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Energy And Potential Enstrophy Flux Constraints In Quasi-Geostrophic Models, Eleftherios Gkioulekas

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We investigate an inequality constraining the energy and potential enstrophy flux spectra in two-layer and multi-layer quasi-geostrophic models. Its physical significance is that it can diagnose whether any given multi-layer model that allows co-existing downscale cascades of energy and potential enstrophy can allow the downscale energy flux to become large enough to yield a mixed energy spectrum where the dominant k−3 scaling is overtaken by a subdominant k−5/3 contribution beyond a transition wavenumber kt situated in the inertial range. The validity of the flux inequality implies that this scaling transition cannot occur within the inertial range, whereas a violation of …

The Collegian (2014-09-08), Cleiri Quezada

UTB/TSC Archives - The Collegian [Newspaper]

Vol. 67, No. 3

Advances In Molecular Quantum Chemistry Contained In The Q-Chem 4 Program Package, Yihan Shao, Zhengting Gan, Evgeny Epifanovsky, Andrew T. B. Gilbert, Michael Wormit, Shervin Fatehi

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

A summary of the technical advances that are incorporated in the fourth major release of the Q-CHEM quantum chemistry program is provided, covering approximately the last seven years. These include developments in density functional theory methods and algorithms, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) property evaluation, coupled cluster and perturbation theories, methods for electronically excited and open-shell species, tools for treating extended environments, algorithms for walking on potential surfaces, analysis tools, energy and electron transfer modelling, parallel computing capabilities, and graphical user interfaces. In addition, a selection of example case studies that illustrate these capabilities is given. These include extensive benchmarks of …

Theoretical And Experimental Infrared Spectra Of Hydrated And Dehydrated Sulfonated Poly(Ether Ether Ketone), Jonathan Doan, Erin Kingston, Ian Kendrick, Kierstyn Anderson, Nicholas Dimakis, Philippe Knauth, Maria Luisa Di Vona, Eugene S. Smotkina

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Time-dependent FT-IR spectra of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) during dehydration show diminishing 1081 cm−1 and 1023 cm−1 band intensities concurrent with the emergence and shifting of bands at 1362 cm−1 and 898 cm−1. Animations of density functional theory calculated normal modes enable assignment of the 1081 cm−1 and 1023 cm−1 bands as group modes that include a sulfonate exchange site with C3v local symmetry, while the 1362 cm−1 and 898 cm−1 bands are assigned as group modes that include an associated sulfonic acid with no local symmetry (C1). In contrast to analogously assigned Nafion group mode bands, the SPEEK C3v …

The Collegian (2014-09-01), Cleiri Quezada

UTB/TSC Archives - The Collegian [Newspaper]

Vol. 67, No. 2

First All-Sky Search For Continuous Gravitational Waves From Unknown Sources In Binary Systems, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present the first results of an all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from unknown spinning neutron stars in binary systems using LIGO and Virgo data. Using a specially developed analysis program, the TwoSpect algorithm, the search was carried out on data from the sixth LIGO science run and the second and third Virgo science runs. The search covers a range of frequencies from 20 Hz to 520 Hz, a range of orbital periods from 2 to ∼2; 254 h and a frequency- and period-dependent range of frequency modulation depths from 0.277 to 100 mHz. This corresponds to a range …

The Pan American (2014-08-25), Susan Gonzalez, Andrew Vera

UTPA Archives - The Pan American Newspaper

Vol. 71, No. 1

Genetic Variants In The Sorl1 Gene Are Associated With Age At Onset Of Alzheimer Disease: A Survival Analysis, Ke-Sheng Wang, Xuefeng Liu, Liang Wang, David Briones, Chun Xu

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

Few studies focused on the association of SORL1 with the age at onset (AAO) of Alzheimer disease (AD). This study investigated the association of 43 SNPs in SORL1 with the AAO of AD by using the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and the Cox proportional hazards model in SAS version 9.2 and linear regression model in PLINK software (791 AD patients and 782 controls). Both logrank test and Cox regression model showed that five SNPs (rs1784934, rs676759, rs560573, rs593769, and rs11218313) were associated with the AAO of AD in the male sample, while one SNP (rs17125558) was associated with the AAO of …

Publisher’S Note: “Derivative Couplings Between Tddft Excited States Obtained By Direct Differentiation In The Tamm-Dancoff Approximation” [J. Chem. Phys. 141, 024114 (2014)], Qi Ou, Shervin Fatehi, Ethan Alguire, Yihan Shao, Joseph Subotnik

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

No abstract provided.

