The ability to effectively analyze particulate matter (PM2.5) in air is becoming increasingly pertinent. Allen Goldstein of the University of California in Berkeley is studying the semi-volatile fraction of organic compounds in PM2.5 through the use of the thermal desorption aerosol gas chromatograph (TAG) system. However, as conventional GC does not provide adequate separation power, the development of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) was required. GC × GC works more effectively by utilizing a modulator that periodically traps and focuses analytes from a primary column onto a secondary column. This allows for the primary and secondary columns to separate the analytes based on two different properties. This report focuses on the continuing study and enhancement of a modulator designed by Ognjen Panić during his Masters project. Improving and testing the robustness of this dual stage modulator was originally the focus of this project. However, this study led to the development of a single stage modulator. In addition to that, the effect of modulator characteristics such as length of the restriction, total length of the modulator and wall thickness on the modulator performance were studied. A robustness test of the single stage modulator was also completed. Experiments conducted tested the characteristics of the new modulator to ensure it performed effectively and would satisfy the requirements of the TAG system. A study comparing the sensitivity of conventional gas chromatography and GC × GC was also preformed. The sensitivity of GC × GC was on average an order of magnitude better than that of 1D GC.

In recent years, marine natural products in drug development increasingly wide range of applications. Both Taiwan's geographical location and climate are creating a rich marine biodiversity. Hence there is needed to construct a marine natural product database which with Taiwan features. The goal of this study is to establish a Taiwan's marine natural product database, with preliminary collected Formosan soft coral diterpenoids natural products from Taiwan for drug development features. The database included normal physical and chemical properties of compounds and biological activity assay from literature. Key project for the database is to construct three-dimensional structure information for marine natural products. In this study, it was to build and to check the correct three-dimensional structure by use of computer simulation study comparing with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy information from literature. The identification of the folding errors in three-dimensional structure of various compound skeleton types by computer was also discussed. And there was also discussed the relationship between potential energy and three-dimensional structure of compounds by compare with computer simulated structure and NMR structure.

In this dissertation we used tunable particle-particle and particle-substrate attraction to achieve reversible two-dimensional crystallization of colloids on homogeneous and patterned substrates. Total internal reflection and video microscopy techniques were used to quantify the interparticle and particle-substrate interactions in these colloidal systems. Equilibrium and dynamic simulations were then utilized to link these colloidal interactions to the experimental colloidal phase behaviour. The importance of the nature of the attractive interaction in successfully crystallizing colloids has also been documented. The first set of experiments demonstrates the use of temperature and specific ion effects to reversibly control the net particle-substrate van der Waals (vdW) attraction. Colloidal stabilization was achieved via the use of adsorbed polymer brush layers. By using evanescent wave microscopy, we directly and precisely measured how temperature and specific ion effects control the dimensions of adsorbed polymer layers and hence the net van der Waals attraction in between the colloids and the substrate. However, the magnitude of the van der Waals attraction decays very rapidly with increasing surface separation and is therefore not conducive to the self assembly of colloidal crystals. We successfully used thermoresponsive polymer nanoparticles to control the depletion attraction between micron sized silica particles and thereby induced reversible crystallization of the micron sized silica colloids on homogeneous substrates. Video and evanescent wave microscopy techniques were used to measure the nanoparticle-induced attractive interaction as a function of temperature. The experimentally observed phase behaviour was verified via simulations that utilized knowledge of the measured colloidal depletion interactions. Finally, patterned surface topologies were used to position attractive colloidal crystals. Simulations were used to link the measured colloidal interactions to experimental phase behaviour as well as substrate topology. An extension of the concepts developed in this dissertation might suggest a general strategy to assemble colloidal particles into robust and annealable crystals contributing to the fabrication of photonic bandgap materials.

