Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Understanding The Connection Between Gypsum Blooms And Human Health At The Salton Sea, Isabel Ichiyama

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Salton Sea is a closed hypersaline lake in Southern California that has been receiving little input over the past few decades, leading to desiccation that is rapidly increasing every year. This large-scale evaporation of the sea has led to increased dissolved solutes, high salinity, and gypsum blooms. Gypsum blooms, the precipitation of gypsum (CaSO42H2O) in the sea, have been a prominent facet of the sea and their distribution is well known. However, much of their chemistry and potential health hazards are still undetermined. Potential health effects from gypsum salt, an atmospheric dust particle present at the sea, have known …

Feral Swine As Indirect Indicators Of Environmental Anthrax Contamination And Potential Mechanical Vectors Of Infectious Spores, Rachel M. Maison, Maggie R. Priore, Vienna R. Brown, Michael Bodenchuk, Bradley R. Borlee, Richard Bowen, Angela M. Bosco-Lauth

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

U.S. government work

Utilizing New Technologies To Measure Therapy Effectiveness For Mental And Physical Health, Jonathan Ossie

Dissertations

Mental health is quickly becoming a major policy concern, with recent data reporting increasing and disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, increased substance abuse, and elevated suicidal ideation. One specific population that is especially high risk for these issues is the military community because military conflict, deployment stressors, and combat exposure contribute to the risk of mental health problems.

Although several pharmacological approaches have been employed to combat this epidemic, their efficacy is mixed at best, which has led to novel nonpharmacological approaches. One such approach is Operation Surf, a nonprofit that provides nature-based programs advocating the restorative …

Special Education: Inclusion And Exclusion In The K-12 U.S. Educational System, Erik Brault

Dissertations

The U.S. Department of Education defines students with disabilities as those having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life activities. Previous research has found that students with disabilities placed in inclusive environments perform better academically and socially compared to students with disabilities who are placed in segregated environments. Yet, we know that inclusion in K-12 general education classrooms across the country is not consistently implemented.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the effects, if any, of general education high school teachers’ personal and professional experiences and knowledge on their attitudes toward educating …

Creating Project Contrast: A Video Game Exploring Consciousness And Qualia, Pierce Papke

Honors Projects

Project Contrast is a video game that explores how the unique traits inherent to video games might engage reflective player responses to qualitative experience. Project Contrast does this through suspension of disbelief, avatar projection, presence, player agency in storytelling, visual perception, functional gameplay, and art. Considering the difficulty in researching qualitative experience due to its subjectivity and circular explanations, I created Project Contrast not to analyze qualia, though that was my original hope. I instead created Project Contrast as an avenue for player self-reflection and learning about qualitative experience. While video games might be just code and art on a …

Using Deep Neural Networks To Classify Astronomical Images, Andrew D. Macpherson

Honors Projects

As the quantity of astronomical data available continues to exceed the resources available for analysis, recent advances in artificial intelligence encourage the development of automated classification tools. This paper lays out a framework for constructing a deep neural network capable of classifying individual astronomical images by describing techniques to extract and label these objects from large images.

Microwave Synthesis And Photophysical Characterization Of Heteroleptic Iridium Complexes For Applications In Oleds And Lecs, Allyson Dixon

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

A series of heteroleptic, iridium-based ionic transition metal complexes (ir-iTMCS), with the purpose to serve as potential components of OLED and LEC devices, were synthesized through a green, combinatorial-based approach. This work utilized a microwave reactor in order to bring our research into closer alignment with the tenets of green chemistry. The aim of this research was to assess the effects of structural differences, specifically steric crowding, on the photophysical characteristics of the complexes. The radiative quantum efficiencies (Φ_f) and excited state lifetimes (τ ) of the series of Ir-iTMCs were investigated. The rates of radiative (k_{r …}

Advances In Structure Elucidation Of Small Molecules And Peptides By Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy And Mass Spectrometry, Ryan D. Cohen

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This dissertation reports on improvements in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) structure determination methods of organic compounds, with particular focus on challenging cyclic peptides. A recent and important innovation in NMR spectroscopy is the combination of theoretical property predictions, such as chemical shifts, using density functional theory (DFT) to aid in challenging NMR structure assignments, such as determination of regio- and stereo-configurations. In the first part of this thesis, a comprehensive benchmark study of DFT chemical shift prediction methods was performed using experimental NMR data collected from 50 well curated compounds, which was referred to as the …