The Green Bank Northern Celestial Cap Pulsar Survey. I. Survey Description Data Analysis And Initial Results, Kevin Stovall, R. S. Lynch, Louis Percy Dartez, Anthony J. Ford, A. Garcia, J. Hinojosa, Fredrick A. Jenet, Sean Leake, Jose Guadalupe Martinez, Alberto Mata

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We describe an ongoing search for pulsars and dispersed pulses of radio emission, such as those from rotating radio transients (RRATs) and fast radio bursts, at 350 MHz using the Green Bank Telescope. With the Green Bank Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument, we record 100 MHz of bandwidth divided into 4096 channels every 81.92 μs. This survey will cover the entire sky visible to the Green Bank Telescope (δ > -40°, or 82% of the sky) and outside of the Galactic Plane will be sensitive enough to detect slow pulsars and low dispersion measure (cm-3) millisecond pulsars (MSPs) with a 0.08 duty …

Exposure To Traffic Pollution, Acute Inflammation And Autonomic Response In A Panel Of Car Commuters, Jeremy A. Sarnat, Rachel Golan, Roby Greenwald, Amit U. Raysoni, Priya Kewada, Andrea Winquist, Stefanie E. Sarnat, W. Dana Flanders, Maria C. Mirabelli, Jennifer E. Zora

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Exposure to traffic pollution has been linked to numerous adverse health endpoints. Despite this, limited data examining traffic exposures during realistic commutes and acute response exists. Objectives: We conducted the Atlanta Commuters Exposures (ACE-1) Study, an extensive panel-based exposure and health study, to measure chemically-resolved in-vehicle exposures and corresponding changes in acute oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, pulmonary and systemic inflammation and autonomic response.

Methods

We recruited 42 adults (21 with and 21 without asthma) to conduct two 2-h scripted highway commutes during morning rush hour in the metropolitan Atlanta area. A suite of in-vehicle particulate components were measured in …

Factors That Contribute To Hispanic English Language Learners' High Academic Performance In High School Science In The Rio Grande Valley Of Texas: A Multicase Study, Antonio Elizondo

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study was to identify, discover, uncover, examine, and document factors that contribute to Hispanic English Language Learners’ (ELL) high academic performance in high school science in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Participants were high school seniors enrolled in college-level classes who had scored commended on the science exit-level Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills and ranked toward the top of their class. One science teacher and school administrator from the respective schools also participated in this study. One student from each of four different high schools in south Texas was selected to participate. School officials …

A Decision Support Model For Process Planning In Remanufacturing Using Fuzzy Set Theory And Genetic Algorithm, Juan C. Martinez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The environmental awareness and resources preservation has boosted the use of remanufacturing processes. Many important studies have been made in this area, but there are still pitfalls and opportunities that have not been explored yet. Specifically, the cleaning processes play a critical role in remanufacturing. It is among the top of most costly processes and it plays a key step in remanufacturing because delivers a free of contaminant product ready for reprocessing. Understanding and selecting the best processes to meet the need and goals of remanufacturers are important for effective and efficient remanufacturing. Due to variables and high uncertainty associated …

Efficient Evaluation Of Sparql Property Path Queries Over Prov-Dm Provenance Graphs In An Rdbms, Rodolfo E. Roman Velasco

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Millions of useful resources on the Web are enhanced with machine-processable annotations using W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF). It is crucial to design efficient data management techniques to support querying of existing RDF datasets using standard SPARQL queries. To address this challenge, we use a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) for efficient and scalable storage and querying backend for RDF data. Our solution requires designing novel algorithms for translating SPARQL queries into equivalent SQL queries, such that the latter can be efficiently executed in an RDBMS. The focus of this work is on the translation of SPARQL property paths queries. …

A Dual Band High Impedance Antenna For Rf Harvest Applications, Andres J. Medina

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

A design for a compact dual band very high impedance antenna for RF Harvest applications is presented. The antenna is designed to present a very high input impedance at its feed point at 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz. The design incorporates the folding concept into a customized bowtie antenna to achieve high input impedance. The design methodology and simulations are presented, as well as a comparison of the measured results against the simulation results. A rectifier circuit and dual band matching network are also simulated and presented.

