Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Development And Application Of Small-Molecule Probes Targeting Ghrelin O-Acyltransferase, Jacob Moose

Dissertations - ALL

Ghrelin is a 28-amino acid peptide hormone that has wide-ranging physiological effects, including on metabolism, adipogenesis, insulin regulation, and addiction. Ghrelin offers an intriguing option for treatment of pathophysiologies related to these effects, as it requires a unique post-translational octanoyl modification to bind and activate its cognate receptor, growth hormone secretagogue 1a (GHSR). The enzyme responsible for this modification, ghrelin O-acyltransferase (GOAT) therefore offers the ability to modulate ghrelin signaling through inhibition of the maturation pathway. Due to a lack of structural or mechanistic information about GOAT, pharmaceutical development of molecules capable of GOAT inhibition has been desired, but few …

Numerical Invariants Of Cohen-Macaulay Local And Graded Rings, Richard Francis Bartels

Dissertations - ALL

We characterize different classes of Cohen-Macaulay local rings (R,m, k) with positive Krull di?mension in terms of MCM approximations of finitely-generated R-modules. Assume R has a canonical module. For each finitely-generated R-module M, Auslander’s δ?invariant δR(M) equals the rank of a maximal free direct summand of the minimal MCM approxi?mation XM of M. We have δR(R/m) = 1 if and only if R is a regular local ring. Auslander defined the index of R, denoted index(R), as the infimum of positive integers n such that δR(R/mn ) = 1. When R is Gorenstein, we have index(R) ≤ gℓℓ(R) < ∞, where gℓℓ(R) denotes the generalized Loewy length of R, the smallest positive integer n such that mn ⊆ xR for some system of parameters x for R. We call such a system of parameters a witness to the generalized Loewy length of R. In Chapter 3, we generalize a theorem of Ding, who proved that if R is Gorenstein with infinite residue field k and Cohen-Macaulay associated graded ring grm(R), then gℓℓ(R) = index(R). We prove that if R is a one-dimensional Cohen-Macaulay local ring with finite index and nonzerodivi?sor x of order t with grm(R)-regular initial form x ∗ , then gℓℓ(R) ≤ index(R) +t −1. We use this estimate to derive a formula for the generalized Loewy length of a one-dimensional hypersurface R = kJx, yK/(f). If z is a witness to gℓℓ(R) such that z ∗ is grm(R)-regular, then gℓℓ(R) = ordR(z)+e(R)−1, where e(R) denotes the Hilbert-Samuel multiplicity of R. We compute the generalized Loewy lengths of several families {Rn} ∞ n=1 of one-dimensional hypersurfaces over finite and infinite fields such that gℓℓ(Rn) = index(Rn) for all n ≥ 1 or gℓℓ(Rn) = index(Rn) + 1 for all n ≥ 1. Lastly, we study a graded version of the generalized Loewy length of a Noetherian local ring for Noetherian k-algebras (R,m, k), where k is an arbitrary field and m is the irrelevant ideal of R. This invariant is called the generalized graded length of R and denoted ggl(R). After determining bounds for ggl(R) in terms of gℓℓ(R) and the degrees of generators for R, we compute the generalized graded length of numerical semigroup rings. We also characterize witnesses to the generalized graded length of numerical semigroup rings for semigroups with two generators. In Chapter 4, we study criteria for when an MCM module over a Gorenstein complete local ring R is stably isomorphic to an MCM approximation of a finitely-generated R-module of some fixed positive codimension r. If this condition holds for an MCM R-module M, we say with Kato that M satisfies the SCr-condition. If this condition holds for every MCM R-module, we say that R satisfies the SCr-condition. Only the SC1- and SC2- conditions have been characterized for Gorenstein complete local rings R. Kato proved that R satisfies the SC1-condition if and only if R is a domain, and R satisfies the SC2-condition if and only if R is a UFD. For rings of dimension d ≥ 3 and 3 ≤ r ≤ d, we prove an inductive criterion for when an MCM R-module satisfies the SCr-condition when its first syzygy module Ω1 R (M) satisfies the SCr−1-condition. We use this criterion to prove the equivalence of the SCd- and SCd−1-conditions for Gorenstein complete local rings of dimension d ≥ 3 that remain UFDs when factoring out certain regular sequences of length d −2.

