CRUISE KM1121

July 31, to August 10, 2011

Honolulu, HI to Honolulu, HI

Lamprey Watershed Education And Outreach, Lamprey River Watershed Association, Dawn Genes, Lamprey River Watershed Association. Lamprey River Nominating Committee

PREP Reports & Publications

The Lamprey River Nomination Committee sought the assistance of the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) to complete an extensive and detailed information package to nominate the Lamprey River and its major tributaries to the NH Rivers Management and Protection Program. The nomination package was due at DES on June 1, 2010, was reviewed and accepted by the State Rivers Management Committee in September and forwarded to the Commissioner of DES. The nomination is now working through the NH legislature with hearings anticipated during the spring 2011 session. If passed, the bill should be signed by Governor Lynch in July of …

Metastable Anions Of Dinitrobenzene: Resonances For Electron Attachment And Kinetic Energy Release, A. Mauracher, S. Denifl, A. Edtbauer, M. Hager, M. Probst, Olof E. Echt, T. D. Maerk, P. Scheier, T. A. Field, K. Graupner

Physics & Astronomy

Attachment of free, low-energy electrons to dinitrobenzene (DNB) in the gas phase leads to DNB as well as several fragment anions. DNB, (DNB-H), (DNB-NO), (DNB-2NO), and (DNB-NO(2)) are found to undergo metastable (unimolecular) dissociation. A rich pattern of resonances in the yield of these metastable reactions versus electron energy is observed; some resonances are highly isomer-specific. Most metastable reactions are accompanied by large average kinetic energy releases (KER) that range from 0.5 to 1.32 eV, typical of complex rearrangement reactions, but (1,3-DNB-H)(-) features a resonance with a KER of only 0.06 eV for loss of NO. (1,3-DNB-NO)(-) offers a rare …