Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Evolving Modular Programs By Extracting Reusable Functions Using Significance Testing, Anthony Loeppert

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Genetic programming is an automatic programming method that uses biologically inspired methods to evolve programs. Genetic programming, and evolutionary methods in general, are useful for problem domains in which a method for \emph{constructing} solutions is either not known or infeasible, but a method for \emph{rating} solutions exists. In order to address more complex problem domains, techniques exist to extract functions (modules) automatically during a GP search. This work describes a method to identify useful automatically extracted functions from a GP search to assist subsequent GP searches within the same problem domain, using significance testing. Functions classified as beneficial augment the …

Oligomeric And Polymeric Bibenzimidazole Based Metal Complexes And Crosslinked Polyethylenimine Based Flame Retardants, Jun Yin

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

In Part I, a simple and mild condensation route for the synthesis of novel bibenzimidazole oligomers and polymers is described using methyl 2,2,2-trichloroacetimidate as a key starting material. The dimer, trimer, tetramer, and polymers of bibenzimidazole were synthesized as a new series of potential conjugated chelating ligands for the metallopolymer studies. The polymers show the maximum absorption at around 400 nm. The optical band gap of the polymer is estimated to be 2.68 eV. In Part II, a series of multinuclear Ru complexes containing di-, tetra-, and octa-RuII centers based on the oligomeric bibenzimidazoles were synthesized and characterized. The species …

Discovering Informative Connection Subgraphs In Multi-Relational Graphs, Cartic Ramakrishnan, William Milnor, Matthew Perry, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Discovering patterns in graphs has long been an area of interest. In most approaches to such pattern discovery either quantitative anomalies, frequency of substructure or maximum flow is used to measure the interestingness of a pattern. In this paper we introduce heuristics that guide a subgraph discovery algorithm away from banal paths towards more "informative" ones. Given an RDF graph a user might pose a question of the form: "What are the most relevant ways in which entity X is related to entity Y?" the response to which is a subgraph connecting X to Y. We use our heuristics to …

How Hard Is It To Cheat In The Gale-Shapley Stable Matching Algorithm, Chien-Chung Huang

Computer Science Technical Reports

We study strategy issues surrounding the stable marriage problem. Under the Gale-Shapley algorithm (with men proposing), a classical theorem says that it is impossible for every liar to get a better partner. We try to challenge this theorem. First, observing a loophole in the statement of the theorem, we devise a coalition strategy in which a non-empty subset of the liars gets a better partner and no man is worse off than before. This strategy is restricted in that not everyone has the incentive to cheat. We attack the classical theorem further by means of randomization. However, this theorem shows …

A Steerable, Untethered, 250x60 Micron Mems Mobile Micro-Robot, Bruce R. Donald, Christopher G. Levey, Craig D. Mcgray, Igor Paprotny, Daniela Rus

Computer Science Technical Reports

We present a steerable, electrostatic, untethered, MEMS micro-robot, with dimensions of 60 µm by 250 µm by 10 µm. This micro-robot is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude smaller in size than previous micro-robotic systems. The device consists of a curved, cantilevered steering arm, mounted on an untethered scratch drive actuator. These two components are fabricated monolithically from the same sheet of conductive polysilicon, and receive a common power and control signal through a capacitive coupling with an underlying electrical grid. All locations on the grid receive the same power and control signal, so that the devices can be operated …

Ecotoxicology And Environmental Education In The Development Of A Turtle Conservation Program In Southeastern Tennessee, Stefan L. Moss

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

In 1999, the Tennessee Aquarium initiated a long-term mark-recapture study to promote the conservation of freshwater turtles in the Tennessee River Gorge (TRG). The TRG consists of a 42-kilometer stretch of the Tennessee River surrounded by 27,000 acres (11,000 hectares) and is known as the "Grand Canyon of Tennessee." In 2002, the Aquarium established a partnership with The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and the Tennessee River Gorge Trust (TRGT) to expand the program. Since then, researchers at UTC have been conducting scientific research at the TRG each year in an effort to increase the amount of available information …

Exafs Studies Of Bimetallic Ag-Pt And Ag-Pd Nanorods, Debdutta Lahiri, Soma Chattopadhyay, B. A. Bunker, Cm Doudna, Massimo F. Bertino, Frank D. Blum, Akira Tokuhiro, J. Terry

