Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Photophysical And Optical Properties Of Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles Prepared From Hyaluronic Acid And Polysorbate 80, Adam Langlois, Gage T. Mason, Michael H.L. Nguyen, Mehdi Rezapour, Paul Ludovic Karsenti, Drew Marquardt, Simon Rondeau-Gagné

Chemistry and Biochemistry Publications

Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society. A nanoprecipitation procedure was utilized to prepare novel diketopyrrolopyrrole-based semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) with hyaluronic acid (HA) and polysorbate 80. The nanoprecipitation led to the formation of spherical nanoparticles with average diameters ranging from 100 to 200 nm, and a careful control over the structure of the parent conjugated polymers was performed to probe the influence of π-conjugation on the final photophysical and thermal stability of the resulting SPNs. Upon generation of a series of novel SPNs, the optical and photophysical properties of the new nanomaterials were probed in solution using various techniques including …

Connectivity Differences Between Gulf War Illness (Gwi) Phenotypes During A Test Of Attention, Tomas Clarke, Jessie Jamieson, Patrick Malone, Rakib U. Rayhan, Stuart Washington, John W. Vanmeter, James N. Baraniuk

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

One quarter of veterans returning from the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War have developed Gulf War Illness (GWI) with chronic pain, fatigue, cognitive and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Exertion leads to characteristic, delayed onset exacerbations that are not relieved by sleep. We have modeled exertional exhaustion by comparing magnetic resonance images from before and after submaximal exercise. One third of the 27 GWI participants had brain stem atrophy and developed postural tachycardia after exercise (START: Stress Test Activated Reversible Tachycardia). The remainder activated basal ganglia and anterior insulae during a cognitive task (STOPP: Stress Test Originated Phantom Perception). Here, the role of attention …

Ueb Parallel: Distributed Snow Accumulation And Melt Modeling Using Parallel Computing, Tseganeh Z. Gichamo, David G. Tarboton

Publications

The Utah Energy Balance (UEB) model supports gridded simulation of snow processes over a watershed. To enhance computational efficiency, we developed two parallel versions of the model, one using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) and the other using NVIDIA's CUDA code on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Evaluation of the speed-up and efficiency of the MPI version shows that the effect of input/output (IO) operations on the parallel model performance increases as the number of processor cores increases. As a result, although the computation kernel scales well with the number of cores, the efficiency of the parallel code as a whole …

Domain-Wall Tunneling Electroresistance Effect, M. Li, L. L. Tao, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) utilizing an in-plane head-to-head ferroelectric domain wall (DW) have recently been realized, showing interesting physics and new functionalities. However, the DW state in these junctions was found to be metastable and not reversible after applying an electric field. In this work, we demonstrate that a stable and reversible head-to-head DW state can be achieved in FTJs by proper engineering of polar interfaces. Using density functional theory (DFT) calculations and phenomenological modeling, we explore the DW stability by varying stoichiometry of the La_1−xSr_xO=TiO₂ interfaces in FTJs with La_0.5Sr_{0.5 …}

Social Ecological Factors Affecting Substance Abuse In Ghana (West Africa) Using Photovoice, Ahmed Kabore, Evans Afriyie-Gyawu, James Awuah, Andrew R. Hansen, Ashley Walker, Melissa Hester, Moussa Aziz Wonadé Sié, Dhruv Medarametla, Nicolas Meda

Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Introduction: substance abuse is an important public health issue affecting West Africa; however, there is currently a dearth of literature on the actions needed to address it. The aim of this study was to assess the risks and protective factors of substance abuse in Ghana, West Africa, using the photovoice method.

Methods: this study recruited and trained 10 participants in recovery from substance abuse and undergoing treatment in the greater Accra region of Ghana on the photovoice methodology. Each participant received a disposable camera to take pictures that represented the risk and protective factors pertinent to substance abuse …

Recent Disruptions In The Timing And Intensity Of Precipitation In Calakmul, Mexico, Sofia Mardero, Birgit Schmook, Zachary Christman, Sarah E. Metcalfe, Betsabé De La Barreda-Bautista

School of Earth & Environment Faculty Scholarship

This study addresses changes in the timing and intensity of precipitation from 1982 to 2016 from three meteorological stations around Calakmul, Mexico, a landscape balancing biodiversity conservation and smallholder agricultural production. Five methods were used to assess changes in precipitation: the Mann-Kendall test of annual and wet season trends; a fuzzy-logic approach to determine the onset of the rainy season; the Gini Index and Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) to evaluate the temporal distribution of precipitation; Simple Precipitation Intensity Index (SDII) to evaluate precipitation intensity; and the Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI) to identify the deficit or surplus of rainfall compared with …

