Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Study Of The Decay B^± → K^0_S Π^± Π^0 At The Belle Experiment, Suravinda Janaka Kumara Kospalage

Wayne State University Dissertations

Belle is a particle physics experiment based at the KEK laboratory in Tsukuba Japanwhich ran from 1999 to 2010 and collected 1ab−1 of data. The Belle experiment is focused on studying the properties of particles called B mesons which are produced by accelerating and colliding electron and positron beams. These B mesons show the biggest differences between the properties of matter and anti-matter of any known particles. One of the main goals of the Belle experiments is to understand the differences between matter and anti-matter, specifically violations of charge-parity symmetry (CP violation) and how anti-matter vanished and we come to …

Synthetic, Mechanistic, And Structural Insights Into Defect Mediated Broadband Photoluminescence In Low Dimensional Hybrid Perovskites, Adedayo M. Sanni

Wayne State University Dissertations

The research projects in this dissertation focused on understanding the light emission and structure of hybrid organic inorganic hybrid perovskites. There remains a need to develop novel synthetic approaches to synthesize self-assembled hybrid organic-inorganic nanostructures to enable solution processed lighting technologies. Bulk of the approachescurrently employed in making light emitting diodes (LEDs) for lighting applications involves complex fabrication techniques. Hence, we investigated the light emission properties of 2D hybrid organic inorganic lighting materials as potential materials for lighting applications. In Chapter 2, we employed a solvothermal approach to synthesize so called self-assembled quantum wells (SAQWs) that emit narrow light centered …

Integral Representations Of Sl_2(Z/Nz), Yatin Dinesh Patel

Wayne State University Dissertations

The aim of this work is to determine for which commutative rings integral representations of SL_2(Z/nZ) exist and to explicitly compute them. We start with R = Z/pZ and then consider Z=p^\lambda Z. A new approach will be used to do this based on the Weil representation. We then consider general finite rings Z/nZ by extending methods described in [26]. We make extensive use of group theory, linear representations of finite groups, ring theory, algebraic geometry, and number theory. From number theory we will employ results regarding modular forms, Legendre symbols, Hilbert symbols, and quadratic forms. We consider the works …

Phenanthroline-Catalyzed 1,2-Cis Glycosylation: Scope And Mechanism, Jiayi Li

Wayne State University Dissertations

Phenanthroline, a rigid and planar organic compound with two fused pyridine rings, has been used as a powerful ligand for metals and a binding agent for DNA/RNA. We recently discovered that phenanthroline could be used as a nucleophilic catalyst to access high yielding and diastereoselective α-1,2-cis glycosides through the coupling of hydroxyl acceptors with α-glycosyl bromide donors. The utility of the phenanthroline catalysis is expanded to sterically hindered hydroxyl nucleophiles and chemoselective coupling of an alkyl hydroxyl group in the presence of a free C1-hemiacetal functionality. In addition, the phenanthroline-based catalyst has a pronounced effect on site-selective couplings of triol …

Finding Optimal Cayley Map Embeddings Using Genetic Algorithms, Jacob Buckelew

Honors Program Theses

Genetic algorithms are a commonly used metaheuristic search method aimed at solving complex optimization problems in a variety of fields. These types of algorithms lend themselves to problems that can incorporate stochastic elements, which allows for a wider search across a search space. However, the nature of the genetic algorithm can often cause challenges regarding time-consumption. Although the genetic algorithm may be widely applicable to various domains, it is not guaranteed that the algorithm will outperform other traditional search methods in solving problems specific to particular domains. In this paper, we test the feasibility of genetic algorithms in solving a …

Finding Triangular Cayley Maps With Graph Touring, Hannah Hendrickson

Honors Program Theses

We develop a method for determining whether certain kinds of Cayley maps can exist by using multi-digraph representations of the data in the Cayley maps. Euler tours of these multi-digraphs correspond exactly to the permutations which define Cayley maps. We also begin to classify which 3-regular multi-digraphs have "non-backtracking" Euler tours in general.

