Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Using Lidar As A Monitoring Device To Calculate Volume Of Rockfall Over Time, Travis James Kassebaum

Masters Theses

"There are many natural hazards which threaten the stability of highway infrastructure and the safety of motoring public. Rockfall and unstable slopes are one of the major concerns. This thesis describes a method which safely and accurately evaluates rockfall on rock outcrops through the use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. LiDAR is an imaging technology which can be used to measure and evaluate possible rock outcrop hazards such as: rockfall, rock-avalanches, debris flows, and landslides. LiDAR produces a three dimensional point cloud of millions of points which gives spatial data on the scanned object, accurate to millimeters, in …

Vehicle Path Verification Using Wireless Sensor Networks, Gerry W. Howser

Masters Theses

"Path Verification is a problem where a verifier would like to determine how closely a vehicle actually traversed a path that it claims to have traversed. This problem has critical significances in terms of vehicle mobility. Mobile nodes can be patrols officers or cab drivers, while respective verifiers can be police dispatchers or cab operators. In this paper, we design a sensor network assisted technique for vehicle path verification. In our design, a number of static wireless sensors placed in road segments will serve as witnesses and certify vehicles as they move. Post movement, these witness certificates will be utilized …

How Should Plastic-Packaging Companies Apply Artificial Proofs And Topics Of Invention To Communicate Sustainability? : A Heuristic Developed On The Basis Of Rhetorical Analysis, Shristy Bashyal

Masters Theses

"This study examines how the ten plastic-packaging companies use artificial proofs and topics of invention to communicate sustainability-related information. The objective of this study was to answer the following research questions:

(i) Do plastic-packaging companies define sustainability on their website?

(ii) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments in these companies' sustainability-related communications?

(iii) What invention strategies should technical marketing communicators use to communicate company's sustainable practices?

To answer these questions, I analyzed the sustainability-related documents available on the websites of the ten companies. On the basis of this analysis, I developed an invention heuristic that can be …

Abel Dynamic Equations Of The First And Second Kind, Sabrina Heike Streipert

Masters Theses

"In this work, we study Abel dynamic equations of the first and the second kind. After a brief introduction to time scales, we introduce the Abel differential equations of the first and the second kind, as well as the canonical Abel form in the continuous case. Using the existing information, we derive novel results for time scales. We provide formulas for the Abel dynamic equations of the second kind and present a solution method. We furthermore achieve a special class of Abel equations of the first kind and discuss the canonical Abel equation. We get relations between common dynamic equations …

Analysis Of A Wound-Induced Gene Family In Glycine Max, Gena Robertson

Masters Theses

Gene families in plants are important in understanding genome evolution indicating when and where genome duplications and segmental duplications occurred as well as subsequent divergence and subfunctionalization. A gene family in Glycine max that encodes a WI12 protein, wound-induced protein, was found to consist of ten genes on five chromosomes. Wound-induced proteins are activated in response to wounding in plants, and the WI12 protein in particular is thought to be involved in cell wall modifications at the wound site. A variety of bioinformatics tools have been used to analyze the expansion of this family in soybean as well as identify …

Semantic Preserving Text Tepresentation And Its Applications In Text Clustering, Michael Howard

Masters Theses

Text mining using the vector space representation has proven to be an valuable tool for classification, prediction, information retrieval and extraction. The nature of text data presents several issues to these tasks, including large dimension and the existence of special polysemous and synonymous words. A variety of techniques have been devised to overcome these shortcomings, including feature selection and word sense disambiguation. Privacy preserving data mining is also an area of emerging interest. Existing techniques for privacy preserving data mining require the use of secure computation protocols, which often incur a greatly increased computational cost. In this paper, a generalization-based …

Lattice Residuability, Philip Theodore Thiem

Masters Theses

"Residuated lattices form the basis of certain kinds of logical interpretations. Also, complete commutative integral zero-bounded residuated lattices are used as a set of truth values for fuzzy logic values, Which are more general than the traditional bounded interval introduced by Zadeh. At times, it is important to know whether or not the lattice can be residuated in the first place. This thesis reviews the literature in lattice residuability and adds more observations. Specifically, (1) bounded chains and top-residuated lattices are show [sic] to be residuable, and (2) additional conditions necessary for residuability are established"--Abstract, page iii.