On Multi-Sensor Adaptive Birth Theory For Labeled Random Finite Sets Tracking, Anthony Trezza

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation provides a scalable, multi-sensor measurement adaptive track initiation technique for labeled random finite set filters. The lack of a well-defined, systematic approach is problematic for many applications, especially when fusing ambiguous sensor measurements. We begin by showing that a naive solution leads to an exponential number of newborn components in the number of sensors. An efficient solution is derived by formulating a ranked assignment truncation problem. A truncation criterion is established for a labeled multi-Bernoulli random finite set birth density that has a bounded L1 error in the generalized labeled multi-Bernoulli posterior density. This criterion is used to …

Fea Simulations For Thermal Distributions Of Large Scale 3dic Packages, Suxia Chen, Qiang Wu, Wayne Xun, Jiachen Zhang, Jianping Xun

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the market increases for Artificial Intelligence and High-Performance Computing applications, the geometry of 3-Dimensional Integrated Circuit packages becomes more complicated; therefore, predicting the thermal distributions of the structures becomes not only more important but also more challenging. The physics governing the thermal distribution is a 3-dimensional partial differential equation. In order to predict the thermal distributions, various approaches such as the layer modeling method have been invented. While practical, these approaches solve a simplified version of the differential equation placing an inherent limitation on their capabilities which may be improved upon. In this research we solve the actual differential …

Directional Dopant Migration By ‘Atomic Trapping’ In Core/Multi-Shell Quantum Dots, Chun Chu

Dissertations - ALL

The study of transition metal ion-doped semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) has attracted increasing attention due to their unique optical, electronic, and magnetic properties which sparked considerable interest towards a wide range of applications in material science, renewable energy and biological systems. Besides the size- and shape-dependent behavior, doped nanomaterials exhibit new and/or enhanced optical properties, which are sensitive to the dopant location or dopant distribution throughout the solid crystal lattice. Our work primarily focuses on understanding and elucidating the mechanism of dopant ion migration inside the NCs during post-synthetic treatments, such as shell passivation and high-temperature annealing. Mn(II) dopants migration behavior …

Investigating The Formation Of The Zirconium-Rich Lithologies Of The Grenville Province Using Zircon Thermometry Of Granitoids From The Adirondack Mountains, John St. Denny

Theses - ALL

The Grenville Province (1200-980 Ma) is known to consist of many rocks which are abundant in zircon. This is seen by the large size of Grenville-age zircons and their abundance in the detrital record. A possible explanation for this is the temperature at which these rocks formed. This hypothesis states that the melts which formed the zircon-rich Grenville lithologies were exceptionally high temperature, enabling them to incorporate a significant amount of zirconium. As it is believed that most zirconium in a melt is incorporated into zircon, a high concentration of zirconium in a magma would crystallize an abundance of zircon. …

Fire Reconstructions In The Far North: Late Holocene Ecological Responses To Fire In Northern Alaska, Lee Frank-Depue

Theses - ALL

Palaeoecological reconstruction can characterize regional fire-regimes and reveal how drivers such as anthropogenic warming and vegetation change influence the fire system. This thesis adds to our knowledge of millennial-scale tundra fire-regimes by creating four new charcoal-based paleoecological records from lake sediment cores on the Alaskan North Slope. Statistical analyses of charcoal accumulation rate (CHAR # particles cm-2 yr-1) at three different size fractions were used to identify centennial-scale variability in biomass burned through time and identify individual fire events. These analyses were coupled with morphological identification and classification of charcoal particles to link charcoal production to hypothesized fuel source. The …

Gauge-Invariant Correlators In Quantum Gravity, Kenneth Ratliff

Dissertations - ALL

Recent successes in Euclidean Dynamical Triangulations (EDT) motivate the further comparison of lattice observables to predictions of general relativity (GR) treated as an effective quantum theory. A particularly promising observable is the two-point function of the scalar curvature, which can be straightforwardly computed on the lattice and which in principle can also be computed from the Einstein-Hilbert path integral. Any such comparison should be between manifestly gauge-invariant observables, and will require that the GR predictions be analytically continued in a gauge-invariant manner to the Euclidean signature of the lattice. In this thesis I present my work toward this goal, namely: …

Defects And Deformation In Passive And Active Structural Glasses, Julia Ann Giannini

Dissertations - ALL

Glasses and disordered granular media represent a class of materials that are quite familiar to us, from the glass in windows and phone screens, to piles of fruits, grains, and sand. Further, living and active systems such as cellular tissues, collections of robots, and even human crowds behave as disordered solids when they are gathered at high enough densities. Despite their ubiquity, there are still many behaviors of these amorphous systems that lack a full understanding. Contrasting crystalline solids, the thermodynamic, vibrational, energetic, and mechanical properties of glasses are not well-characterized by solid state theory. In the case of active …