Evaluation Of A Shortened Redon Fit Test Protocol For Half-Mask Respirators, Olivia Dawson, Riley Duncan, Leshan J. Kimbrough

Scholar's Day

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a shortened REDON method is as effective and accurate compared to the reference method when measuring respirator fit for elastomeric half-mask respirators using the Quantifit® CNP instrument.

Why Physical Power Laws Usually Have Rational Exponents, Edgar Daniel Rodriguez Velasquez, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Many physical dependencies are described by power laws y=A*xa, for some exponent a. This makes perfect sense: in many cases, there are no preferred measuring units for the corresponding quantities, so the form of the dependence should not change if we simply replace the original unit with a different one. It is known that such invariance implies a power law. Interestingly, not all exponents are possible in physical dependencies: in most cases, we have power laws with rational exponents. In this paper, we explain the ubiquity of rational exponents by taking into account that in many case, there is also …

Can Physics Attain Its Goals: Extending D'Agostino's Analysis To 21st Century And Beyond, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In his 2000 seminal book, Silvo D'Agostino provided the detailed overview of the history of ideas underlying 19th and 20th century physics. Now that we are two decades into the 21st century, a natural question is: how can we extend his analysis to the 21st century physics -- and, if possible, beyond, to try to predict how physics will change? To perform this analysis, we go beyond an analysis of what happened and focus more on why para-digm changes happened in the history of physics. To better understand these paradigm changes, we analyze now only what were the main ideas …

How To Elicit Complex-Valued Fuzzy Degrees, Laxman Bokati, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In the traditional fuzzy logic, an expert's degree of certainty in a statement is described by a single number from the interval [0,1]. However, there are situations when a single number is not sufficient: e.g., a situation when we know nothing and a situation in which we have a lot of arguments for a given statement and an equal number of arguments against it are both described by the same number 0.5. Several techniques have been proposed to distinguish between such situations. The most widely used is interval-valued technique, where we allow the expert to describe his/her degree of certainty …

Towards Optimal Techniques Intermediate Between Interval And Affine, Affine And Taylor, Martine Ceberio, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In data processing, it is important to gauge how input uncertainty affects the results of data processing. Several techniques have been proposed for this gauging, from interval to affine to Taylor techniques. Some of these techniques result in more accurate estimates but require longer computation time, others' results are less accurate but can be obtained faster. Sometimes, we do not have enough time to use more accurate (but more time-consuming) techniques, but we have more time than needed for less accurate ones. In such cases, it is desirable to come up with intermediate techniques that would utilize the available additional …

Discrete Causality Implies Lorenz Group: Case Of 2-D Space-Times, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

It is known that for Minkowski space-times of dimension larger than 2, any causality-preserving transformation is linear. It is also known that in a 2-D space-time, there are many nonlinear causality-preserving transformations. In this paper, we show that for 2-D space-times, if we restrict ourselves to discrete space-times, then linearity is retained: only linear transformation preserve causality.

Elucidating The Molecular Basis Of Spontaneous Activation In An Engineered Mechanosensitive Channel, Kalyan Immadisetty, Adithya Polasa, Reid Shelton, Mahmoud Moradi

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mechanosensitive channel of large conductance (MscL) detects and responds to changes in the pressure profile of cellular membranes and transduces the mechanical energy into electrical and/or chemical signals. MscL can be activated using ultrasonic or chemical activation methods to improve the absorption of medicines and bioactive compounds into cells. However, re-engineering chemical signals such as pH change can trigger channel activation in MscL. This study elucidates the activation mechanism of an engineered MscL at an atomic level through a combination of equilibrium and non-equilibrium (NE) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Comparing the wild-type (WT) and engineered MscL activation processes suggests that …

Integrated Gradients Is A Nonlinear Generalization Of The Industry Standard Approach To Variable Attribution For Credit Risk Models, Jonathan Boardman, Md Shafiul Alam, Xiao Huang, Ying Xie

