Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Carbon Dioxide Flooding Induced Geochemical Changes In A Saline Carbonate Aquifer, Alyssa Boock

Theses and Dissertations

Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been injected into depleted oil reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery for several decades. Injection of CO2 into geologic formations in the Williston Basin is currently under consideration for long-term CO2 storage to reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. The Madison Group in the North Dakota Williston Basin provides the greatest potential for geologic sequestration in either deep saline aquifers or depleted oil reservoirs. Little is known about the geochemical reactions that take place when supercritical carbon dioxide is injected into deep saline aquifers at geologic conditions similar to those found in potential sequestration units of …

Tailoring Local Conductivity By The Formation Of Ag Nanoclusters In Sio2 Xerogel Films, Ricky Caperton

Theses and Dissertations

Porous silicon dioxide thin films were produced via dip-coating and doped with Ag+ by adding AgNO3 to the dipping solution. Nanoparticles were formed within the pores of these films by UV exposure. Nanoparticle formation was confirmed by UV-visible spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy (CAFM) showed that the conductivity of the films decreased upon exposure to UV. This decrease in the conductivity is most likely due to the clustering of charge carriers. Initially, Ag+ ions are attached to negatively charged pore walls in a dense packing network. Upon UV exposure (125 mW @ 266 nm), the …

Noncovalent Interaction Of Platinum Planar Amine Compounds With Tryptophan: A Strategy To Interfere With P53-Mdm2 Interactions And Targeting Retroviral Zn Finger-Dna Interaction (Hiv Ncp7), Aaron Bate

Theses and Dissertations

Non-covalent interactions involving π-π stacking play an essential role in self-assembly and molecular recognition processes such as protein folding and DNA/RNA-protein selective recognition. The knowledge gained from these studies could provide insight into possible site recognition complexes, inhibiting or mimicking protein-protein or protein-DNA interactions. Based on molecular modeling as well as HOMO and LUMO energies, several chromophores were selected with a variety of ∆ε values (∆ε= |εHOMO,NAcTrp – εLUMO,chromophores|), high and low, to establish a correlating trend with the modeling and experimental data. The corresponding Pt(dien) compounds were synthesized and their ability to stack to N-acetyl tryptophan was evaluated by …

The Malina Oceanographic Expedition: How Do Changes In Ice Cover, Permafrost And Uv Radiation Impact On Biodiversity And Biogeochemical Fluxes In The Arctic Ocean?, Phillippe Massicotte, Rainer Amon, David Antoine, Philippe Archambault, Sergio Balzano, Simon Bélanger, Ronald Benner, Dominique Boeuf, Annick Bricaud, Flavienne Bruyant, Gwenaëlle Chaillou, Malik Malik, Bruno Charrière, Jing Chen, Hervé Claustre, Pierre Coupel, Nicole Delsaut, David Doxaran, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

The MALINA oceanographic campaign was conducted during summer 2009 to investigate the carbon stocks and the processes controlling the carbon fluxes in the Mackenzie River estuary and the Beaufort Sea. During the campaign, an extensive suite of physical, chemical and biological variables was measured across seven shelf–basin transects (south-north) to capture the meridional gradient between the estuary and the open ocean. Key variables such as temperature, absolute salinity, radiance, irradiance, nutrient concentrations, chlorophyll-a concentration, bacteria, phytoplankton and zooplankton abundance and taxonomy, and carbon stocks and fluxes were routinely measured onboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen and from a barge …

An Investigation Of Training In Creative Problem Solving And Its Relationship To Affective And Effective Idea Generation Of Entrepreneurial Learners, Charles Edward Leach

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

A significant proportion of the population engages in entrepreneurial behavior but many ventures do not survive beyond startup thus decreasing the pool of entrepreneurs available to contribute to the economy. Opportunity recognition is central to entrepreneurial success and the improper delineation of opportunities is cited as a leading cause of venture failure. There is a logical link between creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. The goal of the researcher in this study was to explore the relationships between CPS training and the generation of entrepreneurial ideas.