Multimode Metamaterial Ring Resonator As An Entangling Bus For Artificial Atoms, Tianna Carroll

Dissertations - ALL

Circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) systems with superconducting qubits coupled to linear microwave resonators are a prominent platform for realizing scalable quantum information processors. Combining cQED architectures with multimode resonators leads to a broad set of applications for performing analog quantum simulation, implementing dense quantum memory, and generating multimode entangled states between physically distant qubits. Microwave resonators in cQED are typically formed from distributed transmission lines that exhibit conventional dispersion with harmonic mode spacing; in such systems, usually only a single resonant mode can be strongly coupled to a qubit. Superconducting metamaterial resonators comprised of lumped circuit elements can be designed …

The Functoriality Of Odd Khovanov Homology Up To Sign And Applications, Jacob Migdail-Smith

Dissertations - ALL

Odd Khovanov Homology is a homological invariant of knots and links that permits a Bar-Natan category presentation. In this dissertation, we extend the odd Khovanov bracket to link cobordisms and prove that our construction is functorial up to sign. We then build an odd Khovanov theory for dotted link cobordisms. Out of the dotted theory, a module structure on the odd Khovanov homology of a diagram over the exterior algebra of the diagram’s coloring group arises. We finish by using our functoriality result to prove that if n is even or if the knot has even framing, then the odd …

Investigating Holography Using Classical And Quantum Simulations, Goksu Can Toga

Dissertations - ALL

In this thesis, we aim to develop classical and quantum simulations to test holography. Holography can be thought of in its most basic form as a duality that relates a d + 1 dimensional theory to a d dimensional one and the most famous holographic correspondence is the AdS/CFT duality where d + 1 dimensional weakly coupled gravity theory is related to a d dimensional CFT. We start by developing lattice simulations for the N = 4 super Yang-Mills model and explore an improved supersymmetric lattice action showing that it is free of the lattice artifacts that plagued earlier lattice …

Enhancing Security And Robustness Of Contextual Human-Centric Sensing, Jingyu Xin

Dissertations - ALL

The rapid advancements in deep learning and smart hardware have accelerated the development of various automatic human-centric sensing applications. However, the intrusive nature of these sensing applications and the heterogeneity of sensory data pose challenges in real-world deployment. While performance is crucial, ensuring the security and robustness of these applications is equally imperative for their reliable operation. To tackle the challenges associated with security and robustness in human-centric sensing, this dissertation outlines two specific objectives: (1) mitigating false data injection attacks (FDIA) on sensing applications, and (2) establishing a generalized personalization framework for human sensing models. FDIA operates by injecting …

Overcoming Controls And Noise Challenges For High Power Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Detectors, Elenna Capote

Dissertations - ALL

In August 2017, the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors made the first coincident detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger, GW170817. This multi-messenger detection, measured with both gravitational wave detectors and electromagnetic telescopes, emphasized the ability of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors to make exciting astrophysical discoveries that revolutionize understanding of the universe. In this new era of gravitational-wave astronomy, high detector sensitivity and reliable operation are required to enable more of these exciting detections. Ground-based gravitational-wave observatories are generally limited in sensitivity at low frequency by technical noise, at mid frequency by coating thermal noise, and at …

Molecular Dynamics Insights Into The Structural Behavior And Interactions Of Complex Biological Systems, Shenghan Song

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

All-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are essential for examining the structural and dynamic aspects of proteins at high resolution, complementing experiments limited by resolution, size, and complexity. Advancements in algorithms and hardware have enhanced the role of computational tools in scientific research, allowing for more accurate simulations of proteins with standard residues. However, simulating real biological systems, which include non-standard residues such as lipid membranes, remains challenging despite the assistance of tools like CHARMM-GUI. My research initially focused on simulating the PICK1 BAR dimer using steered MD simulations to investigate its structure and dynamics. Simulation works expanded to include systems …

Agroecology And Soil Stewardship: Values And Techniques Of Smallholder Farmers In Bernalillo County, Stephanie Olivas

Geography ETDs

Agrarian movements around the world use agroecology to build sovereignty and steward dynamic ecosystems. Research has shown that agroecological farmers steward more resilient crops, more resilient soil biomes, and greater biodiversity than conventional agriculture. GIS and remote sensing offer many tools to detect the impacts of these farmers on the environment, but it is less clear how such technologies fit into agroecological goals. This study asks: what values, experiences and knowledge do smallholder producers in Bernalillo County embody in their soil stewardship practices? Also, what experience or knowledge do smallholder producers in Bernalillo County have about remote sensing, and would …

On The Limitations And Restrictions Of The Hardy-Littlewood Circle Method, Daniel W. Havens

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

We discuss herein the history, layout, and philosophy of the Hardy-Littlewood Circle method, as well as the more modern renditions thereof. The limitations and scope of each method presented is discussed in detail, providing examples of cases where the failure of the circle method is of relevance. We include a summary of famous problems which have been resolved using each methodology, as well as what limitations each methodology showcases.