Published and Grey Literature from PhD Candidates

In modern society, epistemic uncertainty limits trust in financial relationships, necessitating transparency and accountability mechanisms for both consumers and lenders. One upshot is that credit risk assessments must be explainable to the consumer. In the United States regulatory milieu, this entails both the identification of key factors in a decision and the provision of consistent actions that would improve standing. The traditionally accepted approach to explainable credit risk modeling involves generating scores with Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) - usually logistic regression, calculating the contribution of each predictor to the total points lost from the theoretical maximum, and generating reason codes …

Novel Primitive Decompositions For Real-World Physical Reasoning, Mackie Zhoou, Bridget Duah, Jamie C. Macbeth

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

In this work, we are concerned with developing cognitive representations that may en- hance the ability for self-supervised learning systems to learn language as part of their world explorations. We apply insights from in-depth language understanding systems to the problem, specifically representations which decompose language inputs into language-free structures that are complex combinations of primitives representing cognitive abstractions such as object permanence, movement, and spatial relationships. These decompositions, performed by a system traditionally called a conceptual analyzer, link words with complex non-linguistic structures that engender the rich relations between language expressions and world exploration that are a familiar aspect of …

Script Combination For Enhanced Story Understanding And Story Generation Systems, Megan Mckenzie, Alexis Kilayko, Jamie C. Macbeth, Scott Carter, Katharine Sieck, Matthew Klenk

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

Scripts, knowledge structures defining sequences of events in stereotypical social situations, were traditionally used to simulate the ways in which people can infer unstated details in understanding a story. In this paper, we describe the MUltiple SCRipt AcTivator (MUSCRAT), and the Script Combination Applier Mechanism (SCAM), significant enhancements of Cullingford’s Script Applier Mechanism which accomplish two novel aims. One system, MUSCRAT, is able to activate more than one script and use them during a story understanding process. The second system, SCAM, uses scripts for story generation, using script variables as “terminals” for combining two or more scripts together to create …

Species-Specific Responses To Landscape Features Shaped Genomic Structure Within Alaska Galliformes, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Robert E. Wilson, Sandra L. Talbot

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Aim: Connectivity is vital to the resiliency of populations to environmental change and stochastic events, especially for cold-adapted species as Arctic and alpine tundra habitats retract as the climate warms. We examined the influence of past and current landscapes on genomic connectivity in cold-adapted galliformes as a critical first step to assess the vulnerability of Alaska ptarmigan and grouse to environmental change. We hypothesize that the mosaic of physical features and habitat within Alaska promoted the formation of genetic structure across species.

Location: Alaska, United States of America.

Taxa: Ptarmigan and Grouse (Galliformes: Tetraoninae).

Methods: We collected double digest restriction-site- …

Study Of Zyomogen Granule Movement Along Actin Filaments Using A Single Beam Optical Trap, Justin James Raupp

Wayne State University Dissertations

Zymogen granules are enzymatic vesicles in the pancreas. The surface of these zymogen granules (ZGs) has several different kinds of myosin molecules, such as myosin 1c, 6, 5c, and 7b. These molecular motors may contribute to ZG transportation in cells. To understand the molecular motors involved in the vesicle trafficking, we observed the in vitro motility of purified ZGs from rat pancreas and examined the stepping behavior and force that is generated using a single beam optical trap. To be involved in trafficking, molecular motors have certain characteristics, a high duty ratio and the ability to move continuously along actin …

Development Of A System To Monitor The Stability Of The Zdc In A High Radiation Environment, Mandela Phillips, Riccardo Longo, Matthias Grosse Perdekamp

Parkland Science Scholars

• HL-ZDC will be installed in a harsh radiation environment, requiring a dynamiccalibration system to monitor the detector's performance.
• The most sensitive components are fused silica rods andPMTs.
• A comprehensive monitoring system is difficult to establish for fused silica rods,while PMTs can be easily accessed and pulsed with well-defined light usingLEDs.
• The LED-based monitoring system consists of a printed circuit board (PCB)designed and manufactured at Kansas University (KU).
• During REU work, two prototypes of the light distribution system were designedand fabricated: a homogenizer box and a parabolic reflector.