The investigation studied the relationship of training in creative problem solving (CPS) to the opportunity identification …

Administrative Support For Online Teaching Faculty, John David Meyer

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

When administrators make decisions about the infrastructure support needs of a current or planned online teaching program, these decisions are often based on external expert advice rather than on the advice of experienced ground level faculty who are living with the dynamic nature of the technology and support needed to develop and maintain an effective online teaching program. Online teaching faculty are the best source of advice and information on what works and what does not.

Faculty at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) were surveyed to find out what elements are important to the development of an effective online …

Section 508 Adherence By Industry Professionals: Improving Universal Design Through Training, Antonio Rincon

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 took effect in 2001 and provides encouragement for universal design and compliance requirements to the federal sector for purchases that are accessible by people with disabilities. A division of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GDAIS) is located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and provides electronic and information technology solutions to federal customers in the defense, intelligence, and homeland security communities.

The general lack of training is a major factor for low compliance to Section 508. Improving awareness is important at GDAIS in order to increase its federal sales market share, develop new products …

A Model For The Evaluation Of Is/It Investments, Paul M. Tuten

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Evaluation is a vital--yet challenging--part of IS/IT management and governance. The benefits (or lack therefore) associated with IS/IT investments have been widely debated within academic and industrial communities alike. Investments in information technology may or may not result in desirable outcomes. Yet, organizations must rely on information systems to remain competitive. Effective evaluation serves as one pathway to ensuring success. However, despite a growing multitude of measures and methods, practitioners continue to struggle with this intractable problem.

Responding to the limited success of existing methods, scholars have argued that academicians should first develop a better understanding of the process of …

An Investigation Of The Contributions Of Gender, Shopping Orientation, Online Experience, And Website's Interactive Features To Consumers' Intentions To Engage In Apparel E-Commerce Shopping, Amanda Wynn

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

E-commerce has experienced exponential growth within the last few years. The rapid growth of e-commerce has created a need to improve consumer acceptance and the consumer's intention to engage in e-commerce. Female consumers have yet to embrace e-commerce as readily as male consumers. Differences between male and female consumer shopping behavior were examined.

This study developed and empirically tested a model to predict the consumer's intention to engage in apparel e-commerce shopping based on the constructs of gender, shopping orientation, online experience, and Website's interactive features. Male and female U.S. consumers age 18 and older were surveyed to determine their …

Measurement And Simulation Of Laser-Induced Fluorescence From Nonequilibrium Ultracold Neutral Plasmas, A. Denning, Scott D. Bergeson, F. Robicheaux

Faculty Publications

We report measurements and simulations of laser-induced fluorescence in ultracold neutral plasmas. We focus on the earliest times, when the plasma equilibrium is evolving and before the plasma expands. In the simulation, the ions interact via the Yukawa potential in a small cell with wrapped boundary conditions. We solve the optical Bloch equation for each ion in the simulation as a function of time. Both the simulation and experiment show the initial increase in ion fluorescence, disorder-induced heating, and coherent oscillation of the rms ion velocity. Detailed modeling of the fluorescence signal makes it possible to use fluorescence spectroscopy to …

Author Entropy Vs. File Size In The Gnome Suite Of Applications, Jason R. Casebolt, Daniel P. Delorey, Charles D. Knutson, Jonathan Krein, Alexander C. Maclean

Faculty Publications

We present the results of a study in which author entropy was used to characterize author contributions per file. Our analysis reveals three patterns: banding in the data, uneven distribution of data across bands, and file size dependent distributions within bands. Our re- sults suggest that when two authors contribute to a file, large files are more likely to have a dominant author than smaller files.

Psoda: Open Source Phylogenetic Search And Dna Analysis, Mark J. Clement, Quinn O. Snell, Kenneth Sundberg

Faculty Publications

PSODA is an open source (GPL v2) sequence analysis package that implements sequence alignment using biochemical properties, phylogeny search with parsimony or maximum likelihood criteria and selection detection using biochemical properties (TreeSAAP ). PSODA is compatible with PAUP and the search algorithms are competitive with those in PAUP. PSODA also adds a basic scripting language to the PAUP block, making it possible to easily create advanced meta-searches. Because PSODA is open-source, we have also been able to easily add in advanced search techniques and characterize the benefits of various optimizations. PSODA is available for Macintosh OS X, Windows, and Linux.

