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Articles 1711 - 1740 of 2429

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Point Of Gaze Applications For Assistive Interaction, Jonathan Walter Rich Jan 2012

Point Of Gaze Applications For Assistive Interaction, Jonathan Walter Rich

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Eye tracking has many useful applications in human-machine interfaces and assistive technologies. Traditional input methods, such as the keyboard and mouse, are not practical in certain situations and can be completely ineffective for users with physical disabilities. Since many computing interfaces contain a strong visual component, it follows that knowledge of the user's point of gaze (PoG) can be extremely useful. Several approaches to PoG tracking have been described with various results and associated costs. Commercially available tracking devices have proven to be very useful for some disabled users, though often the systems can be cost prohibitive. Many computing applications …

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An Experiment In Developing Small Mobile Phone Applications Comparing On-Phone To Off-Phone Development, Tuan Anh Nguyen Jan 2012

An Experiment In Developing Small Mobile Phone Applications Comparing On-Phone To Off-Phone Development, Tuan Anh Nguyen

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

TouchDevelop represents a radically new mobile application development model, as TouchDevelop enables mobile application development on a mobile device. I.e., with TouchDevelop, the task of programming say a Windows Phone is shifted from the desktop computer to the mobile phone itself. We describe a first experiment on independent, non-expert subjects to compare programmer productivity using TouchDevelop vs. using a more traditional approach to mobile application development.

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Development Of A Detached Vital Sign Home Monitoring Management System, Anderson John Jan 2012

Development Of A Detached Vital Sign Home Monitoring Management System, Anderson John

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Patients coping with chronic illnesses are often inconvenienced with routine doctor visits for the sole purpose of conducting basic vital sign monitoring. Such visits tend to be disruptive, and are more so when the patient requires a lengthy commute or has a mobility disability. As technology progresses, advances in low powered integrated circuits and network connectivity has opened the doors to a new world of remote patient monitoring. This thesis explores the possibility of using low powered technology to develop a patient monitoring system that's completely detached, thus allowing patients to move around their homes while the monitoring continues. We …

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Prominent Streaks Discovery On Blog Articles, Jijo John Philip Jan 2012

Prominent Streaks Discovery On Blog Articles, Jijo John Philip

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

We are surrounded by data in various forms such as instant messages, Twitter tweets, Facebook status updates, news, media, blogs and much more. Extracting meaning from such a massive collection of unstructured data would lead to interesting stories. Examples of such stories can be ``\emph{Who was the most popular actor in a particular month}''or ``\emph{Which diseases were people most concerned about in year 2008}''. In this thesis, we propose to discover popular entities mentioned in blog articles based on the concept of prominent streak. Given a sequence of values for a named entity (e.g., a person, a place, etc.), where …

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On Feasibility Of Fingerprinting Wireless Sensor Nodes Using Physical Properties, Xiaowei Mei Jan 2012

On Feasibility Of Fingerprinting Wireless Sensor Nodes Using Physical Properties, Xiaowei Mei

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Fingerprinting wireless devices using physical properties has been recently suggested as an alternative for device identification and authentication. It has been found that the clock skew caused by the frequency discrepancy of the quartz crystals in different devices can be used as a reliable source for fingerprinting. Researchers have studied the application of the clock skew-based fingerprinting in sensor networks and claimed that it can detect fake identities, wormholes, and node replicas. However, the study in this paper draws a completely opposite conclusion, i.e., the clock skew of sensor nodes can be easily forged by adversaries to evade the detection. …

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Pushpop: A Card Game, Vishal Subramani Jan 2012

Pushpop: A Card Game, Vishal Subramani

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

In this thesis we have designed and implemented an Android card game called PushPop. This game is meant to stimulate the interest of kids in math learning. The Android game has cards with mathematical signs instead of the traditional suits. To reach the goal kids have to perform a lot of mathematical operations which helps them learn maths in a fun and effective way. A study was made to classify PushPop into the various games under the research umbrella of Game Theory. After the analysis we conclude that PushPop is a non-co-operative, symmetric, non-zero sum, simultaneously and imperfect information game …

