Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Hydrogeology Of The Little River Animal Agriculture Environmental Research Unit And Impacts Of Dairy Operations On Groundwater, Robert Wesley Hunter

Masters Theses

This thesis describes the development of an integrated hydrogeologic/hydrologic site assessment and groundwater/surface water quality monitoring program at the University of Tennessee – Little River Dairy Farm, located near Townsend, TN. Hydrologic/hydrogeologic investigations of streams and groundwater at the site have been underway for more than 5 years, and these are expected to provide background data for assessing impacts of dairy wastes. The lower half of the ~180 ha site consists of low-relief fields used for row crops, which are underlain by 4 – 9 m of alluvial deposits on top of black shale or limestone that include sinkhole features. …

Demonstration Of A Targeted Proteome Characterization Approach For Examining Specific Metabolic Pathways In Complex Bacterial Systems, Adam Justin Martin

Masters Theses

Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) is a powerful tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) tool frequently implemented in proteomic studies to provide targeted analysis of proteins and peptides. The selectivity that MRM delivers is so strong that it provides the quadrupole mass spectrometers (QQQ), on which it is commonly employed, with pertinence to proteomic studies that they would otherwise lack for their relatively low resolution. Additionally, this increased level of selectivity is sufficient enough to supplant complicated fractionation techniques, additional dimensions of chromatography, and 24 hour long MS/MS experiments in simplistic biological samples. But there is a deficiency of evidence to determine the …

Stratigraphic Controls On Diagenetic Pathways In The St. Peter Sandstone, Michigan Basin, Stephen A. Zdan

Masters Theses

The Middle Ordovician St. Peter Sandstone in the Michigan Basin is a target for hydrocarbon exploration/production, and carbon sequestration and geologic storage. The St. Peter is predominantly a marine sandstone with four dominant lithofacies. The uppermost facies contains zones of porosity and good reservoir quality. Because of the mostly uniform detrital composition, diagenesis must play a leading role in reservoir quality development. This study tests stratigraphic controls on diagenesis and reservoir quality development. The distribution of diagenetic regimes is believed to result from depositional setting and related geologic processes, including variations in sediment accumulation rate. Early carbonate cements preserve pre-compaction …

Origin Of High Levels Of Ammonium In Groundwater, Ottawa County, Michigan, Derrick Lingle

Masters Theses

Groundwater from wells located in and around Hemlock Crossing Park in Ottawa County, Michigan has elevated levels of ammonium. High ammonium concentrations in potable water wells are a common indicator of anthropogenic impact, such as landfill leachate or agricultural activity. Ammonium can also occur in groundwater through the decay of natural organic material. Along with the retrieval of a complete glacial sediment core via rotasonic drilling, numerous chemical and isotopic parameters were used to determine the source of ammonium in the impacted aquifer.

Buried organic material, deposited during the Athens subepisode interglacial period, is in contact with groundwater containing elevated …

Utilizing Persistent Scatterer Interferometry To Investigate The Nature And Factors Controlling Nile Delta Subsidence, El Hachemi Yousef Bouali

Masters Theses

The Nile Delta in Egypt is being threatened by two continuous and relatively slow hazards: encroachment from the Mediterranean Sea as sea levels rise and land subsidence of the delta itself. The magnitude of sea level rise has been actively monitored, while the subsidence of the Nile Delta has not been adequately quantified spatially and temporally. Instead, all previous studies have either focused on measuring average Holocene subsidence rates or modern subsidence rates on local scales (point- or city-scale).

