The genus Nekemias (Vitaceae) was first recognized by Rafinesque in 1838. It has been treated as a synonym of Ampelopsis Michx. Recent phylogenetic studies suggest that Ampelopsis as traditionally delimited is paraphyletic. To maintain the monophyly of each of the genera of Vitaceae, we herein segregate the Ampelopsissect.Leeaceifoliae lineage from Ampelopsis and recognize these taxa in Nekemia...

A taxonomic synopsis of the Altingiaceae is presented, including the taxonomic enumeration and distribution of 15 recognized species based on studies of 1,500 specimens from 24 herbaria throughout the distributional range of the taxa. Previous phylogenetic analyses based on several molecular markers have shown that Altingia and Semiliquidambar are nested within Liquidambar. All Altingia and Sem...

Despite the fact that shape-memory alloy (SMA) has several mechanical advantages as it continues being used as an actuator in engineering applications, using it still remains as a challenge since it shows both non-linear and hysteretic behavior. To improve the efficiency of SMA application, it is required to do research not only on modeling it, but also on control hysteresis behavior of these m...

To my grandparents. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my adviser, Nicholas P. Carter, for his guidance and support all through my graduate study. Many thanks to my project team members, Hillery C. Hunter and Azmat Hussain, who have contributed to this work in many ways. Also thanks to Wen-Mei Hwu for his guidance in the Memory-Efficient EPIC Architecture project. Thanks to the Semicondu...