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Comparing Web Application Scanners For Xss Attacks, Dengfeng Xia Jan 2012

Comparing Web Application Scanners For Xss Attacks, Dengfeng Xia

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

As software industry is paying increasing attention to web application security, various testing tools with black box testing feature have been developed. To better evaluate their performance, researchers have made efforts in several ways. Since XSS attack is one of the major attacks which can bring severe damages to victims, it is meaningful to pay specific attention to its testing process. However, many web application scanner evaluation projects make comparisons about various vulnerability types, and they are not dedicated to XSS issues enough. Their evaluations either use vulnerable applications in real life, or use test cases created by themselves, and …

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A Novel Scheme For Contact Predictions In Opportunistic Networks, Sujoy Kumar Bhattacharya Jan 2012

A Novel Scheme For Contact Predictions In Opportunistic Networks, Sujoy Kumar Bhattacharya

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

In the opportunistic network (ON) paradigm information is exchanged between two devices as they encounter each other. For such information exchange to take place the devices must know about the presence of other devices in the neighborhood. A very fundamental problem in ON is to predict the occurrence of a future opportunistic contact which is otherwise highly dynamic and unreliable. An accurate predictor which takes into account the long time history can benefit from multiple objectives. Such a predictor switches to the data transfer mode in anticipation of a contact. Also it maximizes the number of opportunistic contacts while spending …

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Shaping Network Topology For Privacy And Performance, Md Monjurul Hasan Jan 2012

Shaping Network Topology For Privacy And Performance, Md Monjurul Hasan

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Anonymity systems provide privacy for Internet communication and are becoming popular. Unfortunately, users experience slow Internet connection through existing systems because paths used to route traffic are selected randomly without considering latency between nodes. In our work, we aim to design a better approach for selecting paths in anonymity systems with improved performance and without sacrificing privacy. We consider stratified topologies for our design where nodes are divided into three hops. We propose a scheme to build restricted network topologies on top of a stratified topology that maximizes throughput. First, we use Tabu Search to build latency-aware stratified restricted topologies …

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Control Framework Dynamic Walking Of A Bipedal Robot, Kishan Kumar Bhongale Prabhakar Prasad Jan 2012

Control Framework Dynamic Walking Of A Bipedal Robot, Kishan Kumar Bhongale Prabhakar Prasad

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Despite significant progress in recent years, the capabilities of today's Humanoid robots still lack behind the walking abilities of humans in terms of competence, robustness, flexibility, and speed. Furthermore, unknown environmental conditions and related constraints imposed on the robot significantly increase the complexity of locomotion control and decision making for such systems, easily making planning-based approaches intractable. Part of the reason for this is that the control of a humanoid encompasses observation, processing the observed data, and decision making in terms of locomotion gait and body pose parameters. This key information derived from observations and internal robot information finally allows …

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Numerical Simulation Of The Base-Level Buffers And Buttresses Conceptual Model Of Fluvial Systems, Ronnie Tooyak Tingook Jan 2012

Numerical Simulation Of The Base-Level Buffers And Buttresses Conceptual Model Of Fluvial Systems, Ronnie Tooyak Tingook

Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertations - Archive

A Buffer in fluvial stratigraphy is a potentiometric surface which defines either: a) the lowest possible depth to which streams will incise; or b) the maximum elevation to which aggradation will occur; together, these surfaces define a buffer zone. The buffer zone is tied down profile to a Buttress which defines base level for the system. A buttress shift, i.e., change in sea-level or shoreline-trajectory sensu (Catuneanu et al., 2009), will effect a change as to where the buffer zone exists for a fluvial system at a particular point in time. These terms were all introduced in (Holbrook et al., …