The overall study objective is three-fold: (1) to measure and map the spatial variations in subsidence rates across the entire Nile …

The Green's Function Method For Solutions Of Fourth Order Nonlinear Boundary Value Problem., Olga A. Teterina

Masters Theses

This thesis has demonstrated that Green’s functions have a wide range of applications with regard to boundary value problems. In particular, existence and uniqueness of solutions of a large class of fourth order boundary value problems has been established. In fact, given any fourth order ODE with homogeneous boundary conditions, as long as the corresponding Green’s function exists and f satisfies an appropriate Lipschitz condition, Theorem 2.1 guarantees such a solution under equally mild conditions. Similarly, Theorem 2.2 also guarantees such a solution under equally mild conditions. These theorems are contrasted with classical ODE existence theorems in that they get …

Mapping Spatial Thematic Accuracy Using Indicator Kriging, Maria I. Martinez

Masters Theses

Thematic maps derived from remote sensing imagery is increasingly being used in environmental and ecological modeling. Spatial information in these maps however is not free of error. Different methodologies such as error matrices are used to assess the accuracy of the spatial information. However, most of the methods commonly used for describing the accuracy assessment of thematic data fail to describe spatial differences of the accuracy across an area of interest. This thesis describes the use of indicator kriging as a geostatistical method for mapping the spatial accuracy of thematic maps. The method is illustrated by constructing accuracy maps for …

Synthesis Of A Bifunctional Heterogeneous Catalyst For The Conversion Of Lignocellulosic Biomass Into Precursors For Alternative Fuels And Fine Chemicals, Matthew David Dembo

Masters Theses

The overall goal of the research described here is to develop synthetic routes to bifunctional reagents that can be tethered into silicate matrices derived from the tin functionalized cube, Si₈O₂₀(SnMe₃)₈. The critical functional group required for reaction with cubic silicate building block is a chlorosilane, and we additionally wish to incorporate both acid and ionic liquid groups. Once in hand, a crosslinking metathesis reaction will incorporate these reagents into porous silicate matrices derived from the Si₈O₂₀ cube, creating platforms with both acid and ionic liquid groups tethered to their …

Time Dependent Density-Functional Theory - Linear Response, Bryan Edman Sundahl

Masters Theses

The formal derivation of the linear response of time-dependent density-functional theory as shown by E. K. U. Gross is presented. The transformation of formal theory to the working linear response equations in the form of Casida's eigenvalue equation is demonstrated, and the results are applied to small monatomic, diatomic and triatomic systems. The application of different operators to the perturbed density is discussed, with the most attention being given to the dynamic polarizabilities. The dynamic polarizabilities and excitation spectra for N₂ [nitrogen gas] are then analyzed. The first excitation energy is noted to be in line with Koopmans' theorem. …

Study Of Feasability For Phase Difference Extraction Using Software Defined Radio In Location Analysis, Paul Miller

Masters Theses

Here is a method for using the phase of an HF radio signal for use in location analysis. This computation is implemented in a software defined radio processing block in the GNU Radio environment. The signals analyzed are received by an Ettus Research USRP SDR. We created a phase analysis system called WMU Rootsync, which compares the roots of a received signal to the roots of a generated reference signal for the phase analysis. This research describes a prototype method for phase analysis only. Future projects may use these ideas differently than presented here. We intend for future projects to …

Surface Complexation Modeling Of Cr(Vi) Absorption On Mineral Assemblages, Ann M. Gilchrist

Masters Theses

Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is a waste product of many anthropogenic processes. Because it is highly mobile, the improper disposal of Cr(VI) has caused widespread contamination. Because reduction and adsorption reactions may reduce the bioavailability and mobility of Cr(VI) in environmental systems, a better understanding of Cr(VI) adsorption behavior will improve remediation efforts.

Subsurfaces and soils are heterogeneous, however most studies focus on single sorbate/sorbent interactions to develop surface complexation models (SCM) for prediction of heavy metal adsorption. Theoretically, combining the SCMsdeveloped for single sorbate/sorbent systems should yield accurate predictions of adsorption in more complex systems (i.e., the component additivity approach …

Hindered Rotation Of Dihydrogen On Synthesized Metal Oxides, George Houston Rouvelas

Masters Theses

A MATLAB program was written to calculate the hindered rotational energies of the hydrogen and deuterium molecules interacting with an anisotropic potential, which may be thought of as a potential energy surface of a metal oxide substrate. It was found that an increase in the hindering potential of the rotation about the azimuthal angle lifted the degeneracy of the j = 1,mj [magnetic quantum number] = plus or minus 1 states. A better understanding of how the rotational states of these systems change as a function of the hindering potential can help to explain features in rotational inelastic neutron scattering …

