Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Alternatives To Corn For Baiting Wild Pigs, Justin A. Foster, Lee H. Williamson, John C. Kinsey, Ryan L. Reitz, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Nathan P. Snow

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We examined dietary preferences of wild pigs to discern possible bait alternatives to corn. Captive trials were conducted during spring and fall 2021 in the Wild Pig Research Facility at Kerr Wildlife Management Area, Hunt, Texas, USA. We conducted 2‐choice tests by allowing wild pigs to feed ad libitum on soybeans, split peas, mealworms, and peanuts (spring 2021), and oats, acorns, earthworms, and peanuts (fall 2021), always with corn available as a second choice for reference. In each trial, we used proportion of test bait eaten versus total bait eaten, and relative access to both food sources as indices of …

Prevalence Of Caffeine Dependency And Daytime Fatigue Amongst Undergraduate Students, Benjamin P. Brown, Josie Nicholson, Willa Stauffer, Elise M. Crause, Katie Young

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Caffeine is considered a legal drug with a main function of acting as a stimulant. The recommended daily dose of caffeine is up to 400 mg, however, most college students consume on average 800 mg per day (Mcllavian et al., 2013). Amongst American college students, caffeine is considered one of five most commonly consumed drugs, being compared with alcohol, marijuana, opioids, and sedatives (American Addictions Center, 2019). Within this population, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the adverse effects of caffeine and its potential impact of alertness versus sleepiness. Existing literature on this topic has shown that caffeine can …

On Modelling And Analyzing Composite Resources’ Consumption Cycles Using Time Petri-Nets, Amel Benna, Fatma Masmoudi, Mohamed Sellami, Zakaria Maamar, Rachid Hadjidj

All Works

ICT community cornerstones (IoT in particular) gain competitive advantage from using physical resources. This paper adopts Time Petri-Nets (TPNs) to model and analyze the consumption cycles of composite resources. These resources consist of primitive, and even other composite, resources that are associated with consumption properties and could be subject to disruptions. These properties are specialized into unlimited, shareable, limited, limited-but-renewable, and non-shareable, and could impact the availability of resources. This impact becomes a concern when disruptions suspend ongoing consumption cycles to make room for the unplanned consumptions. Resuming the suspended consumption cycles depends on the resources’ consumption properties. To ensure …

Battling Over Bathwater: Greywater Technopolitics In Los Angeles, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In Los Angeles, domestic wastewater recycling ("greywater") systems are controversial, loved by local environmentalists and disdained by the city's water agencies. Drawing on fieldwork among greywater advocates and public water agency workers, this article examines how greywater systems function as nodes that unsettle relations between residents and the public agencies that manage the city's water grid. Elaborating the longstanding frictions over greywater reuse in LA reveals how these fixtures are mobilized by advocates to rescript the roles of both individuals and the state within the urban waterscape. Detailing public agency workers' resistance to this form of selective disconnection from the …

A Comparison Study Among The High School Students In The Us: Obesity And Overweight Rates Among Racial Minorities—Stress, Dietary Behavior, Sports And Physical Activity Participation, Animesh Dali '24, Naima Shifa

Student Research

Background: The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) collects data on American youth primarily for assessing various health risk factors. This study aims to examine the relationship between demographic, and behavioral variables that we have considered as risk factors and obesity in American youth in 2015 and 2019.

Methods: Data pertaining to obesity risk factors and BMI measurements were obtained from the YRBSS. Cross Tables and linear regression models were constructed and subsequent analyses were used to examine the correlation between risk factors and BMI. Two-sample t-tests were used to explore the difference between the 2015 and 2019 datasets.

