Digital Commons Network^™

Defect Characterization And Stress Analysis By White Beam Synchrotron X-Ray Topography In Single Crystal Semiconducting Materials, Vishwanath Sarkar

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Semiconductor devices are becoming increasingly more complex as the number of transistors increases in the same Integrated Circuit (IC) area. Due to the complexity in design; processing and packaging of the device plays a crucial role in the IC fabrication. Package induced residual stress are not only detrimental to device performance but can also lead to device failure. We propose a non-destructive method to determine the complete stress state at each point on a packaged Silicon device. Surface and edge defect created as a result of various manufacturing steps were characterized using different techniques, primarily X-ray diffraction topography, optical microscopy, …

Computationally Efficient Methods For Shift-Variant Image Restoration In Two And Three Dimensions, Shekhar Bangalore Sastry

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Shift-variant image restoration or image deblurring is useful in many applications including Machine Vision, Image Processing, 3D Microscopy, medical image analysis, etc. Currently, several shift-variant restoration approaches exist. However, they are either computationally expensive or inaccurate leading to poor image quality. This thesis proposes and investigates computationally efficient techniques that produce high quality restoration, even in the presence of noise. The methods presented here are general in that they are not limited to certain types of kernels to be computationally efficient. Detailed analysis and computational algorithms for implementing the methods are provided. This thesis addresses blurring in linear shift-variant imaging …

Functional Analysis Of Poliovirus Protein 2catpase In Viral Rna Replication And Encapsidation Using Alanine Scanning Mutagenesis, Chunling Wang

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Polypeptide 2CATPase is one of the most thoroughly studied but least understood proteins in the life cycle of poliovirus. Within the protein, multiple functional domains, important for uncoating, host cell membrane alterations, RNA replication and encapsidation have previously been identified. In this study, charged to alanine scanning mutagenesis was used to generate conditional-lethal mutations in hitherto uncharacterized domains of the 2CATPase polypeptide, particularly those possibly involved in morphogenesis. Adjacent or clustered charged amino acids (2-4), scattered along the 2CATPase coding sequence, were replaced with alanines. RNA transcripts of mutant poliovirus cDNA clones were transfected into HeLa cells. Subsequently, ten lethal, …

Effect Of Processing Conditions On The Anelastic Behavior Of Plasma Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings, Vaishak Viswanathan

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Plasma sprayed ceramic materials contain an assortment of micro-structural defects, including pores, cracks, and interfaces arising from the droplet based assemblage of the spray deposition technique. The defective architecture of the deposits introduces a novel "anelastic" response in the coatings comprising of their non-linear and hysteretic stress-strain relationship under mechanical loading. It has been established that this anelasticity can be attributed to the relative movement of the embedded defects under varying stresses. While the non-linear response of the coatings arises from the opening/closure of defects, hysteresis is produced by the frictional sliding among defect surfaces. Recent studies have indicated that …

Imaging Markers Of Cognitive Deficits In Rrms Using A Multimodal Mr Approach, Hui Jing Yu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has made important contributions to the understanding of the dynamics of the disease process of multiple sclerosis (MS) in vivo and has an established role in the diagnosis of MS. Despite this, conventional MRI is only partially helpful in understanding the disease and predicting ultimate clinical outcomes. The lack of imaging biomarkers in MS also limits the development of therapeutic interventions that can eventually help treat the various symptoms of MS, including the common finding of cognitive impairment. In this dissertation, multi-modal MR imaging acquisition and analysis techniques were applied with the goal of attaining more …

Mechanism Of Yopj-Induced Cell Death And Capase-1 Activation In Macrophages Infected With Yersinia, Ying Zheng

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Pathogenic Yersinia species encode a Type III Secretion System (T3SS) that translocates a group of effectors termed as Yersinia outer proteins (Yops) into target cells to disrupt eukaryotic host signaling pathways. YopJ is an acetyltransferase, which prevents MAP Kinase Kinase (MKK) and I?ÂB Kinase ? (IKK? ) phosphorylation and activation and causes Toll like receptor 4 (TLR4)-directed apoptosis in macrophages. YopJ isoforms encoded by different Yersinia strains exhibit a range of cytotoxic activities. In previous work, a YopJ isoform in Y. pestis strain KIM5 (YopJKIM) was shown to cause enhanced cytotoxicity, caspase-1 activation and interleukin-1? (IL-1? ) release in infected …

Data-Adaptive Hierarchical Protocols For Wireless Sensor Networks And Health Monitoring Systems, Guofeng Hou

