Molten salts have been targeted as a promising coolant for next generation reactors due to their high boiling point, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity. Despite these benefits, molten salt systems present unique materials compatibility issues, highlighted by the aggressive corrosion attack and dealloying typically seen on materials in these environments....
Loop quantum gravity is a framework for quantizing general relativity which imposes a discrete structure on space. In exploring the structure of loop quantum gravity, researchers have investigated loop quantum cosmology, a toy model with reduced degrees of freedom while maintaining a discrete space. Polymer quantum mechanics is a framework...
I had to write again. My research lay in science, and it was a science of three parts. The first part made a careful, introductory chapter, begged for by things that were lacking. It summarizes the von Neumann measurement model, derived from the Stern-Gerlach experiment, and it explains how weak...
We present a classical density functional to model the soft, repulsive potential of a Weeks-Chandler-Andersen (WCA) fluid using Soft Fundamental Measure Theory (SFMT) with temperature-dependent parameters inspired by the Barker-Henderson method. Our functional uses soft spheres to model the soft-sphere WCA potential, and gives results that are in good agreement...
Fast neutron detection is important to the detection of illicit nuclear materials and can help prevent those materials from being used or transported without discovery. Previous research has shown that Heavy Oxide Inorganic Scintillator crystals can be used to detect fast neutrons by capitalizing on their high inelastic scattering cross...
Bee populations are declining around the globe, while the need for their pollination services is increasing with growing food demands by an expanding population. There is a need for innovative practices to increase pollination in agricultural environments without harming wild bee populations. However, the use of artificial visual attractants has...
Dysferlin is a ∼230 kDa terminally anchored membrane protein that is ubiquitously expressed, but is particularly enriched in skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue. Mutations covering the length of the protein have been linked to muscle wasting diseases including limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and Myoshi myopathy. Dysferlin has been shown to play...
The presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), organic contaminants first synthesized in the 1940s, has been reported worldwide in a variety of environmental matrices and ultimately in biological systems including humans. Ongoing research into PFAS has included identifying novel PFAS, assessing their fate and transport in the environment, and...
Electrostatic gating of nanomaterials allows researchers to control carrier density and shape potential barriers that confine carriers. Lithographic patterning followed by metal deposition is the standard technique to define electrostatic gates; however, the methods of fabricating these devices often involve harsh processing. For example, taking a material to high temperatures...
Taking long-term electrical measurements of a large number of neurons simultaneously is required for many modern neuroscience experiments. However, such experiments are currently limited by the shortcomings of traditional neurosensing technology. For example, there is a significant mechanical mismatch between rigid silicon probes and soft biological tissues. This mismatch can...