Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Influence Of Pretreatments On Physiological Status And Post-Planting Survival Of Thornforest Seedlings In A Restoration Context, Douglas E. Mainhart

Theses and Dissertations

Semi-arid ecosystems across the globe have faced land conversion posing a threat to the important ecosystem services they provide. Revegetation-centered restoration efforts in arid regions have low success due to limited water availability and higher temperatures. Typically, practitioners utilize methods that modify field conditions around seedlings to mitigate these stressors. I evaluated the efficacy of in-nursery treatments to improve plant water status. Three pretreatments were applied: elevated CO2, drought hardening, and an antitranspirant foliar spray. My goal was to understand how these pretreatments would impact survival and growth in the field and what physiological traits they altered. Elevated CO2 and …

Reproducibility In Human-Robot Interaction: Furthering The Science Of Hri, Hatice Gunes, Frank Broz, Chris S. Crawford, Astrid Rosenthal-Von Der Putten, Megan K. Strait, Laurel Riek

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose of Review

To discuss the current state of reproducibility of research in human-robot interaction (HRI), challenges specific to the field, and recommendations for how the community can support reproducibility.

Recent Findings

As in related fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and psychology, improving research reproducibility is key to the maturation of the body of scientific knowledge in the field of HRI. The ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction introduced a theme on Reproducibility of HRI to their technical program in 2020 to solicit papers presenting reproductions of prior research or artifacts supporting research reproducibility.

Summary

This review provides an …

A Survey On Security Analysis Of Amazon Echo Devices, Surendra Pathak, Sheikh Ariful Islam, Honglu Jiang, Lei Xu, Emmett Tomai

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since its launch in 2014, Amazon Echo family of devices has seen a considerable increase in adaptation in consumer homes and offices. With a market worth millions of dollars, Echo is used for diverse tasks such as accessing online information, making phone calls, purchasing items, and controlling the smart home. Echo offers user-friendly voice interaction to automate everyday tasks making it a massive success. Though many people view Amazon Echo as a helpful assistant at home or office, few know its underlying security and privacy implications. In this paper, we present the findings of our research on Amazon Echo’s security …

Developing Awareness Around Language Practices In The Elementary Bilingual Mathematics Classroom, Gladys Krause, Melissa Adams Corral, Luz A. Maldonado Rodríguez

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study contributes to efforts to characterize teaching that is responsive to children’s mathematical ideas and linguistic repertoire. Building on translanguaging, defined in this article as a pedagogical practice that facilitates students’ expression of their understanding using their own language practices, and on the literature surrounding children’s mathematical thinking, we present an example of a one-on-one interview and of the circulating portion of a mathematics class from a second grade classroom. We use these examples to foreground instructional practices, for researchers and practitioners, that highlight a shift from a simplified view of conveying mathematics as instruction in symbology and formal …

Green Synthesis Of Spiro Compounds And The Phytochemical Investigation Of Diethyl Ether Fraction Of Camu-Camu (Myrciaria Dubia) Leaves, Judith Anane

Theses and Dissertations

There are a lot of lucrative plant species found in the Amazon and camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia (H.B.K.) Mc Vaugh) is distinct among them. This is due to its exceptional Vitamin C content which varies from 1600 to 6112 mg/100g of pulp. Besides the fruits which is popularly used, different parts of camu-camu plants including the stems, leaves, seeds, barks, and roots are also traditionally used in folklore practices for treating various ailments and diseases and research has showed the presence of antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory agents present in these parts. In this study, the characterization of a bioactive compound, …

Dynamic Soil Properties In The Lower Rio Grande Valley: Carbon And Nitrogen Responses To Different Tillage Practices, Luzyannet Ballesteros Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

There has been increased attention in utilizing agriculture for carbon sequestration. Soil carbon and nitrogen are two dynamic soil properties (DSPs) that are indicators of soil health and function and have overlapping cycles. These soil properties change frequently as a result of environmental conditions and agricultural management practices. This study focuses on the impact of tillage practices in unirrigated agricultural fields in Hidalgo and Willacy counties located in South Texas on Hidalgo Sandy Clay Loam; With a particular focus on Soil Total Carbon (TC), Soil Inorganic Carbon (SIC), Permanganate Oxidizable Carbon (POXC), Carbon and Nitrogen ratio (C:N), Soil Organic Matter …

Conjunctive Management For Groundwater-Surface Water Resources: Numerical Modeling And Potential Assessment Of Managed Aquifer Recharge (Mar) At Lower Rio Grande Valley In South Texas, Dwight Zedric Q. Capus

