Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Dolphin Behavioral Responses To Uncrewed Aerial Systems As A Function Of Exposure, Height, And Type, Savannah Damiano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) are becoming a standard tool in the study of cetaceans, however, a comparative assessment of animal responses to UAS has not been established to gauge the most effective systems for cetacean study. We utilized Dolphin Quest Bermuda’s eleven bottlenose dolphins as subjects for such an investigation taking place over five weeks in 2022 and five weeks in 2023. The dolphins were evaluated for investigative behavioral responses to six off-the-shelf UAS types and a custom fixed wing system. Each UAS was flown in decreasing height vertically above the main dolphin lagoon to evaluate dolphin behavioral responses in …

Phytoplankton Community As An Indicator Of Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Blooms In High Mountain Lakes, Victoria Elizabeth Avalos

Dissertations and Theses

Cyanobacteria blooms are a growing issue worldwide and can be harmful to both aquatic life and human health. Warm temperatures, nutrient loading, stable water columns, and selective grazing of zooplankton and phytoplankton can contribute to cyanobacteria bloom formation. In this study, I characterized the algal communities and water quality differences in two physiographically similar lakes with relatively little human influences, Odell and Crescent Lakes, Oregon, to better understand potential contributing factors to cyanobacteria harmful algal bloom formation (cyanobacteria bloom) in Odell Lake.

There are three hypotheses in this study:

1. If there was a cyanobacteria bloom in Odell Lake, but not …

Adaptive Multirate Infinitesimal Time Integration, Alex Fish

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

As multiphysics simulations grow in complexity and application scientists desire more accurate results, computational costs increase greatly. Time integrators typically cater to the most restrictive physical processes of a given simulation\add{,} which can be unnecessarily computationally expensive for the less restrictive physical processes. Multirate time integrators are a way to combat this increase in computational costs by efficiently solving systems of ordinary differential equations that contain physical processes which evolve at different rates by assigning different time step sizes to the different processes. Adaptivity is a technique for further increasing efficiency in time integration by automatically growing and shrinking the …

Improvements To Isru For Rocket Fuel Generation, Justin Sharp

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

The development of efficient in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technologies is crucial for the establishment of an extraterrestrial, self-sustaining colony. The generation of rocket fuel at potential colony locations is necessary to provide the transportation of people and cargo to and from these locations.Three processes are discussed for the improvement of ISRU methods to generate rocket fuel: electrolysis and electrochemical improvements to the process of crude fuel production, physical and chemical methods for separation of gaseous H2 and O2, and materials and cryogenics engineering for storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX). Storage and transportation of cryogenics …

Biosynthesis Of Copper Nanoparticles Using Hylocereus Costaricensis Peel Extract And Their Photocatalytic Properties, Suriati Eka Putri, Netti Herawati, Ahmad Fudhail, Diana Eka Pratiwi, Sumiati Side, Abd Rahman, Susilo Sudarman Desa, Nur Ahmad, Subaer Junaedi, A. Surleva

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

A green chemistry method was used for the first time to synthesize copper nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) using CuSO4 as a precursor and red dragon fruit (Hylocereus costaricensis) peel wasted extract as a bio-reductor. Cu-NPs produced were then used as a photocatalysts for acid orange 7 (AO7) dyes degradation. The results showed that the smallest average crystallite size of the products ranged from 8.84 - 8.86 nm, and the FCC crystal structure had a surface area of 244.38-278.85 m2g-1. Furthermore, the optimum degradation of AO7 dye occurred at a ratio of 1:3 with a percentage of 81.07% for four cycles. These findings …

Utilizing Machine Learning Techniques To Predict Credit Card Payment Defaults, Madison Guerra

Theses and Dissertations

The question of accurately predicting credit card defaulters has been explored in numerous studies in the past. In these studies, the researchers utilized various machine learning theories and techniques to make the determination the extent of defaults. Unfortunately, some constraints were encountered, and the limitations that existed from the previous works have been discussed. This project attempted to address these issues with special attention given to more recently available data. Specifically, in this project, we looked at data provided by one Kaggle user, which utilized the data from the American Express credit card competition, which ranges from late March 2018 …

What Is A Number?, Nicholas Radley

HON499 projects

This essay is, in essence, an attempt to make a case for mathematical platonism. That is to say, that we argue for the existence of mathematical objects independent of our perception of them. The essay includes a somewhat informal construction of number systems ranging from the natural numbers to the complex numbers.