An Implementation Of Controller Area Network Bus Analyzer Using Microblaze And Petalinux, Tung-Hsun Tsou

Masters Theses

This paper presents a controller area network (CAN) monitor system created in a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board, which is Xilinx SP605. The goals of this research are to let the system demonstrate a reliable CAN bus monitor system, and to show the Xilinx MicroBlaze and PetaLinux design flow. This system can be used to observe the CAN bus messages by means of C program and embedded Linux environment.

A Xilinx MicroBlaze soft processor is used to read CAN information from the external CAN bus controller, Microchip MCP2515. Two implementations, a stand-alone system and a Linux system, are built to …

Activated Carbon Preconditioning To Reduce Contaminant Leaching In Cement-Based Stabilization Of Soils, Renee Elizabeth Crane

Masters Theses

Powdered activated carbon (PAC) is often added with cement to enhance the stabilization and solidification (S/S) of materials contaminated with organic compounds. Adsorption of organic contaminants onto PAC can reduce leaching of organic contaminants. Simultaneous addition of PAC and cement reduces soil handling costs, but cement hydration reactions coat PAC with Ca(OH)2 before contaminants can be adsorbed onto PAC. Laboratory studies were done on four aged, contaminated soils from manufactured gas plant sites to compare the performance of S/S treatment with simultaneous addition of PAC and cement vs. cement addition after preconditioning with PAC to enhance contaminant adsorption. Performance was …

Using Soil Organic Matter As An Iron Chelate To Enhance The Efficiency Of Modified Fenton Oxidition Of Diesel Fuel In Arctic Soils, Mary K. Sherwood

Masters Theses

Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the use of modified fenton chemistry on the treatment of three soils from the Canadian arctic, all with abundant soil organic matter, iron and manganese oxides, and diesel fuel contamination. The purpose of these studies was to (I) to assess modified fenton chemistry as a treatment option for petroleum-contaminated arctic soils, and (2) to evaluate the impact of soil organic matter on the modified fenton treatment of soils. Modified fenton treatment was compared for reactions in which ethylenediaminetetraacetate was added as a chelate vs. reactions in which the native soil organic matter was the …

Phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5–Trisphosphate Probe Synthesis And Microarray Protein Binding Studies To Investigate Multivalency And Detect Proteins Upregulated In Cancer, Benjamin Michael Smith

Masters Theses

Protein–lipid binding interactions control many processes at the cellular level. Many of these biological events between proteins and lipids are often associated with signaling pathway diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Therefore, increasing our knowledge of protein–lipid binding interactions will provide a better understanding of the signaling pathways of living systems. Pursuing this further, the phosphatidylinositol polyphosphates (PIPs) are an important family of signaling lipids that control key biological processes. Thus, the work described in this thesis was aimed at developing methods to validate these types of lipid–protein binding interactions. The goals of these projects were to synthesize the PIP …

Comparison Of Methods For Estimating Stochastic Volatility, John Parnell Collins

Masters Theses

Understanding the ever changing stock market has long been of interest to both academic and financial institutions. The early attempts to model the dynamics treated the volatility or sensitivity of the price change to random effects as constant. However, in matching the model to real data it was realized that the volatility was actually a random variable, and thus began efforts to determine methods for estimating the stochastic volatility from experimental data.

In this thesis, we develop and compare three different computational statistical filtering methods for estimating the volatility: The Kalman Filter, the Gibbs Sampler, and the Particle Filter. These …

Automated Generation Of Simulink Models For Enumeration Hybrid Automata, David Aaron Heise

Masters Theses

An enumeration hybrid automaton has been shown in principle to be ready for automated transformation into a Simulink implementation. This paper describes a strategy for and a demonstration of automated construction. This is accomplished by designing a data model which represents EHA data and providing a mapping from EHA data points to Simulink blocks.