First-Principles Study Of High-Pressure Phase Stability And Superconductivity Of Bi4i4, Shiyu Deng, Xianqi Song, Quan Li, Yu Xie, Changfeng Chen, Yanming Ma

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

Bismuth iodide Bi4I4 exhibits intricate crystal structures and topological insulating states that are highly susceptible to influence by environments, making its physical properties highly tunable by external conditions. In this work, we study the evolution of structural and electronic properties of Bi4I4 at high pressure using an advanced structure search method in conjunction with first-principles calculations. Our results indicate that the most stable ambient-pressure monoclinic α−Bi4I4 phase in C2/m symmetry transforms to a trigonal P31c structure (ɛ−Bi4I4) at 8.4 GPa, then to a tetragonal P4/mmm structure (ζ−Bi4I4) above 16.6 GPa. In contrast to the semiconducting nature of ambient-pressure Bi4I4, the …

(Cyclopentadienone)Iron-Catalyzed Transfer Dehydrogenation Of Symmetrical And Unsymmetrical Diols To Lactones, Yidan Tang, Rowan I.L. Meador, Casina T. Malinchak, Emily E. Harrison, Kimberly A. Mccaskey, Melanie C. Hempel, Timothy W. Funk

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Air-stable iron carbonyl compounds bearing cyclopentadienone ligands with varying substitution were explored as catalysts in dehydrogenative diol lactonization reactions using acetone as both the solvent and hydrogen acceptor. Two catalysts with trimethylsilyl groups in the 2- and 5-positions, [2,5-(SiMe3)2-3,4-(CH2)4(η4-C4C═O)]Fe(CO)3 (1) and [2,5-(SiMe3)2-3,4-(CH2)3(η4-C4C═O)]Fe(CO)3 (2), were found to be the most active, with 2 being the most selective in the lactonization of diols containing both primary and secondary alcohols. Lactones containing five-, six-, and seven-membered rings were successfully synthesized, and no over-oxidations to carboxylic acids were detected. The lactonization of unsymmetrical diols containing two …

Optimizing Measurement Strengths For Qubit Quasiprobabilities Behind Out-Of-Time-Ordered Correlators, Razieh Mohseninia, José Raúl González Alonso, Justin Dressel

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) have been proposed as a tool to witness quantum information scrambling in many-body system dynamics. These correlators can be understood as averages over nonclassical multitime quasiprobability distributions (QPDs). These QPDs have more information and their nonclassical features witness quantum information scrambling in a more nuanced way. However, their high dimensionality and nonclassicality make QPDs challenging to measure experimentally. We focus on the topical case of a many-qubit system and show how to obtain such a QPD in the laboratory using circuits with three and four sequential measurements. Averaging distinct values over the same measured distribution reveals either …

Generating Energy Data For Machine Learning With Recurrent Generative Adversarial Networks, Mohammad Navid Fekri, Ananda M. Ghosh, Katarina Grolinger

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The smart grid employs computing and communication technologies to embed intelligence into the power grid and, consequently, make the grid more efficient. Machine learning (ML) has been applied for tasks that are important for smart grid operation including energy consumption and generation forecasting, anomaly detection, and state estimation. These ML solutions commonly require sufficient historical data; however, this data is often not readily available because of reasons such as data collection costs and concerns regarding security and privacy. This paper introduces a recurrent generative adversarial network (R-GAN) for generating realistic energy consumption data by learning from real data. Generativea adversarial …

Protein And Polysaccharide-Based Magnetic Composite Materials For Medical Applications., Elizabeth J Bealer, Kyril Kavetsky, Sierra Dutko, Samuel Lofland, Xiao Hu

Faculty Scholarship for the College of Science & Mathematics

The combination of protein and polysaccharides with magnetic materials has been implemented in biomedical applications for decades. Proteins such as silk, collagen, and elastin and polysaccharides such as chitosan, cellulose, and alginate have been heavily used in composite biomaterials. The wide diversity in the structure of the materials including their primary monomer/amino acid sequences allow for tunable properties. Various types of these composites are highly regarded due to their biocompatible, thermal, and mechanical properties while retaining their biological characteristics. This review provides information on protein and polysaccharide materials combined with magnetic elements in the biomedical space showcasing the materials used, …

An Analysis Of The Atmospheric Propagation Of Underground-Explosion-Generated Infrasonic Waves Based On The Equations Of Fluid Dynamics: Ground Recordings, Roberto Sabatini, Jonathan B. Snively, Michael P. Hickey, J. L. Garrison