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On-Road Measurement Of Nox And Co₂ Emissions From Biodiesel Produced From Different Feedstocks, Natchanok Pala-En Jan 2012

On-Road Measurement Of Nox And Co₂ Emissions From Biodiesel Produced From Different Feedstocks, Natchanok Pala-En

Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertations - Archive

Biodiesel has generated increased interest in the US and elsewhere recently as an alternative to petroleum-derived diesel. Because it can be produced from domestic feedstocks such as soybeans, canola oil, and even recycled cooking oil, biodiesel can help reduce dependence on foreign petroleum. Due to its high oxygen content, biodiesel typically burns more completely than petroleum diesel, and thus has lower emissions of hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM). However, biodiesel may increase or decrease nitrogen oxide (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, depending on engine type, test cycle, and biodiesel feedstock. Therefore, the purpose of this …

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On Primitivity And Dimension Of Finite Semifields And Their Planes, Linlin Chen Jan 2012

On Primitivity And Dimension Of Finite Semifields And Their Planes, Linlin Chen

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

The study of semifields was originated by L.E. Dickson in 1905 and was greatly developed in the 1960s by Albert, Knuth, Walker, Kleinfeld among others. Two problems of interest in this area are the primitivity of semifields and the dimension of semifields.For the first problem, we provide an equivalent condition for the right (or left) primitivity of finite semifields and with this result, we find that the classical Knuth binary semifields of order 2^{15}, 2^{17} and 2^{19} are all right and left primitive; the Albert semifields of order 2^i, where i=7, 9, 11, 13 are all primitive. Also we prove …

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Molecular Engineered Myoglobin With Unnatural Amino Acids As A Peroxidase, Kananke Sriyani Liyanage Jan 2012

Molecular Engineered Myoglobin With Unnatural Amino Acids As A Peroxidase, Kananke Sriyani Liyanage

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses - Archive

Myoglobin (Mb) has been used as a model system to mimic other biologically important heme proteins like cytochrome P450 due to its ability to prepare mixed ligand complexes with different valencies, such as ferric, ferrous and ferryl species. It has been engineered to perform peroxidase, peroxygenase, monooxygenase and catalase activities. However, previous work on this area has shown that the distal histidine (H64) in the active of wild-type Mb is a critical residue, which destabilizes compound I, the reactive intermediate of the catalytic cycle (a ferryl ð-porphyrin radical cation). Therefore in this study we replaced H64 with a smaller residue, …

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Predicting The Ancient Occurrence Of Coal Deposits Using Paleoclimate Modelling, Mandi Beck Jan 2012

Predicting The Ancient Occurrence Of Coal Deposits Using Paleoclimate Modelling, Mandi Beck

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

Coals are accumulated and consolidated remains of plant material, which means that in order to form coals, a certain amount of annual precipitation is required. This study uses paleo-precipitation data obtained from Fast Ocean Atmosphere Model (FOAM) and predicts where paleo-coal deposits might occur. All predicted coal localities were plotted on paleogeographic reconstructions (obtained from the PALEOMAP Project) for thirteen time intervals from the Early Carboniferous to present. Once these predicted coal deposits were plotted, observed coals from the Boucot et al., 2012 database were then plotted on the same reconstructed basemaps. The predicted coal deposits were then compared with …

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Bioanalytical Lc-Ms: Streamlined Sampled Preparation And Novel Ambient Ionization Techniques, Samuel Hsiao-Chieh Yang Jan 2012

Bioanalytical Lc-Ms: Streamlined Sampled Preparation And Novel Ambient Ionization Techniques, Samuel Hsiao-Chieh Yang

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

Bioanalysis has gained importance in the scientific at an exponential rate. The focus of these works attempt to seek new approaches towards faster and more efficient bioanalysis that require little to no sample preparation. One approach is the use of new restricted access media trap technologies to facilitate an online sample preparation platform. A demonstration of the advantages of RAM involves the trace level detection of bisphenol A, an environmental contaminant. A bulk derivatization strategy used in combination with RAM trap technologies is adopted to boost sensitivity without the use of traditional sample preparation methods. Another strategy is the use …