The Threat Of Hospital Wastewater: An Evidence-Based Call To Action, Ann P. Nguyen

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

Introduction: Hospital wastewater carries a unique composition of pollutants, a burden that includes high chemical and biological residuals. These pollutants are discharged into sewage treatment plants and natural environments where they contaminate human water sources and larger ecosystems. Water treatment plants are not designed to treat the high loads of biomedical waste and persistent organic compounds found in hospital wastewater and therefore pollutants survive in conventionally treated water. Evidence of contaminated soil, municipal wastewater, surface water, ground water, and even drinking water have been demonstrated in studies conducted around the world highlighting the ubiquity of the problem. Hospital effluent as …

The True "New Eve": Ben Wildflower's Magnificat And The Second Creation Story, Mary L. Parks

Obsculta

Images of the Virgin Mary have provided comfort to Christians for almost two thousand years. Many of these images have depicted the Mother of God as gentle, demure, pure, and obedient. Ben Wildflower’s woodcut, Magnificat, imagines another side of Mary’s story. This paper considers the second creation story, “New Eve” typology, and church teaching about current social and environmental issues to demonstrate why Magnificat is an ideal portrait for the true “New Eve”.

Electron And Other Quarks As Particles Made Of Elementary Particles Of Charge E/3 And Mass Me/6, Polievkt Perov

College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Works

We suggest that the first-generation quarks are not elementary particles, but structures made of a basic elementary particle of charge e/3 and its antiparticle, interacting via an electrostatic force. The structures are suggested for d-quark as consisting of one positive and two negative basic elementary charges, for u-quark as a structure with one negative and three positive basic charges, for an electron as a quark with one positive and four negative basic charges, and for one more quark made of one positive and one negative basic charge. All the suggested structures are in a spinning motion and are stable. The …

Downstream Hydrochemistry And Irrigation Water Quality Of The Syr Darya, Aral Sea Basin, South Kazakhstan, Bagdat Satybaldiyev, Baimurat Ismailov, Nurbek Nurpeisov, Kairat Kenges, Daniel D. Snow, Arindam Malakar, Omirzhan Taukebayev, Bolat Uralbekov

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

New hydrochemical measurements from the Syr Darya provide insights into factors affecting the composition and quality of a major freshwater source replenishing the Aral Sea. This river is heavily used for power and irrigation and crosses territories of four Central Asia republics. It is intensely managed, draining several major tributaries, many reservoirs, and numerous irrigation distribution systems and canals. Analysis of seasonal changes in dissolved ion concentrations using geochemical diagrams, elemental ratios, statistical correlation, and equilibrium modeling allowed the characterization of mineral formation processes that control the dissolved chemical composition. Measured water hydrochemistry and composition type differs substantially from previous …

Transit Photometry Of Multiple Exoplanet Watch Targets, Jonah Becken

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Since 1995 exoplanet research has increase dramatically, as a result it is more important than ever to precisely know the dates and times of future transits for repeated observations of a target. NASA’s Exoplanet Watch database and accompanying light curve producing code EXOTIC have the goal of allowing small observatories across the world help find future transits. Under these objective observations of known exoplanet transits where made, using the Saint John’s University observatory, to find the transit midpoint, the ratio of the planet radius and the solar radius, and the period. Using these values, the confirmation that a transit happened …

2023 May 4 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

The Development Of A Backyard Composting Project Through Community Engagement, Donald J. Scully, Jeffrey A. Young, Bryan J. Hains, Kristina Hains

The Journal of Extension

It can be argued that public forums are a valuable and essential tool for Cooperative Extension professionals. This article narrates the innovative use of the public forum action steps outlined in Kahl’s (2016) “A Convener’s Guide to Hosting a Public Forum”. The primary objective was to address illegal dumping and littering concerns with the Extension professional's role to engage the community. The resulting “Backyard Composting Project” demonstrated that public forums are valuable in creatively engaging urban audiences. Ultimately the authors illustrate how a community concern can be addressed using innovative programming to reach what Extension considers to be …

Augmented & Virtual Reality: Advancement Of Technology And Its Impacts On Medicine, Education, And Other Industries, Yassine Chahid

Publications and Research

Throughout the early 2000s, the ways in which the World Wide Web was used would undergo major changes. The introduction of these changes around this time period would be collectively known as Web 2.0. With Web 2.0, accessibility and distribution of applications became more simplified. During the 2000s, much has evolved from hard capabilities to the internet and its widespread usage amongst companies and general consumers. In contemporary times, multiple technologies, both hardware and digital are becoming more advanced, with general consumers either rejecting or accepting these gradual shifts in what may become everyday technology. Web 3.0, the theoretical advancement …

Gordian Distance And Complete Alexander Neighbors, Ana Wright

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

We call a knot K a complete Alexander neighbor if every possible Alexander polynomial is realized by a knot one crossing change away from K. It is unknown whether there exists a complete Alexander neighbor with nontrivial Alexander polynomial. We eliminate infinite families of knots with nontrivial Alexander polynomial from having this property and discuss possible strategies for unresolved cases.

