Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook

Sustain Magazine

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic quickly spread from country to country and continent to continent in 2020, governments and scientists needed a way to track COVID-19 through populations in order to position public health interventions in the most impactful locations. Having a decision-based risk framework may help to guide policy creation that could minimize or prevent possible outbreaks and surges of infection within communities. The University of Louisville in partnership with Louisville’s Department of Public Health and Wellness tested this strategy in 2021 and 2022. This Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook describes the decisions and actions of that academic and public …

How Education On Climate Change Affects Consumers' Willingness To Participate In Carbon Offsetting Programs?, Leila Halawi, Deanna Demattio

Publications

If airlines could have a better understanding of how to induce sustainable behavior in their customers, they can use these methods when building sustainable initiatives such as voluntary carbon offsetting programs. The purpose of the study was to determine if education on the consequences of climate change affects how consumers behave related to their interaction with carbon offsetting programs. Regional Scenarios were introduced with a natural disaster comparable to the region under review. A multistage sampling technique was utilized in this study. Firstly, using a cluster sample, groups were used rather than individual units of the target population. The results …

Learning Hierarchical Metrical Structure Beyond Measures, Junyan Jiang, Daniel Chin, Yixiao Zhang, Gus Xia

Machine Learning Faculty Publications

Music contains hierarchical structures beyond beats and measures. While hierarchical structure annotations are helpful for music information retrieval and computer musicology, such annotations are scarce in current digital music databases. In this paper, we explore a data-driven approach to automatically extract hierarchical metrical structures from scores. We propose a new model with a Temporal Convolutional Network-Conditional Random Field (TCN-CRF) architecture. Given a symbolic music score, our model takes in an arbitrary number of voices in a beat-quantized form, and predicts a 4-level hierarchical metrical structure from downbeat-level to section-level. We also annotate a dataset using RWC-POP MIDI files to facilitate …

Using Airborne And Desis Imaging Spectroscopy To Map Plant Diversity Across The Largest Contiguous Tract Of Tallgrass Prairie On Earth, Hamed Gholizadeh, Adam P. Dixon, Kimberly H. Plan, Nicholas A. Mcmillan, Rober G. Hamilton, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, John A. Gamon

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Grassland ecosystems are under threat globally, primarily due to land-use and land-cover changes that have adversely affected their biodiversity. Given the negative ecological impacts of biodiversity loss in grasslands, there is an urgent need for developing an operational biodiversity monitoring system that functions in these ecosystems. In this paper, we assessed the capability of airborne and spaceborne imaging spectroscopy (also known as hyperspectral imaging) to capture plant α-diversity in a large naturally-assembled grassland while considering the impact of common management practices, specifically prescribed fire. We collected a robust insitu plant diversity data set, including species composition and percent cover from …

Mgrre_Thinsections_05_A_27, Mgrre

Thin Sections

No abstract provided.

Losing The Dark: How Light Pollution Impacts Humans And The Environment, And What We Can Do To Win Back The Night, Marc Gagné

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

Professor Marc Gagne, Earth and Space Sciences - Losing the Dark: How light pollution impacts humans and the environment, and what we can do to win back the night

Availability Of Hospital-Based Cancer Services Before And After Rural Hospital Closure, 2008-2017, Whitney Zahnd Ph.D., Peiyin Hung Ph.D., Sylvia Kewei Shi, Anja Zgodic, Melinda A. Merrell Ph.D., Elizabeth L. Crouch, Janice C. Probst, Jan Eberth Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction

Rural populations have less access to cancer care services and experience higher cancer mortality rates than their urban counterparts, which may be exacerbated by hospital closures. Our objective was to examine the impact of hospital closures on access to cancer-relevant hospital services across hospital service areas (HSAs).

Methods

We used American Hospital Association survey data from 2008 to 2017 to examine the change in access to cancer-related screening and treatment services across rural HSAs that sustained hospitals over time, experienced any closures, or had all hospitals close. We performed a longitudinal analysis to assess the association between hospital closure …

Electrospun Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate-Co-3-Hydroxyvalerate)/Olive Leaf Extract Fiber Mesh As Prospective Bio-Based Scaffold For Wound Healing, Jose Gustavo De La Ossa, Serena Danti, Jasmine Esposito Salsano, Bahareh Azimi, Veronika Tempesti, Niccoletta Barbani, Maria Digiacomo, Marco Macchia, Mohammed Jasim Uddin, Caterina Cristallini