Physiochemical Characteristics Contributing To The Cytotoxicity Of Transition Metal Oxides, Chi-Heng Wu

Masters Theses

"In the past ten years nanotechnology has not only evolved to play a prominent role in our economy but also increased the concern over potential adverse effects caused by nanomaterials to human health and the environment. Nanotoxicity is to understand the nature and origin of the toxicity imposed by nanomaterials. Studies from our laboratory have shown that nanoparticle induces oxidative stress, perturbs calcium homeostasis, alter gene expression, and produces pro-inflammatory responses. We also identified a trend of toxicity: TiO₂ < Cr₂O₃ < Fe₂O₃ < Mn₂O₃ < NiO < ZnO < CuO. We then asked a question: what are physiochemical factors of transition metal nanoparticles that contributed to this increasing cytotoxicity. In this thesis I investigated the correlation between physicochemical properties and toxicity of the transition metal oxides in the 4th Period of the Periodic Table of Elements. Particle size, BET surface area, point of zero charge, metal dissolution, and degree of surface adsorption of transition metal oxide nanoparticles were measured. There were no increasing trends in both particle size and specific surface area. The point of zero charge showed an increasing trend as TiO₂ < Cr₂O₃ < Fe₂O₃ < NiO < CuO = ZnO < Mn₂O₃. The number of available binding sites of nanoparticle showed an increasing trend as Cr₂O₃ > ZnO > CuO > NiO > Fe₂O₃ > Mn₂O₃ > TiO₂. The degree of adsorption on the surface of nanoparticles showed an increasing trend with atomic …

Ruthenium Polypyridyl Complexes That Utilize Azo-Dyes To Enhance Absorption Of Visible Photons, Akram Hazeen

Masters Theses

Research in the field of dye sensitized solar cells has been growing rapidly. The challenge in this field is to prepare molecules that absorb in the visible region. An azo dye ligand based on l,0-phenanthroline, "phen-azo-phenol", was prepared and found to absorb at 380 nm in MeOH. UV-Vis spectra of this ligand were recorded in different solvents and in the presence of added acid or base and it appeared that the spectra were shifted to longer wavelength (around 500 nm) in the presence of base and/or basic solvents. This was attributed to deprotonation of the phenol portion of the ligand. …

Utilization Of Phosphorus Ylides Towards The Synthesis Of Extended Cinnamaldehydes And Stellettins, John M. Saathoff

Masters Theses

Phosphorus ylides have been utilized in three synthetic approaches; two involving the synthesis of photochromic cinnamaldehyde semicarbazones and a final scheme towards the synthesis of the isomalabaricane natural products. The targeted cinnamaldehyde semicarbazones varied both in the length of the conjugated system as well as the position and type of phenyl ring substituents, because these variations could impact their degree of photochromicity. The three step synthesis of the extended cinnamaldehyde semicarbazones involved a Wittig condensation, hydrolysis of acetal protecting group, and formation of imine and was completed in respectable cumulative yields; 42.4% yield for semicarbazones with n = 1 double …

Electrochemical Characterization Of Thin-Film Perovskite-Type La1-Xsrxmno3 Electrodes Obtained By Pulsed Laser Deposition (Pld), Keerthi Chandra

Masters Theses

The implementation of fuel cells into commercial usage is prenominally dependent on the activity of cathode at which oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) takes place. Fuel cells currently use noble metals like platinum, palladium etc as cathode for the reduction reaction. These metals showed poor performance during changes in red ox environment. Perovskite oxides which were proven to be efficient as cathodes in solid oxide fuel cells operating at high temperature was studied to understand its ability to carry out ORR in alkaline fuel cells operating at room temperature.

La_1-XSr_xMnO₃ (LSMO), thin film perovskite oxide, a …

Simultaneous Electrochemical Determination Of Tryptamine And Barbituric Acid, Luxshani Thangarajah

Masters Theses

The ability to analyze mixtures of two or more red-ox active components "on-the-spot" without the need to carry the sample into a laboratory is typically limited by the fact that various components need to be separated before they can be quantified. Reducing the two-step protocol (separation and detection) to a single one (detection) would markedly shorten the analysis time and simplify the analysis.