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Recent advances in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology, wireless communications, and digital electronics have enabled the development of low-cost, low-power wireless sensor nodes that are small in size and communicate untethered over short distances. Networking together hundreds or thousands of wireless sensor nodes allows users to accurately monitor a remote environment by intelligently combining data from the individual nodes. Such networks require robust wireless communication protocols that are energy efficient, data transmission efficient and support long network lifetime. In this Ph.D. dissertation, we analyzed and implemented the Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) protocol, a leading protocol architecture for wireless sensor networks. …

Model-Based Techniques For Dependable Decision Making In Groups Of Agents Operating Autonomously, Meng Wang

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Massively distributed embedded systems are rapidly emerging as a key concept for many modern applications. Autonomous agents with mobile sensors are breakthrough concept in technology. However, providing efficient and scalable decision making capabilities to such systems is currently a significant challenge, especially to have flexible strategies with predictable performance in hard-to-predict conditions. My thesis first proposes a goal-oriented model to allow automated synthesis of distributed controllers, which implement and interact through models of different semantics. Scalability of descriptions is realized through defining the nature of interactions that can occur among decision modules while leaving to task of optimally implementing these …

Signaling Interactions During Early Zebrafish Development, Fatma Olcay Kok

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

During early embryonic development, a collection of mechanisms regulate the formation of complex structures by temporally and spatially controlling cell fate decisions. This control is largely mediated by intercellular signaling pathways and secreted molecules. In this dissertation, I studied the molecular mechanisms regulating two important patterning processes, somitogenesis and neurogenesis, during vertebrate development. Somitogenesis is a highly controlled process which segments the mesoderm and outlines the vertebrate body axis. The Notch pathway is vital for the regulation of synchronized gene expression while FGF signaling regulates the ability of presomitic mesoderm to mature and form segment boundaries. It is important to …

Female Social Conventions In The Plays Of Eugene O'Neil, Pamela L. Wells

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This paper explores the plays of Eugene O'Neill through the eyes social conventions. Social conventions are infused within and influence individuals in all walks of life. Authors, as well, record these social conventions in their writing, either consciously or subconsciously. Studying these social conventions can give us a new perspective of man during different periods of history. In the plays Anna Christie, Desire Under the Elms and Mourning Becomes Electra, Eugene O'Neill's female characters display attributes that stray from what society believes as acceptable behavior for woman. These unwritten rules of behavior I call social conventions. This paper examines the …

Discrete Metric Design And Discrete Tangent Bundles: From Surfaces To 3-Manifolds, Xiaotian Yin

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

One of the fundamental tasks in geometric modeling and computer graphics is to study shapes, such as surfaces and volumes, and differential objects associated with them, such as vector fields. For the study of shapes, the challenge in many cases comes from the need of a parameter domain that has a canonical and simple shape, which is equivalent to designing a metric of special properties. For differential objects, a fundamental problem is how to represent tangent bundles in a discrete setting, so that covariant differentiation and connections can be computed accordingly. This dissertation aims to design rigorous and practical methods …

Examining Experience In Depressed And Nondepressed Individuals, Jedidiah D. Gunter

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The inner experience of nine depressed and nine nondepressed individuals was explored using Descriptive Experience Sampling. Each participant completed four days of descriptive experience sampling, exploring about six moments of their inner experience on each sampling day. Although the Depressed participants self-reported substantially higher levels of depressive symptomatology on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) on each day of sampling, the differences in the frequency of depressive symptomatology in the inner experiences of these two groups were not statistically significant. Despite the group differences not reaching statistical significance, the Depressed group experienced somewhat more frequent moments of depression, …

Modeling And Control Of A Flexible Ionic Polymer Metal Composite(Ipmc) Actuator For Underwater Propulsion, Shivakanth Gutta

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The goal of this research is to model and control the underwater vehicle propelled by IPMC actuator. IPMC consists of an ionic membrane sandwiched between two metallic electrodes. When an external voltage is applied, IPMC undergoes large deformation due to transport of ions. Due to its ability to work in aqueous environments, it can be used for developing small scale underwater vehicles.

First, Finite element approach is used to describe the dynamics of the both single and segmented IPMC actuator. In the approach presented, each element is attached with a local coordinate system that undergoes rigid body motion along with …

Determining The Validity Of The Nintendo Wii Balance Board As An Assessment Tool For Balance, Sabrina Mae Deans

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Context. Application of the Nintendo Wii-fit balance board and its games have been used in Physical Therapy clinics, showing success in individuals with neurological disorders, and has been recommended as a minimum baseline assessment of a symptoms checklist and standardized cognitive and balance assessments for concussion management by the NCAA. However, it still faces challenges of being considered a reliable and consistent tool for producing normative data in the allied healthcare. Because there is little to no evidence for the Wii-fit balance board as a valid balance assessment tool for clinical and/or research usage, the significance of this study is …

Strike Out Across The Shoreless Ocean, Julia Claire Paajanen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

What happens between a reader and a poem is none of my business. The world has always been yours; find your own way.

