Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Seasonal Variation In The Redox Zones And Biogeochemical Processes Within The Constructed Wetland, Yussuf Mohamud

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This research investigation focuses on the vertical distribution of dissolved inorganic species in the pore-water affected by redox processes and seasonal changes within a small constructed wetland located at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. This is a follow up study to an earlier investigation (Lach, 2004) at this site in 2003. Water samples were collected from influent, effluent and three layers of the constructed wetland through a network of nested piezometers in the vertical flow wetland from June 2005 to June 2006. Onsite analysis of temperature, pH and conductivity were carried out onsite. Major anions and cations were measured by …

Simple Descriptors For Modeling The Solubility Of Gases, Alcohols, And Halogenated Hydrocarbons In Water, Sule Sidigu

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The Statmost, QSARIS, Excel, and SAS programs were used to model the solubility of gases, alcohols, and halogenated hydrocarbons in water using simple physical and topological descriptors. The alcohols were well-modeled using measures of the number of carbons, terminal methyls, and steric hindrance about the hydroxyl group. Molecular mass, boiling point, and critical volume or critical pressure were the best descriptors for the halogenated hydrocarbons. Critical pressure was the most applicable single descriptor for the gases. Molecular mass and boiling point also yielded good results for the gases and halogenated hydrocarbons when regressed together.

Fuel Flow Control Issue In Jet Engines: An Evolvable Hardware Approach, Kshitij S. Deshpande

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Dealing with unexpected dynamic loads in Jet and Turbine engines have always been a matter of concern and an active area of research. This thesis is an initial attempt to apply Evolvable Hardware methods for augmenting classical control methods in a generic turbine engine model. In this work, the Air Force Research Laboratory Generic Turbine Engine Model was converted into C and interfaced with a simulation of a EH VLSI control chip currently under development. The simulated EH device was allowed to evolve to augment the simulated engine's standard FADEC controller so that the whole system could tolerate unexpected, large …

Estimates In The Generalized Morrey Space For Linear Parabolic Systems, Matthew Scott Mcbride

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The purpose of the this paper is to study the parabolic system u_t^{i} - D_α(a_ij^{αβ}D_βu^j) = -div f^i in the generalized Morrey Space L_φ^{2,λ} . We would like to understand the regularity of the solutions of this system. It will be shown that 1: if a_ij^{αβ} in C(Q_T) then Du in L_φ^{2,λ}, and 2: if a_ij^{αβ} in VMO(Q_T) then Du in L_φ^{2,λ}. Moreover we will be able to obtain estimates on the gradient of the solutions to the system, which will tell us about the regularity of the solutions.

Computational Methods For The Objective Review Of Forensic Dna Testing Results, Jason R. Gilder

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Since the advent of criminal investigations, investigators have sought a "gold standard" for the evaluation of forensic evidence. Currently, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology is the most reliable method of identification. Short Tandem Repeat (STR) DNA genotyping has the potential for impressive match statistics, but the methodology not infallible. The condition of an evidentiary sample and potential issues with the handling and testing of a sample can lead to significant issues with the interpretation of DNA testing results. Forensic DNA interpretation standards are determined by laboratory validation studies that often involve small sample sizes. This dissertation presents novel methodologies to address …

Classification Of Microarray Data To Predict Toxic Exposure, Tarek A. Seleem

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This thesis presents a software system for the analysis of microarray data. Microarrays are a relatively new technology that can be used to examine the state of the genome of an organism at some instant in time. The challenge is the amount of natural variation in biological systems limits our ability to identify specific genes that may be sensitive to changes in an organism's physiology or its environment. The analysis software consists of three modules. The first module filters microarray data to reduce the complexity of the problem. The second module selects subsets of genes for evaluation using a genetic …

On Optimal Survivability Design In Wdm Optical Networks Under Scheduled Traffic Models, Tianjian Li