Theses and Dissertations

Texas is well known to frequent floods and droughts, and yet has mounting concerns in very imbalanced water availability and water demands from growth in population and economical activities. Capturing and storing water is essential to long-term and climate-smart management of the “already-scarce” water resources. This study aimed to apply numerical modeling to evaluate potentials and impacts of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) to regional groundwater systems in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Using Visual MODFLOW Flex 3D package, different scenarios were simulated for groundwater flow patterns and storage capacities. Water injections tested ranged between 7.30x105 ft3 to 3.65x109 ft3 , …

Salas Y Gómez Benthic Habitat And Community Assessment Of Seamounts And Oceanic Islands, Kara Eckley

Theses and Dissertations

Seamounts are essential benthic habitats that are ecologically important, providing habitat and functioning as stepping stones for dispersal and possible refugia, and economically valuable, supporting deep-sea fisheries and potential mineral mining activities. The Salas y Gómez Ridge in the southeast Pacific Ocean longitudinally contains dozens of seamounts that extend ~2,900 km across the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre. The ridge contains a range of oxygen and nutrient conditions that, along with the distance between seamounts, have led to high levels of endemism, reported in the few studies that have been conducted on seamounts of the region; this study is the first …

Atomlbs: An Atom Based Convolutional Neural Network For Druggable Ligand Binding Site Prediction, Md Ashraful Islam

Theses and Dissertations

Despite advances in drug research and development, there are few and ineffective treatments for a variety of diseases. Virtual screening can drastically reduce costs and accelerate the drug discovery process. Binding site identification is one of the initial and most important steps in structure-based virtual screening. Identifying and defining protein cavities that are likely to bind to a small compound is the objective of this task. In this research, we propose four different convolutional neural networks for predicting ligand-binding sites in proteins. A parallel optimized data pipeline is created to enable faster training of these neural network models on minimal …

Incorporating Native Plants In Insectary Strips To Promote Insect Diversity And Below-Ground Beneficial Microbes In South Texas, Lindsey N. Richards

Theses and Dissertations

Farm edges are generally the most undisturbed areas in a farm with diverse vegetation and can enhance agrobiodiversity and provide crucial food and shelter for wildlife, insects, and soil biota. Planting native wildflowers with the ability to reseed and withstand local climatic conditions for semi-permanent vegetation around farm edges or in between crops has potential to biologically control pests. To test this, we ran a two-year study and installed three different flowering insectary strips on a certified organic vegetable farm in South Texas during the winter season. The treatments were: 1) a commercially sourced 17-species native wildflower seed mix; 2) …

Weather Parameters Influencing The Incidence Of Citrus Canker Caused By Aw Strain In The Rio Grande Valley, Amit Sharma

Theses and Dissertations

Citrus canker caused by bacterium Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc) seriously affects the citrus industry by making the fruit unmarketable due to unsightly lesions on the fruit. Canker caused by Aw strain of Xcc was reported in the citrus trees located in the residential areas of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). Canker severity differs amongst cultivars/varieties, and it is influenced by prevailing environmental conditions. Multiple regression modeling of the disease incidence with the environmental variables such as temperature, humidity, windspeed, wind gust, and rainfall was performed to understand the environmental conditions that are favorable for spread of citrus …

Water Hardness Removal By Electrochemical Precipitation In A Continuous Flow Condition Using Conductive Concrete As Cathode, Tahsin Tareque

Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the electrochemical precipitation (EP) process to reduce excess water hardness from the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) tap water using electrically conductive concrete as cathode in a continuous flow condition. LRGV tap water is extremely hard with hardness more than 350 mg/L as CaCO3. Humans can pleasantly consume water with hardness less than 150 mg/l as CaCO3 according to World Health Organization (WHO). Hard water is also known to cause mechanical problems to boilers and heat exchangers. In this process, electricity is passed through electrodes submerged in electrolyte, which causes an alkaline environment around the cathode …

Dataset For Electronic And Optical Properties Of Y2o2s And Er Dopped Y2o2s Calculated Using Density Functional Theory And Simulated X-Ray Near Edge Spectra, N. Dimakis, Eric Baldemar Rodriguez Jr., Kofi Nketia Ackaah-Gyasi, Madhab Pokhrel