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Nanoparticles of Ag-Pt and Ag-Pd with high aspect ratios were synthesized using a radiolysis method. Gamma rays at dose rates below 0.5 kGy/h were used for irradiation. the nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), optical absorption spectroscopy and x-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) spectroscopy. Bright field micrographs show that Ag-Pt nanowires are composed of large particles with diameters ranging from 20-30 nm and joined by filaments of diameter between 2-5 nm. the Ag-Pd nanowires have diameters of 20-25 nm and lengths of 1.5 μm. for XAFS measurements, the Pt L3 edge (11.564 keV), Ag K-edge (25.514 keV) and …

Nonrelativistic Qed Approach To The Lamb Shift, Ulrich D. Jentschura, Andrzej Czarnecki, Krzysztof Pachucki

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We calculate the one- and two-loop corrections of order α(Zα)⁶ and α²(Zα)⁶, respectively, to the Lamb shift in hydrogenlike systems using the formalism of nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics. We obtain general results valid for all hydrogenic states with nonvanishing orbital angular momentum and for the normalized difference of S states. These results involve the expectation value of local effective operators and relativistic corrections to Bethe logarithms. The one-loop correction is in agreement with previous calculations for the particular cases of S, P, and D states. The two-loop correction in the order α²(Zα)⁶ includes …

Smooth And Analytic Normal And Canonical Forms For Strict Feedforward Systems, Issa Amadou Tall, Witold Respondek

Miscellaneous (presentations, translations, interviews, etc)

Recently we proved that any smooth (resp. analytic) strict feedforward system can be brought into its normal form via a smooth (resp. analytic) feedback transformation. This will allow us to identify a subclass of strict feedforward systems, called systems in special strict feedforward form, shortly (SSFF), possessing a canonical form which is an analytic counterpart of the formal canonical form. For (SSFF)-systems, the step-by-step normalization procedure of Kang and Krener leads to smooth (resp. convergent analytic) normalizing feedback transformations. We illustrate the class of (SSFF)-systems by a model of an inverted pendulum on a cart.

Galactic Cosmic-Ray Modulation Using A Solar Minimum Mhd Heliosphere: A Stochastic Particle Approach, Bryan M. Ball, Ming Zhang, Hamid K. Rassoul, Timur J. Linde

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

An example of Galactic cosmic-ray modulation in a fully three-dimensional heliosphere is presented here. We use a stochastic particle method to solve for modulation without requiring symmetric boundaries or fields. We include all typical modulation terms, including full three-dimensional drift. We have applied this to an MHD heliosphere appropriate for solar minimum conditions. This field includes nonradial solar wind velocity components, as well as a built-in nonspherical termination shock. Parameters that are of interest in modulation can be analyzed in detail, particularly the momentum change of cosmic rays during their transport through the heliosphere. We show radial profiles of modulation …

Carbon Isotope Of Bulk Organic Matter: A Proxy For Precipitation In The Arid And Semiarid Central East Asia, Xinqing Lee, Zhaodong Feng, Lanlan Guo, Lixia Wang, Liya Jin, Yongsong Huang, Mark Chopping, Daikuan Huang, Wei Jiang, Qian Jiang, Hongguang Cheng

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of bulk organic matter in soil and lake sediment sequences has been widely used to infer past climate changes. The specific climatic representation of the isotopic signature, however, lacks for examination. With excellent gradients of temperature and precipitation, as well as the gradients of vegetation zone, central East Asia provides an ideal background for developing the relationship between the δ13C and the climatic parameters. Analysis of surface soil organic matter from a transect that crosses the various climatic and vegetation zones reveals a significant linear correlation between δ13C and the mean precipitation from May to September …

Architecture And Execution Model For A Survivable Workflow Transaction Infrastructure, Haraldur D. Thorvaldsson, Kenneth J. Goldman

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

We present a novel architecture and execution model for an infrastructure supporting fault-tolerant, long-running distributed applications spanning multiple administrative domains. Components for both transaction processing and persistent state are replicated across multiple servers, en-suring that applications continue to function correctly de-spite arbitrary (Byzantine) failure of a bounded number of servers. We give a formal model of application execution, based on atomic execution steps, linearizability and a sep-aration between data objects and transactions that act on them. The architecture is designed for robust interoperability across domains, in an open and shared Internet computing infrastructure. A notable feature supporting cross-domain applications is …

Cloning, Overexpression, Purification And Characterization On N-Terminal Metal Binding Domains 5 And 6 Of Wilsons Disease Protein, David Achila