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Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks are widely viewed as the most appropriate choice for future Internet backbone with the potential to fulfill the ever-growing demands for bandwidth. WDM divides the enormous bandwidth of an optical fiber into many non-overlapping wavelength channels, each of which may operate at the rate of 10 Gigabit per second or higher. A failure in a network such as a cable cut may result in a tremendous loss of data. Therefore, survivability is a very important issue in WDM optical networks. The objective of this dissertation is to address the survivability provisioning problem in WDM …

Transformation Of Formally Defined Post-Conditions Into Target Language Statements, Swetha Padma Parvathaneni

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For years software engineering researchers have been trying to come up with a software synthesis system that can transform a formal specification model into a design model from which executable code can be generated. AFIT Wide Spectrum Object Modeling Environment (AWSOME) is one such formal based software synthesis system. In this system formal specifications written in AWL are parsed into an AST (Abstract Syntax Tree). The intent of this thesis is to demonstrate the transformation of the postconditions of a method into target language statements. The methods in the classes are specified using pre-conditions and post-conditions. Transforms are developed to …

Investigation Of The Reflective Properties Of A Left-Handed Metamaterial, Amanda Durham

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The purpose of this project is to investigate the reflective properties of a left-handed metamaterial (LHM) through the use of a finite element analysis software called FEMLAB. In the 1960's, V. Veselago theorized that a material with negative permeability and negative permittivity has a negative index of refraction. In 2000, such a metamaterial was built and demonstrated at microwave frequencies. Previous work had focused on the transmission properties of the metamaterial. In our work, the reflected wave was examined for a LHM subject to an incident transverse electric wave. The different generalizations, first proposed by Veselago, of the Fresnel and …

Role-Based Access Control For The Open Grid Services Architecture - Data Access And Integration (Ogsa-Dai), Anil L. Pereira

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Grid has emerged recently as an integration infrastructure for the sharing and coordinated use of diverse resources in dynamic, distributed virtual organizations (VOs). A Data Grid is an architecture for the access, exchange, and sharing of data in the Grid environment. In this dissertation, role-based access control (RBAC) systems for heterogeneous data resources in Data Grid systems are proposed. The Open Grid Services Architecture - Data Access and Integration (OGSA-DAI) is a widely used framework for the integration of heterogeneous data resources in Grid systems.

However, in the OGSA-DAI system, access control causes substantial administration overhead for resource providers in …

Data Mining And Analysis On Multiple Time Series Object Data, Chunyu Jiang

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Huge amount of data is available in our society and the need for turning such data into useful information and knowledge is urgent. Data mining is an important field addressing that need and significant progress has been achieved in the last decade. In several important application areas, data arises in the format of Multiple Time Series Object (MTSO) data, where each data object is an array of time series over a large set of features and each has an associated class or state. Very little research has been conducted towards this kind of data. Examples include computational toxicology, where each …

Xml Integrated Environment For Service-Oriented Data Management, Marwan Younes Maarouf

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The proliferation of XML as a family of related standards including a markup language (XML), formatting semantics (XSL style sheets), a linking syntax (XLINK), and appropriate data schema standards have emerged as a de facto standard for encoding and sharing data between various applications. XML is designed to be simple, easily parsed and self-describing. XML is based on and support the idea of separation of concerns: information content is separated from information rendering, and relationships between data elements are provided via simple nesting and references. As the XML content grows, the ability to handle schemaless XML documents becomes more critical …

The Electroanalytical Performance Of Sonogel Carbon Titanium (Iv) Oxide Electrodes Versus Conducting Polymer Electrodes In The Electrochemical Detection Of Biological Molecules, Jelynn A. Stinson

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The electrochemical performance of a newly developed sonogel carbon titanium (IV) oxide (SGC/TiO2 ) electrode against poly(3-methylthiophene) (P3MT) and poly(2,2'-bithiophene) (PBTP) modified electrodes in the electrochemical detection of biological molecules is reported. The stability of the Titanium (IV) Oxide coating on the sonogel carbon electrode was shown to be greater than the P3MT coating on the conventional size glassy carbon electrode. After 10 consecutive scans, there was a 21% loss of the initial signal at the P3MT modified electrode and a 5% loss of the initial signal at the SGC/TiO2 electrode. The influence of NAD+ on NADH response was tested. …