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of biopolyesters synthesized by various microorganisms. Due to their biocompatibility and biodegradation, PHAs have been proposed for biomedical applications, including tissue engineering scaffolds. Olive leaf extract (OLE) can be obtained from agri-food biowaste and is a source of polyphenols with remarkable antioxidant properties. This study aimed at incorporating OLE inside poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBHV) fibers via electrospinning to obtain bioactive bio-based blends that are useful in wound healing. PHBHV/OLE electrospun fibers with a size of 1.29 ± 0.34 µm were obtained. Fourier transform infrared chemical analysis showed a uniform surface distribution of hydrophilic -OH groups, confirming the …

Search For Gravitational Waves From Scorpius X-1 With A Hidden Markov Model In O3 Ligo Data, R. Abbott, H. Abe, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, N. Adhikari, 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

Results are presented for a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to allow for spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory data by including the orbital period in the search template grid, and by analyzing data from the latest (third) observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 500 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1 using a HMM to date. For the most sensitive subband, starting at …

A Cfd-Based Scaling Analysis On Liquid And Paint Droplets Moving Through A Weak Concurrent Airflow Stream, Masoud Arabghahestani, Nelson Akafuah, Tianxiang Li, Kozo Saito

Progress in Scale Modeling, an International Journal

We conducted volume of fluids (VOF) multiphase model numerical simulations to obtain the interaction among all the major governing forces identified in our previous paper. Our numerical experiments are intended to assess the droplet generation process and the jetting behavior by providing specific input conditions, offering CFD as a tool to study scaling correlations instead of physical experiments. Water droplets that can represent waterborne paints were generated by piezo-generated sinusoidal waveforms at the inlet of the nozzle. The governing forces included the external piezo-based wave-generation force, the inertial force of droplets, the inertial force of air, the viscose force of …

Pressure-Induced Modifications To The Structural And Optoelectronic Properties Of 2d Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskites, Jesse Ratte

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Recently, 2D hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIP) have garnered lots of research interest for their applications in optoelectronic devices, especially in solar cells. The optoelectronic properties of 2D HOIPs have yet to be optimized for these applications. High external pressure is well known to induce structural modifications to 2D HOIPs, and thus modify their optoelectronic properties. Herein, we report a study of the effects of high pressure (HP) on the structures and optoelectronic properties of cyclohexane methylamine (CMA) lead iodide (CMA2PbI4) and the structures of N,N-dimethylphenylene-p-diammonium (DPDA) lead iodide (DPDAPbI4).

High pressure measurements of CMA2PbI4 were performed using Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Photoluminescent Boron Difluoride Hydrazone (Bodihy) Dyes, Daniela Cappello

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis describes the synthesis, characterization, optoelectronic, and redox properties of boron difluoride hydrazone (BODIHY) dyes. BODIHYs are part of a class of molecular materials whereby chelating N-donor ligands form complexes with a boron difluoride (BF₂) moiety, which rigidifies and introduces push-pull electronic structures to the resulting dyes. This thesis demonstrates that structural modifications to the appended substituents on the BODIHY core can be used to drastically tune the optoelectronic and redox properties of the unique complexes.

BODIHYs are weakly luminescent in dilute solutions but exhibit enhanced emission in the aggregate- and solid-state due to a phenomenon …

“Math Talks Are Like An Alarm Clock Waking You Up”: Language’S Crucial Role In Mathematics, Gabriella M. Wasser

Journal of Practitioner Research

Whole group math talks, or number talks, are a common practice to get students talking about their own understanding of mathematical concepts. The purpose of this study was to implement math talks in small group settings to see what would happen, specifically to students’ conceptual understanding as well their general perceptions of math talks. This study took place in a fourth-grade math classroom, and math talks were implemented with the whole class for a week and then moved to small groups for the remaining three weeks of the study. During the study, a pre-and post-assessment was given, field notes were …

Arima-Based Forecasting Of The Effects Of Wildfire On The Increasing Tree Cover Trend And Recurrence Interval Of Woody Encroachment In Grazing Land, Mazbahul Ahamad

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Invasive tree removal from grazing lands using costly brush management practices is widely employed. However, wildfire-like natural events can prevent the increasing trend of woody tree encroachment in grazing lands at no cost, instead of cost-oriented prescribed burning. This study aims to estimate the effects of wildfire in 2002 on woody tree encroachment trends during the post-wildfire period (2003–20), as well as the recurrence interval of the encroachment of a wildfire site in the United States. An autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was employed to forecast the tree cover during the post-wildfire period. We found that the pre-wildfire tree …

Mgrre_Thinsections_05_A_26, Mgrre

Thin Sections

No abstract provided.