Computer-Aided Reasoning About Knowledge And Justifications, Natalia Novak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the first Chapter we compare two well-known type-based computer frameworks for computer aided logical reasoning and verification: MetaPRL and Coq. In particular, we implement in MetaPRL the Calculus of Inductive Constructions which is the theoretical base for Coq. This work has shown the common points of MetaPRL and Coq, and revealed their principal methodological differences. A possible application of this work is a possibility to perform re-validation in MetaPRL of the existing library of Coq proofs which could help to build more trust in the latter.

Chapter 2 is the main contribution of the dissertation. It contains the description …

On The Dynamics Of Quasi-Self-Matings Of Generalized Starlike Complex Quadratics And The Structure Of The Mated Julia Sets, Ross Flek

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It has been shown that, in many cases, Julia sets of complex polynomials can be "glued" together to obtain a new Julia set homeomorphic to a Julia set of a rational map; the dynamics of the two polynomials are reflected in the dynamics of the mated rational map. Here, I investigate the Julia sets of self-matings of generalized starlike quadratic polynomials, which enjoy relatively simple combinatorics. The points in the Julia sets of the mated rational maps are completely classified according to their topology. The presence and location of buried points in these Julia sets are addressed. The interconnections between …

Taxonomy Development And Knowledge Representation Of Nurses' Personal Cognitive Artifacts

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Nurses prepare knowledge representations, or summaries of patient clinical data, each shift. These knowledge representations serve multiple purposes, including support of working memory, workload organization and prioritization, critical thinking, and reflection. This summary is integral to internal knowledge representations, working memory, and decision-making. Study of this nurse knowledge representation resulted in development of a taxonomy of knowledge representations necessary to nursing practice.This paper describes the methods used to elicit the knowledge representations and structures necessary for the work of clinical nurses, described the development of a taxonomy of this knowledge representation, and discusses translation of this methodology to the cognitive …

On The Dynamics Of Quasi-Self-Matings Of Generalized Starlike Complex Quadratics And The Structure Of The Mated Julia Sets, Ross Flek

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It has been shown that, in many cases, Julia sets of complex polynomials can be "glued" together to obtain a new Julia set homeomorphic to a Julia set of a rational map; the dynamics of the two polynomials are reflected in the dynamics of the mated rational map. Here, I investigate the Julia sets of self-matings of generalized starlike quadratic polynomials, which enjoy relatively simple combinatorics. The points in the Julia sets of the mated rational maps are completely classified according to their topology. The presence and location of buried points in these Julia sets are addressed. The interconnections between …

Sensitivity Analysis Framework For Large And Complex Simulation Models, Ghaith Rabadi, Shannon Bowling, Charles Keating, Resit Unal

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, a framework for conducting Sensitivity Analysis (SA) on large and complex simulation models is introduced. The framework consists of components that are designed to make the SA a systematic process that is easy to manage and follow by simulation analysts and practitioners. Unlike local SA (one-variable-at-a-time SA), the method presented here is variance-based and it is rooted in the field of Design of Experiments (DoE) where Input Variables are varied and Output Variables are measured. Based on the DoE results, a risk scoring system is developed to identify the sensitivity of the Input Variables, and as a …

The Impact Of Communication Medium On Team Performance Patterns, Pilar Pazos, Mario G. Beruvides

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The increased impact of globalization and rapidly changing technologies are some of the biggest challenges facing 21st century organizations. Remote teams supported through computer-based systems have been identified as a key lever to help organizations adapt to this turbulent environment. This study sheds some light on how teams perform and adapt by evaluating performance and synergy over time for teams in two different settings: computer supported and face-to-face. Participants in the study were randomly assigned either to a computer-supported or a face-to face group. Each group met over three sessions to perform a series of tasks that were evaluated using …

Book Review: Helping Students Learn In A Learner-Centered Environment By Terry Doyle (Stylus, 2008), Delena Bell Gatch

Physics & Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Excerpt: According to Terry Doyle in his book Helping Students Learn in a Learner-Centered Environment, “Most important, this book has been written to answer the single most asked question I hear when working with faculty groups: How do I help my students adjust to a learner-centered practice?” As desired, Doyle has offered some excellent answers for faculty struggling to transform their students into lifelong learners.