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Chemostratigraphy And Geochemical Constraints On The Deposition Of The Bakken Formation, Williston Basin, Eastern Montana And Western North Dakota, David Nyrup Maldonado Jan 2012

Chemostratigraphy And Geochemical Constraints On The Deposition Of The Bakken Formation, Williston Basin, Eastern Montana And Western North Dakota, David Nyrup Maldonado

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

The late Devonian-early Mississippian Bakken Formation was deposited in a structural-sedimentary intracratonic basin that extends across a large part of modern day North Dakota, eastern Montana, and the southern portion of Canada's Saskatchewan Province. The deposition of the Bakken Formation occurred during a fascinating period of geologic time that is linked to one of the five major mass extinctions. The occurrences of these mass extinctions are recorded worldwide as organic rich mud rocks similar to the ones found in the Bakken Formation. Collectively, the Bakken Formation consists of a middle dolomitic siltstone that is representative of a transgressive deposit and …

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Heavy Metal Contamination Of Road Dust In Lanzhou, China, Michael Hiett Jan 2012

Heavy Metal Contamination Of Road Dust In Lanzhou, China, Michael Hiett

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

Road dusts were collected from the streets of the city of Lanzhou, the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. The potential health hazard posed by contaminated road dusts may be considerable for certain sensitive populations. Specifically young children who, while exploring their environment by mouthing and touching, may inadvertently ingest polluted soils and dusts through hand-to-mouth-activity, and through mouthing contaminated objects. Lanzhou, once ranked as one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, clearly has, in all likelihood many locales with elevated levels of pollutants in various environmental media (e.g., air, water, soil and …

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A New Integrative Data Mining Framework For Analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas Data, Dijun Luo Jan 2012

A New Integrative Data Mining Framework For Analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas Data, Dijun Luo

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Besides accuracy and efficiency, understandability is another key issue of predictive modeling in real-world applications, especially in biomedical and healthcare data analysis. We develop a new integrative framework to enhance the interpretability of data by sparsity-based learning. We proposed several novel sparsity-based learning models, emphasizing different understandable properties of data, such as explicit sparsity, low redundancy, and low rank, and apply to The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data analysis. Results indicate that the proposed methods provide more insights from TCGA data while maintaining stable and competitive performances in predictive modeling. To further enhance the interpretability of biological processes and disease …

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From Phenotype To Genotype: A Structured Sparse Learning Framework For Imaging Genetics Studies, Hua Wang Jan 2012

From Phenotype To Genotype: A Structured Sparse Learning Framework For Imaging Genetics Studies, Hua Wang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Sparsity is one of the intrinsic properties of real-world data, thus sparse representation based learning models have been widely used to simplify data modeling and discover predictive patterns. By enforcing properly designed structured sparsity, one can unify specific data structures with the learning model. We proposed several novel structured sparsity learning models for multi-modal data fusion, heterogeneous tasks integration, and group structured feature selection. We applied our new structured sparse learning methods to the emerging imaging genetics studies by integrating phenotypes and genotypes to discover new biomarkers which are able to characterize neurodegenerative process in the progression of Alzheimer's disease …

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Epigenetics Of Hoxc13 Endocrine Regulation And Its Role In Gene Expression And Tumorigenesis, Sahba Kasiri Jan 2012

Epigenetics Of Hoxc13 Endocrine Regulation And Its Role In Gene Expression And Tumorigenesis, Sahba Kasiri