The Soundscape Of The Grove: The Acoustic Environment Of A Visual Landmark, Bryce Barrett

Honors Theses

The objective of this project was to evaluate the soundscape throughout the Grove and the Circle (two popular outdoor spaces on the University of Mississippi campus) by determining the sound levels and people’s perceptions of sounds. The term soundscape is defined by a person’s perception of an acoustic environment in context. The human perceptions of sounds were gathered during soundwalks, which are walking tours of a given environment where participants provide opinions on their acoustic surroundings. Five soundwalk sessions were conducted with a total of 10 participants with varying environmental conditions. Statistically significant variations in perceptions and sound levels …

Ankle Mobility And Balance In A Healthy College-Aged Population: A Correlational Study, Anna Johnson, Maddy Roiger, Ellie Stewart, Leah Jackson

Science Symposium

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between ankle mobility and balance in a young, healthy population, filling a gap in existing literature primarily focused on older adults. The findings revealed no significant correlation between ankle mobility and balance measures in the college-aged subjects. While previous research in elderly populations suggested a link between ankle mobility and balance, this study suggests that such a relationship may not hold true for younger individuals. These results underscore the importance of considering age-related differences and overall health status when exploring factors affecting balance, potentially guiding future research and intervention strategies aimed at improving …

Search For Vector-Like B Quarks In Cms Run 2, Kalin Johnson, Xiaohe Shen, Julie Hogan

Science Symposium

We present a search for a single vector-like B quark that decays to a top quark and W boson. In the single lepton final state, the B quark can be reconstructed from the lepton, missing transverse momentum, and one large-radius jet. We will present developments of the RDataFrame workflows for the search and optimization of the B quark reconstruction process.

Spectral Characterization Of High-Speed Sers Fluctuations, Makayla Schmidt, Emily A. Farley, Marit A. Engevik, Alexandre G. Brolo, Nathan Lemke, Nathan Lindquist

Science Symposium

The concept of plasmonic “hotspots” is central to the broad field of nanophotonics. In surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), hotspots can increase Raman scattering efficiency by orders of magnitude. Hotspot dimensions may range from a few nanometers down to the atomic scale and are able to generate SERS signals from single molecules. However, these single-molecule SERS signals often show significant fluctuations, and the concept of intense, localized, yet static hotspots has come into question. Recent experiments have shown these SERS intensity fluctuations (SIFs) to occur over an extremely wide range of timescales, from seconds to micro-seconds, due to the various physical …

Effect Of Recommending Users And Opinions On The Network Connectivity And Idea Generation Process, Sriniwas Pandey, Hiroki Sayama

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

The growing reliance on online services underscores the crucial role of recommendation systems, especially on social media platforms seeking increased user engagement. This study investigates how recommendation systems influence the impact of personal behavioral traits on social network dynamics. It explores the interplay between homophily, users’ openness to novel ideas, and recommendation-driven exposure to new opinions. Additionally, the research examines the impact of recommendation systems on the diversity of newly generated ideas, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities in designing effective systems that balance the exploration of new ideas with the risk of reinforcing biases or filtering valuable, unconventional …

"It's Like Educating Us Older People...": Unveiling Needs And Expectations Regarding Educational Features Within Parental Control Tools, Prakriti Dumaru, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen

Computer Science Faculty and Staff Publications

As children are getting access to devices at an increasingly younger age, parents need to grapple with new ways to protect them from online risks. This indicates the need for support from parental control tools to enhance their self-efficacy, which we refer to as educational features. This is little addressed in the existing literature on parental mediation. As we begin to address this gap, we created a low-fidelity prototype with designs of Google's existing parental control as our baseline design. We used the baseline design in semi-structured interviews with 12 parents whose children (aged below 14) are active Internet users, …

