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2018

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Clustered Networks Protect Cooperation Against Catastrophic Collapse, Gwen Spencer Jan 2018

Clustered Networks Protect Cooperation Against Catastrophic Collapse, Gwen Spencer

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

Assuming a society of conditional cooperators (or moody conditional cooperators), this computational study proposes a new perspective on the structural advantage of social network clustering. Previous work focused on how clustered structure might encourage initial outbreaks of cooperation or defend against invasion by a few defectors. Instead, we explore the ability of a societal structure to retain cooperative norms in the face of widespread disturbances. Such disturbances may abstractly describe hardships like famine and economic recession, or the random spatial placement of a substantial numbers of pure defectors (or round-1 defectors) among a spatially-structured population of players in a laboratory …

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The Fivethirtyeight R Package: ‘Tame Data’ Principles For Introductory Statistics And Data Science Courses, Albert Y. Kim, Chester Ismay, Jennifer Chunn Jan 2018

The Fivethirtyeight R Package: ‘Tame Data’ Principles For Introductory Statistics And Data Science Courses, Albert Y. Kim, Chester Ismay, Jennifer Chunn

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

As statistics and data science instructors, we often seek to use data in our courses that are rich, real, realistic, and relevant. To this end we created the fivethirtyeight R package of data and code behind the stories and interactives at the data journalism website FiveThirtyEight.com. After a discussion on the conflicting pedagogical goals of "minimizing prerequisites to research" (Cobb 2015) while at the same time presenting students with a realistic view of data as it exists "in the wild," we articulate how a desired balance between these two goals informed the design of the package. The details behind this …

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How Often Does The Best Team Win? A Unified Approach To Understanding Randomness In North American Sport, Michael J. Lopez, Gregory J. Matthews, Benjamin Baumer Jan 2018

How Often Does The Best Team Win? A Unified Approach To Understanding Randomness In North American Sport, Michael J. Lopez, Gregory J. Matthews, Benjamin Baumer

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

Statistical applications in sports have long centered on how to best separate signal (e.g. team talent) from random noise. However, most of this work has concentrated on a single sport, and the development of meaningful cross-sport comparisons has been impeded by the difficulty of translating luck from one sport to another. In this manuscript, we develop Bayesian state-space models using betting market data that can be uniformly applied across sporting organizations to better understand the role of randomness in game outcomes. These models can be used to extract estimates of team strength, the between-season, within-season, and game-to-game variability of team …

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The Dihedral Genus Of A Knot, Patricia Cahn, Alexandra Kjuchukova Jan 2018

The Dihedral Genus Of A Knot, Patricia Cahn, Alexandra Kjuchukova

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

Let K ⊂ S3 be a Fox p-colored knot and assume K bounds a locally flat surface S ⊂ B4 over which the given p-coloring extends. This coloring of S induces a dihedral branched cover X → S4 . Its branching set is a closed surface embedded in S4 locally flatly away from one singularity whose link is K. When S is homotopy ribbon and X a definite four-manifold, a condition relating the signature of X and the Murasugi signature of K guarantees that S in fact realizes the four-genus of K. We exhibit an infinite …

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Action Of The Symmetric Group On The Free Lanke: A Catalanke Theorem, Tamar Friedmann, Philip Hanlon, Richard P. Stanley, Michelle L. Wachs Jan 2018

Action Of The Symmetric Group On The Free Lanke: A Catalanke Theorem, Tamar Friedmann, Philip Hanlon, Richard P. Stanley, Michelle L. Wachs

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

We initiate a study of the representation of the symmetric group on the multilinear component of an n-ary generalization of the free Lie algebra, which we call a free LAnKe. Our central result is that the representation of the symmetric group S2n−1 on the multilinear component of the free LAnKe with S2n−1 generators is given by an irreducible representation whose dimension is the nth Catalan number. This leads to a more general result on eigenspaces of a certain linear operator. A decomposition, into irreducibles, of the representation of S3n−2 on the multilinear component the free LAnKe …