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

HOX genes are a subgroup of homeobox containing gene superfamily and have crucial roles in cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and embryonic development. HOXC13, one of 39 identified human HOX genes, is involved in hair development and human leukemia. The regulatory mechanism that drives HOXC13 expression is mostly unknown. Our studies demonstrated that HOXC13 is transcriptionally activated by steroid hormone estrogen (17ß-estradiol; E2). The HOXC13 promoter contains several estrogen responsive elements (EREs), including ERE1 and ERE2, which are close to the transcription start site, and are associated with E2-mediated activation of HOXC13. Knockdown of estrogen receptors (ERs) ERɑ and ERß suppressed …

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New Bonded Phase Materials For Separtions, Sirantha Perera Jan 2012

New Bonded Phase Materials For Separtions, Sirantha Perera

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

Separations play an important role in day to day life as well as in science and technology. This dissertation focuses on novel and versatile techniques involving synthesizing new bonded chiral stationary phases (CSPs) and using existing CSPs for the separation of target chiral analytes in HPLC. It also includes development of new ionic liquid (IL) based silica bonded polymeric coatings for solid phase microextraction gas chromatography (SPME-GC) in headspace and direct immersion for polar analytes and finally, coupling new MALDI matrix bonded SPME fibers and laser desorption for rapid identification of biological materials. Enantiomerically pure Ru complexes were introduced as …

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Photo-Driven One And Two-Electron Processes Of Tetraazatetrapyridopentacene And Substituted Dipyridophenazine Ligands In The Presence Or Absence Of Zinc And Ruthenium Complexation, Joseph M. Aslan Jan 2012

Photo-Driven One And Two-Electron Processes Of Tetraazatetrapyridopentacene And Substituted Dipyridophenazine Ligands In The Presence Or Absence Of Zinc And Ruthenium Complexation, Joseph M. Aslan

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

Herein, we report the interaction of light with Zn(II) and Ru(II) adducts of the polypyridal ligands tetraazatetrapyridopentacene (tatpp) and dipyridophenazine (dppz). For examples where Zn(II) is coordinated to tatpp and dppz, we have established a kinetic isotope effect for photo-oxidation of alcohols using both metal-free and metal-bound complexes of tatpp and dppz. The data supports H-atom transfer mechanism in the absence of Zn(II), and a formal "hydride" transfer in the presence of Zn(II).We also report herein the synthesis and characterization of various [Ru(phen)2(dppzX2)]2+ complexes using analytical techniques such as NMR, ESI-MS, CHN, and UV/Vis. We have chemically and electrochemically generated …

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New Results In Finite Geometries Pertaining To Albert-Like Semifields, Angela Michelle Brown Jan 2012

New Results In Finite Geometries Pertaining To Albert-Like Semifields, Angela Michelle Brown

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

One of the most widely studied class of semifields are the generalized twisted fields defined by Albert in the 50s and 60s. The collineation groups of generalized twisted field planes have been completely described. In a series of papers Cordero and Figueroa studied semifields with an autotopism that acts transitively on one side of the autotopism triangle, equivalently the plane admits an autotopism which induces a permutation on a side of the autotopism triangle of order a p-primitive divisor of pr - 1. They showed that with some minor exceptions the plane is a generalized twisted field plane. These planes …

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The Variations Of Geomagnetic Energy And Solar Irradiance And Their Impacts On Earth's Upper Atmosphere, Yanshi Huang Jan 2012

The Variations Of Geomagnetic Energy And Solar Irradiance And Their Impacts On Earth's Upper Atmosphere, Yanshi Huang

Physics Dissertations - Archive

The primary energy sources of Earth's upper atmosphere are the solar irradiance and geomagnetic energy including Joule heating and particle precipitation. Various data and models are utilized to investigate the variations of energy inputs and their influences on the coupled thermosphere-ionosphere system. First, the Flare Irradiance Spectral Model (FISM) has been used and the data show that the solar irradiance enhancement has wavelength dependence during flare events, and it increased largest in the XUV range. NCAR Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIE-GCM) simulations for the X17.2-class flare event on October 28th, 2003 (X17.2) show that the impact of solar irradiance enhancement …

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Multi Person Tracking And Querying With Heterogeneous Sensors, Shahina Ferdous Jan 2012