Sentiment Classification Of Reviews Using Sentiwordnet, Bruno Ohana, Brendan Tierney

Conference papers

Sentiment classification concerns the use of automatic methods for predicting the orientation of subjective content on text documents, with applications on a number of areas including recommender and advertising systems, customer intelligence and information retrieval. SentiWordNet is an opinion lexicon derived from the WordNet database where each term is associated with numerical scores indicating positive and negative sentiment information. This research presents the results of applying the SentiWordNet lexical resource to the problem of automatic sentiment classification of film reviews. Our approach comprises counting positive and negative term scores to determine sentiment orientation, and an improvement is presented by building …

Introducing Interior-Point Methods For Introductory Operations Research Courses And/Or Linear Programming Courses, Goran Lesaja

Mathematical Sciences: Faculty Publications

In recent years the introduction and development of Interior-Point Methods has had a profound impact on optimization theory as well as practice, influencing the field of Operations Research and related areas. Development of these methods has quickly led to the design of new and efficient optimization codes particularly for Linear Programming. Consequently, there has been an increasing need to introduce theory and methods of this new area in optimization into the appropriate undergraduate and first year graduate courses such as introductory Operations Research and/or Linear Programming courses, Industrial Engineering courses and Math Modeling courses. The objective of this paper is …

Toxicity Assessment Of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Eva Herzog

Doctoral

The objective of this study was to investigate the potential adverse health effects of occupational exposure to SWCNT dust using various in vitro approaches. Lung epithelium (represented by A549 and NHBE cells) was chosen as target cell model and exposed to minimally processed particle samples under submerse conditions and effects were compared to that of carbon black and crocidolite asbestos exposure. Cytotoxicity studies indicated low acute cytotoxicity of SWCNT. Morphological changes included decreases in microvilli and increased numbers of surfactant storing lamellar bodies and changes in cytoskeleton. Due to interactions of SWCNT and toxicity indicator dyes, the clonogenic assay was …

Synthesis Of 3,6-Bis(5’-Bromo-3’-Indolyl)-1,4-Dimethypiperazine-2,5-Dione, Stephen N. Crooke, C. Michele Davis Mcgibony, Christine R. Whitlock

Chemistry: Faculty Publications (1990-2023)

The one-pot synthesis of 3,6-bis(5’-bromo-3’-indolyl)-1,4-dimethylpiperazine- 2,5-dione is reported. Sarcosine anhydride is brominated and immediately reacted with 5-bromoindole to produce the product, which is characterized by ¹H NMR, MS and microanalysis.

A Covert Encryption Method For Applications In Electronic Data Interchange, Jonathan Blackledge, Dmitry Dubovitskiy

Articles

A principal weakness of all encryption systems is that the output data can be ‘seen’ to be encrypted. In other words, encrypted data provides a ‘flag’ on the potential value of the information that has been encrypted. In this paper, we provide a new approach to ‘hiding’ encrypted data in a digital image.

In conventional (symmetric) encryption, the plaintext is usually represented as a binary stream and encrypted using an XOR type operation with a binary cipher. The algorithm used is ideally designed to: (i) generate a maximum entropy cipher so that there is no bias with regard to any …

Scattering From A Tenuous Random Medium With Applications In Optics, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

Mathematical models for the scattering of light (and other radiation) tend to fall into two categories based on a weak field condition (single scattering processes) or a strong field condition (multiple scattering processes). In the latter case, the complexity of deterministic models coupled with available solutions often fail to provide results that are of value to engineering systems (e.g. imaging systems). For this reason, multiple scattering problems are often approached using stochastic modelling methods whose foundations lie in random walk theory where the amplitude and phase of the scattered field are taken to conform to an appropriate statistical process and …