The Relationship Between Institutional Ownership And Firm Performance, Javeria Farooqi

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the past three decades, the presence of institutional investors has increased 33% in the equity market. The main goal of this dissertation is to study the relationship between institutional ownership and firm performance. I examine how the level institutional investors' involvement in composing their own portfolio, as oppose to replicating their portfolio, impacts their level of monitoring and disciplining their portfolio firms. Specifically, I investigate the relationship between institutional ownership and firms' operating efficiency, earnings management and cost of debt.

In Chapter II, I explore the relationship between institutional ownership and firms' operating efficiency. I use the data envelopment …

Prediction Of Time-To-Graduation For Stem Hispanic Undergraduate Students, Gejun Zhu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In this thesis, we study the time-to-graduation problem for STEM Hispanic undergraduate students. The response, time-to-graduation, was treated in two different ways: as a binary variable with graduated (by the 6th year) and not-graduated values, and as an ordinal variable with values year-4, year-5, year-6, and not-graduate. Mathematics education plays critical role in students’ timely graduation, especially for STEM students. We used students records data obtained from The University of Texas-Pan American to illustrate how mathematics background factors (including SAT math score, ACT math score, TASP math score) and mathematics performance variables (including mathematics GPA, number of dropped mathematics courses, …

Dynamics For The Compound Burgers-Kdv Equation, Xiangqian Zheng

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In this thesis, we study the Two-Dimensional Burgers-Korteweg-de Vries (2D-BKdV) equation and Two-Dimensional Compound Burgers-Korteweg-de Vries (2D-Compound BKdV) by analyzing the first integral equation, which indicates that under some particular conditions, the 2D-BKdV equation and 2D-Compound BKdV have exact traveling wave solutions. By using the elliptic integral and some transformations, traveling wave solution to the 2D-BKdV equation and 2DCompound BKdV are expressed explicitly.

Balanced Modular Parameterizations, Esteban J. Melendez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In this thesis, we show that Classical representations for certain modular forms have symmetric form. These symmetric formulations are interpreted in terms of more general balanced homogeneous polynomial representations resulting from a permutative action of Hecke congruence subgroups on quotients of theta functions. For prime levels between 5 and 19, sets of permuted theta quotients are constructed that generate the corresponding vector spaces of modular forms of weight one.

Strategy, Politics And Latino Graduate Education: A Descriptive Policy Analysis Of The South Texas/Border Initiative, Emily Calderon Galdeano

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Prior to 1987, appropriations to universities along the Texas-Mexico border were much less than in other areas of the state. As a result the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) v. Richards lawsuit was filed, claiming inequities for higher education funding. Between 1989 and 1995, the Texas Legislature approved a group of bills known as the South Texas/Border Initiative (STBI). The goals of this initiative were to: 1) provide equitable funding to nine universities along the South Texas border; 2) merge these regional institutions with the larger university systems in the state; and 3) create additional graduate programs at …

An Empirical Study Of Some Branching Processes With Upper Barrier, Alejandro Aguilar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

We consider discrete time branching processes with a reflecting upper barrier. The processes differ in their offspring distributions being either binary splitting or binomial one. Two important factors for the behavior of the processes characteristics are studied as follows: time to extinction and total progeny up to the n th generation. More specifically, we investigate the distribution and expected value of the time to extinction as well as the probability mass functions of the total progeny. The tools used are basic results for a finite state Markov chain.

Anxiety, Depression And Smoking Status Among Adults Of Mexican Heritage On The Texas-Mexico Border, Anna V. Wilkinson, Kristina Vatcheva, Adriana Pérez, Belinda M. Reininger, Joseph B. Mccormick, Susan P. Fisher-Hoch

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

The goal of the current analysis is to examine relationships between smoking status and anxiety and depression among adults of Mexican heritage to inform the development of culturally relevant smoking cessations efforts. Mexican heritage residents (N=1,791) of the city of Brownsville, TX, aged 18 years or older, enrolled in the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort, were selected through two stage cluster sampling of randomly selected census tracts from the first and third quartile of SES using Census 2000. Among current smokers, anxiety and depression scores were highest among women who had not completed high school (p<0.05). Former smoking women, but not men, with at least a high school education and former smoking women born in the United States reported higher levels of anxiety and depression than never smoking women. Negative affective states may represent a greater barrier to smoking cessation among women than men.