Results: …

Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors As A Treatment For Wastewater And Biogas Production At University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Marley Norton, Brady Bell, Ariel Fine

Student Showcase

Achieving carbon net neutrality at UMass by the year 2032 would require an unprecedented scale of renovation. However, we stand before an opportunity to set a nationwide standard in college campus sustainability. The usage of water also requires energy, as both are inextricable commodities, high in demand and often non-renewable. The central heating plant (CHP) distributes heat across the 1,400+ acre campus and consumes copious amounts of natural gas. A viable solution to relieving the dominant reliance on non-renewable energy without leaving the CHP as a stranded asset revolves around the implementation of a hybrid low temperature hot water system …

The Effects Of Temperature On Evacuation Rates And Absorption Efficiency Of Flathead Catfish, Zach Horstman

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

Knowledge of fish gastric evacuation rates are a necessary component for both field and laboratory studies when trying to understand feeding rates, modeling energy budgets, and understanding trophic dynamics of aquatic ecosystems. Many freshwater fish encounter a broad range of environmental temperatures across life history stages, but the mechanistic link between temperature and physiological processes often remains poorly understood. We designed three recirculating aquatic systems capable of rearing Flathead Catfish Plyodictis olivaris in order to quantify gastric evacuation rates and gross energy absorption at three temperatures (17º C, 22º C and 25º C). We examined the relationship between temperature and …

Fy 2019 Umass Amherst Water & Steam Data By Building, Ezra Small

Campus Data

Each year, UMass Amherst Utilities publishes this spreadsheet which has the monthly and annual building water and steam consumption of each metered building on campus.

Thing-Makers, Tool Freaks And Prototypers: How The Whole Earth Catalog’S Optimistic Message Reinvented The Environmental Movement In 1968, Andy Kirk

History Faculty Research

In the fall of 1968 a Stanford-trained biologist, organizer of the legendary Trips Festival and Merry Prankster named Stewart Brand published the first Whole Earth Catalog. Between 1968 and 1972, the Catalog reached millions of readers and won the National Book Award. The title and iconic cover image of this counterculture classic celebrated the first publicly released NASA photographs showing the whole planet Earth from space. These images profoundly changed the way humans thought about the environment. And the Catalog played an important role in that change.

Developing A Unified Approach To Sustainable Consumption Behaviour: Opportunities For A New Environmental Paradigm, Vivienne Byers, Alan Gilmer

Articles

Politicians and national policy makers seek to encourage individuals to engage in a wide range of pro-environmental practices to address both discrete environmental problems and major global challenges such as climate change. Theoretically, the field of behavioural management in environmental consumption which seeks to change holarchic open human systems, is much contested. This paper proposes to develop a synthesized conceptual framework embracing a unified approach that addresses the systematic, structural, and institutional perspectives on how consumption, through public policy initiatives, can be developed and changed to reflect a deeper ecological foundation. This approach considers the debate regarding policy and behavioural …

Trophic Dynamics Of Flathead Catfish In The Missouri River Bordering Nebraska, Dylan R. Turner

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

Understanding the trophic dynamics of large, riverine ecosystems is complex and requires knowledge from several inputs and outputs of the ecosystem. Most riverine ecosystems have been altered in some way whether through damming, channelizing, or diverting water. The Missouri River is not immune to these anthropogenic alterations. The river has dams throughout its middle portion and is channelized from Sioux City, Iowa to its confluence with the Mississippi River. Flathead Catfish pylodictus olivarius are one of the most ecologically harmful introduced species but little research has looked at the influence native populations of Flathead Catfish have on native prey populations …

Eating For The Environment: The Potential Of Dietary Guidelines To Achieve Better Human And Environmental Health Outcomes, Margaret Sova Mccabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

Agriculture and food production contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution. Shifting human dietary patterns has the potential to reduce such environmental harms while also promoting human health. Government policy, in the form of the United States Dietary Guidelines (USDG), recommends what Americans should eat and could play an important role in shifting the food system to one that is more sustainable. However, the USDG are an overlooked aspect of U.S. food policy. While many countries have moved to synthesize environmental goals with dietary guidance, the United States has taken the opposite approach. In 2015, despite recommendations from …

