Digital Commons Network^™

The Dissemination And Effective Use Of Physics Education Research In Undergraduate Instruction, Trevor Stefanick

Masters Theses

Based on the results of a national survey of physics faculty, a set of interviews was conducted of 70 physics faculty from a diverse set of institutions. The interviews included questions about the dissemination and effective use of curricula and instructional strategies based on Physics Education Research (PER), focused to obtain recommendations to the PER community that might help to spread the use of these PER-based materials. Approximately half of the interviews (those with faculty who indicated knowledge about or use of Peer Instruction) have been previously analyzed. This project is the analysis of the 38 interviews that were conducted …

Suppression Of Pair Creation Due To A Steady Magnetic Field, W Su, M Jiang, Z Q. Lv, Rainer Grobe, Qichang Su

Faculty publications – Physics

We investigate the electron-positron pair creation process in a supercritical static electric field in the presence of a static magnetic field that is perpendicular. If both fields vary spatially in one direction the dynamics can be reduced to a set of one-dimensional systems. Using a generalized computational quantum field theoretical procedure, we calculate the time dependence of the spatial density for the created electrons. In the presence of the magnetic field, a significant amount of suppression of pair creation is observed in the simulations and confirmed by an analytical analysis for the limits of short-range fields and long interaction times. …

Summer 2012: Beautiful To Behold, St. Norbert College

St. Norbert College Magazine 2007-2012

An understanding of loveliness

St. Augustine saw beauty as a life-saving force in our lives, “a plank amid the waves of the sea.” It is his rule – the Rule of Augustine – that St. Norbert adopted for his order, so it seems especially fitting to reflect upon his words as we explore, in this issue, the nature of the beautiful.

On the cover: Faithful stewardship is a cornerstone of Norbertine practice and it’s a responsibility that the college community has taken very much to its communal heart. One of the many blessings that we reap is our collective ownership …

Effect Of Reduction Of Breath-Holding Time In The Single-Breath Method To Assess Carbon Monoxide Diffusing Capacity, Elsa Magro

Masters

Measurement of the diffusing capacity of the lung is part of the routine pulmonary function assessment in every patient and the single breath method is the most commonly used method. This method requires a subject to inspire a gas mixture followed by a 10 second (s) breath-hold. However dyspnoea may preclude measurement in patients with advanced pulmonary disease. We sought to determine if breath-hold time reduction had a significant effect on measured DLco values.
Forced spirometry and CO-diffusion by the single breath method were
performed by a respiratory scientist with a Jaeger master-screen PFT equipment, in duplicate with breath-holding of …

Optimization Studies For The Cobra Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Experiment And Results From A Prototype, Jerrad Martin

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The COBRA experiment uses Cadmium Zinc Telluride: CZT) room-temperature semiconductor detectors to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of cadmium-116. While the experiment has produced globally competitive half-life limits with data from coplanar-grid CZT detectors, a future ton-scale iteration could set limits constraining the effective Majorana neutrino mass to less than 100 meV. The aim of this work is to determine the optimal CZT detector type for such an experiment. First, an overview of the relevant neutrino physics as well as an introduction to the COBRA experiment is presented. The performance characteristics and design criteria for CZT detectors are then …

Studies Of Lung Micromechanics Via Hyperpolarized 3he Diffusion Nmr, Adam Hajari

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

While high quality MR Images of lungs are difficult to obtain with conventional proton MRI due to the organ's low tissue density, the advent of techniques in noble gas polarization have enabled MR investigations of the lung's more abundant air space rather than its tissue. In addition to high-resolution images of lung ventilation, lung morphometry via gas diffusion NMR provides information about the size and shape of the microscopic airways that account for over 95% of the lung's airspace. Consequently, gas diffusion NMR provides an important new tool for investigating changes in lung microstructure during macroscopic changes in lung volume. …

University Scholar Series: Alejandro Garcia, Alejandro Garcia

University Scholar Series

Collaborating with DreamWorks

On April 25, 2012 Professor Alejandro Garcia spoke in the University Scholar Series hosted by Provost Ellen Junn at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Professor Alejandro Garcia developed and teaches Physics of Animation, a science course for visual artists. During 2011, he took a professional leave and worked in DreamWorks Animation's department of Artistic Development as a physics consultant on Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. In this seminar, Alejandro Garcia describes the animation industry from both the scientific and artistic perspectives

Breaking Glass: Exploring The Relationship Between Kinetic Energy And Radial Fracturing In Plate Glass, Andrea Hulman

Scripps Senior Theses

When glass breaks from the impact of an object, it exhibits a distinctive shattering pattern comprised of two different regions. This pattern was investigated using experimental impacts and predicted using Young’s Modulus. Results were not as expected, and it is likely that there exists error in some measurements. Further investigation of this topic is recommended.