Assessing The Impact Of Introductory Physics For The Life Sciences On Students’ Ability To Build Complex Models, Benjamin D. Geller , '01, Maya Tipton , '24, Brandon Daniel-Morales , '24, Nikhil Tignor , '24, Calvin White , '24, Catherine Hirshfeld Crouch

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

A central goal of introductory physics for the life sciences (IPLS) is to prepare students to use physics to model and analyze biological situations, a skill of increasing importance for their future studies and careers. Here we report our findings on life science students’ ability to carry out a sophisticated biological modeling task at the end of first-semester introductory physics. Some students were enrolled in a standard course (N = 34), and some in an IPLS course (N = 61); both courses were taught with active learning, used calculus, and included the same core physics concepts. Compared to …

Using Neural Networks To Model Guitar Distortion, Caleb Koch, Scott Hawley, Andrew Fyfe

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Guitar players have been modifying their guitar tone with audio effects ever since the mid-20th century. Traditionally, these effects have been achieved by passing a guitar signal through a series of electronic circuits which modify the signal to produce the desired audio effect. With advances in computer technology, audio “plugins” have been created to produce audio effects digitally through programming algorithms. More recently, machine learning researchers have been exploring the use of neural networks to produce audio effects that yield strikingly similar results to their analog counterparts. Recurrent Neural Networks and Temporal Convolutional Networks have proven to be exceptional at …

Sequential Assembly Of 1-D And 2-D Origami Arrays, Nathan Shin

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

DNA origami, invented by Paul Rothemund in 2006, provides many possible routes for the synthesis of complex macromolecular assemblies. This project involves the creation of 1-D and 2-D arrays of cross origami to support the development of DNA detection devices by providing precise platforms for these devices. The M13 plasmid is the most commonly used scaffold in DNA nanotechnology, limiting the size and complexity of an individual DNA origami construct. However, by creating larger assemblies, the dimensions can be multiplied. For example, by alternating two different types of cross origami, optical reporters can be separated by 200 nm, which is …

Disability And Climate Change: A Critical Realist Model Of Climate Justice, Molly M. King, Maria A. Gregg

Sociology

Existing literature on climate change as an issue of environmental justice documents the heightened vulnerability of people with disabilities to the effects of climate change. Additionally, there are numerous studies showing that access to information is a prerequisite for perceiving risk and taking action. Building on this work, our review seeks to understand how physical disability relates to perceptions of climate-related risk and adaptations to climate-related events. We introduce a critical realist model of climate justice to understand the relationships between the environmental features that disable, risk perception and information seeking, and adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change. In …

Greater Loss And Fragmentation Of Savannas Than Forests Over The Last Three Decades In Yunnan Province, China, R Sedricke Lapuz, Angelica Kristina M. Jaojoco, Sheryl Rose C. Reyes, Jose Don T. De Alban, Kyle W. Tomlinson

SOSE Affiliate: Manila Observatory

Yunnan Province, southwest China, has a monsoonal climate suitable for a mix of fire-driven savannas and fire-averse forests as alternate stable states, and has vast areas with savanna physiognomy. Presently, savannas are only formally recognised in the dry valleys of the region, and a no-fire policy has been enforced nationwide since the 1980s. Misidentification of savannas as forests may have contributed to their low protection level and fire-suppression may be contributing to vegetation change towards forest states through woody encroachment. Here, we present an analysis of vegetation and land-use change in Yunnan for years 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016 by …

Correlations And Dynamic Fluctuations In High Energy Collisions, Zoulfekar Mazloum