Potential Direct And Indirect Effects Of Climate Change On A Shallow Natural Lake Fish Assemblage, Jason J. Breeggemann, Mark A. Kaemingk, Timothy J. Debates, Craig P. Paukert, Jacob R. Krause, Alexander P. Letvin, Tanner M. Stevens, David W. Willis, Steven R. Chipps

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Much uncertainty exists around how fish communities in shallow lakes will respond to climate change. In this study, we modelled the effects of increased water temperatures on consumption and growth rates of two piscivores (northern pike [Esox lucius] and largemouth bass [Micropterus salmoides]) and examined relative effects of consumption by these predators on two prey species (bluegill [Lepomis macrochirus] and yellow perch [Perca flavescens]). Bioenergetics models were used to simulate the effects of climate change on growth and food consumption using predicted 2040 and 2060 temperatures in a shallow Nebraska Sandhill lake, …

Dump It Out! An Enquiry Into Consumers’ Everyday Fashion Discourses Through Handbag, Magnum Man Lok Lam, Elita Yee Nee Lam, Wing-Sun Liu

Faculty of Design & Environment (THEi)

Handbag is an iconic fashion accessory in our material culture. Following the tradition of representational thinking, this article introduces the handbag as an epistemic consumption object through which to investigate consumer experiences, practices and identity construction in relation to everyday lived discourses. The handbag research involves an examination of participants’ personal belongings inside their bags together with phenomenological interviews concerning the associated subjective experiences along with these material objects. We demonstrate how these material possessions become the subject of the research that facilitates multiple conversations between researchers and participants as to introspect, evaluate and interpret the significance of symbolic consumption …

Umass Amherst Energy Consumption, Ghg Emissions, Energy Intensity From 2002-2014, Ezra Small

Campus Data

Data spreadsheet of GHG emissions, fuel consumption, and energy intensity for UMass Amherst between Fiscal Years 2002 to 2014.

Fy 2015 Umass Amherst Electricity Data By Building, Ezra Small

Campus Data

Each year, UMass Amherst Utilities publishes this spreadsheet which has the monthly and annual building energy consumption of each metered building on campus. Cost data and production vs. purchased electricity data are also provided.

Trading Fat For Forests: On Palm Oil, Tropical Forest Conservation, And Rational Consumption, Cindy Isenhour

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

The longstanding butter vs margarine debate has recently become more complex as the links between margarine, industrial palm oil plantations, and tropical deforestation are made increasingly clear. Yet despite calls for consumers to get informed and take responsibility for tropical deforestation by boycotting margarine or purchasing buttery spreads made with sustainably-sourced palm oil, research in multiple contexts demonstrates that even the most aware, engaged, and rational consumers run into significant barriers when trying to reduce their environmental impacts. This paper supplements important critiques of neoliberal conservation at the site of extraction or intended conservation (Carrier and West 2009; Igoe and …

Fy 2014 Umass Amherst Water & Steam Data By Building, Ezra Small

Campus Data

Each year, UMass Amherst Utilities publishes this spreadsheet which has the monthly and annual building water and steam consumption of each metered building on campus.

Modeling Biofuel Expansion Effects On Land Use Change Dynamics, Ethan Warner, Daniel Inman, Benjamin Kunstman, Brian Bush, Laura Vimmerstedt, Steve Peterson

Dartmouth Scholarship

Increasing demand for crop-based biofuels, in addition to other human drivers of land use, induces direct and indirect land use changes (LUC). Our system dynamics tool is intended to complement existing LUC modeling approaches and to improve the understanding of global LUC drivers and dynamics by allowing examination of global LUC under diverse scenarios and varying model assumptions. We report on a small subset of such analyses. This model provides insights into the drivers and dynamic interactions of LUC (e.g., dietary choices and biofuel policy) and is not intended to assert improvement in numerical results relative to other works.