Additionally, we use a condition on determinants of knots one crossing change away from unknotting number one knots to improve KnotInfo’s unknotting number data on 11 and 12 crossing knots. Lickorish introduced an obstruction to unknotting number one, which proves …

Brief Review: Low Frequency Event Charts (G-Charts) In Healthcare, James Espinosa, David Ho, Alan Lucerna, Henry Schuitema

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

The ability to determine if a change in a system is actually an improvement—or worsening in function—is one of the essential desiderata of quality improvement efforts. There are many ways to look at the issue. A special problem occurs when the event being studied is low frequency by nature. By way of example, patient falls in a given hospital or division of a hospital may occur in a way that is low frequency—yet each event is important. Process engineering has developed an approach to low frequency events. Part of this approach may involve specialized charts that look at the “time-between-events”—as …

Assessing The Possibility And Properties Of Types I And Ii Chalcogen Bonds, Steve Scheiner

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Type I and II halogen bonds are well-recognized motifs that commonly occur within crystals. Quantum calculations are applied to examine whether such geometries might occur in their closely related chalcogen bond cousins. Homodimers are constructed of the R1R2C=Y and R1R2Y monomers, wherein Y represents a chalcogen atom, S, Se, or Te; R1 and R2 refer to either H or F. A Type II (T2) geometry wherein the lone pair of one Y is closely aligned with a σ-hole of its partner represents a stable arrangement for all except YH2, although not all such structures are true minima. The symmetric T1 …

Machine Learning In Finances, Elma Kastrat, Akinyemi Apampa, Satyanand Singh

Publications and Research

In our study we work on an optimization of an appropriate stock portfolio base on available information. Our work takes into consideration the average return and any associated risk. We produce an investment strategy that predictively allows a portfolio to grow with high yields.

Seasonal And Diurnal Variations Of Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability At Terrestrial Magnetopause, S. Kavosi, J. Raeder, Jay R. Johnson, K. Nykyri, C. J. Farrugia

Faculty Publications

Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability is ubiquitous at Earth’s magnetopause and plays an important role in plasma entry into the magnetosphere during northward interplanetary magnetic fields. Here, using one solar cycle of data from NASA THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macro scale Interactions during Substorms) and MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale) missions, we found that KHI occurrence rates show seasonal and diurnal variations with the rate being high near the equinoxes and low near the solstices. The instability depends directly on the Earth’s dipole tilt angle. The tilt toward or away from the Sun explains most of the seasonal and diurnal variations, while the …

Prioritizing Professional Development At The Interface Of Natural Resources And Agriculture, Katherine J. Starzec

The Journal of Extension

Continuous professional development is critical for Extension staff, and many agriculture-focused Extension employees are tasked with outreach related to a wide variety of natural resource topics. The purpose of this study is to help prioritize trainings needed by Kansas Extension agents and specialists based on their current level of knowledge and interest in staying up to date on 18 different natural resource topics. Responses to a statewide survey were analyzed using the Borich model. Results indicate priority professional development needs related to soil health; effects of climate; invasive species, harmful algal blooms; and groundwater, surface water, and air quality.

Improvement Of A Low-Cost Diy Wave Gauge, Matthew F. Virden, Nigel A. Temple, Bret M. Webb, Eric L. Sparks

The Journal of Extension

The impacts of waves on shorelines and nearshore ecosystems has highlighted the need for extension and other environmental professionals to have access to accurate and affordable wave measurements. The development of a low-cost DIY wave gauge improved the accessibility of these measurements; however, the original design was limited in battery life. Here, an improved version of the low-cost DIY wave gauge, the DIY Feather Wave Gauge, is presented with the same performance, longer battery life, smaller design, and cheaper cost along with tutorials, parts lists, and other resources. This new gauge has been used to improve shoreline management recommendations.

Biodiversity In Eastern Kentucky: Effects Of Habitat Change, Surface Top Mining, And Current Reclamation Practices, Sydney Pardieu

Undergraduate Theses

Biodiversity is a key component in maintaining the valuable ecosystem services that are vital to the way humans interact with and rely on the environment. The Appalachian Region in Eastern North America is one of the most biodiverse temperate broadleaf forests in the world and is home to hundreds of endangered or endemic species. Despite the high biodiversity, the region is also heavily mined, particularly by mountain top removal, causing habitat change and pollution. Current reclamation practices for mined lands are lacking in effective reclamation criterion, and state statutes provide little or no attention to the preservation of biodiversity. Therefore, …

Integrating Art And Design With Environmental Science, Laura D. Hinson

The Confluence

This article demonstrates how combining art and design and environmental sciences would benefit both fields by analyzing how utilizing art and design in environmental sciences can help enhance aspects of the teaching process and environmental studies, specifically those dealing with climatology and pollution. Additionally, by taking an ecocritical approach to analyzing art and its creation, this article will detail how artists can become more conscious of the impacts creating certain types of art has on the environment while also noting environmental changes documented through art.