Wayne State University Dissertations

Is thermalization necessary for hydrodynamic flow in nuclear collisions? The discovery of flow-like azimuthal correlations in pA and high-multiplicity pp collisions raises profound questions about the onset of collective flow and its relation to hydrodynamics. We seek independent experimental information on the degree of thermalization in order to identify those hydrodynamic collision systems in which flow is sensitive to equilibrium QCD properties. We aim to develop a protocol for identifying the degree of thermalization using a combination of momentum and multiplicity correlation. To study the effect ofthermalization on these correlations, we use Boltzmann equation in the relaxation time approximation with …

Lanthanide Coordination Chemistry In Rare-Earth Element Extraction And Photocatalysis, Jessica Hovey

Wayne State University Dissertations

This thesis outlines projects pertaining to the extraction, enrichment, and use of rare-earth elements in the trivalent and divalent states through the modification of coordination chemistry. Modulating the coordination environment can impact the selectivity of rare-earth elements in solid-liquid enrichment through the adjustment of donor atoms, denticity and pKa values as detailed in Chapter 1. Changes in coordination environment, such as to the identity of donor atoms, can lead to major differences in properties such as luminescence. The studies reported in this thesis contribute to the body of knowledge surrounding the use of coordination chemistry for both the solid–liquid extraction …

Development Of Carbohydrate-Based Antibiotics And Metabolic Chemical Reporters, Courtney Kondor

Wayne State University Dissertations

CHAPTER 1: Multidrug-resistant bacteria is a threat to public health and there is a need for the development of new antibiotics to fight bacterial resistance. Aminoglycoside antibiotics are attractive to researchers due to their lack of known drug related allergies, low cost, and broad spectrum of activity; however, they can cause nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity in patients. We modified the 2-deoxystreptamine ring of paromomycin to make the drug more flexible and potentially more selective for the bacterial ribosomal A-site to circumvent off-target effects that cause ototoxicity. However, we found that our compound, paromomexin, was significantly less active than paromomycin in all …

Precision Clinical Medicine Through Machine Learning: Using High And Low Quantile Ranges Of Vital Signs For Risk Stratification Of Icu Patients, Khalid Alghatani, Nariman Ammar, Abdelmounaam Rezgui

Faculty Publications - Information Technology

Remote monitoring of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) is a crucial observation and assessment task that is necessary for precision medicine. We have recently built a cloud-based intelligent remote patient monitoring (IRPM) framework in which we follow the state-of-the-art in risk stratification through machine learning-based prediction, but with minimal features that rely on vital signs, the most commonly used physiological variables obtained inside and outside hospitals. In this work, we significantly improve the functionality of the initial IRPM framework by building three machine learning models for readmission, abnormality, and next-day vital sign measurements. We provide a formal representation …

Spatial And Temporal Variability Of Mercury In Upper And Lower Red Lake Walleye, Tyler Orgon

Biology Graduate Theses

Mercury is a global pollutant that is released into our environment by natural and anthropogenic processes resulting in extensive studies conducted on mercury cycling in aquatic ecosystems which has led to the issuance of human-health-based fish-consumption advisories. We examined total mercury concentrations in Walleye Sander vitreus from Upper and Lower Red Lakes, located in north central Minnesota, between 2019 and 2020. Upper and Lower Red Lake form a contiguous water body consisting of two large (483.1 and 665.6 km2, respectively) basins that are naturally connected by a 1.4 km-wide strait. Both basins are important fisheries for recreation, subsistence, and commercial …

There From The Beginning: The Women Of Los Alamos National Laboratory Supporting National And International Nuclear Security, Olga Martin, Laura Mcclellan, Octavio Ramos, Heather Quinn

International Journal of Nuclear Security

From the beginning of the Manhattan Project in the early 1940s, the women of what would become Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) worked in technical positions alongside their male counterparts, played a key role as computers, and worked in administrative jobs as secretaries, phone operators, bookkeepers, and on behalf of the U.S. Army in the Women’s Army Corps.

Throughout the history of the Laboratory, women experts at LANL helped establish and lead important national and international security programs, with careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Over time, the women of Los Alamos have come together under various Employee Resource …