Demand …

Beef Production And Consumption: Sustainable Alternatives, Jennifer W. Macadam, Roslynn Brain

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Sustainable living involves choosing a lifestyle with minimal environmental impacts. The ultimate goal is to leave future generations with a healthier environment than the one we were born into. How can we do that with beef consumption? Beef is part of American culture, so is there a way to make wiser choices when it comes to purchasing beef ? The short answer is, yes!

The Moral Terrains Of Ecotourism And The Ethics Of Consumption, Robert Melchior Figueroa, Gordon R. Waitt

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

In this chapter, we provide a brief overview of Western philosophical ethics as they may peliain to tourism. Our discussion then turns to one of the most popular attempts to address sustainability across the globe: ecotourism. Ecotourism as distinct from tourism writ large is earmarked by appeals to concepts and ethical practices peliaining to sustainability (in all its varied meanings), consumption, preservation, and the politics of colonialism and the dynamics of global development strategies. In order to bring the ethics of consumption into the context of ecotourism, we provide a case account of ecotourism that represents one of the more …

The Myth Of Endless Accumulation: A Feminist Inquiry Into Globalization, Growth, And Social Change, Martha Freymann Miser

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This theoretical dissertation examines the concept of growth and its core assumption—that the continual accumulation of wealth is both socially wise and ecologically sustainable. The study challenges and offers alternatives to the myth of endless accumulation, suggesting new directions for leadership and social change. The central question posed in this inquiry: Can we craft a more ethical form of capitalism? To answer this question, the study examines conventional and critical globalization studies; feminist scholarship on standpoint, political economy, and power; and the Enlightenment notions of progress and modernism, drawing on a number of works, including Aristotle on the three intelligences, …

Slides: The Urbanizing West: Limits To Water, Limits To Growth, Lora A. Lucero

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Lora A. Lucero, AICP, American Planning Association

18 slides

Slides: The Future Of Energy: What Are The Major Projections For The U.S. Energy Future, And What Are The Implications For The West?, Gary Bryner

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Gary Bryner, Brigham Young University, Department of Political Science

9 slides

Oral Rabies Vaccine (Orv) Bait Uptake By Captive Striped Skunks, Susan M. Jojola, Stacie J. Robinson, Kurt C. Vercauteren

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Aerial delivery of oral rabies vaccine (ORV) baits has proven effective in large-scale efforts to immunize wildlife against rabies, and in North America this strategy currently is being used to immunize foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus and Vulpes vulpes), raccoons (Procyon lotor), and coyotes (Canis latrans). Skunks are also a major reservoir and vector of rabies, but at present oral vaccines for use in skunks are not licensed. Furthermore, given differences in morphology (smaller jaws) and behavior (food handling and consumption), it is unknown if baits currently used in ORV campaigns would be effective for skunks. …

Slides: "Tightening Water Supplies”: Arizona And The Lower Basin States, Herb Guenther

Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Herb Guenther, Arizona Department of Water Resources.

31 slides.

The Effect Of Foamy Slag In Electric Arc Furnaces On Electric Energy Consumption, Sima Aminorroaya-Yamini, Hossein Edris

Australian Institute for Innovative Materials - Papers

In electric arc furnace steelmaking units, the essential parameters that considered important are reducing price, increasing production and decreasing environmental pollution. Electric arc furnaces are the largest users of electric energy in industry. The most important techniques that can be used to reduce the electric energy consumption in electric arc furnaces are scrap preheating, stirring, use of burners and hot charge and foamy slag.

Between these methods, use of foamy slag is the most useful and economic factor. Foamy slag can reduce the amount of energy, electrods, refractory consumption, tap to tap time and increases productivity. In this research, method …

Water Use And The Prior Appropriation Doctrine, George A. Gould

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

24 pages.

The Arizona Solution To Allocation And Use Of Groundwater, Betsy Rieke

Western Water: Expanding Uses/Finite Supplies (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

48 pages.