Kingston Fossil Plant Ash Spill & Corbicula Fluminea: Assessing The Effectiveness Of An Invasive Bivalve As A Biomonitor Of Coal Ash Pollution, Hannah Ruth Johnson

Masters Theses

The goal of this study was to assess the effectiveness of using the invasive Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea, as a biomonitor for trace element bioavailability in the river system affected by the Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill of December 2008. I collected Corbicula from five different sites (n=20 per site) and analyzed both the soft body tissues and shells via inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). I then compared the concentrations of a suite of elements in Corbicula fluminea among sampling sites and examined the correlation between soft tissue and shell concentrations. The multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) …

Paleobiogeographical Variation Of Cretaceous Mecaster Batnensis And Mecaster Fourneli (Echinoidea: Spatangoida), Ryan Oliver Roney

Masters Theses

Spatangoids are the echinoid group best represented in the South American Cretaceous fossil record. This study analyzed two Cretaceous spatangoid species of the genus Mecaster (M. batnensis (Coquand, 1862) and M. fourneli (Agassiz, 1847)) found in South America as well as Africa, North America, Asia and possibly Europe (Smith and Bengtson 1991, Smithsonian Collection). This study assessed the paleobiogeographical variation of these species. Specimens from at least eight widely spaced localities were measured for morphometric analysis. Initial observations using length, width, and height data of M. batnensis and M. fourneli populations indicate regional differences in growth trajectories. A comparative …

A Gis-Based Multi-Objective Optimization Of A Lignocellulosic Biomass Supply Chain: A Case Study In Tennessee, Zidong Wang

Masters Theses

To achieve an economically and environmentally sustainable lignocellulosic biomass (LCB)-based biofuel industry sector, the design and location of a sustainable LCB supply chain is important. In this study, a multi-objective optimization model integrated with high-resolution geographical data was developed to examine the optimal switchgrass supply chain for a potential biorefinery in Tennessee, specifically evaluating the potential tradeoffs between the objectives of minimizing plant-gate cost and GHG emissions from the switchgrass supply chain. The key findings of this study are as follows: both plant-gate feedstock cost and GHG emissions were sensitive to the type of land converted into switchgrass production, the …

Linking Stream Sediment Metrics And Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Status In East Tennessee Streams, Grant Thomas Lynch

Masters Theses

Excess sediment is one of the leading causes of impairment of the rivers and streams of Tennessee and in the United States. Sediment acts as a pollutant by degrading the quality of habitat for fish and other aquatic life. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) currently assesses the quality of streams in Tennessee by conducting benthic macroinvertebrate surveys. These surveys use seven biometrics to calculate Tennessee Macroinvertebrate Index (TMI) scores. This method is well tested and reliable, but it has not been shown to directly link changes in stream sediment characteristics to macroinvertebrate status. Finding a stream sediment …

Finite Topological Spaces, Jimmy Edward Miller

Masters Theses

A thesis on some fundamental aspects of Algebraic Topology on Finite Topological Spaces, specifically 4 point spaces.

Detailed Geologic Studies Of Paleoseismic Features Exposed At Sites In The East Tennessee Seismic Zone: Evidence For Large, Prehistoric Earthquakes, Kathleen Frances Warrell

Masters Theses

The East Tennessee seismic zone (ETSZ) is the second most active in the eastern United States, but recorded earthquakes do not exceed M_w [moment magnitude] = 4.6. Earthquake epicenters are located 5-26 kilometers deep in autochthonous basement, and faults producing these earthquakes do not break the surface. Detailed paleoseismic investigations at sites within the ETSZ include: detailed geological mapping, trenching, aerial photograph reconnaissance, X-ray diffraction (XRD), grain-size analysis, and optically stimulated luminescence dating of alluvium.