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Strong Comparison Principle For P-Harmonic Functions In Carnot-Caratheodory Spaces, Luca Capogna, Xiaodan Zhou Jan 2018

Strong Comparison Principle For P-Harmonic Functions In Carnot-Caratheodory Spaces, Luca Capogna, Xiaodan Zhou

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

We extend Bony’s propagation of support argument to C1 solutions of the nonhomogeneous subelliptic p-Laplacian associated to a system of smooth vector fields satisfying Hörmander’s finite rank condition. As a consequence we prove a strong maximum principle and strong comparison principle that generalize results of Tolksdorf.

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Characterization And Mechanical Evaluation Of Discontinuous Carbon Fiber Based Liquid Molded Nylon-6 Composites, Siddhartha Brahma Jan 2018

Characterization And Mechanical Evaluation Of Discontinuous Carbon Fiber Based Liquid Molded Nylon-6 Composites, Siddhartha Brahma

All ETDs from UAB

The Anionic Ring Opening Polymerization (AROP) of caprolactam to form polyamide-6 (PA6) or liquid molding for polyamide-6 (LMPA6) presents the opportunity for a new class of composite materials with excellent performance and wide applicability from automotive, energy, transportation, and aerospace. Despite the inherent advantages with the process, industrial adoption is virtually nonexistent. Additionally, the growing trend of reclaiming fibers can also be coupled with this process with relative ease. The following work will evaluate the liquid molding process, particularly for the use of recycled or reclaimed carbon fibers, in the following ways. First, the adaptability of the process to use …

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Nanomedicine: Electrohydrodynamic Atomization (Ehda) To Engineer Next-Generation Biomimetic Microphysiological Systems (Mps) And Precision Drug Delivery Systems (Dds), Karim Ismail Budhwani Jan 2018

Nanomedicine: Electrohydrodynamic Atomization (Ehda) To Engineer Next-Generation Biomimetic Microphysiological Systems (Mps) And Precision Drug Delivery Systems (Dds), Karim Ismail Budhwani

All ETDs from UAB

Cancer is poised to become the leading cause of death worldwide with lifetime probability of 1-in-2 men and 1-in-3 women developing cancer. Despite this, research and development of new treatment options remains expensive and slow, in part, due to inadequate disease models, therapy evaluation assays, and absence of delivery control in leading treatment options. These factors also impede patient-specific personalized medicine. Electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) fabrication technologies, such as electrospinning (ESp) and electrospraying (ESy), offer promising nanomedicine pathways toward addressing these challenges. ESp has garnered much interest in tissue engineering but is dwarfed by softlithography in microphysiological systems (MPS), including lab-chip …

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On The Inside: Evaluating Arts Education Programs In Prisons, Natalie Rae Campbell Jan 2018

On The Inside: Evaluating Arts Education Programs In Prisons, Natalie Rae Campbell

All ETDs from UAB

Prison-arts programs are those that provide hands-on art education to inmates in correctional facilities. This study examines the prevalence of such programs throughout the United States as well as the effects that they have on inmates who participate in art education within a correctional facility. The project’s purpose raises questions about the efficacy of rehabilitative education and about how this type of education is funded and sustained. The research presented provides an insight into how many people prison-arts programs serve, at what frequency, and under what conditions classes are taught, as well as outside perceptions on the improvement of quality …

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New Frontiers In Medical Privacy: Protecting The Biometric Data Of Patients In The Healthcare Industry, Jordan T. Shewmaker Jan 2018

New Frontiers In Medical Privacy: Protecting The Biometric Data Of Patients In The Healthcare Industry, Jordan T. Shewmaker

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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The First Amendment, Compelled Speech & Minors: Jettisoning The Fcc Mandate For Children's Television Programming, Clay Calvert Jan 2018

