The brain activity during cooperation as a form of social process is studied. We investigate the relationship between coinstantaneous brain-activation signals of multiple participants and their cooperative-task performance. A wearable near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system is used for simultaneously measuring the brain activities of two participants. Each pair of participants perform a cooper...

A polynomial spline estimator is proposed for the mean function of dense functional data together with a simultaneous confidence band which is asymptotically correct. In addition, the spline estimator and its accompanying confidence band enjoy oracle efficiency in the sense that they are asymptotically the same as if all random trajectories are observed entirely and without errors. The confiden...

We propose a method to isolate absorption trends confined to the lower layer of a two-layer turbid medium, as is desired in near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) of cerebral hemodynamics. Several two-layer Monte Carlo simulations of NIRS time series were generated using a physiologically relevant range of optical properties and varying the absorption coefficients due to bottom-layer, top-layer, and...

Dedication This work is dedicated to my mother and father, Frank and Gladys Alexander and my sisters Kimberly and Jalexia Alexander. Thank you for your love and support over the past five years. I'd also like to dedicate this dissertation to the memory of my late grandmother Climmie Rodell Young, who helped to show me the meaning of perserverance.

The mission of CARA, the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica, is to explore and exploit the unique conditions at the geographic South Pole and to lay the foundation for an ongoing national observatory. A small prototype user-facility instrument has demonstrated that very sensitive imaging in the thermal infrared can be routinely performed at the South Pole. The site should be furthe...

Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) has experienced tremendous growth in the last 5 years. Specifically, TER imaging has provided invaluable insight into the spatial distribution and properties of chemical species on a surface with spatial resolution that is otherwise unattainable by any other analytical method. Additionally, there has been further development in coupling ultrafast spectrosc...