Site DL-6 near Dandridge, Tennessee, reveals a complex array of features providing evidence that at least 4‒6 M_w > 6 earthquakes affected the area. …

The Geology Of The South Antelope Pass Area Of The Southern Peloncillo Mountains, Hidalgo County, New Mexico, John A. Yellich

Masters Theses

Volcanic activity during the middle and late Tertiary has been recorded in the mountain ranges of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico and the two provinces of prominent volcanic activity, the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Mogollon Plateau, dominantly rhyolitic in composition, are connected by the Peloncillo Range. The predominant rock chemistry of the south Antelope Pass area is “rhyolitic”; however, lava rock types dominate over welded tuff rock types of the two provinces. There is a limited pre-Tertiary rock record of limestones and sandstones in the northeastern part of the study area. The rest of the study area …

Theoretical Modeling Of Near-Threshold Shape Resonance Behaviour In Photodetachment Experiments, Laurentiu Dan Dumitriu

Masters Theses

This thesis attempts to better understand the results obtained from photodetachment experiments of Fe-, made by the Western Michigan University experimental atomic physics group at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory.

After a relevant description of the quantum mechanics and theoretical atomic physics concepts and formulas involved in this subject, a physically realistic model, based on the square well potential, is developed. Based on this model, the theoretical photodetachment cross section is computed in order to reproduce the qualitative behavior of the experimental photodetachment cross section measured at ALS.

This development, involving programming in Fortran and numerical …

Tor Bridge Distribution Powered By Threshold Rsa, Jordan Hunter Deyton

Masters Theses

Since its inception, Tor has offered anonymity for internet users around the world. Tor now offers bridges to help users evade internet censorship, but the primary distribution schemes that provide bridges to users in need have come under attack. This thesis explores how threshold RSA can help strengthen Tor's infrastructure while also enabling more powerful bridge distribution schemes. We implement a basic threshold RSA signature system for the bridge authority and a reputation-based social network design for bridge distribution. Experimental results are obtained showing the possibility of quick responses to requests from honest users while maintaining both the secrecy and …

Programming Dense Linear Algebra Kernels On Vectorized Architectures, Jonathan Lawrence Peyton

Masters Theses

The high performance computing (HPC) community is obsessed over the general matrix-matrix multiply (GEMM) routine. This obsession is not without reason. Most, if not all, Level 3 Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines (BLAS) can be written in terms of GEMM, and many of the higher level linear algebra solvers' (i.e., LU, Cholesky) performance depend on GEMM's performance. Getting high performance on GEMM is highly architecture dependent, and so for each new architecture that comes out, GEMM has to be programmed and tested to achieve maximal performance. Also, with emergent computer architectures featuring more vector-based and multi to many-core processors, GEMM performance …

Adsorption Of Antimony By Birnessite And The Impact Of Antimony On The Electrostatic Surface Properties Of Variable-Charge Soil Minerals, Kalyn Alaine Vergeer

Masters Theses

Antimony (Sb) is a toxin that can be found in high concentrations in the soil due to anthropogenic sources. Antimony exists in soil as Sb(V) in the monovalent antimonate hydroxyanion. The adsorption mechanisms of Sb(V) are not well-characterized. The objective of this study was to further elucidate Sb(V) adsorption mechanisms by examining the impact of adsorption on surface charging characteristics of gibbsite, goethite, birnessite, and kaolinite. Also examined was Sb(V), SO₄ [sulfate], and PO₄ [phosphate] adsorption by birnessite. Electrophoretic mobility and potentiometric titrations were employed to examine the ζ-potential [zeta-potential] and net proton surface charge density as a …

Sequence Mining Based Debugging Of Wireless Sensor Networks, Kefa Lu

Masters Theses

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications are prone to bugs and failures due to their typical characteristics, such as extensively distributed, heavily concurrent and resources restricted. It becomes critical to develop efficient debugging systems for WSN applications. A flexible and generic debugger for WSN applications is highly demanded. In this thesis, I proposed and developed a flexible and iterative WSN debugging system based on sequence analyzing and data mining techniques. At first, I developed vectorized Probabilistic Suffix Tree (vPST), a variable memory length model to extract and store sequential information from program runtime traces in compact suffix tree based vectors, based …