Reversability Of Arctic Sea Ice Retreat - A Conceptual Multi-Scale Modeling Approach, Marc Mueller-Stoffels

Physics

The ice-albedo feedback has been identified as an important factor in the decay of the Arctic sea ice cover in a warming climate. Mechanisms of transition from perennial ice cover to seasonal ice cover are discussed in the literature; the existence of a tipping point is disputed. A newly developed regular network model for energy exchange and phase transition of an ice covered ocean mixed layer is introduced. The existence of bistability, a key ingredient for irreversibility, on local and regional scales is explored. It is shown in a spatially confined model that the asymptotic behavior and the existence of …

An Interdisciplinary Computational Study Of Magnetosphere-Ionsphere Coupling And Its Visual And Thermal Impact In The Auroral Region, John Styers

Geosciences

A three-dimensional, three-fluid simulation (ions, electrons, and neutrals) was explicitly parallelized, facilitating the study of small-scale magnetospheric-ionospheric (M-I) coupling processes. The model has ionization and recombination, self-consistently (semi-empirically) determined collision frequencies, and a height resolved ionosphere. Inclusion of ion inertial terms in the momentum equation enables the propagation of Alfven waves. Investigation at small scales required large system domains, and thus fast parallel computers. The model was explicitly parallelized---enabling investigations of M-I coupling processes on very small temporal and spatial scales. The generation, reflection, and propagation of Alfven waves is of importance to the understanding of M-1 coupling processes---it is, …

Characterizing Electrons In Primary And Secondary Magnetic Islands During Magnetic Reconnection, Jason Shuster

Honors Theses and Capstones

The physics underlying particle-in-cell simulations that are widely employed in studying plasma dynamics are reviewed. Results from a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of fully kinetic, undriven, collisionless magnetic reconnection are studied to compare the electrons in a primary magnetic island formed from an ion current sheet and the electrons in a secondary island formed in an electron current layer. We find that the secondary island is born with a strong out-of-plane current density due to localized peaks in the electron density and out-of-plane electron velocity; the secondary island retains these features as it evolves, distinguishing it from the primary island. For …

Pair Creation Enhancement Due To Combined External Fields, M Jiang, W Su, Z Q. Lv, X Lu, Y J. Li, Rainer Grobe, Qichang Su

Faculty publications – Physics

We study the creation of electron-positron pairs from the vacuum induced by a combination of a static electric field and an alternating field. We find that the overall pair production can be increased by two orders of magnitude compared to the yields associated with each field individually. We examine the interesting case where both fields are spatially localized, permitting us to examine the time evolution of the spatial density for the created particle pairs. We find that there are a variety of competing mechanisms that contribute to the total yield.

Local And Nonlocal Spatial Densities In Quantum Field Theory, R E. Wagner, M R. Ware, E V. Stefanovich, Qichang Su, Rainer Grobe

Faculty publications – Physics

We use a one-dimensional model system to compare the predictions of two different yardsticks to compute the position of a particle from its quantum field theoretical state. Based on the first yardstick (defined by the Newton-Wigner position operator), the spatial density can be arbitrarily narrow, and its time evolution is superluminal for short time intervals. Furthermore, two spatially distant particles might be able to interact with each other outside the light cone, which is manifested by an asymmetric spreading of the spatial density. The second yardstick (defined by the quantum field operator) does not permit localized states, and the time …

The Equation, Winter 2012, College Of Science And Mathematics, Wright State University

College of Science and Mathematics Newsletters

This 39 page newsletter discusses various happenings within the College of Science and Mathematics. It begins with a letter from the dean, and continues on with news, events, alumni news, and other community news.

Is It Time To Forget Science? Reflections On Singular Science And Its History, Jan V. Golinski

History

The name history of science refl ects a set of assumptions about what science is. Among them is the claim that science is a singular thing, a potentially unifi ed group of disciplines that share a common identity. Long promoted by scientists and philosophers on the basis of a supposedly universal scientifi c method, this claim now looks very embattled. I trace its development from the early nineteenth century and the growth of the positivist movement to its various manifestations in the twentieth century. Recently, some historians have called for the term science to be relinquished, and for adoption of …

Search For Heavy, Top-Like Quark Pair Production In The Dilepton Final State In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