Exploring Phenyl Embrace Interactions In Trityloxy And Tritylamino Aromatic Compounds, Premnath Basa

Masters Theses

The area of supramolecular chemistry seeks to understand the organization of molecular structures and the interactions that hold such assemblies together by non-covalent interactions such as electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking interactions, and hydrophobic or solvatophobic effects. One such example that comes under supramolecular chemistry is the phenyl embrace interaction. These interactions occur due to the cooperative participation of at least three or more neighboring phenyl groups arranged as an interlocking propeller configuration to give complementary edge-to-face or offset face-to-face interactions. In order to understand the effect of functional groups on the tendencies of organic compounds to form phenyl embrace …

Distributed And Collaborative Watermarking In Relational Data, Prakash Kumar

Masters Theses

"Watermarking relational data is an important topic in the field of copyright protection, given the increasing prevalence of piracy and illegal duplication of databases. While there exists solutions for watermarking relational data, the problems that arise due to multiple ownership (two or more) of databases have not been acknowledged. This research focuses on developing a novel watermarking scheme to counter the problems. The watermarking scheme proposed necessitates the owners of the database in consideration to come together to perform the watermarking process. The scheme can be applied to insert watermarks in both numerical and categorical data. The watermarking scheme is …

Depositional And Tectonic Controls On Architecture Of The Carbonate Platform Of Upper Paleocene Khalifah Formation, Sirte Basin, Central Libya, Salah Abdurzak Shaniba

Masters Theses

"The Paleocene strata in Sirte Basin, Libya, contain major oil and gas accumulations in a variety of lithofacies of reef and bioherm carbonate depositional environments. The Upper Paleocene Khalifah Formation, which is one of the main reservoirs containing about 30% of the oil reserves of the Sirte Basin, is composed of shallowing-upward and carbonate platform deposits and is capped by open marine shale deposits formed during a marine transgression. Well and seismic data are used to interpret the depositional environments and identify upward shallowing and deepening trends in the formation. In the study area, Mabruk oil field in northwestern Sirte …

Investigation Of Carbon Sequestration Potential Of The Middle Devonian Sylvania Sandstone, Michigan Basin, U.S.A, Farsheed Rock

Masters Theses

The Sylvania Sandstone is an important brine reservoir in Michigan. This study investigates the geological carbon sequestration potential of this reservoir through integrated reservoir characterization using cores, thin sections, core analysis data and modern wireline log data.

Core-to-wireline-log correlation can be used to subdivide the Sylvania Sandstone into conventional reservoir sandstone, and mixed dolostone, low permeability reservoir tripolitic chert and low permeability limestone lithologies. Isolith maps and cross sections indicate that the reservoir sandstone lithology dominates in southeast Michigan and is transitional to a mixture of sandstone, dolostone, tripolitic chert and limestone lithologies toward the northwest that in turn are …

Geological Controls On Reservoir Quality And Geologic Carbon Sequestration Potential In The Upper Cambrian Mount Simon Sandstone, Kyle Patterson

Masters Theses

The Upper (?) Cambrian Mount Simon Sandstone is an important deep saline geological carbon sequestration (GCS) target throughout the Midwest, USA. The distribution of sedimentary facies, primary mineralogy, and diagenetic alterations and the relationship to wireline log response and reservoir quality throughout the Michigan basin are not well known. This study uses rock core, thin section point counts, x-ray diffraction, inferred spectroscopy, conventional core plug porosity and permeability and pressure fall-off test data to constrain wireline log interpretations of regional geology and reservoir quality.

Prior to the permitting of a CO₂ sequestration project, documentation of a robust transient injection …

High Resolution Depositional Analysis Of The Black River Group (Ordovician), Michigan Basin, Jennifer Elaine Schulz

Masters Theses

The Ordovician Trenton and Black River carbonates of the Michigan Basin are significant hydrocarbon reservoirs that are characterized by hydrothermal dolomitization. Production has exceeded 132 million barrels of oil with forty new discoveries made in the past three years. The giant Albion-Scipio Trend is often used as a model for other prolific hydrothermal dolomite reservoirs around the world with current models focused on the structural control of reservoir quality dolomite.