Masters Theses

Wilsons disease is an autosomal recessive disorder of copper metabolism which results from mutations in the gene encoding for Wilson disease protein (WDP). The cytosolic N-terminus of WDP comprises six metal binding domains each containing a conserved metal binding motif, GMXCXXC. The contribution of these metal binding domains to copper homeostasis is poorly understood. We have cloned, expressed and purified residues 485 to 633 corresponding to N-terminal metal-binding domains 5 and 6 of WDP (WD5-6). Two of the 3 disease causing mutations in the N-terminal metal binding domains of WDP occur one in each of these domains and the two …

Systems For Predicting Pitzer’S Ion-Interaction Model Parameters, Theresa Balderas Obias

Masters Theses

Pitzer's Ion-interaction Model had been widely used in predicting the non-ideal behavior of solution over a wide range of conditions for natural water systems. The model is successful only when there are sufficient parameters available. However, generating these needed parameters requires a great quantity of work and it would be advantageous to be able to predict the Pitzer's parameters for salt systems when there is no data available.

This research entailed the development of ionic radii dependent equations for Pitzer's binary ion-interaction parameters β_MX⁽⁰⁾, β_MX⁽¹⁾, β_MX⁽²⁾, and C^ϕ_MX . …

A Mathematical Journey Through The Land Of The Maya, Philip Scalisi, Paul Fairbanks

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Correlogram Method For Comparing Bio-Sequences, Gandhali P. Samant

Theses and Dissertations

Sequence comparison is one of the most primitive operations used in bio-informatics. It is used as a basis for many other complex manipulations in the field of Computational Molecular Biology. Many methods and algorithms were developed to compare and align sequences effectively. Most of these methods use linear comparison and some standard scoring schemes to calculate the similarity between sequences. We described an alternative approach to compare sequences based on the correlogram method. This method has already been used in the past for comparing images. By using the correlogram method, a sequence is projected on a 3-D space and the …

On Sequential And Fixed Designs For Estimation With Comparisons And Applications, Mekki Terbeche, Broderick O. Oluyede, Ahmed Barbour

Mathematical Sciences: Faculty Publications

A fully sequential approach to the estimation of the difference of two population means for distributions belonging to the exponential family of distributions is adopted and compared with the best fixed design. Results on the lower bound for the Bayes risk due to estimation and expected cost are presented and shown to be of first order efficiency. Applications involving the Poisson and exponential distributions with gamma priors as well as the Bernoulli distribution with beta priors are given. Finally, some numerical results are presented.

Notes From The Director, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgements, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Relationships Between The Spatial Variation In Land-Use Spatial Patterns And Surface Water Quality, Majed A. Khater

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the association between the spatial patterns of urban land uses and surface water quality parameters at the watershed outlet. The aim of the study was to understand the strength and nature of this relationship, and examine new methods of classifying and quantifying contributing urban land-uses and their spatial patterns. The hypothesis of this research was: in an urban watershed, the variation in the spatial patterns of contributing land uses will have a significant impact on the surface water quality parameters at the watershed outlet.

This relationship between urbanization and water quality is …

Development Of A Web-Based Gis For Groundwater Exploration In Arid Lands, Nakul Manocha

Masters Theses

A three-fold exercise was conducted to assess the groundwater potentiality in the Eastern Desert (ED) of Egypt. First, a database was generated to host all relevant data sets in a GIS environment for a better understanding of the spatial relationships between these data sets. Co-registered digital mosaics were generated from relevant data sets including remote sensing (e.g., Landsat TM, SIR-C, SRTM, TRMM), geochemical (solute concentrations, O and H stable isotope composition), geological (geologic maps), and hydrological (lithology, depth to water table) data sets. Second, a web-based GIS interface (ArcIMS) was developed to provide a vehicle for data analysis, visualization, and …

Book Review: Stargazer: The Life And Times Of The Telescope, T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of Stargazer : the Life and Times of the Telescope by Fred Watson. Da Capo, 2004 342p, 0306814323 $24.95

A Combined Routing Method For Ad Hoc Wireless Networks, Zhenhui Jiang

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

To make ad hoc wireless networks adaptive to different mobility and traffic patterns, we studied in this thesis an approach to swap from one protocol to another protocol dynamically, while routing continues. By the insertion of a new layer, we were able to make each node in the ad hoc wireless network notify each other about the protocol swap. To ensure that routing works efficiently after the protocol swap, we initialized the destination routing protocol's data structures and reused the previous routing information to build the new routing table. We also tested our approach under different network topologies and traffic …