Deinococcus radiodurans is a highly UV and radio resistant bacterium. The addition of Mn2+ could induce an Mn-CD effect in this bacterium. In this study, we used two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to compare and analyze the expressed-proteins under various growth conditions, such as temperature and the presence of Mn2+ or not. The results showed that Mn2+ could affect the similarity proteins expression. As the time of Mn-CD effect elapsed longer, the similarity of the proteins from different growth phages became lower. This indicated that Mn2+ indeed could induce or repress the gene expression. From the 2-D gel analysis, there were fourteen proteins had been induced or overexpressed. Five of them were the proteins with the functions for the synthesis and decomposition of proteins and DNA, others were ATP-binding cassette¡]ABC¡^transporter¡Bsuperoxide dismutase［Mn］, and the rest five were the hypothetical proteins with unclear function. In addition, this study also found that the cultivation temperatures caused conformational and physiological modification of the cell. The addition of Mn2+ could enhance the viability of the bacterium at higher temperature.

Flexural mechanism design is one of the latest field for mechanism researches in these recent years. In this paper, it will address one method of normalized dimensional parameters. According to the traditionally change of the appearance of flexural hinge, the different parameters will be designed through to the differences of several combination. On the other hand, we use the Finite Element Method to analyze the kinematics behavior of different hinges. Finally, we come up with a series of complete data that provide designers a reference for designing.

Industrial furnace is very important production equipment for industrial enterprises. Its performance will directly affect the efficiency and effectiveness of enterprises in manufacturing industry, even change the competitive advantage of the organization. To achieve more high quality and synergy, there is a need to have an integrated industrial furnace system that may compose of industrial furnaces, network, computer automatic control, intelligent software, and decision support technical. The integrated industrial furnace system takes the place of the traditionally single and dummy industrial furnace gradually. The importance of the integrated industrial furnace system to the enterprise is increased dramatically. With the change of market focus from production-orientation to customer-orientation, more and more companies realize the importance of the strategy of market segment and position. ¡§The small market segment¡¨ and ¡§unease of standardization¡¨ (high customization) are major characteristics in the industrial furnace industry. Therefore, the market and position strategy is the critical successful factor for the furnace industry in addition to technical excellence. Taiwanese industrial furnace companies are becoming global business recently. This research will focus on exploring the market and position strategy of furnace industry from a global perspective. This research will combine qualitative and quantitative methods. First, we will adopt literature review, in-depth interview, and focus-group interview with suppliers, customers, scholars, market analysts, and economic officials to develop two measure instruments: the supplier strategy measure and customer preference and selection criterion measure. Second, we will survey via questionnaires, and test reliabilities and validities of the both measures conscientiously. Finally, we formally mail validated questionnaires to suppliers and customers in the industrial furnaces industry. Based on multivariate analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, and multi-dimensional scaling, we will provide insights and suggestion about integrated industrial furnace system industry: 1.The strategy patterns of industrial furnace suppliers 2.The selection criterion of industrial furnace in a broad customer perspective 3.The grouping of customers and supplier in the integrated industrial furnace system industry. 4.The perceptual map of major suppliers in the integrated industrial furnace system industry 5.The strategy, market segment, and position current analysis and future suggestions

The purpose of this paper is to study the design of robust control for a flexible beam. First, the finite element method (FEM) is used to formulate the ordinary differential equations (ODEs) of the dynamic system of the beam model, and a controller is designed via the H-inf control theory. From the computer simulation results, the following conclusions could be drawn. 1. The developed controller is capable of precision positioning and tolerating external disturbance. 2. The robust stability for the system is assured. Furthermore, robust control of linear one-dimensional systems is extended here to two-dimensional systems. The finite difference method (FDM) is applied to partial differential equations (PDEs) to obtain the so-called Roesser discrete state-space model. We discussed the application of H¡Û control for two-dimensional systems and the design of H-inf controller is formulated into a convex optimization problem characterized by linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, the solutions of the LMIs are then used to construct a two-dimensional H¡Û controller.