High Performance Text Document Clustering, Yanjun Li

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Data mining, also known as knowledge discovery in database (KDD), is the process to discover interesting unknown knowledge from a large amount of data. Text mining is to apply data mining techniques to extract interesting and nontrivial information and knowledge from unstructured text. Text clustering is one of important techniques of text mining, which is the unsupervised classification of similar documents into different groups.

This research focuses on improving the performance of text clustering. We investigated the text clustering algorithms in four aspects: document representation, documents closeness measurement, high dimension reduction and parallelization. We propose a group of high performance …

Fabrication And Study Of Zno Micro- And Nanostructures, Monica Morales-Masis

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ZnO micro-structures and nano-structures have been grown on two types of substrate by reacting condensed Zn vapor with oxygen. The source material was either pure zinc powder or zinc acetate which was either evaporated or decomposed. This was done in the temperature range 500 C to 650 C, in a flowing Ar plus oxygen ambient at atmospheric pressure. Variations in the carrier gas composition, gas flow rate and the position of the substrate in the furnace were found to control the formation and the morphology of the nanostructures. Scanning electron microscopy images of samples grown from a Zn powder source …

An Analysis Of Neutral Drift's Effect On The Evolution Of A Ctrnn Locomotion Controller With Noisy Fitness Evaluation, Gregory Robert Kramer

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This dissertation focuses on the evolution of Continuous Time Recurrent Neural Networks (CTRNNs) as controllers for control systems. Existing research suggests that the process of neutral drift can greatly benefit evolution for problems whose fitness landscapes contain large-scale neutral networks. CTRNNs are known to be highly degenerate, providing a possible source of large-scale landscape neutrality, and existing research suggests that neutral drift benefits the evolution of simple CTRNNs. However, there has been no in-depth examination of the effects of neutral drift on complex CTRNN controllers, especially in the presence of noisy fitness evaluation. To address this problem, this dissertation presents …

Laser Initiated Chain Reactions: The Kinetics Of The Chlorine/Cyclohexane/Oxygen Chain System, Robert Alan Forlines

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The combination of laser photolysis with infrared chemiluminescence detection has proven an effective technique for determining the propagation rate coefficients of halogen + RH chain reactions. This thesis will extend the technique to cyclic alkanes by determining the propagation rate coefficients of the Cl₂/ cyclohexane chain system as well as the rate coefficient for the primary chain termination mechanism, R + O₂ → RO₂. The following reaction scheme is supported by the kinetic analysis: Cl₂ → 2Cl Laser Photolysis Cl + RH → HCl(v) + R First Propagation Step (k₁) R + …

Evanescent Microwave Characterization Of Carbon Nanotube Films Grown On Silicon Carbide Substrate, Kineshma Munbodh

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The electromagnetic characterization of carbon nanotube films (CNT) grown by the surface decomposition of silicon carbide (SiC) has been performed. The CNT films formed on the carbon and silicon terminated face of the SiC substrate were uncapped by an annealing process at a temperature of 4000 C with dwelling time up to 60 minutes in oxygen or carbon dioxide atmosphere. X-Y scans of the quality factor were used to deduce the local conductive properties of the films measured by evanescent microwave microscopy. Real and imaginary permittivity values, as determined by these electromagnetic measurements, provided valuable information for future field emission …

Synthetic Approach To Epibatidine From 1-(Phenylsulfonyl)Pyrrole, Brandon G. Vanness