The results of a search for pair production of a heavy, top-like quark, t', in the decay mode t't̅' → bW⁺ b̅W⁻ → bℓ ⁺νb̅ℓ ⁻ν̅ are presented. The search is performed with a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb⁻¹ in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The observed number of events agrees with the expectation from standard model processes, and no evidence of t't̅' production is found. Upper limits on the production cross section as a function …

An Investigation Of Air Resistance On Projectile Motion From Aristotle To Euler, Michael Edward Clayton

Theses Digitization Project

From antiquity until today, mathematicians have tried to develop a theory of projectile motion. The development of a theory of projectile motion began with just a basic observation of motion by the great Greek mathematician Aristotle and has evolved to become more than conjecture or hypothesis, but a well developed science of prediciting the flight and accuracy of a projectile in motion. This thesis traces the development of the theory of projectile motion from Greek antiquity to about the mid 1700's.

Inclusive And Differential Measurements Of The Tt̅ Charge Asymmetry In Proton–Proton Collisions At √S= 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

The tt̅ charge asymmetry is measured in events containing a charged lepton (electron or muon) and at least four jets, one of which is identified as originating from b-quark hadronization. The analyzed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb⁻¹ collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. An inclusive and three differential measurements of the tt̅ charge asymmetry as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum, and invariant mass of the tt̅ system are presented. The measured inclusive tt̅ charge asymmetry is A_C = 0.004 ± 0.010 (stat.) ± 0.011 (syst.). This result and the three …

Search For Neutral Higgs Bosons Decaying To Tau Pairs In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is performed using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb⁻¹ recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The search is sensitive to both the standard model Higgs boson and to the neutral Higgs bosons predicted by the minimal super symmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM). No excess of events is observed in the tau-pair invariant-mass spectrum. For a standard model Higgs boson in the mass range of 110–145 GeV upper limits at 95% confidence level (CL) on …

Search For Heavy Majorana Neutrinos In Μ±Μ± +Jets And E±E± + Jets Events In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A search is performed for heavy Majorana neutrinos (N) using an event signature defined by two samesign charged leptons of the same flavour and two jets. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 fb⁻¹ of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess of events is observed beyond the expected standard model background and therefore upper limits are set on the square of the mixing parameter, |V_ℓN|², for ℓ = e,μ, as a function of heavy Majorana-neutrino …

Search For Physics Beyond The Standard Model In Events With A Z Boson, Jets, And Missing Transverse Energy In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, Jamila Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in events with a Z boson, jets, and missing transverse energy (E^miss_T ). This signature is motivated by BSM physics scenarios, including supersymmetry. The study is performed using a sample of proton–proton collision data collected at √s = 7 TeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 fb⁻¹. The contributions from the dominant standard model backgrounds are estimated from data using two complementary strategies, the jet-Z balance technique and a method based on modeling E^miss_T with …

Search For The Standard Model Higgs Boson Decaying To Bottom Quarks In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, Jamila Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A search for the standard model Higgs boson (H) decaying to bb̅ when produced in association with weak vector bosons (V) is reported for the following modes: W(μν)H, W(eν)H, Z(μμ)H, Z(ee)H and Z(νν)H. The search is performed in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb⁻¹, recorded by the CMS detector in proton–proton collisions at the LHC with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. No significant excess of events above the expectation from background is observed. Upper limits on the V H production cross section times the …

Process-Evaluation Of Tropospheric Humidity Simulated By General Circulation Models Using Water Vapor Isotopologues: 1. Comparison Between Models And Observations, Camille Risi, David Noone, John Worden, Christian Frankenberg, Gabriele Stiller, Michael Kiefer, Bernd Funke, Kaley Walker, Peter Bernath, Matthias Schneider, Debra Wunch, Vanessa Sherlock, Nicholas Deutscher, David Griffith, Paul O. Wennberg, Kimberly Strong, Dan Smale, Emmanuel Mahieu, Sabine Barthlott, Frank Hase, Omaira García, Justus Notholt, Thorsten Warneke, Geoffrey Toon, David Sayres, Sandrine Bony, Jeonghoon Lee, Derek Brown, Ryu Uemura, Christophe Sturm

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The goal of this study is to determine how H₂O and HDO measurements in water vapor can be used to detect and diagnose biases in the representation of processes controlling tropospheric humidity in atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs). We analyze a large number of isotopic data sets (four satellite, sixteen ground-based remote-sensing, five surface in situ and three aircraft data sets) that are sensitive to different altitudes throughout the free troposphere. Despite significant differences between data sets, we identify some observed HDO/H₂O characteristics that are robust across data sets and that can be used to evaluate …

Plasma Relaxation And Topological Aspects In Hall Magnetohydrodynamics, Bhimsen K. Shivamoggi

Faculty Bibliography 2010s

Parker's formulation of isotopological plasma relaxation process in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is extended to Hall MHD. The torsion coefficient a in the Hall MHD Beltrami condition turns out now to be proportional to the potential vorticity. The Hall MHD Beltrami condition becomes equivalent to the potential vorticity conservation equation in two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamics if the Hall MHD Lagrange multiplier beta is taken to be proportional to the potential vorticity as well. The winding pattern of the magnetic field lines in Hall MHD then appears to evolve in the same way as potential vorticity lines in 2D hydrodynamics.