Extreme Sensitivity Of Differential Momentum Transfer Cross Sections To Target Atom Initial Conditions, Ronald E. Olson, J. Fiol

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Heavy-particle cross sections differential in the momentum transferred to the target are investigated using the classical trajectory Monte Carlo method. with the 3.6  MeV/u Au53++He system as a test case, it is shown that these cross sections are extremely sensitive to the initial target temperature. In particular, when thermal motion is varied for one of the target's initial momentum components between 0 and 25 K the absolute cross sections vary by orders of magnitude and, in addition, their relative shapes undergo major changes. We find that by setting one of the target's transverse momenta to a temperature of 16 K, …

Mutual Ionization In 200-Kev H⁻+ He Collisions, T. Ferger, Daniel Fischer, Michael Schulz, R. Moshammer, A. B. Voitkiv, B. Najjari, J. Ullrich

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We studied mutual ionization in 200-keV H-⁺He collisions in a kinematically complete experiment by measuring the fully momentum-analyzed recoil ions and both active electrons in coincidence. Comparison of the data to our calculations, based on various theoretical models, show that mutual ionization proceeds predominantly through the interaction between both electrons. The post-collision interaction between the outgoing ejected electrons as well as higher order processes involving the interaction between the core of both collision partners are also important.

Some New Orthogonal Arrays Oa (4r;R (1) 2(P);2), Warren F. Kuhfeld, Chung Yi Suen

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

We developed an algorithm to search for new orthogonal arrays, OA(4rOA(4r, r12pr12p, 2), for odd r . With it, we found new orthogonal arrays with 4r=364r=36 through 124 runs. Many other new arrays can be obtained from these new arrays.

Pervasive Cracking Of The Northern Chilean Coastal Cordillera: New Evidence For Forearc Extension, John P. Loveless, Gregory D. Hoke, Richard W. Allmendinger, Gabriel González, Bryan L. Isacks, Daniel A. Carrizo

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

Despite convergence across the strongly coupled seismogenic interface between the South American and Nazca plates, the dominant neotectonic signature in the forearc of northern Chile is arc-normal extension. We have used 1 m resolution IKONOS satellite imagery to map nearly 37,000 cracks over an area of 500 km2 near the Salar Grande (21°S). These features, which are best preserved in a ubiquitous gypcrete surface layer, have both nontectonic and tectonic origins. However, their strong preferred orientation perpendicular to the plate convergence vector suggests that the majority owe their formation to approximate east-west extension associated with plate boundary processes such as …

Measuring The Evolution Of The Most Stable Optical Clock G 117-B15a, S. O. Kepler, Ted Von Hippel, Et Al.

Publications

We report our measurement of the rate of change of period with time () for the 215 s periodicity in the pulsating white dwarf G 117-B15A, the most stable optical clock known. After 31 years of observations, we have finally obtained a 4 σ measurement observed = (4.27 ± 0.80) × 10-15 s s-1. Taking into account the proper-motion effect of proper = (7.0 ± 2.0) × 10-16s s-1, we obtain a rate of change of period with time of = (3.57 ± 0.82) × 10-15 s s-1. This value is consistent with the cooling rate in our white dwarf …

Combined X-Ray Diffraction And Diffuse Reflectance Analysis Of Nanocrystalline Mixed Sn(Ii) And Sn(Iv) Oxide Powders, Hongmei Deng, Jeanne Hossenlopp

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

Nanocrystalline mixtures of Sn(II) and Sn(IV) oxide powders, potential gas sensor materials, are synthesized via a simple precipitation route using SnCl(2) as the precursor. Materials are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The ratio of Sn(II)/Sn(IV) in powders precipitated at room temperature, as well as the identity of the primary Sn(II) product (SnO or Sn(6)O(4)(OH)(4)), can be varied by adjusting aging time and washing procedures. The identity of the initial Sn(II) product influences the subsequent phase composition and degree of disorder in the tetragonal SnO(2) phase obtained following sintering …

On The Existence Of Multiple Periodic Solutions For The Vector P-Laplacian Via Critical Point Theory, Haishen Lu, Donal O'Regan, Ravi P. Agarwal

Mathematics and System Engineering Faculty Publications

We study the vector p-Laplacian (∗){−(|u′|p−2u′)′=∇F(t,u)a.e.t∈[0,T],u(0)=u(T),u′(0)=u′(T),1