The First Amendment, Compelled Speech & Minors: Jettisoning The Fcc Mandate For Children's Television Programming, Clay Calvert

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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Modeling And Analysis Of Iot Systems Using Shannon's Channel Model, Anthony G. Winchester Jan 2018

Modeling And Analysis Of Iot Systems Using Shannon's Channel Model, Anthony G. Winchester

All ETDs from UAB

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a ubiquitous technology that can mark the evolution of modern world. Since the internet has become a common household resource like the land line was in the past, it is time to take technology to the next level. With the manipulation of signals, we now have the use of wireless devices that are connected to various devices (both wireless and wired). The idea is to not only engineer devices that connect to the web, but also make them smart using processors embedded in devices coupled with internet to provide an intelligent system. Our research …

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Efficiency Of Structurally Integrated Surface Articulation (Sisa) Panels For Structural Engineering Applications, Feyza Nur Yildirim Jan 2018

Efficiency Of Structurally Integrated Surface Articulation (Sisa) Panels For Structural Engineering Applications, Feyza Nur Yildirim

All ETDs from UAB

The objective of this project is to investigate the efficiency of a newly developed structurally integrated surface articulation (SISA) building system for encapsulating an extensive range of specific and multi-purpose functions such as exterior panels for buildings and solar panels for structural engineering applications. SISA is a modular system, consisting of a 3-space, dynamically configured, geometrically need renewal surface panels that are internally supported by a "wire-frame" space frame structure. The appropriate articulations to these different methods will vary from one element to another. Surface articulation development is an efficiently developing issue, especially in continuing research on new generational frame …

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Preventing Osteoarthritis By Targeting The Transforming Growth Factor Beta Signaling Pathway, Robert Dalton Chavez Jan 2018

Preventing Osteoarthritis By Targeting The Transforming Growth Factor Beta Signaling Pathway, Robert Dalton Chavez

All ETDs from UAB

Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterized by degenerated cartilage. In age-related OA, the molecular mechanisms that initiate cartilage erosion are not well defined. However, transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signaling is attenuated in the cartilage of patients with age-related OA and therefore may play a role in the disease. Degenerated cartilage has a rough surface and exhibits changes in stiffness. Proteoglycan 4 (PRG4), also known as lubricin, helps lubricate the surface of cartilage, and 3’-phosphoadenosine 5’-phosphosulfate synthase 2 (PAPSS2) helps maintain the stiffness of cartilage. Both PRG4 and PAPSS2 are regulated by TGF-β and down-regulated in OA cartilage. The present research elucidated …

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Investigating Instructional Practices Of Pre-K Teachers And How It Influences A Child's Readiness For Kindergarten, Dorielle Dixon Jan 2018

Investigating Instructional Practices Of Pre-K Teachers And How It Influences A Child's Readiness For Kindergarten, Dorielle Dixon

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the significance of how pre-kindergarten teachers implement instruction to prepare children for kindergarten. The study was guided by the research question: What instructional practices are preschool teachers implementing towards the support, preparations, and instruction they are implementing to shape children for kindergarten? This research study sought to answer four sub-questions. First, what do pre-k teachers report as instructions they use to prepare children for kindergarten? Second, how are pre-k teachers implementing their instruction to prepare children for kindergarten? Third, how does the pre-k program prepare the children for the rigor of …

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Drive-By Bridge Damage Inspection And Monitoring, Ahmed Elhattab Jan 2018

Drive-By Bridge Damage Inspection And Monitoring, Ahmed Elhattab

All ETDs from UAB

Recently, drive-by bridge inspection has become an intriguing topic in the bridge health monitoring domain. The technique utilizes indirect measurements from the suspension system of a vehicle passes over the bridge to infer the bridge structural health condition. A number of studies have given confidence, hypothetically, in the feasibility of the approach in detecting, quantifying and localizing the damage. However, there is a scarcity of work investigating the fidelity of this technique to full-scale field applications. Whereas the wide number of uncertainties that governs the vehicle bridge interaction dynamics could significantly impact hypothetical techniques when applied in the field, the …