Publications

An investigation on the propagation of underground-explosion-generated infrasonic waves is carried out via numerical simulations of the equations of fluid dynamics. More specifically, the continuity, momentum, and energy conservation equations are solved along with the Herzfeld-Rice equations in order to take into account the effects of vibrational relaxation phenomena. The radiation of acoustic energy by the ground motion caused by underground explosions is initiated by enforcing the equality, at ground level, between the component of the air velocity normal to the Earth's surface and the normal velocity of the ground layer. The velocity of the ground layer is defined semi-empirically …

Climate Diagnostics Of The Extreme Floods In Peru During Early 2017, Rackhun Son, Shih-Yu Simon Wang, Wan-Ling Tseng, Christian W. Barreto Schuler, Emily Becker, Jin-Ho Yoon

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

From January through March 2017, a series of extreme precipitation events occurred in coastal Peru, causing severe floods with hundreds of human casualties and billions of dollars in economic losses. The extreme precipitation was a result of unusually strong recurrent patterns of atmospheric and oceanic conditions, including extremely warm coastal sea surface temperatures (SST) and weakened trade winds. These climatic features and their causal relationship with the Peruvian precipitation were examined. Diagnostic analysis and model experiments suggest that an atmospheric forcing in early 2017, which was moderately linked to the Trans-Niño Index (TNI), initiated the local SST warming along coastal …

Generalized Matrix Decomposition Regression: Estimation And Inference For Two-Way Structured Data, Yue Wang, Ali Shojaie, Tim Randolph, Jing Ma

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Analysis of two-way structured data, i.e., data with structures among both variables and samples, is becoming increasingly common in ecology, biology and neuro-science. Classical dimension-reduction tools, such as the singular value decomposition (SVD), may perform poorly for two-way structured data. The generalized matrix decomposition (GMD, Allen et al., 2014) extends the SVD to two-way structured data and thus constructs singular vectors that account for both structures. While the GMD is a useful dimension-reduction tool for exploratory analysis of two-way structured data, it is unsupervised and cannot be used to assess the association between such data and an outcome of interest. …

Isolated Point Theorems For Uniform Algebras On Smooth Manifolds, Swarup Ghosh

Faculty Articles & Research

In 1957, Andrew Gleason conjectured that if A is a uniform algebra on its maximal ideal space X and every point of X is a one-point Gleason part for A, then A must contain all continuous functions on X. Gleason’s conjecture was disproved by Brian Cole in 1968. In this paper, we establish a strengthened form of Gleason’s conjecture for uniform algebras generated by real-analytic functions on compact subsets of real-analytic three-dimensional manifolds-with-boundary.

Blockchain Based Access Control For Enterprise Blockchain Applications, Lei Xu, Isaac Markus, Subhod I, Nikhil Nayab

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Access control is one of the fundamental security mechanisms of IT systems. Most existing access control schemes rely on a centralized party to manage and enforce access control policies. As blockchain technologies, especially permissioned networks, find more applicability beyond cryptocurrencies in enterprise solutions, it is expected that the security requirements will increase. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an access control system that works in a decentralized environment without compromising the unique features of a blockchain. A straightforward method to support access control is to deploy a firewall in front of the enterprise blockchain application. However, this approach does not …

Gaze Collaboration Patterns Of Successful And Unsuccessful Programming Pairs Using Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis, Maureen Villamor, Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo

Department of Information Systems & Computer Science Faculty Publications

A dual eye tracking experiment was performed on pairs of novice programmers as they traced and debugged fragments of code. These programming pairs were categorized into successful and unsuccessful pairs based on their debugging scores. Cross-recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA), an analysis using cross-recurrence plots (CRP), was used to determine whether there are significant differences in the gaze collaboration patterns between these pair categories. Results showed that successful and unsuccessful pairs can be characterized distinctively based on their CRPs and CRQA metrics. This study also attempted to interpret the CRQA metrics in relation to how the pairs collaborated in order to …

The Belle Ii Physics Book, E. Kou, P. Urquijo, W. Altmannshofer, F. Beajean, G. Bell, M. Beneke, I. I. Bigi, F. Bishara, M. Blanke, C. Bobeth, M. Bona, N. Brambilla, V. M. Braun, J. Brod, A. J. Buras, H. Y. Cheng, C. W. Chiang, M. Ciuchini, G. Colangelo, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Potential Ecological And Socio-Economic Effects Of A Novel Megaherbivore Introduction: The Hippopotamus In Colombia, Amanda L. Subalusky, Elizabeth P. Anderson, German Jimenez, David Post, David Echeverri Lopez, Sebastian Garcia-R., Laura J. Nova Leon, Juan R. Reatiga Parrish, Ana Rojas, Sergio Solari, Luz F. Jimenez-Segura