(1) Every choice is correct.

(2) Everything is true.

(3) What is anything, unless so far as it is enjoyed?

All you have to do is see the course, and when you see it, go.

A Study Of A Novel Modular Variable Geometry Frame Arranged As A Robotic Surface, Christopher James Salisbury

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The novel concept of a "variable geometry frame" is introduced and explored through a three-dimensional robotic surface which is devised and implemented using triangular modules. The link design is optimized using surplus motor dimensions as firm constraints, and round numbers for further arbitrary constraints. Each module is connected by a passive six-bar mechanism that mimics the constraints of a spherical joint at each triangle intersection. A three dimensional inkjet printer is used to create a six-module prototype designed around surplus stepper motors powered by an old computer power supply as a proof-of-concept example.

The finite element method is applied to …

Job Stress, Mentoring, Psychological Empowerment, And Job Satisfaction Among Nursing Faculty, Catherine Emily Ebersole Chung

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The National League for Nursing (NLN) endorses mentoring throughout the nursing faculty career trajectory as the method to recruit nurses into academia and improve retention of nursing faculty within the academy (NLN, 2006). One way mentoring assists faculty is by easing socialization to the culture of the employing institution and decreasing faculty stress (Lewallen, Crane, Letvak, Jones, & Hu, 2003). Mentoring can also be a facilitating factor of an individual's psychological empowerment. Academia is an environment able to foster psychological empowerment, a state in which faculty may be self-directed, highly productive, confident, and find a meaningful connection to their work …

Spectroscopic Methods Of Process Monitoring For Safeguards Of Used Nuclear Fuel Separations, Jamie Lee Warburton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To support the demonstration of a more proliferation-resistant nuclear fuel processing plant, techniques and instrumentation to allow the real-time, online determination of special nuclear material concentrations in-process must be developed. An ideal materials accountability technique for proliferation resistance should provide nondestructive, realtime, on-line information of metal and ligand concentrations in separations streams without perturbing the process. UV-Visible spectroscopy can be adapted for this precise purpose in solvent extraction-based separations.

The primary goal of this project is to understand fundamental URanium EXtraction (UREX) and Plutonium-URanium EXtraction (PUREX) reprocessing chemistry and corresponding UV-Visible spectroscopy for application in process monitoring for safeguards. By …

Changing Climatic Conditions In The Colorado River Basin: Implications For Water Resources Management In The Las Vegas Valley, Srijana Dawadi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Climate change affects the water available in a region. It also affects the water demand, because of the increase in temperature. A system dynamics model was developed for the Colorado River Basin (CRB), operating at a monthly time scale, to assess the potential impacts of climate change on streamflow in the Colorado River and its subsequent impact on the water resources management in the Las Vegas Valley (LVV). The effect of climate change on streamflow was evaluated using 16 global climate model outputs for 3 emission scenarios, also referenced in the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report. Risk …

Consolidated Study On Query Expansion, Abhishek Biruduraju

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A typical day of million web users all over the world starts with a simple query. The quest for information on a particular topic drives them to search for it, and in the pursuit of their info the terms they supply for queries varies from person to person depending on the knowledge they have. With a vast collection of documents available on the web universe it is the onus of the retrieval system to return only those documents that are relevant and satisfy the user’s search requirements. The document mismatch problem is resolved by appending extra query terms to the …

Factors Which Influence The Use Of Active Learning Strategies By Nursing Faculty, Deborah Lowell Shindell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Nursing education is facing a crisis. Anachronistic teaching methods are no longer keeping up with the needs of new graduates entering practice. Despite a body of knowledge which supports the use of active learning in higher education, nursing faculty continue to rely on lecture as their primary pedagogical approach. Previous study of the use of research products in clinical nursing practice identified systematic factors such as characteristics of the communication of research findings and characteristics of the organization form the greatest barrier to use. This study discovers if these same barriers face nursing educators.

Using Roger‟s Theory of Diffusion of …

Sensing And Transmission Strategies In Wireless Cognitive Radio Systems, Babak Abbasi Bastami

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The main challenge in any cognitive radio system is to maximize secondary users throughput while limiting interference imposed on licensed users. In this regard, finding the optimal sensing and transmission timing strategies and accurate sensing techniques are of great importance in a cognitive radio network.