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The goal of this research was to synthesize the natural product epibatidine, a non-opiate analgesic and nicotinic acetylcholine agonist isolated from Epipedobates tricolor. A synthetic pathway utilizing a Diels-Alder cycloaddition of a 3-pyridyl substituted pyrrole and tosylacetylene was conceived based upon the original mass spectral fragmentation pathway of epibatidine determined by Daly. Although this pathway had been previously attempted using 1-(triisopropyl)-3-[5-(2-chloropyridyl)]pyrrole in the key Diels-Alder step, the lack of cycloadduct suggested that a pyrrole with a more electron withdrawing protecting group was required for this step. Therefore, synthesis of 1-(phenylsulfonyl)-3-[5-(2-chloropyridyl)]pyrrole via a palladium catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of 1-(phenylsulfonyl)-3-pyrroline and …

Synthesis And Electrical Properties Of Fluorenyl Polyesters Incorporating Diamond Fragments, Kevin John Wiacek

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Based on the paradigm of diamond as a wide band-gap electrical insulator, molecular counterparts to crystalline diamond (cyclohexane, adamantane, and diamantane) were incorporated into a high-temperature fluorenyl polyester (FPE) with the intent of increasing the breakdown strength. The effect of incorporating a CycloteneTM thermoset as a crosslinking agent to increase the dielectric strength and the self-healing phenomena of these polymers were also investigated. Polymers were synthesized using 9,9-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)fluorene and the diacid chloride of cyclohexane, adamantane, and diamantane. Thin films of the polymers were cast from chloroform and the electrical properties were investigated. The polyester incorporating the largest diamond fragment had …

Evidence Of A Pre-Mount Simon, Half-Graben In Greene County, Ohio By Reprocessing A Wright State University Seismic Line, John Sink

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The reprocessing of the WSU2002 seismic line indicates the presence of a Precambrian half-graben. Also observed through this reprocessing is the possible presence of Paleozoic structures. Although Paleozoic features have been interpreted, variations in glacial drift thickness evidenced by glacial drift maps also may have contributed to a lower quality of stacked section in comparison to other seismic lines. WSU2002 was originally processed by Lauren Geophysical. The Lauren processing resulted in an image that was of much lower quality than corresponding seismic lines. The Lauren Geophysical processed section revealed many horizontal Paleozoic reflections, with no prominent reflectors beneath the Paleozoic. …

Synthetic Routes To A Fused-Ring Sydnoquinazoline, Gregory Edmond Storer

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In this research, 5-methylsydno-[3,4-a]quinazoline was synthesized via multiple methodologies, the best of which yielded the target compound in 50 % overall yield for the six steps. Synthesis of this compound in reasonable yields and exploration of its chemical behavior is of particular interest as a putative NO-prodrug. As an initial approach to the synthesis and accumulation of the compound of interest, attempts were made to optimize the existing synthetic pathway to its precursors. The starting material, 3-(2-acetylphenyl)sydnone, was prepared in 3 steps from commercially available starting material in good yields. This sydnone compound was then converted to the versatile intermediate, …

Mutually Orthogonal Latin Squares Based On Z3X Z9, James Michael Carter

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This paper will investigate the number of mutually orthogonal latin squares, MOLS, that can be constructed using elements from the group G = Z₃x Z₉. In calculating this number, it is necessary to consider the group under the action of the homomorphism f : G → K defined by f ((g₁, g₂))=(g₁mod 3, g₂mod 3) so that K ≅ Im(G) is isomorphic to Z₃x Z₃, so that the action of f is to create the quotient group K = G/<(0, 3)>. …

Geophysical Reconnaissance Of Karst Features Associated With Sinkholes On The Antioch University Campus In Yellow Springs, Ohio: Western Area, Brent Matthew Zerkel

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Antioch University is located in Yellow Springs, OH. This study was conducted on the Antioch University Campus in the commons area and is concentrated on the area west of the easternmost sinkhole. The primary purpose of this study is to locate and identify buried anomalous karst features, such as joints and collapses that may be hazardous to nearby buildings on the Antioch University Campus. The secondary purposes of this study are to identify remaining features in the geophysical data that may be related to manmade structures, and to identify areas for future studies. It is known that an 8-inch steel …