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Cerebral Vasospasm Detection And Treatment Using Transcranial Doppler Signal Analysis And Adaptive Medication Pump Mechanism, Khaled Elzaafarany Jan 2018

Cerebral Vasospasm Detection And Treatment Using Transcranial Doppler Signal Analysis And Adaptive Medication Pump Mechanism, Khaled Elzaafarany

All ETDs from UAB

In the United States, many patients pass away due to delayed detection of Cerebral Vasospasm (CV). Transcranial Doppler (TCD) is an efficient noninvasive, reliable device that can monitor the blood flow in various parts of the human brain like middle cerebral artery and basilar artery without any surgical intervention. It can help neurologists to diagnose many brain problems like edema, trauma, hemorrhage, and aneurysm. Unfortunately, continuous or even daily TCD monitoring is challenging due to the operator expertise and certification required in the form of a trained technologist, and certified physician to perform these studies. This barrier exists due to …

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Simulation Of Correlated Variables, Mixture Distributions, And Repeated Measures And Comparison Of Pharmacogenetic Prediction With Machine Learning Methods, Allison Cynthia Fialkowski Jan 2018

Simulation Of Correlated Variables, Mixture Distributions, And Repeated Measures And Comparison Of Pharmacogenetic Prediction With Machine Learning Methods, Allison Cynthia Fialkowski

All ETDs from UAB

Pharmacogenetics aims to improve individualized medicine by combining genetic information with clinical data when assigning drug treatments. Different diseases are often associated with different factors, each with its own distributional characteristics. For rare or complex diseases, these characteristics may not be well understood and standard analysis methods may not be appropriate. In psychiatric disorders, for example, multiple drug treatments need to be compared across small sample sizes with heterogeneous patient populations, making implementation of standard methods difficult. Simulating data that mirrors clinical data is important because it allows investigators to determine which method is best suited for data from their …

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Geometry- And Image-Based Methods For Analyzing Metal Casting Process Features, William Warriner Jan 2018

Geometry- And Image-Based Methods For Analyzing Metal Casting Process Features, William Warriner

All ETDs from UAB

There are no known visual software tools relating metal casting geometry directly to features of the casting process. Solidification simulations do not explicitly disclose defect locations and do not generate rigging geometry. Having geometry-based process feature models would enable cast component designers to improve castability before production. Such models would also allow for a greater degree of workflow automation in casting process optimization. Three papers are written which develop geometry-based process feature models for analysis of metal castings. The first paper explores the relationship between component geometry and solidification order and demonstrates how to rapidly estimate hotspot locations using a …

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Enabling Quantification Of Protein Concentration In Human Serum Biopsies Using Attenuated Total Reflectance – Fourier Transform Infrared (Atr-Ftir) Spectroscopy, Kate Spalding, Franck Bonnier, Clément Bruno, Hélène Blasco, Ruth E. Board, Isabelle Benz-De-Bretagne, Hugh Byrne, Holly J. Butler, Igor Chourpa, Pretheepan Radhakrishnan, Matthew J. Baker Jan 2018

Enabling Quantification Of Protein Concentration In Human Serum Biopsies Using Attenuated Total Reflectance – Fourier Transform Infrared (Atr-Ftir) Spectroscopy, Kate Spalding, Franck Bonnier, Clément Bruno, Hélène Blasco, Ruth E. Board, Isabelle Benz-De-Bretagne, Hugh Byrne, Holly J. Butler, Igor Chourpa, Pretheepan Radhakrishnan, Matthew J. Baker

Articles

Changes in protein concentrations within human blood are used as an indicator for nutritional state, hydration and underlying illnesses. They are often measured at regular clinical appointments and the current analytical process can result in long waiting times for results and the need for return patient visits. Attenuated total reflectance – Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy has the ability to detect minor molecular differences, qualitatively and quantitatively, in biofluid samples, without extensive sample preparation. ATR-FTIR can return an analytical measurement almost instantaneously and therefore could be deemed as an ideal technique for monitoring molecular alterations in blood within the clinic. …