Photoacid-Catalyzed C–C And C–O Bond Formation And The Synthesis Of Triazole - Containing Bis(Indolyl)Methanes, Jason Saway

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

From photosynthesis to transition metal-type photocatalysts, the conversion of light energy into chemical energy is a fundamental process in chemistry. While photochemistry is not new to the world of science, there has been a renewed interest in the field, specifically with the use of photocatalysts. There is a wide variety of compounds that function as photocatalysts, ranging from transitions metal complexes, organic dyes, and photoacids. Photoacids, which have typically been used for polymer synthesis and the pH modulation of biological systems and have recently gained popularity due to their catalytic potential. These compounds offer an efficient, cost-effective way to conduct …

Conflict And Coltan: Resource Extraction And Collision In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo And Venezuela, Jenna Marie Goldblatt

Senior Theses

Resource extraction has played an essential role in shaping human development and is an essential tool for technological improvement. However, resource extraction is also inherently exploitative of the environment, and therefore of people. This paper evaluates the relationship between Coltan, a mineral necessary for the creation of electronic capacitors, and the conflict it creates locally, regionally, and internationally through the case studies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Venezuela. These case studies illustrate the relationship between export and consumption based countries and how this relationship keeps “developing” countries in a never ending cycle of development, and developed …

Detecting Ai Generated Text Using Neural Networks, Jesus Guerrero

Masters Theses

For humans, distinguishing machine generated text from human written text is men- tally taxing and slow. NLP models have been created to do this more effectively and faster. But, what if some adversarial changes have been added to the machine generated text? This thesis discusses this issue and text detectors in general.

The primary goal of this thesis is to describe the current state of text detectors in research and to discuss a key adversarial issue in modern NLP transformers. To describe the current state of text detectors a Systematic Literature Review was done on 50 relevant papers to machine-centric …

Boosting Adversarial Training Using Robust Selective Data Augmentation, Bader Rasheed, Asad Masood Khattak, Adil Khan, Stanislav Protasov, Muhammad Ahmad

All Works

Artificial neural networks are currently applied in a wide variety of fields, and they are near to achieving performance similar to humans in many tasks. Nevertheless, they are vulnerable to adversarial attacks in the form of a small intentionally designed perturbation, which could lead to misclassifications, making these models unusable, especially in applications where security is critical. The best defense against these attacks, so far, is adversarial training (AT), which improves the model’s robustness by augmenting the training data with adversarial examples. In this work, we show that the performance of AT can be further improved by employing the neighborhood …

Photoisomerizable Membrane Active Peptides, Cristina Ventura

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Membrane active peptides (MAPs) bind and partition into the cell membrane thus causing permeabilization. Many α-helical membrane active peptides contain central proline residues that distinguish the hydrophobic and hydrophilic faces of the helix. The proline induces a bend that produces a helix-hinge-helix motif. Mutation of these proline residues has a significant effect on the activity of the MAP. Azobenzene is a photoisomerizable molecule that switches from its trans to cis isomer upon excitation with ultraviolet (UV) light and from its cis to trans isomer upon excitation with visible light (VL). In this work it is hypothesized that the hinge function …

Several Thoughts On Information Technology Driving Future Industries, Yungang Bao, Miao Liu, Pinyan Lu, Xipeng Qiu, Jiang Xu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Interactions Between Marine Megafauna And Plastic Pollution In Southeast Asia, Lucy C.M. Omeyer, Emily Duncan, Neil Angelo S. Abreo, Jo Marie V. Acebes, Lea A. Angsinco-Jimenez, Sabiqah T. Anuar, Lemnuel V. Aragones, Gonzalo Araujo, Luis R. Carrasco, Emilyn Q. Espiritu