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The computational data presented in this paper refer to the research article “Optical properties and simulated x-ray near edge spectra for Y2O2S and Er doped Y2O2S”. We present the data used to calculate the structural, electronic, and optical properties of the Y2O2S and its Er+3 doped counterparts at various concentrations using density functional theory (DFT) and simulated X-ray near edge (XANES) spectra. We report electronic information from DFT and DFT+U generated from the Vienna Ab initio Simulation Package (VASP) using PAW pseudopotentials. We also report VASP calculated optical properties for the host Y2O2S using the independent particle approximation (IPA), the …

Qualitative Analysis For A Two-Component Peakon System With Cubic Nonlinearity, Shaojie Yang, Zhijun Qiao

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is devoted to studying a two-component peakon system with cubic nonlinearity, which is a two-component extension of the cubic Camassa–Holm equation. We first discuss the local well-posedness for the Cauchy problem of the system. Then, in light of a fine structure of the system, we present the precise blow-up scenario for strong solutions to the system and derive a new blow-up result with respect to initial data. Finally, peakon solutions are discussed as well.

Non-Archimedean Quantum Mechanics Via Quantum Groups, Wilson A. Zuniga-Galindo

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present a new non-Archimedean realization of the Fock representation of the q-oscillator algebras where the creation and annihilation operators act on complex-valued functions, which are defined on a non-Archimedean local field of arbitrary characteristic, for instance, the field of p-adic numbers. This new realization implies that many quantum models constructed using q-oscillator algebras are non-Archimedean models, in particular, p-adic quantum models. In this framework, we select a q-deformation of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation and construct the corresponding q-deformed Schrödinger equations. In this way we construct a p-adic quantum mechanics which is a …

Bi-Dbar-Approach For A Coupled Shifted Nonlocal Dispersionless System, Junyi Zhu, Kaiwen Shao, Zhijun Qiao

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We propose a Bi-Dbar approach and apply it to the extended coupled shifted nonlocal dispersionless system. We introduce the nonlocal reduction to solve the coupled shifted nonlocal dispersionless system. Since no enough constraint conditions can be found to curb the norming contants in the Dbar data, the “solutions” obtained by the Dbar dressing method, in general, do not admit the coupled shifted nonlocal dispersionless system. In the Bi-Dbar approach to the extended coupled shifted nonlocal dispersionless system, the norming constants are free. The constraint conditions on the norming constants are determined by the general nonlocal reduction, and the solutions of …

All-Sky Search For Continuous Gravitational Waves From Isolated Neutron Stars Using Advanced Ligo And Advanced Virgo O3 Data, R. Abbott, H. Abe, M. G. Benjamin, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Francisco Llamas, Soma Mukherjee, Gaukhar Nurbek, Volker Quetschke, Wenhui Wang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present results of an all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves which can be produced by spinning neutron stars with an asymmetry around their rotation axis, using data from the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. Four different analysis methods are used to search in a gravitational-wave frequency band from 10 to 2048 Hz and a first frequency derivative from −10−8 to 10−9  Hz/s. No statistically significant periodic gravitational-wave signal is observed by any of the four searches. As a result, upper limits on the gravitational-wave strain amplitude h0 are calculated. The best upper limits …

Electromagnetism In Quark Matter At Intermediate Densities, Efrain J. Ferrer

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Several anomalous electromagnetic effects that can take place in quark matter at low temperatures and intermediate densities will be discussed. The anomalous transport properties of the spatially inhomogeneous phase of quark matter known as the Magnetic Dual Chiral Density Wave (MDCDW) phase will be reviewed. Going beyond mean-field approximation, it will be shown how linearly polarized electromagnetic waves that penetrate the MDCDW medium mix with the phonon fluctuations to give rise to two hybridized modes of propagation called axion polaritons. Finally, some possible implications of these results for the astrophysics of neutron stars will be indicated.

Resolving Galactic Binaries Using A Network Of Space-Borne Gravitational Wave Detectors, Xue-Hao Zhang, Shao-Dong Zhao, Soumya D. Mohanty, Yu-Xiao Liu

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Extracting gravitational wave (GW) signals from individual Galactic binaries (GBs) against their self-generated confusion noise is a key data analysis challenge for space-borne detectors operating in the ≈0.1 to ≈10  mHz range. Given the likely prospect that there will be multiple such detectors, namely Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), Taiji, and Tianqin, with overlapping operational periods in the next decade, it is important to examine the extent to which the joint analysis of their data can benefit GB resolution and parameter estimation. To investigate this, we use realistic simulated LISA and Taiji data containing the set of 30×106 GBs used …