Fast Radio Burst Discovered In The Arecibo Pulsar Alfa Survey, L. G. Spitler, J. M. Cordes, J. W.T. Hessels, D. R. Lorimer, M. A. Mclaughlin, S. Chatterjee, F. Crawford, J. S. Deneva, Fredrick Jenet

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Recent work has exploited pulsar survey data to identify temporally isolated, millisecond-duration radio bursts with large dispersion measures (DMs). These bursts have been interpreted as arising from a population of extragalactic sources, in which case they would provide unprecedented opportunities for probing the intergalactic medium; they may also be linked to new source classes. Until now, however, all so-called fast radio bursts (FRBs) have been detected with the Parkes radio telescope and its 13-beam receiver, casting some concern about the astrophysical nature of these signals. Here we present FRB 121102, the first FRB discovery from a geographic location other than …

Illustrations And Supporting Texts For Sound Standing Waves Of Air Columns In Pipes In Introductory Physics Textbooks, Liang Zeng, Chris Smith, G. Herold Poelzer, Jennifer Rodriguez, Edgar Corpuz, George Yanev

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

In our pilot studies, we found that many introductory physics textbook illustrations with supporting text for sound standing waves of air columns in open-open, open-closed, and closed-closed pipes inhibit student understanding of sound standing wave phenomena due to student misunderstanding of how air molecules move within these pipes. Based on the construct of meaningful learning from cognitive psychology and semiotics, a quasiexperimental study was conducted to investigate the comparative effectiveness of two alternative approaches to student understanding: a traditional textbook illustration approach versus a newly designed air molecule motion illustration approach. Thirty volunteer students from introductory physics classes were randomly …

Reconstruction Of Structured Quadratic Pencils From Eigenvalues On Ellipses And Parabolas, R. Ibragimov, Vesselin Vatchev

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In the present paper we study the reconstruction of a structured quadratic pencil from eigenvalues distributed on ellipses or parabolas. A quadratic pencil is a square matrix polynomial

QP(λ) = M λ²+Cλ +K,

where M, C, and K are real square matrices. The approach developed in the paper is based on the theory of orthogonal polynomials on the real line. The results can be applied to more general distribution of eigenvalues. The problem with added single eigenvector is also briefly discussed. As an illustration of the reconstruction method, the eigenvalue problem …

Derivative Couplings Between Tddft Excited States Obtained By Direct Differentiation In The Tamm-Dancoff Approximation, Qi Ou, Shervin Fatehi, Ethan Alguire, Yihan Shao, Joseph Subotnik

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Working within the Tamm-Dancoff approximation, we calculate the derivative couplings between time-dependent density-functional theory excited states by assuming that the Kohn-Sham superposition of singly excited determinants represents a true electronic wavefunction. All Pulay terms are included in our derivative coupling expression. The reasonability of our approach can be established by noting that, for closely separated electronic states in the infinite basis limit, our final expres- sion agrees exactly with the Chernyak-Mukamel expression (with transition densities from response theory). Finally, we also validate our approach empirically by analyzing the behavior of the derivative couplings around the T1/T2 conical intersection of benzaldehyde.

Detection And Estimation Of Unmodeled Narrowband Nonstationary Signals: Application Of Particle Swarm Optimization In Gravitational Wave Data Analysis, Soumya Mohanty

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The extraction of weak signals from instrumental noise is a critical task in ongoing searches for gravitational waves. A detection and estimation method, made feasible by Particle Swarm Optimization, is presented for a particularly challenging class of signals expected from astrophysical sources.

Los Arcos - Summer 2014, University Of Texas-Pan American

UTPA Archives - Los Arcos Magazine

No abstract provided.

Utpa Commencement – Summer 2014, University Of Texas-Pan American

Edinburg Archives - Legacy Commencement Programs

2014 Summer Commencement - August 16, 2014 9:00 a.m.

2014 Summer Commencement - August 16, 2014 1:00 p.m.

Less Is More. Effects Of The Amount Of Information And Its Presentation In The Recall And Reception Of Audio Described Characters, Nazaret Fresno, Judit Castellà Mate, Olga Soler Vilageliu

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Audio description is a discipline within Translation Studies aimed at making audio visual products and events accessible to blind and visually impaired audiences. Works of art, TV programs, films and stage arts are audio described in order to guarantee that anyone, regardless of his/her visual capacity, can enjoy them. In the case of films, it consists of a verbal description of visual details such as settings and characters (what they look like, what they do and how they do it) provided to the audience in those parts of the movie where no relevant sounds or dialogues are heard.

The nature …