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Formulation And In Vitro Characterisation Of Fungal Chitosan Nanoparticles Coated With Zein For Improved Oral Delivery Of Selenoamino Acids, Giuliana Vozza Jan 2018

Formulation And In Vitro Characterisation Of Fungal Chitosan Nanoparticles Coated With Zein For Improved Oral Delivery Of Selenoamino Acids, Giuliana Vozza

Doctoral

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient in both human and animal nutrition that exists in a wide array of different forms, both organic and inorganic. Selenoamino acids (SeAAs), such as selenocystine (SeCys2), selenomethionine (SeMet), and methylselenocysteine (MSC) are organic species with reported health benefits of cancer prevention, increased fertility and improved immunological status. However, supplementation of SeAAs can be challenging, due to their reported narrow therapeutic range of indices, low bioavailability and increased susceptibility to oxidation. To address this, SeAAs were encapsulated into nanoparticles (NPs) to lower their toxicity profiles in comparison to their native form, in addition to offering …

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Inverse Function: Pre-Service Teachers’ Techniques And Meanings, Teo Paoletti, Irma E. Stevens, Natalie L.F. Hobson, Kevin C. Moore, Kevin R. Laforest Jan 2018

Inverse Function: Pre-Service Teachers’ Techniques And Meanings, Teo Paoletti, Irma E. Stevens, Natalie L.F. Hobson, Kevin C. Moore, Kevin R. Laforest

Department of Mathematics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Researchers have argued teachers and students are not developing connected meanings for function inverse, thus calling for a closer examination of teachers’ and students’ inverse function meanings. Responding to this call, we characterize 25 pre-service teachers’ inverse function meanings as inferred from our analysis of clinical interviews. After summarizing relevant research, we describe the methodology and theoretical framework we used to interpret the pre-service teachers’ activities. We then present data highlighting the techniques the pre-service teachers used when responding to tasks that involved analytical and graphical representations of functions and inverse functions in both decontextualized and contextualized situations and discuss …

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A Covariational Understanding Of Function: Putting A Horse Before The Cart, Teo Paoletti, Kevin C. Moore Jan 2018

A Covariational Understanding Of Function: Putting A Horse Before The Cart, Teo Paoletti, Kevin C. Moore

Department of Mathematics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Supporting students developing understandings of function has been a notoriously elusive task in mathematics education. We present Thompson and Carlson’s (2017) description of a covariational meaning of function and provide an example of a student who maintains meanings compatible with this description. We use this student’s activity to illustrate nuances in a covariational meaning of function and to highlight how such meanings can be powerful for students. In doing so, we argue that a student who has develop meanings compatible with the covariational meaning of function presented by Thompson and Carlson has the foundational meanings needed to understand a formal …

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Interlace Polynomials Of Friendship Graphs, Christina Eubanks-Turner, Aihua Li Jan 2018

Interlace Polynomials Of Friendship Graphs, Christina Eubanks-Turner, Aihua Li

Department of Mathematics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this paper, we study the interlace polynomials of friendship graphs, that is, graphs that satisfy the Friendship Theorem given by Erdös, Rényi and Sos. Explicit formulas, special values, and behaviour of coefficients of these polynomials are provided. We also give the interlace polynomials of other similar graphs, such as, the butterfly graph.