Modifiable Poly(Arylene Ether)S And Hyperbranched Poly(Esters), Brian Scott Werry

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Two different polymer systems have been studied in regards to their potential for functionalization to introduce new characteristics to the polymer. The first polymer system is a poly(arylene ether) with a truly pendant sulfone group from the monomer 3,5-difluorodiphenylsulfone. The work entails incorporating a bromine moiety onto the monomer for the versatile ability to bring in functional groups prior to or post the polymerization. The introduction of bromine onto the pendant ring had the best results from electrophilic bromine addition using N-bromosuccinimide in a mixture of sulfuric acid and acetic acid (80:20) yielding 76% of the desired material. Incorporation of …

Laser Induced Fluorescence Spectroscopy Of Molecular Bromine: Observations Of Emission To High Vibrational Levels In The Ground (X) State, David Jonathan Postell

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The Laser Induced Fluorescence spectrum of the B - X system of molecular bromine was recorded using a Red and Near Infrared sensitive PMT coupled to a scanning monochromator. A 543 nm HeNe laser was used to excite three resonances. Assignment of those resonances was made. A line narrowed Nd:YAG laser was used to excite eight fluorescence progressions, six from the (79,81) bromine isotopomer and one each from the (79,79) bromine and (81,81) bromine isotopomers. Analysis of the visible bands helped determine the resonances excited by the Nd:YAG laser. Fluorescence in the near infrared region, 9500 - 14000 angstroms, was …

Comparative Investigation Of Dosimetric Tools In Imrt, Aaron Nicholas Garcia

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Verification of the isodose distribution delivered to the planned tumor volume is required for quality assurance in the clinic. Verification in this context means ensuring that the actual dose delivered to a volume matches the dose that a computerized planning system intended that volume to receive. The computerized planning is performed by a Computerized Medical Systems (CMS) Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) plan. Two methods of measuring the delivered dose are film dosimetry and diode dosimetry. This project will compare the relative isodose distribution profiles of film dosimetry and MapCheck (Sun Nuclear Corporation, a diode-based dosimetry system) to the relative …

Summaritive Digest For Large Document Repositories With Application To E-Rulemaking, Lijun Chen

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Large document repositories need to be organized and summarized to make them more accessible and understandable. Such needs exist in many applications, including web search, e-rulemaking (electronic rulemaking) and document archiving. Even though much has been done in the areas of document clustering and summarization, there are still many new challenges and issues that need to be addressed as the repositories become larger, more prevalent and dynamic. In this dissertation, we investigate more informative ways to organize and summarize large document repositories, especially e-rulemaking feedback repositories (ERFRs), so that the large repositories can be managed and digested more efficiently and …

Hydrophobically Modified Polyethyleneimines And Ethoxylated Polyethyleneimines, Michael Joseph Simons

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The modification of the commercially available polymers polyethyleneimines and ethoxylated polyethyleneimines took place with approximately a 3-10% alkylbromide modification followed by, in the case of the polyethyleneimines, a 2-hydroxypropyl modification, using propylene oxide, on the order of 65-70%. The objective was to increase the hydrophobicity of the polymer while keeping the cloud point above 60°C. Another approach taken was to form hydrophobic ethers from ethoxylated polyethyleneimine. We also added a 2-hydroxy ethyl group to a hexylated polyethyleneimine avoiding the use of ethylene oxide or drying EPI.

Porosity And Permeability Of Bimodal Sediment Mixtures Using Natural Sediment, Peter M. Phillips

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Porosity and permeability are parameters that affect the flow of ground water in the subsurface and have significant implications on the modeling of fate and transport of contaminants. However, little has been done to quantitatively examine the effect on porosity and permeability of packing in bimodal mixtures of natural sediment. This study compares measurements of porosity and permeability on model bimodal sediment mixtures with predictions from petrophysical models. The main goal is to evaluate how well these petrophysical models predict porosity and permeability in bimodal mixtures of natural sediment. The effect of the volume fraction of fines on porosity and …