Using Stable Isotope Analyses To Assess The Trophic Ecology Of Scleractinian Corals, Michael P. Lesser, Marc Slattery, Keir J. Macartney

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Studies on the trophic ecology of scleractinian corals often include stable isotope analyses of tissue and symbiont carbon and nitrogen. These approaches have provided critical insights into the trophic sources and sinks that are essential to understanding larger-scale carbon and nitrogen budgets on coral reefs. While stable isotopes have identified most shallow water (<30 m) corals as mixotrophic, with variable dependencies on autotrophic versus heterotrophic resources, corals in the mesophotic zone (~30–150 m) transition to heterotrophy with increasing depth because of decreased photosynthetic productivity. Recently, these interpretations of the stable isotope data to distinguish between autotrophy and heterotrophy have been criticized because they are confounded by increased nutrients, reverse translocation of photosynthate, and changes in irradiance that do not influence photosynthate translocation. Here we critically examine the studies that support these criticisms and show that they are contextually not relevant to interpreting the transition to heterotrophy in corals from shallow to mesophotic depths. Additionally, new data and a re-analysis of previously published data show that additional information (e.g., skeletal isotopic analysis) improves the interpretation of bulk stable isotope data in determining when a transition from primary dependence on autotrophy to heterotrophy occurs in scleractinian corals.

Functional Consequences Of Extended High Frequency Hearing Impairment: Evidence From The Speech, Spatial, And Qualities Of Hearing Scale, Udit Saxena, Srikanta K. Mishra, Hansapani Rodrigo, Moumita Choudhury

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hearing loss in the extended high frequencies, despite a normal audiogram, could affect speech-in-noise recognition. However, it is not known if extended high frequency (EHF) hearing loss is associated with everyday listening and communication deficits. The present study aimed to determine the functional effects of impaired EHF hearing among adults using the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ). A secondary objective was to evaluate the relationship between objective (speech-in-noise recognition) and subjective (SSQ) measures of hearing function. Listeners with EHF hearing loss provided lower SSQ ratings compared with their EHF-normal counterparts. The lower ratings could not be attributed …

Microbiome Diversity And Metabolic Capacity Determines The Trophic Ecology Of The Holobiont In Caribbean Sponges, Michael P. Lesser, M. Sabrina Pankey, Marc Slattery, Keir J. Macartney, Deborah J. Gochfeld

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sponges are increasingly recognized as an ecologically important taxon on coral reefs, representing significant biomass and biodiversity where sponges have replaced scleractinian corals. Most sponge species can be divided into two symbiotic states based on symbiont community structure and abundance (i.e., the microbiome), and are characterized as high microbial abundance (HMA) or low microbial abundance (LMA) sponges. Across the Caribbean, sponge species of the HMA or LMA symbiotic states differ in metabolic capacity, as well as their trophic ecology. A metagenetic analysis of symbiont 16 S rRNA and metagenomes showed that HMA sponge microbiomes are more functionally diverse than LMA …

Islands In The Mud: The South Texas Banks Provide Crucial Mesophotic Habitat For Coral Communities, Maria Bollinger, Keir J. Macartney, Erin E. Easton, David Hicks

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

On the continental shelf off the coast of South Texas lie a series of natural hard-bottom structures (rocky outcrops and relic coral-algal reefs) known as the South Texas Banks (STB), which provide critical habitat for benthic organisms and pelagic fish. The depth of the banks, a persistent nepheloid layer, and strong currents have resulted in few studies that provide quantitative biodiversity data on the STB. Using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), video surveys were conducted to quantitatively describe the mesophotic coral communities and assess habitat suitability of five STB: North Hospital, Hospital, Southern, Big Adam, and Mysterious Banks. Each of …

Iterative Time-Domain Method For Resolving Multiple Gravitational Wave Sources In Pulsar Timing Array Data, Yi Qian Qian, Soumya D. Mohanty, Yan Wang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The sensitivity of ongoing searches for gravitational wave (GW) sources in the ultra-low-frequency regime (10(-9) Hz to 10(-7) Hz) using pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) will continue to increase in the future as more well-timed pulsars are added to the arrays. It is expected that next-generation radio telescopes, namely, the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), will grow the number of well-timed pulsars to O(10(3)). The higher sensitivity will result in greater distance reach for GW sources, uncovering multiple resolvable GW sources in addition to an unresolved population. Data analysis techniques that can search for …