Hymenachne Amplexicaluis [(Rudge) Nees] Genetic Resources Collection In México, A Suitable Grass For Flood Plains In Tropical Areas, J. F. Enriquez-Quiroz, A. R. Quero-Carrillo, J. Perez-Perez, A. Hernandez-Garay, E. Garcia-Moya

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Hymenachne amplexicaluis [( Rudge ) Nees; 2n= 2x= 24; Azuche, West Indian marsh grass] is a native Central and South America C₃ grass that grows well under intermittent flooding conditions. It produces good seed set and stolons to thrive on new areas assuring its survival, combined with an efficient N metabolism to promote vigorous new growing leaves and tillers (Antel et al., 1998). Azuche is a dual attribute species when introduced to new areas; it has valuable forage attributes but also is a potential weed (Hill, 2000). As Azuche is a native species, one must deal with in …

Critical Analysis Of Tropical Forage Breeding In Brazil, J. A. Usberti Jr., P. B. Alcantara

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Forage grasses account for 90% of the Brazilian forage seed market while the genera Brachiaria, Panicum and others are responsible for 85, 10 and 5% of the traded grass seeds, respectively. Most of the forage grass and legume cultivars available for sowing in Brazil were selected in germplasm banks during the last 20 years, while few of them were derived from artificial crossings, followed by selection for desirable forage traits. The selection of new genetic materials in germplasm banks (exploitation of naturally-occurring genetic variability) is still feasible but the chances of success are decreasing through time. From now on, …

Application Of Screening In Rangeland Monitoring: Quantifying Early-Warning Signals Of State Transitions In Nebraska, Daniel S. Bauloye

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Woody encroachment, desertification, and exotic annual grass invasion are regime shifts (i.e., state-transitions) with detrimental effects on ecosystem health and services in grasslands of the North American Great Plains. Traditional approaches to rangeland monitoring are capable of detecting regime shifts after they have already occurred (i.e., diagnosing them); however, proactive management requires earlier warning. Regime shift screening is a new approach to rangeland monitoring capable of providing earlier warning of regime shifts. Regime shift screening proposes assessing the presence, persistence, and non-stationarity of regime shift signals; however, no studies have systematically evaluated these characteristics in real-world landscapes. In this thesis, …

Occurrence Of Radionuclides And Hazardous Elements In The Transboundary River Basin Kyrgyzstan–Kazakhstan, Mariya A. Severinenko, Vladimir P. Solodukhin, Bekmamat M. Djenbaev, The National Academy Of Science Of The Kyrgyz Republic G. Lennik, Baktiyar T. Zholboldiev, Daniel D. Snow

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Important for irrigation, the transboundary river basin between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan is vulnerable to geochemical and anthropogenic sources of pollution. The use of water use indices, together with measurements of the elemental and radionuclide composition of the water and bottom sediments, provides a means for evaluating the continued use of the water from this region. Recent monitoring shows the highest concentrations of hazardous contaminants include lead and thorium contained in the bottom and banks of the Kichi-Kemin River. These contaminants are likely remnants of an accidental spill at the Aktyuz tailing dump in 1964. The specific activity of the Th-232 …

A Probabilistic Exploration Of Food Supplementation And Assistance, Logan Mattingly

Honors College Theses

Food insecurity is a stark threat that grips our country and affects households throughout our country. Dietary insufficiency manifests itself in ways that affect health and public safety. According to researchers, individuals who suffer from food insecurity have a higher risk of aggression, anxiety, suicide ideation and depression. These problems tend to occur unequally distributed among those households with lower income. In this work, an exploratory analysis within these data sets will be performed to examine the socio-economic, biographical, nutritional, and geographical principal components of food insecurity among survey participants and how the US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) effects …

Music On Canvas: A Quest To Generate Art That Evokes The Feeling Of Music, My Linh (Lucy) Tran

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

Although the idea of connecting music and art dates back to ancient Greece, recent advancements in computing have made automating this feasible. This project represents a quest to transform music into art, using three methodologies where each is an improvement towards generating images that convey our feelings and imaginations during music listening. The three methods respectively involve:

1. An element-wise mapping of sound and colors
2. Using song tags
3. Tuning an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model to generate pictorial text captions.

To create artistic images, methods two and three utilize an existing text-to-image generative AI.