Department of Earth and Environment

Introduced species can have strong ecological, social and economic effects on their non-native environment. Introductions of megafaunal species are rare and may contribute to rewilding efforts, but they may also have pronounced socio-ecological effects because of their scale of influence. A recent introduction of the hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius into Colombia is a novel introduction of a megaherbivore onto a new continent, and raises questions about the future dynamics of the socio-ecological system into which it has been introduced. Here we synthesize current knowledge about the Colombian hippopotamus population, review the literature on the species to predict potential ecological and socio-economic …

Statistical Inference For Networks Of High-Dimensional Point Processes, Xu Wang, Mladen Kolar, Ali Shojaie

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Fueled in part by recent applications in neuroscience, high-dimensional Hawkes process have become a popular tool for modeling the network of interactions among multivariate point process data. While evaluating the uncertainty of the network estimates is critical in scientific applications, existing methodological and theoretical work have only focused on estimation. To bridge this gap, this paper proposes a high-dimensional statistical inference procedure with theoretical guarantees for multivariate Hawkes process. Key to this inference procedure is a new concentration inequality on the first- and second-order statistics for integrated stochastic processes, which summarizes the entire history of the process. We apply this …

A 100-M-Scale Modeling Study Of A Gale Event On The Lee Side Of A Long Narrow Mountain, Halie Xue, Jian Li, Tingting Qian, Hongping Gu

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

In this study, a gale event that occurred on the lee side of a long narrow mountain was investigated, together with the associated mountain flows, using a realistic-case large-eddy simulation (LES) that is based on the Weather Research and Forecasting Model. The mountain is located on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, where approximately 58 gales occur annually, mostly in the afternoons during the winter season. Benefitting from realistic topography and high horizontal resolution as fine as 111 m, the LES can replicate features similar to the wind fields observed during the gale period. Investigation of the early morning wind structure over …

Evidence For Accelerated Weathering And Sulfate Export In High Alpine Environments, John T. Crawford, Eve-Lyn S. Hinckley, M. Iggy Litaor, Janice Brahney, Jason C. Neff

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

High elevation alpine ecosystems—the 'water towers of the world'—provide water for human populations around the globe. Active geomorphic features such as glaciers and permafrost leave alpine ecosystems susceptible to changes in climate which could also lead to changing biogeochemistry and water quality. Here, we synthesize recent changes in high-elevation stream chemistry from multiple sites that demonstrate a consistent and widespread pattern of increasing sulfate and base cation concentrations or fluxes. This trend has occurred over the past 30 years and is consistent across multiple sites in the Rocky Mountains of the United States, western Canada, the European Alps, the Icelandic …

Diel Temperature And Ph Variability Scale With Depth Across Diverse Coral Reef Habitats, Tyler Cyronak, Yuichiro Takeshita, Travis A. Courtney, Eric H. Decarlo, Bradley D. Eyre, David I. Kline, Todd R. Martz, Heather Page, Nichole Price, Jennifer Smith, Laura Stoltenberg, Martin Tresguerres, Andreas J. Andersson

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Coral reefs are facing intensifying stressors, largely due to global increases in seawater temperature and decreases in pH. However, there is extensive environmental variability within coral reef ecosystems, which can impact how organisms respond to global trends. We deployed spatial arrays of autonomous sensors across distinct shallow coral reef habitats to determine patterns of spatiotemporal variability in seawater physicochemical parameters. Temperature and pH were positively correlated over the course of a day due to solar heating and light‐driven metabolism. The mean temporal and spatial ranges of temperature and pH were positively correlated across all sites, with different regimes of variability …

A Hybrid And Scalable Error Correction Algorithm For Indel And Substitution Errors Of Long Reads, Arghya Kusum Das, Sayan Goswami, Kisung Lee, Seung Jong Park

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Background: Long-read sequencing has shown the promises to overcome the short length limitations of second-generation sequencing by providing more complete assembly. However, the computation of the long sequencing reads is challenged by their higher error rates (e.g., 13% vs. 1%) and higher cost ($0.3 vs. $0.03 per Mbp) compared to the short reads. Methods: In this paper, we present a new hybrid error correction tool, called ParLECH (Parallel Long-read Error Correction using Hybrid methodology). The error correction algorithm of ParLECH is distributed in nature and efficiently utilizes the k-mer coverage information of high throughput Illumina short-read sequences to rectify the …