Structural, Magnetic, And Electron Transport Properties Of Mnbi:Fe Thin Films, Parashu Kharel, X. Z. Li, V. R. Shah, N. Al-Aqtash, K. Tarawneh, Renat F. Sabirianov, R. Skomski, D. J. Sellmyer

Physics Faculty Publications

The structural, magnetic, and electron transport properties ofMn55=xFexBi45 (x¼0, 2, 4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 16) films prepared by multilayer deposition and annealing using e-beam evaporation have been investigated. Fe doping has produced a significant change in the magnetic properties of the samples including the decrease in saturation magnetization and magnetocrystalline anisotropy and increase in coercivity. Although the magnetization shows a smooth decrease with increasing Fe concentration, the coercivity jumps abruptly from 8.5 kOe to 22 kOe as Fe content changes from 4% to 5%, but the change in coercivity is small as the concentration goes beyond 5%. The temperature …

An Investigation On The Resonance Observed In A Spirally Shielded Twinaxial Differential Pair, David Richard Levine

Master's Theses and Capstones

Spirally shielded twinaxial cable assemblies are extensively used in multi-gigabit-per-second digital telecommunications systems. Unlike ideally shielded Twinaxial cables, spirally shielded cables exhibit resonant behavior which limits system throughput.

This body of work illustrates a predictive method for determining resonant behavior in twinaxial cables through physical measurement of commercially available cables and analogous transmission line fixtures, full-wave and quasi-static simulations, and equivalent circuit analysis.

It will be shown that frequency dependent standing wave resonances in twinaxial cables are independent of cable length and dependent on cross-sectional feature sizes, dielectric properties, and spiral shield pitch.

Monitoring Australian Year 8 Student Achievement Internationally : Timss 2011, Sue Thomson, Kylie Hillman, Nicole Wernert

TIMSS 2011 and PIRLS 2011

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2011) is an international study directed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). In Australia, TIMSS was managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), and funded by the Australian and state and territory governments.

The goal of TIMSS is to provide comparative information about educational achievement across countries to improve teaching and learning in mathematics and science. It also provides comparative perspectives on trends in achievement in the context of different educational systems, school organisational approaches and instructional practices and to enable this, TIMSS collects …

Spatial Ability And Achievement In High School Physics, Michael Shawn Liner

LSU Master's Theses

This study investigates the relationship between a student’s spatial abilities and their success in high school physics. First, I investigate whether the success of students in high school physics class correlates with their spatial abilities before taking the class. Second, I investigate whether taking high school physics has an effect on student’s spatial abilities. No direct intervention was given to any of the students. Three instruments were administered to determine the student’s spatial abilities, The Perspective Taking/Spatial Orientation Test (Hegarty & Waller, 2004), The Mental Rotation Test (Peters & Laeng, 1995), and The Paper Folding Test (Ekstrom, French, Harmon, & …

The Mechanisms Of Luminescence From Zno Under Electron Irradiation, Devin Marlinjames Todd

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Zinc Oxide has been utilized for centuries in a wide range of applications including medical, food, and materials. It is now that ZnO draws much attention to its potential as a high frequency semiconductor and UV laser. As a result, there has been much investigation into the properties of ZnO and many papers have been published in the area. Despite this fact, there is still much that is unknown about its electronic defect structure. This research investigates the broad region of the Zinc Oxide luminescence spectrum known as the green band, which lies roughly between 480 - 580 nm or …

Characterization Of Ceramic Matrix Composite Materials Using Millimeter-Wave Techniques, Matthew Lee Bischoff

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes studies that were carried out on Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC) materials. These materials were provided by the Air Force Research Laboratory for evaluation in the millimeter-wave frequency region with the goal of developing Non-Destructive Evaluation techniques. This thesis centers on describing the measured reflections from an Oxide/Oxide and SiC/SiNC CMC materials. Models were derived from the Fresnel equations to account for the reflected and transmitted waves in these materials. System models were developed to describe the power coupling of the spectra measured in three separate measurement systems. Using these models the complex index of refraction was determined …