A number of recently constructed bridge approach slabs using an articulation at mid span and the wide flange terminal anchorage system have experienced settlement at their expansion joints. This problem is more commonly referred to as the bump at the end of the bridge. This study investigated reasons for the bumps and recommended ways to improve the current situation. To find out possible causes of the bridge approach slab problem, literature review, questionnaire survey, and a visual inspection for 18 Houston sites were conducted. Based on the results, two bridge sites in Houston, Texas, were selected for detailed investigation. An extensive series of laboratory and field tests were performed at each site. The main causes of bump at two study sites were compression of embankment soil and natural soil, and poor compaction of embankment soil. The finite-element computer program ABAQUS was used to evaluate behavior of the current approach slab design and of a possibly more effective design. The results show that the transition zone is about 12 m with 80 percent of the maximum settlement

High Dimension, Low Sample Size (HDLSS) problems have received much attention recently in many areas of science. Analysis of microarray experiments is one such area. Numerous studies are on-going to investigate the behavior of genes by measuring the abundance of mRNA (messenger RiboNucleic Acid), gene expression. HDLSS data investigated in this dissertation consist of a large number of data sets each of which has only a few observations. We assume a statistical model in which measurements from the same subject have the same expected value and variance. All subjects have the same distribution up to location and scale. Information from all subjects is shared in estimating this common distribution. Our interest is in testing the hypothesis that the mean of measurements from a given subject is 0. Commonly used tests of this hypothesis, the t-test, sign test and traditional bootstrapping, do not necessarily provide reliable results since there are only a few observations for each data set. We motivate a mixture model having C clusters and 3C parameters to overcome the small sample size problem. Standardized data are pooled after assigning each data set to one of the mixture components. To get reasonable initial parameter estimates when density estimation methods are applied, we apply clustering methods including agglomerative and K-means. Bayes Information Criterion (BIC) and a new criterion, WMCV (Weighted Mean of within Cluster Variance estimates), are used to choose an optimal number of clusters. Density estimation methods including a maximum likelihood unimodal density estimator and kernel density estimation are used to estimate the unknown density. Once the density is estimated, a bootstrapping algorithm that selects samples from the estimated density is used to approximate the distribution of test statistics. The t-statistic and an empirical likelihood ratio statistic are used, since their distributions are completely determined by the distribution common to all subject. A method to control the false discovery rate is used to perform simultaneous tests on all small data sets. Simulated data sets and a set of cDNA (complimentary DeoxyriboNucleic Acid) microarray experiment data are analyzed by the proposed methods.

It is generally believed that the old quantum theory, as presented by Niels Bohr in 1913, fails when applied to many-electron systems, such as molecules, and nonhydrogenic atoms. It is the central theme of this dissertation to display with examples and applications the implementation of a simple and successful extension of Bohr’s planetary model of the hydrogenic atom, which has recently been developed by an atomic and molecular theory group from Texas A&M University. This ”extended” Bohr model, which can be derived from quantum mechanics using the well-known dimentional scaling technique is used to yield potential energy curves of H2 and several more complicated molecules, such as LiH, Li2, BeH, He2 and H3, with accuracies strikingly comparable to those obtained from the more lengthy and rigorous ”ab initio” computations, and the added advantage that it provides a rather insightful and pictorial description of how electrons behave to form chemical bonds, a theme not central to ”ab initio” quantum chemistry. Further investigation directed to CH, and the four-atom system H4 (with both linear and square configurations ), via the interpolated Bohr model, and the constrained Bohr model (with an effective potential), respectively, is reported. The extended model is also used to calculate correlation energies. The model is readily applicable to the study of molecular species in the presence of strong magnetic fields, as is the case in the vicinities of white dwarfs and neutron stars. We find that magnetic field increases the binding energy and decreases the bond length. Finally, an elaborative review of doubly coupled quantum dots for a derivation of the electron exchange energy, a straightforward application of Heitler-London method of quantum molecular chemistry, concludes the dissertation. The highlights of the research are (1) a bridging together of the pre- and post quantum mechanical descriptions of the chemical bond (Bohr-Sommerfeld vs Heisenberg- Schr¨odinger), and (2) the reporting of the appearance of new bound states of H2 in the presence of very strong magnetic fields. The new states emerge above the critical value of 5 × 107 G, and hence cannot be obtained perturbatively.