Deja Vu: Semantics-Aware Recording And Replay Of High-Speed Eye Tracking And Interaction Data To Support Cognitive Studies Of Software Engineering Tasks—Methodology And Analyses, Vlas Zyrianov, Cole S. Peterson, Drew T. Guarnera, Joshua Behler, Praxis Weston, Bonita Sharif Ph.D., Jonathan I. Maletic

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

The paper introduces a fundamental technological problem with collecting high-speed eye tracking data while studying software engineering tasks in an integrated development environment. The use of eye trackers is quickly becoming an important means to study software developers and how they comprehend source code and locate bugs. High quality eye trackers can record upwards of 120 to 300 gaze points per second. However, it is not always possible to map each of these points to a line and column position in a source code file (in the presence of scrolling and file switching) in real time at data rates over …

Morton-Ordered Gpu Lattice Boltzmann Cfd Simulations With Application To Blood Flow, Gerald Gallagher, Fergal J. Boyle

Conference Papers

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is routinely used for numerically predicting cardiovascular-system medical device fluid flows. Most CFD simulations ignore the suspended cellular phases of blood due to computational constraints, which negatively affects simulation accuracy. A graphics processing unit (GPU) lattice Boltzmann-immersed boundary (LB-IB) CFD software package capable of accurately modelling blood flow is in development by the authors, focusing on the behaviour of plasma and stomatocyte, discocyte and echinocyte red blood cells during flow. Optimised memory ordering and layout schemes yield significant efficiency improvements for LB GPU simulations. In this work, comparisons of row-major-ordered Structure of Arrays (SoA) and Collected …

Neighborhood Characteristics And Dementia Symptomology Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Alzheimer’S Disease, Dana M. Alhasan, Matthew C. Lohman Ph.D., Jana A. Hirsch, Margaret Chandlee Miller Ms, Ph.D., Bo Cai Ph.D., Chandra L. Jackson

Faculty Publications

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs) lead to myriad poor health outcomes among individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Prior studies have observed associations between the various aspects of the home environment and NPSs, but macro-level environmental stressors (e.g., neighborhood income) may also disrupt the neuronal microenvironment and exacerbate NPSs. Yet, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated the relationship between the neighborhood environment and NPSs.

Methods: Using 2010 data among older adults with AD collected from a sample of the South Carolina Alzheimer’s Disease Registry, we estimated cross-sectional associations between neighborhood characteristics and NPSs in the overall population and by race/ethnicity. Neighborhood …

Theoretical Thinking Of Artificial Ecosystem For Modern Marine Ranching, Dewen Ding, Anning Suo

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Based on the systematic review of the conceptual evolution process of marine ranching and its development of practice, this paper pointed out the problems existing in the construction of marine ranching in China, such as lack of theoretical support, lack of ecological engineering technologies, and lack of ecological management. It then proposed the concept of marine ranching artificial ecosystem. In addition, the paper analyzed the structural principle of marine ranching artificial ecosystem from the viewpoint of cultivating key functional communities and habitat construction for the marine ranch fishery resources. Finally, the paper discussed the theoretical framework of the modern marine …

Global Technology Of Ocean Carbon Sequestration Based On Patent Analysis, Tianyue Peng, Dehao Tang, Liqiang Liu, Bing Han, Benduo Zhu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The ocean is the largest and most active carbon reservoir in the world. Through ocean-atmosphere exchange and the photosynthesis of marine plants, the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) by the ocean is much greater than that by soil and vegetation on terrestrial areas. This is essential to mitigate and ameliorate today's global warming which is caused by rising atmospheric CO2 concentration. Therefore, to achieve the goal of "carbon neutrality" around the country, it is an effective approach to sequester CO2 in the ocean. This paper summarizes the technical application scope and methods of ocean carbon sequestration. By analyzing correlative patents …

Clustering Behavior In Solar Flare Dynamics, Elmer C. Rivera, Jay R. Johnson, Jonathan Homan, Simon Wing

Faculty Publications

The solar magnetic activity cycle provides energy input that is released in intense bursts of radiation known as solar flares. As such, the dynamics of the activity cycle is embedded in the sequence of times between the flare events. Recent analysis shows that solar flares exhibit memory on different timescales. These previous studies showed that the time ordering of flare events is not random, but rather there is dependence between successive flares. In the present work, the clustering of flares is demonstrated through a straightforward nonparametric method where the cumulative distribution function of successive flares is compared with the cumulative …

Kinetic Modeling Of Ionospheric Outflows Observed By The Visions-1 Sounding Rocket, Robert M. Albarran Ii

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Plasma escape from the high-latitude ionosphere (ion outflow) serves as a significant source of heavy plasma to magnetospheric plasma sheet and ring current regions. Outflows alter mass density and reconnection rates, hence global responses of the magnetosphere. The VISIONS-1 (VISualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral atom imaging during a Substorm) sounding rocket was launched on Feb. 7, 2013 at 8:21 UTC from Poker Flat, Alaska, into an auroral substorm with the objective of identifying the drivers and dynamics of nightside ion outflow at altitudes where it is initiated, below 1000 km. Energetic ion data from the VISIONS-1 polar cap boundary crossing …