The Bright Optical/Nir Afterglow Of The Faint Grb 080710 – Evidence Of A Jet Viewed Off-Axis, T. Krühler, J. Greiner, P. Afonso, D. Burlon, C. Clemens, R. Filgas, D. A. Kann, S. Klose, A. Küpcü Yolda¸, S. Mcbreen, F. Olivares, A. Rau, A. Rossi, S. Schulze, G. P. Szokoly, Adria Updike, A. Yolda¸S

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Aims. We investigate the optical/near-infrared light curve of the afterglow of GRB 080710 in the context of rising afterglows. Methods. Optical and near-infrared photometry was performed using the seven-channel imager GROND and the Tautenburg Schmidt telescope. X-ray data were provided by the X-ray Telescope onboard the Swift satellite. We construct an empirical light curve model using the available broadband data, which is well-sampled in the time and frequency domains. Results. The optical/NIR light curve of the afterglow of GRB 080710 is dominated by an initial increase in brightness, which smoothly turns over into a shallow power law decay. At around …

Double-Glazing Interferometry, Vincent Toal, Emilia Mihaylova

Articles

This note describes how white light interference fringes can be seen by observing the Moon through a double-glazed window. White light interferometric fringes are normally observed only in a well-aligned interferometer whose optical path difference is less than the coherence length of the light source, which is approximately one micrometer for white light. Obtaining such fringes in a Michelson interferometer is not a trivial task.1 The interferometer is typically illuminated with a monochromatic source and the path length difference adjusted with a wedge angle between the interferometer mirrors so that five or six vertical fringes are visible, indicating nearly equal …

Optical Properties Of Silica-Mfi Doped Acrylamide-Based Photopolymer, Tzvetanka Babeva, Rosen Todorov, Svetlana Mintova, Temenujka Yovcheva, Izabela Naydenova, Vincent Toal

Articles

The optical properties of acrylamide-based photopolymer doped with pure silica MFI-type zeolites are studied by refractometric and spectrophotometric means. Dynamic Light Scattering and Transmission Electron Microscopy are used for zeolite characterization and laser refractometry and White Light Interferometric profilometry are used for surface characterization of the composites. Refractive indices and absorption coefficients of composites are determined from their transmittance and reflectance spectra. The calculated dispersion curves are further used for deriving the zeolites refractive index and porosity and the latter compared to the values of total pore volume obtained from N2-sorption measurements. The impact of the doping level on the …

Optical And Holographic Characteristics Of Photopolymer Layers, Temenujka Yovcheva, Izabela Naydenova, Ivanka Vlaeva, Suzanne Martin, Vincent Toal, Simeon Sainov

Articles

In the present work the optical and holographic characteristics of acrylamide-based photopolymer layers are studied. For the first time the refractive index change of a liquid acrylamide photopolymer due to exposure at 532 nm is obtained using a critical angle laser micro-refractometer. The 30 mm thick solid photopolymer films are prepared by casting on glass substrates. Bragg holographic gratings with spatial frequencies of 710 mm-1, 1050 mm-1 and 1600 mm-1 are recorded using a diode laser operating at 532 nm wavelength. The diffraction efficiency dependence on the exposure energy is investigated. The obtained results are compared with the Stetson holographic …

Investigation Of The Light Induced Redistribution Of Beta Nanoparticles In An Acrylamide-Based Photopolymer, Elsa Leite, Izabela Naydenova, Nitesh Pandey, Tzvetanka Babeva, G. Majano, Svetlana Mintova

Articles

We report the redistribution of colloidal zeolite Beta nanoparticles during holographic recording in acrylamide-based photopolymers. Using the techniques of confocal Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive x-ray analysis (SEM–EDX), we have observed a periodic pattern, whose spacing agrees with the fringe spacing of the recorded holographic diffraction grating. It was estimated that the fraction of nanoparticles redistributed as a result of the holographic recording is 40%. The effect of the nanoparticles on the average refractive index of the nanocomposite layers was studied by UV–visible spectroscopy. It was observed that the addition of zeolite nanoparticles leads to …