In this thesis, we study a sensing-transmission scheme for secondary user in a cognitive radio system where the secondary user senses every primary channel independently and transmits a signal for a fixed duration if it finds the channel empty and stays idle for another fixed duration if it senses the channel busy. We obtain optimal …

Energy-Based Analysis Of Utility Scale Hybrid Power Systems, Kwame Agyenim-Boateng

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The promise of large-scale use of renewables such as wind and solar for supplying electrical power is tempered by the sources' transient behavior and the impact this would have on the operation of the grid. Among the methods cited for addressing some of those concerns are exploring the complementary nature of solar and wind power generation, and through the use of supplemental energy storage. While the technology for the latter has not been proven to be economical on a large scale at the present time, some assessments of what magnitude is required can be made. An energy-based analysis of utility …

Identifying Effort Estimation Factors For Corrective Maintenance In Object-Oriented Systems, Michael J. Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research identifies factors that impact software maintenance effort by exploring the decision-making process of expert estimators of corrective maintenance projects by using qualitative methods to identify the factors that they use in deriving estimates. We implement a technique called causal mapping, which allows us to identify the cognitive links between the information that estimators use, and the estimates that they produce based on that information. Results suggest that a total of 17 factors may be relevant for corrective maintenance effort estimation, covering constructs related to developers, code, defects, and environment. When these factors are rank-ordered, they demonstrate that some …

Direct Contact Pyrolysis Of Hydrocarbons: A Source Of Hydrogen And Interesting Carbon Formations, Peter G. Faught

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The work detailed in this document looks at a novel liquid metal supported catalytic system for the generation of hydrogen by decomposition of ethanol through direct contact pyrolysis. The hydrogen is produced at relatively low temperatures (500-600°C) and has carbon and water as co-products. It should be noted that CO is not observed as a product at these low temperatures. This is to be contrasted with the hydrogen produced at higher temperature from ethanol which does contain carbon monoxide. The presence of carbon monoxide in hydrogen complicates fuel cell operation and catalytic chemical processes. Thus, the lack of CO in …

Quantification Of Stochastic Uncertainty Propagation For Monte Carlo Depletion Methods In Reactor Analysis, Quentin Thomas Newell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Monte Carlo method provides powerful geometric modeling capabilities for large problem domains in 3-D; therefore, the Monte Carlo method is becoming popular for 3-D fuel depletion analyses to compute quantities of interest in spent nuclear fuel including isotopic compositions. The Monte Carlo approach has not been fully embraced due to unresolved issues concerning the effect of Monte Carlo uncertainties on the predicted results.

Use of the Monte Carlo method to solve the neutron transport equation introduces stochastic uncertainty in the computed fluxes. These fluxes are used to collapse cross sections, estimate power distributions, and deplete the fuel within depletion …

Modeling Of A Novel Solar Down Beam Test Facility Utilizing Newtonian Optics, Ryan J. Hoffmann

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As advances in concentrated solar energy progress there will inevitably be an increase in the demand of resources for testing new conceptions. Currently, there are limited facilities available for taking concentrated solar energy concepts from the laboratory bench scale to the engineering test scale. A proposed solution is a scientific and developmental facility that provides highly concentrated solar energy at ground level. The design presented is a solar down beam test facility utilizing a Newtonian optics approach with a flat rectangular down beam mirror to reflect and concentrate the sun's rays at ground level.

Literature review suggests a hyperbolic reflector …

Parallel Machines Scheduling With Applications To Internet Ad-Slot Placement, Shaista Lubna

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

We consider a class of problems of scheduling independent jobs on identical, uniform and unrelated parallel machines with an objective of achieving an optimal schedule. The primary focus is on the minimization of the maximum completion time of the jobs, commonly referred to as Makespan (C _max ). We survey and present examples of uniform machines and its applications to the single slot and multiple slots based on bids and budgets.

The Internet is an important advertising medium attracting large number of advertisers and users. When a user searches for a query, a search engine returns a set of results …

Development Of A Simulation Tool For Analysis Of Freeway Crashes Due To Cell Phone Usage, Sourabh Sriom

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research shows that drivers are susceptible to numerous distractions while driving which can be held responsible as the reason of a crash. Usage of cell phones, i.e. talking or texting while driving is considered one of the prominent distractions which causes a crash. This dissertation aims to study the number of crashes occurring on the freeways and their relation with the drivers of these cars using cell phones while they are driving. Since crashes occur relatively less frequently, the study of crashes is done using what is called the "rare event" theory. Java based simulations are done to model a …

Fall Prevention Training And Its Impact To Southern Nevada Construction Workers, Vedaspati Joshi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Death and injury from falls are a long-standing and continuing problem in construction, responsible for at least a third of the construction deaths in the U.S. from 2004 to 2007. Each of those years, Nevada has exceeded the national percentage. Although 29 CFR 1926.503 sets forth Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)'s requirements that construction employers train employees exposed to fall hazards and document such training, the incidence of deaths and injuries from falls are an indicator that this training was not provided or else was not effective.

Conventional fall protection training is more narrowly focused on recognizing fall hazards …