Environmental Science Faculty Publications

Southeast (SE) Asia is a highly biodiverse region, yet it is also estimated to cumulatively contribute a third of the total global marine plastic pollution. This threat is known to have adverse impacts on marine megafauna, however, understanding of its impacts has recently been highlighted as a priority for research in the region. To address this knowledge gap, a structured literature review was conducted for species of cartilaginous fishes, marine mammals, marine reptiles, and seabirds present in SE Asia, collating cases on a global scale to allow for comparison, coupled with a regional expert elicitation to gather additional published and …

Adaptation, Compatibility And Acceptability Of Grass-Legume Pastures In The Andean Region Of Colombia, E. Cárdenas, E. Castro

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

In Colombia, the specialised dairy production system is located in the high altitude Andean region. Its main feed resources are pure stands of Pennisetum clandestinum or/and Lolium spp. Nevertheless, the present market conditions require highly competitive and quality forages year round. These forages should be produced with low inputs (irrigation, fertilisers and agrochemicals) and be resistant to pests and diseases. The objective of this research was to evaluate the adaptation, compatibility and acceptability of introduced forage species for sustainable pasture management.

New Cultivars For High Quality, Persistent Legume-Grass Pastures In The Southern Usa, J. H. Bouton

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

In the southern USA one cannot depend on perennial legume-grass pasture systems to have persistently high nutritive quality. 'Jesup' tall fescue, a cultivar with better persistence in the region than 'Kentucky 31', was re-infected with a non-ergot alkaloid producing strain of the Neotyphodium coenophialum fungal endophtye (MaxQ^TM) and found to give persistence equal to Jesup with its endemic strain (E+), but without animal toxins (Bouton et al., 2002). 'Durana' white clover (Bouton et al., 2004) was developed from regional ecotypes of Trifolium repens f. hollandicum germplasm and found to improve animal performance in both E+ and …

Seed Productivity Of Festulolium And Lolium X Boucheanum Varieties, Iveta Gutmane, Aleksandr Adamovich

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Hybrid ryegrasses are intermediate lines between perennial ryegrass and Italian ryegrass as regards growth parameters, productivity and resistance. Good quality and digestibility of forage and higher yield are the main advantages of hybrid ryegrass over perennial ryegrass. Climatic conditions in the Baltic States and North Europe are not favourable enough for ryegrass cultivation but Festulolium is a prospective forage crop for this area (Nesheim, 2000, Adamovich, 2003). Ryegrasses, including hybrid ryegrasses, surpass Festulolium in forage quality. However, Festulolium persistance (resistance, winter-hardiness and, thus, high productivity) are noteworthy. Due to yield quality and competitive productivity, Festulolium may rank equally with timothy …

Comparing Yield And Quality Of Milk From Dairy Cows Fed Stockpiled Annual Ryegrass (Lolium Multiflorum L.) And Cereal Rye (Secale Cereale L.), L. E. Meinhardt, R. L. Kallenbach

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Stockpiling annual ryegrass and cereal rye provides a low cost substitute to hay and creates an excellent source of feed during winter (Kallenbach et al., 2003). In addition to lowering feed costs, grazing increases the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content of milk compared to feeding hay. Previous research suggested that forage species might differ in their ability to alter milk CLA content during the growing season (Wu et al., 1997). However, research is needed to determine if different forage species used for winter and early spring grazing impacts the CLA content of milk. The objective of this experiment …

A Grazing Method To Solve The Lack Of Pastures In The Dry Season Of Tropical Areas With Long Periods Of Drought, R. O. Martinez, R. Tuero, M. F. Díaz

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Rotational grazing systems used in tropical areas in Latin America do not solve the great difference in pasture availability between the dry and the rainy season. The main studies on rational grazing (Voisin, 1963) were performed in temperate areas where the deficit of feeds in winter may only be solved with external feeds such as forages and silages produced out of the grazing system. The objective of this work was to demonstrate that it is possible to maintain pasture availability throughout the year with the use of a Pennisetum purpureum clone (Cuba CT-115) adapted to grazing (Martínez et al., …

Breeding And Evaluation Of Forage Soyabeans, T. E. Devine

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

The principal use of soyabean in the US in the early 1900s was as livestock forage. Soyabeans are less expensive to establish than small seeded perennial legume forages and can provide legume protein after winter killing of perennial legumes. Soyabean can improve production distribution by vigorous growth during the hot summer season when traditional perennial legumes are less productive.