Global Fits In The Supersymmetric Georgi-Machacek Model, Yingnan Xu

Physics Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we study a supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model with Higgs triplets in the scalar sector. We begin with a review of the Standard Model (SM), particularly the electroweak sector and the Higgs mechanism. In the SM, the Higgs mechanism requires the presence of a complex Higgs doublet to break the electroweak symmetry and endow particles with a mass; this process is called Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (SSB). Although this is the simplest possibility, higher scalar representations may also contribute to the electroweak breaking process (EWSB). The extent to which these higher representations contribute to EWSB is constrained …

An Examination Of Behavior Of Youtube Commenters, John E. Leonard

Computer Science ETDs

YouTube comments are a unique form of social media, as viewers mainly interact with other viewers through comments sections, and cannot choose to interact with specific people. This lack of control over which comments are presented to them forces users to view spam.

Multiple general patterns of behavior were found in the dataset of YouTube comments. For example, most users posted just after a video’s publication. In addition, users tended to watch videos in the evening over the early morning.

A novel method was found for quantifying the likelihood of coordinated accounts being controlled by one person using time sharing. …

Statistical Approaches For The Early Detection Of Colorectal Cancer Using Longitudinal Biomarkers, Emily Berry

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States [45]. CRC is believed to advance from adenomatous polyps creating a unique opportunity for both early detection and cancer prevention [4, 23]. Like other diseases, CRC screening reduces mortality by detecting cancer at earlier, more treatable stages; however, it can also reduce incidence through the removal of precancerous lesions [4]. As a result, screening is recommended for average-risk adults ≥ 45 years of age and includes a variety of tests [4, 12]. Despite alternate screening options, colonoscopy capacity is often cited as a barrier to …

A First Look Into Targeted Clickbait And Its Countermeasures: The Power Of Storytelling, Ankit Shrestha, Audrey Flood, Saniat Sohrawardi, Matthew Wright, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen

Computer Science Student Research

Clickbait headlines work through superlatives and intensifiers, creating information gaps to increase the relevance of their associated links that direct users to time-wasting and sometimes even malicious websites. This approach can be amplified using targeted clickbait that takes publicly available information from social media to align clickbait to users’ preferences and beliefs. In this work, we first conducted preliminary studies to understand the influence of targeted clickbait on users’ clicking behavior. Based on our findings, we involved 24 users in the participatory design of story-based warnings against targeted clickbait. Our analysis of user-created warnings led to four design variations, which …

Unboxing The Complicated Near Term Climatic And Geomorphic History Of Mars, Joshua Matthew Williams

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

It has long been thought that glacial processes were unlikely within the tropical regions of Mars. However, growing evidence, including this work has identified and quantified relic glacial forms within the equatorial regions. These findings have major implications for understanding Martian climate history and its sensitivity to changes in insolation. As well, the presence of ice in the equatorial region of Mars has significant implications for the past global redistribution of the water ice in the Martian cryosphere. In this manuscript, I clarify and refine our understanding of the morphology of glacial features in the equatorial zone by applying novel …

Online Temporal Data Mining And Learning: Pursuing Enhanced Efficiency And Robust Algorithms, Sheng Zhong

Computer Science ETDs

Time series data mining and learning serve as a cornerstone across various domains, including finance, healthcare, and science. Recent advancements in network and sensor technologies have ignited an increasing interest in real-time temporal data mining and learning techniques. Various tasks benefit from these techniques, such as environmental monitoring, event detection, anomaly identification, and forecasting. However, these techniques still face significant challenges in the online environment settings, encompassing aspects like efficiency, accuracy, robustness, and scarcity of labeled data. This dissertation presents four innovative solutions: FilCorr, DCT-MASS, FewSig, and BitLINK to overcome these challenges. We evaluate each method and showcase their practical …

"I Feel Like He's Looking In The Computer World To Be Social, But I Can't Trust His Judgement": Reimagining Parental Control For Children With Asd, Prakriti Dumaru, Bryson D. Hackler, Audrey Flood, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen

Computer Science Faculty and Staff Publications

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often seek comfort from devices (e.g., smartphones) to deal with social overstimulation. However, such reliance exposes them to inappropriate digital content and increases susceptibility to mimicry and social vulnerability. Thus, parents having children with ASD encounter unique challenges in regulating their device usage, which are little addressed in the existing literature on parental mediation. As we begin to address this gap, we designed low-fidelity prototypes centered around open communication and self-regulation, which we refined based on the feedback from six ASD experts in two focus groups. We evaluated updated designs (presented in the form …