Previous studies of the Black River Group have not delimited a well-constrained depositional model. This study integrates high-resolution core interpretations, whole core analysis, and thin section evaluation to determine how …

Prediction Of Petrophysical Properties Of Trenton-Black River (Ordovician) Reservoirs By Comparing Pore Architecture And Permeability To Sonic Velocity, John E. Thornton

Masters Theses

Reservoir characterization of carbonate rocks is complicated by heterogeneous pore architecture related to primary depositional facies and subsequent diagenesis; this is especially true in diagenetically-altered and structurually-influenced Trenton-Black River reservoirs of the Michigan Basin. Accurate and reliable prediction of reservoir properties within hydrothermal dolomite reservoirs through the use of acoustic properties would aid exploration and characterization both within and outside of the Michigan Basin.

Results indicate that measures of pore architecture when integrated with measures of physical properties into multiple variable linear regression can accurately predict permeability of core plugs. However, due to the highly-heterogeneous distribution of pore architecture and …

Seismic Interpretation And Reservoir Characterization Of The Middle Eocene Gialo Formation, Assamoud Field, Sirte Basin, Libya, Abdalla Abdelnabi

Masters Theses

"The Gialo Formation is a major gas producing reservoir in the Assamoud Field, Sirte Basin, Libya. It is called Gialo limestone because it consists of shallow marine limestone. Seismic and well data in conjunction with the results of a previous study were used to delineate the hydrocarbon reservoir of Middle Eocene Gialo Formation of Assamoud Field area located in Eastern part of concession 6, Sirte Basin, Libya. The data include three-dimensional seismic data acquired by Sirte Company in 2009. It covers approximately an area of 150 km² and with more than 10 wells penetrating the reservoir. Seismic data were used …

Exploring Join Caching In Programming Codes To Reduce Runtime Execution, Swetha Surapaneni

Masters Theses

"This thesis describes an approach to reduce the runtime of a large program by exploring object querying and query caching in programming codes. Some object-oriented languages allow the programmers to express queries explicitly in the code, which are optimized using the query optimization techniques from the database domain. In this regard, Java Query Language (JQL) has been developed that allows object querying and performs the query optimization and query caching at runtime. The problem that has been addressed in this thesis is how to reduce the runtime of a large program during the single execution by employing an efficient cache …

Improving Student Learning Outcomes Through Personal Response Systems (Clickers), Ran Cai

Masters Theses

"The main purpose of this research was to examine the impact of Personal Response Systems (PRS) or clickers, (as they are commonly called), on student learning outcome. Student learning outcomes as measured by course grades were compared between traditional lecture format and clicker use lecture format. Student perceptions on clicker use were observed in the mean time. Statistical analysis indicated that although student conveyed positive attitude on clicker adoption, there were no significant differences in course scores between students who used clickers and students who did not.

This study also considered the influence of other factors, such as gender, student …

Comprehensive Evaluation Of A Computer Based Learning System, Arun Sharma Chintalapati

Masters Theses

"This thesis presents the results of a comprehensive multi-method evaluation that was conducted on the Rapid Development System (RDS), a computer-based learning environment. The development of the project was funded by a National Science Foundation grant. Prior to this evaluation, the RDS had gone through two iterations.

A pre/post evaluation was conducted using questionnaires and eye tracking. Multi-method evaluation was employed to help triangulate the results and to provide additional insights. Data from the eye tracking was used to study the influence of the RDS interface on the attention and the cognitive workload of students with respect to the learning …

A Social Network Of Service Providers For Trust And Identity Management In The Cloud, Makarand Bhonsle

Masters Theses

"With the advent of a new paradigm in computing known as Cloud Computing which offers computing as a service, the inflow of a variety of service vendors is increasing constantly. One of the main challenges in this distributed network of service provisioning and deprovisioning system is the end user's privacy. Enforcing authentication and authorization protocols customized to the needs of every service provider evolves to a very intricate Identity Management System with respect to both the collaborating service providers as well as the user. This problem was addressed by the Federated Identity Management systems, where the user information is stored …