Effect Of Utilisation Date On The Yield And Quality Of A Semi-Natural Grass Stand In Winter, Jiří Skládanka

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Prolongation of the grazing period into the winter season reduces the costs of feedstuffs for dry cows. To enable the use of pastures in winter it is necessary to carry out the last cut or grazing cycle in June or July and to postpone the last grazing until the first week of August. (Opitz von Boberfeld, 1997). The time of the last utilisation in summer influences the yield and quality of herbage during the winter season (Bartholomew et al., 1997). This research studied changes in yield and quality of a semi-natural grass stand in autumn and in winter following …

Annual Forage Legume Response To Herbicides Labelled For Lucerne Establishment, Twain J. Butler, R. Bow, J. P. Muir

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Weed competition reduces stand establishment, thus lowering forage production and quality. However, there are no herbicides labelled for annual legume establishment, despite several labelled for the establishment of lucerne (Medicago sativa). Some of these may be useful in the establishment and production of annual forage legumes. Lucerne herbicides have greater potential for use on other legumes, since they have grazing and feeding clearance. The objective of this paper is to summarize annual legume yield response trials to herbicides labelled for lucerne establishment.

Linear Regression With Regularization On The Genetic Architecture Of Maize Flowering Time, Roland Fiagbe

Data Science and Data Mining

Over a century, the maize crop has been one of the most important crop species that is targeted for genetic investigations and experiments. One of the major experiments that have been a topic of interest is crossing inbred lines to produce better offspring through a process called heterosis. Crossing the inbred lines create numerous SNP markers that determine the time to male flowering. This project seeks to explore the SNP markers to select the most relevant ones for predicting time to male flowering using linear regression with regularization methods due to the fact that p > n in our dataset. Various …

Explainable Software Defect Prediction From Cross Company Project Metrics Using Machine Learning, Susmita Haldar, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Predicting the number of defects in a project is critical for project test managers to allocate budget, resources, and schedule for testing, support and maintenance efforts. Software Defect Prediction models predict the number of defects in given projects after training the model with historical defect related information. The majority of defect prediction studies focused on predicting defect-prone modules from methods, and class-level static information, whereas this study predicts defects from project-level information based on a cross-company project dataset. This study utilizes software sizing metrics, effort metrics, and defect density information, and focuses on developing defect prediction models that apply various …

Cooking With Chemistry: Marshmallows, Admin Stem For Success

STEM for Success Showcase

This lesson plan teaches students thermodynamics, foam, and other chemistry topics by cooking marshmallows.

Tempers Rising: The Effect Of Heat On Spite, Jake C. Cosgrove

Master's Theses

The relationship between heat and harmful outcomes is well documented, with research connecting various adverse economic outcomes to the climate. In the presence of increasing global warming and climate change, understanding why the climate leads to negative economic outcomes is essential for forming peaceful institutions of the future. We study how behavioral economic outcomes change in the presence of heat through a lab experiment involving 1,110 observations conducted in five different countries. This paper specifically focuses on the social preference outcome of spite. We find that increased time exposure to the treatment effect of heat is required to elicit an …

Effective Nanomembranes From Chitosan/Pva Blend Decorated Graphene Oxide With Gum Rosin And Silver Nanoparticles For Removal Of Heavy Metals And Microbes From Water Resources, Mohamed Morsy

Nanotechnology Research Centre

No abstract provided.

Conflict And Coltan: Resource Extraction And Collision In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo And Venezuela, Jenna Marie Goldblatt

Student Theses 2015-Present

Resource extraction has played an essential role in shaping human development and is an essential tool for technological improvement. However, resource extraction is also inherently exploitative of the environment, and therefore of people. This paper evaluates the relationship between Coltan, a mineral necessary for the creation of electronic capacitors, and the conflict it creates locally, regionally, and internationally through the case studies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Venezuela. These case studies illustrate the relationship between export and consumption based countries and how this relationship keeps “developing” countries in a never ending cycle of development, and developed …

Residential Metals Abatement Program Investigation Summary Report (Non-Residential Parcels – Indoor Dust) - Aware Early Head Start, Environmental Resource Management (Erm)

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.