Estimating Carbon Flux From Optically Recording Total Particle Volume At Depths Below The Primary Pycnocline, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Robert B. Dunbar, Dennis A. Hansell, Gerhard J. Herndl

OES Faculty Publications

Optical instruments can rapidly determine numbers and characteristics of water column particles with high sensitivity. Here we show the usefulness of optically assessed total particle volume below the main pycnocline to estimate carbon export in two systems: the open subarctic North Atlantic and the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Both regions exhibit seasonally high phytoplankton production and efficient export (i.e., a strong biological pump). Total particle volumes in the mesopelagic (200-300 m) were significantly correlated with those in the overlying surface mixed layer (50-60 m), indicating that most particles at depth reflect export from the surface. This connectivity, however, is modulated by …

Measurement Of The Integrated Luminosity Of The Phase 2 Data Of The Belle Ii Experiment, F. Abudinén, I. Adachi, P. Ahlburg, H. Aihara, N. Akopov, A. Aloisio, F. Ameli, L. Andricek, N. Anh Ky, D. M. Asner, H. Atmacan, T. Aushev, V. Aushev, T. Aziz, K. Azmi, V. Babu, S. Baehr, S. Bahinipati, A. M. Bakich, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

From April to July 2018, a data sample at the peak energy of the Υ(4S) resonance was collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB electron-positron collider. This is the first data sample of the Belle II experiment. Using Bhabha and digamma events, we measure the integrated luminosity of the data sample to be (469.3±0.3±3.0) pb^-1, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. This work provides a basis for future luminosity measurements at Belle II.

Dark-Binding Process Relevant To Preventing Photosensitized Oxidation: Conformation-Dependent Light And Dark Mechanisms By A Dual-Functioning Diketone, Sarah J. Belh, Niluksha Walalawela, Stas Lekhtman, Alexander Greer

Publications and Research

Few photosensitizers function in both light and dark processes as they usually have no function when the lights are turned off. We hypothesized that light and dark mechanisms in an α-diketone will be decoupled by dihedral rotation in a conformation- dependent binding process. Successful decoupling of these two functions is now shown. Namely, anti- and syn-skewed conformations of 4,4′-dimethylbenzil promote photosensitized alkoxy radical production, whereas the syn conformation promotes a binding shutoff reaction with trimethyl phosphite. Less rotation of the diketone is better suited to the photosensitizing function since phosphite binding arises through the syn conformer of lower stability. The …

Direct And Indirect Effects Of Temperature And Prey Abundance On Bald Eagle Reproductive Dynamics, Joshua H. Schmidt, Judy Putera, Tammy L. Wilson

United States National Park Service: Publications

Understanding the mechanisms by which populations are regulated is critical for predicting the effects of large-scale perturbations. While discrete mortality events provide clear evidence of direct impacts, indirect pathways are more difficult to assess but may play important roles in population and ecosystem dynamics. Here, we use multi-state occupancy models to analyze a long-term dataset on nesting bald eagles in south-central Alaska with the goal of identifying both direct and indirect mechanisms influencing reproductive output in this apex predator. We found that the probabilities of both nest occupancy and success were higher in the portion of the study area where …

Green Strategic Planning Approach For International Shipping Activities, Xiaofang Wu, Luoping Zhang, Huan Feng

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Sustainability is a long-term and ultimate goal for international shipping, although it is slowly making progress. The shipping perspective that moves away from “port-to-port” operations to “door-to-door” services also requires international shipping to take a long-term and holistic view instead of fragmented efforts. How to achieve the long-term sustainability goal becomes a key issue for door-to-door international shipping. Hence, green strategic planning for door-to-door international shipping was proposed with green development that puts forward the eco-centric point of view as its basic theory for sustainability. This study used a strategic decision-making approach, a so-called multi-dimensional decision-making (MDDM), coupled with the …

Environmental And Energy Assessment Of Biomass Residues To Biochar As Fuel: A Brief Review With Recommendations For Future Bioenergy Systems, Mengshan Lee, Yi-Li Lin, Pei-Te Chiueh, Walter Den

Water Resources Science and Technology Faculty Publications

This study explores the environmental and energy benefits of biomass residues, including crop residues and agricultural waste, for the production of renewable energy in the form of biochar as fuel, in order to offer recommendations for policy makers, by reviewing information regarding the key environmental issues associated with the implementation of the systems. The highest environmental benefits for biochar-to-fuel systems were most observed in reduction of global warming potentials (i.e., carbon abatement), particularly for those integrated with combined heat and power technology, or for those incorporating electricity offsets from biochar combustion and co-firing. But all of these practices come …