Analyzing Dashboard Performance In Educational, Non-Profit Sectors, Rutuja B. Honnatti

Masters Theses

"Applications of the performance dashboard in the business sector are well documented, but very little research has been performed on its implementation in higher education. The changing economic scenario has exerted pressure on universities to perform to a new standard and achieve their missions and goals. The objective of this research is to investigate if performance management dashboards can be applied to overcome challenges faced by institutions of higher education, such as lack of access to information, stakeholders not taking advantage of what is being offered, students' anxiety about not being able to find a job and strategic planning. A …

Of Music, Mathematics, And Magic: Why Math Is All Made Up And Why It Works So Well, Gregory A. Leach

Masters Theses

The purpose of my study was to answer the philosophical question of whether mathematics is invented or discovered. This question is an age-old and important one with many implications regarding the understanding of mathematics, logic, science, and truth. Answering this question correctly can inform us not only about the nature of what is known, but even what is possible to know. In the field of mathematics itself, the answer to this question could change the way that mathematics is taught, learned, and implemented in the future. The problem was addressed through research, comparison, and analysis of books and articles where …

The Affect Of Surface Hydrophobicity On Wind Erosion Probed By Atomic Force Microscopy, Bradley Eric Frost

Masters Theses

Several field and laboratory studies have shown indirectly the effects of atmospheric humidity on soil particle adhesion through reduced resistance to movement by wind as the humidity decreases. Similar studies have also shown that increased hydrophobicity has the same effect on susceptibility of soil particles to movement by wind as reduced humidity. Theoretical models of idealized soil particle cohesion by water menisci in equilibrium with the atmospheric humidity have been used to explain these results. However the interpretation of these phenomenological results has never been tested by direct measurement of soil inter-particle cohesion as a function of humidity and hydrophobicity. …

Catalytic Activity Of Titania And Titania-Containing Nanomaterials: And, Spatial Distribution Of Silica Surface Groups Using A Tethered Amine Catalyst, Ramkumar Samala

Masters Theses

Titania and titania-containing nanomaterials are semiconductor photocatalysts and are widely used to degrade (i.e. oxidize) organic matter. The adsorption and catalytic properties of highly dispersed titania prepared using sulfate and pyrogenic methods, and fumed containing mixed oxides, were studied using catalytic decomposition of methylene blue primarily by kinetic methods. Commercial ultrafine titania (PC-100, PC-105 and PC-500), fumed Ti 02, and the mixed oxide of 80% Silica/20% Titania (ST20) were studied. Catalytic activity as measured by methylene blue decomposition kinetics was highest per gram for non-treated ultrafine titania PC- 500 which has the highest SsET and smallest particle size. However this …

Longitudinal Evaluation Of A Learning System For Teaching Geographical Information System Within The Context Of A Geotechnical Problem, Aparna Sukhavasi

Masters Theses

"A learning system, to train civil engineering students to apply Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in geotechnical problems, was evaluated over a period of 5 years, hence longitudinal. The system was tested with a series of iterations consisting of usability tests and subsequent modification, which were followed by a series of applied evaluations within the context of class lab sessions. The principal goals of this evaluation were to determine the overall effectiveness of the system and the factors that affected student learning. The first evaluation was conducted in 2004; and included a control group that played a "game" related to the …

Morpho-Tectonic Analysis Of The Tekeze And The Blue Nile Drainage Systems Of Northwestern Ethiopian Plateau, Ethiopia, Elamin Hassan Dai Ismail

Masters Theses

"This study examines the morpho-tectonic evolution of the drainage system in the northwestern Ethiopian plateau by focusing on the Tekeze and the Blue Nile Rivers. The plateau is underlain by Precambrian crystalline rocks, overlain by Mesozoic sedimentary section that is topped with a 1-3 km thick pile of Oligocene-Quaternary volcanic rocks. It is bounded in the east and southeast by the Afar Depression (AD) and the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER). Satellite derived Digital Elevation Models are analyzed using ArcGIS and RiverTools to extract morpho-tectonic parameters of tributaries of the Tekeze and Blue Nile Rivers including Normalized Steepness Index (K_{sn …}