Alternative Siar Models For Infectious Diseases And Applications In The Study Of Non-Compliance, Marcelo Bongarti, Luke Diego Galvan, Lawford Hatcher, Michael R. Lindstrom, Christian Parkinson, Chuntian Wang, Andrea L. Bertozzi

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we use modified versions of the SIAR model for epidemics to propose two ways of understanding and quantifying the effect of non-compliance to non-pharmaceutical intervention measures on the spread of an infectious disease. The SIAR model distinguishes between symptomatic infected (I) and asymptomatic infected (A) populations. One modification, which is simpler, assumes a known proportion of the population does not comply with government mandates such as quarantining and social-distancing. In a more sophisticated approach, the modified model treats non-compliant behavior as a social contagion. We theoretically explore different scenarios such as the occurrence …

Robust Time Series Chain Discovery With Incremental Nearest Neighbors, Li Zhang, Yan Zhu, Yifeng Gao, Jessica Lin

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Time series motif discovery has been a fundamental task to identify meaningful repeated patterns in time series. Recently, time series chains were introduced as an expansion of time series motifs to identify the continuous evolving patterns in time series data. Informally, a time series chain (TSC) is a temporally ordered set of time series subsequences, in which every subsequence is similar to the one that precedes it, but the last and the first can be arbitrarily dissimilar. TSCs are shown to be able to reveal latent continuous evolving trends in the time series, and identify precursors of unusual events in …

Reachability In Restricted Chemical Reaction Networks, Robert M. Alaniz, Bin Fu, Timothy Gomez, Elise Grizzell, Andrew Rodriguez, Robert Schweller, Tim Wylie

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The popularity of molecular computation has given rise to several models of abstraction, one of the more recent ones being Chemical Reaction Networks (CRNs). These are equivalent to other popular computational models, such as Vector Addition Systems and Petri-Nets, and restricted versions are equivalent to Population Protocols. This paper continues the work on core reachability questions related to Chemical Reaction Networks; given two configurations, can one reach the other according to the system's rules? With no restrictions, reachability was recently shown to be Ackermann-complete, this resolving a decades-old problem.
Here, we fully characterize monotone reachability problems based on various restrictions …

A Method To Solve One-Dimensional Nonlinear Fractional Differential Equation Using B-Polynomials, Md. Habibur Rahman, Muhammad I. Bhatti, Nicholas Dimakis

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, the fractional Bhatti-Polynomial bases are applied to solve one-dimensional nonlinear fractional differential equations (NFDEs). We derive a semi-analytical solution from a matrix equation using an operational matrix which is constructed from the terms of the NFDE using Caputo’s fractional derivative of fractional B-polynomials (B-polys). The results obtained using the prescribed method agree well with the analytical and numerical solutions presented by other authors. The legitimacy of this method is demonstrated by using it to calculate the approximate solutions to four NFDEs. The estimated solutions to the differential equations have also been compared with other known numerical and …

Study Of Flow Of Buongiorno Nanofluid In A Conical Gap Between A Cone And A Disk, Mahanthesh Basavarajappa, Dambaru Bhatta

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The cone–disk apparatus consists of a cone that touches the disk at its apex and is used in medical evices, viscosimeters, conical diffusers, etc. Theoretically, a three-dimensional flow of a nanofluid in a conical gap of a cone–disk apparatus is studied for four different physical configurations. Buongiorno nanofluid model, consisting of thermophoresis and Brownian diffusion mechanisms, is used to describe the convective heat transport of the nanofluid. The continuity equation, the Navier–Stokes momentum equation, the heat equation, and the conservation of nanoparticle volume fraction equation constitute the governing system for the flow of nanofluids. The Lie group approach is used …

Multi-Scale Hybridized Topic Modeling: A Pipeline For Analyzing Unstructured Text Datasets Via Topic Modeling, Keyi Cheng, Stefan Inzer, Adrian Leung, Xiaoxian Shen, Michael Perlmutter, Michael Lindstrom, Joyce Chew, Todd Presner, Deanna Needell

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We propose a multi-scale hybridized topic modeling method to find hidden topics from transcribed interviews more accurately and efficiently than traditional topic modeling methods. Our multi-scale hybridized topic modeling method (MSHTM) approaches data at different scales and performs topic modeling in a hierarchical way utilizing first a classical method, Nonnegative Matrix Factorization, and then a transformer-based method, BERTopic. It harnesses the strengths of both NMF and BERTopic. Our method can help researchers and the public better extract and interpret the interview information. Additionally, it provides insights for new indexing systems based on the topic level. We then deploy our method …