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Examining Kindergarten Teachers' Beliefs About And Implementation Of School, Family, And Community Partnerships In Saudi Arabia, Najla Albaiz Jan 2018

Examining Kindergarten Teachers' Beliefs About And Implementation Of School, Family, And Community Partnerships In Saudi Arabia, Najla Albaiz

All ETDs from UAB

The research examined kindergarten teachers’ beliefs and implementation of school, family, and community partnerships (SFCPs) in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. It used Epstein’s model of SFCPs including the following practices: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community. Two strands were employed: the quantitative obtained teachers’ beliefs and implementation of the SFCP practices by surveying a sample of 266 teachers from 126 public kindergartens. The follow up qualitative strand included a purposeful sample of 12 teachers to explore their experiences with SFCPs within three different social and economic areas (SEAs): High, middle, and low SEAs. Two-way …

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Wireless Communication Systems Modeling And Design Using Communication Theory, Saleh Saeed S Allehaibi Jan 2018

Wireless Communication Systems Modeling And Design Using Communication Theory, Saleh Saeed S Allehaibi

All ETDs from UAB

The demand for reliable wireless communication systems has dramatically increased in recent years. Developing new methods, that exploit limited resources of power and bandwidth, is necessary to satisfy such a huge communication demand. Thus, the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system is considered an efficient solution for wireless communication systems. MIMO system provides high data rates by exploiting the spatial domain under the constraints of limited transmit power and bandwidth. One of the MIMO systems transmitting strategy is the Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs) that exploits transmit diversity and high reliability. Also, the least action principle (LAP) of information theory seeks optimal effectiveness …

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A Dissection Of Vibration Side Channels: Privacy Attacks, Countermeasures, And Defensive Applications, S Abhishek Anand Jan 2018

A Dissection Of Vibration Side Channels: Privacy Attacks, Countermeasures, And Defensive Applications, S Abhishek Anand

All ETDs from UAB

The ubiquitous nature of consumer devices like smartphones, laptops, smartwatches and other smart devices in the current era has led to increased privacy concerns from side-channel attacks that tend to exploit the seemingly benign components of these devices to eavesdrop on confidential data. In particular, many of these devices host increasingly complex hardware sensors for delivering a rich and personalized user experience by consuming a significant amount of personalized information but overlook the possible privacy leakage introduced due to lack of secure implementation of these sensors. The side-channel attacks targeting such privacy leakage are low-cost in nature, using off-the-shelf equipment …

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Creating A More Permissive Patentability Standard Under Language From The Tpp, Ryan Thorne Jan 2018

Creating A More Permissive Patentability Standard Under Language From The Tpp, Ryan Thorne

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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Organic Inkjet-Printed Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor Dc Model For Sensing Applications, Steven Gardner Jan 2018

Organic Inkjet-Printed Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor Dc Model For Sensing Applications, Steven Gardner

All ETDs from UAB

A technological renaissance is underway, allowing large-area displays, paper thin sensors, flexible electronics and printable circuits. A new circuit manufacturing technique has the potential for a plethora of promising applications from non-invasive biosensors to radio-frequency identification tags (RFIDs). Functional layers are printed onto a planar substrate by inkjet printers retrofit with conductive inks, resulting in the inkjet-printed circuit (iPC). Functional RLC components have been designed with relatively high reliability, paving the way for fully printed passive and active analog filters. The main electrical component being researched to meet industrial standards is the printed transistor. This thesis establishes a digital model …

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Comparison And Spectral Theory For Ordinary Differential Equations With Distributional Coefficients, Ahmed Ghatasheh Jan 2018

Comparison And Spectral Theory For Ordinary Differential Equations With Distributional Coefficients, Ahmed Ghatasheh

All ETDs from UAB

In this dissertation we cover two main topics in Sturm-Liouville theory, namely comparison theory and spectral theory. First we give a brief introduction to the classical Sturm-Liouville equations, the development of comparison theorems, and the classical first order system of differential equations. Second we provide a flexible comparison theorem for two Sturm-Liouville equations with distributional coefficients, and we provide some applications of our result. Finally, we investigate spectral theory of first order system of differential equations whose coefficients are distributions of order zero. We define maximal and minimal relations and classify boundary conditions that produce self-adjoint restrictions of the maximal …

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