International Strategy Of Man And The Biosphere Programme Of Germany And Its Implications To China, Yijie Xian, Yan Zhuang, Qunli Han, Ding Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Since mid-1990s, Germany has developed the UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) together with its biosphere reserves into a pathway of enhancing the nation's role in global governance. Measures took by Germany include:clarifying the national position in the globalization of German MAB, including putting more emphasis on partnership development, highlighting the effectiveness of development assistance, and ensuring the clearance and feasibility of action plan; collecting resources from foreign affairs, finance, intellectual, technology, etc., by multi-federal sector collaborative mechanism, to support the development of biosphere reserves of other countries; thinking globally and taking priority over Africa region. The example indicated …

The Roles Of Flux Tube Entropy And Effective Gravity In The Inward Plasma Transport At Saturn, S. Wing, M. F. Thomsen, J. R. Johnson, D. G. Mitchell, R. C. Allen, X. Ma, P. A. Delamere

Faculty Publications

The inward plasma transport at the Saturnian magnetosphere is examined using the flux tube interchange stability formalism developed by Southwood & Kivelson. Seven events are selected. Three cases are considered: (1) the injected flux tube and ambient plasmas are nonisotropic, (2) the injected flux tube and ambient plasmas are isotropic, and (3) the injected flux tube plasma is isotropic, but the ambient plasma is nonisotropic. Case 1 may be relevant for fresh injections, while case 3 may be relevant for old injections. For cases 1 and 2, all but one event have negative stability conditions, suggesting that the flux tube …

Session 3a: Karst And Groundwater, Kentucky Water Research Institute

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Examining the Utility of Tryptophan-Like Fluorescence As a Proxy for Fecal Contamination in Karst Basins, Inner Bluegrass Region, Kentucky
• A Predictive Flood Model for Urban Karst Environments
• Improving Best Management Practices for the Siting, Maintenance, and Design of Urban Karst Groundwater Injection Wells

Session 3b: Sediments, Kentucky Water Research Institute

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Sediment Degradation Experiments for a Low Gradient Stream Suggest the Watershed’s Connectivity Regime Exhibits Control on Stream Biogeochemistry
• Does Sediment Organic Matter Content Mediate the Effects of Chironomid Larvae on Benthic Nitrous Oxide Flux
• Drivers of Variability in Annual Sediment Accretion Rates Within Wetland Easements of Western Kentucky

Poster Session, Kentucky Water Research Institute

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Evaluating the Effects of Beaver Dam Removal on the Hydrology, Water Quality, and Bioindicators of a Restored Wetland
• Predictive Sediment Flux Modeling of a Karst Spring Using High Resolution Sensors and Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes
• Development and Validation of qPCR Assays for Use in eDNA Detection of Four Species of Semiaquatic Salamanders .
• Analyzing Recent Spatio-Temporal Rainfall Erosivity Patterns and Trends Across Kentucky
• Development of eDNA Protocols for Detection of Four Darter (Percidae: Etheostomatinae) Species in Central Kentucky Streams
• Assessing Change in the Seasonality of Stable Isotopes δ18O and δ2H for Meteoric and Terrestrial Waters of Central Kentucky
• Coupling …

Session 2: Water And The Community, Kentucky Water Research Institute

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Development of Human Health Criteria for Surface Waters of the Commonwealth of Kentucky
• Kentucky Workforce Survey Results
• Modeling, Managing, and Mitigating Stormwater Flooding using a Real-time Monitoring Network and Environmental Equity Approach

Session 1a: Watershed Management, Kentucky Water Research Institute

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Motivations and Barriers to the Implementation of Riparian Buffer Zones on Central Kentucky Horse Farms
• Engaging Urban Watershed Stewards in Stormwater Management
• Efficacy Examination of Urban Reforestation Efforts on Streams in Lexington, KY: Macroinvertebrates and Water Quality Assessments
• Over a Decade of Monitoring Water Quality at McConnell Springs – What Have We Learned?
• Glenns Creek Watershed Characterization Efforts

Session 1b: Contaminant Exposure And Treatment, Kentucky Water Research Institute

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Cyanobacteria, Cyanotoxin Synthetase Genes, and Cyanotoxin Occurrence Among Selected Large River Sites in the Lower Ohio River Basin, 2020–21
• Emerging Contaminant Exposure Following WWTP Processes to Surface Waters
• Reactive Membrane Synthesis for Capture and Degradation of Toxic Water Contaminants
• Implications to Tap and Stream Water Chemistry Due to Variations in Sampling Location and Watershed Land Use
• Examining Toxicity of 2D Nanomaterial Phosphorene, Free-Standing and Embedded onto Membranes, and Its Application for Removal of Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)