Multi Person Tracking And Querying With Heterogeneous Sensors, Shahina Ferdous

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Tracking the location of a user is considered to be the most fundamental step for creating a context aware application, such as activity monitoring in an assistive environment. This problem becomes very challenging if there are multiple people involved in this scenario. The reason is that any multi-person environment, such as a hospital, demands simultaneous identification and localization mechanisms, thus making the system very complex. In this dissertation, we present a novel, less-intrusive system that uses RFIDs and sensors deployed at various locations of an assistive apartment to continuously track and identify every person in a multi-person assistive environment. Our …

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Spin Coupling By Conduction Electrons Explored By Double Time Green's Functions, William Robert Decker Jan 2012

Spin Coupling By Conduction Electrons Explored By Double Time Green's Functions, William Robert Decker

Physics Theses - Archive

The impurities containing unfilled d or f shells may have localized magnetic moments in nonmagnetic metals, semiconductors, and superconductors under certain conditions. These localized moments interact with each other through the spin polarization field of conduction electrons. The indirect coupling between magnetic impurities is referred to as the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction which is important in describing the magnetic and thermodynamic properties of magnetic nanostructures. The interaction may be expressed as a long range oscillatory function. I explored the properties of the indirect exchange interaction between localized moments in different dimensions using the s-d model and the Green's functions method. An …

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Atomic Adsorptions On Actinide Surfaces: Pathways To Nuclear Energy, Dayla Renee Morrison Jan 2012

Atomic Adsorptions On Actinide Surfaces: Pathways To Nuclear Energy, Dayla Renee Morrison

Physics Theses - Archive

The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) to density functional theory (DFT) and hybrid density functional theory have been used to compute the layer-by-layer properties of γ-uranium (γ-U) in the (100) symmetry. Guided by bulk results which have been analyzed at six different levels of theory, the surface calculations have been performed at the non-magnetic level including spin-orbit coupling. The ground state bulk lattice constant and bulk modulus are found to be 3.46 A and 113.75 GPa, respectively at the non-magnetic with spin-orbit coupling level (NM+SOC) of theory. The monolayer displays a significant shrinking of the “effective” lattice constant of about 23.55% …

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Applications Of A Laser Microbeam In The Study Of Degeneration, Regeneration, And Guidance Of Primary Cns Axons, Bryan James Black Jan 2012

Applications Of A Laser Microbeam In The Study Of Degeneration, Regeneration, And Guidance Of Primary Cns Axons, Bryan James Black

Physics Theses - Archive

This thesis explores the applications of a near infrared (NIR) laser microbeam as a tool for manipulating primary axons by initiating femtosecond pulsed-laser plasma-mediated ablation (laser axotomy) and optical guidance. Chapter 1 briefly introduces axon morphology, growth, and the principles of axon guidance, as well as an introduction to the unique capabilities/potential provided by laser microbeams in biological research (laser-tissue interactions). Non-linear, multiphoton absorption processes are discussed in context of biological tissue ablation. In addition, we discuss specific challenges facing mammalian central nervous system (CNS) axons subsequent to injury, and comment on strategies which can be employed to mitigate, remove, …

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Selected Studies Of Celestial Dynamics And Habitability Of Extra Solar Planetary Systems, Billy Lee Quarles Jan 2012

Selected Studies Of Celestial Dynamics And Habitability Of Extra Solar Planetary Systems, Billy Lee Quarles

Physics Dissertations - Archive

Planetary science in various forms has become interwoven into human culture during all of known human history. The need and desire to expand our horizons has brought humans from basic forms of observation to the development of space satellites that have (in)directly observed other worlds. A major feat of this enterprise during the last half century has been the develop of numerical tools and theories to determine the orbital stability of multiple objects orbiting a central body. Two special cases of the gravitational N body problem (N = 3,4) have been investigated along with the development of a stability criterion …

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